X 

 

 
 J. Haddon, Printer, Castle Street, London.
 
 THE 
 
 LONDON ENCYCLOPEDIA, 
 
 UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY 
 
 SCIENCE, ART, LITERATURE, AND PRACTICAL MECHANICS, 
 
 COMPRISING A 
 
 POPULAR VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS, A GENERAL ATLAS, 
 
 AND APPROPRIATE DIAGRAMS. 
 
 Sic oportet ad librum, presertim miicellanei generis, legendum accedere lecturem, nt solet ad cormvium conTira 
 civilis. Convivator anaititur omnibus satisfacere ; et tamen si quid apponitur, quod hujui ant illius palato non 
 respondeat, et hie et ille urbane dissimulant, et alia fercula probant, ne quid contristent cotivivatorcm. 
 
 Eratmtu. 
 
 A reader should sit down to a book, especially or the miscellaneous kind, as a well-behared visitor does to a ban- 
 quet. The master of the feast exerts himself to satisfy hit guests ; but if, after all his care and pains, something should 
 appear on the table that does not suit this or that person's taste, they politely pass it over without notice, and commend 
 other dishes, that they may not distress a kind host. Tranilatio*. 
 
 BY THE ORIGINAL EDITOR OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA METROPOLITAN^ 
 
 ASSISTED BY EMINENT PROFESSIONAL AND OTHER GENTLEMEN. 
 
 IN TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED FOR T. TEGG & SON, 73, CHEAPS1DE; 
 
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 SYDNEY AND HOBART TOWN. 
 
 1837.
 
 THE 
 
 LONDON ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 A i s the first letter, and first vowel of the al- 
 phabet, in all the modern, and in most of the 
 ancient languages ; which place of eminence has 
 been assigned to it on account of its simplicity, 
 being little more than an opening of the mouth. 
 It corresponds in order and power to the Hebrew 
 ulcph and the Greek alpha, signifying an ox or a 
 leader, and expressing extensive usefulness, ex- 
 cellence and propriety ; for which reason, accord- 
 ing to Plutarch, it was placed at the head of all 
 the letters of the Phoenician language. In the 
 earlier ages of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Ro- 
 mans, before the introduction of arithmetical 
 figures, this letter was used for the numeral 1 ; 
 and its value in this respect is even yet retained 
 in the calendar, where it is the first of the do- 
 minical letters, and in the commercial character 
 for perfect and sea-worthy vessels, which are 
 marked with the sign A 1. In Scripture the 
 Greek alpha is applied to Christ as the beginner 
 or first, in connexion with the omega, or last 
 letter, to shew that he is also the finisher of all 
 things. Rev. i. 8, 11, xxi. 6, xxii. 13. Another 
 mystical sense of the Greek A was to express 
 the word AirtiXi, or a declaration of denouncing ; 
 but the Latin letter is called by Cicero a health- 
 ful character, because, in capital cases, a tablet 
 covered with wax and marked with it denoted 
 absolvo, I absolve, in contradistinction to C, 
 which signified condemno, I condemn, and which 
 the orator therefore terms a sorrowful character. 
 An A was very extensively used as an abbrevia- 
 tion by the Romans, for which purpose it is also 
 still employed ; as in heraldry for argent, or 
 silver ; in algebra for a known quantity ; in 
 chemistry for amalga-ma, when treble ; in medi- 
 cine for ana, equal parts of each, and in several 
 other instances, both in the arts and sciences. 
 
 1 . A, taken materially, or for itself, is a noun ; 
 as, a great A, a little a. 
 
 Truly were I great A, before I would be willing to 
 be so abused, I should wish myself little a- a thou- 
 sand times. Wallis's Corrections of Hobbes. 
 
 2. A, an article set before nouns of the singu- 
 lar number ; a man, a tree, denoting the number 
 one ; as a man is coming, that is, no more than 
 one ; or an indefinate indication, as, a man may 
 come this way, that is, any man. This article 
 has no plural signification. Before a word be- 
 ginning with a vowel it is written an ; as, an ox, 
 an egg, of which a is the contraction. 
 
 3. A is placed before a participle, or participial 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 noun ; and is considered by Wallis as a con- 
 traction of ut, when it is put before a word de- 
 noting some action not yet finished ; as, I am a 
 walking. It also seems to be anciently con- 
 tracted from at when placed before local sur- 
 names ; as, Thomas a Becket In other cases, 
 it seems to signify to, like the French a. 
 
 A hunting Chloe went. Prior, 
 
 They go a begging to a bankrupt's door. Dryden. 
 
 May peace still slumber by these purling fountains, 
 Which we may every year 
 Find, when we come a fishing here, Wotton. 
 
 Now the men fell rubbing of armour which a 
 great while had lain oiled. Id. 
 
 He will knap the spears a pieces with his teeth. 
 
 More's Antid. Athm. 
 
 Another falls a ringing a Pescennius Niger, and 
 judiciously distinguishes the sound of it to be mo- 
 dern. Addison on Medals. 
 
 4. A is used in burlesque poetry to lengthen 
 out a syllable, without adding to the sense. 
 
 For cloves and nutmegs to the liue-a 
 And even for oranges to China. Dryden. 
 
 5. A is sometimes, in provincialisms, and in 
 familiar writings, used by a barbarous corruption 
 for he ; as, will a come, for will ht come. 
 
 6. A, in composition., seems to have sometimes 
 the power of the French a in these phrases, a 
 droit, a gauche, &c., and sometimes to be con- 
 tracted from at ; as aside, aslope, afoot, asleep, 
 athirst, aware. 
 
 I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun ; 
 And wish the state o' the world were now undone. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 7. A is sometimes redundant ; as, arise, arouse, 
 awake ; the same with rise, rouse, wake. 
 
 A, with the addition of ftie two Latin words 
 per se, meaning by itself, is used by our elder 
 writers to denote a nonesuch. It may have been 
 adopted from the custom of the child's school, in 
 which every letter, we may presume, was taught 
 to be expressed per se. 
 
 AA (Peter Vander), a celebrated bookseller of 
 Leyden, nourished in the beginning of the last 
 century, and compiled many useful geographical 
 works. He published an Atlas of 290 Charts, 
 (Galerie Agreable du Monde, 66 vols. folio), 
 editions of the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Graeco- 
 rum and of the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Italia, 
 and a Collection of Travels in Europe, 30 vols, 
 12mo. &c. 
 
 AA, a river of Samogitia, Courland, which 
 runs into the Gulf of Riga. 
 
 B
 
 AAM 2 
 
 AA, a river of France, whicli rises in the de- 
 partment of Pas de Calais, beyond Rumilly 
 le Comte, near Taeroune, runs N. E. through 
 Artois, and becomes navigable near St. Omers ; 
 whence it passes N. to Gravelines, below which 
 it falls into the English Channel. At St. Omers, 
 the Colme and an inferior branch separate from it. 
 A A, a river in Westphalia, which rises near 
 Munster, waters that city, and falls into the river 
 Ems. 
 
 AA, a river of Switzerland, which rises in 
 Underwalden, and empties itself into the Lake 
 of Lucerne : also a river of Underwalden, which 
 falls into the Lake of Waldstadten opposite Ger- 
 sau. This is likewise the name of a third river 
 of Switzerland, which rises N. W. of Lucerne, 
 and unites itself with the Aar, three miles S. W. 
 of Brugg ; and of a fourth in the canton of Zurich, 
 which rises near Gruningen, and empties itself 
 in the Greiffen. 
 
 AA, a river of Dutch Brabant, rising on the 
 borders of Guelderland, and running into the 
 Dommel, near Bois le Due. Also, a river of 
 Overyssel, in Holland, falling into the Lake of 
 Giter. 
 
 AABAM, or AABAN, a term used by some 
 alchemists to signify lead. 
 
 AACH, a river in Suabia, which falls into the 
 Lake of Constance. 
 
 AACH, a town in the circle of Suabia, situated 
 near the source of the above river, and almost 
 equidistant from the Danube, and the lake Con- 
 stance. Also another river of Suabia, joining 
 the Iller. 
 
 AAHUS, a small district of Germany, in the 
 circle of Westphalia, and bishopric of Munster, 
 containing twenty parishes and four towns. 
 AAHUS, the capital, has a good castle, and lies 
 N. E. of Coesfeldt. 
 
 AAKIRKE, a town in the island of Bornholm, 
 Denmark, with the rank and privileges of a city. 
 The provincial court and synod are held in it. 
 
 AALBORG, or AALBOURG, a bishopric of 
 Denmark, in North Jutland, length and breadth 
 about 75 miles. It occupies the whole northern 
 part of the peninsula, and contains several flou- 
 rishing towns and noble manors. Population 
 about 90,000. 
 
 AALBORG, the capital of the bishopric of that 
 name, lies on the south coast of Lymfurt, on the 
 confines of the bishopric of Wiburg. Next to 
 Copenhagen and Odensee, it is the richest and 
 most populous town in Denmark. The name 
 signifies Eel-town, great quantities of eels being 
 caught here. It has an exchange for merchants, 
 a safe and deep harbour, (though the entrance 
 near Hals is somewhat dangerous,) a consider- 
 able trade in corn, and herrings, and manufac- 
 tories of soap, train oil, guns, pistols, saddles, 
 and gloves. It was taken by the Swedes, in the 
 years 1643 and 1658. Lon. 9. 46. E. lat. 57. N. 
 AALEN. See AHLEN. 
 AALTEN, a town of Breedevort, in Dutch 
 Guelderland, near Munster, containing 3500 
 inhabitants. 
 
 AAM, or HAAM, a liquid measure, used by the 
 Dutch, containing 128 mingles, (a measure 
 weighing nearly 36 ounces avoirdupois,) or 288 
 > English, or 148| Paris measure. 
 
 AAR 
 
 AANCHE, in music, a name sometimes gi ven 
 to wind instruments and organ pipes, with reeds 
 or tongues, as the clarionet, hautboy, &c. 
 
 AANES, in music, the tones and modes of the 
 modern Greeks. 
 
 AAR, a small island in the Baltic. 
 
 AAR, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine, 
 near Sintzig. 
 
 AAR, a large river of Switzerland, which has 
 its source in a lake, near Mount Schreckhorn, in 
 the south of the canton of Berne, and running 
 N. W. through the whole extent of the lakes of 
 Brientz and Thun to Berne, takes a circuitous 
 course to Soleure ; whence it flows E. to Arburg, 
 and N. E. to Brugg ; below which, being joined 
 by the Reuss and Limmat, it falls into the Rhine, 
 opposite Waldschut. 
 
 AARASSUS, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Pisidia, in Asia, supposed to be the Anassus of 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 AARCHET, in music, instruments played 
 with a bow, as the violin and violincello. 
 
 AARGAU, ARGOVIA, or ARGOU, anciently 
 one of the 45 districts or divisions of Switzerland, 
 receiving its name from the Aar, and composing 
 the German part of the canton of Berne, with part 
 of Solothurn, Lucerne, and Underwalden. It 
 now includes only that part of Berne which in 
 1798 was formed into a separate canton, having 
 Arau for its capital; but received in 1803 the 
 whole of Baden and the Frickthal, in addition to 
 its territory. It is bounded by Zug and Zurich 
 on the N. has the Rhine for its boundary E. the 
 cantons of Solothurn and Basil W. and Zug S. 
 containing 11 districts, and 48 jurisdictions. 
 Population 132,763. 
 
 AARHUUS, a large diocese in N. Jutland, 
 which extends from that of Wiburg to Categat, 
 about 65 miles in length, and 33 in breadth. It 
 is intersected by many excellent rivers, and lakes, 
 abounding with fish, and adorned with a variety 
 of large forests. It contains five towns, eight 
 royal bailiwicks, and six counties. Population 
 135,000. 
 
 AARHUUS, or ARHUSEN, the capital of the 
 bishopric of that name, lies between the sea and 
 a lake, from which water is conveyed by a 
 broad canal, that divides the town into two un- 
 equal parts. It is large and populous, and has 
 six gates, two principal churches, two market 
 places, an university, a free school, and a well 
 endowed hospital. It carries on a good trade in 
 corn. The cathedral, which was begun in 1201, 
 is 150 paces in length, 96 in breadth, and nearly 
 45 German ells in height. 
 
 AARON, Heb. a mountaineer, the brother 
 of Moses, and first high priest of the Israelites, 
 was great-grand-son of Levi by the father's side, 
 and grandson by the mother's. His history being 
 fully narrated in the Pentateuch, it needs only to be 
 added here, that he died upon Mount Hor, in the 
 123d year of his age, being the 40th after the 
 departure from Egypt; A. M. 2522, of the Julian 
 period, 3262, and before the Christian sera, 1452. 
 See MOSES and MAGICIAN. 
 
 AA RON,(St.) a British martyr, who suffered along 
 with St. Julius, another native of Britain, under 
 Dioclesian, about the same time with St. Alban, 
 the British proto-martyr.
 
 A15 
 
 AARON, of Alexandria, a learned presbyter and 
 physician of the seventh century, in whose works 
 ihe small-pox is first mentioned. 
 
 AARON, a market town of France, in the de- 
 partment of Mayenne, having extensive iron 
 works. 
 
 AARON HARISCHON. See HARISCHON. 
 
 AARON, or HAROUN, AL RASCHio,a celebrated 
 khalif of the Saracen empire, of whom many 
 fabulous legends are told. 
 
 AARSENS, (Francis,) Lord of Someldyck and 
 Spy ck, was one of the greatest statesmen the United 
 Provinces ever produced. Having been some years 
 under M. Mornay, at the court of William I. prince 
 of Orange, Barneveldt sent him, as agent for the 
 States, to Paris, where he acquired for himself 
 great reputation under Henry IV. Villeroi, &c. 
 Being soon after invested with the character of 
 ambassador, Henry gave him precedence next 
 to the Venetian minister. He resided at the 
 court of France 15 years, and was created a 
 knight and a baron by the king; was after- 
 wards ambassador at Venice; and to several 
 princes in Germany and Italy : and in 1620, was 
 appointed the first of three extraordinary ambas- 
 sadors to England, where, in 1641, he settled the 
 marriage between the princess Mary and prince 
 William, the father of our William III. He died 
 at a very advanced age. 
 
 AARSENS, (Peter,) a painter, called Long Peter, 
 on account of his stature, born at Amsterdam in 
 1519. He was eminent in altar and kitchen 
 pieces. A lady of Alckmaer offered 200 crowns 
 to preserve one of his altar pieces, that was 
 destroyed in the insurrection, in 1566. 
 
 AARTGEN, or AERTGENS, a painter of merit, 
 the son of a wool-comber of Leyden, born in 
 1498. He studied painting under Engelbrechtz, 
 but was devoted to the bottle, and was drowned 
 in 1564. 
 
 AASAR, in ancient geography, a town of Ju- 
 daea, in the tribe of Judah, between Azotus and 
 Ascalon. In St. Jerome's time it was a hamlet. 
 
 AAVORA, in natural history, the fruit of a 
 large species of the palm tree, that grows in 
 Africa and the West Indies. It is of the size of a 
 hen's egg, and several are included in one shell. 
 
 AB, in the Hebrew calendar, the llth month 
 of the civil year and the 5lh of the ecclesiastical. 
 It answers to the moon, which begins in July 
 and ends in August, and consists of 30 days. The 
 Jews fast on the 1st of this month in memory of 
 Aaron's death ; on the 9th, because on that day, 
 both the first and second temples were burnt ; 
 and on the 18th, because the sacred lamp in the 
 sanctuary was that night extinguished, in the 
 reign of Ahaz. The 9th of this month was also 
 remarkable for the publication of Adrian's edict, 
 which prohibited that unfortunate people, not 
 only from continuing in Judcea, but even from 
 looking back to Jerusalem to lament its desola- 
 tion. 
 
 AB, in the Syriac Calendar, is the last of the 
 summer months. The eastern Christians called 
 the first day of this month Suum Miriam, the 
 fast of Mary, and fasted from that to the 15th, 
 which they called Fathr-Miriam, the cessation of 
 the fast of the Virgin. 
 
 AB, at the beginning of the names of places, 
 
 3 ABA 
 
 generally shews that they have some relation to 
 an abbey, as Abingdon. 
 
 ABA, or ABAU, HANIFAH. See HANIFAII. 
 
 ABA, ABAS, ABOS, or ABUS, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, a mountain of Greater Armenia; Strabo 
 says, the Euphrates and Araxes both rose in it, 
 the former running eastward and the latter west- 
 ward. 
 
 ABA, or ABJE, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Phocis in Greece, near Helicon, famous for an 
 oracle of ApoUo, older than that at Delphi ; as 
 well as for a rich temple, plundered and burnt 
 by the Persians. See ABANTIS. 
 
 ABABDE, in geography, a tribe of the Be- 
 douin Arabs, inhabiting, according to M. Burck- 
 hardt, that part of the west shore of the Arabian 
 Gulf, which is south of the Kosseir, and in about 
 the latitude of Derr. The country is mountainous, 
 and the people faithless and barbarous. 
 
 ABABILO, or AsABiL,in mythology, a fabu- 
 lous bird mentioned in the Koran, who, according 
 to the Mahometan doctors, has a foot like that of 
 a dog. 
 
 ABACA, in botany, an Indian plant, a native 
 of the Philippine Islands. There are two spe- 
 cies, the white and the grey. The former pro- 
 duces lint, of which very fine linen is made ; the 
 latter hemp, which is used for nothing but cor- 
 
 ABACj?ENUM, or ABACENE, in ancient geo- 
 graphy, a town of Sicily, whose ruins are supposed 
 to be those still lying near Trippi, a citadel on a 
 high mountain, near Messina. 
 
 ABACAY, in natural history, a species of par- 
 rot in the Philippine Islands, called also Calan- 
 
 gay- 
 
 ABACH, or WELTENBURG, a market town in 
 Lower Bavaria, seated on the Danube ; nine 
 miles from Ratisbon. It is defended by a citadel, 
 and is remarkable for Roman antiquities, as well 
 as for its mineral waters, which are celebrated for 
 curing various diseases. Lon. 11.56. E. lat. 48. 
 53. N. 
 
 ABACINARE, in archaeology, Ital. from 
 bacino, a basin, or bacio, a dark place, a pun- 
 ishment, described by writers of the middle age, 
 wherein the criminal was blinded, by holding a 
 red hot basin, or hot irons before his eyes. 
 
 ABACISCUS, in ancient architecture, the. 
 square compartments of Mosaic pavements. 
 
 ABACISTA, O. L. an arithmetician. 
 
 ABACK', on back, backwards. 
 
 So that the white was aboue, as the folk y seye, 
 And drof the rede al abak out of the put ney 
 The rede, as for sorinesse, by turnede hym atten ende, 
 And asailede the wyte, and made hym abac wende. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p. 131. 
 
 But when they came where thou thy skill didst show, 
 They drew abacke, as half with shame confound. 
 
 Spenser's Pastorals, June. 
 A noble heart ought not the sooner yield, 
 Not shrink abacke for any weal or woe. 
 
 Mir. for May. p. 359. 
 Yet Albert new resources still prepares, 
 Conceals his grief, and doubles all his cares ; 
 " Away there ! lower the mizen-yard on deck," 
 He calls, " and brace the foremost-yards aback !" 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 
 ABACK, or ABAKE, in sea-language signifies 
 B2
 
 ABA 
 
 the situation of the sails, when their surfaces are 
 flatted against the mast by the force of the wind. 
 This may be either by a sudden change of the 
 wind, or an alteration in the ship's course to avoid 
 some imminent danger. 
 
 ABACO, one of the most considerable of the 
 Bahama islands, lying in N. Lat. 26. 22. W. 
 Long. 77. 14. Some writers have conjectured 
 that this was the first spot of the western world 
 upon which Columbus touched. See BAHAMA. 
 ABACOOCHE, or COOSEE, a river of N. 
 America, which rising in the S. W. territory, and 
 flowing through Georgia, unites with the Oakfus- 
 kee, and forms the Alabama. 
 
 ABACOT, a cap of state, worn in ancient 
 limes by the kings of England, the upper part 
 of which was in the form of a double crown. 
 
 AB ACT ED, from abactus, L. drawn away by 
 stealth or violence. 
 
 ABACTUS, or ABIGEATUS, among ancient 
 medical writers, an abortion procured by the 
 foice of medicines. See MIDWIFERY. 
 
 ABACUS, among the ancients, was a kind of 
 cup-board or buffet. Livy, describing the 
 luxury into which the Romans degenerated after 
 the conquest of Asia, says they had their abaci, 
 beds, &c. plated over with gold. See also Juv. 
 Sat. in. 203. 
 
 ABACUS, signified also a table covered with 
 dust on which mathematicians drew their dia- 
 grams, and a draft or chess board, on which the 
 ancients played games of chance. Macrob. \. 
 Stuck. Ant. Conviv. xi. 16. 
 
 The ABACUS, in architecture, Vitruvius tells us, 
 was originally intended to represent a square tile 
 laid over an urn, or rather over a basket. An 
 old woman of Athens happening to place a basket 
 covered thus, over the root of an acanthus, the 
 plant, shooting up the following spring, encom- 
 passed the basket all around, till meeting with 
 the tile, it curled back in a kind of scroll. Cal- 
 limachus, an ingenious sculptor, passing by, 
 took the hint, and immediately executed a ca- 
 pital on this plan ; representing the tile by the 
 abacus, the leaves by the volutes, and the basket 
 by the vase, or body of the capital. The form 
 of the abacus is not the same in all orders : in 
 the Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic, it is generally 
 square; but in the Corinthian and Composite, 
 its four sides are arched inwards, and embellished 
 in the middle with some ornament, as a rose or 
 other flower. Scammozzi uses abacus for a con- 
 cave moulding on the capital of the Tuscan 
 pedestal ; and Palladio calls the plinth above the 
 echinus, or boultin, in the Tuscan and Doric 
 orders, by the same name. 
 
 ABACUS is also the name of an ancient instru- 
 ment for facilitating operations in arithmetic. It 
 is variously contrived. That chiefly used in Eu- 
 rope is made by drawing any number of parallel 
 lines at the distance of two diameters of one of 
 the counters used in the calculation. A counter 
 placed on the lowest line, signifies 1 ; on the 2d 
 10 ; on the 3d, 100 ; on the 4th, 1000, &c. In 
 the intermediate spaces, the same counters are es- 
 timated at one half of the value of the line im- 
 mediately superior, viz. between the 1st and 2d 
 5 ; between the 2d and 3d, 50, &c. 
 ABACUS, the Chinete. See SWANPAN. 
 
 I ABA 
 
 ABACUS Pythagoricus, the multiplication table 
 of Pythagoras, similar to the common one, which 
 has also been attributed to him. 
 
 ABACUS Logisticus, is a rectangled triangle, 
 whose sides, forming the right angle, contain the 
 numbers from 1 to 60 ; and its area, the facta of 
 each two of the numbers perpendicularly oppo- 
 site. This is also called a canon of sexagesimals. 
 
 ABACUS & Palmula, in the ancient music, de- 
 note the machinery, whereby the strings of Poly- 
 plectra, or instruments of many strings, were 
 struck with a plectrum made of quills. 
 
 ABACUS Harmonicas, is used by Klrcher for 
 the structure and disposition of the keys of a 
 musical instrument, whether to be touched with 
 the hands or the feet. 
 
 ABACUS Major, in metallurgic operations, the 
 name of a trough used in the mines, wherein the 
 ore is washed. 
 
 ABACUS, a/3a?, Gr. Ben Jonson uses aback 
 to denote simply a square surface. 
 
 In the centre or midst of the Pegm, there Mras an 
 aback or square in which this elegy was written. 
 
 Jonson's Coronation Pageant. 
 
 ABADDON, the name which St. John in the 
 Revelation gives to the angel of the bottomless 
 pit. The inspired writer says, this word is 
 Hebrew, and in Greek signifies ATroXXvwv, i. e. a 
 destroyer. See Rev. ix. 11. 
 
 ABADE, or SCHECK ABADE, a small town in 
 
 Egypt- 
 
 ABADEH, a town of Persia, in the district 
 of Fars., which is celebrated in the Persian civil 
 wars of the last century. Its fortifications are 
 in decay, but the neighbourhood is fruitful. Po- 
 pulation 5000. 
 
 ABADIR, a title which the Carthaginians 
 gave to gods of the first order. In the Roman 
 mythology, it is the name of a stone which Sa- 
 turn swallowed, by the contrivance of his wife 
 Ops, believing it to be his new born son Jupiter: 
 hence it ridiculously became the object of re- 
 ligious worship. 
 
 AB/E, or ABA. See ABA. 
 
 ABATT, adv. abajtan, Sax. behind. From 
 the fore part of the ship, towards the stern ; in 
 opposition to afore. 
 
 ABAFT THE BEAM, in maritime affairs, signifies 
 the position of an object somewhere between a 
 line at right angles with the keel, and the points 
 to which the ship's stern is directed. 
 
 ABAGI, a silver coin of Persia, worth about 
 36 sols, French money. Four chaouris, which 
 are also called sains, make one abagi. 
 
 ABAGUN, in ornithology, an Ethiopian bird 
 of great beauty, having a crested horn on its 
 head, adding much to its appearance and giving 
 it perhaps its name, which signifies lordly abbot. 
 Lobo. 71. 
 
 ABAI'SANCE, . *. from the French abaiser, 
 to depress, to bring down. An act of reverence, 
 a bow. Obeysance is considered by Skinner as a 
 corruption of abeitance, but is now universally 
 used. 
 
 ABAISIR, in chemistry, a name sometime.. 
 given to spodumene 
 
 ABAIS'SED, ABAISSE', in heialdry, an epi- 
 thet applied to the wings of eagles, &c. when the
 
 ABA 
 
 tip looks downwards to the point of the shield, 
 or when the wings are shut. 
 
 ABAISSED, or ABAISSE, in heraldry. See 
 HERALDRY. 
 
 ABAlTE, a river of Brazil in the Minas 
 Geraes province, falling into the Francisco, near 
 which was found the largest diamond ever dis- 
 covered in the country. 
 
 ABAKA khan, the 18th emperor of the Mo- 
 guls, a wise and clement prince, who is said to 
 have been so far a Christian, as to have joined in 
 keeping the feast of Easter, a short time before 
 his death. He reigned 17 years. 
 
 ABAKANSKOI, or ABANKANSK, a town of 
 Siberia, on the river Abakan. It was founded 
 in 1707, and rebuilt in 1725. It has a garrison, 
 and is provided with artillery. Population 1250. 
 Lon. 91.5. E. Lat. 53. 5. N. 
 
 ABALAK, a town in Siberia, sixteen miles 
 from Tobolsk, celebrated for an image of the 
 Virgin, which is visited by many pilgrims. Lon. 
 08. 20. E. Lat. 58. 11. N. 
 
 ABALIENATUS, in medicine, signifies that 
 the part spoken of is in a state that requires 
 amputation ; and, when applied to the mind, de- 
 notes its total derangement. 
 
 ABALLABA, the ancient name of Appleby, 
 in Westmoreland, remarkable as having been a 
 Roman station. See APPLEBY. 
 
 ABALUS, in ancient geography, supposed 
 to be an island in the German Ocean, called 
 by Timseus, Basilio, and by Xenophon Lampsa- 
 cenus, Baltiu. Here, according to Pliny, amber 
 dropped from the trees ; and sacrifices were 
 offered to the manes of the drowned if the 
 body were lost. 
 
 ABALUS, the peninsula of Scandinavia. 
 
 ABANA, or AMANA, in ancient geography, a 
 river of Phoenicia, called Chrysorrhsea, by the 
 Greeks, which, rising from mount Hermon, wash- 
 ed the south and west sides of Damascus, and 
 fell into the Phoenician sea, north of Tripolis. 
 
 Scripture supplies a fine instance of the expres- 
 sion of disdain, in the reply of the Syrian 
 General, Naaman, to the prophet Elisha, respect- 
 ing this river : " Are not Abana and Pharpar, 
 rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of 
 Israel ? may I not wash in them and be clean ?" 
 2 Kings v. 12. 
 
 ABANCAY, or AVANCAY, a province of 
 Peru, bounded on the E. by the city of Cuzco ; 
 S. by the provinces of Cochabamba & Aimarez ; 
 W. by Andahuelas ; and N. by Calcayleres. It 
 is the jurisdiction of a corregidor, containing 17 
 settlements or towns, and a noble chain of moun- 
 tains, which diversify the climate to almost every 
 degree of temperature. Silver mines are found 
 here ; the sugar cane flourishes, as well as wheat, 
 maize, and all grain, which, together with the 
 hemp manufactured into cloth, is conveyed by 
 the Apurimac to the Amazons. Abancay has also 
 a fine breed of horned cattle. 
 
 ABAND', v. ~\ Sax. Bannan, Abannau, 
 
 ABAN'DON, v. n. I past. part. Abanned. From 
 
 ABAN'DONER, \ this past participle is form- 
 
 ABAN'DONING, i ed the verb abandon, sig- 
 
 ABAN'DONMEST, J nifying primarily to band 
 or bind, or put in bondage. From this original 
 
 i ABA 
 
 sense are derived to resign, quit, desert, forsake, 
 reject, and repel. 
 
 And Vortigern enforc'd the kingdom to aland. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, II. x. 65. 
 All pleasures quite and joys he did aband, 
 Pursuing war Mir. for May. p. 172. 
 
 The barons of this land, 
 
 For him trauailed sore, and brought him out of band. 
 R. Brunne, p. 201. 
 For he that 
 
 Yaue whole his hart, in will and thought, 
 And to himselfe kepeth right nought, 
 After this swift it is good reason 
 He yaue his good in abandon. 
 
 Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose. 
 Moris hir soune was coroned, 
 Which so fer forth was abandoned, 
 To Christes feith, that men hym calle 
 Moris the christnest of all. Gower, b. II. 
 
 With women, which were abandoned 
 To werche Gower, Conf. Am. h. 7. 
 
 If she be so abandoned to her sorrow, 
 As it is spoke, she never will admit me. 
 
 Shakspeare's Twelfth Night. 
 The passive Gods behold the Greeks defile 
 Their temples, and abandon to the spoil 
 Their own abodes. Dryden's fiSneid. 
 
 Must he, whose altars on the Phrygian shore, 
 With frequent rites, and pure, avow'd thy power, 
 Be doom'd the worst of human ills to prove, 
 Unbless'd, abandon'd to the wrath of Jove ? 
 
 Popes Odyssey. 
 
 Oh ! sacred, shadowy, cold, and constant queen, 
 Abandonner of revels, mute, contemplative ! 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's two Noble Kinsmen. 
 See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused, 
 With languish'd head unpropt, 
 As one past hope, abandon'd, 
 And by himself given over. 
 
 Milton's Samson Agonistet. 
 She loses all her influence. Cities then 
 Attract us, and neglected nature pines 
 Abandon'd, as unworthy of our love. 
 
 Camper's Task. 
 
 When thus the helm of justice is abandoned, an 
 universal abandoning of all other posts will succeed. 
 
 Burke. 
 
 ABANDUM, in old law, any thing that is se- 
 questrated, confiscated, or forfeited. 
 
 ABANGA, the name given by the black na- 
 tives of the Island of St. Thomas, to the fruit of 
 the ady or palm tree. The Portuguese call it 
 caryoces and cariosse. See ADY. 
 
 ABANNEG, or ABNET, Heb. a girdle worn 
 by the priests of the Jews. 
 
 ABANNITION, n. s. Lat. abannitio, an 
 old punishment, of one or two year's banishment 
 for manslaughter. 
 
 ABANO, a town of Italy near Padua, famous 
 in ancient as well as modern times, for its hot 
 .baths. Population 3000. 
 
 ABANTIS or ABANTIAS, in ancient geo- 
 graphy, an island in the .ZEgean sea, extending 
 along the coast of Greece from the promontory 
 Sunium in Attica, to Thessaly; and separated 
 from Bceotia by a narrow strait called Euripus. 
 It is known in history by the different names of 
 Chalcis, Ellopia, Aonia, &c. It was afterwards 
 called Euboza, from a famous cave on the eastern 
 coast of the island; and Macris from its length. 
 Its present name is Negropont. It derived the 
 name Abantis from the* ABASTES, a people
 
 ABA 6 
 
 oricimdly of Thrace, although some historians 
 suppose they were Arabians who followed Cad- 
 mus. The Abantes are well known in history ; 
 Homer calls them oviaQiv Ko/iowvr*c from their 
 .vearing the hair long behind. They are also 
 called Curetes, from cutting their hair short 
 before. 
 
 ABANTIS, a country of Epirus. Pans. lib. v. 
 c. 22. 
 
 ABAPTISTON, or ANABAPTISTON, in sur- 
 gery, an ancient name for the perforating part of 
 the instrument called a (repan. 
 
 ABARCA, or ABAREA, an ancient kind of 
 shoe, used by the Spaniards, in travelling over 
 mountains. 
 
 ABARIM, mountains which separated the 
 territory of the Moabites and Ammonites from 
 Canaan. Nebo and Pisgah were among them. 
 Josephus says, they stood opposite to Jericho, 
 and were the last station but one of the Israelites, 
 before they took possession of Canaan. 
 
 ABARIS, the Hyperborean, a celebrated sage 
 of antiquity, of whom a great number of fabu- 
 lous stories are told ; such as, that he received a 
 present of a miraculous arrow from Apollo, with 
 which he travelled without taking food ; that he 
 could foretel earthquakes, allay tempests, drive 
 away the pestilence, &c. &c. Harpocration tells 
 us, that the whole earth being infested with a 
 deadly plague, Apollo ordered, that the Athe- 
 nians should offer up prayers in behalf of all 
 other nations ; upon which, ambassadors were 
 sent to Athens from different countries. Among 
 these was Abaris, who, during this journey, re- 
 newed the alliance between his countrymen, and 
 the inhabitants of the Isle of Delos. He also 
 went to Lacedaemon, where he built a temple to 
 Proserpine the Salutary. It is said that there is 
 a Greek MS. of his epistles to Phalaris in the 
 library of Augsburg. 
 
 AB'ARNARE, Sax. in Law. To discover to 
 a magistrate any secret crime. 
 
 ABARNUS, ABARNIS, or APARNIS, in ancient 
 geography, a city, country, and promontory of 
 Pariana, near the Hellespont. Milesius calls it 
 a promontory of Lampsacus. The Phocians 
 are said to have given it the name of Abarnis 
 from one of their countrymen, who built Lamp- 
 sacus. 
 
 ABARTAMEN, in chemistry, a name for 
 lead. 
 
 ABARTICULATION. n. s. from ab, from, 
 and artiadus, a joint, Lat. A good and apt con- 
 struction of the bones, by which they move 
 strongly and easily ; or that species of articula- 
 tion that has manifest motion. 
 
 ABARTICULATION, in anatomy, that species of 
 articulation, that takes place in the joints of the 
 arras, hands, thighs, &c. which is called also 
 Dfiirticiilutw, and Diarthro$ii, to distinguish it 
 from that sort of articulation, which admits of a 
 very obscure motion, and is called Synarthrosis. 
 
 ABAS, a small weight used in Persia, for 
 weighing pearls. It is one eighth less than the 
 European carat. 
 
 ABAS, in the heathen mythology, the son of 
 Hypothoon and Metanira, who entertained the 
 goddess Ceres, and offered a sacrifice to her ; but 
 Abas, ridiculing the ceremony, and giving her 
 
 ABA 
 
 opprobrious language, she turned him into a wa- 
 ter lizard. Also in ancient history, the llth 
 king of Argos, who built Abae. A son of Eury- 
 demus, killed by TEneas near Troy ; a companion 
 of TEneas killed in Italy ; another lost in the storm 
 which drove him to Carthage ; a Latian chief 
 who befriended him, and was killed by Lausus ; 
 and an author, quoted by Servius, who described 
 Troy. Virg. Mneid. 
 
 ABAS, in ancient geography, a river of Arme- 
 nia, near which Pompey routed the Albani ; 
 also a mountain of Syria, near the sources of the 
 Euphrates. 
 
 ABAS, in medicine, a name sometimes given 
 to the epilepsy. See TINEA. 
 
 ABAS or ABASIA, in entomology, a species of 
 the Bombyx of Fabricius, and of the Phalsena 
 of Linnaeus, found in Surinam. It has brown, 
 spreading wings, the hinder wings cinereous, and 
 the ocellus of a reddish colour. 
 
 ABAS, Schah, the Great, 7th Sophi, or em- 
 peror of Persia, succeeded his father in 1585, at 
 eighteen. The empire having been much re- 
 duced by the conquests of the Turks and Tartars, 
 he recovered most of the provinces they had 
 taken ; but death put a period to his victories, in 
 1626, in the 62nd year of his age, and 44th of 
 his reign. He transferred the seat of empire to 
 Ispahan. 
 
 ABAS, II. Schah, the 9th Sophi of Persia, the 
 son of Sefi, and grandson of Abas the Great, 
 succeeded his father at thirteen, and was only 
 eighteen years of age, when he retook the city of 
 Candahar, and the whole province around it, 
 from the Great Mogul, who had seized it in his 
 father's reign; and he afterwards defended it 
 against him, though he besieged it more than 
 once, with an army of 300,000 men. He was a 
 merciful prince, and openly protected the Chris- 
 tians. He died at thirty-seven years of age, 
 in 1666. 
 
 ABASE', ~) Fr. abaisser ; Lat. basis or 
 
 ABAS'ING, n. ybassus; Ital. abbassare ; Span. 
 
 ABASE'MENT, jabaxar. These are all to be 
 referred to the Gr. /Jounc, the foot of a pillar. 
 Hence it signifies, to lessen or keep under, to 
 depress, to bring low, to degrade, to disgrace in 
 a figurative and personal sense, says Johnson, 
 which is the common use. 
 
 Our kynge hath do this thing amissc, 
 So to abesse his roialtee. 
 And will she yet abase her eyes on me, 
 That cropt the golden prime of this sweet prince, 
 And made her widow to a wofull bed ? 
 
 Shaktpeare's Rich. III. act i, sc. 2. 
 It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with 
 whom you speak with your eye ; yet with a demure 
 abating of it sometimes. 
 
 Lord Bacon's Essaf on Cunning. 
 Her cither cheek resembled blushing morn ; 
 Or roses gules in field of lilies borae ; 
 T \vixt which an ivory wall so fair is raised, 
 That it is but abased when it's praised. 
 
 Dntmtnond. 
 Behold every one that is proud, and abase him. 
 
 Job Til. 11. 
 
 If the mind be curbed and humbled too much in 
 children ; if their spirits be abased and broken much, 
 by loo strict an hand over them ; they lose all their 
 vigour and industry. Locke on Education.
 
 ABA 
 
 There is an abasement because of glory ; and there 
 is that lifteth up his head from a low estate. 
 
 Ecclesiatticus, xx. 11. 
 
 Heaven was to be earned only by penance and 
 mortification ; by the austerities and abasement of a 
 monk, not by the liberal, generous, and spirited con- 
 duct of a man. Smith's Wealth of Nation*. 
 
 ABASCIA, or ABCAS, a country in Asia, tri- 
 butary to Russia, surrounded by Mingrelia on 
 the E. and S. by Circassia on the N. and W. 
 and the Black Sea on the S.W. It has few towns, 
 and they are of little consequence. Anacopia, 
 Dandar, and Czekorni, are the chief. Great and 
 Little Abcas are both included in the government 
 of Caucasus, but the Russian authority in the 
 heart of the country is but nominal. 
 
 The inhabitants called ABASCIANS, or ABKHAS, 
 have the name of Christians, but nothing else. 
 The men are robust and strong, and the women 
 beautiful; but they are so poor, thievish, and 
 treacherous, that there is no trading with them, 
 without the utmost caution. They even live in 
 continual dread of each other, for the most 
 powerful seize as many as they can of the poorer 
 sort, especially the females, and sell them to the 
 Turks. The tribe of Natukasch is the principal. 
 Their commodities are furs, buck and tiger skins, 
 linen yarn, box-wood and bees'-wax ; but their 
 chief traffic lies in selling their own children. 
 An Abascian prince lately (1807) carried his de- 
 predations far into the neighbouring governments, 
 and was sometime captive in Russia, but he 
 escaped. Their customs resemble those of the 
 MJNGRELIANS, which see. 
 
 ABASH', v. ) of the same derivation as abase, 
 ABASH'MENT, } unless it comes from abaw, a 
 verb peculiar to Chaucer, and which Barret 
 translates, to be abashed or astonied. Abash is 
 used by Gower as a substantive. It is to be 
 distinguished, however, from the preceding arti- 
 cle, as it is applied to the feelings of those who 
 are abased, depressed, disgraced. It generally 
 implies a sudden impression of shame which ge- 
 nerates painful surprise and confusion. The 
 substantive is used to signify the state of being 
 confused, and the cause of confusion. 
 He stode al abashed, with colour wan and pale. 
 
 Chawer's 2nd Tale. 
 
 The town restlesse with furie as I sought 
 Th' unlucky figure of Creusae's ghost, 
 Of stature more than wont, stood fore mine eyen 
 Abashed then I waxe : therewith my heare 
 Gan start right up : my voice stuck in my throte. 
 
 Surrey. 
 
 Why, then, (you princes) 
 
 Do you with cheeks abashed behold our -vorkes, 
 And think them shame, which are (indeed) nought 
 
 else, 
 
 But the protractiue trials of great Joue, 
 To find persistiue constancy in men. 
 
 Shakspeare's Tro. and Cressida . 
 They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung, 
 Upon the wing. Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 Silence was in the court at this rebuke : 
 Nor could the gods, abash'd, sustain their sovereign's 
 look. Dryden's Fable*. 
 
 She was afrayde ; 
 
 The ruddy shamefastness in her vysage fyll, 
 Which manner of abashement became her not yll. 
 
 Skelton's Poems, p. 38. 
 Methinks it may be some abashment to reason, and 
 
 1 ABA 
 
 that vast perfection to which some men would extol it, 
 that it scarce knows what man or itself is. 
 
 Ellis's Knowledge of Divine Things. 
 
 ABASITIS, in ancient geography, a tract of 
 Asiatic Mysia, in which the city of Ancyra was 
 situated. Strabo. 
 
 ABASK.I, a town of Circassia, 40 miles S. E. 
 of Kopiel. 
 
 ABASSI, or ABASSIS, a silver com, current in 
 Persia, so named after Schah Abbas, II. equal 
 to about a shilling of English money. 
 
 ABASSUS, in ancient geography, a town of 
 the Greater Phrygia, on the confines of Galalia. 
 
 ABAT-CHAUVEE, a name given in Poitou, 
 and other parts of France, to a species of very 
 coarse wool. 
 
 ABATE, (A.) a Neapolitan painter of some 
 eminence, who was employed in the Escurial. 
 His boldness of colouring and shade was highly, 
 praised by Luca Giordano. Abate died in 1732. 
 
 ABATE', v. ") a. s. beatan, to beat. The word 
 
 ABATE'MEST, Sexists without the prefix a, as 
 
 AB A'TE R, j bate ; but, in modern usage, it is 
 more limited in its application. The verb is both 
 active and neuter. It not only signifies to beat 
 down, but to subtract, as in arithmetic. Thus it 
 has grown to mean to lessen, diminish, contract, 
 deject, and depress. It is employed technically 
 in law and in horsemanship. In the one it is 
 used in reference to a nuisance, to get rid of it ; 
 to a castle, to beat it down or remove it ; to a 
 writ to defeat and overthrow it : in horseman- 
 ship, it implies the exact performance of any 
 downward motion. Its general and popular 
 usage is set forth in the following specimens. 
 
 The kyng did samen his men, to abate Gryflyn's pride, 
 And Harald tham betaught ageyn the Walsch to ride. 
 Chaucer'* Personnel Tale, p. 63. 
 And when the sunne hath eke the darke opprest, 
 And brought the day, it doth nothing abate 
 The trauailes of mine endlesse smart and paine. 
 
 Surrey. 
 
 Who can tell whether the divine wisdom, to abate 
 the glory of those kings, did not reserve this work to 
 be done by a queen, that it might appear to be his 
 own immediate work. Sir John Davies on Ireland. 
 
 This iron world 
 
 Brings down the stoutest hearts to lowest state : 
 For misery doth bravest minds abate. 
 
 Spenser. M. 'Hubberd's Tale. 
 Till at length 
 
 Your ignorance deliver you, 
 As most abated captives to some nation 
 That won you without blows. 
 
 Shakspeare's Coriolanut. 
 HEL. O weary night, O long and tedious night, 
 
 Abate thy houres, shine comforts from the East, 
 That I may backe to Athens by day-light, 
 From these that my poore company detest. 
 
 Shakspeare's Mid. N. Dream, act iii, sc. 2. 
 Will come a day (hear this, and quake ye potent 
 
 great ones) 
 
 When you yourselves shall stand before a judge, 
 Who in a pair of scales will weigh your actions, 
 Without abatement of one grain. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's Plays. 
 Impiety of times, chastity's abator. 
 
 Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond. 
 
 If we could arrest time, and strike off the nimble 
 
 wheels of his chariot, and like Joshua, bid the sun 
 
 stand still, and make opportunity tarry as long as
 
 ABB 
 
 we had occasion for it ; this were something to ex- 
 cuse our delay, or at least to mitigate or abate the 
 folly and unreasonableness of it. Tittotson's Works. 
 The law of works is that law, which requires per- 
 fect obedience, without remission or abatement. 
 
 Locke. 
 
 ABATELEMENT, in commerce, a sentence 
 of prohibition from trade, issued by the French 
 consuls against those who would not stand to 
 their bargains, or who refused to pay their delns. 
 It was required to be taken off before they could 
 sue any person for payment. 
 
 ABATEMENT, in heraldry, a certain mark 
 of degradation, inserted in the bearings of particu- 
 lar persons or families, called also diminutiones, 
 vel discernula armorum. Authors on this subject 
 mention nine of these marks. See SELDEN, 
 and GUILL. DISP. HERALD. 
 
 ABATEMENT, in commerce. See DISCOUNT 
 and REBATE. 
 
 ABATIS, or ABBATIS, from batum, an old 
 measure for corn, an ancient term for an officer 
 of the stables, who had the care of the pro- 
 vender. 
 
 ABATIS, or ABBATIS, from Abuttre to pull 
 down, Fr. in fortification, a heap of large trees 
 thrown together, to guard intrenchments, ob- 
 struct roads, and prevent the approaches of an 
 enemy. 
 
 ABATOS, from a priv. and f3aivw to go, i. e. 
 inaccessible, in ancient geography, an island in 
 the Lake Moeris, famous for its papyrus, and 
 for being the burial place of Osiris. Hence sacred 
 from profane intrusion. 
 
 ABATUTTA, or ABUTUTTA, in music, an 
 Italian direction for continuing to beat the time 
 as before. 
 
 ABAUZIT, (F.) a modern French writer and 
 philosopher of some celebrity. He was born at 
 Rezes, 1679; but sent off to Geneva, at two 
 years of age, by his mother, a zealous protestant, 
 to secure his education in that religion. He 
 well rewarded her solicitude, becoming after- 
 wards in this country the friend of Sir Isaac 
 Newton, who complimented him by observing 
 that he was " a fit judge between Leibnitz 
 and himself." William III. wished him to re- 
 main in England, but he returned to become the 
 librarian of the city of Geneva, in 1726. In 
 1730 he republished Spon's History of Geneva, 
 with notes and dissertations, which was his 
 chief work. Voltaire and Rousseau compliment 
 him. He died 1767. 
 
 ABA-U J VAR, a palatinate of Upper Hungary, 
 on the W. of Thorn. It contains the four circles 
 of Futzer, Kaschau, Siepschow, and Tscherchat : 
 There are 40 catholic, and 41 reformed parishes ; 
 18 of the Greek church, and 3 Lutheran, com- 
 prised in this palatinate, which is about 50 miles 
 in length, and from 12 to 15 in breadth. Popu- 
 lation 125,000. 
 
 ABAVI, or ABAY. i. c. the Father of waters, 
 an Abyssinian name for the Bahr-el-Azergue, 
 which they consider as the head of the Nile. 
 
 ABAVI, ABAVO, or ABAVUM, in botany, p. 
 large tree in Ethiopia, that bears a fruit like a 
 gourd. It is a synonime of the ADANSONIA, 
 which see. 
 
 ABB, or ABB-YARN, n. x. the yarn on a 
 weaver's warp ; a term among clothiers. 
 
 A.BB 
 
 ABBA, in ancient geography, a town of Africa, 
 near Carthage. 
 
 AB'BA, n. ~\ In Chaldee and Syriac ;JK, 
 
 AB'BACY, | Father. Titles of honour and 
 
 AB'BESS, ^-authority, first derived from the 
 
 AB'BEY, | literal signification of the word. 
 
 AB'BOT. J In scripture Abba is once used 
 
 by Jesus Christ in prayer, and twice in the 
 
 epistles, having in each place the explanation 
 
 Trarqp annexed to it. In the eastern churches, 
 
 it was given at a very early date to their bishops ; 
 
 and Baba, Papa, Pope, had their origin from 
 
 the same root. 
 
 ABBAT, or ABBOT, in the fourth and fifth cen- 
 turies was gradually, and at last distinctively, 
 applied to the heads of those religious orders who 
 then began to exclude themselves from the world. 
 For a particular account of these we refer our 
 readers to the history of Monachism at large. 
 Mosheim's Eccles. His. &c. 
 
 And anon, after this abbot 
 Then spaken another ; 
 I wode that thyn hede were of, 
 Though thou were my brother. 
 
 Chaucer's Coke's Tale of Gamelyn, 
 
 ABBACY, n. s. Lat. abbatia, the rights or 
 privileges of an ABBOT, which see. 
 
 ABBADIE, (James,) an eminent protestant 
 divine, born at Nay in Beam, in 1654; educated 
 under the famous La Placette, and afterwards at 
 the university of Sedan; from whence he went 
 into Holland and Germany, and became minis- 
 ter of the French church at Berlin. In 1690, he 
 came into England, was minister of a French 
 church in London, and was made dean of 
 Killaloe in Ireland. He died at St. Mary- 
 le-bone, 1727, aged 75. His writings, pub- 
 lished in French, were, A Treatise on the 
 Truth of the Christian Religion; The Art of 
 Knowing one's Self; A Defence of the British 
 Nation; The Deity of Jesus Christ essential to 
 the Christian Religion ; The History of the last 
 Conspiracy in England, written by order of 
 King William III.; and the Triumph of Provi- 
 dence and Religion, or the opening the Seven 
 Seals by the Son of God. 
 
 ABBAISSEUR, in anatomy, a name given 
 by Winslow and the French writers to one of 
 the muscles of the eye, called by others the 
 deprimens and humilis ; and by Fabricius the 
 rectus inferior. 
 
 ABBAS, the son of Abdalmothleb, and Maho- 
 met's uncle. He at first opposed his nephew, but 
 being taken prisoner at the battle of Bedir, in 
 623, (the 2d of the hegira,) and a great ransom 
 being demanded, he represented that so large a 
 sum would reduce him to poverty: but Maho- 
 met, reminded him of the gold he had left with 
 his mother at Mecca: whereupon Abbas, be- 
 lieving him to be really inspired, embraced his 
 religion, became one of his chief officers, and 
 saved his life, when in the utmost danger, at the 
 battle of Honain. He afterwards commenced a 
 doctor of the Mussulman law, and read lectures 
 upon the Koran. 
 
 ABBATHY. See ABBACY and ABBOT. 
 
 ABBE, n. s. 1. In a monastic sense, the 
 same with Abbot, which see. This was also, 
 before the revolution, the name of a kind of
 
 ABB 
 
 secular clergyman, popular in France. The 
 Abbe had many privileges in the church, with- 
 out any fixed station : and rose occasionally 
 to eminence both in the literary and political 
 world. 
 
 The ABBESS has the same rights and au- 
 thority over her nuns, that the Abbots regular 
 have over their monks. Her sex does not allow 
 her to perform the spiritual functions, annexed to 
 the priesthood, wherewith the abbot is usually 
 invested; but there are instances of some ab- 
 besses who commission a priest to act for 
 them, and possess a kind of episcopal jurisdic- 
 tion, exempt from the visitation of their diocesan. 
 Martene, in his treatise on the rights of the 
 church, observes, that some abbesses have for- 
 merly confessed their nuns. But he adds, that 
 their excessive curiosity carried them such lengths, 
 that there arose a necessity for checking it. How- 
 ever, St. Basil, in his Rule, allows the abbess to 
 be present with the priest at the confession of her 
 nuns. 
 
 ABBE-BOYLE. See BOYLE. 
 
 ABBERFORD, or ABERFORD, a parish and 
 market-town, in the wapintake of Skyrack, W. 
 Riding of Yorkshire, on the Cook, where the 
 Roman highway crossed it. It is 16 miles S. W. 
 from York, and 186 N. of London: market on 
 Wednesday. 
 
 ABBEVILLE, a considerable town of France, 
 the chief of an arrondissement, in the de- 
 partment of Somme, and late province of 
 Picardy, seated in a pleasant valley, where the 
 river Somme divides into several branches, and 
 separates the town into two parts. It has 14 
 parish churches, and a collegiate one ; the princi- 
 pal churches are St. George's and St. Giles's. It 
 is partially fortified, being flanked with bastions, 
 and surrounded by large ditches. Here is a 
 good woollen manufactory, which was erected in 
 1665, by Van Robais, a Dutchman, whose 
 family retain it. The cloths are said to be little 
 inferior to those of England and Holland. 
 They also manufacture sail cloth, coarse linens, 
 and black and green soap, and carry on a good 
 trade. It lies 15 miles E from the British channel, 
 20 N.W. from Amiens, 22 S. of Calais, and 
 85 N. by W. of Paris. Population 30,000. 
 
 The arrondissement of ABBEVILLE extends to 
 the English Channel, the Somme watering its 
 whole extent, and falling into the sea near Crotoy. 
 It contains the old counties of Ponthieu, and 
 Vimeux and 114,000 inhabitants. 
 
 ABBEYS, priories and monasteries, differ 
 little but in name. FAUCHET observes, that, in 
 the early days of the French monarchy, dukes 
 and counts were called abbots, and duchies and 
 counties abbeys. Even some of their kings are 
 mentioned in history under the former title. 
 Monasteries were at first nothing more than re- 
 ligious houses, whither persons retired from the 
 bustle of the world, to spend their time in 
 solitude and devotion. But they soon degene- 
 rated from their original institution, and procured 
 large privileges, exemptions, and riches. They 
 prevailed greatly in Britain before the reforma- 
 tion ; particularly in England : and as they in- 
 creased in riches, so the state became poor : for 
 the lands which these regulars possessed, were 
 
 9 ABB 
 
 in mortuo manu, i. e. could never revert to the 
 lords who gave them. This inconvenience gave 
 rise to the statutes against gifts in mortmaine, 
 which prohibited donations to these religious 
 houses : and Lord Coke tells us, that several lords, 
 at their creation, had a clause in their grant, 
 that the donor might give or sell his land to 
 whom he would, (exceptis viris religiosis et 
 Judxis) excepting monks and Jews. Henry 
 VIII. having appointed visitors to enquire into 
 the lives of the monks and nuns, which were 
 found in some places very disorderly : the 
 abbots, perceiving their dissolution unavoidable, 
 were induced to resign their houses to the king, 
 who by that means became invested with the 
 abbey lands : these were afterwards granted to 
 different persons, whose descendants enjoy them 
 at this day : they were then valued at 2,853,000 
 per annum. Though the suppression of religi- 
 ous houses, even considered in a political light 
 only, was a great national benefit, it must be 
 owned, that, at the time they flourished, they 
 were not entirely useless. Abbeys or monasteries 
 were then the repositories as well as the semi- 
 naries of learning; many valuable books and 
 national records, as well as private evidences, 
 have been preserved in their libraries; the only 
 places wherein they could have been safely 
 lodged in turbulent times. See MONASTERY. 
 
 ABBEY-HOLM, a town in Cumberland, on 
 the Waver, so called from an abbey built in it by 
 David I., king of Scots. Abbey-holm stands on 
 an arm of the Irish Sea, near Solway Firth, 309 
 miles from London, and 16 S. W. from Carlisle. 
 t contains four townships, i. e. the Abbey, East 
 Waver, Low Waver, and St. Cuthberts. The ab- 
 bots of Holm Cultram, (the ancient name of this 
 foundation) built a castle about 5 miles from the 
 sea, as a depository for their books and papers in 
 the border wars : considerable ruins of which 
 remain. 
 
 ABBEY-LUBBER, n. s. See LUBBER. A 
 slothful loiterer in a religious house, under pre- 
 tence of retirement and authority. 
 
 This is no father Dominic; no huge overgrown 
 abbey-lubber ; this is but a diminutive sucking friar. 
 
 Vryd. Sp. Fr. 
 
 ABBIATI, (F.) an Italian historical painter of 
 eminence, who was born in 1640, and died in 
 1715. He studied under Nouvolone. 
 
 ABBOT (Charles), from 1802 till 1817 speaker 
 of the British house of commons ; born 1755, 
 studied at Westminster. He was the son of Dr. 
 Abbot, minister of All Saints' church, at Col- 
 chester. Impelled by the desire of distinction, 
 lie devoted himself to the study of the law, 
 though possessed of a considerable fortune. His 
 object, however, was not professional reputation, 
 though he had an extensive practice in the court 
 of chancery. In 1790 he entered the house of 
 commons. He was successively first secretary 
 of state in Ireland, and lord commissioner of 
 the treasury ; was made privy counsellor, and in 
 ) 802 speaker of the house of commons. In 
 1817 he resigned his office of speaker, on ac- 
 count of weakness in his eyes, and entered the 
 liouse of lords, having been created viscount 
 Colchester. He died May 8, 1829. 
 
 ABBOT, or ABBAT, and ARCHIMANDRITE.
 
 ABB 10 
 
 were titles at first indifferently assumed by the 
 governors of the primitive monasteries. They 
 were really distinguished from the clergy ; though 
 frequently confounded with them, because a 
 degree above laymen. In those early days, the 
 abbots were subject to the bishops and the ordi- 
 nary pastors. Their monasteries being remote 
 from cities, built in the farthest solitudes, they 
 had no share in ecclesiastical affairs. They went 
 on Sundays to the parish church with the rest 
 of the people ; or, if they were too remote, a 
 priest was sent them to administer the sacraments; 
 till at length they were allowed to have priests of 
 their own. The abbot or archimandrite him- 
 self was usually the priest : but his function ex- 
 tended no farther than to the spiritual assistance 
 of his monastery ; and he remained still in obedi- 
 ence to the bishop. There being among the abbots 
 several persons of learning, they made a vigorous 
 opposition to the rising heresies of those times ; 
 which first occasioned the bishops to call them 
 out of their deserts, and fix them about the 
 suburbs of cities, and at length in the cities them- 
 selves : from which aera their degeneracy is to be 
 dated. The abbots, now, soon wore off their 
 former plainness and simplicity, and began to be 
 looked on as prelates. They aspired at being 
 independent of the bishops; and became so in- 
 supportable, that some severe laws were made 
 against them at the council of Chalcedon ; not- 
 withstanding this, in time many of them carried 
 the point of independency, and got the appella- 
 tion of lord, with other badges of the episcopate, 
 particularly the mitre. Hence arose a new 
 species of distinction between the abbots. Those 
 were termed mitred abbots, who were privileged 
 to wear the mitre, and exercised episcopal au- 
 thority within their respective precincts, being 
 exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop. 
 Others were termed crosiered abbots, from their 
 bearing the crosier or pastoral staff. Others 
 were styled ecumenical or universal abbots, in 
 imitation of the patriarch of Constantinople : 
 while others were termed cardinal abbots, from 
 their superiority over all other abbots. Among us, 
 the mitred abbots were lords of parliament ; and 
 called abbots sovereign, and abbots general. And 
 as there were lords abbots, so there were also lords 
 priors, who had exempt jurisdiction, and were 
 likewise lords of parliament. Some reckon 26 
 of these lords abbots and priors that sat in par- 
 liament. Sir EDWARD COKE says, that there 
 were 27 parliamentary abbots, and two priors. 
 In the parliament, 20 Rich. II. there were but 
 25 abbots and two priors ; but in the summons to 
 parliament, anno 4, Ed. III. more are named. 
 At present, in the Roman catholic countries, the 
 principal distinctions observed between abbots 
 are those of regular and commendatory. The 
 former take the vow and wear the habit of their 
 order; whereas the latter are seculars, though 
 they are obliged by their bulls to take orders 
 when of proper age. Anciently the ceremony of 
 creating an abbot consisted in clothing him with 
 the habit, called cuculus, or cowl; putting the 
 pastoral staff into his hand, and the shoes called 
 //< dales on his feet ; but at present it is only a 
 simple benediction, improperly called, by some, 
 consecration. 
 
 ABB 
 
 ABBOT, (George,) archbishop of Canterbury 
 was born 29th Oct. 1562, atGuildford in Surrey. 
 He studied at Oxford, was chosen principal of 
 University College in 1597, installed dean of 
 Winchester in 1599, and thrice elected vice-chan- 
 cellor of the University of Oxford, in 1600, 1603, 
 and 1605. The translation of the Bible, now in 
 use, bemg begun in 1604, by order of K. James, 
 dean Abbot was one of the eight divines to whom 
 the New Testament was committed. In 1608, 
 he went to Scotland, to assist in bringing 
 about an union between the kirk of Scotland 
 and the church of England a business which 
 he conducted with so much moderation, as well 
 as address, that the origin of all his after pre- 
 ferment may be traced to it. In December, 
 1609, he was consecrated bishop of Litch- 
 field and Coventry; in January, 1610, bi- 
 shop of London; and on the 2d November 
 following, appointed to the archiepiscopal see. 
 His enemies have ascribed this rapid accumula- 
 tion of honours less to his merits, than to the 
 flattering compliments he paid the king; by 
 equalling him with several of the wisest and best 
 monarchs of antiquity. In 1613, however, he 
 opposed that favourite object of the king's, the 
 divorce between lady Frances Howard, and 
 Robert, earl of Essex; and in 1618, the royal 
 declaration permitting Sunday sports, which he 
 prohibited being read in the church. When his 
 health began to decline, he went to Hampshire 
 for recreation, and being invited to a hunting 
 match by Lord Zouch, he had the misfortune to 
 kill the game-keeper by an arrow, which he shot 
 at one of the deer from a cross bow. This ac- 
 cident affected the archbishop so much, that, be- 
 sides settling an annuity of 201. on the widow, he 
 kept a monthly fast on Tuesday, the day when 
 the misfortune happened, all his life afterwards. 
 His enemies endeavouring, on this account, to 
 lessen him in the king's favour, James smartly 
 observed, that, " an angel might have miscarried 
 in this sort." Ten commissioners were appoint- 
 ed to inquire into the matter, whose report en- 
 tirely exculpated the archbishop from crime, but 
 it was thought proper that a dispensation of par- 
 don and restoration should pass the great seal. 
 After this he seldom assisted at the council, but 
 attended it during the king's last illness very con- 
 stantly. And, although troubled with the gout, 
 he performed the ceremony of crowning king 
 Charles I. He was never, however, greatly in 
 this monarch's favour, and the duke of Bucking- 
 ham and Laud being his enemies, he was sus- 
 pended from all his functions as primate, upon 
 his refusing to license a sermon of Dr. Sibthorpe's, 
 justifying a loan which the king had demanded. 
 At the meeting of parliament he was restored, 
 and died at Croydon, the 5th of August, 1633, 
 aged 71. Archbishop Abbot was a man of great 
 moderation, and wished that the clergy should 
 attract esteem, by the purity of their manners, 
 rather than by the dignity of their function. He 
 partook of the stern Calvinism that so largely 
 pervaded the .minds of most of the protestant 
 reformers; but was more remarkable in early 
 life than afterwards for his high-churchmanship. 
 Being, at the former period, asked ' Whether a 
 protestant prince night assist the subjects of u
 
 ABBOTSFORD. 
 
 11 
 
 neighbouring state in resisting tyranny and op- 
 pression?' he answered 'No; for even tyranny 
 was God's authority.' In latter life, he manfully 
 opposed those extreme measures of Laud and 
 his misguided sovereign, which brought the lat- 
 ter to the block. Dr. Southey, in his Book of 
 the Church, speaks of him as " inclining to the 
 puritans ;" and as bringing the court of High 
 Commission into disgrace by his great severity. 
 We cannot reconcile these charges. Lord Cla- 
 rendon, also, in the evident spirit of party, 
 thtows out some severe reflections against him, 
 but Dr. Wellwood has done justice to his merits, 
 in his Memoirs. He endowed a hospital at 
 Guildford (where he was buried) with an in- 
 come of 300 a year. He wrote various tracts 
 of temporary interest, and " Six Latin Lectures 
 on Divinity, at Oxford," 1598, 4to. ; " Expo- 
 sition of the prophet Jonah," 4to. 1600; "A 
 Brief Description of the whole World," 12mo. 
 1634; " Treaties on the Perpetual Visibility and 
 Succession of the True Church," 4to. 1 624 ; and 
 a " History of the Massacre in the Valteliue," 
 inserted in Fox's Book of Martyrs. 
 
 ABBOT (Robert), Bishop of Salisbury, elder 
 brother to the archbishop, was born at Guildford, 
 in 1560, studied at Oxford, took his degree of 
 A. M. in 1582, and became a celebrated preacher. 
 Upon his first sermon at Worcester, he was 
 chosen lecturer in that city, soon after rector of 
 All-saints; and John Stanhope, Esq. happening 
 to hear him preach, immediately presented him 
 to the rich living of Bingham, in Nottinghamshire. 
 In 1597, he took the degree of D. D., and was 
 appointed soon after, chaplain in ordinary to king 
 James ; who had such an opinion of him, that 
 he ordered hts book, De AntichristoAo be print- 
 ed along with his own Commentary upon part of 
 the Apocalypse. In 1609 he was elected master 
 of Baliol College, a trust which he discharged 
 with the utmost care. In 1615, he was appoint- 
 ed to the see of Salisbury, in which he exercised 
 primitive diligence, visiting his diocese person- 
 ally, and preaching weekly. He died of the 
 stone, on the 2d of March, 1618, being one of 
 the five bishops which Salisbury had in six years. 
 Dr. Fuller, speaking of the two brothers, says 
 " that George was the more plausible preacher, 
 Robert the greatest scholar ; George the abler 
 statesman ; Robert the deeper divine : gravity 
 did frown in George, and smile in Robert." 
 He published several pieces ; he also left behind 
 him sundry manuscripts, which Doctor Corbet, 
 his son-in-law, made a present of to the Bodleian 
 library. 
 
 ABBOTS-BROMLEY, or FACET'S BROMLEY, 
 a town in the hundred of South Pirchil, Stafford- 
 shire, 6 miles E. from Stafford, and 129 N. W. 
 from London. It has a weekly market on Tues- 
 day, and three annual fairs for horses and catlle. 
 On the dissolution of the monasteries it was 
 given to Lord Paget, whence its modern name, 
 which it bears in the county map, though it still 
 retains its old names with regard to the fairs, and 
 in the king's books. 
 
 ABBOTSBURY, a market-town in Dorset- 
 shire, so named from the abbey near it, founded 
 as some say, by a steward of Canute the Great, 
 others, by a Norman lady, about 1026 ; to which 
 
 Edward the Confessor, and William ^. were both 
 benefactors. It has a market on Thursday, a 
 fair on the tenth of July, and lies eight miles 
 S. W. of Dorchester, and 127 W. by S. from 
 London. 
 
 ABBOTS-CASTLE, or APEWOOD CASTLE, 
 an old fortification in Staffordshire, seven miles 
 from Wolverhampton, on the north side of the 
 road from Shrewsbury to London, situated on a 
 lofty round promontory, and a steep ridge of 
 hills; which extend a mile in length, and are 
 supposed to have been one continued fortification 
 of the ancient Britons. 
 
 ABBOTSFORD, a most romantic and pic- 
 turesque estate, on the banks of the Tweed, about 
 an hour's ride from Selkirk, of recent cele- 
 brity, but given henceforth to everlasting fame, 
 both as the creation and the residence of the 
 greatest writer of his age, and one of the most 
 considerable in point of genius among all the 
 distinguished men of Scotland. Abbotsford and 
 Sir Walter Scott are associated for ever. This 
 beautiful ' romance in stone and lime,' as it 
 has been quaintly denominated, will exhibit 
 him to future generations in the most striking 
 peculiarities of his mind and character. It 
 will be visited by many a pilgrim of nature and 
 poetry. It will become, nay, it has become 
 already, the sanctuary and the shrine of enthu- 
 siastic adoration. It may be truly affirmed that 
 no man, by the exercise of his mental powers 
 alone, in the quiet pursuit of literature and lite- 
 rary eminence, ever awakened so deep, so strik- 
 ing, so universal an interest, as well to himself 
 as to his works, as the departed laird of Abbots- 
 ford ; an interest which is so far from diminu- 
 tion, that its sphere is perpetually extending, so 
 that it may be truly affirmed, his name is gone 
 forth to the ends of the earth. 
 
 Sir Walter became first generally known by 
 what has been with goreat propriety described as 
 an attempt to transfer the refinements of modern 
 poetry to the matter and the manner of the an- 
 cient metncal romance. Enamoured of the lofty 
 visions of Chivalry, and partial to the strains in 
 which they were formerly embodied, the author 
 of ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel' employed all 
 the resources of his genius in endeavouring to 
 recal them to the favor and admiration of the 
 public, and in adapting to the taste of modern 
 readers a species of poetry which was once the 
 delight of the courtly, but which had long since 
 ceased to gladden any other eyes than those of 
 the scholar and the antiquary. In this difficult 
 undertaking, if he did not succeed to the full 
 satisfaction of the critics, he secured the favor 
 of the whole reading population. His next great 
 work, which made its appearance so soon after 
 the first, established his fame in the species of 
 composition to which he had at that time dedi- 
 cated his genius, and which may fairly be consi- 
 dered as original ; this was ' Marmion.' Then 
 came, in all the fascinations of unrivalled beauty, 
 < The Lady of the Lake.' The Edinburgh Re- 
 view, in noticing this most finished of Mr. Scott's 
 productions, justly observed 'that, though living 
 in an age unusually prolific of original poetry, 
 he had manifestly outstripped all his competitors
 
 12 ABBOTSFORD. 
 
 race of uopularity, and that he stood even melted him into tenderness, with regard to 
 
 a eight which no other writer had diction and imagery, too it is quite obvious that 
 
 aUaineH the memory of any one then alive.' Sir Walter has not aimed at writing ma pure, or 
 
 U was even then asserted that nearly 30,000 a very consistent style. He seems to have been 
 
 of 'The Lay' had been disposed of in anxious only to strike, and to be easily and 
 
 this country and that the demand for ' Marmion ' universally understood ; and for this purpose to 
 
 H TV Ladv of the Lake' had been still have culled the most glittering and conspicuous 
 
 nore considerable. This was in the year 1810. expressions of the most popular authors, and to 
 
 three ereat poems, intended to work out have interwoven them in splendid confusion with 
 
 lt b his own nervous diction and irregular versification. 
 
 jlt'M* mice t.*v*v i- ,. . 
 
 the same principles and the same results by his own nervous dictK 
 
 similar means, though sufficiently distinguished There is nothing in Sir VV alter Scott of the severe 
 from each other led to a critical investigation and majestic style of Milton, orof the terse and fine 
 of Mr. Scott's peculiar and extraordinary merit, composition of Pope, or of the elaborate elegance 
 and to an analysis of his poetical character. It is 
 evident that the charm of Sir Walter Scott's poetry 
 is not in the story, or in a judicious and dextrous 
 management of his materials, but in the inspira- 
 tions of genius, which are every where breathed 
 through his not very well compacted narrations ; 
 in the variety and brilliancy, rather than in the 
 exquisite finish in its images and descriptions ; 
 and in its touching lightly on many passions, 
 without raising any so high as to transcend the 
 comprehension of ordinary mortals, or dwelling 
 on it so long as to exhaust their patience. Con- 
 fident in the force and originality of his own 
 
 and melody of Campbell, or even of the flowing 
 and redundant diction of Southey. But there is 
 a medley of bright images and glowing words 
 set carelessly and loosely together ; a diction 
 tinged successively with the careless richness of 
 Shakspeare, the harshness and antique simplicity 
 of the old romances, the homeliness of vulgar 
 ballads and anecdotes, and the sentimental glitter 
 of the most modern poetry. Passing from the 
 borders of the ludicrous to those of the sublime ; 
 alternately minute and energetic : sometimes 
 artificial, and frequently negligent ; but always 
 full of spirit and vivacity, abounding in images 
 
 genius, he does not seem afraid to avail himself that are striking, at first sight, to minds of every 
 
 of common-places both of diction and sentiment, *""* - 1 *"""" - *; 
 
 whenever they appeared to be beautiful or impres- 
 sive. Using these however with the skill and spirit 
 of an in ventor,he has made use of thatgreat treasury 
 of characters, images, and expressions, which had 
 been accumulated by the most celebrated of his 
 
 contexture; and never expressing a sentiment 
 which it can cost the most ordinary reader any 
 exertion to comprehend. 
 
 Such seem to be the leading qualities that 
 contribute to Sir Walter Scott's popularity as a. 
 poet, and we may safely affirm that, where these 
 
 predecessors ; at the same time that the rapidity are wanting, poetry is necessarily divested of 
 of his transitions, the novelty of hv? combf- much of its great aim to please, to please the 
 
 nations, and the spirit and variety of his own 
 thoughts and inventions, show plainly that he 
 was a borrower from any thing but poverty, and 
 took only what he could have given, if he had 
 been born in an earlier generation , The great 
 secret of his popularity, however, and the leading 
 characteristics of his poetry, appear to consist 
 
 greatest number and for ever. But as some of 
 the qualities we have enumerated, as peculiarly 
 characteristic of Sir W. Scott, are obviously of a 
 kind to diminish his merit, in the eyes of some fas- 
 tidious judges, it is but fair to complete this view 
 of his peculiarities, by a hasty notice of such of 
 them as entitle him to unqualified admiration. And 
 
 evidently in this, that he has made more use of here it is impossible not to be struck with that 
 
 common topics and expressions than any ori- 
 ginal poet of later times ; and at the same 
 time displayed more genius and originality 
 than any recent author, who has worked on the 
 same materials. In the choice of his subjects, 
 for example, he does not attempt to interest 
 merely by fine observation or pathetic sentiment, 
 but takes the assistance of a story, and enlists 
 
 vivifying spirit of strength and animation which 
 pervades all the inequalities of his composition, 
 and keeps constantly in the mind of the reader 
 the impression of great power, spirit, and intre- 
 pidity. There is nothing cold, creeping, or 
 feeble, in all Sir Walter Scott's poetry : no 
 laborious littleness, or pulling classical affecta- 
 tion. Allied to this inherent vigor and animation, 
 
 the reader's curiosity among his motives, for at- and in a great degree derived from it, is that air of 
 
 tention. Thus his characters are all selected from facility and freedom which adds so peculiar a 
 
 the most common dramatis persona of poetry grace to most of Sir Walter Scott's compositions, 
 
 kings, warriors, knights, outlaws, nuns, minstrels, There is certainly no living poet whose works 
 secluded damsels, wizards, and true lovers. He 
 
 never ventures to carry us into the cottage of the 
 peasant, like Crabbe or Cowper ; nor into the 
 bosom of domestic privacy, like Campbell ; nor 
 among creatures of the imagination, like Southey 
 or Darwin. In the management of the passions, 
 again, Sir Walter Scott appears to us to have 
 pursued the same popular and comparatively 
 easy course. He has raised all the most familiar 
 and poetical emotions, by the most obvious 
 aggravations, and in the most compendious and 
 judicious way. He has dazzled the reader with 
 the splendour, and even warmed him with the 
 transient heat of various affections ; but he has 
 no where fairly kindled him with ent -"siasm, or 
 
 seem to come from him with so much ease, or 
 who so seldom appears to labour, even in the 
 most burdensome parts of his performance. 
 It is owing partly to these qualities, and 
 partly to the great variety of his style, that Sir 
 Walter Scott is much less frequently tedious 
 than any other bulky poet with whom we are 
 acquainted. His store of imagery is so copious 
 that he never dwells upon one long enough to 
 produce weariness in the reader ; and, even 
 when he deals in borrowed or in tawdry wares, 
 the rapidity of his transitions, and the transient 
 glance with which he is satisfied as to each, 
 leave the cretic no time to be offended, and hurry 
 him forward along with the enchanted multitude.
 
 A B B O T S F O R D. 
 
 i (v 
 
 lo 
 
 These we think are the general characteristics 
 of Sir Walter Scott's poetry. Among his main 
 peculiarities, we might notice his singular talent 
 for description, and especially for the description 
 of scenes abounding in motion or action of any 
 kind. In this department, indeed, we conceive 
 him to be almost without a rival, either among 
 modern or ancient poets ; and the character and 
 process of his descriptions are as extraordinary 
 as their effects are astonishing. 
 
 Another very striking peculiarity of Sir Walter 
 Scott's poetry is the air of freedom and nature 
 which he has contrived to impart to most of his 
 distinguished characters, and with which no 
 poet more modern than Shakspeare has ventured 
 to represent personages of such dignity. We do not 
 allude here merely to the genuine familiarity and 
 homeliness of many of his scenes and dialogues, 
 but to that air of gaiety and playfulness in which 
 persons of high rank seem from time immemorial 
 to have thought it necessary to array, not their 
 courtesy only, but their generosity and their hos- 
 tility. This tone of good society Sir Walter 
 has shed over his higher characters with great 
 grace and effect ; and has in this way not only 
 made his representations much more faithful and 
 true to nature, but has very agreeably relieved 
 the monotony of that tragic solemnity which or- 
 dinary writers appear to think indispensable to 
 the dignity of poetical heroes and heroines. 
 
 The Lady of the Lake was probably the last 
 of Sir Walter Scott's poems that was worthy of 
 his genius and unparalleled reputation. It is de- 
 scribed, and we think justly, as combining more 
 attractions than either the Lay or Marmion, and 
 as being a far more regular and finished work. 
 The vision of Don Roderick Rokeby, and the 
 Lord of the Isles added nothing to Sir Walter 
 Scott's reputation ; they exhibit in succession 
 fainter and fainter manifestations of the author's 
 talents, and the world felt little regret when his 
 muse ceased her biennial announcement of an 
 increase in her very prolific family. Yet any one 
 of the poems we have referred to would have set 
 up an ordinary poet ; nay, it would have placed 
 him very nearly at the head of his brightest and 
 most successful contemporaries; and, when taken 
 together as the rapid creation of a single mind, 
 they afford an astonishing illustration of its 
 power. Of the four, though Rokeby was the 
 last, and indicated a lamentable falling off, a 
 critic truly remarked, ' after all the hyperbolical 
 praises and hypercritical censures which have 
 been lavished on Mr. Scott's talents, that mind 
 must be indeed of extraordinary capacity which 
 could in the course of about eight years produce 
 four such poems as the Lay of the Minstrel, 
 Marmion, The Lady of the Lake, and Rokeby.' 
 The periodical minstrel who paid his regular 
 visits and charmed all ears and all hearts, from 
 John a Groat's house to the Land's end, at length 
 suddenly disappeared. 
 
 One morn I missed him on the custom 'd hill ; 
 
 Along the heath and near his favorite tree ; 
 
 Another rame, nor yet beside the rill, 
 
 Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he. 
 
 The harp of the north was silent ; and men 
 wondered what had become of the mitrhty ma- 
 gician who had so long entranced them with his 
 melody. Those who were intimately acquainted 
 
 with the bard well knew the irrepressible acti- 
 vity of his spirit, and that he could not repose in 
 voluptuous indolence amidst the fragrant in- 
 cense of the fame he had acquired that it was 
 impossible for his mirrd to relax its labor, which 
 was in truth its highest enjoyment ; and there- 
 fore they felt assured that, having renounced the 
 lighter pursuits of literature, he was bending his 
 power to the achievement of some noble per- 
 formance that should rank his name among the 
 loftiest of the sons of immortality. For many 
 years this continued to be the general impression. 
 In the mean time, the vacuum occasioned by 
 Sir Walter's retirement was mysteriously filled 
 up by a writer of novels and romances, who 
 seemed destined in prose to outstrip all the 
 poets of the age, whose creations only wanted 
 rhythm and the appropriate forms of versification 
 to surpass the Southeys and the Scotts in their 
 own particular walk of excellence, while he threw 
 into shade and forgetful ness the class of authors 
 whose province he had invaded with a success 
 which made him at once the admiration and the 
 envy of the world. The buzz went round 
 Who is he ? A Scotsman certainly but, beyond 
 this, curiosity was utterly at fault ; the scret 
 was so well kept that the author of ' the Waverly 
 novels,' as this most rich and marvellous series 
 of works has since been denominated, was only 
 talked of as ' the Great Unknown.' Some indeed 
 imagined that performanoes of such transcendant 
 merit, following each other in breathless succes- 
 sion, so that one was scarcely read before 
 another was in circulation, must have been the 
 joint production of two or three kindred minds. 
 It seemed almost physically impossible that they 
 could have been the labor of one. Yet this has 
 since been proved to be the case and that one, 
 to the delight and pride of his admirers, is Sir 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 The remarks which we have ventured to offer 
 on the peculiarities of his poetry apply gene- 
 rally to his novels, only that in these he takes a 
 wider range, and in addition developes other 
 powers altogether so extraordinary in their com- 
 bination that Sir Walter Scoot will never have a 
 rival in his own times; and it is questionable 
 whether posterity will ever produce in all re- 
 spects his equal. Speaking of the wonderful 
 success of Waverly, the review before quoted 
 observes ' the secret of this success, we take it, is 
 merely that the author is a person of genius, and 
 that he has, notwithstanding, had virtue enough 
 to be true to nature throughout, and to content 
 himself, even in the marvellous parts of his 
 story, with copying from actual existences rather 
 than from the phantasms of his own imagination. 
 The charm which this communicates to all 
 works that deal in the representation of human 
 actions and characters is more readily felt than 
 understood, and operates with unfailing efficacy 
 even upon those who have no acquaintance 
 with the originals from which the picture has 
 been borrowed. There is a consistency in na- 
 ture and truth, the want of which may always be 
 detected in the happiest combinations of fancy, 
 and the consciousness of their support gives a 
 confidence and assurance to the artist which en- 
 courages him occasionally to risk a strength of 
 coloring, and a boldness of drawing, upon which
 
 AB-BOTSFORD. 
 
 he would scarcely have ventured in a sketch 
 that was purely ideal.' The article concludes 
 with something like an intimation that the un- 
 known was at least suspected. 
 
 ' There has been much speculation, says the 
 critic, at least in this quarter of the island, about 
 the author of this singular performance, and 
 certainly it is not easy to conjecture why it is 
 still anonymous. Judging by internal evidence, 
 to which alone we pretend to have access, we 
 should not scruple to ascribe it to the highest of 
 those authors to whom it has been assigned by 
 the sagacious conjectures of the public ; and 
 this at least we will venture to say, that, if it be 
 indeed the work of an author hitherto unknown, 
 Mr. Scott will do well to look to his laurels, 
 and to rouse himself for a sturdier competitor 
 than any he has yet had to encounter.' 
 
 Guy Mannering and The Antiquary followed, 
 and sustained the high reputation of the author 
 of Waverly, then known only under that envia- 
 ble character ; then were announced The Tales 
 of my Landlord ; then Rob Roy, which was im- 
 mediately succeeded by the splendid and un- 
 rivalled performance, Ivanhoe; and then a 
 multitude to which additions are made during 
 tho progress of each succeeding year ; so that to 
 enumerate, much less to notice them, would 
 extend this article beyond - all reasonable limits, 
 and answer no good purpose, as they have been 
 read in both hemispheres, and in every spot 
 where the English tongue is written and under- 
 stood. From this useless task we shall therefore 
 refrain, and content ourselves with a discriminat- 
 ing view of the talents of Sir Walter in this new 
 and delightful sphere of his labors and his fame. 
 The first thing that cannot fail to astonish every 
 body is the wonderful fertility of the writer, and 
 the unexampled continuousness of his exertions. 
 In the year 1822 the Edinburgh Review, in its 
 article on the Fortunes of Nigel, takes occasion 
 to say, ' our last particular notice we think was 
 of Ivanhoe, in the end of 1819 ; and, in the two 
 years that have since elapsed, we have had the 
 Monastery, the Abbot, Kenilworth, the Pirates, 
 and Nigel ; one, two, three, four, five, large 
 original works from the same fertile and inex- 
 haustible pen. It is a strange manufacture ! 
 and, though depending entirely on invention and 
 original fancy, really seems to proceed with all 
 the steadiness and regularity of a thing that 
 was kept in operation by industry and applica- 
 tion alone ; our whole fraternity, for example, 
 with all the works of all other writers to supply 
 them with materials, are not half so sure of 
 bringing out their two volumes in the year as 
 this one author, with nothing but his own genius 
 to depend on, is of bringing out his six or seven.' 
 
 The same authority in various other articles 
 furnishes us with the very best exhibitions 
 of the characteristic features of that genius 
 whose fertility and perseverence it pronounces to 
 be so wonderful. ' In the period of little more 
 than five years, the author has founded a new 
 school of invention, and established and en- 
 dowed it with nearly thirty volumes (this was in 
 1819) of the most animated and original com- 
 position that have enriched English literature 
 for a century, volumes that have cast sensibly 
 into the shade all contemporary prose, and even 
 
 all recent poetry (except perhaps that inspired 
 by the genius or the demon of Byron) ; and by 
 their force of coloring and depth of feeling, by 
 their variety, vivacity, magical facility, and 
 living presentiment of character, have rendered 
 conceivable to this later age the miracles of the 
 mighty dramatist.' The critic had before al- 
 luded to the thirty-eight plays of Shakspeare, 
 written in the brief space of his early manhood ; 
 and he goes on to observe, ' Shakspeare, to be 
 sure, is more purely original ; but it should not 
 be forgotten that in his time there was much less 
 to borrow, and that he too has drawn freely and 
 largely from the sources that were open to him 
 at least for his Fable, and graver sentiments ; for 
 his wit and humor, as well as his poetry, are 
 always his own.' 
 
 We subjoin the following, which is more 
 comprehensive, and at the same time more de- 
 finite, than any thing we have met with on the 
 subject of this author's peculiar merits as a 
 novelist. ' The author, whoever he is, has a 
 truly graphic and creative power in the inven- 
 tion and delineation of characters, which he 
 sketches with an ease, and colors with a bril 
 liancy, and scatters about with a profusion 
 which reminds us of Shakspeare himself; yet, 
 with all this force and felicity in the representa- 
 tion of living agents, he has the eye of a poet 
 for all the striking aspects of nature; and 
 usually contrives, both in his scenery and in the 
 groups with which it is enlivened, to combine 
 the picturesque with the natural with a grace 
 that has rarely been attained by artists so co- 
 pious and rapid. His narrative in this way is 
 kept constantly full of life, variety, and color ; 
 and is so interspersed with glowing descriptions, 
 and lively allusions, and flying traits of sagacity 
 and pathos, as not only to keep our attention 
 continually awake, but to afford a pleasing ex- 
 ercise to most of our other faculties. The pre- 
 vailing tone is very gay and pleasant ; but the 
 author's most remarkable, and perhaps his most 
 delightful talent, is that of representing kindness 
 of heart in unison with lightness of spirits and 
 great simplicity of character, and of blending 
 the expression of warm and generous and 
 exalted affections with scenes and persons that 
 are in themselves both lowly, and ridiculous. 
 It is very honorable, we think, both to the 
 author and to the readers among whom he 
 is so extremely popular, that the great interest 
 of his pieces is for the greater part a moral in- 
 terest, that the concern we take in his characters 
 is less on account of their adventures than of 
 their amiableness, and that the great charm of 
 his works is derived from the kindness of heart, 
 the capacity of generous emotions, and the 
 lights of native taste, which he ascribes so 
 lavishly, and at the same time with such an air 
 of truth and familiarity, even to the humblest of 
 his favorites. With all his relish for the ridiculous, 
 accordingly, there is no tone of misanthropy or 
 even of sarcasm in his representations ; but, on 
 the contrary, a great indulgence and relenting 
 towards those who are to be the objects of our 
 disapprobation. There is no keen or cold- 
 blooded satire, no bitterness of heart or fierce- 
 ness of resentment, in any part of his writings. 
 His love of ridicule is little else than a lo.ye of
 
 ABBOT SFORD. 
 
 15 
 
 mirth, and savours throughout of the joyous tem- 
 perament in which it appears to have its origin, 
 while the buoyancy of a raised and poetical 
 imagination lifts him continually above the 
 region of mere jollity and good humour, to 
 which a taste, by no means nice and fastidious, 
 .seems constantly in danger of sinking him. He 
 is evidently a person of a very sociable and 
 liberal spirit, with great habits of observation, 
 who has ranged pretty extensively through the 
 varieties of human life and character, and 
 mingled with them all, not only with intelligent 
 familiarity, but with a free and natural sym- 
 pathy for all the diversity of their tastes, plea- 
 sures, and pursuits, one who has kept his heart 
 as well as his eyes open to all that has offered 
 itself to engage them, and learned indulgence 
 for human faults and follies, not only from find- 
 ing kindred faults in their most intolerant cen- 
 sors, but also for the sake of the virtues by 
 which they are often redeemed, and the sufferings 
 by which they have still oftener been taught. 
 The temper of his writings, in short, is precisely 
 the reverse of those of our Laureates and 
 Lakers, who, being themselves the most whim- 
 sical of mortals, make it a conscience to loathe 
 and detest all with whom they happen to dis- 
 agree, and labor to promote mutual animosity, 
 and all manner of uncharitableness, among man- 
 kind, by referring every supposed error of taste, or 
 peculiarity of opinion, to some hateful corruption 
 of the heart and understanding. With all the in- 
 dulgence, however, which we so justly ascribe to 
 him, we are far from complaining of the writer 
 before us for being too neutral and undecided on 
 the great subjects which are most apt to en- 
 gender excessive zeal and intolerance, and we 
 are almost as far from agreeing with him as to 
 most of these subjects. In politics it is suffi- 
 ciently manifest that he is a decided tory ; and 
 we are afraid something of a latitudinarian both in 
 morals and religion. It is rather remarkable, how- 
 ever, that with propensities decidedly aristo- 
 cratical, the ingenious author has succeeded by 
 far the best in the representation of rustic and 
 homely characters ; and not in the ludicrous or 
 contemptuous representation of them, but by 
 making them at once more natural and more in- 
 teresting than they had ever been made before 
 in any work of fiction ; by showing them, not 
 as clowns to be laughed at, or wretches to be 
 pitied and despised, but as human creatures, 
 with as many pleasures, and fewer cares than 
 their superiors, with affections not only as 
 strong, but often as delicate as those whose lan- 
 guage is smoother, and with a vein of humor, 
 a force of sagacity, and very frequently an ele- 
 vation of fancy as high and as natural as can be 
 met with among more cultivated beings. 
 
 ' Next to these we think he has found his hap- 
 piest subjects, or at least displayed his greatest 
 powers, in the delineation of the grand and 
 gloomy aspects of nature, and of the dark and 
 fierce passions of the heart. The natural gaiety 
 of his temper does not indeed allow him to 
 dwell long on such themes ; but the sketches he 
 occasionally introduces are executed with ad- 
 mirable force and spirit, and gave a strong im- 
 pression both of the vigor of his imagination 
 and the variety of his talents. It is only in the 
 
 third rank that we would place his pictures of 
 chivalry and chivalrous character, his traits of 
 gallantry, nobleness, and honor, and that be- 
 witching assemblage of gay and gentle manners, 
 with generosity, candor, and courage, which has 
 long been familiar enough to readers and writers 
 of novels, but has never before been represented 
 with such an air of truth and so much ease and 
 happiness of execution.' 
 
 It will be seen that the Edinburgh Reviewers, 
 on more than one occasion, insinuated very strong 
 suspicions of their knowledge of the author, 
 from the internal evidence furnished by his 
 works ; they associated the name of Scott, both 
 in their notice of Waverly and in that of Ivan- 
 hoe, in such a way with the productions under 
 review, that no reader could possibly misunder- 
 stand what were their convictions on the subject. 
 Still public curiosity was kept alive by positive 
 assurances that Mr. Scott had repeatedly dis- 
 claimed the henor so earnestly and officiously 
 thrust upon him. It was said that there was a 
 kind of secret manufactory established in the 
 north for getting up an annual story for the 
 literary market under the presidency of a master 
 mind ; yet the secret was still profoundly kept, and 
 conjecture was almost wearied, when disastrous 
 events occurred in the commercial, and especially 
 in the literary 'commercial world, that tore off 
 the veil that had so long concealed the writer 
 from the gaze of the public. The intelligence 
 ran and rung from ' side to side ' that it was no 
 other than Sir Walter Scott : at the very moment 
 when the accumulations of his life, and which 
 placed him in a situation of almost noble inde- 
 pendence, were reduced to nothing, he became 
 the object of universal sympathy, wonder, and 
 admiration. 
 
 The story of Abbotslord, as it existed in the 
 lifetime of its gifted proprietor, will probably 
 be read with a deeper interest than that of 
 Abbotsford in subsequent years, bereft of its 
 brightest ornament : and this consideration has 
 induced us to preserve the fol owing description 
 of this interesting seat, written by one of the 
 poet's transatlantic admirers, in the very same 
 tense that it originally appeared, whereby per- 
 haps a sacrifice of its spirit and feeling will also 
 be avoided, and an additional degree of interest 
 excited. 
 
 ' Some fifteen or sixteen years ago, as my friend 
 informed me, there was not a more unlovely spot,ic 
 this part of the world, than that on which Abbots- 
 ford now exhibits all its quaint architecture and 
 beautiful accompaniment of garden andwoodland. 
 A mean farm house stood on part of the site of the 
 present edifice ; a ' kale yard ' bloomed where 
 the stately embattled court yard now spreads it- 
 self ; and for many thousand acres of flourishing 
 plantations, half of which have all the appearance 
 of being twice as old as they really are, there 
 was but a single long straggling stripe of unthriv- 
 ing firs. The river, however, must needs remain 
 in statu quo ; and I will not believe that any place 
 so near those clearest and sweetest of all waters 
 could ever have been quite destitute of charms. 
 The scene, however, was no doubt wild enough, 
 a naked moor a few little turnip fields pain- 
 fully reclaimed from it a Scotch cottage a 
 Scotch farm yard, and some Scotch firs. It is
 
 16 
 
 A K B O T S F O II D. 
 
 difficult to imagine a more complete contrast to 
 the Abbotsfordof 1825. 
 
 ' Sir W. is, as you have no doubt heard, a most 
 zealous agriculturist, and arboriculturist especial- 
 ly ; and he is allowed to have done things with 
 this estate, since it came into his possession, 
 which would have been reckoned wonders, even 
 if they had occupied the whole of a clever and 
 skilful man's attention, during more years than 
 have elapsed since he began to write himself 
 Laird of Abbotsford. He has some excellent 
 arable land on the banks of the Tweed, and to- 
 wards the little town of Melrose, which lies some 
 three miles from the mansion ; but the bulk of 
 the property is hilly country, with deep narrow 
 dells interlacing it. Of this he has planted fully 
 one half, and it is admitted on all hands that his 
 rising forest has been laid out, arranged, and 
 managed with consummate taste, care, and suc- 
 cess so much so, that the general appearance 
 of Tweedside, for some miles, is already quite 
 altered and improved by the graceful ranges of 
 his woodland ; and that the produce of these 
 plantations must, in the course of twenty or 
 thirty years more, add immensely to the yearly 
 rental of the estate. In the mean time, the shel- 
 ter afforded by the woods to the sheep walks re- 
 served amidst them has prodigiously improved 
 the pasturage, and half the surface yields already 
 double the rent the whole was ever thought 
 capable of affording, while in the old unprotected 
 condition. All through those woods there are 
 broad riding-ways, kept in capital order, and con- 
 ducted in such excellent taste that we might wan- 
 der for weeks amidst their windings without ex- 
 hausting the beauties of the Poet's lounge. There 
 are scores of charming waterfalls in the ravines, 
 and near every one of them you find benches 
 or bowers at the most picturesque points of view. 
 There are two or three small mountain lakes in- 
 cluded in the domain one of them not so small 
 neither, being, I should suppose, nearly a mile 
 in circumference and of these also every advan- 
 take has been taken. On the whole, it is already 
 a very beautiful scene ; and, when the trees have 
 gained their proper dignity of elevation, it must 
 be a very grand one. Amidst these woods, Mr. 
 * tells me, the proprietor, when at home, 
 usually spends many hours daily, either on his 
 pony, or on foot, with axe and pruning knife in 
 hand. Here is his study; he, it seems, like 
 Jaques, is never at a loss to find ' books in trees.' 
 
 ' The Muse nae poet ever fand her 
 Till by hiinscl' he learned to wander 
 Adown some trotting burn's meander, 
 An' no think lane.' 
 
 OI 
 
 As Burns says ; and one of his burns, by the by, 
 is Huntley Bum, where Thomas of Erceldoune 
 met the queen of Faery. The rencontre, accord- 
 ing to the old Rhymer himself, occurred beside 
 'The Eildon Tree.' That landmark has long 
 since disappeared, but most of Sir Walter's walks 
 have the Eildon Hills, in some one or other of 
 their innumerable aspects, for background. But 
 I am keeping you too long away from 'The 
 Rooftree of Monkbarns,' which is situated on 
 the brink of the last of a series of irregular hills, 
 descending from the elevation of the Eidons 
 stepwise, to the Tweed. On all sides, except 
 towards the river, the house connects itself with 
 
 the gardens (according to the old fashion, now 
 generally condemned) ; so that there is no want 
 of air and space about the habitation. The 
 building is such a one, I dare say, as nobody but 
 he would ever have dreamed of erecting ; or, if 
 he had, escaped being quizzed for his pains. 
 Yet it is eminently imposing in its general effect ; 
 and, in most of the details, not only full of his- 
 torical interest, but of beauty also. It is no doubt 
 a thing of shreds and patches, but they have been 
 combined by a masterly hand ; and if there be 
 some whimsicalities, that in an ordinary case 
 might have called up a smile, who is likely now 
 or hereafter to contemplate such a monument of 
 such a man's peculiar tastes and fancies, without 
 feelings of a far different order ? Borrowing 
 outlines and ornaments from every part of Scot- 
 land, a gateway from Linlithgow, a roof from 
 Roslin, a chimneypiece from Melrose, a postern 
 from the ' Heart of Midlothian,' &c. &c. &c., 
 it is totally unlike any other building in the king- 
 dom, as a whole ; and that hole is, I have said, 
 a beautiful and a noble whole almost enough 
 so to make me suspect that, if Sir Walter had 
 been bred an architect, he might have done a? 
 much in that way as he has, de facto, in the wood- 
 man's craft, or (which they swear he is less vain 
 of) the novelist's. 
 
 ' By the principal approach you come very sud- 
 denly on the edifice as the French would say, 
 ' Vous tombez sur le chateau ;' but this evil, if 
 evil it be, was unavoidable, in consequence of 
 the vicinity of a public road which cuts off the 
 chateau and its plaisance from the main body of 
 park and wood, making it a matter of necessity 
 that what is called, in the improvement men's 
 slang, ' the avenue proper,' should be short. It 
 is but slightly curved, and you find yourself, a 
 very few minutes after turning from the road, at 
 the great gate already mentioned. This is a lofty 
 arch rising out of an embattled wall of consider- 
 able height ; and the jougs, as they are styled, 
 those well known emblems of feudal authority, 
 hang rusty at the side ; this pair being dit on 
 relics from that great citadel of the old Doug- 
 lasses, Thrieve Castle, in Galloway. On enter- 
 ing, you find yourself within an enclosure of per- 
 haps half an acre or better, two sides thereof 
 being protected by the high wall above mentioned, 
 all along which, inside, a trellissed walk extends 
 itself broad, cool, and dark overhead with roses 
 and honeysuckles. The third side,to the east,shows 
 a serene of open arches of Gothic stonework, filled 
 between with a net-work of iron, not visible until 
 you come close to it, and affording therefore de- 
 lightful glimpses of the gardens, which spread up- 
 wardswith many architectural ornaments of turret, 
 porch, urn, vase, and what not, after a fashion 
 that would make the heart of old Price of the 
 Picturesque to leap within him : this screen is a 
 feature of equal novelty and grace, and, if ever 
 the old school of gardening come into vogue 
 again, will find abundance of imitators. It abutts 
 on the eastern extremity of the house, which 
 runs along the whole of the northern side (and a 
 small part of the western) of the great enclo- 
 sure. And, by the way, nothing can be more de- 
 lightful than the whole effect of the said enclosure, 
 m the still and solitary state in which I chanced 
 to see it. There is room for a piece of the most
 
 ABBOTSFORD. 
 
 17 
 
 elaborate turf within it, and rosaries of all man- 
 ner of shapes and sizes generally connect this 
 green pavement with the roof of the trellis walk, 
 a verdant cloister, over which appears the gray 
 wall with its little turrets ; and over that, again, 
 climb oak, elm, birch, and hazel, up a steep bank 
 so steep that the trees, young as they are, give 
 already all the grand effect of a sweeping am- 
 phitheatre of wood. The back ground on that side 
 is wholly forest ; on the east, garden loses itself 
 in forest by degrees ; on the west there is wood 
 on wood also, but with glimpses of the Tweed 
 between ; and in the distance (some half a dozen 
 miles off) a complete sierra, the ridge of the 
 mountain between Tweed and Yarrow, to wit 
 its highest peak being that of Newark hill, at the 
 bottom of which the old castle, where the ' latest 
 Minstrel sang,' still exhibits some noble ruins. 
 
 ' Not being skilled in the technical tongue of 
 the architects, I beg leave to decline describ- 
 ing the structure of the house, farther than 
 merely to say that it is more than 150 feet 
 long in front, as I paced it ; was built at two 
 different onsets ; has a tall tower at either end, 
 the one not in the least like the other ; presents 
 sundry crowfooted, alias zigzagged, gables to the 
 eye ; a myriad of indentations and parapets and 
 machicolated eaves ; most fantastic waterspouts ; 
 labelled windows, not a few of them of painted 
 glass ; groups of right Elizabethan chimneys ; 
 balconies of divers fashions, greater and lesser ; 
 stones carved with heraldries innumerable let in 
 here and there in the wall ; and a very noble pro- 
 jecting gateway, a fac simile, I am told, of that 
 appertaining to a certain dilapidated royal palace, 
 which long ago seems to have caught in a parti- 
 cular manner the Poet's fancy, as witness the 
 ctanza, 
 
 Of all the palaces so fair, 
 
 Built for the royal dwelling, 
 Above the rest, beyond compare, 
 
 Linlithgow is excelling. 
 
 From the porchway, which is quite open to the 
 elements in front,and adorned with some enormous 
 petrefied staghorns overhead, you are admitted by 
 a pair of folding doors at orce into the hall, and 
 an imposing coup d'tril the first glimpse of the 
 Poet's interior does present. The lofty windows, 
 only two in number, being wholly covered with 
 coats of arms, the place appears as dark as the 
 twelfth century, on your first entrance from noon- 
 day ; but the delicious coolness of the atmosphere 
 is luxury enough for a minute or two ; and by de- 
 grees your eyes get accustomed to the effect of 
 those ' storied panes,' and you are satisfied that 
 you stand in one of the most picturesque of 
 apartments. The hall is, I should guess, about 
 forty feet long, by twenty in height and breadth. 
 The walls are of richly carved oak, most part of 
 it exceedingly dark, and brought, it seems, from 
 the old palace of Dunfermline : the roof, a se- 
 ries of pointed arches of the same, each beam 
 presenting, in the centre, a shield of arms richly 
 blazoned : of these shields there are sixteen, 
 enough to bear all the quarterings of a perfect 
 pedigree, if the Poet could show them ; but on 
 the material side (at the extremity) there are two 
 or three blanks (of the same sort which made 
 Louis le Grand unhappy) which have been co- 
 vered with sketches of Cloudland, and equipped 
 VOL. I. 
 
 with the appropriate motto, ' Nox alia -cetat. 
 The shields properly filled up are distinguished 
 ones ; the descent of Scott and Harden on one 
 side, and Rutherford of that ilk on the other ; all 
 which matters, are they not written in the book 
 of the chronicles of Douglas andNisbet ? There 
 is a doorway at the eastern end, over and round 
 which the baronet has placed another series of 
 escutcheons, which I looked on with at least as 
 much respect : they are the memorials of his im- 
 mediate personal connexions, the bearings of his 
 friends and companions. All around the cor- 
 nice of this noble room there runs a continued 
 series of blazoned shields, of another sort still ; 
 at the centre of one end, I saw the bloody heart 
 of Douglas ; and, opposite to that, the royal lion 
 of Scotland, and between the ribs there is an 
 inscription in black letter, which I, after some 
 trials, read, and of which I wish I had had sense 
 enough to take a copy. To the best of my re- 
 collection, the words are not unlike these : ' These 
 be the coat armories of the clannis and chief men 
 of name, wha keepit the marchys of Scotlande 
 in the auld tyme of the Kinge. Trewe ware 
 they in their tyme, and in there defense God them 
 defendyt.' There are from thirty to forty shields 
 thus distinguished Douglas, Soulis, Buccleugh, 
 Maxwell, Johnstoune, Glendoning, Herries, Ru- 
 therford, Kerr, Elliott, Pringle, Home, and all 
 the other heroes, as you may guess, of the border 
 minstrelsy. The floor of this hall is black and 
 white marble,from the Hebrides, wrought lozenge- 
 wise ; and the upper walls are completely hung 
 with arms and armour. Two full suits of splen- 
 did steel occupy niches at the eastern end by 
 themselves ; the one an English suit of Henry 
 the Fifth's time, the other an Italian, not quite 
 so old. The variety of cuirasses, black and 
 white, plain and sculptured, is endless ; helmets 
 are in equal profusion ; stirrups and spurs, of 
 every fantasy, dangle about and below them ; and 
 there are swords of every order, from the enor- 
 mous two-handed weapon with which the Swiss 
 peasants dared to withstand the spears of the 
 Austrian chivalry, to the claymore of the ' Forty- 
 five,' and the rapier of Dettingen. Indeed, I might 
 come still lower; for, among the other spoils, I saw 
 Polish lances, gathered by the author of Paul's 
 Letters on the field of Waterloo, and a complete 
 suit of chain mail taken off the corpse of one of 
 Tippoo's body-guard at Seringapatam. A series 
 of German executioners' swords was inter alia 
 pointed out to me ; on the blade of one of which 
 I made out the arms of Augsburg, and a legend 
 which may be thus rendered : 
 Dust, when I strike, to dust : From sleepless grave. 
 Sweet Jesu, stoop, a sin-staiued soul to save 
 
 I am sorry there is no catalogue of this curious 
 collection. Sir Walter ought to make one him- 
 self ; for my .cicerone informs me there is some 
 particular history attached to almost every piece 
 in it, and known in detail to nobody but himself. 
 ' Stepping westward,' as Wordsworth says, from 
 this hall, you find yourself in a narrow, low, 
 arched room, which runs quite across the house, 
 having a blazoned window again at either extre- 
 mity, and filled all over with smaller pieces of ar- 
 mour, and weapons, such as swords, firelocks, 
 spears, arrows, darts, daggers, &c. &c. &c. Here 
 are the pieces esteemed most precious by reason
 
 18 
 
 of their histories respectively. I saw, among 
 the rest, Rob Roy's gun, with his initials, R. M. 
 C i e Robert Macgregor Campbell, round the 
 touch-hole : the blunderbuss of Hofer, a present 
 to Sir Walter from his friend Sir Humphry 
 
 ,- : Asvn * a w/\i*/1 Q c m n 0*n in- 
 
 ABBOTSFORD. 
 
 as 
 
 both by Jervas ; and the head of Mary ^ 
 Scots, in a charger, painted by Amias Canrood 
 the day after the decapitation at Fothermgay, and 
 sent some years ago as a present to Sir Walter 
 from a Prussian nobleman, in whose i mly 
 it had 
 
 greai JLVAUUUU^, i.vi "-;B ~-~ f nl j nava ii e r mentioned in one of the epistles 
 
 Henry worked on the hilt ; the hunting bottle of old ^cava her mem ^ ^ 
 
 bonnie King Jamie; Buonapartes pistols (found Ma ^ J^, the First | nd who here 
 
 in his carriage at Waterloo, I believe) cum ^^'ordingly, with a most venerable ap- 
 
 nndti, alii*. I should have mentioned that stag- appears J^^ even JT 
 
 horns and bull's horns (the petnfied relics of the jendag ot sUver w ^ ^ fe ^ 
 
 old mountain monster, I mean), and so forth, are his girdle . ims . 5 
 
 ^^^^^S^lSSr &c, I should have taken it for a likeness of Sir 
 
 ways of these armories ; and that in one<.orner c., common 
 
 , 
 
 which Cardinal Carstairs did not flinch, and the 
 more terrific iron crown of Wisheart the Martyr, 
 being a sort of barred head-piece, screwed on the 
 victim at the stake, to prevent him from crying 
 aloud in his agony. In short, there can be no 
 doubt that, like Grose of merry memory, the 
 mighty Minstrel 
 
 Has a fourth o* auld nick-nackets, 
 
 Rusty aim caps and jiiiglin' jackets, 
 Wad baud the Lothians three in tackets, 
 A towmnont' guid. 
 
 These relics of other, and for the most part 
 darker, years, are disposed, however with so 
 much grace and elegance, that I doubt if Mr. 
 Hope himself would find any thing to quarrel 
 with in the beautiful apartments which contain 
 them. The smaller of these opens to the 
 drawing room on one side and the dining room 
 on the other, and is fitted up with low divans 
 rather than sofas ; so as to make, I doubt not, a 
 most agreeable sitting room when the apartments 
 are occupied, as for my sins I found them not. 
 In the hall, when the weather is hot, the baronet 
 is accustomed to dine ; and a gallant refectory 
 no question it must make. A ponderous chan- 
 delier of painted glass swings from the roof; and 
 the chimneypiece (the design copied from the 
 stonework of the Abbot's Stall at Melrose) would 
 hold rafters enough for a Christmas fire of the 
 good old time. Were the company suitably 
 attired, a dinner party here would look like a 
 scene in the Mysteries of Udolpho. 
 
 ' Beyond the smaller, or rather, I should say, 
 the narrower armory, lies the dining parlour 
 proper, however ; and, though there is nothing 
 Udolphoish here, yet I can well believe that, 
 when lighted up and the curtains drawn at night, 
 the place may give no bad notion of the private 
 snuggery of some lofty lord abbot of the time of 
 the Canterbury Tales. The room is a very hand- 
 some one, with a low and very richly carved roof 
 of dark oak again ; a hugh projecting bow win- 
 dow, and the dais elevated more majorum ; the 
 ornaments of the roof, niches for lamps, &c.&c., 
 in short, all the minor details, are, I believe, fac 
 similes after Melrose. The walls are hung in 
 crimson, but almost entirely covered with pic- 
 tures, of which the most remarkable are the 
 parliamentary general, Lord Essex, a full length 
 on horseback ; the Duke of Monmouth, by Lely ; 
 a capital Hogarth, by himself; Prior and Gay, 
 
 try's bust.' There is also a very splendid full 
 length of Lucy Waters, mother of the Duke of 
 Monmouth ; and an oval, capitally painted, of 
 Anne Duchess of Buccleugh, the same who, 
 In pri'de of youth, in beauty's bloom, 
 Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb. 
 
 All the furniture of this room is massy Gothic 
 oak ; and, as I said before, when it is fairly lit 
 up, and plate and glass set forth, it must needs 
 have a richly and luxuriously antique aspect. Be- 
 yond and alongside are narrowish passages,which 
 make one fancy one's self in the penetralia of 
 some dim old monastery ; for roofs and walls and 
 windows (square, round, and oval alike), are 
 sculptured in stone, after the richest relics of 
 Melrose and Roslin Chapel. One of these leads 
 to a charming breakfast room, which looks to the 
 Tweed on one side, and towards Yarrow and 
 Ettricke, famed in song, on the other : a cheerful 
 room fitted up with novels, romances, and poetry, 
 I could perceive, at one end; and the other walls 
 covered thick and thicker with a most valuable 
 and beautiful collection of water-color drawings, 
 chiefly by Turner, and Thompson of Dudding- 
 stone : the designs, in short, for the magnificent 
 work entitled ' Provincial Antiquities of Scot- 
 land.' There is one very grand oil-painting over 
 the chimneypiece, Fastcastle, by Thompson, 
 alias the Wolfs Crag of the Bride of Lammer- 
 moor, one of the most majestic and melancholy 
 sea pieces I ever saw ; and some large black and 
 white drawings of the Vision of Don Roderick, by 
 Sir James Steuart of Allenbank (whose illustra- 
 tion of Marmion and Mazeppa you have seen or 
 heard of), are at one end of the parlour. The room 
 is crammed with queer cabinets and boxes, and 
 in a niche there is a bust of old Henry Mackenzie, 
 by Joseph of Edinburgh. Returning towards 
 the armory, you have, on one side of a most re- 
 ligious looking corridor, a small greenhouse with 
 a fountain playing before it the very fountain 
 that in days of yore graced the cross of Edin- 
 burgh, and used to flow with claret at the coro- 
 nation of the Stuarts a pretty design, and a 
 standing monument of the barbarity of modern 
 innovation. From the small armory you pass, as 
 I said before, into the drawing room, a large, 
 lofty, and splendid salon, with antique ebony 
 furniture and crimson silk hangings, cabinets, 
 china, and ihirrors quantum suff., and some por- 
 traits ; among the rest the glorious John Dryden,
 
 A B B O T S F R D. 
 
 by Sir Feter Lely, with his gray hairs floating 
 about in a most picturesque style, eyes full of 
 vvildness, presenting the old bard, I take it, in 
 one of those ' tremulous moods' in which we 
 have it on record he appeared when interrupted 
 in the midst of his Alexander's Feast. From 
 this you pass into the largest of all the apart- 
 ments, the library, which. I must say, is really a 
 noble room. It is an oblong of some fifty feet 
 by thirty, with a projection in the centre, oppo- 
 site the fire-place, terminating in a grand bow 
 window, fitted up with books also, and. in fact, 
 constituted a sort of chapel to the church. The 
 roof is of carved oak again a very rich pattern, 
 I believe chifly a la Roslin, and the book- 
 cases, which are also of richly carved oak, reach 
 high up the walls al-1 round. The collection 
 amounts, in this room, to some fifteen or twenty 
 thousand volumes, arranged according to their 
 subjects ; British history and antiquities filling 
 the whole of the chief wall. English poetry and 
 drama, classics and miscellanies, one end, fo- 
 reign literature, chiefly French and German, the 
 other The cases on the side opposite the fire 
 are wired, and locked, as containing articles very 
 precious and very portable. One consists en- 
 tirely of books and MSS. relating to the insur- 
 rections of 1715 and 1745; and another (within 
 .the recess of the bow window) of treatises de re 
 niaica, both of these being (I am told, and can 
 well believe), in their several ways, collections 
 of the rarest curiosity. My cicerone pointed out, 
 in one corner, a magnificent set of Montfaucon, 
 ten volumes folio, bound in the richest manner 
 in scarlet, and stamped with the royal arms, the 
 gift of his present Majesty. There are few living 
 authors of whose works presentation copies are 
 not to be found here. My friend showed me in- 
 scriptions of that sort in, I believe, every Euro- 
 pean dialect extant. The books are all in prime 
 condition, and bindings that would satisfy Mr. 
 Dibdin. The only picture is Sir Walter's eldest 
 son is hussar uniform, and holding his horse, by 
 Allen of Edinburgh, a noble portrait, over the 
 fire place ; and the only bust is that of Shakspeare, 
 from the Avon monument, in a small niche in 
 the centre of the east side. On a rich stand of 
 porphyry, in one corner, reposes a tall silver urn 
 filled with bones from the Pii;eus, and bearing 
 the inscription, ' Given by George Gordon, Lord 
 Byron, to Sir Walter Scott, Bart.' It contained 
 the letter which accompanied the gift till lately : 
 it has disappeared ; no one guesses who took it, 
 but whoever he was, as my guide observed, he 
 must have been a thief for thieving's sake truly, as 
 he durst no more exhibit his autograph than tip 
 himself with a bare bodkin. Sad, infamous tourist 
 indeed ! Although I saw abundance of comfort- 
 able looking desks and arm chairs, yet this 
 room seemed rather too large and fine for work, 
 and I found accordingly, after passing a double 
 pair of doors, that there was a sanctum within and 
 beyond this library. And here you may believe 
 was not to me the least interesting, though by no 
 means the most splendid, part of the suit. 
 
 ' The lion's own den proper, then, is a room of 
 about five-and-twenty feet square by twenty feet 
 high, containing of what is properly called furni- 
 ture nothing but a small writing table in the 
 centre, a plain arm chair covered with black lea- 
 
 ther a very comfortable one though, for I trif <( 
 it and a single chair besides, plain symptoms 
 that this is no place for company. On either 
 side of the fire-place there are shelves filled with 
 duodecimos, and books of reference, chiefly, of 
 course, folios ; but except these there are no- 
 books rave the contents of a light gallery which 
 runs round three sides of the room, and is reached 
 by a hanging stair of carved oak in one corner. 
 You have been both at the Elisee Bourbon and 
 Malmaison, and remember the library at one or 
 other of those places, 1 forget which ; this gallery 
 is much in the same style. There are only two 
 portraits, an original of the beautiful and melan- 
 choly head of Claverhouse, and a small full length 
 of Rob Roy. Various little antique cabinets 
 stand round about, each having a bust on it : 
 Stothard's Canterbury Pilgrims are on the man- 
 telpiece ; and in one corner I saw a collection of 
 really useful weapons, those of the forest-craft, 
 to wit axes and bills and so forth of every cali- 
 bre. There is only one window pierced in a 
 very thick wall, so that the place is rather som- 
 bre ; the light tracery work of the gallery over- 
 head harmonises with the books well. It is 
 a very comfortable looking room, and very un- 
 like any other I ever was in. I should not forget 
 some Highland claymores, clustered round a 
 target over the Canterbury people, nor a writing 
 box of carved wood, lined with crimson velvet, 
 and furnished with silver plate of right venerable 
 aspect, which looked as if it might have been 
 the implement of old Chaucer himself, but which 
 from the arms on the lid much have belonged to 
 some Italian prince of the days of Leo the Mag- 
 nificent at the farthest. 
 
 In one corner of this sanctum there is a little 
 holy of holies, in the shape of a closet, which 
 looks like the oratory of some dame of old ro- 
 mance, and opens into the gardens ; and the 
 tower, which furnishes this below, forms above a 
 private staircase, accessible from the gallery and 
 leading to the upper regions. Thither also I pe- 
 netrated, but I suppose you will take the bed 
 rooms and dressing rooms for granted. 
 
 The view to the Tweed from all the principal 
 apartments is beautiful. You look out from 
 among bowers, over a lawn of sweet turf, upon 
 the clearest of all streams, fringed with the 
 wildest of birch woods, and backed with the 
 green hills of Ettricke Forest, The rest you 
 must imagine. Altogether, the place destined to 
 receive so many pilgrimages contains within 
 itself beauties not unworthy of its associations. 
 Few poets ever inhabited such a place ; none, 
 ere now, ever created one. It is the realization 
 of dreams. See SCOTT- 
 
 ABBOTS-LANGLEY, a village in Herts, four 
 miles from St. Alban's (and formerly belonging 
 to the abbey there), famous for being the birth- 
 place of the Pope Adrian IV. 
 
 ABBOTT (Charles), lord Tenterden. This 
 learned and amiable judge was born on the 7th 
 of October, 1762, in the ancient city of Canter- 
 bury, where he also received the elements of his 
 education at the free grammar school in that 
 place. Having continued at school beyond the 
 usual period of youthfyl studies, he was entered 
 of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he 
 evinced the same vigor and perseverence in the
 
 20 
 
 acquisition of knowledge that had induced him 
 to outstay the customary period at Canterbury 
 echool. In the year 1784 he obtained the 
 chancellor's prize for his poem entitled 
 Aerostaticus," and a second prize in 1786 for an 
 essay on "the Use and Abuse of Satire. 
 Having enjoyed one of the foundation scholar- 
 ships, he became a 'fellow and tutor, and, in the 
 discharge of the duties of the latter occupation, 
 formed an acquaintance with the family of Mr. 
 Justice Buller, a circumstance that led him sub- 
 sequently to select and pursue the legal pro- 
 fession, and to which, therefore, he is in some 
 degree indebted for the fame and fortune he 
 ultimately reached, and his country for the 
 benefit of his great and well-remembered services. 
 Having entered the Inner Temple, Mr. Abbot 
 gave himself up to the study of the law with the 
 same intenseness of devotion that characterised 
 his progress both at school and college; and 
 succeeded, ultimately, in acquiring those vast 
 stores of legal information which he afterwards 
 displayed both as counsel and as judge. In 
 1796 he was called to the bar, and having joined 
 the Oxford circuit, advanced almost immediately 
 into respectable practice, and acquired an early 
 popularity. Before he was elevated to the 
 bench, his practice was unusually extensive ; it 
 is asserted that his fees exceeded 10,000 per 
 annum. Mr. Abbot's merit was of an order so 
 conspicuous, that, upon the death of his friend 
 and patron, Sir Francis Buller, he was instantly 
 adopted into the friendship of lord Ellenborough, 
 to whom he was mainly indebted for his pro- 
 motion to a puisne-judgeship, in the Court of 
 Common Pleas, in the Michaelmas term of 1816, 
 upon the decease of Mr. Justice Heath. The 
 following Easter, on the death of Sir Simon Le 
 Blanc, Mr. Abbot was appointed his successor in 
 the Court of King's Bench, and received on the 
 occasion the honor of knighthood. He was then 
 happily and proudly seated at the side of his 
 great patron ; and, upon the retirement of that 
 learned judge, in November, 1818, was himself 
 appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Court of 
 King's Bench. Here he displayed, in a forcible 
 manner, the difference of those qualities that 
 constitute the advocate and the judge : as the 
 former he was always unable to distinguish him- 
 self ; in the latter capacity he has seldom been 
 excelled, either in the despatch of business, or 
 correctness of his rulings. His own pithy and 
 affectionate observation on the character of his 
 departed friend, lord Ellenborough, is with great 
 justice applied to himself, "that the wonder is, 
 not that he was sometimes wrong, but that he 
 was so often right." On the 30th of April, 
 1 827, he was raised to the peerage by the title of 
 baron Tenterden, of Hendon, in the county of 
 Middlesex, and during his career as legislator, 
 was not undistinguished. Never having sat in 
 the commons, his political bias was unknown 
 when introduced into the upper house, where, 
 without any tinge of partizanship, he usually ap- 
 peared upon the ministerial side, or rather was a 
 great respecter of existing authorities. Besides 
 many important bills brought into the house by 
 his lordship, he published " A Treatise on the 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS. 
 
 Law relating to Merchant-ships and Seamen," a 
 work of high authority, and which has passed 
 through several editions. His lordship's last ap- 
 pearance on the judgment-seat was on Friday, 
 the 26th of October, 1832, being the second day 
 of the trial of the mayor and magistrates of 
 Bristol. On this public occasion, although his 
 faculties seemed as sound and healthy as ever, 
 his frame was obviously weak and incapable of 
 farther effort. Upon returning from the bench, 
 he became alarmingly ill, and after a short illness, 
 expired on the morning of Sunday, November 
 4th, 1832, in the 70th year of his age. His 
 lordship married the daughter of J. S. Lamotte, 
 Esq., by whom he left issue two sons and two 
 daughters. He is succeeded in his titles and 
 estates by his eldest son, John Henry, a barrister 
 at law. 
 
 ABBREVIATE, v. n.^ Ital. Abbremare, 
 ABBREVIATION, n. s. (from Lat. brevis, ad. 
 ABBRE'VIATOR, i breve agere, which is 
 
 ABBRE'VIATURE. J from tlie Gr. ppa%oo. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon, braecan, to break. To make short, 
 to shorten by contraction or cutting off, retain- 
 ing the substance of the original ; to make an 
 epitome, or compendium ; to abridge ; curtail. 
 The derivatives correspond. 
 
 ABBREVIATE, or ADJUDICATIONS, in Jscots law, 
 an abstract or abridgment of a decree of adju- 
 dication, which is recorded in a register kept for 
 that purpose. 
 
 ABBREVIATIOK, in archaiology, is a short 
 method of expressing words by initials, or other 
 letters. Ancient MSS.,and early-printed Greek 
 books, are frequently identified and classed ac- 
 cording to the mode of the abbreviations that 
 abound in them. These are sometimes made by 
 putting the first and last, and sometimes the 
 middle letter of a word, tfnder a line; thus 0C, 
 KG, IC,_XC, Y2",_2HP, IRA, ISHA, HNA, 11HP, 
 MHP, OYNOS, ~ANOS, IAHM, AAA, signify re- 
 spectively, Otoc, God ; Kt/pwe, Lord ; IJJITOVC, 
 Jesus ; XptTog, Christ ; Yw>e, a Son ; 2wrjp, 
 a Saviour ; Irpajj\, Israel ; Trvtvpa, spirit ; 
 Trarijp, father, /ijrjp, mother ; ovpavos, heaven ; 
 av6>pw7roc, man ; ItpovffaXrjp, Jerusalem ; Aav5, 
 David. But, of all people, the Jewish Rabbins 
 are the most remarkable for this practice With- 
 out a key to their abbreviatures their writings 
 are unintelligible. They not only abbreviate 
 words like the Greeks and Latins, by retrench- 
 ing letters or syllables, but they often take away 
 all except the initials ; and, what is still worse, 
 they frequently join the initials of several words 
 together, and, adding vowels to them, make a 
 barbarous sort of a word representative of all 
 the words thus abridged. Thus Rabbi Schdemoh 
 Jarchi, in the Jargon of Hebrew abbreviatures, 
 is called Rasi, and Rabbi Moses Ben Malemon 
 is Rambam. Mercerus, David de Pomis, Schind- 
 ler, Buxtorf, &c. have given explanations of the 
 Hebrew abbreviatures. We subjoin the most 
 useful abbreviations commonly found in English 
 writings : 
 A. B. or B. A., Artium Baccalaureus, Bachelor 
 
 of Arts. 
 A. C., Ante Christum, Before Christ.
 
 ABB 
 
 A. D., Anno Domini, In the year of our Lord. 
 A. M., Ante meridiem, Before noon, or Anno 
 mundi, In the year of the world. 
 
 A. U. C., Anno urbis condits, in the year of the 
 city, i. e. the building of Home. 
 
 Bart., Baronet. 
 
 B. C., Before Christ. 
 
 B. C. L., Bachelor of civil law. 
 
 B. D., Baccalaureus divinitatis, Bachelor of 
 
 divinity. 
 B. L., Baccalaureus legum, Bachelor of laws. 
 
 B. M., Baccalaureus medicinse, Bachelor of me- 
 dicine. 
 
 C. or Cent., Centum, A hundred. 
 C. B., Companion of the Bath. 
 
 C. P. S., Custos Privati Sigilli, Keeper of the 
 privy seal. 
 
 C. S., Custos Sigilli, Keeper of the seal. 
 
 D. D., Divinitatis Doctor, Doctor of divinity. 
 Dec., December. 
 
 D. F., Defensor fidei, Defender of the faith. 
 
 D. G., Dei gratia, By the grace of God. 
 
 Dr., Doctor. 
 
 D. T., Doctor Theologize, Doctor of divinity. 
 
 F., Fiat, Let it be done. 
 
 F. A. S., Frateraitatis Antiqvrorum Socius, Fel- 
 low of the Antiquarian Society. 
 
 Feb.. February. 
 
 F. L. S. Fraternitatis Linneanae Socius. 
 
 F. R. S. and A. S., Fraternitatis Regiae Socius et 
 Associatus, Fellow and Associate of the Royal 
 Society. 
 
 F. S. A., Fellow of the Society of Arts. 
 
 G. C. B., Knight of the Grand Cross of the 
 Bath. 
 
 Gent., Gentleman 
 
 G.'R., Georgius Rex, King George. 
 
 H. M. S., His Majesty's Ship. 
 
 Ib. or Ibid., Ibidem, In the same place. 
 
 I. e., Id est, That is. 
 
 J. H. S., Jesus Hominum Salvator, Jesus the 
 Saviour of men. 
 
 Incog., Incognito, Unknown, As a stranger. 
 
 Inst., Instant, Of this month. 
 
 Itin. Itinerary. 
 
 K. B., Knight of the Bath. 
 
 K. C. B., Knight Commander of the Bath. 
 
 K. P., Knight of St. Patrick. 
 
 Kt., Knight. 
 
 K. T., Knight of the Thistle. 
 
 L. or Lib., Libra, Pound, or Liber, Book. 
 
 Lieut. Lieutenant. 
 
 LL. D., Legum Doctor, Doctor of Laws. 
 
 L. S., Locus Sigilli, The Place of the Seals. 
 
 M. A., Artium Magister, Master of Arts. 
 
 M. B., Medicinze Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Phy- 
 sic, or Musicae Baccalaureus,Bachelor of Music. 
 
 M. D., Medicinae Doctor, Doctor of Physic. 
 
 Mem., Memento, Remember. 
 
 Messrs. Messieurs, Gentlemen. 
 
 M. P., Member of Parliament. 
 
 Mr., Mister. 
 
 Mrs., Mistress. 
 
 M. S., Manuscriptum, Manuscript. 
 
 MSS., Manuscripta, Manuscripts. 
 
 N. B., Nota bene, Observe, Take notice. 
 
 Nem. con., or Nem. diss., Nemine contradicente, 
 orNemine dissentiente, Unanimously. 
 
 Nov., November. 
 
 21 ABD 
 
 N. S., New Style. 
 
 Obt. Obedient. 
 
 Oct., October. 
 
 O. S., Old Style. 
 
 Oxon., Oxford. 
 
 Per. Cent., Per Centum, By the hundred. 
 
 P. M., Post meridiem, Afternoon. 
 
 Prob., Problem. 
 
 Prof., Professor. 
 
 P. S., Post scriptum, Postscript. 
 
 Q. D., Quasi dictum, As if it were said. 
 
 Q. E. D., Quod erat demonstrandem, Which. 
 
 was to be demonstrated. 
 Q. E. F., Quod erat faciendum, Which was to 
 
 be done. 
 
 Q. P. L., Quantum placet, As much as you please 
 Q. S., Quantum sufficit, A sufficient quantity. 
 Q. V., Quantum vis, As much as you wish. 
 R., Rex, King. 
 Reg. pref. Regius professor. 
 R. N., RoyalNavy. 
 Rt. Hon., Right Honorable. 
 Rt. Wpful., Right Worshipful. 
 Sept., September. 
 St., Saint or Street. 
 Viz., Videlicit, That is to say, Namely. 
 
 ABBROCHMENT, in law, the forestalling 
 a fair or market. 
 
 ABBUTALS, or ABUTTALS. See ABUTTAL. 
 
 ABB-WOOL, among clothiers, the wool of a 
 weaver's warp. 
 
 ABCAS. See ABASCIA. 
 
 ABCEDE, or ABSCEDE, from abcedo, in sur- 
 gery, to suppurate ; an abceded surface, being that 
 whose texture has been vitiated or separated by 
 the formation of pus or purulent matter. 
 
 ABCEDARY, or ABCF.DARIAN, an epithet 
 given to compositions whose parts are arranged 
 in the order of the alphabet, chiefly applied to 
 Hebrew writings. 
 
 ABDA a district of Morocco, on the west coast, 
 famous for its grain and for its breed of horses. 
 
 ABDALAVI, or AEDELAVI, in botany, an 
 Egyptian plant, very like a melon, except that 
 the fruit is more oblong, and acute at the ex- 
 tremities. 
 
 ABDALLA, the son of Abdalmothleb, the 
 father of the prophet Mahomet. This parent of 
 the prophet, though a slave, is clothed with such 
 personal attractions by the Arabian historians, 
 that after he had passed the age of 75 his hand 
 was solicited by the fairest and most virtuous 
 women of his tribe; and on the night of his 
 nuptials, we are told, 100 young females expired 
 with grief. 
 
 ABDALLATIF, or ABDOLLATIPH, an Arabian 
 physician and author, born at Bagdad, in the 
 year 1161. A hundred and fifty works have been 
 ascribed to this author : one only, an account of 
 Egypt, now remains. Dr. Pococke brought it 
 to Europe in MS., and deposited it in the 
 Bodleian library. Dr. White published it with 
 a Latin translation, in 1800, and a French 
 translation, by Silvestre de Sacy, appeared at 
 Paris, in 1810. Abdallatifs book on Egypt 
 supplies a valuable link between ancient and 
 modern history, giving us the only account ex- 
 tant of that country in the middle ages. 
 
 ABDALMALEK, the 5th khalif of the race of
 
 ABD 5 
 
 the Ommiades, called the skinner of a stone, be- 
 cause of his extreme avarice; as also Aboulzebah, 
 because his breath was said to be so poisonous 
 as to kill all the flies which rested on his face. 
 He surpassed all his predecessors in power and 
 dominion ; penetrating to India in the east, and 
 Spain in the west : he likewise made himself 
 master of Medina and Mecca. His reign began 
 in the 65th of the hegira, A. D. 685, and con- 
 tinued twenty-one years. 
 
 ABDALMELEK, (Ben Zohar,) an eminent 
 Spanish physician, of the l'2th century, called by 
 the Europeans AVENZOR, which see. 
 
 ABDALONYMUS, or ABDOLONYMUS, (in 
 classic history,) of the royal family of Sidon, and 
 descended from king Cyniras. Alexander the 
 Great having deposed Strato, inquired whether 
 any of the race of Cyniras was living, that he 
 might set him on the throne ; and found this 
 prince happy in his poverty : " I wish," said 
 Abdalonymus, " I may bear my new condition 
 as well ; these hands have supplied my necessi- 
 ties : I have had nothing, and I have wanted 
 nothing." This answer pleased Alexander so 
 much, that, besid es giving him all that was Strato's, 
 he augmented his dominions, and presented him 
 with a large portion of the Persian spoils. 
 
 ABDALS, in the eastern countries, fanatics, 
 supposed to be inspired to a degree of madness. 
 The word comes, perhaps, from the Arabic, Ab- 
 dullah, the servant of God. The Persians call 
 them devaneh khoda, q- d. furentes deo, raging 
 with the God. They have been known in India 
 to run about the streets, and kill all they meet of 
 a different religion. 
 
 ABDARA, or ABDEKA, in ancient geography, 
 a (own of Bcetica in Spain, a Phoenician colony ; 
 now called Adra, to the west of Almeria, in Gra- 
 nada, 
 
 ABDELAVI. See ABDALAVI. 
 
 ABDEHA, in ancient geography, a maritime 
 town of Thrace, near the mouth of the Nessus, on 
 the east. Timesius the Clazomenian attempted to 
 found it, but was forced to give it up by the 
 Thracians. The Teians, however, succeeded, and 
 settled in it to avoid the Persians. Pliny and 
 Justin report that the grass of Abdera was so 
 strong that such horses as ate of it ran mad. It 
 is famous for being the birth-place of Protagoius, 
 Democritus, Anaxarchus, Hecataeus the historian 
 ISicenaetus the poet, &c. Many accounts are 
 given of its unwholesome atmosphere, and of the 
 pride of its inhabitants. Hence the phrases, ab- 
 dentica men, and abderian laughter. 
 
 ABDERAHMA, a Saracen viceroy in Spain 
 who revolted and set up an independent princi- 
 pality at Cordova. He had several successors of 
 the same name. 
 
 ABDEST, a Persian word literally signifying 
 the water placed in a basin for washing the 
 hands, but used to express the purifications 
 practised by the Mahometans before they enter 
 on their religious ceremonies. 
 
 ABDEVENAM, in astrology, the head of the 
 12th house in the scheme of the heavens. 
 
 ABDI, n3N, Heb. i. e. my servant. The 
 lather of Kish, and grand-father of king Saul. 
 
 ABDICARIA proposito, in logic, a negative 
 proposition. 
 
 ABDICATIO, airoKtjpvZtG, a Grecian custom 
 of renouncing children, prohibited by the Roman 
 laws. Lucian. 
 
 AB'DlCATE,-\ Ab : dico, SIKTI, right, to go 
 
 ABDICA'TION, f from a right ; to go from, quit. 
 
 AB'DICATIVE. i or leave, put away from, or 
 
 ABDICAN'T. J deprive of that which has been 
 
 possessed by law and right. To resign, disclaim, 
 
 renounce, dispossess. 
 
 ABDITARIUM, O. L. A chest in which 
 relics were kept, or a place to hide goods, plate, 
 or money. 
 
 ABDOLLATIPH. See ABDALLATIF. 
 ABDOMEN, n.s. Lat. from abdo, to hide; 
 a cavity commonly called the lower venter, 01 
 belly : it contains the stomach, guts, liver, spleen, 
 and bladder, and is within lined with a mem- 
 brane, called the peritonaeum. SEE ANATOMY. 
 ABDOMINAL, adj. relating to the abdomen. 
 ABDOMINALES, in ichthyology, fish which 
 have the ventral fins placed behind the pectoral 
 in the abdomen, and constitute the order of the 
 fourth class of animals in the Linnsean System. 
 See ICHTHYOLOGY and ZOOLOGY. 
 
 ABDON, one of the Papuan isles, N. of 
 Wageoo, in N. Lat. 30', E. long- 131 15'. 
 ABDUCE', v. ^ Ab : duco, to lead from ; to 
 ABDUC'TION. J draw, bring or take away from; 
 to withdraw ; chiefly a scientific word applied in 
 physic and in logic; in the one, it signifies 
 flexion or extension of the muscles; in the 
 other, a particular kind of argument. Abduc- 
 tion is also used in law, and is the act of carrying 
 off a woman and marrying her against her will; 
 it refers also to the forcible taking away a wife 
 or child, and to common kidnapping. 
 
 ABDUCENS, labiorwn, in anatomy, a name 
 given by Spigellius to a muscle, which is the 
 levator unguli oris of Albinus, and the cuninus 
 elevator of others. 
 
 ABDUCENTES NERVI, that part of the sixth 
 pair of nerves, which is lost on the abductores 
 oculi. 
 
 ABDUCTION, in logic, by the Greeks called 
 apugogue, is an argument from the conclusion to 
 the demonstration of the proposition assumed. 
 
 ABDUCTION, in law, the forcible carrying 
 away of a person, as of an heiress, &c. To 
 enter a woman's house forcibly, carry off, and 
 marry her without her own consent, has in Scot- 
 land been punished with death. 
 
 ABDUCTION, in surgery, a species of fracture, 
 wherein the broken parts of the bone recede from 
 each other, after the manner of a stalk. 
 
 ABDUCTOR AURIS, called also posterior 
 auris, by Winslow, a muscle that pulls the ear 
 backwards. 
 
 ABDUCTOR AURICULARIS, or of the little fin- 
 ger, called by Winslow, hypothenar, arises from 
 the angular ligament, and the third and fourth 
 bones of the carpus in the second rank ; and is 
 inserted externally into the first bone of the little 
 finger : it serves to draw that finger from the 
 rest, and also to bend it a little. 
 
 ABDUCTORES FEMORIS. Anatomists reckon 
 four of these. Their use is to move the thigh 
 bone, according to their different directions. 
 
 ABDUCTOR INDICES, or of the fore-finger, 
 arises from the inside of the bone of the thumb,
 
 ABE 
 
 23 
 
 ABE 
 
 and is inserted into the first bone of the fore-finger, 
 which it draws from the rest towards the thumb. 
 
 ABDUCTOR MINIMI DIGITI MANUS. See AB- 
 DUCTOR AURICULARIS. 
 
 ABDUCTOR MINIMI DIGITI PEDIS, or of the 
 little toe, arises from the outside of the os calcis, 
 near the exterior bone of the metatarsus, and is 
 inserted laterally into the outside of the second 
 bone of that toe, whu-h it pulls from the rest. 
 
 ABDUCTOR OCULI, or of the eye, is one of the 
 four recti, or straight muscles, arising from the 
 bottom of the orbit, and spread over the first 
 proper tunic ; serving to draw the eye towards 
 the outer canthus. It is also called the scornful 
 muscle. 
 
 ABDUCTOR POLLICIS MANUS, called also The- 
 nar, springs from the annular ligament and first 
 bone of the carpus ; whence passing the thumb, 
 it makes that fleshy body called mons lunze : 
 it draws the thumb from the fingers. 
 
 ABDUCTOR POLLICIS PEDIS, or of the great 
 toe, springs from the inside of the os calcis, and 
 the greater os cuneiforme ; and is inserted into 
 the outside of the exterior os sesamoideum polli- 
 cis ; it serves to draw the great toe from the rest. 
 
 ABEAR', v. ( Applied to the behaviour or 
 
 ABEAR'IXG. S conduct The word abearance, 
 instead of abearyng, is used by modern writers in 
 English law. See BEAR. 
 
 Upon assurance takyn of the said Hunyldus, that 
 there after he shulde be of good abearynge to warde 
 the king, he clerely forgaue vnto hym all his former 
 offence. Fabyan, repr. 1811, p. 141. 
 
 So did the Faery Knight himself abeare, 
 
 And stouped oft, his head from shame to shield. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene. 
 
 The other species of recognizance with sureties is 
 for the good abearance, or good behaviour. 
 
 Blackftone's Commentaries. 
 
 Not to be "released, till they found sureties for 
 their good abearing. 
 
 Lord Herbert 's Hist, of Hen. VIII. p. 381. 
 
 ABED', adv. On bed. See BED. 
 Some radde, that hir ssoide wende in at on hepe, 
 To habbe inome horn vnarmed, and somme abedde 
 aslepe. R. Gloucester, p. 547. 
 
 Hir kyrtells, and hir mantell eke, 
 Abrode vpon his bedde he spredde, 
 And thus thei slepen both abedde. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. b. v. 
 
 ABEDNEGO, the name given by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar to one of the three captive Jewish chil- 
 dren, who were miraculously delivered from the 
 fiery furnace. Dan. iii. . 
 
 ABEILLE (Gasper), an eminent wit of the 
 sixteenth century, was born at Reiz in 1648, and 
 died at Paris in 1718. He wrote several dra- 
 matic pieces, but his genius was not equal to 
 the wit of his conversation, which appears 
 to have been singularly aided by an unseemly 
 wrinkled countenance, susceptible of the most 
 ludicrous expression. 
 
 ABEILLE (L. P.), a writer on agriculture and 
 natural history, inspector general of the manu- 
 factures of France, and secretary to the council 
 of trades before the revolution ; born at Tou- 
 louse, 1719; died at Paris 1807. 
 
 ABEL, San, Heb. Vanity, the second son of 
 Adam and Eve, who was a shepherd, and was 
 
 killed by his brother Cain, from envy of the 
 superior mark of divine favor bestowed on. 
 him. Though he was the first martyr, his 
 name is not to be found iu any catalogue of 
 saints or martyrs, cither in the Greek or Roman 
 church, earlier than the tenth century. Several 
 Roman litanies however contain prayers to him 
 for persons at the point of death. 
 
 ABEL (Charles Frenerick), an eminent mu- 
 sician and composer, was by birth a German. 
 He came to England in 1759, and was soon ap- 
 pointed chamber-musician to the queen. He 
 died at London in 1787. Burney, in his history 
 of music, says, ' The knowledge Abel had ad- 
 quired in Germany, in every part of musical 
 science, rendered him the umpire in all difficult 
 points. His concertos and other peices were 
 very popular, and frequently played on public 
 occasions.' He excelled on the viol di Gamba. 
 ABEL (Clarke), M. D., is well known as the 
 historian of Lord Amherst's embassy to China, 
 which he accompanied as chief medical officer 
 and naturalist. Although at the most interesting 
 period of that expedition he was disabled, by a 
 most serious attack of sickness, from following 
 up his observations with the closeness and re- 
 gularity he had anticipated, his Narrative suf- 
 ficiently testifies his masculine understanding, 
 his various yet sound knowledge, his high talents, 
 and benevolent bent of mind. Indeed, had 
 Dr. Abel never written any thing besides his 
 Essay on the Geology of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 contained in the work alluded to, he would have 
 sufficiently proved his claim to the title of a 
 deep and philosophical thinker, and of an acute 
 observer of the mysteries of nature. He died 
 December 12th, 1826. 
 
 ABELA (J. F.), commander of the Order of 
 Malta, born 1622, was the author of Malta 
 Illustrata, an able work on the topography and 
 history of the island. 
 
 ABELARD (Peter), a famous doctor of the 
 twelfth century, born at Palais in Britany. He 
 was eminent for his acuteness in logic, of which 
 he gave proofs wherever he travelled, by disput- 
 ing with and baffling all who would enter the 
 lists with him. He read lectures with great ap- 
 plause at Paris, where he lodged with one Ful- 
 bert, a canon, who had a beautiful neice, called 
 Eloise. Abelard was appointed her preceptor ; 
 but seduced her instead of teaching her the 
 sciences, and, Eloise proving with child, he sent 
 her to a sister of h ; s in Britany, where she was 
 delivered of a son. To soften the canon's anger, 
 he offered to marry Eloise privately ; and the old 
 man was better pleased with the proposal than 
 the neice, who, from a singular excess of passion, 
 chose to be Abelard's mistress rather than his 
 wife. She married, however ; but used often to 
 protest upon oath that she was single, which 
 provoked the canon to use her ill. Upon this, 
 Abelard sent her to the monastery of Argenteuil; 
 where she put on a religious habit, but did not 
 take the veil. Eloise's relations, considering this 
 as a second treachery, hired ruffians, who, forcing 
 into his chamber in the dead of night, emascu- 
 lated him. This infamous treatment made him 
 fly to the gloom of a cloister. He assumed the
 
 ABE 
 
 24 
 
 ABE 
 
 habit of St. Dennis : but the disorders of the 
 iionse soon drove him from thence. He was 
 afterwards charged with heresy ; and having en- 
 dured several persecutions for his religious senti- 
 ments, he settled in a solitude in the diocese of 
 Troies, where he built an oratory, to which he 
 gave the name of the Paraclete. He was after- 
 wards chosen superior of the abbey of Iluis, in 
 the diocese of Vannes ; when the nuns being ex- 
 pelled from the nunnery in which Eloise had 
 been placed, he gave her his oratory ; where she 
 settled with some of her sister nuns, and became 
 their prioress. Abelard mixed the philosophy 
 of Aristotle with his divinity, and in 1140 was 
 condemned by the council of Rheims and Sens. 
 Pope Innocent II. ordered him to be imprisoned, 
 his books to be burnt, and forbade him ever teach- 
 ing again. However, he was soon after par- 
 doned, at the solicitation of Peter the Venerable, 
 who received him into his abbey of Cluni, 
 where he led an exemplary life. He died in 
 the priory of St. Marcel, at Chalons, April 21, 
 1142, aged 63. His corpse was sent to Eloise, 
 who buried it in the Paraclete. He left seve- 
 ral works; the most celebrated of which are 
 the letters that passed between him and Eloise, 
 with the account of their misfortunes prefixed ; 
 which have been translated into English, and 
 immortalised by the harmony of Mr. Pope's 
 numbers. 
 
 ABEL-BETHMAACAH, or ABEL-MAIM, a 
 city of Judea, south of Mount Lebanon. Tig- 
 lathpileser, king of Assyria, took it, and carried 
 the inhabitants captive. It was afterwards rebuilt, 
 and became the capital of Abilene in Syria. 
 
 ABELIANS, or ABELINS, in church history, 
 a sect of heretics mentioned by St. Austin, who 
 pretended to regulate marriage after the example 
 of Abel ; allowing each man to marry one wo- 
 man, but enjoined them to live in continence. 
 
 ABELIN, a large hamlet in Palestine, con- 
 taining a castle of the same name, eight miles 
 from Acre. Some have conjectured that the 
 ruins in the vicinity are those of the ancient 
 Zabulon. 
 
 ABELL, (John,) an English musician, and 
 celebrated singer of the 17th century, who 
 quitted this country, at the revolution, for his 
 attachment to popery. Being at Warsaw, he 
 was summoned to court to display his talents, 
 but refused to go : the king then sent for him 
 peremptorily ; and on Abell's appearance, he 
 was drawn up in a chair to the top of a spacious 
 hall, at one end of which sat the king and his 
 nobles in a gallery. Some wild bears were now 
 turned into the apartment, and Abell was called 
 upon to sing or be let down amongst them, lie 
 preferred, of course, the former, and said that he 
 never made a better use of his voice. In 1701, 
 he published a collection of songs in several 
 languages. 
 
 ABELLA, an ancient town of Campanin, 
 near the river Clanis, now called AVELLA. Its 
 nuts, called avellanae, were very famous, as also 
 its apples. 
 
 ABEL-MIZRAIM, a place between Jordan 
 and Jericho; supposed to have been near Hebron, 
 where the Egyptians celebrated Jacob's funeral. 
 It was also called the threshing floor of Atad. 
 
 ABEL-MOSCH, or ABEl>MpsCH, in botany, 
 a species of the HIBISCHUS, which see. 
 
 ABELOITES, or ABELONIANS. See ABE- 
 LIANS. 
 
 ABEN-EZRA, (Abraham,) a celebrated rsbt*, 
 born at Toledo, in 1099. He was much admired 
 for his learning, being not only skilled in philo- 
 sophy, astronomy, medicine, and poetry, but a 
 complete master of the Arabic. He was styled 
 by his brethren, the wise and admirable Doc- 
 tor. His principal works are, Commentaries on 
 the Old Testament, which are printed in Bom- 
 berg's and Buxtorf 's Hebrew Bibles, and Jesud 
 Mora, a work (now very scarce,) intended to 
 recommend the study of the Talmud. His style 
 is elegant and concise. He died in 1 1 74, aged 75. 
 
 ABENRADE, or APENRADE, a jurisdiction, 
 and town of Denmark in Sleswick. It is seated 
 on a spacious open bay, in the Baltic, surrounded 
 on three sides by high mountains. Just without 
 the town stands the castle of Brunbend. Lon. 
 9 24', E. Lat. 55 6', N. 
 
 ABENS, or ABENTZ, a river of Upper Bava- 
 ria, joining the Danube 4 mi. below Abensberg. 
 
 ABENSBERG, or ABENSPURG, a district and 
 town of Bavaria, circle of Regen, seated on the 
 Abens, near the Danube, S. W. of Ratisbon. 
 Lon. 11 15', E. Lat. 48 46', N. 
 
 ABER, an old British or Welsh word, signify 
 ing the fall of a lesser water into a greater, as o( 
 a brook into a river, or of a river into the sea : 
 also, the mouth of the river. In both these 
 senses, it makes part of the names of many 
 towns in Britain. See the following articles. 
 
 ABERAVON, a borough town of Glamor- 
 ganshire, governed by a port-reeve, seated on 
 the mouth of the Avon, 19 miles W. of Cow- 
 bridge, and 195 W. from London. The iron 
 and copper works contiguous, have given it 
 some importance. The delightful seat of Lord 
 Vernon stands in the neighbourhood. 
 
 ABERBROTHOCK, or ARBROATH, a small 
 neat town, on the E. coast of Scotland, in the 
 county of Angus, 15 miles N. E. of St. Andrew's, 
 and 56 N. N. E. from Edinburgh. It is situated 
 on the mouth of the small river Brothock, is a 
 royal burgh, and is well built and nourishing. 
 The number of its inhabitants has greatly increased 
 within these last 40 years, and they are now esti- 
 mated at upwards of 9000. Their chief manu- 
 factures are brown linens or Osnaburghs, sail- 
 cloths, and white and brown thread. The 
 foreign imports are flax, flax-seed, and timber 
 from the Baltic. The coasting trade consists of 
 coals from Borrowstounness, and lime from Fife. 
 At this place, in default of a natural harbour, an 
 artificial one of piers has been formed, where, at. 
 spring-tides, which rise here 15 feet, ships of 
 two hundred tons can come, and of 80 at neap 
 tides ; but they must lie dry at low water. The 
 port is of great antiquity : there is an agreement 
 yet extant, between the abbot and the burghers 
 of Aberbrothock, in 1194, concerning the making 
 of the harbour. Both parties were bound to 
 contribute their proportions ; but the largest fell 
 to the share of the former, for which he was to 
 receive an annual tax payable out of every rood 
 of land lying within the borough. The glory of 
 the town was the abbey, whose very ruins give
 
 ABE 
 
 25 
 
 ABE 
 
 some idea of its former magnificence. It was 
 founded by William the Lion in 1178, and dedi- 
 cated to Thomas a Becket. The founder was 
 buried here. 
 
 ABERCONVVAY, or CONWAY, an ancient 
 borough and market-town in the county of Caer- 
 narvon, 223 miles north-west of London, situated 
 upon the western bank of the river Conway, 
 which is here crossed by a chain suspension 
 bridge, erected after the designs of Mr. Telford. 
 The town is enclosed by the ancient fortifica- 
 tions, erected by Edward I., the founder of the 
 noble castle which overlooks them. It is one 
 of three stately palaces, reared by that monarch 
 upon the final extinction of independence in 
 Wales. The town consists of a few irregular 
 streets, with one broad avenue forming part of 
 the new line carried round the base of Penmaen- 
 mawr. Here is one of the ancient houses called 
 the Plas Mawr, a venerable Church, meeting- 
 houses of Dissenters, and two spacious inns. 
 Ship-building occupies the greater portion of the 
 inhabitants, and the mouth of the river affords a 
 safe asylum for vessels navigating the Conway 
 river up to Trefriw, as well a shipping place for 
 the produce of Llandudno mines. 
 
 ABE11CORN, the ABERCURRING of Bede, a 
 romantic little town of Scotland, in Linlithgow, 
 on the Frith of Forth, 12 miles W. of Edinburgh. 
 Antoninus's Roman wall commenced here. The 
 Earl of Hopetoun has a magnificent seat at a 
 small distance. 
 
 ABERCROMBY, (Sir Ralph,) K. B. the son 
 of George A. Esq. of Tullibody, Clackmannan- 
 shire, was born in 1738. In 1756 he became a 
 cornet of the 3d Dragoon Guards. In 1781 he 
 was colonel of the 103d, or King's Irish Infantry; 
 and in 1783 went on half-pay. In 1787 he 
 obtained the command of the 7th Dragoons; 
 and acquired great experience in his profession 
 in the seven years war, and in the war of the 
 American revolution. That of the French re- 
 volution furnished him with an opportunity of 
 eminently displaying his talents and experience. 
 Iii two campaigns on the continent he gave dis- 
 tinguished proofs of his skill and intrepidity ; 
 and though the last, in the end of 1794, 
 was singularly disastrous, his character both 
 abroad and at home was in the highest es- 
 timation. In the autumn of 1795, he received 
 the Order of the Bath, and succeeded Sir Charles 
 Gray in the West Indies. In this command he 
 was eminently successful, having carried every 
 island and port which he attempted. Early in 
 
 1797 he took the Spanish island of Trinidad, 
 and returned soon after to England. In No- 
 vember the same year he went commander-in- 
 ch ief to Ireland ; but this situation he held not 
 fong, the civil and military command being 
 united in the person of Marquis Cornwallis. In 
 
 1798 he was made commander of the forces in 
 Scotland; and in the autumn of 1799 was em- 
 ployed under the Duke of York in the unfortu- 
 nate expedition to Holland. No failure ever pro- 
 duced a stronger sensation in the public mind 
 
 han this ; but Sir R. Abercromby was always 
 mentioned with respect, and with an undisguised 
 confidence, that he nobly performed his duty. 
 At the close of 1800, he took the command 
 
 of the army destined to deliver Egypt from 
 the French. He landed his troops 8th of 
 March, 1801, in Aboukir bay, facing the French 
 army. On the 13th he fought the battle of Alex- 
 andria, and was nearly made prisoner by the 
 French, through a defect in his sight. The 21st 
 was marked by a more decisive and general en- 
 gagement, when after an obstinate struggle, the 
 enemy retreated. Sir Ralph was wounded and 
 unhorsed in one of the first charges, but wrested 
 the sabre from his antagonist, and gave it to Sir 
 Sidney Smith. He afterwards received a musket 
 ball in the thigh, which proved a mortal wound, 
 notwithstanding which, he would not suffer 
 himself to be removed from the field until the 
 victory was declared to be his. He died on 
 board the Admiral's ship in the bay a week 
 afterwards, and was interred at Malta. On the 
 account of the victory reaching England, Lady 
 Abercromby was immediately raised to the peer- 
 age, with reservation to the sons of the deceased 
 general ; and a noble monument was erected to 
 his memory soon after in St. Paul's. 
 
 ABERDEEN, or ABERDEN, a principal city 
 in the north of Scotland, which comprehends 
 two towns under that denomination, viz. OLD 
 and NEW ABERDEEN. The Old Town is a place 
 of great antiquity, and was of some importance 
 so long ago as 893, when, tradition says, king 
 Gregory conferred upon it some particular privi- 
 leges. A bishopric, founded at Mortlicn by 
 Malcolm II. was translated to Aberdeen by 
 David I, and in 1163, Malcolm IV. granted a 
 new charter to the bishop of Aberdeen : there is 
 still extant a charter of Alexander II, dated 
 1217, granting to Aberdeen the same privileges 
 he had granted to his town of Perth. Both 
 towns are situated on the coast of the German 
 Ocean; 127 miles N. E. from Edinburgh. Lon. 
 1 50', W. Lat. 57 6', N. 
 
 Old Aberdeen lies about a mile N. from the 
 new town, at the mouth of the Don, over which 
 is a fine Gothic bridge, of a single arch, greatly 
 admired, which rests on both sides on two rocks. 
 This arch, said to have been built by a bishop of 
 Aberdeen, about the year 1 290, is 67 feet wide at 
 the bottom, and 34J feet high above the surface of 
 the river, which at ebb-tide here is 19 feet deep. 
 The old town was formerly the seat of the 
 bishop, and had a large cathedral commonlj 
 called St. Mocker's. Two very antique spires 
 and one aisle, which is used as a church, are now 
 the only remains of it. The cathedral had an- 
 ciently two rows of stone pillars across the 
 church, and three turrets, the steeple which was 
 the largest of these turrets, rested upon an arch, 
 supported by four pillars. In this cathedral 
 there was a fine library ; but, about the year 
 1560, it was almost totally destroyed. On the 
 south side of the town, is the King's college, 
 which is a large and stately fabric. It is built 
 round a square, with cloisters on the south side. 
 The chapel is very ruinous within ; but there 
 still remains some exquisite workmanship. This 
 was preserved by the spirit of the principal at 
 the time of the reformation, who armed his peo- 
 ple, and checked the blind zeal of the barons ot 
 the Mearns, when about to violate this seat 
 of learning. A ship, freighted with their sacri-
 
 ARE 
 
 26 
 
 ABE 
 
 legious booty bound to Holland, had scarcely 
 gone out of port, when it perished in a storm 
 with all its lading. The college was founded 
 in 1494, by William Elphinston, bishop of this 
 place, lord chancellor of Scotland in the reign 
 of James III, and lord privy seal in that of 
 James IV. But James IV. claimed the patron- 
 age of it, and it has since been called the King's 
 College. Together with the Marischal college 
 in the new town, it forms one university, 
 called the University of King Charles. The 
 library is large, but not remarkable for many 
 curiosities. Hector Boethius was the first prin- 
 cipal ; and sent for from Paris for that purpose, 
 on an annual salary of 40 Scots marks, at 13 
 pence each. The square tower on the side of 
 the college was built for the reception of stu- 
 dents, by contributions from General Monk, and 
 the officers under him, when quartered at 
 Aberdeen. There are now about 150. There 
 are several bussaries for poor students, professor- 
 ships of humanity, Greek, philosophy (three) 
 Oriental languages, civil law, divinity, and 
 medicine ; annual revenue about 700. Here 
 is also a neat town-house ; a trades' hospital for 
 decayed freemen and their widows ; and an hos- 
 pital for 12 poor men. Old Aberdeen has its 
 own government, of a provost, three bailies, a 
 treasurer, and council, with the deacons of six 
 incorporated trades. 
 
 ABERDEEN, New, the capital of the shire of 
 Aberdeen. It is built on a hill or rising ground, 
 and lies on a small bay formed by the Dee, deep 
 enough for a ship of 200 tons, and above two 
 miles in circumference. The town is approached 
 from the N. and S. by two elegant streets, the latter 
 passing over an arch, the span of which is 132 
 feet, and its width between the parapet 40 feet. 
 The buildings, which are of granite from the 
 neighbouring quarries, are generally four stories 
 high ; and have, for the most part, gardens be- 
 hind them, which give them a beautiful appear- 
 ance. In the high street is a large church, 
 formerly belonging to the Franciscans, which 
 was begun by bishop William Elphinston, and 
 finished by Gavin Dunbar, bishop of Aberdeen, 
 about 1500. Bishop Dunbar is said likewise to 
 have built the bridge over the Dee, which con- 
 sists of seven arches. In the middle of Castle- 
 street is an octagon building, with neat bas- 
 relievos of the kings of Scotland, from James I. 
 to James VII. The town-house has a handsome 
 spire in the centre. Opposite, is the Aberdeen 
 bank, a fine building of polished granite. The 
 grammar-school is a low but neat building. 
 Gordon's hospital is handsome; in front is a 
 good statue of the founder: it maintains forty 
 boys, who are apprenticed at proper ages. The 
 infirmary is a large plain building, sending out be- 
 tween eight and nine hundred patients. But the 
 chief public building in the new town is the 
 Marischal college, founded by George Keith, 
 carl of Marischal, in the year 1593 ; and since 
 greatly augmented with additional buildings. 
 There are about 150 students belonging to it. 
 In both the Marischal and King's college, the 
 languages, mathematics, natural philosophy, di- 
 vinity, &c., are taught by able professors. In 
 the former is a good observatory. In new Aber- 
 
 deen are also a lunatic asylum, erected in 1800, 
 by subscription; three dispensaries, which in 
 1816, relieved 2700 patients; and a bridewell, 
 which has been recently finished at an expense 
 of 10,000. The convents in Aberdeen were: 
 One of Mathurines, or of the order of the Trinity, 
 founded by William the Lion, who died in 1214; 
 another of Dominicans, by Alexander II. a third 
 of Observantines, a building of great length in 
 the middle of the city, founded by the citizens; 
 and a fourth of Carmelites, or White Friars, 
 founded by Philip de Arbuthnot, in 1350. 
 Aberdeen, including the old town, is supposed 
 to contain 88,000 people. Its trade is consider- 
 able, but might be greatly extended by an atten- 
 tion to the white fisheries. The ancient harbour 
 was narrow at the mouth, having the easterly 
 rocky point of the Grampian mountains on the 
 south, and a flat blowing sand on the north, 
 extending along the coast for many miles. This 
 was driven in a long ridge across the harbour's 
 mouth at the bar, where the depth of water at 
 low tide was sometimes not above three feet. 
 The town at last came to the resolution of erect- 
 ing a strong pier on the north side of the harbour. 
 This pier is 1200 feet in length, and gradually 
 increases in thickness and height, as it approaches 
 to the sea, where the head or rounding is 60 feet 
 diameter at the base, and the perpendicular ele- 
 vation 38 feet. The whole is built of granite, 
 and was under the direction of Mr. Smeaton ; 
 the expense amounting to above 17,000. A 
 little to the south of the bar, they have now a 
 depth of 17 fathoms at low water; and, at the 
 harbour mouth, from 8 to 9 fathoms. Two bat- 
 teries defend the pier ; which has lately been 
 extended to the N. so as to form a wet dock. 
 There is also a navigable canal fiom New Aber- 
 deen to the Don at Inverney. Aberdeen once 
 enjoyed a good tobacco trade. At present, its 
 imports are from the Baltic, and the merchants 
 trade to the Mediterranean, the West Indies, and 
 North America. Its exports are stockings, 
 thread, salmon, pickled-pork, and oat-meal. 
 Large quantities of granite are also sent to Lon- 
 don. The cotton manufactories of the vicinity 
 employ nearly 1000 persons; and an extensive 
 flax manufactory stands on the Don. Linen 
 and woollen goods of most kinds are wrought 
 here, as well as nails, cordage, and all ship- 
 building articles. Vessels to the burthen of about 
 40,000 tons, belong to the port which is exten- 
 sively engaged in the whale and other fisheries. 
 The salmon exported, averages 2000 barrels 
 annually. New Aberdeen has a provost, four 
 bailies, a dean of guild, treasurer, town-council, 
 and seven deacons of trades, incorporated for its 
 civil government; and with Aberbrothock, Bre- 
 chin, Montrose, and Inverbervie, returns one 
 member to parliament. Its fairs are on the 3 1st of 
 January, 3d Wednesday in June, and 18th of July. 
 ABERDEENSHIRE, a county of Scotland, 
 bounded on the N. W. by Banffshire, and the 
 Deveron ; on the N. and N. E. by the German 
 Ocean ; on the S. by the counties of Kincardine, 
 Angus, and Perth ; and on the W. by Inverness- 
 shire. Its length from N. E. to S.W. is about 
 85 miles ; its breadth not quite 40. It compre- 
 hends the districts of Mar, Garioch, Formartin,
 
 ABE 
 
 27 
 
 ABE 
 
 Strathbogie, and the greater part of Buchan ; and 
 sends one member to parliament. It abounds 
 in sea ports, from whence there is a safe and 
 ready passage to the Orkney and Shetland isles, 
 the Greenland fisheries, Norway, and the regions 
 round the Baltic, the German coast, Holland, 
 Flanders, and France ; and is watered by nu- 
 merous streams, as the Don, the p Ythan, the Ugie, 
 &c., all of them the resort of salmon, and whose 
 banks display the most extensive plantations, as 
 well as natural woods. Cattle are sent to the 
 south in great numbers. In the Ythan is a pearl 
 fishery, which has yielded single pearls of from 
 two to three pounds value. Several beautiful 
 lakes also diversify the face of this country; 
 Loch Murick, Loch Kander, Loch Builg, and 
 Callader, are the principal. The granite quarries 
 yield the most valuable mineral of Aberdeenshire, 
 sending annually to London upwards of 12,000 
 tons ; mill stone, blue slate, and lime stone also 
 abound : as well as the asbetos, talc, schistus, 
 and mica. On the coast of Buchan amber is 
 found in considerable quantities, and in Lesley 
 parish, a beautiful green and variegated amian- 
 thus, of which snuft' boxes and ornamental arti- 
 cles are made. Some of the mountains (as in 
 the district of Mar) retain evident proofs of 
 volcanic origin ; and Peterhead, Aberdeen, Pan- 
 nanach, or Glendye, are celebrated mineral 
 waters. The whole county is tolerably fertile, 
 but ill cultivated ; the improvements introducing 
 by spirited proprietors being but slowly adopted. 
 Here are 87 parishes, three royal boroughs, and 
 one city ; several handsome towns and noble- 
 men's and gentlemen's seats. The valued rent 
 of the county is 241,931. 
 
 ABERDOUEY, a sea-port town in the parish 
 of Towyn, hundred of Yotumaner, county of 
 Merioneth, North Wales ; possessing many na- 
 tural advantages, and likely to become the prin- 
 cipal port in the shire. It stands at the mouth 
 of the river Dyfi, across which there is a regular 
 ferry; consists of one street enclosing a quay, in 
 front of which vessels of 500 tons may ride, and 
 extending half a mile in length. Here are some 
 excellent houses built for the accommodation of 
 summer visitants, besides a spacious and noble 
 inn. A new post road connects this place with 
 Towyn, four miles distant, and an improved and 
 level line extends through Pennel village, to the 
 market town of Mashyullaeth. 
 
 ABERDOUR, a town and parish in Fifeshire, 
 Scotland, on the Frith of Forth, about 10 miles 
 N. W. of Edinburgh, resorted to in summer as a 
 sea bathing-place. William, lord of Liddesdale, 
 surnamed the Flower of Chivalry, in the reign of 
 David II., conveyed it by charter to James 
 Douglas, ancestor of the present owner, the earl 
 of Morton. The old castle of Aberdour stands 
 on the bank of a rivulet, falling into the Frith. 
 The poor Clares had a convent at this place. 
 In the neighbourhood are found free-stone, iron- 
 stone, lime-stone, and coal of a superior quality. 
 Here is also a muslin manufactory of some re- 
 pute ; and a manufactory of coarse cloths. The 
 neighbouring island of Inch Colm, belongs to 
 the parish. 
 
 ABERE-MURDER, Sax. from ebere, proved, 
 and morth, killing. In old law, murder that 
 has been proved by a judiciary process. It was 
 
 a crime that could not be expiated by money, as 
 most others could be. 
 
 ABERFORD, or ABERFDHTH. See ABBER- 
 FORD. 
 
 ABERFOYLE, a parish in the county of Perth, 
 
 11 miles in length and five in breadth, in the 
 western extremity of which the Forth has its 
 rise. It is remarkable for its fine lakes and nu- 
 merous streams, and the marked direction taken 
 by the Grampions through the lower part of it ; 
 as well as for producing a great variety of rare 
 plants, and excellent pasturage. The hills 
 abound with oak; and granite, coarse marble, 
 limestone, and slate, compose their bases. 
 
 ABERFRAW, a village in the isle of Angle- 
 sey, formerly a place of note, the princes of N. 
 Wales baring had a palace in it. It has still a 
 good harbour, navigable for vessels of 30 or 40 
 tons, and the Ffraw runs up to it. It is 20 miles 
 W. of Holyhead. 
 
 ABERGAVENNY, a well built market-town 
 of Monmouthshire, the Gibbanium of Antoninus, 
 16 miles W. of Monmouth, and 142 W. by N. 
 from London, having two churches and an old 
 castle. It stands on the confluence of the Usk 
 and Gavenny, having a fine bridge of 15 arches 
 over the former ; and is surrounded by a wall in 
 ruins. The neighbourhood yields abundance of 
 coal and iron ore. Market on Tuesday. 
 
 ABERGEMENT LE DUC, a market-town of 
 Burgundy, France, in the arrondissement of 
 Beaune, and department of the Cote d'Or, near 
 the Saone, and eight leagues S. of Dijon. 
 
 ABERGUILLY, a parish of Carmarthenshire, 
 
 12 miles W. of Carmarthen, and 216 N. W. of 
 London, and remarkable as containing the only 
 palace belonging to the bishop of St. David's. 
 
 ABERNETHY, (John), an eminent surgeon, 
 was born in 1763-4, in the city of Derry, in 
 Ireland ; or, according to others, in the town of 
 Abernethy, in Scotland, and at a very early age 
 removed to London. He received the rudiments 
 of his education at a day-school in Lothbuiy. 
 After the completion of his scholastic studies, he 
 was apprenticed to Mr. Charles Blick, surgeon, 
 and, under the tuition of this eminent prac- 
 titioner, as well as from the experience derived 
 from the infinite variety of cases witnessed at 
 St. Bartholomew's hospital, attained that extraor- 
 dinary knowledge of the diseases and decays to 
 which the human frame is subject, on which his 
 fame in after life was erected. He early exhi- 
 bited an eccentricity of character, and from the 
 singularity of his dress, was nicknamed " The 
 Hostler " by his fellow students ; but this neither 
 interrupted the seriousness of his professional 
 studies, nor retarded his rapid progress to repu- 
 tation and wealth. Mr. Abernethy was the 
 pupil and friend of the celebrated Hunter. His 
 first promotion was to be assistant surgeon of St. 
 Bartholomew's hospital his second to be lec- 
 turer on anatomy and surgeiy in the same bene- 
 volent institution. He struggled for fame as a 
 public teacher against the learned and popular 
 Dr. Marshal, and finally succeeded Sir Charles 
 Blick as the senior surgeon of the hospital. 
 His reputation as an author is deservedly spread, 
 and the ability displayed in some of his early 
 publications was liberally and loudly acknow- 
 ledged by the French surgeons. His published
 
 ABE 
 
 28 
 
 ABH 
 
 works, amounting to eight volumes, contain dis- 
 putations on the Origin and Treatment of Local 
 Diseases; on Aneurisms; Disorders of the 
 Digestive Organs; Lumba Abscesses; Physi- 
 ological Lectures, &c. &c. After a protracted 
 illness, which he bore with true philosophy, he 
 expired at Enfield, on the 20th of April, 1831 ; 
 having expressed his conviction that a disordered 
 stomach, a disease most fatal to the majority of 
 mankind, would occasion his own dissolution. 
 It is an extraordinary truth, that he exacted a 
 solemn promise from his friends that they would 
 secure to his remains an undisturbed repose 
 within the tomb, and on no account submit them 
 to a post mortem examination. 
 
 ABERNETHY, a village in Strathern, a district 
 of Perthshire, in Scotland, seated on the Tay, a 
 little below its junction with the Erne. It is 
 said to have been the seat of the Pictish kings, 
 as well as the see of an archbishop. Here was 
 a cathedral, which became a collegiate church in 
 854, an university being established in the place. 
 This in 1273 became a priory of regular canons. 
 Here is a good manufacture of household linen 
 and silesias ; the church has been lately re-built. 
 In the church-yard is a tower of a circular con- 
 struction, 48 feet in circumference, and 74 feet in 
 height. There is only another of this description 
 (at Brechin) in Scotland. 
 
 ABERNETHY, (John), an eminent dissenting 
 clergyman of Dublin, born 1680, and author of 
 sermons on the Divine Attributes, which have 
 been much admired. 
 
 ABERRATION, in astronomy, a small appa- 
 rent motion of the fixed stars discovered by the 
 late Dr. Bradley, astronomer royal. It is oc- 
 casioned by the progressive motion of light, and 
 tiie earth's annual motion in its orbit. For the 
 hibtory of its discovery, see Philosophical Trans. 
 March, 1728, No. 406. 
 
 ABER'RANCE, } Ab: erro, to stray or 
 
 ABERRA'TION, > wander; primarily applied 
 
 ABER'RING. j to the errors or mistakes of 
 the mind, and to irregularity of conduct. 
 
 ABERRATION, in optics, is used to denote that 
 error or deviation of the rays of light, when in- 
 flected by a lens or speculum, whereby they are 
 hindered from meeting or uniting in the same 
 point. There are two species of the aberrations 
 of rays, distinguished by their different causes ; 
 one arising from the spherical form of the re- 
 fracting and reflecting surfaces ; the other from 
 the unequal refrangibility of the rays of light. 
 This last species is sometimes called the New- 
 tonian, from the name of its discoverer. See 
 OPTICS. 
 
 ABERYSTWYTH, a borough, market, and 
 sea-port town, in the hundred of Genaur-GIyn, 
 and county of Cardigan, South Wales, situated' 
 on an eminence overhanging the confluence of 
 the Ystwyth and Rhydal rivers. It is 208 miles 
 from London, 39 from Cardigan, contains a po- 
 pulation of 3556, and is the most frequented 
 watering-place in the principality. The old town 
 consists of steep streets, enclosed by houses cased 
 with black slate. 'The new town is regular 
 handsome, and adorned with an assembly room' 
 market-house, theatre, and three large inns ; and 
 the parade, called the " Marine Terrace," contains 
 
 several excellent houses, in a situation both salu- 
 brious and agreeable. Besides the chapel of ease, 
 there are four meeting-houses of dissenters. The 
 town is governed by a mayor, recorder, and com- 
 mon council, and is contributary with Cardigan, 
 Lampeter, and Aptar, in returning one member to 
 parliament. Lead and silver ores, calamine, black 
 lead, slates, and agricultural produce, constitute 
 the chief exports, in which 8000 tons of shipping 
 are annually engaged. The ruins of the castle 
 occupy the summit of a rocky eminence, com- 
 manding a view of Cardigan Bay, and of the North 
 Wales coast ; it was built by Edward I., who in- 
 corporated the town; and the walks surrounding 
 it form delightful promenades for the numerous 
 parties who visit this agreeable watering-place in 
 the summer season. Races are held here in the 
 month of August. Markets on Mondays and 
 Saturdays ; and fairs four times in each year. 
 
 ABESTA, or AVESTA, the name of one of the 
 sacred books of the Persian magi, which they 
 ascrrbe to their great founder, Zoroaster. It is a 
 commentary on the Zend and Pazend; the three 
 together including the whole system of the Igni- 
 colffi, or worshippers of fire. 
 ABESTON. See ASBESTOS. 
 ABESUM, in chemistry, unslacked, or quick 
 lime. See CALX. 
 
 ABET', v. n. 3 Anglo Sax. Betan, (meliorare, 
 ABET'MENT, / melius reddere, says Skinner.) 
 ABET'TER, J To better, to make better. It 
 primarily signifies to enkindle or animate. 
 
 It is applied to encouraging, inciting, assist- 
 ing, supporting, aiding. 'It was once indifferent/ 
 says Johnson, 'but is almost always taken by 
 modern writers in an ill sense.' 
 
 ABEVACUATION, in medicine, a partial 
 evacuation, either by nature or art. 
 
 ABEX,aname sometimes given to that country 
 of Africa which bounds Abyssinia on the east, 
 and the Red Sea west. It is mountainous, and 
 so barren as to offer little to the notice of travel- 
 lers. It is 500 miles in length, and 100 in 
 breadth. The inhabitants are Mahometans. 
 
 ABEY'ANCE, n. Abaiance, or en abeiance, 
 old Fr. Expectation. A term of law, but 
 sometimes of more general application. 
 
 ABGAR, or ABGARUS, a name given to seve- 
 ral kings of Edessa in Syria; the most celebrated 
 of whom is said by Eusebius to have sent a letter 
 to Jesus Christ, requesting him to come and re- 
 move a distemper in bis feet. The Saviour is 
 stated to have returned an answer, accompanied 
 by his portrait. Some great names in ecclesias- 
 tical history support the authenticity of these let- 
 ters, as they are still extant in Eusebius ; Mo- 
 sheim rejects the letters, but sees "no reason of 
 sufficient weight to destroy the credibility of the 
 story." The general opinion of learned men, 
 however, is decidedly against the whole. 
 
 ABHOR', v. ~\ Ab : horreo. Vossius con- 
 ABHOR'RER, fceives the word, "horreo" 
 ABHOR'RENCE, to express the effect produced 
 ABHOR'RENT. J by the determination of the 
 breath (or rather the blood) to the heart, occa- 
 sioned by a sudden and painful emotion, which 
 causes a general rigidity, and convulsive shud- 
 dering of the body, so that the hair is said to 
 stand on end.
 
 ABI : 
 
 Justly thou aWwrr'st 
 
 Thai sou, who on the quiet state of men 
 Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue 
 Rational liberty. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, xii. 79. 
 The self-same thing they will abhor 
 One way, and long another for. 
 
 Hudibr. p. i . cant. 1 . 
 
 The first tendency to any injustice that appears, 
 must he suppressed with a show of wonder and 06- 
 horrency in the parents and govcrnours. 
 
 Locke on Education. 
 For if the worlds, 
 
 In worlds inclosed, could on his senses burst, 
 He would abhorrent turn. Thomson's Sum. 1. 310. 
 The legal, and as it should seem, injudicious pro- 
 *"anation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles, was 
 received with a very faint murmur, by the easy 
 nature of polytheism. Gibbon, vol. i. p. 112. 
 
 Lands intercepted by a narrow frith, 
 Abhor each other. Cotvper. 
 
 But peace abhorreth artificial joys, 
 And pleasure, leagued with pomp, the zest of both 
 destroys. Lord Byron's Childe Harold. 
 
 ABHORRERS, a name which was given to 
 a political party in England, in distinction from 
 the petitioners of the same period, (1680.) The 
 name and the party soon ceased ; but Hume gives 
 an account of their origin and principles. They 
 paid excessive court to the king, by expressing 
 their abhorrence against those who petitioned for 
 redress of grievances, or who presumed to pre- 
 scribe or dictate to his majesty any period for as- 
 sembling parliament. 
 
 ABI A, or IRE, in ancient history, a maritime 
 town of Messinia, so called after Abia, a daughter 
 of Hercules, and one of the seven cities promised 
 by Agamemnon to Achilles. 
 
 ABIAD, a river of Africa, descending, accord- 
 ing to Mr. Brown, from the Mountains of the 
 Moon, several hundred miles south of Darfour. 
 ABI ANS, or AB 1 1 , anciently a people of Th race, 
 or, according to some authors, of Scythia. They 
 led a wandering life, living on the flesh of their 
 herds and flocks ; on milk and cheese. They 
 cultivated little intercourse with their neighbours, 
 but boldly maintained their own independence, 
 and were a people of great integrity, according 
 to Homer, II. xiii. 5, 6. 
 
 ABIB, 3'3X, Heb. i. e. a ripe ear of corn. 
 The first month of the ecclesiastical, and the 
 seventh of the civil year, among the Jews. It 
 answers to our moon that begins in March and 
 ends in April ; and contains the feast of the pass- 
 over and of unleavened bread. 
 
 ABIDE', -\ Bidian, or abidian, Sax. To 
 
 ABI'DER, f stay, remain, tarry, dwell or con- 
 
 ABI'DING, ftinue in a place or state; also, 
 
 ABO'DE, J to stay under, or support ; to 
 
 bear up against, or endure with fortitude, good 
 
 temper, or the contrary. In the latter senses, 
 
 however, the words are nearly obsolete. 
 
 The pacient abyding of the righteous shal be 
 turned to gladnesse, but the hope of the vngodiy shall 
 perish. Bible, Land. 1539. Prm. chap. x. 
 
 DEM. Abide me, if thou dar'st : for well I wot 
 Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place, 
 ^Thou dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. 
 
 Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 MRS. FORD. I would my husband would meet 
 
 U) ABI 
 
 him in this shape ; he cannot abide the old woman of 
 Brainford ; he swears she is a witch, forbad her my 
 house, and hath threatened to beat her. 
 
 Shakspeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 
 Ah me ! they little know 
 How dearly I abide that boast so vain 
 Under what torments inwardly I groan, 
 While they adore me on the throne of Hell. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 To remain in sin and abide in death is all one. 
 
 Bishop Taylor's Sermons. 
 
 Why do we abide our thoughts and affections scat- 
 tered from thee, from thy saints, from thine anointed. 
 Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 He (God) does not inflict sensible judgment upon 
 all his enemies, lest the wicked should think there 
 were no punishment abiding for them elsewhere. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 Thy servant became surety for the lad unto my 
 father, saying, If I biing him not unto thee, then I 
 shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now 
 therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of 
 the lad, a bondman to my lord : and let the lad go 
 up with his brethren. Gen. xliv. 32, 33. 
 
 The marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled 
 To Richmond, in the parts where he abides. 
 
 Shakspeare's Richard III. 
 
 Those who apply themselves to learning, are 
 forced to acknowledge one God, incorruptible and 
 unbegotten ; who is the only true being, and abides 
 for ever above the highest heavens, from whence He 
 beholds all the things that are done in heaven and 
 earth. Stillingjl. Defence of Disc, on Rom. Idolat. 
 
 ABIES, in botany, the fir tree. See PINUS. 
 
 ABIGA, in botany, the ground pine, or Cha- 
 mapitys. 
 
 ABILA, or ABYLA, a mountain of Africa, one 
 of the pillars of Hercules, as they were anciently 
 called, being directly opposite to Calpe, in Spain, 
 from which it is only 18 miles distant 
 
 ABILENE, a small canton in Syria, between 
 Lebanon and Antilibanus, west of Damascus. 
 See ABEL-MAIM. 
 
 ABINEAU POINT, a neck of land projecting 
 into Lake Erie, Canada, and forming a fine bay 
 On each side of the point. It runs out about 10 
 miles west of Fort Erie. The northern bay is 
 most commonly called Abineau Port. 
 
 ABINGDON, the chief town of Washington 
 county, in Virginia, North America, 310 miles 
 S. W. of Richmond. Also a town of Maryland, 
 North America, 20 miles N. E. of Baltimore; 
 and a township of Plymouth county, Massachu- 
 setts, 22 S. E. of Boston. 
 
 ABINGDON, or ABINGTON, a market town of 
 Berks, in the hundred of Hormer, on the Isis, so 
 named from an abbey formerly built in it, six 
 miles S. of Oxford, and 56 W. from London. 
 The streets are well paved, and have a spacious 
 area in the centre, where the markets are held 
 on Monday and Friday, and where an elegant 
 market-house is built, supported on lofty pillars, 
 with a handsome Town-house of free-stone above 
 it, where the assizes, sessions, and county meet- 
 ings are held. It has two churches, dedicated 
 to St. Nicholas and St. Helena, and two hospi- 
 tals, the one for 12 persons, six of each sex, the 
 other for 26, viz. 1 3 of each ; besides a charity 
 and a free grammar school. This town is sup- 
 posed by Bp. Gibson to be the Saxon Clove- 
 shoo, where synods were held, in A. D. 742 and
 
 ABJ 
 
 30 
 
 ABJ 
 
 822. It was incorporated by Queen Mary I. 
 and sends one member to parliament, elected by 
 the suffrages of the inhabitants generally. It is a 
 considerable malting town. 
 
 ABIPONIANS, a decayed tribe of S. Ame- 
 rican Indians, inhabiting the banks of the Plata. 
 The whole nation does not exceed 5000 in num- 
 ber. They are naturally fair ; but, by exposure 
 to the air and smoke, become of a brown colour. 
 They are a strong and hardy race of people ; 
 which is attributed to their marrying late ; and 
 are greatly celebrated on account of their chastity 
 and other virtues ; though, according to some 
 writers, they have no knowledge of a Deity, or 
 name to express his existence : but they believe 
 in an evil principle whom they call " Uncle." 
 They are but slightly acquainted with agricul- 
 ture, living by hunting and fishing, and holding 
 the flesh of their jaguars in great repute. They 
 have a kind of order of chivalry for their warriors ; 
 and are so formidable, that 100 of their enemies 
 will Hy before ten of these horsemen, armed with 
 the long spears of the country. The caciques 
 in war are their judges in time of peace ; but the 
 whole people have long ceased to be of any con- 
 sideration in the neighbourhood. 
 
 ABISCA, a province of Peru of considerable 
 extent, between the Yetan and Amarumain to 
 the S. of Cuzco. It is little known to Euro- 
 peans, being principally the resort of expelled 
 barbarous tribes. 
 
 ABISHERING, an ancient law-term, denoting 
 a being free, or exempt, from all amercements. 
 
 ABITELLO, in ecclesiastical affairs, a sort of 
 penitential garment, in the Romish church. Eym. 
 Direct. Inquisit. iii. 332. 
 
 ABITIBBE LAKE, a lake of Upper Canada, 
 ip N. lat. 48 35', W. long. 82 0', near the set- 
 tlement of Frederic. 
 
 ABITIBBE RIVER, a river of Upper Canada, 
 flowing out of the lake of that name, and empty- 
 ing itself into the Moose river, near James's Bay. 
 The Abitibbes are a native tribe of this neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 ABJECT>.&.\ Ab . . ad to cast Qr throw 
 
 ABJECTEDNESS -f away from; to be reduced 
 
 t0 a low rank or Condition ; 
 o be degraded. 
 
 The audacite and bolde speeche of Daniel signi- 
 fy eth the abiection of the kynge and his realme. 
 
 The Exposition of Daniel, by Geo. Joye, p. 75. 
 
 I deemed it better so to die, 
 Than at my foemen's feet an abject lie. 
 
 Mirr. for Mag. p. 20. 
 
 Rebellion 
 
 Came like itself in base and abject routs, 
 Led on by bloody youth goaded with rage, 
 And countenanc'd by boys and beggary. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry IV. 
 I was at first, as other beasts that graze 
 The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low. 
 
 Milt. Paradise Lost. b. ix. 1. 571. 
 The rarer thy example stands, 
 By how much from the top of wond'rous glory. 
 Strongest of mortal men, 
 To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n. 
 
 Milton's Sampson Agonistes. 
 By humility I mean not the abjectness of a base 
 
 mind ; but a prudent care not to ovcr-valun oursclvoa 
 upon any account. Grew's Cosmoluyiu Sacra, b. ii. c. 7. 
 
 Let mean princes 
 
 Of abject souls, fear to reward great actions. 
 I mean to show, 
 
 That whatsoe'er subjects, like you, dare merit, 
 A king, like me, dares give. 
 
 Dry den's Marriage a la Mode. 
 To what base ends, and by what abject ways, 
 Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise ! 
 
 Pope's Essay on Criticism. 
 How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
 How complicate, how wonderful is man ! 
 How passing wonder, He who made him such. 
 
 Young, 
 
 ABJURE', ( Ab : juro, to swear from, to 
 ABJURA'TION. ( forswear; to swear; to go 
 
 away from, or leave ; to disown, to disclaim, to 
 
 renounce upon oath. 
 
 By our ancient customs felons were allowed to fly 
 to a sanctuary, and on swearing to leave the kingdom 
 forthwith, and for ever were exempted from farther 
 punishment. Vide Rastall's Collection of Statutes. 
 
 In this season were banished out of Southwarke, 
 twelve Scottes whiche had dwelt there a long season, 
 and werconveied fro parishe toparishe by the consta- 
 ble, like men yt had abiured the realme, and on their 
 vttermost garment a white crosse before, and another 
 behynd them. Thus were they conueyed through 
 London northwarde till they came to Scotlande. 
 
 Hall, repr. 1809, p. 648. 
 Either to die the death, or to abjure 
 For ever the society of man. 
 
 Shakspeare's Midsum. Night's Dream. 
 
 No man, therefore, that hath not abjured his reason 
 and sworn allegiance to a preconceived fantastical 
 hypothesis, can undertake the defence of such a 
 supposition. Hale. 
 
 A Jacobite, who is persuaded of the pretender's 
 right to the crown, cannot take the oath of allegiance ; 
 or, if he could, the oath of abjuration follows, which 
 contains an express renunciation of all opinions in 
 favour of the claim of the exiled family. 
 
 Paley's Moral Philosophy. 
 
 ABJURATION, in ancient customs. The 
 following oath taken by a person guilty of felony ; 
 who, having fled to a place of sanctuary, engages 
 to leave the kingdom for ever, will furnish a cu- 
 rious illustration of this subject : " This heare, 
 thou sir Coroner, that I, M. of H. am a robber 
 of sheepe, or of any other beast, or a Murderer of 
 one, or of mo, and a felon of our Lord the king 
 of Englad; and because I haue done many such 
 euilles or robberies in his land, I do abjure the 
 land of our Lord Edward, king of England, and 
 I shall haste me towards the Port of such a place, 
 which thou hast given me, and that I shal not go 
 out of the high way, and if I doe, I wil that I be 
 taken as a robber, and a felon of our Lorde the 
 king : And that at such a place I will diligently 
 seeke for passage, and I will tarie there but one 
 flud and ebbe, if I can have passage, and unlesse 
 I can haue it in such a place, I wil goe euery day 
 into the Sea up to my knees, assaying to passe 
 ouer, and unlesse I can do this within fortie 
 dayes, I wil put my selfe againe into the Church, 
 as a robber and a felon of our L9rd the king, so 
 God me helpe & his holie iudgement," ,c. 
 Rastatt's Collect. ofStat. p. 2. 
 
 ABJURATION, in English law, signifies the 
 renouncirg and disclaiming upon oath, any right
 
 ABL 
 
 31 
 
 ABL 
 
 of the late Pretender to the crown of these king- 
 doms; also, according to 25 Charles II. an oath 
 abjuring particular doctrines of the church of 
 Rome. 
 
 ABLA'CTATE, > Ab : from, and lacto, to 
 
 ABLACTA'TION, J feed with milk. To wean 
 a child. 
 
 ABLAIQUET, or ABLAIKET, a town of Rus- 
 sian Tartary, 540 miles S. E. of Tobolsk, remark- 
 able only for the remains of a great temple and 
 other antiquities. 
 
 ABLANCOURT, (PERROT, D',) See PERROT. 
 
 ABLANIA, in botany, the trichocarpus genus 
 of Linnaeus. 
 
 ABLAQUEATION, in horticulture, the art 
 or practice of opening the ground about the roots 
 of trees, to let the air and water operate upon 
 them. 
 
 ABLATIVE, in grammar, the 6th case of the 
 Latin nouns, pronouns, participles, and gerunds. 
 Priscian calls it the comparative case, as it serves 
 for comparing as well as taking away. It is op- 
 posed to the dative, as the latter expresses the 
 action of giving. In English, French, &c. there 
 is no precise mark whereby to distinguish the 
 ablative from other cases ; and we only use the 
 term in analogy to the Latin. Thus, in the two 
 phrases, " the importance of the question," and 
 " he spoke much of the question," we say, that 
 of the question in the first is genitive, and in the 
 latter ablative ; because it would be so, if the two 
 phrases were expressed in Latin. The question 
 concerning the Greek ablative has been the sub- 
 ject of a famous literary war between two great 
 grammarians, Frischlin and Crusius ; the former 
 of whom maintained, and the latter opposed, the 
 reality of it. The dispute still subsists among 
 their respective followers. 
 
 ABLATIVE ABSOLUTE, in the Latin grammar, 
 is a clause or phrase detached from, and indepen- 
 dent of the rest of the sentence, and answering 
 to the genitive absolute of the Greek gramma- 
 rians. 
 
 ABLAZE', a. On blaze. See BLAZE. 
 
 A'BLE, v. & adj.-\ Abal, Goth. Strength, 
 
 A'BLENESS, f power, force, skill, are the 
 
 ABIL'ITY, Heading ideas. The verb, 
 
 A'BLY. / to able, had two other sig- 
 
 nifications, now obsolete : first, to make able, or 
 to give power for any purpose, of the same im- 
 port as to enable ; and, secondly, to warrant, or 
 answer for. 
 
 God tokeneth and assigneth the times Ming hem 
 to her proper offices. 
 
 Chaucer's Boecius, b. i. fol. 215, col. 1. 
 
 And ye, my ladies, that ben trewe and stable, 
 By -way of kinde ye oughtin to ben able 
 To haue pitie of folke that ben in paine, 
 Now haue ye cause to clothin you in sable. 
 
 Chaucer, the Complaint of Mars, fol. 326, col. 4. 
 Lytel Lowys, my Sonne, I perceive well by cer- 
 taine evidences thyne abylyte to lerne scyences, 
 touching nombres and proporcions, and also will 
 consydre I thy besye prayer in especyal to lerne the 
 tretyse of the Astrolabye. 
 
 Chaucer's Conclusion of the Aitrolabie. 
 
 That if God willinge to schewe his wraththe, and 
 
 to make his power knownn, hath suffrid in greet pa- 
 
 cience vessels of wrathhe able into deeth, to schewe 
 
 the richossis of his glorie into vessels of mcrci 
 whiche he made redi into glorie. 
 
 Wiclif. Romayns. chap. ix. 
 
 For no doute to dreade to ofifende God and to 
 loue to please him, in all thing quyckeneth and 
 sharpeneth all the wittes of Cristes chosen people : 
 and ableth them so to grace, that they joy greatly to 
 withdrawe their eares, and all their wittes and mem- 
 bres frome all worldly delyte, and frome all fleschely 
 solace. 
 
 Howell's State Trials, vol i. p. 202. Trial of 
 Master William Thorpe for Heresy, 8, Henry 
 IV. A. D. 1407, written by himself. 
 A noble crew about them waited round 
 Of sage and sober peeres all gravely gownd, 
 Whom farre before did marche a goodly band 
 Of tall young men all able armes to sound, 
 But now they laurell-branches bore in hand ; 
 Glad signe of victory and peace in all their land. 
 Spenser's Faerie Qveene, b. i. canto, xii. 
 
 Love all ; trust a few ; 
 
 Do wrong to none : be able for thine enemy 
 Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend 
 Under thy own life's key. Shakspeare. 
 
 Cuts. They say all louers sweare more perfor- 
 mance than they are able, and yet reserue an ability 
 that they neuer perform ; vowing more than the per- 
 fection of ten, and discharging lesse than the tenth 
 part of one. Shakspeare's Troi. fy Cres. act iii. sc. 1. 
 To sell away all the powder in the kingdom, 
 To prevent blowing up. That's safe, ile able it. 
 
 Middl. Game at Chess. D. ii. b. act 2 
 Of singing thou hast got the reputation, 
 Good Thyrsis, mine I yield to thy ability 
 My heart doth seek another estimation. 
 
 Sidney , b. i. 
 
 If aught in my ability may serve 
 To lighten what thou suffer'st, and appease 
 Thy mind with what amends is in my pow'r. 
 
 Milton's Sampson Agonistes, 1. 744. 
 They gave after their ability unto the treasure. 
 
 Ezra, ii. 69. 
 
 If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability 
 which God giveth : that God in all things may be 
 glorified through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter, iv. 11. 
 
 Wherever we find our abilities too weak for the per- 
 formance, he assures us of the assistance of his Holy 
 Spirit. Rogers'* Sermons. 
 
 And novels (witness every month's review,) 
 Belie their name, and offer nothing new. 
 The mind, relaxing into needful sport, 
 Should turn to writers of an abler sort, 
 Whose wit well manag'd, and whose classic stylej 
 Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile. 
 
 Cowper's Retirement. 
 
 ABLECTI, in Roman antiquity, a select body 
 of soldiers chosen from among those called ex- 
 traordinarii. Polyb. vi. 31. 
 
 ABLEGMINA, in Roman antiquity, those parts 
 of the entrails of victims, which were offered in 
 sacrifice. They were sprinkled with flour, and 
 burnt upon the altar ; the priests pouring wine 
 on them. 
 
 ABLET, or ALBLEN, in ichthyology, the com- 
 mon bleak, a small fresh-water fish, called in 
 Latin alburnus. See ALBURNUS and CYPRINUS. 
 ABLIS, a market town of France, in Orleans, 
 department of the Seine and Oise, arrondissement 
 of Etampes, six leagues E. N. E. of Chartres. 
 
 ABLUTION, Ab: luo, to wash from. The 
 act of washing, or the water used in cleansing or 
 purifying. Also the ceremonial purification ob-
 
 ABO 
 
 served under most systems of religion, ancient 
 and modern, true and false. Lastly, the cup oi 
 wine and water, formerly given to the people in 
 the Romish church after the host. 
 
 SOB. Sirrah, my varlct, stand you forth and 
 
 speak to him, 
 
 Like a philosopher. Answer i'the language. 
 Name the vexations, and the martyrizations 
 Of metals, in the work. 
 
 FAC. Sir, Putrefaction. 
 
 Solution, ablution, sublimation, 
 Cohobation, Calcination, Ceration, and 
 Fixation. Jonson's Alchemist, act ii. sc. 4. 
 
 Hearts may be found, that harbour at this hour 
 That love of Christ, and all its quick'ning pow'r 
 And lips unstain'd by folly or by strife, 
 Whose wisdom, drawn from the deep well of life. 
 Tastes of its healthful origin, and fiows 
 A Jordan for the ablution of our woes. 
 
 Cowper's Conversation. 
 
 ABLUTIONS, in religion, appear to be as 
 old as any ceremonies, or even external worship 
 itself. Moses enjoined them; the heathens 
 adopted them ; and Mahomet and his followers 
 have continued them : they thus make a consi- 
 derable part of the most ancient religions. The 
 Egyptian priests had their diurnal and nocturnal 
 ablutions; the Grecians their sprinklings; the 
 Romans their lustrations and lavations ; the Jews 
 their washing of hands and feet, besides their 
 baptisms. The ancient Christians practised ab- 
 lution before communion ; which the Romish 
 church still retains before mass, and sometimes 
 after. The attachment of the Hindoos for the 
 Ganges is such, that ablution in its streams 
 is placed amongst the first duties of their reli- 
 gion ; and when, from necessity, they cannot 
 reach that river, if in bathing they use the 
 exclamation, " O Ganges, purify me !" the 
 Brahmins assure them that the service is equally 
 efficacious. 
 
 ABLUTION, in pharmacy, is applied both to a 
 preparation which divers remedies undergo, by 
 washing them in water, to cleanse them or 
 increase their power, and to medicines which 
 carry off impurities flora the system. 
 
 ABO, a seaport, an ancient capital of Finland, 
 which lies upon the point where the gulphs of 
 Bothnia and Finland unite, 120 miles N. E. of 
 Stockholm. It stands on the estuary of the Aura- 
 jocki, is a good port, and is the see of a bishop ; the 
 seat of a governor, and of a high court of justice 
 for S. Finland. The city became incorporated 
 with the Russian empire in 1809. It is well 
 built, and carries on a thriving trade with Eng- 
 land, Holland, and the Mediterranean, in its 
 manufactures of silk, cotton, cloth, paper, rope, 
 &c. It has an extensive glass-house, a sugar 
 refinery of good repute, and two excellent dock 
 yards. Its external trade in iron, timber, fur and 
 corn is also considerable. It has an university, 
 founded by queen Christina in 1640, and endowed 
 with the same privileges as that of Ups'L Long. 
 22, 13'. E. Lat. 60, 27'. N. Population about 
 i AOOO. 
 
 which differs among our older writers, corres im- 
 mediately from the French dbord, as alter abord, 
 to enter a ship, to go aboard. 
 
 And afterwards a great wynde arrising iu y sea, 
 by meane whereof their shippes might no longar tarry 
 there, for that, that it was a place wt out porte ; one 
 part of the embarqued theself, and passing bifore a 
 rockky place call'd Ithis, they came to aborde in the 
 porte of Philie. 
 
 Thucidides, by Tttomas Nicolls, Lond. 1550, fo. 53, p. 1. 
 But there it resteth and abode 
 This great shyp on anker rode ; 
 The lorde came forth, and when he sigh ; 
 That other ligge on borde so nighe ; 
 He wondreth, what it might bee, 
 And bad men to go in and see. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. book ii. 
 And how the tempest all began, 
 And how he lost his steersman 
 Which that the sterne, or he tooke keepe, 
 Smote ouer the hard as he slepe, 
 
 Chaucer's, Fame, b. i. fol. 277. c. 2. 
 
 And wha we had gotte a shippe y' wolde sayle 
 
 vnto Phenices, we went aborde into it, and set forth. 
 
 Bible, Lond. 1539, Actes xxi. 
 
 We left this place about eleven in the morning, 
 
 and were again conveyed, with more sunshine than 
 
 wind, aboard our ship. Fielding's Voyage to Lisbon. 
 
 ABODE', -\ Bodian, Sax. to portend; 
 
 ABOD'ANCE, (to abode, bode, and forbode, 
 
 ABODE'MENT, fare synonymous, and signify 
 
 ABOD'ING. 3 to show, or exhibit some ap- 
 pearance, sign, or token, from which good or 
 evil is inferred. 
 
 Nay, nay, it may nat stonden in this wise 
 For nece mine, this writen clerkes wise 
 That percii is with dretching in draw 
 Nay, such abodes ben nat worth an haw. 
 Chaucer, third Booke of Troilus, fol. 171. col. 2. 
 
 For he (bishop Felix) brought all the province 
 unto the faith, and workos of iustice, and in the end 
 to rewarde of perpetuall blessednesse, according to 
 the abodement of his name, which in Latine is called 
 Felix, and in our English tongue, Happie. 
 
 Stowe's Chronicle, Howe's ed. 1614, p. 61. 
 
 ABO-HUS, or ABO-SLOT, an ancient fort in 
 Finland, on a peninsula, near the mouth of the 
 river Aura-jocki, which has often suffered from 
 enemies, and by fire. 
 
 ABOI-VENTS, in fortification, lodgments con- 
 structed in a oveted way to protect soldiers from 
 the weather. 
 
 ABOLISH, ) Ab : oleo. to emit an odour. 
 
 ABOLISHMENT, > Hence aboleo, to lose an 
 
 ABOH'TION, j odour. To extinguish the 
 very odour ; to destroy, to annul, to abrogate, tc 
 annihilate. 
 
 Now to th' entent that ye may yet farther perceive 
 and se, that they by the distruccion >f the clergy, 
 meane the clere abolycion of Christes faith : it may 
 like you to conferre, and compare together ii places 
 of hys beggars bill. Sir Thomas More's Works, p. 311 
 
 The plain and direct way had been to prove, that 
 all such ceremonies, as thev require to be abolished 
 are retained by us with the hurt of the church, or 
 with less benefit than the abolishment of them would 
 bring. Hooker, b. iv 
 
 BORU. 
 
 familiar 
 3 sea-term, the orthography of 
 
 For him , hat for th } thou hast made ? 
 
 Jlfito,b. Hi. 1. 163.
 
 ABO 3r 
 
 Nor could Vulranian flame 
 The stench abolish, or the savour tame. 
 
 Dryd. Virg. Geo. iii. 
 
 An apoplexy is a sudden abolition of all the senses 
 nd of all voluntary motion, by the stoppage of 
 the flux and reflux of the animal spirits through the 
 nerves destined for those motions. Arbuthnot on Diet. 
 
 ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. The Society for 
 mitigating and gradually abolishing the state of 
 Slavery throughout the British Dominions, some- 
 times called the ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, has 
 been recently formed. 
 
 His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester 
 is president of the society. In the list of vice- 
 presidents, are the names of many of the most 
 distinguished philanthropists of the day, and 
 among them, that of the never to be forgotten 
 champion of the negro's cause, Mr. Wilber- 
 force. 
 
 The society has already published several 
 works illustrative of the state of slavery, and 
 pointing out its atrocious evils, in a commercial 
 and political, as well as a religious point of 
 view; and which, by apparently unanswerable 
 arguments tend to hold up the system to merited 
 detestation, by every class of society, from the 
 statesman to the peasant. The following sum- 
 mary of the evils to which the slaves in the 
 British colonies are subject, may serve to give 
 some idea of their miserable and degraded con- 
 dition : 
 
 There are, in the colonies of Great Britain, 
 upwards of 800,000 human beings in a state 
 of degrading personal slavery. 
 
 These unhappy persons are the absolute 
 property of their master, who may sell or trans- 
 fer them at his pleasure, and who may also re- 
 gulate, according to his discretion, (within certain 
 limits) the measure of their labour, their food, 
 and their punishment. 
 
 Many of the slaves are (and all may be) 
 branded like cattle, by means of a hot iron, on 
 the shoulder or other conspicuous part of the 
 body, with the initials of their master's name ; 
 and thus bear about them, in indelible characters, 
 the proof of their debased and servile state. 
 
 The slaves, whether male or female, are 
 driven to labour by the impulse of the cart- 
 whip, for the sole benefit of their owners, from 
 whom they receive no wages ; and this labour is 
 continued (with certain intermissions for break- 
 fast and dinner,) from morning to night through- 
 out the year. 
 
 In the season of crop, which lasts for four or 
 five months of the year, their labour is pro- 
 tracted, not only throughout the day, as at other 
 times, but during either half the night, or the 
 whole of every alternate night. 
 
 Besides being generally made to work under 
 the lash, without wages, the slaves are further 
 obliged to labour for their own maintenance on 
 that day which ought to be devoted to repose 
 and religious instruction. And as that day is 
 also their only market-day, it is of necessity a 
 day of worldly occupation, and much bodily 
 exertion. 
 
 The colonial laws arm the master, or any one 
 to whom he may delegate his authority, with a 
 power to punish his slaves to a certain extent, 
 
 A 01 I 
 
 without the intervention of the magistrate, and 
 without any responsibility for the use of this 
 tremendous discretion; and to that extent he 
 may punish them for any offence, or lor no ot- 
 fence. These discretionary punishments are 
 usually inflicted on the naked body with the 
 cart-whip, an instrument of dreadful severity, 
 which cruelly lacerates the flesh of the sufferer. 
 Even the unhappy females are equally liable 
 with the men to have their persons thus shame- 
 lessly exposed and barbarously tortured at the 
 caprice of their master or overseer. 
 
 The slaves being regarded in the eye of the 
 law as mere chattels, they are liable to be seized 
 in execution for their master's debts ; and, with- 
 out any regard to the family ties which may be 
 broken by this oppressive and merciless process, 
 to be sold by auction to the highest bidder, who 
 may remove thtin to a distant part of the same 
 colony, or even exile them to another colony. 
 
 Marriage, that blessing of civilized, and even 
 of savage life, is protected in the case of the 
 slaves by no legal sanction. It cannot be said 
 to exist among them. Those, therefore, who live 
 together as man and wife, are liable to be sepa- 
 rated by the caprice of their master, or by sale 
 for the satisfaction of his creditors. 
 
 The slaves in general have little or no access 
 to the means of Christian instruction. 
 
 The effect of the want of such instruction, as 
 well as of the absence of any marriage tie, is, 
 that the most unrestrained licentiousness (ex- 
 hibited in a degrading, disgusting, and depopu- 
 lating promiscuous intercourse,) prevails almost 
 universally among the slaves ; and is encouraged 
 no less universally by the example of their 
 superiors the whites. 
 
 The evidence of slaves is not admitted by the 
 colonial courts, in any civil or criminal case 
 affecting a person of free condition. If a white 
 man, therefore, perpetrates the most atrocious 
 acts of barbarity, in the presence of slaves only, 
 the injured party is left without any means of 
 legal redress. 
 
 In none of the colonies of Great Britain have 
 those legal facilities been afforded to the slave to 
 purchase his own freedom, which have produced 
 such extensive beneficial effects in the colonial 
 possessions of Spain and Portugal. On the con- 
 trary, in many of our colonies, even the volun- 
 tary manumission of slaves by their masters has 
 been obstructed, and in some rendered nearly im 
 possible, by large fines. 
 
 It is an universal principle of colonial law, 
 that all black or coloured persons are presumed 
 and taken to be slaves, unless they can legally 
 prove the contrary. The liberty, therefore, even 
 of free persons, is thus often greatly endangered, 
 and sometimes lost. They are liable to be ap- 
 prehended as run-away slaves, and to be sold 
 into endless bondage as such, if they fail to do 
 that which though free, nay, though born perhaps 
 in Great Britain itself, they may be unable to do 
 namely, to establish the fact of their freedom 
 by such evidence as the colonial laws require. 
 
 Many thousand infants are annually born 
 within the British dominions to no inheritance 
 but that of the hapless, hopeless servitude which 
 has been described ; and the general oppressive* 
 
 D
 
 ABO 34 
 
 ness of which might be inferred from this strik- 
 ing and most opprobrious fact alone, that while 
 in the United States of America the slaves in- 
 crease rapidly so rapidly as to double their 
 number in 20 years there is, even now, in the 
 British colonies, no increase, but on the con- 
 trary a diminution of their numbers. 
 
 The more immediate objects of the society 
 are, to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, 
 and to facilitate the means by which they may 
 obtain their freedom, and for the accomplish- 
 ment of these intentions : 
 To remove all the existing obstructions to the 
 
 manumission of slaves ; 
 To cause the slaves to cease to be chattels in 
 
 the eye of the law ; 
 
 To prevent their removal, as slaves, from colony 
 to colony, and, under certain modifications, 
 their sale or transfer, except with the land to 
 which they might be attached ; 
 To abolish markets and compulsory labour on 
 the Sunday ; and to make that day a day of 
 rest, as well as of religious worship and in- 
 struction ; and also to secure to the slaves 
 equivalent time in each week, in lieu of Sun- 
 day, and in addition to any time which in- 
 dependently of Sunday is now afforded them, 
 for cultivating their provision grounds ; 
 To protect the slaves, by law, in the possession 
 and transmission of the property they may 
 thus, or in any other way, acquire ; 
 To enable the slave to purchase his freedom, by 
 the payment at once of a fair price for his re- 
 demption, or of a fifth part of that price 
 at a time, in return for an additional day 
 in the week to be employed for his own bene- 
 fit; 
 
 To make the testimony of slaves available in 
 courts of justice, both in civil and criminal 
 cases ; 
 
 To relieve all negros and persons of colour 
 from the burden of legally proving their free- 
 dom, when brought into question, and to 
 throw on the claimant of their persons the 
 burden of legally proving his right to them ; 
 To provide the means of religious instruction 
 for the black and coloured population, and 
 of Christian education for their children ; 
 To institute marriage among the slaves ; and to 
 protect that state from violation, and from 
 either forcible or voluntary disruption ; 
 To put an end to the driving system ; 
 To put an end also to the arbitrary punishment 
 of slaves, and to place their persons as well as 
 
 property under the guardianship of the law ; 
 
 To provide that all children born after a certain 
 dav shall be free, care being taken of their 
 education and maintenance until they shall 
 be capable of acting for themselves ; 
 To provide that no colonial governor, judge 
 attorney-general, or fiscal, shall be a pos- 
 sessor of slaves, or shall have a direct and 
 obvious reversionary interest in such property, 
 or shall be the agent of the proprietors of 
 slaves. 
 
 The society has further proposed, that the 
 final extinction of slavery should be accom- 
 plished, by the redemption of all females from 
 tlie lowest age, to about 40 ; by which means, 
 
 ABO 
 
 all their posterity would be born free. The 
 cost of this measure is estimated at 300,000 ; 
 but should parliament refuse to accede to this, 
 or some other effective plan, the society trust 
 that their object will nevertheless be obtained, 
 by bringing free labour into competition with 
 slave labour ; so that the latter shall become of 
 so little value as to be not worth retaining. The 
 parent society is supported by many auxiliaries, 
 not fewer than 250 of which are in active opera- 
 tion in various parts of the kingdom ; and if 
 they continue to proceed with the energy that 
 has hitherto marked their progress, there can be 
 little doubt but that they will finally succeed in 
 a cause, in which, truth, justice, and every noble 
 principle of human nature, as well as the dic- 
 tates of religion, are arrayed on their side. 
 
 ABOLLA, from the Lat. bulla, Roman or- 
 naments, or from the Gr. a/i/3o\jj ava/3o\?j, cloth- 
 ing, a warm kind of garment, lined or doubled, 
 worn by the Greeks and Romans, chiefly out of 
 the city, in following the camp. Abolla seems 
 to have stood opposed to the toga, which was a 
 garment of peace, as the abolla was of war. 
 Kings appear to have used it, and Caligula was 
 jealous of the notice attracted by king Ptolemy 
 for appearing at the shows in a purple one. 
 It was also worn by judges in the execution 
 of their office, whence the phrase of Juvenal : 
 'Facinora majores abolla.' Mart, viii. 46. v. 1. 
 ABOMASUM, or ABOMASIUM, names of the 
 fourth stomach of ruminating animals. It is in 
 the abomasus of calves and lambs, that the 
 runnet, or earning, is formed, wherewith milk is 
 curdled. See COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 
 
 ABOMEY, the capital of Dahomey, on the 
 Slave Coast of Africa, E. of Ashantee, about 
 100 miles from the sea. It consists of mud 
 houses and huts scattered over a large area, and 
 surrounded by a broad and deep ditch. The king's 
 palaces, of which he has two within the town 
 and one in the suburbs, are said to be ornamented 
 in various parts with human skulls. Cotton is 
 manufactured here with some success, and the 
 colours used in dying it, are both bright and 
 permanent. 
 
 ABOMINATE, v.-\ Ab : ominor, to turn 
 ABOM'INABLE, / away from, as from an 
 ABOM'INABLENESS, \evil omen; to deprecate 
 ABOM'INABLY, i an ill omen ; to turn 
 ABOMINA'TION. j away from, with loath- 
 ing and detestation ; to hate utterly, to execrate. 
 
 Thei knowlochen that thei knowen God ; but bi 
 dedis thei denyen whanne thei ben abominable, and 
 unbileeful, and reprenable to all good werk. 
 
 Widif. Tyte. chap. 1. 
 
 Al whom therfore by the whole thousande on an 
 heape (for no fewer he nombreth them) dothe thys 
 dywelyshe dronken soule abomynably blaspheme, and 
 calleth them lyars and falsefiers of scripture, maketh 
 them no better then draffe. 
 
 Sir Thomas Mwe's Work, p. 679 
 
 I abhor such phanatical phantasms, such insoci- 
 able and point-devise companions, such rackers of 
 orthography, as do speak dout fine, when he should 
 say doubt ; det, when he should pronounce debt ; 
 d, e, b, t, not d, e, t. He clepcth a calf, cauf, 
 half, hauf : neighbour, vocatur nebour ; neigh abbre- 
 viated ne ; this is abhominable, which he would call
 
 ABO 
 
 abtiominable : it insinuateth me of insanie. Ne in- 
 telligis Domine, to make frantick,lunatick ? 
 
 Shakspeare's Love's Labour Lost. 
 Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, 
 Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 
 Abominable, inutterable, and worse 
 Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, 
 Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, b. ii. 
 This infernal pit 
 Abominable, accurs'd, the house of woe. Milton. 
 
 Pride goes hated, cursed, and abominated by all. 
 
 Hammond. 
 
 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, 
 which were on the right hand of the mount of Cor- 
 ruption, which Solomon, the king of Israel, had 
 builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, 
 and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, 
 and for Milcom the abomination of the children of 
 Ammon, did the king defile. 2 Kings, xxiii. 13. 
 
 The queen and ministry might easily redress this 
 abominable grievance, by endeavouring to choose men 
 of virtuous principles. 
 
 Swift's Project for the Advancement of Religion. 
 
 Covetousness is idolatry, that the love of money 
 is the root of -all evil, that it has occasioned in some 
 even the shipwreck of their faith, and is always, in 
 whomsoever it obtains, an abomination. 
 
 Cowper's Letters 
 
 ABON, ABONA, or ABOXIS, from abbon, or 
 avon, Celt, a river, the ancient name of a river 
 : n Britain, supposed to be the Avon ; also a 
 town in Albion, supposed by Camden to be 
 Abingdon, and by others, who argue from the 
 distance, (9 miles from Venta Silurum) to be 
 Porshut, upon Avon, opposite Bristol. 
 
 ABONY, a flourishing Hungarian settlement, 
 in the Ketskemet and county of Pest. 
 
 ABORIGINES. The term aborigines, though 
 now an appellative, was originally a proper 
 name given only to a people of Italy, who 
 inhabited ancient Latium. St. Jerome says, 
 they were so called, as being, absque origine, 
 the primitive planters of the country after the 
 flood ; Aurelius Victor, that they were called 
 Aborigines, q. d. Aberrigines, from ab, from, 
 and errare, to wander ; as ha'ving been before a 
 wandering people. The term in fact signifies, of 
 unknown origin ; and has therefore in ancient 
 and modern times described the oldest inha- 
 pitants of any country. 
 
 ABORT', a. & n. Ab : orior, to rise from ; 
 
 ABOR'TIOX, ^ to arise out of season; 
 
 ABORSE'MEXT, f to bring forth premature- 
 
 ABOR'TIVE, { ly, or before the time ; to 
 
 ABOR'TIVELY, \ miscarry ; to fail in bring- 
 
 ABORT MEXT. ing to perfection. 
 
 Of these words abortion and abortive only are 
 in present use. They are all applied to animal 
 and vegetable productions, and to imperfect or 
 unsuccessful mental operations. 
 
 Thou eluish mark'd abortive rooting hogge, 
 
 Thou that wast seal'd in thy natiuitie 
 
 The slaue of nature, and the sonne of hell. 
 
 Shakspeare's Richard III. act i. sc. 3. 
 How often hast thou waited at my cup, 
 Remember it, and let it make thee crest-fall'n ; 
 Ay, and allay this thy abortive pride. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI. p. ii. 
 
 35 ABO 
 
 All tli' unaccomplished works of nature's hand, 
 Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd, 
 Dissolv'd on earth, fleet hither. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lett, b. iii. 1. 456. 
 The void profound 
 
 Of unessential night receives him next, 
 Wide-gaping ; and with utter loss of being 
 Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf. 
 
 Idem, b. ii. 1. 451. 
 
 Concealed treasures, now lost to mankind, shall be 
 brought into use by the industry of converted peni- 
 tents, whose wretched carcases the impartial laws 
 dedicate, as untimely feasts, to the worms of the 
 earth, in whose womb those deserted mineral riches 
 must ever lie buried as lost abortments, unless those 
 be made the active midwives to deliver them. 
 
 Bacon's Physical Remains. 
 
 Many politic conceptions, so elaborately formed 
 and wrought, and grown at length ripe for delivery, 
 do yet, in the issue, miscarry and prove abortive. 
 
 South' s Sermons 
 Nor will his fruit expect 
 
 Th' autumnal season, but, in summer's pride ; 
 When other orchards smile, abortive fail. Phillips. 
 Behold my arm thus blasted, dry, and wither'd, 
 Shrunk like a foul abortion, and decay'd, 
 Like some untimely product of the seasons. Howe, 
 
 ABORTION, in midwifery, the exclusion of 
 a foetus before it has acquired a sufficient de- 
 gree of perfection to enable it to perform respira- 
 tion and the other vital functions. See MID- 
 WIFERY. 
 
 ABORTIVE CORN, a distemper of corn men- 
 tioned by M. Gillet, and suspected to be occa- 
 sioned by insects. It appears long before harvest, 
 and may be known by a deformity of the stalk, 
 the leaves, the ear, and even the grain. 
 
 ABORTIVE VELLUM, is made of the skin of an 
 abortive calf. 
 
 ABOU-HANIFET, in Mahometan theology, 
 a doctor and founder of a sect in the 8th century, 
 who was imprisoned and died at Bagdad, A.D. 
 757, for his denial of predestination. His fol- 
 lowers became numerous, and a mausoleum was 
 built by one of the caliphs to his memory. 
 
 ABOUILLONA, or ABELLIONTE, a lake, is- 
 land, and town of Asiatic Turkey, at the foot of 
 Olympus, and supposed to contain the scite of the 
 ancient Apollonia. Itis distant eight miles, and a 
 stream called Lupat communicates from the W. 
 of the lake to the sea of Marmora. 
 
 ABOUKIR, a town of Egypt, 10 miles N.E. 
 of Alexandria, between the sea, and the lake 
 Mareotis. It is the ancient Canopus, according 
 to M. Savary, and stands upon a ridge of rocks 
 which communicates with Aboukir, a small island, 
 about a league from the town, mentioned by 
 Pliny and Strabo. 
 
 ABOUKIR BAY, formed by the same ridge of 
 rocks, offered the best landing place which Sir 
 Ralph Abercrombie could select for the disem- 
 barkation of the British army in 1801, (see 
 Abercrombie,) and is distinguished in the British 
 annals as the scene of the memorable battle of 
 the Nile, (or of Aboukir,) fought by our intrepid 
 NELSOX, 1st of August, 1798. 
 
 ABOULFEDA, (Ismael,) prince of Hamah in 
 Syria, one of the most celebrated of the Arabian 
 geographers and historians. He was born at 
 Damascus in 1 273, and soon became distinguished
 
 ABO 
 
 36 
 
 ABR 
 
 by his learning. In 1321 he wrote an important 
 geographical work, which Graevius published in 
 London, in 1660. He wrote also the lives of 
 Mahomet and Saladin ; the former was printed 
 at. Oxford in 1723, and the latter at Ley den in 
 1 732. His Annals of Mahometanism, a work in 
 high estimation, was published with a Latin ver- 
 sion at Copenhagen, in 5 vols. 4to. in 1789 
 1794. He was a soldier as well as a scholar, 
 and served in several expeditions with his father; 
 was present at the storming of Tripoli in 1289, 
 and in 1291 at the capture of Acre, distinguishing 
 himself as well by his skill as his bravery. He 
 died in 1331. Professor White gives several 
 chapters of extracts from Abulfeda in his 
 Pocock's Specimen Hist. Arabum, Oxon. 1806. 
 ABOULOLA, (Ahmed,) an eminent Arabian 
 poet, blind, like our great Milton ; but esteemed 
 one of the principal ornaments of his country. 
 He was born A.D. 973, and died 1057. 
 
 ABOUTIGE, or ABUTIGE, a market-town in 
 Upper Egypt, near the Nile, where quantities 
 of poppies grow, of which the natives make the 
 best opium in the Levant. It was formerly the 
 abotis of Stephanas. 
 
 ABOVE', prep, and adv. Ang. Sax. bufan, 
 be-ufan ; top or head. Written variously by 
 our older writers. It designates the upper or 
 uppermost, and is much used as a prefix in 
 composition. 
 
 And God sent him tokenyng on nyght als he slepe, 
 Dat he suld fynd a palmere orly at morn, 
 At pe south zate, alone as he was born, 
 And if he wild praie him, for Jhesu Crite's loue, 
 He wild dope bataile, and pe suld be aboue. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 32. 
 
 But one thing yet there is aboue all other 
 I gaue him winges, wherewith he might up flie 
 To honour and fame ; and if he would to hygher 
 Then mortal things aboue the starry skye. Wyatt. 
 Descend from Heav'n, Urania, by that name 
 If rightly thou art call'd, whose voice divine 
 Following, above th' Olympian hill I soar 
 Above the flight of Pegasean wing. Milton. 
 
 The inhabitants of Tirol have many privileges 
 above those of the other hereditary countries of the 
 emperor. Addison. 
 
 True dignity is his, whose tranquil mind 
 Virtue has raised above the things below ; 
 Who, every hope and fear to heaven resigned, 
 Shrinks not, though Fortune aim her deadliest blow. 
 
 Seattle's Minstrel. 
 
 ABOUND', v.-v Abundo, ab: from undo, 
 
 ABOUND'ING, fa wave. A metaphor derived 
 
 ABUN'DANCE, \fromwaterwhenit exceeds 
 
 ABUN'DANT. I the bounds which should 
 
 ABUN'DANTLY,.) contain its stream. Hence, 
 
 to overflow ; to be rich ; to have in great plenty. 
 
 And, brethren, we preien ghou, that ghe knowe 
 
 hem that traucilen among ghou, and ben souereyns to 
 
 ghou in the lord, and techen ghou that ghe haue hem 
 
 aboundauntli in charite, and for the werk of hem 
 
 haue ghe pees with hem. Wiclif. 1 Tessal. chap. v. 
 
 For well I wot, most mighty sovereign, 
 
 That all this famous antique history, 
 
 Of some th' abundance of an idle brain 
 
 Will judged be, and painted forgery. Spemer. 
 
 Good, the more 
 
 Communicated, more abundant grows ; 
 The author not impair'd ; but honour'd more. 
 
 Paradise Lost, b. v. 
 
 God on thee 
 
 Abundantly his gifts hath also pour'd . 
 Inward and outward both, his image fair. 
 
 Paradise Lost, b. vnt, 
 
 Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving 
 creature that hath life. Genesis i. 20. 
 
 Their chief enterprise was the recovery of the 
 Holy Land ; in which worthy, but extremely diffi- 
 cult action, it is lamentable to remember what abun- 
 dance of noble blood hath been shed, with very small 
 benefit unto the Christian state. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh'i Essays. 
 At the whisper of thy word, 
 Crown 'd abundance spreads my board. Craihaw 
 
 Circles are prais'd, not that abound 
 In largeness, but the' exactly bound : 
 So life we praise that does excel, 
 Not in much time, but acting well. Waller 
 
 '1'ne doubled charge his subjects' love supplies ; 
 Who, 'in that bounty, to themselves are kind : 
 So glad Egyptians see their Nilus rise ; 
 And, in his plenty, their abundance find. 
 
 Dryd. Ann. tfvr. 
 
 Heroic poetry has ever been esteemed the greatest 
 work of human nature. In that rank has Aristotle 
 placed it ; and Longinus is so full of the like expres- 
 sions, that he abundantly confirms the other's testi- 
 mony. Dryd. State of Innocence, pref. 
 The river Inn is shut up between mountains covered 
 with woods of fir-trees. Abundance of peasants are 
 employed in hewing down the largest of these trees ; 
 that, after they are barked and cut into shape, are 
 tumbled down. Addis, on Italy. 
 If the Prophecies have been fulfilled (of which 
 there is abundant demonstration) the Scripture must 
 be the word of God ; and if the Scripture is the w.ord 
 of God, Christianity must be true. Cowper's Letters. 
 
 ABOUT', prep, and adv. Saxon abuba, on 
 bu-ja, or on bot>a. The first limit or boundary 
 of any thing. It also implies approximation to 
 other things. About was also used like a verb 
 in the imperative mood, and is so still in nautical 
 phraseology. In this sense it is derived imme- 
 diately from the French a-bout, a verb being 
 understood. 
 
 Goggomagog was a geand swibe grete and strong, 
 Aboute four and twenti fet me seib he was long. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p. 22. 
 
 Gold hath these natures : greatness of weight ; 
 closeness of parts ; fixation ; pliantness, or softness ; 
 immunity from rust ; colour, or tincture of yellow : 
 Therefore the sure way (though most about) to make 
 gold, is to know the causes of the several natures 
 before rehearsed. Bacon's Natural Hist. No. 328. 
 
 About him all the sanctities of Heav'n 
 Stood thick as stars, and from his sight receiv'd 
 Beatitude past utt'rance. Milton. 
 
 My brain, about again ; for thou hast found 
 New projects now to work upon. Iron Age. 1632. 
 Children should always be heard, and fairly and 
 kindly answered, when they ask after any thing they 
 would know, and desire to be informed about. Cu- 
 riosity should be as carefully cherished in children, 
 as other appetites suppressed. Locke. 
 
 Even in the hour of death, he (the good man) 
 considers the pains of his dissolution to be nothing 
 else than the breaking down of that partition which 
 stands betwixt his soul, and the sight of that being 
 who is always present, and is about to display himself 
 to him in fulness of joy. Spectator. 
 
 ABRA, a silver coin of Poland, formerly
 
 ABR 
 
 37 
 
 ABR 
 
 worth about one shilling sterling, also a coin of 
 Poland of the value of three half-pence. 
 
 ABRA, an island of the Southern Ocean, in 
 the straits of Magellan, at the entrance of the 
 passage, as it is called. 
 
 ABRABANEL, ABARBANEL, or AVRAVANEL, 
 (Isaac,) a celebrated rabbi, born at Lisbon, in 
 1437, and said to be descended from king David. 
 He was counsellor to Alphonso V, and after- 
 wards to Ferdinand I. but was obliged to leave 
 Portugal along with his brethren Jews, in 1492. 
 Though he was an avowed enemy to Christianity 
 in his writings, yet he treated Christians with 
 politeness. The Jews called him the sage, the 
 prince, and the great politician. He wrote a 
 commentary on the Old Testament, which is 
 scarce ; a Treatise on the Creation, wherein he 
 refutes Aristotle's notion of the eternity of the 
 world ; another on the prophecies relating to the 
 Messiah, against the Christians ; with a work 
 concerning articles of Faith, and some others of 
 less importance. He died at Venice in 1508, 
 aged 71. 
 
 ABRACADABRA, is said to have been the 
 name of a god worshipped by the Syrians, and 
 was recommended as a magical antidote against 
 agues and fevers. It was written in a kind of 
 inverted cone, omitting the last letter of the 
 former every time it was repeated : thus, 
 a/3paica<Ja/3pa 
 
 afip 
 
 Saft 
 
 a ft p a K a S 
 
 a ft p a K a 
 
 a ft p a K 
 
 a ft p a 
 
 ABRADATES, in ancient history, a king of 
 Susa who surrendered himself to Cyrus, and was 
 killed in battle for the Persian cause. Xenoph. 
 Cyrop. v. 
 
 ABRAHAM, GPTDK, Heb. i. e. Father of 
 a great multitude, the youngest son of Terah, 
 and the 10th in descent from Noah, founder of 
 the Jewish nation. One fourth of the book of 
 Genesis i occupied with his history ; and to its 
 ample and authentic details we refer the reader. 
 In the first ages of Christianity, the Sethians 
 dispersed a work entitled Abraham's Revelation; 
 and a work on the Creation, ascribed to him, 
 which is mentioned in the Talmud, was printed 
 at Paris in 1552 : Rittangel, a converted Jew, 
 professor at Konigsberg, published it with re- 
 marks, in 1642. 
 
 ABRAHAM, (Nicholas,) a learned Jesuit, of Lor- 
 rain, born in 1589, and seventeen years professor 
 of Divinity in the university of Pont-a-Mousson. 
 He wrote a Collection of Theological pieces in 
 folio, entitled Pharus Veteris Testamenti ; Notes 
 on "V irgil and Nonnius ; a Commentary on some 
 of Cicero's Orations, in 2 vols. folio, and other 
 works. 
 
 ABRAHAMIANS, or ABRAHAMITES, a sect 
 of monks, in the 9th century, who were exter- 
 minated by Theophilus for worshipping images ; 
 Jso a sect which, in the 8th century, renewed 
 
 the errors of Pau JLS ; but were suppressed by 
 Cyriacus, patriarch of Antioch. 
 
 ABRAM'S CREEK, a river of North America, 
 entering the Hudson, about 4 miles from the 
 city of that name, in the state of New York. 
 
 ABRAMIS, in ichthyology, the Cyprinus latus, 
 or bream. 
 
 ABRANTES, a town of Portugal, in Estre- 
 madura, seated on the Tajus, and giving name 
 to a marquisate. It is surrounded with gardens 
 and olive yards, and occupies a most romantic 
 situation. Distant 45 miles E. of Lisbon. 
 
 ABRASA, in medicine, ulcers attended with 
 abrasion of part of the substance, or where the 
 skin is so tender as to be subject to ABRASION. 
 
 ABRASAX, or ABRAXAS, the name given to 
 the Deity by the Basilidian heretics, and com- 
 posed of Greek numerals, which amount to the 
 number 365. For Basilides taught that there 
 were 365 heavens between the Empyrean heaven 
 and the earth ; each of which had its angel that 
 created it, and each of whom again was created 
 by the next superior angel, thus ascending by a 
 scale to the supreme Creator. Some authors 
 allege that the Basilidians concealed the doctrine 
 of the Trinity, under this word, and that the 
 initials a, ft, p, stand for the Hebrew words Ab, 
 Ben, Rouah, i. e. Father, Son, and Spirit. Win- 
 delin, of Tournay, improving upon this, explains 
 the whole word thus, 
 
 A Ab Pater 1 
 
 B Ben Filius 2 
 
 P Rouah Kakadosh Spiritus Sanctus 100 
 
 A AvflpwTrec homines 1 
 
 S 2u>wv salvans 200 
 
 A Ayiw per sacrum 1 
 
 S EfXw lignum 60 
 
 365 
 
 It is also frequently put for the stone, or medal, 
 on which the word was engraved. 
 
 ABRASION, in medicine, the wearing away, 
 or paring off, superficial ulcerations. 
 
 ABRAUM, in natural history, a popular name 
 for a species of red clay, used in England 
 by the cabinet-makers, &c. to give a red colow 
 to new mahogany wood. 
 
 ABREAST, a maritime phrase, signifying 
 side by side, or even opposite to ; and used to 
 denote ships lying, or sailing, with their sides 
 parallel to each other. It has a more particular 
 reference to the line of battle at sea. When the 
 line is formed abreast, the whole squadron ad- 
 vances uniformly and evenly ; the commander-in- 
 chief being always stationed in the centre, and 
 the ships equi-distant from each other. Abreasc 
 of any place, signifies being opposite to it. In 
 the interior of the ship, abreast means to be on. 
 the starboard or larboard side of the main hatch- 
 way, in opposition to afore or abaft the hatch 
 way. 
 
 ABREAST. See BREAST. 
 ABREIRO, a market-town of Trast-los- 
 Montes, in Portugal, comprehending a district 
 of ten parishes, belonging "to the Villa-Real 
 family. 
 
 ABRENTIUS, in ancient history, the govern c r 
 of Tarentum, appointed by Hannibal, who gave 
 up that city to the Romans at the instigation of 
 a beautiful woman.
 
 ABR 
 
 38 
 
 ABRETTINE, in ancient 
 of Mysia, in Asia, from 
 whidTthe epithet Abrettenus was given to 
 Jupiter. Strabo. 
 
 ABREUVOIR, in military affairs, a tank to 
 receive water in the case of encampment; also, 
 small trenches in stone quarries to carry off the 
 
 ABRI, in military affairs, shelter, or protec- 
 tion, as that derived from a wood, &c. 
 ABRIDGE', v.-) Abreger, Fr. from the G 
 ABRIDG'ER, > man Brechen, to break. Sax. 
 ABRIDGMENT. 3 Abraeccan, nearly synommous 
 with abbreviate; to shorten, to lessen, to give the 
 same substance, or that portion of- it which may 
 be considered necessary in less compass than 
 the original, to make an abstract. 
 
 Largesse it is, whose .priuilege 
 There maie no auarice abrege. 
 
 Gower Con. A. b. vii. 
 
 Surely this commandment containeth the law and 
 the prophets ; and, in this one word, is the abridge- 
 ment of all volume* of Scripture. Hooker, b. ii. sec. 5. 
 THES. Say, what abridgment have you for this 
 
 evening ? 
 
 What mask ? what musick ? how shall we beguile 
 The lazy time, if not with some delight ? 
 PHILOST. There is a brief, how many sports are 
 
 ripe ; 
 
 Make choice of which your highness will see first. 
 Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 I have disabled mine estate, 
 By shewing something a more swelling port, 
 Than my faint means would grant continuance ; 
 Nor do I now make moan, to be abridg'd 
 From such a noble rate. Shaksp. Merchant of Venice. 
 After thou hadst drawn that large and real map of 
 the world, thou didst thus abridge it into this little 
 table of man : he alone consists of heaven and earth, 
 soul and body. Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 They were formerly, by the common law, dis- 
 charged from pontage and murage ; but this privilege 
 has been abridged them since, by several statutes. 
 
 Ayliffe's Parergon Juris Canonici. 
 It is not barely a man's abridgment in his exter- 
 nal accommodations which makes him miserable ; but 
 when his conscience shall tell him that it was his sin 
 and his folly which brought him under that abridgment. 
 
 South. 
 
 Idolatry is certainly the first-born of folly, the great 
 and leading paradox ; nay the very abridgment and 
 sum total of all absurdities. South's Sermons. 
 
 All trying, by a love of littleness, 
 To make abridgments, and to draw to less 
 Even that nothing, which at first we were. Donne. 
 The constant desire of happiness, and the con- 
 straint it puts upon us, no body (I think) accounts an 
 abridgment of liberty ; or at least an abridgment of 
 liberty to be complained of. Locke. 
 
 ABROACH', v. and adv. Sax. Abrtzcan, to 
 break. To abroach, or broach a vessel, is to 
 break into it, to tap it, to prepare to draw off its 
 contents. Hence figuratively, to commence, to 
 set any thing going. Broach has also a different 
 signification, which see under the word. 
 
 From when had you this doctrine M. Hardinge ? 
 who set it first abrochc ? who taught it ? who conrm- 
 ed it ? who allowed it ? 
 
 Jewel's Defence of the Apologie. 
 
 Let but some upstart heresy be set abroach, and 
 
 presently there are some out of a curious hnmour ; 
 
 others, as if they watched ap occasion of singularity, 
 
 ABR 
 
 will take It up for canonical, and make it part of their 
 creed and profession. 
 
 Bishop Wilkins's Discovery of a new WorM. 
 
 The jars of gen'rous wine 
 He set abroach, and for the feast prepar'd 
 
 Dryd. Virgil. 
 
 Hast thou no friend to set thy mind abroach ? 
 Good sense will stagnate. Thoughts shut up want 
 
 air 
 And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun. 
 
 Young's Complaint, night ii. 
 
 ABROAD', adv. Broad from the Ang. Sax. 
 Broedan, Abrcedan, to broaden, enlarge, extend. 
 The orthography of this word differs among 
 ancient writers. See the following authorities. 
 Opposed to home, or at home. 
 
 With thulke stroc he smot al of the scolle and ek 
 
 the croune, 
 
 That the brain orn al abrod in the pauiment their 
 doune. -R. Gloucester, p. 476. 
 
 Ane felloun rusche it maid and sound withal] 
 And large on brede ouer Grekis routes did fal. 
 
 Douglas, b. ii. p. 54. 
 
 Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home 
 And so am come abroad to see the world. 
 
 Shakspeare's T. Shrew. 
 
 On cherubim and seraphim full royally he rode, 
 And on the wings of mighty winds came flying all 
 abroad. Sternhold. 
 
 Intermit no watch 
 
 Against a wakeful foe ; while I abroad, 
 Thro' all the coasts of dark destruction, seek 
 Deliverance. Milton's Par. Lost, b. ii. 1. 463. 
 Again the lonely fox roams far abroad, 
 On secret rapine bent, and midnight fraud ; 
 Now haunts the cliff, now traverses the lawn, 
 And flies the hated neighbourhood of man. Prior. 
 
 Welcome, Sir ! 
 
 This cell's my court ; here have I few attendants, 
 And subjects none abroad. Shaksp. Tempest. 
 
 Lady walked a whole hour abroad, without 
 
 dying after it. Pope's Letters. 
 
 What learn our youth abroad, but to refine 
 The homely vices of their native land ? 
 
 Dryd. Span. Friar. 
 
 He who sojourns in a foreign country, refers what 
 he sees and hears abroad, to the state of things at 
 home. Atterb. Serm. 
 
 We have no slaves at home. Why then abroad ? 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 ABROCHMENT, or ABROCAMENTUM, in old 
 law. See ABBROCHMENT. 
 
 AB'ROGATE, ) Ab rogo : Rogare legem, 
 
 ABROGATION, $ or facere rogationem populi, 
 among the Romans, to propose a new law to 
 the people in order to obtain their sanction to its 
 passing. A successful application to the same 
 authority was essential to the repeal of a law ; 
 hence also, abrogare legem ; conformably to the 
 latter usage, to unmake, repeal, annul, or make 
 void, are the significations in English. 
 
 Besides this all estatutes made by king Edward 
 were clerely reuoked, abrogated, and made frustrate. 
 
 Hall, p. 286. 
 
 I do not abrogate the grace of God, for if righteous- 
 ncsse be by the law, then Christ died without a 
 cause. Geneva Bible, 1561. Gal. chap. ii. v. 21. 
 
 Laws have been made, upon special occasions ; 
 which occasions ceasing, laws of that kind do abro- 
 gate themselves. Hooker, b. iv. sec. 14. 
 The negative precepts of men may cease by many 
 instruments , by contrary customs, by public disrelish.
 
 ABR 
 
 39 
 
 ABS 
 
 by long omission : but the negative precepts of God 
 never can cease, but when they are expressly abro- 
 gated by the same authority. 
 
 Taylor's Rule of Living Holy. 
 
 The commissioners from the confederate Roman 
 catholics demanded the abrogation and repeal of all 
 those laws, which were in force against the exercise 
 of the Roman religion. Clarend. b. viii. 
 
 ABROHANNI, ABROANI, or MALLEMOLLI, 
 a kind of muslin, or clear, white, fine cotton cloth, 
 brought from the East Indies, particularly from 
 Bengal. 
 
 ABROLHOS, or ABROI.KOS, dangerous shoals 
 about fifty miles from the coast of Brazil, and 
 near the Island of St. Barbe. Their centre is in 
 lat. 17, 51'. S. Long. 39, 18'. W, 
 
 ABROMA, in botany, a genus of the class 
 polyadelphia, and order dodecandria. It has 
 been denominated Indian flax, as being excellent 
 for making cordage. The fibres are interwoven 
 with the bark, and are remarkably beautiful, fine, 
 and strong. To procure their separation from 
 the parenchymatous substance, they are mace- 
 rated in water from four to eight days. The 
 world owes to Dr. Roxburgh this important dis- 
 covery. See his paper on the subject in Memoirs 
 of the Society of Arts for 1804. 
 
 ABRON, a river of France, entering the Loire, 
 between Avril and Lamotte. 
 
 ABRONO, or ABRUGI, in botany, a name 
 given by Serapion and others to the hearts ease. 
 
 ABROTANUM, in botany. See ARTEMISIA 
 and SANTOLINA. 
 
 ABROTANOIDES, in natural history, a coral 
 in the form of the abrotanum. 
 
 ABROTONUM, in ancient geography, a 
 town on the Mediterranean, in the district of 
 Syrtis Parva, in Africa. 
 
 ABRUG-BANYA, a populous town in Tran- 
 sylvania, on the river Ompay, 21 miles above 
 Alba Julia. There are mines of gold and silver 
 near it, and the mine court was formerly held in 
 it. It is the chief of what are called the Metal 
 towns. 
 
 ABRUGI. See ABRONO. 
 
 ABRUPT', adj.-\ Ab : rumpo, ruptum, to 
 
 ABRUP'TION, (break off, or away from. 
 
 ABRUPT'LY, Broken off from. These 
 
 ABRUPTNESS J words express or imply sud- 
 den, violent, or unexpected separation of a part 
 from the whole. 
 
 Pardon, if my abruptnnse breed disease ; 
 " He merits not t' offend that hastes to please." 
 
 Jonson. 
 
 The devel he is a spirit, and hath means and op- 
 portunitie to mingle himselfe with our spirits, and 
 sometimes more slily, sometimes more abruptly and 
 openly, to suggest devellish thoughts into our hearts. 
 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. 
 Abrupt, with eagle-speed, she cut the sky ; 
 Instant invisible to mortal eye. 
 
 Pope's Homer's Odyssey, b. i. 
 Abrupt and horrid as the tempest roars, 
 Thunder and flash upon the steadfast shores, 
 Till he, that rides the -whirlwind, checks the 
 
 rein, 
 Then all the world of waters sleeps again. 
 
 Cowper's Retirement. 
 
 AHRUS, in botany, the trivial name of the 
 GLYCIXE. See GLYCINE. 
 
 ABRUZZO, a mountainous province of Na- 
 ples, bounded on the E. by the gulph of Venice ; 
 on the N. and W. by Ancona, Umbria and the 
 Campagna of Rome; and on the S. by the 
 Terra di Lavora and Molise. It is divided into 
 two parts by the river Pescara, called Ulteriore 
 and Citeriore. The former has Aquila, and the 
 latter Sulmona, for its capital. The country, 
 though cold, is fertile in corn, rice, fruits, saffron, 
 vines and olives. The rice of Teramo is little 
 inferior to that of Lombardy. A great deal of it 
 is exported, as well as of oil, wines, and Turkey 
 wheat; but the staple commodity is wool, the 
 greatest part of which is sent off unwrought, 
 there being no woollen manufactures in the pro- 
 vince, except two small ones of coarse cloth. 
 The sheep, after spending the summer on the 
 mountains, are brought down to pass the winter 
 in the warm plains of Puglia, and some other 
 places on the coast, where the snow does not 
 lie. This whole coast, one hundred miles in 
 length, is utterly destitute of sea-ports ; and the 
 only spots where the produce can be embarked 
 are dangerous inconvenient roads, at the mouths 
 of rivers and along a lee shore. Villages, castles, 
 and feudatory estates, are to be met with in 
 abundance ; but the numbers of their inhabitants 
 are to be reckoned by hundreds, not thousands : 
 the political and social system being here wholly 
 in decay. Monte-corno and Mayallo are among 
 the most interesting natural features of the pro- 
 vince ; the first evidently contains many valuable 
 veins of metallic ore ; but the great difficulty of 
 access renders the search of them almost im- 
 practicable. Mayallo has other merits, and of a 
 gayer kind. Nature has clothed its declivities 
 and elevated fields with an infinite variety of her 
 most precious plants ; vulnerary herbs grow there 
 in as great perfection as on the Alps of Switzer- 
 land, and are applied by the natives to wounds 
 with equal success. The warlike nations, who 
 descended hither from the north, have left many 
 traces of their customs and languages, as well as 
 numerous monumental inscriptions ; and the in- 
 habitants^ are said to differ remarkably from the 
 more southern Neapolitans. 
 
 ABSCESS, in surgery, from abscedo, to depart : 
 a cavity containing pus, or, a gathering of 
 matter ; so called, because the parts which were 
 joined are now separated; one part receding 
 from another, to make way for the collected 
 matter. See SURGERY. 
 
 ABSCIND', v. ) Ab : scindo, to cut off or 
 
 ABSCIS'SION. $ away from. Applied na- 
 turally, and to operations in surgery, &c. 
 figuratively in medicine, astrology, rhetoric, and 
 divinity. 
 
 Fabricius ab Aquapendente renders the abscission 
 of them difficult enough, and not without danger. 
 
 Wiseman's Surgery. 
 
 By cessation of oracles, with Montacutius, we may 
 understand this intercision, not abscission or consum- 
 mate desolation. 'Brown's Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 12. 
 
 When two syllables likewise are abscinded from the 
 rest, they evidently want some associate sounds to 
 make them harmonious Rambler. 
 
 ABSCISSE, or ABSCISSA, m mathematics, 
 part of the diameter or transverse axis of a conic 
 section, intercepted between the vertex, or some
 
 ABS 
 
 other fixed point and a semiordinate. 
 
 40 ABS 
 
 In a more Ireland who reside in England or on the conti- 
 
 of land- 
 
 , exagge- 
 
 ABS ION m asttology, is when one planet rated ; they 'have been said to contribute nothing 
 oumrins anomer, and joins a third before it, and to the good government or prosperity, and to consti- 
 ff th 1 ht of the first tutealtogetheranunnaturalandoppressive burden 
 ! A U n rhetoric a 'figure of speech on the resources of a country. Taxes on absen- 
 wherebv the o'rator stopping short in the middle teeship trom Ireland were, for a length of time, 
 of Ms dscouL leaves the audience to draw therefore, popular in that country. In 1715, a 
 me inference e g. He started from me, toward tax of four shillings in the pound was levied on 
 edTe of 'the precipice, and my attention all profits employments fees, and pensions, de- 
 being caUt for the moment by another voice rived from Ireland, in all cases where the persons 
 Tn the next I heard a plunge in the receiving them should not reside in that country 
 
 water . I need add no more." for six months of the year ; power to grant leave 
 
 ABSCISSION in surgery, the act of taking away of absence being reserved to the crown, 
 
 something morbid or unsound in the fleshy or dispensing power, however was brought so much 
 
 membraneous parts of the body. Sometimes into exercise, as to render th .ct of little pra 
 
 ^ABScOND^^AbsrToHrfo, to hide from, to Mr. Flood, the great Irish orator, proposed in 
 
 P to a r,lace of secrecy. 1773, a more general measure, i. e a tax of two 
 
 I- v i j shillings m the pound on the emoluments of ab- 
 
 Jr In ! sentees, without exception ; and the bill was at 
 
 remove to a place of secrecy. 
 
 The marmotte, or mus alpinus, 
 
 all winter lives on its own fat: for in autumn, ^ ^ ^ nm 
 
 wlipn it shuts itself UD in its hole, it is very iai . rr . >. _p ....'. 
 
 bttL the spring-time, when it comes forth again, some communications from England inducing 
 
 very lean R"y the Creation, the lord lieutenant to withdraw his support, the 
 
 Outlawry always supposes a precedent right of measure was lost in a division of 122 to 102. In 
 
 arresting, which has been defeated by the parties 1 783 the question was renewed in the Insh House 
 
 absconding Blackstone's Commentaries, of Commons, by Mr. Molineux, but again lost by 
 
 a division of 184 to 122. 
 
 ABSCONSIO, in anatomy, a hiding or con- uch ig ^ history o f a direct tax upon ab- 
 
 cealing of the head of one bone in the cavity of sentees> and the different attempts at taxing them 
 
 another. i in Ireland ; which, as proceeding upon the theory 
 
 AB'SENT, v. adj.-\ Ab : esse. Participial of their being wholly a burden to the country, 
 
 AB'SENCE, / adj. Absens. To be away mugt be un j ugt . they can en j oy but the surp i us 
 
 ABSENTEE', Vfrom, to withdraw Ap- p ronto fth a t capital and labour which employ 
 
 ABSENT-ER, i plied more particularly to humblerj andj it may be gr ante d, more useful 
 
 ABSENT'MENT. ) persons, and intimates ra- dasges of the community . still their capital so 
 
 ther a temporary removal than final departure jn operation must be a benefit ^ far ^ it goes , to 
 
 The archebisshop desirying the duke (Henry of the country in which it is working, and not an 
 
 Lancaster) to absent all other persons than suche as injury. As a punishment, such a tax is mani- 
 
 were his co-panions saied these or like wordes of f es tl y impolitic, and calculated only to inflame 
 
 niin ' HaU - animosity, and inspire contempt of the legislature 
 
 Persons who can afford to live en- 
 
 So, badde is nothing els but absence or negatiue of 
 good, as darkness is absence or negatiue of light. 
 Chaucer's third Booke of the Test of. Love, folio 309, 
 col. 1. 
 
 Night with her will bring 
 
 Silence, and sleep ; listening tothee will watch, 
 Or we can bid bis absence till thy song 
 End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, b. vii. 
 
 Our Lord being absent in body from us (sitting in 
 Heaven at God's right hand), to supply that absence 
 that we should not be apt to forget him, and thereby 
 become wholly estranged from him, is pleased to order 
 this occasion of being present, and conversing with us 
 in such a manner as may retain in our memories his 
 gracious performances for us , may impress in our 
 hearts a kindly sense of them J may raise us up in 
 
 imposing it. 
 
 tirely out of the country, are generally those of 
 superior rank and influence : they would wholly 
 withdraw their capital from it, in many instances, 
 and will despise that attempt to control their 
 movements which they have unusual power of 
 resenting. The justice of this reasoning, accord- 
 ing to Mr. Hardy, the biographer of Lord Char- 
 lemont, led to the rejection of the absentee tax in 
 1773. It was felt that a general land tax was 
 likely to result from this partial one proposed 
 upon the absentees. " If the powerful interest of 
 that body," argued the great commoner, " had 
 hitherto been able to secure interest against such 
 a tax, the same interest would be sufficient, and 
 would be exerted to introduce it, in order that 
 
 mind and affections. Barrow, 
 
 . e T i j j i_ tn e other inhentors of landed property should, 
 
 A great part of estates in Ireland are owned by u u 
 
 absentee, ; and such, as draw over the profit* raised M , SUC , 1 J' T be made . l P a ? a tax as Wel1 aS them - 
 
 out of Ireland, refunding nothing. selves - In opposition to this, Dr. Smith argues, 
 
 Child't Discourse on Trade. Those who live in another country contribute 
 
 nothing by their consumption, towards the support 
 
 AUbEW I EL, m political ceconomy, may de- of the government of that country in which is si- 
 
 scribe those who are systematically absent from tuate the source of their revenue. If,in this latter 
 
 any country, or, indeed, any particular station ; country, there should be no land tax nor any consi - 
 
 but has been in modern times more particularly dcrable duty on the transference either of moveable 
 
 npphed to those land-owners and churchmen of or immovable property, as is the case in Ireland,
 
 ABS 
 
 uch absentees may derive a great revenue from 
 the protection of a government, to the support of 
 which they do not contribute a shilling. This 
 inequality' is likely to be greatest in a country 
 of which the government is, in some respects, 
 subordinate or dependent on that of some other. 
 The people who possess the most extensive pro- 
 perty in the dependent, will in this case generally 
 choose to live in the governing country. Ireland 
 is precisely in this situation, and we cannot there- 
 fore wonder that the proposal of a tax upon ab- 
 sentees, should be so very popular in that coun- 
 try. It m <rht, however, be a little difficult to 
 ascertain, cither what sort, or what degree of ab- 
 sence might subject a man to be taxed as an ab- 
 sentee ; or at what precise time the tax should 
 either begin or end." 
 
 But while we hold legislation, or at least com- 
 pulsory laws on such a subject impolitic, and even 
 unjust; freedom of intercourse throughout all the 
 parts of an extended, civilized empire, being one 
 of the best portions of our birthrights in it ; and 
 while the evils of absenteeship may have been 
 exaggerated, we also*re<jard them as real and 
 great; and that they suggest many important 
 moral and political considerations, to men of 
 property connected with Ireland. 
 
 That unhappy country suffers from such a 
 withdrav/ment of her proper supporters and go- 
 vernors, in the curse of middle men ; in the noto- 
 rious want of influence and example to stimulate 
 improvement; and in the practical discouragement 
 of all attempts to form a respectable yeomanry, 
 which follow in its train. It is not merely the 
 money spent in the neighbourhood of a gentle- 
 man's seat in England, any more than it is 
 his ill-painted coat of arms, or effigy, as the 
 sign of the neighbouring village ale-house, that 
 constitutes the most beneficial tie between the 
 resident proprietor and the neighbouring country ; 
 it is his presence, as the chief of a system, at the 
 head of authority, of property, of all improve- 
 ments, public spectacles, and even of all the 
 public amusements, that diffuses order, pros- 
 perity, and happiness. 
 
 As to churchmen, we understand that the gross 
 evil of their late notorious absenteeships has en- 
 gaged the attention of the government, both in 
 its civil and ecclesiastical administration. For 
 who can be surprised at the increase of the Ca- 
 tholics in numbers, property, and every kind of 
 local influence when the appointed lights of the 
 land are withdrawn ? Or when they are exhi- 
 bited to an impoverished peasantry only in the 
 character of voracious consumers of tythe ? 
 
 Writers of all parties agree in the difficulty of 
 estimating the mischiefs that arise from the great 
 prevalence of middle men in Ireland, and that 
 necessarily attend the existence of absenteeship 
 in every country. Letting and sub-letting, thus, 
 has multiplied without end. 
 
 Now, that the rent of land, as well as that of 
 other real property, should be fairly secured by 
 any produce that may be derived from it, seems 
 on the face of things to be as reasonable in Ire- 
 land as in England or elsewhere. But the al- 
 most incredible number of persons that are inter- 
 posed between the absentee proprietor and the 
 cultivator of the soil in that country, grinds the 
 
 41 ABS 
 
 actual farmer to the earth ; involves the whole 
 business of agricultural property in legal subtle- 
 ties ; and makes the taking of land by a plain 
 and sober small capitalist the height of presump- 
 tion and folly. He is, in fact, never secure ; he 
 may repay his rent again and again to half a do- 
 zen claimants. This has banished practical men 
 of this class, and produced an endless subdivision 
 of excellent farms among desperate adventurers 
 that have nothing to lose. 
 
 ABSINTHITES, ABSINTHIAS, or ABSINTHI- 
 ATED, tinged or impregnated with the virtues of 
 absinthium, or wormwood. In Bariholin's Act, 
 Med. (torn, ii.) we read of a woman whose milk 
 was become absinthiated, and rendered as bitter 
 as gall, by the too liberal use of wormwood. Vinum 
 absinthites, or poculum absinthiatum, wormwooa 
 win.e, is much spoken of among the ancients, as a 
 wholesome drink, and even an antidote against 
 drunkenness. Fehr. shews that it should be pre- 
 pared by fermentation, in order to correct crudi- 
 ties, and call forth a volatile salt. 
 
 ABSINTHIUM, in botany, from a. priv. and 
 \jjivQoe, pleasure, wormwood. See ARTEMISIA. 
 ABSIS, ABSES, or APSIDES. See APSIS. 
 ABSOLVE', v. ~\ Ab : solvo, to loose, to 
 ABSOLV'ER, I untie, to set free. Figura- 
 AB'SOLUTE, | lively to release from the 
 
 ABSOLUTELY, )- penal consequences of crime, 
 ABSOLUTENESS, to pardon, acquit, or de- 
 ABSOLU'TION, clare innocent. The ad- 
 ABSOLU'TORY. J jective and words imme- 
 diately derived from it express freedom, indepen- 
 dence, perfection of state, or existence. 
 
 But let the sonne of perdicion perishe, and absolue 
 we the chapter, the angel yet speking with Daniel. 
 Ttte Exposition of Daniel, by George Joye, p. 146. 
 We must know what is to be meant by absolute, or 
 absolutenes ; whereof I find two main significations. 
 First, absolute signifieth perfect, and absolutenesse 
 perfection ; hence we have in Latin this expression, 
 Perfectum est omnibus, numeris absolutum. And 
 in our vulgar language we say, a thing is absolutely 
 good, when it is perfectly good. Next, absolute sig- 
 nifieth free from tye or bond. 
 
 Knox's History of the Reformation. Preface. 
 DUKE. So then you hope of pardon from Lord 
 
 Angelo ? 
 
 CLAUD. The miserable have no other medicine 
 But only hope : I've hope to live, and ata pre- 
 pared to die. 
 
 DUKE. Be absolute for death : or death or life 
 Shall thereby be the sweeter. 
 
 Shakspeare's Measure for Measure. 
 And of that nature (for the most part) are things, 
 absolutely unto all men's salvation necessary, either to 
 be held or denied, either to be done or avoided. 
 
 Hooker's Preface. 
 
 A monarchy, where there is no nobility at all, is 
 ever a pure and absolute tyranny ; as that of the 
 Turks. For nobility attempers sovereignty, and 
 drawes the eyes of the people somewhat aside from 
 the line royal. Lord Bacon's Essays. 
 
 Being as I am, why didst not thou 
 Command me absolutely not to go, 
 Going into such danger, as thou saidst ? 
 
 Parad. Lost. b. ix. 
 
 The absoluteness and illimitedness of his commission 
 was generally much spoken of. Clarendon, b. viii.
 
 ABS ' / 
 
 My crown is absolute, and holds of none : 
 I cannot in a base subjection live ; 
 Nor suffer you to take, though I would give. 
 
 Dryd. Ind. Emp. 
 
 The absolution pronounced by a priest, whether 
 Dapist or protestant, is not a certain infallible ground 
 to give the person, so absolved, confidence towards 
 God. South's Sermons. 
 
 Although it runs in form absolute, yet it is indeed 
 conditional ; as depending upon the qualification of 
 the person, to whom it is pronounced. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 The prince long time had courted fortune's love ; 
 But, once possess'd, did absolutely reign ; 
 Thus, with their Amazons, the heroes strove ; 
 And conquer'd first those beauties they would gain. 
 
 Dryden's Annus Mirabilis. 
 Chief, let devotion to the sovereign mind, 
 A steady, cheerful, absolute dependence 
 On his best, wisest government, possess thee. 
 
 Mallet. 
 
 I see still the distinctions of sovereign and inferior, 
 of absolute and relative worship, will bear any man 
 out in the worship of any creature with respect to 
 God j as well at least, as it doth in the worship of 
 images. Stilingfl. Def. of Disc, on Rom. Idol. 
 
 An absolute mode is that, -which belongs to its 
 subject, without respect to any other beings whatso- 
 ever ; but a relative mode is derived from the re- 
 gard, that one being has to others. Watts's Logic. 
 A firm persuasion of the superintendence of 
 Providence over all our concerns is absolutely neces- 
 sary to our happiness. Cowper'i Letters. 
 
 ABSOLUTE, in metaphysics, denotes that 
 being whose essence does not consist in a mere 
 habitude or relation to another, and stands op- 
 posed to relative or respective. It is more parti- 
 cularly understood of that which does not proceed 
 from any cause, and is independent of any other 
 being, considered as its cause ; in which sense, 
 God alone is absolute. 
 
 ABSOLUTE EQUATION, in astronomy, is the 
 aggregate of the optic and eccentric equations. 
 See ASTRONOMY. 
 
 ABSOLUTE ESTATE, in law, one free of all con- 
 ditions and incumbrances. 
 
 ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENT, that wherein the 
 government is above the law, and not, as in this 
 country, a creature of the law. 
 
 ABSOLUTE GRAVITY, among philosophers, that 
 property in bodies, by which they are said to 
 weigh so much, with regard to circumstances of 
 modification, and which is, in that respect, dis- 
 tinct from specific gravity. 
 
 ABSOLUTE NUMBER, in Algebra. See ALGE- 
 BRA. 
 
 ABSOLUTE SPACE, PLACE, MOTION, &c. See 
 the Substantives. 
 
 ABSOLUTION, in civil law, is a sentence 
 whereby the party accused is declared innocent 
 of the crime laid to his charge. Among the Ro- 
 mans, the ordinary method of pronouncing judg- 
 ment was this : after the cause had been pleaded 
 on both sides, the praetor used the word atxerunt, 
 q. d. they have said what they have to say; then 
 three ballots were distributed to each judge 
 marked as should be previously arranged ; and, 
 us the majority appeared of either mark, the ac- 
 cused was absolved or condemned, &c. If he 
 was absolved, the prater dismissed him with 
 i-idetur nonfecisse, orfure vidctur Jcciu>e. 
 
 12 ABS 
 
 ABSOLUTION, in the canon law, is a juridical 
 act, whereby the priest declares the sins of peni- 
 tents remitted. The Romanists hold absolution 
 a part of the sacrament of penance, and the 
 council of Trent, sess. xiv. cap. 3. declares the 
 essence of the sacrament to lie in the words of 
 absolution. The formula of absolution, in the 
 Romish church, has been said to be absolute ; in 
 the Greek church deprecatory ; and in the churches 
 of the reformed, declarative. But this is a matter 
 strongly contested between protestants at large 
 and the Romanists ; as well as between the dis- 
 senters of England and the Anglican church. 
 Dissenters object, generally, to all forms of ab- 
 solution which suppose a power residing in mor- 
 tals to appease the conscience, or purify the cha- 
 racter of a sinner. The church of England, and 
 all protestants, oppose the Absolute claims of the 
 Romish hierarchy (as they at least understand 
 them,) to forgive sins on earth. The form that 
 Tetzel used in vending the indulgences which 
 first awoke the indignation and resistance of 
 LUTHER, has been often quoted, but is said by 
 Catholics to be unauthentic. They have thus stated 
 their opinions upon this subject: " Catholics be- 
 lieve, that when a sinner repents of his sins frcmhis 
 heart, and acknowledges his transgressions to God 
 and his ministers, the dispensers of the mysteries 
 of Christ, resolving to turn from his evil ways 
 and to bring forth fruits worthy of penance; 
 there is then (and not otherwise) an authority 
 left by Christ to absolve such a penitential sinner 
 from his sins : which authority we believe Christ 
 gave to his apostles and their successors, the bi- 
 shops and priests of his church, in these words, 
 when he said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," &c. 
 
 The foregoing is an extract from an authentic 
 catholic work, entitled, " The Faith }f Catholics 
 confirmed by Scripture, and attested by the Fa- 
 thers of the first five centuries of the Church," 
 by the Rev. Messrs. Berrington and Kirk, Lond. 
 1813. The same work confirms the proposition 
 stated by these assertions of St. Ephrem of 
 Edessa: " The exalted dignity of the priesthood 
 is far above our understanding and the power of 
 speech ! The remission of sins is not granted to 
 mortals, but through the ministry of the priest." 
 De Sacerdatio, i. p. 1 : and these observationsof 
 Chrysostom; "Temporal princes have a power 
 to bind but the body only ; whereas the power 
 of the priesthood binds the soul, and reaches to 
 heaven. In this sense, that God ratifies above 
 what the priests do here below, and the master 
 confirms the sentence of his servants. And what 
 is this but that all power, even the concerns of 
 heaven, has been entrusted to them." De Sacerd. 
 iii. c. 5. 
 
 ABSONIARE, in old records, to shun, avoid 
 or detest ; a term introduced in the Anglo-Saxon 
 oaths of allegiance. 
 
 ABSORB', v. ~\ Ab : sorbeo, to drink up ; 
 
 ABSORB'ENT, 'to swallow; to imbibe; to 
 
 ABSORB'ING, ? devote one's whole time and 
 
 ABSORP'TION. J attention to a pursuit, so as to 
 be insensible to others; to contemplate in- 
 tensely. 
 
 The rays of the sun are reflected from a white 
 body, but absorbed by a black one. 
 
 Bacon's Distribution of .
 
 ABS 
 
 43 ABS 
 
 It was below the dignity of those sacred penmen, 
 or the Spirit of God that directed them, to shew us 
 the causes of this disruption, or of this absorption : 
 this is left to the enquiries of men. 
 
 Bur net's Tlieory of the Earth. 
 
 Moses imputed the deluge to the disruption of the 
 abyss ; and St. Peter to the particular constitution 
 of that earth, which made it obnoxious to be absorpt 
 in water. Idem. 
 
 Some tokens shew 
 
 Of fearless friendship, and their sinking mates 
 Sustain ; vain love, though laudable, absorpt 
 By a fierce eddy, they together found 
 The vast profundity. Phillips. 
 
 An earthquake reel'd unheededly away ! 
 None felt stern Nature rocking at his feet, 
 And yawning forth a grave, for those that lay 
 Upon their bucklers for a winding sheet ; 
 Such is the absorbing hate when warring nations 
 meet ! 
 
 Lord Byron's Childe Harold. 
 
 ABSORBENT VESSELS, a name given pro- 
 miscuously to the lacteal vessels, lymphatics, and 
 inhalent arteries. See ANATOMY. Plants are 
 also said to possess absorbent vessels in their 
 fibrous and hairy roots. 
 
 ABSORBENTS, in medicine. The term abso' 
 Lent was introduced into chemistry by physicians, 
 on the erroneous supposition that the faculty of 
 withdrawing moisture from the air was confined 
 to substances which freely unite with water ; and 
 hence applied to such as seemed to check diar- 
 rhoea, by the absorption of the redundant liquids. 
 The substance, says Dr. Ure, whose absorbent 
 power is to be chemically examined, after 
 thorough desiccation before a fire, is immediately 
 transferred into a phial, furnished with a well 
 ground stopper. When it is cooled, a portion of 
 it is put into a large wide-mouthed bottle, where 
 it is closely confined for some time. A delicate 
 hygrometer being then introduced, indicates on 
 its scale the dryness produced in the enclosed 
 air, which should have been previously brought 
 to the point of extreme humidity, by suspending 
 a moistened rag within the bottle." 
 
 The following are the results of experiments 
 made by Professor Leslie : 
 
 Alumina causes a dryness of 84 degrees. 
 Carbonate of magnesia - 75 
 Carbonate of lime 70 
 
 Silica - - - - 40 
 Carbonate of barytes - 32 
 Carbonate of strontites - 23 
 Pipe clay 85 
 
 Greenstone, or trap in powder 80 
 Shelly sea sand - - - 70 
 Clay indurated by torrefaction 35 
 Clay strongly ignited - 8 
 
 Greenstone do - - 23 
 Quartz do. - - 19 
 
 Decomposed greenstone - 86 
 Greenstone resolved into soil 92 
 Garden mould 95 
 
 The more a soil is comminuted by labour and 
 vegetation, the greater is ; ts absorbent power. 
 This ingenious philosopher infers, that the fertility 
 of soils depends chiefly on their disposition to 
 imbibe moisture ; and illustrates this idea by 
 recent and disintegrated lava. May not the 
 finely divided state most penetrable by the deli- 
 
 cate fibres of plants, derive its superior power of 
 acting on atmospherical vapour from the aug- 
 mentation of its surface, or the multiplication ol 
 the points of contact ? 
 
 In similar circumstances, 100 gr. of the follow- 
 ing organic substances absorb the following quan- 
 tities of moisture: ivory 7 gr. boxwood 14, 
 down 16, wool 18, beech 28. Charcoal, and 
 other porous solids of a fibrous texture, have the 
 faculty of absorbing gases in a remarkable de- 
 gree. See Leslie on Heat and Moisture; and 
 Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry. 
 
 ABSORPTION. By this term modern chemists 
 understand the conversion of a gaseous fluid into 
 a liquid or solid, on being united with some other 
 substance. It differs from condensation in being 
 the effect of mechanical pressure, or the abstrac- 
 tion of caloric. Thus, if muriatic acid gas be 
 introduced into water, it is absorbed, and muriatic 
 acid is formed ; if carbonic acid gas and ammo- 
 niacal gas be brought into contact, absorption 
 takes place, and some carbonate of ammonia is 
 produced by the union of their ponderable bases. 
 lire's Dictionary. 
 
 ABSORPTIONS OF THE EARTH, a phrase used by 
 Kircher and other geologists, for the sinking in 
 of large tracts of land, by subterranean commo- 
 tions or other accidents. Pliny tells us of the 
 mountain Cymbotus, with the town of Curites, 
 which stood on its side, being thus wholly ab- 
 sorbed into the earth. He records the like fate 
 of the city of Tantalis in Magnesia, and after it 
 of the mountain Sypelus. Galanis and Garnatus, 
 towns once famous in Phoenicia, are said to have 
 met the same fate. But the fact is, no fair dis- 
 tinction can be drawn between these remarkable 
 incidents, and what have been more generally call- 
 ed earthquakes. 
 
 ABSORUS, or APSORUS, in ancient geogra- 
 phy. See ABSYRTIDES. 
 
 ABSTAIN', v. ~\ Ab or Abs : teneo, to hold 
 
 ABSTEN'TION, I or keep from ; to forbear, to 
 
 AB'STINENCE, > refrain from. In this verb 
 
 AB'STINENT, \ a middle or reflected action 
 
 AB'STINENTLY. j is distinguishable, and a re- 
 semblance between the Latin and English de- 
 rivatives preserved. 
 
 Among some religious persons, abstinence is 
 forbearance from certain kinds of prohibited 
 food, as well as the almost total absence of nou- 
 rishment experienced for an extraordinary period 
 by individuals, many of whose cases are au- 
 thentically recorded. 
 
 Moost dere, I biseche you as comelingis and pil- 
 gryms to absteine you fro fleischli desires thot figten 
 agens the soule. Wiclif, Peter i, chap. 2. 
 
 Say, can you fast ? your stomachs are too young, 
 And abstinence engenders maladies. 
 
 Shaky. Love's Labour Lost. 
 
 Abstain 
 
 To ask : nor let thine own inventions hope 
 Things not revealed, which the invisible King 
 Only omniscient hath suppressed in night, 
 To none communicable in earth, in heaven : 
 Enough is left besides to search and know. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 A little wisdom, and an easie observation were 
 enough to make all men that love themselves, wisely 
 to abstain from such diet which does not nourish. 
 
 Taylor's Dissuasive from Popery.
 
 ABS 
 
 44 
 
 ABS 
 
 Abstinence merits not for religion consists not in sual pleasure, to render themselves mere hardy 
 
 in the public games. The Jews were also com- 
 manded to observe various kinds of abstinence 
 by their laws. Many of the primitive Christians 
 denied themselves the use of particular meats, 
 as we learn from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 
 (chap, xiv.) And the council assembled at Je- 
 rusalem, which the Apostles superintended, en- 
 joined the Christian converts to abstain from 
 things strangled, and from blood. Not that the 
 reception of these things was, in itself a moral 
 evil, but because the Jews were so offended by 
 it, that it was the source of perpetual discord 
 
 Jewish and Gentile converts. 
 
 abstinence is however still retained 
 
 the belly either full or empty 
 
 Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 Ksligious men, who hither must be sent, 
 
 As awful guides of heavenly government ; 
 
 To teach you penance, fasts, and abstinence, 
 
 To punish bodies for the soul's offence. 
 
 Dry den's Indian Emp. 
 
 Because the abstinence from a present pleasure, 
 that offers itself, is a pain -, nay, oftentimes a very 
 great one : it is no wonder that, that operates after 
 the same manner pain does ; and lessens, in our 
 thoughts, what is future ; and so forces us, as it 
 were, blindfold into its embraces. Locke. 
 
 ABSTE'MIOUS, adj. ) Ab or abs : temetum, 
 
 ABSTEMIOUSLY. * from strong wines. communities, and is prescribed by rules 
 
 To be abstemious is to refrain with more than or- ^ J^^ of ; he Roim - sh church : The 
 dinary caution from the inebriating liquids. c h u rch of England has also enforced abstinence 
 
 The instances of longevity are chiefly amongst the f rom mea ts on certain days, and since the re- 
 abstemious. Abstinence in extremity will prove a f ormat j on> the practice has been enforced by 
 mortal disease ; but the experiments of it are very statute Injunctions of general abstinence were 
 "" , Arbuthnot on Aliments renewed under n Elizabeth, not out of 
 
 The pearch is not only _ valiant to defend hrmself, ^.^ of religk)n> u was said> but to encourage 
 
 and to increase the num- 
 
 winter. Walton's Angler. 
 
 ABSTEMIOUS, properly signifies a person 
 who refrains from all use of wine. So particular 
 were the ancient Romans in exacting this virtue 
 
 ABSTINENCE, in medicine, is used to sig- ' 
 nify a suppression. Thus in Ccelius'Aurelianus, 
 abstinentia sudoris, signifies a suppression of 
 , sweat. Sometimes in this author it means a 
 
 from their ladies, that they were willing, it would ression . as s iritus ob a b s tinentiam clausus, 
 
 seem, to put some others to hazard. In the first ages ^^ ^ wind ghut in the intestines by 
 of the commonwealth, it was expected that they c ession there by causing the iliac passion, 
 should kiss their friends and relatives whenever ular sense of t 
 
 they accosted them, that it might be known by 
 their breath whether they had been indulging in 
 
 wine - -,,,j- .u u 
 
 ABSTENSION, in law, a withholding the he ir 
 
 from taking possession of his estate. Among ec- 
 clesiastical writers, the word is also used for a 
 
 ABSTINENCE in a more popular sense of the 
 signifies a spare and parsimonious diet, 
 which has been recommended medicinally, ob- 
 served through superstition, or practised to 
 impose on the credulity or benevolence of man- 
 kind. The Venetian Cornaro, after his life was 
 despaired of, betook himself to a regular but 
 abstinent life, revived his health, though almost 
 ABSTERGENTS, or abstersive medicines in hi e a ' t 40 and lived to ' the protracted 
 
 a mnrli^MTioc r\i a car^rtnQfpmia ncitiirp Pmnmvpci rr^i i 
 
 period of nearly 100 years of age. Ihe early 
 Christians of the east, driven by persecution into 
 the deserts of Arabia, lived on very spare food, 
 in health and cheerfulness. St. Anthony is said 
 to have taken only 12 ounces of bread and water 
 in 24 hours, and on this slender subsistence, to 
 have lived to the age of 105 years. In like 
 manner, James the hermit, lived 104 years; 
 Arsenius, tutor of the emperor Arcadius, 120; 
 St. Epiphanius, 115; Simeon the Sty lite, 112; 
 and Romauld, 120. By temperance and labour, 
 one Laurence, mentioned by Buchanan, attained 
 the age of 140 ; and Kentigern, commonly called 
 St. Mungah or Mungo, mentioned by Spottis- 
 wood, lived to 185, by the same means. Lon- 
 gevity appears to have been frequently connected 
 with remarkable cases of abstinence, a considera- 
 tion which led Dr. Cheyne to affirm, that most of 
 the chronical diseases prevalent in luxurious cli- 
 ABSTINENCE, from abs, from, and tenere, mates, the common infirmities of old age, and the 
 to hold, signifies the act or the habit of refrain- short lives of Englishmen, are the common effects 
 ing from something to which there is a strong of repletion; and might be prevented or cured by 
 propensity. Pythagoras earnestly enforced upon abstinence. Sudden and immediate abstinence 
 his followers the necessity of abstaining from all is however, extremely detrimental to the con- 
 animal food, except the remains of sacrifices, and stitution ; and many persons who have attempted 
 to drink nothing but water, except in the evening, it, have never afterwards enjoyed health. 
 when they might take a little wine ; and the Some animals seem to possess extraordinary 
 ancient Athletae abstained from all kinds of sen- powers of abstinence. The dormouse tortoise, 
 
 are medicines of a saponaceous nature, employed 
 for removing inward obstructions, by dissolving 
 concretions. They are also called Detergents. 
 ABSTERGE',^ Ab : stergo, to wipe off, to 
 ABSTERGE'NT, I cleanse by wiping or scour- 
 ABSTERSE', Vii'g- The latter words are 
 ABSTER'SION, i not so analogical, and still 
 ABSTER'SIVE. J less in use than the preced- 
 ing. 
 
 Abstersion is plainly a scouring off, or incision of 
 the more viscous humours, and making the humours 
 more fluid, and cutting between them and the part ; 
 as is found in nitrous water, which scoureth linen 
 cloth speedily from the foulness. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. Hist. No. 42. 
 The seats with purple clothe in order due ; 
 And let th' abstersive sponge the board renew ; 
 Let some refresh the vase's sullied mould, 
 Some bid the goblets boast their native gold. 
 
 Pope's Homer's Odyssey, b. xx.
 
 ABS 
 
 bear, serpent, &c. pass four, five, or six months 
 in the year without eating or drinking. Several 
 species of birds, and almost the whole tribe of 
 insects, live throughout the winter without food. 
 Rattle-snakes atter many months' abstinence, have 
 retained their vigour and fierceness. Two ceras- 
 tes, a sort of Egyptian serpent, mentioned by 
 Dr. Shaw, lived five years in a bottle closely 
 corked, without any thing in the bottle, except 
 a small quantity of sand. When he saw them, 
 they had just cast their skins, and appeared as 
 brisk and lively as ever. Vipers again, seem to 
 live occasionally on those well-know r n nutritious 
 substances floating in the atmosphere, and which 
 are continually taken in by animal respiration : 
 their young kept from every thing but air, will 
 grow considerably in a few days. The eggs of 
 lizards are observed to increase in bulk after they 
 are produced, and seem to be nourished in the 
 air in the same way as the spawn of fishes is in 
 the water. 
 
 Pliny says, a man may live seven days, and 
 that many have been known to continue more 
 than eleven days, without either meat or drink. 
 Hist. Nat. lib. ii. c. 54. Alexander Benedictus, 
 that a person at Venice lived without food for 
 46 days. Pract. lib. xii. c. 2. Clausius et 
 Garcia ab Horto, that some rigid Banians in 
 India, frequently abstain from food 'for 20 days 
 together; and Guaguinus states, that Louis the 
 Pious, emperor and king of France, who died 
 840, existed the last 40 days of his life without 
 food or drink. Hist. Francor. lib. v. Albertus 
 Magnus saw a woman at Cologne, who often 
 fasted 20, and sometimes 30 days ; and a hypo- 
 chondriacal man,who drank nothing but a draught 
 of water every other day, for seven weeks. De 
 Animalibus, lib. vii. Democritus is said to have 
 lived to the age of 109 years, and that in the 
 latter part of his life he subsisted for 40 days at 
 one time, by smelling honey and hot bread. 
 Petrus de Abano gives an account of a woman 
 in Normandy, who lived without food for 18 
 years. Exposit. Ult. prob. x. Joubertus, of a 
 woman that lived in good health three years; 
 and of another, who to her tenth year, subsisted 
 without either food or drink : and when she was of 
 proper age, married and had children, and lived 
 like other people. Decad. 1, paradox 2. 
 Albertus Krantzius says, that a hermit in the 
 mountains of the canton of Schwitz, lived 20 
 years without food. Hist . Eccles. lib. xii. c. 21 . 
 Hildanus relates the case of a girl who lived 
 many years without food or drink. The abdo- 
 men had wasted and retracted toward the spine, 
 and she neither voided urine nor faces. Cent. 
 5, Obs. Chirurg. 33. Sylvius says, there was a 
 young woman in Spain, 22 years of age, who 
 never ate any food, but lived entirely on water. 
 And that there was a girl in Narbonne, and 
 another in Germany, who lived three years in 
 good health without meat or drink. We shall 
 now subjoin a few modern cases of abstinence, 
 which have been given more at large : 
 
 " Gilbert Jackson, of Carse-Grange, Scotland, 
 about 15 years of age, was seized in February, 
 1716, with a violent fever, which returned in 
 April for three weeks, and again on the 10th of 
 Tune. He then lost his speech, his appetite, and 
 
 45 ABS 
 
 the use of his limbs, and took no food whatever. 
 On June 30, he was seized with a fever again, 
 and the next day recovered his speech, but with- 
 out eating or drinking, or the use of his limbs. 
 On the llth of October, he recovered his healtu 
 with the use of one of his legs, but neither eat 
 nor drank, only sometimes washed his mourn 
 with water. On the 18th of June, 1718, the fever 
 returned and lasted till September. He then 
 recovered, and continued in pretty good health, 
 and fresh coloured, but took no kind of meat nor 
 drink. On the 6th of June, 1719, he was again 
 seized with a severe fever; and on the 10th, at 
 night, his father prevailed on him to take a 
 spoonful of milk, boiled with oatmeal ; it stuck so 
 long in his throat, that his friends feared he had 
 been choked ; but ever since that time he took 
 food, though so little, that a halfpenny loaf lasted 
 him eight days. All the time he fasted, he had 
 no evacuation, and it was 14 days after he 
 began to eat, before he had any. He still con- 
 tinued in pretty good health" 
 
 " In the year 1724, John Ferguson, of Kill- 
 melfoord, in Argyleshire, overheated himself in 
 the pursuit of some cattle on the mountains, then 
 drank largely of cold water, and fell asleep. He 
 slept for 24 hours, and awoke in a high fever, 
 and ever since, his stomach loathed, and could 
 retain no kind of aliment but water. Mr. 
 Campbell, a neighbouring gentleman, to whom 
 his father was tenant, locked him up for 20 days, 
 supplying him only with water, and taking care 
 that he should have no other food ; but it made 
 no difference either in his look or strength ; at 
 the age of 36, (when the account was sent to the 
 Philosophical Society,) he was of a fresh com- 
 plexion, and as strong as any common man." 
 Phil. Trans. 1742, vol. xlii. page 240. 
 
 PENNANT says of his second visit to Barmouth, 
 in 1770, " My curiosity was excited to examine 
 into the truth of a surprising relation of a wo- 
 man in the parish of Cylynin, who had fasted 
 a most supernatural length of time. I took 
 boat and had a most pleasant passage up the 
 harbour, charmed with the beauty of the shores 
 intermixed with woods, verdant pastures, and 
 corn fields. I landed, and after a short walk, 
 found in a farm called Tydden Back, the object 
 of my excursion, Mary Thomas. She was of the 
 age of 47, of a good countenance, very pale, 
 thin, but not so much emaciated as might be ex- 
 pected from the strangeness of the circumstances I 
 am going to relate. Her eyes were weak, her voice 
 low, and deprived of the use of her lower ex- 
 tremities, and quite bed-ridden ; her pulse rather 
 strong, her intellects clear and sensible. On 
 examining her, she informed me that at the age 
 of seven, she had some eruptions like the measles, 
 which grew confluent and universal ; and she 
 became so sore that she could not bear the least 
 touch : she received some ease by the application 
 of a sheep's skin just taken from the animal, 
 After this she was seized at the spring and fall, 
 with swellings and inflammations, during which 
 time she was confined to her bed ; but in the 
 intervals she could walk about. When she was 
 about 27 years of age she was attacked with the 
 same complaint, but in a more violent manner ; 
 and during two years and a half remained in-
 
 ABS 
 
 46 
 
 ABS 
 
 sensible, and took no mannei of nourishment, 
 although her friends forced open her mouth with 
 a spoon to pet something down, but the moment 
 the spoon was taken away, her teeth met and 
 closed with snapping violence ; during that time 
 she flung up vast quantities of blood. She well 
 remembers the return of her senses, and her know- 
 ledge of every body about her. She thought she 
 had slept but a night, and asked her mother whe- 
 ther she. 'had given her any thing the day before, 
 as she found herself hungry. Meat was brought 
 to her, but so far from being able to take any 
 thing solid, she could scarcely swallow a spoon- 
 ful of thin whey. From this, she continued seven 
 years and a half without any food or liquid, 
 excepting sufficient of the latter to moisten her 
 lips. At the end of this period she fancied 
 herself again hungry, and desired an egg, of 
 which she got down the quantity of a nut kernel. 
 She requested to receive the sacrament, which 
 she did, by having a crumb of bread steeped in 
 wine. She now eats a bit of bread about two 
 penny weights seven grains daily, and drinks a 
 glass of water, and sometimes a spoonful of 
 wine; but frequently abstains whole days to- 
 gether from food and liquids. She sleeps very 
 indifferently ; the ordinary functions of nature 
 are seldom performed, and are very small ; her 
 temper is even, her disposition mild ; she is re- 
 ligious, and prays fervently ; the natural effect of 
 the state of her body unembarrassed by food, and 
 a constant alienation of thought from all worldly 
 affairs." Journey to Snowden, vol. ii. p. 105. 
 
 A very curious instance of nearly four years' 
 abstinence from all food and drink, is related in 
 two numbers of Hufeland's Practical Journal, 
 Vols. viii. and ix. No 2. And a pamphlet has 
 been since published respecting this fact by Dr. 
 Schmidtmann of Melle, in the bishopric of 
 Osnabruck. 
 
 " A country girl, 16 years old, in a village 
 near Osnabruck, had enjoyed a good state of 
 health, during her childhood ; but, at about 10 
 years of age she was seized with epileptic fits 
 against which a number of remedies were em- 
 ployed in vain ; since that time she was mostly 
 confined to her bed, particularly in winter, but 
 in summer she found herself a little better. 
 From February 1798, the alvine and urinary 
 excretions began to cease; though she took 
 now and then a little nourishment. But from 
 the beginning of April the same year, she ab- 
 stained entirely from all food and drink, falling 
 into an uninterrupted slumber, almost senseless, 
 from which she only awoke from time to time 
 for a few hours. Her sensibility during this 
 time was so great that the slightest touch on 
 any part of her body brought on partial convul- 
 sive motions. In this state she had continued 
 for nearly 10 months, when Dr. Schmidtmann 
 saw her first, in 1799. Though she had not taken 
 the least nourishment during all this time, Dr. 
 S. found her to his great astonishment, fresh and 
 blooming. For the last two months only the in- 
 tervals of sleep began to be longer, her senses of 
 sight and hearing were in perfect order ; but her 
 feelings, she seemed to have quite lost, as she 
 could suffer pinching of the arms and legs with- 
 out pain; her gums bled frequently, and the 
 
 pulse was scarcely perceptible in the arms, but 
 beat strong and full in the carotids, about 120 in 
 a minute. Dr. S. attempted to make her drink 
 a little milk, but she protested she could not 
 swallow it. The alvine and urinary excretions 
 had quite ceased. Although there could hardly 
 be a suspicion of imposition, the parents being 
 honest people, yet to remove all doubt, six 
 sworn men were appointed from different places 
 in the neighbourhood to watch her day and night, 
 and instructions given them accordingly. This 
 being continued about a fortnight, the men 
 were dismissed, having given evidence upon 
 oath that the patient had never taken any food 
 or drink whatever during that time, nor had any 
 excretion, alvine or urinary ; she had become 
 very ill, and nearly dying, seized w ; th convul- 
 sions, feverish, and sometimes in a great sweat, 
 which had the extraordinary property of turning 
 water black. When Dr. S. saw her again, he 
 found her quite recovered, not in the least 
 emaciated ; but rather looking lustier ; her gums 
 however, still frequently bled, and her feeling 
 was not yet returned ; but her memory was not 
 impaired, and she amused herself sometimes 
 with reading and writing. No alvine or 
 urinary excretions had taken place. Some- 
 times she was attacked with sudden weakness, 
 particularly after having bled at the mouth. 
 During the last seveie winter she could not 
 endure the heat of the stove, because she felt 
 then faint and oppressed. Dr. Schmidtmann 
 then enters into an enquiry by what means the 
 patient in this case was nourished and maintained 
 in that state in which she was found. And hav- 
 ing discussed the matter at large, he is of opinion, 
 that she drew by resorption such elementary 
 particles from the atmosphere as were sufficient 
 for the nutrition of the body, and that the ex- 
 cretions were likewise replaced by the skin." 
 
 Instances of the like kind might be multiplied 
 from Haller, in his Elements Physiology, torn, 
 vi. sec. 2 6 ; Conf. Memoires del' Academic des 
 Sciences de Toulouse, torn. i. 1783. Prichter's Li- 
 brary devoted to Surgery, (in German,) vol. xii. 
 p. 184. Swieten Comments in Boerhaave, Aph. 
 torn. iii. p. 508 ; Histoire de V Academic Royale 
 des Sciences, I' an 1769; and in Huf eland's Art of 
 Prolonging Life, I ed. p. 67 ; Halpart Van der 
 Wiel Observat, rar Centur Poster. In the 
 London Magazine for August 1769, there is an 
 account of a young woman, 24 years of age, who 
 had fasted for two years, and whose excretions 
 were entirely suppressed. London Medical and 
 Physical Journal, vol. iv. p. 87. 
 
 In the Philosophical Transactions, we have 
 an account of four colliers who were confined 
 24 days in a coal pit at Herst 1, near Leige, 
 with nothing to support them but water. A 
 French officer of infantry, who had retired from 
 service, and became deranged, took it into his 
 head to refuse food, and persisted in that deter- 
 mination from the 25th of December, till the 9th 
 of February, drinking only about a pint and a 
 half of water daily, with a few drops of aniseed 
 liquor in each glass, till 39th day, from which 
 time till the 47th day he remained out of bed , 
 but weakness at length obliged him to lie down. 
 The return to food was followed by a temporary
 
 ABS 
 
 47 
 
 ABS 
 
 cure of his insanity. Hist, de VAcademie des 
 Sciences, 1769. 
 
 In the Medical Commentaries, December, vol. 
 iv. p. 360, there is a history of a girl who lost 
 her way, and remained 18 days on a barren 
 moor in the island of Lewis, vhere she could 
 have had no other sustenance than water. Mr. 
 Miller saw her two hours after she was found, 
 and describes her as much emaciated. We infer, 
 from these instances, the possibility of maintain- 
 ing life for a considerable time on small quantities 
 of water and other liquids. The feeling of hunger, 
 if not appeased by food, often ceases entirely ; but 
 the feeling of thirst becomes increasingly urgent, 
 and where it is attended with bodily heat, be- 
 comes aggravated and insupportable. 
 
 ABSTINENTES, in ecclesiastical history, a 
 party who appeared in France and Spain, in the 
 third century, and who enjoined abstinence 
 from the use of marriage, and particular foods, 
 especially wine. Some consider them to have 
 been a branch of the Gnostics. 
 
 AB'STRACT, n. v. & adj. ~) Abs : traho, trac- 
 ABSTRACT'ED, turn, to draw away 
 
 ABSTRACT'EDLY, from ; to sepa- 
 
 ABSTRACT'EDXESS, I rate. Hence, by 
 
 ABSTRACT'ER, i an easy transition, 
 
 ABSTRACTION, to refine, to puri- 
 
 ABSTRACT'LY, fy. Also, to con- 
 
 ABSTRACT'NESS. J sider any thing in 
 
 its essence, or simple being, independently of 
 modes or accidents. 
 
 PAL. But man, the abstract 
 Of all perfection which the -workmanship 
 Of Heaven hath modell'd, in himself contains 
 Passions of several qualities. 
 
 Ford's Lover's Melancholy, act iv. sc. 3. 
 He -whose understanding is prepossest with the 
 doctrine of abstract general ideas, may be persuaded 
 that extension in abstract is infinitely divisible. 
 
 Berkley's Principles of Human Knowledge. 
 Precepts of morality, besides the natural corruption 
 of our tempers which makes us averse to them, are 
 so abstracted from ideas of sense, that they seldom 
 give an opportunity for those beautiful descriptions 
 and images which are the spirit and life of poetry. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 To abstract the mind from all local emotions 
 would be impossible if it were endeavoured ; and 
 would be foolish if it were possible. Dr. Johnson. 
 Abstract terms signify the mode or quality of a 
 being, without any regard to the subject in which it 
 is ; as whiteness, roundness, length, breadth, wisdom, 
 mortality, life, death. Watts's Logic. 
 
 He may be justly driven out from the commerce of 
 mankind, who has so far abstracted himself from it as 
 to neglect the endearments of his wife and the ca- 
 resses of his children, to count the drops of rain, 
 note the changes of the wind, and calculate the 
 eclipses of the moons of Jupiter". Rambler. 
 
 ABSTRACT IDEA, in metaphysics, is a 
 partial idea of a complex object, limited to one 
 or more of the component parts or properties, 
 laying aside the rest. 
 
 ABSTRACT MATHEMATICS, otherwise called 
 Pure Mathematics, treat of magnitude or quan- 
 tity, absolutely and generally considered, with- 
 out regard to any species of particular magnitude, 
 such are arithmetic and geometry. 
 
 ABSTRACT NUMBERS, are assemblages of units, 
 
 considered in themselves, without denoting any 
 particular and determined articles. Thus six is 
 an abstract number, when not applied to any 
 thing ; but if we say six feet, six becomes a con- 
 crete number. See NUMBER, and ARITHMETIC. 
 ABSTRACTI, a name given to a sect among 
 the Lutherans. 
 
 ABSTRACTITIOUS, in pharmacy, a term 
 used to distinguish that spirit which is drawn 
 from plants, naturally abounding with it. Bailey. 
 ABSTRUSE', } AV> , , 
 
 ABSTRUSF'LY ' : d ' trudum > to 
 
 ISnuSEk j thrust or push away. 
 
 To cast away from the sight. Cicero. Hence, 
 not obvious, plain, nor evident. 
 
 Let the Scriptures be hard : Are they more harsh ? 
 are they more hard, more crabbed, more abstruse than 
 the fathers ? Milton on the Reformation in England. 
 Yet it must be still confessed that there are some 
 mysteries in religion both natural and revealed, as 
 well as some abstruse points in philosophy, wherein 
 the wise as well as the unwise must be content with 
 obscure ideas. Watts's Logic. 
 
 ABSURD', adj. ~\ Ab : surdus. Supposed to 
 ABSURD'ITY, (be formed from ab and sur- 
 ABSURD'LY, fdus, a deaf person, who 
 
 ABSURD'JJESS. J from not hearing, frequent- 
 ly replies altogether unsuitably to the question 
 proposed. Foolish, nonsensical, not to the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 There was never proud man thought so absurdly 
 well of himself, as the lover doth of the person 
 loved : and therefore it was well said, That it is im- 
 possible to love, and to be wise. Lord Bacon's Essays. 
 The capital things of nature generally lie out of 
 the beaten paths, so that even the absurdness of a 
 thing sometimes proves useful. Idem. 
 
 But grant, that those can conquer, these cau 
 
 cheat ; 
 
 Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great ; 
 Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, 
 Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. 
 
 Pope's Essay on Man. 
 
 How clear soever this idea of the infinity of num- 
 ber be, there is nothing more evident, than the ab- 
 surdity of the actual idea of an infinite number. 
 
 Locke. 
 
 That satisfaction we receive from the opinion of 
 some pre-eminence in ourselves, when we see . the 
 absurdities of another, or when we reflect on any past 
 absurdities of our own. Addison. 
 
 But man, we find the only creature ; 
 Who, led by folly, combats nature ; 
 Who, when she loudly cries, Forbear, 
 With obstinacy fixes there ; 
 And where his genius least inclines, 
 . Absurdly bends his whole designs. 
 
 Swift's Miscel. 
 
 We may proceed yet further with the atheist ; and 
 
 convince him, that not only his principle is absurd, 
 
 but his consequences also as absurdly deduced from 
 
 it. Bentley's Sermons. 
 
 Truth indeed needs no ornament, neither does a 
 
 beautiful person ; but to clothe it therefore, in rags 
 
 when a decent habit was at hand, would be esteemed 
 
 preposterous and absurd. Cowper's Letters, 
 
 ABSUS, the Egyptian LOTUS. 
 
 ABSYNTHIUM, or .ABSINTHIUM. See AR- 
 
 TEMESIA. 
 
 ABSYRTES, or ABSYRTUS, in ancient mythp 
 logy, the infant son of .ZEetes, king of Colchu>, 
 and Hypsea, who was torn to pieces by his sister
 
 ABU 
 
 and his limbs scattered 
 
 . , . 
 
 the road m 
 
 8 ABU 
 
 40 miles S. of Damietta ; also, two fortified towns 
 lilesW. of Alexandria, and for.n- 
 
 in ancient geography, islands 
 
 gulf of 
 
 there by his sister. They 
 and Osero. 
 
 ABUARISCK, a town and principality of 
 Arabia, on the Red Sea, extending from 15, 2'. 
 to 17, 40'. N. Lat. ; yielding little more than 
 salt from its arid hills, although watered by 
 several streams. The principal sea port is 
 Gesar. 
 
 ABUBEKER, the immediate successor of 
 Mahomet, succeeded him A.D. 632, taking the 
 title of caliph, vicar or successor, to show his 
 inferiority, it is said, to the prophet, a title which 
 all his successors have since adopted. 
 
 ABUKESKO, orAsLANi in commerce, Turk- 
 ish names given to the Dutch dollar. 
 
 ABULFARAGIUS, (Gregory,) the son of 
 Aaron, a physician and prelate of Armenia, born 
 at Malatia, in 1226. He was elected primate of 
 
 Carlyle selects some of his most elegant 
 mens of Arabian poetry from this author. 
 
 ABUSE', v. & n. 
 
 ABU'SER, 
 
 ABU'SIVE, 
 
 ABU'SIVELY, 
 
 ABU'SIVENESS, 
 
 ABU'SAGE, 
 
 ABUSE'FUL, 
 
 ABU'SION, 
 
 I see how thine abuse hath wrested so thy wittes, 
 
 That all it yeldes to thy desire, and followes thee 
 by fittes. Surrey. 
 
 Was it not enough for him, to have deceived me ; 
 and, through the deceit, abused me ; and, after the 
 abuse, forsaken me : but, that he must now, of all 
 the company, lay want of beauty to my charge. 
 
 Sidney, b. ii. 
 
 ROS. No : I will not cast away my physick but 
 
 Ab: utor, usus, to use 
 from ; to put to a con- 
 trary use ; to use ill in any 
 way ; to insult, to take 
 an unfair advantage of; 
 to violate, or defile ; to 
 misapply, to mispend. 
 
 the Jacobites in 1266, an office which he held on those that are sick. There is a young man haunts 
 
 for 20 years He wrote, an Epitome of Universal the forests, that abuses our young plants with carving 
 
 History, which was published, with a Latin Rosalind on their barks ; hangs odes upon hawthorns, 
 
 translation by Dr. Pocock, in 1663. and ele /; es on *"*"*]** * " forso ^ ff^ the 
 
 ABULFAZEL, Vizier and historiographer name of R^lmd. ' I W meet that fancy-mon- 
 
 to Akber, the great mogul, and author of Ayeen 
 Akberry. Few particulars are known of his 
 life, but he bears a high character for learning 
 and elegance as a writer ; he was assassinated in 
 1664, on his return from a mission to the Deccan. 
 ABULGHAZI, (Bayatur,) khan of Tartary de- 
 scended from Jenghiz khan, was born in 1 605 at 
 Urgens. He endured a long series of misfor- 
 tunes before his accession to the throne of Kha- 
 razn in 1645, in which he continued twenty 
 years, having by his courage rendered himself 
 formidable to all his enemies. In 1665, he resigned 
 his sceptre in favour of his son, and undertook a 
 genealogical history of the Turks, which was 
 completed by his successor, and is considered the 
 most authentic history extant of the Turks and 
 Tartars. It was procured by Count Strahlenberg 
 when a captive in Siberia, and has been very 
 generally translated into the European languages. 
 ABUNDANTIA, or COPIA, a heathen god- 
 dess generally crowned with garlands of flowers, 
 and pouring all sorts of fruit out of a horn which 
 
 ger, I would give him some good counsel, for he 
 seems to have the quotidian of love upon him. 
 
 Shakspeare's As You like it. 
 
 Happy are those persons who use the world and 
 abuse it not, who possess a part of it, and love it ior 
 no other ends but for necessities of nature, and con- 
 veniences of persons, and discharge of all their duty 
 and the offices of religion, and charity to Christ, and 
 all Christ's members. Jeremy Taylo" , 
 
 They that use this world, as not abusing it; for the 
 fashion of this world passeth away. 1 Cor. vii. 31. 
 He has fixed and determined the time for our re- 
 pentance, beyond which he will no longer await the 
 perverseness of men, no longer suffer his compassion 
 to be abused. Rogers's Sermons. 
 
 The world hath been much abused by the opinion, 
 of making ; the work itself I judge to be possible ; 
 but the means, hitherto propounded, are in practise 
 full of error. Brown's Natural History, No. 126. 
 
 Nor be with all these tempting words abused ; 
 These tempting words were all to Sappho us'd. Pope. 
 ABUT', -} Abuttan, from Bo^a. The 
 ABUT'MENT, > first, outward extremity of any 
 ABUTT'AL, j thing; to border on the sui- 
 
 she holds in her right hand. On a medal of face or ?dge of, to touch the boundary of any 
 Trajan, she is represented with two cornucopia?. tnin g in juxta-position. 
 
 Two mighty monarchies, 
 Whose high, upreared, and abutting fronts 
 The narrow perilous ocean parts asundor. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry V 
 The Looes are two several corporations, di 
 
 ABUNDANT NOTION, in logic, that which 
 includes more marks and characteristics, than are 
 absolutely necessary for distinction. 
 
 ABUNDANT NUMBER, in arithmetic, a number, 
 
 .. t* i .. . iuc JUUUCB arc L\\ u several L'uri.'uraiiuii, uiani:. 
 
 the sum of whose aliquot parts is greater than gu;shed by thc addition of east an ' d west , abuttinjf 
 
 the number itself. Thus the aliquot parts of 12, upon a navigable creek, and joined by a fair bridge of 
 
 being 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, they make, when added many arches. Ca'rew. 
 
 together, 16. It is opposed to a deficient number. . ABUT1LON, in botany, a genus of mallows 
 
 ABUS, in ancient geography, a name for the called by Linnaeus SIDA, which see. 
 
 confluence of the Ure, the Derwent, the Trent, ABYDOS, in ancient geography, a town built 
 
 &c. forming the mouth of the Humber. by the Milesians in Asia, on the narrowest part 
 
 ABU* IK, or BUSIR, a town of Egypt, the of the Hellespont, opposite to Sestos on the 
 
 Ancient Busiris on the right bank of the Nile, European side. Here Xerxes constructed his
 
 A B Y S S 1 N I A. 
 
 49 
 
 famous bridge, and Ovid makes it the scene of 
 the loves of Leander and Hero. The inhabitants 
 are called by some writers a soft and effeminate 
 people, much given to detraction ; hence the pro- 
 verb, ' Ne temere Abydum/ We need hardly re- 
 mind our readers of the celebrity given to this 
 place by the admirable poem of Lord Byron. 
 
 ABYDOS, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Egypt, between Ptolemais and Diospolis Parva, 
 towards Cyrene ; famous for the palace of Mem- 
 non and the temple of Osiris ; into which singers 
 and dancers were forbid to enter. This city, re- 
 duced to a village under the empire of Augustus, 
 now presents to our view only an heap of ruins 
 without inhabitants; but to the west of these 
 ruins is still found the celeb rated tomb of Osy- 
 mandes. The entrance is under a portico 60 
 feet high, and supported by two rows of massy 
 columns, loaded with hieroglyphics. Beyond it, 
 is a temple 300 feet long and 155 wide. Upon 
 entering the monument we meet with an im- 
 mense hall, the roof of which is supported by 28 
 columns, 60 feet high, and 19 in circumference 
 at the base. They are 12 feet distant from each 
 other. The enormous stones that form the 
 ceiling, perfectly joined, and incrusted, as it 
 were, one in the other, offer to the eye nothing 
 but one solid platform of marble, 126 feet long, 
 and 26 wide. Monsieur Chevalier, formerly 
 governor of Chandernagore, who resided 20 
 years in that country, carefully visited , this 
 monument on his return from Bengal. He re- 
 marked here the gods Jaggrcnat, Gonez, and 
 Vechnou or Wistnou, such as they are repre- 
 sented in the temples of Indostan. A great gate 
 opens at the bottom of the first hall, which leads 
 to an apartment, 46 feet long by 22 wide. Six 
 square pillars support the roof of it ; and at the 
 angles are the doors of four other chambers, but 
 so choaked up with rubbish that they cannot now 
 be entered. The last hall, 64 feet long by 24 
 wide, has stairs by which one descends into the 
 subterraneous apartments of this grand edifice. 
 The Arabs, in searching after treasure, have piled 
 tip heaps of earth and rubbish. The walls, the 
 roof, and the columns of this edifice, have suf- 
 fered so little from the injuries of time, that did 
 not the hieroglyphics mark its antiquity, it would 
 appear to have been newly built. To the left of 
 this great building we meet with another much 
 smaller, at the bottom of which is a sort of altar, 
 probably the sanctuary of the temple. 
 
 ABYLA. See ABILA. 
 
 ABYO, or ABUYO, one of the Philippine is- 
 lands in the E. Indies, E.oi Layla. Lon. 124, 15'. 
 E. Lat. 10, 6'. N. 
 
 ABYSM', n. \ a./3i><r<roc, without bottom. Bot- 
 ABYSS'. i tomless. Hence the essential 
 
 character of an abyss is unfathomable depth, 
 profundity. 
 
 And brutish ignorance, ycrept of late 
 Out of drad darkness of the deep abysm. 
 
 Sp. Tears of Muses, 188. 
 
 O ! the unfathomable abyss of eternity ! how are 
 our imaginations lost in the conceptions of it ! 
 
 Stillingfleet's Sermons. 
 Nor second he that rode sublime 
 Upon the seraph wings of ecstacy, 
 The secrets of the abyss to spy. 
 
 Gray's Progress of Poetry. 
 
 ABYSS, in the Septuagint, denotes the water 
 which God created at the beginning along with 
 the earth, which encompassed it round, and 
 which our translators render by deep, Gen. i. 2. 
 Abyss is also used for an immense cavern in the 
 earth, wherein God is supposed to have collected 
 all those waters on the third day, which in our 
 version, is rendered the seas , and elsewhere the 
 great deep. Dr. Woodward and others, suppose 
 that there is a mighty collection of waters in the 
 bowels of the earth, communicating with those 
 of the ocean, by means of certain hiatuses or 
 chasms, passing between them and the bottom 
 pf the sea ; but so, that the ordinary surface of 
 the abyss, is never level with that of the ocean. 
 The existence of such abyss or receptacle of sub- 
 terraneous waters, is controverted by Camera-- 
 rius ; but the arguments on each side of this con- 
 troversy may be seen collected and amplified, 
 in Cockbum's Inquiry into the Truth and Cer- 
 tainty of the Mosaic Deluge, p. 271, &c. Vid. 
 also, WhitehursCs Inquiry into the Original 
 Formation of the Strata, &c. ; also Journal des 
 S$avans, Iviii. Mem. of Literature, viii. and 
 Jamieson's Mineralogy, v. iii. 
 
 ABYSS, in antiquity, the temple of Proser- 
 pine ; so called on account of the immense fund 
 of gold and riches deposited there, and as some 
 say, hidden under ground. 
 
 ABYSS, in heraldry, denotes the centre of an 
 escutcheon ; in which sense, a thing is said to 
 be borne in abyss/en abysme,)vi\ien placed in tho 
 middle of the shield, clear from any other bear^ 
 ing : He bears azure, a fleur-de-lis, in abyss. 
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 ABYSSINIA, ABASSIA, HABESH, or UPPER 
 ETHIOPIA, an extensive kingdom of Africa, lying 
 between the 7th and 16th degrees of N. lat. 
 and 30 and 40 E. long. It is bounded on 
 the east by the Red Sea, on the north by Senaar, 
 on the west and south by Senaar and Kordofan, 
 together with some vast barbarous regions, the 
 names of which are scarcely known to Euro- 
 peans. Mr. Pinkerton computes the superficial 
 area at 770 miles in length, by 550, its medial 
 breadth, in which perhaps he has not erred 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 egregiously ; although from the indefinite nature 
 and shifting demarcation of its boundaries, the 
 true dimensions of this country are difficult to 
 ascertain. 
 
 The ancients knew nothing accurately of this 
 extensive region, and therefore included it, to- 
 gether with the adjacent territories, under the 
 comprehensive name of Ethiopia ; a term which 
 they applied indiscriminately to all nations of 
 a black complexion, and even to Arabia, Persia, 
 Chaldea, and Assyria. Ethiopia Proper, called 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 the 
 
 by the Jews Cush and Ludim, was bounded on land in Abyssinia, running N. and S. about 80 
 the N by Egypt, extending to the Lesser cataract miles, with a medial breadth of about 30. 
 of the Nile/and the Elephantine island ; on the 9. Shire is the most picturesque part ot 
 W by Libya Interior ; on the E. by the Red Abyssinia, abounding with fine landscapes, flow- 
 Sea, and on the S. by unknown parts of ery meadows, and shady groves. ] t lies to the 
 Africa. The Africans were divided into the 
 eastern and the western Ethiopians, the latter 
 of whom were also called Hesperians. 
 
 The Ethiopian kingdoms, of which the ancients 
 had any knowledge, were two, the first Meroe, 
 situated on a peninsula, which they erroneously 
 supposed to be an island, formed by the 
 union of the Nile with the Astaboras and the 
 Astapus, (Blue River and Tacazze.) Its me- 
 tropolis of the same name stood upon the 
 Nile, in lat. 16. 26'. Mr. Bruce in passing 
 through Senaar, saw near Chendi immense 
 ruins, which probably belonged to this celebrated 
 capital of Ethiopia. The second kingdom, un- 
 known until the Greeks under Alexander had ex- 
 tended their navigation along the eastern coast of 
 Africa, was that of the Axumitae, situated upon 
 the Red Sea, and occupying part of the Abys- 
 
 west of Axum, and connects itself with 
 contiguous regions of 
 
 10. Zetnben, a valuable district between Sa- 
 men and Tigrfe Proper. 
 
 1 1 . The eleventh and last division of Tigre is 
 called the kingdom of Baharnogash. 
 
 AMHARA, the second independent state, is, 
 according to Bruce, a mountainous region, 120 
 miles long, and 40 broad, containing the rock 
 Geshen, once the residence of the royal family. 
 This province is now almost entirely in pos- 
 session of the Galla, whose chief Guxo is the 
 enemy of Ras Welud Selasse, and enjoys an 
 absolute power on the W. side of the Tacazze, 
 and is strengthened in a considerable degree by 
 his connexion with the southern Galla : the 
 cavalry of this prince has been estimated at 
 20,000, and is derived chiefly from the district 
 
 sinian province of Tigre?" Its capital Axum, in a of Begemder; Gondar is under his jurisdic- 
 state of decay, remains to exhibit the ruins of its tion. The men in this part of the country were 
 
 reputed formerly the handsomest in Abyssinia. 
 
 former greatness. It was from the port Adulis, 
 in this territory, that the ancients derived the finest 
 ivory. 
 
 When Mr. Salt was last in Abyssinia, it was 
 divided into three distinct and independent states. 
 
 TIGRE the most powerful was tinder the do- 
 minion of Ras Welud Selasse, who claimed the 
 monopoly of all the muskets imported, and like- 
 wise of the salt. This division of Abyssinia 
 comprehends about four degrees of lat. and 
 the same of long, bounded by a strong sea-coast, 
 and inhabited by a warlike people. 
 
 1. Tigre the first sub-division of this region, 
 bounded by the territories of the Baharnegash, 
 the river Mareb and the Tacazze is a wealthy 
 province, measuring 200 miles from N. to S. and 
 120 from E. to W. It consists of a range ot hills 
 intersected by deep vallies and cultivated plains. 
 
 2. Agame, E. of Tigre, consists of a rich and 
 fertile level, at considerable altitude, enjoying 
 a favourable climate. It is remarkable for the 
 
 salt plain in its vicinity, also for the strength of and courageous. 
 
 The third division of this country, now entirely 
 separated from the before mentioned by the 
 Galla, consists of the united provinces of SIIOA 
 and EFAT, and is supposed to contain a larger 
 portion of Ethiopian literature and manners, 
 than any other part of Abyssinia. 
 
 Efat, a fine district between the ninth and 
 eleventh degrees of lat., consists principally of 
 high land, running N. and S., and declining on 
 each side to an extensive plain. Numerous 
 rivers flow on both sides from the lofty regions, 
 and fall into the Nile and Hawash, of which 
 latter, two branches, sweeping round to a con- 
 siderable extent, nearly encircle the province. 
 The present ruler residing at Ankobar the 
 capital, is the grandson of Yasous, whom Bruce 
 mentions (as Dofter Esther told Mr. Salt in- 
 correctly,) as having visited Gondar while he 
 was there. The chief dependence of this pro- 
 vince is upon its cavalry, who are both skilful 
 
 its eastern frontier, near the Taltal. 
 
 Shoa lies on a lower level than Efat, and is 
 
 3. Enderta, a mountainous province S. of extremely rich in pasturage. Its vallies are deep 
 Agame, is celebrated for its capital, Antalo, in and beautiful, well watered by streams and 
 
 1_ * _1_ A I. _T*l/.lm/ ' _ . _ 
 
 which the Ras resides for the sake of protecting rivers. The districts of Walaka and Gondar, 
 
 dependent on these united provinces, are of no 
 inconsiderable importance. 
 
 Walaka, between the rivers Geshen and Samba, 
 is memorable as the province where the only 
 
 the southern provinces from the Galla. 
 
 4. Wojjerat, S. of the preceding, is a wild 
 district full of forests, in which the lion, ele- 
 phant, and rhinoceros are frequent. 
 
 5. Wofila, contiguous to Wojjerat, is a small surviving prince of the family of Solomon was 
 low division, bordering on the lake Ashangee, preserved after the massacre by Judith, in con- 
 where the Galla profess Christianity, and min- sideration of which, great privileges were con- 
 gle with the native Abyssinians. ferred upon the inhabitants. It is also memora- 
 
 6. iMsta is a rugged and mountainous dis- ble for the monastery of Demba Libanos, where 
 
 trict, the heights of which are almost inacces- 
 sible. To the north are two mountainous dis- 
 tricts, between which and the Tacazze, are two 
 low ones, inhabited by Christian Agows. 
 
 the saint Tecla Haimanout was bred, the famous 
 founder of the power of the clergy. 
 
 The Macrobii of the ancients, according to 
 Bruce, the present Kuara, S. of Dembea, is 
 
 rv Oi'li /* i i . ** ^*ww**** ~i.vu.cti a* >J. VI J_^tiLii-"-'.j ** 
 
 larther to the north lies Avergale, remarkable for a colony of Pagan blacks in its 
 
 tt:i Trow rpmnn ctrctrmr>nr fr\v oVu-vii* Ttir mil ., i t -i n i 
 
 a. narrow region stretching for about fifty miles 
 N. and S. along the Tacazze, and inhabited like 
 the preceding by the Agows. 
 
 8. Samen. E. of the Tacazze, is the highest 
 
 lower region, derived from the black slaves, who 
 accompanied the Arabs after the invasion of 
 Mahomet. One of the great officers of state 
 has kettle drums of silver, which he alone
 
 ABYSSINIA 
 
 51 
 
 has the privilege ot beating through the streets of 
 Gondar. 
 
 The general appearance of Abyssinia is wild 
 and magnificent, overspread with forests, mo- 
 rasses, deep vallies, and beautiful rivers. Tra- 
 velling is exceedingly difficult, but delightful 
 from the charms of romantic variety, ever open- 
 ing upon the eye. The mountains are remarka- 
 ble for their elevation, and in the opinion of 
 some, exceed the Alps and Pyrenees. Some of 
 them appear like obelisks and pyramids, while 
 others are flat and square, grouped with the 
 utmost irregularity, and exhibiting an almost 
 infinite diversity of forms. 
 
 The mountains of Abyssinia generally are 
 arranged in three ridges, of which the middle is 
 the loftiest, and at the same time the most rugged 
 and barren. E. of the kingdom are the heights 
 of Taranta, which Bruce represents as so bare, 
 that he found no possibility of pitching a tent 
 there. On the lower part of the mountain he 
 found the tree called kolquail in a state of high 
 perfection, on the middle olives, which had no 
 fruit, and on the upper part, the Oxycedras or 
 Virginia cedar, called Arze by the natives. On 
 the top is a small village named Halai, inhabited 
 by poor shepherds, who keep the flocks of the 
 rich people in the town of Dixan below. They are 
 of dark complexion, and have black hair, curled 
 artificially ; they wear a girdle of coarse cotton 
 cloth, swathed six times round their middle, and 
 carry with them two lances and a shield made of 
 tulls' hides; besides these weapons they com- 
 monly carry in their girdles a crooked knife with 
 a blade about 16 inches in length, and near the 
 lower part three in breadth. Here are also 
 abundance of cattle; milk-white cows with wide 
 horns, fine hair like silk, with dewlaps down to 
 the knees ; and black sheep with soft hair instead 
 of wool. On the top of the mountain is a plain, 
 which, at the period mentioned by our traveller, 
 was sown with wheat. The air seemed ex- 
 cessively cold, although the thermometer was not 
 below 59 in the evening, and on the western 
 declivity, the cedars had degenerated into shrubs 
 and bushes. 
 
 Towards the centre of the kingdom, on the 
 north west part of the mountains of Samen, is 
 the celebrated Lamalmon, which Bruce tells us, 
 he ascended by a winding path, not quite two 
 feet broad, on the brink of a dreadful precipice, 
 and frequently intersected by the beds of torrents 
 which lay in vast irregular chasms of the moun- 
 tains ; the summit from below had the appear- 
 ance of being sharp pointed, but was in reality, 
 a large plain full of springs, and containing the 
 sources of almost all the rivers in this part of 
 the empire. These springs boil out of the earth, 
 sending forth such quantities of water as would 
 be sufficient to turn a mill. A perpetual verdure 
 prevails upon the mountains ; and Bruce thought 
 that, with moderate industry, three harvests might 
 be reaped annually. The Gauza lies in the south 
 of the kingdom ; beside which, the mountains 
 of Adowain Tigre", Amda Gideon, or Jews' 
 Rock, in Samen, and the triple ridge of Afon- 
 nasha, Litchambard, and Amid Amid, supposed 
 by the traveller already named, to be the Moun- 
 tains of the Moon, are the most celebrated. 
 
 From all the Abyssinian mountains gold is 
 washed down by the torrents in the rainy 
 seasons. 
 
 Of the mineralogy of Abyssinia little is known, 
 although from its mountainous character, but 
 one opinion upon the subject has hitherto been 
 formed. Near Weach are low hills of granite 
 rocks, resting on beds of micaceous earth. In 
 Tigr the soil is sandy, and the rocks composed 
 of slate, schistus and grani*e lie in perpendicular 
 strata, although in Geralta and Enderta, the 
 strata are horizontal. But the great salt plain, 
 fifty miles west of Amphila, on the road to 
 Massowa, forms one of the most wonderful phe- 
 nomena in Abyssinia. It is crossed in sandals 
 made from the leaves of a species of the palm, 
 and is four days' journey from N.W. to S. E. 
 The plain is perfectly flat, and for the first half- 
 mile the salt is soft, at a greater distance it be- 
 comes hard and crystallized, like ice on which 
 snow has fallen after it has been partially thawed ; 
 branches of pure salt occasionally rising above 
 the surface. For about two feet immediately 
 under the earth it is hard and pure ; at a greater 
 depth it becomes coarse and soft, till exposed to 
 the air. It is cut with an adze into pieces of 
 the shape of a whetstone, and passed among the 
 natives as money. The Galla frequently attack 
 the workmen employed in cutting the salt from 
 the plain ; and Balgudda, a protector of the salt 
 caravans, derives his emolument from the duty 
 imposed on its exportation. A camel, the usual 
 load of which is 200 pieces, pays 11 ; a mule, 
 carrying 80, pays nine ; an ass, pays six ; but 
 when it is brought away by men, no duty is 
 paid. 
 
 The principal river of Abyssinia is the Bahr- 
 el-Azrek, or Blue River. It originates in two 
 springs, arising from a small hillock, in a marsh, 
 of Sacala, near Geesh, and flows into the lake 
 Dembea ; emerging from which, it sweeps its 
 semicircular course round the provinces of 
 Damot and Gojam ; after which, taking a north- 
 erly direction through Senaar, as far as Wed 
 Hogela, in the 16th degree of latitude, it unites 
 with the Bahr-ei-Abiad, or principal branch of 
 the Nile, originating in the mountains of the 
 Moon. The Tacazze rises W. of Antalo, from 
 three small springs in the plains of Magilla, and 
 joined by the river Arequa, runs through Senaar 
 to the Nile, carrying with it nearly one-third of 
 the water which falls in the whole empire. 
 This river is extremely pleasant, being shaded 
 with fine lofty trees, and the water remarkably 
 clear. At the ford, where Bruce crossed, 
 this river was 200 yards over, running very 
 swiftly over a bottom of pebbles. At the very 
 edge of the water the banks were covered with 
 tamarinds, beautifully supported by a back 
 ground of tall and stately trees, that never lose 
 the charms of their foliage. It is however, in- 
 fested with crocodiles and hippopotami, and the 
 neighbouring woods are full of lions and hyaenas. 
 Two rivers of Abyssinia, the Hanazo and the 
 Hawash, flow towards the entrance of the Red 
 Sea, and the Jemma. The Maleg, a large and 
 important stream, after a parallel course on the* 
 W. joins the Abyssinian Nile. The March 
 forms the boundary between Tigre, and the kmg
 
 52 
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 dom of the Baharnagosh. The principal lakes 
 are the Dembea, commonly called Tzana, having 
 in the midst of it an island of the same name. 
 That of Lawasa in the southern region, together 
 with Ashangeeand Haik, near the rocks of Geshen 
 and Ambazel. 
 
 The climate is cold, and for six months 
 of the year, viz. from April to September 
 inclusive, constantly rainy. During the other 
 six months, the sun being vertical, and the sky 
 cloudless, the heat is excessive through the day ; 
 but, still the nights are so cold, owing to the 
 length of the rainy season, and the perpetual 
 equality of the days and nights, that the ground 
 feels disagreeable to the soles of the feet. The 
 mountainous nature of the provipce generally, 
 nevertheless exposes different situations to the 
 various effects of heat and cold, dryness and 
 humidity, and of a free circulation and stagnation 
 of the atmosphere ; those of the natives who live 
 upon the hills, are healthy and sprightly, whilst 
 those who live in the vallies, marshes, or sandy 
 deserts, experience an excessive heat, with a 
 humid suffocating atmosphere. To avoid the 
 inconvenience occasioned by the overflowing of 
 the rivers, during the rainy season, the inhabi- 
 tants have built many of their towns and villages 
 upon mountains; they are, however, generally 
 mean and slight, consisting of only one story. 
 On Lamalmon, one of the highest of these hills, 
 Mr. Bruce observed the thermometer stood at 32 
 in the depth of winter; the wind N.W. clear and 
 cold. A light hoar frost fell with the wind, 
 which vanished a quarter of an hour after sun- 
 rise, but there appeared no sign of congelation ; 
 but upon Amid Amid, he remarked that hail lay 
 for three hours in the forenoon. One of the 
 natives describing a fall of snow, for which no 
 term had been previously invented, uses the 
 following language : " This village (Zinzenam) 
 has its name from an extraordinary circumstance 
 that once happened in these parts ; a shower of 
 rain fell, which was not properly of the nature 
 of rain, as it did not run upon the ground, but 
 remained very light, having scarce the weight of 
 feathers, of a beautiful white colour like flour ; 
 it fell in showers, and darkened the air more 
 than rain, and liker to mist. It covered the face 
 of the whole country for several days, retaining 
 its whiteness the whole time, then went away 
 like dew, without leaving any smell or unwhole- 
 some effect behind it." Mr. Salt, nevertheless 
 in his visit to Abyssinia, found snow upon the 
 mountains of Samen; and Mr. Pearce, in his 
 passage over them, experienced a heavy fall. 
 The thermometer in March, April, and May, 
 averaged, according to the former gentleman, 70 
 at Chelicut, 65 at Antalo, 95 on the banks of 
 the Tacazze", and upon the mountains of Samen, 
 was below the freezing point. 
 
 The inhabitants of Abyssinia are especially 
 subject to fevers of different kinds, which are 
 commonly fatal on the third day; after which 
 period, those who survive, commonly recover. 
 The tertian fever is particularly common. Fevers 
 in Abyssinia not unfrequently terminate in in- 
 termittents ; and if long continued, in dysenteries, 
 which are often mortal. That species of 
 dysentery beginning with a constant diarrhoea 
 
 if it commence with the rainy season, is seldom 
 cured. Bark, ipecacuanha, water, and fruit not 
 over ripe, are sometimes administered with suc- 
 cess ; ipecacuanha in particular, provided the 
 season be favourable, either removes it, or 
 changes it to an intermitting fever, which yields 
 to the bark. Another endemial disease is the 
 ' hanseer,' (the hogs or swine) a swelling of the 
 glands of the throat, and the parts under the 
 arms ; which by unsuccessful attempts to produce 
 suppuration, and opening the tumours, becomes 
 a running sore resembling the evil. Swellings 
 of the whole body, especially the arms, thighs, 
 and legs, accompanied by ulcers in the nose and 
 mouth, are common in this country. These dis- 
 eases sometimes yield to mercurials, and the last 
 is speedily cured by antimonials. Farenteit, or 
 the worm of Pharaoh, commonly attacks those 
 who are in the habit of drinking stagnant water. 
 It appears in all parts of the body, and is a worm 
 with a small black head, and a white hooked 
 beak, and a white body of a silky texture, re 
 semb.mg a small tendon. The natives seize it 
 by the head, and wind it gently round a piece of 
 silk, or on a bird's feather, and then extract it with- 
 out much inconvenience. But the most terrible 
 of all diseases, is the elephantiasis ; for which, 
 no cure has ever been discovered. See ELE- 
 PHANTIASIS. To the alternations of scorching heat 
 and chilling cold, thin clothing, the use of stag- 
 nant putrid water, for four months in the year, 
 &c. the endemial diseases of Abyssinia are at- 
 tributed. 
 
 The variety of elevation in different parts of 
 the country, occasions a proportionate variety of 
 soil and productions. Corn is produced in great 
 abundance. Teff is their chief article for bread ; 
 and where the grounds are unfit for the produc- 
 tion of this, the tocusso plant is raised, yielding 
 a black bread for the lowest classes. Although 
 wine is not made in more than one or two places, 
 there is every where the greatest profusion of 
 fruits. Sena, cardamom, ginger, and cotton, are 
 produced in great quantities. A species of rose 
 grows upon large trees, and is in fragrance much 
 superior to those which grow on bushes. The 
 Balessan balm, or balsam plant, which produces 
 the balm of Gilead mentioned in scripture, is 
 found among the myrrh trees, on the coast of the 
 Red Sea, all the way toBabelmandel. Sassa, myrrh, 
 and opocalpasum are common in the same region. 
 The ensete is an herbaceous plant, in Narea, 
 which thrives chiefly in swampy places, and forms 
 a considerable part of the vegetable food of the 
 natives. The kolquall is a tree of which the 
 lower part alone is woody, the upper being her- 
 baceous and succulent; it makes a beautiful 
 appearance, bearing a fine golden coloured 
 flower, which ripens to a deep crimson fruit. 
 The geshe-el-aube is a kind of grass, about 
 Ras-el-Feel, which grows to the height of 
 nearly three feet and a half. The gaguedi tree, 
 running to the height of about nine feet, is a 
 native of Lamalmon, and produces beautiful 
 yellow flowers, which like the helianthus, are 
 turned towards the sun. The wansey tree, com- 
 mon throughout the whole of Abyssinia, flowers 
 the first day on which the rains cease ; it grows 
 to the height of 18 or 20 feet, and is highly
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 53 
 
 esteemed by the Abyssinians, and by the Galla 
 even worshipped. Kuara, a beautiful tree grow- 
 ing in the southern and western parts of Abys- 
 sinia ; producing a fruit resembling a red bean, 
 which in the early ages was used as a weight 
 for gold. From this circumstance, Mr. Bruce 
 imagines the imaginary weight carat, is derived. 
 The wooginoos, or brucea antidysenterica, com- 
 mon in valleys throughout the whole country, is 
 an antidote to the dysentery. Cusso, or banksia 
 anthelmintica, is a beautiful tree, so called from 
 its being a strong anthelmintic. Nook, or nuk, 
 resembling our marigold, produces abundance 
 of oil. The lehem, or toberne montana, a tree 
 common near the lake of Dembea, is remarkable 
 for its beauty and fragrance ; it grows to a con- 
 siderable size, the extremities of its branches 
 trailing on the ground, covered with flowers from 
 top to bottom, each cluster containing between 
 85 and 90 ; open or shut the fruit is taken, but 
 has rather a harsh taste. The anguah, found 
 near the Tacazze, produces a gum resembling 
 frankincense. The leaves of the geesh, are put 
 by the natives into their maize, and sometimes 
 reduced to powder, and mixed with other ma- 
 terials, of which they make sowa. The mergom- 
 bey, a species of solanum, is used as a cathartic ; 
 and, from the niche, or niege, a species of the 
 sesanum, they extract vegetable oil. A species 
 of narrow ficus, near Shela, called by the natives 
 chekunit, of which the inner bark is converted 
 into matches for fire arms. Near Adowa, Mr. Salt 
 found a new and beautiful species of amaryllis, 
 bearing 10 or 12 spikes of bloom on each stem, 
 emerging from one receptacle, as large as those 
 of the belladonna. It is sweet scented, like the 
 lilly of the valley, and has a white corolla, each 
 petal being marked down the middle with a 
 slight streak of bright purple. The bulbs are 
 frequently two feet under ground. 
 
 Numerous plants and trees of Abyssinia, are 
 however, yet undescribed ; although Mr. Salt in 
 his two recent journies added eight genera, and 
 1 28 species, to our vocabulary. The process of 
 fructification is, in many instances, very singular. 
 Although the same part of the tree flowers only 
 once in 12 months, the blossoms appear and 
 the fruit ripens, first, on the western boughs, 
 next on the southern, then on the northern, and 
 finally, on the eastern ; which continues to pro- 
 duce blossoms and fruit, till the commencement 
 of the rainy season. The leaves of the trees 
 being generally of a rough texture, and varnished, 
 are admirably adapted to resist the rains. 
 
 The quadrupeds of Abyssinia are among the 
 most remarkable in the world; and have, ac- 
 cordingly, attracted the attention of travellers. 
 Many of the cow species have no horns, but are 
 distinguished by bosses on their backs ; others, 
 have horns of a prodigious size, as the galla, 
 or sanga, whose horns are capable of holding ten 
 quarts each. The horns of one of these animals 
 are in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, 
 in London. They are however, by no means 
 common, being brought only by the Cafilas, or 
 salt caravans, as valuable presents from the south. 
 The sheep are small and black; the horses 
 strong and beautiful ; goats, mules, asses, and 
 camels, are common. Of dogs there are two 
 
 species, one of which lives in packs in the 
 villages, like the paria dog in India ; the other, 
 is kept for game, especially guinea fowl, in 
 taking which it is very expert. Cats are found 
 in every house, and rats are numerous in the 
 fields. 
 
 Of wild animals, Abyssinia furnishes vast 
 numbers. There is a great variety of antelopes, 
 one of which is supposed to be allied to the 
 chamois. Several species of the monkey, wild 
 boar, porcupine, cavy, (nearly allied to that of 
 the Cape) hares, and squirrels, are plentiful, but 
 are thought unclean ; also, an undescribed spe- 
 cies of lemur, the size of a cat, with a long tail, 
 faintly striped with black and white, and white 
 bushy hair at the end ; and clear white hair all 
 over the body, except on the back, where there is 
 a large oval spot covered with short deep black 
 hair, of which every man in Tigre is proud to 
 have a piece on his shield. Elephants are hunt- 
 ed by the Shangalla for their teeth. The cawe 
 leopard is rare and very shy, being only found 
 in the interior districts. The two-horned rhino- 
 ceros is also rare, being found only in the forests 
 of Wojjerat, and the low country, near the Funge. 
 Of its horns, the foremost is two feet long, having 
 no connexion with the bone of the head. The 
 opinion of Sparrman is not improbable, namely, 
 that the animal can raise or depress them at 
 pleasure. The skin of this rhinoceros has no 
 folds in it, as that of the one-horned species has, 
 but is of sufficient strength to be made into shields ; 
 as is also that of the buffalo. Zebras are com- 
 mon in the southern regions, and their manes are 
 used to decorate the collars of the horses belong- 
 ing to the most distinguished chiefs on days of 
 state. Wild asses and lions, are found in the 
 sandy districts, near the Tacazze", and the skin 
 of the latter richly ornamented, forms a dress 
 like that worn by the Caffre chiefs. Whoever 
 kills one of these animals, wears the paw on his 
 shield. Of the leopard there are several species, 
 one of which is black, and extremely rare, whose 
 skin is worn only by governors of provinces. The 
 lion-cat, tiger-cat, or grey lynx, and wild cat, 
 are not uncommon. Civet is procured from the 
 Civet, and is an article of commerce. Wolves, 
 foxes, sea foxes, and jackals, are numerous in 
 every part of the country. But of all the quad- 
 rupeds of Abyssinia, none exceed the merciless 
 hyaena. " They were a plague" says Mr. Bruce, 
 " in every situation, both in the city and in the 
 field, and surpassed the sheep in number. Gon- 
 dar was full of them, from the time it turned 
 dark, till dawn of day ; seeking the different 
 pieces of slaughtered carcases, which this cruel 
 and unclean people expose in the streets without 
 burial.'' The hyrena, Mr. Salt remarks, has a 
 singular cry, consisting of three distinct deep- 
 toned cries, then silence for a few minutes, suc- 
 ceeded by the same kind of noise. The hippopo- 
 tami are chiefly found in the deep pits, like lochs 
 between the fords of the Tacazzl; where they 
 roll and snort like a porpus, but are not able to 
 remain longer than five or six minutes at a time 
 under water. Their colour is a dusky brown, 
 like the elephant, and their usual length 15 feet. 
 Whips, to brush away the flies in hot weather, 
 are made of their skins, the butt-ends of which,
 
 64 
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 are adorned with hair from the tail of the camel- 
 leopard. 
 
 The birds of Abyssinia exhibit every variety 
 of appearance and plumage. Many species of 
 the eagle, vulture and hawk, are found, especially 
 after the tropical rains. These carnivorous birds 
 feed at first upon the fish washed from the salt- 
 springs, where they had been nourished by the 
 force of the inundation, and left after the sub- 
 siding of the waters : when these fail, they turn 
 their attention to the bodies of elephants and 
 other beasts, slain by the hunters in the low- 
 lands; rats and field-mice become their next 
 prey, to which maybe added the cattle slaughtered 
 by the Abyssinian armies, and the dead bodies 
 which remain upon the field of battle. Many of 
 the birds of Abyssinia feed upon insects, others 
 upon grain, seeds, and fruits. It is an advantage 
 of granivorous birds, that, as the country is 
 crossed by mountains that divide the seasons, 
 and the rains in different parts fall at different 
 periods, they have but a short passage from time 
 to time to supply themselves with food. Of the 
 numerous species of pigeons, all except one, 
 which occupies the eaves of houses, &c. ; are 
 migratory. The owls are large and beautiful. 
 The swallows, common in Europe, appear in 
 passage at the very season when they leave that 
 continent: numerous other kinds however are 
 found, which are unknown in Europe. The 
 large birds, resident in the mountains of Samen 
 and Taranta, have tubular feathers, the hollow 
 part being filled with yellow dust, which, agitated 
 by the motion of the animal, issues out in great 
 abundance. The dust expressed from the wing 
 of a nisser, or golden eagle, appeared, says Mr. 
 Bruce, through a microscope with a strong mag- 
 nifying power, like fine feathers. One of these 
 birds measured eight feet four inches from wing 
 to wing, and nearly five feet from the tip of his 
 tail to the termination of his beak. The racha- 
 mah, or black eagle, with several other species, 
 called erkoom, moroc, sheregrig, and waalia, 
 are particularly described by Mr. Bruce, to which 
 Mr. Salt has added a new species, call'ed goodie- 
 goodie, about the size of a falcon, the colour 
 deep brown, and the breast a clear white ; the 
 crows have nearly an equal proportion of black 
 and white. . The black feathers of the raven are 
 intermixed with brown ones, the tip of his beak 
 white, and a tuft of white feathers on his head, 
 somewhat resembling a chalice or cup. Web- 
 footed water-fowl are generally scarce, but 
 storks and snipes are numerous. There is but 
 one species of goose, called the golden goose, or 
 goose of the Nile, which is common through all 
 the South of Africa. A new species of the vul- 
 ture has been recently discovered. Ostriches 
 are sometimes met with in the low districts to 
 the north. The hern inhabits marshy ground. 
 The solitary hornbill is often seen in the district 
 of Tigre. The Egyptian goose, allied to the 
 Anas Lybica, is seen in some parts occasionally. 
 Quails, guinea fowls, and partridges, abound. 
 Amongst other rare birds brought home by Mr. 
 Salt from Abyssinia, may be mentioned the fol- 
 lowing : A new species of bucco, since called 
 Rucco Saltii, which clings to the branches of trees, 
 like the woodpecker; a variety of the upupa 
 
 erythrorhynchos, with a black tail ; it feeds on 
 the figs of the ficus sycamorus ; a nondescript 
 species of the merops ; a new species of tanapa, 
 which perches on the backs of cattle, and feeds 
 upon the grubs which live upon them in hot 
 weather; the columba Abyssinica, which flies 
 wild among the daro trees ; the Erodia ampni- 
 lorsis, supposed to be a new genus of the Arodea 
 Pondiceriana ; also the Cursorius Europaeus, an 
 extremely rare bird, shot on the sandy plains 
 traversed by the rimer Tacazze 1 . 
 
 Of the insects produced in Abyssinia, the 
 most dreadful is the tsaltsalya, a species of the 
 fly somewhat larger than a bee, with colourless 
 wings of pure gauze, placed separately, like those 
 of a fly. This insect is distinguished by a large 
 head and sharp upper jaw, armed at the end 
 with a strong pointed hair, about a quarter of an 
 inch in length, the lower jaw being furnished 
 with two of these hairs, whilst the legs are 
 serrated in the inside and covered with down. 
 Its motion is rapid, like that of a gad-fly, pro- 
 ducing a jarring noise, accompanied by a hum- 
 ming, which is no sooner heard than the utmost 
 consternation prevails amongst the cattle, who 
 use every effort to escape his attack. The thick 
 skin of the camel is no security against the pro- 
 boscis of this dreadful insect, which, whenever it 
 wounds, injects a venom which causes the part 
 to swell, break, and mortify, to the certain destruc- 
 tion of the animal. Of the ravages of the Abys- 
 sinian locust, Mr. Salt gives a most dreadful 
 account. Bees are domesticated in the province 
 of Wojjerat, and white honey is produced in 
 great quantities, and sold at Antalo. 
 
 The large snake called boa, about the thick- 
 ness of a man's thigh, and upwards of twenty 
 feet in length, is frequent in Abyssinia. The 
 grassy verge of large pools affords him an agree- 
 able resort; his chief subsistence is antelopes 
 and deer, which he swallows piece-meal after 
 crushing their bones. The cerastes, or horned 
 viper, is commonly about thirteen or fourteen 
 inches in length, and its poison is contained in 
 a bag under its canine teeth. This reptile moves 
 in all directions with great rapidity, springing 
 suddenly upon its victim after approaching 
 with its head averted to a proper distance. The 
 reality of the incantation of serpents and scor- 
 pions, which in some is natural, and in others 
 produced by medical preparations, is asserted by 
 Mr. Bruce. 
 
 The torpedo and binny are amongst the most 
 remarkable fishes, the latter of which is good for 
 food. It grows to a considerable size, and its 
 body is covered all over with beautiful scales 
 resembling silver spangles. 
 
 The agriculture of Abyssinia is not in a state 
 of great perfection ; the worst grain is used for 
 seed ; and as almost every man cultivates for the 
 support of his own family, it is seldom sold. The 
 ploughs are rudely formed from the root or 
 branch of a tree, and drawn by oxen ; although 
 in some cases iron ploughshares are employed. 
 The land is twice ploughed, and afterwards the 
 clods broken by women : the corn, when half 
 ripe, is weeded by men, women, and children, 
 singing as they work. The harvests are reaped 
 by females, who, when strangers pass, utter a
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 55 
 
 sharp shrill ciy, the Liralect of Syria, where the after which divine service was celebrated, and 
 same custom is in vogue. It is produced by he returned to the camp, where 14 days were 
 
 spent in feasting and rejoicing. 
 
 The king is saluted like the ancient Persian 
 
 monarch with the title of " king of kings ;" and 
 
 trilling the tongue against the roof of the mouth, 
 and i* in effect, a constant repetition of the 
 syllable al, uttered with the utmost rapidity 
 
 The grain, when gathered, is in most places the royal person is approached with every exter- 
 secured from the weather by a covering of nal sign of adoration ; nor in his presence does 
 tanned kid skins. The plain of Larai, near any one venture to rise from the ground till he 
 Dixan, is in a state of high cultivation, and is receives orders to that effect. When he resides 
 rendered eminently productive by the constant abroad or gives audience, his head is perfectly 
 practice of irrigation. In appearance, it greatly covered, and his eyes only are seen, while one 
 resembles the vale of Evesham. hand is placed upon his mouth. He communi- 
 
 With respect to the government of this cates with his subjects by means of an officer 
 country, nothing can be more despotic, there named Kal-Hatze, the voice or word of the king, 
 being no legal control over the absolute will When in council he sits enclosed in a balcony 
 of the sovereign ; and yet, from the want of with lattice windows and curtains, through a 
 adequate military force, his authority is cap- hole in the side of which he speaks to the Kal- 
 able of being set at defiance, in any of the Hatze. When in the field he is attended by an 
 districts, by the inferior governors ; so that officer called Lika Magwass, who carries his 
 hereditary succession, in Abyssinia, imposes but shield and lance. Such formerly was the respect 
 a feeble restraint on those civil wars and com- paid to him, that no king ever fell in battle, and 
 motions, which continue to barbarize the people. 
 
 The ceremony of coronation consists in anoint- 
 ing the king with plain oil of olives, which, 
 when poured upon the crown of his head, he 
 rubs into his long hair with both his hands. 
 In former times it was of a more splendid 
 description. The king, arrayed in crimson 
 
 even now he is often secured by arraying him- 
 self in his royal insignia. 
 
 The administration of justice in Abyssinia is 
 dep'orable, and complainants stand before the 
 palace from day-break to evening, uttering loud 
 cries in their respective languages. So accus- 
 tomed is the king to these querulous tones of 
 
 damask, with a great chain of gold about his sorrow, that when the rains prevent such as are 
 neck, his head bare, and mounted on a horse really distressed from repairing to the capital, a 
 richly caparisoned, advanced at the head of his set of vagrants are provided whose object it is to 
 nobility, passed the outer court of his palace as far raise the cry of artificial sorrow, lest he should 
 as the paved way before the church, where he was feel a lonely quietness. The phrase adopted on 
 met by a number of young girls, daughters of the all occasions is, Rete Ojau hat, Do me justice, 
 ambares, or supreme judges, with many other O king ! 
 
 noble virgins, standing on the right and left of No satisfactory information has at present been 
 the court. Of these, the two most distinguished obtained with respect to the population of Abys- 
 in point of rank held in their hands a crimson sinia. The account of Alvarez is, that it is one of 
 cord of silk, stretched across from one company the most populous regions of the globe. From 
 to another, about breast high, as if to prevent Mr. Bruce, on the other hand, it appears that 
 the king's passing into the church. When this although in so barbarous a state, it may be sup- 
 was prepared, the sovereign advanced at a posed that every tenth person joins the army, yet 
 moderate pace, displaying, as he passed, his skill it is d ifficult to raise a force of more than 30,000. 
 in horsemanship ; and being stopped by the The most recent authorities estimate the number 
 string, the damsels asked who he was ; to which of inhabitants at 4,000 000. 
 he replied, "I am your king, the king of 
 Ethiopia." The virgins then answered him, 
 " You shall not pass, you are not our king." 
 Retiring some paces, he again presented himself, 
 and the same question was repeated, when he 
 
 answered, " I am your king, the king of Israel ;" 
 
 The devastations committed by the Abys- 
 sinian army in their march, says a celebrated 
 traveller are such that they leave nothing living 
 behind them, not " even the vestige of an 
 habitation, but fire and the sword reduce every 
 thing to a wilderness and solitude. The beasts 
 
 the same .reply was still given by the girls. But and birds, unmolested, have the country to 
 
 the third time, on being asked who he was, 
 he replied, " I am your king, the king of Zion," 
 
 themselves, and increase beyond all possible 
 conception. The slovenly manners of this peo- 
 
 and drawing his sword, cut the string asunder, pie, who, after a battle, bury neither friends nor 
 Upon this, the damsels cried out, " It is a truth, enemies ; the quantity of beasts of burthen 
 you are our king ; truly you are the king of that die perpetually under the load of baggage, 
 Zion." Upon this, they began to sing hallelujahs, and variety of mismanagement ; the offal and 
 in which they were joined by the army and the half-eaten carcases of cows, goats, and sheep, 
 whole concourse of the king's attendants. The which they consume on their march : all fur- 
 king, in the mean time, advanced to the foot of nish a stock of carrion sufficient to occasion 
 the church stair, dismounted and sat down upon contagious distempers, were there not such a 
 a stone resembling the altar of Anubis or the dog- prodigious number of voracious attendants 
 star. A number of priests approached in proces- who consume them almost before putrefaction, 
 sion. The king was then anointed, crowned, and There is no giving the reader any idea of their 
 accompanied half up the stairs by ecclesiastics, number, unless by comparing them to the sands 
 singing as they ascended. At an aperture made of the sea. While the army is in motion, they 
 in one of the steps he remained stationary, and are a black canopy, which extends over it for 
 was frmigated with myrrh, aloes, and cassia ; leagues. When encamped, the ground is dis-
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 ght of the eye, are of stone, 
 
 the sources of the Nile, and come 
 
 h poce 
 
 begins cracking and down to the number of 1000 or 1500 at a time, 
 tw?nty French pos- loaded with wheat, honey, butter, cattle, hides, 
 lions at the door of the palace before the dawn wax, &c. to the capital. 
 
 of day This chales away the hyamas and The natives of this country are of a dark 
 other wild beits: this too is the signal for the olive complexion, and are so averse to white, 
 , who sits in judgment every morn- that they dislike white grapes on account of the 
 : and after thai, about eight o'clock, colour. Their dress consists of a large folding 
 breakfast " mantle with a blue and y ellow border ' wra PP ed 
 
 The houses of Abyssinia are in general round them and bound with a sash Close 
 thatched and mean; those of the grandees are drawers are also common, to which the priest 
 spacious, but the only approach to architectural add a vest of white linen next the skin. They 
 Jrandeur is to be seen in their churches, which are commonly girt with a belt of white cloth ; 
 are built on commanding eminences of a circular or among the higher orders, of red Indu 
 form with conical thatched roofs, surrounded cotton with girdles of silk or worsted, brought 
 with 'pillars of cedar; within which is com- from the Levant. On the head they wear a 
 monly a refreshing arcade. small shawl of white cotton, with the crown 
 
 Gondar, the metropolis of Abyssinia, is built exposed. Their pnncipal liquor is called maize, 
 upon a hill of considerable height, the top of made with honey, fermented with barley, and 
 which is flat. It consists of about 10,000 fami- strengthened with the root of the Rhanmus 
 lies. The houses are mostly of clay, and inebrians, called sadoo. The liquor is drank 
 the roofs thatched in the form of cones. The out of Venetian decanters, called brulhes. The 
 king's palace at the west end of the town, common drink amongst the lower classes is 
 consists of four stories, flanked with square made of the bread left at their feasts, and parched 
 towers, commanding a fine view of the country barley : it is called sowa, and is drank out of 
 southward as far as the lake Tzana. It was horns. 
 
 formerly a considerable edifice; but having Marriage amongst the Abyssinians is generally 
 been often burnt, most of it is now in ruins, a civil contract, and for the most part imper- 
 The audience chamber is 120 feet long. The fectly observed. The female, who is seldom con- 
 palace and its contiguous buildings are sur- suited on the occasion, is carried to the house of 
 rounded by a stone wall 30 feet high, with her husband, either on his shoulders or those of 
 
 his friends. The bride and bridegroom are 
 sometimes seated on a throne of turf, shaded 
 with boughs, round which the relations vociferate 
 and dance. Marriage by civil contract, can be 
 dissolved at pleasure, and requires for this pur- 
 pose, nothing more than the assent of one or 
 
 which is a mile in circumference, including the other of the parties. It is renewed again as 
 richest church in the kingdom. Higher on the often as it is agreeable to both parties ; who, 
 hill are the houses of the people of rank, who after they have been divorced, and connected 
 are for the most part relations of the Iteghe. with others, cohabit together as before. " I re- 
 Axum, the ruins of which are very extensive, member," says Bruce, " to have been once at 
 was the ancient capital of Abyssinia, supposed Koscam, in the presence of the Iteghe, when in 
 to have been constructed in the time of Abraham, the circle there was a woman of great quality, 
 Among the ruins are 40 obelisks of granite; but and seven men who had all been her husbands, 
 without hieroglyphics ; also the traces of a mag- none of whom was the happy spouse at that 
 nificent temple, originally 110 feet in length, time." Ladies of rank retain their estates and 
 with two wings on each side, a double porch, maiden names, and assume great superiority 
 and an ascent of 12 steps. Sire is larger than over their husbands. There is no distinction 
 Axum, and is situated on the brink of a steep between legitimate and illegitimate children ; 
 narrow valley. The houses are built of clay, and in case of separation, they are equally 
 d covered with thatch. Adowa, a town of divided ; the eldest son falls to the mother's first 
 great importance in the province of Tigre", does choice, the eldest daughter to the father, &c. If 
 contain more than 300 houses ; although by the numbers are unequal after the first election, 
 reason of the mclosures of a tree, called the the rest are divided by lot. The dowry which 
 wanzey, surrounding each of the houses, it oc- consists of gold, cattle, musquets, and cloth, is 
 cupies a spacious area. It stands on the declivity also returned in case of separation. Princesses 
 i west side of a small plain, of the royal blood are not permitted to marry 
 I by mountains and is watered by foreigners; and when they take the air, they go 
 ms, jr. ,,ch never become dry, even in in great state, with 400 or 500 women attendants. 
 
 TanT In, ipT" 8 ' ? l*"^ ? "? In S me Cases marria * e entered into by reli- 
 
 flund, and the houses, except about 20, which giou. contract, and the sacrament taken imme- 
 
 battlements and a parapet roof, from which 
 the street is seen to great advantage. Koscam 
 the palace of the Iteghe, is situated on the 
 southern side of the Mountains of the Sun. 
 It is a square tower of three stories, with flat 
 roof and battlements, encompassed by a wall
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 57 
 
 diately after the ceremony ; but these occasions 
 are seldom. The king himself only sends a 
 message to the lady he chooses. The usual 
 period of marriage is, in males about ten years 
 old, in females younger ; and although in some 
 parts the same man cohabits with several wo- 
 men, and provides them with separate residences ; 
 one only is deemed his lawful wife. The women 
 are of a healthy constitution, active, and mo- 
 derately handsome, having neither flat noses 
 nor thick lips like the negroes. They stand in 
 little need of midwives, which is indeed the 
 case in most countries of the torrid zone. They 
 appear in public, the same as in Europe, with- 
 out being forbidden the conversation of the men. 
 
 When a person is diseased, especially if his 
 disease be the Tigre-ter, his relations shew him 
 all the gold and silver ornaments, fine clothes, &c. 
 which they can collect, making at the same time, 
 a dreadful noise with drums and musical instru- 
 ments, to drive out the devil, who, as they im- 
 agine, produces the disease. As death ap- 
 proaches, the drums, &c. are silent, and are 
 succeeded after the decease by howling, and 
 tearing the hair and skin from the temples. The 
 body is immediately washed, fumigated with 
 incense, sewed up in its former apparel, and 
 buried in great haste. After the burial, com- 
 mences the toscar, or feast of the dead. An 
 image of the deceased in rich garments, is set 
 upon his favourite mule, and carried through 
 the city, accompanied by other mules, &c. in 
 gay apparel, together with a number of hired 
 female mourners, crying out, as in Ireland, 
 " Why did you leave us ? had you not houses 
 and land ?" On the return of the procession, an 
 immense number of the people are feasted, and 
 a repetition of this feast at intervals, is given by 
 the different relations ; who vie with each other 
 in profusion and liberality. The property of the 
 deceased then descends to his children and rela- 
 tions; and if these are wanting, is divided 
 between the priests and the poor. 
 
 In case of murder, the criminal is generally 
 given up to the relations of the deceased, who 
 take him to the market-place, and shortly des- 
 patch him with their knives and spears. A per- 
 son accused of any crime, is immediately on his 
 apprehension, tied by his garments to another, 
 and if he runs away and leave his garments 
 behind him, it is thought a certain proof of guilt. 
 Disputes are commonly decided by the Ras, 
 before whom each party stakes a mule, together 
 with a considerable quantity of gold, slaves, 
 salt, &c. on the veracity of his statement ; and 
 these, should his assertion be controverted, are 
 forfeited to the Ras. 
 
 The cruel custom of cutting the shulada, the 
 mention of which subjected Mr. Bruce to the 
 imputation of romance, has been confirmed on 
 the testimony of subsequent travellers in Abys- 
 sinia. It consists in cutting pieces of flesh or 
 raw steaks from the living animal, and eating 
 them raw, and even while yet quivering with 
 life ; after which the wound is closed and the 
 animal driven forward. Mr. Bruce relates, that 
 near Axum he fell in with three soldiers " driv- 
 ing a cow. They halted at a brook, threw down 
 the beast, and one of them cut a pretty large 
 
 collop of flesh from its buttock; after which they 
 drove the cow gently on as before." In another 
 place he tells us that the flesh was taken from 
 the upper part of the buttock, after which the 
 skin was flapped over the wound, fastened with 
 a skewer, and a cataplasm of clay put over all 
 The following description of one of their feasts 
 will throw a great light upon Abyssinian man- 
 ners : " A number of people of the best fashion 
 in the villages, of both sexes, courtiers in the pa- 
 lace, or citizens in the town, meet together to 
 dine between twelve and one o'clock. A long 
 table is set in the middle of a large room, and 
 benches beside it," for the accommodation of the 
 guests. " A cow or bull is brought to the door, 
 and his feet strongly tied. The skin that hangs 
 down under his chin and throat," called the dew- 
 lap in England, " is cut only so deep as to arrive 
 at the fat, of which it totally consists;" and is 
 managed with such dexterity, that by the sepa- 
 ration of a few small blood vessels, six or seven 
 drops of blood only fall upon the ground. Having 
 satisfied, as they imagine, the Mosaic law, by 
 pouring these six or seven drops of blood upon 
 the ground : " two or more of them fall to 
 work : on the back of the beast, and on each 
 side of the spine they cut skin deep, then put- 
 ting their fingers between the flesh and the 
 skin, they begin to strip the hide of the animal 
 half way down his ribs, and so on to the 
 buttock, cutting the skin whenever it hin- 
 ders them commodiously to strip the poor ani- 
 mal bare. All the flesh on the buttock is cut 
 off then, and in solid square pieces, without 
 bones or much effusion of blood; and the pro- 
 digious noise the animal makes, is a signal for 
 the company to sit down to table. There are 
 then laid before every guest, instead of plates, 
 round cakes about twice as thick as a pancake, 
 and something thicker and tougher. It is un- 
 leavened bread of a sourish taste, far from being 
 disagreeable, and very easily digested, made of 
 a grain called teff. Three or four of these are 
 generally put uppermost for the food of the per- 
 son opposite to whose seat they are placed. 
 Beneath these are four or five of ordinary bread, 
 and of a blackish kind. These serve the master 
 to wipe his fingers on, and afterwards the servant 
 for bread to his dinner. Two or three servants 
 then come, each with a square piece of beef in 
 his bare hands, laying it upon the cakes of teff 
 placed like dishes down the table. By this time 
 all the guests have knives in their hands, and the 
 men have large crooked ones, which they put to 
 all sorts of uses during the time of war : the 
 women have small clasp knives. The company 
 are so ranged that one man sits between two 
 women ; the man with his long knife cuts a thin 
 piece, which would be thought a good beef-steak 
 in England ; while you see the motion of the 
 fibres yet perfectly distinct and alive in the flesh. 
 No man in Abyssinia of any fashion whatever 
 feeds himself, or touches his own meat. The 
 women take the steak and cut it length ways 
 like strings, about the thickness of your little 
 finger, then cross-ways into square pieces, some- 
 thing smaller than dice. This they lay upon a 
 piece of the teff bread, strongly powdered 
 with black pepper or cayenne, and fossil salt;
 
 it ui n 
 they then wran it up 
 
 cartridge '- 
 down his knife, 
 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 the teff bread like a by Demetrius, the twelfth patriarch of Alexandria- 
 ten j ^ compute time, by calling their yearg 
 
 after the names of the Evangelists, whose writins 
 
 Sng upon his 
 tmg P 
 
 own is , order gy m their church 
 
 neighbour's knee j put. h, "forward and 
 opening his mouth turns to ^ tne o 
 cartridge is first ready, wh( stuffs tM wnoie <?i 
 
 turns to the one whose 
 _ who stuffs the whole of 
 
 ^&&SZttA~ &~**tt.~&'i* 
 
 ^ 
 
 , happened in the days of Saint Matthew," 
 r F Qf 
 
 Their computation of the day is very 
 The beginning of the day compre- 
 
 rf"to7;tf,e g*.r. man would seem to churches. 
 
 fe tSJ^^St V ?*. *--*. o f > ,w,U g h, ,hey 'caU 
 
 polite he is thought to be. 
 
 neighbour holds 
 
 From the beginning of evening twilight, 
 to the rising of the stars, they call i^set Mid- 
 
 goes the same day is called kater, or culmination; and every 
 
 and oon tU he is satisfied. He never other part of the day is described by pomtmg 
 
 rinks mi he has finished eating; and before he out the place in the heavens where the sun was 
 
 nSdetothefaironeswhofedhim, at the time of which they are speaking. 
 
 he makes up two small rolls of the same kind and The use of money being unknown, the re- 
 
 each of his neighbours opening their mouth venue is paid in bullion gold . Agowrmdre pays 
 
 kin 1000 ounces of old 1000 
 
 time while with each hand he puts 
 
 annually to the king 1000 ounces of gold, 1000 
 
 ortion into'their mouths. He then falls to dabres of honey, and 1000 or 1500 cattle. Da- 
 out of a large handsome horn. The mel pays 800 ounces of gold, and thus the m- 
 ladies eat till they are satisfied, then all drink come of government is levied in different propor- 
 Hrether Vive la ioye et lajeunesse.' A great tions all over the country. Fossil salt supplies 
 deal of ioke and mirth goes round, very seldom the want of money, and passes current in square 
 
 . MI i. pieces. At Masuah several coins have been in- 
 troduced. The Venetian sequin is equal to two 
 
 
 with any mixture of acrimony or ill-humour 
 At this time the unfortunate victim at the door 
 is bleeding, indeed, but bleeding little. As long 
 
 and a quarter pataka; the pataka, or imperial 
 
 as they can cut off the flesh from his bones, dollar to 28 harts ; one harf to four diwani ; one 
 
 they do not meddle with the thighs or the parts diwani to tenkibur; and one kiburto three boor- 
 
 where the great arteries are. At last they fall joorke or grains, which latter consists of small 
 
 upon the thighs likewise, and soon after the ani- glass beads of all descriptions and colours, broken 
 mal bleeding to death, becomes so tough that 
 the cannibals who have the rest of it to eat, find 
 
 or entire. The wakea, or ounce, is equal to ten 
 derims or drachms, and twelve ounces make a 
 
 very hard work to separate the flesh from the liter, ratal, or Abyssinian pound. A gondar or 
 bones with their teeth like dogs." Such is Bruce's wekea is equal to six drachms forty grains troy 
 
 description of an Abyssinian feast ; and although 
 that of Mr. Salt in some respects softens the 
 impressions produced by his predecessor, he ne- 
 vertheless represents the barbarity of the inha- 
 bitants in a light almost equally degrading. 
 
 The languages spoken in Abyssinia and the 
 neighbouring districts are a corruption of the 
 Geez called Tigre, Gafat, Amharic, Agow, Fala- 
 shan, Teheretch, Agow, Galla, and Shangalla. 
 The Amharic, the modern language of Abyssinia, 
 is an Arabic dialect, more simple than the Geez 
 in the form of its verbs. The Falasha is spoken 
 by the tribes professing the religion of the Jews, 
 who formerly ruled in Dembea, Samen, and near 
 the Augrab ; and Kahha is one of the ancient 
 Ethiopian tongues. The people of Gafat speak 
 a corrupt dialect of the Amharic. 
 
 The Abyssinians compute their time by the 
 solar year, after the manner of the ancient 
 Egyptians. Their month consists of thirty days, 
 to which, in the month of August, is added 
 five days and a quarter to complete the year. 
 The year commences with the 29th or the 30th 
 of August, which is the 1st of their month 
 
 weight, and is divided into ten drachms of forty 
 grains each. The ordinary value of a wakea 
 is about 76 of the salt pieces mentioned above. 
 The grain measure used in Abyssinia is the 
 ardeb, containing ten measures called madaga, 
 each equal to twelve ounces Cairo weight. An 
 ardeb of grain costs two derims, or two patakas, 
 An ardeb of teff is the same, and six or eight 
 ardeb of tocusso are equal to an ounce, or ten 
 derims of gold. 
 
 The commerce of Abyssinia is confined mostly 
 to the shores of the Arabian gulf, and its manu- 
 factures are few and insignificant. They unravel 
 the threads of the blue cloth of Surat, and weave 
 them into their own webs; and procure a black 
 dye from earth, and red, light blue, and yellow, 
 from vegetables. Fine cloth is manufactured at 
 Gondar, and coarse at Adowa, and the latter, be- 
 sides its common use, circulates as money. The 
 natives of Abyssinia tan hides to great perfection, 
 through the use of the plant merjombey, a species 
 of the solanum, and the juice of the kolquall 
 tree. 
 
 The Abyssinians appear in every respect greatly 
 
 Maxaram ; and to every fourth year they add a below the rank of civilized nations. They seem in- 
 deed, by their churches and other ruined places, to 
 have had a knowledge of architecture. But the 
 workmen were sent for from other countries $ so 
 that when these fabrics were reared, especially the 
 imperial palace built by Fr. Paez, a Spanish Mis- 
 
 sixth day. Their common epoch is from the 
 creation of the world, from which they reckon 
 5500 years to the birth of Christ, rejecting 
 the odd eight years of the Greeks, who made 
 that period. They have other epochs, as from the 
 
 councils of Nice and Ephesus, but in ecclesiasti- sionary, the people flocked from all parts of Ethi- 
 cal computations, they follow the golden num- opia to view it, and admired it as a new wonder of 
 ber and epact, invented m the reign of Severus the world. Gold, silver, copper, and iron, are the
 
 ACA 
 
 AOA 
 
 principal ores with which their mines abound in 
 this extensive part of Africa : but not above one- 
 third part is made use of by way of merchandize, 
 or converted into money ; of which they have 
 little or no use in Abyssinia. They cut their gold 
 indeed into small pieces for the pay of their 
 troops, and for the expences of the court ; but this 
 is a modern custom among them ; the king's gold, 
 before the end of the 17th century, was laid up in 
 his treasury in ingots, with intent to be never 
 carried out, nor ever used in any thing but vessels 
 or trinkets for the service of the palace. 
 
 Mr. Bruce informs us, from the annals of 
 Abyssinia, that, in the reign of Solomon, the 
 Abyssinians were converted to Judaism, and the 
 government, ecclesiastical and civil, modelled 
 according to what was then in use at Jerusalem. 
 Some ecclesiastical historians affirm, that the con- 
 version of the Abyssinians to Christianity, took 
 place in the days of the Apostles, and was effect- 
 ed by the Ethiopian eunuch, whom Philip bap- 
 tized. Whatever truth may be in that tradition, 
 it appears that Frumentius, who was ordained 
 about the year 333, was their first bishop, and in- 
 structed them in the religion of the Greek 
 church of Alexandria. At present they are a 
 mixture of Moors, Pagans, Jews, arid Christians. 
 This last was the reigning and established reli- 
 gion, but in a very low state of degradation, 
 when father Jerome Lobo visited it in 1624, as 
 well as when Mr. Bruce travelled through it. 
 This diversity of people and religion is the rea- 
 son, that the kingdom in different parts, is under 
 different forms of government, and that their laws 
 and customs are extremely various. 
 
 The Abyssinians are described as a branch of 
 the Copts or Jacobites, with whom they agree in 
 admitting but one nature in Jesus Christ, and re- 
 jecting the council of Chalcedon, on which ac- 
 count they are called Eutychians and Monophy- 
 sites. The church is governed by a bishop or 
 metropolitan, styled Abuna, appointed by the 
 Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, residing at Cairo. 
 Next in dignity is the Komos, or Hegumenos, a sort 
 of arch-presbyter, who has the inferior clergy, toge- 
 ther with the secular affairs of the parish, under his 
 inspection. The deacons are of the lowest order 
 of priesthood. The canons never marry. The 
 monks, at their admission, vow aloud before their 
 superiors to keep chastity, but they add, in a 
 whispering tone, 'as you keep it.' The deb- 
 tarahs, or chanters, who assist in the musical 
 parts of the service, are in higher esteem than the 
 Komos, though not of equal rank. The emperor 
 confers all benefices except that of Abuna, and 
 takes cognizance of all ecclesiastical causes. 
 The monks are extremely ignorant, and are of 
 two kinds, viz, those of De*bra Libanos, and those 
 of St. Eustathius. Their superior in the north 
 west of the country, is the Itchegae. He is or- 
 dained by two chief priests holding a veil or 
 white cloth over his head, and a third repeating a 
 prayer; after which they all join together in 
 singing psalms. 
 
 Though the Abyssinians profess Christianity, 
 they practise circumcision, which they extend to 
 both sexes. They observe Saturday and Sunday 
 for sabbaths ; oblige women to perform the legal 
 purifications, and abstain from meats forbidden 
 in the law of Moses. Their Lent continues 52 
 days, during which they never taste food till after 
 sunset. On the feast of Epiphany, which, ac- 
 cording to the Abyssinians, is the llth of Ja- 
 nuary, they assemble near brooks, into which, 
 after receiving the priest's blessing, they jump, 
 leaping, dancing, and shouting. In the perform- 
 ance of baptism, their priests are engaged, one 
 with incense, another with a golden cross, and 
 a third with the consecrated oil from the pa- 
 triarch of Alexandria. The candidate is first 
 washed over with water, then crossed on the 
 forehead with some of that water, over which the 
 incense has been waved, and the consecrated oil 
 dropped into. If the candidate be a Mahometan, 
 every joint and limb is crossed with the conse- 
 crated oil ; he is then wrapped in a white linen 
 cloth, and partakes of the sacrament. No unbap- 
 tized person may enter a church. Great numbers 
 of pilgrims, in a yellow dress, with cords round 
 their waists, resort to the beautiful plains of Wa- 
 lasse. The Christians near Dixan, are dis- 
 tinguished by a cross on their breast, arm, &c. 
 They say prayers over whatever they eat, drink, 
 receive, or give, and then blow on it, turning 
 their heads to the east. When they kill animals 
 they turn their backs to the west. They never 
 kill the goodie-goodie falcon, and when a traveller 
 meets one he watches it, if it sit still with its 
 breast towards him till he is past, it is a good 
 omen, if its back be towards him, it is unpro- 
 pitious, if it fly away, he returns. It is gene- 
 rally believed that every worker in iron at night, 
 transforms himself into an hyaena, and devours 
 human flesh. One of their saint's days is conse- 
 crated to Balaam's ass, another to Pilate and his 
 wife, because Pilate washed his hands before he 
 condemned Christ, after the message received from 
 his wife. They at least equal the church of 
 Rome in miracles and legends of saints, which 
 greatly embarrassed the Jesuits ; to whom they 
 told such miracles in proof of their religion, that 
 the missionaries were obliged to deny miracles to 
 be any proof at all. Prayers for the dead, invo- 
 cation of saints and angels, &c. &c. are common. 
 Images in painting decorate their churches, but 
 they abhor all images in relievo except the cross. 
 They admit the apocryphal'books with the aposto- 
 lic canons and constitutions to be genuine, but 
 consider the Canticles a love-song of Solomon to 
 Pharaoh's daughter. The Jews in this country re- 
 tain their ancient distinction, Caraites and Tal- 
 mudists. Ludolf mentions another sect upjn 
 the frontiers, between them and the Caffres, sup- 
 posed to have descended from the captives taken 
 by the kings of Assyria and Babylon. They were 
 never incorporated with other Jews, but have al- 
 ways been salaxa, or strangers. Their Bible is in 
 the corrupt Talmudic dialect. 
 
 ACACIA, aKaKia or arnw, to sharpen; in Arabicum. In the Linnsean system it is the 
 botany, a name given by Pliny to a thorny tree of mimosa nilotica. 
 Egypt, supposed to have yielded .the gummi The common acacia of this country is the
 
 60 
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 ^_oi a of Linnsus- and the has since been used to designate a literary cr 
 
 Robimu-rsuedo-acacia of ^*' * d scien tific society, university, or school. 
 
 rosa acacia (so called irom i i rose c wit hdrowen frome this man, that he hath 
 
 flowers) is the Robmia hispida of that writer. nourished in my studies or scholes of eleatices, 
 
 In the Materia Medica an inspissated juice of ^J2L, * GreeC e. 
 
 the first of them is used as an astringent : and is Chaucer's Baciws, b. i. 
 
 sometimes successfully imitated by the juice ot Qur court shall be a liule academe, 
 
 sloes boiled to the same consistence. Sti U an a contemplative in living arts. 
 
 ACACIANS, in ecclesiastical history, a sect Shakspeare's Love's Labour Lost. 
 
 of heretics of the fourth century, so named from Amongst the academies, which were composed by 
 
 Acacius bishop of Caesarea, who denied the Son the rare genius of those great men, these four are 
 
 to be of the same substance with the Father. Their reck oned as the principal, namely the Athenian 
 
 founder wi successor to Eusebius, and sur school that of Sicyon, that of 
 
 C 
 
 pouma, in 220, dUgUed by his piety and 
 charity, sold the plate belonging to his church, 
 to redeem seven thousand Persian slaves, an< i 
 giving each of them some money, sent them 
 home. Their king, Veranius, was so affected 
 with this instance of benevolence, that he desired 
 to see the bishop : and the interview resulted in 
 a peace between that prince and Theodosius I. 
 
 AC'ADEME, 
 
 ACAD'EMY, 
 
 ACADE'MIAN, 
 
 ACADEM'ICAL, 
 
 ACADEMICALLY, 
 
 AcADEMl'ciAN, 
 
 ACADEM'ICK, 
 
 ACADE'MIST. 
 
 Academia, a grove in 
 the suburbs of Athens, 
 deriving its name trom 
 the proprietor Academus, 
 who adorned it with spa- 
 cious walks, SO that it 
 became the resort of the 
 Socratic or Platonic sect 
 
 . 
 of philosophers, since called academics. Academy 
 
 readmg and 
 
 A young academic shall dwell upon a journal, that 
 treats of trade, and be lavish in the praise of the 
 author ; while persons, skilled in those subjects, hear 
 the tattle with contempt. 
 
 Watts's Improvement of the Mind. 
 
 While through poetic scenes the genius roves, 
 
 Or wanders wild in academic groves. 
 
 Dunciad, b. iv. 
 
 lie drew him first into the fatal circle, from a 
 kind of resolved privateness ; where, after the aca- 
 demical life, he had taken such a taste of the rural ; 
 as I have heard him say, that he could well have 
 bent his mind to a retired course. Wotton. 
 
 It is observed by the Parisian academists, that, 
 some amphibious quadrupeds, particularly the sea- 
 calf or seal, hath his epiglottis extraordinarily large. 
 Ray on the Creation. 
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 ACADEMY, originally intended a villa or 
 grove, situated about six stadia, or three quarters 
 of a mile from Athens, the seat of literature and 
 the arts, where Plato taught the substance of hrs 
 philosophy. The origin of the name is by some 
 derived from Cadmus, commonly called the 
 Phoenician, because he introduced the learning 
 of Egypt into Greece, and brought the sixteen 
 simple letters of the Greek alphabet from Phoe- 
 nicia. Its origin, however, is more properly as- 
 cribed to Academus, or Ecademus, to whom it 
 at first belonged, and who bequeathed it to 
 the citizens for a gymnasium. It was diversified 
 by Cimon with fountains, trees, and walks, for 
 the convenience of philosophers in their private 
 meditations, surrounded with a wall built by 
 Hipparchus, and rendered more solemn by be- 
 coming the burial place of illustrious men. 
 
 Plato purchased a small garden for 3000 
 drachmas, equal to 116. 10s. 6d. of our money, 
 and delivered lectures for the benefit of all who 
 attended. In allusion to this circumstance, all 
 public places for the association and resort of 
 learned men have been since called academies. 
 Cicero had a small villa near Puzzuoli, called 
 Academia, in which he entertained his friends, 
 and composed his book De Natura Deorum, 
 also his academical questions. Academy is now 
 used in a general sense, to signify a society of 
 learned men, formed for their own improvement, 
 and the promotion of the arts. Ptolemy Soter, it 
 
 is said, founded an academy at Alexandria/or the 
 encouragement of learning and the sciences, pro- 
 vided with a collection of books, which afterwards 
 became the finest library in the world, com- 
 monly called the "Alexandrian Library;" and 
 Theodosius established an academy at Constan- 
 tinople, furnished with a number of professors in 
 every department of science and knowledge, 
 intended to rival the institution of Rome de- 
 stroyed by the Goths at the close of the fourth 
 century. 
 
 An academy is different from an university. 
 The latter consists of graduates in the several 
 faculties ; of professors who teach in the public 
 schools ; of regents or tutors, and students who 
 learn under them ; whereas the former is not 
 intended to teach, but to improve. It is not 
 strictly for students to learn in, but for distin- 
 guished proficients to confer in, and communi- 
 cate their lights and discoveries to each other for 
 the general improvement. The first academy 
 of which we read was that of Charlemagne, es- 
 tablished at the request of Alcuin his preceptor, 
 to improve the language of the country, as well 
 as elicit a general attention to literature and 
 the arts. During their academical conferences, 
 each member delivered a statement of the ancient 
 authors he had read, and a short commentary 
 upon them, assuming at the same time, the name 
 of the ancient author which gave him most satis- 
 faction. Alcuin took the name of Flaccus,
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 61 
 
 Augilbert, of Homer; Adelard, bishop of Corbile, 
 was called Augustin ; and the king himself, 
 Uavid. The institution perished at the death of 
 Alcuin, and literature seemed as if banished from 
 the world. Although many eminent characters 
 arose, in the dark ages that followed, resembling 
 meteors that dart through the midnight gloom, 
 there was no union of effort, no combination of 
 genius, no interchange of thought, no associations 
 that could promote or even protect knowledge ; 
 and had not the muses on their banishment from 
 the academic haunts of public patronage, retired 
 into the private cells of monastic superstition, and 
 there preserved the compositions of antiquity, 
 every spark of light must have been extinguished. 
 After the overthrow of the Roman empire by the 
 Turks aboutthe year 1453, several eminent Greek 
 scholars settled in the West of Europe, chiefly 
 in Italy, under the sanction of Pope Nicholas 
 and the Medicean family. These imported with 
 them the treasures of Grecian knowledge and an- 
 tiquity, and forming themselves into academies, 
 and intellectual societies, schools, libraries, and 
 museums, began to spread over the face of 
 Europe. Of these useful institutions we shall at 
 present merely attempt an enumeration. The 
 first class of them comes under the head of 
 
 ACADEMIES OF ANTIQUITIES. The Academy 
 of Cortonu is designed for the study of Etrurian 
 Antiquities, which are very numerous and ex- 
 tensive. The principal is called Lucomon, a 
 name derived from the ancient governors of 
 Hetruria, and the institution imposes a tax of a 
 dissertation on each member in his turn. 
 
 The Academy of Antiquities at Upsal, is de- 
 signed for the 'illustration of Swedish antiquities, 
 as also the cultivation and improvement of the 
 Northern languages. 
 
 In the 15th century, under the pontificate of 
 Paul II. an attempt was made at Rome to es- 
 tablish a similar institution, but it was defeated 
 by the persecuting spirit of the papal hierarchy. 
 And although resumed by Leo X. with apparent 
 success, it gradually dwindled to insignificance, 
 aud some others that arose from its ruins were 
 shortly extinguished. 
 
 The Academy of Inscriptions and Medals atParis 
 commenced in the generous exertions of M. Col- 
 bert in 1663, under the patronage of Louis XIV; 
 it was designed for the study and explanation of 
 antique monuments, also for the perpetuation of 
 memorable events (especially those of the French 
 monarchy) by coins, relievos, inscriptions, &c. 
 The number of members at first did not exceed 
 four, from which circumstance it acquired the 
 name of Petite Academy. But on July 16, 
 1701, the institution was greatly enlarged, and 
 consisted of 10 honorary members, 10 pen- 
 sioners, 10 associates, (each of whom had two 
 declarative voices,) and 10 eleves, or pupils. 
 Shortly after the class of eleves was suppressed, 
 and added to the associates ; then a yearly president 
 and vice president were appointed by the king, 
 and other inferior managers whose offices were 
 perpetual. The earliest and most considerable 
 attempt of this academy, was a complete history 
 of the most important events of the reign of 
 Louis, accomplished by means of medals. This 
 they effected as far as the elevation of the Duke 
 
 of Anjou to the crown of Spain, besides which 
 they published several volumes of essays in the 
 form of memoirs. The motto of the society was 
 ' vetat mori,' and Mercury is represented on one 
 of their medals, sitting and writing with an 
 antique style on a table of brass, leaning with 
 his left hand upon an urn full of medals, whilst 
 others on a board are lying at his feet, the legenc 
 " Rerum gestarum fides," and on the exergue 
 " Academia regia inscriptionum et numismatum, 
 instituta M.DC.LXIII. intimating that the Royal 
 Academy of Medals and Inscriptions ought to 
 give to future ages a faithful testimony of great 
 actions. The usefulness of this and other French 
 Academies has been prevented by the political 
 changes and events connected with the late 
 revolution. 
 
 The Academy of Herculaneumvtas established at 
 Naples in 1755, when a museum was formed for 
 the bestowment and preservation of the antiqui- 
 ties excavated from the ruins of Herculaneum 
 and Pompeia, by the marquis Tanucci, minister 
 of state. The primary object of the society was, 
 to explain the paintings discovered at these 
 places, for which purpose the members met 
 every fortnight, when the paintings were sub- 
 mitted to a corresponding number of Academi- 
 cians, who made a report upon them at the next 
 sitting. In 1775, the first volume appeared, and 
 has been succeeded by several others under the 
 title of Antichita di Ercolano, exhibiting engrav- 
 ings of the most valuable paintings, statues, marble 
 figures, bronzes, medals, utensils, &c. accom- 
 panied by explanations from the society. 
 
 The Neapolitan Academy of History and An~ 
 tiquities was established at Naples by Joseph 
 Buonaparte in 1807, consisting of 40 members, 
 20 appointed by nomination from the king, who 
 were individually to present him for his choice, 
 names of three candidates for every one wanted 
 to complete the number. A grand meeting was 
 to be held every year, when prizes were to be 
 awarded, and analyses of the works read. Eight 
 thousand ducats were to be annually allotted for 
 the current expences, 'and two thousand for prizes 
 to the authors of four works, at the discretion of 
 the society. The subsequent revolutions in the 
 political state of Naples prevented the permanent 
 usefulness of this institution. 
 
 A Parisian Academy for the Discovery of Celtic 
 Antiquities, was established in 1807. It contem- 
 plated, first, The elucidation of history, customs, 
 antiquities, and monuments of the Celts, particu- 
 larly in France. Secondly, the etymology of all the 
 European languages by the Celto-Briton, Welsh, 
 and Erse ; and third Druidical remains. Fourth 
 The history and settlements of the Galatae in Asia. 
 Lenoir, the keeper of the museum of French 
 monuments was president. A Fasciculus, contain- 
 ing 150 or 160 pages, was to be printed monthly. 
 The engravings, &c. under the direction of 
 Lenoir. The devices are, Gloria majorwn, 
 and Sermonem patrium, moresque requiret. 
 
 Academy for the Illustration of Tuscan Anti- 
 quities, established at Florence, was founded in 
 1807, &c. has published volumes of essays and 
 researches. 
 
 ACADEMIES OF MEDICINE. The Leopoldine 
 Academy, or the Academia Nature Curiosum
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 was founded in Germany, in the year 1652 
 by I L. Bauchius, a celebrated physician of 
 Sweinfurt, in the circle of Franconia, who in- 
 vited other physicians to meet for the purpose 
 of communicating extraordinary cases that 
 had fallen under their observation, and was 
 afterwards elected president of a society formed 
 upon the basis of such communications. In 
 January 1652, they held their first meeting. 
 The president proposed subjects for discussion, 
 and their works were, at first, published sepa- 
 rately; but, in the year 1670, they agreed to pub- 
 lish a volume of memoirs every year. The first 
 of these, called " Ephemerides," appeared in 1684, 
 and was followed by others under different titles. 
 In 1687 the emperor Leopold took this society 
 under the royal protection, endowed it with cer- 
 tain privileges and immunities, dignified the pre- 
 sidents with the title of " Counts palatine of the 
 holy Roman empire," and honoured it with the 
 title " C&sareo Leopoldina Naturte Curiosorum 
 Academia ;" or the " Leopoldine Academy." The 
 institution has no fixed residence, or regular 
 assemblies, but a bureau or office, established 
 first at Breslau, and afterwards at Nuremberg, 
 where all communications are received. The 
 Academy consists of one president, two adjuncts 
 or secretaries, and colleagues or members. The 
 colleagues, at their admission, oblige themselves 
 first, to give in a written treatise upon some sub- 
 ject out of the animal, vegetable, or mineral 
 kingdom, not previously handled by any mem- 
 ber of the society; and, secondly, to wear as a 
 symbol of the academy, a gold ring on which 
 is a book open with an eye on the front, and 
 on the opposite side the motto of the Academy, 
 " Nunquam otiosus," never idle. See Buchaeri 
 Hist. Acad. Natures Curiosorum, Hal. 1 756. So- 
 cieties of the same name have been established on 
 the Continent, as at Palermo in 1645, Venice in 
 1701, Geneva in 1715, Spain in 1652. 
 
 The Royal Academy of Surgeons at Paris, was 
 instituted in 1731. The members of which pub- 
 lish their own observations and discoveries, in 
 which they endeavour to lay down a complete 
 system of surgery. The institution proposes a 
 question annually, and awards a gold medal, 
 value 500 livres, to the best dissertation upon the 
 subject. 
 
 The Academy of Surgery at Vienna, instituted 
 in 1783, originated in Francis II. and was placed 
 under the direction of Brambilla. The institution 
 formerly consisted of two professors and 130 
 pupils, but is now considerably enlarged. Con- 
 tiguous is an extensive botanical garden, and 
 a splendid edifice provided by the emperor, af- 
 fording accommodation to professors, students, 
 pregnant women, patients for clinical lectures, 
 servants, &c. ; also a voluminous library, com- 
 plete set of chirurgical instruments, philosophical 
 apparatus, specimens for illustrations of natural 
 history, preparations in wax, &c. together with 
 a comprehensive variety of anatomical and patho- 
 logical preparations. Medals, each of 40 florins 
 value, are annually bestowed on those students, 
 who return the best answers to certain chirur- 
 gical questions. 
 
 COSMOGRAPHICAL ACADEMIES. The Cosmo- 
 
 grapkical Academy at Venice, called the Argo- 
 
 nauts, was instituted about the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, by means of Vincent Coronelli, for the 
 improvement of geography. The device is, the 
 globe, accompanied with the motto "plus ultra." 
 The primary object of the institution is the pub- 
 lication of correct maps, celestial and terrestrial, 
 accompanied with geographical, historical, and 
 astronomical descriptions, definitions, &c. Each 
 member subscribes to defray the expences, and 
 -receives one or more copies of each piece. All 
 the globes, maps, writings, &c. are published by 
 the society. To facilitate the objects of the 
 institution, three societies were settled, one 
 under F. Mons, provincial of the Minorites in 
 Hungary ; another under F. Baldigiani the 
 Jesuit, professor of mathematics in the Roman 
 college ; a third under Abb. Laurence, au rue 
 Payenne au Marais. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC ACADEMIES. The Neapolitan 
 Academia Secretorum Nature was instituted at 
 Naples in 1560, to advance the knowledge of 
 mathematical and physical science ; but was 
 soon crushed by an interdict from the church 
 of Rome. 
 
 The Academia Lyncei which succeeded the 
 former, was established at Rome, by prince 
 Frederick Cesi, to promote the improvement of 
 natural philosophy. It became eminent in con- 
 sequence of the discoveries made by its mem- 
 bers, as in the case of Galileo. 
 
 The Academy del Cimento flourished in the 
 seventeenth century under the auspices of Prince 
 Leopold, afterwards Cardinal de Medicis. To 
 this institution belonged Paul de Buono, who, in 
 1657, invented an instrument consisting of a 
 globular shell of gold, to demonstrate the incom- 
 pressibility of water. To the same Academy 
 belonged Vincent Vivani, Francis Redi, Count 
 Laurence Magalotti, (who published "Saggi di 
 Naturali Esperienze," a curious work, translated 
 into our language by Waller,) and Alphonso 
 Borelli, who wrote " De Motu Animalium." 
 
 The Academy degV Inquieti at Bologna, after- 
 wards incorporated into that of Delia Tracia, 
 met in the house of Eustachio Manfredi in 1690 ; 
 hence, that gentleman is often represented as the 
 founder. Their badge was a representation of 
 of the planetary system, surrounded by a serpent 
 with a tail in its mouth. Their motto was 
 "Mens agitat," hence their name Inquieti. Their 
 very admirable discourses were collected and 
 given to the world in 1667, under the title of 
 Pensieri Fisico-Matematici. In 1714 it was 
 new modelled, and united with the Bononian in- 
 stitute, richly endowed by the Popes, and de- 
 fended by the civil power. The director was 
 also dignified with the title of president; the so- 
 ciety itself called the Academy of the Institute 
 and afterwards Academia Clementina, from the 
 patronage of Clement. Ladies were admitted into 
 the society, and several of them elevated to pro- 
 fessorships. Anna Manzolini was professor ot 
 anatomy, &c. The library contains 120,000 
 volumes, a cabinet of natural history, numerous 
 manuscripts, &c. ; and the building consists ot 
 40 rooms, besides halls underneath. 
 
 La Societa Scientifica Rossunensa degV Incu- 
 riosi, 'was established at Rossano, in Naples, in 
 1540. On its establishment, it was an academy
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 63 
 
 of belles lettres, and became an academy of 
 sciences in 1695, -when Don Giacinto Gimma the 
 abbot, divided the members into grammarians, 
 rhetoricians, poets, historians, physicians, mathe- 
 maticians, philosophers, lawyers, and divines. 
 The greatest honour the academy can confer is, 
 giving a written permission from the president to 
 assume the title of academist, which is not 
 granted till the proposed publication has been 
 sanctioned and approved by all the academy. 
 From this law even the president is not exempt. 
 No academist may publish against the writings 
 of another without the consent of the academy. 
 
 Italy has been celebrated for its academies. 
 Jarckius reckons 550, and 25 in the city of Milan. 
 Some of these are gone to ruin ; many have ac- 
 quired lasting fame : the Academy of Filarmo- 
 nici at Verona, the Academy of Ricovaltro at 
 Padua, and others. In the latter Sig. Vallisnieri 
 wrote his ingenious dissertation. 
 
 The Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris was 
 founded by Louis XIV. in 1666, who, after the 
 peace of the Pyrennees, ordered M.Colbert to asso- 
 ciate a few men of learning to communicate their 
 discoveries to each other for the promotion of the 
 general improvement. The minister accordingly 
 formed a society of gentlemen, in high repute for 
 philosophy and mathematics, history, and belles 
 lettres. Gentlemen of different departments as- 
 sembled in different days of the week. History 
 and rhetoric were soon after united to another 
 French academy, which proposed the improve- 
 ment of the language ; and the royal academy 
 consisted of two great divisions, philosophy, and 
 mathematics. The king, in 1669, appointed a 
 new set of regulations, by which he made four 
 kinds of members, honorary, pensionary, asso- 
 ciates, and eleves. The last three were to con- 
 tain each 20 persons, the first only 10. The 
 honorary members were to be all inhabitants of 
 France ; the pensionaries to reside in Paris. Of 
 the associates, eight only might be foreigners, 
 and the eleves to be resident in Paris. A presi- 
 dent was to be named by the king from the ho- 
 norary members, the secretary and treasurer to 
 be perpetual. Of the pensionaries, three were to 
 be astronomers, three chemists, three geometri- 
 cians, three botanists, and three anatomists. The 
 remaining two were intended for secretary and 
 treasurer. Of the associates, two were to apply 
 to geometry, two to botany, and two to chemistry. 
 The eleves applied themselves to the same 
 sciences as their pensionaries, and might not 
 speak except when called on by the president. 
 No person might be admitted for associate or 
 pensionary, unless known to the world by author- 
 ship, or the invention of some machine, &c. &c. 
 The society's motto was, Invenit et perfecit. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans in 1716 very much ex- 
 tended the institution, suppressed the class of 
 eleves and introduced two other classes, one 
 consisting of twelve adjuncts and six free asso- 
 ciates, who were not obliged to pursue any par- 
 ticular study. A vice-president was to be chosen 
 annually by the king from the honorary class, 
 with a director and sub-director from the pen- 
 sionaries. In 1785, the king superadded several 
 other classes, as natural history, agriculture, mi- 
 neralogy, and phys\cs. He likewise introduced 
 
 several political changes into the constitution 
 The society consisted of eight classes, viz. astro- 
 nomy, geometry, physics, mechanics, chemistry, 
 and metallurgy, anatomy, botany, and agricul- 
 ture, natural history, and mineralogy. 
 
 This institution, by computing the meridian, 
 and sending out persons to make observations, has 
 been of great service to the world. Numerous 
 interesting memoirs of the society have been pub- 
 lished since its establishment in 1666. To each 
 volume is prefixed an abstract of the history of 
 the academy, and eulogiums on such members as 
 have died within the year. M. Rouille de Meslay, 
 counsellor to the parliament of Paris, founded 
 two prizes, one of 2500, the other of 2000 livres, 
 to be alternately distributed by parliament every 
 year; the subject for the first to be physical 
 astronomy, for the second navigation and com- 
 merce. 
 
 The history of the academy to the year 1697, 
 was published by Du Hamel. After that period 
 it was continued by Fontenelle in his " Histoire 
 de 1'Academie Royal des Sciences ; avec les Me- 
 moires de Mathematique et de Physique, tirez des 
 Registres de 1'Academie, Histoire de 1'Acade- 
 mie Royale des Sciences depuis son Etablisse- 
 ment en 1666, jusqu'en 1699," en 13 tomes, 
 4to. 
 
 In 1793, the convention dissolved the institu- 
 tion, on the ground of its being a supposed bul- 
 wark of royalty, and established another under 
 the name of the National Institute. The memoirs 
 to this period are published in 129 quarto vo- 
 lumes. Other academies of considerable im- 
 portance are established in the principal cities 
 of France, as the Academie des jeux Floraux, at 
 Toulouse ; Royal Academy of Sciences, at Tou- 
 louse, Academy at Caen, Rouen, and many 
 others. That at Dijon contains, in a handsome 
 saloon, the busts of eminent men, natives of the 
 city, as Buffon, Bossuet, Piron, Crebillon, De 
 Brasses, Freret, &c. 
 
 The Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, 
 established in 1700, was formed by Frederic II. 
 king of Prussia, after the model of that of Eng- 
 land, with the addition of belles lettres. In 1710 
 some alterations took place, and the president 
 became one of the counsellors of state. The 
 members consisted of four classes, the first in- 
 cluding physics, medicine, and chemistry. The 
 second, mechanics, astronomy, and mathematics ; 
 the third, history, particularly German history 
 and language ; the fourth, oriental learning, 
 which was adopted as a means of facilitating 
 the spread of the gospel among the heathen. 
 The first business of every class was to choose 
 a director, who held his station for life : of these 
 Leibnitz was the first director. The classes had 
 free communion with one another. 
 
 Though the society originated in Frederic II. 
 at so early a period, it was not till 1743 that it 
 enjoyed any considerable share of the royal fa- 
 vour ; when Frederic III. took upon himself in 
 person, the entire management, chose a proper 
 president, invited the most distinguished scholars 
 on the continent to Berlin, and adopted the most 
 vigorous measures to raise the institute into ce- 
 lebrity. In gratitude for these distinguishing 
 marks of favour, the society agreed to hold their
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 two public assemblies, one in January, on the 
 king's birth-day, and the other in May, on the 
 day of his accession to the throne. On the latter 
 occasion, a gold medal is awarded for the Lest 
 dissertation, the subject of which is to be succes- 
 sively philosophy, metaphysics, mathematics, and 
 general erudition. The Berlin cabinet of curiosi- 
 ties, and the public library were added by an act 
 of the crown ; and in order to expand the views 
 of the academy, and promote among the people 
 a more general attention to the arts, the king, 
 in 1798, appointed a directory consisting of 
 four members to undertake the entire manage- 
 ment of the funds, a president, and two additional 
 members, to be chosen from among men of busi- 
 ness. Each class had a director of its own, elect- 
 ed for life; and the appointment of officers was at 
 the nomination of the academy, subject however 
 to the confirmation of the king. A number of 
 volumes have been published by the names of 
 " Memoires de V Academic Rot/ale des Sciences et 
 Belles Lettres a Berlin." A history of the in- 
 stitution has also been given to the public. The 
 regulations of 1798 have greatly tended to libe- 
 ralize the views of the academy, and to direct 
 their attention to subjects of general utility. 
 
 The Imperial Academy of Sciences at Peters- 
 burgh, originated with the Czar, Peter the 
 Great, who, during his travels on the continent, 
 having observed the manifold advantages aris- 
 ing from literary institutions, resolved on form- 
 ing an academy in his own dominions. With 
 the assistance of Wolf and Leibnitz, he had pro- 
 jected the plan of the proposed institution, and 
 invited several learned foreigners to become 
 members, when death put an end to all his de- 
 signs, and extinguished all the hopes, expecta- 
 tions, and solicitudes of that great and distin- 
 guished man. Czarina Catherine I. nevertheless, 
 adopted his views, and approving the plan already 
 laid down, put it into execution in 1725, when 
 the society held their first meeting before the 
 duke of Holstein, and many other persons of 
 rank and eminence. In the ensuing August the 
 czarina herself attended the meeting, on which 
 occasion the celebrated Bulfinger, a German na- 
 turalist, delivered an oration on the utility of the 
 loadstone and needle for the discovery and calcu- 
 lation of longitude. Impressed yet more deeply 
 with the importance and excellence of the institu- 
 tion, she immediately devoted 4982 per annum to 
 its support, admitted fifteen members, eminent for 
 literature and science; and under the title of pro- 
 fessors, honoured them with pensions. The 
 most distinguished of these individuals were 
 Nicholas and Daniel Bernoulli, the two De Lisles, 
 Bulfinger, and Wolf. In 1721, a gymnasium 
 was added to the academy, and afterward an uni- 
 versity, the professors of which gave lectures in 
 the various branches of learning. 
 
 Peter II. disapproved of the society, and pro- 
 ceeded to stop the salaries of its members. By 
 his example, the institution was neglected by per- 
 sons of rank, and languished for want of support. 
 It revived, however, under the empress Anne, 
 and flourished during the successful presidency 
 of the celebrated Baron Korfe, but after his death, 
 an ignorant person being appointed to the office, 
 the most eminent members quitted the kingdom. 
 
 A second revival took place upon the acces- 
 sion of czarina Elizabeth, when the original 
 plan was enlarged, the internal government im- 
 proved, and most of the eminent members, who 
 had relinquished, were induced to return ; and 
 two natives of genius and ability, who had pro- 
 secuted their studies in foreign universities, Lo- 
 monosoffand Rumor sky, attached themselves to 
 the institution. Catherine II. took the institution 
 under her auspices. An Academy of Arts was 
 added (but afterwards separated in 1764). The 
 influx of learned and ingenious foreigners in- 
 spired new vigour : expeditions were sent over 
 the whole empire, for the purpose of obtaining 
 knowledge, and as the funds were inadequate to 
 this large scale of expenditure, the empress made 
 an immediate donation of 2000, to be renewed 
 as often as circumstances might require. The 
 annual income of the society, was now calcu- 
 lated at 10,659, and its annual sale of books, 
 maps, almanacks, memoirs, &c. nearly 80,000 
 rubles. 
 
 The scientific expeditions were to enquire into 
 the quality of earth and waters ; the most success- 
 ful mode of cultivating the barren spots of land ; 
 the diseases of men and cattle, together with me- 
 thods of cure ; the breeding of cattle, more espe- 
 cially sheep ; the management of bees and silk- 
 worms ; the properties of minerals, plants, and 
 every species of botany, of which they were to 
 bring collections illustrative of the science, ac- 
 cording to the most approved system, so as to 
 form a complete " Russica Flora." Besides 
 these, they were also to investigate the most pro- 
 per places for fishing, hunting, &c. ; to rectify the 
 longitude and latitude of places, and to make 
 geographical, astronomical, and meteorological 
 observations ; to trace the course of rivers ; make 
 exact charts ; observe the customs, dress, man- 
 ners, language, religion, history, traditions, and 
 antiquity of different nations, with which they 
 were to combine every other species of information 
 that might tend to enlighten the institution, and 
 discover the internal state of their native empire. 
 The existence of such a society proves, that learn- 
 ing had not vanished from the North ; and the 
 number of excellent publications which have 
 since dawned upon the world, evince that the 
 hopes inspired by the wide perambulations of the 
 society were not disappointed. In these Pallas, 
 Gmelin, Stolberg, Guldenstaedt, and others, have 
 immortalized their names. 
 
 The academy is at present composed of a presi- 
 dent, director, fifteen professors, and four adjuncts. 
 The professors receive an annual stipend of 
 from 200 to 600 : the adjuncts are pensioned. 
 The meetings are twice a-week, and the public 
 assemblies are held thrice a-year. Belonging 
 to this society, and immediately contiguous, is a 
 fine library, containing upwards of 36,000 curious 
 volumes and manuscripts : also a museum, rich 
 in native productions, and containing a choice 
 cabinet of coins, antiquities, &c. The various 
 branches of natural history have their corres- 
 ponding apartments into which they are scien- 
 tifically distributed. The motto of the society 
 is Paulatim, and their device a tree, bearing 
 unripe fruit. Their transactions were first 
 published in 1728, entitled, " Comrnentai-ii Acu-
 
 A C A D E M Y. 
 
 (55 
 
 de,mi<e Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitance ad 
 aim. 1726." This title distinguished all their 
 works till 1747, when the transactions were cal- 
 ied, " Novi Commentarii Academic," &c. In 
 1 777, they were called, Nova Acta Sclent iarum 
 Imperialis Petropolitana. Their works hitherto 
 had been published in Latin. They are now 
 written partly in French, attended by a preface 
 called " Partie Historique." They have publish- 
 ed in the whole 14 volumes of memoirs. The 
 first of the new commentaries appeared in 1750, 
 the twentieth in 1776, and two volume's are print- 
 ed every year. 
 
 The academy has been often torn by dissen- 
 sions, and a few years ago, was almost annihilated ; 
 but by an edict of the empress, it was immediate- 
 ly re-modelled, arose and shone forth afresh upon 
 the world, in a late series of publications, 
 "Nova Acta," &c. ; and still continues to spread its 
 light over the dark region of this extensive empire. 
 
 The Academy of Sciences at Bologna, com- 
 monly called the Institute of Bologna, was origi- 
 nally founded by count Marsigli in 1712; for the 
 better cultivation of physics, mathematics, ana- 
 tomy, medicine, chemistry, and natural his- 
 tory. Its history was written by M. D. Limiers, 
 from memoirs furnished from the founder him- 
 self, and printed at Amsterdam in 1723; from 
 which it appears that an academy for architec- 
 ture and painting, previously founded by pope 
 Clement XI. was incorporated with this, and 
 that the city purchased, and appropriated to its 
 use the palazzo Celesi, for the convenience of 
 having the library, museum, observatory, schools, 
 and professors' apartments under the same roof. 
 At the entrance is the following inscription 
 Bononiense Scientiarum et Artium Institutum, ad 
 publicum totius orbis mum. 
 
 The Academy, Imperial and Royal, of Sciences 
 and Belles Lcttres at Brussels, was founded in 
 1773, and has published many volumes of in- 
 teresting memoirs. 
 
 The Royal Academy at Stockholm, or Royal 
 Swedish Academy, originated in six persons of 
 .learning, among whom may be mentioned the 
 celebrated Linnaeus. These gentlemen met on 
 the 2d of June, 1739, and formed themselves 
 into a private society, for communicating to each 
 other the result of their literary investigations. 
 This society soon drew a considerable share of 
 the public attention ; and in 1741, on the 31st of 
 March, was incorporated by the king, under the 
 title of the Royal Swedish Academy. The society 
 receives no pension from the crown ; but its 
 funds have been gradually augmented by sub- 
 scriptions, legacies, and private donations. Of 
 its professors, three persons only receive sala- 
 ries, viz. a professor of experimental philosophy, 
 and two secretaries. Those professors, who re- 
 side at Stockholm, become presidents by rota- 
 tion, each continuing in office for three months. 
 The election of native members is held 
 in April ; that of foreign members in July : 
 ooth classes of members are admitted without 
 fees. The dissertations are all written in the 
 Swedish language, and published four times in 
 tfie year. The annual publications compose an 
 octavo volume. The first 40 volumes, published 
 in 1779, are called the Old Transactions : the next 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 year commencing a series of New Transactions. 
 Any person who sends a treatise worthy of pub- 
 lication, receives the Quarterly Transactions gratis, 
 and a small silver medal. Agricultural dis- 
 
 sertations are published separately, under the 
 title of CEcojiomicuAcla. Premiums and medals 
 are awarded annually by the society, for the en- 
 couragement of agriculture, &c. The public 
 meetings of the institution are sometimes ho- 
 noured with the royal presence. In 1799, the 
 academy was divided into seven distinct classes. 
 First, general and rural ceconomy, containing 15 
 members. Second, commerce and mechanics, con- 
 taining 15 members. Third, exterior physics and 
 natural history. Fourth, interior physics and na- 
 tural philosophy, each containing 15 members. 
 Fifth, mathematics, containing eighteen mem- 
 bers. Sixth, medicine, containing 15 members. 
 Seventh, belles lettres, language, and history, 
 containing 12 members. Into such repute had 
 the society arisen, by the eminence and devoted- 
 ness of its members, that in 1800 the sale of al- 
 manacks alone brought in the sum of 400. 
 
 The Royal Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen^ 
 originated in the occasional meetings of six 
 learned men, whom Christian VI. in 1742, or- 
 dered to arrange his cabinet of medals ; and who, 
 enlarging their plan by degrees, at length formed 
 a regular institution, under the patronage of the 
 count of Holstein, whose primary object was, to 
 make researches into the history and antiquities 
 of their country, and to explain them. In the 
 year 1743, his Danish majesty, at the instigation 
 of the count, took the academy under his patron- 
 age, and endowed it with a fund ; directing die 
 members to add to the number of their former 
 pursuits those of history, physics, and mathema- 
 tics. The institution has published 15 volumes 
 in the Danish language, a great proportion of 
 which have been translated into Latin. 
 
 The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
 was established in 1780, by the council and house 
 of representatives in the province of Massachusetts 
 Bay, designed to promote the study of American 
 antiquities and history ; also to determine the 
 uses to which its natural productions might be 
 applied; together with the study of medicine, 
 mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, meteoro- 
 logy, geography, agriculture, manufactures, com- 
 merce, with every other art and science tha; 
 might tend to enlighten the population, and to 
 advance the interest, honour, and happiness of 
 an independent people. The members were 
 never to be more than 200, or fewer than 40. 
 Since the year 1785, when they published their 
 first volume of memoirs at Boston, the academy 
 has been progressively improving. 
 
 The Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon, was 
 founded in the year 1779, by the duke DeLa- 
 foens, uncle to the queen. It contained 24 ef- 
 fective members, divided into three classes occu- 
 pying the departments of natural sciences, ma- 
 thematics, and national literature ; 36 free mem- 
 bers, a few literary foreigners, with many scientific 
 correspondents. The sovereign himself became 
 president, and the revenue allowed by government 
 enabled them to establish a museum, observatory, 
 and printing-office. The first volume of their me- 
 moirs appeared in 1797; and in addition to their 
 
 F
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 Memorias At Litteratura Portugueza ; Memorias 
 Economical, and other literary transactions, they 
 have published Colleccao de Livros ineditot de 
 Historia Portugueza. 
 
 A Geographical Academy, established at Lis- 
 bon, in 1 799, principally with a view to illustrate 
 the geography of Portugal, has provided the 
 world with an accurate map of this country, so 
 long a desideratum in literature. 
 
 The Royal Neapolitan Academy was establish- 
 ed in 1779, and has published valuable ma- 
 thematical researches and memoirs. 
 
 The Royal Academy of Turin was established 
 by the late king, when duke of Savoy. The 
 first volume of memoirs appeared in 1759, pub- 
 lished in Latin, with the title of Miscellanea 
 Philosophica Mathematica Societates privates Tau- 
 rinensis. The continuations of which have been 
 since published in French. Le Grange, the most 
 celebrated Oriental member of this academy, 
 astonished the scientific world by the novelty 
 and profoundness of his papers, in the first volume 
 of these Transactions and Memoirs. 
 
 The Academy of Sciences, Belles Lettres, and 
 Arts, was established at Padua, by the senate, 
 near the close of the 18th century; consisting of 
 24 pensionaries, 12 free associates, 24 pupils, 16 
 associates from the Venetian states, 24 foreigners 
 and honorary members. A few volumes of Me- 
 moirs have been published in Italian. 
 
 The Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of 
 Genoa, was established in 1783, consisting of 
 32 members; poetry seems to be the point to 
 which they have directed their attention. 
 
 The Academy of Milan originated in the con- 
 tracted efforts of a literary society, who published 
 a sheet of observations weekly, on scientific sub- 
 jects, general criticism, belles lettres, &c. About 
 1767, a regular society was formed, whose tran- 
 sactions are published, under the title of Scelta 
 d'Opuscoli Scientifica. 
 
 The Academy of Sciences at Sienna, was in- 
 stituted in 1691. Their first volume of transac- 
 tions was published in 1761 ; and their publications 
 under the name of Atti dell' Academia di Siena, 
 have appeared occasionally, ever since. 
 
 The Academy of Sciences at Verona, was esta- 
 blished about 1780, by M. Longua, whose chief 
 object was to form an association of the principal 
 scientific men in all parts of Italy, for the pur- 
 pose of literary communication and publishing 
 memoirs. The first volume of which, accord- 
 ingly appeared in 1782, under the title of 
 Memorie di Matematica e Fisica, della Societa 
 Italiana, containing the celebrated names of 
 Boscovich, the two Fontanas, and Spallanzani. 
 Academies of a similar description are also estab- 
 lished at Mantua, Pisa, and Pavia. 
 
 An Academy of Sciences was established at 
 Manheim, by Charles Theodore, elector pala- 
 tine, in the year 1755. It is divided into two 
 classes, historical and physical, according to the 
 ^ian originally furnished by Schcepflin. The 
 tttter was subjected in 1780, to a subdivision 
 into the physical and meteorological. The his- 
 torical and physical memoirs are published, 
 under the title of Acta Academia Theodoro Pala- 
 tine. The meteorological observations are pub- 
 lished separately, under the title of Ephemerides 
 Socictutis Meteorologies Palatines. 
 
 The Electoral Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 
 at Munich, was established in 1759, and pub- 
 lished memoirs under the title of Abhandlungen 
 der Baierischen Akadernie. When the elector 
 became king, he new-organized the society, with 
 a view to give it the precedence over all the 
 literary institutions of Europe. After which, he 
 placed it under the immediate superintendence 
 of the mirastry ; the privy-counsellor Jacobi, a 
 man of excellent scientific and literary attain 
 ments, being president. 
 
 The Electoral Academy at Erfurt, was insti- 
 tuted by the elector of Mentz, in 1754, consisting 
 of protector, president, director, assessors, ad- 
 juncts, and associates. Their memoirs are now 
 published in German, although they originally 
 appeared in Latin. 
 
 The Hessian Academy of Sciences at Giessen, 
 have also published memoirs, under the title of 
 Acta Philosophica Medica Academia, Scientiarum 
 Principalis Hessiaca. Likewise in the Nether- 
 lands, at Flushing, and Brussels, there are sci- 
 entific academies which have publisnea Memoirs. 
 
 The Royal Irish Academy arose 1782, from an 
 association of gentlemen, most of them connected 
 with the university, who held weekly meetings 
 for the purpose of reading dissertations on literary 
 and scientific subjects. Indulging the hope of 
 advancing the interests of literature on a more 
 extensive scale, they soon after widened their 
 plan, admitting only such names as were already 
 illustrious, and might do honour to their new in- 
 stitution. This re-organization became the basis 
 of the Royal Irish Academy, which professes to 
 unite the advancement of the arts and sciences, 
 antiquities, and every species of literature. Their 
 papers have been numerous ; and from 1787 to 
 1825 they have published fourteen volumes. 
 
 A Society was formed in Dublin, similar to the 
 Royal Society in London, as early as 1683, but 
 it declined ; and although the plan was revived, 
 under the presidency of the earl of Pembroke, 
 then lord-lieutenant, it was still unsuccessful. 
 
 In 1731, a Society for scientific purposes was 
 formed by Dr. Prior, and, being sustained by 
 subscriptions for eighteen years, was incorporated 
 in 1749, since which it has received parlia- 
 mentary aid. It has proved eminently useful, 
 and in the latter end of the reign of George IV., 
 was denominated " The Itoyal Dublin Society." 
 
 An Ecclesiastical Academy was instituted at 
 Bologna, in Italy, 1687, chiefly with a view of 
 examining the discipline, doctrine, and history, 
 of the different ages of the church. 
 
 ACADEMIES OF ARTS. The Royal Academy 
 of Arts in London, established in 1768, was 
 instituted for the encouragement of designing 
 painting, sculpture, &c. This society is under 
 the patronage of the king, and under the direction 
 of 40 eminent artists of the first rank, in their 
 several professions ; who paint from living models, 
 and of whom, nine are annually elected, to attend 
 by rotation, for the purpose of setting the figures, 
 and of examining the performances of the stu- 
 dents. There are also a president, a council, 
 and other officers, besides separate professors of 
 painting, architecture, anatomy, and perspective, 
 who annually deliver public lectures on the sub- 
 ject of their respective departments. The aca- 
 demy is open to all students who are desirous
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 67 
 
 of cultivating the studies to which it is directed ; of the most eminent members were selected, eacTi 
 and, there is an annual exhibition of paintings, of whom attended in rotation for a month, for 
 sculptures, and designs, many of which have the purpose of setting a living model in the pro- 
 distinguished merit. per lights and attitudes, for the imitation of the 
 
 The Academy of Arts at Petersburg, was in- students, employed in taking draughts and carv- 
 
 stituted by the empress Elizabeth, in 1758, and ing images. For this purpose, he provided a 
 
 annexed to the Academy of Sciences; but in naked man, of tall figure and good proportions, 
 
 1764 was formed into a 'separate institution by whom he placed before them in the most easy 
 
 the empress Catherine, at the suggestion of count and natural positions, this was called setting the 
 
 Shuvalof; and the number of scholars increased model; on some occasions, he provided two, 
 
 from 40 to 300. The annual revenue was aug- and formed a juxta position of models; this was 
 
 mented from 4000, its original income, to called setting the group. He likewise employed 
 
 12,000. The scholars are admitted at the age a woman of a graceful appearance, and propor- 
 
 of six, and continue until they have attained the tionate stature, whom he placed before tne stu- 
 
 age of 18 ; during which time they are instructed dents in the same manner. It is to this careful 
 
 in reading, writing, arithmetic, the French and selection of subjects, and to the copying from the 
 
 German languages, and drawing. At the age of life, more than to an extraordinary measure or 
 
 14, they are at liberty to choose any of the warmth of genius, that we attribute the formation 
 
 following arts, which are branched out into four of those elegant models, and the draught of those 
 
 classes. First, painting in all its branches, his- beautiful sketches and designs, for which this 
 
 tory, portraits, battles, landscapes, architecture, academy for a considerable period, has been so 
 
 mosaic, enamelling, Sec. Second, engraving on highly celebrated ; and which, have tended not 
 
 copper-plates, seal-cutting, &c. Third, carving on a little to call forth the emulation of kindred 
 
 wood, ivory, and amber. Fourth, watch-making, societies, and to have awakened in many places 
 
 turning, instrument-making, casting statues in on the continent, a relish for those ancient arts, 
 
 bronze and other metals, gilding, varnishing, which had so long lain dormant. Three prizes, 
 
 imitating gems and medals in paste and other for designs, were distributed among the eleves 
 
 compositions. Prizes are annually distributed every three months, and four others for painting 
 
 to those who excel, and from the aggregate num.- and sculpture, annually. 
 
 ber of those who have attained four prizes, 12 are A similar Institution was established at Rome, 
 
 selected and sent abroad, at the public charge, by Louis XIV, wherein those who had won the 
 
 their travelling expenses defrayed ; and, on their annual prizes at Paris were supported three 
 
 settlement in any town, a salary of 60 conferred years, with a view to their further improve- 
 
 upon them for the first four years. inent. 
 
 The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts at An Academy of Drawing and Sculpture, was 
 
 Dublin, was incorporated in the year 1821. Its established at Manheim, in 1775, by Charles 
 
 exhibitions consist of the works of living artists, 
 and the noble edifice called " the Academy 
 House," was erected at the sole cost of F. John- 
 ston, Esq., the first president. 
 
 The Academy of Painting and Sculpture at 
 
 Theodore, elector palatine, with a view of pro- 
 moting the fine arts. 
 
 An Academy of Painting and Sculpture has 
 been founded at Stockholm, containing nine 
 professors, and about 400 scholars. The institu- 
 
 Paris, is known to have been instituted at a very tion annually distributes three large and three 
 early period. The academy of St. Luke, was small medals, awarded for the encouragement ot 
 popular in the 14th century, and in 1430, re- rising genius. Those students who most dis- 
 ceived many privileges from Charles VII. ; sub- tinguish themselves are also indulged with per- 
 sequently confirmed in 1584, by Henry III. ; mission to travel into France and Italy, at the 
 after which, it became united with the society of expence of the society. In the hall of this insti- 
 sculptors, who met near St. Denys. In conse- tution are the ancient figures of plaster, presented 
 quence of the continual disputes which arose by Louis XIV. to Charles XI. 
 between the sculptors and painters, the academy The Academy of Painting, Sculpture, Sfc. at 
 
 Vienna, was founded in 1705, on principles 
 
 nearly similar. 
 
 An Academy of the Fine Arts was established 
 
 fessions, who obtained in favour of it, an arrt at Turin in 1778, who held their meetings in the 
 of council in 1648. In 1655, they obtained from king's palace, 
 cardinal Mazarine, a brevet and letters patent, 
 registered in parliament; in return for which 
 they chose the cardinal for their protector, and 
 the chancellor for their vice-protector ; and, by 
 the friendly interposition of another minister 
 
 languished ; but, was afterwards revived by 
 M. Le Brun, Sarazin, Corneille, and other gen- 
 tlemen of distinguished eminence in their pro- 
 
 An Academy of Architecture was established at 
 Milan, about the year 1380, by Galeas Visconti; 
 and about the middle of the last century, an 
 acadamy of the fine arts was established there, 
 in which the pupils were furnished with originals 
 
 M.Colbert, obtained in 1683, a pension of 4000 and models: prizes were also distributed an- 
 livres, which enabled them to widen their plan, nually. This institution, before the effects of 
 and tended greatly to facilitate the objects of the the French revolution reached Italy, was one of 
 society. The academy, shortly after, was made the best establishments of that kind in the king- 
 to consist of a protector, vice-protector, director, dom. In the hall were some admirable pieces 
 chancellor, four rectors, a treasurer, four ad- of Corregio, and several other ancient paintings 
 juncts, four professors, two of whom lectured on and statues of distinguished merit, amongst 
 anatomy and geometry, honorary counsellors, a his- which we may mention the small bust of Vitel- 
 toriographer, two ushers, and a secretary. Twelve lius, and a statue of Agrippina of most exqm 
 
 F2
 
 A C A D E M Y. 
 
 site beauty, although it wanted the head and 
 arms which have since been restored. 
 
 The Academy of the Fine Arts at Florence had 
 long fallen into decay, but was restored by the 
 late Grand Duke. It contained halls for plaster 
 figures, and nudities for the sculptor and painter. 
 In the hall for plaster figures, were models of all 
 the finest statues in Italy, arranged in two rows; 
 but this, and all similar institutions in Italy, 
 have suffered greatly by the French. 
 
 An Academy of the Fine Arts was established at 
 Modena, in which was an extensive saloon, con- 
 taining many casts of antique statues. It con- 
 tains also the skull of Corregio ; but since it was 
 plundered by the French, it has dwindled into 
 a petty school for drawing from living models. 
 Venice and Mantua contain academies of a 
 similar description. 
 
 An Academy for Painting, Sculpture, and Archi- 
 tecture was founded at Madrid, by Philip V. of 
 which the minister for foreign affairs is presi- 
 dent: prizes are distributed every three years. 
 At Cadiz is a petty institution, in which a few 
 students are supplied by government with the 
 means of drawing, modelling, &c. 
 
 An Academy of Architecture in Paris was es- 
 tablished by M. Colbert, in 1671, consisting of 
 'a. company of skilful architects. 
 
 MUSICAL ACADEMIES. The Academy of An- 
 cient Music in London was instituted in 1710, 
 by several eminent performers and gentlemen, 
 to promote the study of vocal harmony. A li- 
 brary was attached, consisting of the best com- 
 positions in MS. and print. The gentlemen 
 of the chapel-royal, the choir of St. Paul's, with 
 the boys, assisted in the design. In 1731, a 
 charge of plagiarism against Bononcini, one of 
 the members, nearly destroyed the institution. 
 Dr. Green, Bononcini's friend, withdrew, taking 
 with him the boys of St. Paul's; and, in 1734, 
 Mr. Gates, master of the children of the royal 
 chapel, withdrew. Afterwards it became a musi- 
 cal seminary for the instruction of youth ; and by 
 the activity of Dr. Pepusch, the academy con- 
 tinued to subsist. 
 
 The Royal .Academy of Music in London, 
 arose from the principal' of the nobility and 
 gentry uniting to promote the performance of 
 operas, composed by Handel, and performed 
 under his conduct at the theatre in the Hay-mar- 
 ket. So extensive was the attention and patronage 
 called forth in favour of the society, that the 
 subscriptions amounted to 50,000. The king 
 conferred upon it the title rf Royal Academy, 
 and made a donation of 1000. It consisted of 
 a governor, deputy-governor, and 20 directors. 
 A contest between Handel and Senesino, one of 
 the performers, in which the directors favoured 
 the latter, dissolved the institution. A Royal 
 Society for IVIusic still exists. 
 
 An Academy of Dancing was erected by 
 Louis XIV. endowed with great privileges. 
 
 An Academy of the Law once existed at 
 Berytusjand another of the Sitientes at Bo- 
 logna. 
 
 AcADEMiESOFHiSTORY. The Royal Academy 
 of Portuguese History at Lisbon, was instituted 
 in 1720, by John V.; consisting of a director, 
 four censors, a secretary, and 50 members, each 
 
 of whom is expected to discuss some point of the 
 civil or ecclesiastical history of the nation, either 
 in Latin or Portuguese. In ecclesiastical history 
 the prelates, synods, councils, churches, monas- 
 teries, eminent characters, relics, places famovj 
 for miracles, &c. within the diocese under dis- 
 cussion, are to be distinctly related in twelve 
 chapters. The civil history extends from the 
 invasion of the Romans to the present time, to 
 improve their knowledge of which, each country 
 member is obliged to search the registers where 
 he lives, and make copious extracts, and original 
 observations. They meet once every 15 days. 
 The academy struck a medal in honour of their 
 prince, containing, on the front, his effigy, with 
 the inscription, ' Johannes V. Lusitanorum Rex ;' 
 and on the reverse, he was represented as raising 
 tip History, which appeared almost prostrate be- 
 fore him, with the legend, ' Historia Resurges.' 
 Underneath is an abbreviature of the following 
 words: 'REG ia ACAD emia HIST oriae, LUSIT 
 anas INSTITUTA VI. Idus, Decembris, MDCCXX.' 
 
 The Academy of Suabian History at Tubingen, 
 was formed for the purpose of publishing the 
 best historical writings, compiling memoirs, 
 writing the lives of eminent historians, &c. 
 
 The Academy of History at Madrid, was 
 formed, about 1730, by a few individuals, who 
 agreed to assemble occasionally for the purpose 
 of preserving and illustrating the historical monu- 
 ments and memoirs of Spain. They drew up a 
 few simple rules, which, in 1738, were con- 
 firmed by a royal cedula of Philip V. The 
 society consists of 24 members, who have already 
 published editions of Mariana, Sepulveda, Solis, 
 and the Ancient Chronicles relative to Castile, 
 several of which were before unknown. All 
 the diplomas, charters, &c. belonging to the prin- 
 cipal cities and towns from the earliest period, are 
 in their possession. The device of the institution 
 is, a river at its source ; the motto ' In patriam 
 populumque fluit.' The academy has long been 
 employed in preparing a Geographical Dictionary 
 of Spain. 
 
 ACADEMIES OF BELLES LETTRES, LANGUAGE, 
 &c. The Academy of Umidi, at Florence, after- 
 wards called Academia la Florentina, or the 
 Florentine Academy, was instituted in 1549, 
 by the grand duke, Cosmo I., and has always 
 been composed of the most eminent men in 
 Italy. It has paid particular attention to Italian 
 poetry, and has given excellent Italian transla- 
 tions of the Greek and Latin historians. 
 
 The Academy of Humourists originated at the 
 marriage of Lorenzo Marcini, a Roman gentle- 
 man, on which occasion many persons of rank 
 were present. It being the time of carnival, 
 the gentlemen, to afford diversion for the ladies, 
 recited verses, sonnets, speeches, and comedies, 
 at first extemporaneously, but afterwards by 
 memory and premeditation. The invention of 
 this species of amusement gave them the denomi- 
 nation of Belli Humori. At length, acquiring a 
 relish for these exercises, they resolved to form 
 an academy of Belles Lettres, and altered their 
 title to that of Humoristi, taking for their device 
 a cloud, which, after being formed of the salir* 
 exhalations from the sea, falls upon the eartn 
 in a gentle shower, refreshing and fertilizing
 
 A C A D E M Y. 
 
 wherever it comes. Their motto was selected 
 from Lucretius, ' Redit agmine dulci.' 
 
 The Academy of Arcadi was instituted in the 
 same city about 1690, to promote the study of 
 poetry and the belles lettres. It is composed of 
 princes, cardinals, and other ecclesiastic*, as well 
 as wits of both sexes. It is called Arcadian 
 because, to avoid disputes about pre-eminence, 
 they obliged themselves by a regulation to ap- 
 pear masked as Arcadian shepherds. The num- 
 ber of members, within ten years from its es- 
 tablishment, amounted to 600. They hold seven 
 meetings a year in a field, a grove, or in some 
 gentleman's garden. Six of these meetings are 
 employed in reciting the poems of the Arcadi 
 residing in Rome ; all of whom, except ladies, 
 and cardinals, read their own compositions. 
 The seventh meeting is devoted to the composi- 
 tions of absent members, the recitation of which 
 commonly affords great entertainment, the pieces 
 being written in all the different dialects of Italy. 
 The government of the institution is entirely de- 
 mocratical, allowing of no prince or protector, 
 but only a custos, elected every olympiad, (or 
 fourth year) with the power of appointing 12 
 others to assist him in the administration, whom 
 he may change yearly at. discretion. Under 
 these, for the sake of order, are two sub-custodes, 
 one vicar, or pro-custos, and four deputies, or 
 superintendents annually chosen. The modes 
 of election are five. The first by acclamation, 
 when princes, cardinals, &c. are admitted. The 
 second is by annumeration, used in favour of 
 ladies and academical colonies, where votes are 
 taken privately. The third representation, es- 
 tablished in favour of universities, where the 
 young gentry are educated, who can recommend 
 one or two members to be ballotted for privately. 
 The fourth, surrogation, whereby new shepherds 
 are introduced in the room of those that are 
 deceased or expelled. The seventh, destination, 
 whereby, when there is no immediate vacancy, 
 persons of merit are destined to succeed the first 
 vacancy, and receive the title of Arcadi, before an 
 opportunity shall occur for their final admission. 
 All the members at their initiation receive new 
 pastoral names, in imitation of the ancient 
 Arcadians. There are colonies of Arcadians in 
 many other cities in Italy, which are branches of 
 the original institution. 
 
 The Royal Academy at Caen was established 
 by letters patent in 1705, though held in private 
 50 years before that period, in the house of M 
 de Brieux. In 1707, M. Foucault, intendant of 
 the generality of Caen, procured the king's letters 
 patent, by which the society was raised into a 
 perpetual Academy. 
 
 An Assembly of men of letters, formed at Lyons 
 in 1712, wanted only letters patent, to consti- 
 tute a royal academy inferior to few in France. 
 
 The Academia dellu Crusca at Florence, or 
 Academia Furfur atorum, though formed in 1582, 
 obtained no celebrity till 1584, when it attracted 
 the public attention by reason of a dispute be- 
 tween Tasso and several of its members. It has 
 produced an Italian Dictionary of great merit. 
 In this institution Torricelli, the disciple of Ga- 
 lileo, delivered his discourses on the wind, the 
 power cf percussion, mathematics, and military 
 
 architecture. It is sometimes called the Bran 
 Academy, oti account of its sifting out words, and 
 rejecting barbarisms, with a view to the refine- 
 ment of the Italian language. It is now united 
 with the Fiorentina and Apatista, under the gene- 
 ral name of Reali Academia Fiorentina. 
 
 The Academy of Fructiferi arose in 1617, from 
 an assembly of princes and persons of distinction, 
 who met to refine and perfect the German lan- 
 guage. It flourished long under the princes of 
 the empire, who were commonly chosen presi- 
 dents. The number of members, in 1668, 
 amounted to no fewer than 900. A history of 
 the institution has been written in German by 
 George Neumarck. 
 
 The Academic Fran^oise, or the French Aca- 
 demy, arose from the private meeting of a few 
 men of letters, in the house of M. Conrart, in 
 1629; and six years afterwards was formed into 
 an academy by cardinal Richelieu, intended for 
 refining and ascertaining the French language 
 and style ; comprehending at the same time in its 
 plan, grammar, poetry, and eloquence. Origi- 
 nally the number of members was limited to 40, 
 out of whom a director, chancellor, and secretary, 
 were to be chosen ; the latter for life, the former 
 for two months only. The members enjoyed 
 many privileges, one of which was the droit de 
 committimus, by which they might refuse to an- 
 swer or appear before any court, except that of 
 the king's household. At first they met in car- 
 dinal Richelieu's apartment, then in that of 
 chancellor Seguier, and afterward, three times 
 a-week in an apartment of the Louvre, now 
 called 1'Academie Francoise. At their separation, 
 40 silver medals were distributed among them, 
 having on one side the head of the king of France, 
 and on the reverse protecteur de I'academie, with 
 a laurel and this motto, a Vimmortalite.. Th\ 
 proved an excellent means to secure attendance 
 those who were present receiving the overplus 
 otherwise intended for those who were absent. 
 Religious orders were deemed inadmissible, and 
 expulsion was resorted to only in case of heinous 
 malefaction. To compass their primary object, 
 they not only gave rules, but examples of good 
 writing ; and no fewer than 20 of their orations 
 have been printed; but the style has been ridi- 
 culed as having a tendency to enervate rather 
 than refine the language. They have produced, 
 nevertheless, a variety of publications; and their 
 speculations, if not exceedingly profound, are 
 however, very beautiful and entertaining; and 
 will be read with pleasure by every one who has 
 cultivated a lively relish for the beauties of 
 rhetoric and belles lettres. The publication of 
 a complete Dictionary of the French Language 
 constitutes their highest celebrity ; the derivation 
 of words, the settling of phrases was an employ 
 ment of 50 years, and was at length completed 
 in 1694. The history of the institution has been 
 written by M. Pelisson, and M. 1'Abbe d' Olivet. 
 
 A similar institution was founded at Peters- 
 burg in 1 783, on a plan at first suggested by the 
 princess Dashkof. It wa? established and en- 
 dowed by the late empress, and consists of 60 
 members. 
 
 The Royal Swedish Academy, founded in 
 1780, was 'intended for the improvement of the
 
 ACADEMY 
 
 iaK e purifying it of barbarisms, ascertain- In many of them, they attend six years ; havp 
 ine its extent and reducing it under nine fixed public examinations once every year; and, dif- 
 and definite laws ; also for the cultivation of the ferent from the universities, the students are 
 higher graces of poetry and eloquence. It was expected to attend the whole of the time, with 
 formed on the plan of the French Academy, and the exception of a few weeks allowed after the 
 pensions have been granted to some of its'mem- vacation, to visit different congregations, in the 
 bers by Gustavus III. A medal is struck by the capacity of ministers. 
 
 institution every year, in honour of some illuS- The importance of these institutions to so 
 trious Swede. " lar g e a P art of tne community as the protestant 
 
 The Royal Spanish Academy at Madrid, was dissenters, must be obvious ; and their support, 
 founded by the duke d'Escalona. The first entirely by voluntary subscriptions, evinces a de- 
 meeting was held in his palace in 1713, and in gree of public feeling, worthy of the cause in 
 1714 the king became protector. It consists of behalf of which they are established. 
 24 members, including the director and secre- The oldest of these academies is Homerton. 
 tary, whose object is to improve the language by In this institution two foundations are united ; 
 a careful selection of those terms and phrases, one as old as the restoration, the other as recent 
 which have been employed by the best Spanish as 1730. It was removed from Mile End, and 
 writers, and expunging all low, obsolete expres- had at that time three professorships, filled by 
 sions and barbarisms; also to distinguish the Dr. D. Fisher, as classical tutor; Dr. Conder as 
 
 divinity tutor ; and Dr. T. Gibbons, the biogra- 
 pher of Dr. Watts, as professor of rhetoric and 
 belles lettres. The classical chair of this institu- 
 tion has always stood high. It is filled at pre- 
 sent by Dr. Pye Smith, author of some excellent 
 classical publications. The academy receives 20 
 students, and has furnished some of the most 
 valuable ministers and able theologians that 
 have appeared amongst protestant dissenters. 
 
 The Old College at Hoxton, or as it was 
 originally called, The Evangelical Academy, was 
 founded in 1783, and removed to its present 
 situation in 1791. It has professors in lan- 
 guages, logic, mathematics, rhetoric, and belles 
 lettres, divinity, elocution, &c. Mr. Halley, is 
 the resident tutor. At present it receives about 
 40 students, who are examined every year before 
 a public assembly of ministers and literary gen- 
 tlemen, in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Samaritan, 
 Arabic, and Chaldee languages and other de- 
 partments of literature, science, and theology; 
 after which three of the students deliver orations 
 in the academy chapel adjoining the institution; 
 and a report is made accordingly of the meeting. 
 
 about the 16th century, public schools or aca- Some of the most eminent men of the present day 
 demies were formed all over Europe; at Padua, were educated at this institution. This institu- 
 Modena, Naples, Capua, Toulouse, Salamanca, tion has recently been enlarged ; and a handsome 
 Cologne, and Lyons. The academy of Paris building, for the purposes of it, has been erected 
 surpassed all the rest in its extended scale of at Highbury, near Islington. The general 
 education, the ability of its professors, and the plan of the institution is common to all dissent- 
 multitude of students by whom it was attended ; ing academies, particularly the public exami- 
 and was hence distinguished by the title of Uni- nations. 
 
 versity, to denote its embracing the whole circle The New College at Hackney was formed on 
 of science. Soon after which, other schools of Arian and Unitarian principles. High hopes of 
 learning formed themselves upon the same literary eminence were entertained frorp the 
 model, and obtained the same title. In the 16th names attached to its original foundation, 
 century, academies were founded by the Luthe- Dr. Kippis, editor of the Biographia Britannica, 
 ransat Jena, Helmstadt, and Altorf ; and by the Gilbert Wakefield, who seceded from the na- 
 Calvinists in Traneker, Leyden, Geneva, and tional church, and Mr. Belsham presided over 
 many other places. its concerns. Dissensions however prevailed, and 
 
 The dissenters of England, in consequence of it dwindled away. It is now revived on Cal- 
 the introduction of certain oaths after the resto- vinistic principles, and is become an important 
 ration of Charles II. to which they cannot con- and useful institution ; Rev. T. Collison, A.M. 
 scientiously subscribe, have been excluded from is the resident tutor. 
 
 the Universities, and have formed academies Rotheram, near 'Sheffield, is famous for an 
 
 among themselves. Success hasamply rewarded Academy of considerable eminence, that flourished 
 
 their exertions; and the dissenting ministers in as early as 1756. The late Dr. Williams presided 
 
 ;e institutions are not only educated and sup- for many years, and was a man of eminent 
 
 on the foundation, but in some respects attainments. His reply to Bishop Tomline's 
 
 enjoy advantages not found in the universities, publication, entitled, A Refutation of Calvinism, 
 
 former from the latter in a dictionary for that 
 purpose. To encourage this undertaking, the 
 academicians are allowed ail the immunities and 
 
 frivileges enjoyed by tne domestic officers in the 
 ing's service, even those in the royal palace. 
 The academy is not to put any thing to the press 
 wthout permission from the council. Their de- 
 vice is a crucible on the fire, with this motto, 
 " Limpia, fya, da esplendor." " It purifies, fixes, 
 and gives brightness." 
 
 ACADEMY is also a term for schools and other 
 seminaries of learning. Of these institutions 
 the Jews had several ; the most celebrated are 
 those of Tiberias and Babylon, in which the 
 Jewish Doctors instructed the youth in the He- 
 brew language, and explained to them the Tal- 
 mud, and the secrets of the Cabbala. The 
 Romans had two institutions of this kind, where 
 youth were instructed in general literature 
 and science ; one at Rome founded by Adrian, 
 the other atBerytus in Phoenicia. The former 
 was famous for the sciences, the latter for the 
 law. 
 
 In consequence of the revival of literature,
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 71 
 
 is considered by eminent judges to be the best 
 defence of modern Calvinism. The academy 
 has no connexion with the original one of 
 Heckmondwicke; but was pronounced a new 
 institution by a committee of the founders held at 
 Halifax on the llth of September, 1794. It has sup- 
 plied many able theologians and useful ministers. 
 
 An Academy of considerable eminence subsists 
 at Gosport, and was lately under the presidency 
 of Dr. Bogue, an eminent theologian recently 
 deceased. In this institution missionary stu- 
 dents are educated by the London Missionary 
 Society, by which they are sent to every part 
 of the world. The general laws and regulations 
 are similar to those of other dissenting institu- 
 tions. 
 
 At Newport Pagnel is an Academy for the 
 education of dissenting ministers under the su- 
 perintendence of T. P. Bull, A. M. 
 
 At Axminster also is a similar important insti- 
 tution, under the superintendence of the Rev. Mr. 
 Small, a gentleman of ability and erudition. 
 Both these institutions have furnished many useful 
 and excellent ministers. 
 
 The Academy at Wymondly is an extensive 
 and liberal institution, originally established by 
 the late Dr. Doddridge. This establishment has 
 been justly celebrated for classical learning. It 
 is under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Morell. 
 
 The Academy at Idle is under the superinten- 
 dence of the Rev. W. Vint and other gentlemen 
 of eminence, whose labours have contributed, in 
 no ordinary degree to the extensive usefulness 
 and success of the institution. 
 
 The Academy at Blackburn, lately under the 
 superintendence of the Rev. J. Fletcher, A. M. 
 occupies a very conspicuous place amongst dis- 
 senting institutions, and is in a prosperous con- 
 dition. It has furnished many useful ministers. 
 The academies already named belong to the Cal- 
 vinistic denomination of independent dissenters. 
 
 The York Academy, established 1786, on the 
 basis of the original academy at Warrington, is an 
 English presbyterian institution, and has been as- 
 sociated with the celebrated names of Dr. J.Taylor, 
 Hugh Farmer, Job Orton, &c. Dr.Aikin also, fa- 
 ther of Mrs. Barbauld, Dr. Priestley, and Dr. 
 Enficld were successively tutors at this place. Dr. 
 Thomas Barnes presided in this establishment at 
 its removal to Manchester in 1786 ; and was one of 
 the principal founders of the Manchester Literary 
 and Philosophical Society. The classical and 
 mathematical chairs have been justly celebrated. 
 In 1803, it was removed to York. The number 
 of students educated is 20. 
 
 The Baptist denomination have several institu- 
 tions, conducted on an extensive scale, and their 
 usefulness cannot be too highly appreciated. 
 
 The first of these is at Bristol, and was lately 
 under the superintendence of Dr. Ryland, whose 
 erudition and talents were well known to the 
 country. The number of students is consider- 
 able. Missionary students are educated here. 
 
 Stepney Academy is of respectable rank as a 
 dissenting institution, and is under the presidency 
 of Rev. Dr. Newman. The number of students 
 is considerable. 
 
 The Academy at Bradford is an institution on 
 the same scale a that at Idle. It is under the 
 
 care of Dr. Steadman, whose labours in it have 
 been very important. The general laws of these 
 institutions are similar to those of the independent 
 denomination. There are other similar dissent- 
 ing institutions at Abergavenny, Exeter, Carmar- 
 then, Wrexham, and others which our limits 
 compel us to omit. 
 
 A Political Academy was formed at Paris before 
 the revolution, consisting of six gentlemen, who 
 met on certain days of the week, where they 
 perused political papers, &c. the more effectually 
 to qualify themselves for his majesty's service. 
 
 An Academy was formed at Berlin, in 1703, by 
 Frederic I. to educate the nobility of the court 
 suitably to their extraction. The king paid all 
 extraordinaries, which rendered the expence mo- 
 derate. It was called the Academy of Princes, 
 but is now much decayed. 
 
 MILITARY ACADEMIES. The Romans had 
 military academies established all over Italy, 
 which they called Campi Martii, where the youth 
 were trained for war at the public expence. 
 
 These institutions were not uncommon in 
 Greece, and were superintended by Tactici, who 
 taught the higher offices of war. 
 
 We have three seminaries of this description : 
 the Naval Academy at Portsmouth, the Royal 
 Military Academy at Woolwich, and the Royal 
 Military College at Farnham and Sandhurst. 
 
 The Naval Academy at Portsmouth, was 
 founded by George I. in 1722, although the offi- 
 cial warrant is dated 1729. Originally the war- 
 rant specified but 40 young gentlemen, fifteen of 
 whom were to be the sons of commissioned offi- 
 cers in the navy. The navy commissioner ol 
 Portsmouth was ex-officio governor. Two mas- 
 ters were appointed to instruct the students in 
 navigation and the introductory sciences ; and 
 an additional master for writing and drawing. 
 The annual expence was about 1169. In 1806, 
 an order was issued for a new and enlarged esta- 
 blishment, denominated, The Royal Naval Col- 
 lege at Dock Yard, Portsmouth, of which the 
 first lord of the admiralty was to be governor ; and 
 a lieutenant governor and inspector was to be pro- 
 vided, who should be a post-captain in the navy. 
 A professor of mathematics is appointed, who re- 
 ceives 8 annually from each student. There is 
 also a master, a graduate of one of the universi- 
 ties, who teaches classics, moral philosophy, geo- 
 graphy, history, &c. ; and a writing-master, who 
 teaches, besides writing, arithmetic, algebra, and 
 geometry. There are masters who teach French, 
 drawing, dancing, fencing, &c. The master 
 attendant of the dock-yard gives lessons on 
 rautics, &c. illustrated by vessels in the har- 
 bour. The master shipwright of the dock-yard 
 attends the students once a-week, through the 
 dock-yard, illustrates to them the principles 
 on which ships are built, &c. The gunner teaches 
 gunnery, the use of the firelock, &c. The stu- 
 dents remain three years, and before they are 
 admitted, their friends give a bond of 200 that 
 they shall enter the sea service. The three years 
 that they remain stands for two of the six years 
 they are required to serve as midshipmen before 
 advancement. The first year they are at sea, they 
 keep journals,draw head-lands, &c. &c. ; and when 
 the ship comes into port, thev are to attend the
 
 ACA 
 
 72 
 
 ACJL 
 
 professor, who examines them. The institu- 
 tion, by an act of parliament, 1806, was extended 
 beyond the original design of educating cadets 
 for the navy. A school for shipwrights was 
 established. The professor of the Naval Academy 
 instructs them ; and before an apprentice can be 
 taken, he must pass an 'examination in the first 
 six books of Euclid, and in French, and is then 
 bound to the dock-yard seven years; six of which 
 he spends at the academy, and one at sea. The 
 salary of the apprentices is 60, increasing yearly 
 to 140. They spend half the day with the pro- 
 fessor, and half with the master shipwright. From 
 this class, officers and superintendents of naval 
 architecture are commonly chosen. 
 
 The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, 
 established by George II. in the year 1741, was 
 intended to instruct " raw and inexperienced 
 people belonging to the military ordnance in the 
 several parts of the mathematics, necessary for 
 the service of the artillery," &c. In 1776, the 
 number of cadets amounted to 48, and in 1798 
 to 140. The building in the royal arsenal being 
 in an unhealthy situation, the academy was 
 removed to buildings erected for that purpose on 
 Woolwich Common; 128 cadets were lodged, 
 and 60 were received at the royal arsenal. In 
 1810, the East India Company withdrew their 
 cadets, who amounted to 40, and the extra cadets 
 who, for want of room were placed chiefly at 
 Marlow, were taken into the college. The aca- 
 demy now consists of 200 cadets, 72 of whom 
 reside in the arsenal. There is one master for 
 evepy 16 cadets. The whole number may be 
 enumerated as follows: a professor of fortification, 
 with two assistants ; a professor of mathematics, 
 with six assistants ; two French masters ; three 
 drawing masters, one for figures, one for land- 
 scapes, and one for ground ; the latter has an 
 assistant. There is also a dancing-master, a 
 fencing master, two modellers, and a lecturer on 
 chemistry. Lectures are also given on philoso- 
 pny. The inferior parts of education are taught 
 at the arsenal, the higher branches on the Com- 
 mon. The cadets are the sons of noblemen, gen- 
 tlemen, or military officers. They are considered 
 as the 1st Company of the Royal Regiment of 
 Artillery, and are divided into companies, with 
 proper officers, &c. Each cadet receives 25. 6d. 
 per day, which covers his expences. Monthly re- 
 ports are given of the advancement of each in his 
 respective studies, and commissions are dis- 
 tributed according to their merit. 
 
 The Royal Military College at Farnkam, in 
 Surrey, and at Sandhurst, near Bagshot, was 
 originally settled at High Wycombe and Great 
 Marlow. That at High Wycombe commenced 
 :n 1799, when there were 34 cadets. In 1801 
 it was denominated the Royal Military College 
 by his majesty's warrant, and a supreme board of 
 commissioners appointed to superintend its con- 
 cerns. In 1802, by his majesty's warrant, a 
 
 junior department was formed. Anotner warrant 
 issued in 1808, places both departments, forming 
 one college, under the governor and lieutenant- 
 governor. The number of cadets of the juniot 
 department was to be 412; and to be divided 
 into four distinct companies, each 103. They are, 
 first, orphan sons of officers who have died or been 
 disabled in the service. They are to be admitted 
 free of expense, but to bring their first suit of uni- 
 form, and to be provided with linen,&c. Secondly, 
 the sons of officers serving, who pay a sum an- 
 nually, according to their rank, of from 10 to 60; 
 and, thirdly, sons of noblemen and gentlemen 
 who pay each not less than 100 per annum. 
 The studies are mathematics, philosophy, history, 
 geography, fortification, military drawing and 
 landscape, arithmetic, classics, French, German, 
 writing, &c. There are four masters of fortifica- 
 tion, five of military drawing, three of landscape 
 drawing, four of history, geography, and classics, 
 six of French, one of German, seven of mathe- 
 matics, three of fencing. This course lasts from 
 three and a half to four years. The candidate 
 before admission, must pass examination, and 
 must be between 13 and 15 years of age. There are 
 monthly and half-yearly examinations previous to 
 any of the cadets receiving commissions from the 
 college, on which occasion, if the examiners ap- 
 prove their proficiency, they have certificates of 
 qualification to serve as officers in the army. The 
 third class may purchase commissions at anytime, 
 but cannot obtain them from the college till their 
 proficiency is approved. The senior department 
 is intended for the instruction of officers in the 
 higher parts of their profession. For this purpose 
 they study mathematics, gunnery, fortification, 
 military drawing, castramentation, surveying, 
 reconnoitring of ground, the disposition and the 
 movement of troops, and all the rules and princi- 
 ples requisite in different circumstances of offen- 
 sive and defensive war, &c. &c. together with 
 the French and German languages. There are 
 six professors : one for mathematics, one for forti- 
 fication, two for military drawing, one for French, 
 and one for German. The number of students 
 is 37. No officer is admitted till he is 21 years 
 of age, and has served with his regiment three or 
 four years. Each student pays thirty guineas 
 annually ; and is obliged, the latter part of the 
 time, to keep a horse. If an officer concludes his 
 studies, and passes his examination with credit, 
 he receives a certificate signed and sealed that he 
 is fit for a staff appointment. The students wear 
 uniforms, are subject to the articles of war, and 
 receive 2s. 6d. per day. In 1801, 500 acres of 
 land being purchased at Sandhurst near Bagshot, 
 spacious buildings were erected, and the junior 
 department removed there, the senior depart- 
 ment remaining still at Farnham. The East India 
 Company, having withdrawn their cadets from 
 the institution already mentioned, have esta- 
 blished one at Hertford, for which see HERTFORD. 
 
 ACADEMY FIGURE, in painting, is atechnical 
 name for an outline of the numan subject taken 
 from the life. Also the copy of such a draught. 
 
 ACADIA, or ACADIE, a country in N. Ame- 
 rica, so called by the French, while they had pos- 
 session of it, now NOVA SCOTIA, which see. It is 
 
 still the name of a small picturesque settlement ot 
 the French, on the river Montreal, Lower Canada. 
 
 AC/ENA, in antiquity, aicaiva, Gr. a Grecian 
 decemped, or ten-foot rod, used in measuring 
 their lands. 
 
 AC^ENA, in botany, a genus of plants belong-
 
 ACA 
 
 73 
 
 ACA 
 
 ing to the class tetrandria, order, monogyma. 
 There is only one species, a native of Mexico. 
 ACAJAIBA, or ACAJOU, in botany, a name 
 given by some authors, to the tree that produces 
 the Cashew nuts. It is the ANACARDIUM OCCI- 
 DENTALS of Linnaeus, which see. 
 
 ACALANDRUS, in ancient geography, a 
 river falling into the bay of Tarentum, near Me- 
 tapontum. Pliny iii. 2. 
 
 ACALEPHE, in botany, the nettle of The- 
 ophrastus and Dioscorides. 
 
 ACALEPHE, in ornithology, a water-fowl, men- 
 tioned by Nicander ; also in zoology, a sea 
 animal, mentioned by Aulus Gellius. 
 
 ACALYPHA, in botany, the three-seeded 
 mercury, a genus of plants belonging to the 
 class monoecia, order monodelphia. There are 
 five species, all natives of Virginia. 
 
 ACAMAS, in ancient history, the son of 
 Theseus, who followed his father to the siege of 
 Troy, and being sent along with Diomedes to 
 the Trojans, to solicit the restoration of Helen, 
 Laodice, one of Priam's daughters, had a son by 
 him, called Munitus. He was one of the Gre- 
 cians who afterwards concealed themselves in 
 the wooden horse ; also a son of Antenor, the Tro- 
 jan ; and a Thracian monarch, who assisted king 
 Priam in the Trojan war. 
 ACAMANTIUM, a city of Phrygia. 
 ACAMATOS, from a negative (ca/ivw, to be 
 wearied. In medicine that position of a limb, 
 which is equally distant from flexion and exten- 
 sion. 
 
 ACANACEOUS. See ACANTHACEOUS. 
 ACANAPHORA, in botany, a name given 
 by some, to the jacea, or common knap-weed. 
 
 ACANGIS, adventurers, or ravagers ; a name 
 given by the Turks to their hussars, who are sent 
 out to procure intelligence, and ravage the 
 enemy's country. 
 
 ACANOR, a particular kind of chemical fur- 
 nace. 
 
 ACANTHA, from AicavQa, Gr. a thorn, in 
 anatomy, the protuberances of the vertebra of the 
 back, commonly called spinte dorsi, or the spine. 
 ACANTHA, in botany, the prickle of a plant. 
 ACANTHA, in zoology, the spine, or prickly 
 fins of fish. 
 
 ACANTHABOLUS,in surgery, from AicavOa, 
 a thorn, and /SaXXw, to cast away. An instru- 
 ment for extracting prickles, thorns, &c. In 
 figure it resembles a pair of pincers ; but is 
 sometimes made crooked for more conveniently 
 entering the fauces. 
 
 ACANTHACEOUS, from asavQa, aculeiim, 
 prickly, a term sometimes applied to plants of 
 the thistle kind. 
 
 ACANTHALZUCA, in botany, the echinopus, 
 or globe thistle. 
 
 ACANTHE, in botany, a name formerly given 
 to the artichoke. 
 
 ACANTHIAS, in ichthyology, a name given 
 by some authors to the thorn-back, a fish, the 
 skin of which is used by our artificers in polish- 
 ing, and called by them simply fish-skin. 
 
 ACANTHICE, mastich, a gum, yielded by 
 the herb helxine. 
 
 ACANTHINUM LIGNUM, is used by some 
 writers for Brazil wood. 
 
 ACANTHION, among naturalists, a plant of 
 the thorn, or rather of the thistle kind : whose 
 down, being cleansed from the prickles, was ma- 
 nufactured into a kind of stuff, not unlike silk. 
 
 ACANTHIS, in ornithology, a bird men- 
 tioned by Virgil, Georg. iii. supposed to be the 
 linnet. 
 
 ACANTHONOTUS, or NASUS, in ichthy- 
 ology, a genus of fish of the Indian seas, de- 
 scribed by Black as characterised by an elongated 
 body, dorsal fins with spines on the back and 
 abdomen. 
 
 ACANTHOPTERYGII, in ichthyology, from 
 AicavQa, a thorn, and irrtpvyiov, a fin. A class 
 of fishes, in the Linnaean system, the character of 
 which is, that the rays of the fins are bony, and 
 some of them prickly at the extremities. This 
 class contains 17 genera. 
 
 ACANTHOS, or ACANTHUS, a town of Egypt, 
 near Memphis, now Bisalta or Dafoitr. 
 
 ACANTHOS, a maritime town of Macedonia, 
 W. of mount Athos, now called Erisso. Near 
 this was Xerxes's ditch, or canal, whereby he at- 
 tempted to separate Athos from the continent, to 
 convey his ships without doubling the mount 
 into the Singitic bay. Also a town of Epirus, 
 and an island mentioned by Pliny, v. 32. 
 
 ACANTHUS, bearVbreech, or brank-ursine, 
 in botany, a genus of the angiospermia order, 
 belonging to the didynamia class of plants ; and 
 ranking in the 40th natural order, personatae. See 
 BOTANY. 
 
 ACANTHUS, in architecture, an ornament re- 
 presenting the leaves of the acanthus, used in 
 the capitals of the Corinthian and Composite 
 orders. To the Corinthian capital this orna- 
 ment adds its characteristic beauty : " The whole 
 plant," as Mr. Elmes elegantly observes, "sur- 
 rounds with its aspiring leaves, the vase or ball 
 of the capital, as if attempting to lift up the 
 abacus that covers the whole ; they then turn 
 down and form themselves into graceful volutes.'' 
 
 ACANTHUS, a name given by Theophrastus to 
 the acacia tree. 
 
 ACANTHURUS, in ichthyology, a sub- 
 division of the Linnaean genus, chaetodon, con- 
 taining 15 species, according to Dr. Shaw. 
 
 ACANTICONE, in mineralogy, of the genus 
 of flint. It was formerly considered as a variety 
 of common actinolite; but Werner and Haiiy 
 have proved it a distinct species, nearly allied to 
 agate, it is the pistacite of Werner, the arandilite 
 of D'Andrada, and the thallite of La Metherie. 
 
 ACANZII, Turkish light horse, the avant 
 guard of the grand signior's army. 
 
 ACAPATLI, in botany, the piper longum of 
 Linnaeus, or the plant which produces lone; pep- 
 per. 
 
 ACAPELLA, in church music, denotes that 
 the instrumental and vocal are to continue iii 
 unison. 
 
 ACAPNON, aicairvov, in botany, a name of 
 the sampsuchum, or marjoram : also of dry 
 wood. 
 
 ACAPULCO, or Los REYES, a considerable 
 town and port in Mexico, on the South Sea, the 
 capital of New Spain. A ship annually sails 
 hence to Manilla, in the Philippine Islands, near 
 the coast of China, laden with precious metals
 
 ACA 
 
 74 
 
 ACA 
 
 and other goods to the value of 350 or 400,000 : 
 the metals alone being generally worth 250,000 ; 
 and another returns in July or August, with 
 diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones ; the 
 carpets of Persia ; the camphire of Borneo ; 
 benjamin and ivory from Pegu and Cambodia ; 
 muslins, waste cottons, gold dust, tea, China 
 ware, silk, and cabinets of China and Japan ; 
 besides cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmegs, and 
 pepper. The goods brought to Acapulco are 
 carried to the city of Mexico by mules and pack- 
 horses ; and from thence to Vera Cruz on the 
 North Sea, in order to be shipped for Europe. 
 Acapulco itself is an inconsiderable place, con- 
 taining not more than 4000 inhabitants, except 
 at the annual fair on the arrival of the Manilla 
 galleon. Ships arrive at the port by two inlets, 
 separated from each other by a small island, the 
 entrance into them in the day time is by means 
 of a sea-breeze, and the sailing out by night is 
 effected by a land-breeze. A passage has been 
 recently cut through the mountains to give in- 
 creased circulation to the air; but its unhealthi- 
 ness, as a residence, seems incurable, and the 
 inhabitants are the constant prey of the cholera 
 morbus and bilious fevers. Earthquakes are 
 also common; and the insects that choke the 
 atmosphere intolerable to Europeans. A wretch- 
 ed fort, 30 pieces of cannon, and a small gar- 
 rison defend it. But the harbour is equally ex- 
 tensive, safe, and commodious ; surrounded by 
 lofty mountains, which are so dry, that they 
 are destitute of water. The air here is hot, 
 heavy, and unwholesome ; to which none can 
 habituate themselves, except certain negroes that 
 are born under a similar climate, or mulattoes. 
 Lon. 100. W. kt. 16, 50'. N. 
 
 ACARA, in ichthyology, the name of a fish 
 caught in the fresh waters of the Brazils, and es- 
 teemed a very delicate and well-tasted one. It 
 seldom exceeds three or four inches in length, 
 and has a high back like the perch. 
 
 ACARAAYA, or GARANHA, in ichthyology, 
 the name of a fish caught on the Brasilian shores, 
 which grows to three feet in length, and is the 
 shape of our carp. It is eaten in Brasil, both 
 fresh and salted. 
 
 ACARAI, or ACARIA, a town of Paraguay in 
 South America, built by the Jesuits in 1624. 
 Lon. 51, 5'. W. Lat. 26, 0'. S. Also a river of 
 Paraguay. 
 
 ACARAMUCU, in ichthyology, the balistes 
 monoceros of Linnaeus. See MONODON. 
 
 ACARAPEBA, in ichthyology, the name of 
 a small American fish, called also braseme. It 
 seems a kind of Smaris. 
 
 ACARAPINIMA, in ichthyology, the name 
 of a Brasilian fish, of the Cantharus kind. . 
 
 ACARAPITAMBA, in ichthyology, the name 
 of a fish caught in the Brasilian seas, of an 
 oblong figure, resembling the mullet, and grow- 
 ing to two feet or more in length. Its mouth 
 and teeth are very small. 
 
 ACARAPUCU, in ichthyology, the name of 
 a well-tasted fresh-water fish, of Brasil growing to 
 eighteen inches in length. 
 
 ACARAUNA, in ichthyology, an American 
 fish, of which there are two species ; the one 
 called Acarauna, without any additicn ; and the 
 
 other Acarauna Quadrats, or the Square Ac a- 
 rauna ; and by our sailors the old wife. 
 
 ACARI, or ACARIS, in natural history, an 
 animalcule bred in wax ; said by Aristotle to 
 be the least object of human sight. 
 
 ACARI, a cape, river, and settlement, Ion. 75, 
 8'. W. Lat. 15, 15'. S. in the province of Cumana, 
 Peru. Also a river in Para, Brazil, which 
 enters the Amazon at its mouth. 
 
 ACARIGUA, a river and settlement in the 
 province of Venezuela, South America. The 
 former rises near the town of Araure, and dis- 
 charges itself into the La Portuguesa. 
 
 ACARNA, in botany, a name given by 
 Theophrastus and others to the artichoke. 
 
 ACARNAN, in ichthyology, the name of a 
 small sea fish very common in the Mediterranean, 
 and called by the fishermen fravolino or phra- 
 golino. It differs little from the erythrinus, ex- 
 cept in colour. 
 
 ACARNANIA, anciently Curetis, the first 
 country of Free Greece, or Greece Proper, 
 bounded on the W. by the Sinus Ambracius, and 
 separated from .ZEtolia by the river Achelous, on 
 the E. and by the Sinus Ambracius from Epirus. 
 The people were called Acarnanes, denoting per- 
 sons unshorn ; other ./Etolians, to the E. of the 
 Achelous, being called Curetes, by Homer, from 
 being shorn. According to Lucian, they were 
 noted for effeminacy and incontinence ; hence 
 the proverb, Porcellus Acarnanius. This coun- 
 try was famous for an excellent breed of horses ; 
 so that Aicapvivos ITTTTOC, is a proverbial saying 
 for a thing excellent in its kind. It is now 
 called la Carnia and il Despotato. 
 
 ACARNAR, ACHARNAR, or ACHERNER, a 
 star of the first magnitude, in Eridanus, invisible 
 in our latitude. 
 
 ACARON, or ACCARON, called Ekron in 
 Scripture, which see. 
 
 ACARTUM, in chemistiy, red lead. 
 
 ACARUS, in entomology, the tick, or mite, 
 a genus of insects belonging to the order of 
 aptera, or such as have no wings. They are of 
 the chsetodon genus of Linnoeus; which includes 
 also the black acarauna and the acarauna altera 
 major of Willoughby ; and the acarauna macu- 
 lata of others. 
 
 ACASTUS, in classic history, the son of 
 Pelias, king of Thessaly, and a famous hunter, 
 married Hippolyta, who being disappointed in her 
 passion for Peleus her step-son, she accused him 
 to her husband of attempting her virtue; for 
 which he was exposed to wild beasts. But Vul- 
 can, by Jupiter's order, rescuing Peleus, he made 
 successful war on Thessaly, and slew Acastus 
 and Hippolyta. Also, the second Athenian Ar- 
 chon. 
 
 ACATALECTIC, n. S. aicaraX^ierucoc, Gr. A 
 verse which has the complete number of syllables, 
 without defect or superfluity. 
 
 ACATALEPSIA, ACATALEPSY, from a pri- 
 vative, and caraXj^ef, comprehension. In phi- 
 losophy, incomprehensibility ; that which cannot 
 be conceived. 
 
 ACATALUS, in botany, the juniper berry. 
 
 ACATAPEC, a settlement of the province ot 
 Tehuaca, New Mexico; also the name of seve- 
 ral small settlements of South America.
 
 ACC ; 
 
 ACATERY, or ACATRY, anciently an officer 
 of the king's household, designed for a check 
 between the clerks of the kitchen and the pur- 
 veyors. 
 
 ACATHARSIA, in medicine, an impurity of 
 the blood or humours. 
 
 ACATHISTUS, n ecclesiastical affairs, a 
 hymn ancientlysung in the Greek church, aica0i<roe, 
 i. e. without sitting, on the Saturday of the fourth 
 week in Lent, in honour of the Virgin, for hav- 
 ing thrice delivered Constantinople from the bar- 
 barous nations. 
 
 ACATIUM, in ancient navigation, a boat or 
 pinnace used for military purposes. Also the 
 large sail placed in the middle of a ship. Poll. 
 Onon. ii. 81. 
 
 ACATLAN, the name of six small native set- 
 tlements, in New Mexico. 
 
 ACAULIS, or ACAULOUS, in botany, terms 
 applied to plants, the flowers of which have no 
 pedicle or stalk to support them, but rest imme- 
 diately on the ground, such as the carline thistle, 
 &c. 
 
 ACAYUCA, a town and district of New 
 Mexico, on the coast of the North Sea, 100 
 leagues S. E. of Mexico. Also a settlement in 
 New Spain, containing 100 Indian families. 
 
 ACBAR, in mythology, an idol of enormous 
 size, which the Arabians are said formerly to have 
 worshipped ; an idolatry from which, with diffi- 
 culty, Mahomet restrained them. 
 
 ACBAR. See AKBAR, 
 
 ACBERPOOR, or ACBERPURA, a town in 
 the province of Oude, Hindostan, and one of the 
 remaining possessions of the Nabob. It stands in 
 N. lat. 26, 27'. and E. long. 82, 35'. South of 
 Fyzabad about 30 miles. 
 
 ACBERPOOR, also called AJETMUE, a town in 
 the district of Etaweh, province of Agra, Hin- 
 dostan, 25 miles N. of Caunpoor. N,. lat. 26, 
 23'. E. long. 82, 30'. 
 
 ACCA LAURENTIA, the nurse of Romulus and 
 Remus, and wife of Faustulus, the shepherd of 
 king Numitor. She was called Lupa from her 
 loose character ; whence the fable of their king 
 being suckled by a wolf. To her honour the 
 Accalia were dedicated ; though some writers 
 suppose them to have been instituted in honour 
 of another courtezan. Plut. Qu<est. Rom. in Ro- 
 mul. This feast was also called Laurentalia. 
 
 ACCA, (St.) bishop of Hagustaldt, or Hexam, 
 in Northumberland, in 709. He ornamented his 
 cathedral magnificently, and erected a library. 
 Acca was famous for his skill in church music, 
 and wrote Pussioncs Sanctorum, and Pro illus- 
 trandis Scripturis, ad Bedam. He died in 740, 
 having enjoyed the see of Hexam 31 years. 
 
 ACCABA, a chain of mountains between Pa- 
 lestine and Arabia Petraea, N. E of the Red Sea, 
 immediately by the Mount Hor of Scripture, 
 northward. It is a range which the Mecca pil- 
 grims are constantly passing, and on which 
 many of their camels are lost. Also a fortress 
 of this neighbourhood, 150 miles E.S. E. of Suez. 
 It was the Ezion-geber of Scripture, used by 
 Solomon ; and the Beienice of Ptolemy. 
 
 ACCADEMIA, among musicians, a concert. 
 
 ACCAPITARE, ACCAPTARE, or ACAPTARE, 
 from ad, to, and caput, the head, because vassals 
 
 5 ACC 
 
 own their lords for their head. In old law, the 
 act of becoming vassal to a lord, or yielding ho- 
 mage to him. Accapitum, or Accapitamentum 
 was the money paid by the vassal. 
 
 ACCAWAW, INDIANS, one of the aboriginal 
 tribes of Guiana. They lived amicably with the 
 Dutch settlers ; but were much addicted to the 
 use of vegetable poisons on their arrows and spears. 
 ACCEDAS AD CURIAM in the English law, 
 -a writ of the court of Chancery, where a man 
 has received, or fears, false judgment in an infe- 
 rior court. 
 
 ACCEDAS AD VICE-COMITEM. a writ directed 
 to the coroner, commanding him to deliver a 
 writ to the sheriff, who having a Pone delivered 
 to him, suppresses it. 
 
 ACCEDONES, or ACCENDONES, homaccedo, 
 to accede. In Roman antiquity, a species of 
 gladiators, who excited or animated the comba- 
 tants in the public games. 
 
 ACCEDE, v. " Ad. cedo ; to go 
 
 ACCESS', to or towards, sup- 
 
 ACCESS'ARINESS, posingafixed point 
 
 ACCESS'ARY, or ^ ,. \- to which we are ad- 
 ACCESS'ORY, 5 "* .1 vancing; to come 
 
 ACCESSIBLE, near to, or ap- 
 
 ACCESSION. J proach, in order 
 
 to render assistance, or to confer a benefit. 
 Hence, to assist, to agree to, to bestow a favour, 
 Accession also signifies addition, increase. 
 Beside all this, he was ful greuously ; 
 For vpon nim he had an hote accesse, 
 That day by day him shooke full petously. 
 
 Chaucer, of tlte Blacke Knight, 
 When we are wrong'd, and would unfold our griefs ; 
 We are deny'd access unto his person, 
 Ev'n by those men that most have done us wrong. 
 
 Shakspeare 
 Away, I prythee, 
 
 Do as I bid thee. There's no more to say, 
 Accessible is none but Milford way. 
 
 Shakspeare's Cymbeline. 
 He grants what they besought ; 
 Instructed, that to God is no access 
 Without Mediator ; whose high office now 
 Moses in figure bears. 
 
 Milton, b. xii. 1. 239 
 They anon, 
 
 With hundreds and with thousands, trooping came, 
 Attended : all access was throng'd : the gates 
 And porches wide j but chief the spacious hall 
 Thick swarm'd. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, b. ii. 
 
 As for those things, that are accessary hereunto ; 
 those things, that so belong to the way of salvation, 
 &c. Hooker, b. iii. sec. 3. 
 
 For, as relapses make diseases 
 More desperate than their first accesses. Hudibras. 
 
 The reputation 
 
 Of virtuous actions past, if not kept up 
 With an access and fresh supply of new ones, 
 Is lost and soon forgotten. Denham's Sophy. 
 
 He, (the Earl of Strafford,) had taken upon him 
 the government of Hull, without any apprehension 
 or imagination that it would ever make him accessary 
 to rebellion. Clarendon's History of Rebellion, 
 
 And here th' access a gloomy grove defends j 
 And here th' unnavigable lake extends ; 
 O'er whose unhappy waters, void of hgnt, 
 No bird presumes to steer his airy flight. 
 
 Dryiett't JEneid, vi.
 
 They go, commissioned to require a peace ; 
 And carry presents, to procure access. 
 
 Dryden's Mneid, viii. 209. 
 And vain were reason, courage, learning ; all, 
 Till power accede ; till Tudor's wild caprice 
 Smile on their cause. Shenstone's Ruined Abbey. 
 With longing eyes, and agony of mind, 
 The sailors view their refuge left behind; 
 Happy to bribe with Indies richest ore, 
 A safe accession to that barren shore. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 
 Ad : celero, celer, 
 to hasten to ; to move 
 with increased speed 
 
 ACC 76 ACC 
 
 ACCENDENTES. or ACCENSORES, in eccle- 
 siastical writings, a lower order of ministers in 
 the church of Rome, whose office is to light and 
 trim the candles, or tapers. 
 
 ACCENDO, v. ) Ad : cendo. To set fire to; to 
 ACCENSION. J light up. Obsolete. 
 ACCENSI, in the Roman armies, a resei-ve 
 of soldiers, thus denominated, quia accensebantur, 
 ad censum adjiciebantur. They were sometimes 
 also called velites and velati, because they fought 
 clothed but not in armour ; sometimes adscripti- 
 cii, and adscriptivi ; sometimes rorarii. The ac- 
 censi, Livy observes, were placed at the rear of 
 the army, because little was expected from them ; 
 they were taken out of the fifth class of citizens. 
 Also an inferior order of officers appointed to 
 attend the Roman magistrates, whose office it was 
 to call assemblies of the people, before the judges, 
 and at the public games. They also used to cry 
 the hour. 
 
 AC'CENT, n. & v. -\ Ad: cano, accino, 
 ACCENT'UAL, > accentum ; to sing to ; 
 
 ACCENTUA'TION, J to sing in concert ; to 
 sound according to prescribed rules of utterance. 
 Accentuation applies to the marks in books, di- 
 recting the accent. 
 
 How many ages hence 
 Shall this, our lofty scene, be acted o'er, 
 In states unborn, and accents yet unknown '. 
 
 Shakspeare's Julius Caesar. 
 
 Winds ! on your wings to heav'n her accents bear ! 
 Such words, as heav'n alone is fit to hear. 
 
 Dry. Virg. past. 3. 
 The tender accent of a woman's cry 
 Will pass unheard, will unregarded die ; 
 When the rough seamen's louder shouts prevail, 
 When fair occasion shews the springing gale. 
 
 Prior . 
 
 'Tis the clime of the east, 'tis the land of the sun, 
 Can he smile on such deeds as his children have 
 
 done? 
 
 Oh ! wild as the accents of lovers' farewell 
 Are the hearts which they bear, and the tales -which 
 they tell. Lord Byron's Bride of Abydoi. 
 
 ACCENT, among grammarians, is a certain 
 ACCELERANDE, in music, a direction to mark or character placed over a syllable, to di- 
 performers to quicken the time. rect the stress of its pronunciation. We gene- 
 
 For ACCELERATION of the gravitation of rally reckon three grammatical accents in ordinary 
 bodies. See MECHANICS. use, all borrowed from the Greeks : viz. the acute 
 
 For ACCELERATION of the motion of com- accent (' ), which shows when the tone of the voice 
 pressed bodies. See ELASnciTY. is to be raised. The grave accent (^}, when the 
 
 For ACCELERATION of the motion of pendu- note or tone of the voice is to be depressed 
 lums. See MECHANICS. The circumflex accent (*), is composed of both 
 
 For ACCELERATION of the motion of projec- the acute and grave, and points out a kind of 
 tiles. See PROJECTILE. undulation of the voice. The Latins have made 
 
 ACCELERATION of the fixed stars, in astrono- the same use of these three accents. 
 
 my, the difference between the revolution of the ACCENTS, among the Hebrews, have a gram- 
 
 primum mobile, and the solar revolution ; which matical, a rhetorical, and musical effect : though 
 
 has been computed at three minutes and 56 se- the firs-t and last seem, indeed, to be the same , 
 
 conds. both being comprised under the general name ot 
 
 ACCELERATION of a planet. The increase of tonic accents, because they give the proper tone 
 
 its real diurnal motion, above its mean diurnal to syllables ; as the rhetorical accents are said to 
 
 motion. be euphonic, because they tend to make the pro- 
 
 ACCELERATION of the moon, is a term used to nunciation more sweet and agreeable. There are 
 
 express the increase of the moon's mean motion four euphonic accents, and 25 tonic ; of which 
 
 from the sun, compared with the diurnal motion some are placed above, and others below the syl- 
 
 of the earth. See ASTRONOMY. lables; the Hebrew accents serving not only to 
 
 ACCELERATORES URIN^E, in anatomy, regulate the risings and fallings of the voice, but 
 
 muscles which serve for rejecting or expediting also to distinguish the sections, periods, and num- 
 
 the passage of the urine. See ANATOMY. bers of periods, in a discourse ; and to answer the 
 
 ACCEL'ERATE, v. 
 
 ACCELERATION, 
 ACCEL'ERATIVE. 
 or quickness. 
 
 TaKe new beet, and put in some quantity of stale 
 beer into it ; and see whether it will not accelerate 
 the clarification, by opening the body of the beer, 
 whereby the grosser parts may fall down into lees. 
 
 Bacon's Natural History, No. 307. 
 
 By a skilful application of those notices, may be 
 
 gained the accelerating and bettering of fruits, and 
 
 the emptying f mines, at much more easy rates, 
 
 than by the common methods. Glanville, Scepsis. 
 
 If the rays endeavour to recede from the densest 
 
 part of the vibration ; they may be alternately ac- 
 
 celerated and retarded, by the vibrations overtaking 
 
 them. Newton's Optics. 
 
 Spices quicken the pulse, and accelerate the motion 
 
 of the blood, and dissipate the fluids ; from whence 
 
 leanness, pains in the stomach, loathings, and fevers. 
 
 Arbuthnot on Aliments. 
 
 The degrees of acceleration of motion, the gravita- 
 tion of the air, the existence or non-existence of 
 empty space, either coacervate or interspersed, and 
 many the like, have taken up the thoughts and 
 time of men in disputes concerning them. 
 
 Hole's Origin of Mankind. 
 Lo! from the dread immensity of space, 
 Returning, with accelerated course, 
 The rushing comet to the sun descends, 
 And, as he sinks below the shading earth, 
 With awful train projected o'er the heavens, 
 The guilty nations tremble. 
 
 Thomson's Autumn.
 
 ACC 
 
 77 
 
 ACC 
 
 same purposes with the points in other languages. 
 Their accents are divided into emperors, kings, 
 dukes, &c. each bearing a title answerable to the 
 importance of the distinction it makes. Their 
 emperor rules over a whole phrase, and termi- 
 nates the sense completely ; answering to our 
 point. Their king answers to our colon ; and 
 their duke to our comma. The king, however, 
 occasionally becomes a duke, and the duke a king, 
 as the phrases are more or less short. The ma- 
 nagement and combination of these accents differ 
 in Hebrew poetry from what they are in prose. 
 The use of the tonic or grammatical accents has 
 been much controverted : some holding that they 
 distinguish the sense ; while others maintain that 
 they are only intended to regulate the music, or 
 singing ; alleging that the Jews sing, rather than 
 read, the Scriptures in their synagogues. The 
 best supported opinion is, that they were invent- 
 ed about the sixth century, by the Jewish doc- 
 tors of the school of Tiberias, called the Masso- 
 retes. 
 
 ACCENTS, among the Greeks, now seen both 
 in manuscripts and printed books, have occasion- 
 ed no less dispute about their antiquity and use, 
 than those of the Hebrews. Isaac Vossius en- 
 deavours to prove them of modern invention ; 
 others contend, that the right pronunciation of 
 their language being natural to the Greeks, it 
 was needless to mark it by accents in their writ- 
 ings ; and that, they only began to make use of 
 them so late as the period in which the Romans, 
 being curious to learn the Greek tongue, sent 
 their children to study at Athens ; a little before 
 Cicero's time. Wetstein, Greek professor at 
 Basil, in a learned dissertation, endeavours to 
 prove the Greek accents of an older standing. 
 He owns that they were not always formed in the 
 same manner by the ancients ; but thinks that 
 difference owing to the different pronunciation 
 which obtained in the different parts of Greece. 
 He brings several reasons a priori, for the use of 
 accents, even in the earliest days : as, that they 
 then wrote all in capital letters equidistant from 
 each other, without any distinction either of words 
 or phrases, which without accents could scarce 
 be intelligible ; and that accents were necessary 
 to distinguish ambiguous words, and to point out 
 their proper meaning ; which he confirms from a 
 dispute on a passage in Homer, mentioned by 
 Aristotle in his Poetics, chap. v. Accordingly, he 
 observes that the Syrians, who have tonic, but 
 no distinctive accents, have yet invented certain 
 points, placed either below or above the words, 
 to show their mood, tense, person, or sense. 
 
 The Chinese are said to have but 330 
 spoken words in their language ; but these being 
 multiplied by the different accents or tones, 
 which affect the vowels, furnish a language 
 tolerably copious. Magalhon makes the lan- 
 guage tut easie- to learn on this account. The 
 Siamese are also observed to sing rather than 
 talk. Their alphaoet begins with six characters, 
 all only equivalent to a K, but differently accent- 
 ed For though in the pronunciation the accents 
 a;c naturally on the vowels, yet they have some 
 to diversify such of their consonants as are in 
 other respects the same. 
 
 ACCENT, in music, is a certain enforcement of 
 
 particular sounds, whether by the voice or in- 
 struments, generally used at the beginning of bars. 
 
 The ACCENTS OF SENTENCES seem to have been 
 almost totally overlooked, while those of words 
 have been studied most minutely ; it is indeed re- 
 markable, that all mankind seem to agree in low- 
 ering the voice at the end of a period, and elevat- 
 ing it in interrogations, and the like. See Bacon 
 de Aug. Scient. vi. 1. and Elem. Crit. ii. 
 
 ACCENTOR, in music, he that sings the lead- 
 ing part in a choir. 
 
 ACCEPT', v. 
 
 ACCEPTABLE, 
 
 ACCEPT'ABLENESS, 
 
 ACCEPTABILITY, 
 
 ACCEPT' A ELY, 
 
 ACCEPTANCE, 
 
 ACCEPTATION, 
 
 ACCEPT'ER, 
 
 ACCEP'TION, 
 
 ACCEP'TIVE, 
 
 ACCIP'IENT. 
 
 Ad : capio ; accipio, ac- 
 ceptum, to take to, to take 
 j to one's self; to receive 
 > what is offered, generally 
 with pleasure or satisfac- 
 tion : sometimes merely 
 expressing assent. 
 
 t J 
 
 The same epithete in several places accepts sundry 
 interpretations. Fuller's Worthies. 
 
 What will God accept from us, if not prayers? 
 
 Hall's Contemplation*. 
 
 If it be little, he -will accept it into grace and make 
 
 it bigger. Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Neither do ye kindle fire on my altar for nought. 
 
 I have no pleasure in yon, saith the Lord of hosts, 
 
 neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 
 
 Malachi, i. 10. 
 
 God is no respecter of persons ; but, in every na- 
 tion, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, 
 is accepted with him. Acts x. 34, 35. 
 
 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep- 
 tation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save 
 sinners. St. Paul, 1 Tim. iv. 15. 
 
 Do not omit thy prayers, for want of a good ora- 
 tory ; for, he that prayeth upon God's account, cares 
 not what he suffers, so he be the friend of Christ ; 
 nor where nor when he prays, so he may do it fre- 
 quently, fervently, and acceptably. Taylor. 
 By that acceptance of his sovereignty, they also 
 accepted of his laws ; why then should any other laws 
 now be used amongst them ? 
 
 Spenser's State of Ireland. 
 
 If he tells us his noble deeds, we must also tell 
 him our noble acceptance of them. 
 
 Shahspeare's Coriolanus. 
 Thus I imbolden'd spake, and freedom us'd 
 Permissive, and acceptance found. 
 
 Paradise Lost, b. viii. 1. 435. 
 
 You have been graciously pleased to accept this 
 tender of my duty. Dryden's Dedication to his Fables. 
 
 Charm by accepting, by submitting sway ; 
 Yet have your humour most, when you obey. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 ACCEPTANCE, in commerce, is the subscrib- 
 ing, signing, and making one's self debtor for 
 the sum contained in a bill of exchange or 
 other obligation. It is also applied in law, to 
 such a receiving of rent as acknowledges a te- 
 nant, &c. 
 
 ACCEPTILATION, n. s. acceptilatio, Lat. 
 A term of the civil law, importing the remission 
 of a debt by an acquittance from the creditor, 
 testifying the receipt of money which has never 
 been paid. 
 
 ACCEPTOR, in commerce, the person who 
 accepts a bill, and is bound to pay it.
 
 ACC 
 
 ACCEPTORIUS MODIOLUS, in antiquities, 
 the vessel employed in aqueducts for holding 
 water, distinguished from the erogatonius, which 
 was to deal it out. 
 
 ACCESSION, in law, is a method of acquir- 
 ing property, by which, in things that have a 
 close connection or dependence upon one ano- 
 ther, the property of the principal thing draws 
 after it the property of the accessory : Thus, the 
 owaer of a cow becomes likewise the owner of 
 the calf. It sometimes likewise signifies consent 
 or acquiescence. 
 
 ACCESSION, in medicine, denotes a fit, or re- 
 turn of some periodical disease. It is sometimes 
 confounded with paroxysm : but they are differ- 
 ent ; an accession being the beginning of a disease, 
 a paroxysm the height of it. 
 
 An ACCESSARY, in law, is of two kinds, i. e. 
 an accessary before and after the fact. Acces- 
 sories before the fact, are those who, though 
 absent, yet procure, command, or encourage, 
 another to commit a crime. Accessaries after 
 the fact, those who receive or relieve the felon, 
 knowing his felony. The latter are always con- 
 sidered as less criminal than the principal, (as in 
 murder particularly,) the former equally so. 
 
 An ACCESSARY in felony shall have judgment 
 of life and member, as well as the principal who 
 did the felony ; but not till the principal be first 
 attainted, and convicted, or outlawed thereon. 
 When the principal is pardoned without attain- 
 der, the accessary cannot be arraigned. Such 
 was the law till lately; but now accessaries may 
 be convicted without the principal. In the low- 
 est and highest offences all are principals ; as in 
 riots, routs, forcible entries and other trespasses, 
 which are the lowest offences. So also in the 
 highest offence, which is high treason, there are 
 no accessaries. It is the same as art and part in 
 Scots law. 
 
 ACCESSORY NERVES, ACCESSORII, or PAR Ac- 
 CESSORIUM WILLISII, so called from Dr. Willis, 
 the discoverer; in anatomy, a pair of nerves, 
 which, arising from the medulla in the vertebra 
 of the neck, ascend, and enter the skull, and 
 pass out of it again with the par vagum, wrapped 
 up in the same common integument; and after 
 quitting them, are distributed into the muscles of 
 the neck and shoulders. See ANATOMY. 
 
 ACCHO, a city of Galilee, on the coast of the 
 Mediterranean, which formerly belonged to the 
 tribe of Asher. It stood on the scite of the cele- 
 brated ACRE of ancient and modern times. See 
 ACRE. 
 
 ACCI, or ACTI, in ancient geography, a town 
 
 Tarraconensis; supposed to be Guadix, to 
 the east of the city of Granada, now greatl" 
 decayed. It is the Colonia Accitana of some 
 repute among the Roman colonies. The people 
 were called Gemellenses, because the colony was 
 formed from the third and sixth legions. 
 
 ACCIACATURA, in music, is struck simul- 
 taneously with the whole harmony; and is thus 
 opposed to the Appoggiatura. It is used with 
 great effect in basses. 
 
 ACCIAIOLI, (Donata,) a man famous for his 
 learning, and the honourable employments lie 
 possessed in Florence, his native country, in the 
 15th century, He wrote a Latin translation of 
 
 * ACC 
 
 some of Plutarch's Lives; Commentaries on 
 Aristotle's Ethics and Politics; and the life of 
 Charlemagne. He was sent to France by the 
 Florentines, to sue for -succour from Louis XI. 
 against. Pope Sextus IV, but died on his journey 
 at Milan. His body was carried to Florence, 
 and buried in the church of the Carthusians. 
 The small fortune he left his children is a proof 
 of his probity and disinterestedness. His daugh- 
 ters, like those of Aristides, were married at the 
 public expence, as an acknowledgment of his 
 services. 
 
 ACCIAIOLI, (ZANOBIO and JOHN,) were 
 learned men of the same family, with the fore- 
 going. The first was born at Florence, 1461 ; 
 and patronized by Lorenzo the Magnificent, of 
 whose son, when Leo X. he received the office of 
 librarian to the Vatican. He published the Greek 
 Epigrams of Politian; translations of Eusebius, 
 Olympiodorus and Theodoret; and Orations, in 
 praise of Naples and of Rome. He died in 
 1519. JOHN ACCIAIOLI was bred to the bar, 
 at Florence, and lectured at Pacrua with great 
 applause. He published ' Multa Doctissimo- 
 rum Problematum Monumenta,' &c. and died 
 at the close of the 16th century. 
 AC'CIDENCE, n.~\ Ad : cado, accedo, ac- 
 AC'CIDENT, f cidens, to fall to or at; 
 
 ACCIDENTAL, {to befall, to happen to; 
 ACCIDENTALLY. J usually including sur-r 
 prise, chance, or unnecessary, that is, non-essen- 
 tial addition. 
 
 Thise cokes how they stamp, and strein, and grind, 
 (And turnen substance into accident, 
 To fulfill all thy likerous talent ; ) 
 
 Chaucer, Pardonere's Tale. 
 If all the yeare were playing holidaies, 
 To sport, would be as tedious as to worke ; 
 But when they seldom come, they wisht-for come, 
 And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents. 
 
 Shahspeare's 1st Henry IV. p. 50 y act i. sc. 2. 
 Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade. 
 
 Shahspeare's Measure for Measure. 
 So shall you hear 
 
 Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters ; 
 Of deaths, put on by cunning and forc'd cause. 
 
 Shakspeare's Hamlet. 
 
 Look upon things of the most accidental and mu- 
 table nature ; accidental, in their production ; and 
 mutable, in their continuance : yet God's prescience 
 of them is as certain in him, as the memory of them 
 is, or can be in us. South's Sernumt. 
 
 Ay, such a minister as wind to fire ; 
 That adds an accidental fierceness to 
 Its natural fury. Denham's Sophy. 
 
 Although virtuous men do sometimes accidentally 
 make their way to preferment; yet the world is so ij 
 corrupted, that no man can reasonably hope to be re- 
 warded in it, merely upon account of his virtue. 
 
 Swift's Miscellanies^ 
 
 ACCIDENS, in philosophy, denotes what 
 does not follow from the nature of a thing, but 
 from some accidental qualities thereof in which 
 sense it stands opposed to per se, which denotes 
 the nature and essence of a thing. Thus, fire is 
 said to burn per se, or considered as fire, and , 
 not per acddens ; as a piece of iron, though red 
 hot, only burns per acddens, by a quality acci- 
 dental to it, and not considered as iron. 
 
 ACCIDENT, in grammar, a property attached 
 to a word, without entering into its essential
 
 VDL.XPACE79. 
 
 ACCIPITRES 
 
 GEN.1. Vulture
 
 ACC 79 
 
 definition. A word is said to be primitive, when 
 it is taken from no other word in the language 
 : n which it is used : thus, heaven, king, good, are 
 primitive words; but heavenly, kingdom, good- 
 ness, &c, are derivatives. Besides these accidents, 
 which are common to all sorts of words, each 
 particular species has its accidents : thus the ac- 
 cidents of the noun substantive are the gender, 
 declension, and number; and the adjective has 
 the accident of comparison. See the articles 
 GRAMMAR and LANGUAGE. 
 
 ACCIDENT, in heraldry, an additional point or 
 mark in a coat of arms, which may be either 
 omitted or retained without altering the essence 
 of the armour, such as abatement, difference, 
 and tincture. 
 
 ACCIDENT, among physicians, is sometimes 
 used for what is more generally called symptom. 
 
 ACCIDENT ABSOLUTE is a term used in the 
 Roman Catholic theology for an accident, which 
 subsists, or may possibly subsist, at least miracu- 
 lously, and by some supernatural power, without 
 a subject; such as the colour, flavour, figure and 
 taste of the bread and wine in the eucharist, 
 which remain after these elements, as it is stated, 
 are changed into flesh and blood ! The Cartesian 
 Catholics, whose philosophy leads them to deny 
 the existence of absolute accidents, have laboured 
 hard, but in vain, to reconcile their philosophical 
 with their religious tenets. 
 
 ACCIDENTS, in astrology, denote the most 
 extraordinary occurrences in the course of a 
 man's life: such as, a remarkable instance of 
 good fortune, a signal deliverance, a great sick- 
 ness, &c. Also certain casual dispositions, and 
 affections, of the planets, whereby they are sup- 
 posed to be either strengthened, or weakened, by 
 their being in such a house of the figure. 
 
 ACCIDENTAL COLOURS, in optics, are those 
 which depend upon the affections of the eye, in 
 contradistinction to those which belong to the 
 light itself. The impressions made upon the 
 eye, by looking steadfastly at a particular colour, 
 are various, according to the single colour, or 
 combination of colours in the object ; and they 
 continue for some time after the eye is with- 
 drawn, and give a false colouring to other objects. 
 The Count de Buffon has endeavoured to trace 
 the connections, which these accidental colours 
 have with such as are natural, in a variety of in- 
 stances. The subject has also been considered 
 by De la Hire and M. Epenus : and M. d'Arcy 
 has contrived a machine for determining the dura- 
 tion of the effects of light, and after several trials, 
 finds that it continues about eight thirds of a 
 minute. See OPTICS. 
 
 ACCIDENTAL POINT, in perspective, is that 
 point in the horizontal line where the projections 
 of two lines parallel to each other meet the per- 
 spective plane. 
 
 ACCIPENSER, in ichthyology, a genus of 
 fishes, belonging to the order of Nantes, and 
 class Amphibia, in the Linnaean system. It has 
 a single linear nostril : the mouth in the under 
 part of the head, contains no teeth ; and the cirri 
 are below the snout, and before the mouth. 
 There are three species of this genus, viz. the 
 
 1. ACCIPENSER HUO. 2. ACCIPENSER Ru- 
 
 THENUS, this has been called also ACCIPESIUS, 
 
 ACC 
 
 and ON iscos by Greek writers. 3. ACCIPENSER 
 STURIO, or the sturgeon. 
 
 ACCIPITER, in ichthyology, a name given 
 by Gellius, and some authors, to the fish milvus 
 and lucerna. It is a species of the trigla; with 
 the head a little acculeated, and with a singular 
 fin, placed near the pectoral fins. 
 
 ACCIPITER, in the Linnaean system of zoology, 
 the name of the first order of birds, the distin- 
 guishing character of which, is, their having a 
 crooked beak. Of this order there are four genera : 
 the vultur, falco, strix, and lanius, and seventy- 
 two species. 
 
 ACCIPITER, in Roman antiquity and ornitho- 
 logy, the hawk, which, from its carnivorous 
 nature, and its frequenting fields of battle, they 
 considered as a bird of bad omen. Pliny, how- 
 ever, tells us, that in some cases, particularly in 
 marriage, it was esteemed a bird of good omen, 
 because it never eats the hearts of other birds ; 
 intimating thereby, that no differences in a mar- 
 riage state ought to reach the heart. The 
 accipiter was worshipped as a divinity by the in- 
 habitants of Tentyria, an island in the Nile, 
 being considered by them, from the sharpness of 
 its sight, as the image of the sun ; and hence 
 we find that luminary represented, in hiero- 
 glyphics, under the figure of a hawk. 
 
 ACCIP1TRINA, in botany, the hawk-weed, 
 called also flax-weed, and sophia chirurgorum. 
 
 ACCISMUS, aicjcKrjioc, a feigned refusal of 
 something which a person earnestly desires: 
 supposed to be formed from Acco, the name of a 
 foolish old woman, famous in antiquity for an 
 affectation of this kind. Accismus is sometimes 
 considered as a virtue, sometimes as a vice, which 
 Augustus and Tiberius practised with great suc- 
 cess. Cromwell's refusal of the crown of Eng- 
 land may be brought as an instance of an accis- 
 mus. It is used in rhetoric,, as a spe'cies of irony. 
 
 ACCITE', v. Ad : cito, anciently cito citum,to 
 move to stir, to summon. Obsolete. See CITE. 
 
 When the place was redy, the kyng and the queene 
 were accited, by Docter Sampson, to appere before 
 the legates, at the forenamed place, the twentie and 
 eight day of May. Hall, p. 756. 
 
 A nobler man, a brauer warrior, 
 Liues not this day within the city walles. 
 He by the senate is accited home 
 From weary warres against the barbarous Gothes. 
 Shakspeare's Tit. And. p. 31, act i. sc. 2. 
 Our coronation done, we will accite 
 (As I before remember'd) all our state ; 
 And ^heav'n consigning to my good intents) 
 "Vo prince, no peer, shall have just cause to say, 
 Heav'n shorten Harry's happy life one day. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry IV. 
 
 ACCIUS, the surname of a patrician family, 
 at Rome, the ancestors of Azo, E. of Este, from 
 whom the various princes of the Brunswick 
 family, and the illustrious house of Hanover, 
 are lineally descended. See Azo. 
 
 Acciub, (Lucius,) a Latin tragic poet, born, 
 according to St. Jerome, A. U. C. 583. He 
 adopted the most celebrated subjects of the Gre- 
 cian stage ; as Andromache, Andromeda, Atreus, 
 Clytemnestra, Medea, Meleager, Philoctetes, &c. 
 and one dramatic piece, entirely Roman, entitled 
 Brutus. Two comedies, the Wedding and the
 
 ACC 80 
 
 Merchant, have also been ascribed to him. His 
 style has been censured as harsh ; but he was so 
 much esteemed by the public, that a comedian 
 was punished for only mentioning his name on 
 the stage. 
 
 Accius, an orator, of Pisaurum, against 
 whom Cicero defended Cluentius. Also a poet 
 of the sixteenth century, on whom Julius Scali- 
 ger bestows great ecomiums. 
 
 ACCLAIM', v.~) Ad: damo, to cry aloud 
 ACCLAIM', n. MO; to give a shout of en- 
 ACCLAMA'TION. J couragement and approba- 
 tion. 
 
 It l.ath been the custom of Christian men, in token 
 of the greater reverence, to stand, to utter certain 
 words of acclamation ; and, at the name of Jesus, to 
 bow. Hooker, b. v. sec. 29. 
 
 Gladly then he mix'd 
 
 Among those friendly pow'rs, who him receiv'd 
 With joy and acclamation* loud, that one 
 That (of so many myriads fall'n) yet one 
 Return'd, not lost. Milt. Farad. Lost, b. vi. 1. 23. 
 Such an enchantment is there in words ; and so 
 fine a thing does it seem to some, to be ruined 
 plausibly, and to be ushered to their destruction with 
 panegyrick and acclamation. South. 
 
 Back from pursuit thy pow'rs, with loud acclaim, 
 Thee only extoll'd. Milton's Par. Lost, b. iii. 1. 397. 
 
 The herald ends ; the vaulted firmament 
 With loud acclaims and vast applause is rent. 
 
 Dryden's Fables. 
 
 ANGUS. Thou shall be crowned : 
 An iron crown, intensely hot, shall gird 
 Thy hoary temples ; while the shouting crowd 
 Acclaims thee king of traitors. 
 
 Smollet's Regicide, act v. sc. 8. 
 
 ACCLAMATION, ACCLAMATIO, in Roman 
 antiquity, a shouting of certain words in a loud 
 chant or peculiar and regulated tone, by way of 
 praise or dispraise. The acclamations have been 
 distinguished from applauses, as the former were 
 given by the voice, the latter, by the hands ; ac- 
 clamation also was bestowed on persons absent, 
 applause only on those present. They were of 
 various kinds: ecclesiastical, military, nuptial, 
 senatorial, synodical, scholastic, theatrical, &c. 
 besides musical and rythmical acclamations ; ac- 
 clamations of joy and respect, and even of reproach 
 and contumely. Sometimes the former were 
 Laudationes et bona vota, or good wishes; the 
 latter, Execrationes et convicia. Suetonius fur- 
 nishes an instance of this last in the Roman 
 senate, on occasion of the decree for demolishing 
 the statues of Domitian, when the senators 
 could not refrain from contumelious acclama- 
 tions against the deceased. The like were 
 uttered after the death of Commodus. Ac- 
 clamations were repeated sometimes a greater, 
 sometimes a lesser, number of times. On the 
 theatres, in the earliest ages of the common- 
 wealth, tney were simple and little more than 
 confused shouts. Afterwards they became a sort 
 of regular concerts. That mentioned by Phjedrus 
 which was made for Augustus, and proved the 
 occasion of a pleasant mistake of a flute-player 
 called Princeps, shows that musical acclamations 
 were in use in that emperor's reign. Nero, pas- 
 sionately fond of music, took special care to 
 improve and perfect the music of acclamations. 
 When he played on the theatre, at the signal by 
 
 ACC 
 
 clapping, 5000 soldiers began to chant his 
 praise, which the spectators were obliged to re- 
 peat. The whole was conducted by a music- 
 master. The honour of acclamations was 
 chiefly rendered to emperors, their children and 
 favourites ; and to the magistrates who presided 
 at the games. Persons of distinguished merit 
 also sometimes received them, of which Quin- 
 tilian gives us instances in Cato and Virgil. 
 The most usual forms were, Feliciter ! Longi- 
 orem vitam ! Annas felices ! The actors them- 
 selves, and they who gained the prizes in the 
 games of the circus, were not excluded the honour 
 of acclamations. 
 
 Military acclamations were those of the sol- 
 diers and the people in the time of triumph. 
 The victorious army accompanied the general to 
 the capital ; and, among the verses they sung 
 in his praise, frequently repeated lo TRIUMPHE, 
 which the people answered in the same strain. 
 They also gave their general the title of Impera- 
 tor after some notable victory ; a title which he 
 only kept till his triumph was over. Those of 
 the senate were usually given after a report made 
 by some senator, to which the rest expressed 
 their consent crying OMNES! OMNES! or else, 
 ^F.QUUM EST ! JUSTUM EST ! Sometimes they 
 began with acclamations, and sometimes ended 
 with them without any debate. It was in this 
 manner that all the elections and proclamations 
 of emperors were conducted ; something of which 
 practice is still retained in the Vivat Rex! 
 Vive le Roi ! and Long live the King ! of mo- 
 dern times. 
 
 The Greeks borrowed the custom of receiving 
 their emperors in the public places from the 
 Romans. Their form was Aya0j rv\i] ! good 
 luck. Luitprand relates, that at a procession 
 where he was present, they sung to the emperor 
 Nicephorus, iro\\a tri) \ that is, many years. 
 Plutarch mentions an acclamation so loud, upon 
 occasion of Flaminius's restoring liberty to 
 Greece, that the very birds fell from heaven with 
 the shout. The Turks practise something like this 
 on the sight of their emperors and grand viziers 
 to this day. The form among the Jews, was, 
 hosannah. 
 
 As for the acclamations wherewith authors, 
 poets, &c. were received, who recited their works 
 in public, among the Romans ; the assemblies 
 were held with great parade in the capitol, tem- 
 ples, the Athenaeum, or the houses of great men. 
 Invitations were sent every where, to get the 
 greater appearance. Men of fortune, who pre- 
 tended to wit, kept able applauders in their ser- 
 vice, and lent them to their friends. Others 
 endeavoured to gain them by presents and treats. 
 Philostratus mentions one, who lent money to 
 men of letters, and forgave the interest to such 
 as applauded his exercises. These acclamations 
 were conducted much after the same manner as 
 those on the theatre ; but, they were suited both 
 to the subject and to the person. There were 
 particular ones for philosophers, for orators, fof 
 historians, and for poets. One of the most usual 
 forms was Sophos, repeated three times. Martia. 
 comprehends several other forms in this verse . 
 
 Graviter! Cito! Nequiter! Euge! Beate ' 
 
 Acclamations were, in process of time, received
 
 ACC 
 
 81 
 
 ACC 
 
 into the acts of councils, and the ordinary assem- 
 blies of the church. The bishops, it is clear, 
 were long elected by acclamation. The people 
 expressed their approbation of the preacher va- 
 riously, calling him, Orthodox ! Third Apostle ! 
 &c. These acclamations being sometimes car- 
 ried to excess, and often misplaced, were fre- 
 quently prohibited by the ancient doctors, and at 
 length abrogated ; though they appear to have 
 been in some use as late as the time of St. 
 Bernard. 
 
 ACCLAMATION MEDALS, among antiquaries, 
 such as represent the people expressing their joy 
 .n the posture of acclamation. 
 
 ACCLIV'ITY, Ad : clivus, to the hill-top. The 
 slope of the hill reckoned upwards, opposed to 
 the declivity. Figuratively, that which takes 
 an ascending course. 
 
 The men (of tbe Alps,) leaving their wives and 
 younger children below, do (not without some diffi- 
 culty) clamber up the acclivities, dragging their kine 
 with them ; where they feed them, and milk them, 
 and make butter and cheese, and do all the dairy- 
 work. Ray on the Creation, 
 
 ACCLIVITY, in fortification, the talus of a 
 rampart ; or, more strictly, the steepness or slope 
 of any work reckoned upwards. James. 
 
 ACCLIVUS, in anatomy, a muscle, otherwise 
 called obliquus ascendens abdominis. 
 
 ACCLOY' or CLOY. See CLOY. 
 
 But better is, that a wights long rest, 
 
 Than entermete him of soch doing, 
 
 Of which he neither rede can nor sing, 
 
 And who so it doth, full foule him self acloyeth, 
 
 For office, uncommitted, oft anoyeth. 
 
 Chaucer, fol. 247, col. 3. 
 As then, no winde at all there blew, 
 No swelling cloude accloid the aire ; 
 The skie, like grasse (glasse) of watchet hew, 
 Reflected Phosbus golden hair. 
 
 Spenser's Elegy upon Astrophile. 
 At the well-head the purest streams arise : 
 3ut mucky filth his branching arms annoys, 
 And with uncomely weeds the gentle wave accloyt. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 The mouldy moss which thee accloyeth. 
 
 Spent. Shep. Kal. Feb. 135. 
 
 ACCLOYED, among farriers, a horse's foot 
 pricked in shoeing. 
 ACCOIL', or COIL. See COIL. 
 
 About the cauldron many cooks accoil'd, 
 With hooks and ladles, as need did require ; 
 The while the viands in the vessel boil'd, 
 They did about their business sweat, and sorely toil'd. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 ACCOLA, in antiquities, a person who lived 
 near a place ; in distinction from incola, the in- 
 habitant of a place. Thus the verse : 
 Accola non propriam, propriam colit incola terrain. 
 
 ACCOLADE, Lat. from ad, to, and collum, 
 the neck. A ceremony used in the conferring of 
 knighthood. Some suppose it to have been the 
 embrace, or kiss, which princes anciently gave 
 the new knight, as a token of their affestion ; 
 q. d. a clasping, or taking round the neck. An 
 ingenious author will rather have it to be a blow 
 en the neck ; in imitation of that practised among 
 the Romans, in the manumission of their slaves, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 when it is known a blow was given. John of 
 Salisbury assures us, the blow was used among 
 the Normans ; and that William the Conqueror, 
 thus conferred the honour of knighthood on his 
 son Henry. At first, it was given with the naked 
 fist, but was afterwards changed into a stroke 
 with the flat of the sword, on the shoulder of the 
 knight. 
 
 ACCOLADE, or ACCOLE'E, is also used in he- 
 raldry, to express the position of two things 
 joined together, as two shields divided at the 
 flanks ; or lions, dogs, and other animals, which 
 have collars or crowns about their necks. English 
 heralds ordinarily say, collared, or gorged with 
 an open crown, instead of accolee. Others use 
 the term accole'e, when two keys, battoons, 
 maces, swords, &c. are saltier-wise, behind the 
 shields. 
 
 ACCOLADE, in music, a line drawn perpen- 
 dicularly next the margin, by which all the dif- 
 ferent parts of a composition are joined together 
 in score. See Music. 
 
 ACCOLTI, (Bernardo,) secretary to the re- 
 public of Florence, surnamed L'Unico, or the 
 Nonsuch, from the great extent of his genius 
 and learning, and the excellency of his poetic 
 vein ; which not only gained him a seat among 
 the academicians of the court of Urbino, but 
 made Pope Leo X. in 1520, create him prince 
 of the state of Nepi. He wrote a comedy, Vir- 
 ginie, and other beautiful poems, which were 
 pi in ted at Venice, in 1519. His father was an 
 eminent civilian of Arezza, who wrote De Bello 
 n Christianis contra Barbaros gesto, &c. from 
 which Tasso is said to have derived the plot of 
 his Jerusalem Delivered. 
 
 ACCOMACK, a county of Virginia, North 
 America, on the Chesapeake Bay, bounded N. by 
 Maryland, and E. by the Atlantic. It contains 
 a population of about 14,000. 
 
 ACCOM'MODATE, v. & adj. *| Ad : com- 
 
 ACCOM'MODATELY, | modum, to 
 
 ACCOM'MODATENESS, ^>the ad-vant- 
 
 ACCOMMODA'TION, | age; to as- 
 
 ACCOM'MODATOR. J sist, oblige, 
 
 supply, reconcile, adapt, adjust, or lend. The 
 
 indefinite use of this word is thus ridiculed by 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Accommodated, that is, when a man is, as they say, 
 accommodated ; or when a man is being, whereby 
 he may be thought to be accommodated ; which is an 
 excellent thing. 2 Hen. IV. act iii. sc. 2. 
 
 But sithens it, [sc. speaking in praise of the dead] 
 hath bene approued and allowed of a long tyme, 
 that it ought to be this done, it becommeth me 
 obeyuje to the lawe, to accommodate and apply my 
 spekynje to the opynyo and wille of every one of 
 you, the most that I maye. 
 
 Thucidides, by Tho. Nicollt, Lon. 1550. 
 
 Will you present and accommodate it to the gentleman. 
 
 Poetaster, iii. 4. 
 
 In these cases we examine the why, the what, and 
 the how, of things ; and propose means, accommodate 
 to the end. L'Estrange. 
 
 God did not primarily intend to appoint this way of 
 worship ; and to impose it upon them as that, which 
 was most proper and agreeable to him ; but that he 
 condescended to it, as most accommodate to their pre- 
 sent state and inclination. Tillot.
 
 ACC 
 
 82 
 
 ACC 
 
 Heaven ! speed the canvass, gallantly unfurl'd, 
 
 To furnish and accommodate a world ; 
 
 To give the pole the produce of the sun, 
 
 And knit th' unsocial climates into one. 
 
 Camper's Charity. 
 
 ACCOMMODATION, the application of one 
 thing, by analogy, to another: in theology, it 
 relates chiefly to the application of prophecy : 
 thus, a prophecy is said to be fulfilled properly, 
 when a thing foretold comes to pass; and by 
 way of accommodation, when an event happens 
 to any other place or people, in a similar way. 
 Some writers have maintained that circumcision, 
 the tabernacle, brazen serpent, &c. were origi- 
 nally of Egyptian use, and only accommodated 
 by Moses to the purposes of Judaism. It ap- 
 pears much more probable, however, that the 
 neighbouring nations borrowed such customs 
 from the Jews. 
 
 The principle of an accommodated interpre- 
 tation of prophecy, was strenuously opposed by 
 Dr. Owen, who maintained that there could be 
 only a directly literal, or a typical signification. 
 It seems indeed, liable to great abuse. See 
 MARSH'S Michaelis, v. i. p. 200, and Notes p. 470 
 479. 
 
 ACCOM'PANY,r. ) See COMPANY. To 
 
 ACCOM'PANIMENT. $ go or come with; to as- 
 sociate with, or attend upon in going or coming. 
 Go visit her, in her chaste bower of rest, 
 Accompany'd with angel-like delights. 
 
 Spenser's Sonnet iii. 
 
 So shall mine eyes in payne accompany my hart, 
 That were the guides, that did it lead of loue to feel 
 the smart. 
 
 Wyatt's Complaint of the Absence of his Loue. 
 
 No man in effect doth accompany with others, but 
 he learneth, ere he is aware, some gesture, voice, or 
 fashion. Bacon's Nat. Hist. 
 
 Nobility is to be considered only as an imaginary 
 distinction, unless accompanied with the practice of 
 those generous virtues by which it ought to be ob- 
 tained. Tatler. 
 
 By our traffic into foreign countries, though we 
 many times bring home light and frivolous toys, yet 
 they are often accompanied with gold and silver, both 
 in coin and bullion. 
 Spelman'i Dialogue concerning the Coin of the Kingdom. 
 
 The great business of the senses being to make us 
 take notice of what hurts or advantages the body, it 
 is wisely ordered by nature, that pain should accom- 
 pany the reception of several ideas. Locke. 
 
 As folly is usually accompanied with perverseness, 
 o it is here. Swift's Short View of Ireland. 
 
 The Persian dames 
 
 So were accustom'd, all the eastern fair, 
 In sumptuous cars, accompany' A his march ; 
 A beauteous train by Arvana grac'd. 
 
 Glover's Leonidas, b. viii. 
 
 All pretences of conscience are vehemently to be 
 suspected, which are accompanied with turbulent pas- 
 sion, and a furious zeal. Tillotson's Sermons. 
 
 In a mind truly virtuous, the scorn of vice is 
 always accompanied with the pity of it. 
 
 Spectator, No. 79. 
 
 ACCOMPANIMENT, the adding of one thing to 
 another by way of ornament. 
 
 ACCOMPANIMENT, in heraldry, any thing add- 
 ed to a shield by way of ornament ; as the belt, 
 mantling, supporters, &c. It is applied to se- 
 veral bearings about a principal one; as a saltier, 
 bend, fess, cheveron, &c. 
 
 ACCOMPANIMENT, in music, the instrumental 
 parts which accompany a voice. The ancients 
 had their accompaniments on the theatre ; they 
 had even different kinds of instruments to ac- 
 company the chorus, from those which accom- 
 panied the actors in the recitation. It is generally 
 supposed, that their accompaniments went no 
 farther than the playing in octave, or in antiphony 
 to the voice. Modern organists apply it to 
 those pipes which they occasionally touch to 
 accompany the treble. See Music. 
 
 ACCOMPANIMENT, in painting, denotes such 
 objects as are added, either by way of ornament, 
 or probability ; as dogs, guns, game, &c. in a 
 hunting piece. 
 
 ACCOM'PLICE, Ad : complex, icis,homplico. 
 to fold ; complice, Fr. knit together ; one who is 
 connected with another in a discreditable under- 
 taking; a complice is used by our elder writers. 
 Hir complicis al samyn in this nede; 
 Stert to thare lady in affray and drede ; 
 And sone they claucht and lappit in thare armes, 
 This Quene that founderant was for hir smert hannes. 
 Douglas, b. xi. p. 394. 
 
 If a tongue would be talking, without a mouth j 
 what could it have done, when it had all its organs 
 of speech, and accomplices of sound about it ? 
 
 Addison's Spectator, No. 247. 
 
 The prince who refuses to be judge, instructs his 
 people to consider him as the accomplice of his minis, 
 ters. Gibbon's Roman Empire, 
 
 ACCOMPLICE. The council of Sens, and 
 several other synodical statutes, expressly pro- 
 hibit the revealing accomplices. See ACCESSARY. 
 The law of Scotland, in regard to accomplices, 
 is exactly as there stated. 
 ACCOM'PLISH, v. -} Ad: compleo, to 
 ACCOMPLISHED, > fill up to ; accomplir, 
 
 ACCOMPLISHMENT, j to fill up the measure; 
 to fulfil, complete, finish ; to adorn ; to succeed 
 in, or to obtain an object. 
 
 To whom our general ancestor repli'd, 
 
 " Daughter of God and man, ac^omplish'd Eve." 
 
 Milton's Par. Lost, b. iv_ 
 111 make a proof, how I advance in 
 My new accomplishment of Dancing. 
 
 Churchill's Ghost, b. iii. 
 
 By whatever art you may at first attract the at- 
 tention, you can hold the esteem, and secure the 
 hearts of others, only by amiable dispositions, and the 
 accomplishments of the mind. Blair. 
 
 From the tents, 
 
 The armourers accomplishing the knights, 
 With busy hammers closing rivets up, 
 Give dreadful note of preparation. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry V. 
 
 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my 
 mouth ; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall 
 accomplish that which I please. Isaiah Iv. 11. 
 
 ACCOMPT', n. -N Ad: con: puto. 
 
 ACCOUNT', v. & n. i Compter, anciently 
 
 ACCOUNTABLE, \Accompter; Fr. to 
 
 ACCOUNT'ANT, n. &. adj. i reckon up with. 
 ACCOUNTING. J To cast up all the 
 
 parts into a sum, or amount ; to number or cal- 
 culate ; to register facts relating to money. To 
 notice, observe, think, consider, generally with 
 regard and approbation ; to explain, or unfold, 
 to assign the cause, reason, or motive. The
 
 ACC 
 
 83 
 
 ACC 
 
 noun account often expresses advantage, or profit ; 
 when otherwise it is qualified by an adjective. 
 
 Men pat ben ryche, 
 
 Aren a countable to Crist, and to the kyng of hevern. 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, repr. 1813, p. 218. 
 Liste and I salle rede the parcelles what amountes, 
 If any man in dede wille keste in accountes. 
 
 R. Brurme, p. 135. 
 
 For this cause chiefly we thought it good to yelde 
 up an accoumpte of our faith in writing. 
 
 Jewefs Defence. 
 
 At many times I brought in my account*, 
 Laid them before you : you would throw them off ; 
 And say, you found them in mine honesty. 
 
 Shakspeare's Timon. 
 
 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto 
 a certain king, which would take account of his ser- 
 vants ; and, when he had begun to reckon, one was 
 brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand ta- 
 lents. Matt. xix. 23, 24. 
 The soul may have time to call itself to a just 
 accompt of all things past ; by means whereof re- 
 pentance is perfected. Hooker, b. v. sec. 46. 
 To whom thou much dost owe, thou much must pay ; 
 Think on the debt against th' accompting day. 
 
 Sir J. Denham. 
 
 The opinion of more worlds than one has in 
 ancient times been accounted a heresy. 
 
 Bp. Wilkins's Mat. and Pltil. Works. 
 
 The true ground of morality can only be the will 
 
 and law of a God, who sees men in the dark, has in 
 
 his hands rewards and punishments, and power 
 
 enough to call to account the proudest offender. Locke. 
 
 There is such a peculiarity in Homer's manner of 
 apostrophizing Eumaeus : it is generally applied, by 
 that poet, only to men of account and distinction. 
 
 Pope's Odyssey ; notes. 
 
 We would establish our souls in such a solid and 
 substantial virtue, as will turn to account in that great 
 day, when it must stand the test of infinite wisdom 
 and justice. Add. Spect. No. 399. 
 
 I am therefore much delighted with reading the 
 accounts of savage nations, and in contemplating 
 those virtues which are wild and uncultivated ; to 
 see courage exerting itself in fierceness, resolution in 
 obstinacy, wisdom in cunning, patience in sullenness 
 and despair. Spectator. 
 
 We are held 
 
 Accountable ; and God, some future day, 
 
 Will reckon with us roundly for th' abuse 
 
 Of what he deems no mean or trivial trust. 
 
 Cowper's Task, b. 6. 
 
 ACCOUNT, in chronology, is taken some- 
 times for the computation of time : thus, we say, 
 the Julian Account, the Gregorian Account, &c. 
 in which sense it is equivalent to style. 
 
 ACCOUNT, current, general, open, personal, 
 real, imaginary, &c. See BOOK-KEEPING. 
 
 ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL, in law, an officer in 
 the court of Chancery, appointed by act of par- 
 liament to receive all monies lodged in the court, 
 instead of the masters, and convey the same to 
 the bank of England for security. 
 
 ACCOUNT^ or ACCOMPT BOOKS, in commerce, 
 is used to express the books which merchants, 
 traders, bankers, &c. use for recording their 
 transactions in business. See BOOK-KEEPING. 
 
 ACCOUNTS, CHAMBER of, in the late French 
 policy, was a sovereign court of great antiquity, 
 which took cognizance of, and registered the 
 accounts of the king's revenue. It was nearly 
 the same with the English Court of Exchequer. 
 
 Ad : cor. to the heart. 
 Accorder, Fr. Some de- 
 duce it from chorda, a 
 string, when it refers to 
 harmony, and from cor 
 when unity is intended. 
 Possibly both words 
 
 ACCORD', v. & n. 
 
 ACCORD'ABLE, 
 
 ACCORD'ANCE, 
 
 AOCORD'ANCY, 
 
 ACCORD'ANT, 
 
 ACCORD'ING, adj. 
 
 ACCORDINGLY. J 
 
 may have the same origin. To be of one heart, 
 to agree or act cordially, to concur, to unite, to 
 suit each other, to conform, to harmonize, to 
 grant a request. 
 
 For in the dai suynge he apperide to hem chydynge, 
 and he accordide hem in pees and seide men ghe ben 
 britheren, whi noyen ghe ech othire ? 
 
 Wiclif. Dedis, chap. vii. 
 
 But natheles while I have time and space, 
 
 Or that I forther in this tale pace ; 
 
 Me thinketh it accordant to reason 
 
 To tellen you alle the condition, 
 
 Of eche of hem so as it semed me, 
 
 And whiche they weren and of what degre, 
 
 And eke in what araie that they were inne, 
 
 And at a knight than wol I firste beginne. 
 
 Prologue of the Canterbury Tales. 
 At last such grace I found, and means I wrought, 
 That I that lady to my spouse had won ; 
 
 Accord of friends, consent of parents sought, 
 Affiance made, my happiness begun. 
 
 Spencer's Faerie Queene. 
 
 Things are often spoke, and seldom meant : 
 But (that my heart accordeth with my tongue, 
 Seeing the deed is meritorious, 
 And to preserve my sovereign from his foe) 
 Say but the word, and I will be his priest. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI. 
 
 Sirrah, thou'rt said to have a stubborn soul, 
 That apprehends no further than this world ; 
 And squar'st thy life accordingly. 
 
 Shakspeare's Measure for Measure. 
 
 As the actions of men are of sundry distinct kinds, 
 so the laws thereof must accordingly be distinguished. 
 
 Hooker, b. i. 
 
 There was no means for him to satisfy all obliga- 
 tions to God and man : but to offer himself for a 
 mediator of an accord and peace between them. 
 
 Bacon's Hen. VI f. 
 
 Men would not rest upon bare contracts, without 
 reducing the debt into a speciality ; which created 
 much certainty, and accorded many suits. 
 
 Sir M. Hale. 
 
 Several of the main parts of Moses's history, as 
 concerning the flood, and the first fathers of the 
 several nations of the world, do very well accord 
 with the most ancient accounts of profane history. 
 
 TiUotson, Serm. i. 
 
 If both are satisfyM with this accord, 
 Swear by the laws of knighthood on my sword. 
 
 Dryden's Fables. 
 
 Jarring int'rests of themselves create 
 Th' according music of a well-mixt state. Pope. 
 
 Her hands accorded the lute's musick to the voice ; 
 her paining heart danced to the musick. Sidn. b. ii. 
 
 The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife 
 Gives all the strength and colour of our life. 
 
 Pope's Epist. 
 
 ACCORD, in common law, an agreement be- 
 tween two or more persons, to give and accept 
 satisfaction for an offence or trespass committed, 
 which becomes a bar to any suit. 
 
 ACCORD, in music, the production, mixture, 
 and harmonious relation of two or more sounds 
 It is synonymous with concord, or harmony. 
 
 G2
 
 ACC 
 
 84 
 
 ACC 
 
 ACCOST,orl ) Ad: costa. To the rib, the simple office of love, but in all the accotumnt/n, 
 ACCOAST', ] > side, or coast ; to approach complement, and ceremony of it. 
 
 ACCOST'ABLE, J the side in order to gain the 
 ear ; to speak to ; to commence a discourse with ; 
 in obsolete sense, to sail coast wise. 
 Ne is there hauke which mantleth her on pearch, 
 Whether high towering or accoasting low, 
 But I the measure of her flight doe search, 
 And all her pray, and all her diet know. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. vi. can. ii. 
 
 Lapland hath since been often surrounded, (so 
 much as accosts the sea) by the English. 
 
 Fuller's Worthies, in Derbyshire. 
 
 The French are a free, debonnair, acc6stable peo- 
 ple ; both men and women. Howell's Letters. 
 
 At length, collecting all his serpent wiles, 
 With soothing words renew'd him thus accosts. 
 
 Farad. Reg. 
 
 I first accosted him : I su'd, I sought ; 
 And, with a loving force, to Pheneus brought. 
 
 Dryden's JEneid. 
 
 They were both indubitable, strong, and high- 
 
 Shakspeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 Is it for this, they study? to grow pale, 
 And miss the pleasures of a glorious meal ? 
 For this, in rags accoutred, are they seen, 
 And made the May-game of the public spleen. 
 
 Dryden, 
 
 Christianity is lost among them, in the trappings 
 and accoutrements of it ; with which, instead of adorn- 
 ing religion, they have strangely disguised it ; and 
 quite stifled it, in the crowd of external rites and 
 ceremonies. Tillotson, Sermon xxviii. 
 
 I have seen the pope officiate at St. Peter's ; where, 
 for two hours together, he was busied in putting 
 on or off his different accoutrements, according to the 
 different parts he was to act in them. 
 
 Addison, Spectator, No. 201. 
 How gay with all th' accoutrements of war, 
 The Britons come, with gold well fraught, they come ! 
 
 Phil. 
 
 ACCREDIT, v. Ad: credo. Fr. Accrediter, 
 
 minded men, yet of sweet and accostable nature, to trust to ; to put or get into credit, as the result 
 almost equally delighting in the press and affluence of confidence or esteem. 
 
 Wotton. 
 
 of dependents and suitors. 
 
 ACCOSTED, in heraldry, of ac, and costa, a 
 rib. Side by side, as in the phrase, ' Chevron 
 between six rams accosted.' See HERALDRY, 
 Plate I. 
 
 ACCOUCHEMENT, in medicine, or rather 
 in modern Gallicised delicacy, the delivery or 
 lying-in of a woman in child-bed. Hence the 
 practitioner is called the accoucheur. 
 
 ACCOUP'LE, or COUPLE. See COUPLE. 
 
 The yong galands of Fraunce had coates garded 
 with one colour, cut in ten or twelve parties verie 
 richely to beholde : and so all the Englishe men ac- 
 
 I am better pleased indeed, that he (the Analytical 
 Reviewer,) censures some things, than I should 
 have been with unmixed commendation ; for his 
 censure will (to use the new diplomatic term) ac- 
 credit his praises. C<>urper's Letters. 
 
 ACCRES'CENT, v -) Ad : cresco, to grow 
 
 ACCRE'TION, > to ; growing to ; an out- 
 
 ACCRE'TIVE. ) ward addition by ad- 
 hesion. 
 
 Infants support abstinence worst, from the quantity 
 of aliment consumed in accretion. 
 
 Arbuthnot on Aliments. 
 
 If the motion be very slow, we perceive it not : we 
 
 coupled themselues with the French men louingly have no sense of the accretive motion of plants and 
 togather, and so roade to London. animals ; and the sly shadow steals away upon the 
 
 Grafton repr. 1809. vol. ii. p. 296. dial ; and the quickest eye can discover no more, 
 He sent a solemn embassage, to treat a peace and but that it is gone. Glanville's Scepsis. 
 
 league with the king ; decoupling it with an article in 
 the nature of a request. Bacon's Henry VII. 
 
 ACCOUR'AGE. See ENCOURAGE. 
 Aftir two yeres Philometer obtayned helpe of the 
 Romas to recouer his lost cities, and thus accouraged 
 of the Romans, he expelled his auuncles syriake 
 
 hoste and armye. 
 
 ACCROACH' v. See ENCROACH. 
 
 In semblant (as men sayne,) is gile, 
 And that was,proued thilke while; 
 The ship whiche wende his helpe accroche, 
 Drofe all to peces on the rochej Gotrer. 
 
 ACCROCHE, in heraldry, Fr. accrocher. 
 
 Exposicion of Daniel, by George Joye, p. 198. denotes a thing being hooked into another. 
 
 That froward pair she ever would assuage, 
 When they would strive due reason to exceed ; 
 
 But that same froward twain would accourage, 
 And of her plenty add unto her need. 
 
 Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 2. 
 
 ACCOUTRE',^ > Accoutrer: Fr. To 
 
 ACCOU'TREMENT. \ provide with suitable 
 arms; to equip ; to appoint, primarily in a mili- 
 tary sense, then generally. 
 
 ORLA. What were his marks? 
 
 Ros. A lean cheek, which you have not; a blue 
 eye, which you have not; an unquestionable spirit, 
 
 ACCROCHING, in old law, the act of en- 
 croaching or usurping on another's right ; and, 
 particularly the attempt to exercise royal power, 
 which as a very vague charge, led to a multitude 
 of constructive treasons. 
 
 ACCRUE', or ) Fr. accroitrc, p. p. accru ; 
 
 ACCREW', v. >to grow larger; to increase; 
 
 ACCRU'MENT. j to augment; to obtain bene- 
 fit ; to derive advantage. 
 
 Do you not feel your torments to accrew ? 
 
 Spens. Ruines of Rome, 207. 
 
 The yearly benefit that, of these his works, ac- 
 
 wtnch you have not ; a beard neglected, which you crueth to her majesty, amounteth to one thousand 
 
 have not ; but I pardon you for that ; for simply pounds. Carew's Survey. 
 
 j,our having no beard is a younger brother's revenue; The great profits which have accrued to the duke 
 
 then your hose should be ungartered ; your bonnet of Florence from his free port, have set several of 
 
 unhanded ; your sleeve, your shoe untied ; and every the states of Italy on the same project, 
 
 thing about you demonstrating a careless desolation ; Addison on Italy. 
 
 but you are no such man, you are rather poitt device From which compact there .arising an obligation 
 
 in your accoutrements, as loving yourself, than seem- upon every one, so to convey his meaning; there 
 
 ng the lover of any other. accrues also a right to every one, by the same signs, 
 
 Shakspeare's As Yen, Like it. to judge of the sense or meaning of the person, so 
 
 I profess requital to a hair's breadth, no! only in obliged to express himself. South's Sermont.
 
 ACC 85 
 
 ACCUSATION, J Ad: cumbo, to lie 
 
 ACCUM'BENT. J down to ; referring to 
 
 the custom of reclining at table, as practised by 
 the ancients. 
 
 It will appear, that occupation, or lying down at 
 meals, was a gesture used by very many nations. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 " Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of 
 his disciples whom Jesus loved " which gesture will 
 not so well agree unto position of sitting, but is natu- 
 rall, and cannot be avoided in the laws of accubation. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 ACCUBATION, in antiquity, was the table 
 posture of the Greeks and Romans ; between 
 sitting and lying down to meat. The Greeks 
 introduced this posture : having in their turn 
 borrowed it from the eastern nations ; for we 
 find Homer representing their primitive heroes 
 seated round the wall, with a table before each, 
 on which his food was placed. The Romans, du- 
 ring the frugal ages of the republic, were strangers 
 to it ; but as luxury obtained, this posture was 
 adopted, at least by the men ; for as to women, 
 it was long reputed a,n indecency for them to 
 use it; though afterwards, this too was over- 
 looked. But children did not lie down, nor 
 servants, nor soldiers, nor persons of meaner 
 condition. The Roman manner of disposing 
 themselves at table, was this : a low round table 
 was placed in the coenaculum, or dining-room, 
 and about this, usually three, sometimes only two 
 beds, or couches; according to the number of 
 which, it was called biclinium, or triclinium. 
 These were covered with a sort of bed-cloaths, 
 richer or plainer, according to the quality of the 
 person, and furnished with quilts and pillows, 
 that the guests might lie the more commodiously. 
 There were ordinarily three persons on each bed ; 
 to crowd more, was esteemed sordid. In eating 
 they lay down on their left sides, with their heads 
 resting on their elbows. The first lay at the head 
 of the bed, with his feet extended behind the 
 back of the second ; the second lay with the back 
 of his head towards the navel of the first, only 
 separated by a pillow, his feet behind the back 
 of the third ; and so of the third, or fourth. The 
 middle place was esteemed the most honourable. 
 Before they came to table, they changed their 
 cloaths, putting on what they called ctenatoria 
 vestis, the dining-garment, and pulled off their 
 shoes, to prevent soiling the bed. 
 
 Horace thus describes the order of sitting : 
 
 Summus ego & prope me ViscusThurinas & infra, 
 Si memini, Varius : cum Servilio Balatrone 
 Vibidius, quos Mecsnas adduxerat umbras. 
 Nomentanus erat super ipsum, Porcius infra. 
 
 Lib. ii. Sat. 8. 
 
 Guests, from the period of the heroic ages, were 
 arranged at table according to their rank ; so 
 that persons of distinction had the uppermost 
 seats, and subsequently a nomendator was em- 
 ployed at public entertainments, to call every 
 guest by name to his proper place. The heroes 
 seem to have been ranged in long ranks, and the 
 chief personages at the top of each row on bolh 
 sides of the table. 
 
 In Persia, the middle place was accounted the 
 most honourable, and always given to the king ; 
 
 ACC 
 
 in Greece, the nearest to the table ; at Rome, 
 the last or uppermost part of the middle bed, or 
 couch, was the place of greatest distinction. 
 
 Among the Jews, the Pharisees and others, 
 loved the uppermost rooms at feasts. (Matthew 
 xxiii. 6.) Plutarch records a singular instance 
 of this feeling, which illustrates our Saviour's 
 reproof. At a splendid entertainment given by 
 Timon, in which every one was desired to re- 
 cline in whatever place he pleased, a certain 
 person came in a very elegant dress and attended 
 by a numerous retinue ; but no sooner had he 
 approached the door, and taken a view of the 
 guests, who had already arranged themselves in 
 the room, than he suddenly withdrew ; and being 
 followed by several of the company, who eagerly 
 inquired the cause of this proceeding, he re- 
 marked, " there was no fit place left for him.'' 
 Lying on one's bosom, a phrase of St. John's 
 Gospel, respecting the posture of that beloved 
 disciple, is also illustrated by the above customs 
 ACCUM'BER. See ENCUMBER. 
 He sette not his benefice to hire, 
 And lette his shepe acombred in the mire. 
 
 Chaucer's Prol. to the Personnes Tale. 
 Alas, the clear christall, the bright transplendant 
 
 glasse, 
 Doth not bewray the colours hid whictt vnderneath 
 
 it hase ; 
 As doth th' accumbred sprite the thoughtfull* throues 
 
 discouer, 
 Of feares del-ite of feruent loue that in hartes we 
 
 couer. Wyatt. 
 
 ACCUM'ULATE, -\ Ad : cumulus, a heap ; 
 ACCUMULATION, f to heap, or place toge- 
 ACCUM'ULATI VE, t ther, but not to unite ; to 
 ACCUMULATOR. ./pile up; to collect; to 
 increase. 
 
 By thys meanes and pollecy, thys Alexander gat 
 accumulated, and heaped vp a great summe of money. 
 
 Hall. 
 
 The greatness of sins is, in most instances, by ex- 
 tension and accumulation. 
 
 Taylor's Polemical Discourses. 
 
 Injuries may fall upon the passive man ; yet, 
 without revenge, there would be no broils and 
 quarrels, the great accumulators and multipliers of 
 injuries. Decay of Piety. 
 
 Great Strafford ! worthy of that name, though all 
 Of thee should be forgotten, but thy fall, 
 Crush'd by imaginary treason's weight, 
 Which too much courage did accumulate. 
 Denham, on the Earl of Straffvrd's Trial and Death. 
 The miser who accumulates his annual income, and 
 lends it out at interest, has really spent it in the gra- 
 tification of his avarice. Hume's Essays. 
 
 AC'CURACY, -\ Ad : cura. Care, atten- 
 AC'CURATE, f tion, freedom from error, 
 AC'CURATELY, ^exactness, nicety, correct- 
 
 Ac'CURATENESS. J nCSS. 
 
 Those conceive the celestial bodies have more 
 accurate influences upon these things below, than 
 indeed they have but in gross. Bacon. 
 
 The sine of incidence is either accurately, or very 
 nearly, in a given ratio to the sine of refraction. 
 
 Newton. 
 
 That all these distances, motions, and quantities 
 of matter, should be so accurately and harmoniously 
 adjusted in this great variety of our system, is above 
 tlu fortuitous Lints of blind material causes ; aiiu
 
 ACC 
 
 Sfi 
 
 ACC 
 
 must certainly flow from that eternal fountain of 
 wisdom. Benllcy. 
 
 No man living has made more accurate trials than 
 Rheaumure, that brightest ornament of France. 
 
 Col-son. 
 
 ACCURSE'. See CURSE. 
 
 Ilii myjte acors be fole quene, fiat Seynt Edward 
 slou. R. Gloucester, p. 296. 
 
 Drede ys at be laste, 
 
 Lest Crist in hus constorie of jow a corse menye. 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, repr. 1813, p. 7. 
 
 But whan he sawe y' he myght not reconsyle them 
 by fayre meanys, he than vsed copulsares, and de- 
 noused them accursed, but if they restored the goodes 
 of the Churche by a serteyn day. Fabyan, p. 275. 
 
 F. I am accurst to rob in that theefe's company ; 
 that rascall hath remoued my horse, and tied him I 
 know not where. 
 
 Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV, p. 54, act ii. sc. 2. 
 
 The chief part of the misery of wicked men, and 
 those accursed spirits, the devils, is this ; that they 
 are of a disposition contrary to God. Tillot. 
 
 ACCURSED, in the Jewish idiom, was syno- 
 nymous with hanged, or crucified, or dying on 
 a tree. Deut. xxi. 22, 23; which has been 
 thought to explain Rom. ix. 3, where the apostle 
 Paul wishes himself accureed after the manner 
 of Christ, i. e. crucified, if happily he might by 
 such a death save his countrymen. Compare 
 2 Tim. i. 3. 
 
 ACCURSIUS, a law-professor in the 12th 
 century, born in Florence. His authority was 
 for some time so great, that he was called the 
 Idol of the Lawyers. He left a valuable digest 
 of the decisions of the Old Jurists, published at 
 Lyons, in 1589, in 6 vols. folio. 
 
 ACCURSIUS, (Mariangelus,) a famous critic of 
 the 16th century, born at Aquila, in the king- 
 dom of Naples. His Diatribes, printed at 
 Rome, in folio, in 1524, on Ovid and Solinus, 
 are a proof of his abilities. In his edition of 
 Ammianus Marcellinus, there are five books more 
 than in any of the preceding ones : and he 
 affirms he had corrected 5000 errors in that his- 
 torian. His predominant passion was collating 
 old manuscripts ; yet he made Latin and Italian 
 verses; was complete master of the French, 
 German, and Spanish tongues ; and understood 
 optics and music. 
 
 ACCUSE', v. 
 
 Ad : causa, accuso. To 
 charge a fault upon a person, 
 'either in a court of law or 
 l otherwise. 
 
 ACCU'SER, 
 ACCUSA'BLE, 
 ACCUSA'TION, | 
 ACCUSATIVE, 
 ACCUSATORY." 
 
 O cruell day, accuser of the ioy 
 
 That night and loue haue stole and fast ywrien, 
 
 Accursed be thy comming into Troy. 
 
 Chaucer, Third booke of Troilus, fol. 174, col. 2. 
 
 Therfore Pilat wente out without forth to hem, 
 
 and seide, what accusyng bringen ghe aghens this 
 
 man ? Thei answerden and seiden to him, If this were 
 
 not a mysdoere we hadden not bitaken him to thee. 
 
 Wiclif. Jon. chap, xviii. 
 
 To which I answeride, that it is not custom to 
 Romayns to dampne ony man bifore that he that is 
 accused haue his accuteris present, and take place of 
 defending to putte awei the crimes that ben putt 
 aghens him. Wiclif, Dedis, chap. 25. 
 
 And now they beyng bent of bothe sydes, with 
 
 burnynge hartes they prepare theyr accusements they 
 runne to y iudges. 
 
 Erasmus, Para, of N. T. by P. UdaU, 
 
 Mat. chap. v. p. 22, col. 2. 
 
 MOWB. Let not my. cold words here accuse my 
 
 zeal, 
 
 'Tis not the tryal of a woman's war, 
 The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, 
 Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain ; 
 The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this. 
 
 Shakspeare's King Richard II. 
 And dogged Yorke, that reaches at the moone, 
 Whose ouer-weening arme I haue pluckt back, 
 By false accuse doth leuell at my. life. 
 
 Shakspeare, 2 H. VI. p. 131, act iii. sc. 1. 
 
 You read 
 
 These accusations ; and these grievous crimes, 
 Committed by your person and your followers. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Thus they in mutual accusations spent 
 The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning ; 
 And of their vain contest, appear'd no end. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Innocency is no shelter from ill tongues ; malice 
 never regards how true any accusation is, but how 
 spiteful. Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 All accusation, in the very nature of the thing, 
 still supposing, and being founded upon some law : 
 for, where there is no law, there can be no trans- 
 gression ; and, where there can be no transgression, 
 I am sure there ought to be no accusation. 
 
 South. 
 
 Never send up a leg of a fowl at supper, while 
 there is a cat or dog in the house, that can be ac- 
 cused for running away with it : but, if there hap- 
 pen to be neither, you must lay it upon the rats, or a 
 strange greyhound. Swift. 
 
 ACCUSATIO, in medicine. See INDICATIO. 
 
 ACCUSATION, Lat. from ad, to, and causare, 
 to plead. In law, the charging any person with 
 a criminal action, that exposes him to public 
 punishment. Writers on politics treat of the 
 benefits and the inconveniences of accusations. 
 Various arguments are alleged, both for and 
 against, the public accusation of great men. 
 Nothing, according to Machiavel, tends more to 
 the preservation of the state. This, accordingly, 
 was strictly observed by the Romans, in the in- 
 stance of Camillus, accused of corruption by 
 Manlius Capitolinus, &c. Accusations, however, 
 are not more beneficial than calumnies are per- 
 nicious ; which is also confirmed by the practice 
 of the Romans. Manlius, not being able to 
 make good his charge against Camillus, was cast 
 into prison. By the Roman law, there was no 
 public accuser for public crimes ; every private 
 person might accuse another of them, and prose- 
 cute to punishment, or absolution. Cato, the 
 most innocent person of his age, had been ac- 
 cused forty-two times, and as often absolved. 
 But the accusation of private crimes was never 
 received, but from the mouths of those who were 
 immediately interested in them. None (e. g.) 
 but the husband could accuse his wife of 
 adultery. 
 
 The ancient Roman lawyers distinguish be- 
 tween postulatio, delatio, and accusatio. For, 
 first, leave was desired to bring a charge against 
 one, which was called postulare ; then he against 
 whom the charge was laid, was brought before 
 the judge ; which was called det'ui re or dominis
 
 ACC 
 
 87 
 
 delatio: lastly, the charge was drawn up and 
 presented, which was" properly the accusation. 
 The accusation commenced, according to Paedi- 
 anus, when the reus, or party charged, being 
 interrogated, denied he was guilty of the crime, 
 and subscribed his name to the delatio made by 
 his opponent. 
 
 13y the laws of the Inquisition, a person is 
 necessitated to accuse himself of whatever crime 
 may be imputed to him. On the slightest report 
 that a person is a heretic, or even that he is sus- 
 pected of heresy, an inquisitor will receive the 
 denunciation of a stranger, who generally abjures 
 the office of accuser, because if he should fail in 
 his proof, he is exposed to the law of retaliation. 
 The unhappy culprit is now visited with all the 
 terrors of the institution, to induce him to self- 
 crimination, which has urged the confession of 
 whatever has been imputed, and even the vo- 
 luntaiy invention of crimes that had no existence. 
 In England, by Magna Charta, no man 
 shall be imprisoned, or condemned on any ac- 
 cusation, without trial by his peers, or the 
 law; none shall be vexed with any accusation, 
 but according to the law of the land ; and, no 
 man may be molested by petition to the king, 
 &c. unless it be by indictment, or presentment 
 of lawful men, or by process at common law. 
 The office of attorney-general, and ex-ofncio in- 
 formations, constitute the only exception to these 
 noble provisions. Promoters of accusations are to 
 find surety to pursue them ; and, if they do not 
 make them good, shall pay damages to the party 
 accused, and also a fine to the king. No person 
 is obliged to answer upon oath to a question 
 whereby he may accuse himself of any crime. 
 But the institution of grand juries is perhaps, 
 our best practical barrier against false accusa- 
 tions. 
 
 ACCUSATIVE, in Latin and Greek grammar, 
 the fourth case of nouns, pronouns, and partici- 
 ples ; so named, probably, from its being used, 
 when an action passes a causa ad aliquem vel 
 allquid, from some active cause, or agent, to 
 some person, or thing ; others derive it at once 
 from accusamus, because we predicate something 
 of some one. See Varro de Ling. Lat. vii. 
 ACCUSTOM, 
 
 ACCUS'TOMABLE, ^ Accoutumer, Fr. See 
 ACCUS'TOMABLY, f CUSTOM. To repeat fre- 
 ACCUS'TOMANCE, {quently the same act. 
 ACCUS'TOMARILY, \ 
 ACCUS'TOMARY. 
 
 The queene than askis of gold, for the nanis, 
 Ane wechly cuwp, set all with precius stanis 
 Bad fill it full of the richt Hypocras, 
 Into the quhilk grete Belas accustumit was 
 To drink vmquhile, and fra him euery king 
 Discend of his geneology and ofsprying. 
 
 Douglas, b. i. 
 
 And then as he (Henry V.) was ever accustomed 
 to do, he went on foote to the chief churche in the 
 toune, and rendred to God his most heartie thankes 
 for his prosperous successe and fortunate chauce. 
 
 HaU. 
 
 After -which murder fynyshed, y e sayde syr Rafe, 
 with his adherentys fled unto y e place of y e Erie of 
 Artoys, where the Duke of Burgoyne vsyd accustom- 
 ably to resorte. Fabyun. 
 I shall always fear that he who accustoms himself 
 
 to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity in 
 greater. Adventurer, No. 119. 
 
 How shall we breathe in other air 
 Less pure, accustotn'd to immortal fruits. Milton. 
 
 It Las been some advantage, to accustom one's self 
 to books of the same edition. 
 
 Watts's Imp. of the Mind. 
 
 Air and exercise are necessary to all men, but par- 
 ticularly so to the man whose mind labours, and to 
 him who has been all his life accustomed to much of 
 both, they are necessary in the extreme. 
 
 Cowper's Letter*. 
 
 ACE', n. c, Gr. as Fr. one, an integer, 
 unity. The side of a die, or a card marked with 
 one point. 
 
 A small quantity; a particle; an atom. 
 
 OEM. No die, but an ace for him, for he is but 
 one. 
 
 Lis. Lesse than an ace, man ; for he is dead, he is 
 nothing. 
 Shakspeare, Mid. Night's Dream, p. 161, act v. sc. 1. 
 
 GET. Then will I, 
 
 (For wise men must be had to prop the republick) 
 Not bate ye a single ace of a sound senator. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's Prophetess act i. sc. 3. 
 
 When lots are shuffled together in a lap, urn, or 
 pitcher ; or if a man blindfold casts a die ; what rea- 
 son in the world cau he have to presume, that he 
 shall draw a white stone rather than a black, or throw 
 an ace rather than a sise. South. 
 
 He will not bate an ace of absolute certainty ; but, 
 however doubtful or improbable the thing is, coming 
 from him it must go for an indisputable truth. 
 
 Government of the Tongue. 
 
 Ill not wag an ace farther : the whole world shall 
 not bribe me to it. Dryden's Spanish Friar. 
 
 ACELDEMA, Heb. a field of blood, for- 
 merly called the Potter's, and some think, the 
 Fuller's field, situated S. of Jerusalem, and 
 N. of the rivulet Siloam : the field purchased by 
 the Jewish rulers, with the 30 pieces of silver, 
 which Judas returned to them, in despair, after 
 betraying our Saviour ; and which they allotted 
 as a burial place for strangers. The place, 
 which is still shewn to travellers, is small, and 
 covered with an arched roof. The bodies depo- 
 sited in it are, it is said, consumed in three or four 
 days, or even less. Drutmar, a monk of Corbie, 
 says, that in his time there was a hospital here 
 for the entertainment of French pilgrims. 
 
 ACENTETUM, or ACANTETA, in natural his- 
 tory, a name given by the ancients to the purest 
 and finest rock crystal, which was much used 
 and admired in the formation of cups and vases. 
 
 ACEPHALI, in civil history, certain levellers, 
 in the reign of king Henry I. who were not be- 
 lieved to possess even a tenement to entitle them 
 to have the right of acknowledging a superior 
 lord. In our ancient law books, it is also used 
 for persons who held nothing in fee. 
 
 ACEPHALI, or ACEPHALITX, in ecclesiastical 
 history, the denomination of various sects : who 
 refused to follow a leader, or head : as, 1 . Those 
 who, in the fifth century, refused to follow either 
 St. Cyril, or John of Antioch 2. Certain Chris- 
 tians who abandoned Peter Mongus, upon his 
 submission to the council of Chalcedon; being 
 generally of the opinion of Eutyches, that there 
 was only one nature in Christ. 3. The adherents 
 of Scverus of Antioch ; and of all in general who
 
 88 
 
 ACE 
 
 refused to admit the council of Chalcedon. 4. 
 Bishops, exempt from the jurisdiction of their 
 patriarch, were also thus named. 
 
 ACEPHALI, in ancient history, certain nations, 
 or people, represented by ancient naturalists and 
 cosmographers, as formed without heads ; their 
 eyes, mouths, &c. being placed in their breast, 
 shoulders, &c. Such were the Blemmyes, a na- 
 tion of Africa mentioned by Pliny and Solinus. 
 Ctesias and Solinus mention others in India near 
 the Ganges. Mela also speaks of a people, quibus 
 capita et vultus in peclore sunt. And Suidas, 
 Stephanus Byzantinus, Vopiscus, relate the like. 
 Different opinions have been formed as to the 
 origin of these fables. Bartholin, who turns the 
 whole into a metaphor, says, that the name, 
 Acephali, was anciently given to such as had 
 less brain, or conducted themselves less by the 
 rules of prudence, than others. Olearius sup- 
 poses, that the ancient voyagers, viewing certain 
 barbarous people from the coasts, had been im- 
 posed upon by their uncouth dress. Wepfer 
 gives a catalogue of such acephalous births, from 
 Schenckius, Licetus, Panaeus, Wolfius, Mauri- 
 ceau, &c. See also Philos. Transact. Ixv. p. 
 311. 
 
 ACEPHALOUS WORMS, or what are supposed 
 such, are frequent. The lumbricus latus, or 
 joint-worm, and the taenia or tape worm, were 
 long taken to be acephalous : the first who sup- 
 posed them to have a head was Tulpius, and 
 after him Fehr : the former even makes them 
 biceps, or two-headed. SeeT^NiA. Crabs and 
 such animals as have their chief senses about the 
 breast or heart, have also been called acephali. 
 Gal. de Usu. part viii. 4. 
 
 ACEPHALUS, in poetry, a verse which is lame 
 or defective by wanting a beginning. Some also 
 give the name a0a\oc to all verses which begin 
 with a short, instead of a long syllable. 
 
 ACER, the MAPLE or SYCAMORE TREE : a 
 genus of the monoecia order, belonging to the 
 polygamia class of plants; and ranking under 
 the 23d natural order, trifilatae. 
 
 ACERATOS, cuctparoG, Gr. from a, negative, 
 and Kspiiu, or Kipavvvpi, to mix : unmixed, uncor- 
 rupted. It is applied sometimes to the humours 
 of the body by Hippocrates. Paulus TEgineta 
 mentions a plaster under this name, but proba- 
 bly means aceron. See ACERIPES. 
 
 ACERB' l Acerbitas, sourness. De- 
 
 ACER'BITY, adj. i rived from the taste of un- 
 ripe fruit; sharpness, roughness. 
 
 It is true that purgatory (at least as is believed) 
 cannot last a hundred thousand years ; but yet God 
 may by the acerbitie of the flames in twenty years 
 equal the canonical penances of twenty thousand 
 years. Taylor's Dissuasive from Popery. 
 
 ACERENZA, a small town of the province of 
 Basilicata, in the kingdom of Naples, formerly 
 the see of an archbishop It is eighty miles E. 
 of the capital. 
 
 ACERIC ACID, in chemistry, an acid found 
 in the juice of the maple, and decomposed by 
 heat 
 
 ACERIDES, aKjjpt&c, from a negative, and 
 f> wax. Plasters made without wax. 
 
 AC ERIN A, in ichthyology, a name given by 
 Pliny and others of the old naturalists, to the fish 
 we now call the ceruna, and aurata fluviatilis, 
 and in England the ruff. It is a genuine species 
 of perch, and is distinguished by Artedi from 
 all the other fish of that genus, by having the 
 back fin single, and the head cavernous. See 
 PERCA. 
 
 ACERNO, a town of Italy, in the citerio 
 principality of Naples, with a bishop's see ; si- 
 tuated fourteen miles N. E. of Salerno. 
 
 ACEROSUS, an epithet of Hippocrates for a 
 coarse kind of bread, made of chaff. 
 
 ACERRA, or ACERRA, a town in the kingdom 
 of Naples, in the Terra di Levoro, seated on the 
 river Agno, eight miles N. E. of Naples. 
 
 ACERRA, in antiquity, an altar erected among 
 the Romans, near the bed of a person deceased, 
 on which his friends daily offered incense till his 
 burial. The original intention probably was to 
 overcome any offensive smell that might arise 
 about the corpse. Also a little pot, wherein were 
 put the incense and perfumes to be burnt on the 
 altars of the gods, and before the dead. It ap- 
 pears to have been the same wrth what was other- 
 wise called thuribulum and pyxis. Thus Horat. 
 lib. 3. Od. viii. v. 2 i 
 
 Quid velint flores et acerra thuris Plena, miraris. 
 
 The Chinese have still a custom like this : they 
 erect an altar to the deceased in a room hung with 
 mourning ; and place an image of the dead per- 
 son on the altar, to v.-hich every one that approaches 
 it bows four times, and offers oblations and per- 
 fumes. By the laws of the XII. tables, the erection 
 of Acerrae, was prohibited among the Romans. 
 We find mention of acerros in the ancient church. 
 The Jews had also their acerrae, in our version 
 rendered censers ; and the Romanists still retain 
 them under the name of incense pots. 
 
 ACESCENT, in chemistry, applied to liquids 
 and other substances, which readily run into the 
 acid fermentation, or in which it has already 
 commenced. 
 
 ACESTA, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Sicily, named after Acestes, and built by ./Eneas ; 
 called also Segesta. Virg. Mn. 746. 
 
 ACESTES, in ancient history, a king of Sicily, 
 who assisted Priam in the Trojan war, and after- 
 wards entertained .-Eneas. Idem. 
 
 ACESTIDES, in chemistry, chimneys of fur- 
 naces for making brass, narrow at top to receive 
 and collect the fumes of the metal, that cadinia 
 may be produced in greater quantities. 
 
 ACESTORIS, or AcESTRiDES,from aicof, heal- 
 ing, female physicians; midwives so called 
 among the Greeks. 
 
 ACETABULUM, in anatomy, 1 . A deep ca- 
 vity, in certain bones, appointed for the reception 
 of the large head of other bones, in order to their 
 articulation, such as that of the ischium, which 
 receives the head of the thigh-bone. See AI?A- 
 TOMY. The acetabulum is lined, and capped 
 round with a cartilage, whose circular margin is 
 called supercilium. In its bottom lies a large 
 mucilaginous gland. 2. The same with Cotyledon. 
 3. A glandular substance, found in the placenta 
 of some animals.
 
 ACE 
 
 89 
 
 ACH 
 
 ACETABULUM, in antiquity, 1. A little vase, 
 or cup, used at table to serve up things proper for 
 sauce, or seasoning; similar to our vinegar cruets. 
 Hence Agricola takes it to have been named from 
 acetum, vinegar. 2. A Roman measure, used 
 both for liquid and dry things, chiefly in medicine. 
 It contained a cyathus and a half, or fifteen 
 drachms, equal to about one-eighth of a pint. 
 
 ACETABULUM, in botany, navel-wort, a species 
 of the peziza, or cup-peziza, a genus belonging to 
 the cryptogamia fungi of Linnaeus. It is named 
 acetabulum, fiom the resemblance its leaves 
 bear to a cup. See PEZIZA. 
 
 ACETARIA, from acetum, vinegar, sallad. 
 
 ACETIC ACID, in chemistry, the acid which 
 in a more diluted state is called vinegar. For 
 its chemical properties, see ACID and CHEMISTRY, 
 and for its mode of manufacture into that article, 
 see VINEGAR. 
 
 ACETIFICATION is used by some chemists 
 to denote the operation whereby vinegar is made. 
 It is a species of fermentation, arising from ex- 
 posing vinous liquors in open vessels, in a warm 
 place, which turns them acid. Acetification 
 chiefly differs from the fermentation whereby wine 
 is made in this, that the latter is effected by a 
 gentler heat, sufficient only to raise, and rarify the 
 sulphurous parts ; whereas, in acetification, there 
 is what is sufficient to raise and rarefy the saline 
 parts. 
 
 ACETI SPIRITUS, in chemistry, spirit of vinegar. 
 It is made by drenching copper filings with dis- 
 tilled vinegar and repeatedly evaporating it. 
 
 ACETOSA, sorrel; by Linnaeus joined to the 
 genus of dock, under the title of Rumex. See 
 
 'RUMEX. 
 
 ACETOSELLA, in botany, wood sorrel, a 
 species of OXALIS, which see. 
 
 ACETOUS JETHER, an aether made by means of 
 vinegar. 
 
 ACETOUS FERMENTATION, that by which vine- 
 gar is produced. See DISTILLATION. 
 
 ACETUM, Latin, from acere, to be sharp, in 
 medicine, chemistry, &c. vinegar; the vegetable 
 acid. See VINEGAR. There are several medi- 
 cines of which it is the basis ; as, 
 
 1. ACI:TUM ALKALIZATUM, alkalized vinegar; 
 distilled vinegar, with the addition of some alka- 
 line or volatile salt. 
 
 2. ACETUM DISTILLATUM, distilled vinegar, 
 chiefly used in preparations for dissolution and 
 precipitation. 
 
 3. ACETUM ESURIENS, appetitive vinegar, the 
 richest acid, according to Boerhaave, that can by 
 any art be prepared from vinegar. It is made 
 by dissolving verdigrise in distilled vinegar, eva- 
 porating the solution, and after recovering the 
 chrystalized verdigrise, distilling the acid spirit by 
 a retort. 
 
 4. ACETUM PHILOSOPHORUM, philosophers vi- 
 negar, a sour kind of liquor; made by dissolving 
 a little butter of antimony in a great deal of 
 water. 
 
 5. ACETUM ROSA RUM, vinegar of roses; this 
 is made of rose buds infused in vinegar 40 or 50 
 days ; the roses are then pressed out, and the 
 vinegar preserved. It is chiefly used by way of 
 embrocation on the head and temples, in the 
 head-ach 
 
 6. ACETUM SAMBUCINUM, vinegar of elder . 
 
 7. ACETUM SCILLITICUM, vinegar of squills, 
 &c. For these and other medicated vinegars, see 
 \ IXEGAR. They are much used in Germany as 
 antidotes against pestilential diseases. 
 
 ACH, or ACHEN, (J. V.) a painter of the six- 
 teenth century, born at Cologne. He imitated 
 Spranger, and travelling to Venice and Rome, 
 painted in the latter city a celebrated Nativity for 
 the church of the Jesuits. Returning home, he 
 was much patronized by the German princes, and 
 died in 1621. 
 
 ACHA, in geography, the name of three 
 smaller rivers of Bavaria, one flowing into the 
 Danube, near Donawerth, and another into the 
 same river, near Ingolstadt; the third falling into 
 the Inn, near the mouth of the Saltza. 
 
 ACHABYTUS, in ancient geography, a high 
 mountain in Rhodes, on the top of which stood a 
 temple of Jupiter. 
 
 ACHAC, in ornithology, a bird of the par- 
 tridge kind, common in the Philippine islands. 
 
 ACH7EA, in ancient geography, a town of 
 the island of Rhodes, in the district of Jalysus, 
 and the first and most ancient of all ; said to be 
 built by the Heliades, or grandsons of Apollo. 
 
 ACH.EA, a hamlet of Asiatic Sarmatia, on the 
 Euxine. The inhabitants were called Achaei, 
 and were a colony of the Orchomenians. 
 
 ACH7EANS, the inhabitants of ACHAIA Pro- 
 pria, a Peloponnesian state. This republic was 
 not considerable in early times, for the number 
 of its troops, its wealth, or the extent of its ter- 
 ritories ; but it was famed for its probity, its jus- 
 tice, and its love of liberty. Its high reputation 
 for these virtues was very ancient. The Croto- 
 nians and Sybarites, to re-establish order in their 
 towns, adopted the laws and customs of the 
 Achaeans. After the famous battle of Leuctra, a 
 difference arose between the Lacedemonians and 
 Thebans, who held the virtue of this people in 
 such veneration, that they terminated the dispute 
 by their decision. The government of the 
 Achaeans was democratical. They preserved 
 their liberty till the time of Philip and Alex- 
 ander : but in the reigns of those princes, and 
 afterwards, they were either subject to the 
 Macedonians, who had made themselves masters 
 of Greece, or oppressed by cruel tyrants. The 
 Achaean commonwealth consisted of twelve in- 
 considerable towns in Peloponnesus. Its first 
 annals are not marked by any great action, for 
 they are not graced with one eminent character. 
 After the death of Alexander, this little republic 
 was a prey to all the evils which flow from 
 political discord. A zeal for the good of the 
 community was now extinguished. Each town 
 was only attentive to its private interest. There 
 was no longer any stability in the state ; for it 
 changed its masters with every revolution in 
 Macedonia. Towards the 124th Olympiad, 
 about the time when Ptolemy Soter died, and 
 whem Pyrrhus invaded Italy, the republic of the 
 Achasans recovered its old institutions and 
 unanimity. The inhabitants of Patae and of 
 Dymae were the first asserters of ancient libeity. 
 The tyrants were banished; and the league com- 
 prised at length the whole of Greece, with the 
 single exception of the Lacedemonians. The
 
 ACH 
 
 fundamental constitution of this confederacy was 
 as follows: A public council was held, in 
 which affairs of importance were determined, 
 and a register appointed to record its transac- 
 tions. It was convened once a year, and at first 
 had two presidents, who were nominated alter- 
 nately by the different towns and states: but 
 they soon elected only one, who presided in the 
 council, and commanded the army. By the 
 Greeks he was called strategos, and by the 
 Romans preetor. He continued in his office two 
 successive years. Next in authority to the 
 praetor, were the ten demiurgi, who were ap- 
 pointed to act as his privy council, and were 
 empowered on extraordinary occasions to sum- 
 mon a general assembly. The Achaan leagur 
 was formidable to all the surrounding countries 
 for upwards of 120 years; but internal dissen- 
 sions became at last more fatal to it than the 
 arms of Rome, to which, in the year B. C. 147, 
 this people finally submitted. 
 
 The arms which the Achaeans chiefly used 
 were slings, with which, by long practice, they 
 took so nice an aim, that they were sure, not 
 only to hit their enemies on the head, but on any 
 part of the face they chose. Their slings were 
 of a different kind from those of the Balearians, 
 whom they far surpassed in dexterity. 
 
 Livy and Homer use the term.AcH.Ki for the 
 whole people of Greece. 
 
 ACH.^MENES, the first king of Persia, said 
 to have been the grandson of Perseus. The 
 whole royal family were called after him 
 
 AcHjEMENIDES. 
 
 ACH^MENES, another king of Persia, the father 
 of Cambyses, and grandfather of Cyrus the 
 Great. He is mentioned by Horace, lib. ii. 
 ode xii. 
 
 ACH.EMENES, the son of Darius I. and brother 
 of Xerxes, who commanded the Egyptian fleet 
 in the celebrated expedition which proved so 
 fatal to all Greece. 
 
 ACHjEORUM-PORTUS, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, the name of a harbour near Sigaeum ; into 
 which the Xanthus falls, after being joined by the 
 Simois ; also a port of the Taurica Chersonesus, 
 on the Euxine sea, now called Porto Buon. 
 
 ACH/EUS, in ancient history ; first, a king of 
 Lydia, deposed and hung for extortion. Ovid. 
 Second, the founder of the Achaean state, in the 
 Peloponnesus, son of Xuthus, king of Thessaly. 
 Third, a tragic poet of Eretria, who lived some 
 time after Sophocles. Fourth, another poet of 
 Syracuse. Fifth, a cousin-german to Seleucus 
 Ceraunus and Antiochus the Great, kings of 
 Syria, who enjoyed the dominions he had 
 usurped from Antiochus for many years ; but at 
 last was betrayed by a Cretan, in the 140th 
 year of Rome ; and his limbs being cut off, his 
 body was sewed in the skin of an ass, and gib- 
 betted. 
 
 ACHAGUA, in geography, an Indian tribe, 
 of the kingdom of New Granada, formed into 
 settlements by the Jesuits, in 1661. They are 
 said to be of kind disposition ; very expert in the 
 use of the dart and spear, and very brave. 
 
 ACHAIA, in ancient geography, that part of 
 Greece which Ptolemy calls Hellas, and th* 
 
 90 ACH 
 
 younger Pliny, Graecia. It is now called Livadia. 
 See LIVADIA. 
 
 ACHAIA EROPRIA, in ancient geography, a 
 small district, N. of Peloponnesus, running west- 
 ward along the bay of Corinth,, and bounded on 
 the W. by the Ionian Sea, on the S. by Elis and 
 Arcadia, and on the E. by Sicyonia : its metropo- 
 lis was called Patrts. It is now the Romania 
 Alta, of the Morea. 
 
 ACHALALACTLI, in ornithology, an Ameri- 
 can bird, described by Nieremberg, of the size 
 of a pigeon; is common about the lakes and 
 rivers of Mexico, and feeds on small fish. It 
 is remarkable for a beautiful silvery ring round 
 its neck. 
 
 ACHAMELLA, or ACMELLA, in botany, a 
 plant that grows in the island of Ceylon, of which 
 there are three species. It is recommended in 
 nephritic disorders ; and is the verbesina acmella 
 of Linnaeus. 
 
 ACHANDES, in ichthyology, a name given 
 by some to the remora, or sucking fish. 
 
 ACHANE, axavq, Gr. an ancient Persian 
 corn measure, containing 45 Attic medimni. 
 
 ACHANIA, in botany, a genus of plants of 
 the class monodelphia, order polyandria. 
 
 ACHAOVA, in the materia medica of the 
 ancients, an Egyptian herb, nearly resembling 
 chamomile, but lower, and with broader leaves, 
 approaching to those of feverfew, and of a faint, 
 but not disagreeable smell. Avicenna, however, 
 seems to have called the herb we call marum, 
 by this name. 
 
 ACHARACA, in ancient geography, a town 
 of Lydia, between Tralles and Nysa ; in which 
 were the temple of Pluto, and die cave Cha- 
 ronium, where patients slept in order to obtain 
 a cure. Strabo. 
 
 ACHARISTON, from a, without, and xapC> 
 value, a name of Galen's for some medicines, 
 which cured so quickly, that they were under- 
 valued ; as the Greek name implies. 
 
 ACHAT, in law, a contract, or bargain, 
 especially in the way of purchase. 
 
 ACHATES, the companion of TEneas, and 
 his most faithful friend, celebrated in Virgil. 
 
 ACHATES, in natural history, the AGATE, 
 which see. 
 
 ACHATES, in ancient geography, a river of 
 Sicily, now the Drillo ; which is said to have 
 given name to the Achates, or Agate, first found 
 there. 
 
 ACHATORS, purveyors, ordained to be so 
 called, by Act Par. 36 Edw. III. 
 
 ACHAZIB, or ACHZIB, in ancient geography, 
 first, a town of Galilee, in the tribe of Asher, 
 nine miles from Ptolemais ; second, a town on 
 the southern parts of the tribe of Judah. 
 
 ACHE'. Ace, Saxon, to eke, to lengthen out ; 
 applied to continued pain. 
 
 I know in heate and cold, the louer how he shakes, 
 In singing how he doth complaine, in sleping how he 
 
 wakes, 
 
 To languish without ache, sicklesse for to consume ; 
 A thousand things for to deuise, resoluing all in fume. 
 
 Surrey. 
 
 I'll rack thee with old cramps ; 
 Fill all thy bones with aclies, make thee roar, 
 That beasts shall tremble at thy din. Shakes}>
 
 ACH 
 
 91 
 
 ACH 
 
 A coming show'r your shooting corns presage, 
 Old aches throb, your hollow tooth will rage. Swift. 
 Upon this account, our senses are dulled and spent 
 bv any extraordinary at'ention; and our very eyes 
 will ache, if long fixed upon any difficultly discerned 
 object. Glanville. 
 
 Visions of glory ! spare my aching sight, 
 Ye unborn ages crowd not on my soul ! Gray. 
 
 ACHEEN, ACHE', or ACHEN, a kingdom of 
 Sumatra, on the N. W. of that island, extending 
 fifty miles along the coast, and said by some to 
 tontain 26.000 superficial miles. So powerful 
 was this kingdom in the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, as to expel the Portuguese in- 
 vaders entirely from the island. 
 
 Acheen is divided into 193 parishes, forming 
 three general governments, each under the juris- 
 diction of a paugleemo and subordinate officers. 
 Some parts of the kingdom are subject to fre- 
 quent and sudden inundations; and the inhabi- 
 tants can have no intercourse except through 
 the medium of boats : but as there are few 
 swamps and bogs, the air is healthy, and fevers, 
 dysenteries, &c. are said to be uncommon. The 
 soil that prevails is light and fertile, producing 
 rice, cotton, and fine fruits. It is a layer of 
 black mould, on a substratum of reddish clay, 
 on which many culinary vegetables come to 
 great perfection ; and is so extremely rich and 
 exuberant, that culinary roots, onions, limes, 
 citrons, and nearly all the fruits and plants of the 
 frigid and torrid zones grow here. Very fine gold 
 dust is found in the mountains, and still more 
 is supplied from the southern parts of Nalaboo 
 and Soosoo. A volcano, in the vicinage of 
 Acheen the capital, yields an abundance of sul- 
 phur, both for home consumption and exporta- 
 tion. Acheen was formerly the great mart of 
 eastern commodities, and still carries on a flou- 
 rishing trade, both with European and eastern 
 nations. They export fruits, gold, jewels, dia- 
 monds, sulphur, camphor, pepper, benzoin, 
 sapan-wood, betel-nut, patch-leaf, or colsos 
 bidicus ; and import cotton, cloth, silk, opium, 
 gunpowder, arms, glass, and cutlery. The king 
 is the chief merchant, and claims a duty of twelve 
 per cent, upon all goods imported into his do- 
 minions. He also entirely monopolizes the sale 
 of opium, and farms the retailing of it among 
 the people. 
 
 All matters relative to the commerce and the 
 customs of the port, come under the jurisdiction 
 of the shabandar, who performs the ceremony 
 of lifting chap, or giving a license for trade, by 
 lifting a golden-hafted creese over the head of 
 the merchant, without which he dares not land 
 his goods. Presents are then sent to the king 
 and his officers. If the stranger be an ambassa- 
 dor, the royal elephants are sent down to carry 
 him and his letters to the monarch's presence. 
 After some general discourse, he is conducted to 
 a separate building, and entertained by the offi- 
 cers of state, with all the delicacies of the country. 
 In the evening he departs in the manner he came, 
 airrounded by a prodigious number of lights. 
 Their trading is chiefly carried on by gold-dust; 
 and every tradesman carries about with him scales 
 and bags. The people are taller and more 
 
 swarthy than the other inhabitants of the island; 
 and from their comparative skill in mechanics, it 
 would appear that they are more intelligent 
 They have a curious method of casting small 
 brass guns. The chief dress is of blue and white 
 cloth, made, among the higher classes, from 
 cotton of their own growth ; their silk is now on 
 the decline. They are said to be a base and 
 treacherous people. The chief animals are pas- 
 ture cattle, horses, and elephants. The horses 
 are much prized at Madras. 
 
 The religion of Acheen is Mahometanism ; and 
 the government despotic, admitting females to 
 reign. The king usually maintains a guard of 1 00 
 seapoys about his palace. He appoints a Pauglee- 
 noo to each district, and under him a twaum, and 
 four paugeeches, to each mosque. The grand 
 council of the nation, consists of the king, or sul- 
 tan, four oolooballangs, eight of a lower degree, 
 and sixteen cajoorangs. At the king's feet sits a 
 woman, to whom he makes known his pleasure. 
 She communicates it to an officer, who proclaims 
 it to the assembly. The throne was formerly 
 of ivory and tortoise, protected by a curtain of 
 gauze, which did not obstruct the audience, but 
 prevented perfect view. The criminal laws are 
 uncommonly severe. Theft is punished by sus- 
 pending the criminal from a tree, with a gun or 
 weight tied to his foot ; in some cases by cutting 
 off a finger, a hand, or a foot, &c. according to 
 the heinousness of the crime; house-breaking 
 by drowning. If a man robs a priest he is burnt 
 alive. Adultery is punished by placing the 
 adulterer in a spacious area, environed by the 
 friends of the injured husband, where he is pro- 
 vided with a weapon ; and if he can force his way 
 through them, he escapes condign punishment ; 
 but in general he is cut to pieces in a few mo- 
 ments, and the body is refused funeral rites. 
 
 The king confers a title of honour, the ensign 
 of which is a small golden sword suspended 
 round the neck, as a badge of distinction : this is 
 seldom conferred on any of the natives. The 
 resident for the East India Company was with- 
 drawn in 1785 ; but the traffic still continues. 
 
 ACHEL, a celebrated place and cave in 
 Hindostan, four miles from Patiala, district of 
 Sisheril. Here a cold flame is said to issue 
 from the earth, and is regarded as a manifesta- 
 tion of the Deity. Pilgrims crowd hither, and a 
 great fair is held at the place annually. 
 
 ACHELOUS, a hero, in the ancient mytho- 
 logy, who wrestled with Hercules, for Deianira, 
 daughter to king CEneus : but as Achelous had 
 the power of assuming all shapes, the contest 
 was long dubious : at last, as he took that of a 
 bull, Hercules tore off one of his horns ; so 
 that he was forced to submit, and to redeem it 
 by giving the conqueror the horn of Amalthea,, 
 or plenty ; which Hercules and the Nymphs 
 having filled with a variety of fruits, consecrated 
 to Jupiter. Some explain this fable, by saying, 
 that Achelous is a winding river of Greece, 
 whose stream was so rapid, that it roared like a 
 bull, and overflowed its banks ; but Hercules, 
 by bringing it into two channels, broke off one 
 of the horns, and so restored plenty to the 
 country. See next article.
 
 ACH 
 
 92 
 
 ACH 
 
 ACHELOUS, a river of Acarnania, which rises 
 in mount Pindus, and dividing /Etolia from 
 Acarnania, falls from N. to S. into the Sinus Co- 
 rinthiacus. It was formerly called Thoas, from 
 its impetuosity, and, by Homer, King of rivers. 
 It is now called Aspro Potamo. 
 
 ACHEM, or ACHEN. See ACHEEN. 
 
 ACHEMENIS, an herb mentioned by Pliny; 
 supposed by the ancients to have the property 
 of exciting terror. 
 
 ACHEPE BAY, a small inlet near North 
 Cape, on the eastern coast of the island sf Cape 
 Breton, British North America. 
 
 ACHERI, (Luke d',) a learned Benedictine, 
 of the congregation of St. Maur, bom at St. 
 Quintin, in Picardy, in 1609, and famous for 
 printing several works, till then only in MS. 
 viz. : the epistle attributed to St. Barnabas ; 
 the works of Lanfranc, archbishop of Canter- 
 bury ; a collection of scarce and curious pieces, 
 entitled Spicilegium ; i. e. Gleanings, in 13 
 volumes quarto, &c. After a very retired life, 
 he died at Paris, in 1685, in the abbey of St. 
 Germain, where he had been librarian. 
 
 ACHERNA, in astronomy, a star of the first 
 magnitude, in the sign of Eridanus. 
 
 ACHERON, Axtpwv, Gr. in ancient mytho- 
 logy, the son of Ceres, whom she hid in hell, 
 for fear of the Titans, and turned into a river, 
 over which departed souls were ferried in their 
 way to Elysium. 
 
 ACHERON, a river of Thesprotia, in Epirus ; 
 which, after forming the lake Acherusia, falls 
 into the sea to the west of the Sinus Ambracius. 
 It is now called Delichi. 
 
 ACHERON, or ACHEROS, a river of the Brutii 
 in Italy, running from E. to W. where Alexan- 
 der, king of Epirus, was slain by the Lucani, 
 being deceived by the oracle of Dodona, bidding 
 him beware of Acheron, which he supposed to 
 mean the Acheron in his own kingdom. 
 
 ACHERSET, an ancient measure of corn, 
 conjectured to be the same with our quarter, or 
 eight bushels. 
 
 ACHERUSIA, in ancient geography, first, a 
 lake in Egypt, near Memphis, over which, ac- 
 cording to Diodorus, the bodies of the dead were 
 conveyed for judgment, in the boat Baris, the 
 property of Charon. And thus arose the Grecian 
 fable of Charon and the Styx. Second, a lake 
 between Cumae and the promontory Misenum, 
 now II Lugo Delia Collucia. Some confound 
 it with the Locus Lucrinus, and others with the 
 Lucus Averni. Third, a lake of Epirus, through 
 which the Acheron runs. Fourth, a peninsula 
 of Bithynia on the Euxine, near Heraclea. 
 
 ACHERUSIA, in ancient mythology, a cave, 
 through which Hercules was fabled to have de- 
 scended to hell, to drag forth Cerberus. 
 
 ACH ETA, in entomology, a name by which 
 the ancients called the larger species of cicada, 
 or the third family of the Linnsean gryllus. 
 
 ACHIA, or ACHIAR, a kind of cane which 
 grows in the East Indies, and is pickled there 
 while green, with strong vinegar and spices. 
 It is a Malayan word for all kinds of pickled 
 fruits and roots. 
 
 ACHL/ENUS,or AcHaeiNUS,in natural history, 
 a word used by the ancients to express a stag 
 
 or deer, in his second year. In the first it was 
 called nebrus, in the third dicrotus, and always 
 after that cerastes. 
 
 ACHICOLUM, or ARCHITHOLUS, in anti- 
 quity, the fornix, tholus, or sudatorium of the 
 ancient baths ; which was a hot room where 
 they used to sweat. 
 
 ACHIEVE', v. ~\ AcMver, Fr. to carry 
 ACHIEV'ABLE, / forward to the head, chief 
 ACHIEV'ANCE, V point, or end; to accom- 
 ACHIEV'ER, i plish an enterprize; to 
 ACHIEVE'MENT. ,/ finish; complete a design 
 satisfactorily; to acquire. 
 
 The protectour sore thristed for the acheuynge of 
 his pretensed enterpryse, and thought euery daye a 
 yere tyll it were perfourmed. Hall, p. 350. 
 
 And for to speke in other waie, 
 Full ofte tyme I have herde him saie, 
 That he, which hath no loue acheaued, 
 Hym thinkcth that he is not relieued. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. b. vi, 
 
 And after that her thought gan for to clere, 
 And saied, he which yt nothing vndertaketh, 
 Nothing acheueth, be him loth or dere. 
 
 Chaucer, Troilus, b. ii. fol. 162, col. 1 
 William tok his leue, his way to Scotland ches, 
 Wele mot William cheue, and alle fjat lufes pes. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 146 
 
 From every coast, that heaven walks about, 
 Have thither come the noble martial crew, 
 That famous hard achievements still pursue. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 LEON. A victorie is twice itself, when the atchieiter 
 brings home full numbers. 
 Shaks. Much Adoe about Nothing, p. 101, act i. sc. 1. 
 
 And now great deeds 
 
 Had been achiev'd, whereof all hell had rung, 
 Had not the snaky sorceress that sat 
 Fast by Hell's gate, and kept the fatal key, 
 Ris'n with hideous outcry, rush'd between. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, b. ii. 
 
 It is an unworthy thing to plead hardness of atchiev- 
 ing, where the benefit will more than requite the 
 endeavour. Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 Then shall the war, and stern debate, and strife 
 Immortal, be the bus'ness of my life ; 
 And in thy fame, the dusty spoils among, 
 High on the bumish'd roof, my banner shall be hung, 
 Rank'd with my champion's bucklers ; and below, 
 With arms revers'd, th' achievements of the foe 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 No exploits so illustrious, as those which have 
 been achieved by the faith and patience, by the cour- 
 age and prudence of the ancient saints : they do far 
 surpass the most famous achievements of Pagan heroes. 
 Barrow's Sermons. 
 
 The baths were not much frequented, being rareiv 
 used but after the accomplishment of some very great 
 work which required abundance of labour and toil ; 
 as the ending of a war, achieving any great and 
 painful enterprise. Potter's Antiq. 
 
 ACHIGAN RIVER, a tributary stream to 
 the river Assumption in Lower Canada, North 
 America, which it joins about twelve miles from 
 its mouth in the St. Lawrence. It is a conside- 
 rable outlet for the timber of the upper forests 
 of the country. 
 
 ACIIILL, an island on the west coast of the 
 county of Mayo, Ireland, from which it is sepa- 
 rated by a narrow channel. It is about thirty 
 miles in circumference. N. Lat. 53, 38'. V^' 
 Long. 9, 52'.
 
 ACH 
 
 93 
 
 ACH 
 
 ACHILI-HEAD, a cape on the west of the 
 above island. 
 
 ACHILLAS, in ancient history, an Egyptian 
 general, who murdered Pompey the great. 
 Plut. in Pomp. 
 
 ACHILLEA, in ancient geography, an island, 
 containing the tomb of Achilles, near the mouth 
 of the Ister. Second, a peninsula near the mouth 
 of the Boristheues. Third, a fountain of 
 Miletus, whose water rose salt and afterwards 
 freshened. 
 
 ACHILL^EA, YARROW, MILFOIL, NOSE- 
 BLEED, or SNEEZEWORT ; a genus of the order of 
 the polygamia superflua, belonging to the synge- 
 nesia class of plants. The natural order to 
 which it belongs is the forty-ninth compositae 
 discoides. 
 
 ACHILLEIS, in literature, a celebrated poem 
 of Statius, in honour of Achilles. See STA- 
 TICS. 
 
 ACHILLES, in ancient history, the son of 
 king Peleus by the goddess Thetis, and the 
 celebrated hero of Homer's Illiad, is said to 
 have been born at Phthia in Thessaly. ' The 
 fabulous part of his history is, that his mother, 
 in order to render him immortal, by consuming 
 the mortal parts of his body, which he derived 
 from his father, laid him, when a child, every 
 night under live coals, anointing him at the 
 same time with ambrosia, which preserved him 
 from burning, except one of his lips which he 
 had licked; that, to render him invulnerable, 
 she dipped him in the river Styx, excepting the 
 heel by which she held him, a story not even 
 credited by Homer, who mentions his being 
 wounded in the right arm; that she afterwards 
 entrusted him to the care of Chiron the Centaur, 
 who fed him with the marrow of wild beasts, to 
 strengthen him for the toils of war; and that to 
 prevent him from going to the siege of Troy, she 
 disguised him in the dress of a young woman, 
 and attempted to conceal him among the daugh- 
 ters of king Lycomedes, one of whom he made 
 the mother of Neoptolemus. The authentic part 
 of his story seems to be, that Ulysses persuaded 
 him to accompany the other Grecian chiefs in 
 their crusade against Troy; that he there dis- 
 tinguished himself by his valour, till Agamemnon 
 by taking from him Briseis a female captive, pro- 
 voked him to withdraw himself in disgust: but, 
 that his friend Patroclus being killed by Hector, 
 in order to avenge his death he returned to the 
 camp, slew the prince, and barbarously dragged 
 his dead body round the walls of Troy at his 
 chariot's wheels ; that afterwards, falling in love 
 with Philoxena, one of Hector's sisters, he was 
 mortally wounded with an arrow in the heel, by 
 her brother Paris, while treating about the mar- 
 riage ; and, in fine, that he was buried on the 
 promontory of Sigaeum, where the Greeks sacri- 
 ficed the unfortunate princess, on his tomb; 
 according to the barbarous custom of that age, 
 and agreeably to his dying request, that he might 
 enjoy her company in the Elysian Fields. His 
 death is supposed to have happened about A. C. 
 1183. Alexander the Great is said to have 
 visited his tomb, and placed a crown upon it, 
 saying that "Achilles was happy, in having 
 such a friend as Patroclus in his life, and such 
 
 a poet as Homer, to celebrate him, after his 
 death." 
 
 ACHILLES, in logic, a name given to the prin- 
 cipal argument alleged by each sect of philoso- 
 phers in behalf of their system. In this sense, we 
 say, this is his Achilles ; that is, his master proof. 
 ACHILLES (Tatius,) See TATIUS. 
 ACHILLINI, (Alexander,) born at Bologna 
 in 1463, was one of the most celebrated anato- 
 mists and philosophers of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. He first discovered some of 
 the smaller bones in the ear; and filled in-1506 
 his professorship at Padua, with such dis- 
 tinction, that a vast influx of students came to 
 that university from all parts of Europe. In 
 1508, his philosophical works were published in 
 one volume, folio ; besides which, he wrote 
 Annotationes Anatomicse, 1520, quarto: De 
 Humani Corporis Anatomis, 1521, quarto; and 
 various other anatomical works. 
 
 ACHILLINI, (J. Philotheus,) brother of the 
 above, who was born at Bologna, in 1466, and 
 died there 1558, was also a distinguished scholar 
 and poet. 
 
 ACHILLINI, (Claudius,) grandson of the last 
 Achillini, read lectures at Bologna, Ferrara, and 
 Parma, at the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, where he was much esteemed as a philo- 
 sopher, a divine, an orator, mathematician, 
 and poet. He accompanied cardinal Ludovisio, 
 afterwards Gregory XV. when he went as legate 
 into Piedmont : but being neglected by him, 
 when he became pope, he left Rome in disgust, 
 and retired to Parma, where the duke appointed 
 him professor of law, with a good salary. He 
 published a volume of Latin letters, and another 
 of Italian poems, which gained him great repu- 
 tation, and died in 1640, aged sixty-six. 
 
 ACHILLIS TENDO, in anatomy, is a strong 
 tendinous cord, formed by the union of the ten- 
 dons of the four extensor muscles of the foot, and 
 inserted into the os calcis. It has its name from 
 the fatal wound Achilles is said to have received 
 in that part, from Paris the son of Priam. 
 
 ACHILLIS, a small lake in the county of 
 Ross, Scotland, whose waters are supposed to 
 have a subterranean outlet. 
 
 ACHIOTE, in botany, a name given by some 
 authors to the uraca, or arnotto, called orleata, 
 and orellana, by others. It is the BIXA ou- 
 LEANA of Linnaeus. 
 
 ACHIOTTE, or ACHIOTE, a foreign drug, 
 used in dyeing, and in the preparation of choco- 
 late. It is the same with the substance more 
 usually known by the name of arnotto. 
 
 ACHIROPCLTOS, from a, without, x n, 
 hand, and TTOMW, to make, a name given by an- 
 cient writers to certain pictures of Christ and 
 the Virgin, said to have been made without 
 hands. The most celebrated of these, is a Christ 
 in the church of St. John Lateran at Rome, 
 begun by St. Luke, but finished by angels. 
 
 ACHIVI, the Greeks, so called by the Roman 
 poets. 
 
 ACHLEUTHEN, a lordship, town, and castle 
 of Austria, on the Crems, ten miles E. S. E. of 
 Ems. 
 
 ACHLYS, ax^vc ; Gr. a cloud, in medicine, 
 first a darkness or dimness of sight, arising from
 
 a small cicatricula on the pupil, occasioned bv a 
 superficial ulcer on the cornea. Second, a dis- 
 order of the womb ; answering to what Latin 
 writers call suffusio uteri. 
 
 ACHMET', the son of Seerim, lived in the 
 ninth century, and wrote a book concerning the 
 interpretation of dreams according to the doctrine 
 of the Indians, Persians, and Egyptians, which 
 was translated out of Greek into Latin by Leo 
 Tuscus, in 1160, and republished at Paris, 1603, 
 with Artemidorous on Dreams. 
 
 ACHMIM, a large town of Upper Egypt, 
 200 miles south of Cairo, situated on the eastern 
 bank of the Nile. " One admires there (says 
 Abulfeda, as quoted by Mr. Savary,) a temple, 
 which is equal to the most celebrated monu- 
 ments of antiquity. It is constructed with stones 
 of a surprising size, on which are sculptured 
 innumerable figures." Though this town is fallen 
 from its ancient splendour, it is still one of the 
 most beautiful of Upper Egypt ; and the country 
 around is remarkably fertile, producing the 
 finest corn of this part of Africa, as well as sugar 
 and cotton The streets are wide and clean, and 
 commerce and agriculture flourish. It has a 
 manufactory of cotton, stuffs, and pottery, which 
 are conveyed over all Egypt. Achmim is the 
 Ckemmis of Herodotus, and the Panopolis of 
 Strabo, or the city of Pan, who was worshipped 
 there. Herodotus says, that Perseus was a na- 
 tive of this city, and that his descendants had 
 established festivals there in his honour. It has 
 lost its ancient edifices, and much of its extent ; 
 the ruins of the temple, described by A4>ulfeda, 
 being without its limits, to the north. Nothing 
 remains of it but some stones, of such magnitude, 
 that the Turks have not been able to move them. 
 On one of them are traced four concentric cir- 
 cles, in a square. The innermost of these con- 
 tains a sun. The two next, divided into twelve 
 parts, contain, the one, twelve birds, the other, 
 animals almost effaced, which appear to be the 
 signs of the zodiac. The fourth has no divisions, 
 and presents twelve human figures, which Mr. 
 Savary imagines to represent the twelve gods, 
 the twelve months of the year, and the twelve 
 signs of the zodiac. The four seasons occupy 
 the angles of the square, on the side of which 
 may be distinguished a globe with wings. The 
 columns of this temple have been partly broken, 
 to make lime and mill-stones. Some of them 
 have been transported into one of the mosques 
 of Achmim, where they are placed without taste ; 
 others are heaped up in the square of the town. 
 Mr. Savary tells us of a serpent which is wor- 
 shipped here, and the wonder of the country. 
 See HARIDI. Here also is a church of some 
 antiquity. 
 
 ACHMUNEIN, a town of Upper Egypt, 
 120 miles S. of Cairo, supposed to be the ancient 
 Hermopolis, and containing the portico of a tem- 
 ple covered with hieroglyphics, which Denon 
 considers the most superb remaining monument 
 of Egyptian architecture. 
 
 ACHNE, AXVJJ, Gr. chaff, froth, lint, smoke, 
 or any thing light. It is used by Hippocrates 
 to denote a white mucilage, observable in the eyes 
 of patients who have fevers ; and also a white 
 mucus in the fauces, thrown up from the lungs. 
 
 4 ACI 
 
 ACHOR, a valley of Jericho, lying along the 
 Jordan, not far from Gilgal. 
 
 ACHOR, in medicine, the third species of tinea, 
 or scald-head. It is a sort of small running 
 ulcer on the face and head, chiefly of children 
 while they suck ; by which the skin is broken 
 into a number of little holes, out of which issues 
 a viscid humour, like ichor, whence its name. 
 Achor differs from the favus and tinea only in 
 the degree of virulence. 
 
 ACHRADINA, in ancient geography, one of 
 the four divisions of Syracuse, and the strongest, 
 largest, and most beautiful part of it ; separated 
 by a very strong wall from the outer town, 
 Tycha and Neapolis. It was adorned with a 
 very large forum, with beautiful porticos, a most 
 elegant prytaneum, a spacious senate house, and 
 a superb temple of Jupiter Olympius. 
 
 ACHRAS, or SAPOTA PLUM : a genus of the 
 monogynia order, belonging to the hexandria 
 class of plants; and ranking in the forty-third 
 natural order, dumosap. 
 
 ACHROI, axpoi, Gr. from a negative, and 
 Xpo<r, colour, persons who have lost their natural 
 colour; such as have the jaundice. 
 
 ACHROMATIC, Gr. of a, primitive, and 
 xpw/ta, colour, an epithet expressing want of 
 colour. 
 
 ACHROMATIC TELESCOPES, are telescopes con- 
 trived to remedy the aberrations in colours ; See 
 ABERRATION. A particular account of the in- 
 vention and construction of these instruments 
 will be found under OPTICS. 
 
 ACHRONICAL. See ACRONYCHAL. 
 
 ACHSHAPH, a city, originally a kingdom, 
 near the foot of mount Tabor, taken by Joshua, 
 and given to the tribe of Asher. In St. Jerome's 
 time, it was reduced to a small village, and called 
 Chasalus. 
 
 ACHTELING, a measure for liquids used in 
 Germany, thirty-two achtelings make a heemer ; 
 four sciltems or sciltins, make an achteling. 
 
 ACHTIRKA, a well-built town of Russia, 
 capital of a district, in the government of Charko, 
 on a river of the same name. Population 
 12,000. 40 miles W. S. W. of Charkov. 
 
 ACHY, a species of cassia, that grows in 
 Arabia. 
 
 ACHYRANTHUS, in botany, a genus of the 
 pentandria order, belonging to the monogynia 
 class of plants, and associating with the miscel- 
 laneae, in the thirty-fourth natural order. 
 
 ACHZIB. See ACHAZIB. 
 
 ACIA, a term in the Roman surgery, con- 
 cerning the meaning of which physicians and 
 commentators are much divided. Celsus, speak- 
 ing of the healing of wounds either by suture, or 
 the fibula, says, each is best effected by means 
 of a soft acia, not too much twisted, that it may 
 sit the easier on the body. Boxornius will have 
 the acia to be the acus of the fibula, or that part 
 which is pinched : in which view acia mollix 
 only imported, that it was not set so as to pinch 
 too much. 
 
 ACICANTIIERA, in botany, the trivial name 
 of a species of RHEIXIA, which see. 
 
 ACICOCA, an herb of Peru, and is sometimes 
 used instead of the herb paraguay, of which it 
 is said to have all the properties.
 
 ACID Sr 
 
 ACICULA, the small pikes or prickles of the 
 hedge-hog, echinus marinus, &c. 
 
 AC ID ALIA, an epithet given to Venus by 
 Virgil, from ACIDALUS, which see. 
 
 ACIDALIUS, Valens, a critic of the sixteenth 
 century, born at Witstock, in Brandenburgh. 
 Having visited several academies in Germany, 
 Italy, &c. he took up his residence at Breslaw, 
 where he became a Roman catholic, and was 
 chosen rector of a school at Niesse. Thuanus 
 says that his sitting up at night, to compose his 
 conjectures on Plautus brought upon him a dis- 
 vemper, which carried him off in three days, on 
 the 25th of May, 1595, being just twenty-eight 
 years of age. He wrote a commentary on Quin- 
 
 ACID 
 
 tus Curtius ; Notes on Tacitus ; besides speeches, 
 letters, and poems, which last are inserted in the 
 Delicite of the German poets. A little piece, 
 printed in 1595, under the title of Mulieres non 
 esse Homines, was falsely ascribed to him. Mr. 
 Baillethas given him a place among his Enfans 
 Celebres ; and says, that he wrote his comment 
 upon Plautus when he was but seventeen or 
 eighteen years old, and that he composed several 
 Latin poems at the same age. 
 
 ACIDALUS, a fountain in Ofchomenus, a 
 city of Baotia, in which the Graces are said to 
 have bathed. 
 
 ACIDOTON, in botany, the trivial name of a 
 species of ADELIA. 
 
 ACID. 
 
 Acide, Fr. That which 
 cuts or corrodes; having 
 the quality of sourness. 
 
 AC'ID, n. 
 
 ACID'ITY, 
 
 ACID'ULATE, 
 
 ACES'CENCY, 
 
 ACES'CENT. 
 
 The smoke of sulphur will not black a paper, and 
 is commonly used by women to whiten tiffinies, which 
 it perfonneth by an acide, vitriolis, and penetrating 
 spirit ascending from it. Brown's Vulgar Errours.. 
 
 The same persons (perhaps) had enjoyed their 
 health as well, with a mixture of animal diet, qua- 
 lified with a sufficient quantity of acescent* ; as bread, 
 vinegar, and fermented liquors. A rbuthnot on Aliments. 
 In spring-like youth it yields an acid taste ; 
 But summer doth, like age, the sourness waste ; 
 Then cloth'd with leaves from heat and cold secure, 
 Like virgins, sweet and beauteous when mature. 
 
 Denham's Old Age, part iii. 
 
 ACID, from acesco, to sharpen, a name given 
 to a very extensive and important class of sub- 
 stances, from their prominent quality of sharp- 
 ness or sourness. Sourness of taste, however, 
 is merely one of the sensible properties of these 
 substances, and they possess some others equally 
 if not more characteristic. Of acids there is a 
 large number and great variety, so that were 
 we to devote the present article to the history of 
 them individually, we should be under the ne- 
 cessity of amplifying it to an extent inconsistent 
 with our plan of arrangement. It is merely 
 then our design in the present instance to treat 
 on the general principle of acidity, referring an 
 account of the particular acids to the article 
 CHEMISTRY, and to the alphabetical order into 
 which they may fall. Thus for acetous or acetic 
 acid, let the reader turn to the word acetous or 
 acetic, and so on through the whole series of 
 adjective designations. 
 
 The properties of acids are, 
 
 1. Sourness of taste, amounting in some of 
 the species to a corrosive quality. 
 
 2. A general, though not invariable power 
 of combining with water in any proportion, with 
 a condensation of volume, and evolution of 
 heat. (For the most part indeed, acids are 
 found in a state of fluidity ; but not so without 
 exception, some being met with in a solid form.) 
 
 3. They are mostly susceptible of volatiliza- 
 tion, or are decomposed by heat. 
 
 4. They change the purple or blue colour of 
 vegetables to a bright red. 
 
 5. They combine in definite proportions with 
 alkalis, (see alkali) earths, andmetals;andby this 
 combination is constituted that important class of 
 bodies called salts. 
 
 " This last (says Dr. Ure) may be reckoned 
 their characteristic and indispensable property. 
 The powers of the different acids were originally 
 estimated by their relative causticity and sour- 
 ness ; afterwards by the scale of their attractive 
 force towards any particular base ; and next by the 
 quantity of the base that they could respectively 
 neutralize. But Berthollet proposed the converse 
 of this last criterion as the measure of their 
 powers, ' The power by which they can exercise 
 their acidity,' he estimates 'by the quantity of 
 each of the acids which is required to produce 
 the same effect, viz. to saturate a given quantity 
 of the same alkali.' It is therefore the capacity 
 of saturation of each acid which, in ascertaining 
 its acidity according to him, gives the compara- 
 tive force of the affinity to which it is owing. 
 Hence he infers, that the affinity of the different 
 acids for an alkaline base, is in the inverse ratio 
 of the producible quantity of each of them, 
 which is necessary to neutralize an equal quan- 
 tity of the same alkaline base; an acid is there- 
 fore, in this view, the more powerful, when an 
 equal weight can saturate a greater quantity of 
 an alkali. Hence, all those substances which 
 can saturate an alkali, and cause their properties 
 to disappear, ought to be classed among the 
 acids ; in like manner among the alkalis, should 
 be placed all those which, by their union can sa- 
 turate acidity, and the capacity of saturation being 
 the measure of this property, it should be em- 
 ployed to form a scale of the comparative power 
 of alkalis as well as that of acids." 
 
 " However plausible," continues Dr. Ure, " ;\ 
 priori, the opinion of this illustrious philosopher 
 may be, that the smaller the quantity of an acid 
 or alkali required to saturate a given quantity of 
 its antagonist principle, the higher should it 
 rank in the scale of power and affinity ; it will 
 not however accord with chemical phenomena : 
 100 parts of nitric acid are saturated by about 
 36^ of magnesia, and 52J of lime."
 
 ACID 
 
 "Hence by Berthollet's rule, the power of 
 these earths ought to be as the inverse of their 
 quantities: viz. -~* and ^ yet the very oppo- 
 site effect takes place, for lime separates mag- 
 nesia from nitric acid, and in the present example 
 the difference of effect cannot be imputed to the 
 difference of force with which the substances tend 
 o assume the solid state. 
 
 "We have, therefore, at present, no single 
 acidifying principle, nor absolute criterion of 
 the scale of powers among the different acids ; 
 nor is the want of this of great importance. 
 Experiment furnishes us with the order of de- 
 composition of one acido-alkaline compound, 
 by another acid, whether alone or aided by 
 temperature ; and this is all that practical che- 
 mistry seems to require." 
 
 The question respecting the principle of 
 acidity will be found to involve a great deal of 
 what is very important in its bearing upon the 
 doctrines of chemistry generally, and it is a 
 question, which perhaps may be regarded as open 
 to still further investigation than that which it 
 has received from the extraordinary ingenuity 
 and industry of modern chemists. A disposi- 
 tion to generalize beyond the warrants of fact, 
 has pervaded the speculations of individuals in 
 reference to the rationale of acidity from very 
 early times. Paracelsus conceived that there 
 was only one acid principle in nature. Becher 
 maintained the same doctrine, and modified it 
 by the supposition, that this acid principle is a 
 compound of earth and water, both of which, 
 were regarded as two distinct elements. Stahl 
 adopted the same theory, and imagined the 
 sulphuric acid to constitute the general principle 
 of acidification a supposition, svhich upon the 
 authority of Stahl, was for a long time held in 
 the schools ; but was at length openly com- 
 bated by Bergmann and Scheele. Still, however, 
 the hypothesis of acidity, being the result of 
 some pervading principle, continued to obtain; 
 and Wallirius, Megar, Sage, and others in their 
 ' turns advanced several speculations on the 
 essential nature and mode of this principle, 
 when at length the French chemists, with La- 
 voisier at their head, propounded a doctrine 
 entirely new, and of most extensive application : 
 viz, "That acids result from the union of a pecu- 
 liar combustible base, called the radical, with a 
 common principle, technically called oxygen, or 
 acidifier ;" the radical or base giving the specific 
 or peculiar property to the respective substances, 
 and oxygen being the essence of acidity in the 
 whole. 
 
 " I have already shewn," says Lavoisier, " that 
 phosphorus is changed by combustion into an 
 extremely light white flaky matter. Its pro- 
 perties are likewise entirely altered by this 
 transformation : from being insoluble in water, 
 it becomes not only soluble, but so greedy of 
 moisture, as to attract the humidity of the air 
 'vith astonishing rapidity. By this means it is 
 rorverted into a liquid considerably more dense, 
 id of more specific gravity than water. In 
 ihe state of phosphorus, before combustion, it 
 had scarcely any sensible taste; by its union 
 oxygen, it acquires an extremely sharp and 
 
 o ACID 
 
 sour taste ; in a word, from one of the class of 
 combustible bodies, it is changed into an incom- 
 bustible substance, and becomes one of those 
 bodies called acids. 
 
 "Sulphur also, in burning, absorbs oxygen 
 gas ; the resulting acid is considerably heavier 
 than the sulphur burnt ; its weight is equal to 
 the sum of the weight of the sulphur which 
 has been burnt, and of the oxygen absorbed; 
 and lastly, this acid is weighty, incombustible, 
 and miscible with water in all proportions." 
 
 " The examples, above cited," continues La- 
 voisier, " may suffice for giving a clear and ac- 
 curate conception of the manners in which acids 
 are formed. By these it may be clearly seen 
 that oxygen is an element common to them all, 
 and which constitutes or produces their acidity ; 
 and that they differ from each other according to 
 the several natures of the oxygenated or acidified 
 substances." " Although," he further adds, " we 
 have not been able either to compose or to de- 
 compound the acid of sea-salt, we cannot have 
 the smallest doubt that it, like all other acids, is 
 composed by the union of oxygen with an acidi- 
 fiable base. We have therefore called this un- 
 known substance, the muriatic base, or muriatic 
 radical." 
 
 The above communication of Lavoisier was 
 generally received, and accepted as the founda- 
 tion of a new system of chemical doctrine 
 both inflammability and acidity were thought to 
 be fully explained by the oxygenous theory; and 
 it was expected that every new development of 
 fact would harmonize with the new theory of 
 causation. 
 
 The nomenclature of acids was now altered 
 to suit the new theory ; the terminations ous, ic, 
 and the prefix cxy being employed to denote 
 the different measures in which the acidifiable 
 base was combined with oxygen. 
 
 In the first state, or that in which acid bodies 
 were supposed to exist, with the least possible 
 quantity of oxygen, their names terminated in 
 ous, as sulphurous, nitrous, phosphorous, or 
 acetous. 
 
 The second state, or that in which they con- 
 tained a saturating quantity of oxygen was ex- 
 pressed by the termination ic, as sulphuric, or 
 nitric : and when imagined to contain an excess 
 of oxygen the term oxy was prefixed, as oxy- 
 muriatic. 
 
 But it was soon suggested that Lavoisier in 
 thus conceiving oxygen to be the universal 
 principle of acidity, had run into a hasty gene- 
 ralization which was unwarrantable by nature. 
 " It is carrying the limits of analogy too far 
 (observed Berthollet) to infer that all acidity, 
 even that of the muriatic, fluoric, and boracic 
 acids arises from oxygen, because it gives acidity 
 to a great number of substances. Sulphuretted, 
 hydrogen, which really possesses the property 
 of an acid, proves directly that acidity is not in 
 all cases owing to oxygen. There is no better 
 foundation for concluding that hydrogen is the 
 principle of alkalinity, not only in the alkah, 
 properly so called, but also in magnesia, lime, 
 strontian and barytes, because ammonia appears 
 to owe its alkalinity to hydrogen. We must not, 
 therefore, always infer from the acidity of a sub-
 
 ACID 
 
 97 
 
 ACID 
 
 stance that it contains oxygen, although this may 
 be an inducement to suspect its existence in it." 
 
 Sir H. Davy, was however, the first to shew 
 in a systematic manner, that the French chemists 
 had been in error when they assumed oxygen to 
 be the absolute essence of acidity ; and, he 
 at length propounded those highly interesting 
 principles concerning acidification, which have 
 shaken the Lavoisierian system to its foundation. 
 He demonstrated that oxy-muriatic acid is, as 
 far as our knowledge extends, a simple substance, 
 which may be classed in the same order of natural 
 bodies as oxygen gas, being determined like 
 oxygen, to the positive surface in voltaic com- 
 binations ; and, like oxygen, combining with in- 
 flammable substances, producing light and heat. 
 The combinations of oxymuriatic acid with in- 
 flammable bodies were shewn to be analogous 
 to oxides and acids in their properties and 
 powers of combination, but to differ from them 
 in being, for the most part decomposable by 
 water ; and finally, that oxymuriatic acid has a 
 stronger attraction for most inflammable bodies 
 than oxygen. His preceding decomposition of 
 the alkalis, (see ALKALI) and the earths, having 
 evinced the absurdity of that nomenclature 
 which gives to the general and essential consti- 
 tuent of acid nature, the term oxygen or acidi- 
 fier ; his new discovery of the simplicity of oxy- 
 muriatic acid shewed the theoretical system of 
 chemical language to be equally vicious in an- 
 other respect. Hence, this philosopher most 
 judiciously discarded the appellation oxymu- 
 riatic acid, and introduced in its place the name 
 chlorine, which merely indicates an obvious and 
 permanent character of the substance, its green- 
 ish yellow colour. See CHLORINE and CHE- 
 MISTRY. 
 
 Succeeding chemists have brought powerful 
 analogies in support of the new theory of Davy, 
 by shewing that hydrogen alone has the power 
 of changing certain undecompounded bases into 
 real acids ; and that this is effected without the 
 presence or assistance of oxygen. Dr. Murray 
 has indeed argued with a good deal of ingenuity 
 against the unqualified reception of Davy's prin- 
 ciples, and has suggested that acidity may in 
 most, if not in all cases, consist of a species, so 
 to say, of oxy-hydrogenation. 
 
 " When," says Dr. Murray, " a series of com- 
 pounds exist, which have certain common cha- 
 racteristic properties, and when these compounds 
 all contain a common element, we conclude with 
 justice, that these properties are derived more 
 peculiarly from the action of this element. On 
 this ground, Lavoisier inferred, by an ample in- 
 duction, that oxygen is a principle of acidity. 
 Berthollet brought into view, the conclusion, that 
 it is not universally so, from the examples of 
 prussic acid and sulphurated hydrogen. In the 
 latter, acidity appeared to be produced by the 
 action of hydrogen. The discovery of Gay 
 Lussac of the compound radical cyanogen, and 
 its conversion into prussic acid by the addition 
 of hydrogen, confirmed this conclusion ; and the 
 discovery of the relations of iodine still further 
 established it. And now the system must be still 
 further modified. While each of these conclu- 
 sions is just, to a certain extent, each of them 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 requires to be limited in some of the cases to 
 which they are applied ; and while acidity is 
 sometimes exclusively connected with oxygen 
 sometimes with hydrogen, the principle must also 
 be admitted, that it is more frequently the result 
 of their combined operations." 
 
 " There appears," continues Dr. Murray. 
 " even sufficient reason to infer, that from the 
 united action of these elements, a higher degree 
 of acidity is acquired, than from the action of 
 either alone. Sulphur affords a striking example 
 of this. With hydrogen it forms a weak acid : 
 with oxygen it also forms an acid, which though 
 of superior energy, still does not display much 
 power : with hydrogen and oxygen, it seems to 
 receive the acidifying influence of both, and its 
 acidity is proportionably exalted." 
 
 These speculative objections of Dr. Murray 
 to the simplicity of chloridic theory, go, it will 
 be seen, partly upon the supposition, that the 
 agency of media is not sufficiently appreciated in 
 that theory ; and that the elements, at least of 
 water, are always at work in modifying the com- 
 binations of substances upon which the experi- 
 ments are made. " He thinks it doubtful," says 
 Dr. Ure, " whether nitrogen and oxygen can alone 
 form an insulated acid. Hydrogen he conceives 
 essential to its energetic action. What, may we 
 ask then, exists in dry nitre, which contains no 
 hydrogen ? Is it nitric acid ? or merely two of its 
 elements in want of a little water to furnish the 
 requisite hydrogen ? The same question may 
 be asked relative to the sulphurate of potash. 
 Since he conceives hydrogen necessary to com- 
 municate full force to the sulphuric and nitric 
 acids, the moment they lose their water they 
 should lose their saturating power, and become 
 incapable of retaining caustic potash in a neu- 
 tral state. Out of this dilemma he may indeed 
 try to escape, by saying, that moisture or hydro- 
 gen is equally essential to alkaline strength, and 
 that therefore the same desiccation or hydrogena- 
 tion which impairs the acid power, impairs also 
 that of its alkaline antagonist. The result must 
 evidently be, that in a saline hydrate or solution, 
 we have the reciprocal attractions of a strong 
 acid and alkali ; while in a dry salt, the attractive 
 forces are those of relatively feeble bodies. On 
 this hypothesis the difference ought to be great 
 between dry and moistened sulphate of potash. 
 Carbonic acid is admitted to be destitute of hy- 
 drogen, yet its saturating po%ver is very conspi- 
 cuous in neutralizing dry lime. Now, oxalic 
 acid, by the last analysis of Berzelius, as well as 
 my own, contains no hydrogen. It differs from 
 the carbonic only in the proportion of its two con- 
 stituents, and oxalic acid is appealed to by Dr. 
 Murray, as a proof of the superior acidity be- 
 stowed by hydrogen." 
 
 " On what grounds," continues Dr. Ure, " he 
 decides carbonic acid to be a feebler acid than 
 oxalic, it is difficult to see. By Berthollet's test 
 of acidity, the former is more energetic than the 
 latter, in the proportion of 100 to about 58, for 
 these numbers are inversely as the quantity of 
 each requisite to saturate a given base. If he 
 be inclined to reject this rule, and appeal to the 
 decomposition of the carbonate by oxalic acid, 
 as a criterion of relative power, let us adduce 
 
 H
 
 ACI 
 
 98 
 
 ACI 
 
 liis own commentary on the statical affinities of 4. Ferroprussic. 
 Herthollet, where he ascribes such changes not to 5. Hydroselenic. 
 a superior attraction in the decomposing sub- 6. Hydroprussic, or 
 stance, but to the elastic tendency of that which Hydrocyanic, 
 
 is evolved. Ammonia separates magnesia from 
 its muriatic solution at common temperatures : 
 at the boiling heat of water, magnesia separates 
 ammonia. Carbonate of ammonia, at tempera- 
 tures under 230, precipitates carbonate of lime 
 from the muriate : at higher temperatures, the 
 inverse decomposition takes place with the same 
 ingredients. If the oxalic be a more energetic ! Aceric 
 acid than the carbonic, or rank higher in the 2. Acetic, 
 scale of acidity, then, on adding to a given 3. Amniotic. 
 weight of liquid muriate of lime, a mixture of 4. Benzoic. 
 oxalate and carbonate of ammonia, each in equi- 5. Boletic. 
 valent quantity to the calcareous salt, oxalate of 6. Butyric, 
 lime ought alone to be separated. It will be 7. Camphoric, 
 found, on the contrary, by the test of acetic acid, 8. Caseic. 
 that as much carbonate of lime will precipitate as 9- Cevadic, 
 is sufficient to unsettle these speculations. 10. Cholesteric. 
 
 "Finally, dry nitric acid and dry sulphate of H- Citric, 
 potash, are placed, by this supposition, in as 12. Delphinic. 
 mysterious a predicament as dry muriate of soda 13. Ellagic. 
 in the chloridic theory. Deprived of hydrogen, 14. Formic, 
 their acids and alkali are enfeebled or totally 15. Fungic. 
 changed. With a little water, both instantly re- 16. Gallic, 
 cruit their powers. In a word, the solid sulphu- 17. Igasuric. 
 ric acid of Nordhausen, and the dry potash of 18. Kinic. 
 potassium, are alone sufficient to subvert this 19. Lactic, 
 whole hypothesis of hydrogenation." 20. Lactic. 
 
 The able chemist whom we have last quoted 21. Lampic. 
 proposes the following distribution of acids " to 22. Lithic or Uric. 
 give general views to beginners in the study." 23. Malic. 
 
 7. Hydrosulphmous. 
 
 8. Hydrotellurous. 
 
 9. Sulphuroprussic. 
 
 Family 3d. Acids without oxygen or hydrogen. 
 
 1. Chloriodic. 3. Fluoboric 
 
 2. Chloroprussic, or 4. Fluosilicic. 
 
 Chlorocyanic. 
 
 II. Division Zd.Acids of organic origin. 
 
 24. Meconic. 
 
 25. Menispermic. 
 
 26. Margaric. 
 
 27. Melassic? 
 
 28. Mellitic. 
 
 29. Moroxylic. 
 
 30. Mucic. 
 
 31. Nanceic. 
 
 32. Nitro-leucic. 
 
 33. Nitro-saccharic. 
 
 34. Oleic. 
 
 35. Oxalic. 
 
 36. Purpuric. 
 
 37. Pyrolithic. 
 
 38. Pyromalic. 
 
 39. Pyrotartaric. 
 
 40. Rosacic. 
 
 41. Saclactic. 
 
 42. Sebacic. 
 
 43. Suberic. 
 
 44. Succinic. 
 
 45. Sulphovinic? 
 
 46. Tartaric. 
 
 We treat them, as before stated, in their alpha- T he acids of the last division are all decompos- 
 
 hPTlPCil nrner . . . . 
 
 betical order : 
 
 I. Division 1st, Acids from inorganic nature, 
 or which are procurable without having recourse 
 to animal or vegetable products. 
 
 II. Division 2d, Acids elaborated by means of 
 organization. 
 
 The first group is subdivided into three families : 
 1st, Oxygen acids; 2d, Hydrogen acids; 3d, 
 Acids destitute of both these supposed acidifiers. 
 
 I. Division \ . Inorganic Acids. 
 
 Family 1st. Oxygen acids. 
 
 Section 1st, Non-metallic. 
 
 1. Boracic. 11. Hypophosphorous. 
 
 2. Carbonic. 12. Phosphorous. 
 
 3. Chloric. 13. Phosphatic. 
 
 4. Perchloric? 14. Phosphoric. 
 
 5. Chloro-Carbonic. 15. Hyposulphurous. 
 
 6. Nitrous. 16. Sulphurous. 
 
 7. Hyponitric. 17. Hyposulphuric. 
 
 8. Nitric. 18. Sulphuric. 
 
 9. lodic. 19. Cyanic? 
 10. lodo-Sulphuric. 
 
 Section 2d, Oxygen acids. Metallic. 
 
 1. Arsenic. 6. Columbic. 
 
 2. Arsenious. 7. Molybdic. 
 
 3. Antimonious. 8. Molybdous. 
 
 4. Antimoniac. 9. Tungstic. 
 
 5. Chromic. 
 
 Family 2d. Hydrogen acids. 
 
 1. Fluoric. 3. Hydrochloric, or 
 
 2. Hydriodic Muriatic. 
 
 able at a red heat, and afford generally carbon, 
 hydrogen, oxygen, and in some few cases also 
 nitrogen. The mellitic is found like amber in 
 wood, coal, and, like it, is undoubtedly of organic 
 origin. 
 
 ACIDIMETRY, in chemistry, the measure- 
 ment of the power or strength of acids ; gene- 
 rally effected by saturating a given weight of 
 them with an alkaline base, when the quantity of 
 alkaline is required in the measure of their power. 
 
 ACIDUL./E, as natural history, a species of 
 mineral waters, distinguished by a latent acidity 
 in their nature. When they are unaccompanied 
 with heat, they are called acidula ; but if heat be 
 added to their brisk spirit, they are denominated 
 thermx. Acidulte are native waters, impregnated 
 with particles of some acid mineral, as vitriol, 
 alum, nitre, or salt, and contain a considerable 
 quantity of fixed air. Water may readily be im- 
 pregnated with carbonic gas, but an air-tight vessel 
 must be employed. The physicians also frequently 
 include chalybeate wnd aluminous or ferruginous 
 waters, under the class of acidule. An analysis 
 of mineral waters may be made, either by evapo- 
 ration, which will discover both the quantity of 
 solid matter contained in the water, and by sub- 
 sequent trials, the peculiar nature of it ; or by 
 distillation, whence it may be known, whether the 
 water contain any volatile matter, saline or bitu- 
 minous; or again, by the mixture of certain li- 
 quors. The most common for this purpose are 
 the infusion of galls, syrup of violets, oil of tartar, 
 volatile alkaline salts, tincture of sulphur and aqu-
 
 AC1 
 
 99 
 
 ACK 
 
 afortis. A small quantity of the infusion ol galls 
 will discover whether the water be impregnated 
 with iron. If it contain a coarse oker, the colour 
 struck by the galls is very dark ; the finer iron pro- 
 duces an inky purple ; but the finest, such as the 
 pyrmont water contains, gives a perfect black. A 
 dram of syrup of violets, mixed with a small wine 
 glass of the mineral water, will produce a green 
 colour, if there be any alkaline salt, or alum in it ; 
 though, it is said, that if the spirit be new, alum 
 will turn it red. This green colour is also observed, 
 when a solution of iron is met with ; with an acid, 
 the syrup produces a red. Volatile alkaline salt 
 precipitates the contents of hard water, and disco- 
 vers mercury, or any of its preparations, by turn- 
 ing the liquor whitish, and coagulating part of it. 
 It discovers copper, by producing a blue colour. 
 Volatile tincture of sulphur discovers lead in 
 water, by turning it into a dusky brown colour, 
 nitric acid turns the water into a green colour, 
 if it contains a solution of copper. 
 
 ACIDULATED, an epithet applied to me- 
 dicines that have an acid in their composition. 
 
 ACIDULOUS, in chemistry, expresses either 
 generally a slight degree of acid, or in particular 
 an excess of acid in a compound salt ; thus acidu- 
 lous sulphate of potash is the sulphate of potash 
 with an excess of acid. 
 
 ACIDULUM, in chemistry, a genus of native 
 vegetable salts, consisting of potash saturated with 
 an excess of acid, and comprising two species, 
 tartareous acidulum, or the acidulous tartrite of 
 potash, and the oxalic acidulum, or acvdulous 
 oxalat of potash. 
 
 ACIERNO. See ACERNO. 
 
 ACILIA LEX, in Roman antiquity, a cele- 
 brated law, enacted by Acilius the tribune, for 
 the plantation of five colonies in Italy. 2. Ano- 
 ther law, called also Calpurnia, enacted A. U.C. 
 684, against bribing elections. 3. A law against 
 extortion. 
 
 ACILIUS, (M. Balbus) a consul withPortius 
 Cato, A. U. 640 ; during whose consulship, 
 according to Pliny, milk and blood fell from 
 heaven. 
 
 ACILIUS, (Glabrio) a tribune who put down an 
 insurrection amongst the slaves of Etruria. He 
 was consul with P. Corn. Scipio Nasica, and 
 conquered Antiochus A. U. C. 563, for which he 
 obtained the honour of a triumph. He was a 
 candidate for the censorship in opposition to 
 Cato. Also, a son of the preceding, who erected 
 a temple to Piety, and the first golden statue that 
 was ever seen in Italy, to the memory of his father. 
 The temple was erected on the scite where a 
 Roman female had fed her aged father with her 
 milk. There was also a consul of this name in 
 Domitian's time whose son was put to death by 
 the tyrant for exhibiting more strength than him- 
 self in a contest with wild beasts. 
 
 ACII.IUS, the surname of a Roman family, 
 which produced several great men. See GLA- 
 BRIO. 
 
 ACINACIFORMIS in botany, from aKivd^Q, 
 a scimitar, scimitar-shaped, an epithet for a leaf: 
 Folium acinaciforme, a leaf which has one edge 
 convex and sharp, the other straight and thick, as 
 in the Mysembryanthemum. Linn. Phil. Bot. 
 
 ACINACES in antiquity, a kind of cutlass or 
 scimetar; in use among the Persians. 
 
 AC IN ARIA, in botany, a name given by 
 some to the marsh wortle-berries, or vaccinia 
 palustria. 
 
 ACINESIA, aKiv^fta, from a, negative, and 
 Kivtw, to move. In medicine, the immobility of 
 the whole body or any part of it, as in a palsy, 
 apoplexy, &c. Also, applied by Galen to the 
 suspension of the pulse. 
 
 ACINI, in botany, small grains, or berries, 
 growing in bunches, after the manner of grapes ; 
 also the stones or seeds of grapes. The berries 
 of the elder, privet, ivy, &c are of this kind, and 
 so called. 
 
 ACINI GRANDULOSI, in anatomy, some glands, 
 so called from their formation. 
 
 ACINIFORMIS TUNICA, the same with the 
 tunica uvea of the eye. It is also called acinosa 
 tunica. 
 
 ACINODENDRON, in botany, the name 
 given by Burman, to a species of plants, called 
 melastoma, belonging, in the Linnaean system, 
 to the genus thymus, and to the class and order 
 didynamia gymnospermia. 
 
 ACINOS, in botany, stone, or wild basil. See 
 THYMUS. 
 
 ACINUS, in botany, properly signifies the 
 grape. See ACINI. It is also the name of the 
 staphyloma. 
 
 ACIPENSER. See ACCIPENSER. 
 
 ACIS, in fabulous history, the son of Faunus 
 and Simetheis, was a beautiful shepherd of Sicily, 
 who being beloved by Galatea, Polyphemus the 
 giant was so enraged, that he dashed out his 
 brains with a piece of rock ; after which Gala- 
 tea turned him into a river, which was called 
 by his name : now the Aci or liaci. 
 
 ACITLI, in ornithology the common Mexi- 
 can name of the great cres ?d diver, common to 
 Europe and America, and more usually called 
 by authors, the lepus aqueus or water hare. 
 
 AC KEN, a small town in *he duchy of Mag- 
 deburg, situate on the Elbe, <ive miles below 
 Dessaw. It has a citadel. 
 
 ACKLAND'S ISLAND, sometimes called South 
 Crooked Island, one of the Bahamas, lying ir. 
 N. lat. 23, 20'. and E. long. 73, 30'. It is 
 about 50 miles in length ; and seven in breadth, 
 at its northern extremity, but very narrow south- 
 ward. Atwood's harbour, to the north, has good 
 anchorage for small vessels. The flamingo 
 roosts here in great numbers. 
 
 ACKLIN'S KEYS is a name sometimes given to 
 a groupe of islands, of which the above and Long- 
 key or Fortune's Island are the principal. 
 
 ACKNOW', -\ Composed of the 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGE, (^ prefix a subsequent- 
 
 ACKNOWL'EDGEMENT, ( ly ac, cnawan, to know, 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGING. J and lecgan, to lay, 
 Ang. Sax. To lay open to, to make known to, 
 to discover to ; to confess, to make a conces- 
 
 So ech that denyeth the sone hath not the fadir, 
 but he that knowlechith the sone hath the fadir. 
 
 Wtclif, 1 Jon. chap. ii. 
 
 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit 
 together in love, and unto all riches of the full assur.
 
 ACN 
 
 100 
 
 AGO 
 
 ance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of 
 God, and of the Father, and of Christ. 
 
 Colossians, chap. ii. v. 2. 
 
 But is it credible, that the very acknowledgment of 
 our unworthiness to obtain, and in that respect, our 
 professed fearfulness to ask any thing, otherwise than 
 only for his sake to whom God can deny nothing ; 
 that this should be termed baseness, abjection of 
 mind, or servility is it credible ? Hooker's EC. Pol. 
 
 My people do already know my mind ; 
 And will acknowledge you and Jessica, 
 In place of lord Bassanio and myself. Shaks. 
 
 Thou sun of this great world both eye and soul, 
 Acknowledge him thy greater ; sound his praise 
 In thy eternal course, both when thou climbest 
 And when high noon hast gain'd, and when thou 
 fallest. Milton. 
 
 None, that acknowledge God or providence, 
 Their soul's eternity did ever doubt. Dailies. 
 
 There can be no more forcible motive to patience, 
 than the acknowledgement of the divine hand that 
 strikes us. Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 As teaching bringeth us to know that God is our 
 supreme good ; so prayer testifieth that we acknowledge 
 him our sovereign good. Bishop Taylor's Sermons. 
 ALMANZ. Accept this diamond, till I can present 
 Something more worthy my acknowledgment. 
 
 Dryden's Conquest of Granada, part ii. 
 We are the subjects of the Almighty ; and whe- 
 ther we acknowledge it or not, we live, and cannot 
 but live under his government. Bishop Porteus. 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT MONEY, a sum paid by 
 tenants, in several parts of England, on the death 
 of their landlords, as an acknowledgment of 
 their new lords. 
 
 ACKWORTH, a village, near Pontefract in 
 Yorkshire ; distinguished by a benevolent insti- 
 tution for the education of the children of Qua- 
 kers. This school belonged originally to the 
 Foundling Hospital, London ; but in the year 
 1777, being offered for sale, with eighty-five 
 acres of adjoining land, the respectable society of 
 Friend* bought the property, and endowed it at an 
 expense of 7000 tor the education of their own 
 youth of both sexes. The edifice is built entirely 
 of stone ; and part of the eastern wing has been 
 converted into a meeting house. 
 
 ACLIDES, in Roman antiquity, a kind of 
 missile weapon, having a thong fixed to it, by 
 which, after casting it out of the hand, it might 
 be drawn back again. Servius describes the 
 aclides as full of spiculae. 
 
 ACLOWA, in botany, a barbarous name of a 
 species of colutea. It is used by the natives of 
 Guinea to cure the itch : They rub it on the 
 body as we do unguents. 
 
 ACMASTICA, in medicine, a continued fever. 
 See SYNOCHUS. 
 
 AC'ME, ae/ijj, Gr. the highest point of any 
 thing ; the crisis. 
 
 ACMELLA. See ACHAMELLA 
 
 ACMONIA. See AGMONIA. 
 
 ACNE, in medicine, a name given to a small 
 pimple, or hard tubercle, on the face. 
 
 ACNIDA, VIRGINIAN HEMP, in botany, a 
 genus of the dioecia order, belonging to the 
 pentandria class of plants ; and, in the natural 
 order, associating with the scabrida?. 
 
 ACNUA, in Roman antiquity, a measure of 
 nd, about equal to the English rood. 
 
 AGO, a fish found in the lake Como, Italy 
 and in the Mediterranean, called also aquo and 
 sarachus. 
 
 ACOBAMBA, a settlement of Peru, in the 
 province of Argaraes, forming the capital, buf. 
 now decayed. Also, the name of two smaller 
 Peruvian settlements. 
 
 ACOEMET^,, or ACOEMETI, from a priva- 
 tive, and Koipau, to sleep, in church history, cer- 
 tain monks, who flourished in the East, in the 
 fifth century; and who had divine service per- 
 formed, without interruption, in their churches. 
 The religious of the Holy Sacrament, in the 
 church of Rome still keep up a perpetual ado- 
 ration : some one or other of them praying before 
 the sacrament, day and night. The ancient 
 acoemetae are supposed, by Wetstein and others, 
 to have written the Codex Alexandrinus, as it 
 contains a catalogue of the psalms to be snng 
 every hour of the day and night. 
 
 ACOLCHICHI, in ornithology, the Mexican 
 name for the oriolus phcenicus of Linnaeus. 
 
 ACOLD', or COLD. See COLD. 
 And as it shulde so betide, 
 A poure lazar upon a tide 
 Came to the gate and axed meate : 
 But there might he nothing geate, 
 Thus laie this poure in great distresse, 
 A colde and hongred at the gate. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. book vi. v. 9. 
 
 Prick my hand 
 
 And it will bleed ; a fever shakes me, 
 
 And the self-same wind that makes the young 
 lambs shrink, 
 
 Makes me acold. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdesi, 
 acti. sc. 1. 
 
 ACOLIN, in zoology, the name of a bird of 
 the partridge kind, common in the Spanish West 
 Indies. 
 
 ACOLYTHI, in ecclesiastical history was 
 first applied to young people, who continually 
 attended the bishops, and were generally candi- 
 dates for the ministry. In the Romish church 
 their functions became different. They were 
 such as had only received the first of the four 
 lesser orders, and whose business was to light 
 the tapers, carry the candlesticks, and the in- 
 cense-pot, and prepare the wine and water. 
 
 ACOLYTHUS, a title in the Grecian empire, 
 given to the captain or commander of theVa- 
 rangi, a body of guards appointed for the secu- 
 rity of the emperor's palace. 
 
 ACOMAC. See ACCOMAC. 
 
 ACOMINATUS, (Nicetas,) was secretary to 
 Alexius Comnenus and to Isaacus Angelus suc- 
 cessively ; he wrote a history from the death of 
 Alexius Comnenus in 11 18, where Zonaras ended 
 his, to the year 1203, which has undergone 
 many impressions, and is much applauded by 
 the best critics in history. 
 
 ACON, an instrument used in the ancient ex- 
 ercises, like the discus. Also an ancient order 
 of knights, who joined the Hospitallers. 
 
 ACONCAGUA, a province of Chili, South 
 America, bounded on the north and west by 
 Quillosa, on the east by the Andes, and south 
 by Santiago. The mountains furnish immense 
 quantities of copper ore ; and the neighbourhood
 
 AGO 
 
 101 
 
 AGO 
 
 abounds with greens and fruits. There is a royal 
 road through this province, across the Cordil- 
 leras to Mendoza and Santiago, by which the 
 mails of Europe are regularly received once a 
 month. The treasures which pass by this road 
 in winter, are frequently interrupted by means 
 of snow falling down from the mountains, and 
 provisions for continual stoppages are a necessary 
 part of the equipage. The territory itself is level, 
 and contains a population of 8000 souls. 
 
 ACONCAGUA, a trading town of Chili, the an- 
 cient capital of a province, now reduced. 
 
 ACONCAGUA, a considerable river of Chili, 
 which, rising in the Cordilleras, and passing 
 through Quilot, Cirvon, &c. enters the Pacific 
 at about 33 S. lat. 
 
 ACONCROBA, in botany, a plant that grows 
 wild in Guinea, and is much esteemed for its 
 virtue in the small-pox. It is given infused in wine. 
 
 ACONE, in antiquity, 1. A stone used as a 
 whetstone, and more usually known among the 
 Romans by the name coticula. 2. A mortar 
 for the purpose of levigation. 
 
 ACONITA, in chemistry, a vegetable poison 
 recently extracted from the aconitum Napellus, 
 or wolf's bane. It is of an alkaline character, 
 and we are indebted to Mr. Brande for its dis- 
 covery. 
 
 ACONITI, ctKoviToe, without dust, in anti- 
 quity, an appellation given to some of the Athle- 
 tas, but differently interpreted : i.e. 1. Of those 
 who only anointed their bodies with oil, but did 
 not smear themselves over with dust, which was 
 the usual practice. 2. Of those who conquered 
 easily without dust, q. d. O.KOVITI a/ax, with 
 little trouble. 
 
 ACONITON,in medicine, signifies not plas- 
 tered, and is applied to vessels not lined within. 
 
 ACONITUM, ACONITE, WOLFSBANE, or 
 MONKSHOOD ; a genus of the trigynia order, be- 
 longing to the polyandria class of plants. In 
 the natural order, it associates with the multisi- 
 liquas. 
 
 ACONQUIJA, a lofty mountain of Tucuman, 
 in the vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres, covered 
 with perpetual snow, and said to be very pro- 
 ductive of the precious metals. 
 
 ACONTIAS, from AKOVTIOV, Gr. a name with 
 Pliny and others, for a sort of comet, or meteor. 
 Also a serpent of Calabria and Sicily, whose 
 bite is very poisonous. It is an obsolete name 
 of the anguis jaculus, or dart-snake. See AN- 
 GUIS. 
 
 ACONTIUM, atcovriov, in Grecian antiquity, 
 a kind of dart or javelin resembling the Roman 
 pilum. 
 
 ACONTIUS, (James,) a philosopher, civilian, 
 and divine, born at Trent: in 1.557, he embraced 
 the reformed religion ; and coming into England 
 in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was much ho- 
 noured by her, which he acknowledges in his 
 celebrated Collection of the Stratagems of Satan, 
 dedicated to that queen. He also wrote De 
 Methodo sive recta Investigandarum, 1558, which 
 
 is considered his best work : and Ars Muuien- 
 dorum Oppidorum, 1585. 
 
 ACOOTAN, one of the Aleutian or Fox- 
 islands, containing some very lofty mountains. 
 
 ACOPA or ACOPICA, in botany, a name given 
 by Dioscorides, and some authors, to the meny- 
 anthes trifoliata, or buck-bean. 
 
 ACOPA, Gr. from a privative, and KOTTOC, wea- 
 riness, in medicine, remedies against lassitude or 
 weariness, such as tensions, pains in the bones, 
 &c. Acopis, is a fossile salt, described by Pliny, 
 and used by the ancients, mixed with oil for this 
 purpose. 
 
 ACOPON, ACOPUM, or ACOPOS. See ACOPA. 
 
 ACOR, in medicine, sourness or acrimony, 
 as in the stomi.cn, &c. 
 
 ACORDINA, in chemistry, Indian tutty. 
 
 ACORI, in natural history, BLUE CORAL. 
 The true acori is very scarce ; some, however, 
 is obtained on the coasts of Africa, near the river 
 Camarones. That of the kingdom of Benin is 
 also much esteemed. It is also a name for the 
 greater Galangal root. 
 
 A'CORN, | Ang. Sax. Ac: oak: corn. 
 
 A'CORNED. } The corn, grain, or fruit of the 
 oak. 
 
 Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest ; 
 And falling acorns furnish'd out a feast. 
 
 Dryden's Ovid. 
 
 The ACORN, in early ages, was a common arti- 
 cle of food, and so late as 1709, was extensively 
 used in France during a scarcity. It was di- 
 vested of its husk and then boiled. In Spain, it 
 is said in former times to have been served at 
 table as a delicacy. It has often been substi- 
 tuted for coifee when roasted. 
 
 ACORN, in medicine, the seed of the oak, 
 used as an astringent. 
 
 ACORN, in maritime affairs, a little piece of 
 wood, fashioned like a cone, and fixed on the 
 uppermost point of the spindle, above the vane, 
 on the mast head, to keep the vane on. 
 
 ACORUS, CALAMUS AROMATICUS, SWEET 
 FLAG, or SWEET RUSH : a genus of the mono- 
 gynia order, belonging to the hexandria class of 
 plants ; and ranking in the second natural order, 
 piperitse. 
 
 ACORUS, in natural history. See ACORI. 
 
 ACOSTAN, a mountainous island in the 
 north seas between Asia and America, observed 
 by Captain Cook. 
 
 ACOTYLEDENES,of a, priv. and KOTV\TI$OV, 
 lobeless, in botany, a class of plants without 
 lobes, or seminal leaves. It is the first class in 
 the natural order of Jussieu. 
 
 ACOUS, or Accous, a town of France, in the 
 province of Beam, department of the Lower 
 Pyrenees, and arrondissement of Oleron. Po- 
 pulation 1600. It is about nine leagues south- 
 west of Pau. 
 
 ACOUSMATICI, from UKSU, to hear, such 
 of the disciples of Pythagoras, as had not com- 
 pleted their five' years' probation. They are 
 sometimes called by Latin writers, acoustici.
 
 102 
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 ACCOUSTIC DISCIPLES. SeeAcousMATici. 
 
 ACOUSTIC DUCT, in anatomy, the meatus audi- 
 torius, or external passage of the ear. See ANA- 
 TOMY. 
 
 ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENT, or auricular tube, 
 See ACOUSTICS. 
 
 ACOUSTIC MEDICINES, remedies against im- 
 perfections and disorders of the ear. 
 
 ACOUSTIC NERVE, the auditory nerve. See 
 ANATOMY. 
 
 ACOUSTIC VESSELS, in the ancient theatres, 
 were a kind of vessels, made of brass, shaped 
 in the bell-fashion, which being of all tones 
 within the pitch of the voice or even of instru- 
 ments, rendered the sounds more audible, so 
 that the actors could be heard through all parts 
 of the theatres, when they were even 400 feet 
 in diameter. 
 
 ACOUSTICA, or ACOUSTICS, from aicovw, 
 audio ; called also, PHONICS, from <j>tavt), vox, 
 vel sonus, a voice, or sound, is the doctrine or 
 science of sounds. Some authors divide it into 
 two branches, and entitle thai which treats of 
 the properties of sounds that come directly to the 
 ear, DIACOUSTICS, and that which illustrates the 
 nature of reflected sounds, CATACOUSTICS ; but 
 these distinctions do not appear to be of any real 
 importance. In treating of this subject, we pro- 
 pose to give a concise view, 
 
 I. OF THE DIFFERENT THEORIES of SOUND. 
 
 II. OF THE DIFFUSION of SOUND. 
 
 III. OF ITS VELOCITY, and 
 
 IV. OF ITS REVERBERATION : closing our arti- 
 cle with a few familiar experiments that will il- 
 lustrate the laws of this science. 
 
 SECT. I. OF THE THEORY of SOUND. 
 Strange it is, that upon a topic which has ex- 
 ercised the powers of a Bacon, a Newton, and a 
 Boyle, and to which some of our most accurate 
 modern experimenters have also directed their 
 attention, so little that is satisfactory in theory 
 can be produced. There is, in fact, hardly any 
 doctrine of acoustics, that can be offered with 
 confidence to the reader. Embracing phenomena, 
 which must have attracted the attention of man- 
 kind from the earliest period of history, and 
 which in its connection with music, and every 
 modulation of the human voice, offers much that 
 is in the highest degree essential to the pleasure 
 of social intercourse, a philosophical theory of 
 sound seems as yet to have eluded research. We 
 shall, in this article, therefore only attempt a 
 record of the best opinions upon the subject 
 that have been given by our predecessors : fairly 
 avowing to our readers, that we look to a better 
 digest of past experiments, and many future ad- 
 ditional ones, for a more satisfactory theory than 
 any that has yet been offered : every one that 
 we have yet seen being in many important 
 points, inconsistent with well-recorded facts and 
 observations. And the progress of our work 
 will give us an opportunity (under EAR, ECHO, 
 HARMONY, HEARING, Music, PNEUMATICS, 
 SouND,&c.)of recording any thing that may then 
 
 be added to the philosophical materials c? the 
 subject. 
 
 Sound then has been said to be strictly a sen- 
 sation or perception of the mind, communicated 
 by the ear ; or the effect of some external col- 
 lision of bodies which has produced a tremulous 
 motion or vibration, communicated to the ear. 
 In popular language, the surrounding air or at- 
 mosphere, is generally understood to be the me- 
 dium of sound, but a slight observation of facts 
 will shew that air is by no means the only con- 
 ductor of sound ; fluids generally, and bodies 
 of all degrees of hardness and of elasticity are 
 also mediums of its diffusion. 
 
 Philosophers, in attempting to find the imme- 
 diate cause of sonorous motion, tell us that all 
 bodies consist of an infinite number of invisible 
 parts or corpuscles perfectly hard and incom- 
 pressible ; that these are surrounded by particles 
 differing according to the different union and 
 figures of their component parts ; and that these 
 last being compressed by an external power or 
 impulse, have a constant tendency to restore 
 themselves to their settled and former state. It 
 is this motion of the latter particles which M. 
 Perrault and others consider as the proximate 
 cause of sound. So that if we rightly under- 
 stand this theory, it is simply the struggle of the 
 elastic portion of bodies which produces the 
 phenomenon in question. But what proof has 
 ever been offered of the existence of these hard 
 and incompressible portions ? 
 
 Other writers have contended that all bodies 
 are essentially elastic, and are composed of parts 
 connected throughout by a system of mutual 
 attraction and repulsion. When this arrange- 
 ment is disturbed, a force, of infinite variety in 
 its degrees of power, is exerted to restore the 
 equilibrium, and that hardness and softness, 
 solidity and fluidity, are but relative and compa- 
 rative, and not absolute qualities of bodies. 
 When, therefore, we strike a substance thua 
 composed, the particles immediately proximat- 
 ing yield to the impression, but press against the 
 next particles in the series, and thus convey a 
 vibratory motion like the oscillations of a spring 
 or pendulum along the whole chain ; the rapidity 
 of the transmission depending upon the relative 
 elasticity of the body. In some bodies, in a bell, 
 glasses, &c. when struck, this sympathetic move- 
 ment of parts is very evident, and the manner in 
 which, with the finger, we can deaden or stop 
 the sound, by assisting to set the particles at rest, 
 seems to confirm this view of the subject. 
 
 Professor Leslie has examined with some care, 
 the laws of this interior mechanism of bodies to 
 which he attributes sound. He says, we may 
 determine the celerity of transmission, by the 
 elasticity of the medium compared with its gra- 
 vity ; or by obtaining the height of a column of 
 the same density as the conducting substance, 
 whose weight would measure its elasticity. This 
 he terms the modulus of its elasticity, and 
 serves that it may be demonstrated upon
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 103 
 
 principles of Dynamics, that the rapidity of the 
 transmission of sound through any medium, is 
 equal to what a descending body would acquire 
 in falling through half the height of the modulus 
 of elasticity ; and that this celerity for any second 
 of time may be obtained in English feet^ by mul- 
 tiplying the square root of half the modulus by 
 eight. One easy method which he suggests for 
 ascertaining the modulus of elasticity in solid 
 rods or planks is, to observe their swag or cur- 
 vature when laid in an horizontal position on 
 props. He found by experiments of this kind, 
 that the modulus of Memel fir was equal to 
 671,625 feet; and that its particles would there- 
 fore convey a vibratory impulse with a velocity 
 of 4636 feet in a second, nearly four times the 
 rapidity with which sound travels through the 
 air. 
 
 Several foreign philosophers have directed 
 their attention to the velocity with which the 
 tremor of sound passes through various bodies. 
 M. Biot ascertained that sound was conveyed 
 through a train of iron pipes of 2550 feet in length, 
 in 2.79 sec. ; through the air, it would have pass- 
 ed the same distance in 2.5 sec. M. Hassen- 
 fratz has attempted to make similar calculations, 
 in the subterranean quarries of Paris, upon the 
 transmission of sound through brick and stone ; 
 but no precise results have as yet been given to 
 the world. 
 
 Professor Chladni has endeavoured to obtain 
 data upon this curious point, from a very dif- 
 ferent source: viz. the musical note which a 
 bar of a given substance would emit when 
 struck ; and he thus contends that sound may 
 be reckoned to pass through glass and iron at 
 the prodigious rate of 1 7,500 feet, or upwards of 
 three miles in each second. 
 
 Through fresh water, sound is propagated at 
 a velocity of about 4475 feet in a second, or at 
 a rate four times swifter than through the atmos- 
 phere. The waters of the ocean convey sound, 
 about a seventeenth more rapidly. Ice is said 
 to possess the power of transmission about equally 
 with water ; an easy proof of which is supplied 
 by the tremor that may be felt underfoot on 
 a frozen river or lake struck, at a distance, 
 long before the sound of the blow reaches the 
 ear. That fishes are endued with auricular or- 
 gans, has been demonstrated by the late great 
 anatomist, Mr. John Hunter. They have a 
 strong perception of sound, even at the bottom 
 of deep rivers ; though it was not until modern 
 times that the seat of their auricular organs was 
 discovered. 
 
 While the theory of sound thus involves some 
 singular questions as to its origin and first trans- 
 mission, its connexion with the auditory nerves 
 of man is also curious. The ear is the immediate 
 and most direct instrument of this perception ; 
 but the whole of the skull bone, the palate, the 
 teeth, and even the nostrils, assist in its func- 
 tions ; thus the deaf have been made sensible of 
 sounds by holding a piece of metal between 
 their teeth. 
 
 We should not omit to state that the extraor- 
 dinary rapidity with which sound passes through 
 solid bodies, induced philosophers to suppose, 
 even to a very late period, that its transmission 
 
 was instantaneous; and that Sir Isaac Newlon 
 himself seems to have coincided with this. It 
 appears now, however, perfectly clear, that its 
 motion is in all cases progressive, and subject 
 to regular, however mysterious, laws. 
 
 SECT. II. OF THE DIFFUSION OF SOUND. The 
 theories and experiments to which we have ad- 
 verted, trace the transmission of sound in various 
 important ways. Regarding the air, however, 
 now, as the great ordinary medium of sound, 
 we devote this section to the consideration of its 
 functions in this respect. 
 
 Sonorous bodies seem to communicate to the 
 air their own tremulous impression, which is 
 then further propagated according to the laws 
 of pneumatics. A few particles being driven 
 from the surface of the sonorous body, prope t 
 their contiguous particles into a less space. The 
 medium thus rarefied in one place, becomes 
 condensed in the other ; while the air thus com- 
 pressed in the second place, is restored by elas- 
 ticity to its former one ; and the air contiguous 
 to that becomes compressed. The air less com- 
 pressed, again expanding itself, a new compres- 
 sion is made, and the motion arising from each 
 agitation, produces an undulation of air, analo- 
 gous to a wave upon the surface of the water, 
 carrying with great velocity all the articulate 
 distinctions and divisions of sound. 
 
 In the formation of these waves of air, the 
 particles go and return through very short and 
 equal spaces, after the manner of a pendulum, 
 while it vibrates two oscillations ; the velocity 
 of the whole undulation, in the mean time, de- 
 termining the force and other qualities of every 
 simple sound. 
 
 That air is the principal vehicle of sound is 
 universally allowed ; and, that, without the 
 medium of it, or some other fluid, we should 
 ordinarily have no sounds at all, is proved by 
 the experiment of a receiver, exhausted of its 
 air, in an air-pump, when a bell, rung in the 
 vacuum, makes no sound whatever : the fact is 
 also now confirmed, that the force of the pulsa- 
 tions depend considerably upon the degree of 
 density, or rarefaction of the air. Dr. Priestley, 
 to ascertain whether the intensity of sound is 
 affected by any other property of the air besides 
 its density, provided an apparatus, with which 
 he performed several experiments, and at last 
 came to the conclusion that the intensity oi 
 sound depends solely upon the density of tne 
 surrounding air, and not in any measure upon 
 any chemical principle in its constitution. In 
 inflammable air of ten times the rarefaction ot 
 common air, the bell could be scarcely heard. 
 In fixed air, the sound could be heard about 
 half as far again as in common air, owing to the 
 superior density of that air. In dephlogisticated 
 air, the sound was sensibly louder than common 
 air. See Experiments and Observations, vol. v. 
 p. 296, &c. Mr. Hauksbee, also, made many 
 experiments of a similar nature, in air of differ- 
 ent degrees of condensation, in the course of 
 which, a bell was heard at the distance of thirty 
 yards in common air, at sixty with the force of 
 two atmospheres, and as far as ninety with the 
 forcn of three. (Phil. Trans. 1709, xxiv. 1904, 
 xxvi. 367, 371.)
 
 104 
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 Philosophers, however, are much divided in 
 opinion, respecting the manner in which sound 
 is conveyed to the ear ; i. e. whether it is dif- 
 lused in the air, in a circular or undulatory 
 manner, like the waves occasioned in a smooth 
 water, by throwing in a stone; or, whether it 
 runs in straight lines, like the rays of light dif- 
 fused from a centre, in the manner that the 
 electrical fluid runs along a rod of iron. Sir 
 Isaac Newton adopted the former theory, and 
 illustrated the propagation of sound by an un- 
 dulatory, or rather vermicular motion in the par- 
 ticles of the air, drawn from the familiar instance 
 of the crawling of a worm, which first carries its 
 contractions from the hinder part, to throw its 
 fore part to the proper distance, and then carries 
 them back to bring the hinder part forward. 
 Something similar to this takes place in the air, 
 when agitated by the percussion of a sounding 
 body : and thus he supposes there is an alternate 
 rondensation and relaxation of the air during 
 one vibration : and as the air in its progress for- 
 ward strikes an opposing body with greater force, 
 than in its retrogradation, Sir Isaac entitles each 
 of these accelerated progressions a PULSE of 
 SOUND : and as all motion upon fluids, in any 
 direction, operates more or less, in a circular or 
 spherical manner all around, so these sounds will 
 be driven in all directions, forward, backward, 
 upward, downward, and on every side, like cir- 
 cles in disturbed water. An idea of the rules 
 ff sound, according to this hypothesis, may be 
 formed from observing the tone of a church bell, 
 while its sounds are dying away, and which are 
 owing to the alternate progression and recession 
 of the. air; for as each of these pulsations is 
 formed by a single vibration of the string, they 
 must be equal to each, as these vibrations are 
 known to be. 
 
 With regard to the velocity of sound, (which 
 will be more particularly treated of in Sect. III.) 
 Newton has determined it by a very intricate 
 calculation, to be in proportion to the density of 
 the parts of the air, and the distance of these 
 parts from each other; proving that each part 
 moves like a pendulum ; from whence he infers, 
 that if the density of the atmosphere were the 
 same every where as on the surface of the earth, 
 a pendulum, reaching from its highest surface 
 down to that of the interval, is thus lost to sense : 
 just as a flame in proportion to the velocity. 
 And he shows, that the velocity of each pulse 
 would as much exceed, that of such a pendulum, 
 swinging with one complete vibration, as the 
 circumference of a circle exceeds the diameter. 
 From all this he calculates that the motion of 
 sound should be 979 feet in a second ; but, upon 
 taking an additional consideration of vapours in 
 the air, he finds the exact velocity of sound to 
 be 1 1 42 feet in a second, or about thirteen miles 
 in a minute, a proportion established by ex- 
 perience. 
 
 This theory of Sir Isaac Newton's met with 
 many opposers. Even Bernoulli, his disciple, 
 and one of nis principal followers, owned he did 
 not understand this part of his Principia. He 
 attempted therefore to give a more perspicuous 
 demonstration of his own, that he might confirm 
 and illustrate the Newtonian theory. The sub- 
 
 ject seemed to reject elucidation : his theory is 
 obviously wrong, as D'Alembert has proved in 
 his Theory of Fluids. Various objections have 
 been made to the Newtonian system of sounds. 
 It is urged, that this theory can only agree with 
 the motion of sound in an elastic fluid, whereas 
 sounds are known to move forward through 
 water that is not elastic. To explain their pro- 
 gress therefore through water, a second theory 
 must be formed : so that two theories must be 
 made to explain a similar effect ; which is equally 
 contrary to the simplicity of true philosophy, 
 and of nature. It is further argued, that the 
 slow vermicular motion, but ill represents the 
 velocity with which sounds travel. In short, it 
 is urged, that such undulations as have been 
 described, when coming from several sonorous 
 bodies at once, would cross, obstruct, and con- 
 found each other ; so that, if they were conveyed 
 to the ear by such means, we should hear nothing 
 but a medley of discordant and broken articula- 
 tions. But this is equally with the rest, contra- 
 dictory to experience, since we hear the fullest 
 concert, not only without confusion, but with 
 the highest pleasure. These objections, have 
 given rise to another theory : which we shall 
 likewise lay before the reader ; though it appears 
 also liable to objections, which shall be after- 
 wards noticed. 
 
 Every sound may be considered as driven off 
 from the sonorous' body in straight lines, and 
 impressed upon the air in one direction only : 
 but whatever impression is made upon a fluid in 
 one direction, is diffused upon its surface into 
 all directions ; so that the sound first driven di- 
 rectly forward, soon fills up a wide sphere, and 
 is heard on every side. Thus, as it is impressed, 
 it instantaneously travels forward with a very 
 swift motion, resembling the velocity with which 
 we know electricity flies from one end of a line 
 to another. Now, as to the pulses, or close shakes 
 as the musicians express it, which a sounding 
 body is known to make, each pulse is itself a 
 distinct and perfect sound, and the interval be- 
 tween every two pulses is profoundly silent. 
 Continuity of sound from the same body, is only 
 a deception of the hearing ; for as each distinct 
 sound succeeds at very small intervals, the au- 
 ditory nerves have no time to transmit its dis- 
 tinct images to the mind, and the interval is 
 thus lost to sense : just as a flaming torch, flared 
 round in a circle, appears to be a ring of fire. 
 In this manner, a beaten drum, at some small 
 distance, presents us with the idea of a continuing 
 sound; and, when a child runs with his stick along 
 a piece of railing, a continuing sound is heard, 
 though the stroke against each rail is perfectly- 
 distinct and insulated. According to this theory, 
 therefore, the pulses are nothing more than dis- 
 tinct sounds repeated by the same body, the firsi 
 stroke or vibration being always loudest, and 
 travelling farther than those that follow; while 
 each succeeding vibration gives a new sound 
 but with diminished force, till at last the pulses 
 die away totally, as the force decays that giv s 
 them existence. All bodies whatsoever that are 
 struck, return more or less a sound : but some, 
 wanting elasticity, give back no repetition of tho 
 sound ; the noise is at once begotten and dies
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 105 
 
 while other bodies, being more elastic and capa- 
 ble of vibration, give back a sound, and repeat 
 it several times successively. These last are said 
 to have a tone ; the others are not allowed to 
 have any. The tone of the elastic string, or bell, 
 is notwithstanding nothing more than a similar 
 sound of what the former bodies produced, but 
 with the difference of being many times repeated 
 while their notes are but single. So that, if we 
 would give the former bodies a tone, it will be 
 necessary to ma^e them repeat their sound, by 
 repeating our blows swiftly upon them. This 
 will effectually give them a tone ; and even an 
 unmusical instrument has often had a fine effect 
 by its tone in our concerts.* 
 
 Let us then suppose, that by swift and equally 
 continued strokes, we give any non-elastic body 
 its tone : it is very obvious, that no alterations 
 will be made in this tone by the quickness of the 
 strokes, though repeated ever so fast. These will 
 only render the tone more equal and continuous, 
 but will make no alteration in it. On the con- 
 trary, if we make an alteration in the force of 
 each blow, a different tone will then undoubtedly 
 be excited. The difference will be small, it must 
 be confessed ; for the tones of these indexible 
 bodies are capable of but small variation, how 
 ever, there will certainly be a difference. A table 
 will return a different sound when struck with a 
 club, from what it will do if struck with a whip. 
 Thus non-elastic bodies return a difference of 
 tone, not in proportion to the swiftness with 
 which their sound is repeated, but in proportion 
 to the greatness of the blow which produced it ; 
 for in two equal non-elastic bodies, that body 
 produced the deepest tone which was strucn by 
 the greatest blow. Mr. Euler is of opinion, that 
 no sound making fewer vibrations than thirty, or 
 more than 7520 in % second, is distinguishable 
 by the human ear ; according to which principle, 
 the extremes of our sense of hearing with respect 
 to acute and grave sounds, is an interval of eight 
 octaves. Tentam. Novum Theor. Mus. cap. i. 
 sect. 13. 
 
 We now then come to the critical question, 
 What is it that produces the difference of tone 
 in two elastic sounding bells or strings? Or, 
 what makes the one deep and the other shrill? 
 This question has always been hitherto answered 
 by saying, that the depth or height of the note 
 proceeded from the slowness or swiftness of the 
 ibrations. The slowest vibrations, it has been 
 said, are qualified for producing the deepest 
 tones, while the swiftest produce the highest 
 tones. In this case, an effect has been given for 
 a cause. It is in fact the force with which the 
 sounding string strikes the air, that makes the 
 true distinction in the tones of sounds ; and which, 
 with greater or less impressions, resembling the 
 greater or less force of the blows upon a non- 
 elastic body, produces correspondent affections 
 of sound. The greatest forces produce the 
 deepest sounds : the high notes are the effect of 
 small efforts. Much also depends upon the con- 
 stitution, figure, and quantity of the sonorous 
 body, the manner of percussion, &c. ; to say 
 nothing of the intervening obstacles, distance, 
 and disposition of the auricular organ. Thus a 
 bell, wide at the mouth g'ives a grave sound ; 
 
 but if it be very massy, that will render it still 
 graver ; but if massy, wide, and long or high, 
 that will make the tone deepest of all. Thus, 
 then, will elastic bodies give the deepest sound, 
 in proportion to the force with which they strike 
 the air : but if we attempt to increase their force 
 by giving them a stronger blow, this will be in 
 vain ; they will still return the same tone ; for 
 such is their formation, that they are sonorous 
 only because they are elastic, and the force of 
 this elasticity is not increased by our strength, 
 as the period of a pendulum's vibration will 
 not be increased by falling from a greater 
 height. 
 
 From the above considerations, the most accu- 
 rate distinctions of sound have been resolved 
 into loud and low, grave and acute, long and 
 short. With respect to the vibration necessary 
 to produce the various concatenations of sound, 
 particularly in the ascending series , it has been 
 found from the nature of elastic strings, that the 
 longest strings have the widest vibrations, and 
 consequently go backward and forward slowest ; 
 while, on the contrary, the shortest strings vibrate 
 the quickest, or come and go in the shortest in- 
 tervals. Hence it has been asserted, that the 
 tone of the string depends upon the length or 
 shortness of the vibrations. This, however, is 
 not the case. The same string, when struck 
 upon, must always, like the same pendulum, return 
 precisely similar vibrations ; but it is well known, 
 that the same string does not always return pre- 
 cisely the same tone : so that in this case, the 
 vibrations follow one rule, and the tone another. 
 The vibrations must be invariably the same in 
 the same string, which does not return the same 
 tone invariably, as is well known to musicians 
 in general. In the violin, for instance, we easily 
 alter the tone of the string an octave, or eight 
 notes higher, by a softer method of drawing the 
 bow ; and, some are known thus to bring out 
 the most charming airs imaginable ; or, those 
 peculiar tones called flute notes. The only reason, 
 it has been alleged, that can be assigned for the 
 same string thus returning different tones, must 
 certainly be the different force of its strokes upon 
 the air. In one case, it has double the tone of 
 the other ; because upon the soft touches of the 
 bow, only half its elasticity is put into vibration. 
 Thus, say the authors of this theory, we shall 
 be able clearly to account for many things re- 
 lating to sounds that have hitherto been inex- 
 plicable. For instance, if it be asked, when 
 two strings are stretched together of equal 
 lengths, tensions, and thickness, how does it 
 happen, that one of them being struck, and 
 made to vibrate throughout, the other shall vi- 
 brate throughout also ? The answer is obvious : 
 the force that the string struck receives, is com- 
 municated to the air, and the air communicates 
 the same to the similar string ; which therefore 
 receives all the force of the former ; and the 
 force being equal, the vibrations must be so too. 
 Again, if one string be but half the length of the 
 other, and be struck, how will the vibrations be 
 The answer is, the longest string will receive all 
 the force of the string half as long as itself, and 
 therefore it will vibrate in proportion, that is. 
 through half its length. In the same manner
 
 106 
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 if the longest string were three times as long as 
 the other, it would only vibrate in a third of its 
 length ; or if four times, in a fourth of its 
 length. In short, whatever force the smaller 
 string impresses upon the air, the air will im- 
 press a similar force upon the longer string, and 
 partially excite its vibrations. Hence also we 
 may account for those gradations of sound in 
 the TEolian lyre ; an instrument (says Sir John 
 Hawkins) lately obtruded upon the public as a 
 new invention, though described above a cen- 
 tury ago by Kircher. (ACOUSTICS, PI. I. fig- 1.) 
 This instrument is easily made, being nothing 
 more than a long narrow box of thin deal, about 
 thirty inches long, five inches broad, and one 
 inch and three fourths deep, with a circle in 
 the middle of the upper side or belly about one 
 inch and a half in diameter, pierced with small 
 holes. On this side are seven, ten, or (accord- 
 ing to Kircher) fifteen or more strings of very 
 fine gut, stretched over bridges at each end, 
 like the bridge of a fiddle, and screwed up or 
 relaxed with screw-pins. The strings are all 
 tuned to one note, and the instrument is placed 
 in a current of air, where the wind can brush 
 over its strings with freedom. A window, with 
 the sash just raised, to give the air admission, 
 will answer this purpose exactly. When the air 
 blows upon these strings with different degrees 
 of force, there will be excited different degrees 
 of sound ; sometimes the blast brings out all the 
 tones in full concert: sometimes it sinks them 
 to the softest murmurs ; it produces every tone, 
 and by its gradations of strength solicits those 
 gradations of sound, which art has taken differ- 
 ent methods to produce. See ./EOLIAN HARP. 
 The same observations may be applied to the 
 loudness and lowness, or, as musicians speak, 
 the strength and softness of sound. In vibra- 
 ting elastic strings, the loudness of the tone is 
 in proportion to the deepness of the note ; that 
 is, in two strings, all things in other circum- 
 stances alike, the deepest tone will be loudest. 
 In musical instruments, upon a different princi- 
 ple, as in the violin, it is otherwise ; the tones 
 are made in such instruments, by a number of 
 small vibrations crowded into one stroke. The 
 resined bow, for instance, being drawn along a 
 string, its roughnesses catch the string at very 
 small intervals, and excite its vibrations. In 
 that instrument, therefore, to excite loud tones, 
 the bow must be drawn quick, and this will 
 produce the greatest number of vibrations. But 
 it must he observed, that the more quickly the 
 bow passes over the string, the less apt will the 
 roughness of its surface be to touch the string at 
 every instant ; to remedy this, therefore, the 
 bow must be pressed the harder as it is drawn 
 quicker, and tnus its full sound will be brought 
 out from the instrument. If the swiftness of the 
 vibrations, in an instrument thus excited, exceed 
 the force of the deeper sound in another, then 
 the swift vibrations will be heard at a greater 
 distance, and as much farther off as the swiftness 
 in them exceeds the force in the other. By this 
 theory, it is alleged, may all the phenomena of 
 musical sounds be easily explained. It \vas an 
 ancient opinion that music was first discovered 
 by the beating of different hammers upon the 
 
 smith's anvil, Without pursuing the fable, let 
 us suppose an anvil, or several simi.'ir anvils, 
 to be struck upon by several hammers of differ- 
 ent weights or forces. The hammer, which is 
 of double weight, upon striking the anvil, will 
 produce a sound, double that of another, of 
 half its weight: this double sound musicians 
 have agreed to call an octave. The ear can 
 judge of the difference or resemblance of these 
 sounds, with great ease, the numbers being as 
 one and two, and therefore very readily com- 
 pared. Suppose a hammer, three times less 
 than the first, strikes the anvil, the sound pro- 
 duced by this will be three times less than the 
 first : so that the ear, in judging the similitude 
 of these sounds, will find somewhat more diffi- 
 culty ; because it is not so easy to tell how often 
 one is contained in three, as it is to tell how 
 often it is contained in two. Again, suppose 
 the hammer four times less, or five time less, 
 the dificulty of judging will be still greater. If 
 the hammer be six or seven times less, the diffi- 
 culty still increases, insomuch, that the ear can- 
 not readily determine the precise gradation. 
 Now, of all comparisions those which the mind 
 makes most easily, and with least labour, are the 
 most pleasing. And as the ear is but an instru- 
 ment of the mind, it is therefore most pleased 
 with the combination of two sounds, the differ- 
 ence of which it can most readily distinguish. 
 It is more pleased with the concord of two 
 sounds, which are to each other as one and two, 
 than of two sounds which are as one and three, 
 or one and four, or one and five, or one and six 
 or seven. Upon this pleasure which the mind 
 takes in comparison, all harmony depends. The 
 variety of sounds is infinite ; but because the ear 
 cannot compare two sounds so as readily to dis- 
 tinguish their discriminations when they exceed 
 the proportion of one and seven, musicians have 
 been content to confine all harmony within that 
 compass, and have allowed but seven notes in 
 musical composition. 
 
 Let us now then suppose a stringed instru- 
 ment fitted up in the order mentioned above. 
 For instance : let the first string be twice as long 
 as the second ; let the third string be three times 
 shorter than the first; let the fourth be four 
 times, the fifth string five times, and the sixth 
 six times as short as the first. Such an instru- 
 ment would probably give us a representation of 
 the lyre, as it came from the hands of the inven- 
 tor. This instrument will give us all the seven 
 notes following each other, in the order in which 
 any two of them will accord together most 
 pleasingly ; but yet it will be a very inconve- 
 nient and disagreeable instrument ; for iu a 
 compass of seven strings only, the first must be 
 seven times as long as the last ; and also seven 
 times as loud ; so that when the tones are to be 
 played in a different order, loud and soft sounds 
 would be intermixed with most disgusting alter- 
 nations. In order to improve the first instru- 
 ment, therefore, succeeding musicians very 
 judiciously threw in all the other strings between 
 the two first, or, in other words, between the 
 two octaves, giving to each, the same proportion 
 it would have had in the first natural instrument. 
 This nr.de the instrument more portable, and
 
 Vol. i.P.UiK loo. 
 
 Ac 1 or sS 'i 1 i c >i 
 
 /'if i. / 
 
 VOL .7.1'AGE !.".( I
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 107 
 
 the sounds more even and pleasing. They 
 therefore disposed the sounds between the octave 
 in their natural order, and gave each its own 
 proportional dimensions. Of these sounds, 
 where the proportion between any two of them 
 is most obvious, the concord between them will 
 oe most pleasing. Thus octaves, which are as two 
 to one, have a most harmonious effect : the 
 fourth and fifth also, sound sweetly together, and 
 they will be found, upon calculation, to bear the 
 same proportion to each other that octaves do. 
 The true cause why concord is pleasing, must 
 arise from our power, in such a case, of mea- 
 suring more easily the differences of the tones. 
 In proportion as the note can be measured with 
 its fundamental tone by large and obvious dis- 
 tinctions, then the concord is most pleasing; 
 on the contrary, when the ear measures the dis- 
 criminations of two tones by very small parts, 
 or cannot measure them at all, it loses the beauty 
 of their resemblance : the whole is discord and 
 pain. 
 
 There is another property in the vibration of 
 musical strings which is held to confirm the 
 foregoing theory. If we strike the string of a 
 harpsichord, or any other elastic sounding chord 
 it returns a continuing sound. This till of late, 
 was considered as one simple uniform tone ; but 
 all musicians now confess, that it constantly re- 
 turns four tones. The notes are, besides the 
 fundamental tone, an octave above, a twelfth 
 above, and a seventeenth. One of the bass 
 notes of the harpsichord has been dissected in 
 this manner by Rameau, and the actual existence 
 of these tones proved beyond a possibility of 
 being controverted. The experiment is easily 
 tried : for if we smartly strike one of the lower 
 keys of a harpsichord, and then take the finger 
 briskly away, a tolerable ear will be able to dis- 
 tinguish, that, after the fundamental tone has 
 ceased, three other shriller tones will be dis- 
 tinctly heard ; first, the octave above, then the 
 twelfth, and lastly the seventeenth ; the octave 
 above is in general almost mixed with the fun- 
 damental tone, so as not to be easily perceived, 
 except to an ear long habituated to the minute 
 discriminations of sounds. Thus, the smallest 
 tone is heard last, and the deepest and largest 
 one first : the two others in order. In the 
 whole theory of sounds, nothing has given 
 greater room for speculation, conjecture, and 
 disappointment, than this amazing property in 
 elastic strings. The whole string is universally 
 acknowledged to be in vibration in all its parts ; 
 yet this single vibration returns no less than four 
 different sounds. They who account for the 
 tones of strings by the number of their vibra- 
 tions, are here at the greatest loss. Daniel 
 Bernoulli supposes, that a vibrating string 
 divides itself into a number of curves, each of 
 which has a peculiar vibration ; and though they 
 all swing together in the common vibration, yet 
 each vibrates within itself. This opinion, which 
 was supported, as most geometrical speculations 
 are, with the parade of demonstration, was only 
 born to die soon after. Others have ascribed 
 this to an elastic difference in the parts of the air, 
 each of which, at different intervals, thus re- 
 ceived different impressions from the string, in 
 
 proportion to their elasticity. This is absurd. 
 If we allow the difference of tone to proceed 
 from the force, and not the frequency, of the vi- 
 brations, this difficulty will admit of an easy 
 solution. These sounds, though they seem to 
 exist together in the string, actually follow each 
 other in succession : while the vibration has 
 greatest force, the fundamental tone is brought 
 forward ; the force of the vibration decaying, 
 the octave is produced, though only for an in- 
 stant ; to this succeeds, with diminished force, 
 the twelfth ; and, lastly, the seventeenth is heard 
 to vibrate with great distinctness, while the 
 three other tones are always silent. These 
 sounds, thus excited, are all of them the har- 
 monic tones, whose differences from the funda- 
 mental tone are, as was said, strong and dis- 
 tinct. On the other hand, the discordant tones 
 cannot be heard. Their differences being but 
 small, they are overpowered, and in a manner 
 drowned in the tones of superior difference. Yet 
 not always ; for Daniel Bernoulli has been able, 
 from the same stroke, to make the same string 
 bring out its harmonic and its discordant tones 
 also. So that from hence we may infer, that 
 every note whatsoever is only a succession of 
 tones ; and that those are most distinctly heard, 
 whose differences are most easily perceivable. 
 
 Against this theory, however, though of plausi- 
 ble appearance, some strong and insuperable ob- 
 jections seem to offer themselves : the funda- 
 mental principle of it is incorrect. No body 
 whatever, whether elastic or non-elastic, yields 
 a different note by being struck by a larger in- 
 strument, unless either the sounding body, or 
 that part of it which emits the sound is enlarged. 
 In this case the largest bodies always return the 
 gravest sounds. In speaking of elastic and non- 
 elastic bodies in a musical sense, we are not to push 
 the distinction so far as when we speak of them 
 philosophically. A body is musically elastic, all 
 of whose parts are thrown into vibrations so as to 
 emit a sound when only a part of their surface is 
 struck. Of this kind are bells, musical strings, 
 and all bodies whatever that are considerably 
 hollow. Musical non-elastic bodies are such bo- 
 dies as emit a sound only from that particular 
 place which is struck : thus, a table, a plate of iron 
 nailed on wood, a bell sunk in the earth, are all 
 of them non-elastics in a musical sense, though 
 not philosophically so. When a solid body, 
 such as a log of wood, is struck with a switch, 
 only that part of it emits a sound which comes 
 in contact with the switch ; the note is acute and 
 loud, but would be no less so though the adjacent 
 parts of the log were removed. If, instead of the 
 switch, a heavier or larger instrument is made 
 use of, a larger portion of its surface then returns 
 a sound, and the note is consequently more 
 grave ; but it would not be so, if the large in- 
 strument struck it with a sharp edge, or a sur- 
 face only equal to that of the small one. In 
 sounds of this kind, where there is only a single 
 stroke, without any repetition, the immediate 
 cause of the gravity or acuteness seems to be the 
 quantity of air displaced by the sounding body ; 
 a large quantity displaced, produces a grave 
 sound, and a smaller quantity a more acute one, 
 the force wherewith the air is displaced signify-
 
 108 
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 ing very little. This is confirmed by some ex- 
 periments made by Dr. Priestley, concerning the 
 musical tone of electrical discharges. His remarks 
 are : " As the course of my experiments has re- 
 quired a great variety of electrical explosions, I 
 could not help observing a great variety in the 
 musical tone made by the reports. This excited 
 my curiosity to attempt to reduce this variation 
 to some measure. Accordingly, by the help of 
 a couple of spinets, and two persons who had 
 good ears for music, I endeavoured to ascertain 
 the tone of some electrical discharges ; and ob- 
 served, that every discharge made several strings, 
 particularly those that were chords to one ano- 
 ther, to vibrate : but, one note was always pre- 
 dominant, and sounded after the rest. As every 
 explosion was repeated several times, and three 
 of us separately took the same note, there re- 
 mained no doubt but that the tone we fixed upon 
 was at last the true one. The result was as follows : 
 A jar containing half a square foot of coated 
 glass sounded F sharp, concert pitch. Another 
 jar of a different form, but equal surface, sounded 
 the same. A jar of three square feet sounded 
 C below F sharp. A battery consisting of sixty- 
 four jars, each containing half a square foot, 
 sounded F below the C. The same battery, in 
 conjunction with another of thirty-one jars, 
 sounded C sharp. So that a greater quantity of 
 coated glass always gave a deeper note. Dif- 
 ferences in the degree of a charge in the same 
 jar made little or no difference in the tone of the 
 explosion : if any, a higher charge gave rather a 
 deeper note." 
 
 These experiments prove how much the gravity 
 or acuteness of sounds depend on the quantity 
 of air put in agitation by the sounding body. 
 We know that the noise of the electric explosion 
 arises from the return of the air into the vacuum 
 produced by the electric flash. The larger the 
 vacuum, the deeper the note : for the same reason, 
 the discharge of a musket produces a more acute 
 note than that of a cannon ; and thunder is deeper 
 than either. Other circumstances also concur to 
 produce different degrees of gravity or acuteness 
 in sounds. The sound of a table struck with a 
 piece of wood, will not be the same with that 
 produced from a plate of iron struck by the same 
 piece of wood, even if the blows should be ex- 
 actly equal, and the iron perfectly kept from 
 vibrating. Here the sounds are generally said to 
 differ in their degrees of acuteness, according to 
 the specific gravities or densities of the substances 
 which emit them. Thus gold, which is the most 
 dense of all metals, returns a much graver sound 
 than silver ; and metalline wires, which are more 
 dense than strings return a proportionably 
 graver sound. But neither does this appear to 
 be a general rule in which we can put confidence. 
 Bell metal is denser than copper, but it by no 
 means appears to yield a graver sound ; on the 
 contrary, it seems very probable, that copper 
 will give a graver sound than bell-metal, if both 
 are struck upon in their non-elastic state ; and 
 we can by no means think that a bell of pure 
 tin, the least dense of all the metals, will give 
 a more acute sound than one of bell-metal 
 which is greatly more dense. In some bodies 
 hardness seems to have a corsiderable effect. 
 
 Glass, which is considerably harder than any 
 metal, gives a more acute sound ; bell-metal 
 is harder than gold, lead, or tin, and therefore 
 sounds much more acutely ; though how far this 
 holds with regard to different substances, there 
 are not a sufficient number of experiments for 
 us to judge. In bodies musically elastic, the 
 whole substance vibrates with the slightest 
 stroke, and therefore they always give the same 
 note, whether they are struck with a large or 
 with a small instrument ; so that striking a part 
 of the surface of any body musically elastic is 
 equivalent, in it, to striking the whole surface 
 of a non-elastic one. If the whole surface of a 
 table was struck with another table, the note 
 produced would be neither more nor less acute 
 whatever force was employed ; because the 
 whole surface would then yield a sound, and no 
 force could increase the surface : the sound 
 would indeed be louder in proportion to the 
 force employed, but the gravity would remain 
 the same. In like manner, when a bell, or mu- 
 sical string, is struck, the whole substance vi- 
 brates, and a greater stroke cannot increase the 
 substance. Hence we see the fallacy of what 
 is said concerning the Pythagorean anvils. An 
 anvil is a body musically elastic, and no differ- 
 ence in the tone can be perceived whether it is 
 struck with a large or with a small hammer; 
 because either of them are sufficient to make the 
 whole substance vibrate, provided nothing but 
 the anvil is struck upon : smiths, however, do 
 not strike their anvils, but red hot iron laid upon 
 their anvils ; and thus the vibrations of the an- 
 vil are stopped, so that it becomes a non-elastic 
 body, and the differences of tone in the strokes 
 of different hammers proceed only from the sur- 
 face of the large hammers covering the whole 
 surface of the iron, or at least a greater part of it 
 than the small ones. If the small hammer is 
 sufficient to cover the whole surface of the iron 
 as well as the large one, the note produced will be 
 the same, whether the large or the small hammer is 
 used. The argument for the preceding theory, 
 grounded on the production of what are called 
 flute notes on the violin, is also built on a false 
 foundation ; for the bow being lightly drawn on 
 an open string, produces no flute notes, but 
 only the harmonics of the note to which the 
 string is tuned. The flute notes are produced 
 by a particular motion of the bow, quick and 
 near the bridge, and by fingering very gently. 
 By this management, the same sounds are pro- 
 duced, though at certain intervals only, as if the 
 vibrations were transferred to the space between 
 the end of the finger-board and the finger, in- 
 stead of that between the finger and the bridge. 
 Why this small part of the string should vibrate 
 in such a case, and not that which is under the 
 immediate action of the bow, we are ignorant ; 
 nor dare we affirm that the vibrations really are 
 transferred in this manner, only the same sounds 
 are produced as if they were. 
 
 Though these objections seem sufficiently to 
 overturn the foregoing theory, with regard to 
 acute sounds being the effects of weak strokes 
 and grave ones of stronger impulses, we cannot 
 admit that longer or shorter vibrations are the 
 occasion of gravity or acuteness in sound. A
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 109 
 
 musical sound, however lengthened, either by 
 string or bell, is only a repetition of a single 
 one, whose duration by itself is but for a mo- 
 ment, and is therefore inappretiable like the 
 smack of a whip, or the explosion of an elec- 
 trical battery. The continuation of the sound is 
 nothing more than a repetition of this instanta- 
 neous inappretiable noise after the manner of an 
 echo, and it is this echo that makes the sound 
 agreeable. For this reason, music is much 
 more agreeable, when played in a large hall 
 where the sound is reverberated, than in a small 
 room where there is no such reverberation ; and 
 for the same reason, the sound of a string is 
 more agreeable when put on a hollow violin 
 than when fastened to a plain board, &c. In 
 the sound of a bell we cannot avoid observing 
 this echo very distinctly. The sound appears to 
 be made up of distinct pulses, or repetitions of 
 the same note produced by the stroke of the 
 hammer. It can by no means be allowed, that 
 the note would be more acute though these 
 pulses were to succeed one another more rapidly ; 
 the sound would indeed become more simple, 
 but would still preserve the same tone. In 
 misical strings the reverberations are vastly 
 ore quick than in bells, and therefore their 
 sound is more uniform or simple, and consequent- 
 ly more agreeable than that of bells. In musical 
 glasses, the vibrations must be inconceivably 
 quicker than in any bell, or stringed instrument : 
 and hence they are of all others the most simple 
 and the most agreeable, though neither the most 
 acute nor the loudest. As far as we can judge, 
 quickness of vibration contributes to the unifor- 
 mity, or simplicity, but not to the acuteness, nor 
 to the loudness, of a musical note. See HAR- 
 MONICA. 
 
 It may here be objected, that each of the dif- 
 ferent pulses of which we observe the sound of 
 a bell to be composed, is of a very perceptible 
 length, and far from being instantaneous ; so that 
 it is not fair to infer that the sound of a bell is 
 only a repetition of a single instantaneous stroke, 
 seeing it is evidently the repetition of a length- 
 ened note. To this it may be replied, that the 
 inappretiable sound, which is produced by strik- 
 ing a bell in a non-elastic state, is the very same 
 which, being first propagated round the bell, 
 forms one of these short pulses, that is afterwards 
 re-echoed as long as the vibrations of the metal 
 continue, and it is impossible that the quickness 
 of repetition of any sound can either increase or 
 diminish its gravity. 
 
 The writers on sound have been betrayed into 
 many difficulties and obscurities, by rejecting 
 Ihe 47th proposition, B. ii. of Newton, as incon- 
 tlusive reasoning. Of this proposition, however, 
 the ingenious Mr. Young of Trinity College, 
 Dublin, published some time since a clear, 
 explanatory defence. He concedes that the 
 demonstration is obscurely stated, and takes 
 the liberty of varying, in some degree, from the 
 method of Newton. " 1 . The parts of all sound- 
 ing bodies (he observes,) vibrate according to 
 the law of a cycloidal pendulum : for they may 
 be considered as composed of an indefinite num- 
 ber of elastic fibres; but these fibres vibrate 
 according to that law. 2. Sounding bodies pro- 
 
 pagate their motions on all sides in directum, by 
 successive condensations and rarefactions and 
 successive goings forward and returning back- 
 ward of the particles. 3. The pulses are those 
 parts of the air which vibrate backwards and for- 
 wards; and which, by going forward, strike 
 pulsant against obstacles. The latitude of a 
 pulse is the rectilineal space through which the 
 motion of the air is propagated during one vibra- 
 tion of the sounding body. 4. All pulses move 
 equally fast. This is proved by experiment : 
 and it is found they describe 1070 Paris feet, or 
 1142 London feet in a second, whether the sound 
 be loud or low, grave or acute. 5. To deter- 
 mine the latitude of a pulse : Divide the space 
 which the pulse describes in a given time by the 
 number of vibrations performed in the same time 
 by the sounding body, the quotient is the latitude. 
 
 " M. Sauveur, by some experiments on organ 
 pipes, found that a body, which gives the gravest 
 harmonic sound, vibrates twelve times and an 
 half in a second, and that the shrillest sounding 
 body vibrates 51,100 times in a second. At a 
 medium, let us take the body which gives what 
 Sauveur calls his fixed sound: it performs 100 
 vibrations in a second, and in the same time the 
 pulses describe 1070 Parisian feet; therefore the 
 space described by the pulses whilst the body 
 vibrates once, that is, the latitude, or interval of 
 the pulse will be 107 feet. See SOUND. 
 
 6. To find the proportion whicn the greatest 
 space, through which the particles of the air 
 vibrate, bears to the radius of a circle, whose 
 perimeter is equal to the latitude of the pulse. 
 During the first half of the progress of the elastic 
 fibre, or sounding body, it is continually getting 
 nearer to the next particle ; and during the latter 
 half of its progress, that particle is getting farther 
 from the fibre, and these portions of time are 
 equal : therefore we may conclude, that at the 
 end of the progress of the fibre, the first particle 
 of air will be nearly as far distant from the fibre 
 as when it began to move ; and in the same man- 
 ner we may infer, that all the particles vibrate 
 through spaces nearly equal to that run over by 
 the fibre. Now, M. Sauveur has found by ex- 
 periment, that the middle point of a chord which 
 produces his fixed sound, and whose diameter is 
 one sixth of a line, runs over in its smallest sen- 
 sible vibrations one eighteenth of a line, and in 
 its greatest vibrations seventy-two times that 
 space ; that is seventy-two x one eighteenth 
 of a line, or four lines, that is, one third of an 
 inch. The latitude of the pulses of this fixed 
 sound is 10'7 feet; and since the circumference 
 of a circle is to its radius as 7'10 is to 113, the 
 greatest space described by the particles will be 
 to the radius of a circle, whose periphery is equal 
 to the latitude of the pulse, as one-third of an 
 inch is to 1-7029 feet, or 20-4348 inches, that is, 
 as one to 61-3044. If the length of the siring 
 be increased or diminished in any proportion 
 cieteris paribus,l\ie greatest space described by its 
 middle point will vary in the same proportion . 
 For the inflecting force is, to the tending force, 
 as the distance of the string from the middle point 
 of vibration to half the length of the string ; and 
 therefore the inflecting and tending forces being 
 given, the string will vibrate thrr igh spaces pro-
 
 110 
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 ; ; ortionate to its length; but the latitude of the 
 pulse is inversely as the number of vibrations 
 performed by the string in a given time; that is, 
 directly as the time of one vibration, or directly 
 as the length of the string ; therefore the greatest 
 space, through which the middle point of the 
 string vibrates, will vary in the direct ratio of 
 the latitude of the pulse, or of the radius of a 
 circle whose circumference is equal to the lati- 
 tude ; that is, it will be to that radius as one to 
 61 '3044. 7. If the particles of the aerial pulses, 
 during any part of their vibration, be successively 
 agitated, according to the law of a cycloidal pen- 
 dulum; the comparative elastic forces arising 
 from their mutual action, by which they will 
 afterwards be agitated, will be such as will cause 
 the particles to continue that motion, according 
 to the same law, to the end of their vibration. 
 8. If a particle of the medium be agitated ac- 
 cording to the law of a cycloidal pendulum, the 
 comparative elastic force, acting on the adjacent 
 particle, from the instant in which it begins to 
 move, will be such as will cause it to continue its 
 motion according to the same law ; that is, the 
 comparative elastic force of the second particle, 
 at the instant in which it begins to move, will "be 
 to the force with which it is agitated in any other 
 moment of time, before the subsequent particle has 
 yet been set in motion, directly as its distance from 
 the middle point of vibration. Now this compara- 
 tive elastic force, with which the second particle 
 is agitated in the very moment in which it begins 
 to move, arises from the preceding particle's ap- 
 proaching it according to the law of a pendulum ; 
 and therefore, if the preceding particle approaches 
 it in this manner, the force by which it will be 
 agitated, in the very moment it begins to move, 
 will be exactly such as should take place in 
 order to move it according to the law of a pen- 
 dulum. It therefore sets out according to that 
 law, and consequently the subsequent elastic 
 forces, generated in every successive moment, 
 will also continue to be of the just magnitude 
 which should take plape, in order to produce 
 such a motion. 9. The pulses of the air are 
 propagated from sounding bodies, according to 
 the law of a cycloidal pendulum. All the par- 
 ticles of air in the pulses successively set out 
 from their proper places, according to the law of 
 a pendulum, and therefore will finish their entire 
 vibrations according to the same law. Cor. 1. 
 The number of pulses propagated is the same 
 with the number of vibrations of the tremulous 
 body, nor is it multiplied in their progress. 
 Cor. 2. In the extreme points of the little space 
 through which the particle vibrates, the expan- 
 sion of the air is in its natural state. 10. To 
 find the velocity of the pulses, the density and 
 elastic force of the medium being given. This 
 is the 49th prop. B. 2. Newton, in which he 
 shows, that whilst a pendulum, whose length 
 is equal to the height of the homogeneous atmos- 
 phere, vibrates once forwards and backwards, 
 the pulses will describe a space, equal to the 
 periphery of a circle described with that altitude 
 as its radius. Cor. 1. He thence shows, that the 
 velocity of the pulses is equal to that which a 
 heavy body would acquire, in falling down half 
 the altitude in the homogeneous atmosphere : and 
 
 therefore that all pulses move equally fast, whether 
 the tone be loud or low, grave or acute. Cor. 2. 
 And also, that the velocity of the pulses is in a 
 ratio compounded of the direct subduplicate ratio 
 of the elastic force of the medium, and the inverse 
 subduplicate of its density. Hence sounds move 
 somewhat faster in summer than in winter. 11. 
 The strength of a tone is as the moment of the 
 particles of air. The moment of these particles 
 (the medium being given) is as their velocity ; 
 and the velocity of these particles is as the velo- 
 city of the string which sets them in motion : 
 The velocities of two different strings are equal, 
 when the spaces which they describe in their 
 vibrations are to each other as the times of these 
 vibrations : therefore two different tones are of 
 equal strength, when the spaces, through which 
 the strings producing them vibrate, are directly 
 as the times of their vibration. Hence we should 
 suppose, that in this case, an equal number of 
 equal impulses would generate equally powerful 
 tones in these strings. But we are to observe, 
 that the longer the string, the greater, c&teris 
 paribus, is the 3pace through which a given force 
 inflects it ; and therefore whatever diminution is 
 produced in the spaces through which the strings 
 move in their successive vibrations, arising either 
 from the want of perfect elasticity in the strings, 
 or from the resistance of the air, this diminution 
 will bear a greater proportion to the less space, 
 through which the shortest string vibrates. And 
 this is confirmed by experience ; for we find that 
 the duration of the tone and motion of the whole 
 string exceeds that of any of its subordinate parts. 
 Therefore, after a given interval of time, a greater 
 quantity of motion will remain in the longer 
 string; and consequently, after the successive 
 equal impulses have been made, a greater degree 
 of motion will still subsist in it. That is, a given 
 number of equal impulses being made on various 
 strings, differing in length only, a stronger sound 
 will be produced." 
 
 These propositions Mr. Young has illustrated 
 by mathematical demonstrations at considerable 
 length ; for which, as our room permits us not 
 to insert them completely, and they would not 
 bear to be abridged, we must refer our readers 
 to his work. 
 
 SECT. III. OF THE VELOCITY, &c. OF SOUND. 
 Experience has taught us that sound travels 
 at the rate of more therfi one thousand feet 
 in a second, nor do any obstacles materially 
 hinder its progress, a contrary wind only 
 a small matter diminishing its velocity. The 
 method of calculating its progress is easily 
 made known. When a gun is discharged at a 
 distance, we see the fire long before we hear the 
 sound. If then we know the distance of the 
 place, and know the time of the interval between 
 our first seeing the fire and then hearing the re- 
 port, this will show us exactly the time the sound 
 has been travelling to us. For instance, if the 
 gun is discharged a mile off, the moment the 
 flash is seen, you take a watch and count the 
 seconds till you hear the sound ; the number of 
 seconds is the time the sound has been travelling 
 a mile. Again, by the above axiom, we are 
 enabled to find the distance between objects that 
 would be otherwise immeasurable. For example,
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 suppose we see the flash of a gun, in the night, at 
 sea, and tell seven seconds before we hear the re- 
 port, it follows therefore, that the distance is seven 
 times 1 142 feet, that is, 24 yards more than a mile 
 and a half. In like manner if we observe the num- 
 ber of sounds between the lightning and the re- 
 port of the thunder, we know the distance of the 
 cloud from whence it proceeds. 
 
 Wind, blowing in the direction of sound, has 
 been supposed to increase its velocity; but owing 
 to the superior rapidity of the latter, its accelera- 
 tion by this means must be very inconsiderable ; 
 hence the chief effect observable from the wind 
 is, that, by increasing and diminishing the space 
 of the waves, it carries the sound to a greater 
 distance. The velocity of sound in liquids has 
 never been distinctly ascertained, although it 
 might be easily calculated by measuring the 
 compressibility of the medium : in gases it bears 
 proportion to their relative densities ; and is ob- 
 served in pure hydrogen to be three times that of 
 common air. In the ordinary medium, it is 
 much influenced by the elevation or depression 
 of temperature, occasioned by the condensation 
 or rarefaction of air ; also by the proportion of 
 humidity contained in it. Cold fogs, by in- 
 creasing the density of air without changing its 
 elasticity, diminish the velocity of sound ; whilst 
 warm vapours, which tend to make it lighter, 
 naturally increase it. 
 
 Sound being capable of transmission through 
 material substances, the hardest and least com- 
 pressible, with a velocity much greater than that 
 with which it is conveyed through the air, the 
 motion of a troop of cavalry is perceived at 
 a greater distance, by listening with the head in 
 contact with the ground, than by waiting while 
 the sound travels through the atmosphere ; and 
 the furniture of a house is agitated by the ap- 
 proach of a waggon before those in the room 
 near the sound. Mr. Wunsch observed that 
 a series of deal rods, closely united, communi- 
 cated an instantaneous impulse of sound, while 
 a sensible interval elapsed before he heard it in 
 the air. He also found that the blow of a hammer 
 on the upper part of a great building, is heard 
 twice by a person standing near it on the ground ; 
 the first sound descending through the wall, and 
 the second through the ordinary medium. 
 
 The decay of sound is the natural conse- 
 quence of its diffusion through a larger quantity 
 of matter, as it diverges every way from its cen- 
 tre ; the velocity of the particles of the trans- 
 mitting medium, diminishing in proportion to 
 the increased distance from the centre ; their 
 motion, therefore, which measures the strength 
 of the sound, must vary as the square of the 
 distance ; hence, at the distance of ten feet from 
 the sounding body, the velocity of the particles 
 in the medium is only one tenth as great as at the 
 distance of one foot, and the impetus of sound one 
 hundredth only. Young's Nat. Phil. vol. i. lect. 31 . 
 
 Dr. Derham has proposed and answered the 
 following important queries relative to the laws 
 of sound, which condense most of our existing 
 information on the subject. 
 
 " How far does sound move in a second of 
 time? Sound moves 1142 feet, or 380 yards, in 
 a second, which is after the rate of an English 
 
 mile in 9j, or 9.25 half seconds ; two miles in 
 18}; three miles in 27J ; and about thirteen 
 miles in one minute. 
 
 Does the report of a gun, discharged with its 
 mouth towards us, come sooner than when the 
 muzzle is in a contrary direction ? There is no 
 difference in the velocity of sound from this dif- 
 ferent direction. 
 
 Do the winds affect the motion of sounds? 
 By repeated experiments it appears that there is 
 some, though a very small difference, according 
 as the sounds are with or against the wind, and 
 as the wind is strong or soft. 
 
 Do a great and intense sound, and a soft and 
 languid one, move with the same velocity ? They 
 do ; for by experiments, a cannon, fired with a 
 half-pound charge of powder, was heard at the 
 distance of 17 miles in the same time after the 
 flash was seen, as when fired with a charge of 
 six pounds. 
 
 Does the sound of a gun move equally swift 
 at all elevations? It does. 
 
 Do different quantities or strength of gun- 
 powder, occasion any difference as to the ve- 
 locity of sound ? None. 
 
 Does sound move, in a right line, the nearest 
 way, or does it sweep along the earth's surface ? 
 and is there any difference in the time, if the 
 piece be discharged in an acclive or declive 
 position ? Sound moves the nearest way ; and 
 the velocity appears to be the same in acclivities 
 as in declivities. 
 
 Have all kinds of sounds, as those of guns, 
 bells, &c. the same velocity ? and are sounds 
 equally swift in the beginning of their motion 
 and the end ? There appears no inequality in 
 either of these respects ; and, therefore, the times 
 in which sounds are heard, are proportional to 
 their distance, that is, at a double distance, they 
 are heard in twice the time, &c. It appears 
 from the above experiments and observations, 
 that all sounds whatever travel at the same rate. 
 The sound of a gun, and the striking of a ham- 
 mer, are equally swift in their motions ; the 
 softest whisper flies as swiftly, as far as it goes, 
 as the loudest thunder. To these axioms may 
 be added, that, smooth and clear sounds proceed 
 from the bodies that are homogeneous, and of an 
 uniform figure ; and harsh or obtuse sounds, 
 from such as are of a mixed matter and irregular 
 figure : that the velocity of sound is to that of a 
 brisk wind as fifty to one : that the strength of 
 sounds is greatest in cold and dense air, and 
 least in that which is warm and rarefied : that 
 every point against which the pulses of sound 
 strike, becomes a centre from which a new series 
 of pulses are propagated in every direction : and 
 that sound describes equal spaces in equal times. 
 
 SECT. IV. OF THE REVERBERATION OF SOUNDS. 
 Sound, like light, after it has been reflected 
 from several places, may be collected into one 
 point, as in a focus ; and it will be there more 
 audible than in any other part, even than at the 
 place from whence it proceeded. On this prin- 
 ciple it is, that a whispering gallery is con- 
 structed. The form of this gallery must be that 
 of a concave hemisphere, as ABC ; (See Plate I. 
 fig. 2.) and if a low sound or whisper be uttered 
 at A, the vibrations expanding themselves every
 
 112 
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 way, will impinge on the points DDD, &c. and 
 from thence be reflected to EEE, and from 
 thence to the points F and G, till at last they all 
 meet in C, where the sound will be the most 
 distinctly heard. 
 
 THE AUGMENTATION of sound by SPEAKING 
 TRUMPETS, is illustrated in the following man- 
 ner: (See Plate I. fig. 3.) Let ABC be the tube, 
 BD the axis, and B the mouth-piece for convey- 
 ing the voice to the tube. It is evident, when a 
 person speaks at B in the trumpet, the whole 
 ibrce of his voice is spent upon the air contained 
 in the tube, which will be agitated through the 
 whole length of the tube ; and, by various re- 
 flections from the side of it to the axis, the air 
 along the middle will be greatly condensed, and 
 its momentum proportionably increased, so that 
 when it comes to agitate the air at the orifice of 
 the tube AC, its force will be as much greater, 
 .han it would have been without the tube, as the 
 surface of a sphere, whose radius is equal to the 
 length of the tube, is greater than the surface of 
 he segment of such a sphere, whose base is the 
 orifice of the tube. For a person speaking at B, 
 without the tube, will have the force of his voice 
 spent in exciting concentric pulses of air all around 
 the point B ; and when the pulses are diffused as 
 far as D every way, it is plain the force of the 
 voice will there be diffused through the whole 
 superficies of a sphere, whose radius is BD ; but 
 in the trumpet it will be so confined, that, at its 
 exit it will be diffused through so much of that 
 spherical surface of air, as corresponds to the 
 orifice of the tube. But since the force is given, 
 its intensity will be always inversely as the num- 
 ber of particles it has to move ; and therefore in 
 the tube it will be to that without, as the superfi- 
 cies of such a sphere to the area of the large end 
 of the tube nearly. But it is obvious, Mr. Young 
 observes, that the confinement of the voice can 
 have little effect in increasing the strength of the 
 sound, as this strength depends on the velocity 
 with which the particles move. Were this rea- 
 soning conclusive, the voice should issue through 
 the smallest possible orifice; cylindrical tubes 
 would be preferable to any that increased in 
 diameter; and the less the diameter, the greater 
 would be the effect of the instrument ; because 
 the mass of air to be moved would, in that 
 case, be less, and consequently the effect of the 
 voice greater ; all which is contradicted by ex- 
 perience. 
 
 The CAUSE of the INCREASE of SOUND in these 
 tubes must therefore be derived from some other 
 principles : and amongst these we shall probably 
 find, that what the ingenious Kircher has sug- 
 gested, in his Phonurgia, is the most deserving of 
 our attention. He tells us, that "the augmen- 
 tation of the sound depends on its reflection from 
 the tremulous sides of the tube; which reflections, 
 conspiring in propagating the pulses in the same 
 direction, must increase its intensity." Newton 
 also seems to have considered this as the principal 
 cause, in the scholium of prop. 50. B. 2. Princip. 
 when he says, "we hence see why sounds are so 
 much increased in stentorophonic tubes ; for every 
 reciprocal motion is, in each return, increased 
 by the generating cause." 
 
 When we speak in the open air, the effect on 
 
 the tympanum of a distant auditor is produced 
 merely by a single pulse. But when we use a 
 tube, all the pulses propagated from the mouth, 
 except those in the direction of the axis, strike 
 against the sides of the tube, and every point of 
 impulse becoming anew centre, from whence the 
 pulses are propagated in all directions, a pulse 
 will arrive at the ear, from each of these points ; 
 thus, by the use of a tube, a greater number of 
 pulses are propagated to the ear, and consequently 
 the sound increased. The confinement too of 
 the voice may have some effect, though not such 
 as is ascribed to it by some ; for the condensed 
 pulses produced by the naked voice, freely ex- 
 pand every way ; but in tubes, 'the lateral expan- 
 sion being diminished, the direct expansion will 
 be increased, and consequently the velocity of 
 the particles, and the intensity of the sound. The 
 substance also of the tube has its effect ; for it 
 is found by experiment, that the more elastic the 
 substance of the tube, and consequently the more 
 susceptible it is of these tremulous motions, the 
 stronger is the sound. If the tube be laid on 
 any non-elastic substance, it deadens the sound, 
 because it prevents the vibratory motion of the 
 parts. The sound is increased in speaking 
 trumpets, if the tube be suspended in the air ; 
 because the agitations are then carried on with- 
 out interruption. These tubes should increase 
 in diameter from the mouth-piece, because the 
 parts, vibrating in directions perpendicular to 
 the surface, will conjoin in impelling forward 
 the particles of air, and consequently, by in- 
 creasing their velocity, will increase the intensity 
 of the sound ; and the surface also increasing, 
 the number of points of impulse and of new 
 propagations, will increase proportionally. The 
 several causes, therefore, of the increase of sound 
 in these tubes, Mr. Young concludes to be, first, 
 the diminution of the lateral, and consequently 
 the increase of the direct, expansion and velocity 
 of the included air. Second, The increase of the 
 number of pulses, by increasing the points of 
 new propagation. Third, the reflections of the 
 pulses from the tremulous sides of the tube, 
 which impel the particles of air forward, and 
 thus increase their velocity. The same reasoning 
 applies vice versa, to the hearing trumpet. 
 
 An echo is a reflection of sound striking 
 against some object, as an image is reflected in 
 a glass : but it has been disputed what are the 
 proper qualities in a body for thus reflecting 
 sounds. It is in general known, that caverns, 
 grottoes, mountains, and ruined buildings, return 
 this image of sound. There is a very extraordi- 
 nary echo, at a ruined fortress near Louvain, in 
 Flanders. If a person sung, he only heard his 
 own voice, without any repetition : on the con- 
 trary, those who stood at some distance, heard 
 the echo but not the voice ; but then they heard 
 it with surprising variations, sometimes louder, 
 sometimes softer, now more near, then more 
 distant. There is an account in the Memoirs of 
 the French Academy, of a similar echo near 
 Rouen. As every point against which the pulses 
 of sound strike, becomes the centre of a new 
 series of pulses, and sound describes equal dis- 
 tances in equal times; therefore, when any sound 
 is propagated from a centre, and its pulses strike
 
 ACOUSTICS. 
 
 113 
 
 against a variety of obstacles, if the sum of the 
 right lines drawn from that point to each of the 
 obstacles, and from each obstacle to a second 
 point, be equal, then will the latter be a point 
 in which an echo will be heard. Hence all the 
 points of the obstacles which produce an echo, 
 must lie in the surface of the oblong sphaeroid, 
 generated by the revolution of the ellipse round 
 its major axis, 
 
 " As there may be several sphaeroids of dif- 
 ferent magnitudes, so there may be several dif- 
 ferent echoes, of the same original sound. And 
 as there may happen to be a greater number of 
 reflecting points in the surface of an exterior 
 sphzeroid, than in that of an interior, a second 
 or third echo may be much more powerful than 
 the first, provided that the superior number of 
 reflecting points, that is, the superior number of 
 reflected pulses propagated to the ear, be more 
 than sufficient to compensate for the decay of 
 sound which arises from its being propagated 
 through a greater space. This is finely illustrated 
 in the celebrated echoes at the lake of Killarney, 
 in Kerry, where the first return of the sound is 
 much inferior in strength to those which immedi- 
 ately succeed it. From what has been laid 
 down, it appears, that for the most powerful echo, 
 the sounding body should be in one focus of the 
 ellipse, which is the section of the echoing sphae- 
 roid, and the hearer in the other. However, an 
 echo may be heard in other situations, though 
 not so favourably : as such a number of reflected 
 pulses may arrive at the same time at the ear, 
 as may be sufficient to excite a distinct percep- 
 tion. Thus a person often hears the echo of his 
 own voice ; but for this purpose he should stand 
 at least sixty-three or sixty-four feet from the 
 reflecting obstacle, according to what has been 
 said before. At the common rate of speaking, 
 we pronounce not above three syllables and a 
 half, that is, seven half syllables in a second ; 
 therefore, that the echo may return just as soon 
 as three syllables are expressed, twice the distance 
 of the speaker from the reflecting object, must be 
 equal to 1000 feet ; for, as sound describes 1142 
 feet in a second, six sevenths of that space, that 
 is, 1000 feet nearly, will be described, while six 
 half, or three whole syllables are pronounced : 
 that is, the speaker must stand near 500 feet from 
 the obstacle. And in general, the distance of 
 the speaker from the echoing face, for any num- 
 ber of syllables, must be equal to the seventh 
 part of the product of 1142 feet multiplied by 
 that number. In churches we never hear a dis- 
 tinct echo of the voice, but a confused sound 
 when the speaker utters his words too rapidly ; 
 because the greatest difference of distance, be- 
 tween the direct reflected courses of such a num- 
 ber of pulses, as would produce a distinct sound, 
 is never in any church equal to 12 T feet, the limit 
 of echoes. 
 
 " But though the first reflected pulses may 
 produce no echo, both on account of their being 
 too few in number, and too rapid in their return 
 to the ear ; yet it is evident, that the reflecting 
 surface may be so formed, as that the pulses 
 which come to the ear after two reflections or 
 more, may, after having described 127 feet or 
 more, arrive at the ear in sufficient numbers, and 
 
 Voi. 1 
 
 also so nearly at the same instant, as to produce 
 an echo, though the distance of the reflecting 
 surface from the ear be less than the limit of 
 echoes. This is confirmed by a singular echo ill 
 a grotto on the banks of the little brook, called 
 the Dinan, about two miles from Castlecomber, 
 in the county of Kilkenny. As you enter the 
 cave, and continue speaking .loud, no return of 
 the voice is perceived ; but, on your arriving at 
 a certain point, which is not above fourteen or 
 fifteen feet from the reflecting surface, a very 
 distinct echo is heard. Now this echo cannot 
 arise from the first course of pulses that are re- 
 flected to the ear, because the breadth of the 
 cave is so small, that they would return too 
 quickly to produce a distinct sensation from that 
 of the original sound : it therefore is produced 
 by those pulses, which, after having been reflected 
 several times from one side of the grotto to the 
 other, and having run over a greater space than 
 127 feet, arrive at the ear in considerable num- 
 bers, and not more distant from each other, in 
 point of time, than the ninth part of a second." 
 
 The following are familiar experiments with 
 sound. I. Let a concave mirror of about two 
 feet diameter, be placed in a perpendicular di- 
 rection. The focus of this mirror may be fifteen 
 or eighteen inches from its surface. At the dis- 
 tance of about five or six feet let there be a par- 
 tition, in which there is an opening, equal to 
 the size of the mirror ; against this opening 
 must be placed a picture, painted in water 
 colours, on a thin cloth, that the sound may 
 easily pass through it. Behind the partition, at 
 the distance of two or three feet, place another 
 mirror, of the same size as the former, and let it 
 be diametrically opposite to it. Place the figure 
 of a man seated on a pedestal, with his ear 
 exactly in the focus of the first mirror : his lower 
 jaw must be made to open by a wire, and shut 
 by a spring ; and there may be another wire to 
 move the eyes ; these wires must pass through 
 the figure, go under the floor, and come up be- 
 hind the partition. A person, properly instructed, 
 should be placed behind the partition near the 
 mirror. Then propose to any one to speak softly 
 to the statue, by putting his mouth to the ear 
 of it, assuring him that it will answer instantly. 
 You then give the signal to the person behind 
 the partition, who, by placing his ear to the focus 
 of the mirror, will hear distinctly what the other 
 said ; and, moving the jaw and eyes of the statue 
 by the wires, will return an answer directly ; 
 which, will in like manner, be distinctly heard 
 by the first speaker. This experiment appears 
 to be taken from the Century of Inventions of 
 the marquis of Worcester : whose designs, at the 
 time they were published, were treated with 
 ridicule and neglect, as being impracticable, but 
 are now known to be generally, if not universally, 
 practicable. The words of the marquis are, 
 " How to make a brazen or stone head in the 
 midst of a great field, or garden, so artificial and 
 natural, that though a man speak ever so softly, 
 and even whisper into the ear thereof, it will 
 presently open its mouth and resolve the question 
 in French, Latin, Welsh, Irish, or English, in 
 good terms, uttering it out of its mouth, and then 
 shut it until the next question be asked." T.ie
 
 ACQ 
 
 114 
 
 ACQ 
 
 two following, of a similar nature, appear to have 
 been inventions of Kircher, by means of which, 
 he used to " utter feigned and ludicrous con- 
 sultations, with a view to show the fallacy and 
 imposture of ancient oracles." 
 
 II. Let there be two heads of plaster of Paris 
 placed on pedestals, on the opposite sides of a 
 room. There must be a tin tube of an inch 
 diameter, that must pass from the ear of one 
 head, through the pedestal, under the floor, and 
 go up to the mouth of the other. Observe, that 
 the end of the tube, which is next the ear of the 
 one head, be considerably larger than that end 
 which comes to the mouth of the other. Let the 
 whole be so disposed that there may not be the 
 least suspicion of a communication. When a 
 person speaks, quite low, into the ear of one bust, 
 the sound is reverberated through the length of 
 the tube, and will be distinctly heard by any one 
 who shall place his ear to the mouth of the other. 
 It is not necessary that the tube should come to 
 the lips of the bust. If there be two tubes, one 
 going to the ear, and the other to the mouth, of 
 each head, two persons may converse together, 
 by applying their mouth and ear reciprocally to 
 the mouth and ear of the busts ; and at the same 
 time, other persons that stand in the middle of 
 the chamber, between the heads, will not hear 
 any part of their conversation. 
 
 III. Place a bust on a pedastal in the corner 
 of a room, and let there be two tubes, as in the 
 foregoing amusement, one of which must go 
 from the mouth, and the other from the ear of 
 the bust, through the pedestal, and the floor, to 
 an under apartment. There may be likewise 
 wires that go from the under jaw and the eyes of 
 the bust, by which they may easily be moved. 
 A person being placed in the under room, and, at 
 a signal given, applying his ear to one of the 
 tubes, will hear any question that is asked, and 
 immediately reply ; moving at the same time, 
 by means of the wires, the mouth and eyes of 
 the bust, as if the reply came from it. 
 
 IV. In a large case, such as is used for dials 
 and spring-clocks, the front of which, or at least 
 the lower part of it, must be of glass, covered on 
 the inside with gauze, let there be placed a barrel 
 organ, which, when wound up, is prevented 
 from playing, by a catch that takes a toothed 
 wheel at the end of the barrel. To one end of 
 this catch there must be joined a wire, at the 
 end of which there is a flat circle of cork, of the 
 same dimension with the inside of a glass tube, 
 in which it is to rise and fall. This tube must 
 communicate with a reservoir that goes across 
 
 the front part of the bottom of the case, which 
 is to be filled witli spirits, such as is used in 
 thermometers, but not coloured, that it may bs 
 the better concealed by the gauze. This case 
 being placed in the sun, the spirits will be rare- 
 fied by the heat ; and rising in the tube, will lift 
 up the catch or trigger, and set the organ in 
 play : which it will continue to do as long as it 
 is kept in the sun ; for the spirits cannot run out 
 of the tube, that part of the catch, to which the 
 circle is fixed, being prevented from rising be- 
 yond a certain point, by a check placed over it. 
 When the machine is placed against the side of 
 a room on which the sun shines strong, it may 
 constantly remain in the same place, if inclosed 
 in a second case, made of thick wood, and placed 
 at a little distance from the other. When you 
 want it to perform, it will be only necessary to 
 throw open the door of the outer case, and ex- 
 pose it to the sun. But if the machine be move- 
 able, it will perform in all seasons by being 
 placed before the fire ; and in winter it will more 
 readily stop when removed into the cold. 
 
 V. Under the keys of a common harpsichord 
 let there be fixed a barrel, something like that in 
 a chamber organ, with moveable stops corres- 
 ponding to the tunes you would have it play. 
 From each of the keys let a wire descend 
 perpendicularly : the ends of these wires must 
 be turned up for about one fourth of an inch. 
 Behind these wires let there be an iron bar, to 
 prevent them from going too far back. Now, as 
 the barrel turns round, its pins take the ends of 
 the wires, which pull down the keys, and play 
 the harpsichord. The barrel and wires are to be 
 all enclosed in a case. In the chimney of the 
 same room where the harpsichord stands, or one 
 adjacent, let a smoke-jack be placed ; with a 
 wire or cord, that, passing behind the wainscot 
 adjoining the chimney, goes under the floor and 
 up one of the legs of the harpsichord, into the 
 case, and round a small wheel fixed on the axis 
 of that first mentioned. There should be pullies 
 at different distances, behind the wainscot and 
 under the floor, to facilitate the motion of the 
 cord. This machinery may be applied to any 
 other keyed instrument, as well as to chimes, 
 and to many other purposes where a regular 
 continued motion is required. An instrument of 
 this sort may be considered as a perpetual 
 motion, according to the vulgar acceptation of 
 the term ; for it will never cease going till the 
 nre be extinguished, or some parts of the ma- 
 chinery be worn out. See PNEUMATICS. 
 
 ACQS, a small town at the foot of the Py- 
 renees, in the department of Arriege, France, 
 famous for its hot springs. 
 
 ACQS, AQUE or DAX, an old city of France 
 on the Adour. See DAX. 
 
 ACQUA, a town of Italy, in Tuscany, famous 
 for warm baths, 15 miles E. of Leghorn. 
 
 ACQUAINT', v.~\ Accointer: Old Fr. to 
 ACQUAINT'ABLE, 'go to; to makes one's self 
 ACQUAINTANCE, t known to ; to frequent the 
 ACQUAINT'ANT. J society of; to be intimate 
 with ; to inform. 
 
 And he was a quointe muche, to the quene of Fraunce, 
 And somdel to muche, as me wenae, so that in som 
 
 thing 
 
 The quene louede, as me wende, more him than the 
 
 king. R. Gloucetter. 
 
 Sothelye dulle witte and a thoughtfulle soule so sore 
 
 have mined and grafied in my spirites that soche craft 
 
 of enditinge woll nat bin of mine acquaintaunce. 
 
 Chaucer's Testament of Love* 
 We, that acquaint ourselves with ev'ry zone, 
 
 And pass the tropicks, and behold each pole ; 
 When we come home, are to ourselves unknown, 
 And unacquainted still with our own soul. Duties,
 
 ACQ 
 
 115 
 
 ACQ 
 
 Brave soldier, pardon me, 
 That any accent, breaking from my tongue, 
 Should 'scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. 
 
 Skakspeare. 
 
 This keeps the understanding long in converse 
 with an object, and long converse brings acquaintance. 
 
 South. 
 
 I hope, I am pretty near seeing you ; and there- 
 fore I would cultivate an acquaintance : because, if 
 you do not know me, when we meet j you need only 
 keep one of my letters, and compare it with my face ; 
 for my face and letters are counterparts of my heart. 
 
 Swift to Pope. 
 
 A long noviciate of acquaintance should precede 
 the vows of friendship. Bolingbroke. 
 
 CARDINAL G. For souls just quitting earth, peep 
 
 into heaven ; 
 
 Make swift acquaintance with their kindred forms, 
 And partners of immortal secrets grow. 
 
 Dryden'i Duke of Guise. 
 
 Our admiration of a famous man lessens, upon 
 our nearer acquaintance with him ; and *re seldom 
 hear of a celebrated person, without a catalogue of 
 some notorious weaknesses and infirmities. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 Acquaint yourselves with things ancient and mo- 
 'lern, natural, civil, and religious, domestic and 
 national, things of your own and foreign countries; 
 and, above all, be well acquainted with God and your- 
 selves ; learn animal nature, and the workings of 
 your own spirits. Watu's Logick. 
 
 He that becomes acquainted, and is invested with 
 authority and influence, will in a short time be con- 
 vinced, that in proportion as the power of doing well 
 is enlarged, the temptations to do ill are multiplied 
 and enforced. Johnson. 
 
 Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would'st taste 
 His works. Cotoper. 
 
 ACQUAPENDENTE, an ancient town of 
 Italy, in the patrimony of St. Peter, with a 
 bishop's see, and lately containing sixteen 
 churches and convents. It is seated on a hill 
 near the Paglia, 50 miles, N. by W. from Rome, 
 and 10 miles W. from Orvieto. 
 
 AC QU ARIA, a town of Italy, in Frigana, a 
 district of Modena, remarkable for its medicinal 
 waters. It lies 18 miles S. from the city of 
 Modena, 
 
 ACQUERIO, a decayed city, once of some 
 note, in the province of Terra de Lavora, Naples. 
 
 ACQUEST, in law, goods acquired by purchase 
 or donation, not by heritage. 
 
 ACQUI, a town and district of Italy, in the 
 duchy of Montferrat, with a bishop's see, and 
 commodious baths. It was taken by the Spaniards 
 in 1745, re-taken by the Piedmontese in 1746, 
 and afterwards dismantled by the French. It is 
 seated on the river Bormio, or Bormida, on the 
 high way from Finale to Alessandria, 17 miles 
 S.S.W. of the latter. It is famous for a silk 
 manufactory, which employs the greater portion 
 of its inhabitants, reckoned (1802) at 6600. Lon. 
 8, 35' E. Lat. 44, 40' N. 
 
 ACQUIESCE', v. ^ Ad : quiesco : to rest 
 
 ACQUIES'CENCE, . > in, to be still ; to submit 
 
 ACQUIES'CENT. j to what is proposed by 
 conformity ; to accept, receive or bear without 
 dissatisfaction, or with pleasure and delight. 
 
 Others will, upon account of the receivedness of 
 the proposed opinion, think it rather worthy to be ex- 
 amined, than acquiesced in. Boyle. 
 
 A nation, cast in the happy medium between the 
 
 spiritless acquiescence of submissive poverty, and the 
 
 sturdy credulity of pampered wealth ; cool and 
 
 ardent ; adventurous and persevering ; winging her 
 
 eagle flight against the blaze of every science, with 
 
 an eye that never winks, and a wing that never tires. 
 
 Curran's Eulogy of Scotland. 
 
 ACQUIETANDIS, PLEGIIS, a writ of justices 
 
 lying for a surety against the creditor who refuses 
 
 to acquit a debtor after the debt is paid. 
 
 ACQUIETANDIS IN SHIRIS ET HUNDREDIS, the 
 being free from suits and services in shires and 
 hundreds. 
 
 ACQUIETARE, in law, to discharge, or pay 
 the debts of a person deceased ; as the heir those 
 of his father, &c. 
 
 ACQUI'RE, ") Ad : qiuero : acquiro : to 
 ACQUI'RER, ask, or seek for ; to obtain 
 
 ACQUI'RABLE, as the result of power, or 
 ACQUIREMENT, labour; to derive advan- 
 ACQUI'RY, stages not conferred by na- 
 
 AC'QUISITE, [ture or inheritance. Acqui- 
 ACQUISI'TION, sition is applied to material 
 ACQUIS'ITIVE, and physical, and acquire- 
 ACQUI'SITOR, ment to mental and spiritual 
 ACQUEST'. J attainments. 
 
 The greatest goodnesse of all goodness, is when 
 tirannies are put under by virtues acquired, or to find 
 remedy against accustomed vices with good inclina- 
 tions. Golden Bcoke, c. xv. 
 
 A lower place, not well, 
 
 May make too great an act. For learne this, Sillius, 
 Better to leaue vndone, than by our deed 
 Acquire too high a fame, when him we serue's 
 
 away. 
 
 Shakspeare's Ant. and Cle. p. 351, act iii. sc. 1. 
 
 The human genius, with the best assistance, and 
 
 the finest examples, breaks forth but slowly ; and the 
 
 greatest men have but gradually acquired a just taste, 
 
 and chaste simple conceptions of beauty. Usher. 
 
 His servant he, with, new acquest 
 Of true experience from this great event, 
 With peace and consolation hath dismist. Milton. 
 
 ACQUIT' v. -\ Acquitter: Fr. to 
 
 ACQUIT'MENT, ^deliver from; to give 
 
 ACQUIT'TAL, f quiet to one accused, 
 
 ACQUIT'TANCE, v. n. J or held responsible ; 
 
 to release from a charge or obligation of auy 
 
 kind ; to discharge the claims of duty ; to act a 
 
 part suitable to character or reputation. 
 
 Ne do I wish (for wishing were but vain^ 
 To be acquit from my continual smart ; 
 
 But joy, her thrall for ever to remain, 
 And yield for pledge my poor captived heart. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 PRIM. We arrest your word, 
 Boyet you can produce acquittances 
 For such a sum from special officers 
 Of Charles his father. 
 
 Shakspeare's Love's Labour bat. 
 But if black scandall and foule-fac'd reproach 
 Attend the sequell of your imposition j 
 Your meere enforcement shall acquittance me 
 From all tb.e impure blots and staynes thereof. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 But soon shall find 
 
 Forbearance, no acquittance, ere day end 
 Justice shall not return, as beauty, scorn'd. 
 
 Millim. 
 
 It is a great mercy that signiries a final and 
 universal acquittance. Bishop Taylor's Sennonf. 
 
 11
 
 ACR 
 
 11(5 
 
 ACR 
 
 Steady to my principles, and not dispirited with 
 my afflictions, I have, by the blessing of God on my 
 endeavours, overcome all difficulties ; and, in some 
 measure, acquitted myself of the debt, which I owed 
 the publick, when I undertook this work. Dryden. 
 
 He that judges without informing himself to the 
 utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of 
 judging amiss. Locke. 
 
 ACQUITTAL is of two kinds: in law, and in 
 fact. When two are indicted of felony, the one 
 as principal the other as accessory ; the princi- 
 pal being discharged, the accessory is, by conse- 
 quence, also freed : in which case, as the accessory 
 is acquitted by law, so is the principal in fact. 
 
 ACQUITTAL is also used, where there is a lord 
 mesne and a tenant, and the tenant holds lands 
 of the mesne, and the mesne holds over the lord 
 paramount ; here, the mesne ought to acquit the 
 tenant of all services claimed by any other for the 
 same lands. 
 
 ACQUITTANCE, in law, a release or discharge 
 in writing for a sum of money, or a receipt for 
 the same. 
 
 ACRA, or ACARA, a small independent state 
 and town, on the Gold Coast of Africa, where 
 the English, Dutch, and Danes, formerly had 
 strong forts, and each fort its particular village. 
 The whole district is about twenty-six miles in 
 length, and varying in breadth from twelve to 
 twenty miles. The English settlement is called 
 Fort James, which is capable of mounting twenty 
 cannon. It is generally ill-manned, and the 
 Dutch Fort is gone wholly to decay. Acra was 
 once dependent on the government of Aquam- 
 boe, but has of late years shaken off the yoke. 
 The language is said to be unknown to any other 
 district on the coast. Its situation is healthy, 
 and its trade very extensive. The government 
 is much more democratic than is generally 
 known in this part of the world, and but little if 
 any gold is now found in the neighbourhood. 
 The inhabitants are more civilised than most of 
 the other nations of this coast, and keep up a 
 freer intercourse with the interior. In busy 
 parts of the year, the town is crowded with 
 Ashantees, Fantees, Akims, Aquamboes, &c. 
 
 ACRA, in ancient geography, a promontory of 
 Calabria, called Salenia, by Ptolemy : now Capo 
 di San Maria di Leuca 
 
 ACRA and ACRO, as a prefix to Greek names 
 of places, imply their situation on an eminence ; 
 as Acragas, Acroceraunia. Also one of the hills 
 on which stood that part of Jerusalem which 
 formed the old and lower city. 
 
 ACR/E, an ancient Sicilian town, twenty- 
 four miles south of Syracuse, near the present 
 monastery of Santa Maura d'Arcia, between 
 Nolo and Avula. Medals of this city, which 
 appears to have been built on an eminence 
 (Sil. Ital. lib. xiv.) are found in gold, silver and 
 Bronze. 
 
 ACRJE, a fabulous daughter of the river As- 
 verian, who gave her name to a mountain of 
 Argolis, a country of Peloponnesus ; it was 
 also used as a surname of Diana from a temple 
 erected to her honour by Melampus on a moun- 
 tain near Argos. Pans. ii. c. 17. 
 
 ACRAGAS, or AGRAGAS, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, so called by the Greeks, and sometimes by 
 
 the Romans, but more generally Agngentum, 
 by the latter; a town of Sicily, two miles from 
 the sea, at the confluence of the Acragas anil 
 Hypsa ; built by the people of Gela, A. A. C 
 584. It was a sea-port of great strength, stand- 
 ing on the top of a very steep rock, washed on 
 two sides by rivers, and having a citadel to the 
 S.E. surrounded by a deep gulf, which made it 
 inaccessible but on the side next the town. It 
 was famous for the tyrant Phalaris and his 
 brazen bull. The country around it was laid 
 out in vine and olive yards, in the produce of 
 which they carried on a great and profitable 
 commerce with Carthage. See AGRIGENTUM. 
 
 ACRAPULA, or ACRAIPULA, AicpaTriAa, 
 Gr. medicines to prevent the bad effects of 
 eating and drinking to excess, or surfeits. 
 
 ACRAS, or rather ACHRAS, the wild pear. 
 See SAPOTA. 
 
 ACRASIA, Gr. from a privative, and ntpavvvfii 
 to mix, in medicine, implies the predominancy 
 of one quality above another, either with regard 
 to artificial mixtures, or the humours of the 
 human body, when not mixed in a just proper 
 tion. It was also used to express excess of any 
 kind, which was called Acrasia, or the drinking 
 of unmixed wines. , 
 
 ACRASUS, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Asia Minor, in Lydia. Some imperial Greek 
 medals of this city still exist, which were struck 
 under the praetors, in honour of Severus, and 
 several other emperors. 
 
 ACRATH, in ancient geography, a place in 
 Mauritania Tingitania, now felez de Gomare : 
 a citadel and commodious harbour on the Medi- 
 terranean in the kingdom of Fez. 
 
 ACRATISMA, in antiquity, a breakfast 
 among the ancient Greeks, consisting of a morsel 
 of bread soaked in pure unmixed wine, which 
 was supposed to possess peculiar virtues. 
 
 A'CRE. Saxon Acepe; Latin a^er, a field, 
 A measure of land ; formerly applied to land of 
 indefinite extent. 
 
 And ten alters of vynes shal geue but a quarte, and 
 xxx bushels of sede shal geue but an cpha. 
 
 E*ay,c.v. BlUe, 153Q 
 
 Heathcote himself, and such large acred men, 
 Lords of fat Esham, or of Lincoln fen. 
 
 Pope's Imit. Horace. 
 
 ACRE, or ACRA a city of Palestine, the chief 
 town and sea-port of a pachalic, of the same 
 name, otherwise denominated, the pachalic of 
 Saida, and extending from the Mediterranean on 
 the west, to Jordan on the east ; and from Nahr- 
 el-kelb to the south of Caesarea. It has been 
 known by a variety of names. The Jews called 
 it Acco or Accho. See Judges, ch. i. 31. The 
 Arabians Akka. It was afterwards called Ptole- 
 mais, from the Ptolemies of Egypt; and St. John 
 d'Acre, from the knights of Jerusalem. But its 
 most ancient name was AKH, a name often seen 
 on small bronze medals that have been found in 
 the country. 
 
 Early travellers have said much about the 
 splendour of this place ; but Dr. Clarke assures 
 us that it is like most other Turkish cities, mean 
 and dirty, full of wretched shops and wretcritd 
 people. The streets are so narrow, that but one
 
 ACR 
 
 117 
 
 camel can pass at a time. The town, however, 
 possesses some advantages of situation. On the 
 north and east, is a fertile plain ; on the west the 
 breezes blow warm and fresh from the ocean. It 
 stands on a bay, the coast of which is a per- 
 fect curve, and stretches three leagues, in a 
 semicircular direction from the city to mount 
 Carmel. But the marshes that lie contiguous, 
 render it very unhealthy ; it is ravaged by fre- 
 quent distempers ; and in the summer of 1 760, 
 no fewer than 7000 persons fell victims to the 
 plague within the short space of five months. 
 The harbour though bad, is the best the coast 
 furnishes, and is said to be the key of Palestine ; 
 being the only avenue through which the inhabi- 
 tants receive rice, the staple commodity. So 
 that the pacha who holds Acre, has the power 
 of drying up all the resources of Syria. It is 
 sheltered from the north and north-west winds 
 by the town : but has been greatly choked up in 
 modern times. European vessels principally 
 resort to Caifa, at the extremity of the bay 
 opposite Acre. 
 
 Until recently, there were but a few wretched 
 towers near the sea, on which cannon were 
 mounted, which burst nearly as often as 
 they were fired ; but since the French attack 
 on this place, they have been considerably im- 
 proved. The city was anciently encompassed 
 with a wall, within which Djezzar pacha con- 
 structed two others, filled the intermediate spaces 
 with earth, and surrounded the whole with a 
 moat or ditch ; the outer wall being prolonged 
 to the shore, and communicating with a fort 
 built in the sea. The town itself has considera- 
 bly diminished from its ancient extent, and 
 stands at least a mile within the old wall. Few 
 of its ancient buildings remain except the iron 
 castle, so called from the side next the sea having 
 been covered with a composition of that metal, 
 and which is in a state of extreme decay. There 
 is a mosque built by Djezzar pacha, a Greek 
 church, an Armenian church, a Franciscan mo- 
 nastery, a Jewish synagogue, three khans or inns, 
 and two bazaars or market places. The houses 
 are principally of stone, flat-roofed, and with 
 terraces. The palace of the knights of Saint 
 John of Jerusalem is the present habitation of 
 the pacha, in one of the halls of which is a foun- 
 tain of various coloured marble, built by Daher, 
 the son of Omar. Nearly adjoining the palace 
 is another beautiful fountain, which was built of 
 white marble, from the ruins of the ancient Cae- 
 sarea, and in the garden are some pillars of yel- 
 low variegated marble from the same place. 
 The population of Acre in 1797 was computed 
 at 20,000, who are a mixture of Turks and 
 Arabs. 
 
 Josephus states this city to have belonged to 
 the tribe of Ashur. It was held by Demetrius, 
 son of Seleucus : it afterwards fell to Antio- 
 chus Epiphanes, was captured by the Hebrew 
 Alexander, ceded to Ptolemy, and passed from 
 him to Cleopatra. It was conquered by the 
 Persians, and at last fell into the hands of Rome. 
 Acre was the chief theatre of the crusades. 
 Under the dominion of the Moors, it sustained 
 many sieges ; but on the 12th June, 1 191 , yielded 
 to Philip of France and Richard I. of England, 
 
 100,000 Christians being said to perish in the 
 siege, besides great numbers who were lost by 
 shipwreck and disease. After this, nearly all 
 the Christian powers in Europe and Asia en- 
 joyed authority here ; and in the thirteenth 
 century, the town was filled with churches and 
 convents, of which nothing is at present to be seen. 
 In 1291 it was retaken by the Saracens, and as 
 some say, was sacked and demolished ; 60,000 
 Christians perishing on that occasion. This siege 
 was rendered memorable by the following in- 
 stance of female resolution. A number of beau- 
 tiful young nuns, terrified at the prospect of be- 
 ing exposed to the lust of the Infidels, cut off 
 their noses, and mangled their faces, to render 
 themselves objects of aversion. The Saracens, 
 inflamed with resentment, put them all to the 
 sword. In the seventeenth century, Faccardin, 
 prince of Druses, took possession of it; and 
 choked up the harbour to defend himself from 
 the Turkish vessels. The Turks, however, took 
 it, and the pacha of Saide appointed an annual 
 governor. Daher, the son of Omar, an Arab 
 chief, now captured Acre by a sudden assault. 
 He restored the importance of the place, built a 
 palace, and mounted cannon. He was, however, 
 attacked by a Turkish fleet ; was taken and his 
 head sent to Constantinople. To him succeeded 
 Ahmed pacha, a Bosnian by birth, who in con- 
 sequence of his barbarity was called Djezzar, 
 or butcher, and who murdered several of his 
 wives with his own hand. In his reign Buona- 
 parte landed in Egypt ; and the celebrated siege 
 of Acre, in which Djezzar was so gallantly as- 
 sisted by Sir Sydney Smith, commenced on the 
 18th of March, 1799. After a most dreadful 
 carnage, in which prodigies of valour were exhi- 
 bited on all sides, the French abandoned the 
 place. On the death of Djezzar, Ismael pacha, 
 his successor, was defeated by Suleiman, on 
 whom the Porte conferred the pachalic ; and this 
 man, by his mild and pacific manners, has con- 
 ciliated the country, and much improved the re- 
 sources of the place. Acre is distant 27 miles 
 S. of Tyre; 23 from, and to the N.N.W. of, 
 Jerusalem. N. long. 32 4(/. E. lat. 39 25'. 
 
 ACRE, in commerce, the same with lack, and 
 signifying the sum of 100,000 Mogul rupees ; a 
 pound sterling being equal to about eight ru- 
 pees. 
 
 ACRE, did not originally signify a determined 
 quantity of land, but any open ground, especially 
 a wide campaign; and in this antique sense 
 it seems to be preserved in the names of places, 
 as Castle-acre, West-acre, &c. In England, it 
 contains four square roods ; a rood being forty 
 perches or poles, of sixteen feet and a half each by 
 statute. Yet the length of the pole varies in dif- 
 ferent counties, from sixteen feet and a half to 
 twenty-eight. The acre is also divided into ten 
 square chains of twenty-two yards each, that is, 
 4840 square yards. An acre in Scotland con- 
 tains four square roods : one square rood is forty 
 square falls ; one square fall, thirty-six square 
 ells ; one square ell, nine square feet ana 
 seventy-three inches : one square foot, 144 square 
 inches. The Scots acre is also divided into ten 
 square chains ; the measuring chain should be 
 t \vvnty-four ells in length, divided into 100 links.
 
 ACR 
 
 each link 8^, inches; and so one square chain 
 will contain 10,000 square links. The English 
 statute acre is about three roods and six falls 
 standard measure of Scotland. The French acre, 
 arpent, contains one English acre and a fourth, or 
 54,450 square English feet, whereof the English 
 acre contains only 43,560. The Strasburg acre 
 is about half an English acre. The Welsh acre 
 contains commonly two English ones. The Irish 
 acre is equal to one acre, two roods, and nine- 
 teen perches f a 7 T , English. 
 
 ACRE FIGHT, an old sort of duel fought by 
 English and Scottish combatants, upon the fron- 
 tiers of the kingdoms, with sword and lance ; 
 it was also called camp-fight, and the comba- 
 tants champions, from the open field being the 
 stage of trial. 
 
 ACRE TAX, a tax laid on land at so much per 
 icre ; called also acre-shot. 
 
 ACREME, a term sometimes used in ancient 
 law-books, for ten acres. 
 
 ACRESPIRE. See PLUMULE 
 
 ACRIBEIA, Gr. aicpifitia, in medicine, a 
 tarm literally denoting an exquisite or delicate 
 accuracy ; as in describing diseases, &c. 
 
 AC'RID, adj. ~\ j^Kpr), a point, at once, 
 
 ACRIMO'NIOUS, f sharp> bitter> p un g en t, and 
 
 AC'RIMONY, < corrosive. 
 
 AC'RITUDE. J 
 
 The malignity of soldiers and sailors against each 
 ether, has been often experienced at the cost of their 
 country ; and perhaps no order of men have an 
 enmity of more acrimony, or longer continuance. 
 
 Rambler. 
 
 Most satyrists are indeed a public scourge, 
 
 Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge ; 
 
 Their acrid temper turns as soon as stirred 
 
 The milk of their good purpose all to curd. 
 
 Couyper's Charity. 
 
 ACRID, in natural history, denotes any thing 
 sharp or pungent to the taste. Ancient natural- 
 ists distinguish two kinds of acrid taste ; the first 
 proceed from hot and dry, as that of pepper ; the 
 second from hot and moist substances, as that of 
 garlic. According to Grew, it properly belongs to 
 the class of compound tastes. It is not simply sour 
 or pungent, there being bodies not acrid, which 
 yet are pungent, e. g. arum ; nor is it simply 
 hot ; for there are many hot bodies which are 
 not acrid, as the roots of zedoary, yarrow, and 
 contrayerva. The characteristic, therefore, of 
 acritude consists in pungency joined with heat. 
 Acrids have been classed according as they yield 
 their acrimony. First, by distillation ; secondly, 
 by infusion ; and thirdly, by neither. 
 
 ACRIDOPHAGI, Gr. from aicptc, a locust, 
 and Qayia, to eat, in ancient geography, an 
 Ethiopian people, who are said to have fed on 
 locusts, as their name imports. Diodorus Siculus 
 and Strabo give marvellous details of their 
 habits, and particularly their diseases. They 
 seldom lived, they say, more than forty years, 
 and were then attacked internally by winged lice, 
 in such numbers, that it was impossible to ex- 
 terminate them. It is well known, that to 
 this day, the inhabitants of Ethiopia, Arabia, 
 &c. frequently use locusts as food. Dr. Hasel- 
 quist, whc travelled in Syria and Egypt so 
 late as the year 1752, speaks of the inhabitants 
 
 ACR 
 
 of Arabia, Ethiopia, &c. using locusts as fhod. 
 He was told, by a learned sheik at Cairo, who 
 had lived six years in Mecca, that a famine fre- 
 quently r.gi;s, at the latter place, when there is a 
 scarcity of corn in Egypt, and obliges the inhabi- 
 tants to live upon coarser food than ordinary. 
 That the Arabians then grind locusts in hand- 
 mills, or stone mortars, and bake them into 
 cakes. Sometimes they boil them, stew them 
 with butter, and make them into a kind of fri- 
 casee; which is not disagreeably tasted. A 
 later traveller, Dr. Sparrman, informs us, " That 
 locusts afford a high treat to the more unpolished 
 and remote hordes of the Hottentots ; when, as 
 sometimes happens, after an interval of eight, ten, 
 fifteen, or twenty years, they make their appear- 
 ance in incredible numbers." The Abbe Poiret, 
 also, in his ' Memoir on the Insects of Barbary 
 and Numidia,' informs us, "That the Moors 
 make locusts a part of their food ; that they go 
 to hunt them ; fry them in oil and butter ; and 
 sell them publicly at Tunis, at Bonne, &c." 
 "The Jews," as Dr. Shaw observes, "were allow- 
 ed to eat them. When sprinkled with salt, and 
 fried," he adds, "their taste resembles that of our 
 fresh-water cray-fish." Russel also says, the Arabs 
 salt and eat them as a delicacy. These accounts 
 sufficiently explain the Scriptural statement re- 
 specting the food of John the Baptist in the 
 wilderness, Matt. iii. 4. For while some main- 
 tain, that the original word signifies ' the tops of 
 certain herbs,' or ' the fruits ' of trees ; and others 
 have supposed it means quails ; Shaw contends 
 it is applied to the locust on account of its ap- 
 petite for such food. The word is used by Aris- 
 totle, and other historians, in the same sense, and 
 therefore the literal interpretation of it may 
 be received. See Strabo, lib. xvi. Athenaus, 
 lib. xlix. Pirn. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. and xi. Hie- 
 ronymis Opera, torn. iv. Sorrow's Travels, vol. i. 
 Drake's Voyages. Buffbn, Nat. Hist. vol. vi. 
 Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt, art. Locusts. 
 Harmer's Observations, vol. ii., &c. 
 
 ACRIS, in natural history, a name given to 
 the locust, because it is said to feed TUQ aicpag 
 Tiav tyvTuv, on the tops of trees. 
 
 ACRIS, in surgery, the extremity of a fractured 
 bone. 
 
 ACRISIUS, in mythology, a king of Argos, 
 who being told by the oracle that he should be 
 killed by his grandchild, shut up his only daugh- 
 ter Danae in a brazen tower ; but Jupiter came 
 down to her in a golden shower, and Perseus, 
 who afterwards killed Acrisius, was the fruit of 
 their amour. 
 
 ACRISY, Aicpteia, Gr. from a, negative, and 
 Kpivta, to judge of, in medicine, that state of a 
 disease in which no rfght judgment canbe formed 
 of its issue. 
 
 ACRITAS, in ancient geography, a promon- 
 tory of Messenia, now Capo di Gallo, between 
 Methone to the W. and Corone to the . where 
 the Sinus Coronaeus begins. 
 
 ACRI VIOLA, in botany, the nasturtium In- 
 dicum, or Indian cress. 
 
 ACROAMA, aicpoao/iai, to hear, in philoso- 
 phy, theology, &c. any thing sublime, profound, 
 or abstruse; henee ACROAMATICI, was a deno- 
 mination given to those disciples of Aristotle,
 
 ACR 
 
 119 
 
 ACR 
 
 &c. wlio were admitted into the secrets of the 
 inner or acroamatic philosophy. 
 
 ACROATHON, or ACROATHOUM, in ancient 
 geography, a town on the top of mount Athos, 
 whose inhabitants, according to Mela, lived much 
 longer than in any other country : it is now 
 La Cima di Monte Santo. 
 
 ACROBALYT./E, of aepoc, and /3aXXw, to 
 throw, a name given to the soldiers of Tarentum, 
 who were famous for throwing the javelin to 
 great distances, while on horseback. 
 
 ACROBATICA, or ACROBATICUM, from 
 aiepog, high, and fiaivia, I go ; an ancient climb- 
 ing engine, among the Greeks, similar to the 
 scansorium among the Latins. Vitruvius and 
 Aquinus suppose it to have been used for both 
 civil and military purposes. 
 
 ACROCERAUNIUM,in ancient geography, 
 a promontory of Epirus, on which are situated 
 the ACROCERAUNIA, or MONTES CERAU.MI, 
 aepo high, icepavvoz thunder ; so called from 
 their being often thunder-struck. They ran be- 
 tween the Ionian sea and the Adriatic ; where 
 Illyria ends, and Epirus begins ; and are 
 the modern Monti della Chimera. They are 
 called by Horace, Infernes scopulos. 
 
 ACROCHIRISMUS, aicpoxapiff/toe, among 
 the ancient Greeks, a kind of gymnastic exercise, 
 wherein only the hands and fingers were em- 
 . ployed. Hippocrates ascribes to it a virtue of 
 extenuating the rest of the body, and making the 
 arms fleshy. 
 
 ACROCHOLIA, aicpoicwXia from arpoc, ex- 
 treme, and KwXov, a limb. Those extremities of 
 animals, which are used in food, or of which 
 jellies are made. Also an ancient name for the 
 pensile wart. See WART. 
 
 ACROCORINTHUS, in ancient geography, 
 a steep hill, over hanging the city of Corinth, 
 famous for an acropolis, or citadel. On its top 
 stood a temple of Venus ; and lower down issued 
 the fountain of Pyrene. 
 
 ACRODRYA, from Aepov, and fyuc, an oak, 
 in natural history, all fruits, that have rinds, or 
 shells, such as acorns, almonds, &c. 
 
 ACROK'E. On Crook. See CROOK. 
 
 ACROMION, or ACROMIUM, from Arpoc, 
 and unog, shoulder, in anatomy, the upper part 
 of the scapula or shoulder-blade. See ANA- 
 TOMY. 
 
 ACROMONOGRAMMATICUM, from a- 
 k-poc, P.OVOQ, ypa^/ia, letter, among poets, a kind 
 of poem, or composition, wherein each subse- 
 quent verse commences with the letter with which 
 the verse preceding terminates. 
 
 ACROMPHALIUM, or ACROMPALON, aepoe, 
 and o[Hj>a\og, the navel ; the tip of the navel. 
 
 ACRON, a physician of Agrigentum, who re- 
 commended lighting large fires, and purifying 
 the air with perfumes, to stop the pestilence that 
 raged at Athens, about A. A. C. 473. Also a 
 king of the Ceninenses, whom Romulus slew. 
 
 ACRON, a district of the Fantee territory, on 
 the Gold Coast of Guinea, Africa. Its capital is 
 Assam, or Apam, a commodious sea-port, where 
 the Dutch have a small fort. This place was 
 destroyed with most of the inhabitants, inl811 r 
 by the Ashantees. A week after it was plun- 
 dered and laid in ruins by Altai), hte king of 
 
 Akim ; it is about Sfy miles E. N. E. of Cape 
 Coast. GREAT ACRON is a kind of republic, 
 farther inland. 
 
 ACRON, or ACROS, in botany, among the an- 
 cients, the capitulum, top, or flower of a plant. 
 Also in medicine, that which is most excellent 
 Likewise the height, or crisis of a disease. 
 
 ACRONIUS LACUS, in ancient geography, 
 a lake formed by the Rhine, soon after its rise 
 out of the Alps, and after passing the greater 
 lake at Constance, called Venetus, and now the 
 Bodensee, or Lesser Lake of Constance. 
 
 ACRONYCHAL, or ACRONICHUS. See 
 ACRON. This appellation was particularly ap- 
 plied to the superior planets, when they were 
 come to the meridian of midnight. 
 
 ACRONYCTJE, in astronomy, stars, rising 
 in the twilight, about sun-setting. 
 
 ACROPOLIS, in ancient geography, the ci- 
 tadel, and one of the divisions of Athens ; the 
 citadel standing on a rock or eminence was in- 
 accessible, except on one side. At the foot was 
 the temple of Minerva. 
 
 ACROPOLITA, (George,) one of the Byzan- 
 tine historians, was born at Constantinople, in 
 1220, and employed in some of the most impor- 
 tant affairs of the empire ; being sent ambassa- 
 dor to Larissa, to establish a peace with Michael 
 of Epirus ; and constituted judge to try Michael 
 Comnenus, suspected of engaging in a conspi- 
 racy. He wrote a continuation of the Greek 
 history, from the taking of Constantinople by the 
 Latins, till it was recovered by Michael Palaeo- 
 logus, (to whom he was chancellor,) in 1261, a 
 treatise concerning Faith, Virtue, and the Soul ; 
 an Exposition of the Sermons of St. Gregory 
 Nazianzen, &c. 
 
 ACROPOSTHIA, from mepoc, extreme, and 
 iroaQr], the prepuce, the extremity of the prepuce, 
 which is cut off in circumcision. 
 
 ACROSPELOS, in botany, the wild oat grass, 
 or bromus. 
 
 ACROSPIRE, in natural history, &c. the 
 same with PLUMULE, which see. 
 
 ACROSS'. On Cross. See 
 
 When other loners in armes acroste, 
 
 Reioice their chiefe delight ; 
 
 Drowned in teares to mourne my losse. 
 
 I stand the bytter nyght 
 
 In my window. Surrey. 
 
 It was anciently the manner for the bishop to lay 
 both his hands across on the head of the confirmed, 
 not only in imitation of Jacob, but in allusioii to the 
 death of Christ in whom we believe, and from whom 
 we receive the Holy Ghost. Comber's Companion. 
 
 ACROSTICK, from aicpoQ, extremity, and 
 anxoQ, verse, a poetical composition, in which the 
 initial letters of the lines or the verses form the 
 name of some person or thing. The acrostic is 
 obviously an artificial and adventitious arrange- 
 ment of poetry ; and has been very fancifully 
 and even fantastically cultivated. Sometimes 
 the acrostic has been formed of the first letters 
 of the lines, sometimes of the last, and some- 
 times it is to be read downwards, and at others 
 upwards. 
 
 The appellation has been applied by some au 
 thors to two ancient epigrams in the Anthology! 
 in Fionour of Bacchus and Apollo. Each con
 
 ACR 
 
 120 
 
 ACT 
 
 siits of twenty-five verses, the first whereof is 
 the argument of the whole, and the other twenty- 
 four composed of four epithets, beginning each 
 with the same letter, and thus following in the 
 order of the twenty-four letters of the Greek al- 
 phabet, from A to Q ; each comprehending four 
 epithets, which makes ninety-six in all for each 
 god. 
 
 The most curious of these fanciful acrosticks 
 which we have seen, occurs in the " De Laude 
 Virginum," of the celebrated Aldhelm. It con- 
 sists of thirty-eight lines, each beginning and 
 ending with the successive letters of the words 
 of the first line, and thus the first and last lines, 
 and the initial and final letters of each line con- 
 sist of the same words. Only in the last line the 
 words occur backwards, and the final letters are 
 to be read upwards throughout the piece. 
 
 M etrica Tirones nunc promant carmina casto S 
 E t laudem capiat quadrato carmine virg O 
 T rinus in arce Deus, qui pollens secla creavi T 
 R egnator mundi regnans in sedibus alti S 
 I ndigno conferre inihi dignetur in aethr A 
 C um sanctis requiem, quos laudo versibus isti C 
 A rbiter altithronus qui servat sceptra supern A 
 T radidit his coeli per ludum scandere lime N 
 I nter sanctorum cuneos qui laude perenn I 
 R ite glorificant moderantem regna tonante M 
 O mnitenens dominus, mundi formator et aucto R 
 N obis pauperibus confer suffragia cert A 
 E t ne concedas trudendos hostibus istin C 
 S ed magis exiguos defendens dextera tanga T 
 N e praedo pellax coelorum claudere lime N 
 V el saiictos valeat noxarum fallere seen A 
 N e fur strophosus foveam detrudat in atra M 
 C onditor a summo quos Christus servat Olymp O 
 P astor ovile tuens ne possit tabula rapto R 
 R egales vastans caulas bis dicere pup pu P 
 
 ninia sed custos defendat ovilia jam nun C 
 
 M axima proecipuum qu* gestat numine nome N 
 A ddere presidium mater dignare precat U 
 N am tu perpetuum promisisti lumine lume N. 
 T itan quern clamant sacro spiramine vate S 
 C ujus per mundum jubar alto splendet ab Ax E 
 A tque polos pariter replet vibramine fulmen N 
 R ex regum et princeps populorum dictus ab aev O 
 M agnus de magno de rerum regmine recto R 
 
 1 Hum nee mare nee possunt cingere cojl I 
 
 N ec mare navigerum spumoso gurgite valla T 
 
 A ut zonae mundique stipant asthera eels A 
 
 C laromur vitam qui castis moribus isti C 
 
 A uxiliante Deo vernabant flore perenn I 
 
 S anctis aggrediar studiis dicere paupe R 
 
 T anta tamen digne si pauper proemia proda T 
 
 O mnia cum nullus verbis explanat apert E 
 
 S otsac animrac tnamorp cnun senorit acirte M. 
 
 Aldhelm quaintly calls this quadratum carmen, 
 a square verse. 
 
 But the acrostick form of verse, which has been 
 called alphabetical poetry, has clearly been em- 
 ployed for useful purposes. When books were 
 few, and writing could but rarely be resorted 
 to as a record, the acrostic form of poetry pre- 
 sented an easy method of assisting the memory 
 to retain detached sentences : and thus moral 
 maxims and forms of devotion were preserved 
 from age to age, which might otherwise have 
 been lost. We have upon this principle seven 
 of the psalms of the Hebrew old Testament, a 
 poem, Proverbs xxxi. 10 31, and four chapters 
 of Jeremiah's Lamentations, regular acrosticks, 
 
 i. e. three of them perfectly alphabetical, in 
 which every line is marked by its initial letter, 
 and the other nine in which the stanzas are so 
 distinguished. For other peculiarities of these 
 singular poems, we refer the reader to " Bishop 
 Lowth's Lectures on the Hebrew Poetry." 
 
 ACROSTICS, among ecclesiastical writers, de- 
 note the end of verses of psalms, which the peo- 
 ple sang by way of chorus, or response, to the 
 prtscentor, or leader of the psalm. 
 
 ACROSTICUM, RUSTYBACK, WALL-RUE, 
 or FORK-FERN, in botany, a genus of plants of 
 the class cryptogamia, order filices. The fructi- 
 fications are accumulated on the whole inferior 
 surface of the frond, so that they every where 
 cover it. 
 
 ACROSTOLIUM, in ancient naval architec- 
 ture, the extreme part of the ornament on the 
 prows of ships ; which it was usual to tear off 
 from vanquished vessels, and fix them to the 
 conqueror's, as a token of victory. 
 
 ACROTELEUTIC, from aicooe and reXoe, 
 end, among ecclesiastical writers, the end of a 
 verse or psalm ; or something added thereto, to 
 be sung by the people, as the Gloria Patri, &c. 
 
 ACROTERIA, among ancient physicians, 
 signified the larger extremities of the body, as the 
 head, hands, and feet, and their extremities. 
 
 ACROTERIA, in architecture, little pedestals 
 without bases, placed at the middle and the two 
 extremes of pediments, sometimes serving to 
 support statues ; also the statues themselves in 
 such situations. 
 
 ACROTERIASM, in old surgery, was the act 
 of cutting off the extreme parts of the body, 
 i. e. the amputation of any extremity. 
 
 ACROTHYMIA, or ACROTHYMION, from 
 aicpoc, extreme, and Qvpoe, thyme, a sort of wart, 
 described by Celsus as hard, and rough, with 
 a narrow basis and broad top ; the top is of the 
 colour of thyme ; it easily splits and bleeds. It 
 is also called thymus. 
 
 ACT,v.n. 
 
 AC'TION, 
 
 AC'TIONABLE, 
 
 AC'TION LESS, 
 
 ACT'IVATE, 
 
 ACT'IVE, 
 
 AC'TIVELY, 
 
 ACTI'VENESS, 
 
 ACTIV'ITY, 
 
 ACT'LESS, 
 
 AC'TOR, 
 
 AC'TRESS, 
 
 AC'TUAL, 
 
 ACTUAL'ITY, 
 
 AC'TUALLY, 
 
 AC'TUATE, 
 
 ACTUA'TION. 
 
 And this way is cleped penance ; of which man 
 shuld gladly herken and enqueren with all his hirte, to 
 wete, what is penance, and whennes it is cleped pe- 
 nance, and how many maneres ben of actions or work- 
 ings of penance. Chaucer Personnes Tale 
 
 You, that are king, though he do wear the crown, 
 Have caus'd him, by new act of parliament, 
 To blot out me. Sfiakspewe's Henry VI. 
 
 EOT. Are we all met ? 
 
 Q 'J I N . Pat, Pat, and here's a marvellous convenieui 
 
 Ago, actum, to do ; to ex- 
 ercise any power or faculty ; 
 to perform, to assume a cha- 
 racter or part, used extensive- 
 ly in a judicial and legislative 
 sense. Act signifies a thing 
 done. Action a doing; the 
 former expressing an incident, 
 the latter a habit or process. 
 To actuate, is to influence 
 the act of another.
 
 ACT 
 
 121 
 
 ACT 
 
 place for our rehersal. This green plot shall be our 
 stage, this hawthorn brake our typing house, and we 
 will do it in action, as we will do it before the duke. 
 Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 YORK. As in a theatre, the eyes of men, 
 After a well grac'd actor leaves the stage, 
 Are idly bent on him that enters next, 
 Thinking his prattle to be tedious : 
 Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes 
 Did scowle on Richard. 
 
 Shakspeare's K. Richard II. 
 
 The world hath had in these men fresh experi- 
 ence, how dangerous such active errors are. 
 
 Hooker. 
 
 Active and stirring spirits live alone, 
 Write on the others, Here lies such a one. 
 
 Herbert. 
 
 As wounds once healed leave a scar behind them, 
 
 so remitted injuries leave commonly in the actors a 
 
 guilty remembrance. Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 This earth is only made for action, not for fruition. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 Only the actions of the just, 
 Smell sweet and blossom in the dust. Shirley. 
 
 It is an act of profanation for any unholy person to 
 handle holy things, and holy offices. 
 
 Bishop Taylor's Sermons. 
 
 Some bend the stubborn bow for victory ; 
 And some with darts their active sinews try. 
 
 Dry den. 
 
 Tis virtuous action, that must praise bring forth; 
 
 Without which, slow advice is little worth : 
 
 Yet they, who give good counsel, praise deserve ; 
 
 Tho', in the active part they cannot serve. Denham. 
 
 Honour and shame from no condition rise : 
 
 Act well your part ; there all the honour lies. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 The frequent contemplation of death, as it shows 
 the vanity of all human good, discovers likewise the 
 lightness of all terrestrial evil, which certainly can 
 last no longer than the subject upon which it acts. 
 
 Rambler. 
 
 If we consider him in his omnipresence ; his 
 being passes through, actuates, and supports the whole 
 frame of nature. Spectator. 
 
 A lively / faith is able to anticipate in some mea- 
 sure, the joys of that heavenly society, which the 
 soul shall actually possess hereafter. 
 
 Cowper's Letters. 
 
 ACT, Actus, in physics, an effective exercise 
 or application of some power or faculty. In this 
 sense, act stands opposed to power, potentia, 
 which is only the capacity of acting, not the 
 exertion of that capacity. Metaphysicians give 
 various divisions of act ; viz. into infinite, as the 
 act of creating ; and finite, as the act of moving : 
 transient, or those exercised in other beings, 
 as heating; and immanent, which remain in 
 their own subject, as thinking. 
 
 ACTA COXSISTORJI, the edicts or declara- 
 tions of the council of state of the Roman em- 
 perors, upon which the senate and soldiers often 
 swore, either through flattery or compulsion, as 
 we do upon the Bible. 
 
 ACTA DIURNA, and ACTA POPULI, were a 
 sort of Roman gazette, containing an authorized 
 narrative of the transactions worthy of notice 
 which happened at Rome. They differed from 
 Aiinals in that only the greater and more im- 
 portant matters were recorded in the latter, ^nti 
 
 those of less note in the former. Their origin is 
 attributed to Julius Caesar ; but some trace them 
 to Servius Tullius. 
 
 ACTA SENATUS, acts of the senate, were 
 minutes of what passed and was debated in the 
 senate house. These were also called Com- 
 inentarii and viro^ivnfiaTa. 
 
 ACT, in law, an instrument in writing, for de- 
 claring or justifying the truth of any thing. In 
 which sense, records, decrees, sentences, reports, 
 certificates, &c. are called acts. 
 
 ACT, in logic, is particularly understood of an 
 operation of the human mind. Thus to discern 
 and examine, are acts of the understanding ; t 
 judge and affirm, are acts of the will, &c. 
 
 ACT, in the universities, signifies a thesis 
 maintained in public by a candidate for a de- 
 gree. The candidates for a degree of bachelor 
 and master of arts are to hold philosophical acts ; 
 and those for bachelor of divinity, theological 
 acts, &c. At Oxford, thejime when masters or 
 doctors complete their degrees is also called the 
 act ; which is held with great solemnity. At 
 Cambridge, they call it the commencement. 
 
 ACT OF FAITH, Auto da Fe, in the Romish 
 church, is, or rather was, a solemn day held by 
 the Inquisition, for the punishment ef heretics, 
 and the absolution of the innocent. See INQUI- 
 SITION. 
 
 They usually contrived the Auto to fall on 
 some great festival, that the execution might im- 
 press the greater awe. A competent number of 
 prisoners in the Inquisition being convicted of 
 heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted 
 confession, or on the evidence of witnesses, they 
 were, in the morning of the day, brought into 
 the great hall, where they were attired for the 
 procession. This was generally led by Domi- 
 nican friars ; after which came the penitents, 
 some with san-benitoes, and some without, ac- 
 cording to the nature of their crimes ; being all 
 in black coats without sleeves, and bare-footed, 
 with a wax candle in their hands. Then fol- 
 lowed the penitents who had narrowly escaped 
 being burnt, who over their black coats had 
 flames painted with their points turned down- 
 wards. Next came the negative and relapsed, 
 who were to be burnt, having flames on their 
 habits pointing upwards. After these, such as 
 professed doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, 
 who, besides flames pointing upwards, had their 
 picture painted on their breasts, with dogs, ser- 
 pents, and devils, all open-mouthed, about it : 
 each prisoner attended with a familiar of the In- 
 quisition : and those to be burnt having a Jesuit 
 on each hand, who was continually exhorting 
 them to abjure. After the prisoners, came a 
 troop of familiars on horseback ; then the in- 
 quisitors, and officers of the court, oti mules ; 
 and last of all, the inquisitor-general on a white 
 horse, led by two men with black hats and green 
 hatbands. At the place of execution, the pri- 
 soners were placed at one end of a large scaffold, 
 the inquisitors at the other. A sermon was 
 preached, and a priest ascended a desk near the 
 middle of the scaffold, to take the abjuration of 
 the penitents, and recite the final sentence of 
 those who were to be put to death. These were 
 now formally and most hypocritically delivered
 
 ACT 
 
 122 
 
 ACT 
 
 to the secular magistrates, who were at the same 
 time besought not to touch their blood, or put 
 their lives in danger '. The prisoners were now 
 carried to the secular gaol loaded with chains, 
 and brought thence in an hour or two before the 
 civil judge ; who, after asking in what religion 
 they intended to die, sentenced such as professed 
 the religion of, Rome, to be first strangled, and 
 then burnt to ashes ; and such as died in any 
 other faith, to be burnt alive. Both classes then 
 returned to the place of execution, where stakes 
 were prepared, for such as persisted in their 
 heresy, about four yards high, having a small 
 board towards the top for the prisoner to be 
 seated on. The negative and relapsed being first 
 strangled and burnt, the professed mounted their 
 stakes by a ladder; and the Jesuits, after exhort- 
 ing them to be reconciled to the church, left them 
 with the assurance that the devil was standing 
 at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry 
 them with him into hell. On this, the cry was, 
 let the dogs' beards be made ; which was done by 
 thrusting flaming furzes, fastened to long poles, 
 against the prisoners' faces, till they were burnt 
 to a coal. At last, fire was set to the furze at 
 the bottom of the stake, and the flame seldom 
 reaching higher than the seat they sat on, they 
 were rather roasted than burnt to death, amidst 
 the most savage exclamations of joy ! 
 
 We have narrated these horrid scenes in the 
 past tense, sincerely hoping and believing they 
 are for ever past, as pretended acts of religion, 
 even in the most devoted popish countries. The 
 inquisition is, in Portugal and Spain, at this 
 time, rather an irregular and badly conducted 
 court for the punishment of civil offences. But 
 the record of these atrocities had need remain 
 awhile before us, that those countries who are 
 most entirely emancipated, may never more re- 
 turn to that domination of the priesthood that 
 originated them. 
 
 ACT OF GRACE, in English law, an extraordi- 
 nary act of the king in council, whereby, at the 
 beginning of a new reign, or on other great 
 occasions, a free pardon has been sometimes 
 granted to criminals. 
 
 ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, one of the sacred 
 books of the New Testament, containing the his- 
 tory of the infant church, during the space of 
 twenty-nine or thirty years, from the ascension 
 of our Lord to the year of Christ 63. It was 
 written by St. Luke, and addressed to Theophilus, 
 the person to whom the evangelist had before 
 dedicated his gospel. The style of this work, 
 which was originally composed in Greek, is 
 much purer than that of the other canonical 
 writers; and it is observable, that St. Luke, in 
 his quotations from the Old Testament, always 
 makes use of the Septuagint version . It may like- 
 wise be remarked, that less critical attention has 
 been paid to this book in our own country, than 
 to any other part of the New Testament. 
 
 ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, SPURIOUS : Of these 
 tnere were several, particularly ; 1 . Acts, sup- 
 posed to be written by Abdias, the pretended 
 bishop of Babylon, who gave out that he was 
 ordained bishop by the apostles themselves, when 
 they were upon their journey into Persia. 2. 
 The Acts of Si, Peter ; from the school of the 
 
 Ebiomtes. 3. The Acts of St. Paul. Euscbia?, 
 who had seen it, pronounces it of no authority. 
 4>. The Acts of St. John the Evangelist; 5. The 
 Acts of St. Andrew; 6. The Acts of St. Thomas 
 the Apostle ; received particularly by the Mani- 
 chaeans. 7. The Acts of St. Philip; 8. The Acts 
 of St. Matthias. 
 
 ACTS OF COUNCILS, in ecclesiastical affairs, 
 contain the proceedings, debates, motions, &c. as 
 well as the canons delivered. Hence we have 
 two kinds of synodical collections, one contain- 
 ing all the acts, or transactions, relating to matters 
 of faith and doctrine ; the other, containing only 
 the canons relating to discipline, called the Book 
 of Canons. 
 
 ACTS OF PILATE, in ecclesiastical history, a 
 relation said to have been sent by Pilate to the 
 emperor Tiberius, concerning Jesus Christ, his 
 death, resurrection, &c. as testified by Tertullian, 
 in his Apol. cap. 5. and 20, 21. The heretics 
 forged Acts in imitation of them, but both the 
 genuine and the spurious are lost. 
 
 ACT./EA, in botany, the Aconitum Racemosum, 
 Herb Christopher, or Bane-berry ; a genus of the 
 monogynia order, belonging to the polyandria 
 class of plants. Its characters are : CAL. a 
 perianthium consisting of four roundish, obtuse, 
 concave leaves, which fall off. COR. four petals, 
 larger than the calyx, pointed at both ends, and 
 falling off. STAM. numerous capillary filaments; 
 the antherae roundish, erect, and didymous. 
 PIST. an ovate germen; no stylus; the stigma 
 thickish and obliquely depressed. The seeds 
 are very numerous, semiorbicular, and incum- 
 bent in a double order. There are four species; 
 viz. 
 
 1 . Actxa Alba, the American herb Christopher, 
 a native of North America. 
 
 2. Acttea Cimicifuga, a native of Siberia. 
 
 3. Acteea Japonica, the Japanese herb Christo- 
 pher, a shrub, native of Japan. 
 
 4. Act tea Racemosa, or American black or wild 
 snakeroot, a native of North America. 
 
 5. Act(zaSpicata,or common herb Christopher, 
 a native of several parts of Britain. 
 
 ACTJEON, in fabulous history, the son of 
 Aristseus and A utonoe, a great hunter. He was 
 turned by Diana into a stag, for looking on her 
 while bathing ; and was torn to pieces by his own 
 dogs. Also, a Corinthian youth, killed by Archias, 
 one of the Heraclidae, in an attempt to carry him 
 off from his father's house. Plut. in Amat. 
 Narrat. 
 
 ACTANIA, in ancient geography, an island 
 in the North Sea, west of Holstein, "and not far 
 from the mouth of the Eyder and Elbe; now 
 Heligoland. 
 
 ACTE, in botany, the elder. See SAMBUCUS. 
 
 ACTE, in mythology, one of the Horae. 2. In 
 history, a mistress of Nero, of the family of 
 Attalus. 
 
 ACTIAN GAMT-.S, in Roman antiquity, solemn 
 games instituted oy Augustus, in memory of his 
 victory over Marc Anthony at Actium, A. U. C. 
 714, B. C. 37. They were celebrated every 
 fifth year. Virgil insinuates them to have been 
 instituted by ^Eneas. jEn. iii. v. 280. 
 
 Actiaque Iliacis celebramus littora ludis, 
 By way of compliment to Augustus ; attributing
 
 ACT 
 
 123 
 
 ACT 
 
 that to the hero from whom he descended, which 
 was done by the emperor himself. 
 ACTILIA, military utensils. 
 ACTINE, ctK-rivn, in botany, a name of the 
 herb bunias, or napus ; the brassica napus of 
 Linnaeus. 
 
 ACTINIA, in zoology, a genus belonging to 
 the order of vermes molluscae. Its genuine 
 characters are, the body oblong and smooth, 
 attaching itself firmly by its basis* to rocks or 
 other solid substances, having a dilatable apex 
 hooked within. The mouth furnished with 
 crooked teeth, the rostrum cylindrical and ra- 
 diated. There are five species, some of which 
 make a beautiful appearance and are called 
 Animal Flowers, Sea Anemonies, and Urtica 
 Marina. They are viviparous, and form one of 
 those wonderful links in the chain of creation, 
 that connect the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 
 by partaking of the nature of both. See ANIMAL 
 FLOWER. 
 
 ACTINOBOLISM, from aicnv, a sun beam, 
 and /3oXtc, a plumb line, in physics, diffusion, or 
 the diradiation of light or sound,by which it flows 
 every way from its centre. Also, applied in 
 medicine, to the diffusion of the animal spirits, by 
 which they convey the dictates of the mind to 
 the organs of voluntary motion. 
 
 ACTINOLITE, in mineralogy, the actinotus 
 vitreous of Linnarus, strahlstein of Werner, and 
 amphibole actinote hexaedre of Haiiy ; having 
 three varieties, the crystallized, the asbestous, 
 and the glassy. It is principally found in pri- 
 mitive districts, with a magnesian basis, never in 
 secondary mountains. It accompanies talc, and 
 some micaceous rocks, and abounds in the Tyrol, 
 Mount St. Gothard, in Saxony, Norway, and 
 Piedmont. It is also found in Cornwall and 
 Wales, and some of the Scottish isles. 
 
 ACTIO, in Roman antiquities, an action at 
 law, in a court of justice. The formalities were 
 generally these : The injured person proceeded 
 in jus reum vocare, to summon the offending 
 party to the court, who was obliged' to go, or 
 give bond for his appearance. He could be 
 summoned viva voce, by the plaintiff. If he 
 would not go willingly, he might compel him, 
 calling any by-standers to bear witness, by asking 
 them visne antestari; the by-standers upon this 
 turned their ear towards him in token of their 
 consent. To this Horace alludes, lib. i. sat. 9. 
 See ANTESTARI. The parties having met before 
 the praetor, or other magistrate, the plaintiff 
 stated his case, termed edere actionem, commonly 
 performed by writing it on a tablet, and offering 
 it to the defendant. Next came the postulatio 
 tictionis, or the plaintiff's petition to the praetor, 
 for leave to prosecute. This was granted by 
 writing at the bottom of it actionem do, or refused 
 by writing non do. The petition being granted, 
 the plaintiff vadabatur reum, i. e. obliged the de- 
 fendant to give sureties for his future appearance 
 in court. Meantime, the difference was often 
 made up, either transactione, by letting the cause 
 fall as dubious ; orpactione, by composition. On 
 the day appointed, the parties were summoned 
 by an accensus. (See ACCEXSI.) Upon the non- 
 appearance of either, the defaulter lost his cause : 
 if they both appeared, the plaintiff proceeded 
 
 litem sive actionem intendere, i. e. to prefer his 
 suit; and desired judgment of the praetor, that is, to 
 be allowed a index or arbiter, or else the recupe- 
 ratores or ceiitumviri ; which the praetor having as- 
 signed by the consent of both parties, and deter- 
 mined the number of witnesses to be admitted ; the 
 judges took a solemn oath to be impartial ; and 
 the parties the juramentum calumnitE. Then the 
 trial began, which was called disceptatio causa. 
 
 ACTION, iu commerce, is a term used abroad 
 for a certain part or share of a public company's 
 capital stock : which is sold and transferred much 
 in the same manner as stocks are with us. The 
 proprietor is called an actionary 
 
 ACTION, in ethics, denotes the external signs 
 or expressions of the sentiments of amoral agent. 
 ACTION, in farriery, is spoken of ahorse, and 
 expresses the general character of his motion. 
 It is particularly applied to actions of his 
 mouth. 
 
 ACTION, in oratory, is the outward deportment 
 of the orator, or the accommodation of his coun- 
 tenance, voice, and gesture, to the subject of 
 which he is treating. See ORATORY. 
 
 ACTION, in painting and sculpture, is the 
 attitude or position of the several parts of the 
 face, body, and limbs of such figures as are 
 represented, and whereby they seem to be really 
 actuated by passions. Thus we say, the action 
 of such a figure finely expresses the passions 
 with which it is agitated : we also use the same 
 expression with regard to animals. 
 
 ACTION, in poetry, the same with subject or 
 fable. Critics generally distinguish two kinds, 
 the principal and the incidental. The principal 
 action is what is generally called the fable; and 
 the incidental an episode. See POETRY. 
 
 ACTIONS, among merchants, sometimes sig- 
 nify moveable effects ; and we say the merchant's 
 creditors have seized on all his actions, when we 
 mean that they have taken possession of all his 
 assets. 
 
 ACTIONARE, in law, to prosecute. 
 ACTIVE, in chemistry, is sometimes applied 
 to those principles which are supposed to act of 
 themselves, and do not need to be put in action 
 by others : thus salt, sulphur, and mercury, are 
 usually considered as active principles; and 
 phlegm, earth, &c. as passive ones. 
 
 ACTIVE POWER, in metaphysics, the power of 
 executing any work or labour : in contradis- 
 tinction to speculative powers, as those of seeing, 
 hearing, reasoning, &c. See METAPHYSICS. 
 ACTIVE PRINCIPLES. See ACTIVE in chemistry. 
 ACTIVE VERBS, are such as do not only sig- 
 nify doing, or acting, but have also nouns fol- 
 lowing them to be the subject of the action or 
 impression. Thus to love, to teach, are verbs 
 active ; because we can say ; to love a thing, or 
 teach a man. See VERB. 
 
 ACTIUM, in ancient geography, a town 
 situated on the coast of Acarnania, famous for 
 a temple of Apollo, a safe harbour, and an ad- 
 joining promontory of the same name, in the 
 mouth of the Sinus Ambracius over against 
 Nicopolis. It afterwards became still more 
 famous by Augustus's victory over Antony and 
 Cleopatra ; and for quinquennial games in- 
 stituted there, called Ac tia. See ACTIAM GAMES.
 
 ACT 
 
 124 
 
 ACU 
 
 ACTIUM, the promontory of, now called Capo 
 di Figalo, or Figo. 
 
 ACTIUS, in mythology, a surname of Apollo, 
 from Actium, where he was worshipped. 
 
 ACTON BURNEL, a village in Shropshire, 
 eight miles from Shrewsbury, so named from 
 the Burnels, who had a castle in it, once a mag- 
 nificent structure, and now a fine ruin. A par- 
 liament was held here, in the reign of Edward 
 I. wherein a statute, called the Statute Mer- 
 chant, was made for the recovery and assurance 
 of debts. 
 
 ACTON, EAST, a small town, 5 miles W. of 
 London, once a place of considerable resort for 
 its mineral waters, which have now fallen into 
 disuse. The Uxb ridge canal passes close by. 
 It is a hamlet of. 
 
 ACTON, WEST ; and both places derive their 
 names from the Saxon Ac, or Aac, i. e. oak, 
 which once abounded here. 
 
 ACTOR, among civilians, the proctor or ad- 
 vocate in civil courts or causes; as, Actor 
 ecclesice, the advocate of the church ; actor doml- 
 nicus, the lord's attorney, &c. 
 
 ACTOR, in fabulous history, a warrior among 
 the Aurunci, described by Virgil as a hero of the 
 first rank. JEn. xii. Also, a son of Myrmidon 
 and Physidice, the father of Mencetius. Patro- 
 clus was called, after him, Actorides. 
 
 ACTORUM TABULA, in Roman antiquity, 
 tables in which the births of children were regis- 
 tered. They were commenced by Servius Tul- 
 lius, and kept in the treasury of Saturn. 
 
 ACTRESSES, in the drama, appear to have 
 been wholly unknown to the ancients, men or 
 eunuchs always performing the female parts. 
 Charles II. is said to have first encouraged their 
 public appearance in England ; but there is 
 evidence that the queen of James I. performed 
 in a court theatre. Originally the drama con- 
 sisted of nothing more than a simple chorus, 
 who sung hymns in honour of Bacchus. Thespis 
 was the first that, in order to relieve this uniform 
 chorus, introduced a declaimer who repeated 
 some heroic or comic adventure. ./Eschylus intro- 
 duced a second, changed the ancient recitals into 
 dialogues, and improved the dresses of his actors. 
 To him is attributed the addition of the cothur- 
 nus or buskin. Sophocles added a third, in or- 
 der to represent the various incidents in a natural 
 manner; and we do not find in any of the 
 Greek tragedies above three persons in the same 
 scene ; a rule Horace thus alludes to, 
 
 Nee quarto, loqui persona laboret. 
 This, however, did not prevent their increasing 
 the number of actors in a comedy. Before the 
 opening of a play, they named their actors 
 in full theatre, together with the part they were 
 to perform. The ancient actors were generally 
 masked. Horace speaks of a kind of secondary 
 actors in his time, whose business it was to imi- 
 tate the first ; and by their inferior performances, 
 become foils to their principal. At Athens, 
 actors were highly honoured. At Rome they 
 were despised, and not only denied all rank 
 among the citizens, but even when any one 
 appeared upon the stage, he was expelled his 
 tribe, and deprived of the right of suffrage. Ci- 
 cero, indeed, esteems the talent of Iloscius ; but 
 
 he values his virtues still more; virtues which 
 distinguished him so remarkably above all others 
 of his profession, that they seemed to have ex- 
 cluded him from the theatre. 
 
 ACTUAL, in philosophy and medicine, is op- 
 posed to potential, and is applied to any thing 
 endued with a quality which operates by an im- 
 mediate power inherent in it. For example, hot 
 iron is called an actual cautery, in contradistinc- 
 tion from chemical caustics, which have a power 
 of producing the same effects on animal solids, 
 as actual fire; and which are called potential. 
 Boiling water is actually hot, and brandy is po- 
 tentially hot, as it heats the body, though of itself 
 cold. 
 
 ACTUARI^E NAVES, a kind of ships among 
 the ancient Romans, chiefly designed for swift 
 sailing. 
 
 ACTUARIUS, (J.) a celebrated Greek physi- 
 cian of the eleventh, or as some think, of the 
 thirteenth century. Though commonly known 
 by this appellation, (his title, in fact, as the chief 
 medical attendant on the imperial court,) his 
 name was Zacharias. He is distinguished by 
 first introducing and recommending mild cathar- 
 tics. His works were printed in one volume folio, 
 by Henry Stephens, in 1567; and reprinted at 
 Leyden in 3 vols. 12mo. 1556. 
 
 ACTUARIUS, in antiquity, a title of dignity, in 
 the court of Constantinople, peculiar to physi- 
 cians. See above. 
 
 ACTUARIUS, or ACTARIUS, in Roman anti- 
 quity, an officer appointed to write down the pro- 
 ceedings of a court, assembly, or the like. In 
 the Eastern empire, he keptthe military accounts, 
 received the corn from the susceptores or store- 
 keepers, and distributed it among the soldiers, 
 to whom he acted as a kind of broker, or army 
 agent. 
 
 ACTUATIO, actuation, in medicine, signifies 
 the change wrought on a medicine, or any thing 
 else taken into the body, by the vital heat, which 
 is necessary to make it act, and produce its effect. 
 
 ACTUS, in ancient architecture, a measure 
 in length equal to 120 Roman feet. In ancient 
 agriculture, the word signified the length of one 
 furrow, or the distance the plough goes before 
 it turns. 
 
 ACTUS INTERVICENALIS, a space of ground 
 four feet in breadth, left between the lands as a 
 path. 
 
 ACTUS MAJOR, or ACTUS QUADRATUS, a piece 
 of ground in a square form, whose sides were 
 120, and contents 14,400 feet being equal to 
 half the jugerum. It was also called modius 
 and mina. 
 
 ACTUS MINIMUS, a quantity of land 120 feer. 
 in length, and four in breadth ; equal to the sex- 
 tans, or sixth part of a jugerum. 
 
 ACTUANITES, in ecclesiastical history, a 
 name sometimes given to the MANICHEES, from 
 Acua, an alleged disciple of the apostle Thomas. 
 
 ACUBENE, in astronomy, a star of the third 
 magnitude, on the southern claw of Cancer; 
 called by Ovid labia ; and by other writers aceta- 
 bulum. 
 
 ACUHYATLI, in zoology, a large and vene- 
 mous serpent of America, more usually known 
 by the name of cucurucu, or cucuruca, which see.
 
 AClf 
 
 125 
 
 ACY 
 
 ACUITION, in grammar, medicine, and pro- 
 sody. See ACUTITIOX. 
 
 ACUL, a sea-port on the north coast of St. 
 Domingo, whence the French were expelled in 
 1794, by the English, who took it by storm, 
 S. S. W. of Cape Franfois, distant eight miles. 
 Also a small town of St. Domingo, on the south 
 coast, sixteen miles S. W. of Les Cayes. 
 
 ACULEATED FINS, in ichthyology, a term 
 applied by naturalists to the fins of fishes, which 
 are armed with prickles. Those which want 
 them are called, non-aculeated. Hence the pug- 
 nitius marinus, or stickle-back, a small prickly 
 fish in the West Indies, is called also the Ac- 
 
 CUI.EATUS LONGUS. 
 
 ACULEOSA, in botany, the Cardans polya- 
 canthos, or Gorteria cibaris of Linnaeus. 
 
 ACULER, in the menage, is the motion of a 
 horse, when in working upon volts, he does not 
 go far enough forward at every motion. 
 
 ACULEUS, in zoology, a name sometimes 
 given to the sting of a bee, scorpion, or the like. 
 AC'UMEN, n. -\ Acuo, to sharpen; acu- 
 ACU'MIXATE, [?nen, sharpness. Express- 
 Ai I'MIXATED, { ing or referring to keenness 
 ACUMINA'TION. 3 of the intellectual powers. 
 
 The word was much affected by the learned 
 Aristarchus in common conversation, to signify genius 
 or natural acumen. Pope. 
 
 This is not acuminated and pointed as in the rest ; 
 but seemeth, as it were, cut off. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Erraurs. 
 
 As it is reasonable, and even scriptural, to suppose 
 that there is music in heaven, in those dismal re- 
 gions perhaps the reverse of it is found ; tones so 
 dismal as to make even woe itself more insupportable, 
 and to acuminate even despair. Cowper's Letters. 
 
 ACUMEN, in ancient music, was used to 
 signify a sound produced by the intension or 
 raising of the voice. 
 
 ACUMINA, in antiquity, a' kind of military 
 omen, or auspice, taken from the points, or 
 edges of darts, swords, or other weapons, by ex- 
 amining whether they were bright or solid, sharp 
 or blunted, and predicting the issue of a battle 
 accordingly. 
 
 ACUMULO, a small town in Abruzzo Ul- 
 terior, seventeen miles N. W. of Aquila. 
 
 ACUNA, (Christopher de,) a Spanish Jesuit, 
 born at Burgos, 1587. Having devoted some 
 years to study, he went to make proselytes in 
 Chili and Peru; and to make discoveries re- 
 specting the river of the Amazons. He is prin- 
 cipally known as the author of a curious work, 
 entitled Nuevo Descumbrimiento de Gran Rio dc 
 los Amazones, i. e. " A new Description of the 
 Great River of the Amazons." This was published 
 at Madrid, in four parts, in 1641; but all the 
 copies, except two, were destroyed. From one 
 of them a translation was made of the work, into 
 French, and published in 4 vols. 12mo. 1682. 
 
 ACUPUNCTURE, in surgery, the operation, 
 common among the Chinese and Japanese, of 
 pricking diseased parts of the body with a gold 
 or silver needle. It is also employed in some 
 parts of America, but rather as an ornament than 
 as a remedy. See Philosophical Trans, vol. xiii. 
 No. 148 
 
 ACURON, in botany, a name of the ALISMA, 
 of LINN.EUS, which see. 
 
 ACUS, in ichthyology, a species of SYNGXA- 
 THUS, of which there are two varieties, viz. the 
 acus of Aristotle, or tobacco-pipe fish, and the 
 acus of Oppian, or gar fish. See SYNG.NA- 
 THUS. 
 
 Acus, in ichthyology, the Ammodytes, or 
 Sand-eel. 
 
 Acus MOSCHATA, in botany, a name for the 
 Geranium muschatum. Also a name of the 
 Scandix. 
 
 ACUSILAUS and Damagetus, in history 
 brothers of Rhodes, and celebrated conquerors in 
 the Olympic games. The Greeks strewed flowers 
 over their father, Dtegoras, complimenting him 
 for having two such sons. 
 
 ACUSILAUS, a Greek historian, who lived, ac- 
 cording to Josephus, before the expedition of 
 Darius into Greece. He wrote a work entitled 
 Tltpi rtav TfviaXoyiwv, which the Jewish historian 
 often quotes. Also an Athenian, who taught - 
 rhetoric at Rome, in Galba's reign. 
 
 ACUTE', adj. ^ Acuo, to sharpen : made 
 
 ACUTE'LY, " > sharp, whetted, ingenious, 
 
 ACUTE'NESS. j piercing, penetrating, cun- 
 ning. 
 
 PA ROLL. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer 
 thee acutely. 
 Shaitxpeare's All's Well, fol. 231, act i. sc. 1. 
 
 He, that will look into many parts of Asia and 
 America, will find men reason there, perhaps as 
 acutely as himself, who yet never heard of a syl- 
 logism. Locke, 
 
 M. Coloert, the famous minister of Louis XIV. 
 was a man of probity, of great industry, and know- 
 ledge of detail, of great experience, and acuteness in 
 the examination of public accounts. 
 
 Smith's Wealth of Nations. 
 
 ACUTE ACCENT. See ACCEXT. 
 
 ACUTE ANGLE, in geometry, is that which is 
 less than a right angle, or which does not subtend 
 ninety degrees. 
 
 ACUTE-ANGLED COXE, is according to the an- 
 cients, a right cone, whose axis makes an acute 
 angle with its side. 
 
 ACUTE-ANGLED TRIANGLE, is a triangle whose 
 three angles are all acute. 
 
 ACUTE-AXGULAII SECTION of a cone, is a term 
 sometimes used by the ancient geometricians for 
 the ellipsis. 
 
 ACUTE DISEASES, in medicine, are such as 
 come suddenly to a crisis. It is used in distinc- 
 tion from chronic diseases. 
 
 ACUTE, in music, is applied to a sound or tone 
 that is sharp or high, in comparison of some other 
 tone. In this sense, acute stands opposed to 
 grave. 
 
 ACUTELLA, in botany, the common ononis, 
 or rest-harrow, a small prickly plant, with red or 
 white flowers, and a tough spreading root. 
 
 ACUTIATOR, or ACUTOR, in old writers, 
 a person that whets or grinds cutting instruments. 
 
 ACUTITION, or ACUITION, in medicine and 
 chemistry, is used for sharpening or increasing 
 the force of any medicine. 
 
 ACYROLOGIA, Gr. from aKvpog, improper, 
 and Xoyof, speech, an improper acceptation, or 
 expression, wherein a word or phrase is used in
 
 ADA 
 
 12U 
 
 ADA 
 
 some unusual or oblique sense, hardly reducible 
 to the rules of language. Such is the word spero, 
 sometimes used in Roman writers for timeo. 
 
 AD BESTIAS, in antiquity, a punishment of 
 criminals, condemned to be thrown to wild 
 beasts. It was also applied to gladiators hired 
 to fight with wild beasts, otherwise called Bes- 
 tiurii. 
 
 AD EXTRA, in theology, a term used in speak- 
 ing of the external operations of God ; such as, 
 creation, preservation, renovation, &c. See AD 
 INTRA. 
 
 AD HOMINEM, in logic, an argument drawn 
 from the principles or prejudices of those with 
 whom we argue, and which of consequence must 
 be conclusive to them, though disbelieved by us. 
 
 AD INTRA, in theology, is understood of those 
 acts of the Divine Being, whose term and effect is 
 within his own essence : in which sense, acts or 
 operations, ad intra, stand opposed to those ad 
 extra. 
 
 AD LIBITUM, is sometimes used in music, for 
 at discretion, and is opposed to ' obligate.' 
 
 AD LUDOS, in antiquity, a Roman sentence, 
 whereby criminals were condemned to entertain 
 that barbarous people, either by fighting with 
 beasts, or with each other, and thus executing 
 justice on themselves. 
 
 AD METALLA, in antiquity, the punishment 
 of being doomed to work in the mines : the cri- 
 minals were called metallici. 
 
 AD VALOREM, in commerce, is used in speak- 
 ing of the duties, or customs, paid for certain 
 commodities; rated according to the value or 
 worth sworn to by the owner. 
 
 ADAES, the name of a lake, river, and town 
 of Los Texas, New Mexico, not faj- from Loui- 
 siana. The lake is five leagues broad, ten in 
 circumference, and of great depth. It abounds 
 with fish. The river runs in a south east course, 
 joining the Mexicano.* The town of Adaes is 
 450 miles N. W. of New Orleans. 
 
 AD' AGE, TZ.~) Etymologists are perplexed 
 
 AD'AGY, >with regard to the derivation 
 
 ADAO'ICAL. j of this word. It comes im- 
 mediately from the Latin adagium ; a saying 
 handed down from antiquity ; an antique pro- 
 verb. 
 
 The trite and common adage saith, Leaue not the 
 
 certain for the vncertain. Hall. 
 
 HUGH. But thus you see the old adage verified, 
 
 Multa cadunt inter you can guess the rest, 
 
 Many things fall between the cup and lip. 
 
 Jonson's Tale of a Tub, act iii. sc. 4. 
 
 The antithetic parallelism gives an acuteness and 
 force to adages and moral sentences j and, therefore, 
 abounds in Solomon's Proverbs. 
 
 Lowth's Isaiah, Prelim. Diss. 
 
 ADAGIO, ADAGEO. ado, Ital. in music, softly, 
 leisurely. When repeated, it signifies the slowest 
 of all movement, sometimes called ADAGISSIMO. 
 
 ADAJA, a river of Spain, which enters the 
 Douro, between Torderillas and Simancas. 
 
 ADARE, an ancient town of Ireland, on the 
 river Maig, over which is a fine old bridge of 
 nine arches. Here also are the remains of two 
 religious houses, and of an ancient castle belong- 
 ing to the Earl of Desmond. It is eight miles 
 S. W. of Limerick. 
 
 ADALIDES, in Spanish history, officers of 
 justice, in military matters. In the laws of king 
 Alphonsus, they are spoken of as officers ap- 
 pointed to direct the marching of the forces in 
 time of war. 
 
 ADAM, DIN, Heb. red earth, the first of 
 the human race, and the progenitor of all man- 
 kind. The particulars of his creation, of his 
 being placed in the garden of Eden, of the trial 
 of his obedience, of his review and nomination 
 of the animals, of the creation and introduction 
 of his wife, of their disobedience, apologies, and 
 punishment, of the birth of three of their children, 
 with the murder of one of them, and Adam's 
 own death, in his 930th year, are briefly narrated 
 by Moses, in the first five chapters of Genesis ; 
 and as they are, or ought to be well known to 
 every Christian, need not be here enlarged upon, 
 
 ADAM (Melchior.; See MELCHIOR. 
 
 ADAM, or AnoM, a town in the Peraea, or on 
 the other side the Jordan, over against Jericho, 
 where the Jordan began to be dried up on the 
 passage of the Israelites. Josh. iii. 16. 
 
 ADAM (Alexander), LL. D. This singularly 
 accomplished scholar was destitute of all the ad- 
 ventitious appendages of fortune, title, or con- 
 nexion. He was the son of a poor farmer, in 
 the county of Moray, and born on the 6th of 
 June, 1714. When a boy, he followed the oc- 
 cupation of a ' neatherd,' and it is interesting to 
 trace the steps of the rector of the high school 
 of Edinburgh from so humble a calling. When 
 young Adam first visited Edinburgh, his income 
 did not for a considerable time exceed four 
 guineas per annum. This would at first view 
 appear incredible, even in the Scottish capital ; 
 Out we have taken some pains to ascertain his 
 principal items of expenditure, and they afford 
 so curious a specimen of scholastic economy 
 that we present the whole document to our 
 readers. He lodged in a small room at llestal- 
 rig, and for this accommodation paid four pence 
 per week. All his meals, except dinner, uni- 
 formly consisted of oat-meal made into porridge. 
 For dinner he usually purchased a penny loaf at 
 the nearest baker's shop; and, if the day was 
 fine, he would despatch his meal in the course of 
 a short walk ; and, when this was impracticable, 
 he had recourse to some ' long and lonely stair,' 
 which he would climb, eating his dinner, step by 
 step. By this means all expense for cookery or 
 firing was avoided, and his health preserved by 
 the necessary exercise. Dr. Adam received his 
 diploma in 1780, and continued to hold his 
 office of rector till his death, which occurred in 
 December 1809. He was the author of a Latin 
 Grammar, first ed. Edin., 1772 ; Summary ol 
 Geopraphy and History, 1 vol. 8vo. ; Classical 
 Biography, Edin. 1800 ; Lexicon Linguae Latince 
 Compendiarum, Edin. 1805. 
 
 AU'AMANT, n. s. 1 A, not, and a/xaw, to 
 ADAMANTE'AN,^'. S tame. Not to be tamed, 
 ADAMAN'TINE. J impressed, or broken; 
 applied by the ancients to hard substances, par- 
 ticularly the loadstone or magnet, the diamond, 
 and most probably the granite: adamantean, 
 impenetrable; extremely hard: adamantine, 
 made of adamant, like adamant; hard.
 
 ADA 
 
 127 
 
 ADA 
 
 Away 
 
 We'll be as differing as two adamants, 
 The one shall shun the other. 
 
 White Devil 0. PI. vi. 315. 
 Wide is the fronting gate ; and, rais'd on high 
 With adamantine columns, threats the sky. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 In adamantine chains shall death be bound, 
 And hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Tho' adamantine bonds the chief restrain, 
 The dire restraint his wisdom will defeat, 
 And soon restore him to his regal seat. Idem 
 
 AD AM ANT /E A, in mythology, the nurse of 
 Jupiter in Crete, who suspended his cradle to a 
 tree, that he might not be found either in heaven, 
 earth, or sea, and had drums beat to drown 
 his cries. She is supposed to be the Amalthea 
 of Lactantius,andthe Adrasteia of other writers. 
 ADAMANTII, in church history, a name 
 given by some historians to the followers of 
 Origen. 
 
 ADAMANTINE SPAR, in mineralogy, a 
 stone of peculiar hardness, (approaching to that 
 of the diamond) which has lately attracted the 
 attention of chymists. It is found in China 
 and Hither India, and as M. Pini alleges, in 
 Italy; and exhibits two principal varieties. 
 
 The first, found in China, is of a grey colour of 
 different shades, the larger pieces opaque ; its frac- 
 ture very brilliant, and its texture spathose, which 
 causes its surface to appear striated. Its crystals 
 are covered with a very fine crust of plates of 
 silvery mica, mixed with particles of red felspar : 
 sometimes sulphate of iron has been found on 
 them. It is crystallized in six-sided prisms without 
 pyramids, the length of which varies from half an 
 inch, to an inch ; and their thickness is about 
 three-quarters of an inch. This stone will cut 
 glass easily, and mark rock crystal. Its specific 
 gravity is 3.710. 
 
 The second variety is the Corundum of Bom- 
 bay, of a more spathose texture, whiter colour, 
 and having fewer grains of magnetic iron. 
 
 ' From its hardness,' says Dr. Ure, ' this stone 
 is extremely difficult to analyze. M. Chenevix, by 
 repeatedly heating it red hot, and then plunging 
 it into cold water, caused it to appear fissured in 
 every direction. He then put it into a steel 
 mortar, about three quarters of an inch in dia- 
 meter, and three inches deep, to which a steel 
 pestle was closely fitted. A few blows of the 
 pestle caused it to crumble, and the fragments 
 were then easily reduced to an impalpable pow- 
 der by an agate pestle and mortar. This powder 
 was fused in a crucible of platinum with twice 
 its weight of calcined borax; and the glass was 
 dissolved by boiling in muriatic acid about 
 twelve hours. The precipitates from this solu- 
 tion being examined, a specimen from China 
 was found to give from 100 parts, 86.50 of alu- 
 mina, 5.26 of silex, 6.50 of iron : one from Ava, 
 alumina 87, silex 6.5, iron 4.5 : one from Ma- 
 labar, alumina 86.5, silex 7, iron 4 : one from 
 the Carnatic, alumina 91, silex 5, iron 1.5. The 
 Rev. Mr. W. Gregor analyzed a specimen from 
 Thibet, in the collection of Mr. Rashleigh, which 
 gave him alumina 81.75, silex 12.125, oxide of 
 titanium 4, water 0.937, but no iron.' 
 
 ADAMAS, in natural history, a name given 
 
 by Pliny to the spume or scoria of gold ; which 
 is cast away as not being malleable. 
 
 ADAMAS, ADAMANT, in mineralogy, die 
 diamond, is a genus of siliceous earth, composed 
 of carbon and silica ; found generally in sand or 
 light earth. It is extremely hard, so as to be the 
 best material for cutting glass, 3cc., retains the 
 sun's rays in the dark, and consumes altogether 
 as an inflammable substance. It is brought into 
 Europe from Golconda and Brazil. 
 
 ADAMBEA, in botany, a genus of plants of 
 the class polyandria and order monodelphia, 
 of which but two species are known. CAL. 
 hemispheric, containing five or seven cells. 
 COR. from five to seven petals. CAP. poly- 
 spermous fleshy, covering the calyx. It grows 
 on the coast of Malabar, on stony and moun- 
 tainous parts. 
 
 AD AMI POMUM, in anatomy, a protuberance 
 in the fore part of the throat, the convex part of 
 the thyoid cartilage. Also, in botany, the citrus 
 aurantium of Linnaeus. 
 
 ADAMIT7E, ADAMITES, in ecclesiastical his- 
 tory, the name of a sect of the second century, 
 supposed to have been a branch of the Basili- 
 dians and Carpocratians. Epiphanius tells us, 
 that they pretended to re-establish the state of 
 innocence, in which Adam was at the moment 
 of his creation, and imitated him in going naked. 
 That they detested marriage ; maintaining, that 
 the conjugal union would never have taken place 
 upon earth had sin been unknown, &c. Dr. 
 Lardner wholly denies the existence of such a 
 sect. See Works, v. ix. Similar absurdities are 
 charged in the twelfth century, upon Tanda- 
 mus, since known by the name of Tanchelin, of 
 Antwerp, who was constantly attended by 3000 
 profligates in arms. His sect did not, however, 
 continue long ; but a similar one arose shortly 
 after,under the name of Turlupins, in Savoy and 
 Dauphine, where they committed the most brutal 
 actions in open day. And in the beginning of the 
 15th century, one Picard, a native of Flanders, 
 spread these notions in Germany, and Bohemia, 
 particularly in the army of the famous Zisca. 
 Some partizans of Picard, in Poland, Holland, 
 and England, assembled in the night, and one 
 of the fundamental maxims of their society, was 
 said to be contained in the following verse : 
 
 Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli. 
 But see ADAMITISM. 
 
 ADAMITISM, the opinions and practices of 
 the Adamites. Beausobre, has shown, that the 
 Adamitism, i. e. the nakedness of these people, 
 is a mere calumny, forged by their adversaries, 
 the Calixtines and Papists, at the time when 
 the Vaudois first appeared. Jovet and Moreri 
 speak of Adamites in England ; and indeed the 
 Romanists and reformed mutually reproach each 
 other with having Adamites among them. 
 
 ADAMITUM, and ADIMITA, the hardest 
 white stones, and stones in the bladder. The 
 former, Paracelsus says, aie a species of tartar. 
 AD AMP E, in geography, a territory on tho 
 Gold Coast of Africa, adjoining Acra, and ex- 
 tending to the Volta, and similar in its general 
 character and appearance, but not so fertile. 
 
 ADAMPORE, a town of Bengal, in the dis- 
 trict of Burdwan.
 
 ADA 
 
 128 
 
 ADA 
 
 ADAM'S PEAK, or Hammaled, a lofty moun- 
 tain of Ceylon, said to be visible 150 miles off, 
 and so named from a tradition of the natives, 
 that Adam here obtained his last view of Para- 
 dise. It is sixty miles north-east of Columbo. 
 
 ADAM'S APPLE, in botany. See ADAMI POMUM. 
 
 ADAM'S BRIDGE, a reef of rocks, which runs be- 
 tween Ceylon and the continent. SeeADAM's PEAK. 
 
 ADAM'S NEEDLE. See YUCCA. 
 
 ADAMS (Joseph), M. D., was born in 1756 
 and died June 20th, 1818. He was one of the 
 great supporters of vaccine inoculation, and we 
 are assured that in this respect he effected by 
 his published writings as much as the great Dr. 
 Jenner, its original advocate. Dr. Adams pub- 
 lished, 1. Observations on Morbid Poisons, 8vo., 
 1795, 4to., 1807. 2. A Guide to Madeira, 8vo., 
 1801. 3. A Popular View of Vaccine Inocu- 
 lation. 4. A Life of John Hunter, 8vo., 1816 ; 
 and a new edition of his Treatise on the Venereal 
 Disease, 8vo. He was also for many years 
 editor of the Medical and Physical Journal. 
 
 ADAMSON (Patrick), archbishop of St. 
 Andrew's, was born in 1543 at Perth. In 1566 
 VIP set out for Paris as tutor to a young ^entle- 
 nr an ; and, Mary queen of Scots being that year 
 delivered of a son, Mr. Adamson wrote a Latin 
 poem on the occasion, hailing the royal infant 
 as king of England and France, for which he 
 was confined in France for six months. As soon 
 as he recovered his liberty, he retired with his 
 pupil to Bourges; and there wrote a Latin 
 poetical version of the Tjook of Job, and the 
 Tragedy cf Herod in the same language. In 
 1573 he returned tc Scotland, and became mi- 
 nister of Paisley. He was afterwards one of the 
 commissioners for settling the jurisdiction and 
 policy of the church ; and chaplain to the earl 
 of Morton, then regent. On the death of bishop 
 Douglas, he was promoted to the archiepiscopal 
 see of St. Andrew's, a dignity which brought 
 upon him great trouble. In 1578 he submitted 
 to the general assembly, which procured him 
 peace for a short time, but the year following 
 they brought fresh accusations against him. 
 Being attacked with a disease, in which the 
 physicians could give him no relief, he happened 
 to take a simple medicine from an old woman 
 which did him service, and who, being charged 
 with witchcraft, he was accused of dealing with 
 witches. In 1583 king James sent him ambas- 
 sador to queen Elizabeth, at whose court he re- 
 sided for some years : but, returning to Scotland 
 in 1584, the Presbyterian party was very violent 
 against the archbishop, and excommunicated him. 
 Accused of various frivolous crimes, the king 
 deserted him, and granted the revenue of his see 
 to the duke of Lennox, until, goaded by poverty 
 And oppression, he submitted to the wretched 
 humiliation of recanting his opinions upon 
 church government publicly ; which, however, 
 availed him nothing. He died in abject poverty 
 in 1599. His works are contained in a 4to. 
 volume, London, 1619. 
 
 ADAMSTOWN, a parish and town in the 
 county of Wexford, Ireland, lamentably memo- 
 rable on account of Scullabogue Barn, in which 
 195 Protestants were burnt alive, at the time of 
 the Irish rebellion, in 1798. The remains of this 
 
 building are still to be seen. Also a small town 
 of Pennsylvania, North America. 
 ADAMUS,a name for the philosopher's stone. 
 
 ADANA, an ancient town of Asia, in Natolia, 
 the capital of the province of Aledulia, and seated 
 on the river Choquen or Adana, on the banks 
 of which stands a strong little castle, built on a 
 rock. It has a great number of beautiful foun- 
 tains, brought from the river by means of water- 
 works. Over the river there is a stately bridge 
 of fifteen arches. The climate is very pleasant 
 and healthy, and the winter mild and serene ; but 
 the summer is so hot as to oblige the principal 
 inhabitants to retire into the neighbouring moun- 
 tains, where they spend six months among shady 
 trees and grottoes, in a most delicious manner 
 The adjacent country is rich and fertile, both in 
 corn and fruits. Adana is also a considerable 
 wine market. It is thirty miles north-east of 
 Tarsus on the road to Aleppo. 
 
 ADANAD, a town of Hindostan, in the dis- 
 trict of Shirnada, and province of Malabar, 
 twenty-five miles south-east of Calicut. It is 
 remarkable as the principal residence or throne of 
 the Alvangheri Tamburacul, the chief of the 
 Namburies. a very proud class of Brahmins, who 
 will take their meals with no other class, and 
 only suffer the elder branches of their families 
 to marry, lest the distinction should lie rendered 
 loo common. 
 
 ADANSONIA, in botany, Ethiopian sour- 
 gourd, or monkey bread, a genus of plants of the 
 order monodelphia, class polyandria; and the 
 characters of which are : CAL. a perianthium one- 
 leaved, half five-cleft, cup form (the divisions 
 revolute), deciduous: COR. five petals, roundish, 
 nerved, revolute, growing reciprocally with the 
 claws and stamina: STAM. of numerous filaments, 
 coalesced beneath into a tube, and crowning it, 
 expanding horizontally ; the antherae kidney form, 
 incumbent : PIST. an egged germ ; the stylus 
 very long, tubular, variously intorted ; the stig- 
 mata numerous (ten), prismatic, villous, ray 
 expanded : PER. an oval capsule, woody, not 
 gaping, two celled, with farinaceous pulp, the 
 partitions membraneous : the seeds are numerous, 
 kidney-shaped, rather bony, and involved in a 
 friable pulp. There is at present but one known 
 species belonging to this genus, the baobab, abavi, 
 abevo, arbu, or guanabanus, which is perhaps 
 the largest production of the whole vegetable 
 kingdom, and is a native of Africa. r - 
 
 ADAPT, v. a. ~\ Lat. adapto. To fit or suit 
 
 ADAPTATION, n. $ (one thing to another: 
 
 ADAP'TION, adaptation and adaption 
 
 ADEPT', ra. s. & adj. 3 mean suitability ; the act 
 
 of fitting or suiting : an adept is one who possesses 
 
 the qualifications suitea to a specific purpose or 
 
 employ: as an adjective, skilful; well versed. 
 
 'Tis true, but let it not be known, 
 My eyes are somewhat dimmish grown j 
 For nature, always in the right, 
 To your decays adapts my sight. tfwift. 
 
 It is not enough that nothing offends the ear ; 
 but a good poet will adapt the very sounds, as well 
 as words, to the things he treats of. Pope's Lettert. 
 From stucco'd walls smart arguments rebound, 
 And beaux, adept in every thing profound, 
 Die of disdain, or whistle off the sound. Cuwper
 
 ADA 
 
 129 
 
 ADD 
 
 A DAMS (John), a distinguished patriot in the 
 American revolution,was descended from English 
 ancestors, who, with other puritans, settled in 
 the territory of Massachusetts. Having evinced a 
 taste for learning, he was educated for the legal 
 profession, under the able tuition of Mr. Gridley, 
 but only used his extensive learning in this 
 branch as accessory to the accomplishment of 
 his higher ambition. His eloquence, knowledge, 
 and perseverance, soon acquired for him that re- 
 putation to which he early aspired ; and being 
 elected representative for the town of Boston, he 
 devoted all the energies of his mind, during the 
 remainder of his life, to the completion of that 
 political system, for the attainment of which, he, 
 in common with the noblest of his fellow- 
 countrymen, encountered so many perils. He 
 was engaged in the negotiation of treaties be- 
 tween Holland, England, and France, and the 
 United states ; was the friend of Mr. Jefferson, 
 who thus speaks of him in a public address : 
 " that the great pillar of support to the declara- 
 tion of independence, and its ablest advocate and 
 champion on the floor of the house, was John 
 Adams." Upon his return from England, where 
 he resided as first minister to London, he was 
 elected the first vice-president of the United 
 States, under the new constitution, and re- 
 elected in 1793. The duties of this office he 
 discharged with ability and integrity until the 
 4th day of March, 1797, when he succeeded to 
 the presidency, then vacated by general Wash- 
 ington. Four years he filled the high situation 
 of president, and only lost his re-election by a 
 majority of one, which Jefferson, his rival, at- 
 tained over him. But the equanimity of his 
 great mind was not to be shaken by any mere 
 human events, and Mr. Adams was found still 
 the champion of his country's rights, still the 
 upright senator, still the obedient citizen. The 
 4th of July, 1826, was the day appointed by the 
 Wise Dispenser of events for the removal of this 
 honest statesman from the theatre of this world ; 
 and while he lay extended on the couch of death, 
 his attendants asked him " whether he knew 
 what day it was, or what the ringing of bells and 
 other rejoicings meant?" "O yes," he replied, 
 " it is the glorious 4th of July ; and again," said 
 he, "Jefferson survives." But Jefferson had 
 already, at one o'clock that same day, rendered 
 his spirit into the hands of his Redeemer. See 
 AMERICA, NORTH. 
 
 ADAPTERS, or ADOPTERS. See CHEMISTRY. 
 
 ADAR, TlK, Heb. mighty, the name of a 
 Hebrew month, answering to the end of Feb- 
 ruary and beginning of March, the 12th of their 
 sacred, and 6th of their civil year. On the 7th 
 day of it, the Jews celebrate the death of Moses ; 
 on the 13th, they have the feast of Esther ; and 
 on the 14th, the feast of Purim, for their deliver- 
 ance from Haman's conspiracy. See VEADAR. 
 
 ADARCE, iu the materia medica of the an- 
 cients, a saltish humour concreting about the 
 stalks of reeds, and other vegetables, in Cappa- 
 docia and Galatia : we also read of it in Italy ; 
 and of a native kind produced in Indian reeds, as 
 sugar in the cane. It was used as a topic to rub 
 the skin in leprosy, sun-burning, freckles, &c. 
 
 ADARCONj ADARCONIM, an ancient coin 
 VOL. I. 
 
 mentioned in Scripture, usually of gold, derived, 
 as some think, from the gold pieces coined by 
 Darius, called ^apax 01 - They are valued va- 
 riously; according to Dr. Bernard, they weighed 
 two grains more than our guinea, but the gold 
 being very fine and little alloyed, it may be 
 taken at worth about twenty-five shillings sterling. 
 There was one in lord Pembroke's cabinet a few 
 years since, which weighed 129 grains. 
 
 ADARIDGE, or ADAHICES^ in chemistry, 
 sal-ammoniac. 
 
 ADARME, in commerce, a small Spanish 
 weight, the sixteenth part of an ounce troy. 
 
 ADARNECH, in chemistry, auripigmentum, 
 or orpiment. 
 
 ADARTICULATION, in medicine, is used 
 by some physicians for apdpwSia, by others, for 
 Stap9pwffig. See ARTHRODIA and DIARTHROSIS. 
 
 ADATAIS, ADATSI, or ADATYS, in commerce, 
 a fine muslin or cotton cloth, made in Bengal. 
 
 ADAUNT, to discourage, subdue. See 
 DAUNT. 
 
 ADAW. of uncertain derivation and obso- 
 lete ; to daunt, keep under, abate. 
 
 ADAYS', on days. 
 
 ADCIIER, or ADHER, in the materia medica, 
 a name given by Avicenna and Serapion, to the 
 Scaenanth, or camel's hay ; as well as to the 
 common rush. 
 
 ADCORDABILES DEHAKII, in old law 
 books, money paid by the vassal to his lord, upon 
 the selling or exchanging of a feud. 
 
 ADCOR'PORATE, or ) Ad: corpus. See 
 
 ADCOR'PORATE, v. $ INCORPORATE. 
 
 ADCREDULITARE, in law, to purge one's 
 self of an offence by oath. 
 
 ADCRESCENTES, among the Romans, sol- 
 diers entered in the army, but not yet put on 
 duty; from these the standing forces were re- 
 cruited. See ACCEKSI. 
 
 ADD,' c. 1 
 
 AD'DIBLE, 
 
 ADDIBIL'ITY, 
 
 ADDIT'AMENT, 
 
 ADDI'TION, 
 
 ADDITIONAL, n. ft a. 
 
 ADDITIONALLY, 
 
 ADDI'TIONARY, 
 
 AD'DITORY. 
 
 ADDEEM', or 1 From deem and doom. See 
 
 ADDOOM'. > DEEM. 
 
 ADDA, in geography, a river of Switzerland 
 and Italy, which rises in the mount Braulio, in 
 the country of the Grisons, and passes through 
 the Valteline, traverses the lake Como, and the 
 Milanese, and falls into the Po, near Cremona. 
 Its navigation was much improved by a canal, 
 dug in 1771. 
 
 The ADDA gave name, in part, to that portion 
 of the Italian republic, and kingdom of Italy, 
 (now subject to Austria,) called the department 
 of the Adda and Oglio, and which contained the 
 northern part of the Bergamasco, and the whole 
 of the Valteline. 
 
 ADDA-EL, in zoology, the Arabian name of a 
 small species of lizard, described by Bruce, as 
 found at Atbana, beyond the ruins, near the site 
 of the ancient Mene, and to which many me- 
 dicinal virtues are ascribed by the natives. 
 
 K 
 
 Ad : do, to give to ; 
 to put together ; to in- 
 crease a number, or 
 quantity.
 
 ADD 
 
 130 
 
 ADD 
 
 ADDACE, in natural history, a name by 
 which the Africans call the common antelope. 
 See GAZELLA. 
 
 ADDEPHAGIA, from Addt), much, and 0ayw, 
 I eat, in medicine, a term sometimes used to 
 express greediness or voraciousness as a disease. 
 AD'DER, TEtteri Na'o&ne, Saxon, a viper, 
 a poisonous reptile ; formerly applied to serpents 
 in general. 
 
 Or is the adder better tban the eel, 
 Because his painted skin contents the eye ? 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 An adder did it ; for, with doubler tongue 
 Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 The adder teaches us where to strike, by her 
 curious and fearful defending of her head. Taylor. 
 
 ADDER, in zoology, a venemous reptile of the 
 serpent kind, more usually called a viper. It is 
 sometimes confounded with the asp : thus, the 
 deaf adder, spoken of in the Bible, is not pro- 
 perly the adder, but the asp. 
 
 ADDER-BOLT, the dragon fly. See LIBLILLA. 
 
 ADDER-NOWED, or KNOTTED, in heraldry, is 
 a particular twisting of the adder in a coat of 
 arms. 
 
 ADDER CURLING ERECTED, in heraldry. See 
 HERALDRY. 
 
 ADDER, SEA, in ichthyology, the English name 
 of the sygnathus typhle, which see. 
 
 ADDER'S-TONGUE, in botany, the ophioglossum 
 of Linnaeus, a medicinal plant, so called, either 
 from its resembling the tongue, or curing the bite 
 of a viper. Skinner says, from its serving as a 
 lurking place for adders. No part of the fruc- 
 tification is visible, except the fruit, which is an 
 oblong, double capsule, divided into a gre<tt 
 number of cells, each of which opens trans- 
 versely, and contains a number of small seeds. 
 It is esteemed one of the best vulnerary herbs 
 this country produces. 
 
 ADDER, WATER, in zoology, a name given to 
 the coluber 
 
 ADDER-WORT, in botany, snakewood. See 
 POLYGONUM. 
 
 ADDEXTRATORES, or ADDEXTRARII, in 
 the court of Rome, the pope's mitre-bearers; 
 thus called, on account of their walking at the 
 pope's right hand, when he rides out. 
 
 AD'DICE, or i ^ A>ene, a kind of axe, 
 
 ADZE, J > a crooked instrument used 
 
 AXE. j by carpenters, coopers, &c. 
 
 for cutting wood under the foot. 
 
 The addice hath its blade made thin, and some- 
 what arching. Moxon's Mecltanical Exercises. 
 
 I had thought I had rode upon addices between 
 this and Canterbury. Lyly. Moth. Bomb. c. 10. 
 
 ADDICT/, v. -} Ad : dico, to say to ; not 
 
 ADDICT'EDNESS, >used in English agreeably 
 ADDIC'TION. j to its obvious rendering; 
 rather to give one's self up to, to devote, to con- 
 secrate. Contrary to the assertion of Johnson, it 
 is used in a good as well as in a bad sense. 
 To studies good addict of comely grace. 
 
 Mir. for Mag. p. 175. 
 
 It is a wonder how his grace should glean it j 
 Since his addiction was to courses vain \ 
 
 His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow ; 
 
 His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports. 
 
 Shaktpeara 
 
 Aso. Yours entirely, addicted Madame. 
 
 ARC. I require no more, dearest Asotus ; hence- 
 forth let me call you mine. 
 
 Jonxon's Cynthia's Revelt. 
 
 Ye know the house of Stephanus ; that they have 
 addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. 
 
 1 Cor. xvi. 15. 
 
 I am neither author or fautor of aay sect : I 
 will have no man addict himself to me ; but, if I 
 have any thing right, defend it as truth's. 
 
 Ben Jonson. 
 
 Those know how little I have remitted of my 
 former addictedness to make chymical experiments. 
 
 Boyle. 
 
 ADDICO. See ADDICTIO. 
 
 ADDICTI, in Roman antiquity, insolvent 
 debtors, who were adjudged by the twelve tables 
 to a kind of temporary servitude to the creditor. 
 
 ADDICTIO, ADDICTION, in the Roman law, 
 the making over goods to another, either by sale 
 or by legal sentence ; the goods so delivered were 
 called bona addicta. 
 
 ADDISON, (Launcelot,) D.D. son of a clergy- 
 man of the same name, was born at Maulds 
 Meaburne, in the parish of Crosby, Ravensworth, 
 Westmoreland, and educated at Queen's College, 
 Oxford. He was chosen one of the Terra Filii, 
 in 1658; when his attachment to the exiled royal 
 family, excited him to make some severe reflec- 
 tions in an oration, on the pride and ignorance 
 of his superiors, and exposed him to so strong 
 a feeling of censure, that he could only obtain 
 forgiveness, by recanting the obnoxious expres- 
 sions publicly, on his knees. 
 
 At the restoration, he quickly rose in the royal 
 favour, was made chaplain of Dunkirk, chaplain 
 in ordinary to the king, rector of Milston, in 
 Wiltshire, prebendary of Sarnm, dean of Litch- 
 field, and archdeacon of Coventry. His life and 
 writings reflect honour upon his memory, as a 
 Christian, a gentleman, and a clergyman. 
 
 He expired on the 20th of April, 1703, leaving 
 three sons : Joseph Addison, Gulston, afterwards 
 governor of Fort St. George; Launcelot, mas- 
 ter of arts, and fellow of Magdalen College, 
 Oxford ; and one daughter, married first to Dr. 
 Sartre, prebendary of Westminster, and afterwards 
 to Daniel Combes, Esq. 
 
 ADDISON, (Joseph,) son of Dr. Launcelot 
 Addison, was born May 1, 1672, at Milston, 
 near Ambresbury, in Wiltshire ; of which place 
 his father was rector. As he was from his infancy 
 intended for orders, his domestic culture, he 
 tells us, was judiciously calculated to leave upon 
 his mind the most powerful impressions of 
 religion. 
 
 He acquired the rudiments of education under 
 private tutors ; but, in his thirteenth year was 
 removed to the Charter-House, then under the 
 care of Dr. Ellis ; and, where he first contracted 
 his memorable acquaintance with sir Richard 
 Steele. In 1687, he was entered of Queen's 
 College, Oxford, where some Latin verses which 
 he composed procured him the patronage of 
 Dr. Lancaster, afterwards provost of the College; 
 through whose interest, he was, in 1689, elected 
 demy of Magdalen. All his powers were now
 
 A D D I S O N. 
 
 131 
 
 directed to the cultivation of his mind, and his 
 fondness for Latin compositions prevailing, he 
 produced his celebrated Musae Anglicanse, a col- 
 lection of poems, from -winch Boileau, according 
 to Tickel, ever afterwards conceived a high 
 opinion of English genius : and observed that, 
 " he would not have written against Perrault, 
 had he before seen such excellent pieces by a 
 modern hand." 
 
 In his twenty-second year, Addison first ap- 
 peared as an English writer, in verses addressed 
 to Dryden ; and published shortly afterwards 
 a translation of part of Virgil's Georgic on the 
 Bees, of which Dryden spoke highly. About the 
 same time he composed the arguments prefixed 
 to the several books of Dryden's Virgil. His 
 next paper of verses contained the character of 
 English poets, of the first rank, inscribed to 
 Henry Sacheverell, who if not himself a poet, 
 was, at least, a writer of verses. In this poem, 
 is a very confident and discriminating character 
 of Spenser, whose works, it afterwards appeared, 
 he had never read. About this time, he was 
 diverted from his intention of entering into holy 
 orders, by the influence of Mr. Montague, then 
 chancellor of the Exchequer, to whose friendship 
 he had been introduced by Mr. Congreve. It 
 is evident, that he was now learning the trade of 
 a courtier. Montague had written verses with- 
 out the slightest claim to excellence; and, 
 Addison joined his name with those of Cowley 
 and Dryden. In 1695, he addressed a poem to 
 king William, with an introductory dedication 
 to lord Somers ; and in 1697, produced his Latin 
 poem, on the celebrated peace of Ryswick, dedi- 
 cated to his friend Montague. This, beside 
 paving the way to a pension of 300 per annum, 
 has been pronounced the best Latin poem sine the 
 .ZEneid. Upon receiving his pension, he resolved 
 upon an excursion to the Continent, and having 
 staid a year at Blois to learn the French language, 
 he proceeded into Italy, where he beheld with 
 the eyes of a classic, and the rapture of a poet, 
 the ancient monuments and remains of Pagan 
 Rome. 
 
 His poetical epistle to Lord Halifax, descrip- 
 tive of this journey, is considered amongst the 
 most elegant of his productions. In Italy, he 
 wrote his Dialogues on Medals, and some acts 
 of his Cato ; and after an absence of two years 
 returned to England in pecuniary embarrassment, 
 through the non-payment of his pension. He 
 had also been deprived, by the death of king 
 William, of a small appointment about the per- 
 son of prince Eugene. Shortly after his return 
 he published his travels, dedicated to Lord 
 Somers ; and so great was the popularity of the 
 first edition, that it was enhanced to five times its 
 original price before a reprint could be obtained. 
 Of many parts of this book, however, Dr. John- 
 son thinks it no severe censure to say, they 
 might have been written at home ; but the bold, 
 yet delicate delineations, the elegant language, 
 and charming variety of his style rendered it the 
 favourite of the public, and soon established its 
 fame as a standard English classic. 
 
 On the victory of Blenheim, Lord Godolphin 
 lamented to Lord Halifax, that it had not been 
 sufficiently celebrated ; and desired him to men- 
 
 tion some superior poet who was capable of 
 doing justice to the theme. Halifax named 
 Addison ; and no sooner had the poet read to his 
 patron what he had written as far as the simile 
 of the angel, than he was appointed commis- 
 sioner of appeals. On the following year, ac- 
 companying Lord Halifax to Hanover, he was 
 made under secretary of state About this time, 
 to divert the public from the rage for Italian 
 operas, he endeavoured to introduce a musical 
 drama in our own language, and produced his 
 Rosamond, which on its first appearance was 
 hissed from the stage. Shortly after, the duke of 
 Wharton being appointed Lord Lieutenant of 
 Ireland, Addison became his secretary, arid was 
 presented with the additional honour of " keeper 
 of the Records in Birmingham's Tower, with a 
 salary of 300 per annum. Swift observes of 
 him, with respect to this office, that he made it 
 a rule never to return fees to his friends out of 
 politeness ! Dunng his residence in Ireland, 
 the publication of the Tatler was commenced by 
 Steele, without any communication of his design ; 
 but the insertion of a remark which Addison had 
 given him with respect to a passage in Virgil, 
 discovered the author : and the subject of our 
 memoir became an invaluable auxiliary in this 
 first series of our familiar classics. The Tatler 
 was succeeded in about two months by the 
 Spectator, a series of essays published early 
 every day ; designed to guide the flow of daily 
 conversation, and to improve the manners of the 
 fashionable world. In short the Spectator may 
 be considered as a sort of " Arbiter Eleganti- 
 arum," as Johnson terms it ; pouring its small 
 rays and short imperfect strokes of light upon 
 the common walks of familiar life, and is no 
 less calculated to please the imagination by its 
 sprightly and instructive style, than to improve 
 the affections by its refinement and delicacy. 
 The descriptions of living characters which it 
 contained were numerous, and were drawn to 
 such perfection, that many of them were known 
 by the spirit and expression of their portraits, 
 and pointed out by the world. The papers, thus 
 rapidly produced, display considerable depth 
 of literature and criticism, maintained with great 
 justness of thought and dignity of language; and 
 the miscellanies are happily varied with elegant 
 fictions and refined allegories. Addison how- 
 ever, seems not to have completely prosecuted 
 his original design ; and this admired work ter- 
 minated abruptly on the 16th of September, 
 1712. His Cato, produced in 1713, raised 
 Addison's reputation still higher. As an his- 
 torical play, it was at first considered to have 
 peculiar political views ; and England being then 
 distracted with strong party opinions, it is not 
 to be wondered that it was variously received, 
 or that its performance created some confusion. 
 It had, however, so much merit, that the queen 
 solicited the honour of a dedication of it to her- 
 self; it has also been introduced upon foreign 
 stages, and translated into almost all the lan- 
 guages of Europe. Steele took advantage of 
 the fame of Cato, to commence the publication 
 of the Guardian, to which Addison contributed ; 
 distinguishing all his papers with a small hand, 
 as in the Spectator by one of the letters in 
 K 2
 
 132 
 
 ADDISON. 
 
 the name of the muse CLIO. Steele also attri- 
 butes to Addison the comedy of the Drummer, 
 which he carried for him about this time to the 
 play-house, and of which he afterwards sold the 
 copy for fifty guineas. 
 
 Being largely engaged with public affairs, 
 Addison frequently entered with warmth into 
 political discussions, and wrote several pamphlets 
 of which The present State of the War, The 
 Whig Examiner, and The Trial of Count Tariff, 
 were the most remarkable. On the death of 
 Queen Anne, Addison was made secretary to the 
 Regency, and was required to write to the 
 Elector of Hanover, announcing the vacancy of 
 the throne ; but he was so long seeking for 
 choice expressions that the Lords grew impatient, 
 and called to Mr. Southwell, a clerk, to dispatch 
 the message, which he immediately did, and not 
 a little valued himself on the occasion. 
 
 December 23rd, 1715, he published the 
 Freeholder, in defence of government, a work 
 full of convincing arguments, singular pleasantry, 
 and considerable embellishment. He also gave 
 the world about this time his Tory Fox Hun- 
 ter, a matchless performance, which can scarcely 
 fail of delighting even bigotry itself. In August, 
 1716, he married the Countess dowager of 
 Warwick, a union which as it neither found nor 
 made the parties equal, afforded very little or 
 no addition to their happiness. The lady re- 
 membering her rank, treated him with a son of 
 condescending ceremony, and appeared never to 
 forget him as the tutor of her son. Howe's ballad 
 of the Despairing Shepherd, is said to have 
 been written upon this match. 
 
 In 1717, he was made one of the principal 
 secretaries of state, an office for which he 
 was altogether ill adapted, as he could neither 
 speak with boldness nor eloquence; nor had 
 any portion of the readiness of a man of business. 
 He was therefore useless in the house of Com- 
 mons, and in the office he could not issue an 
 ouler without wasting his time in search of fine 
 expressions. At last he obtained his dismission 
 wrth a pension of 1500 per annum. 
 
 After his retirement from public business, he 
 laid down plans for his future literary labours, 
 wrote a Defence of the Christian Religion, 
 proposed a Tragedy on the Death of Socrates, 
 an English Dictionary on the plan of the 
 Italian Delia Crusca, a Version of the 
 Psalms, &c. These, however, he never com- 
 pleted. 
 
 In the decline of his life, apolitical dispute arose 
 between the subject of our memoir and his friend 
 Steele. It was occasioned by Lord Sunderland's 
 having attempted to introduce a bill for limiting 
 the creation of peers. This being warmly sup- 
 ported by the former and opposed by the latter, 
 produced several pamphlets on both sides, heated 
 with acrimonious expressions ; nor could a per- 
 fect reconciliation ever afterwards be effected. 
 
 At length after an useful but chequered life, 
 Addison felt his end sensibly approaching, and 
 forgetting all human affairs, endeavoured to pre- 
 pare for hjji ast moments. With a natural wish 
 to die in pfeace with the world, he sent for Mr. 
 Gay, ar^l told him he had injured him : but if he 
 lived to recover, he would make him ample 
 
 recompence. The latter was not sensible of any 
 injury, but Supposed he might have been the 
 means of withholding some preferment from him. 
 Lord Warwick, his son-in-law,was a young man 
 of loose opinions and irregular habits, whom 
 Addison had used every effort to reclaim. One 
 experiment however, remained to be tried, the 
 effect of a last interview. He sent for the young 
 nobleman in his dying moments, and on his 
 desiring with great tenderness to know his last 
 injunction, said to him, " I have sent for you, 
 that you may see with what peace a Christian can 
 die." Whether this touching interview had any 
 effect upon the young earl, is not known. He 
 died himself shortly after. Tickel alludes to this 
 circumstance in the following lines of his elegy : 
 
 He taught us how to live, and oh ! too high 
 
 The price of knowledge, taught us how to die. 
 
 After having given directions to Mr. Tickel 
 respecting the publication of his works, and dedi- 
 cated them to his friend Mr. Craggs, Addison 
 expired June 17th, 1719, at Holland House in 
 the 47th year of his age, leaving an only child, 
 a daughter. 
 
 In the habits and external manners of Mr. 
 Addison, there was a timorous or sullen taci- 
 turnity ; by some attributed to an extreme, native 
 modesty. Steele mentions, with regret, this re- 
 markable bashfulness. Chesterfield calls him the 
 most timorous and awkward man that he ever 
 saw : and Addison himself, speaking of his defi- 
 ciency in conversation, used to observe, that with 
 respect to intellectual wealth, he could draw bills 
 to a thousand pounds, though he had not a guinea 
 in his pocket. 
 
 Of Addison's life before marriage, Pope has 
 given some details. He had in his house with 
 him Budgel, and perhaps Philips, besides whom, 
 his chief companions were Steele, Gary, Dave- 
 nant, and Colonel Brett. With some one of these 
 he always breakfasted, afterwards studied all the 
 morning ; then dined at a tavern, and went to 
 Button's coffee-house, in the evening. Button 
 had been servant in the countess of Warwick's fa- 
 mily ; and now, under the patronage of Addison, 
 kept a coffee-house on the south side of Russel- 
 street, two doors from Covent-garden, where the 
 wits of the day used to assemble. From the 
 coffee-house he went again to the tavern, where 
 he often sat late and drank too much wine. 
 
 On the whole, the fame of Addison, though 
 never entitling him to exalted rank as a politi- 
 cian or a man of public business, and considera- 
 bly on the wane perhaps, as a poet, and even 
 as a critic, compared to the estimation his pieces 
 enjoyed at the period of their publication, rests 
 on the solid basis of that real excellence in the 
 style and manner, as well as in the whole 
 tendency of his writings, which will render it 
 all-enduring while the language of his country 
 survives. He can be satirical without being in- 
 vidious, and witty but not malevolent : calling 
 back the wanderer from the path of virtue, rather 
 by exhibiting new attractions in her charms, 
 than following him with frowns, and threats, 
 and anathemas ; and must be ever regarded by 
 impartial history, as one of the soundest patriots 
 and best public writers that our annals can 
 boast.
 
 ADD 
 
 133 ADD 
 
 ADDISON, a county of the state of Vermont, 
 Worth America, intersected by the Green Moun- 
 tains : it is bounded on the E. by lake Champlain 
 smd divided into two parts by Otter Creek, being 
 thirty miles long, and thirty-seven broad ; and 
 contains twenty-one townships and 7000 inhabi- 
 tants. The capital is Middlebury. Also, a town 
 of the above county on lake Champlain. 
 
 ADDITAMENTS, in chemistry and phar- 
 macy, ingredients added to medicines already 
 compounded. It is also an heraldic te 'm signify- 
 ing any remarkable addition to a coat of arms. 
 
 ADDITION, in algebra. See ALGEBRA. 
 
 ADDITION, CHARACTER OF, is +, which is 
 usually expressed by plus. Thus 3+4, denotes 
 the sum of 3 and 4 ; and is read 3 plus 4. See 
 ARITHMETIC. 
 
 ADDITION, in music, a dot marked on the right 
 side of a note, signifying that it is to be sounded 
 or lengthened half as much as it would have been 
 without such a mark. 
 
 A DDITION OF DECIMALS, fractions, whole num- 
 bers, &c. See ARITHMETIC. 
 
 ADDITIONS, in distilling, such things as are 
 added to the wash, or liquor, while in a state of 
 fermentation, in order to improve the vinosity 
 of the spirit. See DISTILLING. 
 
 ADDITIONS, in heraldry, some things added 
 to a coat of arms, as marks of honour ; and 
 therefore directly opposite to abatements. As 
 BORDURE, CANTON, GYRON, PILE, QUARTER, 8cc. 
 See these articles. 
 
 ADDITIONS OF DEGREES, are those we call 
 names of dignity ; as knight, lord, earl, marquis, 
 &c. 
 
 ADDITIONS OF ESTATE, or QUALITY, are yeo- 
 man, gentleman, esquire, and such like. 
 
 ADDITIONS OF PLACE, are the names of the 
 places where persons reside added to their 
 name, such as of Thorpe, of Dale, or of Wood- 
 stock. Where a man hath household in two 
 places, he shall be said to dwell in both ; so that 
 his addition in either may suffice. By statute 
 1 Henry V. cap. 5, it was ordained, that in such 
 suits or actions, where process of outlawry lies, 
 such addition should be made to the name of the 
 defendant, to show his estate, mystery, and place 
 where he dwells ; and that the writs not having 
 such additions shall abide if the defendant take ex- 
 ception thereto ; but not by the office of the court. 
 
 ADDITIVE,something to be added to another. 
 
 ADDITIVE RATIO, in geometry, is, that whose 
 terms are disposed to addition, that is, to compo- 
 sition, in opposition to subtractive ratio, whose 
 terms are disposed to subtraction, i. e. to division. 
 
 ADDITIVE EQUATIONS, in astronomy, those 
 which are to be added to the sun's mean anomaly, 
 in order to find the true one. 
 
 AD'DLE, v. & adj. Aidlian : Ang. Sax. To 
 be sick or ill ; to be useless, to answer no good 
 purpose, to be empty. Applied to eggs, putrid 
 or diseased. 
 
 Could your mouldy brain be so addle, to imagine 
 I would marry a stale widow at six and forty ? 
 
 Ford's Love's Sacrifice. 
 There's one with truncheon, like a ladle ; 
 That carries eggs too fresh or addle ; 
 Ana still at random, as he goes, 
 Among the jabble rout bestows. Hudibras. 
 
 Bare trees, and shrubs, but ill you know m 
 Could shelter them [the birds] from rain or snow 
 Stepping into their nests, they paddled, 
 Themselves were chill'd, their eggs were addled. 
 
 Cowper's Pairing Time Anticipated^ 
 
 ADDORSEE', in heraldry, or endorsed, back 
 to back, as lions rampant. Leigh gives a coat 
 of arms of this kind to Achilles, at the siege of 
 Troy. 
 
 ADDOUBORS, in law. See REDUBBORS. 
 
 ADDRESS', v. & 7i. ) Addresser. Fr. Dere- 
 
 ADDRESS'ER. ) car, Span, to approach 
 
 in a straight line, to attend to ; to employ time 
 in ; to apply to, either by speaking or writing ; 
 the noun also signifies a person's exterior de- 
 meanour. 
 
 Uprose from drowsie couche, and him addrest, 
 
 Unto the journey which he had dehight. 
 
 Sp. F. Q. iii. 8. 
 
 It is a most high privilege and advantage to ns 
 that we are allowed to pray, and address our devotions 
 to God. Borrow. 
 
 The young hero had addressed his prayers to him 
 for his assistance. Dryden. 
 
 The prince himself, with awful dread posscss'd, 
 
 His vows to great Apollo thus addressed. Idem. 
 His suit was common ; but, above the rest, 
 
 To both the brother-princes thus addrest. Idem. 
 
 The difficulty of the first address on any new occa- 
 sion, is felt by every man in his transactions with the 
 world ; and confessed by the settled and regular forms 
 of salutation which necessity has introduced into al. 
 languages. Rambler 
 
 How shall I speak thee, or thy power address, 
 
 Thou god of our idolatry the press ? Cowper: 
 
 ADDUA, in ancient geography, a river of 
 Cisalpine Gaul, now ADDA, which see. 
 ADDUBBED, dubbed, created. Bailey. 
 ADDUCE', v.-l Ad: duco ; to had to; 
 ADDUC'TION, Mo bring forward, to urge, U ' 
 ADDUC'TIVE. j allege. 
 
 The price had, it seems, before the tax, been & 
 monopoly price ; and the argument adduced to shew 
 that sugar was an improper subject for taxation, de- 
 monstrated, perhaps, that it was a proper one. 
 
 Smith's Wealth of Nations. 
 
 ADDUCENT MUSCLES, or ADDUCTORS, from 
 ad, to, and ducere, to draw, those which bring 
 forward, close, or draw together, the parts of the 
 body, whereto they are annexed. 
 
 ADDUCTION, in anatomy, the motion or 
 action of the adducent muscles. Thus the AD- 
 DUCTOR BRACHII serves to draw the arm toward 
 the trunk of the body ; though Winslow finds its 
 office more complicated, and that it acts in con- 
 currence with the flexors and extensors, in 
 bending and extending the arm. 
 
 ADDUCTOR INDICIS, is a muscle of the fore- 
 finger, arising from the inside of the bone of the 
 thumb, and inserted into the first bone of the 
 fore-finger, which it draws towards the thumb 
 
 ADDUCTOR MINIMI DIGITI PEDIS; the same as 
 transversalis pedis. 
 
 ADDUCTOR OCULI, a muscle of the eye, so 
 called, because it inclines its pupil towards the 
 nose. It is also called bibitorius ; because it 
 directs the eye toward the cup in drinking. 
 
 ADDUCTOR POLLICES, a muscle of the thumb, 
 which arises tendinous, and ascends obliquely 
 towards a broad termination, at the superior part
 
 ADE 
 
 134 , 
 
 ADE 
 
 of the first bone of the thumb. Its office is to 
 bring the thumb near the fore-finger. 
 
 ADDUCTOR POLLICIS PEDIS, called also anti- 
 thenar, is a muscle of the great toe, which arises 
 from the inferior part of the os cuneiforme ter- 
 tium, and is inserted into the internal part of the 
 ossa sessamoidea of the great toe; which it draws 
 nearer the rest. 
 
 ADDUCTOR PROSTATE, a name by which San- 
 torini describes a muscle, called by Winslow, 
 prostaticus superior. Albinus, from its office, 
 has called it compressor prostate. 
 
 ADDULCE', v. Ad : dulcis, to sweeten ; to 
 render sweet or agreeable to the palate. 
 
 Thus did the French ambassadors, with great shew 
 of their king's affection, and many sugared words, 
 seek to addulce all matters between the two kings. 
 
 Bacon's Henry VII. 
 
 ADEB, in commerce, an Egyptian weight, 
 used principally for rice, and generally consisting 
 of 210 okes, each of three rotolos. The adeb is 
 altogether equal to about two drams less than 
 the English pound. 
 
 AD EC, in chemistry, sour milk. 
 ADECTOS, a medicine that allays the sense 
 of pain, or the uneasiness created by stimulants. 
 ADEL, or ADAIEL, a kingdom on the .eastern 
 coast of Africa, extending, according to Mr. 
 Salt, from the town of Zeila to the straits of 
 Babel-mandel. This country produces corn, 
 and feeds a great number of cattle. The inhabi- 
 tants carry on a trade in gold, silver, ivory, oil, 
 frankincense, pepper, and other merchandises of 
 Arabia and the Indies. The king was formerly 
 a vassal of Abyssinia : but the Adelites being 
 Mahometans, and the Abyssinians a sort of 
 Christians, in 1535 they came to an open rup- 
 ture, and the Adelites threw off the yoke of their 
 neighbours, seeking protection from the Grand 
 Seignior. They are represented by modern tra- 
 vellers as a very warlike race, and the most 
 formidable enemies of the Abyssinian tribes- 
 The principal towns mentioned by travellers, 
 are Adela, Zeila, and Barbara ; the last two being 
 flourishing seaports. 
 
 ADEL, in ichthyology, the lavearetus, or albula 
 nobilis. These are generally treated of by au- 
 thors as two different kinds of fish. But Artedi 
 contends that they are the same species, and dis- 
 tinguishes them by the name of the coregenus, 
 with the upper jaw flat, and longer than the 
 under; and with fourteen rays in the back fin. 
 
 ADELA, a principal town of the kingdom of 
 A.DEL, which see. 
 
 ADELANTADO, Span, the deputy of a pro- 
 vince. 
 
 ADELFORS, a town and gold mine in the 
 parish of Alsheda, and district of Jonkioping, in 
 the province of Smaland, Sweden. It was first 
 discovered in 1738, but is not very productive. 
 ADELIA, in botany, a genus of plants of the 
 order monadelphia, class dioecia ; the characters 
 of which are : CAL. a perianthium, one-leaved, 
 three parted ; the florets sublanced and concave. 
 The female calyx is a five-leaved perianthium ; 
 the leaflets sublanced, concave, persistent: no 
 COR. : STAM. many capillary filaments the length 
 of the calyx, conjoined at the base; the antherae 
 roundish : PIST. a roundish germen ; the seeds 
 
 solitary and roundish. In the natural method, 
 this genus belongs to the 38th order, tncoccae. 
 There are three species; the bernardia, the 
 ricinella, and acidoton, for which we have no 
 proper names in English. They are natives of 
 Jamaica. 
 
 ADELIANS,the inhabitants of ADEL,which see. 
 ADELING. See ATHELING. 
 ADELME, or ALDIIELME, son to Kenred, 
 and nephew to Ina, king of the West Saxons ; 
 after having been educated abroad, he was abbot 
 of Malmsbury thirty years. He is said to have 
 been the first Englishman who wrote in Latin, 
 and who brought poetry into England; and the 
 first bishop of Sherburn. He lived in great 
 esteem till his death, which happened in 709. 
 He was canonized, and is mentioned with great 
 honour by Camden and Bayle; William of 
 Malmsbury wrote his life. The last writer says, 
 that Aldhelme, anxious to instruct his country- 
 men, then semi-barbarous, and half heathens, 
 frequently took his station on the public roads 
 or bridges, and by mixing sacred with lighter 
 topics, won their attention, and meliorated their 
 minds. Malmsbury, 3 Gale, 339. 
 
 ADELPHI, otherwise FRATELLI ISLANDS, four 
 isles of the Grecian Archipelago, E. of Scopelo, 
 in N. lat. 39, 22.' E. long. 24, 4'. 
 
 ADELPHIANI, in church-history, a sect of 
 ancient heretics, who fasted always on Sundays. 
 ADELPHIUS, the founder of the sect of 
 Adelphiani. 
 
 ADELUNG, (John Christopher,) a distin- 
 guished German grammarian, philologist, and 
 general scholar, was born in 1734, at Spantekow, 
 in Pomerania. His education was begun at the 
 public schools of Anclam and Closterbergen, 
 and finished at the University of Halle. In 
 1759, he was appointed professor of the Academy 
 at Erfurt, which office he relinquished, and 
 settled at Leipsic in 1761. Here he was made 
 librarian to the elector of Saxony in 1787, a 
 situation which he held, with the honorary title 
 of Aulic counsellor, until his death in 1806. 
 
 Adelung, as well as a great scholar, was also 
 a bon vivant, and boasted of his cellar as a 
 bibliotheca selectissima. It is said to have con- 
 tained forty kinds of wine. But his literary day 
 consisted regularly of fourteen hours. He was 
 the author of a Grammatical and Critical Dic- 
 tionary, Leipsic, 1774-1786, 5 vols. 4to; of 
 which work new enlarged editions appeared in 
 1793-1801. Glossarium Manuale ad Scrip- 
 tores medii et Infimse Latinitatis, Halle, 1772- 
 1784; three German Grammars; a Treatise on 
 German Style, 2 vols. 8vo; Supplements to 
 Jcecher's Dictionary of Literary Men, 2 vols. 
 4 to ; History of Human Folly, or Lives of the 
 most celebrated Necromancers, Alchymists, Ex- 
 orcists, Diviners, &c. ; a Cyclopaedia in four 
 parts, a work of great merit ; Essay on the 
 History of the Civilization of Mankind; The 
 History of Philosophy, 3 vols.; Treatise on 
 German Orthography, 8vo; The History of 
 the Teutones, their Language and Literature, 
 before the general Migration, 8vo ; Mithri- 
 date, or a Universal Table of Languages, with 
 the Lord's Prayer in one hundred Languages, 
 8vo.
 
 ADE 
 
 135 
 
 ADE 
 
 ADEMPTION, in civil law, implies the revo- 
 cation of a grant, donation, or the like. 
 
 ADEN, formerly a rich and considerable 
 town of Arabia Felix. It is seated by the sea 
 side, a little eastward of the straits of Babel- 
 mandel, and is the capital of a district, or small 
 state, of the same name ; but the principal trade 
 it carried on formerly, is now transferred to 
 Mocha. It was taken by the Turks in 1538, and 
 by the Persians in 1605. This district was de- 
 clared an independent state in 1735, and is 
 governed by its own magistracy. Long. 4, 0'. E. 
 Lat. 13, 0'. N. 
 
 ADEN, in anatomy, aSrjv, Gr. a gland, glan- 
 dule, or glandular swelling. 
 
 ADEN ANTHERA, in botany,BASTARD FLOW- 
 ER FENCE, a genus of plants of the order monogy- 
 nia, and class decandria. In the natural method, 
 it belongs to the thirty-third order, Lomentaceee. 
 The characters are : CAL. a perianthium of one 
 very small five-toothed leaf: COR. five, bell- 
 shaped, lanceolate, sessile petals, convex within 
 and concave under : STAM. ten erect subulated 
 filaments, shorter than the corolla ; the antherae 
 roundish, incumbent, bearing a globular gland 
 on the exterior top : PIST. a long gibbous ger- 
 men ; the stylvis subulated the length of the sta- 
 mina ; the stigma simple : PER. a long com- 
 pressed membraneous legumen. The seeds 
 very numerous, roundish, and remote. 
 
 Only one species of this plant is known in 
 Britain; but there is a variety) with scarlet 
 seeds, which is rare, and grows slowly. It is a 
 native of India. 
 
 ADENANTHOS, in botany, a genus of plants 
 of the order monogynia, and class tetrandria, 
 found in New Holland, and so named by Labil- 
 lardiere. 
 
 Its general characters are, CAL. Involucrum, 
 single flower, from four to eight short leaves. 
 COR. One petal, inferior, tubular, cut round 
 near the base, nectary four glands united with 
 the permanent base of the corolla inside. STAM. 
 four short filaments. ANTHERS, oblong, and erect. 
 PIST. Germen superior, round : style thread- 
 shaped, longer than the corolla : stigma thicker 
 than the style. PER. Not turned, one cell, 
 single seed. There are four species of this 
 genus. 
 
 ADENAU, a market-town and bailiwic of 
 Neuburg, in the Prussian grand duchy of the 
 Lower Rhine. 
 
 ADENBURGH, or ALDENBURGH, a town of 
 Westphalia, in the duchy of Berg, 12 miles N. E. 
 of Cologne, and 17 W. of Bonn. 
 
 ADENODUS, in botany, a genus of plants 
 of the order monogynia, and class dodecandria, 
 so named by Loureiro, but in fact a species of 
 the ELJECAHPUS, which see. It is a native of 
 Cochin China. 
 
 ADENOIDES, in anatomy, glandulous, or 
 of a glandular form ; an epithet applied to the 
 PROSTATJE. 
 
 ADENORF, a lordship belonging to Prussia, 
 in the grand duchy of the Lower Rhine. 
 
 ADENOSMA, in botany, a New Holland 
 species of the acanthi, or acantbacese, with 
 a backed capsulse. See ACAKTHUS. 
 
 ADENOS, in commerce, a kind of marine 
 cotton, which comes from Aleppo. 
 
 ADENOSUS ABCESSUS, in medicine, a crude 
 hard tubercle, proceeding from obstructions, dif- 
 ficult of discussion, and resembling the appear- 
 ance of a gland. 
 
 ADEONA, in mythology, a goddess invoked 
 by the Romans when they undertook a journey. 
 
 ADEPHAGIA, in mythology, the goddess of 
 gluttony, to whom the Sicilians paid religious 
 worship. fiLlian i. 5. 11. c. 27. 
 
 ADEPS, in anatomy, fat ; an animal oil, se- 
 creted from the blood and contained in the mem- 
 brana adiposa, or, as Boerhaave calls it, the 
 membrana cellulosa ; which is a congeries of a 
 great number of membranous leminse, joined ir- 
 regularly to each other at different distances, so 
 as to form numerous interstices which communi- 
 cate with each other. Neumann divides fats, 
 from their consistence, into three kinds ; the 
 first called pinguedo is soft and thin ; and is 
 found in birds, reptiles, and fishes. The second 
 is thick, liquefies less readily, and is denomi- 
 nated axungia. The third is more hard and 
 firm ; when taken from the animal it is called 
 adeps, and when freed from the skins, &c. sevum. 
 The two last kinds of fat are chiefly found in 
 quadrupeds. Animal fats are useful in external 
 applications, for softening and suppling, for 
 abating pains and spasms, and for promoting 
 maturation. 
 
 ADEPTI, ADEPTS, from adipisci, to obtain, 
 a denomination given to the proficients in al- 
 chemy ; as Ripley, Lully, Paracelsus. 
 
 ADEPTISTS. See ADEPTI. 
 
 AD'EQUATE, v. & adj. > Ad : xquus, to lay 
 
 ADEQUATELY, J flat or even to ; to 
 
 equalize, to make equal. 
 
 " To fear God that is wisdom ," that is, is the 
 proper and adequate wisdom suitable to human nature, 
 and to the condition of mankind. 
 
 Hole's Contemplations, 
 
 Those are adequate ideas, which perfectly represent 
 their archetypes or objects. Inadequate are but a 
 partial or incomplete representation of the archetypes, 
 to which they are referred. Watts's Logick. 
 
 Gratitude consists adequately, in these two things : 
 first, that it is a debt ; and secondly, that it is such 
 a debt, as is left to every man's ingenuity, whether 
 he will pay or no, Sintth. 
 
 Piety is the necessary Christian virtue, propor- 
 tioned adequately to the omniscience and spirituality of 
 that infinite Deity. Hammond's Fundam. 
 
 ADEQUATE, in logic, is applied to the objects 
 of science. The adequate object of a science 
 includes the material and formal object; the 
 material object of a science, is that part which 
 is common to it with other sciences ; the formal 
 is that which is peculiar to itself. 
 
 ADEQUATE IDEAS, or notions, in metaphysics, 
 are such images or conceptions of an object, as 
 perfectly represent it, or answer to all the parts 
 and properties of it. 
 
 ADERAIMIN. See ALDERAIMIN. 
 
 ADERNO, a town of the Val di Demona, 
 in Sicily, at the foot of Mount ^Etna : anciently 
 ADRANUM, 17 miles W. N.W. of Catania. 
 
 ADES, or HADES, aflijc, from a and ictiv, to 
 see, the invisible state. In the heathen mytho-
 
 ADH 
 
 136 
 
 ADI 
 
 logy, it comprehends all those regions that lie 
 beyond the river Styx, viz. Erebus, Tartarus, 
 and Elysium. See HELL. Strictly, Ades was 
 the god of hell among the Greeks, as Pluto 
 among the Latins. 
 
 Dr. Campbell has a long and interesting dis- 
 sertation on the use of this word, prefixed to his 
 Gospels, in which he contends, that it never 
 means either simply the grave, the place of de- 
 parted bodies, or a place of punishment for souls, 
 in the New Testament : but solely the interme- 
 diate state, or abode of departed spirits generally. 
 Thus, according to his view, both the rich man 
 and Lazarus, in the parable, Luke xvi. 19 23, 
 were in aSrjf, only in very different situations. 
 
 ADESSENARII, ADESSENARIANS, from a- 
 desse, to be present, in church history, a sect of 
 'Jie Reformation, who held Jesus Christ really 
 present in the eucharist ; but in a manner dif- 
 ferent from transubstantiation. They were 
 greatly divided amongst themselves. 
 
 ADFECTED EQUATION, in algebra, is that 
 where the unknown quantity is found in two or 
 more different degrees, or powers. 
 
 ADFILIATIO,ADFiLiATiON, a Gothic cus- 
 tom, where a person who has children by a for- 
 mer wife, renders them capable of inheriting 
 equally with the children of the second. This is 
 called, by some, adoptio per matrimonium ; and 
 is still retained in Germany, under the name 
 emdkindschafft, and uni prolium. 
 
 AD FINES, a town of Swisserland, supposed 
 to be the modern Pfin, not far from the borders 
 of Suabia, about half way between Constance 
 and Frauenfield. It was so called, because after 
 Cecinna, general of Vitellius, had defeated the 
 Helvetii, it formed the border of the Roman 
 empire in this quarter. 
 
 AD HA, in mythology, a festival which the Ma- 
 hometans celebrate on the 10th day of the month 
 Dhoulhegiat, which is the 12th and last of their 
 year. It signifies the month of pilgrimage, be- 
 cause on that day they sacrifice with great so- 
 lemnity, at Mecca, and no where else, a sheep, 
 which is called by the same name as the festival 
 itself. The Turks call this festival the Great 
 Beiram. SeeBEiRAM. 
 
 ADHATODA, in botany, the Malabar nut, 
 the justicia of Linnaeus. Tournefort enumerates 
 four species. t, 
 
 ADHELM, or ALDHELME. See ADELME. 
 
 ADHELME'S HEAD, (St.) a lofty promontory 
 on the coast of Dorset, 440 feet in altitude, 
 nearly perpendicular to the sea, and exhibiting 
 the ruins of a small chapel. 
 
 ADHERE', v. S 
 
 ADHE'RENCE, Ad: /zreo:to stick 
 
 ADHE'RENCY. I to, to be fixed to ; to 
 
 ADHE'RENT, n. & adj. Deleave to, hold and 
 
 ADHE'RER, j maintain ; to be attach- 
 
 ADHE'SION, i ed to. 
 
 ADHE'SIVE. 
 
 Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you ; 
 And sure I am, two men there are not living, 
 To whom he more adheres. Shaksp. Hamlet, 
 
 Every man of sense will agree with me, that 
 singularity is laudable ; when, in contradiction to a 
 multitude, it adheres to the dictates of conscience, 
 morality, and honour. Boifle. 
 
 Princes must give protection to their subjects and 
 adherent* when worthy occasion shall require it. 
 
 Raleigh. 
 
 The firm adherence of tho Jews to their religion is 
 no less remarkable than their dispersion j consider- 
 ing it as persecuted or contemned over the whole 
 earth. Adduon. 
 
 If slow, yet sure, adhesive to the tract, 
 Hot steaming up. Thornton. 
 
 ADHERENCE, ACTION OF, in Scots law; an 
 action competent to a husband or wife, to 
 compel either party to adhere, in case of de- 
 sertion. 
 
 ADHESION, in anatomy, a term for one part 
 sticking to another, which in a natural state are 
 separate. For the most par*, if any of those parts 
 in the thorax or belly lie in contact, and inflame, 
 they grow together. The lungs very frequently 
 adhere to the pleura. The dura mater al- 
 ways adheres to the cranium, and there have 
 been instances of adhesion of the intestines. 
 
 ADHESION, in philosophy. See COHESION. 
 
 ADHI'BIT, Ad : habeo, adhibeo, to have to 
 or near ; to make use of; to pay attention to ; to 
 accredit. 
 
 To which counsel there were adhibit very few, and 
 they very secret. Sir T. More's Works, p. 52. 
 
 Salt, a necessary ingredient in all sacrifices, was 
 adhibited and required in this view only, as an em- 
 blem of purification. 
 
 President Forbes's Letter to a Bishop. 
 
 ADHIL, in astronomy, a star of the sixth mag- 
 nitude, upon the garment ffvppa, of Andromeda, 
 under the last star in her foot. 
 
 ADJA'CENCY, n. J Ad : jaceo, to lie near 
 
 ADJA'CENT, n. & adj. ] to ; lying beside ; bor- 
 dering on something. 
 
 And gif thy mynd be ferine therto with me, 
 
 I sal this mekil eik to my werke, quod sche 
 
 For til induce the cieties adjacent, 
 
 Vnto the bargane. Douglas, book vii. p. 227 
 
 It may corrupt within itself, although no part of it 
 issue into the body adjacent. Baeon 
 
 Uniform pellucid mediums, such as water, have 
 no sensible reflection but in their external superficies, 
 where they are adjacent to other mediums of a different 
 density. Newton. 
 
 He, with Palemon, oft recorded o'er j 
 
 The tales of hapless love in ancient lore, 
 
 ReealJ'd to memory by th' adjacent shore. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 
 ADIANTHUM, in botany, maiden-hair ; a 
 genus of plants of the order filices, and class, 
 cryptogamia. The GEN. CHAR, is, fructifications 
 collected in oval spots under the reflected tops 
 of the fronds. Botanical writers enumerate 
 forty-four species. They are perennials and the 
 following are the most remarkable : 
 
 1. ADIANTHUM CAPILLUS VENERIS, or true 
 maiden-hair, is a native of the southern parts 
 of France ; likewise said to grow plentifully in 
 Cornwall. 
 
 2. ADIANTHUM PEDATUM, or American mai- 
 den-hair, a native of Canada. 
 
 3. ADIANTHUM TRAPEZIFORME, or black Ame 
 rican maiden-hair, a native of Jamaica. Others are 
 the Adianthum reniforme, or monophyllum, the 
 hemionitis, or felix hemionitis, adiauthum radia- 
 tum, lonchitis radiata, or trichomanes Amori- 
 canum radiatum, &c. 
 
 ADIAPHORISTS, or ADIAPHORIST.E. from
 
 ADI 
 
 137 
 
 ADJ 
 
 a, privative, and tfia^opoc, different, a name given 
 in the sixteenth century to the moderate Lu- 
 therans who adhered to the sentiments of Me- 
 lancthon ; and afterwards to those who subscribed 
 the Interim of Charles V. 
 
 ADIAPHOROUS, ADIAPHORUS, in chemis- 
 try, a name given by Mr. Boyle to a kind of 
 spirit distilled from tartar and some other vege- 
 table bodies ; and which is neither acid, vinous 
 nor urinous; but in many respects different from 
 any other sort of spirit. 
 
 ADIAPNEUSTIA, from a, Sia, and irvtw, I 
 breathe, in medicine, signifies defective respira- 
 tion, from dense pores, &c. 
 
 ADIAPTOTOS ASicnrTOTog, firm, a name 
 given by physicians to a remedy for the cholic, 
 consisting of stone parsley, henbane-seed, white 
 pepper, &c. made into an electuary. 
 
 ADIARRHCEA, from a, Sia, and pw, I flow, 
 in medicine, a total suppression of all the neces- 
 sary evacuations. 
 
 ADIATORIX, in history, the Roman governor 
 of Galatia, in the time of Anthony, who, to re- 
 commend himself to the favour of that general, 
 put to death in one night the whole of the in- 
 habitants of Heraclea, in Pontus, for which 
 Augustus caused him to be strangled. Strabo. xii. 
 
 ADJAZZO, or AJACCIO. See AJACCIO. 
 
 ADJECT', v. ~\ Ad : jacio, adjicio, adjec- 
 
 ADJEC'TION, I turn, to cast or throw to ; to 
 
 ADJECTI'TIOUS, V throw in additionally; to 
 
 AIMBVJI H<JU5, > unuw in ; 
 
 AD'JECTIVE, I super-add. 
 ADJEC'TIVELY. J 
 
 That unto every pound of sulphur, an adjection of 
 one ounce of quicksilver ; or unto every pound of 
 peter, one ounce of sal-ammoniac, will much intend 
 the force, and consequently the report, I find no 
 verity. Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 It is probable that they made the child's name 
 by adjecting the syllable son to the appellation of the 
 father. Fuller's Worthies. 
 
 There is a gross mistake made between an adjected 
 and an adjective word ; that is, between a word laid 
 close to another word, and a word which may lye close 
 to another word. Tooke's Die. of Parley. 
 
 An ADJECTIVE, in grammar, is defined by 
 Harris, as having no assertion, and denoting only 
 such an attribute as has not its essence either in 
 motion or its privation. It is clearly a word 
 adjected or adjoined to another to exhibit its 
 qualities be they what they may. We reserve to 
 the article GRAMMAR, the more full consideration 
 of its functions. 
 
 ADIEU', a dieu, Fr. to God ; I commend 
 you to God; Farewell. 
 
 Ne gave him leave to bid that aged sire 
 
 Adieu ! but nimbly ran her wonted course. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 Use a mor6 spacious ceremony to the noble lords ; 
 you restrained yourself within the list of too cold an 
 adieu ' be more expressive to them. 
 
 Shakspeare's All's Well that ends Well. 
 While now I take my last adieu, 
 
 Heave tbiou no sigh, nor shed no tear ; 
 Lest yet my half-clos'd eye may view 
 
 On earth an object worth its care. Prior. 
 
 ADIGE, a considerable river of Italy, which 
 taking its rise south of the lake Glaro among the 
 Alps, runs south bv Trent, then east by Verona, 
 in the territory of Venice, and falls into the'gulph 
 
 AD'JUNCT, n. &. adj. 
 ADJUNC'TION. 
 
 of Venice, north of the mouth of the Po ; passing 
 in its course, Tyrol, Brixen, Trent, Verona, and 
 Rovigo. 
 
 ADILABAD, a town of Hindostan, in th 
 Mahratta dominions, and province of Khandest, 
 on the Poornah river, twenty miles south of 
 Boorhampoor, near which is a lake, held in 
 great veneration by the Hindoos. 
 
 ADIMANTUS, in history, 1. a commander of 
 the Athenian fleet taken by the Spartans, whose 
 life alone was spared by the captors. 2. A 
 brother of Plato, mentioned by Diogenes. 3. 
 A Corinthian general who taunted Themistocles. 
 4. A king struck with thunder, for mocking 
 Jupiter. Ovid. 
 
 AD INQUIRENDUM,in law, a judicial writ, 
 commanding inquiry to be made of any thing 
 touching a cause depending in the king's court. 
 ADJOIN', v. -\ Ad : jungo, junctus, 
 
 ADJOIN'EDLY / Lat.joindre joint, Fr. to 
 
 ADJOIN'ANT, n. & a. \ join to ; to connect one 
 with another, to fasten, 
 to place near, or con- 
 tiguous. 
 
 Also I bequeth unto as many godchildern as I 
 have lyving in the countie of Essex, and specially in 
 the parrishes to my mansion adioynant, to every of 
 them viiid. Fabian's Will. 
 
 Here with these grave adjoynts 
 (These learned maisters,) they were taught to see, 
 Themselves to read the world, and keep their 
 points. Dan. Civ. Wan. iv. 89 
 
 As one, who long in populous city pent, 
 Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe 
 Among the pleasant villages and farms 
 Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Learning is but an adjunct to ourself, 
 And where we are, our learning likewise is. 
 
 Shakspeare's Love's Labour Lost. 
 As a massy wheel, 
 
 Fixt on the summit of the highest mount, 
 To whose huge spoke ten thousand lesser things 
 Are mortis'd and adjoined. Shakspeare. 
 
 Th' adjoining fane the assembled Greeks ex- 
 
 press'd. 
 
 And hunting of the Caledonian beast. Dryden 
 In learning any thing, as little should be proposed 
 to the mind at once as is possible ; and, that being 
 understood and fully mastered, proceed to the next 
 adjoining, yet unknown, simple, unperplexcd pro- 
 position, belonging to the matter in hand, and tend- 
 ing to the clearing what is principally designed. 
 
 Locke. 
 
 Corrections or improvements should be as remarks 
 adjoined, by way of note or commentary, in their 
 proper places ; and superadded to a regular treatise. 
 
 Watts, 
 
 ADJOINING ANGLES, in geometry. See 
 GEOMETRY. 
 
 ADJOURN' ^ Ad : jour, day, ujourner 
 ADJOURNMENT, $ Fr. to separate, in order to 
 put off the consideration of business to another 
 day, or time specified, or understood ; to another 
 part of the same day ; also to refer indefinitely 
 to postpone, to delay. 
 
 To maynteii his partie pei hete to help him wele 
 He aiorned f>am to relie in f?e north at Carlele, 
 After Midesomer's tide >orgh comon ordinance 
 No lenger sulc bei bide, bote forth and s'and to 
 chance. R. BruniK.
 
 ADI 
 
 138 
 
 ADI 
 
 And vpon y viii day of July, kynge [Henry VI.] 
 this yere began his parlyament at Westmynster, and 
 eo contynued it tyll Lammas, and then it was aioumed 
 vnto Seynt Edwardes daye. Fabyan. 
 
 Or how the sun shall, in mid heaven, stand still 
 
 A day entire, and night's due course adjourn, 
 
 Man's voice commanding. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 During the adjournments of that awful court, a 
 neighbour of mine was telling me, that it gave him 
 a notion of the English hospitality to see West- 
 minster hall a dining-room. Tatler. 
 
 ADJOURNMENT, in law, from ad, to, Lat. 
 and jour, day, Fr. The putting off a court, or 
 other meeting till another day. Adjournment 
 and prorogation of the parliament are to be dis- 
 tinguished ; the former being an act of each house 
 itself; whereas the latter is an act of royal au- 
 thority. 
 
 ADIPOCIRE, from adeps, fat, and cera, wax, 
 a chemical substance of a light brown colour, 
 formed by the soft parts of animal bodies after 
 death, and when kept for some time from the 
 atmospheric air, or exposed to water. It is ge- 
 nerally formed when a considerable quantity of 
 human bodies have been interred together, and 
 was first noticed in the burial ground of the In- 
 nocents at Paris; where the poor had been in- 
 terred in pits of thirty feet deep, and twenty 
 broad, with nothing but thin planks between 
 them. There have, however, been instances of 
 bodies interred separately, being changed into 
 this substance. 
 
 Mary Howard, aged forty-four, died on the 
 12th May, 1790, and was buried in a grave, ten 
 feet deep, at the east end of Shoreditch church- 
 yard, ten feet to the east of the great common 
 sewer, which runs from north to south, and has 
 always a current of water in it, the usual level 
 of which is eight feet below the level of the 
 ground, and two feet above the level of the coffins 
 in the graves. In August 1811, the body was 
 taken up, with some others buried near it, for 
 the purpose of building a vault, and the flesh 
 in all of them was converted into adipocire or 
 spermaceti. At the full and new moon the tide 
 raises water into the graves, which at other times 
 are dry. To explain the extraordinary quantities 
 of fat or adipocere formed by animals of a cer- 
 tain intestinal construction, Sir E. Home observes, 
 that the current of water which passes through 
 their colon, while the loculated lateral parts are 
 full of solid matter, places the solid contents in 
 somewhat similar circumstances to dead bodies 
 in the banks of a common sewer. Philosophical 
 Transactions, 1813. 
 
 Grave diggers assert that near three years are 
 required to change a body into this curious sub- 
 stance. But Dr. Gibbes of Bath, found, that 
 lean beef secured in a running stream was con- 
 verted into this fatty matter at the end of a month. 
 He judges from facts, that running water is most 
 favourable to this process.' He took three lean 
 pieces of mutton, and poured on each a quantity 
 of the three common mineral acids. At the end 
 3f three days, each was much changed : that in 
 the nitric acid was very soft, and converted into 
 the fatty matter ; that in the muriatic acid was 
 not in that time so much altered ; the sulphuric 
 acid had turned the other black. M. Lavoisier 
 
 thinks that this process may hereafter prove of 
 great use in society. 
 
 The chemical properties of adipocire have 
 attracted some attention, since its discovery on so 
 large a scale, at Paris : and the principal facts 
 established, seem to be, that a true ammoniacal 
 soap is first yielded, composed of ammonia, a 
 concrete oil, and water. An analysis of the oil 
 may be obtained pure from this substance, and 
 to that more strictly, the name adipocire is 
 given. 
 
 One French chemist gives the result of the 
 exposure of a human liver to the common air, 
 as terminating in a similar substance. It partly 
 putrified, he says, when first exposed in his 
 laboratory, without emitting any very noisome 
 smell. Larvae of the dermestes and bruchus, 
 attacked and penetrated it in various directions : 
 at iast it became dry, and after more than ten 
 years' suspension, it was converted into a white 
 friable substance, resembling dried agaric, which 
 might have been taken for an earthy substance. 
 In this state it had no perceptible smell. M. 
 Poulletier was desirous of knowing the state of 
 this animal matter, and experiment soon con- 
 vinced him and M. F. that it was very far from 
 being in the state of an earth. It melted by heat, 
 and exhaled in the form of vapour, which had 
 the smell of a very fetid fat ; spirit of wine se- 
 parated a concrescible oil, which appeared to 
 possess all the properties of spermaceti. Each 
 of the three alkalis converted it into soap ; and, 
 in a word, it exhibited all the properties of the 
 fatty matter of the burial-ground of the Innocents 
 exposed for several months to the air. 
 
 For the following abridgment of M. Fourcroy's 
 experiments on this matter, we are indebted to 
 Dr. Ure. 
 
 1. This substance is fused at a less degree of 
 heat than that of boiling water, and may be pu- 
 rified by pressure through a cloth, which disen- 
 gages a portion of fibrous and bony matter. 2. 
 The process of destructive distillation by a very 
 graduated heat was begun, but not completed on 
 account of its tediousness, and the little promise 
 of advantage it afforded. The products which 
 came over were water charged with volatile alkali, 
 a fat oil, concrete volatile alkali, and no elastic 
 fluid during the time the operation was con- 
 tinued. 3. Fragments of the fatty matter expo- 
 sed to the air during the hot and dry summer of 
 1 786, became dry, brittle, and almost pulverulent 
 at the surface. On a careful examination, certain 
 portions were observed to be semi-transparent, 
 and more brittle than the rest. These possessed 
 all the apparent properties of wax, and did not 
 afford volatile alkali by distillation. 4. With 
 water this fatty matter exhibited all the appear- 
 ances of soap, and afforded a strong lather. The 
 dried substance did not form the saponaceous 
 combination with the same facility or perfection, 
 as that which was recent. Ab6ut two-thirds of 
 this dried matter separated from the water by 
 cooling, and proved to be the semi-transparent 
 substance, resembling wax. This was taken from 
 the surface of the soapy liquor, which being then 
 passed through the filter, left a white soft shining 
 matter, which was fusible and combustible. 5. 
 Attempts were made to ascertain the quantity of
 
 ADI 
 
 139 
 
 ADJ 
 
 volatile alkali in this substance, by the applica- 
 cation of lime, and of the fixed alkalis, but with- 
 out success : for it was difficult to collect and 
 appreciate the first portions which escaped, and 
 likewise to disengage the last portions. The 
 caustic volatile alkali, with the assistance of a 
 gentle heat, dissolved the fatty matter, and the 
 solution became perfectly clear and transparent 
 at the boiling temperature of the mixture, which 
 was at 18.5 F. 6. Sulphuric acid, of the spe- 
 cific gravity of 2.0, was poured upon six times its 
 weight of the fatty matter, and mixed by agitation. 
 Heat was produced, and a gas effluvium of the 
 most insupportable putrescence was emitted, 
 which infected the air of an extensive laboratory 
 for several days. M. Fourcroy says, that the 
 smell cannot be described, but that it is one of 
 the most horrid and repulsive that can be ima- 
 gined. It did not, however, produce any indis- 
 position either in himself, or his assistants. By 
 dilution with water, and the ordinary processes 
 of evaporation and cooling, properly repeated, 
 the sulphates of ammonia and of lime were ob- 
 tained. A substance was separated from the 
 liquor, which appeared to oe the waxy matter, 
 somewhat altered by the action of the acid. 7. 
 The nitrous and muriatic acids were also applied, 
 and afforded phenomena worthy of remark, but 
 which for the sake of conciseness are here omit- 
 ted. 8. Alcohol does not act on this matter at 
 the ordinary temperature of the air. But by 
 boiling it dissolves one-third of its own weight, 
 which is almost totally separable by cooling as 
 low as 55. The alcohol, after this process, 
 affords by evaporation a portion of that waxy 
 matter which is separable by acids, and is there- 
 fore the only portion soluble in cold alcohol. 
 The quantity of fatty matter operated on was 
 four ounces, or 2304 grains, of which the boiling 
 spirit took up the whole except twenty-six grains, 
 which proved to be a mixture of twenty grains 
 of ammoniacal soap, and six or eight grains of 
 the phosphates of soda and of lime. From this 
 experiment, which was three times repeated with 
 similar results, it appears that alcohol is well 
 suited to afford an analysis of the fatty matter. 
 It does not dissolve the neutral salts ; when cold, 
 it dissolves that portion of concrete animal oi) 
 from which the volatile alkali had flown off ; and 
 when heated, it dissolves the whole of the truly 
 saponaceous matter, which is afterwards com- 
 pletely separated by cooling. And accordingly 
 it was found, that a thin plate of the fatty matter, 
 which had lost nearly the whole of its volatile 
 alkali, by exposure to the air for three years, was 
 almost totally dissolved by the cold alcohol. The 
 concrete oily or waxy substance obtained in these 
 experiments, constitutes the leading object of 
 research, as being the peculiar substance with 
 which the other well known matters are com- 
 bined. See Journal de Physique, torn, xxxviii. 
 &c. Nicholsons Journal, vol. iv. p. 135. Phil. 
 Trans. 1794, vol. Ixxxiv. vol. Ixxxv. 
 
 ADIPOSA MEMBRANA, in anatomy, a mem- 
 brane that incloses the Cellults Adiposte. 
 
 ADIPOSA VENA, in anatomy, a vein, arising 
 from the descending trunk of the cava, which 
 spreads itself on the coat and fat of the kidneys 
 
 ADIPOSE, a term used by anatomists for any 
 cell, membrane, &c., that is remarkable for its 
 fatness. See ADEPS. 
 
 ADIPOSI Ducxus, in anatomy, vessels 
 which convey the fat into the interstices of the 
 muscles, or part between the flesh and the skin. 
 
 ADIPSON, from the privative a, and Sitya, 
 thirst, in medicine, a name given by Hippocrates, 
 to oxymel, the ptissana, and other medicines, 
 administered for allaying thirst. 
 
 ADIPSOS, in botany, the Egyptian palm 
 tree; also, an epithet for the glycerrhiza or 
 liquorice tree of Linnaeus. Likewise, in medi- 
 cine, a catapotium, or pill, composed by Ascle- 
 piades, and mentioned by Galen. 
 
 ADIRBEITSAN, in geography. See AZER- 
 
 BIJAN. 
 
 ADIRGE, in chemistry, sal ammoniacum. 
 
 ADIT OF A MINE, the hole or aperture, where- 
 by it is entered and dug, and by which the water 
 and ores are carried away. The term amounts 
 to the same with cuniculus or drift, and is dis- 
 tinguished from air-shaft. See MINING. 
 
 ADIT OF A SHIP, in antiquity, was a space in 
 the upper part, where the ship was widest, at 
 which people entered, anciently called agea. 
 
 ADITS OF A THEATRE, aditus theatri, in anti- 
 quity, were doors on the stairs, whereby persons 
 entered from the outer porticos, and descended 
 into the seats. 
 
 ADITIS, in history, an ancient tribe of Arabs, 
 frequently mentioned in the Koran, and said to 
 have been descended from Ace, the son of Acos, 
 or Uz, Gen. x. 22, 23. Incredible accounts are 
 given of their stature ; but see Sales's Introduc- 
 tion to the Koran, and Kor. chap. vi. 
 
 ADIVE, in zoology, a small jackal, the canis 
 aureus of Linnaeus, and resembling, according to 
 Buffon, a small fox. 
 
 ADJUDGE', v,-) Ad : judico, to judge, or 
 
 ADJUDG'MENT, > sentence to; to express a 
 
 ADJUDICATION, j judicial decision; to deter- 
 mine an affair. 
 
 Then the kynge made a promyse by othe, that he 
 wolde be obedyent vnto the court of Rome, and stand 
 and obey all things y' the court woll adiuge hym. 
 
 Fabian. 
 
 To her therefore 
 The fayrest lady was adjudg'd for paramore. 
 
 Spencer's Faerie Queene. 
 
 I have shewed sir Kenelm Digby both our transla- 
 tions of Martial's Vitam quas faciunt beatiorem, &c. 
 and to tell you true, he adjudged your's the better. 
 
 Hmcell's Letters. 
 
 ADJUDICATION, in Scots law, the name of 
 that action by which a creditor attaches the herit- 
 able estate of his debtor, or his debtor's heir, in 
 order to appropriate it to himself, either in pay- 
 ment or security of his debt ; or, that action by 
 which the holder of an heritable right, labouring 
 under any defect of form, may supply that de- 
 fect. 
 
 ADJUNCT, in metaphysics, some quality 
 belonging to either body or mind, whether natu- 
 ral or acquired. Thus thinking is an adjunct of 
 the mind, and growth of the body. 
 
 ADJUNCT, in music, a word employed to deno- 
 minate the connection or relation between, the
 
 ADJ 
 
 140 
 
 ADJ 
 
 principal mode arid the modes of its two-fifths, 
 which, from the intervals that constitute the re- 
 lation between them and it, are called its ad- 
 juncts. 
 
 ADJUNCT, in philosophy, something added 
 to another, without being any necessary part of 
 it. Thus water absorbed by cloth or a sponge, 
 is an adjunct, but no necessary part of either of 
 these substances. 
 
 ADJUNCTS OF THE GODS, or ADJUNCT GODS, 
 among the Romans, were a kind of inferior deities, 
 added as assistants to the principal ones. Thus, 
 to Mars was adjoined Bellona and Nemesis ; to 
 Neptune, Salacia ; to Vulcan, the Cabin, &c. 
 
 AD JURA REGIS, in ecclesiastical affairs, 
 a writ brought by the king's clerk, against him 
 who endeavours to eject him presented to a 
 living, and thus to prejudice the king's right of 
 presentation. 
 
 ADJURE', v. ) Ad : juro, to swear to ; to 
 JURA'TION, $ put upon oath ; to prescribe 
 the solemnity of an oath; to charge earnestly, or 
 solemnly. 
 
 But Jesns held his peace. And the high priest 
 answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the 
 living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the 
 Christ, the Son of God. Matt. ch. xxvi. v. 63. 
 
 SPIRIT. She will be swift 
 To aid a virgin, such as was herself, 
 ' In hard besetting need ; this will I try, 
 And add the power of some adjuring verse. 
 
 Milton's Comut. 
 
 A Persian humble servant of the sun, 
 Who though devout, yet bigotry had none, 
 Hearing a lawyer grave in his address, 
 With adjurations every word impress ; 
 Supposed the man a bishop, or at least, 
 (God's name so much upon his lips,) a priest, 
 Bowed at the close with all his graceful airs, 
 And begged an interest in his frequent prayers. 
 
 Camper. 
 
 ADJUST, v. ) Ajuster, Fr. to dispose; to 
 
 ADJUST'ER, > set in order; fit, adopt, me- 
 
 ADJUST'MENT. j thodize,accommodate. 
 
 For these ne been yet no remedies of the malady, 
 
 but they ben a manner norishing of thy sorrows, that 
 
 rebell ayenst thy curacion. For whan time is I shal 
 
 moue and aiust soch things, that percen hem ful depe. 
 
 Chaucer, ii. b. of Boeciui. 
 
 It is a vulgar idea we have of a watch or clock, 
 when we conceive of it, as an instrument made to 
 shew the hour ; but it is a learned idea, which the 
 watch-maker has of it ; who knows all the several 
 parts of it, together with the various connections and 
 adjustments of each part. Watts's Logick. 
 
 What; but God? 
 
 Inspiring God ! who, boundless spirit all j 
 And unremitting energy pervades, 
 Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole ? 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 It is observable, that, either by nature or by habit, 
 our faculties are fitted to images of a certain extent, 
 to which we adjust great things by division, and little 
 things by accumulations. Rambler. 
 
 Promises of friendship are, like all others, useless 
 and vain, unless they are made in some known sense, 
 adjusted and acknowledged by both parties. 
 
 Rambler, No. 13. 
 
 ADJUTAGE. See AJUTAGE. & HYDRAULICS. 
 ADJUTANT, in the military art, is an officer, 
 whose duty is to assist the major, by distributing 
 the pay, and overseeing the punishment of the 
 
 common men : besides which, he is to receive 
 orders every night from the brigade major; which, 
 after carrying to the colonel, he delivers out to 
 the Serjeants. When detachments are to be made, 
 he gives the number to be furnished by each com- 
 pany or troop, and assigns the hour and place of 
 rendezvous. lie also places the guards, receives, 
 and distributes the ammunition to the companies, 
 &c. and, by the major's orders, regulates the 
 price of bread, beer, and other provisions. 
 
 ADJUTANT-GENERAL, is an officer of distinc- 
 tion, who aids and assists the general. He forms 
 the several details of duty of the army, with the 
 brigade majors,and keeps an exact state of each 
 brigade and regiment, with a roll of the lieu- 
 tenant generals, major generals, colonels, lieu- 
 tenant colonels, and majors. Every day at head 
 quarters, he "receives orders from the general 
 officer of the day, and distributes them to the 
 majors of brigades, from whom he receives 
 the number of men they are to furnish for the 
 duty of the army, and informs them of any de- 
 tails which concern them. On marching days, 
 he accompanies the general to the ground of the 
 camp. He makes a daily report of the situation 
 of all the posts placed for the safety of the army, 
 and of any changes made in their posts. In a 
 day of battle, the adjutant-general sees the in- 
 fantry drawn up, after which he places himself 
 by the general to receive orders. In a siege, he 
 visits the several posts and guards of the trenches, 
 and reports their situation, and how circum- 
 stanced ; he gives and signs all orders for skir- 
 mishing parties, (if time permit,) and has a ser- 
 jeant from each brigade, to carry any orders 
 which he may have to send. 
 
 ADJUTANTS-GENERAL, among the Jesuits, a 
 select number of fathers, who resided with the 
 general of the order, each of whom had a pro- 
 vince or country assigned him, as England, 
 Holland, &c., and their business was to inform 
 the father general of state occurrences in such 
 countries. To this end they had their corres- 
 pondents delegated, emissaries, visitors, regents, 
 provincials, &c. 
 
 ADJUTE', 
 
 ADJ'UTANCY,^ Ad :juro -jutum, to help to ; 
 
 ADJ'UTANT, f to assist ; to succour ; to promote 
 
 ADJUV'ANT, {the advantage of. Adjute is 
 
 ADJU'MENT, \ now obsolete. 
 
 ADJU'TORS. 
 
 Whereon the king a parliament procur'd, 
 To fix some things whose fall he else might fear, 
 
 Whereby he hop'd the queen to have abjur'd, 
 His son, and such as their adjutors were. 
 
 Drayton's Baron's War*. 
 
 ACC. For there be 
 Sixe batchelers, as bold as he, 
 Adjuting to his companee, 
 And each one hath his liverie. 
 
 Jonson's King's Entertainment at Welbcck. 
 
 I have only been a careful adjuvant, and was sorry 
 I could not be the efficient. Sir H. Yelverton, 1609. 
 
 He had a due regard for his person , for in great 
 battles he would set in his pavilion, and man.ige all 
 by adjutants. Bacon's Bioy. 
 
 As nerves are adjuments to corporal activity, so are 
 laws the hinges OH which policique bodies act ana 
 move. Waterhmtsc.
 
 ADM 
 
 141 
 
 ADM 
 
 It was no doubt disposed with all the adjutancy of 
 definition and division. Burke. 
 
 ADJUTORIUM, in anatomy, the humerus 
 shoulder bone. Also, a term used by physi- 
 cians for any medicine in a prescription but the 
 capital one. 
 
 ADJYGHUR, or the impregnable fortress, as 
 the word signifies, an ancient fortress of Hin- 
 dostan, in the province of Bundelcund, which 
 commands the mountain-pass between Callinger 
 and Pannah. It resisted the British arms for 
 some time in 1809, and cost the besiegers a great 
 number of troops before it was evacuated by the 
 zemindar. On this occasion, the father-in-law 
 of that chieftain, was sent into the female apart- 
 ments by the British, to announce to the wives 
 of the zemindar the necessity of their leaving 
 the place ; when he cut the throats of all the 
 women and children, eight in number, and after- 
 wards his own, without the slightest disturbance 
 being heard without. 
 
 ADLE-EGGS. See ADDLF. 
 
 ADLEGATION, in the public law of the 
 German empire, a right claimed by certain states 
 of the empire of adjoining plenipotentiaries, in 
 public treaties and negociations, to those of the 
 emperor, for the transacting of matters which re- 
 late to their common interests. Several princes 
 and states of the empire, enjoy the right of lega- 
 tion, (or sending ambassadors on their own parti- 
 cular affairs,) who have not that of adlegation, 
 and vice versa. 
 
 ADLERBERG, or ARLBERG, one of the 
 Suabian territories, of the Tyrolese Alps, sepa- 
 rating the Tyrol from the country of the Grisons. 
 It gives name to the adjacent lordships of Voral- 
 berg, and is covered with pines and brushwood. 
 Joseph II. cut a fine road across these hills in 
 1786. 
 
 ADLOCUTION, ADLOCUTIO, in Roman an- 
 tiquity, the address made by generals to their 
 armies, to encourage them before a battle ; often 
 expressed on medals by the abbreviature ADLO- 
 CUT. COH. The general is represented as seated 
 on a tribunal, or on a bank or mount of turf, 
 with the cohorts ranged orderly round him. 
 
 ADLONGUM, in music, ancient church 
 music written in square notes and semibreves. 
 
 ADMAH, the most easterly of the four cities 
 that were destroyed by fire from heaven with 
 Sodom. 
 
 ADMANUENSES, in ancient law books, 
 denote persons who swore by laying their hands on 
 the book, and thus stood opposed to clerks, whose 
 word was, according to Ducange, reputed as 
 their oath. 
 
 ADMEA'SURE, 
 
 ADMEASUREMENT. 
 
 E, > 
 
 NT. $ 
 
 See MEASURE. 
 
 The antient and most effectual method of proceed- 
 ing is by writ of admeasurement of pasture.*****And 
 upon this suit all the commoners shall be admeasured. 
 Blackitone's Commentaries. 
 
 ADMETUS, in mythology, a king of Phera 
 in Thessaly, whose cattle Apollo kept for nine 
 years, and obtained from the Fates, a dream, that 
 -idmetus should never die, if any one could be 
 
 found to sacrifice life in his behalf, which 
 Alcestas his wife, did. Ovid de Art. Am. iii 
 Pont. iii. &c. 
 
 ADMINICLE, in Scots law, signifies any 
 writing or deed referred to by a party, in a r 
 action of law, for proving his allegations. 
 
 ADMINICULATOR, an ancient officer of 
 
 the church, whose business it was to attend to, 
 
 and defend the cause of the widows and orphans. 
 
 ADMIN'ISTER, v.-\ Ad : ministro, from 
 
 ADMINISTRATE, v. t minus, or minor, to serve 
 
 ADMINISTRATION, I to; to act as servant, 
 
 ADMINISTRATOR. J agent, or deputy ; to 
 
 officiate under the sanction of law or otherwise ; 
 
 to give, to help, to supply. 
 
 Power me thought y* I had to keep from mine 
 enemies, and mee seemed to shine in glory of re- 
 noume, as manhood asketh in mean, for no wight in 
 mine administration, coud none yuels ne trechery by 
 soth cause on me putte. 
 
 Chaucer, Test, of L. b. ii. f. 304. 
 There are dyuersites of gyftes, yet but one sprete. 
 And ther are differences of admynystracyos, and yet 
 but one Lorde. Bible, 1539. 1 Cor. ch. x-' 
 
 For forms of government let fools contest ; 
 What'er is best adminuter'd, is best. 
 
 Pope's Essay on Man 
 He [the king] is ours, 
 T' administer, to guard, t' adorn the state, 
 But not to warp or change it. We are his, 
 To serve him nobly in the common cause, 
 True to the death, but not to be his slave. 
 
 Cowper's Task. 
 
 ADMINISTRATION, in anatomy, a name given 
 by Galen and Harvey to the manner of dis- 
 secting the human body, particularly the 
 muscles. In which sense, administration is 
 synonymous with enchtiresis, exercise, &c. 
 
 ADMINISTRATOR, in law, he to whom the or- 
 dinary commits the administration of the goods 
 of a person deceased, in default of an executor. 
 An action lies for, or against an administrator, as 
 for, or against an executor ; and he shall be ac- 
 countable to the value of the goods of the de- 
 ceased, and no farther : unless there be waste, or 
 other abuse chargeable on him. If the adminis- 
 trator die, his executors are not administrators ; 
 but the court is to grant a new administration. 
 If a stranger, who is neither administrator nor 
 executor, take the goods of tie deceased, and ad- 
 minister, he shall be charged and sued as an 
 executor, and not as an administrator. The ad- 
 ministrator, in Scot's law, -is a person legally 
 empowered to act for another whom the law pre- 
 sumes incapable of acting for himself. Thus 
 tutors or curators are sometimes styled adminis- 
 trators in law to pupils, minors, or fatuous per- 
 sons. But more generally the term is used to 
 imply that power, which is conferred by the law 
 upon a father, over the persons and estates of his 
 children during their minority. 
 
 ADMIRABILIS SAL, the same with Glaxt- 
 ber's salt. See CHEMISTRY. 
 
 ADMIRAL, amiral, Fr. of doubtful etymology. 
 The chief commander of a greater or smaller 
 number of ships of war, or of the whole naval 
 force of a country.
 
 ADM 
 
 142 
 
 ADM 
 
 He also, in battle in sea, overthrew Rodericus 
 Rotundus, admiral of Spain, in which fight the admi- 
 ral with his son were both slain, and seven of his gallies 
 taken. Knolks. 
 
 Make the sea shine with gallantry, and all 
 The English youth flock to their admiral. 
 
 Waller. 
 
 ADMIRAL, in naval politics, an officerwho takes 
 the command of a fleet or squadron, or the general 
 government of the king's navy ; together with 
 the hearing and determining all causes that may 
 arise, civil or criminal, within the circle of ma- 
 ritime affairs. 
 
 With respect to the origin of this title, authors 
 are divided, although the office itself has been 
 established in almost all maritime countries. 
 Some have traced it to the oriental languages; 
 others to the Greek; but the most probable 
 opinion, is that of Spelman, who thinks, that 
 both the name and dignity were derived from 
 the Saracens, and, by reason of the holy wars, 
 brought amongst us ; for admiral, in the Arabian 
 language, signifies a prince, or chief ruler, and 
 was the ordinary title of the governors of cities, 
 provinces, &c. and therefore they called the 
 commander of the navy by that name, as a name 
 of dignity and honour. And indeed there are 
 no instances of admirals in this part of Europe, 
 before the year 1284, when Philip of France, 
 who had attended St. Louis in the wars against 
 the Saracens, created an admiral. Du Cange 
 assures us, that the Sicilians were the first and 
 the Genoese the next, who gave the denomina- 
 tion of admiral to the commanders of their naval 
 armaments ; and that they took it from the Sara- 
 cen or Arabic Emir, a general name for every 
 commanding officer. 
 
 The name also occurs once in the history of 
 France, in the year 558. And. Com. vol. i. p. 23. 
 The exact time when this word was introduced 
 among us, is uncertain ; some think it was in the 
 reign of Edward I. before whose time, the chief 
 naval officer was distinguished by the name of 
 ' custos maris.' But Sir Henry Spelman is of 
 opinion that it was first used in the reign of Hen. 
 III. because neither the laws of Oleron, made in 
 1266, nor Bracton, who wrote about that time, 
 make any mention of it; and that the term admi- 
 ral was not used in the charter of the eighth of 
 Hen. HI. wherein he granted this office toRichard 
 de Lacey, by these words, Maritimam Angli<e ; 
 but in the fifty-sixth year of the same reign, not 
 only the historians, but the charters themselves, 
 very frequently use the word admiral. It is 
 certain, however, that in the reign of Edw.I. who 
 distinguished himself in the naval service of the 
 crusades, the title of admiral de la mer du roy 
 d'Angleterre, was conferred for the first time, as 
 a mark of public honour, on W. de Leybourne. 
 Shortly afterwards, the jurisdiction of the English 
 seas was committed to the management of three or 
 four admirals, all of them holding the office du- 
 rante bene placito ; and each having particular 
 limits under his charge and government : as ad- 
 miral of the fleet of ships, from the mouth of 
 the Thames, northward, southward, or westward. 
 Besides these, there were admirals of the Cinque 
 Forts, as in the reign of Edward III. when one 
 William Latimer was styled admiralis quinque 
 
 portuum ; and we sometimes find that one per 
 son has been admiral of the fleets to the south- 
 ward, northward, and westward, at the same time. 
 
 From the reign of Edward II. a regular suc- 
 cession of admirals may be distinctly traced, 
 and in the thirty-fourth of Edward III. John de 
 Beauchamp, lord warden of the Cinque Ports, 
 was created high-admiral of England. There 
 was, however, a title above this, viz. ' locum 
 tenens regio super mare,' the king's lieutenant- 
 general of the seas. The office of high-admiral 
 was soon after divided for a few years into that 
 of the northern and western admiral. Richard 
 Fitz Alain, son of the earl of Arundel. being made 
 admiral of England, by patent of Richard II. was 
 succeeded by the duke of Albermarle, under the 
 title of high-admiral of the north and west ; but 
 the title of admiralis Angliae, was resumed in the 
 reign of Henry IV. and conferred upon the 
 king's brother; and the office itself invested with 
 most of its present powers. Persons of high 
 rank, frequently unacquainted with naval con- 
 cerns, were placed in it, as a post of honour ; 
 and thus it continued until 1632, when it was 
 put into commission, as it remained during the 
 protectorate of Cromwell. James II. while yet 
 duke of York, exercised the functions of lord 
 high-admiral for several years, during the reign 
 of his predecessor, and had the merit of making 
 it a most effective and useful office : some of his 
 naval regulations being still observed. In the 
 time of William and Mary, the powers of lord 
 high-admiral were committed, by stat. ii. cap. 2. 
 to the lords commissioners of the admiralty. 
 Prince George of Denmark enjoyed this office a 
 short time, in the reign of queen Anne ; and 
 during his commission, a change took place in 
 its perquisites, which, with the exception of 
 2500 per annum, he alienated to the crown. 
 After his relinquishment, the office returned to 
 seven lords-commissioners, according to the ori- 
 ginal statute of William and Mary, and the 
 annual income was augmented to 1000 for 
 each ; although, at present, that of the first lord 
 is equal to 5000 per annum. The surplus re- 
 venue, so deviated, forms what are called thedroits 
 of admiralty, and is applied at the pleasure of 
 government. 
 
 To the office of Lord HIGH ADMIRAL, or 
 Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty of Eng- 
 land, belong the universal government and ma- 
 nagement of the Royal Navy, the decision of all 
 maritime cases, whether civil or criminal, a ju- 
 risdiction upon or beyond the sea in all parts of 
 the world ; upon the sea coasts in all ports, ha- 
 vens, or harbours, and upon all rivers below the 
 nearest bridge to the sea. According to the 
 terms of the patent, he is empowered " To pre- 
 serve all public streams, ports, rivers, fresh waters 
 and creeks, whatsoever, within his jurisdiction, 
 as well for the preservation of the ships as of the 
 fishes ; to reform too strait nets and unlawful 
 engines, and punish offenders ; to arrest ships, 
 mariners, pilots, masters, gunners, bombadiers, 
 and any other persons whatsoever, able and fit 
 for the service of ships, as often as occasion shall 
 require, and wheresoever they shall be met with ; 
 to appoint vice-admirals, judges, and other offi- 
 cers, durante bene placito; to remove, suspend,
 
 ADM 
 
 143 
 
 ADM 
 
 or expel them, and put ethers in their places ; 
 to take cognizance of civil and maritime laws, and 
 of death, murder, or maim." The Lord Warden 
 of the Cinque Ports has, nevertheless, a juris- 
 diction exempt from the control of the Admiralty 
 within these ports. The jurisdiction of the Lord 
 High Admiral is confined to the sea; for instance, 
 if a man be killed in any ship riding in great 
 rivers, beneath the lowest bridge towards the 
 sea, he has legal cognizance ; but, if a man be 
 killed above the lowest bridge, or upon any arm 
 of the sea where the land can be seen on both 
 sides, the coroner of the county is the proper 
 person to enquire into it, and where a coroner 
 may enquire the admiral has no jurisdiction. 
 Between high and low water mark, also, the 
 common law and the Admiralty have jurisdiction 
 by turns ; one upon the water, the other upon 
 the land. The High Admiral is empowered to 
 grant commissions to inferior admirals, enabling 
 them to enforce obedience in all branches of the 
 service, to institute courts martial, to take cogni- 
 zance of all maritime transgressions committed 
 against the articles of war, under the direction 
 of a deputy Judge Advocate. 
 
 The perquisites given to this office by the 
 patent, consist of " treasure, deodands, derelicts, 
 found within his jurisdiction ; all goods picked 
 up at sea; all fines, forfeitures, ransoms, re- 
 cognizances, and pecuniary punishments; all 
 sturgeons, whales, porpusses, dolphins, rigs, and 
 grampusses, and all such large fishes ; all ships 
 and goods of the enemy coming into any creek, 
 road, or port, by stress of weather, mistake, or 
 ignorance of the war ; all ships seized at sea, 
 salvage, &c. together with his shares of prizes." 
 This officer anciently carried a gold whistle, set 
 with precious stones, at the end of a gold chain ; 
 and the office itself is of so great power, honour, 
 and profit, that it has been conferred mostly on 
 princes of the blood. All officers, commanders, 
 and soldiers of ships of war, are bound to observe 
 the commands of the High Admiral, on pain of 
 death, or other punishment. Considering the 
 great power and influence of the office, there is, 
 perhaps, a degree of prudence in its having been 
 put for some years past under the administration 
 of commissioners, who, by W. and M. stat. ii. 
 c. 2. are declared to have the same authority, 
 jurisdiction, and power, as the Lord High Ad- 
 miral. 
 
 ADMIRAL OF SCOTLAND, THE LORD HIGH, was 
 anciently one of the great officers of the crown, 
 and supreme judge in all maritime cases that 
 occurred within that part of Great Britain. In 
 the year 1651 this great officer was dignified 
 with the title of " The King's Lieutenant and 
 Justice General upon the Seas." But since the 
 Union, the powers of this office have been vested 
 in the Admiralty of Great Britain, who appoints 
 a Vice Admiral, or Judge, who executes the 
 duties of it, and presides over an Admiralty 
 court in Scotland. 
 
 ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET is the highest naval 
 officer under the British High Admiralty office, 
 distinguished when he embarks by hoisting the 
 union flag at the main top gallant mast head. 
 This office is of considerable authority, and has 
 lately been filled by a member of the royal family. 
 
 ADMIRALS being coniinanders in chief of any 
 fleet, or squadron, rank with field marshal sin the 
 army, and always carry their flags at the main 
 top gallant mast head, from which they are 
 designated admirals of the red, of the white, of 
 the blue. 
 
 The VICE ADMIRAL is a civil officer, appointed 
 by Lords Commissioners of the High Admiralty. 
 There are several of them established in different 
 parts of Great Britain, with judges and marshalls 
 under them, exercising their respective juris- 
 dictions within certain limits. The Vice Ad- 
 miral of England was formerly the Deputy of 
 the Lord High Admiral, but the place being 
 now a sinecure, is commonly conferred on some 
 officer of distinction. Scotland has one Vice* 
 Admiral, Ireland has four, and the Governors 
 of colonies are commonly empowered by a com- 
 mission to preside over Vice Admiralty Courts 
 The Vice Admiral carries his flag at the fore top 
 mast head, takes rank with lieutenant generals 
 in the army, and, within his jurisdiction, main- 
 tains considerable dignity and influence. His 
 decisions, however, are not final, a right of 
 appeal lying to the High Court of Admiralty in 
 London. 
 
 ADMIRAL is also an appellation given to the 
 most considerable ship of a fleet of merchantmen, 
 or of the vessels employed in the cod-fishery of 
 Newfoundland. The vessel that first arrives is 
 also entitled to this appellation, and the com- 
 mander has the privilege of choosing what place 
 he pleases on the shore to dry his fish ; gives 
 proper orders and appoints the fishing-places 
 to those who come after him ; and as long as 
 the fishing season continues, carries a flag on his 
 main mast. 
 
 ADMIRAL, in zoology, or rather conchology, 
 the name given by authors to a very beautiful 
 and very precious shell fish of the valuta genus, 
 belonging to the order of vermes testacea. See 
 VOLUTA. Of these the -curious reckon four 
 species. 1. The grand-admiral. 2. The vice- 
 admiral. 3. The orange-admiral. And, 4. The 
 extra-admiral. The first of these is the most 
 esteemed, and a single shell has been sold in 
 Holland for five hundred florins. It is of a very 
 elegant and bright white enamel, and is variegated 
 with bands of yellow, representing in some de- 
 gree the colours of the flags of a man of war at 
 sea ; hence it obtained its name. It is of a very 
 curious shape, and formed with particular ele- 
 gance about the head; the clavicle being ex- 
 erted. There runs along the centre of the large 
 yellow band in this shell, a fine denticulated 
 line, which is its distinguishing character. The 
 vice-admiral is an elegant shell, but its head is - 
 less beautifully wrought than in the admiral, and 
 its broad band wants the denticulated line, so 
 remarkable in that. The orange-admiral has 
 more yellow than either of the others. The 
 extra-admiral has the same bands with these, 
 but they run one into another, aud form a more 
 mixed clouding. 
 
 ADMIRALTY. The power, or officers ap- 
 pointed to administer the naval affairs of a state. 
 Also the place where they assemble for business. 
 
 They requested liberty to cite Jobn Paith to appear 
 by his proctor in the English court of admiralty. 
 
 Milton's Stute Letters.
 
 ADM 
 
 144 
 
 ADM 
 
 abo 
 
 Having consulted with Mr. Whitlock, the lawyer, rally. Courts of this description were established 
 out the validity of a commission drawn from a re- during the late war, at Antigua, the Bahamas, 
 search into the office of the admiralty. Barbadoes, Bermuda, Bombay, Calcutta, the 
 Sir H. Wotton, Rem. p. 418. Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, Gibraltar, Halifax, 
 ADMIRALTY properly signifies the office of Jamaica, Malta, Madras, Newfoundland, and 
 lord high admiral, whether discharged by one Tortola. Instance Courts are intended to en- 
 single person, or by joint commissioners called quire into all misdemeanours in merchant ships, 
 lords of the admiralty. &c. and have been established at Berbice, St. 
 ADMIRALTY, COURT OF, is a sovereign court, Croix, St. Christopher's, Dominica, Demerara, 
 instituted by Edward III. and held by the lord 
 high admiral, or lords of the admiralty, where 
 cognizance is taken in all maritime affairs, 
 
 whether civil or criminal. All crimes committed nally established in 1640, and filled for the most 
 
 on the high seas, or on great rivers below the part, by two or three persons. At the revolution 
 
 first bridge next the sea, are cognizable in this a considerable change took place in it; since 
 
 court only, and before which they must be tried which it has been restricted to an individual, 
 
 by judge and jury. But in civil cases the mode whose salary is now 2500 per annum. The 
 
 is different, the decisions being all made accord- Judges of the Vice Admiralty courts in the 
 
 ing to the civil law. By statute 39. Geo. III. colonies are allowed in some places 2000 a 
 
 all offences whatsoever committed on the high year from the consolidated fund, besides other 
 
 seas, shall be liable to the same punishments as perquisites. 
 
 if committed on shore, and shall be tried and ADMIRALTY, REGISTRAR OF THE, holds an office 
 adjudged in the same manner as felonies ; and of great pecuniary importance by patent of the 
 persons wilfully casting away any vessel, or pro- High Admiral, or the Lords Commissioners, in 
 curing it to be done, are by the 43d of the king virtue of which he assists in the judicial pro- 
 declared to be felons, without benefit of clergy : ceedings of the Admiralty courts, 
 if the offence be committed in the body of a ADMIRALTY, MARSHAL OF THE, is an officer 
 county, they shall be tried as other felons ; if upon who bears the mace before the Admiralty Judge, 
 the seas, under stat. 28 Henry VIII. which attends naval executions, arrestsships and per- 
 gives the criminal jurisdiction to the Admiralty sons, and commits offenders to the Marshal- 
 regular Admiralty 
 
 Essiquibo, Granada, Martinique, Trinidad, and 
 St. Vincents. 
 
 ADMIRALTY, JUDGE OF THE, an office origi- 
 
 Court. Of late years a regular Admiralty sea. 
 Sessions of Oyer and Terminer has been held 
 twice in the year at the Old Bailey, London. 
 The commission includes the members of the 
 Privy Council, Lords of the Treasury, the Secre- 
 tary of the Admiralty, some of the City Alder- 
 men, &c. and with the exception that it is limited 
 to maritime causes, is similar to that granted to 
 the judges on other occasions. 
 
 ADMIRALTY, PROCURATORS OF THE, in all the 
 High Admiral's affairs, and suits of the crown, 
 act as solicitors in the High court of Admiralty ; 
 since both the Counsel of the Admiralty, and the 
 diplomatic solicitor of the Admiralty, are chiefly 
 occupied about the military parts of their official 
 duty. 
 
 ADMIRALTY BAY, a large bay on the west 
 
 An appeal lies from the inferior Courts of coast of Cooke's Straits, New Zealand, S. Lat. 
 Admiralty to the HIGH COURT OF ADMIRALTY OF 40, 37'. E. Long. 176, 54'. 
 ENGLAND, also by 8 Eliz. c. 5. appeal lies from ADMIRALTY INLET, an entrance to the sup- 
 the latter court to commissioners appointed by the posed straits of Juan de Fuca, on the west 
 court of Chancery ; and in case of prize decisions, coast of New Georgia, in N. Lat. 48, 30', 
 an appeal lies to commissioners of the Privy W. Long. 124. 15'. 
 
 Council. And this by virtue of divers treaties ADMIRALTY ISLANDS, a cluster of islands to 
 with foreign nations, by which particular courts the north of New Britain, in the south Pacific 
 are established in the maritime countries of Ocean, in about 2, 18' S. Lat. and 116, 44 
 Europe for the decision of this question ; E. Long. These islands were visited by Morello, 
 
 whether lawful prize or not? for this being a in 1781, and again by the expedition in search 
 question between subjects of different states, 
 it belongs entirely to the law of nations, and 
 not to die municipal laws of either country, 
 to determine it. When sentence has been given 
 
 of La Perouse, in 1793, when the natives 
 appeared very friendly. They are blacks, and 
 of large stature. 
 
 ADMIRALTY ISLAND, a large island on the 
 
 by a foreign Admiralty, the party may libel for west coast of North America, between the shore 
 execution here, without the process of another of that continent and George the Third's Archi- 
 trial; since all Admiralty courts are supposed pelago. It is about 180 miles in circumference. 
 to be established upon the same general basis, and is inclosed with numerous noble bays, and 
 
 the decisions of those belonging to other nations, 
 are admitted here, and shall not be examined, 
 that ours may be credited there. 
 
 VICE ADMIRALTY COURTS are established 
 in all the dependencies of Great Britain, and are 
 of two kinds, Prize Courts and Instance Courts. 
 The affair of Prize Courts, is to enquire into all 
 cases of vessels condemned as prizes, detained 
 by neutrals or enemies, lawfully or unlawfully, 
 
 and all things that affect cases of capture gene- 134 to 135 
 
 covered with fine timber, especially of the pine 
 tribe. This island presents strong evidence of 
 the encroachment of the Pacific on the western 
 shores of the neighbourhood ; Vancouver's men 
 having traced the remains of a vast rorest of 
 trees into the sea. But the inhabitants were of a 
 very hostile disposition, and prevented the 
 French navigator from much close inspection 
 of their domain. N. Lat. 57, to 58. W. Long.
 
 ADM 
 
 .45 
 
 ADM 
 
 ADMIRE', v. -x Ad : miror, to wonder 
 AD'MIRABLE, ! at, in a good or bad sense, 
 AD'MIRABLEXESS, but more frequently in 
 AD'MIRABLY, I the former; to look at, 
 ADMIR'ANCE, fobserve, or regard with 
 ADMIRA'TION, j surprise,wonder, pleasure, 
 ADMIR'ER, delight, or veneration, as 
 
 ADMIR'INGLY. J extraordinary or singular; 
 agreeable, or the contrary. 
 
 LA. You haue displac'd the mirth, 
 Broke the good meeting with most admir'd dis- 
 order. Shakspeare's Macbeth. 
 It is very remarkable to see the manufactures in 
 England, not knowing whether more to admire the 
 rarity or variety thereof. Fuller's Worthies. 
 As such we lov'd, admired, almost ador'd, 
 Gave all the tribute mortals could afford, 
 Perhaps we gave so much, the pow'rs above 
 Grew angry at our superstitious love ; 
 For when we more than human homage pay, 
 The charming cause is justly snatched away. 
 
 Dryden's Elegies. 
 
 Enthusiastick admiration seldom promotes know- 
 ledge. Sir Joshua Reynold's Discourses. 
 Throughout the whole, the author appears to have 
 been a most critical reader ; and a most passionate ad- 
 mirer of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Bishop Newton on Paradise Lost f 
 
 ADMIT, v. Ad : mitto, to let in; to re- 
 
 ADMIS'SIBLE, y ceive into a place where one 
 ADMIS'SION, f is ; to introduce ; to allow or 
 ADMIT'TABLE, /"suffer to be brought in or 
 ADMITTANCE, \forward; to give credit to; to 
 ADMIT'TER. assent to a statement; to 
 acknowledge the force of an argument. 
 
 Let all kyngs beware how, aftir they haue once 
 tasted of God's trewth, they admitte siche popish 
 Catterers into their court and counsaill. 
 
 Expos, of Daniel, by G. Joye, c. ii. fol. 41 . 
 I admit the case as possible, but yet as such a 
 rase, as I trust in God, this good man shall see the 
 ekye fall firste, and catche larkes ere it happe. 
 
 Sir Thomas More'i Works, p. 22. 
 
 What, 
 
 If I do line one of their hands ? tis gold 
 Which buys admittance. 
 
 Shakspeare's Cymbeline. 
 And, if I give thee honour due, 
 Mirth, admit me of thy crew. 
 To live with her, and live with thee, 
 In unreproved pleasures free. 
 
 Milton's L' Allegro. 
 
 There's news from Bertran : he desires 
 Admittance to the king ; and cries aloud, 
 This day shall end our fears. Dryden. 
 
 My father saw you ill designs pursue ; 
 And my admission shew'd his fear of you. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 Blindness being a privative term unto sight, this 
 appellation is not admittable in propriety of speech, 
 and will overthrow the doctrine of privations. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 Suppose that this supposition were admissible, this 
 would not any way be inconsistent with the eternity 
 of the divine nature and essence. 
 
 Hole's Contemplations. 
 
 ADMISSION, in ecclesiastical affairs, the 
 bishop's acknowledgment that he approves the 
 parson presented to a cure, which he gives on 
 examination, by saying admitto te habilem. 
 ADMITTENDO CLERICO, is a writ granted 
 VOL. I. 
 
 to him who hath recovered his right of piesenifi- 
 tion against the bishop in the common pleas. 
 
 ADMITTENDO IN SOCIUM, in law, is a writ for 
 the association ( of certain persons to Justices of 
 Assize formerly appointed. 
 
 ADMIX', v.~\ Ad : Ang. Sax. miscan, by 
 ADMIX'TION, > contraction mics, to mix; to 
 ADMIX'TURE. 3 mingle or blend. 
 My son Pallas, this zoung lusty syre, 
 Exhort I wald to tak the stere on hand, 
 Ne war that of the blude of this ilk land 
 Admyxt standis he, takand sum strynd, 
 Apoun his moderis syde of Sabyne kynd. 
 
 Douglas, b. viii. p. 260. 
 
 Though many waies may be found to light this 
 powder, yet is there none I know to make a strong 
 and vigorous powder of salt-peter; without the 
 admixtinn of sulphur. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 All metals may be calcined by strong waters ; or 
 by admixtion of salt, sulphur, and mercury. 
 
 Bacon. 
 
 The corruption of philosophy, from the admixture 
 of superstition and theology, is much more extensive 
 and pernicious, either to whole bodies of philosophy 
 or their parts. Idem. 
 
 Possibly all metals may be of one species, and the 
 diversity may proceed from the admixture of different 
 bodies with the principles of the metal. 
 
 Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation. 
 
 ADMONISH, v .-> .... ... 
 
 ADMON'ISHER, Ad-.moneo. In Wichf 
 
 ADMON'ISHMENT, w * read neste, m other 
 ADMONI'TION, I of ur e ^ writers > in - 
 ADMONI'TIONER, f n ' sh : to P utm m u m ' to 
 ADMOX'ITIVE, advise > a PP" ze > exho ^' to 
 ADMOK'ITOR, re P rove % il ?> order to 
 
 ADMON'ITORY. J P revent evi1 conduct. 
 And euery orakyl of Goddis admonist eik, 
 That we the realme of Italy suld seik. 
 
 Douglas, b. iii. p. 80. 
 
 God sayth : Love thy neighbour as thyself ; that is 
 to say, to salvation both of lif and soule. And more- 
 over, thou shall love him in word, and in benigne admo- 
 nesting, and chastising, and comfort him in his anoyes, 
 and praye for him with all thy herte. 
 
 Chaucer Personnes Tale,V. 2. p. 325. 
 But yet be wary in thy studious care. 
 Thy grave admonishments prevail with me. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry V. p. 1 . 
 
 Ambition of great and famous auditories, I leave to 
 those whose better gifts and inward endowments are 
 admonitionert unto them of the great good they can do, 
 or otherwise thirst after popular applause, 
 
 H ale's Golden Remains. 
 Yet take heed, worthy Maximus, all ears 
 Hear not with that distinction mine do ; few 
 You'll find admonishers, but urgers of your actions. 
 
 Beaumont and Fietcher's Valentinian. 
 To the infinitely Good we owe 
 Immortal thanks ; and his admonishment 
 Receive, with solemn purpose to observe 
 Immutably his sovereign will, the end 
 Of what we are. Milton, 
 
 Horace was a mild admcmiiher ; a court satirist, 
 fit for the gentle times of Augustus. 
 
 Drydetk 
 Me fruitful scenes and prospects waste , 
 
 Alike admonish not to roam ; 
 These tell me of enjoyments past 
 And those of sorrows yet to come. 
 
 Cowper' Shrubbery 
 L
 
 ADO 
 
 146 
 
 ADO 
 
 ADMOVE' v. 
 
 ADMONITIO FUSTIUM, among the Romans, 
 a military punishment, not unlike our whipping, 
 but performed with vine branches. 
 
 ADMONITION, in ecclesiastical affairs, apart 
 of discipline much used in the ancient church. 
 It was the first act, or step, towards the punish- 
 ment, or expulsion of delinquents. In case of 
 private offences, it was performed, according to 
 the evangelical rule, privately : in case of public 
 offence, openly, before the church. If either of 
 those sufficed for the recovery of the fallen per- 
 son, all further proceedings in the way of censure 
 ceased : if they did not, recourse was had to 
 excommunication. 
 
 ADMONT, a market-town, in the circle of 
 Judenbirg, Upper Syria, between the Ens and 
 Bella, six miles N.N.E. of Rottenman. 
 
 ADMORTIZATION, in the feudal customs, 
 the reduction of the property of lands or tene- 
 ments to mortmain. See MORTMAIN. 
 
 Ad: IBOIKO, to move to- 
 wards, to approach. 
 
 If, unto the powder of loadstone or iron, we admme 
 the north pole of the loadstone; the powders or small 
 divisions will erect and conform themselves thereto : 
 but if the south pole approach, they will subside, and 
 inverting their bodies, respect the loadstone with the 
 other extream. Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 Ad : Tiascor, natus, to 
 
 to ' v'* to > or 
 
 upon. 
 
 Moss, which is an adnascent plant, is to be rubbed 
 and scraped off with some instrument of wood which 
 may not excorticate the tree. Evelyn's Sylva. 
 
 Osteologers have very well observed, that the parts 
 appertaining'to the bones, which stand out at a distance 
 from their bodies, are either the adnate or the enate 
 parts, either the epiphyses, or the apophyses of the 
 bones. Smith's Old Age. 
 
 ADNATA, in anatomy, a thick white mem- 
 brane, investing the ball of the eye ; and forming 
 its outermost coat; called also circumossalis and 
 circumcalvalis. It is the tunica adnata, that 
 makes what we commonly call the white of the 
 eye : whence it is also called the albuginea. It 
 springs from the pericranium, and grows to the 
 exterior part of the tunica cornea, serving to 
 connect the whole eye both to the palpebrae, and 
 the adjacent bones, and thus keep it fast in the 
 socket. A little round aperture is left in the 
 forepart, called the sight, through which the iris 
 and pupilla appear. The adnata abounds with 
 veins and arteries, which, though ordinarily not 
 visible, are conspicuous in ophthalmies, which are 
 properly inflammations of this part. 
 
 ADNATA is also a term used for such things as 
 grow upon animal or vegetable bodies, whether 
 inseparably, as hair, wool, horns, &c. or acci- 
 dentally, as the several epistical plants. Among 
 gardeners, it denotes those off-sets, which by a 
 new germination under the earth, proceed from 
 the lily, narcissus, hyacinth, and other flowers, 
 and afterwards grow to true roots ; what the 
 French call cayeux, or stalks. 
 
 ADNOUN, ADNOMEN, or ADNAME, in gram- 
 mar, another name for an adjective. 
 
 ADO*, n. See Do. 
 
 And when he was come in, he saith unto them* 
 why make ye this ado, and weep ? the damsel is no 1 
 dead but sleepeth. Mark v. 39. 
 
 A man that is inquisitive is commonly envious, for 
 to know much of other men's matters cannot be, 
 because all that ado may concern his own estate. 
 
 Bacon's Essay on Envy. 
 
 They moved, and in the end persuaded, with much 
 ado, the people to bind themselves by solemn oath. 
 
 Hooker. 
 Let's follow, to see the end of this ado. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 I made no more ado, but took all their seven 
 points in my target. 
 
 Shakspeare' t Henry IV. 
 With much ado, he partly kept awake ; 
 Not suff'ring all his eyes repose to take. 
 
 Dry den. 
 
 AD OCTO, q. d. to the eighth number ; a 
 term used by some ancient philosophers, to de- 
 note the highest, or superlative degree. 
 
 ADOLES'CENCE, n > Ad : olesco, to 
 
 ADOLES'CENCY. } grow perceptibly ; to 
 
 advance to adult age or maturity ; usually the 
 time of life between twelve and twenty-one , 
 The Romans extended the period to forty years. 
 Livy calls the Tarquins adolescentes, although 
 they were above thirty years of age. Caesar is 
 styled adolescens, when six and thirty. 
 
 Those times which we term vulgarly the old 
 world, were indeed the youth or adolescence of it. 
 
 Howell's Letten. 
 
 He was so far from a boy, that he was a man bom, 
 and at his full stature, if we believe Josephus, who 
 places him in the last adolescency, and makes him 
 twenty-five years old. Brown. 
 
 ADOLESCENTIA, ADOLESCENCE, from ado- 
 lescere, to grow, the state of growing youth ; 
 which has been understood to last as long as the 
 fibres continue to grow, either in magnitude 
 or firmness. It is commonly computed to be 
 between fifteen and twenty-five, or even thirty 
 years of age ; though in different constitutions, 
 its terms are very different. The Romans usually 
 reckoned it from twelve to twenty-five in boys ; 
 and, to twenty-one in girls, &c. And yet, among 
 their writers, juvenis and adolescens are fre- 
 quently used indifferently, for any person under 
 forty-five years. 
 
 ADOLPHUS FREDERICK SCHACHT, a silver 
 mine in Sweden, which produced a great deal of 
 silver between 1742 and 1747. 
 ADOLLAM. See ADULLAM. 
 ADOM, a territory lying toward the interior 
 of the Gold Coast of Africa. It is of small ex- 
 tent and little known. 
 
 ADONAI, TIK, Heb. i. e. the Lord, one of 
 the names of the Supreme Being in the Scrip- 
 tures. The proper meaning of which is, lords, 
 in the plural number ; as Adoni is lord, in the 
 singular. The Jews, who either out of respect, 
 or superstition, do not pronounce the name ot 
 Jehovah, read Adonai in the room of it, as often 
 as they meet with Jehovah in the Hebrew text. 
 Leigh, (in his Crit. Sacr.) observes, that " the 
 word Kvpios, [synonimous with 'JlK, Adonai,] 
 is in the writings of the Apostles simply and 
 absolutely ascribed to Christ saith Zanchius, a 
 thousand times. In the Old and New Testaments
 
 ADO 
 
 147 
 
 ADO 
 
 this title is attributed to GOD, more than a thou- their mourning, sung his praises, and made re- 
 sand times, saith Gerhard. The Hebrew word joicings as if he were raised to life again. Or 
 Jn, Adonai, springs from pK, Adon, and rather, according to Meursius, the two offices 
 that from Eden, which signifieth a base or pillar, of mourning and rejoicing made two distinct 
 which sustaineth any thing ; the Greek [icupioe,] feasts, which were held-.at different times of the 
 one who hath ride or dominion, being a word of year, the one six months after the other; Adonis 
 relation. Our English word Lord, hath much being supposed to pass half the year with Proser- 
 like force with the Hebrew U1K, being contracted P ine > . and half with Venus. The Egyptian 
 of our old Saxon word Laford, which is by in- Adonia are said to have been held in memory of 
 terpretation, a sustainer." Leigh's Crit. Sacr. the death of l iris 5 b l other s, of his sickness 
 
 in verb 
 
 ADONI, a district of Hindostan, in the pro- 
 vince of Bejapoor, on the south side of the 
 
 and recovery. Bishop Patrick dates their origin 
 from the slaughter of the first-born in the time 
 of Moses. The Abbe Banier wrote a Memoir 
 
 Toombuddra. It extends between the 15th and on the sub ject ; and among Shakspeare's poems, 
 
 16th degree of N. Lat. and has the Nizam's 1S a lon g one on Venus's affection for Adonis, 
 
 dominions to the north, and the Gooty hills south- The text of the Vulgate in Ezekiel vii. 14. says, 
 
 ward. This is a portion of the Balaghaut dis- that tms prophet saw women sitting in the tem- 
 
 tricts, part of the Nizam's territory, which he 
 definitively ceded to the British in 1800, and is 
 included in the Bellary collectorship of the 
 government of BOMBAY. 
 
 ADONI, a city of Hindostan, in the province 
 of Bejapoor, the capital of the above district. 
 It stands in N. Lat. 15, 32'. and E. Long. 77, 
 16'. 145 miles S.W. of Hyderabad, (175 travel- 
 ling miles) 243 from Seringapatam, and 310 from 
 Madras. This town is falling to decay, but is 
 finely and strongly situated on a hill, where nu- 
 merous fountains of water are found, and the 
 relics of several magnificent structures. It fell 
 to the Mahomedan princes of the Decan, in the 
 sixteenth century, at which period (1568) it was 
 esteemed almost impregnable by its former mas- 
 ters, the rajahs of Bijanagur. A temporary in- 
 dependent state was created in the neighbourhood 
 by the Patans during the last century ; to this 
 succeeded the dominion of Bazalet Jung, the 
 brother of Nizam Ali ; that of Tippoo, who be- 
 sieged, and almost destroyed Adoni, in 1787 ; 
 and finally, that of the British, to whom the city 
 was ceded with the province in 1800. 
 
 ADONIA, in antiquity, solemn feasts inhonour 
 of Venus and of her beloved Adonis. The 
 Adonia were observed with great solemnity by 
 most nations ; Greeks, Phoenicians, Lycians, 
 Syrians, Egyptians, &c. From Syria, they are 
 supposed to have passed into India. They were 
 observed at Alexandria in the time of St. Cyril ; 
 and at Antioch, in that of Julian the Apostate, 
 who happened to enter the city during the solem- 
 nity, which was taken for an ill-omen. The 
 Adonia lasted two days : on the first of which, 
 certain images of Venus and Adonis were carried, 
 with all the pomp and ceremonies practised at 
 funerals : the women wept, tore their hair, beat 
 their breasts, &.c. imitating the cries and lamenta- 
 tions of Venus for the death of her paramour. 
 This lamentation they called A<Wia(r/ioc. The 
 Syrians were distinguished for their dolorous cries 
 on this occasion, shaving their heads, &c. Among 
 the Egyptians, the queen herself used to carry 
 the image of Adonis in procession. St. Cyril 
 mentions an extraordinary ceremony practised 
 by the Alexandrians : a letter was written to the 
 women of Byblos, to inform them that Adonis 
 was found again : this letter was thrown into the 
 
 pie, and weeping for Adonis : according to the 
 reading of the Hebrew text, they are said to weep 
 for Tammuz, or the hidden one. Now among 
 the Egyptians, Adonis was adored under the name 
 of Osiris, who was sometimes called Ammuz, or 
 Tammuz, the concealed, to denote probably his 
 death or burial. The Hebrews also, in derision, 
 call him the dead, Psalm cvi. 28. and Lev. xix. 
 28 ; and at other times, the image of jealousy, 
 Ezekiel viii. 5, because he was the object of 
 the god Mars's jealousy. F. Calmet is of opinion, 
 that the Ammonites and Moabites gave him the 
 name of Baal-peor. See BAAL-PEOR. 
 
 ADONIC, in poetry, a short kind of verse, 
 consisting of a dactylus and a spondeus, or a 
 trocheus ; such as rara juventus. It is so named 
 from Adonis, having been originally used in the 
 Threnae, or lamentations for that favourite of 
 Venus. 
 
 ADONIDES, in botany, authors who have 
 given descriptions, or catalogues, of the plants 
 cultivated in some particular place. Linntsus. 
 
 ADONIDIS HORTI, Adonis's gardens, an 
 appellation for gardens beautifully arranged, and 
 more intended for pleasure than profit. 
 
 ADONION, among the ancient botanists, a 
 species of southernwood, according to Gorraeus, 
 which used to be set in pots, and served as an 
 ornament for gardens. 
 
 ADONIS, or ADONIUS, in ancient geography, 
 a river of Phoenicia, rising in mount Lebanon, 
 and falling into the sea, after a north-west course, 
 at Byblos. 
 
 ADONIS, in antiquity, a drink made of wine, 
 mixed with flour of roasted ador ; otherwise 
 called Cyceon. 
 
 ADONIS, in botany, BIRD'S-EYE, or PHEA- 
 SANT'S EYE; a genus of the class polyandria, 
 order polygynia. It is associated with the multi- 
 sliquae, or twenty-sixth natural order. The cha- 
 racters are, CAL. a perianthium, consisting of five 
 obtuse concave leaves, somewhat coloured, and 
 deciduous ; COR. from five to fifteen oblong petals 
 obtuse and glossy; STAM. very numerous, short, 
 subulated filaments ; the anthene oblong and in 
 fleeted : PIST. numerous germina collected in a 
 head ; no styli ; the stigmata acute and reflected ; 
 no pericarpium; the receptacle is oblong and 
 spiked. The seeds numerous, irregular, angular, 
 
 sea, which (it was pretended) did not fail punctu- gibbous at the base, reflected at the top, somewhat 
 ally to convey it to Byblos in seven days; upon prominent, and awnless. The most remarkable 
 the receipt of which, the Byblian women ceased species are : 
 
 L2
 
 ADO 
 
 1. ADONIS ANNUA, a native of Kerrf 
 
 2. ADONIS #STIVALIS. 
 
 3. ADONIS APENNINA. 
 
 4. ADONIS VERNALIS, or perennial adonis. 
 ADONIS, in the heathen mythology, the son of 
 
 Cinyras, king of Cyprus, and the favourite of the 
 goddess Venus. He was said to have been killed 
 by a wild boar, to the inconsolable grief of the 
 goddess, in the Idalian wood. The fables, re- 
 specting his fate, after his dealh, are very con- 
 tradictory ; some representing him as having been 
 turned into a blood-coloured flower ; others into 
 a river, which, at certain seasons, flowed with 
 Wood ; and a third tradition stating, that Venus 
 having applied to Jupiter for his restoration to 
 life, he was allowed to spend one half of the 
 year with her, and the other with Proserpine. 
 See ADONIA. 
 
 ADONIS, in zoology, a small fish, of the an- 
 guilliform kind, -of a cylindric shape, and about 
 six inches long. Ray supposes this fish, which 
 is also called exoc&tus to be the same with the 
 exocoetus, of Bellonius, or the gattorugine. It 
 is remarkable for sleeping on the surface of the 
 water, and near the shores ; and Rondeletius 
 affirms, that he has seen them sleeping upon the 
 dry rocks. 
 
 ADONISTS, a party among divines and cri- 
 tics, who contend against the Hebrew points. 
 
 ADONIUM. See ADONION. 
 
 ADONIUS. See ADONIS. 
 
 ADONI-ZEDEK, pnV'JIK, Heb. i. e. the 
 Lord's Justice, or the Lord of Justice, a heathen 
 king of Jerusalem, who, jealous of the Israelites 
 under Joshua, formed an alliance with four 
 neighbouring princes, to stop their progress. 
 Joshua x. 
 
 ADOORS', Adv : At doors, at the door. 
 But what, Sir, I beseech ye, was that paper, 
 Your Lordship was so studiously employed in, 
 When you came out adoors. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Pleased. 
 
 If I. get in adoors, not the power o' th' country, nor 
 all my aunt's curses shall disembogue me. 
 
 Idem, Little Thief. 
 
 The other of them came to another of like condi- 
 tion in like manner, as desiring her company, but so 
 as she would go out at doors. 
 
 Gataker'* Spiritual Watch. 
 
 ADOPT', v. -\ Ad : opto, to choose ; to ex- 
 ADOPT'EDLY, f ercise the will and the judg- 
 ADOP'TION, f ment with regard to an object ; 
 ADOP'TIVE. J to prefer ; particularly to se- 
 lect the child of another person, and to provide 
 for it as one's own. The Roman customs abound 
 with instances of this practice. See our GENERAL 
 ARTICLE. 
 
 For when Rene, Duke of Angeou, last king of Sci- 
 cile, departed without any heire male of hys wyfe 
 lawfully begotten, he did adopt to his-heyre of all his 
 realmes and dominios, Lewes the Eleventh, father to 
 the third kyng Charles. Hall, p. 457. 
 
 To all the duties of evangelical grace, instead of the 
 
 adoptive and cheerful boldness which our new alliance 
 
 with God requires, came servile and thrall-like fear. 
 
 Milton of Ref. in Eng. b. i. 
 
 Tythe is not simply a Levitical duty, but respec- 
 tively ; not the natural child of Moses's law, but 
 the adoptive. Spslman'i Larger Work of Tythes. 
 
 ADO 
 
 Adoptedly, as school-maids change their names, 
 By vain (though apt) affection. Shahspeare, 
 
 Were none of all my father's sisters left ; 
 Nay, were I of my mother's kin bereft ; 
 None, by an uncle's or a grandame's side ; 
 Yet I could some adopted heir provide. Dryden. 
 Whether, adopted to some neighbouring star, 
 
 Thou roll'st above us in thy wand'ring race j 
 Or, in procession fix'd and regular, 
 
 Mov' st with the heaven's majestic pace ; 
 Or call'd to more celestial bliss, 
 Thou tread'st with seraphims the vast abyss. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 We are seldom at ease from the solicitation of our 
 natural or adopted desires ; but a constant succession 
 of uneasinesses (out of that stock which natural 
 wants or acquired habits have heaped up) take the 
 will in their turns. Locke. 
 
 Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, 
 The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway ; 
 Lightly they frolic o'er the vacant mind, 
 Unenvy'd, unmolested, unconfin'd. 
 
 Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 
 
 I have adopted the Roman sentiment, that it is 
 more honourable to save a citizen, than to kill an 
 enemy, and have been more careful to protect than 
 to attack. Johnson's Preface to Shakspeare. 
 
 ADOPTER, in chemistry. See RECEIVER. 
 
 ADOPTIANI, in church history, a sect of 
 heretics of the eight century, who advanced the 
 notion, that Jesus Christ, is the Son of God, not 
 by nature, bat by adoption. 
 
 ADOPTION, in antiquity, was a common 
 custom among the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
 yet not practised, but for certain causes expressed 
 in the laws, and with certain prescribed for- 
 malities. It was a sort of imitation of nature, 
 intended for the comfort of those who had no 
 children : wherefore he that was to adopt was to 
 have no children of his own, nor to be likely to 
 have children; yet eunuchs were not allowed 
 to adopt ; neither was it lawful for a young man 
 to adopt an elder, because that would have been 
 contrary to the order of nature. It was even re- 
 quired that the person who adopted should be 
 eighteen years older than his adopted son, that 
 there might at least appear a probability of his 
 being the natural father. 
 
 Among the Greeks it was called viorrig filia- 
 tion ; and was allowed to such as had no issue of 
 their own ; excepting those who were not their 
 own masters, e. g. slaves, women, madmen, in- 
 fants, or persons under twenty years of age. 
 Foreigners being incapable of inheriting at 
 Athens, if any were adopted, it was necessary 
 first to make them free of the city. The adopted 
 had his name enrolled in the tribe and ward of 
 his new father ; for which entry a peculiar time 
 was allotted, viz. the festival SapyrjXia. To pre- 
 vent rash and inconsiderate adoptions, the 
 Lacedaemonians insisted that adoptions should 
 be confirmed in the presence of their kings 
 Adopted children were invested with all the pri. 
 vileges, and were obliged to perform the duties 
 of natural children ; they ceased" to have any claim 
 of inheritance or kindred in the. family which 
 they had left, unless they first renounced their 
 adoption ; and by the laws ot Solon, they were 
 not allowed to do this, until they had children, 
 to bear the name of the person who had adopted 
 them : If they died without children, the inhe-
 
 ADO 1 
 
 ntance could not be alienated from the family 
 into which they had been adopted. It should 
 seem, that by the Athenian law, a person, after 
 having adopted another, was not allowed to 
 marry without permission from the magistrate : 
 in effect, there are instances of persons, who, 
 being ill used by their adoptive children, peti- 
 tioned for such leave. But it is certain some 
 men married after they had adopted sons : and 
 then their estates were equally shared between 
 the adopted, and the children, if any, of such 
 marriage. 
 
 The Romans had two forms of adoption ; one 
 before the praetor ; the other at an assembly of 
 the people, in the times of the commonwealth, 
 and afterwards by a rescript of the emperor. In 
 the former, the natural father addressed himself 
 to the pnetor, declaring that he emancipated his 
 son, resigned all his authority over him, and 
 consented he should be translated into the family 
 of the adopter. The latter was practised, where 
 the party to be adopted was already free ; and 
 this was called adrogation. The person adopted 
 changed all his names ; assuming the prename, 
 name, and suniame of the persons who adopted 
 him. Among the Turks, the ceremony of adop- 
 tion is performed by obliging the person adopted 
 to pass through the shirt of the adopter. Hence, 
 among that people, to adopt, is expressed by the 
 phrase, to draw another through one's shirt. Some- 
 thing like this was anciently observed among the 
 Hebrews ; as the prophet Elijah adopted Elisha 
 for his son and successor, and communicated to 
 him the gift of prophecy, by letting fall his cloak 
 or mantle on him. But adoption, properly so 
 called, does not appear to have been practised 
 among the ancient Jews : Moses says nothing of 
 it in his laws ; and Jacob's adoption of his two 
 grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, is not so 
 properly an adoption, as a kind of substitution, 
 whereby those two sons of Joseph were allotted 
 an equal portion in Israel with his own sons. 
 Besides the formalities prescribed by the Ro- 
 man law, various other methods have taken 
 place ; which have given denominations to dif- 
 ferent species of adoption, among the Gothic 
 nations, in different ages ; such as, 
 
 ADOPTION BY ARMS was when a prince made 
 a present of arms to a person, in consideration 
 of his merit and valour. Thus it was that the 
 king of the Ileruli was adopted by Theodoric. 
 The obligation here laid on the adoptive son 
 was, to protect and defend the father from inju- 
 ries, affronts, &c. And hence according to 
 Selden, the ceremony of dubbing knights took 
 its origin as well as name. 
 
 ADOPTION BY BAPTISM was introduced into 
 the Greek church, and came afterwards into use 
 among the ancient Franks. The god-father was 
 so far considered as the adoptive father, that his 
 god-children were supposed to be entitled to a 
 share, in the inheritance of his estate. The term 
 r.as sometimes been employed generally to the 
 spiritual affinity contracted between children and 
 their sponsors, in baptism. 
 
 ADOPTION BY HAIR was performed by cutting 
 off the hair of a person, and giving it to the 
 adoptive father. Pope John VIII. is said thus 
 to have adopted Boson, king of Aries. 
 
 19 ADO 
 
 ADOPTION BY MATRIMONY, is the taking the 
 children of a wife or husband by a former mar- 
 riage, into the condition of proper or natural 
 children ; and admitting them to inherit on the 
 same footing with those of the present marriage 
 This is a practice peculiar to the Germans; 
 among whom, it is more particularly known, by 
 the name of einkindschaft ; among their writers 
 in Latin, by that of unio prolium, or union of 
 issues. But the more accurate writers observe, 
 that this is no adoption. See ADFILIATION. 
 
 ADOPTION INTO HOSPITALS, is used for the 
 admission of persons into certain hospitals, par- 
 ticularly that of Lyons ; the administrators 
 whereof have all the power and rights of parents 
 over the children admitted. 
 
 ADOPTION OF ACADEMIES, is the reception 
 of a new academy into the body of an old one 
 Thus the French Academy of Marseilles was 
 adopted by that of Paris ; on which account, we 
 find a volume of speeches extant, made by 
 several members of the academy of Marseilles, 
 deputed to return thanks to that of Paris for the- 
 honour. 
 
 ADOPTIVE ARMS, are those which a person 
 enjoys by the gift or concession of another, and 
 to which he was not otherwise entitled. They 
 stand contradistinguished from arms of alliance. 
 ADOPTIVE GODS, were the gods of other 
 nations, adopted by the ancient Romans, and so 
 styled in contradistinction to domestic ones. They 
 were taken chiefly from the Egyptians : such as 
 Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Apis, Harpocrates, Cano- 
 pus, &c. 
 
 ADOPTIVE WOMEN, in ecclesiastical writers, 
 we find adoptive women, or sisters, (adoptive 
 feminte, or sorores,) used for those handmaids of 
 the ancient clergy, otherwise called sub intro- 
 ducte. 
 
 ADOR, aflop, in botany, a species of corn, 
 called also, Spelta and Zea. 
 
 ADORAIM, a city belonging to the tribe of 
 Judah, near Maresa, on the confines of Idumea. 
 It was taken by Hyrcanus, in his expedition into 
 Syria, to destroy the temple of the Samaritans 
 on Mount Gerezim. Joseph. Antiq. 
 
 ADORAT, in chemistry, a weight of four 
 pounds. 
 
 ADORATION, among the ancients, literally 
 signified, to apply the hand to the mouth ; Ma- 
 num ad os admovere, q. d. to kiss the hand: this 
 being, in the eastern countries, one of the great 
 marks of respect and submission. Nothing can 
 more plainly illustrate this primitive mode of 
 adoration than the protestation of Job, chap, 
 xxxi. 26, 27, ' If I beheld the sun when it shined, 
 or the moon walking in brightness, and my 
 mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were 
 iniquity.' In the Hebrew idiom, kissing, (from 
 such a upgge perhaps,) commonly signifies adora- 
 tion. 
 
 Herodotus considers the custom of kissing the 
 hand in adoration, to have been adopted by the 
 Greeks from the Persians : it certainly obtained 
 at an early period all over the East. 
 
 The Romans practised adoration at sacrifices, 
 and other solemnities ; in passing by their tem- 
 ples, altars, groves, &c. : at the sight of statues, 
 images, or the like, whether of stone or wood
 
 15U 
 
 ADO 
 
 whereiiany thing of divinity was supposed to 
 reside. Usually there were images of the gods 
 placed at the gates of cities, to remind those who 
 went in or out, of the homage due to them. 
 The Roman ceremony of adoration has been 
 thus described : The devotee having his head 
 covered, applied his right hand to his lips, the 
 fore finger resting on his thumb, which was 
 erect, and thus bowing his head, turned himself 
 round from left to right. The kiss given, was 
 called osculum labratum ; for ordinarily they were 
 afraid to touch the images of their gods them- 
 selves with their profane lips. Sometimes, how- 
 ever, they would kiss their feet, or even knees, 
 it being held an incivility to touch their mouths, 
 so that the adoration passed at some distance. 
 Saturn, however, and Hercules, were adored 
 with the head bare : whence the worship of 
 the last was called institution peregrinum, and 
 ritut Gracanicus, as departing from the cus- 
 tomary Roman method, which was to sacrifice 
 and adore with the face veiled, and the clothes 
 drawn round the head, to prevent any interruption 
 in the ceremony, from the sight of external objects. 
 
 The primitive Christians adopted the Grecian 
 rather than the Roman method, and adored 
 always uncovered. Their ordinary posture of 
 prayer was kneeling, but on Sundays standing ; 
 and a superstitious regard to praying towards 
 the east was introduced at an early period. 
 Hence some of their Pagan opponents alleged, 
 that they adored the sun. 
 
 STANDING was an early eastern attitude of 
 adoration; the body being inclined forward, 
 and the eyes cast down to the earth ; with the 
 hands probably resting on the knees. Thus Solo- 
 mon " stood before the altar of the Lord, in the 
 presence of all the congregation of Israel, and 
 spread forth his hands toward heaven, 1 Kings 
 viii. 22. This was a posture practised both by 
 the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 SITTING, with the under part of the thighs 
 resting on the heels, was an ancient Egyptian 
 practice of this kind ; and most, if not all, the 
 figures of Egyptian worshippers in their sacred 
 edifices, are represented in this attitude. See 
 also, 1 Chron. xvii. 16. 
 
 KNEELING, common in all ages and countries 
 as a posture of adoration, we need hardly enume- 
 rate. It seems naturally to import a person's 
 endeavouring to lessen his own self importance, 
 and his consciousness of intercourse with a 
 superior being. 
 
 PROSTRATION, or the casting down of the 
 whole person on the ground, accompanied some- 
 times by kissing the ground, ~was amongst the 
 Persians the common mode of expressing re- 
 verence for their kings. If the party admitted 
 to the royal presence, were a vanquished prince, 
 he kissed, according to Herbelot, the prints of 
 the horse-shoe of his conqueror, repeating this 
 formula : ' The mark that the foot of your horse 
 has left upon the dust, serves me now for a 
 crown. The ring, which I wear as the badge of 
 my slavery, is become my richest ornament. 
 While I have 'the happiness to kiss the dust of 
 your feet, I shall think that fortune favours me 
 with her tcnderest caresses, and her sweetest 
 kisses.' The Jewish commander, Joshua, thus 
 
 adored by prostration, Josh. vii. 6, 10., as did 
 Manoah and his wife, Judges xiii 20. David 
 and his princes, 1 Chron. xxi. 16. ; the prophets 
 frequently. Ezek. i. 28 ; iii. 23, &c. ; and Jesus 
 Christ himself, Matt. xxvi. 39. Amongst the 
 Romans, the sick were always directed to lie 
 down in the temple of TEsculapius. 
 
 Kissing the feet, walking bare-footed, and pull 
 ing off the shoes in a ceremonious way from the 
 feet, are other tokens of adoration practised both 
 in ancient and modern times. For the last, see 
 Exod. iii. 5. The Mahometans always observe 
 this practice when they enter their mosques ; 
 and travellers report that there are seen as many 
 slippers and sandals at the doors of an Indian 
 pagoda, as there are hats hanging up in our 
 churches. Mr. Wilkins mentions, upon his ex- 
 pressing a wish to enter the inner hall of the 
 college of seiks, at Patna, he was informed, " it 
 was a place of worship, and it was necessary for 
 him to take off his shoes." Kissing the feet is a 
 token of homage well known to be paid to the 
 pope, and said by some writers to have been 
 borrowed from a custom of the primitive church, 
 in which the bishops were thus honoured ; the 
 people exclaiming as they offered this mark of 
 respect, Trpoccvw, I adore thee. Others derive it 
 from a custom of the imperial court. His holiness 
 is said to wear a crucifix on his slipper, that 
 scrupulous consciences may transfer the homage 
 to Christ. It is recorded of Diocletian, that he 
 had gems affixed to his shoes, that the people 
 might the more readily offer him the honour of 
 adoration in this way. 
 
 The following curious account of the modes 
 of Hindoo adoration, which they call POOJA, 
 is given by Mr. Ward in his "View of the 
 history, literature, and religion of that people." 
 " Previously to entering on this act of 
 idolatry, the person bathes : returning home 
 he washes his feet, spreads a blanket, or some 
 other proper thing to sit upon, and then sits 
 down before the idol, having the articles neces- 
 sary for worship before him : a kosha or metal 
 bason, and a koshee, or smaller one; a small 
 wooden stand, a metal plate, an iron stand to 
 hold five lamps, a censer, a brass stand with a 
 small shell placed on it, a metal plate on which 
 to place flowers, a metal bowl into which the 
 water and flowers are thrown after they have been 
 presented to the idol, a metal jug for holding 
 water, a metal plate to be used as a bell ; a shell, 
 or sacred conch, which sounds like a horn ; with 
 a number of dishes, cups, and other utensils for 
 holding rice, paint, incense, betel, water, milk, 
 butter, curds, sweetmeats, flowers, clarified 
 butter, &c. Having all these articles ready, the 
 worshipper takes water from the kosha with the 
 koshee ; and, letting it fall into his hand, drinks 
 it ; he then takes a drop more, and then a drop 
 more, repeating incantations. After this, with 
 the finger and thumb of his right hand, he 
 touches his mouth, nose, eyes, ears, navel, breast, 
 shoulders, and the crown of his head, repeating 
 certain forms. He then washes his hands, makes 
 a number of motions with his fingers, and strikes 
 the earth with his left heel three times, repeating 
 incantations. When this is done, he flirts the 
 first finger and thumb of his right hand, waving
 
 ADO 
 
 his hand toward the ten divisions of the earth ; 
 closes his eyes, and repeats incantations to 
 purify his mind, his body, the place where he 
 sits, as well as the offerings about to be pre- 
 sented (which it is supposed may have become 
 unclean by having been seen or touched by a cat, 
 a dog, a shackal, a shoodru, or a Mussulman.) 
 Next, he takes a flower, which he lays on his left 
 hand, and putting his right hand upon it, re- 
 volves in his mind the form of the god he is wor- 
 shipping. He then lays the flower on his head, 
 recites the outward forms of worship in his 
 mind, and presents the offerings : first, a square 
 piece of gold or silver, as a seal for the god, in- 
 viting him to come and sit down, or visit him ; 
 and then, asking the god if he be happy, re- 
 peats for him " very happy." After this, he 
 presents water to wash the feet ; then rice, a 
 vilwu leaf, eight blades of doorva grass, paint, 
 and water, with incantations. He then presents 
 water to wash the mouth, curds, sugar, honey, 
 water to bathe in; then cloth, jewels, gold, 
 silver, ornaments, bedsteads, curtains, a bed, 
 pillow, cloth, printed cloth; clothes for men, 
 women, or children ; shoes, brass drinking cups, 
 candlesticks, and whatever would be proper 
 presents to the brahmuns, &c. &c. &c. At last 
 the person prostrates himself before the object of 
 worship, and then retires to feast on the offer- 
 ings with other brahmuns. This is a detail of 
 the form of worship on a large scale, at which 
 time it occupies the officiating brahmun two 
 hours." Vol. ii. p. 64, et seq. Ovo. 
 
 The reader will observe from the foregoing 
 historical collections, how various are, and have 
 been, the objects of human adoration. Every 
 gradation of respect and homage has been indi- 
 cated by it ; and its religious character is of 
 course to be estimated entirely by our views of 
 the being or object to whom it is addressed. 
 It can scarcely need to be added that the second 
 commandment seems expressly given to regulate 
 our views of this subject, and to warn all sincere 
 believers in Divine Revelation, of the guilt and 
 danger of transferring any of the honours of ' a 
 jealous God.' 
 
 ADORE', v. Ad : oro, from os, the 
 
 ADOR'ABLE, ^ mouth, properly to address 
 ADOR'ANT, f oral prayers, but used more 
 ADOUA'TION, generally, to acknowledge 
 ADORE'MENT, \ the existence and power of 
 ADOR'ER. the supreme Being ; to reve- 
 
 rence, with sentiments of awe and love ; to wor- 
 ship ; to invoke ; to supplicate ; to intreat. 
 With that my fader vincust stert on fute, 
 And to the goddis carpis to be our bute, 
 The haly sterne adorit he rycht thare, 
 Now, now, quod he, I tary no langare, 
 I follow, and quhidder ze gide me sail I wend. 
 Douglas, book ii. p. 62, JSneid. 
 And miche more execrable is it to serue or worship 
 the [images] with any rcuerent behauiour, ether by 
 adoracion, prostracion, knelyng, or kissing. 
 
 The Exposition of Daniel by Ceo. Joye, fol. 
 
 35. col. 2. 
 
 \ otum in the scriptures hath not one only sygnyfy- 
 cacyon, but many. Some where it is a knowledgyng 
 if Gods benefyghtes, some where a faythe in hys 
 proniyses, some whcr an adoracyon, a worshypp. 
 
 Bale's Apology, fol. 52, col. 1. 
 
 151 ADO 
 
 Dye rather, die, and dying doe her scrue, 
 Dying her serue, and liuing, her adore ; 
 Thy life shee gave, thy life she doth deserue : 
 Dye rather, die, than euer from her seruice swerue. 
 Spencer's Faerie Queene, 
 
 Rejoicing, but with awe, 
 
 In adoration at his feet I fell 
 Submiss. Milton's Paradise Lott. 
 
 The priests of elder times deluded their apprehen- 
 sions with soothsaying, and such oblique idolatries ; 
 and even their credulities to the literal and down- 
 right adorcment of cats, lizards, and beetles. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 The God of nature ordained from the beginning 
 that he should be worshipped in various and sundry 
 forms of adorations, which, nevertheless, like so many 
 lines, should tend all to the same centre. 
 
 Howell's Letters. 
 
 'Tis adoration, some say, makes the God, 
 And who would pay it, where would be their altars, 
 Were no inferior creatures ? 
 
 Dryden's Troilus and Cressida. 
 The mountain nymphs and Themis they adore, 
 And, from their oracles, relief implore. Dryden. 
 The people appear adoring their prince, and their 
 prince adoring God. Toiler^ No. 57. 
 
 Make future times thy equal act adore ; 
 And be, what brave Orestes was before. 
 
 Pope's Odyssey. 
 
 Whilst as th' approaching pageant does appear, 
 And echoing crowds speak mighty Venus near ; 
 I, her adorer too, devoutly stand, 
 Fast on the utmost margin of the land. Prior. 
 
 ADOREA, in Roman antiquity, grain, or a 
 kind of cakes made of fine flour, and offered in 
 sacrifice ; or a dole or distribution of corn, as a 
 reward for some service ; whence by metonymy 
 it is put for praise or rewards in general.. 
 
 ADORN', v. and n. ~) Ad : orno. Orno is of 
 ADORN'ING, adj. > doubtful origin. Vossius 
 ADORN'MENT. _) derives it from Gr. Qpa, 
 
 time in general or any specific period, as Spring. 
 In Greek authors, it also bears the signification 
 of beauty, maturity; and may be applied to 
 whatever is pleasing or agreeable. Wicklif uses 
 ourn ; to beautify, decorate, dress, or set off to 
 the best advantage ; to embellish. 
 
 Quham till this was the latter dulefull day, 
 With festuall flouris, and bewis as in May, 
 Did wele adorne, and feist and riot maid, 
 Throwout the toun, and for myscheif was glaid. 
 
 Douglas, b. ii. p. 47. 
 
 At his first settyng foote on land, the garter of 
 thorder was set and made faste aboute his [Philip of 
 Spain] legge, whiche was sent vnto hym by the quene, 
 richly adorned with precious iewelles. 
 
 Fabyan, p. 715, 
 
 The holie senate was adorned with olde prudent 
 persons : And not without teares I sale, it is at this 
 houre ful of iaglers and liers. The Golden Booke. 
 He hath lothed me with the garments of salva- 
 tion ; he hath covered me with the robe of righte- 
 ousness j as a bridegroom decketh himself with or- 
 naments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her 
 jewels. Isaiah, c. Ixi v. 16. 
 
 This attribute was not given to the earth, while it 
 was confused : nor to the heavens, before they had 
 motion and adornment. Raleigh's History of the World , 
 Her breast all naked, as net iuory, 
 Without adorne of gold or silver bright, 
 Wherewith the craftes-man -wonts it beautifie, 
 Of her dew honour, was despoyled quight. 
 
 Spencer's Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 12
 
 ADO 
 
 152 
 
 ADQ 
 
 She held the very garment of Postnumus in 
 more respect, than my noble and natural person, to- 
 gether with the adornment of my qualities. 
 
 Shakspeare's Cymbeline. 
 She'll to realities yield all her shows ; 
 Made so adorn, for thy delight the more. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Thousands there are, in darker fame that dwell, 
 Whose name some nobler poem shall adorn ; 
 For, though unknown to me they sure fought well. 
 
 Dryden. 
 How negligently graceful he [the noble Montague] 
 
 unreins 
 
 His verse, and writes in loose familiar strains ; 
 How Nassau's god-like acts adorn his lines'. 
 And all the hero in full glory shines ' 
 
 Addison's Account of the greatest English Poets, 
 Yet 'tis not to adorn and gild each part 
 That shews more cost than art ; 
 Jewels at nose and lips, but ill appear. 
 
 Cowley. 
 Let vanity adorn the marble tomb 
 
 With trophies, rimes, and scutcheons of renown ; 
 In the deep dungeon of some Gothic dome, 
 Where night and desolation ever frown. 
 
 Beattie. 
 
 The task of an author is, either to teach what is not 
 known, or to recommend known truths by his manner 
 of adorning them. Rambler. 
 
 ADOS, in chemistry, water in which red hot 
 iron has been cooled. 
 
 ADOSCULATION, in botany, a term that 
 has been used to express the impregnation of 
 plants by the falling of the farina foecundans on 
 the pistil. 
 
 ADOSSEE, probably from ad, to, and dorsa, 
 backs, in heraldry, two figures or bearings, 
 placed back to back. 
 ADOTED. See DOTE. 
 
 It falleth that the most wise 
 Ben other while of loue adoted. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. b. vi. 
 
 ADOUR, a river of France, which rises in 
 the mountains of Bigorre, in the upper Pyrenees, 
 and running N. by Tarbes through Gascony, 
 afterwards turns E., and passing by Dax, falls 
 into the bay of Biscay, about three miles below 
 Bayonne. 
 
 ADOUY, a market town of Hungary, in the 
 county palatine of Stuhlweissenburg, on the 
 Danube ; also the name of several small towns 
 in the counties of Bihar, Beregh, and Saboltsch, 
 
 ADOWA, a city of Abyssinia, the capital of the 
 province of Tigre, and residence of the sovereign; 
 situated partly on the side, and partly at the 
 foot of a hill, and commanding a magnificent 
 view of the adjacent mountains. The houses 
 are pretty regularly disposed into streets or al- 
 leys, and of a conical form, interspersed with 
 trees and small gardens. The population cannot 
 fall short of 8000. Here is a remarkable manu- 
 facture of cotton cloths, both coarse and fine, 
 but particularly the former, which are considered 
 to excel those made in any other part of Abys- 
 sinia, and which circulate like money. Adowa 
 is the principal commercial town E. of the Ta- 
 cazze, and the channel by which the commun- 
 cation between the coast and the interior is 
 almost exclusively carried on. The provinces to 
 the south abound in cattle and corn, which, with 
 
 salt, constitute their chief articles of barter. 
 About a thousand slaves pass through Adowa, to 
 be shipped at Massuah and other po-ts on the 
 Red Sea. A considerable number of Mahome- 
 tans are resident, and visitors here, and are the 
 only class of the population at all animated by 
 the spirit of trade. The inhabitants are more 
 civilized than is usual in Abyssinia. Long. 39, 
 5. E. Lat. 14, 12', 30". N. 
 
 ADOWN'WARD. \ See DowN ; 
 And stones adonwa f d slonge vp hem y nowe, 
 And myd speres and myd flon vaste of hem slowe, 
 And myd suerd and myd ax. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p 362. 
 
 Whan Phebus dwelled here in erth adoun, 
 As olde bookes maken mentioun, 
 He was the moste lusty bacheler. 
 Of all this world, and eke the best archer. 
 
 Chaucer. The Manciple'! Tale. 
 Thrice did she sink adown in deadly sound ; 
 And thrice he her revived, with busy pain. 
 
 Spencer's Faerie Queene. 
 In this remembrance, Emily, ere day 
 Arose, and dress'd herself in rich array j 
 Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair 
 Adown her shoulders fell her length of hair. 
 
 Dryden. 
 Her hair 
 
 Unty'd, and ignorant of artful aid, 
 Adown her shoulders loosely lay display'd, 
 And in the jetty curls ten thousand cupids play'd. 
 Prior's Solomon. 
 
 Adown Augusta's pallid visage flow 
 The living pearls with unaffected woe. 
 Discons'late, hapless, see pale Britain mourn, 
 Abandon'd isle ! forsaken and forlorn ! 
 
 Falconer's Ode on the Duke of York. 
 ADOXA, tuberous moschatel, hollow-root, or 
 inglorious; in botany, a genus of the tetra- 
 gynia order, belonging to the octandria class of 
 plants ; and in the natural method ranking under 
 the thirteenth order, succulentae. 
 
 The characters of this genus are : CAL. a peri- 
 anthium beneath, divided into two segments, 
 flat, persistent: COR. composed of one flat 
 petal, divided into four ovate acute segments 
 longer than the calyx : STAM. eight subulated 
 filaments the length of the calyx ; with roundish 
 antherae : PIST. has a germen beneath the recep- 
 tacle of the corolla ; four simple, erect, persistent 
 styli, the length of the stamina; and simple 
 stigmata : PER. a globular four-celled berry be- 
 tween the calyx and corolla. The seeds solitary 
 and compressed. There is but one species, 
 which is a native of the woods in Britain, and 
 Europe. 
 
 ADPERCEPTION, in metaphysics, a term 
 used by Leibnitz, to denote the act whereby the 
 mind becomes conscious to itself of a perception. 
 AD PONDUS OMNIUM, to the weight of 
 the whole; an abbreviation among physicians, 
 signifying, that the last prescribed ingredient is 
 to weigh as much as all the others put together. 
 AD QUOD DAMNUM, in the English law, 
 a writ directed to the sheriff, commanding him to 
 enquire into the damage which may befal the 
 king, or other person, by granting certain privi- 
 leges to a place, such as a fair, a market, or tl> 
 like ; or by granting lands in fee-simple to a 
 body politic ; or by turning or changing high
 
 ADR 
 
 153 
 
 ADR 
 
 ways ; in which cases, the party aggrieved may 
 complain to the justices, at next quarter session; 
 failing which complaint, the inquisition is re- 
 corded and becomes binding. 
 
 ADRA, a district and sea-port town of Gra- 
 nada in Spain, 45 miles S.E. of Granada, and 
 22 S.W. of Almeira. It was formerly called 
 ABDARA, which see. Long. 3, 10' W. Lat. 
 36, 4' N. The river also on which it stands 
 bears this name. 
 
 ADRACHNE, in botany, a species of the 
 strawberry-tree, which grows plentifully in the 
 island of Candy. See ARBUTUS. 
 
 ADRACLA, another name for the preceding 
 shrub. 
 
 ADRAGANTH, in medicine, gum dragon. It 
 distils by incision, from the trunk or roots of a 
 plant which grows in the Levant. The gum is 
 of different colours, white, red, grey, and black, 
 and is useful in medicine. Skinners use great 
 quantities of it in preparing their leather, and 
 prefer the red and black. It is the astragalus 
 tragacanthus of Linnaeus. 
 
 ADRAMIRE, or ADRHAMIRE, in law, to 
 oblige one's self, before a magistrate, to do a 
 thing. Bailey. 
 
 ADRAMMELECH, frnms, of -flit, great- 
 ness, or nT!K> a cloak, and ^Q, a king, Heb. 
 i. e. the king's greatness, or cloak, an idol of the 
 Assyrians, sometimes represented by the figure 
 of a peacock, sometimes by that of a mule, to 
 whom they sacrificed their children, by fire, in 
 the most cruel manner. See MOLOCH. Also 
 the name of one of the sons of Sennacherib, king 
 of Assyria. 
 
 ADRAMYTTENUS CONVENTUS, assizes 
 or sessions, held at Adramyttium, being the 
 eighth in order of the nine Conventus Juridici of 
 the province of Asia. 
 
 ADRAMYTTENUS SINUS, in ancient geography, 
 a part of the Egean Sea, on the coast of Mysia. 
 
 ADRAMYTTIUM, in ancient geography, 
 now Adramiti ; a town of Mysia Major, at the 
 foot of Mount Ida. It was an Athenian colony, 
 with a harbour and dock near the Caicus. Strabo, 
 1. xiii. 
 
 ADRAMYTTIUM, a city on the N. coast of Africa, 
 westward of Egypt. 
 
 ADRANA, a river of Germany ; now the 
 Eder, rising on the borders of the country of 
 Nassau, to the north-east of Dillenburg, and 
 running through tire landgraviate of Hesse into 
 the Fulda. See EDER. 
 
 ADRANIT^E, or HADRANITANI, the inhabi- 
 tants of Adranum. 
 
 ADRANUM, or HADRANUM, in ancient geo- 
 graphy, now Aderno ; a town of Sicily, built by 
 the elder Dionysius, at the foot of mount /Etna, 
 400 years before Christ, and so called from the 
 temple of ADRANUS. which see. 
 
 ADRANUS, or HADRANUS, an idol wor- 
 shipped by the ancient Sicilians. 
 
 ADRANUS, a river of Sicily, now called Fiume 
 d' Aderno. 
 
 ADRASTEA, in antiquity, a name given to 
 Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, or the punisher 
 of injustice. The Egyptians placed her above 
 the moon, that she might the more easily observe 
 human actions. King Adrastus fiist erected a 
 
 temple to this goddess, and some suppose gave 
 her this name. 
 
 ADRASTIA CERTAMINA, in antiquity, pub- 
 lic games, instituted by Adrastus king of Argos, 
 at Sicyon, A. M. 2700, in honour of Apollo. 
 
 ADRASTIA, in botany, a name given by De 
 Candolle, to a plant of New Holland, called also 
 oceana, of the class decandria, order digynia. 
 Natural order, magnolia, according to Jussieu. 
 
 Its characters are, CAL. inferior, of five per- 
 manent pointed leaves. PET, five oval, shorter 
 than the calyx. STAM. filaments flat, anthers 
 linear, of two cells. PIST. Germens two, glo- 
 bose. Styles straight and close together, awl- 
 shaped. Seed solitary. 
 
 ADRASTUS, king of Argos, son of Talaus 
 and Lysimache, acquired great honour in the fa- 
 mous war of Thebes, in support of Polynices his 
 son-in-law, who had been excluded the sove- 
 reignty of Thebes by Eteocles his brother. Adras- 
 tus, followed by Polynices and Tydeus anothei 
 son-in-law, Capaneus, Hippomedon his sister's 
 son, Amphiaraus his brother-in-law, and Par- 
 thenopaeus, marched against the city of Thebes ; 
 and this is the expedition of the Seven Worthies, 
 which the poets have so often sung. All seven of 
 them lost their lives in this war except Adrastus, 
 who was saved by his horse called Arion. The 
 war was revived ten years after, by the sons of 
 the deceased warriors, and called the war of the 
 Epigones, which ended with the taking of Thebes. 
 In this contest fell ^Egialeus, son of Adrastus ; 
 which afflicted him so much that he died of 
 grief. Also a Phrygian prince, who fled to the 
 court of Cro3sus, and being made guardian to his 
 son Atys, inadvertently slew him while hunting, 
 and afterwards killed himself. Herod, i. 35. 
 
 ADRAZZO, the same with ADJAZZO, or 
 AJACCIO. 
 
 ADREAD'. See DREAD. 
 
 Ther n'as baillif, ne herde, ne other bine, 
 That he ne knew his sleight and his covine : 
 They were adradde of him, as of the deth. 
 
 Chaucer. The Prologue. The Reve, 
 And on that o side of the towne 
 The kynge let make Ilion, 
 That high toure, that stronge place 
 Which was adrad of no manace 
 Of quarele, nor of none engyne. 
 
 Gower Con. A. b. v. 
 
 ADRETS, (Francis de Beaumont, baron des,) 
 one of the chiefs of the Huguenots in France, 
 who in 1562, signalised himself by many brave 
 exploits, tarnished, however, by detestable cruel- 
 ties. At some places he obliged his prisoners 
 to throw themselves from the battlements, upon 
 the pikes of his soldiers. When reproaching one 
 of them for shrinking back twice from the fatal 
 leap. " Sir, (replied the man,) I defy you, with 
 all your bravery, to take it in three leaps." This 
 witticism saved the soldier's life. After the peace 
 the baron turned Catholic, and died deservedly 
 hated in 1587. A son of his was concerned in 
 the massacre of Paris. Nouv. Diet. Hist. 
 
 ADRIA, an episcopal town in Italy, situated 
 on a peninsula formed by the river Tartaro and 
 an arm of the Po, in that part of the Venetian 
 territory called the Polesino di Rovigo, now 
 belonging to Austria. This once flourishing 
 town, the Atria of Pliny and Ptolemy, and the
 
 ADR 
 
 154 
 
 ADR 
 
 Adrias of Strabo ; and which gave name to the 
 Adriatic sea, is now greatly decayed, and has 
 not above 7200 inhabitants. 15 miles E. of 
 Ilovigo. Long. 12, 2' E. Lat 45, 2' N. 
 
 ADRIAMPATAM, a town on the coast of 
 Tanjore, Hindostan, 37 miles S. by E. of Tanjore. 
 N.Lat. 10, 20'. E. Long. 79, 30'. 
 
 ADRIAN, or HADRIAN, PUBLIUS vELius, 
 the fifteenth emperor of Rome. He was born 
 at Rome, A. D. 76, and left an orphan, at ten 
 years of age, under the guardianship of Trajan, 
 and Ccelius Tatianus, a Roman knight. He be- 
 gan to serve very early in the armies, was tribune 
 of a legion before the death of Domitian, and 
 was chosen by the army, to carry the news of 
 Nerva's death to Trajan, his successor. He ac- 
 companied Trajan in most of his expeditions, 
 distinguished himself in the second war against 
 theDacii,and was successively appointed quaestor, 
 tribune of the people, praetor, governor of Pan- 
 nonia, consul, and governor of Syria. After the 
 siege of Atra was raised, Trajan left him the 
 command of the army, and when he found death 
 approaching, adopted him. Adrian, who was 
 then in Antioch, as soon as he heard of Trajan's 
 death, declared himself emperor, A. D. 117, 
 made peace with the Persians, and from genero- 
 sity or policy, remitted the debts of the Roman 
 people, which, according to the calculation of 
 those who have reduced them to modern money, 
 amounted to 22,500,000 golden crowns : and 
 that the people might be under no apprehension 
 of being called to an account for them after- 
 wards, burnt all the bonds and obligations relat- 
 ing to those debts. There are medals still extant, 
 in commemoration of this fact, in which he is 
 represented holding a flambeau in his hand, 
 setting fire to the bonds. He visited all the 
 provinces, and did not return to Rome till the 
 year 118, when the senate decreed him a 
 triumph, a'nd honoured him with the title of 
 Father of his country ; but he refused both, and 
 desired that Trajan's image might triumph. No 
 prince travelled more than Adrian ; there being 
 hardly a province in the empire, which he did 
 not visit. In 120 he went into Gaul ; from 
 thence to Britain, in order to subdue the Cale- 
 donians, who were making continual inroads 
 into the provinces. Upon his arrival, they re- 
 tired towards the north : when he advanced as 
 far as York, but was diverted from his intended 
 conquest by the description which some soldiers, 
 who had served under Agricola, gave him of the 
 country. In hopes, therefore, of keeping them 
 quiet, by enlarging their bounds, he delivered 
 up to the Caledonians, all the lands lying be- 
 tween the two Friths and the Tyne ; and at the 
 same time, to secure the Roman province from 
 their future incursions, built the famous wall 
 which still bears his name. See ADRIAN'S 
 WALL. Having thus settled matters in Britain, 
 he returned to Rome, where he was honoured 
 with the title of Restorer of Britain, as appears 
 by some medals. Adrian soon after went into 
 Spain, to Mauritania, and at length into the 
 East, wheie he quieted the commotions raised 
 by the Parthians. Having visited all the pro- 
 vinces of Asia, he returned to Athens, in 125 
 where he was initiated in the myste-ies of 
 
 Eleusinian Ceres. From thence he went to 
 Sicily, to view the phenomena of Mount ^Etna, 
 and enjoy the extensive prospect from its top. 
 He returned to Rome in 129 ; and again visited 
 Africa and the East ; was in Egypt in 132, revi- 
 sited Syria, in 133, returned to Athens in 134, 
 and to Rome in 135. The persecution against 
 the Christians was very violent under his reign ; 
 but it was at length suspended, in consequence 
 of the remonstrances of Quadratus, bishop of 
 Athens, and Aristides, two Christian philoso- 
 phers, who presented the emperor with some 
 books in favour of the Christian religion. He 
 conquered the Jews; and, by way of insult, 
 erected a temple to Jupiter on Calvary, placed 
 a statue of Adonis in Bethlehem, and caused 
 images of swine to be engraven on the gates of 
 Jerusalem. At last he was seized with a dropsy, 
 of which he died at Baiae, in the sixty-third year 
 of his age, and the twenty-first of his reign. The 
 Latin verses he addressed to his soul, not long 
 before he breathed his last, are a fine instance 
 of self-possession at such a moment, 
 Animula, vagula, blandula, 
 Hospes, comesque corporis, 
 Quse nunc abibis in loca 
 Pallidula, rigida, nudula? 
 Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos. 
 
 Thus given by Pope, and probably supplying to 
 him some of the finest thoughts of his celebrated 
 Ode. 
 
 Ah ! fleeting spirit ! wandering fire, 
 
 That long has warmed my tender breast, 
 Must thou no more this frame inspire ? 
 No more a pleasing, cheerful guest ! 
 Whither, ah ! whither art thou flying ? 
 
 To what dark undiscovered shore ? 
 Thou seem'st all trembling, shiv'ring, dying, 
 
 And wit and humour are no more ! 
 There are some fragments of other Latin 
 poems of his extant, and some of his Greek 
 verses in the Anthology. He also wrote the his- 
 tory of his own life : to which, however, he did 
 not put his name, but that of Phlegon, one of his 
 freed-men. He had great wit, and an extensive 
 memory ; and understood the sciences, but was 
 jealous of others who excelled in them. One of 
 the friends of Favorinus asked the latter, who 
 knew the emperor's foible, why he improperly 
 yielded to Adrian in an argument : " Wouldst 
 thou not have me yield to the master of thirty 
 legions ? " he replied. He was also cruel, en- 
 vious, and lascivious. Antoninus his successor 
 obtained his apotheosis ; and prevented the re- 
 scission of his acts, which the senate once in- 
 tended. 
 
 ADRIAN, the African, abbot of St. Peter's, Can- 
 terbury, in die 7th century, accompanied Theo- 
 dore, archbishop of Canterbury to England. 
 The united efforts of these learned ecclesiastics, 
 diffused no small degree of light over this dark 
 period of Anglo-Saxon history. Adrian was 
 the preceptor of Aldhelm, and Bede extols the 
 happy time when the island enjoyed his tuition : 
 and Kent " was the fountain of knowledge to 
 the rest of England." 
 
 Turner s Anglo-Saxons, v. ii. 381. 
 
 ADRIAN IV. (Pope) the only Englishman 
 
 who ever had the honour of sitting in the papal 
 
 chair. His name was Nicholas Brekespere ; and
 
 ADR 
 
 155 
 
 ADR 
 
 ni 
 
 I 
 
 he was bora at Langley, near St. Alban's, in 
 Hertfordshire. His father having taken the ha- 
 bit of the monastery of St. Alban's, Nicholas was 
 obliged to submit to the lowest offices in that 
 house, for daily support. He desired to take 
 the habit of the monastery, but being rejected 
 by the abbot, resolved to try his fortune in 
 Paris, where, though very poor, he applied 
 himself to his studies with great assiduity, 
 ut having still a strong inclination .to a reli- 
 ious life, he left Paris, and removed to Provence, 
 here he became a regular clerk in the monastery 
 of St. Rufus. Here, after some time, he recom- 
 mended himself to the monks by a strict attention 
 to their concerns ; which, with the beauty of his 
 person, and his prudent conversation, rendered 
 him so acceptable an inmate, that they entreated 
 him to take the canonical habit. He now dis- 
 tinguished himself by his learning and strict ob- 
 servance of the monastic discipline ; and upon 
 the death of the abbot, was chosen superior of 
 the house. Pope Eugenius III. being apprised 
 in 1 146 of the great merit of Nicholas, and think- 
 ing he might be serviceable to the church in a 
 higher station, created him cardinal bishop of 
 Alba, and in 1148, sent him legate to Denmark 
 and Norway; where, by his fervent preaching, 
 ne is said to have converted those nations to the 
 Christian faith ; and erected Upsal into an ar- 
 chiepiscopal see. Upon his return to Rome, he 
 was received with great marks of distinction ; and 
 on the death of Pope Anastasius, who had suc- 
 ceeded Eugenius, was in 1154, unanimously 
 chosen to the papal chair, when he took the 
 name of Adrian. 
 
 The news of his election reaching England, 
 Henry II. sent Robert, abbot of St. Alban's, and 
 three bishops, to Rome, with congratulations ; 
 upon which occasion Adrian granted large privi- 
 leges to the monastery of St. Alban's, particularly 
 an exemption from all episcopal jurisdiction, ex- 
 cepting to the see of Rome. In the beginning 
 of his pontificate, he withstood the attempts of 
 the Romans to recover their ancient liberty under 
 the consuls, and obliged those magistrates to 
 leave the government of the city to the Pope. 
 In 1155, he drove Arnaud of Brescia, and his 
 followers, out of Rome, excommunicated William 
 king of Sicily, who had ravaged the territories 
 of the church, and absolved his subjects from 
 their allegiance. About this time, Frederic king 
 of the Romans, having entered Italy with a 
 powerful army, Adrian met him near Sutrium, 
 and concluded a peace. At their interview, 
 Frederic consented to hold the Pope's stirrup, 
 whilst he mounted on horseback : after which 
 his holiness conducted that prince to Rome, and 
 in St. Peter's church placed the imperial crown 
 on his head, to the great mortification of the Ro- 
 mans. The next year a reconciliation was 
 brought about between the Pope and the Sicilian 
 king, that prince taking an oath to do nothing 
 farther to the prejudice of the church, and 
 Adrian granting him the title of king of the tu-o 
 Sicilies. This pontiff built and fortified several 
 castles, and left the papal dominions and papal 
 domination considerably improved and in- 
 creased. But notwithstanding all his prosperity 
 ne is said to have been extremely sensible of the 
 
 disquietudes of his high station ; and declared 
 to his countryman, John of Salisbury, that all the 
 former hardships of his life were mere amuse, 
 ment to the perplexities of the popedom : that 
 he looked upon St. Peter's chair to be the most 
 uneasy seat in the world ; and that he constantly 
 felt as if his crown were burning his temples. 
 Some writings, which remain in MS. are attri- 
 buted to this pope, and various letters and homi- 
 lies. His letter of licence to Henry II. to con- 
 quer Ireland, is in Wilkin's Concil. Britan. ; and 
 the treaty of peace which so concerns the Sicilian 
 monarchy, may be seen in Baronius' Annals. 
 Adrian's death is, by some writers, attributed to 
 poison ; but is more generally said to have been 
 occasioned by a fly settling accidentally in his 
 throat, and suffocating him. He died in 1 156, in 
 the fifth year of his pontificate ; and was buried 
 in St. Peter's church. 
 
 ADRIAN VI. (Pope,) was born at Utrecht, in 
 1459. His father was not able to maintain him 
 at school, but entered him at Louvain, in a 
 college in which a certain number of scholars 
 were maintained gratis. It is reported that he 
 used to read in the night by the light of the 
 lamps in the churches or streets. He made a 
 considerable progress in all the sciences ; led an 
 exemplary life ; and never was a man who rose 
 to eminence, less intriguing. He took his degree 
 of D. D. at Louvain ; was soon after made canon 
 of St. Peter's, and professor of divinity at 
 Utrecht, and then dean of St. Peter's and vice- 
 chancellor of the university. His academical 
 life he resigned to become tutor to the then 
 archduke Charles V. who, however, made no 
 great progress under him : but never was a tutor 
 more gratefully remembered ; for by Charles's 
 influence Adrian was raised to the papal throne. 
 Leo X. had given him the cardinal's hat in 
 1517. After this pope's death, several cabals in 
 the conclave ended in the election of Adrian; 
 and though many popes have been more popular 
 at Rome, few have been so liberal, and so truly 
 conscientious. He would not change his name, 
 and in every thing shewed a great dislike for osten- 
 tation and sensual pleasure; lamented much 
 the inconsistencies of the clergy, and the want 
 of reformation in the church. Having written 
 in early life against the infallibility of the holy 
 see, he reprinted his work without alteration, 
 when pope ; and is said steadily to have resisted 
 various persecuting measures to which he was 
 advised against the Lutherans. He died in 
 1523. 
 
 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO, a cardinal priest, was 
 a native of Cornetto in Tuscany. Innocent VIII. 
 sent him nuncio into Scotland and France ; and 
 after he had been clerk and treasurer of the apos- 
 tolic chamber, pope Alexander VI. whose secre- 
 tary he had been, honoured him with the cardi- 
 nal's hat. His life was a continued scene of odd 
 incidents. He narrowly escaped death the day 
 Alexander VI. poisoned himself by mistake ; 
 that pontiff and his son having, in fact, mingled 
 a poisonous potion for Adrian, which they them- 
 selves drank. Afterwards he incurred the hatred 
 of Julius II. so that he was obliged to hide him- 
 self in the mountains of Trent. Having been 
 recalled by Leo X. he was so ungrateful, that he
 
 ADR 
 
 156 
 
 ADR 
 
 engaged in a conspiracy against him ; which 
 Leo detecting, Adrian was amerced in a fine of 
 12,500 ducats, and forbidden to quit the papal 
 territory. This order, however, he disobeyed, 
 and all his ecclesiastical honours and preferments 
 were, in consequence, taken from him by public 
 sentence. Whither he fled has never been with 
 certainty ascertained. Castello was one of the 
 first that effectually reformed the Latin style. 
 He studied Cicero with great success, and made 
 many excellent observations on the Roman 
 tongue, in his treatise De Sermone Latino. He 
 had begun a Latin translation of the Old Testa- 
 ment : and wrote a treatise De vera philosophia, 
 which was printed at Cologne, in 1548. 
 
 ADRIAN, ST. the name of several towns in the 
 Netherlands ; one three miles N. E. of Bruges, 
 another ten miles S. E. of Ghent, &c. 
 
 ADRIANI, (Joanni Battista,) was born of a 
 patrician family at Florence, in 1511. He wrote 
 a History of his own Times in Italian ; which is 
 a continuation of Guicciardini, from 1536; and fu- 
 neral orations on the Emperor CharlesV. and other 
 noble personages. He died at Florence in 1579. 
 
 ADRIANISTS, in ecclesiastical history, dis- 
 ciples of Simon Magus, who flourished about 
 the year 34. Theodoret is the only person who 
 has preserved their name and memory ; but he 
 gives us no account of their origin. Probably 
 this sect, and the others which sprung from the 
 Simonians, took their names from the particular 
 disciples of Simon. Also followers of Adrian 
 Hampstead, an anabaptist, who taught in Eng- 
 land and Zealand in the 16th century ; and held 
 some particular opinions respecting the person 
 of Christ. 
 
 ADRIANNA, a town in the province of Gu- 
 jerat, much molested by the robbers of Ma'llia, 
 and frequently deserted on that account, though 
 containing upwards of 1000 houses. It is nomi- 
 nally subject to the Coolies of Jhingwarra, and 
 is distant from that place about eight miles, but 
 owes its present existence to the protection of 
 the British. 
 
 ADRIANO A SIERRA, or mountain of Adriano, 
 in Guipuscoa, a subdivision of the province of 
 Biscay, in Spain. There is a road over it to 
 Old Castile, which is difficult of access. At the 
 beginning is a dark path of 40 or 50 paces cut 
 through a rock. This mountain is one of the 
 highest of the Pyrenees. 
 
 ADRIANOPLE, ADRANAH, or EDRENEH, a 
 city of Turkey in Europe, in the province of 
 Romania, and the see of an archbishop under 
 the patriarch of Constantinople, from which it is 
 distant 130 miles N. W. It is about eight miles 
 in circumference, including the old city and 
 some gardens. The houses are low, mostly 
 built of mud and clay, and some of brick : and 
 the streets exceedingly dirty. Here is a beauti- 
 ful bazaar, or market, half a mile long, called 
 AH Bassa, having six gates, and 365 well fur- 
 nished shops; and another, about a mile in 
 length, also full of shops, which contain all 
 kinds of commodities. Gold and silver articles, 
 jewels, pistols, scimetars, &c. are sold in another 
 parts of the city, in the Bizestein, differing little 
 from a bazaar. This contains about 200 shops. 
 The number of inhabitants of all nations and re- 
 
 ligions may be about 100,000. The air is whole- 
 some, and the country very pleasant in the sum- 
 mer time, on account of the rivers and streams 
 that run near the city ; the chief of which is the 
 Marizza, which is navigable to the Archipelago. 
 These promote and preserve the verdure of the 
 gardens, meadows, and fields, for a considerable 
 part of the year. In winter there is plenty of 
 game : and wine and fine fruits are large articles 
 of commerce. Sultan Selim's mosque is a noble 
 building in the centre of the city, and to be seen 
 on all sides of it. The grand vizier's palace is 
 nothing more than a convenient house, built 
 after the Turkish manner. The emperor's 
 seraglio is a regular structure, in a plain near the 
 river Tungia. It is two miles in compass, and 
 has seven gates, besides those of the gardens, 
 which are several miles in circumference. The 
 city is governed by a mullah cadi, who has an 
 absolute authority both in civil and criminal 
 matters. In the time of the plague, or war, the 
 grand seignior frequently resides here. The 
 Turks took this city from the Greeks in 1362, 
 and made it the capital of the empire till Ma- 
 homet II. took Constantinople, in 1453. It 
 suffered considerably by fires in 1754, and 1778. 
 Lon. 26, 27' E. Lat. 41, 45' N. 
 
 ADRIANOTHERA, in ancient geography a city 
 of Mysia, originally founded by Adrian in a 
 district whither he resorted for the pleasures of 
 the chace. It is the Adriani, probably, where 
 Aristides the sophist was born. See Dion. Cuss. 
 torn. ii. ed. Keim. 
 
 ADRIAN'S WALL, a celebrated Roman work 
 in the North of England. This work, though 
 called by the Roman historians mums, which 
 signifies a wall of stone, was only composed of 
 earth covered with green turf. It was carried 
 from the Solway Frith, a little west of the village 
 of Burgh on the Sands, in as direct a line as 
 possible, to the river Tyne on the east, at the 
 place where the town of Newcastle now stands : 
 so that it must have been above 60 English, and 
 near 70 Roman miles in length. It consisted of 
 four parts : 1 . The principal agger, mound of 
 earth, or rampart, on the brink of the ditch. 
 
 2. The ditch on the north side of the rampart. 
 
 3. Another rampart on the south side of the 
 principal one, about five paces distant from it. 
 
 4. A large rampart on the north side of the 
 ditch This last was probably the military way 
 to the line of forts on this work. The south 
 rampart might serve for an inner defence in 
 case the enemy should beat them from any 
 part of the principal rampart, or it might be de- 
 signed to protect the soldiers from any sudden 
 attack of the provincial Britons. For many 
 ages, this work hath been in so ruinous a con- 
 dition, that it is impossible to discover its origi- 
 nal dimensions with certainty. But from theii 
 appearance, it seems probable that the principal 
 rampart was at least ten or twelve feet high, and 
 the south one not much less ; but the north one 
 was considerably lower. The ditch taken as it 
 passes through a lime-stone quarry near Harlow 
 hill, appears to have been nine feet deep, and 
 eleven wide at the top, but somewhat narrower 
 at the bottom. The north rampart was about 
 twenty feet distant from the ditch.
 
 ADR 
 
 157 
 
 ADU 
 
 ADRIANSEN, (A.) a Flemish painter of con- 
 siderable celeority in fruits, flowers, and fish. 
 He was born at Antwerp, in 1625. Pilkington. 
 ADRIANUM, or ADRIATICUM MARE, the 
 Adriatic sea, in ancient geography, now- the gulf 
 of Venice, a large bay in the Mediterranean, 
 between Dalmatia, Sclavonia, Greece, and Italy. 
 It is called by the Greeks Afyiae Ko\7roc; and 
 idria by the Romans, at Arbiter Adriee notus, 
 lor. Cicero calls it Hadrianwn Mare ; Virgil 
 Hadriacas Undas. It is commonly called 
 Mare Adriaticum, without an aspiration ; but 
 whether it ought to have one, is a dispute : if the 
 appellation is from Hadria, the town of the 
 Piceni, it must be written Hadriaticum, because 
 the emperor's name, who thence derives his 
 origin, is on coins and stones Hadrianus ; but if 
 from the town in the territory of Venice, as 
 more ancient, and of which that of the Piceni is 
 a colony, this will justify the common appellation 
 Adriaticum. 
 
 ADRIATIC SEA. See last article, and 
 VENICE, GULF OF. 
 
 ADRIETARE, or ADRECTARE, in law, to 
 satisfy ; to make amends , or set right. 
 
 ADRIFT.' Ang. Sax. drifan, adrifan, to 
 drive : part, past, adrifted, adrift. 
 
 And quhat aventure has the hidder driffe ? 
 
 Douglas, b. iii. p. 79. 
 Then shall this mount 
 Of Paradise, by might of waves, be moved 
 Out of his place ; push'd by the horned flood 
 (With all his verdure spoil'd, and trees adrift, ~) 
 Down the great river, to the opening gulf ; 
 And there take root. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 Be put alone into a boat, 
 With bread and water only for three days j 
 So on the sea she shall be set adrift, 
 And who relieves her, dies. 
 
 Dryden's Marriage H la Mode. 
 It seem'd a corpse adrift, to distant sight ; 
 But, at a distance, who could judge aright. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Having fallen in with a reef of rocks in their re- 
 turn to the ship, they had been obliged to cut Mr. 
 Banks 's little boat adrift. Cook's Voyages. 
 
 ADRIUNE, in botany, the Arabian name for 
 the plant called Cyclamen, or sow-bread. 
 
 ADROBOLON, in chemistry, the Indian 
 bdellium. 
 
 ADROGATION, in Roman antiquity, a spe- 
 cies of adoption, whereby a person who was 
 capable of choosing for himself was admitted by 
 another into the relation of a son. The word is 
 compounded of ad, 16, and rogare, to ask ; on 
 account of a question put in the ceremony of 
 it, Whether the adopter would take such a 
 person for his son? and another to the adoptive, 
 Vhether he consented to become such a person's 
 *on? 
 
 ADROIT adj. ^ Directus, Lat. Dritto, Ital. 
 
 ADROIT'LY, \ Adroit, Fr. applied to one 
 
 ADROIT'NESS. 3 who aims directly at his 
 
 mark, and hits it; right-handed; dexterous, 
 
 opposed to clumsy : used of both bodily and 
 
 mental cleverness. 
 
 An adroit stout fellow, would sometimes destroy 
 a whole family, with justice apparently against him 
 tLe whole time. Don Quixote. 
 
 The stoic and the libertine, the sinner and the 
 saint, are equally adroit in the application of *he 
 telescope and the quadrant. Horsley's Sermons. 
 
 The skill and adroitness of the artist, acquired, as 
 yours has been, by repeated acts, and continual 
 practice. Home. 
 
 ADROP, among alchemists, denotes either 
 that precise matter, as lead, out of which the 
 mercury is to be extracted for the philosopher's 
 stone ; or the philosopher's stone itself, which is 
 also called saturn, and plumbum, or lead, azar, 
 azane, and lapis ipse. 
 
 ADROTERON. See ALICA. 
 
 ADRUMETUM, or HADRUMETUM, in ancient 
 geography, a town of Africa, the capital of 
 Byzacium. It is variously called in ancient 
 authors, Adrume, Adrumetus, or Adrumettus ; 
 Adrymettus, Hertius, and Hadrito. It was the 
 Justiniana of the middle empire, and the Heraclea 
 of the lower. According to Sallust, it was 
 founded by the Phoenicians, and derived its 
 name from two Phoenician words, signifying the 
 country that yielded a hundred-fold. It was a 
 fortified city in the third year of the 117 olym- 
 piad. Diod. Sic. 
 
 ADRY/ See DRY. 
 
 He never told any of them, that he was his hum- 
 ble servant, but his well-wisher ; and would rather 
 be thought a malcontent, than drink the king's 
 health when he was not adry. Spectator. 
 
 ADSCITITIOUS. Ad : and sciscere, scitus, 
 to call for ; to admit ; to associate ; hence, taken; 
 assumed to answer a purpose ; counterfeit. 
 
 All which are additional labour, and take up much 
 room in discourses and books, and are performed by 
 different authors, upon different subjects, and in dif- 
 ferent kinds of writing, with an infinite variety of 
 methods and forms, according to men's different 
 views and capacities ; and many times not without a 
 necessity of some condescensions, adscititiout advan- 
 tages, and even applications to the passions. 
 
 Wottaston's Religion of Nature. 
 
 You apply to your hypothesis of an adscititioiu 
 spirit what he, [Philo,] says concerning this irtrtpa 
 SeTov, divine spirit or soul, infused into man by God's 
 breathing. Clarke's Letter to Dodwett. 
 
 ADSCRIPTS, or ADSCRIPTA, a term used by 
 some mathematicians, for the natural tangents, 
 called also, by Vieta, prosifies. 
 
 ADSIDELLA, in antiquity, the table at 
 which the priests sat during the sacrifices. 
 
 ADSIGNIFICATION, among schoolmen, the 
 act of noting or signifying a thing, with the ad- 
 dition of the time when it happened. 
 
 ADSTRICTION, in medicine, a term used 
 to denote the too great rigidity and closeness of 
 the emunctories of the body; particularly the 
 pores of the skin ; also to signify the styptic 
 quality of medicines. See MEDICINE. 
 
 AD TERMINUM QCI PR^TERIIT, in law, 
 a writ of entry, which lies where a man, having 
 leased lands or tenements for terms of life, or 
 years, is, after the time expired, held from them 
 by the tenant, or other stranger who enjoys il^ 
 and deforceth the lessor. The same writ also 
 lies for the lessor's heir. 
 
 ADUACA, or ATUACA, anciently a large and 
 famous city of the Tungri, in Belgic Gaul ; now 
 a small town, called Tongre, in the bishoprick
 
 ADV 
 
 153 
 
 ADU 
 
 of Liege, to the north-west 
 Liege. 
 
 ADVANCE', v. & n."i 
 
 ADVANCEMENT, 
 
 ADVAN'CEB, 
 
 AVAUNCE', 
 
 AVAUNCE'MENT, 
 
 AVAUNT', v. n. & ad. 
 
 AVAUNT'ANCE, 
 
 AVAUNT'OUR, 
 
 AVAUNT'RY. 
 
 of the city of 
 
 Advancer, Old Fr. 
 au devant, i. e. be- 
 fore, formerly written 
 avunce in English, 
 agreeably to the usual 
 French avancir ; to 
 bring forward, or into 
 the van's front, or fore- 
 J ground ; to promote, 
 prefer, propose ; to offer to notice, assert, pro- 
 pound. Avaunt, and its correlatives, are from 
 the Fr. avant, an adverb, with a verb, understood 
 in the imperative, signifying go forward, or away. 
 To vaunt, is from the Fr. vanter, to boast; 
 be luper traytor, hys sone auanced was jut bet, 
 Vor hys robe and hys dygnyte was al wel byset, 
 He jef hym such auancement, as he wolde, he suor 
 
 ysob, 
 
 bat he ne dorste neueref carye of mete ne of dob. 
 R. Gloucester, p. 312. 
 
 be vaunt wardes hem mette vorst, as ryjte was to 
 done. Id. p. 437. 
 
 borgh ^onseile of som of hise, refused he bat present, 
 bei said, on ober wise he salle haf auancement. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 103. 
 
 And thus of o thing I may avaunten me, 
 At th' ende 1 had the better in eche degree, 
 By sleight or force, or by som maner thing. 
 
 Chaucer. The Wif of Bathes. Prologue. 
 Avauntour, is he that bosteth of the harme or of 
 the bountee that he hath don. 
 
 Id. The Personnel Tale. 
 And thus for that there is no dele, 
 Wherof to make mine auaunt, 
 It is to reason accordaunt, 
 That I maie neuer, but I lie 
 Of loue make auauntrie. 
 
 Gower, Con. A.\>. I, 
 And of none other auantaunce : 
 Thus nedeth me no repentaunce. Id. 
 
 Shal no lewednesse lette. be clerk bat ich lovye, 
 That he ne worth ferst aranced. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, p. 39. 
 
 In heaue, how highly so euer any man is aduaUced, 
 
 therewith is none offended, but rather euerye one 
 
 (so well they loue eche other) reioyseth, and hath his 
 
 part in eche others aduaucement. 
 
 Sir Thos. More's Works, p. 1369. 
 Avaunt ! begone ! thou'st set me on the rack : 
 I swear 'tis better to be much abus'd, 
 Than but to know a little. 
 
 Shakspeare's Othello, act. iii. 
 
 A cherub tall ; 
 
 Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurl'd 
 Th' imperial ensigu, which, full high advanc'd, 
 Shone like a meteor, streaming to the wind, 
 With gems and golden lustre rich emblaz'd, 
 Seraphic arms and trophies. 
 
 Milton's Par. Lost, b. i. 
 Hence, avaunt ! 'tis holy ground. 
 
 Gray's Installation Ode. 
 
 ADVANCE, in commerce, denotes money paid 
 before goods are delivered, work done, or busi- 
 ness performed. 
 
 ADVANCE DITCH, or FOSSE, in fortification, 
 denotes a ditch of water round the esplanade, or 
 glacis of a place ; to prevent its being surprised 
 by the besiegers. See FOSSE. 
 
 ADVANCE-GUARD, or VAN-GUARD, avant garde, 
 Fr. in the military art, is the first line, or division, 
 
 of any army ranged, or marching in battle-array; 
 or that part of it which is next the enemy, or 
 marches first towards them. The whole body of 
 an army is divided into advance-guard, rear- 
 guard, and main body. The word is sometimes 
 also applied to a small party of horse, viz. fifteen 
 or twenty, commanded by a lieutenant, beyond, 
 and in sight, of the main guard. 
 
 ADVAN'TAGE, v. & .-\ Old Fr. advantage, 
 ADVANTAG'EOUS, I now avantage ; derived 
 ADVANTAG EOUSLY, > from the same source 
 ADVANTAG'EOUSNESS, i as advance. Hence to 
 ADVANTAG'EABLE. J benefit, profit, promote 
 the interests of. 
 
 That I haue fought with beastes at Ephesus after 
 y e maner of me, what auauntageth it me, yf y e deed 
 ryse not agayne. 
 
 Bible. 1539. 1 Corinthians, ch. xv. 
 As sooth is sayd, elde hath grct avantage, 
 In elde is bothe wisdom and usage : 
 Men may the old out-rcnne, but not out-rede. 
 
 Chaucer. The Knightes Tale. 
 Therefore attemper thy Courage : 
 Foolhast doth none auantage, 
 But ofte it set a man behynde, 
 In cause of loue, and I finde 
 By olde ensamples, as thou shall here - 
 Touchend of loue in this matere. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. b. iii. 
 
 For as the darke is in thys matter all hys auauntayc : 
 cue so is verely the light in likewise myne. 
 
 Sir Thus. More's Works, p. 931. 
 Frende and foo was muche what indifferent, where 
 his aduauntage grew, he spared no man's deathe, 
 whose life withstoode his purpose. 
 
 Sir Thos. More's Description of Richard HI. 
 We owe thee much : within this wall of flesh, 
 There is a soul, counts thee her creditor ; 
 And, with advantage, means to pay thy love. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 You said, you neither lend nor borrow 
 Upon advantage. Shahesp. Merck, of Venice. 
 
 Here perhaps 
 
 Some advantageous act may be achiev'd 
 
 By sudden onset ; either with hell-fire 
 
 To waste his whole creation, or possess 
 
 All as our own. Milton. 
 
 Since every painter paints himself in his own 
 
 works, 'tis advantageous to him to know himself; to 
 
 the end, that he may cultivate those talents, which 
 
 make his genius. Dryden. 
 
 It was advantageously situated ; there being an 
 
 easy passage from it to India, by sea. Arbuthmit. 
 
 The time of sickness or affliction is, like 'he cool of 
 
 the day to Adam, a season of peculiar propriety for 
 
 the voice of God to be heard ; and may be improved 
 
 into a very advantageous opportunity of begetting or 
 
 increasing spiritual life,. Hammond. 
 
 Like jewels to advantage set, 
 Her beauty by the shade does get. Watter. 
 
 A face, which is over-flushed, appears to advantage 
 in the deepest scarlet ; and the darkest complexion is 
 not a little alleviated, by a black hood. Addison. 
 
 True wit is nature, to advantage dress'd ; 
 What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 There would be few enterprizes of great labour or 
 hazard undertaken, if we had not the power of mag- 
 nifying the advantages which we persuade ourselves to 
 expect from them. Rambler. 
 
 ADUAR, a kind of ambulatory village, where- 
 in Arab families lodge, in moveable tents, as
 
 ADV 
 
 159 
 
 ADV 
 
 forage and provison suit. Some write the word 
 aaouar, and adouard. It is said there are 30,000 
 aduars in the kingdom of Algiers 
 
 ADVENE', v. -] Ad : venio, from 
 
 ADVEN'IENT, I /3aivw, to come to. 
 
 AD'VENT, 1 Of these words, Ad- 
 
 ADVEXTINE', ^vent, generally ap- 
 
 ADVENTI'TIOUS, 
 
 ADVENT'IVE, n. & adj. 
 ADVFNT'UAI.. 
 
 plied to the coming 
 of Christ, and Ad- 
 j ventitious, are of the 
 
 most frequent occurrence. 
 
 So gret frost ber com in aduent, bat ben mygte agryse 
 bat men mygte bobe ryde and go in Temese vpe yse. 
 R. Gloucester, p, 463. 
 
 A cause, considered in judicature, is styled an ac- 
 cidental cause ; and the accidental of any act is said 
 to be, whatever advenes to the act itself already sub- 
 stantiated. . Ayliffe's Parergon. 
 Being thus divided from truth in themselves, they 
 are yet farther removed by advenienl deception ; for 
 they are daily mocked into errour, by subtler devisers. 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 If, to suppose the soul a distinct substance from the 
 body, and extrinsically advenient, be a great error in 
 philosophy ; almost all the world hath been mistaken. 
 Glanville's Vanity of Dogmatism, 
 As for the peregrine heat, it is thus far true ; that 
 if the proportion of the adventine heat be greatly pre- 
 dominant to the natural heat and spirits of the body, 
 it tendeth to dissolution or notable alteration. 
 
 Bacon. 
 
 Diseases of continuance get an adventitious strength 
 from custom, besides their material cause from the 
 humours. Bacon. 
 
 I do also daily use one other collect ; as, namely, 
 the collects adventual, quadragesimal, paschal, or 
 pentecostol, for their proper seasons. 
 
 Bishop Saunderson. 
 
 Though we may call the obvious colours natural, 
 and the others adventitious; yet such changes of 
 colours, from whatever cause they proceed, may be 
 properly taken in. Boyle. 
 
 If his blood boil, and the adventitious fire 
 (Rais'd by high meats, and higher wines) require 
 To temper and allay the burning heat ; 
 Waters are brought, which by decoction get 
 New coolness. Dryden. 
 
 In the gem kind, of all the many sorts reckoned 
 op by lapidaries, there are not above three or four 
 that are original ; their diversities, as to lustre, 
 colour, and hardness, arising from the different ad- 
 mixture of other adventitious mineral matter. 
 
 Woodward. 
 
 Death's dreadful advent is the mark of man j 
 And every thought that misses it, is vain. . 
 
 Young's Night Thoughts. 
 Thy saints proclaim thee king, and thy delay 
 Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see 
 The dawn of thy last advent, long desir'd, 
 Would creep into the bowels of the hills, 
 And flee for safety to the falling rocks. 
 
 Cowper's Tosh, b. vi. 
 
 ADVENT, in the calendar, properly signifies 
 the approach of the feast of the nativity. It in- 
 cludes four Sundays, which begin on St. An- 
 drew's day, or the Sunday before or after it. 
 Dunng advent, and to the end of the octaves 
 of epiphany, the solemnizing of marriage is for- 
 bid without express licence. It is appointed to 
 employ the thoughts of Christians on the first 
 advent or coming of Christ in the flesh, and his 
 second advent or coming to judge the world. 
 
 The primitive Christians practised great austerity 
 during this season. 
 
 ADVENTAILE. > A surcoat worn over 
 
 ADVENTAL. f the armour. Chauc. 
 
 ADVENTITIA COENA, in antiquity, an en- 
 tertainment made by the friends of a person who 
 had been travelling, by way of welcome at his re- 
 turn ; also called coma adventoria. Pit incus. 
 
 ADVENTITIOUS FOSSILS, in natural history, 
 are foreign or extraneous ones, found incorporated 
 with others, to which they do not properly belong; 
 such as sea shells, &c. 
 
 ADVENTITIOUS, in civil law, is applied to such 
 goods as fall to a man, either by mere fortune, 
 or by the liberality of a stranger, or by collateral, 
 not direct succession. In this sense, it stands 
 opposed to profectitious ; by which are signified 
 such goods as descend in a direct line, from 
 father to son. 
 
 AD VENTREM INSPICIENDUM, in-law, 
 a writ by which a woman is to be searched 
 whether she be with child by a former husband, 
 on her withholding of lands from the next heir, 
 failing issue of her own body. 
 
 ADVENTURE, v and n.-\ Ad : venio, ven- 
 ADVEN'TURER, I turn, venturus. To 
 
 ADVEN'TUROUS, > expose one's self 
 
 ADVEN'TUROUSLY, i to whatever may 
 
 ADVEN'TRY. J be about to come,, 
 
 in consequence of adopting any particular con- 
 duct ; implying hazard and chance of success. 
 
 Now is he in be see with saile on mast vpsette. 
 Toward bis lond bei drouh, to auenture his chance, 
 With Normandes inouh, of Flanders and of France. 
 R. Brunne, p. 70. 
 
 And whan this jape is tald another day 
 I shal be halden a daffe or a cokenay : 
 I wol arise, and auntre it by my fay : 
 Unhardy is unsely, thus men say. 
 
 Chaucer. The Reve* Tale, v. i. p. 166. 
 Thus can I nought my selfe counsaile, 
 But all I set on aunture, 
 And am, as who saith, out of cure. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. b. TV. 
 He is a great adventurer, said he, 
 That hath his sword through hard assay foregone. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 The kings of England did not make the conquest 
 of Ireland : it was begun, by particular adventurers, 
 and other voluntaries, who came to seek their fortunes. 
 
 Sir J. Davies. 
 
 He intended, to hazard his own action ; that so 
 the more easily he might win adventurers, who else 
 were like to be less forward. Raleigh. 
 
 Had it not been for the British, which the late 
 wars drew over; and adventurers or soldiers, seated 
 here ; Ireland had, by the last war and plague, been 
 left destitute. Temple. 
 
 Their wealthy trade from pirate's rapine free, 
 Our merchants shall no more advent'rers be. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 It is good to guard adventures with certainties that 
 may uphold losses. Lord Bacon's Essayt. 
 
 At land and sea, in many a doubtful fight, 
 Was never known a more advent'rous knight ; 
 Who oftner drew his sword, and always for the right. 
 
 Dryden, 
 
 They are both hanged ; and so would this be, if hft 
 durst steal any thing adventurously. 
 
 Shafupeare's Henry V.
 
 ADV 
 
 IfiO 
 
 ADV 
 
 Be not angry, 
 
 Most mighty princess, that I have adoentur'd 
 To try your taking of a false report. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 The tender and delicate woman among you, which 
 would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon 
 the ground, for delicateness and tenderness. 
 
 Deut. xxviii. 26. 
 
 But I've already troubled you too long ; 
 Nor dare attempt a more advent'rous song : 
 My humble verse demands a softer theme ; 
 A painted meadow, or a purling stream. 
 
 Addisnn. 
 
 Some bold adventurers disdain 
 The limits of their little reign, 
 And unknown regions dare descry. 
 
 Gray's Ode to Eton Col. 
 
 ADVENTURE BAY, of Van Diemen's land, 
 on the east side of Bruny's isle. It is at the 
 mouth, about six miles wide, and offers between 
 Benguin Island and Cape Frederic Henry, ex- 
 cellent and well-sheltered anchorage for shipping. 
 Captain Cooke says that there is a beautiful 
 sandy beach, about two miles long, at the bottom 
 of Adventure Bay, formed to all appearance 
 by the particles which the sea washes from a 
 fine white sand stone. That behind it is plain, 
 with a brackish lake, which produces bream and 
 trout. The parts adjoining the bay are mostly 
 hilly ; and form an entire forest of tall trees, ren- 
 dered almost impassable by brakes of fern, 
 shrubs, &c. The soil on the flat land, and on 
 the lower part of the hills, is sandy, or consists 
 of a yellowish earth, and in some parts of a 
 reddish clay; but further up the hills, it is of a 
 grey tough cast. The country is dry, and the 
 beat intense. No vegetables that afford subsist- 
 ence for man, were observed here : and the only 
 quadruped seen, was a species of opossum, about 
 twice the size of a large rat ; but some of the in- 
 habitants had pieces of the skin of the kangooroo 
 about them. The inhabitants are mild and cheer- 
 ful, with little of the wild appearance of savages ; 
 but seem almost totally devoid of personal ac- 
 tivity, and were remarkably indifferent to pre- 
 sents. Their complexion is a dull black, which 
 they sometimes heighten by smutting their 
 bodies. Their hair is woolly, and clotted with 
 grease and red ochre ; their noses broad and full, 
 and the lower part of the face projects consider- 
 ably. But they are upon the whole well propor- 
 tioned. Adventure Bay is dangerous of access 
 in winter, from the surf created by the prevalence 
 of southerly winds. Captain Furneaux first 
 visited it in 1778; then captain Blight in 1788; 
 but the most complete survey of it was made by 
 the French Expedition, that went in search of 
 La Perouse. It is in E. Long. 147, 30.' S. Lat. 
 42, 20'. 
 
 ADVENTURE, BILL OF, in commerce, a writing 
 signed by a merchant, testifying the goods men- 
 tioned in it to be shipped on board a certain 
 vessel belonging to another person, who is to 
 run all hazards; the merchant only obliging 
 himself to account to him for the produce. 
 
 ADVENTURE ISLAND, a small island in the 
 South Sea, so called from the ship Adventure, in 
 which Captain Furneaux, the discoverer sailed. 
 Lon. 147, 29' W. Lat. 43, 21' S. See ADVEN- 
 TURE BAY. 
 
 ADVENTURERS, THE SOCIETY OF, an ancient 
 
 company of merchants and traders, erected for 
 the discovery of lands, territpries, trades, &c. un- 
 known. This society had its rise in Burgundy, 
 and its first establishment from John, t&ke of 
 Brabant, in 1296, being since known by the name 
 of the Brotherhood of St. Thomas a Becket. It 
 was afterwards translated into England, and suc- 
 cessively confirmed by Edward III. and IV. 
 Richard II. Henry IV. V. VI. and VII. who 
 gave it the appellation of Merchant-adventurers ; 
 by Henry VIII. and queen Elizabeth, who, in 
 1564, formed it into an English corporation ; 
 and by succeeding kings. Formerly, adven- 
 turers making settlements in any part of America 
 belonging to the enemy, might obtain a charter 
 from the king. 13 Geo. II. c. 4. sec. 13. 
 
 At one time (1550,) the English Merchant 
 Adventurers had sufficient influence at Antwerp 
 to prevent the establishment of the Inquisition 
 there. They bore for arms, 
 Nebule of urpicus, argent and 
 azure ; a chief quarterly or 
 and gules; in the first and 
 fourth, two red roses ; and in 
 the second and third, a lion of 
 England. 
 
 AD'VERB, n. ~\ So called from their signifi- 
 ADVER'BIAL, > cation and connexion with 
 ADVER'BIALLY. j verbs. 
 
 For thys woorde nouum [Mark, xiv. 25,] seemeth. 
 not there to be putte for an aduerbe, but is a nowne 
 adiectiue ; and therefore it signifieth some kynde of 
 newenesse in the drincke it selfe. 
 
 Sir T. More's Works, p. 1328. col. 2. 
 An adverb is a word without number, that is joynetl 
 to another word : as 
 
 Well-learned. 
 
 Hee disputeth very subtlety. 
 
 B. Jonson's English Grammar. 
 Adjectives compared, when they are used adver- 
 bially, may have the article the going before. Id. 
 I should think, alta was joined adverbially with 
 tremit ; did Virgil make use of so equivocal a syntax, 
 
 Addison, 
 
 ADVERBS, are not purely, or solely additions 
 to verbs. They are frequently joined with 
 adjectives, and even with substantives; thus, 
 we say, he is truly king; he is very sick. Some- 
 times adverbs modify the meaning of each 
 other, as, very excellently, very justly, they ane 
 very numerous, and have been variously classi- 
 fied ; as adverbs of time, place, order, distance, 
 motion, relation, quantity, both continuous and 
 discrete ; quality, manner, affirmation, negation, 
 demonstration, interrogation, diminution, doubt- 
 ing, exception, and comparison. 
 
 Dr. Lowth contends that in English, they 
 admit of no variation, except some few of them, 
 which have the degrees of comparison, as soon, 
 sooner, soonest ; and those irregulars, derived 
 from adjectives in this respect likewise irregular, 
 as very much, not very prudently. He observes, 
 however, that the formation of adverbs in general 
 with the comparative and superlative termina- 
 tions, seems to be improper ; at least, that it is 
 now become almost obsolete, as easilier, strong- 
 Her, hardliest, highliest, rightest, though used by 
 Hooker, Raleigh, Hobbes, and Shaftesbury, 
 Grammar, p. 112.
 
 ADV 
 
 161 
 
 ADV 
 
 In his Hermes,they are called by Mr. Hairis 
 attributes of attributes, or attributives of the 
 soconr' ..rder : and he defines an adverb, a part 
 of speech, the natural appendage of verbs, ex- 
 tending the signification of the word verb, pro- 
 perly so called, to participles and adjectives. 
 After explaining the general nature of adverbs 
 as attiibutes of attributes, and enumerating their 
 principal forms, amongst which he rectons in- 
 tension and remission, he shews that adverbs 
 may be derived from almost every part of speech, 
 from prepositions, as afterwards, from participles, 
 as knowingly, from adjectives, as virtuously, from 
 substantives, as apishly, and from proper names, 
 as Socratically. Adverbs, according to Gaza, in 
 his grammar, may be found in every one of the 
 predicaments, and he thinks that the readiest 
 way to reduce their infinitude, is to refer them 
 by classes to those ten universal genera. The 
 Stoics called the adverb by the name of HavSt/crns, 
 with a view to its multiform nature. Hermes, 
 p. 192, 210. 
 
 But Mr. Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, 
 warmly and with great success, contends that 
 the adverb is ordinarily a corruption of some 
 other word or phrase. Thus ly is a corruption 
 of like ; as honestly, is honest-like ; alone is all- 
 one : only, one-like : awhile, a compound of the 
 article a, and the noun, while, a time. We 
 refer the reader to that valuable work for ample 
 illustrations of this view of the adverb. 
 
 ADVERBIAL NUMBERS, sometimes denote the 
 numerals once, twice, thrice, &c. 
 
 ADVERSARIA, among the ancients, was a 
 book of accounts, like our journal or day-book ; and 
 was sometimes synonymous 'with opisthographia, 
 virofivnuara, or memoriale, and stands opposed 
 to codex ; the former being for occasional matters 
 which were taken down hastily, to be afterwards 
 transcribed into the latter, in a fair regular 
 manner. It is likewise a title given to divers 
 books, containing collections of miscellaneous 
 observations, remarks ; varits lectiones, varia ob- 
 servationes, loci communes, geniales dies, vespera, 
 selecta, miscellanea, &c. The word is also used 
 for a commentary on some text or writing ; 
 because the notes were written on the adverse or 
 opposite page. 
 
 ADVERSARIE. adv. Contrary. Chauc. 
 ADVERSATOR, in antiquity, a servant who 
 attended rich men in returning from supper, to 
 give them notice of any obstacles in the way, at 
 which they might be apt to stumble. 
 
 AD'VERSE, v. & adj.-\ Ad : verto, versus, to 
 AD'VERSARY, turn to, towards, or 
 
 ADVERS'ATIVT.^ I against. The verb is 
 
 AD'VERSELY, r obsolete. Adverse the 
 
 ADVERSE'NESS, | adjective, signifies 
 
 ADVERS'ITY. J turning to or against, 
 
 in an attitude of resistance or hostility : opposed 
 lo-adversity, is the ill effect of an adverse posi- 
 tion, i. e. pain, affliction, misery. 
 
 At Wyiicehestre he held his parlement ilk jere, 
 And jjer men him teld, who was his aduersere. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 92. 
 
 Be ye sobre and wake ye, for your aduersarie the 
 deuel, as a rorynge lioun, goith about sechinge whom 
 he schal deuoure. Wiclif. 1 Petir, c. v. 
 
 For slain is man, right as another beest, 
 And dwelleth eke in prison, and arrest, 
 VOL. I. 
 
 And hath siknesee, and gret adveriite, 
 And oftentimes gilteles parde. 
 
 Chaucer. The Knightes Tale, v. i. p. 53. 
 
 MOWB. Never did captive with a freer heart 
 Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace 
 His golden uncontrouPd enfranchisement, 
 More than my dancing soul doth celebrate 
 This feast of battel, with mine adversary. 
 
 Shaktpeare'i Richard II-, 
 Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 A remembrance of the great use he had made of 
 prosperity, contributed to support his mind under 
 the heavy weight of adversity, which then lay upon 
 him. Atterbury. 
 
 Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, 
 adversity is the blessing of the New, which carries 
 the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation 
 of God's favour. Bacon's Essays. 
 
 As, when two polar winds, blowing advene, 
 Upon the Cronian sea, together drive 
 Mountains of ice. Hilton. 
 
 A cloud of smoke envelopes either host ; 
 And, all at once, the combatants are lost ; 
 Darkling, they join adverse, and shock unseen ; 
 Coursers with coursers justling, men with men. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 For friendship, of itself an holy tie, 
 Is made more sacred by adversity. 
 
 Dryden. Hind and Panther. 
 
 Let nothing adverse, nothing unforeseen, 
 Impede the bark that ploughs the deep serene ; 
 Charg'd with a freight, transcending in its worth 
 The gems of India, nature's rarest birth, 
 That flies, like Gabriel on his Lord's commands, 
 A herald of God's love to Pagan lands. 
 
 Cvwper. Charity. 
 
 Truth seems to be considered by all mankind, as 
 something fixed, unchangeable, and eternal ; it may 
 therefore be thought, that to vindicate the perma- 
 nency of truth, is to dispute without an adversary. 
 
 Beattie's Essay on Truth. 
 
 ADVERSATIVE, in grammar, is a term, that 
 has been applied to particles, that express not 
 only a difference, but some opposition, as it is 
 said, between the ideas which precede and 
 follow them : thus, in the sentence, " It is spring, or, 
 it is summer," or simply disjoins ; while in the 
 phrase, " It is not summer, but it is winter." 
 but, opposes, or contrasts the ideas. It has 
 been further said of adversative disjunctives, that, 
 though they imply Opposition, there can be no 
 opposition of the same attribute in the same 
 subject; but the opposition must be either of 
 the same attribute in different subjects, as 
 " Brutus was a patriot, BUT Cesar was not ;" 
 or of different attributes in the same subject, as 
 " Georgius was a sophist, BUT not a philosopher ;" 
 or of different attributes in different subjects, as, 
 " Plato was a philosopher BUT Hippias was a 
 sophist." The conjunctions used for all these 
 purposes may be called absolute adversatii-es , 
 but besides these, there are several others, says 
 Mr. Harris, such as adversatives of comparison, 
 expressed by the words than and as, which 
 mark not only opposition, but that equality or 
 excess, which arises among subjects from their 
 
 M
 
 ADV 
 
 162 
 
 ADV 
 
 being compared. Such also are adversatives 
 adequate and inadequate, of which the principal 
 are UNLESS and ALTHOUGH, e. g. " Troy will 
 te taken, UNLESS the Palladium be preserved." 
 * Troy will be taken ALTHOUGH Hector defend 
 tt." Every cause, says Mr. Harris, is either 
 adequate, or inadequate, when it endeavours 
 without being effectual, and so in like manner is 
 every preventive. Adequate preventives are 
 expressed by such adversatives as UNLESS : the 
 inadequate are expressed by ALTHOUGH. Hermes 
 p. 251257. 
 
 Here again Mr. Home Tooke' has afforded 
 some very important light on an intricate subject. 
 He examines with great ingenuity the supposed 
 opposition in adversative disjunctives, and par- 
 ticularly that which is thought to be expressed 
 by the word BUT. This, he contends, has two 
 different meanings ; one when occurring at the 
 beginning, another and very different one in the 
 middle of a sentence. In the former case it is a 
 corruption of hot, the imperative of the Saxon 
 verb baton, to boot, superadd, or supply ; and in 
 the latter it is a contraction of be-utan, the im- 
 perative ofbeonutan, to be out. Thus Gawin in 
 Douglas. 
 
 But thy work shall endure in laucle and glorie, 
 
 But spot or faulte condigne eterne memorie. 
 
 The meaning is " superadd, (to something said, 
 or supposed to be said before) thy work shall 
 endure in laude and glorie, be out, (i. e. without) 
 spot or fault." And in the definite adversative, 
 " the number three is not an even number but an 
 odd," the opposition is not marked, at least 
 directly, by the word but, but by the adjectives 
 even and odd, which denote attributes in their 
 own nature opposite ; and the preposition ac- 
 cording to the first sense of the word but, will 
 be synonymous with this, viz. "the number 
 three is not an even number, superadd, (it is) an 
 odd number." In the indefinite adversative, " the 
 number of the stars is either even or odd," the word 
 either is a distributive pronoun, and or is a con- 
 traction of the Saxon odor, q. d. other, i. e. 
 something different, and often contrary. As to 
 the adversatives denominated by Mr. Harris 
 adequate and inadequate, and marked by the 
 conjunctions unless and although, he leads us 
 to conceive that the whole difference between 
 them consists in this, that the expression of the 
 one is more forcible than that of the other. 
 Whereas, the meaning of UNLESS is directly op- 
 posite to that of ALTHOUGH. They are both 
 verbs in the imperative mood : the former signi- 
 fying take away or dismiss; and the latter allow, 
 permit, yield, assent. Accordingly the sentence, 
 " Troy will be taken UNLESS the palladium be pre- 
 served," is equivalent to "Remove the palladium 
 be preserved," i. e. taking the palladium be pre- 
 served, as an abstract noun, the preservation of 
 the palladium Troy will be taken. Again, " Troy 
 will be taken ALTHOUGH Hector defend it" is the 
 same as " Troy will be taken ALLOW Hector (to) 
 defend it." The idea, therefore, expressed by 
 UNLESS is that of the removal of one thing to 
 make way for another ; and the idea expressed 
 by ALTHOUGH is that of allowing one thing to 
 co-exist with another, with which it is apparently 
 
 incompatible. The conjunction UNLESS (says 
 Mr. Tooke,) even in the reign of queen Eliza- 
 beth, was written oneless or onelesse, and more 
 anciently onles and onlesse : and onles is the im- 
 perative of the Anglo-Saxon verb onlesan, to 
 dismiss, or remove, les the imperative of lesan, 
 which is synonymous with onlesan, is also used 
 by some old writers, instead of unless. And this 
 imperative les has given to our language the 
 adjectives hopeless, restless, &c. i. e. dismiss, 
 hope, rest, &c. The conjunction ALTHOUGH (says 
 the same writer) is compounded of al or all, and 
 tho 1 though, thah, or, in the vulgar pronunciation, 
 thaf, thauf, and thof; the imperative thaf, or 
 thafig of the verb t'hafian or thafigan, to allow, 
 permit, &c. and thajig becomes thah, though, 
 thoug, in a transition of the same kind, and as 
 easy as that by which hafuc becomes hawk. 
 
 ADVERSE, in logic, is when two contraries 
 have an absolute aiad perpetual opposition to 
 each other. 
 
 ADVERT', v.~\ Ad : verto, to turn to. Of the 
 
 ADVERT'ENCE, (same origin as Adverse, &c. 
 
 ADVERT'ENCY, but not necessarily implying 
 
 ADVERT'ENT. ./ opposition : simply turning 
 
 to, for the sake of observation, consideration, or 
 
 remark. 
 
 During this tyme Eneas gan advert, 
 Within ane vail fer thens closit apart 
 Quhare stude ane wod. 
 
 Douglas, b. vi. p. 189. 
 
 For God it wote, her harte on other thing is 
 Although the body sat emong 'hem there 
 Her aduertence is alway elis where, 
 For Troilus full fast her soule sought, 
 Withouten word, on him alway she thought. 
 
 Chaucer. Troilus, b. iv. f. 179, c. 4. 
 In this life our understanding is weak, our atten- 
 tion trifling, our advertency interrupted, our diver- 
 sions many. 
 Taylor. On the Doctrine and Practice of Repentance. 
 
 Is he rich, prosperous, great? yet he continues 
 safe, because he continues humble, watchful, advertent, 
 lest he should be deceived and transported. 
 
 Hale't Contemplations. 
 
 The mind of man being not capable, at once to 
 advert to more than one thing ; a particular view and 
 examination of such an innumerable number of vast 
 bodies, will afford matter of admiration, 
 
 Ray on the Creation. 
 
 Our low world is only one of those, 
 
 Which the capacious universe compose. 
 
 Now to the universal whole advert ; 
 
 The earth regard, as of that whole a part. 
 
 Blackmore's Creation, b. iii. 
 
 Too much advertency is not your talent; or else 
 
 you had fled from that text, as from a rock. Swift. 
 
 AD'VERTISE, v.~\ Derived as above. Ad- 
 
 ADVER'TISEMENT, f vertisement , Fr. To turn 
 
 ADVERTIS'ER, Jor call the attention of 
 
 ADVERTISING, J another to asubjectwhich 
 
 has already been noticed by the advertiser ; to 
 
 publish in print ; inform ; to give intelligence. 
 
 And now beholde I go vnto my people : come, 
 therfore and I will aduertise the, what this people 
 shall do to thy folke I the later dayes. 
 
 Bible, 1539, Numeri, c. xxiv. 
 They were to advertise the chief hero, of the dis- 
 tresses of his subjects occasioned by his absence. 
 
 Dryden.
 
 ADV 
 
 163 
 
 ADU 
 
 As I was then 
 
 Advertising, and holy to your business, ^ 
 
 Not changing heart with habit ; I am still 
 Attornied at your service. 
 
 Shahxp. Measure for Measure. 
 The bishop did require a respite, 
 Wherein he might the king his lord advertise, 
 Whether our daughter were legitimate. Shaksp. 
 
 As I by friends am well advertised ; 
 Sir Edmund Courtney, and the haughty prelate, 
 With many more confederates, are in arms. 
 
 The king was not so shallow, nor so ill advertised, 
 as not to perceive the intention of the French king. 
 
 TUB. Let me advertize you ; 
 Your daughter Audrey met I on the way, 
 With Justice Bramble in her company ; 
 Who means to carry her to Pancras church. 
 
 Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, act iii. 
 The great skill in an advertiser is chiefly seen in 
 the style which he makes use of. He is to mention 
 " the universal esteem, or general reputation," of 
 things that were never heard of. Tatler, No. 224. 
 Estates are landscapes gaz'd upon awhile, 
 Then advertiz'd, and auctioneer'd away. 
 
 Cowper's Task, b. iv. 
 
 With respect to his own coming, it seems to be one 
 great object of his discourse, to advertise the Christian 
 world, that it is quite a distinct event from the de- 
 molition of the Jewish temple. Hartley's Sermons. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT OF STOLEN GOODS. By the 
 statute of 25 Geo. II. cap. 36, and 28 Geo. II. 
 cap. 19. the penalty of fifty pounds is inflicted on 
 persons advertising a reward with ' No questions 
 to be asked,' for the return of things lost or 
 stolen ; and likewise on the printer. 
 
 ADVIGARUM, a town of Hindostan, in the 
 province of Coimbetoor, distant 52 miles S. E. 
 from Seringapatam, in N. Lat. 12, 1'. E. Long. 
 77, 28'. 
 
 To ADVIGILATE, advigilare, Lat. To watch 
 diligently. 
 
 ADVISE', v. -] 
 
 ADVICE', 
 
 ADVIS'ABLE, 
 
 ADVIS'EDLY, 
 
 ADVISE'MENT, 
 ADVIS'ER, 
 ADVIS'ING, 
 ADVIS'O. 
 
 Probably from ad visum, 
 to the sight. Unclassical La- 
 tin, advisare, which Junius 
 
 ADVIS'EDNESS, Vwould derive from the Ger- 
 
 man wisen, to shew ; to in- 
 struct; to inform; to coun- 
 sel ; to deliberate with. 
 
 Sir Edwarde's ost, & opere al so nei, 
 He avisede pe ost suipe wel, and poru Gode's grace, 
 He hopede winne a day pe maistrie of pe place. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p. 558. 
 Of werre & of batile he was fulle awse, 
 per wisdom suld auaile was non so trewe als he. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 188. 
 
 Amonge the proude there is euerstryfe,but amonge 
 those that do all thynges with aduysment, there is 
 svysdome. Bible, 1539. Prouerhes, c. xiii. 
 
 Mote I wote, 
 
 What strange adventure do ye now pursue ? 
 Perhaps my succour or advisement meet, 
 Mote stead you much. Faerie Queene. 
 
 I will, according to your advisement, declare the 
 evils, which seem most hurtful. 
 
 Spenser's State of Ireland. 
 
 By that which we work naturally (as, when we 
 breathe, sleep, and move) we set forth the glory of 
 
 God, as natural agents do ; albeit we have no ex- 
 press purpose to make that our end ; nor any advised 
 determination, therein to follow a law. 
 
 Hooker, b. i. p. 49. 
 
 In my school-days, when I lost one shaft, 
 I shot his fellow of the self-same flight, 
 The self-same way, with more advised watch, 
 To find the other forth ; by vent'ring both, 
 I oft found both. Shaksp. Mercht. of Venice. 
 
 You were advis'd, his flesh was capable 
 Of wounds and scars ; and that his forward spirit 
 Would lift him, where most trade of danger rang'd. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Such discourse bring on, 
 As may advise him of his happy state ; 
 Happiness in his power, left free to will. Par. Lost. 
 
 A posting messenger dispatch'd from hence, 
 Of this fair troop advis'd their aged prince. 
 
 Dryden'g JEneid. 
 
 ZVL. The bold are but the instruments o' th' wise : 
 They undertake the dangers' we advise. 
 
 Dry den's Conquest of Granada, part i. 
 
 This book advisedly read, and diligently followed 
 
 but one year at home, would do more good, than 
 
 three years' travel abroad. Ascham, 
 
 Surprise may be made by moving things, when tha 
 
 party is in haste ; and cannot stay, to consider ad- 
 
 visedly ol that which is moved. Bacon, Essay xxiii. 
 
 Let his travel appear rather in his discourse, 
 
 than in his apparel or gesture ; and in his discourse, 
 
 let him be rather advised in his answers, than for- 
 
 ward to tell stories. Bacon's Essays. 
 
 Th' Almighty Father, where he sits 
 Shrin'd in his sanctuary of heav'n secure, 
 Consulting on the sum of things foreseen 
 This tumult, (and permitted all) advis'd. 
 
 Par. Lost, b. vi. 
 Advise if this be worth 
 Attempting ; or to sit in darkness here, 
 Hatching vain empires. Idem, b. ii. 
 
 ADULA, in ancient geography, a mountain 
 in Rhaetia, or the country of the Grisons, part of 
 the Alps, in which are the fountains of the Rhine. 
 It is now called St. Gothard. 
 
 ADULA, in modern geography, a mountain of 
 Navarre, in Spain, lying between Pampeluna and 
 St. Jean de Pied de Port. 
 
 ADULATION, n. ) Adulor, to use sweet 
 
 ADULA'TORY. J words. Of uncertain de- 
 
 rivation; most probably from advXifo, dorick 
 dialect for j)5v\tw, from jj5vc, sweet. Adulatoire, 
 Fr. ; to use fawning language ; to gloze ; to be 
 excessively courteous and complimentary; to 
 transgress the bounds of truth and justice, in be- 
 stowing praise. 
 
 When hee came to man's estate, hee exercised 
 feates of knighthood, hee loued discipline, and hated 
 adulation. Golden Books, g. 3. 
 
 While eache partie laboureth too bee chiefe flatterer, 
 adulacion shall thenhaue more place then plaine and 
 faitheful aduise, of whiche he muste nedes ensue 
 the eiuill bryngynge vp of the prince, whose mynde 
 in tender youth infecte, shall redely fall to mischiefe 
 and riote, and drawe downe this noble realme to 
 mine. Hall, p. 344. 
 
 There he beheld how humbly diligent 
 New adulation was, to be at hand ; 
 How ready falsehood stept ; how nimbly went 
 Base pick-thank flattery, and prevents command, 
 Daniel's Civil Wars, b. ii, 
 O be sick, great Greatness ! 
 And bid thy ceremony give thee cure. 
 M 2
 
 ADU 
 
 164 
 
 ADA 
 
 Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out 
 W.iui titles blown from adulation? 
 
 Shahspeare's Henry V. 
 
 They, who flattered him most before, mentioned 
 him now vriti the greatest bitterness ; without im- 
 puting the least crime to him, committed since the 
 time of that exalted adulation ; or that was not then 
 as much known to them, as it could be now. 
 
 Clarendon. 
 
 Adulatory verses of this kind, however well writ- 
 ten, deserve not to be transmitted to posterity. 
 
 Mason. Note on Gray's Lett. 
 
 Spenser, in compliance with a disgraceful custom, or 
 rather in obedience to the established tyranny of pa- 
 tronage, prefixed to the Faerie Queene fifteen of these 
 adulatory pieces [sonnets]. 
 
 Warton. Hist. Eng. Poetry, iii. 445. 
 
 Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver ; 
 and adulation is not of more service to the people than 
 to kings. Burke on the French Revolution. 
 
 ADULE, or ADULIS, in ancient geography, a 
 town of Egypt built by fugitive slaves, distant 
 from its port on the Red Sea twenty stadia. 
 
 ADULICUS SINUS, a port of the Red Sea, so 
 called from Adule. 
 
 ADULITJE, the inhabitants of Adule. 
 
 ADULITANUM, MONUMENTUM, the statue 
 of Ptolemy Euergetes, the inscription on which 
 
 Ad : alteram, (f<t~ 
 miiiam,) or, ad : /- 
 teruni, (hommem,) 
 according as the 
 individuals being 
 married, betake 
 themselves to any 
 other than their law- 
 J ful consort. Ad- 
 
 ADULTER, 
 
 ADULTERATE, v. & adj. 
 
 ADULTERA'TION. 
 
 ADULT'ERER, 
 
 ADULT'ERESS, 
 
 ADULT'ERINE, 
 
 ADULT'EROUS, 
 
 ADULT'EROUSLY, 
 
 ADULT'ERY. 
 
 vowtrie, avoutrie, voutrer, voutresse, from the 
 Norman French, are used by Chaucer, and 
 others. Spouse-breach, spouse-breaker, and 
 wedlock-breaker, are old English terms, syno- 
 nymous with those now in use. See the follow- 
 ing illustrations. Adulterate, and its cognate 
 words, are applied to that which is rendered im- 
 pure, or counterfeited by debasing admixtures. 
 
 jef alle lujjer holers were y serued so, 
 
 Me schulde fynde be les such spouse bruche do. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p. 26. 
 
 An yvel kyndrede and a spouse Ireher sekith a 
 tokene, and a tokene schal not be goven to it. 
 
 Wiclif. Matt. xii. 
 
 Was I not gouernour, and chief ledar thare, 
 The time quhen that the Troiane adulterare 
 Umbesegit the ciete of Spartha, 
 And the quene Elene reft and brocht awa ? 
 
 Douglas, b. x. p. 316, Mneid. 
 Therefore seing the punishment of aduotry 
 
 was published by Leo Allatius, at Rome, in mea te that a me can not chew, let eury man consydre 
 1631. 
 
 ADULLAM, in scripture geography, a cave 
 near the city of that name, belonging to the tribe 
 of Judah, in which David hid himself to avoid 
 the fury of Saul. 
 
 ADULLAM, originally a kingdom of Canaan, 
 afterwards a city of Judah, situated south west 
 of Jerusalem, near Jarmuth, and Azekah. It is 
 styled by Micah, chap. i. ver. 14. the glory of 
 Israel : and was a place of some consequence in 
 the time of Judas Maccabeus, and even so late 
 as the fourth century, though it is now in ruins. 
 
 ADULT', n. & adj. > Ad : olesco, adultus, 
 ADULT'ED. J grown up to ; past the 
 
 age of childhood, having arrived at manhood, 
 or attained years of maturity. 
 
 Now that we are not only adulted, hut ancient Chris- 
 tians, I believe the most acceptable sacrifice we can 
 send up to heaven, is prayer, and praise ; and that 
 sermons are not so essential as either of them to the 
 true practice of devotion. Howett's Letters. 
 
 The earth (by these applauded schools 'tis said, ) 
 This single crop of men and women bred ; 
 Who grown adult, so chance (it seems) enjoin'd, 
 Did male and female, propagate their kind. 
 
 Blackmore. 
 
 So language in the mouths of the adult, 
 (Witness its insignficant result,) 
 Too often proves an implement of play, 
 A toy to sport with, and pass time away. 
 
 Cowper's Conversation. 
 ADULT BAPTISM. See BAPTISM. 
 ADULT, m civil and Scots law, a youth be- 
 tween fourteen and twenty-five years of age. In 
 this sense, adultus is synonymous with juvenis, 
 adolescens, or adulescens. 
 
 ADULT PLANTS, Terenzoni observes, differ from 
 immature ones, in that they contain more oil, 
 and less salt. 
 
 by hym selfe.how lothe another man wold be therof, 
 and let him not touche another mas wyfe, so shal his 
 also not be medled withall. 
 Couerdale's Christen State of Matrymonye , fol. 38, col. 1 . 
 
 This staff was made to knock down sin. I'll look 
 
 There shall be no advowtry in my ward 
 
 But what is honest. O. PL x. 299. 
 
 At home, because Duke Humfrey aye repined, 
 
 Calling this match advoutrie, as it was. 
 
 Mirror for Mag. p. 342. 
 
 It was in that poynt like vnto the church yt the 
 Jewes had agaynst the coming of Christ, infected by 
 many false folke w* false doctrin, & the Scripture 
 adulterate and vitiate with false gloses and wronge 
 exposicions. Sir T. More's Works, p. 636, col. 2. 
 
 To make the compound pass for the rich metal 
 simple, is an adulteration or counterfeiting. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. Hist. 
 
 He was the most perfidious man upon the earth ; 
 and he had made a marriage compounded between 
 an advoutry and a rape. Bacon' <s Henry VII. 
 
 That incestuous, that adulterate beast. 
 
 Shaksp, 
 The adulterous Antony, most large 
 
 TT I his abominations, turns you off; 
 
 And gives his potent regiment to a trull, 
 
 That noses it against us. Shaksp. Ant. and Cleop. 
 
 A knave apothecary, that administers the physick, 
 and makes the medicine, may do infinite harm, by 
 his old obsolete doses, adulterine drugs, bad mixtures, 
 &c. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. 
 
 An adulterous person is tied to restitution of the 
 injury, so far as it is reparable ; and to make provision 
 for the children, that they may not injure the legiti- 
 mate. Taylor. 
 
 The Spartan lady replied, when she was asked, 
 What was the punishment for adultresses? There are 
 no such things here. Govern, of the Tongue, sect. 3. 
 
 Think on whose faith th' adult'rous youth rely'd j 
 Who promis'd, who procur'd the Spartan bride. 
 
 Dryden's Mneid. 
 All thy domestic griefs at home be left, 
 
 The wife's adult'ry, with the servant's theft ;
 
 ADU 
 
 165 
 
 ADU 
 
 And (the most racking thought which can intrude) 
 Forget false friends, and their ingratitude. 
 
 Dryden's Juvenal. 
 Helen's rich attire, 
 
 From Argos by the fam'd adult'ress brought, 
 With golden flowers and winding foliage wrought. 
 Dryden's Virgil. 
 
 ADULTERATION, in law, from adulterate, to 
 corrupt ; mingling something foreign to any 
 ?abstance. We have laws against the adul- 
 teration of coffee, tea, tobacco, snuff, wine, beer, 
 bread, wax, hair-powder, &c. 
 
 ADULTERATION, in pharmacy, denotes a frau- 
 dulent corruption of medicines, by substituting 
 ingredients of less value, for the sake of greater 
 gain. This practice the dealers are but too well 
 acquainted with. Pharmaceutical authors give 
 numerous instances of adulterations, both in sim- 
 ple and compound medicines. 
 
 ADULTERATION OF COIN, properly imports the 
 making of it, with too much alloy. This is 
 effected by forging another stamp, by mixing 
 impure metals with the gold or silver, by an 
 undue alloy, or too great an admixture of the 
 base metals. Evelyn gives rules both for adul- 
 terating and detecting adulterated metals, 8cc. 
 Adulterating as well as debasing, which includes 
 diminishing, clipping, &c. are capital crimes in 
 all nations. The ancients punished them with 
 great severity : among the Egyptians both hands 
 were cut off; and by the civil law, the offender 
 was thrown to wild beasts. The emperor Tacitus 
 enacted, that counterfeiting the coin should be 
 capital; and under Constantine, it was made 
 treason, as it is also among us. Women have, 
 in modern times, been burnt for coining shillings; 
 but, to the honour of our present legislators, this 
 barbarous punishment has been abolished by Act 
 of Parliament. 
 
 ADULTERATION OF GEMS, is a curious art, and 
 the methods of detecting it no less curious than 
 useful ; fcr which, See Nichol's Lapidary, p. 18. 
 
 An ADULTERESS, by our law, undergoes no 
 temporal punishment whatever, except the loss 
 of her dower ; and she does not lose even that, 
 if her husband is weak enough to be reconciled 
 to her, and cohabit with her after the offence is 
 committed. 13 Edward I. cap. 34. But it is 
 to be observed, that adulteresses are such, either 
 by the canon or civil law. According to the 
 former, a woman is an adulteress who, either 
 being herself married, converses carnally with 
 another man ; or, being single herself, converses 
 wifn a man that is married. According to the 
 latter, she is not an adulteress, if she be not herself 
 in the married state, though she converses with 
 a man that is. The crime, in this case, was more 
 properly called stuprum than adulterium. Hence, 
 among the Romans, the word adultera, adulteress, 
 differed from pellex, which denoted a single 
 woman who cohabited with a married man : and 
 pellex differed from concubina, which signified her 
 who had only intercourse with an unmarried man. 
 The former was reputed infamous, and the latter 
 innocent. See ADULTERY. 
 
 ADULTERINE, in the civil law, is particularly 
 applied to a child, the issue of an adulterous 
 amour. Adulterine children are more odious 
 than the illegitimate offspring of single persons. 
 
 The Roman law even refused them the title of 
 natural children : as if nature disowned them. 
 Adulterine children are not easily dispensed with 
 for admission to orders. 
 
 ADULTERINE MARRIAGES, in St. Augustine's 
 sense, denote second marriages, contracted after 
 a divorce. 
 
 ADULTERY, and fornication, are sometimes used 
 synonymously in scripture ; and the former is 
 applied in a more extensive sense, to any species 
 of impurity or crime, against the virtue of chastity. 
 In this sense divines understand the seventh 
 commandment. The word is also used in ancient 
 customs, for the punishment or fine imposed for 
 that offence, or die privilege of prosecuting for 
 it. In which sense, adulterium amounts to the 
 same with what the Saxons call legerwita. 
 
 The crime of adultery has been punished in 
 most ages and nations, though with different de- 
 grees of severity. In many it has been capital ; 
 in others venal, and only attended with slight 
 pecuniary mulcts. Some of the penalties are 
 serious, and even cruel ; others, of a jocose and 
 humorous kind. Even contrary laws have been 
 enacted as punishments for adultery. By some, 
 the criminals were forbid marrying in case they 
 became single ; by others, they were forbid to 
 marry any besides each other; by some, they 
 have been incapacitated from ever committing 
 the like crime again ; by others, they were glutted 
 with it till it became quite nauseous. Among 
 the Egyptians, adultery in the man was punished 
 by 1000 lashes ; and in the woman, by the loss 
 of her nose. By the Jewish law, it was punished 
 by death in both parties, whether the woman 
 was married, or both. The Jews had a parti- 
 cular method of trying an adulteress, or a woman 
 suspected of the crime, by making her drink the 
 bitter waters of jealousy : which, if she was 
 guilty, made her swell. For the most probable 
 solution of this curious point of biblical criticism, 
 see JEALOUSY. In Arabia Felix, according to 
 Strabo, death was also the punishment of adul- 
 tery. Homer speaks of adulterers being stoned 
 to death, a punishment denominated Xatvofi x 7WV 
 a stone coat. Solon, as well as Draco, placed 
 the offenders when caught, at the mercy of the 
 party injured. Adulterers were not suffered to 
 enter the theatres of Greece, nor to wear showy 
 garments at any time. Among the rich Greeks, 
 adulterers were allowed to redeem themselves 
 by a pecuniary fine ; the woman's father, in 
 such cases, returned the dower he had received 
 from her husband, . which some think was re- 
 funded by the adulterer. Another punishment 
 among those paople was, putting out die eyes 
 of adulterers. See ZALEUCUS. 
 
 The Spartans, indeed, may be said to have 
 tolerated adultery, since they laughed at those 
 who thought the violation of the marriage bed 
 an insupportable affront ; and the crime became 
 disgracefully common. At Gortyna, in Crete, 
 adulterers were covered with wool, an emblem 
 of the softness and effeminacy of their disposition, 
 and in that dress carried through the city to 
 the magistrate's house, who sentenced them to 
 be deprived of all their civil privileges. 
 
 There has been some controversy respecting 
 the ancient punishment of adultery among the
 
 ADU 
 
 166 
 
 ADU 
 
 Romans. Some consider it to have been made 
 capital by a law of Romulus, and again by the 
 twelve tables. Others, that it was first made 
 capital by Augustus; and others again, not 
 before the emperor Constantine. The truth 
 is, the punishment in early ages was very 
 various, much being left to the discretion of the 
 husband and parents of the adulterous wife; 
 who exercised it differently, rather with the 
 silence and countenance of the magistrate, than 
 by any formal authority from him. Thus we are 
 told, the wife's father was allowed to kill both 
 parties, when caught in the fact, provided he 
 did it immediately, killing both together, and as 
 it were with one blow. The same power ordi- 
 narily was not indulged the husband, except the 
 crime were committed with some mean or infa- 
 mous person ; though, in other cases, if his rage 
 carried him to put them to death, he was not 
 punished as a murderer. On many occasions, 
 however, revenge was not carried so far : but 
 mutilating, cutting off the ears, noses, &c. fol- 
 lowed. The punishment allotted by the lex 
 Julia, was not, as many have imagined, death ; 
 but rather banishment, or being interdicted fire 
 and water : though Octavius appears, in several 
 instances, to have gone beyond his own law, 
 and to have put adulterers to death. Under 
 Macrinus, many were burnt at a stake. Con- 
 stantine, by law, made the crime capital. Under 
 Constantius and Constans, adulterers were burnt 
 or sewed in sacks and thrown into the sea. Under 
 Leo and Marcian, the penalty was abated to 
 perpetual banishment, or cutting off the nose. 
 Justinian, granted a further mitigation, at least 
 in favour of the wife, who was only to be scourged, 
 lose her dower, and be shut up in a monastery : 
 after two years, the husband was at liberty to 
 take her back again; if he refused, she was 
 shaven, and made a nun for life : but it still re- 
 mained death for the husband. The reason 
 alleged for this difference was, that the woman 
 is the weaker vessel. Matthaeus declaims against 
 the empress Theodora, who is supposed to have 
 been the cause of this law, as well as of others 
 procured fn favour of that sex from the emperor. 
 Under Theodosius, women convicted of this 
 crime were punished after a very singular man- 
 ner, viz. by a public constupration ; being locked 
 up in a narrow cell, and forced to admit to their 
 embraces, all the men that would offer them- 
 selves. This custom was again abolished by 
 the same prince. In Spain, adultery in men 
 was punished by castration, or amputation of 
 the offending member. In Poland, before 
 Christianity was established, they carried the 
 criminal to the market-place, and there fastening 
 him by the testicles with a nail, placed a razor 
 within his reach, and left him under a necessity 
 either of doing justice upon himself, or of perish- 
 ing in that condition. The Saxons formerly 
 burnt the adulteress, and over her ashes erected a 
 gibbet, whereon the adulterer was hanged. King 
 Edmund ordered adultery to be punished in the 
 same manner as homicide ; and Canute, that a 
 man who committed adultery, should be ban- 
 ished, and that the woman should have her nose 
 and ears cut off. In the time of Henry I. it 
 was punished with the loss of eyes and genitals. 
 
 Alfred introduced a modification of the law of 
 adultery, which he punished wholly by fines, 
 according to the rank of the husband injured. 
 If he was a twelf-hyndman, the offender paid 
 one hundred and twenty shillings ; if a six-hynd- 
 man, one hundred shillings ; if a ceorl, forty 
 shillings. " But the most curious part of Alfred's 
 regulations, on this subject," says Mr. Turner, 
 " was the refinement with which he distinguished 
 the different steps of the progress towards the 
 completion of the crime. To handle the neck of 
 a ceorl's wife incurred a fine of five shillings. 
 To throw her down without further consequences, 
 a penalty of ten shillings ; and for a subsequent 
 commission of the crime, sixty shillings.'' 
 Anglo Sax. c. xi. p. 254. 
 
 Among the Mingrelians, according to Chardin, 
 adultery is punished with the forfeiture of a hog, 
 which is usually eaten in good friendship between 
 the gallant, the adulteress, and the husband. In 
 some parts of India, it is said any man's wife 
 is permitted to prostitute herself for an elephant; 
 and it is reputed no small glory to have been 
 rated at so high a price. Adultery is so fre- 
 quent at Ceylon, according to some writers, that 
 there is not a woman who does not practise it, 
 notwithstanding its being punishable with death. 
 Among the Japanese, and divers other nations, 
 adultery is only penal in the woman. Among 
 the Abyssinians, the crime of the husband is 
 punished on the innocent wife. In the Marian 
 islands, on the contrary, the woman is not 
 punishable for adultery ; but if the man go 
 astray he pays severely : the wife and her rela- 
 tions waste his lands, turn him out of his house, 
 &c. Among the Chinese, there is reason to con- 
 clude that adultery is not capital ; for it is said 
 that fond parents will make a contract for the 
 future husbands of their daughters, to allow them 
 the indulgence of a gallant. In Britain, adultery 
 is reckoned a spiritual offence, and is cognizable 
 by the spiritual courts, where it is punished by 
 fine and penance. The common law takes no 
 farther notice of it, than to allow the party grieved 
 an action and damages. This practice is often 
 censured by foreigners, as making too light of a 
 crime, the bad consequences of which, public as 
 well as private, are so great. It has been an- 
 swered, that perhaps this penalty, by civil action, 
 is more wisely calculated to prevent the frequency 
 of the offence, which ought to be the end of all 
 laws, than a severer punishment. He that by a 
 judgment of law is, according to circumstances, 
 stripped of great part of his fortune, thrown into 
 prison till he can pay it, or forced to fly his coun- 
 try, will no doubt, in most cases, own that he 
 pays dearly for his disgraceful pleasures. 
 
 ADULTERY, morally considered, is a crimft 
 certainly of the deepest dye ; involving on tne 
 part of a man, who violates the marriage bed 
 of his neighbour, as Dr. Paley has obser>ed, 
 seduction; injury incurable to the innocent 
 husband ; and en the part of the wretched wife, 
 if a mother, shame and countless miseries for 
 her children. In all cases, too, attended with 
 little short of perjury, breaking a vow undertaken 
 with the sanction of religion, and of the 
 nature of an oath. Moral Philosophy, vol.
 
 ADU 
 
 167 
 
 ADV 
 
 That learned writer has devoted a consider- 
 able portion of his chapter on this subject, (and 
 some of our predecessors have copied him) to 
 prove that our Saviour did not consider this a 
 venial offence ; although he dismissed the woman 
 taken in adultery, without judicially condemn- 
 ing her. Christ's own phrase would seem a 
 sufficient answer to this supposition. He ex- 
 pressly brands her action as a " sin ;" only he 
 declines to act judicially in it. The Saviour 
 did, perhaps, condemn the crime more exten- 
 sively and decidedly than our authorised ver- 
 sion would convey to the reader. Knowing 
 the prevalence of that crime, and similar 
 ones, at that period, he said to her accusers. 
 ' He that is without sin avafiaprrjTog, the same 
 kind of sin among you, let him first cast a stone 
 at her.' Kypke has proved the best Greek writers 
 to use the verb o/xapravtiv, in this sense, ' And 
 they, being convicted by their own conscience, 
 went out,' &c. 
 
 ADULT ERIA ARBORUM, in botany, adul- 
 teries of trees, an expression used by ancient 
 naturalists, for the act of ingrafting one plant 
 upon another. In this sense, Pliny speaks of 
 the adulteries of trees, as contrary to nature, and 
 a piece of luxury, or needless refinement. 
 
 AIXUMBRATE, v. > Ad : umbra, adumbro ; 
 
 ADUMBRA'TION. > to shadow forth to ; to 
 communicate a faint and superficial knowledge, 
 by obscure signs and' symbols; to typify. 
 
 To make some adumbration of that we mean ; it is 
 rather an impulsion or contusion of the air, that an 
 elision or section of the same. 
 
 Bacon's Natural History, No. 187. 
 
 The observers view but the backside of the hang- 
 ings ; the right one is on the other side the grave : 
 and our knowledge is, but like those broken ends j at 
 best, a most confused adumbration. 
 
 Glanville's Scepsis Scientifica. 
 
 Those of the first sort have some adumbration of the 
 rational nature, as vegetables have of the sensible. 
 
 Hole's Origin. 
 
 Heaven is designed for our reward, as well as 
 rescue ; and therefore is adumbrated by all those 
 positive excellencies, which can endear or recommend. 
 
 Decay of Piety, 
 
 ADUMBRATION, 'in heraldry, is the shadow 
 of any beast or charge, outlined, and painted of 
 a darker colour than the field. It is often men- 
 tioned by French and German authors. 
 
 ADUMMIM, a mountain and city near Jeri- 
 cho, in the tribe of Benjamin, which lay in the 
 road from Jerusalem, and was much infested 
 with robbers ; whence our Saviour has been sup- 
 posed to lay the scene of his parable here, of the 
 man that fell among the thieves. Its name is re- 
 tained by a village in the same direction, and 
 signifies the place of blood, from the frequent 
 assassinations committed at it ; and the ruins of a 
 spacious khan or inn are shown in the neigh- 
 bourhood, called the Samaritan's khan, whither it 
 is supposed the Samaritan conducted the sufferer 
 of the parable. Not far from the khan are the 
 remains of a castle, surrounded by a ditch ex- 
 cavated from the solid rock, also called the Sa- 
 maritan's castle. Adummim, and the neighbour- 
 hood, are still very dangerous to travellers who 
 do not obtain a sufficient escort. A decayed 
 chapel is in the vicinity. 
 
 voco, vocatus : 
 called upon for assis- 
 tance : Advocatus, 
 among the Romans, 
 he that was pre- 
 
 ADUNATION. Ad: unus. To one. 
 
 When by glaciation, wood, straw, dust, and water, 
 are supposed to be united into one lump, the cold does 
 not cause any real union or adunation; but, only 
 hardening the aqueous parts of the liquor into ice. 
 the other bodies (being accidentally present in that 
 liquor) are frozen up in it, but not really united. 
 
 Boyle. 
 
 ADUN CITY, ) Ad : uncus, (quasi uncus ad 
 
 ADUN'QUE. > nos, versus nos.) Hooked to- 
 wards us ; shaped like a hook ; crooked. 
 
 There can be no question, but the aduncity of the 
 pounces and beaks of the hawks, is the cause of the 
 great and habitual immorality of those animals. 
 
 Arbuthnot and Pope's Mart. Scrib. 
 
 The birds, that are speakers, are parrots, pies, 
 lays, daws, and ravens ; of which, parrots have an 
 adunque bill, but the rest not. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. Hist. No. 238. 
 
 ADVOCARIA, in old law, a tax paid the 
 lord for his protection; sometimes also called 
 salvamentum. 
 
 AD'VOCATE, v. & n.~\ Ad : 
 
 AD'VOCACY, 
 
 AD'VOCATESHIP, 
 
 AD'VOCATESS, 
 
 ADVOCA'TION. 
 
 sent at the trial of a cause, to assist his friend 
 with his presence and counsel. 
 
 This sense is retained in the English word, 
 which besides its mere forensic application, is 
 applied to one, who on any occasion espouses 
 the interests, and pleads the cause of another. 
 In a sacred sense, it designates the offices sus- 
 tained by the Redeemer. 
 
 O thou that art so faire and ful of grace, 
 
 Bin thou min advocat in that high place, 
 
 Ther as withouten ende is songe Osanne, 
 
 Thou Cristes mother, doughter dere of Anne. 
 Chaucer. The Second Nonnes Tale, v. ii. p. 204. 
 
 But if ony man synneth, we han an advocat anentis 
 the fadir Jesu Crist, and he is the forgifnesse for cure 
 synnes. Wiclif, 1 Jon. ii. 
 
 An advocate, in the general import of the word, is 
 that person who has the pleading and management 
 of a judicial cause. In a strict way of speaking, only 
 that person is styled advocate, who is the patron of 
 the cause, and is often, in Latin, termed togatus, 
 and, in English, a person of the long robe. 
 
 Ayl. Par. 
 
 Be thou an aduocate, and stande in Judgment thy 
 selfe, to speakeforallsochas be domme and socourles. 
 Bible, 1539. Proa. xxxi. 
 If she dares trust me with her little babe, 
 
 I'll shew't the king, and undertake to be 
 
 Her advocate to th' loudest. 
 
 Shahspeare . 
 
 It is a strange thing to see, that the boldness of 
 advocates should prevail with judges ; whereas they 
 should imitate God in whose seat they sit, who re- 
 presseth the presumptuous, and giveth grace to the 
 modest. Lord Bacon's Essays . 
 
 PRO. Leave your advocateship, 
 Except that we shall call you Orator Fly, 
 And send you down to dresser, and the dishes. 
 Ben Jonson. New Inn. 
 
 If any there are, who are of opinion, that there 
 are no antipodes, or that the stars do fall ; they shall 
 not want herein the applause or advocacy of Satan. 
 
 Brown's Vulg. Errours, b. i 
 
 Of the several forms of government, that have 
 been or are in the world, that cause seems commonly
 
 ADV 168 
 
 the better, that has the better advocate, or is advan- 
 taged by fresher experience. 
 
 Temple's Miscellanies. 
 
 Learn, what thou ow'st thy country and thy friend ; 
 What's requisite to spare, and what to spend : 
 Learn this, and after, envy not the store 
 Of the greas'd advocate that grinds the poor. 
 
 Dryden's P&rtiui. 
 
 Our poet, something doubtful of his fate, 
 Made choice of me to be his advocate ; 
 Relying on my knowledge in the laws ; 
 And I as boldly undertook the cause 
 
 Dryden's Epil. to Maiden Queen. 
 
 ADVOCATE, from ad, to, and vocare, to call, 
 among the Romans, a person skilled in the law, 
 who undertook the defence of causes at the bar. 
 The Roman advocates answered to one part of 
 the office of a barrister in England, viz. the 
 pleading part ; for they never granted counsel, 
 that being the business of thejurisconsulti. The 
 Romans, in the first ages of their state, held the 
 profession of an advocate in great honour ; and 
 the seats of their bar were crowded with senators 
 and consuls ; they, whose voices commanded the 
 people, thinking it an honour to be employed in 
 defending them. They were styled comites ho- 
 norati, darissimi, and even putroni ; as if their 
 clients were no less obliged to them than freed 
 men to their masters. The bar was not at that 
 time venal. Those who aspired to honours and 
 offices took this way of gaining an interest in 
 the people, and always pleaded gratis. But no 
 sooner were luxury and corruption introduced 
 into the commonwealth, than the bar became a 
 sharer in them. Then it was that the senators 
 let out their voices for pay, and zeal and elo- 
 quence were sold to the highest bidder. To put 
 a stop to this abuse, the tribune Cincius procured 
 a law to be passed, called from him Lex Cincia, 
 whereby the advocates were forbid to take any 
 money from their clients. They had been pro- 
 hibited from taking any gratuities for pleading. 
 The emperor Augustus added a penalty: not- 
 v, : thstanding which, the advocates played their 
 part so well, that the emperor Claudius thought it 
 an extraordinary circumstance, when he obliged 
 them not to take above eight great sesterces, 
 which are equivalent to about sixty-four pounds 
 sterling, for pleading each cause. Advocate is 
 still used in countries and courts where the civil 
 law obtains, for those who plead and defend the 
 causes of clients entrusted to them. 
 
 ADVOCATE, in church history, a person ap- 
 pointed to defend the right of a church or reli- 
 gious house. The word advocatus, or advowee, is 
 still retained for what we usually call the patron, 
 or him who has the advowson, or right of presen- 
 tation in his own name. 
 
 ADVOCATE, in English courts, is more gene- 
 rally called counsel. See COUNSEL. 
 
 ADVOCATE, FISCAL,^SCI advocatus, in Roman 
 antiquity, an officer of state under the Roman 
 emperors, who pleaded in all causes wherein the 
 facus, or private treasury, was concerned. 
 
 ADVOCATE, KING'S, or LORD ADVOCATE, one 
 of the eight great officers of state in Scotland, 
 who as such sat in parliament without election. 
 He is the principal crown lawyer in Scotland. 
 His business is to act as a public prosecutor, and 
 
 ADV 
 
 to plead in all causes that concern the crown ; 
 but particularly in such as are of a criminal na- 
 ture. The office of king's advocate is not very 
 ancient : it seems to have been established about 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century. Origi- 
 nally he had no power to prosecute crimes with- 
 out the concurrence of a private party ; but in 
 the year 1597, he was empowered to prosecute 
 crimes at his own instance. He has the privi- 
 lege of pleading in court with his hat on. This 
 privilege was first granted to Sir Thomas Hope ; 
 who having three sons lords of session, it was 
 thought indecent that the father should plead 
 uncovered before the sons, who as judges sat 
 covered. 
 
 ADVOCATE OF A CITY, in the German polity, 
 a magistrate appointed in the emperor's name to 
 administer justice. 
 
 ADVOCATE, CONSISTORIAL, officers of the con- 
 sistory at Rome, who plead in all oppositions to 
 the disposal of benefices in that court ; they are 
 ten in number. 
 
 ADVOCATES, ELECTIVE, chosen by the abbot, 
 bishop, or chapter; a particular licence being 
 had from the king or prince for that purpose. 
 The elections were originally made in the pre- 
 sence of the court of the province. 
 
 ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF, in Scotland, a re- 
 spectable body of lawyers, who plead in all 
 causes before the Courts of Session, Justiciary, 
 and Exchequer. They ?.re also entitled to plead 
 in the house of peers, and other supreme courts 
 in England. A candidate for the office of an 
 advocate undergoes three several trials : The first 
 is in Latin, upon the civil law, and Greek and 
 Roman antiquities ; the second, in English, upon 
 the municipal law of Scotland ; and in the third, 
 he is obliged to defend a Latin thesis, which is 
 impugned by three members of the faculty. Im- 
 mediately before putting on the gown, the can- 
 didate makes a short Latin speech to the lords, 
 and then takes the oaths to the government and 
 de Jideli. The faculty consists of about 240 or 
 250 members. As an advocate is esteemed the 
 genteelest profession in Scotland, many gentle- 
 men of fortune take the degree of advocate, 
 without having any intention of practising at the 
 bar. This circumstance greatly increases their 
 number, gives dignity to the profession, and 
 enriches their library and public fund. It is 
 from this respectable body that all vacancies on 
 the bench are generally supplied. 
 
 ADVOCATES, FEUDAL, these were of the mili- 
 tary kind, who, to make them more zealous foi 
 the interest of the church, had lands granted 
 them in fee, which they held of the church, and 
 did homage, and took an oath of fidelity to the 
 bishop or abbot. They were to lead the vassals 
 of the church to war, not only in private quar- 
 rels of the church itself, but in military expedi- 
 tions for the king's service, in which they were 
 the standard-bearers of their churches. 
 
 ADVOCATES, JURIDICAL, in the middle age, 
 were those who, from attending causes in the 
 court of the province, became judges themselves, 
 and held courts of their vassals thrice a-year, 
 under the name of the tria placita generalia. In 
 consideration of this further service, they had a 
 particular allowance of one third part of all
 
 ADV 
 
 169 
 
 ADV 
 
 fines, or mulcts, imposed on defaulters, &c. be- 
 sides a proportion of diet for themselves and 
 servants. 
 
 ADVOCATE'S LIBRARY. In the year 1660, the 
 faculty of advocates, in Edinburgh, founded a 
 library upon a very extensive plan, suggested by 
 Sir George M'Kenzie of Rosehaugh, advocate to 
 king Charles II. and king James II. who en- 
 riched it with many valuable books. It has been 
 daily increasing since that time, and now con- 
 tains not only the best collection of law-books in 
 Europe, but a very large collection of books on 
 all subjects. It also possesses a great number of 
 original manuscripts, and a vast variety of 
 Jewish, Grecian, Roman, Scots, and English 
 coins and medals. 
 
 ADVOCATES, MATRICULAR, were the advo- 
 cates of the mother or cathedral churches. 
 
 ADVOCATES, MILITARY, were appointed for 
 the defence of the church, rather by arms and 
 authority than by pleading and eloquence. 
 These were introduced in the times of confusion, 
 when every person was obliged to maintain his 
 own property by force ; bishops and abbots not 
 being permitted to bear arms, and the scholastic 
 or gowned advocates being equally unacquainted 
 with them, recourse was had to knights, noble- 
 men, soldiers, and even to princes. 
 
 ADVOCATES, NOMINATIVE, those appointed by 
 a king or pope. Sometimes the churches peti- 
 tioned kings, &c. to appoint them an advocate ; 
 at other times this was done of their own accord. 
 By some regulations, no person was capable of 
 being elected advocate, unless he had an estate 
 in land in the same county. 
 
 ADVOCATES, SUBORDINATE, those appointed 
 by other superior ones, acting under them, and 
 accountable to them. There were various rea- 
 sons for the creation of these subordinate advo- 
 cates ; as, the superior quality of the principal 
 advocate, his being detained in war, or being 
 involved in other affairs ; but chiefly the too 
 great distance of some of the church lands, and 
 their lying in the dominions of foreign princes. 
 
 ADVOCATES, SUPREME, or SOVEREIGN, were 
 those who had the authority in chief ; but acted 
 by deputies or subordinate advocates. These 
 were called also principal, greater, and some- 
 times genera! advocates. Such in many cases 
 were kings, &c. when either they had been 
 chosen advocates, or became such by being 
 founders or endowers of churches. Princes 
 had also another title to advocateship, some 
 of them pretending to be advocati nati, born 
 advocates, of the churches within their domi- 
 nions. 
 
 ADVOCATION, BILL OF, in Scots law, a 
 writing drawn up in the form of a petition ; 
 whereby a party, in an action before the inferior 
 court, applies to the supreme court, or court of 
 session, for calling the action from the inferior 
 court before itself. 
 
 ADVOCATION, LETTERS OF, in Scots law, the 
 decree or warrant of the court of session upon 
 cognisance of the facts set forth in the bill, 
 drawn up in the form of a summons, and pass- 
 ing under the signet, discharging the inferior 
 judge and all others from further procedure in 
 the cause, and advocating it to itself. 
 
 ADVOCATIA, in the feudal law, the procu- 
 ration of some public business, committed by a 
 superior to his substitute. It is also used for 
 patronage and protection of a church, college, 
 monastery, and the like. In this sense it is the 
 same with advowson. It is likewise used for the 
 defence of lay persons, estates, &c. 
 
 ADVOCATIONE DECIMARUM, in ecclesias- 
 tical affairs, a writ which lies for the claim of the 
 fourth part or upward, of the tithes that belong 
 to any church. 
 
 ADVOCATISS^, female advowees. See 
 ADVOWEE. 
 
 ADVOCATURA, in old law, an inferior kind 
 of jurisdiction, exercised by advocates within the 
 districts of their respective churches, &c. The 
 word is sometimes synonymous with advocatia. 
 
 ADVOWEE, from avouer, to own, in ancient 
 law, the advocate of a church, religious house, 
 or the like. Thus, Charlemagne had the title of 
 advowee of St. Peter's ; king Hugh, of St. Ri- 
 quier ; and Bolandus mentions some letters of 
 pope Nicholas, by which he constituted king 
 Edward the Confessor, and his successors, ad- 
 vowees of the monastery at Westminster, and of 
 all the churches in England. These advowees 
 were the guardians, protectors, and administra- 
 tors of the temporal concerns of the churches, 
 &c. Under their authority were passed all con- 
 tracts which related to them, and the donations 
 to churches were conferred on the persons of the 
 advowees. They always pleaded the causes of 
 the churches in court, and distributed justice for 
 them, in the places under their jurisdiction. 
 They also commanded the forces furnished by 
 their monasterieSj &c. for war ; and even were 
 their champions, and sometimes fought duels for 
 them. This office is said to have been first in- 
 troduced in the fourth century, in the time of 
 Stillico ; though the Benedictines do not fix its 
 origin before the eighth century. By degrees, 
 men of the first rank were brought into it, either 
 to defend with arms, or protect by authority. 
 In some monasteries they were only called con- 
 servators ; but these, without the name, had all 
 the functions of advowees. There were also 
 sometimes several sub-advowees, or sub-advo- 
 cates, in each monastery, who officiated instead 
 of the advowees themselves ; which, however, 
 proved the ruin of monasteries; those inferior 
 officers running into great abuses. Hence also, 
 husbands, tutors, and every person who under- 
 took the defence of another, were denominated 
 advowees, or advocates. Thus, several cities 
 had their civil advowees ; which were established 
 long after the ecclesiastical ones, and doubtless 
 from their example ; such as the advowees of 
 Augsburg, of Arras, &c. The vidames assumed 
 the qualities of advowees; and hence several 
 historians of the eighth century confound the 
 two functions together. Several secular lords in 
 Germany bear mitres for their crests, as having 
 anciently been advowees of the great churches. 
 
 Spelman distinguishes two kinds of ecclesiasti 
 cal advowees. The one, of causes or processes, 
 advocati causarum ; the other, of territory or 
 lands, advocati soli. The former were nominated 
 by the king, and were usually lawyers, who un- 
 dertook to plead the causes of the monasteries.
 
 ADV 
 
 170 
 
 ADY 
 
 The other, which still subsist, and are sometimes 
 called by their primitive name, advowees, though 
 iore usually patrons, were hereditary ; as being 
 the founders and endowers of churches, &c. 
 Women were sometimes advowees. The canon 
 Jaw mentions some who had this title, and who 
 had the same right of presentation, &c. in their 
 churches, which the advowees themselves had. 
 In a stat. 25, Edw. III. we meet with advowee 
 paramount for the highest patron; that is, the 
 king. 
 
 ADVOWSON, APPENDANT, that which depends 
 upon the manor, as an appurtenance. 
 
 ADVOWSON IN GROSS, the right of presenta- 
 tion, which is principal or absolute, and does 
 not belong to any manor as part of its right. 
 
 ADVOWSON. Though the nomination of fit 
 persons to officiate in the dioceses, was originally 
 in the bishops, yet they were content to let the 
 founders of churches have the nomination of the 
 persons to the churches so founded, reserving to 
 themselves a right to judge of their fitness. Ad- 
 vowsons formerly were most of them appendant 
 to manors, and the patrons were parochial 
 barons : the lordship of the manor, and patronage 
 of the church, were seldom in different hands, 
 until advowsons were given to religious houses. 
 But of late the lordship of the manor, and ad- 
 vowson of the church, have been divided. Ad- 
 vowsons are presentative, collative, or donative : 
 presentative, where the patron presents or offers 
 his clerk to the bishop of the diocese, to be in- 
 stituted in his church ; collative, where the bene- 
 fice is given by the bishop, as original patron 
 thereof, or by means of a right he has acquired 
 by lapse ; donative, as where the king or other 
 patron does, by a single donation in writing, 
 put the clerk into possession, without presenta- 
 tion, institution, or induction. Anciently, the 
 patron had sometimes the sole nomination of the 
 prelate, abbot, or prior ; either by investiture, 
 (i. e. delivery of a pastoral staff,) or by direct 
 presentation to the diocesan ; and if a free elec- 
 tion was left to the religious, yet a conge d' elire, 
 or licence of election, was first to be obtained of 
 the patron, and the person elected was confirmed 
 by him. If the founder's family became extinct, 
 the patronage of the convent went to the lord of 
 the manor. Unless the several colleges in the 
 universities be restrained in the number of ad- 
 vowsons they may receive, it is argued they will 
 in time acquire such a stock, as to frustrate the 
 design of their foundation, (the education of 
 youth,) by creating too quick a succession of 
 fellows ; so that there will not be in the colleges 
 a sufficient number of persons of competent age, 
 knowledge, and experience, to instruct and form 
 the minds of the youth. In some colleges the 
 number of advowsons is said to be already two 
 thirds, or more, of the number of fellows. It is 
 objected, on the other side, that the succession 
 of fellows may be too slew as well as too quick ; 
 whereby persons well qualified may be detained 
 so long in colleges as not to have strength or ac- 
 tivity enough left for the discharge of parochial 
 functions. Colleges holding more advowsons in 
 number than a moiety of the fellows, are not 
 capable of purchasing more. Grants of advow- 
 sons by Papists are void. Advowsons are tem- 
 
 poral inheritances, and lay fees ; they may be 
 granted by deed or will, and are assets in the 
 hands of heirs or executors. Presentations to 
 advowsons for money, or other reward, are void. 
 In Scotland, this right is called patronage. See 
 PATRONAGE. 
 
 ADVOWTRIE. See ADVOUTRY. 
 
 ADUN, in music, the key of A major ; one of 
 the twenty-four keys in modern music, called by 
 the French, la majeur, and the Italians, la 
 maggiore. 
 
 ADURE',u.-v A , rp, 
 
 . , ' I Ad : uro, ustus. 1 he verb is 
 
 ADUST, obgolete . burnt scorcne d, hot ; 
 ADUST ED, i driedwithfire( 
 ADUS TION. J 
 
 And althoughe, that to touche and se them wythoute, 
 and throughe the bodyes ; they were not exceadinge 
 hotte nor pale, but that thair skynne was as redde 
 colour adusted, full of a lytle thynne blaynes. 
 
 Nicoll's Thucidides, f. 57, col. 2. 
 Such a degree of heat, which doth neither melt 
 nor scorch, doth mellow, and not adure. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. Hist. No. 319. 
 
 By this means, the virtual heat of the water will 
 enter ; and such a heat, as will not make the body 
 adust, or fragile. Bacon. 
 
 Which with torrid heat, 
 And vapours, (as the Libyan air,) adust, 
 Began to parch the temperate clime. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 Sulphurous and nitrous foam 
 They found, they mingled; and, with subtle art, 
 Concocted and adusted, they reduced 
 To blackest grain, and into store convey'd. 
 
 Idem, 
 
 They are but the fruits of adusted choler, and the 
 evaporations of a vindictive spirit. HowelL 
 
 Such humours are adust, as by long heat become 
 of a hot and fiery nature ; as choler and the like. 
 
 Quiney. 
 
 To ease the soul of one oppressive weight, 
 This quits an empire, that embroils a state. 
 The same adust complexion has impell'd 
 Charles to the convent, Philip to the field. Pope. 
 This is ordinarily a consequent of a burning colli- 
 quative fever; the softer parts being melted away, 
 the heat continuing its adustinn upon the drier and 
 fleshy parts, changes into a marcid fever. 
 
 Harvey on Consumption!. 
 
 ADUSTION, in medicine, an inflammation of 
 the parts about the brain, and its membranes, 
 attended with a hollowness of the sinciput and 
 eyes, a pale colour, and dryness of the body. 
 The yolk of an egg, with oil of roses, applied by 
 way of cataplasm, is recommended for this dis- 
 order ; or the leaves of turnsol, the parings of a 
 gourd, or the pulp of a pompion, applied in the 
 same manner with oil of roses. 
 
 ADY, in natural history, the palm tree of the 
 island of St. Thomas. It is tall, with a thick, 
 bare, upright stem, thin and light, growing sin- 
 gle on its root, and full of juice. The head shoots 
 into a vast number of branches, which being cut 
 off, or an incision made, afford a great quantity 
 of sweet juice, which fermenting, supplies the 
 place of wine among the Indians. The fruit, 
 which is called abanga, is of the size and shape 
 of a lemon ; and is eaten roasted. The raw ker- 
 nels are often mixed with mandioc meal, and 
 are judged to be cordial. An oil is also pre- 
 pared from this fruit, which answers the purpose
 
 17) 
 
 of butter, and is used for anointing stiff parts of 
 the body. See ABANGA. 
 
 ADYNAMIA, from a privative, and Swa^iig, 
 strength, in medicine, debility, or weakness, 
 from sickness. 
 
 ADYNAMON, among ancient physicians, a 
 kind of weak factitious wine, prepared from must 
 boiled down with water ; to be given to patients 
 to whom genuine wine might be hurtful. 
 
 ADYTUM, from a, not, and Svu or Svvw, to 
 enter, in pagan antiquity, the most retired and 
 sacred place of their temples, into which none 
 but the priests were allowed to enter. They 
 were sometimes in the rear of, and sometimes 
 under the temple. The only well preserved 
 adytum is that of the little temple at Pompeii. 
 See POMPEII. The statue of Diana of Portici 
 was found in its interior, elevated a few steps at 
 die back of the temple, and was kept in perfect 
 darkness. The Sanctum Sanctorum of the temple 
 of Solomon, was of the nature of the pagan 
 adytum, none but the high priest being admitted 
 into it. 
 
 ADZENOTA, a small town of Valencia, in 
 Spain, seated on the mountains Pegna Golosa, 
 abounding with medicinal plants. 
 
 jEA, in ancient geography, a celebrated city 
 and port of Colchis, fifteen miles from the sea, 
 according to Pliny. It was famous for contain- 
 ing the golden fleece of Jason at the time he 
 reached this country. Some authors have con- 
 sidered it as the^Eapolis of Ptolemy ; from the 
 Greek aia, earth, or the Heb. 'K, island. From 
 this city the Circe obtained the appellation of 
 jEaea. Horn. Odyss. 1. i. v. 32. Virgil, 1. iii. 
 v. 386. 
 
 jEACEA, in Grecian antiquity, solemn festi- 
 vals and games celebrated at ^Lgina, in honour 
 of yEacus. 
 
 7EACIDES, in ancient history, an appellation 
 given to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, as the descen- 
 dant of ./Eacus, by the Oracle, in the famous 
 equivocal response, which led that monarch to 
 his destruction. See PYRRHUS. 
 
 jEACUS, in fabulous history, the son of Jupi- 
 ter by ./Egina, and king of the island (Enopia, 
 which he named vEgina after his mother. When 
 the isle was depopulated by a plague, his father, 
 in compassion to his grief, changed all the ants 
 upon it into men and women, who were called 
 Myrmidons, from fivp^rj^, an ant. The founda- 
 tion of the fable is said to be, that when the 
 country had been depopulated by pirates, who 
 forced the few that remained to take shelter in 
 caves, ./Eacus encouraged them to come out, and 
 by commerce and industry to recover what they 
 had lost. His character for justice was such, 
 that in a time of universal drought, he was nomi- 
 nated by the Delphic oracle to intercede for 
 Greece, and his prayer was answered. See 
 ^EGINA. It was also imagined that TEacus, on 
 account of his impartial justice, was appointed 
 by Pluto one of the three judges of the dead ; 
 and that it was his province to decide the fate of 
 Europeans. 
 
 JEBUD.E. See HEBRIDES. 
 
 ./EBURA, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Spain in Estremadura, on the river Guadiana, 
 
 to the W. of Merida, now called Talavera. Long. 
 7, 15' W. Lat. 38, 40' N. 
 
 -E.CHMALOTARCHA, in antiquity, aGreek 
 term, signifying the chief or leader of the Jewish 
 captives in Babylon. The Jews, who refused 
 to follow Zerubbabel to Jerusalem, after the 
 Babylonish captivity, elected a magistrate to 
 govern them, whom they called irVra HTHI, rosch, 
 guluth, q. d. chief of the captivity, which Origen 
 and others translate by a Greek name of the like 
 import, mx/ta\wrapx<>e, formed from aixoXwroj, 
 captive, ai%/^, war, and apxwv, commander. 
 The Jewish writers assure us, that the aechmalo- 
 tarchae were only chosen out of the tribe of Judah. 
 The eastern Jews had their princes of the cap- 
 tivity, as the western Jews had their patriarchs. 
 The Jews are still said to have an cechmalotarch 
 at Babylon, but without the authority of the 
 ancient ones. 
 
 .&CIDIUM, in botany, of ateia, a wound or 
 injury, (because, wherever this fungus attaches 
 itself, the plant becomes diseased and tumid,) 
 a species of parasitical fungi. Class and order 
 cryptogamia fungi. 
 
 The essential characters ate : head conspicuous, 
 sessile,round, membraneous, and at length burst- 
 ing with a teethed orifice. Seeds mealy, naked. 
 Persoin defines twenty species, to which Mr. 
 Sowerby makes several additions. 
 
 -ECLANUM, or ^CUI.ANUM, in ancient 
 geography, a town of the Hirpini in Italy, at the 
 foot of the Apennines, to the E. of Abellinum, 
 situated between Beneventum and Tarentum. It 
 is now called Fricento, and lies 47 miles E. of 
 Naples. 
 
 ^ECLANENSES, or JECULANI, the inhabi- 
 tants of JEculanum. 
 
 .iECLUS, in entomology, a species of papilio, 
 found at Amboyna, of black wings above, cinerous 
 beneath, waved with black, and having a yellow 
 spot. 
 
 ./ED, in ancient inscriptions, an abbreviature 
 for ./EDILATUS, which see. 
 
 ./EDES, in antiquity, a chapel or inferior kind 
 of temple, distinguished by this, that it was not 
 consecrated by the augurs, as those properly 
 called temples were. Such was the aerarium, 
 or treasury ; called .ZEdes Saturni. 
 
 7EDESSA. See^EGJEA. 
 
 ./EDICULA, in ancient architecture, the inner 
 part of the temple, where the altar and statue of 
 the deity stood : it is merely, perhaps, a diminu- 
 tive of aedes, sometimes it signifies a small house. 
 jEdicula are often found on medals ; and ancient 
 sculptures contain the figure of the prince or 
 founder of a temple or church, holding in his 
 hand an aedicula or model of the building. The 
 Romans erected one which they called tedicula 
 ridicula to the god of mirth, in commemoration 
 of the repulse of Hannibal by severe weather 
 after the battle of Cannae, when he was ad 
 vancing upon Rome. 
 
 ^DILATUS, ^DILATE, the office of aedile 
 See next article. 
 
 AEDILE, ^EDILIS, from ades a house, i'i 
 Roman antiquity, a magistrate whose business it 
 was to superintend buildings of all kinds, espe- 
 cially public ones, as temples, aqueducts,
 
 172 
 
 bridges, &c. to take care of the highways, public 
 places, weights and measures, &c. to fix the 
 prices of provisions, take cognizance of de- 
 bauchees, punish lewd women, and such as fre- 
 quented gaming houses. They had the inspec- 
 tion of comedies and other pieces of wit ; and 
 were obliged to exhibit magnificent games to the 
 people, at their own expence, whereby many of 
 them were ruined. To them also belonged the 
 custody of the plebiscita, and the examination 
 and censure of books. They had the power, on 
 certain occasions, of issuing edicts ; and, by de- 
 grees, they obtained a considerable jurisdiction, 
 file cognizance of various causes, &c. This 
 office ruined numbers by its expensiveness ; so 
 that, in Augustus's time, even senators declined 
 it on that account. 
 
 All these functions, which rendered the aediles 
 so considerable, belonged at first to the aediles of 
 the people, aediles plebeii, or minores; these 
 were only two in number, and were first created 
 in the same year as the tribunes : for the tri- 
 bunes, finding themselves oppressed with the 
 multiplicity of affairs, demanded of the senate 
 to have officers, with whom they might entrust 
 matters of less importance ; and accordingly two 
 sediles were created ; and elected every year at 
 the same assembly as the tribunes. But these 
 plebeian sediles having refused, on a particular 
 occasion, to treat the people with shows, as 
 being unable to support the expence, the patri- 
 cians offered to do it, provided they would admit 
 them to the honours of the aedilate ; which being 
 agreed upon, two patrician aediles were cre- 
 ated, in the year of Rome 588 ; who were called 
 aediles curules, or majores ; as having a right to 
 sit on a curule chair, enriched with ivory, when 
 they gave audience ; whereas the plebeian aediles 
 only sat on benches. Besides sharing all the 
 ordinary functions with the plebeians, their chief 
 employ was, to procure the celebration of the 
 grand Roman games, and to exhibit comedies, 
 shows of gladiators, &c. to the people ; and they 
 were also appointed judges in all cases relating 
 to the selling or exchanging estates. To ease 
 these four first aediles, Caesar created a new kind, 
 called sediles cereales, as being deputed chiefly 
 to take care of the corn. These aediles cereales 
 were also taken out of the order of patricians. 
 In the municipal cities there were aediles, and 
 with the same authority as at Rome. We also 
 read of an aediles alimentarius, whose business 
 seems to have been to provide diet for those who 
 were maintained at the public charge, though 
 others assign him a different office. In an 
 ancient inscription we likewise meet with aedile 
 of the camp, aediles castrorum. 
 
 ^ELDILIS, in entomology, a species of ceram- 
 byx, found in the trunks of trees, and called also 
 capricornus rusticus. 
 
 jEDILITAS. See ^DILATUS. 
 
 -&DILITIUM EDICTUM, among the Romans, 
 was that whereby a remedy was given to a buyer, 
 in case a vicious or unsound beast, or slave, was 
 sold him. It was called aedilitium, because the 
 preventing of frauds in sales and contracts be- 
 longed especially to the aediles. 
 
 , in antiquity, a female officer who 
 
 attended the temples of the goddesses. See next 
 article. 
 
 7EDITUUS, from tedes, a temple, and tueor, 
 to defend, in Roman antiquity, an officer be- 
 longing to the temple, who had the charge of the 
 offerings, treasure, sacred utensils, and records. 
 His duty was somewhat similar to that of our 
 verger or beadle, but of superior trust and dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 ./EDON, in ancient mythology, a daughter of 
 Pandarus, who being jealous of her sister Niobe, 
 having more children than herself, attempted to 
 kill the eldest of them, but in the attempt slew 
 her own son ; and was changed into a goldfinch 
 as she endeavoured to kill herself. Horn. Od. 
 xix. 518. 
 
 7EDUI, in ancient history, a brave nation of 
 Celtic Gaul, celebrated as the first allies of 
 Caesar in hie invasion of Gaul. They were 
 found between the 46. and 47. latitude. 
 
 ^EGADES, three small islands, lying on the 
 west side of Sicily, opposite to the main land be- 
 tween Marsalla and Trapani. Their names are 
 Levenzo, Favignana, and Maretimo. 
 
 .ZEGjEA, or JE^GJE, in ancient geography, the 
 name of Odessa, so called from the following 
 adventure : Caranus, the first king of Macedonia, 
 being ordered by the oracle to seek out a settle- 
 ment in Macedonia, under the conduct of a flock 
 of goats, surprised the town of Odessa, during a 
 thick fog and rainy weather, in following the 
 goats that fled from the rain ; which goats ever 
 after, in all his military expeditions, hp caused to 
 precede his standard; and in memory of this he 
 called JEdessa, Ai-yag, JEgaa. Hence probably, in 
 the prophet Daniel's vision, the he-goat is the 
 symbol of the king of Macedon. 
 
 JEG1EADM, the inhabitants of jEgae. See 
 last article. 
 
 .ZEG-ZEON, in ancient mythology, a huge giant, 
 the son of Titan and Terra, who was fabled to 
 have had 100 hands, with which he threw 100 
 rocks at once, at Jupiter, who, when he had 
 overcome him, bound him with 100 chains. 
 
 JEG^EUM MARE. See AEGEAN SEA. 
 
 ./EGAGROPILA, or ^EGAGROPILUS, from 
 aiyaypo, the rock goat, and TriXoc, a ball, in 
 natural history, a ball generated in the stomach 
 of the rupicapra, or chamois goat, hard on the 
 outside, and consisting of a substance like hair ; 
 similar to those sometimes found in cows, hogs, 
 &c. It is sometimes called bezoar Germanicum, 
 or the German bezoar. 
 
 7EGEA, a queen of the Amazons, who was 
 drowned in the ./Egean Sea. 
 
 .AEGEAN SEA, in ancient geography, now the 
 Archipelago, a part of the Mediterranean, which 
 separates Europe from Asia and Africa ; washing 
 on the one hand, Greece and Macedonia ; on the 
 other, Caria and Ionia. It is uncertain whether 
 the name is derived from JEgea, queen of the 
 Amazons, or JEgeus king of Athens, who both 
 perished in it, or from its various isles appearing 
 like a flock of goats at a distance. See ./EGEA 
 and ^EGEUS. 
 
 .ffiGELETHRON, in botany, a name used by 
 some authors for the common mercurialis, or 
 English mercury, an eatable wild herb.
 
 173 
 
 YEGI 
 
 BGELSTAWICK, a good harbour, lying 
 about half a mi'e from the town of Sodertledge, 
 in Sudertorn, a district of Sudermania, in 
 Sweden. 
 
 jEGERITA, in botany, from aiypof, a poplar, 
 or alder tree, because the first-discovered species 
 of this genus grows on the wood of the alder, and 
 was thence called Sderotium JEgerita, which last 
 word, on the establishment of the present genus, 
 was taken for its generic name. Class and 
 order, Cryptogamia Fungi. Its Ess. CHAR, are 
 sessile granulations solid, filled with a somewhat 
 mealy powder. 
 
 JEGEUS in fabulous history, king of Athens, 
 and father of Theseus. The Athenians having 
 basely killed the son of Minos, king of Crete, for 
 carrying away the prize from them, Minos made 
 war upon them ; and being victorious, imposed 
 this severe condition on ^Lgeus, that he should 
 annually send into Crete seven of the noblest 
 Athenian youths, chosen by lot, to be devoured 
 by the Minotaur. On the fourth year of this 
 tribute, the choice fell on Theseus : or, as others 
 say, he himself intreated to be sent. The king, 
 at his son's departure, ordered that as the ship 
 departed with black sails, it should return with 
 the same in case he perished ; but, if he became 
 victorious, he should change them into white. 
 When Theseus returned to Athens, after killing 
 the Minotaur, he forgot to change the sails, and 
 his father, supposing him dead, cast himself 
 headlong into the sea, which afterwards obtained 
 the name of the jEgean Sea. The Athenians 
 decreed /Egeus divine honours ; and sacrificed 
 to him as a marine deity, the adopted son of 
 Neptune, 
 
 JEGIALITIS, in botany, aiytaXTric, an inhabi- 
 tant of the coast, alluding to its place of growth. 
 A genus of plants, of the class and order, pen- 
 tandria pentagynia. Its Ess. CHAR. CAL. one 
 leaf, coriaceous, five-toothed, with folded angles : 
 PET. five, their claws combined at the base, 
 bearing the stamens: STIG. capitate. Pericarp 
 prominent, angular, nearly cylindrical, coriace- 
 ous, without valves. Seed germinating, without 
 albumen, and plumula conspicuous. 
 
 ,/EGIAS, in medicine, a white speck on the pupil 
 of the eye, which occasions a dimness of sight. 
 
 ^EGICERAS, in botany, so called from ot|, 
 a goat, and Ktpag, a horn, in allusion to the horn- 
 like shape of the seed-vessel, a genus of plants of 
 the class pentandria, and order monogynia. Its 
 Ess. CHAR. CAL. five, deep imbricated segments : 
 COR. salver-shaped, five-cleft, reflexed. Fila- 
 ments joined at the base : STIG. simple. Follicle 
 coriaceous, cylindrical. Seed solitary, with a 
 hooded tunic. The last two plants are both na- 
 tives of New Holland. 
 
 ./EGIDA, in ancient geography, now Capo a" 
 Istria, the principal town on the north of the 
 territory of Istria, situated in a little island, joined 
 to the land by a bridge. In an old inscription, 
 it is called JEgidis Insula. It was afterward 
 called Justinopolis, after the emperor Justin. 
 Lon. 14, 20' E. Lat. 45, 50' N. 
 
 DECIDES, in medicine, a disorder of the eyes 
 mentioned by Hippocrates, occasioned by small 
 white cicatrices in the eye, arising from an efflux 
 of corrosive humour. See ALBUGO. 
 
 ^LGIDION, in pharmacy, collynum for in- 
 flammations and defluxions of the eyes. 
 
 jEGILOPS, aiyiXtoi//, Gr. signifying goat-eyed, 
 the goat being subject to this ailment. A tuimmr 
 or swelling in the great corner of the eye, by the 
 root of the nose, either with or without an in- 
 flammation. Authors frequently use the words 
 tegilops, anchilops, and fistula lachrymalis, syno- 
 nymously : but the more accurate, after TEgineta, 
 make a difference. The tumour, before it be- 
 comes ulcerous, is properly called anchilops ; 
 and, after it has got into the lachrymal passages, 
 and has rendered the os lachrymale carious, 
 fistula lachrymalis. If the aegilops be accom- 
 panied with an inflammation, it is supposed to 
 take its rise from the abundance of blood, which 
 a plethoric habit discharges on the corner of the 
 eye. If it be without an inflammation, it is 
 supposed to proceed from a viscous pituitous 
 humour, thrown upon this part. The method 
 of cure is the same as that of ophthalmia. But 
 before it has reached the lachrymal passages, it 
 is managed like other ulcers. If the aegilops be 
 neglected, it bursts, and degenerates into a fistula, 
 which eats into the bone. 
 
 /EGILOPS, in botany, the cerrus, or holm oak, 
 a species of QUERCUS, which see. 
 
 ./EGILOPS, WILD FESTUC, a genus of the mo- 
 ncecia order, belonging to the polygamia class 
 of plants, and ranking under the fourth natural 
 order, Gramina. The characters are : CAL. 
 hermaphrodite, a two-valved glume, triflorous : 
 COR. a two-valved glume, the outermost valve 
 terminated by three aristae, or awns, the interior 
 awnless : STAM. three capillary filaments, btyle, 
 two : Seed, one, oblong. Male calyx and COB. 
 each a glume as in the former ; and stamina, 
 the same number. There are seven species, 
 natives of Italy, and some other parts of Europe. 
 The flour of the ?egilops cerris, or festuca, has 
 been reputed a remedy for the above-mentioned 
 disease of the eye. 
 
 ^EGIMURUS, in ancient geography, an island 
 in the bay of Carthage, about thirty miles distant 
 from that city, now Goletta. This island being 
 afterwards sunk in the sea, two of its rocks re- 
 mained above water, which were called Ar<e, as 
 mentioned by Virgil, because the Romans and 
 Carthaginians entered into an agreement to settle 
 their mutual boundaries at these rocks. 
 
 ^EGINA, in fabulous history, the daughter of 
 ./Esopus, king of Bceotia, was beloved by Jupiter, 
 who debauched her in the form of a lambent 
 flame, and carried her from Epidaurus, to a 
 desart island called (Enope, which was named 
 after her. 
 
 .&GINA, in geography, an island in the Saro- 
 nic Bay, twenty miles from the Piraeus, formerly 
 vying with Athens for naval power, and at the 
 sea-fight of Salamis, disputing the palm of vic- 
 tory with the Athenians. The Greeks had a 
 common temple in it dedicated to Jupiter. It 
 was surrounded by Attica, the territory of Me- 
 gara, and the Peloponnesus, each distant about 
 100 stadia, or twelve miles and a half. In cir- 
 cumference, it was reckoned 180 stadia, or 
 twenty-two miles and a half. It was washed on 
 the E. and S. by the Myrtoan and Cretan seas. 
 It is now called F.yina, or Egina. The temple
 
 174 
 
 JEGl 
 
 above-mentioned, is situated on the summit of a 
 mountain called Panhellenius, about an hour's 
 walk distant from the shore. The ,/Eginetans 
 affirm it was erected by Mucus ; in whose time 
 Hellas being terribly oppressed by drought, the 
 Delphic oracle was consulted, and the response 
 was, That Jupiter must be rendered propitious 
 by Macus. The cities entreated him to be their 
 mediator : he sacrificed and prayed to Jupiter 
 Panhelleuius, and procured rain. The temple 
 was of the Doric order, and had six columns in 
 front. Twenty-one of the exterior columns were 
 lately standing, with two in the front of the 
 pronaos and of the posticum, and five of the 
 number which formed the ranges of the cell. 
 The entablature, except the architrave, is fallen. 
 The stone is of 'a light brownish colour, much 
 eaten in many places, and indicating very great 
 age. Some of the columns have been injured 
 by boring to their centres for the metal. In 
 several, the junction of the parts is so exact, that 
 each seems to consist of one piece. This ruin 
 Mr. Chandler considers as scarcely to be pa- 
 mlleled in its claim to a remote antiquity. N0ar 
 the shore is a barrow, raised, according to tradi- 
 tion, in memory of Phocus, the son of .flLacus, 
 who was killed by his brother Peleus. See 
 PELEUS. This barrow in the second century, 
 when seen by Pausanius, was surrounded with a 
 fence, and had on it a rough stone. The terror 
 of some dreadful judgment to be inflicted from 
 neaven, had preserved it entire and unaltered to 
 his time ; and in a country depopulated and 
 neglected, it may still endure for many ages. 
 The soil of this island, as described by Strabo, 
 is very stony, especially the bottoms, but in some 
 places, not unfertile in grain. Besides corn, it 
 produces olives, grapes, and almonds; and 
 abounds in pigeons and partridges. It has been 
 related, that the TEginetans annually break their 
 eggs, to prevent their multiplying, and occasion- 
 ing a famine. They have no hares, foxes, or 
 wolves. The rivers in summer are all dry. The 
 vaiwode or governor farms the revenue of the 
 grand seignior; of which, about half is paid by 
 a caratch-money, or poll-tax. 
 
 ./EGINA, was the capital of the above island. 
 Its site has been long forsaken. A remnant of 
 a temple of Venus, is situated near the port, 
 which was principally frequented. The theatre 
 resembled that of the Epidaurians both in size 
 and workmanship. The walls belonging to the 
 ports and arsenal were of excellent masonry, 
 and may be traced to a considerable extent, 
 above, or nearly even with, the water. Here is 
 a small chapel of St. Nicholas, several mean 
 churches, and a square tower with a draw-bridge. 
 This structure, was erected by the Venetians, 
 while at war with the Turks in 1693. This 
 island is generally garrisoned with about 800 men. 
 
 ^EGINETA, in botany, a genus of plants, 
 belonging to the class and order, didynamia 
 angiospermia ; the characters of which are ; the 
 cup an oval, inflated, and coloured spatha ; 
 univalve; opening longitudinally near the top. 
 The flower consists of one petal. Its base large, 
 round, and inflated. The tube short, cylindric, 
 and open ; and the mouth small, but expanded, 
 and turns back at the edge. The STAM. four 
 
 crooked filaments ; two of them of the length 
 of the flower, and the other two a little shorter. 
 The antherae are oblong, and stand close to one 
 another at their top. The germen of the pistil 
 is oval ; the style is subulated, and of the length 
 of the stamina ; and the stigma is large, round 
 and bending. The Hortus Malabaricus is the 
 only work in which we have a description of the 
 plant. 
 
 ^EGINETA, (Paulus,) a celebrated surgeon of 
 the island of ^Egina, from whence he derived 
 his name. According to M. Le Clerc's cal- 
 culation, he lived in the fourth century ; but 
 Abulpharagius, who is allowed to give the best 
 account of those times, places him with more 
 probability in the seventh. His knowledge in 
 surgery was great, and his works are deservedly 
 famous. Fabricius ab Aquapendente has tran- 
 scribed his remarks in a variety of places. He is 
 the first writer who takes notice of the cathartic 
 quality of rhubarb ; and, according to Dr. Mil- 
 ward, is the first in antiquity, who deserves the 
 title of a man-midwife. 
 
 ^EGINET 3E, or ^EGINENSES, the inhabitants 
 of ^Lgina ; they applied early to commerce, and 
 were the first who coined money, which from them 
 was called No/ttg/ia Aiytvatov, A'ginetan coin. 
 From their industry, they got the title of Myr- 
 midons, or the nation of ants. See JEACUS and 
 .rEGINA. 
 
 ^GINETICUM /ES, the money of TEgina, 
 which was much esteemed in ancient Greece. 
 
 JSGINHARD, the celebrated secretary and 
 supposed son-in-law of Charlemagne. He is 
 said to have been carried through the snow on 
 the shoulders of the affectionate and ingenious 
 Imma, to prevent his being traced from her 
 apartments by the emperor her father : a story 
 which the elegant pen of Addison has copied and 
 embellished from an old German chronicle, and 
 inserted in the third volume of the Spectator 
 This happy lover seems to have possessed a heart 
 not unworthy of so enchanting a mistress, and to 
 have returned her affection with the most faith- 
 ful attachment; for there is a letter of ^.gin- 
 hard's still extant, lamenting the death of his 
 wife, which is written in the tenderest strain of 
 connubial affection. He was a native of Ger- 
 many, and was educated by the munificence of 
 his imperial master, of which he has left the most 
 grateful testimony in his preface to the life of 
 that monarch. JEginhard, after the loss of his 
 wife, is supposed to have passed the remainder 
 of his days in religious retirement. His life of 
 Charlemagne, his annals from 741 to 889, and 
 his letters, are inserted in the second volume of 
 Duchesne's Scriptores Francorum. There is an 
 improved edition of this valuable historian, with 
 the annotations of Hermann Schmincke, in 4to, 
 1711. 
 
 jEGIPAN, from Ai?, a goat, in heathen my- 
 thology, a denomination given to the god Pan, 
 because he was represented with the horns, legs, 
 feet, &cc. of a goat. 
 
 ^EGIPANES, in ancient history, a sort of 
 monsters mentioned by Pliny, Solinus, and 
 Pomp. Mela. Salmasius, in his notes on Soli- 
 nus, takes Mgipan to have signified the same, 
 in Libya, with Sylvanus among the Romany
 
 175 
 
 Yossius rejects the opinion, and shews, that the 
 JEpipanes had not faces like men, as the Sylvans 
 had, but like goats. The whole upper part of 
 the body resembled that animal ; and the lower, 
 they painted with a fish's tail. The monster 
 represented on some medals of Augustus, by 
 antiquaries called Capricornus, appears to be the 
 true JEgipan. 
 
 JEGIPHILA, GOAT-FRIEND; in botany, a 
 genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the 
 tetrandria class of plants ; the characters of which 
 are : CAL. a single-leaved perianthium, bell 
 shaped, four-toothed, loose, very short, and per- 
 sistent : COR. one petal ; the tubus cylindric, 
 narrower and longer than the calyx ; the border 
 divided into four segments, flat and equal ; the 
 divisions oblong ; STAM. four erect capillary 
 filaments ; the antherse incumbent and squared : 
 PIST. a germen above ; a capillary, two-cleft, 
 middle sized stylus ; and a simple stigma : the 
 pericarpium is a roundish unilocular berry ; the 
 seeds four. There is only one species, a native 
 of Martinico. 
 
 ./EGIPYROS, in botany, buck wheat. 
 
 jEGIS, in ancient mythology, the shield of 
 Jupiter and Minerva. The goat Amalthea, which 
 had suckled Jove, being dead, that god is said to 
 have covered Irs buckler with the skin : whence 
 the appellation Mgis, from ai, aiyog, a she-goat. 
 Jupiter, afterwards restoring the beast tp life 
 again, covered it with a new skin, and placed it 
 among the stars ; and gave his buckler to 
 Minerva ; whence her shield is also called <egis. 
 Minerva, having killed the Gorgon Medusa, 
 nailed her head in the middle of the aegis, which 
 henceforth had the faculty of converting into 
 stone all those who looked thereon ; as Me- 
 dusa was said to have done during her life. Some 
 critics, particularly Servius, take the aegis not to 
 have been a buckler, but a cuirass, or breast- 
 plate, which is more agreeable to Virgil's de- 
 scription of Minerva's ; ./En. viii. v. 435. But 
 Jupiter's aegis is expressly described as a buck- 
 ler, v. 354. 
 
 jEGISTHUS, in ancient fabulous history, the 
 son of Thyestes, by his own daughter Pelopeia, 
 who, to conceal her shame, exposed him in the 
 woods ; where he was suckled by a goat, and 
 hence called jEgisthus. He corrupted Clytem- 
 nestra, the wife of Agamemnon ; and with her 
 assistance, slew her husband, and reigned seven 
 years in Mycenae. He was, together with Cly- 
 temnestra, slain by Orestes. 
 
 ^EGITHALLUS, in ancient geography, a pro- 
 montory and citadel of Sicily, between Drepa- 
 num and the Emporium Aegistanum, afterwards 
 called Acellus ; corruptly written Aegitharsos, 
 in Ptolemy, situated near Mount Erix, and now 
 called Capo di Santo Theodora. 
 
 .ZEGIUM, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Achaia Propria, five miles from the place where 
 Helice stood, and famous for the council of the 
 Achaeans, which usually met there on account 
 either of the dignity or commodiousness of its 
 situation. It was famous also for the worship of 
 oi 0/Liayupioe Zn/c, Conventional Jupiter, that god 
 having been supposed to be suckled here by the 
 she-goat Amalthse, and of Panachasan Ceres. The 
 territory of TEgium was watered by two rivers, 
 
 viz. the Phoenix and Meganites. The epithet is 
 JEgiensis. There is a coin in the cabinet of the 
 king of Prussia, with the inscription AILI, and 
 the figure of a tortoise, which is the symbol of 
 Peloponnesus, and leaves no doubt as to the 
 place where it was struck. 
 
 yEGLEFINUS, in ichthyology, a name given, 
 by the generality of authors, to the haddock, 
 called by others, the onos. 
 
 -3SGLEUS, in botany, the white chamseleon 
 thistle. It is derived from the Greek aiy\ntie 
 of Galen ; by which he distinguishes the white 
 chamaeleon, which was an esculent and medichuu 
 plant, from the p/3evvof or erebenus, which was 
 what we call the black chamaeleon thistle, and was 
 esteemed poisonous. 
 
 .&GLIA. See ^GIAS. 
 
 7EGOBOLIUM, in antiquity, the sacrifice of 
 a goat offered to Cybele. The aegobolium was 
 an expiatory sacrifice, which bore a near resem- 
 blance to the taurobolium and criobolium, and 
 seems to have been sometimes joined with them. 
 
 7EGOCEPHALUS, in ornithology, the name 
 by which the generality of authors call the bird, 
 known in England by the name of the god-wit, 
 and in some places the stone-plover, the yerwhep, 
 or yarwhip. 
 
 yEGOCERAS, in botany, a name given to 
 fenugreek, and also to bouceras, because of their 
 corniculated fruit, the word originally signifying 
 goat's horn. 
 
 .&GOLETHRON, in botany, a plant men- 
 tioned by Pliny ; which appears to be the same 
 with what Tournefort describes under the name 
 of cham&rododendros, pontica, maxima, mespili 
 folio, floreo luteo. The ancients attribute dan- 
 gerous qualities to it. 
 
 7EGOMANTIA, in antiquity, a species of 
 divination performed by means of a goat. 
 
 ^EGONYCHUS, Atyoc ovi>, the nail or 
 hoof of a goat, in natural history, a plant men- 
 tioned by Pliny, as a synonyme of the lithosper- 
 mum, or gromwell. The ancients called this plant, 
 exonychon; by which they expressed its being 
 like the exterior parts of the nails on the fin- 
 gers. 
 
 #:GOPHTHALMUS, in mineralogy, the 
 goat's eye stone, a name given to those species 
 of agate, or other semipellucid gems which have 
 circular spots in them, resembling the eyes of 
 that animal in colour, and in their round figure. 
 
 ^.GOPODIUM, small wild angelica, gout- 
 wort, goat's-foot, herb gerard, or ashweed; a 
 genus of the digynia order, belonging to the pen- 
 tandria class of plants ; the characters of which 
 are : CAL. a manifold convex umbel ; the partial 
 one, consimilar and flat; there is no involu- 
 crum ; and the proper perianthium is scarcely 
 discernible ; the COR. uniform, the florets all fer- 
 tile ; the proper one has five inverse ovate, con- 
 cave, equal petals, inflected at the top : STAM . 
 five simple filaments twice the length of the 
 corolla ; the antherae, roundish : PIST. a germen 
 beneath ; two purple erect styli the length of the 
 corolla ; the stigmata are headed : no pericar- 
 pium : the fruit is ovate, striated, and bipartite : 
 the seeds are two, ovate, on one side convex 
 and striated, and flat on the other. There is but 
 one species, a native of Britain and other parts
 
 170 
 
 MLl 
 
 of Europe. It is very common under hedges 
 and about gardens. 
 
 ,/EGOPOGON, in botany, a name used by 
 Tragus and others, to express the ulmaria, or 
 common meadow-sweet. 
 
 jEGOPRICON, a genus of the moncecia order, 
 belonging to the diandria class of plants ; the 
 characters of which are; CAL. both of male and 
 female a tubula perianthium of one leaf divided 
 into three segments ; COR. wanting : STAM. a 
 single erect filament longer than the calyx, with 
 an ovate anthera ; PIST. an ovate germen, three 
 divaricated styli, the simple persistent stigmata : 
 the pericarpium a globular berry, three-grained 
 within, and three-celled : the seeds solitary and 
 angular on one side. There is but one species, 
 a native of Surinam. 
 
 ^GOPROSOPON. See ^.GIDION. 
 
 j/EGOSPOTAMOS, in ancient geography, a 
 river in the Thracian Chersonesus, falling into 
 the Hellespont, to the north of Sestos. 
 
 ./EGOSPOTAMOS, a town, station, or road for 
 ships, at the mouth of the above river. Here 
 the Athenians under Conon, through the fault of 
 his colleague Isocrates, received a signal over- 
 throw from the Lacedemonians, under Lysander, 
 which was followed by the taking of Athens, 
 and put an end to the Peloponnesian war. See 
 LYSANDER. 
 
 ^EGREFINUS. See ^EGLEFINUS. 
 
 .EGRITUDO BOVINA. See BOVINA AF- 
 
 FECTIO. 
 
 7EGYPT. See EGYPT. 
 
 ^EGYPTIACA, the Papyrus. 
 
 ,/EGYPTIACUM, in pharmacy, a name given to 
 various ointments of the detergent, or corrosive 
 kind ; such as the black, red, white, simple, 
 compound, or magistral, TEgyptiacum. Of 
 these the principal are : 
 
 ^EGYPTIACUM ALBUM, a composition of lily 
 roots mixed up with aromatics ; it is mentioned 
 by Hippocrates, and is the same with what other 
 ancients call cicinum. It was used by the ladies 
 of those days to smear over their faces, to pre- 
 serve their complexions. Hippocrates also 
 speaks of another composition of the Egyptian 
 thorn. 
 
 ^EGYPTIACUM COMPOSITUM MAGISTRALE, 
 wherein treacle, mithridate, camphor, &c. are 
 ingredients. It is much used in the German dis- 
 pensatories. 
 
 ^EGYPTIACUM RUBRUM, and NITRUM, the 
 red and black kind, are chiefly used by farriers, 
 to soften the hoofs of horses, when too hard. 
 
 ./EGYPTIACUM SIMPLEX, usually found in our 
 shops, is a composition of verdigrise, vinegar, 
 and honey, boiled to a consistence. It takes its 
 name from its dusky colour, wherein it resembles 
 that of the natives of Egypt. It is improperly 
 called an unguent ; as there is no oil in it. 
 Some call it Mel Egyptiacum. It is chiefly 
 used in eating of rotten flesh, and cleansing foul 
 ulcers ; particularly venereal ones in the throat, 
 &c It also destroys those cancerous erosions 
 apt to grow in children's mouths. 
 
 /EGYPTILLA, in natural history, the name 
 of a stone said, by the ancients, to have the re- 
 markable quality of giving water the colour and 
 taste of wine. This seems a very imaginary 
 
 virtue, as are indeed too many of those in former 
 ages attributed to stones. This remarkable fossil 
 was described as variegated with veins of black, 
 white, and bluish, with sometimes a vein of 
 whitish red. The authors of these accounts seem 
 to have understood by this name the stones of 
 the onyx, sardonyx, and camasa kind ; all which 
 we have at present common among us, but 
 none of which possess any such strange properties. 
 
 jEGYPTIO'N, a tropical remedy used by the 
 ancients in uterine disorders. 
 
 ^.GYPTIUM PHARMACUMAD AURES. Aetius 
 speaks of this as excellent for deterging foetid 
 ulcers of the ears, which he says it cures, though 
 the patient were born with them. 
 
 ^GYPTUS, in fabulous history, the son of 
 Belus, and brother of Danaus. See BELIDES. 
 
 ./EHOITULLA, in zoology, the name of an 
 East Indian species of serpent, found frequently 
 in the island of Ceylon ; it is very long and 
 slender, sometimes wholly of a fine green, some- 
 times green and white, and lives principally on 
 trees and among bushes. 
 
 ./EICHRYSON, in botany, a name sometimes 
 given to the Sedum majus. 
 
 -&INAUTJE, from Auvavrat, always mariners, 
 in antiquity, senators of Miletus, who held their 
 deliberations on board a ship, far from shore, 
 and, till their business was decided, never returned 
 to land. 
 
 jEIPATHY, from ae*, always, and 
 affection, Gr. a passion of long continuance. 
 
 ./EITHALES, in botany, another name for 
 the Sedum majus. 
 
 JEIZOON, awov, from au, always, and fotj, 
 life ; Sempervivum, sedum, houseleek. ( 
 
 ^ELF, (which according to various dialects, is 
 pronounced ulf, welph, hulp, hilp, helfe, and, 
 at this day help,') implies assistance. So JElf- 
 win, is victorious, and JElfwold, an auxiliary 
 governour : JElfgifa, a lender of assistance : with 
 which Baotius, Syjnmachus, Epicurus, Sec. bear a 
 plain analogy. Gibson's Camden. 
 
 JELFRED. See ALFRED. 
 
 JELFRIC, archbishop of Canterbury in the 
 tenth century, was the son of an earl of Kent, 
 who, receiving the usual education, assumed the 
 habit of the Benedictine order of monks in the 
 monastery of Abingdon, over which Athelwold 
 then presided, and the latter being subsequently 
 made bishop of Winchester, took TElfric with 
 him to aid in the education of the youth of his 
 diocese. He composed a Latin Saxon Vocabu- 
 lary, and some Latin colloquies, the former of 
 which was printed by Somner, under the title of 
 A Glossary, Oxon. 1659. ./Elfric also during 
 his residence in Winchester, translated from the 
 Latin into Saxon, most of the historical books of 
 the Old Testament, and Canons for the regula 
 lation of the Clergy, which are inserted in 
 Spelman's Councils. He afterwards became 
 abbot of St. Albans, (where he composed a 
 liturgy for the service of his abbey, which was 
 used in Leland's time,) bishop of Wilton, and, 
 in 994, was translated to the see of Canterbury. 
 He frequently assisted his country in a spirited 
 resistance of the Danish invaders, and died highly 
 venerated, Nov. 1005. 
 
 /ELIA CAPITOLINA. See JERUSALEM.
 
 AEM 
 
 177 
 
 TELIA N, (Claudius,) born at Prseneste in 
 Italy, taught rhetoric at Rome, under Alexander 
 Severus. He was surnamed MtXtyXuxrffoc, Honey- 
 mouth, on account of the sweetness of his style, 
 and entitled Sophist, an appellation in his days 
 given only to men of learning and wisdom. 
 He loved retirement, and studied Plato, Aristotle, 
 Isocrates, Plutarch, &c. and, though a Roman, 
 gave the preference to the Greek authors. His 
 most celebrated works are, his Various History, 
 and History of Animals ; though he also wrote a 
 book on Providence, and another on Divine 
 Appearances. 
 
 /ELII PONS, in ancient geography, one of the 
 fortresses near Adrian's Wall, now called Port- 
 land in Northumberland, between Newcastle and 
 Morpeth. 
 
 JELIUS PONS, now il Ponte S. Angela, a 
 stone bridge at Rome, over the Tyber, which 
 leads to the Burgo and Vatican from the city, 
 along Adrian's mole, built by the emperor 
 Adrian. 
 
 /ELMEFOCH, in ecclesiastical affairs, the 
 tribute of a penny from each house, anciently 
 paid to the Pope, and thence called Peter-pence. 
 
 AELPUTE, AELMODER, and AELMUTTER, 
 names of the Eelpout. See next article, 
 
 AELQUAPPE, in zoology, the common 
 name, among the German nations, of a fish of 
 the Mustela kind, the viviparous eelpout, called 
 by Schonef'eldt mustela vivipara. It is usually 
 a foot long or more. Its skin is perfectly smooth, 
 and the colour of its back and head a brown- 
 ish yellow, marked with blotches of black ; the 
 colour of the back grows paler on the sides, and 
 on the belly is whitish. It has four gills on each 
 side, and the head is shaped like that of the eel ; 
 the back fin reaches the whole length of the 
 body, terminating near the tail. The belly fin 
 begins at the anus, and reaches to the extremity 
 of the fish, ending in a fine, slender, and some- 
 what reddish tail. Beside these, it has two pairs 
 of fins, one at the bottom of the gills, which are 
 somewhat broad, and the other very fine and 
 slender under the throat. The young of this 
 species are often found alive, to the number of 300 
 in one individual : they are found of two fingers 
 breadth long, and live sometimes after they are 
 taken out. 
 
 AELST, (Evert Van,) a celebrated Dutch 
 painter of still life, born at Delft, in 1602. He 
 acquired a great reputation for delicacy of man- 
 ner and exactitude in copying nature, as well as 
 for the beautiful lustre he gave to his representa- 
 tion of metals. 
 
 7ELUROPO, in pharmacy, a syrup made of 
 the herb cats-foot, a species of gnaphalium. 
 
 ./ELURUS, in Egyptian mythology, the god 
 of cats ; represented sometimes like a cat, and 
 sometimes like a man with a cat's head. The 
 Egyptians had so superstitious a regard for this 
 animal, that the killing it, whether by accident 
 or design was punished with death ; and Diodo- 
 rus relates, that, in the time of extreme fanrne, 
 they chose rather to eat one another than touch 
 those sacred animals. 
 
 AEM, AM, or AME, a liquid measure used in 
 most parts of Germany : but different in different 
 towns : the aem commonly contains twenty 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 vertils, or eighty masses : that of Heidelberg!) is 
 equal to forty-eight masses; and that of Wir- 
 tembergto 160 masses. See AAM. 
 
 .&MILIANUS, TEMILIUS, or C. JULIUS, an 
 obscure native of Mauritania, who by his valour 
 and prudent conduct, raised himself to become 
 successively first consul and emperor of Rome . 
 He succeeded Decius, and marched against 
 Gallus and Valerian, who were murdered by 
 their own troops, a fate which he also shortly 
 suffered. 
 
 ^EMILIANUS. See SCIPIO. 
 
 ./EMILIUS, (Paulus,) the son of Lucius 
 .Smilius, who was killed at the battle of Cannae, 
 was twice consul. In his first consulate, he 
 triumphed over the Ligurians ; and in the second, 
 subdued Perseus king of Macedonia, and re- 
 duced that country to a Roman province, on 
 which he obtained the surname of Macedonicus. 
 He returned to Rome, loaded with glory, and 
 triumphed for three days. He died 168 years 
 before Christ. 
 
 Y~EMILIUS, (Paulus,) a celebrated historian, 
 born at Verona, who obtained such reputation 
 in Italy, that he was invited into France by the 
 cardinal of Bourbon, in the reign of Louis XII. 
 to write the history of the kings of France in 
 Latin, and was given a canonry in the cathedral 
 of Paris. He was near forty years in writing 
 that history, which has been greatly admired ; 
 and died at Paris in 1529. 
 
 TEMOBOLIUM, in antiquity, the blood of a 
 bull or ram offered in the sacrifices, called tauro- 
 bolia and cribolia; in which sense the word 
 occurs, in ancient inscriptions. Some read it 
 JEgobolium, which see. 
 
 ./ENARIA, in ancient geography, an island in 
 the bay of Cumas, Italy, It was also called 
 Inarime, and now Ischia ; and is twenty miles in 
 compass. It is one of the Oenotrides, and fenced 
 round by very high rocks, so as to be inaccessible 
 but on one side : it was formerly famous for its 
 earthenware. See ISCHIA. 
 
 ./ENEAS, in fabulous history, a famous Trojan 
 prince, the son of Anchises and Venus. At the 
 destruction of Troy, he bore his aged father on 
 his back, and saved him from the Greeks ; but 
 being too solicitous about his son and household 
 gods, lost his wife Creusa in the escape. Land- 
 ing in Africa, he was kindly received by queen 
 Dido, to whom he made a very ungrateful re- 
 turn. Quitting her coast, he arrived in Italy, 
 where he married Lavinia, the daughter of king 
 Latinus, and defeated Turnus, to whom she had 
 been contracted. After the death of his father- 
 in-law, he was made king of the Latins, over 
 whom he reigned three years : but joining with 
 the Aborigines, he was slain in a battle against 
 the Tuscans. See JLNEID, 
 
 ./ENEAS SYLVIUS. See Pius II. 
 
 7ENEATORES, in antiquity, the musicians 
 in an army ; including those who played trum- 
 pets, horns, litui, buccinte, &c. The word is 
 formed from teneas, on account of the brazen in- 
 struments used by them. 
 
 .&NEID, the name of Virgil's celebrated epic 
 poem. The subject, the establishment of Mneaa 
 in Italy, is extremely happy. Nothing could be 
 more interesting to the Romans, than to look 
 
 N
 
 178 
 
 back to their origin from so famous a .iero. While 
 the object itself was splendid, the traditionary 
 history of this country opened interesting fields 
 to the poet; and he could glance at all the 
 recent and really great exploits of the Romans, 
 in its ancient and fabulous state. The unity of 
 action is perfectly preserved in the Mneid. The 
 settlement of &neas, by the order of the gods, is 
 constantly kept in view ; and the episodes are 
 linked properly with the main subject. The 
 nodus, or intrigue of the poem, is also happily 
 managed. The wrath of Juno, who opposes 
 JEneas, gives rise to all his difficulties, and con- 
 nects the human with the celestial operations, 
 throughout the whole poem. One great imper- 
 fection, however, is, that there are no strongly 
 marked characters in the Mneid. Achates, 
 Cloanthes, Gyas, and other Trojan heroes who 
 accompanied jEneas into Italy, are insipid. 
 Even JEneas himself is without interest. The 
 character of Dido is the best supported in the 
 whole JEneid. The principal excellency of the 
 JEneid of Virgil is tenderness. His soul was full 
 of sensibility. He must have felt himself all the 
 affecting circumstances in the scenes he describes ; 
 and he knew how to touch the heart by a single 
 stroke. In an epic poem this merit is next to 
 sublimity. The second book of the JEneid is 
 one of the greatest master-pieces that ever was 
 executed. The death of old Priam^ and the 
 family-pieces of Mneas, Anchises, and Creusa, 
 are as tender as can be conceived. In the fourth 
 book, the unhappy passion and death of Dido 
 are admirable. The episodes of Pallas and 
 Evander, of Nisus and Euryalus, of Lausus and 
 Mezentius, are superlatively fine. In his battles, 
 Virgil is inferior to Homer. But, in the impor- 
 tant episode, the descent into hell, he has sur- 
 passed Homer by many degrees. There is 
 nothing in antiquity, that equals the sixth book 
 of the JEneid. 
 
 ANGINA, one of the islands of the Archi- 
 pelago. See .&GINA. 
 
 ./ENIGMA, alviyjia, a riddle. An obscure 
 and difficult question. 
 
 The dark enigma will allow 
 A meaning; which, if well I understand, 
 From sacrilege will free the god's command. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 A custom was amongst the ancients of proposing an 
 enigma at festivals, and adjudging a reward to him 
 that solved it. Pope. 
 
 ^ENIGMA. See ENIGMA. 
 
 ./ENIGMA, Ati/iy^ta, formed of aivtmaQai, ob- 
 scure innuere, to hint a thing darkly, and of aivog, 
 an obscure speech, denotes any dark saying, 
 wherein something is concealed under obscure 
 language. The popular name is riddle ; from 
 the Belgic raeden, or the Saxon araethun, to 
 interpret. Fa. Bouhours, in the memoirs of 
 Trevoux, defines an aenigma : A discourse, or 
 painting, including some hidden meaning, which 
 is proposed to be guessed. 
 
 ./ENIGMAS, VERBAL, are witty, artful and ab- 
 struse descriptions of any thing. In a general 
 sense, every dark saying, every parable, may 
 pass for an senigma. Hence, obscure laws are 
 called JEnigmata Juris; and, the alchemists are 
 great dealers in senigmatic language, their pro- 
 
 cesses for the philosopher's stone being generally 
 wrapt up in riddles: e. g. Fac ex mare etfmnin* 
 cimilum, inde quadrangulum, hinc triangulum, 
 fac circulum, et habebis lapidem philosophorum. 
 F. Menestrier has attempted to reduce the com- 
 position and resolution of senigmas to a kind of 
 art, with fixed rules and principles, which he 
 calls the philosophy of aenigmatic images. Puerile 
 as, in modern times, the exercise of resolving 
 enigmas may appear, it is certain that the practice 
 of their proposition and explanation has existed 
 in the most remote, and the most learned ages of 
 the world. The greater part of the Egyptian 
 learning is said to have been comprised in aenig- 
 mas ; and that of the sphinx, and the supposed 
 discovery of its celebrated riddle by (Edipus, 
 appears to be testified by the numerous Egyp- 
 tian statues of that fabulous monster. The story 
 is this : a certain monster, having the head and 
 breasts of a woman, the wings of a bird, the claws 
 of a lion, arid the body of a dog, had long ravaged 
 the country about Thebes, and could not be de- 
 stroyed until this riddle was solved : What animal 
 is that which walks on four legs in the morning, 
 at noon on two, and at night on three ? The 
 answer of CEdipus was, it is a man : when the 
 monster, in despair, dashed out his brains against 
 a rock. Sphinxes themselves, indeed, were 
 ^enigmatical of the rising of the Nile ; the head 
 of a woman, and the body of a lion, indicating 
 the overflow of that river, when the sun passed 
 through the signs of Virgo and Leo in August ; 
 Gale thinks, the Jews borrowed their senigmatical 
 forms of speech, (see Numbers xii. 8. Judges 
 xiv. 12.) from the Egyptians. The New Testa- 
 ment says, " Now (in this state) we see through 
 a mirror iv aiviyjian, in an enigmatical manner, 
 but then (in an eternal state) face to face." 1 Cor. 
 xiii. 12. 
 
 Some oenigmas of antiquity have furnished 
 considerable employment to critics. We sub- 
 join : 
 
 1 . The celebrated sybilline senigma : 
 
 Evvia ypu/t/jar' '%&>, rerpaffuXXa/Sof tipi, votipt. 
 At TpiiQ ai TTpairai Svb ypa/zjudr' 'i\ncnv Ka<rJ/, 
 'H \onrt St TO. Xoiira, KO.I tialv a^nava ~u irtvrt- 
 Ta iravTOQ S' apifyis ficarovTaSiQ tlffl Blf tirra, 
 Kat rpH rpig SiKaSff KOI dig rpiai. IVsc Si rig t'tfit, 
 'OvK afjivvTOf tffr) rig Trap tfix ao<j>it)e. 
 
 Thus translated by M. Leibnitz. 
 
 Literulis noscor quadrisyllabus ipse novenis : 
 Syllaba habet binas, nisi quod tenet ultima ternas. 
 Vocales quatuor, quinis non propria vox est. 
 Bis septem vicibus numerum centuria totum 
 Ingreditur, decadesque novem, turn bis tria. Si me 
 Noveris, hinc aditus ad sacra nostra patent. 
 
 A mystical solution has been given of this 
 enigma. Moret will have it signify the name 
 Jehovah, which, according to him, comprehends 
 the number 1696, abating one, the number con- 
 tained in the acnigma. Brentius maintains, that 
 the whole sum amounts to 1711, and that it re- 
 presents the word <j>oa$opoq. The generality 
 understand it of the word arsenic, or APSE- 
 NIKON. 
 
 2. An ingenious senigma on the operation of 
 cupping, by a machine of brass : 
 
 Avdp tlSov irvpi xa\icbv nr ai-tgi Ko
 
 179 
 
 *' I saw a man, who, unprovok'd with ire, 
 Stuck brass upon another's back by fire." 
 Arist. Rhetor. 1. iii. c. 2. t. 2. p. 586. ed. Duval. 
 3. The celebrated Spanish enigma from the 
 Bologna marble, preserved in the Voltaian family, 
 is perhaps, the most famous specimen of this 
 kind of learning : 
 
 D. M. 
 
 jELIA L.CLIA CRISPIS. 
 
 Nee vir, nee mulier, nee androgyna. 
 Nee puella, nee juvenis, nee anus. 
 Nee casta, nee meretrix, nee pudica, 
 
 SED O.MNIA. 
 
 Sublata. 
 Neque fame, neque ferro, neque veneno. 
 
 SED OMNIBUS. 
 
 Nec ccelo, nee aquis, nee terris. 
 
 SED UBIQUE JACET. 
 
 Nec maritus, nee amator, nee necessarius, 
 Neque maerens, neque gaudens, neque flens, 
 
 Hanc, 
 Nec molem, nee pyramidem, nee sepulchrum. 
 
 SED OMNI A. 
 
 Scit, et nescit cui posuerit ; 
 Lucius AGATIIO PRISCIUS. 
 
 That is to say, " To the gods' manes. ^Elia Lelia 
 Crispis, neither man, nor woman, nor herma- 
 phrodite ; neither girl, nor young woman, nor 
 old ; neither chaste, nor polluted, nor a mo- 
 dest woman ; but all these : killed neither by 
 hunger, nor steel, nor poison ; but by all 
 these : rests neither in heaven, nor on the 
 earth, nor in the waters; but every where. 
 Lucius Agatho Priscius, neither her husband, nor 
 lover nor friend ; nor sorrowful, nor joyful, 
 nor weeping; certain, and uncertain, to whom 
 he rears this monument, neither erects her a 
 temple, nor a pyramid, nor a tomb, but all 
 these." In the MS. at Milan, instead of D. M. 
 we find A. M. P. P. D. and at the end the follow- 
 ing addition : 
 
 " Hoc est sepulchrum intus cadaver non habens, 
 Hoc est cadaver sepulchrum extra non habens, 
 Sed cadaver idem est et sepulchrum." 
 
 Which signifies, " This is the grave that has no 
 corpse within : This is the corpse that has no 
 grave without ; but the corpse and the grave 
 are the same." 
 
 We find near fifty several solutions of this 
 aenigma advanced by learned men. Marius 
 Michael Angelus maintains, ./Elia Lelia Crispis, 
 to signify rain water falling into the sea. Ri. 
 Vitus first explained it of Niobe turned to a 
 stone, afterwards of the rational soul, and after- 
 wards of the Platonic idea ; Jo. Turrius, of the 
 materia prima; Fr. Schottus, of an eunuch, 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 4. We cannot omit, lastly, this elegant little 
 enigmatic epitaph : 
 
 ON FAIR ROSAMOND. 
 
 Hie jacet Rosa munda, non Rosa mundi, 
 Non redolet, sed olet, quae redolere solet. 
 
 ENIGMATICAL, something that relates to, 
 or partakes of, the nature of enigma. The phi- 
 losophy of the Druids was altogether enigma- 
 tical. The ancient sages in general, affected an 
 enigmatical way of writing, to conceal their doc- 
 trines from the populace. The Romans in Nero's 
 time, were obliged to have recourse to the like 
 
 method, though for different reasons. We read 
 of an aenigmatical medal presented by the Hugue- 
 nots to Henry III. Schott has published an 
 explication of an enigmatical coin of the emperor 
 Augustus, concerning which antiquaries have 
 been long divided. 
 
 7ENIGMATOGRAPHER, or .^NIGMATIST, 
 a maker or explainer of enigmas. Hardouin, 
 Vander Hardt, &c. are great enigmatists. 
 
 from Aiviy/ta, and ypa^w, to describe, or Xoyoc, 
 speech, the art of resolving or making Enigmas. 
 
 jENII, the inhabitants of Mnos. 
 
 JENITHOLOGIUS, in poetry, a kind of verse, 
 consisting of two dactyls, and three trochei ; 
 Such as, 
 
 Praelia dira placent truci juventae, 
 
 -/ENOBARBUS, in ancient history, the agno- 
 men or surname of Domitius, who was so called 
 from his beard, which, according to tradition, 
 was changed by Castor and Pollux, from brown 
 to red, because he did not believe them, when 
 they revealed to him a victory that was obtained. 
 
 .52NONA, in ancient geography, a city of 
 Liburnia, called by Pliny Civitas Prasini, the 
 reason of which is unknown, ; also Enona, and 
 now Nona ; on the Adriatic, by which it is for 
 the greater part surrounded, over against the 
 island Gissa, from which it is distant four miles 
 to the west. 
 
 .ZENOS, ^ENUM, or JEuus, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, a town of Thrace, situated on the east mouth 
 of the Hebrus, and said to be built by the 
 Cumeans. It was a free town, in which stood 
 the tomb of Polydorus. Here the brother of 
 Cato Uticensis died, and was honoured with a 
 monument of marble, in the forum of the Enii. 
 Livy says, that the town was otherwise called 
 Absynthus. It is now called Eno. 
 
 JSNUS, in ancient geography, now the Inn, 
 a river of Germany, which rising in the country 
 of the Grisons, out of the Rhoetian Alps, runs 
 through the Grisons, the Tyrol, the duchy of 
 Bavaria, and through Passau, into the Danube. 
 
 jEOLIA. See J&OLIS. 
 
 &OLI1E, INSULT, now hole di Lipari, in an- 
 cient geography, seven islands, situated between 
 Sicily and Italy, so called from ^Eolus, who 
 reigned there about the time of the Trojan war. 
 The Greeks call them Hepfuestiades ; and the Ro- 
 mans Vulcanite, from their fiery eruptions. They 
 are also called Lipaneorum Insults, from their 
 principal island Lipara. 
 
 ^SOLIAN, or ^EOLIC, in grammar, one of 
 the five dialects of the Greek tongue. It was 
 first used in Boeotia; whence it passed into 
 yEolia, and was that in which Sappho and 
 Alceus wrote. The ./Eolic dialect generally 
 throws out the aspirate or sharp spirit, and 
 agrees in so many things with the Doric, that 
 the two are usually confounded together. 
 
 JEonAN HARP. In our article ACOUSTICS, 
 we have mentioned an instrument of this kind, 
 the invention of which has been generally attri- 
 buted to Kircher. But the fact is, that it was 
 known and used at a much earlier date, as Mr, 
 Richardson has proved, (Dissertation on the 
 Manners and Customs of the East ;) in various 
 eastern countries. There is a Rabbinical story,
 
 180 
 
 (Berach vi.) of the aerial harmony of the harp 
 of David ; which when hung up at night, was 
 played upon by the north wind. Kircher wrote 
 a book describing his instrument, entitled Magia 
 Phonotactica et Phonurgia. 
 
 In England, where it was introduced about 
 the middle of the last century, it is generally a 
 simple box of thin fibrous wood (often of 
 deal,) to which are attached a certain number of 
 fine catgut strings, sometimes to the number 
 of fifteen, of equal size and length, and con- 
 sequently unisons, stretched on low bridges at 
 each end. Its length is made to correspond 
 with the size of the window or aperture in which 
 it is intended to be placed ; its width is about 
 five or six inches, and its depth two or three. 
 The sash must be raised to admit it with the 
 strings uppermost, under which is a circular 
 opening in the centre, as in the belly of the 
 guitar. When the wind blows athwart the 
 strings, it produces the effect of a choir of music 
 in the air, sweetly mingling all the harmonic 
 notes, and swelling or diminishing its sounds 
 according to the strength or weakness of the 
 blast. 
 
 A Mr. Crossthwaite has suggested a more 
 simple instrument, having no sounding board ; 
 but being in fact nothing but a number of strings 
 introduced between two deal boards. From 
 this he produced, he states, most delicious 
 harmony. 
 
 Various improvements of the instrument have 
 been suggested, but it is not in the whole suit- 
 able to the changeable and humid climate of 
 England ; and, its theory appears, as hitherto 
 to have been but very imperfectly understood. 
 Robert Bloomfield, the author of the Farmer's 
 Boy, is said to have been a successful manufac- 
 turer of this instrument, and published a col- 
 lection of extracts and observations respecting 
 it. He tried to cover the strings with silver 
 wire, which appeared to deaden the sounds ; 
 while a covering of oil wholly stopped them. 
 Silk strings he says will give a most delicate 
 note, but are with difficulty made to endure 
 sufficient tension ; and advises that the instru- 
 ment be so placed as to catch the wind rather in 
 a vertical than a horizontal direction. 
 
 Mr. Young in his Enquiry into the Principal 
 Phenomena of Sound and Musical Strings, 
 (London, 1784, 8vo.) has furnished some in- 
 genious observations on the order of the notes 
 produced by the ^.olian harp. To ascertain 
 this, he took off all the strings but one ; and, 
 placing it in a proper situation, was surprised to 
 hear a great variety of notes, and frequently 
 such as were not produced by any aliquot part 
 of the string. Sometimes there was a chord of 
 two or three notes from this single string. Per- 
 plexed by these complex and extraordinary 
 phenomena, he almost despaired of being able 
 to account for them on the principle of aliquot 
 parts. On farther examination, however, ' v ,e 
 found that they all flowed naturally and easily 
 from this principle. He observed that a current 
 of air rushing against the middle of a stretched 
 elastic string, moved the whole of it from its 
 rectilinear position ; and that the string, by its 
 elasticity, returned to its former position, vibra- 
 
 ting and exciting pulses in the air, so as to pro- 
 duce the tone of the entire string ; that if the 
 current of air be too strong and rapid, when 
 the string is bent, it will retain its curvature 
 But though the whole string cannot perform its 
 vibrations in this case, the subordinate aliquot 
 parts may ; and these will be of different lengths 
 according to the rapidity of the blast. Thus, 
 when the velocity of the current increases so as 
 to prevent the vibration of the whole string, 
 those particles which strike against the middle 
 points of the halves of the string agitate those 
 halves, as in the case of sympathetic and secon- 
 dary tones : and as these halves vibrate in half 
 the time of the whole string, though the blast 
 may be too rapid to admit of the vibration of 
 the whole, yet it can have no more effect in pre- 
 venting the motion of the halves than it would 
 have on the whole string if its tension were 
 quadruple : for the times of vibration in strings 
 of different lengths, and agreeing in other cir- 
 cumstances, are directly as the lengths ; and in 
 strings differing in tension, and agreeing in other 
 circumstances, inversely, as the square roots of 
 the tensions : and, therefore, their vibrations 
 may become strong enough to excite such pulses 
 as will affect the drum of the ear : and the same 
 may be said of other aliquot divisions of the 
 string. Those particles which strike against such 
 points of the string as are not in the middle of 
 aliquot parts, will interrupt and counteract each 
 other's vibrations, as in the case of sympathetic 
 and secondary tones, and therefore will not pro- 
 duce a sensible effect. See the work above 
 mentioned. 
 
 ^EOLIC DIGAMMA, is a name given to the 
 letter F, which the ^.olians used to prefix to 
 words beginning with vowels, as Totvog for 
 oivog ; or to insert between vowels, as or 14 for 
 OIQ. 
 
 .ZEoLic VERSE, in prosody, a verse consisting 
 of an iambus, or spondee ; then of two anapests, 
 separated by a long syllable ; and, lastly, of ano- 
 ther syllable, either long or short, such as,0 stel- 
 liferl conditor orbis. This is otherwise called 
 c-ulogic verse ; and from the chief poets who used 
 it Archilochian and Pindaric. 
 
 ./EOLII, or JOLES, the inhabitants of ^Eolis. 
 
 .&OLIPILA, or .EOLIPILE, Lat. the ball of 
 .ZEolus, in hydraulics, a hollow ball of metal for- 
 merly used in courses of experimental philosophy, 
 to demonstrate the possibility of converting water 
 into an elastic steam or vapour by heat. The 
 instrument consists of a slender neck, or pipe, 
 having a narrow orifice inserted into the ball by 
 means of a shouldered screw. The pipe being 
 taken out, the ball was filled almost full of water, 
 and the pipe being again screwed in, the whole 
 was placed on a pan of kindled charcoal, where 
 itwas well heated, and there issued from the ori- 
 fice a vapour, with prodigious violence and great 
 noise, which continued till all the included water 
 was discharged. The stronger the fire, the 
 more elastic and violent will be the steam ; but 
 care must be taken that the small orifice of the 
 pipe be not, by any accident, stopped up ; be- 
 cause the instrument would in that case infallibly 
 break in pieces, with such violence as would 
 greatly endanger the lives of the persons near
 
 JEOL 
 
 181 
 
 it. Another way of introducing the water was 
 to heat the ball red-hot when empty, which will 
 drive out almost all the air ; and then by sud- 
 denly immerging it in water, the pressure of the 
 atmosphere forces in the fluid till it is nearly full. 
 Des Cartes and others have used this instru- 
 ment to account for the natural cause and ge- 
 neration of the wind. Chauvin suggests some 
 farther uses of the J&olipile. He thinks it 
 might be applied, instead of a bellows, to blow 
 the fire, where a very intense heat is required. 
 Dr. Lewis on the contrary condemns this use of 
 the JEalipile, and says, that upon trial he al- 
 ways found that instead of exciting, it extin- 
 guished the fire. But it might serve to scent 
 or fumigate a room, if filled with perfumed, 
 instead of common water, and an Molipile has 
 been sometimes placed in a chimney, where it 
 can be heated, that the vapour may serve to drive 
 the smoke up the chimney. Dr. Plott says, 
 the lord of the manor of Essington is bound by 
 his tenure to drive a goose every New-year's day 
 three times round the hall of the lord of Hilton, 
 while Jack of Hilton (a brazen figure having 
 the structure of an Molipile) blows the fire ! In 
 Italy it is said, that the JJLolipile is commonly 
 made use of to cure smokey chimnies. Some 
 authors have discovered a still more extraordinary 
 use, to which the frauds of the heathen priest- 
 hood applied the jEolipile, viz. the working of 
 sham miracles. Besides Jack of Hilton, which 
 had been an ancient Saxon idol, Mr. Weber 
 shews, that Fluster, a celebrated German idol, 
 is also of the JEolipile kind; and in virtue 
 thereof, could do noble feats ; being filled with 
 a fluid, and thus set on the fire, it would be 
 covered with sweat ; and as the heat increased, 
 would at length burst out into flames. There 
 can be no doubt that much concealed knowledge 
 of natural philosophy was artfully used in an- 
 cient times, to palm the miracles of different 
 priesthoods on the world. 
 
 .ZEOLIS, or ^EOLIA, in ancient geography, a 
 country of Asia, settled by colonies of /Eolian 
 Greeks. At large it comprehended all Troas, 
 and the coast of the Hellespont to the Propontis, 
 because in those parts there are several jfeolian 
 colonies : more strictly, it was situated between 
 Troas to the north, and Ionia to the south. 
 
 ./EOLIUM MARE, in ancient geography, the 
 JEolian Sea, a part of the Egean Sea, washing 
 /Eolis ; called also Mysium, from Mysia ; now 
 called Golfo di Smyrna. 
 
 j'EOLOPYL^E, from AioXs irvXoi, the gates 
 of ^Eolus, the same with JEOLIPILA, which see. 
 AEOLUS, in heathen mythology, the god of 
 the winds, was said to be the son of Jupiter by 
 Acasta, or Sigesia, the daughter of Hippotus : or, 
 according to others, the son of Hippotus by Me- 
 neclea, daughter of Hyllus king of Lipara. He 
 dwelt in the island Strongyle, now called Strom- 
 bolv, one of the seven islands called Eolian from 
 their being under the dominion of ^Eolus. Others 
 say, that his residence was at Regium, in Italy ; 
 and others again place him in the island Lipara. 
 He is represented as having authority over the 
 winds, which he held enchained in a vast cavern, 
 to prevent their continuing the devastations they 
 had been guilty of before they were put under 
 
 his direction. Mythologists explain the original 
 of these fables, by saying, that he was a wise and 
 good prince ; and, being skilled in astronomy, 
 was able, by the flux and reflux of the tides, and 
 the nature of the volcano in the island Strongyle, 
 to foretel storms and tempests. 
 
 AEOLUS, in mechanics is also a name given 
 to various mechanical contrivances for refreshing 
 and changing the air in rooms. 
 
 YEON, AIQN, Gr. age ; the duration of any- 
 thing. 
 
 The term auav, originally signified an age, 
 the life or duration of any person or thing. 
 " Possessing an immutable being," says Aristotle, 
 speaking of the gods, " free from external im- 
 pressions, happy and self-sufficient, they exist 
 throughout all auavia, eternity." " This word," 
 he adds, "has been divinely spoken by the 
 ancients : for the consummation containing the 
 time of every life is called its age, (its period of 
 duration.) For the same reason, the consum- 
 mation of the whole heaven, and the consumma- 
 tion containing the unlimited duration, and the 
 immensity of all things is eternity, deriving its 
 name from always being immortal and divine." 
 Lib. i. Ccel. c. 10. 
 
 The term was, by a natural metonymy, trans- 
 ferred at later periods to the beings spoken of 
 themselves : and the early heretics, as we have 
 seen, transferred these heathen fables into the 
 Christian system. See Mosheim, vol. i. 
 
 1E.OW, among the followers of Plato, was used 
 to signify any virtue, attribute, or perfection ; 
 hence they represented the deity as an assem- 
 blage of all possible aeons ; and called him 
 Pleroma, a Greek term signifying fulness. The 
 Valentinians, who, in the first ages of the church, 
 blended the conceits of the Jewish cabalists, the 
 Platonists, and the Chaldean philosophers, with 
 the simplicity of the Christian doctrine, invented 
 a kind of Theogony, or Genealogy of Gods, (not 
 unlike that of Hesiod,) whom they called by 
 several glorious names, and all by the general 
 appellation of vEoxs : among whom they reckoned 
 Evvoia, Thought, Styi;, Silence, Xaptc, Grace, 
 Nc, Understanding, AXnOiuz, Truth, "ZiaQta, 
 Wisdom, Zwq, Life, Ao-fog, Word, Movoytvijc, 
 Only-begotten, IIXjpwjia, Fulness, and many 
 other divine powers and emanations, amounting 
 in number to thirty : which they fancied to be 
 successively derived from one another ; and all 
 from one self-originated deity, named Bythus, 
 i. e. profound or unfathomable ; whom they called 
 likewise The most high and ineffable Father. See 
 VALENTINIANS. 
 
 ./EoN, in anatomy, the spinal marrow. 
 ./EoN, in the Phoenician theology, was the first 
 created woman. 
 
 ^EORA, in ancient medical writings, is used 
 for a species of exercise often prescribed by phy- 
 sicians, wherein the limbs were at rest, while the 
 body was moved from place to place, in such a 
 manner as the physician prescribed. Sometimes 
 the patient was laid in a sort of hammock, sup- 
 ported by ropes, and moved backward and for- 
 ward ; sometimes his bed run nimbly on its feet. 
 And besides these, the several ways of travelling 
 were accounted species of the aeora, whether in 
 the litter, in a boat or ship, or on even ground
 
 182 
 
 in a chariot. Asciepiades was the first who 
 brought this mode of exercise into practice, and 
 used it as a means to recover strength after a 
 fever, &c. 
 
 MQUA., or ./EQUANA, in ancient geography, 
 a town of Naples, which, being destroyed, was 
 rebuilt, and called Vicus, now Vicho di Sorrento. 
 jEQUALIS POLYGAMIA, in botany, the first 
 order in the class syngenesia, of Linnaeus, con- 
 taining such compound flowers as have all their 
 florets hermaphrodite and alike. The following 
 are the genera it includes : 
 
 Scolymus, Golden Thistle, 
 
 Cichorium, Succory, 
 
 Catananche, 
 
 Seriola, 
 
 Hypocharis, Cat's-ear, 
 
 Geropogon, Old Man's beard. 
 
 Rothia, 
 
 Andryala, 
 
 Triptilion, 
 
 Tragopodon, Goat's beard, 
 
 Hclmintia, 
 
 Picris, Ox-tongue, 
 
 Scorzonera, Viper's-grass, 
 
 Leontodon, Dandelion. 
 
 Crepis, Hawk's beard, 
 
 Chondrilla, Gum Succory 
 
 Prenathes, 
 
 Lactuca, Lettuce 
 
 Heracium, Hawk's-weed 
 
 Sonchus, Sow-thistle, 
 
 Lacintha, 
 
 Lapsana, Nipple-wort, 
 
 Rhagadiolus, 
 
 Krigia, 
 
 Hyoseris, Swine's Succory 
 
 Hedypnois, Hawkbit 
 
 Thrineia, 
 
 Tolpis, 
 
 Atractylis, 
 
 Acarna, 
 
 Serratula, Saw-wort, 
 
 Carthamus, Bastard Saffron 
 
 Carlina, Carline Thistle 
 
 Aretium, Burdock 
 
 Pteronia, 
 
 Stobasa, 
 
 Lachnospermum, 
 
 Barnadesia, 
 
 Cynara, Artichoke, 
 
 Johannia, 
 
 Cnicus, 
 
 Carduus, Thistle, 
 
 Onoseris, 
 
 Stokesia, 
 
 Leatris, 
 
 Vernonia, 
 
 Onopordon, Cotton Thistle, 
 
 Steh&lina, 
 
 Haynea, 
 
 Calea, Halbert-weed 
 
 Bidens, Bur Marygold, 
 
 Spilanthes, 
 
 Athanasia, 
 
 Santolina, Lavender-cotton, 
 
 Cxsulia, 
 
 Tarchonanthus, African, 
 
 Vlea-bane, 
 
 Kuhnia, 
 
 Eupatorium, Hemp, 
 
 Agrimony 
 
 Chrysocoma, Goldilocks 
 
 Mikania, 
 
 Kleinia, 
 
 Cacalia, 
 
 Lavenia, 
 
 Ageratum, 
 
 Stevia, 
 
 Hymenopappus, 
 
 Cephalophora, 
 
 Pentzia, 
 
 Ethulia, 
 
 Piqueria, 
 
 Balsamita. 
 
 ^EQUANA JUGA, in ancient geography, 
 mountains of Picenum, in the kingdom of 
 Naples, now called Montagna di Sorrrento. 
 
 JEQUI, in ancient geography, a people of 
 Italy who dwelt between the Sabines and Latins, 
 having a capital called Bola. 
 
 .ZEQUIMILII AREA, or ^EQUIMELIUM, in an- 
 tiquity, a place in Rome, where stood the house 
 of Spurius Melius, who, by largesses corrupting 
 the people, affected the supreme power, refusing 
 to appear before the dictator Cincinnatus, he 
 was slain by Servilius Ahala, master of the horse, 
 and his house razed to the ground. 
 
 ^ERA, supposed to be derived from Annus 
 erat Augusti. The point of time at which Spain 
 was conquered by the Romans, adopted as the 
 period for computing the annals of the Spaniards. 
 
 From the blessings they bestow, 
 
 Our times are dated, and our eras move : 
 They govern and enlighten all below, 
 
 As thou do'st all above. Pope. 
 
 ./ERA, or ERA, a fixed point of time from 
 whence any number of years is begun to be 
 counted. The origin of the term is contested, 
 though it is generally allowed to have had its 
 rise in Spain. Sepulveda supposes it formed 
 from A. ER. A. the notse or abbreviatures of the 
 words, annus erat Augusti, occasioned by the 
 Spaniards beginning their computation from the 
 time their country came under the dominion of 
 Augustus, or that of receiving the Roman calen- 
 dar. This opinion, however ingenious, is re- 
 jected by Scaliger, because in the ancient 
 abbreviatures A never stood for annus, unless 
 when preceded by V for vixit ; and it seems 
 improbable they should put ER for erat, and the 
 letter A, without any discrimination, both for 
 annus and Augustus. Vossius nevertheless fa- 
 vours the conjecture. From the plural tera, 
 came by corruption <zra, eeram, in the singular; 
 as Ostia, Ostiam, the name of a place, from 
 Ostia, the mouths of the Tyber. The difference 
 between the terms eera and epoch is, that the 
 seras are certain points fixed by some people, or 
 nation ; and the epochs are points fixed by chro- 
 nologists and historians. An sera comprehends 
 also a certain succession of years proceeding 
 from a fixed point of time, and the epoch is that 
 point itself. Thus the Christian aera began at 
 the epoch of the birth of Jesus Christ. See 
 CHRONOLOGY.
 
 183 
 
 AER 
 
 JRA, in botany, cockle or darnel. 
 
 ./ERA, the Christian. It is generally allowed 
 by chronologers, that the computation of time 
 from the birth of Christ was not introduced till 
 the sixth century, in the reign of Justinian, and 
 is commonly ascribed to Dionysius Exiguus. 
 This computation then came in use in deeds, 
 &c. before which time either the Olympiads, the 
 year of Rome, or that of the reign of the em- 
 perors, were used. 
 
 /ERA, the Spanish, was introduced after the 
 second division of the Roman provinces, be- 
 tween Augustus, Anthony, and Lepidus, in the 
 year of Rome 714, the 4676th year of the Julian 
 period, and the 38th year before Christ. We 
 find frequent mention of it in the Spanish affairs ; 
 their councils, and other public acts, being all 
 dated according to it. Some say it was abolished 
 under Peter IV. king of Arragon, in the year of 
 Christ 1358, and the Christian sera substituted 
 in its place. Mariana observes, that it ceased 
 in the year of Christ 1383, under John I. king of 
 Castile. The like was afterwards done in Portu- 
 gal. If to the year of the Spanish sera we add 
 the number 4675, the sum is the Julian year ; or 
 .f from the same year we subtract 38, the re- 
 mainder is the year of the Christain sera. 
 
 ./ERARIUM, in history, the public treasury 
 of the Roman state. The temple of Saturn at 
 Home being the great treasury of the state, was 
 first called aerarium ; from <es, eeris, copper ; that 
 being the only money in use before A. U. 485, 
 when silver began to be coined. It was first 
 erected under Augustus, and maintained by a 
 yearly voluntary contribution ; but that proving 
 insufficient, the twentieth part of all legacies 
 and inheritances, except such as fell to the next 
 of kin, or to the poor, were consigned to this 
 * r easury. For the custody thereof, three of the 
 emperor's life-guards were constituted prtefecti 
 tfrarii. .ZErarium differs from fiscus, as the first 
 contained the public money, the second that of 
 the prince ; yet the two are sometimes used in- 
 discriminately. 
 
 ./ERARIUM ILTHI.K, or of Juno Lucina, was 
 erected by Servius Tullius, and composed of 
 money paid by parents, for the birth of each child. 
 
 JERARIUM PRIVATUM, or the privy purse, 
 contained the money and effects which the 
 prince was master of before his accession to the 
 empire. This was under the care of the Comes 
 rerum privatarum. 
 
 ./ERARIUM SANCTIUS, was an appendage to 
 the public treasury, added on occasion of the 
 growth of the Roman state, when there was not 
 room enough for lodging all the public monies, 
 and the public acts, which were deposited with 
 it. It was called sanctius, i. e. more sacred, be- 
 cause placed in an inner and safer part of the 
 temple. 
 
 ERARIUM VENERIS, JUVENTUTIS, LIBITIN.E, 
 and other lesser treasuries teraria minora, were 
 established in the provinces. 
 
 /ERARIUM VICESIMARUM, the place where the 
 money arising from the taxes levied from foreign 
 countries was laid up, so called because it most 
 commonly consisted of a twentieth part of the 
 produce. 
 
 7ERARIUS, in antiquity, 1. An officer in- 
 
 stituted by Alexander Severus, for the distribu- 
 tion of the money given in largesses to the 
 soldiery, or people. 2. A person whose name 
 was struck out by the censors from the album, or 
 list of his century, and was only considered as a 
 citizen, so far as to make him subject to pay tera 
 taxes, without being entitled to any privileges, 
 or advantages from the commonwealth. Hence 
 the phrases, terariumfacere, inter cerarios reforre, 
 eerariis eximere, &c. Not only plebeians, but 
 knights and senators, were subject to this kind 
 of degradation. The serarii were incapable of 
 making a will, of inheriting, of voting in as- 
 semblies, of enjoying any post of honour or 
 profit : in effect, were only subject to the bur- 
 dens, without the benefits of society ; yet they 
 retained their freedom, and were not reduced to 
 the condition of slaves. To be made an serarius 
 was a punishment reputed one degree more severe 
 than to be expelled a tribe, tribo moveri. 3. 
 ./Erarius was likewise used for a person employed 
 in coining, or working brass. These were some- 
 times called <erarii fusores : at other times, sera- 
 rius was distinguished from fuser ; the former 
 answering to what we now call copper-smiths, 
 the latter to founders ; a word derived from 
 fundere, to cast metals. 4. The word was also 
 applied to a soldier, who received pay. 
 
 ./ERATA AQUA, ziment water. 
 
 ./EREOLUS, answering to the Greek ^aX/cof. 
 was a weight according to Diodorus and Suidas 
 equal to one-sixth, or according to others, one- 
 eighth of the obolus, which was 9 2 3 g grains. 
 
 AERIA, or EERIA, in ancient geography, 
 Thessaly, Egypt, or Ethiopia. The scholiast on 
 Apollonius Rhodius, says, that not only Thes- 
 saly, but Egypt was called Aepta by the Greeks, 
 which Eusebius confirms : and hence Appollina- 
 rius, in his translation of the 114th psalm, uses 
 it for Egypt. Hesychius applies this name to 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 AERIAL PERSPECTIVE, is that which repre- 
 sents bodies weakened and diminished, in pro- 
 portion to their distance from the eye. It chiefly 
 respects the colours of objects, whose force and 
 lustre it more or less takes off, to make them 
 appear as if more or less remote. The reason 
 is, that the longer the column of air an object is 
 seen through, the more feebly do the visual rays 
 emitted from it affect the eye. 
 
 AERIAL SUBSTANCE. The Essenes, the most 
 refined and rational sect among the Jews, held 
 that the human soul consisted of an serial sub- 
 stance And the Rosicrucians, and other vision- 
 aries, fill the atmosphere with serial inhabitants. 
 
 AERIANS, in church history, a sect of Arians, 
 who to the doctrines of that party, added some 
 peculiar dogmas of their own; and made no 
 difference between bishops and priests. The 
 sect received its denomination from AERIUS, 
 who founded his doctrine upon certain passages 
 in St. Paul : as 1 Tim. iv. 14. where the apostle 
 exhorts him not to neglect " the gift he had re- 
 ceived by the laying on of the hands of the 
 Presbytery," &c. Here, observes Aerius, are no 
 mention of bishops : on the contrary, Timothy 
 evidently received his ordination from the pres- 
 byters or priests. Epiphanius zealously main- 
 tains the superiority of bishops against the
 
 184 
 
 AERO MANGY. 
 
 Aerians. The word presbytery, used by the 
 apostle, he observes, includes both bishops and 
 priests ; the whole senate or assembly of the ec- 
 clesiastics of the place. 
 
 ./ERICA, or ERICA, in natural history, a name 
 given by Gaza, and others, to the common her- 
 ring. 
 
 ./ERIRUSA, in mineralogy, the ancient name 
 for the sky-coloured Jasper. 
 
 7ERIS FLOS, among alchemists, small scales 
 procured from copper, melted by a strong heat ; 
 it is sometimes used for aerugo or verdigrise. 
 
 AERIUS, an Armenian priest of the fourth 
 century, the founder of the sect of AERIANS, 
 which see. 
 
 AEROGRAPHY, from enjp, air, and ypa^w, 
 I describe, a description of the air, or atmos- 
 phere, its limits, dimensions, properties, &c. It 
 is the same with aerology, unless we suppose 
 the latter to enter into the rational, and the for- 
 mer to confine itself to a description of the more 
 obvious affections thereof. See ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 AEROLOGICA, that branch of medicine, 
 
 called by some disostica or the non-naturals, 
 which treats of air, its properties and use in the 
 animal ceconomy, and its efficacy in preserving 
 and restoring health. 
 
 AEROLOGY, of a;p and Koyoi, the doctrine 
 or science of AIR, is a term under which philoso- 
 phers have sometimes- treated of the nature of 
 that element, its various species, constituent 
 parts, properties, and phenomena ; but, on in- 
 vestigation, atmospheric air has been demon- 
 strated to be an exceedingly heterogeneous sub- 
 stance. It cannot therefore, be consistently 
 treated as one integral element of nature ; and 
 the more accurate modern writers have, in the 
 investigation of GASES, analyzed all the consti- 
 tuent parts of the atmosphere. To GAS, there- 
 fore, we refer for a philosophical exhibition of 
 the different kinds of air: and to AIR, and AT- 
 MOSPHERE, for that particular combination of 
 them, which surrounds our globe. 
 
 AEROMANCY. 
 
 AEROMANCY, n. s. ajp and pavrts Gr. in 
 antiquity, included the business of augury and 
 auspicia ; the rules of prediction from uncom- 
 mon -winds, storms, showers, and other changes of 
 the atmosphere. Modern authors speak of a 
 more rational eeromancy, meaning by it, the art 
 of foretelling the changes and variations of the 
 air and weather, by means of a regular series of 
 meteorological observations. But though many 
 have been instituted and recorded with much 
 care ; very small progress has hitherto been made 
 in this art. Barometers, thermometers, hygro- 
 meters, and anemometers, are of considerable 
 use in this kind of aeromancy, under the title of 
 /EROMANTIA. Mizoldus has published a body 
 
 of rules for foretelling storms, &c. drawn partly 
 from vulgar observations, and the experience of 
 mariners, partly from astrological considerations. 
 
 Some philosophers of eminence have endea- 
 voured to illustrate the observations of seamen, 
 and other persons practically acquainted with 
 the changes of weather. Lord Bacon supplies 
 ' Rules for prognosticating the weather from the 
 appearances of the moon ;' and the following 
 table, from the European Magazine, v. IX. has 
 been ascribed to the late Dr. Herschel. 
 
 TABLE of the kind of weather which will most 
 probably follow the moon's entrance into her 
 quarters. 
 
 NEW OR FULL MOON. 
 
 IN SUMMER. 
 
 IN WINTER. 
 
 If it be new or full moon, or the ~) 
 moon enters into the first or > 
 
 Very Rainy 
 
 Snow and rain. 
 
 last quarters at the hour of 12.. j 
 Or between the hours of 
 2 and 4 
 
 Changeable 
 
 Fair and mild 
 
 4 . .6 
 
 Fair 
 
 Fair 
 
 6 . .8 
 
 $ Fair, if wind N. W. . . > 
 
 Fair & frosty, if N. or N. E. 
 
 8 . .10 
 
 i Rainy, if S. or S. W. . J 
 Ditto 
 
 Rainy, if S. or S. W. 
 Ditto 
 
 10 . . Midnight .... 
 
 Fair 
 
 Fair and Frosty. 
 
 Midnight . . 2 
 
 Ditto 
 
 J Hard frost, unless Wind 
 
 2 . .4 
 
 
 1 S. or S. W. 
 
 4 . .6 
 
 Rain . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 6 . .8 
 
 Wind and rain 
 
 Stormy 
 
 8 . . 10 
 
 Changeable > . . . 
 
 Cold, Rain if W. Snow if E. 
 
 10 . . Noon 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The rising and setting of the moon, says Mr. rain. These situations are called the moon's 
 
 Taylor, in his Weather Guide, as well as its angles. 
 
 superior and inferior passage of the meridian, The times most exposed to rain are the rising 
 
 tnay serve as a rule for foretelling the times of and setting ; those most fevourable to good
 
 A E R O M A N C Y. 
 
 185 
 
 weather, the passage of the meridian. It lias 
 been remarked that, during rainy days, bad 
 weather is always a little interrupted about the 
 time when the moon passes the meridian. We 
 must, however, make an exception to this rule 
 as often as the angle of the moon does not coin- 
 cide with that of the sun. As these observations 
 may be very easily made, by means of astrono- 
 mical tables, in which the angles of the moon 
 and sun are marked, they are exceedingly well 
 calculated to prove the truth of this system. No 
 one, for instance, will refuse assent to it, when 
 the daily changes correspond with the angles of 
 the moon ; and when independently of the effects 
 of the moon's situation, the horizontal effect of 
 the moon at rising and setting is different from 
 that produced by its passage over the meridian. 
 
 It rains oftener in the day time than in the 
 night, and oftener in the evening than in the 
 morning. 
 
 Linnaeus advised his countrymen to observe 
 with care the opening of the buds, and the unfold- 
 ing of the leaves of trees, as a method of judging 
 the forth-coming weather. The ignorant farmer, 
 says he, tenacious of the ways and customs of 
 his ancestors, fixes his sowing-season generally 
 to a month, and sometimes to a particular day, 
 without considering whether the earth be duly 
 prepared to receive the seed ; hence it frequently 
 happens, that the fields do not yield a produce 
 correspondent to his sanguine expectations. 
 The wise economist should therefore fix certain 
 signs by which to judge of the proper time for 
 sowing. We look up to the stare, and, without 
 reason, suppose that the changes on earth will 
 answer to the heavenly bodies : entirely neglect- 
 ing the things which grow around us. We see 
 trees open their buds, and their leaves expand, 
 whence we conclude that the spring is approach- 
 ing, and experience supports us in the conclusion; 
 but no one has yet been able to shew what trees 
 Providence intended should be our kalendar, so 
 that we might ascertain on what day the country- 
 man ought to sow his grain. Although it cannot 
 be denied but that the same power, which 
 brings forth the leaves of trees, will also cause 
 the grain to vegetate : nor can any one justly 
 assert that a premature sowing will uniformly 
 accelerate a ripe harvest. No means therefore 
 seem to promise success so much, as the taking 
 of our rule for sowing from the leafing of trees. 
 With this view it must be observed in what 
 order every tree puts forth its leaves, according 
 to its species, the heat of the atmosphere, and the 
 quality of the soil. Afterwards by comparing 
 together the observations of several years, it will 
 not be difficult to determine, from the foliation of 
 trees, (if not certainly, at least probably,) the 
 time when annual plants ought to be sown. It 
 will be necessary likewise to remark what 
 sowings made in different parts of the spring 
 produce the best crops, in order that by com- 
 paring these with the leafing of trees, it may ap- 
 pear which is the most proper time for sowing ; 
 nor will it be amiss in like manner to note at 
 what times certain plants, especially the most 
 remarkable in every province or country, blow ; 
 in order that it may be known whether the year 
 makes a quicker or slower progress. 
 
 Pliny has similar observations, Why, says 
 he, does the husbandman look up to the stars, of 
 which he is ignorant, whilst every hedge and 
 tree point out the season by the fall of their 
 leaves? This circumstance will indicate the 
 temperature of the air in every climate, and 
 shew whether the season be early or late. This 
 constitutes an universal rule for the whole world ; 
 because trees shed their leaves in every country 
 according to the difference of the seasons. This 
 gives a general signal for sowing; nature de- 
 claring that she has then covered the earth against 
 the inclemency of the winter, and enriched it 
 with this manure. Nat. Hist. 1. xviii. c. 25. 
 Virgil counsels us on this subject. 
 Mark well the flowering almonds in the wood ; 
 If od'rous blooms the bearing branches load, 
 The glebe will answer to the sylvan reign, 
 Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain. 
 But if a wood of leaves o'ershade the tree, 
 Such and so barren will thy harvest be. 
 In vain the hind shall vex the threshing-floor, 
 For empty chaff and straw will be thy store. 
 
 Dryden. Gevrgic, i. 1. 272. 
 Mr. Kirwan, an ingenious contributor to the 
 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, (vol. 
 v. p. 20, &c.) has endeavoured to discover rules 
 for prognosticating the different seasons in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, from tables of observations 
 alone. On comparing a number of observations 
 taken in England from 1677 to 1789, (a period 
 of 112 years) he found : 
 
 1. That when there has been no storm before 
 or after the vernal equinox, the ensuing summer 
 is generally dry, at least five times in six 
 
 2. That when a storm happens from an 
 easterly point, either on the 19th, 20th, or 21st 
 of May, the succeeding summer is generally dry 
 at least four times in five. 
 
 9. That when a storm arises on the 25th, 26th, 
 or 27th of March (and not before) in any point, 
 the succeeding summer is generally dry, four 
 times in five. 
 
 4. If there be a storm at south-west, or west- 
 south-west, on the 19th, 20th, 21st, or 22d of 
 March, the succeeding summer is generally wet, 
 five times in six. 
 
 In this country winters and springs, if dry, 
 are most commonly cold; if moist, warm: On 
 the contrary, dry summers and autumns are 
 usually hot, and moist summers cold ; so that, if 
 we know the moistness or dryness of a season, 
 we can form a tolerably accurate judgment of its 
 temperature. In this country Mr. Kirwan re- 
 marks, that it generally rains less in March than 
 in November, in the proportion at a medium of 
 seven to twelve. It generally rains less in April 
 than October, in the proportion of one to two, 
 nearly at a medium. It generally rains less in 
 May than September; the chances that it does 
 so, are, at least, four to three ; but, when it rains 
 plentifully in May (as 1 .8 inches or more,) it 
 generally rains but little in September; and 
 when it rains one inch, or less in May, it rains 
 plentifully in September. 
 
 From a table kept by Dr. Rutty, in Dublin, 
 for forty-one years, this author endeavours to 
 calculate the probabilities of particular seasons 
 being followed by others : and although his rules 
 chiefly relate to Ireland, as there exists but little
 
 AEROMANCY. 
 
 difference between that island and Great Britain 
 in the general appearance of the seasons, we 
 subjoin his conclusions. 
 
 In forty-one years there were 
 
 6 Wet springs, 22 dry, and 1 3 variable ; 
 
 20 Wet summers, 1 6 dry, and 5 variable : 
 
 11 Wet autumns, 11 dry, and 19 variable. 
 
 A season, according to Mr. Kirwan, is accounted 
 
 wet, when it contains two wet months. In 
 
 general, the quantity of rain, which falls in dry 
 
 seasons, is less than five inches, in wet seasons 
 
 more ; variable seasons are those, in which there 
 
 falls between thirty and thirty-six pounds, a 
 
 pound being equal to -157639 of an inch. 
 
 The order in which the different seasons fol- 
 lowed each other was, as in the following table, 
 A dry spring has been followed by a 
 dry summer 11 times 
 wet 8 
 
 variable 3 
 
 A wet spring has been followed by a 
 dry summer 
 wet 5 
 
 variable I 
 
 A variable spring has been followed by a 
 dry summer 5 
 wet 7 
 
 variable 1 
 
 A dry summer has been followed by a 
 dry autumn 5 
 wet 5 
 
 variable 6 
 
 A wet summer has been followed by a 
 dry autumn 5 
 wet 3 
 
 variable 12 
 
 A variable summer has been followed by a 
 dry autumn 1 
 wet 3 
 
 variable 1 
 
 Hence Mr. Kirwan deduced the probability of 
 the kind of seasons that would succeed others, to 
 be as follows. 
 
 In the beginning of any year. 
 
 x. The probability of a dry xpring is 22-41 
 
 of a wet 6-41 
 
 of a variable 13-41 
 
 U. The probability of a dry summer is 16-41 
 
 of a wet 20-41 
 
 of a variable 5-41 
 
 III. The probability of a dry autumn is 11-41 
 
 of a wet 11-41 
 
 of a variable 19-41 
 
 IV. After a dry spring, the probability of a 
 
 dry summer is 1-22 
 
 wet 8-22 
 
 variable 3-22 
 
 v . After a wet spring, the probability of a 
 
 dry summer is 
 
 wet 5-6 
 
 variable 1-6 
 
 VI. After a variable spring, the probability of 
 
 dry summer is 5-13 
 
 wet 7-13 
 
 variable 1-13 
 
 VII. After a dry summer, the probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 5-16 
 
 wet 5-26 
 
 variable 6-16 
 
 VIII. After a wet summer, the probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 5-20 
 
 wet 3-20 
 
 variable 12-20 
 
 IX. After a variable summer, the probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 1-5 
 
 wet 3-5 
 
 variable 1-5 
 
 But the probability of the autumnal weather 
 will be attained much more perfectly, by taking 
 in the consideration of the preceding spring 
 also; in order to which Mr. Kirwan observes 
 that 
 
 A dry spring and dry summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 3 times 
 
 wet 4 
 
 variable 4 
 
 A dry spring and wet summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 2 
 
 wet 
 
 variable 6 
 
 A wet spring and dry summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 
 
 wet 
 
 variable 
 
 A wet spring and wet summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 2 
 
 wet 1 
 
 variable 1 
 
 A wet spring and variable summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 1 
 
 wet 
 
 variable 
 
 A dry spring and variable summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 
 
 wet 2 
 
 variable 1 
 
 A variable spring and dry summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 2 
 
 wet 
 
 variable 1 
 
 A variable spring and dry summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 2 
 
 wet 
 
 variable 2 
 
 A variable spring and wet summer were followed 
 by a 
 
 dry autumn 1 
 
 wet 1 
 
 variable 5 
 
 A variable spring and variable summer were fol- 
 lowed by a 
 
 dry autumn 
 
 wet 1 
 
 variable 
 
 X. Hence after a dry spring and dry summer, the 
 probability of a 
 
 dry autumn 3-11 
 
 wet 4-11 
 
 variable 4-1 1
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 187 
 
 XI. After a dry spring and wet summer, the pro- 
 bability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 2-8 
 
 wet 0-11 
 
 variable 6-8 
 
 XII. After a dry spring and variable summer, the 
 probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 0-0 
 
 wet 2-3 
 
 variable 1-2 
 
 XIII. After a wet spring and dry summer, the pro- 
 bability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 0-41 
 
 wet 0-41 
 
 variable 0-41 
 
 XIV. After a wet spring and wet summer, the pro- 
 bability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 2-5 
 
 wet 1-5 
 
 variable 2-5 
 
 XV. After a wet spring and variable summer, the 
 probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 1-41 
 
 wet 0-41 
 
 variable 0-41 
 
 XVI. After a variable spring and dry summer, the 
 probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 2-4 
 
 wet 0-41 
 
 variable 2-4 
 
 XVII. After a variable spring and wet summer, 
 the probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 1-7 
 
 wet 1-7 
 
 variable 5-7 
 
 XVIII. After a variable spring and variable sum- 
 mer, the probability of a 
 
 dry autumn is 0-41 
 
 wet 0-41 
 
 variable 0-4 
 
 After all, some of our readers may think this 
 subject hardly worth pursuing to such an extent ; 
 but, we were not willing to omit so considerable 
 a list of practical observations on facts, occasion- 
 ally interesting to all men. See BAROMETER, 
 CLOUDS, METEOROLOGY, and WEATHER. 
 
 jEROMELI, in natural history, a name given 
 to honey, and also to manna. See DROSOMELI. 
 
 ^EROMETRY, comprehends not only the doc- 
 trine of the air itself, considered as a fluid body ; 
 but also its pressure, elasticity, rarefaction, and 
 condensation. But the term is at present not 
 much in use, this branch of natural philosophy 
 being more frequently called PNEUMATICS, which 
 see. C. Wolfius, professor of mathematics at 
 Halle, having reduced many of the affections of 
 this fluid to geometrical demonstration, first pub- 
 lished Elements of ./Erometry, at Leipsic, in 
 1709, in High Dutch, and afterwards, more 
 largely in Latin. Thus is the doctrine of the 
 air incorporated into the mathematical sciences. 
 AERONAUT, a person who mounts in, and 
 guides an air balloon. See AEROSTATION AIR 
 BALLOON and HYDROSTATICS. 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 1. AERONAUTICS, or ^ERONAUTICA, of ajjp, 
 and vavTiicn, from vavg, a ship, the art of sailing 
 in, or navigating the air. This term has super- 
 seded that of aerostation in scientific treatises, as 
 more correctly expressing the art of guiding 
 aerostatic machines; aerostation more perfectly 
 denoting the weighing of air, or of bodies sus- 
 pended therein. Our plan, in treating of this 
 art is, 
 
 I. To furnish a sketch of its PROGRESSIVE 
 HISTORY, or the various early attempts of 
 &ronauts. 
 
 II. Of attempts to improve the STRUCTURE of 
 AERONAUTIC MACHINES. 
 
 III. Of the PRINCIPLES of their CONSTRUC- 
 TION. 
 
 IV. Of the actual MAKING, and FILLING 
 BALLOONS. 
 
 The principle of all aeronautic machines was 
 no doubt, first suggested by fact. Certain bodies 
 were seen to ascend. Fact led to experiment. 
 TErostatic machines ascend not because they are 
 freed from the influence of gravitation, and there- 
 fore have no weight, but because the gas with 
 which they are filled, is specifically lighter than 
 the surrounding air. It is a doctrine of Hydros- 
 tatics, that if a body be lighter than a fluid, in 
 equal proportions, that fluid will bear it up, and 
 it will float upon the surface, as the cork swims 
 upon the water ; and, hence a body lighter than 
 our atmosphere, will float upon the atmosphere 
 
 and ascend. If the higher and lower regions of 
 the air were every where equally dense, a lighter 
 body would ascend directly to the surface, and 
 there remain perfectly quiescent, and would have 
 no more tendency to descend into the inferior 
 regions, than a blown bladder has to sink into 
 the water ; which it cannot do, unless oppressed 
 by the weight of some more solid adjunct : which 
 together with itself, exceeds the gravity of the 
 water. But the air is subject to two great prin- 
 ciples. Compression and expansion, existing 
 however in different proportions, at different de- 
 grees of temperature and elevation above the 
 earth. The vast body of air that lies in the su- 
 perior regions, continually pressing its immense 
 weight upon that below, thereby renders it ex- 
 ceedingly dense, so that it becomes impossible 
 for it to rarefy itself to any considerable extent, 
 and therefore as we ascend the upper stratum of 
 the firmament, the atmosphere becomes less dense 
 by reason of the diminished pressure of the 
 superincumbent air, and in the extreme regions 
 is perfectly elastic and subtle ; a light body there- 
 fore, instead of rising to the top, will only rise to 
 a height where the air is of the same specific 
 gravity with itself, and in that altitude will remain 
 quiescent, in proportion as the air is more or 
 less agitated : or, it will be carried before the winds 
 and receive different motions, according as it is 
 acted upon by surrounding currents of atmos- 
 phere. It is exactly so with the balloon, which
 
 18H 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 being extended to a considerable bulk, and filled 
 with air, considerably lighter than the common 
 air, naturally ascends. 
 
 2. This invention, therefore, has in the course 
 of the last century, become the popular substitute 
 for the old attempts of mankind to construct 
 wings, &c. for flight. It is somewhat curious to 
 observe the pertinacity with which men, in all 
 ages, have prosecuted some kind of bold attempt 
 to ' rule in air.' To say nothing of Icarus, and 
 his fabled wings, or of the automata that have 
 been made ingeniously self-moving, the preten- 
 sions of magicians, and the long supposed 
 achievements of witchcraft in this field, angels 
 and daemons have been alike clothed by human 
 credulity with the attribute of flying ; and while 
 philosophy has exploded many of the pretensions 
 of the latter, our pictorial illustrations of scripture, 
 and even the finest paintings perpetuate the claims 
 of angels to wings, with almost unquestioned 
 uniformity. 
 
 3. Two of the latest attempts of mankind in 
 this way, may be amusing to the reader. During 
 the reign of James IV. of Scotland, a pseudo 
 philosopher of Italy, presented himself at the 
 court of that monarch with loud pretensions to 
 science, and having been made abbot of Fury- 
 land, to allow him learned leisure, offered in 
 presence of the court, to start from the walls of 
 Stirling Castle upon wings, of his own construc- 
 tion, and pass through the air to France. This 
 adventurer must have possessed some kind of 
 sincere confidence of his success, for he actually 
 manufactured an immense pair of wings, which 
 he crowded with plumage of all sorts, and 
 launched from the walls of the castle on the day 
 appointed. Soon, however, he descended to 
 parent earth, and broke his thigh in the fall. His 
 apology to the disappointed spectators was full 
 as bold as his attempt; but it seems to have been 
 received. ' My wings/ said he, ' being composed 
 partly of the feathers of dunghill fowls, they, by 
 a certain sympathy, were attracted to the dung- 
 hill : had they been composed of eagle's feathers 
 alone, the same principle of sympathy would 
 have attracted and kept them upwards '.' 
 
 4. The second attempt of this kind we shall 
 notice, was made at Tubingen, in Wirtemberg, 
 in 1628. Here a learned rector of the public 
 school, named Keyder, had been for some years 
 insisting upon the possibility of attaining the art 
 of flying, but sagaciously confined himself to 
 warmly lecturing on the theory. But a monk of 
 the neighbourhood became a sincere disciple, 
 constructed wings of the approved description, 
 and from a high tower in the neighbourhood, 
 started into air upon them. The wind is said in 
 this case, first to have discomposed his machine, 
 bringing down, also, this adventurer ; he fell 
 precipitantly, broke both his legs, and died from 
 the consequences. 
 
 5. To lord Bacon, the prophet of art, as Wai- 
 pole calls him, has been attributed the first sugges- 
 tion of the true theory of balloons. But the value 
 of his remarks upon this subject has been overated. 
 The only clear passage in his works speaks of 
 " flying in the air," in the old plan of imitating 
 birds ; or, spreading feathers thin and close, and 
 in great breadth, which, he says, ' will bear up 
 
 a great weight, being even laid, without tilting 
 upon the sides." And adds, ' the further ex- 
 tension of his experiment might be thought upon.' 
 In another passage of his Natural History, en- 
 titled, Experiment Solitary, touching the flying 
 of unequal bodies in air, he says, " Let there be 
 a body of unequal weight, (as of wood and lead, 
 or bone and lead) if you throw it from you with 
 the light end forward, it will turn, and the 
 weightier end will recover to be forwards, unless 
 the body be over long. The cause is, that the 
 more dense body hath a more violent pressure 
 of the parts from the first impulsion, which is 
 the cause (though not heretofore found out, as 
 hath been often said) of all violent motions : And 
 when the hinder part moveth swifter (for that it 
 less endureth pressure of parts) than the forward 
 part can make way for it, it must needs be that 
 the body turn over ; for (turned) it can more 
 easily draw forward the lighter part." 
 
 We see in this passage no hint at the scientific 
 theory of aeronautics; it is simply an obscure 
 speculation on the quantum of resistance which 
 a body meets with in passing through the air : 
 here is not a word of the power of rising in it. 
 
 6. But in the fourteenth century that theory is 
 recorded in the writing of Albert of Saxony, an 
 Augustin monk, and a commentator on Aristotle. 
 Following the old notion of fire floating above 
 the atmosphere of the earth ; he suggests, that if 
 any being could bring down a quantity of that 
 light ethereal air that swims above our atmos- 
 phere, and inclose it in a ball or vessel, the 
 vessel might be raised, and kept suspended in 
 common air, at any height. This suggestion 
 rested in perfect dormancy until the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, when Francis Men- 
 doza, a Jesuit of Portugal, maintained that the 
 combustibility of fire was no objection to its be- 
 ing made to ascend in proper vehicles, as its ex- 
 treme laxity and the exclusion of air would 
 preserve it from inflammation. He died at Lyons 
 A.D. 1626. At about the same period Caspar 
 Schott, also a Jesuit, published this theory in 
 Germany. 
 
 7. In 1670 all the ancient speculations about 
 artificial wings whereby a man might fly as well 
 as a bird, were refuted by Borelli in his treatise 
 De Motu Animalium. In this work, from a 
 comparison between the power of the muscles 
 which move the wings of a bird, and those 
 which move the arms of a man, he demonstrates, 
 that the latter are utterly insufficient to strike the 
 air with such force as to raise him from the ground. 
 
 8. In the year 1672, Bishop Wilkins pub- 
 lished his Discovery of the New World, in which 
 he certainly seems to have conceived the idea of 
 raising bodies into the atmosphere by filling them 
 with rarified air. This, however, he did not 
 pursue, but rested his hopes upon mechanical 
 motions, to be accomplished by human strength, 
 or by springs, &c. which have been proved in- 
 capable of answering any useful purpose. 
 
 9. The Jesuit, Francis Lana, his contemporary, 
 proposed to exhaust hollow balls of metal, of 
 their air, (See Plate I. AERONAUTICS,) and thus 
 occasion them to ascend. But though the 
 theory was unexceptionable, the means he sug- 
 gested were insufficient to the end : for a vessel
 
 VOI. l.JWI.t. KMl. 
 
 A K Ul)VA['Ti CS , 
 
 J.ttiu>'<f 
 
 Form or'tiii- /IV//-/.>- i'tnf>/,>\;-<( />> Lun,tr,f/ 
 
 .I.Slim-v >
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 189 
 
 of ejpper, made sufficiently thin to float in the 
 atmosphere, would be utterly unable to resist the 
 external pressure ; which being demonstrated, 
 no attempt was made on the principle. 
 
 10. In 1709, Friar Guzman applied to the 
 king of Portugal for his patronage of a flying 
 machine constructed somewhat in the form of a 
 bird or paper kite, but with tubes through 
 which the wind was to pass to fill wings that 
 were to elevate it : and absurd as this plan 
 obviously was, he met with the royal patronage 
 to such a degree, that he obtained a place in the 
 college of Barcelos, with a professorship in the 
 university of Boimbra, and a pension for life of 
 6000 reis. But excepting this metaphorical 
 movement upwards to places and honours, we do 
 not hear that the friar ever made any ascent ; 
 though it is said, that in 1736, he constructed a 
 large wicker basket covered with paper, seven or 
 eight feet in diameter, which rose 200 feet in the 
 air ; and thus came to be reputed a conjurer. 
 
 11. It is well remarked bv a valuable contem- 
 porary, (Sup. Ency. Brit. Art. AERONAUTICS,) 
 that the persons who had hitherto occupied 
 themselves most with attempts at aerial naviga- 
 tion, were all of them Catholic priests. And 
 he enquires whether such a pursuit may be ex- 
 plained from their habits of seclusion, and igno- 
 rance of the affairs of real life, or from their 
 familiar acquaintance with the relations of mi- 
 racles and legendary tales. There can be no 
 question that it arose from these causes in great 
 part, as well as from the fact of religious men 
 during the dark ages, engrossing almost every 
 pretension to knowledge ; thus some of the 
 more artful of the priests, imposed on the vulgar 
 the smatterings of natural philosophy as really 
 miraculous facts : and then again in the dawn- 
 ing of the new day of literature, others of their 
 order largely redeemed its credit by nobly deal- 
 ing forth of their secluded stores of literature and 
 science, and leading on to a brighter day. 
 
 12. In 1766, Mr. Henry Cavendish ascertained 
 that inflammable air was at least seven times 
 lighter than common air, and suggested to Dr. 
 Black, that perhaps a thin bag filled with the 
 former might be buoyed up by the common 
 atmosphere. The same thought occurred after- 
 wards to Mr. Cavallo ; and he has the honour 
 of being the first who made experiments on the 
 subject. He first tried bladders ; but found 
 them too heavy. He then tried Chinese paper; 
 but that proved permeable to the vapour. His 
 experiments, therefore, in 1782, proceeded no 
 farther than blowing up soap bubbles with in- 
 flammable air, which ascended rapidly to the 
 ceiling. 
 
 13. While the true doctrine of aeronautics 
 seemed thus on the point of being discovered in 
 Britain, it was all at once announced in France, 
 by two brothers, Stephen and John Montgolfier, 
 natives ot Annonay, and masters of a consider- 
 able, paper manufactory there, who had turned 
 their thoughts to this subject, as early as the 
 middle of the year 1782. Their idea was to 
 form an artificial cloud, by enclosing smoke in 
 a bag, and making it carry up the covering along 
 with it. In that year, the experiment was made 
 at Avignon with a fine silk bag ; and by apply- 
 
 ing burning paper to an aperture at the bottom, 
 the air was rarified, and the bag ascended to the 
 height of 70 feet. Various experiments were now 
 tried upon a large scale, which greatly excited 
 the public curiosity. 
 
 14. An immense bag of linen, lined with paper, 
 and containing upwards of 23,000 cubit feet, 
 was found to have the power of lifting about 500 
 pounds, including its own weight. Burning 
 chopped straw and wool under the aperture of 
 the machine, immediately occasioned it to swell ; 
 and afterwards to ascend into the atmosphere. 
 In ten minutes it had risen 6000 feet ; and when 
 its force was exhausted, it fell to the ground at 
 the distance of 7668 feet from the place it had 
 left. 
 
 15. Not long after this, one of the brothers, 
 invited by the Academy of Sciences to repeat his 
 experiments at their expense, constructed a large 
 balloon of an elliptical form. In a preliminary 
 experiment, this machine lifted from the ground 
 eight persons who held it, and would have car- 
 ried them all off, if others had not quickly come 
 to their assistance. Next day the machine was 
 filled by the combustion of fifty pounds of straw, 
 and twelve pounds of wool. The machine soon 
 swelled, and sustained itself in the air, together 
 with the charge of between 4 and 500 pounds 
 weight. It was designed to repeat the experi- 
 ment before the king at Versailles ; but a violent 
 storm of rain and wind happening to damage the 
 machine, it became necessary to prepare a new 
 one; and such expedition was used, that this 
 vast balloon, nearly sixty feet in height and forty- 
 three in diameter, was made, painted within and 
 without, and finely decorated, in ninety-six 
 hours. Along with it was sent a wicker cage, 
 containing a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which 
 were the first animals ever sent on such a voyage. 
 The full success of the experiment was, how- 
 ever, prevented by a violent gust of wind, which 
 tore the machine in two places near the top 
 before it ascended. Still it rose 1440 feet; and 
 after remaining in the air about eight minutes, 
 fell to the ground at the distance of 10,200 feet 
 from the place of its setting out. The animals 
 were not in the least hurt. 
 
 16. As the great power of these aerostatic ma- 
 chines, and their very gradual descent, now de- 
 monstrated they were capable of transporting 
 peop'e through the air with safety, M. Pilatre 
 de ftozier offered to be the first aerial adventurer 
 in a new machine, constructed in a garden in 
 the Fauxbourg of St. Antoine. It was of an 
 oval shape, forty-eight feet in diameter, and 
 seventy-four in height, elegantly painted with 
 the signs of the zodiac, ciphers of the king's 
 name, and other ornaments; a proper gallery, 
 grate, &c. enabled the person who ascended to 
 supply the fire with fuel, and thus keep up the 
 machine as long as he pleased. The weight of 
 the whole apparatus was upwards of 1 600 pounds. 
 On the 15th October, 1783, M. Pilatre placing 
 himself in the gallery, the machine was inflated, 
 and permitted to ascend to the height of eighty- 
 four feet, where he kept it afloat about four 
 minutes and half; after which it descended very 
 gently: and such was its tendency to ascend, 
 that it rebounded to a considerable height after
 
 190 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 touching the ground. On repeating the experi- 
 ment, he ascended to the height of 210 feet. 
 His next ascent was 262 feet; and in the descent 
 a gust of wind having blown the machine over 
 some large trees in an adjoining garden, M.Pilatre 
 suddenly extricated himself by throwing straw 
 and wool on the fire, which raised him at once 
 to a sufficient height. On descending again, he 
 once more raised himself to a proper height by 
 the same means. The balloon was constructed 
 by the Montgolfiers, and the spirited young 
 naturalist who thus first ascended, seems to 
 have caught at the moment of its filling, a sort 
 of enthusiasm that prompted him to seat him- 
 self in the gallery, and to become the leader of 
 these sublime experiments. Some time after, he 
 ascended with M. Girand de Villette to the 
 height of 330 feet ; hovering over Paris at least 
 nine minutes in sight of all the inhabitants, and 
 the machine keeping all the while in a steady 
 position. 
 
 17. It was now proved that aerostatic ma- 
 chines might be raised or lowered at the plea- 
 sure of the persons who ascended. On the 21st 
 of November, 1783, therefore, M. Pilatre and 
 the Marquis d'Arlandes undertook an serial 
 voyage, which lasted about twenty-five minutes, 
 and during which time, they passed over a space 
 of five miles. From the account given by the 
 Marquis, they met with several different cur- 
 rents of air, the effect of which was, to give a 
 very sensible shock to the machine, and the 
 direction of the motion seemed to be from the 
 upper part downwards. It appears also that 
 they were in some danger of having the balloon 
 burnt altogether ; as the Marquis observed se- 
 veral round holes made by the fire in the lower 
 part of it, which alarmed him considerably, and 
 indeed not without reason. However, the pro- 
 gress of the fire was easily stopped by the ap- 
 plication of a wet sponge, and all appearance 
 of danger ceased. 
 
 18. Speculations were now entertained as to the 
 possibility of a more convenient method of fill- 
 ing balloons, and instead of feeding a fire as it 
 ascended, to inclose inflammable air at once in 
 the machine; a plan which promised many 
 advantages over the other. The first experiment 
 upon it, was made by two brothers, M. Robert, 
 and M. Charles, a professor of experimental phi- 
 losophy. A bag composed of lutestring was 
 varnished over with a solution of the elastic 
 gum, called caoutchouc ; and was about thirteen 
 English feet in diameter. Many difficulties oc- 
 curred in filling it with inflammable air; but 
 being at last set at liberty, after having been well 
 filled, it was thirty-five pounds lighter than an 
 equal bulk of common air. It remained in the 
 atmosphere about three quarters of an hour, 
 during which it travelled fifteen miles. Its sud- 
 den descent was supposed to have been owing 
 to a rupture, which had taken place when it 
 ascended into the higher regions of the atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 This experiment, and the successful voyage 
 made by M. Pilatre and the marquis, encou- 
 raged the idea of undertaking something of 
 the same kind with a balloon filled with inflam- 
 mable air. The machine used on this occasion 
 
 was formed of gores of silk, covered with a var- 
 nish of caoutchouc, of a spherical figure, and 
 measuring twenty-seven feet and a half in diame- 
 ter. A net was spread over the upper hemis- 
 phere, and fastened to a hoop which passed 
 round the middle of the balloon. To this a sort 
 of car was suspended a few feet below the 
 under part of the balloon ; and, in order to 
 prevent the bursting of the machine, a valve 
 was placed in it; by opening of which some or 
 the inflammable air might be occasionally let 
 out. The car was of basket work, covered with 
 linen and beautifully ornamented ; being eight 
 feet long, four broad, and three and half deep ; 
 in weight 130 pounds. Great difficulties again 
 occurred in filling the machine ; but these at 
 last being removed, the two adventurers took 
 their seats about two P.M. on the 1st December, 
 1783. Persons skilled in mathematics were sta- 
 tioned with proper instruments, to calculate the 
 height, velocity, &c. of the balloon. The weight 
 of the whole apparatus, including that of the 
 adventurers, was 604lb. and a half, and the 
 power of ascent when they set out was 20lb. 
 so that the whole difference betwixt the weight 
 of this balloon and an equal bulk of common 
 air, was 624lb. But the weight of the atmos- 
 phere displaced by the inflammable gas was cal- 
 culated to be 7711b. so that there remains 147 
 for the weight of the latter; and this calcula- 
 tion makes it only five times and a fourth lighter 
 than common air. 
 
 19. When the balloon rose, the thermometer 
 stood at 9. of Fahrenheit, and the barometer at 
 30.18 inches; and, by means of the power of 
 ascent with which it left the ground, it mounted 
 upwards till the mercury fell to twenty-seven 
 inches, from which they calculated their height 
 to be about 600 yards. Throwing out ballast 
 occasionally as they found the machine descend- 
 ing by the escape of some of the inflammable 
 air, they found it practicable to keep at pretty 
 near the same distance from the earth during the 
 rest of their voyage ; the quicksilver fluctuating 
 between 27 and 27'65 inches, and the thermo- 
 meter between 53. and 57. the whole tima 
 They continued in the air an hour and three 
 quarters, and alighted at the distance of twenty- 
 seven miles from Paris ; having suffered no in- 
 convenience during their voyage, nor experienced 
 any contrary currents of air, as had been felt by 
 M. Pilatre and the Marquis. 
 
 20. As the balloon still retained a great quan- 
 tity of inflammable gas, M. Charles determined 
 to continue the voyage by himself. M. Robert 
 accordingly left the machine, which was now 
 1 30 pounds lighter, and arose with such velocity, 
 that in twenty minutes it was almost 9000 feet 
 from the earth, and entirely out of the sight of 
 terrestrial objects. The globe, which had been 
 rather flaccid, soon began to swell, and the in- 
 flammable air escaped in great quantity. He 
 now drew the valve to prevent the balloon from 
 bursting ; and the inflammable gas, being con- 
 siderably warmer than the external air, diffused 
 itself all round, and was felt like a warm atmos- 
 phere. In ten minutes, however, the thermome- 
 ter indicated a great variation of temperature : 
 his fingers were benumbed with cold, and he
 
 A E R O Ts T A U T I C S. 
 
 191 
 
 felt a violent pain in his right ear and jaw, 
 which he ascribed to the expansion of the air in 
 these organs, as well as to the external cold. 
 But the beauty of the prospect which he enjoyed, 
 made amends for these inconveniences. At his 
 departure the sun was set on the vallies ; but the 
 height to which M. Charles was got in the at- 
 mosphere, rendered him again visible, though 
 only for a short time. He saw, for a few seconds, 
 vapours rising from the vallies and rivers. The 
 clouds seemsd to ascend from the earth, and 
 collect one upon the other, still preserving their 
 usual form ; only their colour was grey and uni- 
 form for want of sufficient light in the atmos- 
 phere. By the light of the moon, he perceived 
 that the machine was turning round with him in 
 the air ; and he observed that there were con- 
 trary currents which brought him back again. 
 He observed also, with surprise, the effects of the 
 wind, and that the streamers of his banners 
 pointed upwards ; which, he says, could not be 
 the effect either of his ascent or descent, as he 
 was moving horizontally at the time. At last, 
 recollecting his promise of returning to his friends 
 in half an hour, he pulled the valve, and accele- 
 rated his descent. When within 200 feet of the 
 earth, he threw out two or three pounds of bal- 
 last, which rendered the balloon again stationary; 
 but, in a little time afterwards, he gently alighted 
 in a field about three miles distant from the 
 place whence he set out ; though, by making al- 
 lowance for all the turnings and windings of the 
 voyage, he supposes that he had gone through 
 nine miles at least. By the calculations made, it 
 appears that he rose at this time not less than 
 10,500 feet; a height somewhat greater than 
 that of Mount ./Etna. 
 
 21. Many similar aerial voyages were now per- 
 formed, of which a particular description would 
 be superfluous. But as it had occurred to M. 
 Charles, in his last flight, that there might be a 
 possibility of directing the machine in the at- 
 mosphere, this was attempted by M. Jean Pierre 
 Blanchard ; who gives an account of the sensa- 
 tions he felt during one of his aerostatic excur- 
 sions, somewhat different from those of M. 
 Charles ; having, in one part of it, found the 
 atmosphere very warm, in another cold ; and 
 having once found himself very hungry, and at 
 another time almost overcome by a propensity to 
 sleep. The height to which he arose, as mea- 
 sured by mathematical instruments, was thought 
 to be very little less than 10,000 feet; and he 
 remained in the atmosphere an hour and a 
 quarter. 
 
 22. Similar attempts to direct balloons through 
 the atmosphere, were made in 1784, by Messrs. 
 Morveau and Bertrand, at Dijon, who raised 
 themselves with an inflammable air balloon to 
 the height, as was thought, of 13,000 feet; pass- 
 ing through a space of eighteen miles in an hour 
 and twenty-five minutes. M. Morveau had pre- 
 pared oars for directing the machine through the 
 air; but they were damaged by the wind, so 
 that only two remained serviceable ; by working 
 these, however, they were able to produce a 
 sensible effect on the motion of the machine. In 
 a third a;rial voyage performed by M. Blan- 
 chard, he seemed to produce some effect by the 
 
 agitation of his wings, both in ascending, de- 
 scending, moving sidewise, and even in some 
 measure against the wind : however, this is sup- 
 posed, with some degree of probability, to have 
 been a mistake, as in no succeeding voyage 
 could the effect of his machinery be perceived. 
 
 23. On the 28th of June, 1784, M. Flewrant 
 and Madame Thible, (the first female who ever 
 dared adventure upon these exploits,) ascended 
 at Lyons before the king of Sweden, who then 
 travelled under the name of Count Haga. On 
 their entering the car, (which was 75 feet in 
 height,) they ascended with great celerity, and 
 in four minutes the noise of the multitude was 
 no longer audible. Two minutes afterwards, the 
 eye could not distinguish them. Their greatest 
 altitude was 13,500 feet, (the highest yet reached) 
 and the flag, with its staff of fourteen pounds 
 weight, being thrown out, it was seven minutes 
 descending to the ground. The thermometer 
 had dropt to 43 on Fahrenheit's scale; and 
 the sensation of cold that they felt, was at- 
 tended by a ringing in the ears. Different cur- 
 rents were found to occupy the strata of the 
 atmosphere, and when passing from one strata 
 to another, the balloon received a sensible undu- 
 lation. The travellers continued to feed their 
 fire with vine loppings, till, having exhausted 
 their fuel, they descended in a corn field, after 
 remaining in the atmosphere three quarters of 
 an hour. About a fortnight afterwards, a splen- 
 did ascent was exhibited from the outer court of 
 Versailles, by command of the French monarch, 
 as a compliment to the king of Sweden. Of 
 this balloon, the naturalists, Rozier and Proust, 
 undertook the management. On their stepping 
 into the car, it rose in the most rapid manner to 
 the height of 12,520 feet, and appeared to float 
 in a vast congregation of towering white clouds. 
 The thermometer stood at 21, and flakes of 
 snow fell copiously on the voyagers, while it 
 only rained below. Descending from this chaos 
 of clouds, they were cheered and delighted by 
 the aspect of the rich and populous district, 
 spread out before them in the most lively man- 
 ner, and finally alighted at the forest of Chantilly, 
 thirty-six miles from the place of their ascent, 
 after an excursion of one hour and five minutes. 
 
 24. In August, the Abbe Carnus, professor 
 of philosophy, and M. Lauchet, professor of 
 belles lettres, ascended at Rodez, a town of 
 Guienne in France, to a height of 3920 yards 
 above the level of the town. These aeronauts 
 filled one or two bottles with air at their highest 
 elevation, and found that they contained a 
 quarter less air than if filled at the level of the 
 sea, and that the air was much purer. 
 
 25. Messrs. Charles and Robert, from their 
 success in their former experiments, were en- 
 couraged to enlarge their balloon to the size of 
 an oblong spheroid, 46 feet and a third long, 
 and 27 and a half in diameter, made so as to 
 float with its longest part parallel to the horizon. 
 The wings were of the shape of an umbrella 
 without the handle, to the top of which a stick 
 was fastened parallel to the aperture of the 
 umbrella. See Plate 1. fig- 2. Five of these 
 were disposed round the car, which was near 
 17 feet in length. The balloon was filled in
 
 192 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 three hours, and, with the addition of 450 Ibs. 
 of ballast, remained in equilibria with the at- 
 mosphere. About noon, on the 19th September 
 1784, they began to ascend; and having risen 
 to the height of 1400 feet, they perceived some 
 thunder clouds near the horizon, which they 
 took great pains to avoid. From this account, 
 however, it should seem, that they had passed 
 safely through the thunder clouds; as, about 
 forty minutes after three, they heard a loud clap 
 of thunder; and, three minutes after, another 
 much louder ; at which time the thermometer 
 sunk from 77 to 59 degrees. The sudden cold, 
 occasioned by the approach of these clouds, con- 
 densed the inflammable air, so that the balloon 
 descended very low, and they were obliged to 
 throw out forty pounds of ballast ; yet on ex- 
 amining the heat of the air within the balloon, 
 they found it to be 104, when that of the ex- 
 ternal atmosphere was only 63. When they had 
 got so hiyh that the mercury in the barometer 
 stood only at 23.94 inches, they found them- 
 selves becalmed ; so that the machine did not go 
 even at the rate of two feet in a second, though 
 it had before gone at the rate of 24 feei in a 
 second. On this they determined to try the 
 effect of their oars to the utmost ; and, by work- 
 ing them for thirty-five minutes, and marking 
 the shadow of the balloon on the ground, they 
 found in that time, that they had described the 
 segment of an ellipsis, whose longest diameter 
 was 6000 feet. After having travelled about 150 
 miles, they descended, only on account of the 
 approach of night, having still 200 pounds of 
 ballast left. 
 
 26. The effect of their wings is described 
 thus : ' Far from going against the wind, as is 
 said by some persons to be possible in a certain 
 manner, and some aeronauts pretend to have ac- 
 tually done, we only obtained, by means of two 
 oars, a deviation of 22 : it is certain, however, 
 that if we could have used our four oars, we 
 might have deviated about 40 from the direc- 
 tion of the wind ; and as our machine would 
 have been capable of carrying seven persons, it 
 would have been easy for five persons to have 
 managed and put in action eight oars, by means 
 of which a deviation of about 80 would have 
 been obtained. We had already observed, (say 
 they) that if we did not deviate more than 22, 
 it was because the wind carried us at the rate 
 of twenty-four miles an hour ; and it is natural 
 to judge, that, if the wind had been twice as 
 strong as it was, we should not have deviated 
 more than one half of what we actually did ; 
 and, on the contrary, if the wind had been 
 only half as strong, our deviation would have 
 been proportionably greater.' 
 
 27. One of the longest and most remarkable 
 serial voyages ever performed in France, was un- 
 dertaken at Paris, in June 1786, by M. Testu, 
 with a balloon twenty-nine feet in diameter, 
 of glazed tiffany, furnished with wings, and in- 
 flated with gas. He ascended at four o'clock 
 in the afternoon, the barometer standing at 29.68 
 inches, and the thermometer at 84, though the 
 day was cloudy and lowering. The machine 
 had been only filled, but gradually swelled as 
 it became drier and warmer, and acquired its 
 
 full distension at the height of 2800 feet ; when* 
 to avoid the waste of gas, and the danger of a 
 rupture, M. Testu attempted to lower the bal- 
 loon by his wings. Not being able to succeed, 
 he thought proper to descend, and alighted in a 
 corn field in the plain of Montmorency, when 
 he was surrounded by the proprietor of the field, 
 and a troop of peasants, who seized him, and 
 insisted on being indemnified for the mischiet 
 occasioned by his idle and curious followers. 
 He persuaded them that his wings were broken, 
 and that he and the balloon were entirely at their 
 mercy ; when they drew both along, in supposed 
 triumph, by cords fixed to the car, till M. Testu, 
 perceiving that the loss of wings, cloak, &c. had 
 made the balloon much lighter, suddenly cut the 
 string, and left the farmer and his peasants 
 gazing below. He now arose to the region of 
 the clouds, whence he saw small frozen particles 
 floating in the atmosphere, and heard thunder 
 rolling undei his feet. As the coolness of the 
 evening advanced, the power of ascension di- 
 minished, and he alighted on the ground near 
 the abbey of Royaumont about seven o'clock. 
 He afterwards threw out some ballast, and rose 
 again to a height of 2400 feet, when the ther- 
 mometer was 66. He now heard the blast of a 
 horn below, and saw a company of huntsmen in 
 full chase. He immediately opened the valve, 
 and descended between Etouen and Varville ; 
 when rejecting his oars, he began to collect some 
 ballast. While he did this, the huntsmen gal- 
 lopped up to him. He then made another 
 ascent, and passed through a dense body of 
 clouds, awful by the frequent thunders, and 
 flashes of lightning following each other in a 
 rapid and vivid stream, illuminating the whole 
 heavens at every explosion. The thermometer 
 fell to 21 ; but at the height of 3000 feet, rose 
 as high as 56. At this altitude, he floated about 
 till half past nine o'clock, when he witnessed the 
 final setting of the sun ; a scene so grand, as to 
 mock the richness of description. After this, he 
 was involved in thick masses of thunder clouds, 
 and lightnings flashing round him on all sides. 
 The thermometer sunk to 21. Snow and sleet 
 fell copiously; loud peals of thunder rolled 
 around, and seemed to shake the very firmament. 
 This tremendous scene continued three hours, 
 during which time our aeronaut remained in the 
 midst of the storm. The balloon was affected by 
 a sort of undulating motion upward and down- 
 ward, occasioned, as he supposed, by the elec- 
 tric action of the clouds. The lightning was 
 excessively vivid, and the thunder was preceded 
 by a sort of crackling noise. A calm at last 
 succeeding, the stars broke upon his sight as 
 clear as ever, and the sky seemed perfectly 
 serene. He then took some refreshment, and at 
 half-past two o'clock the day began to open upon 
 the world. He staid till tie had witnessed the 
 rising of the sun, and afterwards descended to 
 the earth, and alighted near the village of Cam- 
 premie, sixty- three miles from Paris, having com- 
 pleted a voyage of nearly twelve hours. 
 
 28. The first balloon seen in England, was con- 
 structed by the ingenious Italian, Count Zam- 
 beccari. It was ten feet in diameter, weighed 
 eleven pounds, and consisted of oiled silk, gilt,

 
 VOL.UPAHK IS - 
 
 H cs , 
 
 . CJ>t 
 
 .l.Shur.v
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 193 
 
 by which means it became, not only more beau- 
 tiful, but less permeable to the gas. It was 
 launched from the Artillery ground, London, on 
 the 25th of November, 1783 ; and was taken up 
 at Petvvorth in Sussex, at the distance of forty- 
 eight miles. 
 
 29. On the 21st of September, 1784, Vincent 
 Lunardi, an Italian, is said to have made the 
 first serial ascent in England. His balloon was 
 of oiled silk, striped with blue and red, and 
 thirty-three feet in diameter. There was no 
 valve ; the neck, which was in the form of a pear, 
 through which the gas was introduced, being 
 the medium through which it might be emitted. 
 He took with him a dog, a cat, and a pigeon ; 
 and after remaining sometime, alighted, abou' 
 twenty minutes after three, in a meadow in the 
 neighbourhood of Ware, Hertfordshire. 
 
 30. Blanchard, who had performed numerous 
 voyages before, on the 16th October ascended 
 with Mr. Sheldon, professor of anatomy to the 
 royal academy, from Chelsea, and after a short 
 voyage of fourteen miles, brought his com- 
 panion down, and re-ascended to so great an 
 altitude, that he found great difficulty in breath- 
 ing. The atmosphere at that height was so 
 rare, that a pigeon sent off from the car, found 
 great difficulty in supporting itself, and at length 
 came and settled on the machine, afraid to ven- 
 ture in the boundless ocean which he saw on 
 every side. 
 
 31. On the 7th of January, 1785, the same gen- 
 tleman ascended from Dover, with Dr. Jefferies 
 of America, on the daring exploit of crossing the 
 sea to Calais. The morning was clear and frosty, 
 and a little wind, scarcely perceptible, NNVV. 
 The balloon was stationed on the cliff, and at 
 one o'clock, when all things were arranged, M. 
 Blanchard ordered the boat to be pushed off, 
 from the top of that celebrated precipice so 
 finely described by Shakspeare. The balloon 
 being scarcely sufficient to carry two men, (for 
 in fact, Blanchard, though a successful adven- 
 turer, had little scientific knowledge as an aero- 
 naut,) they were soon obliged to cast out all 
 their ballast, except three bags of sand, weighing 
 in the whole thirty pounds. After this, they 
 rose a little, but moved very slowly, in conse- 
 quence of the calmness of the atmosphere. In 
 a short time the barometer which on the cliff 
 stood at 29, 7'. had fallen to 27, 3'. The wea- 
 ther being fine and warm, they had now a most 
 beautiful view of the south of England. At ten 
 minutes before two o'clock, when they were 
 just in the midst of the strait, twelve miles from 
 either shore, they found the balloon descending, 
 and became alarmed at their situation. They 
 threw out half their remaining ballast, but their 
 descent was still more rapid than before ; they 
 then threw out the remainder, but this was in- 
 sufficient ; they next cast out a quantity of books. 
 This caused the balloon again to ascend, but at 
 a quarter past two, finding themselves again de- 
 scending, they threw out the remainder of their 
 books, and ten minutes after had a most delight- 
 fttl view of the coast of France. Still, however, 
 the balloon was falling, and having no more 
 ballast, they cast out their provisions, cut off the 
 
 K^ings of their boat, and parted with every tiling 
 
 that was moveable, even to their only bottle 
 which in its descent cast out a steam like smoke, 
 accompanied by a rushing noise, and when it 
 struck the water, the balloon felt the shock. All 
 this not stopping the descent of the balloon 
 they next threw out their anchors and cords' 
 and at last stripped off their clothes, and fasten- 
 ing themselves to certain slings, intended to cut 
 away the boat as their last resource. The 
 balloon, however, began to rise, and they finally 
 descended in safety in the forest of Guiennes, 
 not far from Calais. The magistrates of that 
 town received them with great kindness, and the 
 king presented M. Blanchard with 12,000 livres, 
 and a pension of 1200. 
 
 32. It would be tedious to relate all the differ- 
 ent serial voyages that have been performed in 
 this and other countries ; but we must not omit 
 the ingenious Mr. Baldwin's excursion from 
 Chester. This gentleman in September, 1785, 
 ascended in Mr. Lunardi's balloon; and after 
 traversing the air in a variety of directions, first 
 alighted in the neighbourhood of Frodsham ; 
 then re-ascending, and pursuing his excursion, 
 he finally landed at Rixtonmoss, twenty-five miles 
 from Chester. Mr. Baldwin published the 
 observations he made during this voyage, and 
 gives the following curious particulars of it : The 
 sensation of ascending, he compares to a strong 
 pressure from the bottom of the car upwards 
 against the soles of his feet. At the distance ot 
 what appeared to him seven miles from the 
 earth, though by the barometer, scarcely a mile 
 and a half, he had a grand and most enchanting 
 view of the city of Chester, and its adjacent 
 places, below. The river Dee was of a red 
 colour ; the city very diminutive, and entirely 
 blue. The whole seemed a perfect plain, the 
 highest building having no apparent height, but 
 all reduced to the same level, and the whole 
 terrestrial prospect appeared like a coloured 
 map. The perspective appearance of things to 
 him, was very remarkable. The lowest bed of 
 vapour that first appeared as a cloud, was pure 
 white, in detached fleeces, increasing as they 
 rose : they presently coalesced, and formed, as he 
 expresses it, a sea of cotton, tufting here and there 
 by the action of the air in the undisturbed part 
 of the clouds. The whole became an extended 
 white floor of cloud, the upper surface being 
 smooth and even. Above this white floor he 
 observed, at great and unequal distances, a vast 
 assemblage of thunder clouds, each parcel con- 
 sisting of whole acres in the densest form : he 
 compares their form and appearance to the 
 smoke of pieces of ordnance, which had conso- 
 lidated as it were into masses of snow, and 
 penetrated through the upper surface or white 
 floor of common clouds, there remaining invisible 
 and at rest. Some clouds had motions in 
 slow and various directions, forming an ap- 
 pearance truly stupendous and majestic. 
 
 33. Mr. Baldwin endeavoured to convey some 
 idea of the scene by a sketch, for which, see 
 Plate II. fig. 1. It represents a circular 
 view he had from the car of the balloon, himselt 
 being over the centre of the view, looking down 
 on the white floor of clouds and seeing the city 
 of Chester through au opening, which discovered
 
 194 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 the landscape below, limited by surrounding 
 vapour to less than two miles in diameter. The 
 breadth of the outer margin defines his apparent 
 height in the balloon (viz. four miles) above the 
 white floor of clouds. These regions did not 
 feel colder, but rather warmer, than below, and 
 the sun felt hottest when the balloon was sta- 
 tionary. The discharge of a cannon when the 
 balloon was at a considerable height, was dis- 
 tinctly heard ; and a second discharge, when at 
 the height of thirty yards, so disturbed him as to 
 oblige him for safety to lay hold firmly of the 
 cords of the balloon. At a considerable height 
 he emptied a pint bottle full of water ; and as 
 the air did not oppose a resistance sufficient to 
 break the stream into small drops, it mostly fell 
 down in large ones. The balloon was much 
 affected by the water (a circumstance observed 
 by others,) and at one time was going directly 
 towards the sea. The mouth of the balloon, 
 however, being opened, it descended into an 
 under current blowing from the sea, and Mr. 
 B. at length landed at Bellair Farm, in Kinsley, 
 twelve miles from Chester. 
 
 34. The first aerial voyage that was made in 
 Scotland, was performed by Mr. Vincent Lu- 
 nardi, who, in November and December 1785, 
 ascended twice from Heriot's Hospital-Gardens, 
 Edinburgh. On both these occasions he went 
 entirely out of sight, and the first day of his ex- 
 hibition being remarkably fine and clear, his 
 balloon, for a long time before it became quite 
 invisible, by the reflection of the sun beams, 
 appeared at first like a full moon, and after- 
 wards like a star of the first magnitude. He 
 alighted safely on that occasion in a field be- 
 tween Cupar and St. Andrews; but in his second 
 voyage he was not so fortunate ; for, a strong 
 wind blowing from the west, his balloon was 
 carried in an easterly direction, and when the 
 power of the inflammable air was exhausted, 
 fell into the sea, near the Isle of May, where he 
 was taken up by some fishermen ; after having, 
 for a considerable time, experienced the cold 
 bath in his basket : which was prevented from 
 sinking altogether, by the small quantity of in- 
 flammable air still remaining in the balloon. 
 After this he repeated his serial voyages at Glas- 
 gow, Kelso, and several other places. Previous 
 to Mr. Lunardi's exhibitions, Mr. James Tytler 
 had greatly excited the public curiosity by un- 
 dertaking to ascend from Comely Gardens with 
 a rarefied air balloon ; but, excepting one morn- 
 ing, that he went up a few hundred yards, in a 
 small basket, without his stove, every other at- 
 tempt, to make the balloon carry up him and 
 the whole necessary apparatus, proved fruitless. 
 Had he filled his balloon with inflammable, in- 
 stead of rarefied air, as his skill in chemical 
 operations is undoubted, he would certainly have 
 succeeded, and in that case might have claimed 
 the honour of being the first aeronaut in Britain. 
 
 35. SECT. II. The attempts to improve the struc- 
 ture of AERONAUTIC machines will now engage 
 our attention ; and feeling that we have entered 
 sufficiently into the details of preceding voyages, 
 we shall only occupy our pages in the continua- 
 tion 'of this article with such ascents as were 
 made for scientific purposes. A first attempt 
 
 of this kind was connected with the desire to 
 lessen the expence of balloons, by discovering 
 some method of ascending without throwing out 
 ballast, and of descending without losing any 
 of the inflammable air. The balloon of the 
 duke de Chartres, afterwards duke d'Orleans, 
 who ascended with this view from Paris in 
 1784, was constructed upon somewhat new 
 principles. It was of an oblong form, made to 
 ascend with its longer diameter horizontally, 
 and measured fifty-five feet in length, and twen- 
 ty-four in breadth. It contained within it a 
 smaller balloon filled with common air; by 
 blowing into which with a pair of bellows, and 
 thus throwing in a considerable quantity of com- 
 mon air, it was supposed that the machine would 
 become sufficiently heavy to descend ; especially 
 as, by the inflation of the internal bag, the in- 
 flammable air in the external one would be con- 
 densed into a smaller space, and thus become 
 specifically heavier. The voyage, however, was 
 attended with such circumstances as rendered it 
 impossible to know what would have been the 
 event of the scheme. The power of ascent, with 
 which they set out, seems to have been very 
 great ; as in three minutes after parting with the 
 ground, they were lost in the clouds, and in- 
 volved in such a dense vapour, that they could 
 see neither the sky nor the earth. In this situa- 
 tion they seemed to be attacked by a whirlwind, 
 which, besides turning the balloon three times 
 round from right to left, shook and beat it so 
 about, that they were rendered incapable of 
 using any of the means proposed for directing 
 their course; and the silk stuff, of which the 
 helm had been composed, was torn away. No 
 scene can be conceived more terrible, than that 
 in which they were now involved. An immense 
 ocean of shapeless clouds rolled upon one another 
 below them, and seemed to prevent any return 
 to the earth, which still continued invisible, 
 while the agitation of the balloon became greater 
 every moment. In this extremity they cut the 
 cords which held the interior balloon, and of 
 consequence it fell down upon the aperture of the 
 tube, that came from the large balloon into the 
 boat, and stopped it up. They were then driven 
 upwards by a gust of wind from below, which 
 carried them to the top of that stormy vapour in 
 which they had been involved. They now saw 
 the sun without a cloud; but the heat of his 
 rays, with the diminished density of the atmos- 
 phere, had such an effect on the inflammable air, 
 that the balloon seemed every moment ready to 
 burst. To prevent this, they introduced a stick 
 through the tube, in order to push away the inner 
 balloon from its aperture ; but the expansion of 
 the inflammable air pushed it so close, that all 
 attempts of this kind proved ineffectual. It was 
 now, however, become absolutely necessary to 
 give vent to a very considerable quantity of the 
 inflammable air , for which purpose the duke de 
 Chartres himself bored two holes in the balloon, 
 which tore open for the length of seven or eight 
 feet. On this they descended with great rapidity, 
 and would have fallen into a lake, had they not 
 hastily thrown out sixty pounds of ballast, which 
 enabled them just to reach the water's edge. 
 36. This plan for navigating aerostatic machines
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 195 
 
 bv common air, being thus rendered dubious, 
 another method was suggested : which was to 
 put a small ./Erostatic machine with rarefied air 
 under an inflammable air balloon, but at such 
 a distance that the inflammable air of the latter 
 might be perfectly out of the reach of the fire 
 used for inflating the former ; and thus, by in- 
 creasing or diminishing the fire in the small ma- 
 chine, the absolute weight of the whole would 
 be considerably diminished or augmented. This 
 scheme was unhappily put in execution by the 
 celebrated M. Pilatre de Rozier and M. Ro- 
 maine. Their inflammable air balloon was about 
 thirty-seven feet in diameter, and the power of the 
 rarefied air one, was equivalent -to about sixty 
 pounds. They ascended without any accident ; 
 but had not been long in the atmosphere, when 
 the inflammable air balloon was seen to swell 
 very considerably, at the same time that the JEro- 
 nauts were observed, by telescopes, very anxious 
 to get down, and busied in pulling the valve and 
 opening the appendages to the balloon, in order to 
 facilitate the escape of as much inflammable air 
 as possible. Soon after this the machine took fire, 
 at the height of about three quarters of a mile 
 from the ground. No explosion was heard ; 
 and the silk of the balloon seemed to resist the 
 atmosphere for about a minute ; after which it 
 collapsed, and descended along with the two 
 unfortunate travellers so rapidly, that both of 
 them were killed. Rozier seemed to have been 
 dead before he came to the ground ; but M. 
 Romaine was alive when some persons came 
 up to him, though he expired immediately after. 
 
 37. But the most striking improvement that has 
 been attempted in the management of balloons 
 is, the detaching a distinct vehicle for the safety 
 or separate descent of the aeronaut. The first 
 invention of this description, now denominated 
 a ]Ktrachute, (Fr. a guard for falling,) is attri- 
 buted to Blanchard, who, in one of his excur- 
 sions from Lisle, about the end of August, 1785, 
 let down from a great height a dog, by means 
 of a basket fastened to a parachute, and the 
 animal reached the ground unhurt. Since that 
 period, the practice and management of the 
 parachute have been carried much farther by 
 other aerial adventurers, and particularly by M. 
 Garnerin, who has repeatedly descended from 
 the region of the clouds by that very slender 
 machine. 
 
 When he visited London in 1802, he made 
 two ascents, in the second of which he threw 
 himself from an amazing elevation in his para- 
 chute, consisting of thirty-two gores of canvass, 
 forming a complete hemisphere. When the 
 balloon rose, the parachute hung like a curtain 
 from the hoop, and below it was suspended a 
 cylindrical basket, covered with canvass, four 
 feet high and two and a quarter wide. In this 
 basket the aeronaut placed himself, and rose from 
 North Audley-street, on the evening of the 2d of 
 September. After hovering five or six minutes 
 in the air, he cut the rope, and precipitated him- 
 self to the earth. Before the parachute opened 
 he fell with great velocity, but as soon as it was 
 expanded the descent was gradual : the whole 
 apparatus, however, swung with the aeronaut 
 from one direction to another, like the pendulum 
 
 of a clock, and made such tremendous oscilla- 
 tions, that the basket was sometimes thrown in 
 almost an horizontal position, and was borne 
 along before the wind over Mary-le-Bone and 
 Somer's-Town, till it alighted in a field of 
 St. Pancras. M. Garnerin received some severe 
 cuts, bled considerably, and trembled, and was 
 greatly agitated on his release from the basket. 
 He said that the accident had been caused by 
 one of the stays of the parachute having given 
 way. 
 
 38. This voyage, and subsequent experiments 
 of the same kind, gave rise to calculations on the 
 rate and danger of the descent with a parachute. 
 When it is first abandoned to the air, we see 
 it fall with great celerity till the increasing 
 velocity meets a resistance in the air equal, or 
 nearly so, to the force of gravitation, after 
 which it descends uniformly ; but as this equili- 
 brium is not attained at once, the machine in 
 the first instance shoots beyond the bounds of its 
 terminal velocity, then contracts within its just 
 limits, exciting great alarm both in the aeronaut 
 and the spectators ; and thus continues for some 
 time, subject to a sort of interior oscillation, 
 alternately accelerating and retarding. If the 
 surface were flat, its motion would be equal to 
 the velocity which a heavy body must acquire 
 in falling through the altitude of a column of 
 air incumbent on that surface, and having the 
 same gravity as the whole apparatus. But a 
 cylinder of air of one foot diameter and height, 
 weighs only ^ of a pound avoirdupoise. Where- 
 fore if the square of the diameter of the parachute 
 be divided by 17, the quotient will give the 
 weight of an atmospheric column of one foot, 
 and the weight of the apparatus being again 
 divided by this quotient, will give the entire alti- 
 tude of an equiponderant column ; the square 
 root of which multiplied by 8, will express 
 the final velocity with which the parachute will 
 strike the surface of the earth : thus, if the di- 
 ameter of the parachute were 25 feet, then 
 25x25625, which, divided by 17=36$. If, 
 then, the parachute and aeronaut weighed 36$, 
 the shock would be equal to a fall of one foot ; 
 had the weight been twice as great, the fall would 
 have been twice as heavy, &c. the velocity being 
 at least 8^4, or 16 feet a second. 
 
 39. The resistance of the air, however, is greater 
 than theory supposes. In the higher regions of 
 the air the parachute descends with a rapidity 
 that is not maintained in a dense atmosphere ; 
 and when the momentary inconvenience of rush- 
 ing through this part of the atmosphere is over- 
 come, the mean descent may be calculated at the 
 rate of 12 feet a second, or a mile in 7, minutes; 
 a rate which will not make the shock at the 
 earth considerable. 
 
 40. It being now supposed that balloons might 
 be usefully employed in observing the state of the 
 atm sphere, and what circumstances attended 
 the magnetic and electric actions in the upoer 
 regions; as also the proportions of the com- 
 ponent parts of air in different altitudes, more 
 or less remote from the earth, Messrs. Robertson 
 and Lhoest made an aerial voyage from Ham 
 burgh about the middle of July, 1803, and rose 
 to so great a height, that the elasticity of the air 
 
 O 2
 
 96 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 alarmingly distended the balloon. They were 
 forced to let out some gas ; after which they 
 ascended to an altitude in which it was almost 
 impossible to endure the cold. Their teeth 
 chattered without ceasing. Mr. Robertson's 
 veins swelled, and blood came from his nose. 
 Mr. Lhoest complained that his head swelled so 
 much, that he could .not keep on his hat ; and 
 they both felt a great degree of numbness, and 
 inclination to sleep. This was at about the 
 height of 2600 toises. Unable to continue any 
 longer they descended, and would have alighted 
 at Badenburg, near Winsen, on the Lube, but the 
 inhabitants fled with the greatest alarm, and 
 took them for spectres. They therefore conti- 
 nued their voyage till they arrived at Wichten- 
 beck, on the way to Zell. As they first arose 
 the atmosphere was calm, but cloudy ; as they 
 ascended, the heat decreased, and they could 
 look at the sun without being dazzled. The 
 barometer fell from 27 to 14 inches, and the 
 thermometer to 4| below zero. As they still 
 ascended, the barometer fell to 121 inches. ; but 
 here the cold was insupportable, although the 
 thermometer was only one degree below the 
 freezing point, and they respired very rapidly ; 
 the pulsations, also, became greatly accelerated. 
 Mr. Robertson made the following experiments, 
 and observations : 
 
 i. He let fall a drop of ether on a piece of 
 glass, and it evaporated in four seconds. 
 
 ii. He electrified glass and sealing-wax, but 
 they gave no intimation of an accumulation of 
 fluid that could be communicated to other bodies ; 
 and the voltaic pile, which, when the balloon 
 was free from the earth, acted with full force, 
 yielded only one-tenth part of its electricity. 
 
 iii. The dipping needle lost its magnetic 
 virtue, and could not be brought to that direction 
 which it had at the surface of the earth. 
 
 iv. He struck with a hammer oxygenated 
 muriate of potash. The explosion though it 
 made not a very loud noise, was almost insuffer- 
 able to the ear, and they moreover, observed 
 that though they spoke very loudly, they could 
 with great difficulty hear each other. 
 
 v. Water began to boil with a moderate 
 degree of heat, maintained by quick lime. 
 
 vi. Mr. Robertson having carried two birds 
 with him, the rarefaction of the air killed one of 
 them, and the other could not fly, but lay 
 extended on its back and fluttered with its wings. 
 vii. Mr. Robertson could not extract any elec- 
 tricity from the atmospheric electrometer and 
 condenser. 
 
 viii. The clouds, Mr. R. observed, never rise 
 above 2000 toises, and it was Only in ascending 
 and descending through them that he ob- 
 tained any positive electricity. The greatest 
 altitude during this voyage was 2600 toises. 
 
 41 . Mr. Robertson also ascended from Peters- 
 burg, on the 30th June, 1804, with the professor 
 Sacharof, to make certain experiments proposed 
 by the academy, and took 12 exhausted flasks, 
 a barometer, thermometer, two electrometers 
 sealing wax, and sulphur, compass, a magnetic 
 needle, a seconds watch, a bell, a speaking 
 trumpet, a prism of crystal, unslacked lime, &c. 
 To ascertain the position of the balloon, they 
 
 fixed perpendicularly an achromatic telescope, 
 in an aperture in the bottom of the car, 
 which showed terrestrial objects distinctly ; two 
 sheets of black paper were also fixed at right 
 angles, suspended from the car with a piece of 
 thread to indicate any variation in the direction 
 of the balloon, which contrivance they called the 
 way-wiser. About a quarter past seven in the 
 evening, the barometer being at thirty inches, 
 and the centigrade thermometer at 19. they 
 ascended, and at thirty-one minutes past seven, 
 the barometer sunk to twenty-nine inches, and 
 the thermometer to 18. The first cask was 
 now filled with air, and when the barometer had 
 fallen another inch, another cask was filled. 
 The towns and villages being now obscured by 
 a fog, the paper way -wiser was thrown out, and 
 showed the direction of the balloon, for as the 
 balloon fell, the way-wiser being lighter, and 
 meeting more resistance in falling than the 
 balloon, flew up, and when it rose, sunk down 
 to the full length of its thread. 
 
 At other times it was seen in a diagonal di- 
 rection, and pointed out with considerable accu- 
 racy the general direction and movements of the 
 machine. At twenty-five minutes past eight, the 
 barometer being at twenty-six inches, another 
 cask was filled with air, and another, when it 
 was twenty-five inches, and so on for every inch 
 descent of the mercujy. At half-past nine 
 o'clock, the barometer being at twenty-two inches 
 the thermometer at 4, 30', the voyagers saw the 
 sun which was about half obscured by the fogs 
 or the horizon or both. A piece of sealing wax 
 rubbed with cloth, put in motion Bennet's Elec- 
 trometer. A magnetic needle placed by M. 
 Sacharof on a pin, elevated its north end, and 
 lowered its south end, making an angle of w, 
 or 12, but ever after descending, the same 
 needle assumed an horizontal position. The 
 aeronauts experienced no inconvenience except 
 that their ears were benumbed with cold. There 
 were white clouds a great way above the bal- 
 loon, but the sky was in general clear and 
 bright. They could however see no stars. As 
 they were now floating over some towns and 
 villages, M. Sacharof took his speaking trumpet 
 and directed it toward the earth, and called as 
 loud as he was able; after a lapse of ten 
 seconds his words returned in echo, and 
 sounded distinctly and clearly : calculating by 
 the velocity of sound, he thought himself 5700 
 feet from the earth ! To render the descent as 
 safe as possible, all the instruments, clothing, 
 &c. with an anchor were let down by a rope, 
 but the handle being drawn a considerable dis- 
 tance along the ground, many of the instruments 
 were destroyed, and of the eight casks that had 
 been charged with air at different altitudes, four 
 only were fit for experiment. These last two 
 voyages may be said to be the first ever under- 
 taken with the general view of investigating 
 philosophy and science. 
 
 42. Besides the account given by Messrs, 
 Robertson and Sacharof, with respect to the 
 magnet, that there was a change in the dipping 
 power of the needle. 
 
 M. Saussure, from experiments made on the 
 Col du Geant, at the. height of 3435 metres
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 197 
 
 above the level of the sea, thought he observed 
 a sensible decrease of the magnetic virtue. Some 
 aeronauts had stated that at a certain height the 
 power of magnetism entirely vanishes. 
 
 43. To ascertain the truth or fallacy of these 
 assertions, and also to try the experiment of Saus- 
 sure in isolated situations remote from the in- 
 fluence of any local attractions; to explore the con- 
 stitution of the higher atmosphere, its fitness or 
 uufitness for respiration, &c. ; and also to make 
 electrical, chemical, and meteorological observa- 
 tions, M. Biot and Gay Lussac, two young philo- 
 sophers, educated at the Polytechnic school m 
 Paris, proposed taking an serial voyage. Their 
 plan was patronised by the French government. 
 The balloon which once visited Egypt, was 
 delivered to these gentlemen, for the purpose of 
 the excursion ; the artist who constructed it was 
 appointed to repair it under their direction, and 
 every facility was to be afforded them. Besides 
 the usual provision of barometers, thermometers, 
 hygrometers, and electrometers, they had two 
 compasses, a dipping-needle, and another fine 
 needle carefully magnetized, and suspended by 
 a very delicate silk thread for ascertaining, by 
 its vibrations, the force of attraction in the upper 
 strata of the atmosphere. To examine the elec- 
 tricity of the strata they carried up several 
 metallic wires from sixty to 300 feet in length, 
 and a small electrophorus slightly charged. 
 For galvanic experiments, they had procured a 
 few discs of zinc and copper, with some frogs, 
 insects, and birds. It was also proposed to bring 
 back air collected at as great a height as pos- 
 sible, for chemical analysis, for which purpose 
 they had a glass ball closely shut up, previously 
 exhausted of air ; so that they had only to 
 open and shut it up carefully, by means of the 
 stopper. 
 
 44. They ascended from the Conservatoire des 
 Arts, or repository of models, formerly the convent 
 of St. Martin ; on 23rd of August, 1804, the baro- 
 meter being 30, 10.' inches; the thermometer 
 61, 7'. on Fahrenheit's scale, and Saussure's 
 hygrometer 80, 8'. near the point of absolute 
 humidity. In a few moments they entered the 
 region of the clouds, which seemed like a thin 
 fog, and communicated a slight sensation of 
 humidity. The balloon becoming quite inflated, 
 they let out part of their gas, and threw out some 
 ballast to give a greater elevation. They now 
 shot through the clouds, and reached an altitude of 
 6500 English feet. Viewed from above, the clouds 
 had the usual whitish appearance, exhibiting an 
 elegant variety of gentle swells and undulations, 
 resembling a wide plain of snow. At this alti- 
 tude they commenced their experiments, and 
 first of all employed the magnetic needle. This 
 was attracted by iron; but owing to a slow 
 rotatory motion of the balloon, they found it im- 
 possible to determine its rate of oscillation. The 
 rotation showed itself, when any of the ropes 
 were brought in a straight line with the edge of 
 the clouds on any terrestrial objects, the contours 
 of which were sensibly distinguishable the one 
 from the other. Electricity was excited by the 
 contact of insulated metals, as upon the earth. 
 An electric pile, prepared with twenty discs of 
 copper, and as many of zinc, exhibited all the 
 
 usual symptoms, the pungent taste, the nervous 
 shock, and the decomposition of water. This 
 might have been expected, says M. Biot, since 
 the action of this pile does not cease, even in i 
 vacuum. They afterwards attained the altitude 01 
 8,940 feet, but afterwards settled at 8,600 feet. 
 At this great elevation the animals seemed to 
 suffer from the rarety of the air. They let off" a 
 bee, which flew away making its usual humming 
 noise. The thermometer had fallen to 56, 4'. 
 by Fahrenheit ; yet so far were they from 
 experiencing cold, that they were absolutely 
 scorched by the rays of the sun, and were ob- 
 liged to lay aside their gloves from the incon- 
 venience occasioned by the heat. Their pulsa- 
 tions were much accelerated, that of Gay Lus- 
 sac was increased from sixty to eighty in a- 
 minute, and his companion's from 79 to 111, 
 attended, however, with no difficulty of breath- 
 ing ; Gay Lussac, whose frame was less robust, 
 experienced the less acceleration. The balloon 
 continued its rotatory motion, which rendered 
 it still difficult to observe, with accuracy, the 
 oscillations of the magnetic needle ; but on 
 looking attentively down upon the surface of 
 of the conglomerated clouds, they observed that 
 the balloon revolved slowly, first in one di- 
 rection, next in the contrary one. They there- 
 fore, seized the few minutes of quiescence be- 
 tween these opposite motions for their experi- 
 ments and observations upon the needle ; but 
 in these pauses, though they set the needle to 
 vibrate, they were rarely able to count more than 
 from five to ten oscillations. From a number 
 of trials made between the altitudes of 9,500 and 
 13,000 feet, they calculated seven for the mean 
 length of an oscillation, which at the earth is but 
 7^, and attributing so nice a distinction to the 
 imperfection of the experiment, they concluded 
 that the force of the magnetic attraction had in no 
 degree diminished, at the greatest elevation they 
 could possibly reach ; and the direction of this 
 force, in their opinion, remained the same. M. 
 Biot confesses that he was not able to observe 
 the needle with accuracy, and therefore, cannot 
 positively assert that it experiences no variation ; 
 but he thinks it highly probable that it does not, 
 its horizontal force having undergone no change, 
 or if any, it must have been very inconsiderable, 
 because the magnetic bars brought into equi- 
 librium before their departure, retained their 
 horizontality during the whole journey. The 
 weather and the disposition of the apparatus, 
 however, prevented their coming to any nice 
 conclusion. 
 
 45. At the altitude of 11,000 feet, they liberated 
 a green linnet, which flew away directly ; but soon 
 feeling itself abandoned in the midst of an un- 
 known ocean, returned and settled on the balloon, 
 then collecting itself, took a second flight, and 
 darted downward to the earth, describing a 
 tortuous, yet almost perpendicular track. A 
 pigeon which they sent off, offered a more curious 
 spectacle : He rested a short time on the edge of 
 the car, and looked down as if measuring the 
 breadth of that unexplored sea before him, 
 then launching into the abyss, fluttered irregu- 
 larly, and after a few strokes, whirling in spiral 
 like birds of prey, precipitated himself toward
 
 198 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 the mass of extended clouds, and became in- 
 visible. Our aeronauts had now arrived at the 
 altitude of 13,385 feet, and had not yet made 
 electrical experiments. In order to try the ap- 
 paratus an insulated wire was let down 240 feet in 
 length, and electricity was extracted from its upper 
 extremity, which when applied to the electro- 
 meter, appeared to be resinous, or negative, con- 
 firming the observations of Saussure and Volta, 
 respecting the increase of electricity, observed 
 in ascending the atmosphere. The experiment 
 was tried, first, by destroying the atmospheric 
 electricity by means of the vitreous electricity, 
 from the electrophorus ; and, secondly, by de- 
 stroying the vitreous electricity, extricated from 
 the electrophorus, by means of the atmospheric 
 electricity. The latter must therefore, have been 
 resinous. The inference drawn from these ex- 
 periments was, that electricity increases as we 
 ascend farther from the surface of the earth, 
 agreeably to the experiments and observations of 
 Volta and Saussure. The diminution of tem- 
 perature in the higher regions, was not so great as 
 might have been expected, and less than what is 
 experienced in the same altitude on the tops of 
 mountains, even at the elevation of 12,800 feet. 
 The thermometer was at 51, by Fahrenheit, 
 while it stood as low as 63$, at the observatory, 
 being a decrement of one degree for every 1000 
 feet of ascent. 
 
 46. The hygrometer, or rather hygroscope of 
 Saussure advanced regularly towards dryness in 
 proportion to the altitude they attained. At the 
 time of the ascent, this instrument indicated 
 80, 8', at 16, 5' of the centrigade thermometer, 
 but at the elevation of 13,000 feet, it changed 
 from 80, 8', to 30, from which it would ap- 
 pear that the air is much drier in the upper 
 regions than at the earth, which was the conclu- 
 sion of M. Biot. The rectitude of it however, 
 has been questioned. It has been observed that 
 the indications of the hygroscope depend on the 
 relative attraction for humidity possessed by the 
 substance employed, and the medium in which 
 it is immersed. But air has its disposition to 
 retain humidity, always augmented by rarefac- 
 tion, and consequently such attraction must 
 materially affect the hygroscope. Such are the 
 results of this voyage, which has been considered 
 the most scientific of any that have been hitherto 
 made. Having expended all their ballast they 
 descended gradually till at about the altitude 
 of 4000 feet, they entered the stratum of clouds 
 extending horizontally with the surface of 
 the earth, and at last reached the ground. 
 There being no people near the spot to stop 
 the machine, they were dragged in the car to 
 some distance along the fields. M. Biot was so 
 overpowered by the alarm of their descent as to 
 lose entire possession of himself, and the only 
 
 way left of avoiding the dangers that threatened 
 them, was, by discharging the remaining gas. 
 
 47. M. Biot afterwards presented himself to 
 the Institute as a candidate for a second ascent. 
 He did not however repeat his excursion ; but at 
 the request of several Parisian philosophers M 
 Gay Lussac made another voyage on the 15th of 
 September, from the same place, at about forty- 
 nine minutes past nine in the morning. He 
 reduced his apparatus, and adapted it better 
 to his circumstances. Aware that he could only 
 observe the magnetic needle during the short 
 periods of quiescence, intervening between the 
 rotatory motions of the balloon, he preferred one 
 of not more than six inches long, the oscillations 
 of which were more rapid. The dipping needle 
 was magnetized, and adjusted by M. Coulomb, 
 and the thermometer was inclosed within two con- 
 centric cylinders of pasteboard covered with gilt 
 paper, proper to prevent the immediate action of 
 the sun. The hygrometer, on Richer's principle, 
 with four bodies, was sheltered in a similar 
 manner. Two glass vessels were exhausted, with 
 the intention of bringing down air from the higher 
 regions, and the mercurial gauge stood at the 
 twenty-fifth part of an inch. The barometer at 
 the period of ascent, stood at 76,525 centimetres, 
 or 30.66 English inches. The hygrometer at 
 57.5, and the thermometer at 27.50, of the cen- 
 tigrade, or 82 of Fahrenheit's thermometer. At 
 the elevation of 3000 feet, he saw a light vapour 
 dispersed through the whole atmosphere below 
 him, through which distant objects might be 
 confusedly seen. At the height of 3032 metres, 
 or about 9950 English feet, he commenced his 
 experiments on the magnetic needle, which made 
 twenty oscillations in 83, the same as it would 
 have made at the earth in 83, 20'. At the height 
 of 12,680 feet, the needle taking the mean ampli- 
 tude of the oscillations was 31 as at the obser- 
 vatory. Owing to the wind and other difficulties, 
 he was obliged to renounce any further observa- 
 tions. In his experiments with the dipping 
 needle, he was equally unsuccessful, for the dry-' 
 ness formed by the sun in rarefied air, was so 
 great, that the compass became damaged by the 
 bending of the metallic circle on which the 
 divisions were traced out, by which all his 
 deductions were rendered uncertain : he there 
 fore proceeded to his other experiments. 
 
 48. At the altitude of 14,000 feet, a key held 
 in the magnetic direction repelled with one end, 
 and attracted with the other the North Pole of 
 the needle, and even at the increased altitude of 
 20,150 feet, he found no sensible difference ; 
 whence, he concludes magnetism to be the same 
 at the greatest elevation. 
 
 The table of observations will, perhaps, give 
 the clearest view of the result of his experiments 
 to the curious reader.
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 199 
 
 Table of the Observations of M. GAY LUSSAC. in his ascent on the 15th of September, 1804. 
 
 Tempera 
 lure expres 
 sed in de- 
 grees of the 
 centigrade 
 thermome- 
 ter. 
 
 Mean of the 
 indications 
 of the two 
 hygrome- 
 ters. 
 
 Mean height 
 of the baro- 
 meter, reducec 
 to that of a 
 barometer at : 
 constant level 
 
 Corresponding 
 heights in 
 metres above 
 Paris. 
 
 The same in 
 toises. 
 
 e 
 
 60 a 
 
 "5 jg 
 
 I 1 
 
 Duration 
 of the oscil- 
 lations in 
 seconds. 
 
 Oscillations 
 reduced to 
 the common 
 number 10. 
 
 rresponding time. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Z 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 Cent. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 27-75 
 
 57-5 
 
 76-525 
 
 Surface. 
 
 Surface. 
 
 30 
 
 126-5 
 
 10 
 
 42-16 
 
 12-50 
 
 62-0 
 
 53-81 
 
 3032-01 
 
 1555-64 
 
 20 
 
 83-3 
 
 10 
 
 41-5 
 
 11-00 
 
 50-0 
 
 51-43 
 
 3412-11 
 
 1750-66 
 
 
 
 
 
 8-50 
 
 37-3 
 
 49-68 
 
 3691-32 
 
 1893-92 
 
 
 
 
 
 10-50 
 
 33-0 
 
 49-05 
 
 3816-79 
 
 1958-29 
 
 10 
 
 42-0 
 
 10 
 
 42-0 
 
 
 
 
 
 45-28 
 
 4511-61 
 
 2314-84 
 
 30 
 
 127-5 
 
 10 
 
 42-5 
 
 12-0 
 
 30-9 
 
 46-66 
 
 4264-65 
 
 2188-08 
 
 30 
 
 125-5 
 
 10 
 
 41-8 
 
 11-0 
 
 29-9 
 
 46-26 
 
 4327-86 
 
 2220-51 
 
 20 
 
 86-0 
 
 10 
 
 43-0 
 
 8-25 
 
 27-6 
 
 44.04 
 
 4725-90 
 
 2428-89 
 
 20 
 
 84-5 
 
 10 
 
 42-2 
 
 6-50 
 
 27-5 
 
 43-53 
 
 4808-74 
 
 2467-24 
 
 30 
 
 128-5 
 
 10 
 
 42-8 
 
 8-75 
 
 29-4 
 
 45-28 
 
 4511-61 
 
 2314-84 
 
 30 
 
 127-5 
 
 10 
 
 42-5 
 
 5-25 
 
 30-1 
 
 42-49 
 
 5001-85 
 
 2566-32 
 
 
 
 
 
 4-25 
 
 27-5 
 
 41-14 
 
 5267-73 
 
 2702-74 
 
 40 
 
 169 
 
 10 
 
 42-2 
 
 2-5 
 
 32-7 
 
 39-85 
 
 5519-16 
 
 2831-74 
 
 
 
 
 
 0-4 
 
 30-2 
 
 39-01 
 
 5674-85 
 
 2911-62 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-0 
 
 33-0 
 
 41-41 
 
 5175-06 
 
 2654-68 
 
 30 
 
 126-5 
 
 10 
 
 42-1 
 
 3-0 
 
 324 
 
 37-17 
 
 6040-70 
 
 3099-32 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 1-0 
 
 32-1 
 
 36-96 
 
 6107-19 
 
 3133-44 
 
 20 
 
 84-0 
 
 10 
 
 42-0 
 
 o-o 
 
 35-1 
 
 39-18 
 
 5631-65 
 
 2889-45 
 
 30 
 
 127-5 
 
 10 
 
 42-5 
 
 3-25 
 
 33-9 
 
 36-70 
 
 6143-31 
 
 5151-97 
 
 20 
 
 82-0 
 
 10 
 
 41-0 
 
 7-0 
 
 34-5 
 
 33-39 
 
 6884-14 
 
 3532-07 
 
 20 
 
 83-5 
 
 10 
 
 41-7 
 
 9-5 
 
 
 32-88 
 
 6977-97 
 
 3579-90 
 
 
 
 
 
 49- From this it appears, that the temperature 
 is very irregular in corresponding heights, which 
 "he supposed to arise from the observations being 
 taken, some in ascending and some in descending, 
 the thermometer obeying the variations too slowly. 
 But regarding only the decreasing series of degrees 
 in the thermometer, the law of temperature ap- 
 pears more regular : thus, the temperature at the 
 earth is 27, 75', and at the height of 3691 metres, 
 is 8, 5', dividing the difference of the altitudes by 
 that of the temperatures, we shall have 191.7 
 metres, or 98.3 toises of elevation for each 
 lowering degree of temperature. Towards the 
 surface of the earth, the heat follows a less de- 
 creasing law than in the higher parts of the 
 atmosphere. At greater heights it follows arith- 
 metical progression. The lowest temperature 
 observed, was 9, 25', corresponding to 14, 9', 
 of Fahrenheit's thermometer ; and to an eleva- 
 tion of 23,040 English feet. The gradation 
 evidently is not uniform, as appears from facts 
 already laid down by other observers, but pro- 
 ceeds with augmented rapidity in the upper 
 regions. The hygrometer was very irregular, 
 but tended obviously toward dryness. At the 
 earth, it was 57, 5', but at the height of 3032 
 metres, changed to 62, and then declined till the 
 balloon attained the height of 5267 metres, when 
 it stood at 27, 5'. From this point it advanced 
 again, with slight aberrations to 35, 1', at an 
 altitude of 5631metres, but above this, the varia- 
 
 tion was slight. Facts and observations, have, 
 however, convinced us, that the higher strata of 
 the atmosphere, are generally driven through 
 the lower, and are capable of retaining at the 
 same temperature, a larger share of moisture. 
 The two air flasks were opened, one at the 
 height of 21,460 feet, and the other at 21,790 
 feet, when the air rushed into them with a 
 whistling noise. From that stupendous height, 
 he still saw fleecy clouds at a great height above 
 him, but none below. The atmosphere wanted 
 transparency, and exhibited a dull misty ap- 
 pearance. The different aspect of the sky, was 
 owing, in his opinion, to the different direction 
 of the winds. At this enormous elevation, he 
 began to feel increasingly cold, great numbness, 
 difficulty of breathing, while his throat was so 
 parched from inhaling the dry attenuated air, 
 that he could scarcely swallow a morsel of bread. 
 His ballast being nearly gone, and his balloon 
 completely distended, he began to descend at 
 the rate of about a mile in eight minutes, and 
 after a lapse of thirty-four minutes, alighted, at 
 three-quarters past three o'clock, near the hamlet 
 of St. Gourgon, sixteen miles north west of 
 Rouen. On his arrival at Paris, he hasted to 
 the laboratory of the polytechnic school, with his 
 flasks of air, and proceeded to analyze it. On 
 opening the flasks under the water, the liquid 
 rushed in, and half filled their capacity. It was 
 found on analysis to be exactly the same in point
 
 200 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 of proportions, as that at the surface of the earth ; 
 each 1,000 parts containing 215 of oxygen* 
 
 50. The next voyage which we must notice by 
 way of warning to future adventurers, was one of 
 the few fatal ones. On the 7th April, 1806, 
 M. Mosment ascended from Lisle, apparently 
 under auspicious circumstances. During his 
 ascent, he dropped a dog with a parachute, which 
 came safely to the ground, and about one o'clock 
 something was seen descending slowly through 
 the air, and proved to be the flag of M. Mosment. 
 Soon after, a murmur was circulated that the 
 body of the aeronaut was found in one of the 
 fosses of the city, lifeless and covered with blood, 
 which proved in the end but too correct. The 
 misfortune has been attributed to the shallowness 
 of the car, by which, he is supposed to have lost 
 his balance in throwing out the dog, and preci- 
 pitated to die earth. 
 
 51. On the 4th of August, M. Garnerin, as- 
 cended from Paris at eleven o'clock in the 
 evening, for the purpose of making nocturnal 
 observations, under the Russian flag. His bal- 
 loon was illuminated by twenty lamps, and 
 formed a very splendid appearance ; rockets 
 let off at Tivoli, seemed to him scarcely to rise 
 above the earth, and Paris appeared studded with 
 numerous stars. In forty minutes he rose to an 
 elevation of 13,200 feet: at twelve o'clock, when 
 3,600 feet from the earth, he heard the barking 
 of dogs; at two o'clock, he saw several meteors 
 flying around him ; at half past three, he beheld 
 the sun rising in magnificence and grandeur 
 above the ocean of clouds, and the gas expand- 
 ing, he rose to the height of 15,000 feet, and 
 after a lapse of more than seven hours, descended 
 at Loges, forty-five leagues from Paris. 
 
 52. He took a second nocturnal voyage, on the 
 21st September, in which he was exposed to 
 great danger. He commenced his voyage as before 
 from Tivoli, and was at first carried with unex- 
 ampled rapidity to an immense height, when he 
 began to prognosticate a storm. The balloon 
 dilated to an alarming degree, and having neg- 
 lected his apparatus for conducting the gas away 
 from the lamps in its escape, he could not manage 
 the balloon : he therefore with one hand made 
 an opening of two feet diameter, and with the 
 other put out all the lamps he could, and was, 
 without a regulating valve, tossed about from 
 current to current ; his ballast was gone, and in 
 this condition, the balloon rose through thick 
 clouds, then sunk, then struck the earth and re- 
 bounded to an amazing altitude : the storm 
 dashed him against the mountains, and after 
 many severe shocks he became for a time insen- 
 sible. On recovering his senses, he found he 
 had been carried to Tonnere, in a storm of 
 thunder. His anchors shortly hooked in a tree, 
 and he alighted in seven hours and a half from 
 his ascension, 300 miles from Paris, having 
 travelled a distance of forty miles in an hour. 
 This, however, is not more than half the distance 
 he travelled on one occasion in this country, 
 when he went from London to Colchester, a 
 distance of fifty miles, in three-quarters of an 
 hour. 
 
 3. Since this period, the names of Sadler, 
 
 Green, Graham, and other adventurers have been 
 connected with the ascent of balloons, for the 
 purpose ot emolument, in England : sometimes 
 exhibiting the triumphs, and sometimes tho 
 paucity of scientific attainments in their con 
 ductors. But we know of no further efforts thai; 
 the above, to increase the materials of science 
 itself, by these voyages. 
 
 54. The utility of ^Eronautic studies and experi- 
 ments has been very much questioned even by 
 philosophical minds. M. Cavallo, well known 
 in the philosophical world, suggested long; age 
 that small balloons, especially those made of 
 paper, and raised by means of spirit of wine 
 may serve to explore the direction of the wind* 
 in the upper regions of the atmosphere, pai- 
 ticularly when there is a calm below ; and we 
 see the French aeronauts adopted this idea, tha . 
 they might serve also for signals in various cir- 
 cumstances, in which no other means can be 
 used ; and letters or other small things may 
 be easily sent by them ; for instance, from 
 ships that cannot safely land on account of 
 storms ; from besieged places, islands, or the like. 
 The larger aerostatic machines, he adds, may 
 answer all the above mentioned purposes in a 
 better manner ; and they may, besides, be used 
 as a help to a person who wants to ascend a 
 mountain, or a precipice, or to cross a river ; and 
 perhaps one of the machines tied to a boat by a, 
 long rope, may be, in some cases, a better son 
 of sail than any that is used at present. Their 
 conveying people from place to place with great 
 swiftness, and without trouble, may be of essen- 
 tial use, even if the art of guiding them in a 
 direction different from that of the wind should 
 never be discovered. By means of those ma- 
 chines the shape of certain seas and lands may 
 be better ascertained ; men may ascend to the 
 tops of mountains they naver visited before ; 
 they may be carried over marshy and dangerous 
 grounds ; they may by that means come out of a 
 besieged place, or an island ; they may, in hot 
 climates, ascend to a cold region of the atmos- 
 phere, either to refresh themselves, or to observe 
 the ice which is never seen below ; and, in 
 short, they may be thus taken to several places, 
 to which human art hitherto knew of no con- 
 veyance. 
 
 55. ' The philosophical uses, to which these 
 machines may be subservient, are numerous in- 
 deed ; and it may be sufficient to say, that hardly 
 any thing which passes in the atmosphere is known 
 with precision, and that, principally for want of 
 a method of ascending into it. The formation of 
 rain, of thunder storms, of vapours, hail, snow, 
 and meteors in general, requires to be attentively 
 examined and ascertained. The action of the 
 barometer, the refraction and temperature of the 
 air in various regions, the descent of bodies, the 
 propagation of sound, &c. are subjects which all 
 require a series of observations and experiments, 
 the performance of which could never have been 
 properly expected, before the discovery of aero- 
 static machines.' 
 
 56. Such speculations have been for years on 
 record : the reader will see from our preceding 
 detail that they have but partially been fulfilled.
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 201 
 
 But we should not omit to state, that the French 
 applied balloons to military purposes during the 
 late war, and ascribe to this in a great measure, 
 the celebrated victory obtained over the Austrians, 
 at Fleurus, 1794. A balloon was sent up under 
 the direction of Mr. Coutel, accompanied by 
 an adjutant and a general, who rose twice the 
 same day to the height of 220 fathoms, and re- 
 mained each time four hours suspended in the 
 air, observing the movements of the enemy, and 
 corresponding all the time by military signs 
 with general Jourdan, commander of the French 
 army. The enterprise was at last discovered, 
 and a battery opened upon the aeronauts, but they 
 soon gained an elevation beyond the reach of 
 the fire. Afterwards the French commonly pre- 
 pared balloons to go with their armies, as into 
 Egypt, &c. but we have never heard of any 
 other practical result. We would now direct 
 the reader to 
 
 57. SECT. III. OF THE PRINCIPLES OP AERO- 
 NAUTIC MACHINERY. The general principles 
 of jErostation are so little different from those 
 of hydrostatics, .that it is almost superfluous to 
 insist on them. It is a fact universally known, 
 that when a body is immersed in any fluid, if 
 its weight be less than an equal bulk of that 
 fluid, it will rise to the surface ; but if heavier, 
 it will sink ; and if equal, it will remain in the 
 place where it is left. For this reason smoke 
 ascends into the atmosphere, and heated air in 
 that which is colder. Upon this simple prin- 
 ciple depends die whole theory of aerostation. 
 
 58. A cubic foot of air has been found to 
 weigh about 554 grains, and to be expanded by 
 every degree of heat, about 3^ part of the 
 whole. By heating a quantity of air, therefore, 
 to .500 degrees of Fahrenheit, we just double its 
 bulk when the thermometer stands at fifty-four 
 in the open air, and in the same proportion we 
 diminish its weight ; and if such a quantity of 
 this hot air be inclosed in a bag, and the excess 
 of the weight of an equal bulk of common air 
 weighs more than the bag with the air contained 
 in it, both the bag and the air will rise into the 
 atmosphere, and continue to do so until they 
 arrive at a place where the external air is na- 
 turally so much rarefied, that the weight be- 
 comes equal ; and here the whole will float. 
 
 59. From the frequent exhibition of aerostatic 
 machines, the power of hot air in raising weights, 
 or rather that by which it is itself impelled up- 
 wards, has been illustrated by a variety of ex- 
 periments with which every one is familiar. 
 From these it appears, that in the aerostatic ma- 
 chines on Montgolfier's plan, it must be an ad- 
 vantage to have them as large as possible ; be- 
 cause a smaller quantity of fire will then have a 
 greater effect in raising them, and the danger 
 from that element, which in this kind of ma- 
 chines is chiefly to be dreaded, will be in a great 
 measure avoided. On this subject it may be 
 remarked, that as the cubical contents of a globe, 
 or any other figure of which balloons are made, 
 increase much more rapidly than their surfaces, 
 there must ultimately be a degree of magnitude 
 at which the smallest additional heat would raise 
 any weight whatever. Thus, supposing any 
 aerostatic machine capable of containing 500 
 
 cubic feet, and the air within it to be only one 
 degree hotter than the external atmosphere ; the 
 tendency of this machine to rise, even without 
 the application of artificial heat, would be near 
 an ounce. Let its capacity be increased sixteen 
 times, and the tendency to rise will be equiva- 
 lent to a pound ; and this may be done without 
 making the machine sixteen times heavier than 
 before. 
 
 60. It is certain, however, that all aerostatic 
 machines have a tendency to produce or preserve 
 heat within them, as Messrs Charles and Roberts 
 found in their aerial voyage of 150 miles, when 
 the external atmosphere was 63. and the ther- 
 mometer within the balloon at 104. Such a 
 difference of temperature affording a power of 
 ascent equal to forty-one grains on every cubic 
 foot, must, in a machine of 50,000 such feet, 
 have amounted to almost 200 pounds. Hence 
 we may easily account for Mr. Morveau's ac- 
 cident at Dijon, when a balloon filled only with 
 common air made its escape to some distance 
 by the spontaneous rarefaction of the air within. 
 This difference between the external and internal 
 heat, being so very considerable, must have a 
 great influence upon aerostatic machines, and 
 will undoubtedly influence those filled with in- 
 flammable air as well as the other kind. The 
 rain, snow, and vapours, which condense upon 
 them in the higher regions, may also occasion 
 an evaporation, and consequently a very violent 
 degree of cold, so as to make them specifically 
 heavier than the atmosphere. 
 
 To this, probably, we may ascribe the descent 
 of the balloon which carried M. Blanchard and 
 Dr. Jeffries ; and which seemed so extraordinary, 
 that many had recourse to an imaginary attrac- 
 tion in the waters of the ocean, in order to solve 
 the phenomenon. This supposition, however, 
 is rejected by Cavallo ; who explains the matter, 
 by remarking, that in two former voyages made 
 with the same machine, it could not long support 
 two men in the atmosphere, so that we had no 
 reason to wonder at its weakness on this occa- 
 sion. In fact, it does not appear that the air 
 over the sea is at all warmer than that above 
 land ; on the contrary, there is every reason to 
 believe that the superior reflective power of the 
 land renders the atmosphere above it warmer : 
 but it is very natural to suppose, that the air 
 above the sea is more moist than that above 
 land ; and consequently, by letting fall its 
 moisture upon the balloon, must have occasioned 
 an evaporation, that would deprive the machine 
 of its internal heat; which it would partly re- 
 cover after it entered the warmer and drier at- 
 mosphere over land. 
 
 61. Much attention has been directed to the 
 shape most proper for the balloon, an object in 
 aeronautics of considerable importance. The early 
 balloons appear to have been elliptical or oval, 
 but the spherical is now generally preferred 
 because this figure admits the greatest capacity 
 under the least surface. The conical or oblong 
 figure has been proposed as an experiment ; in 
 which case the machine is supposed to proceed 
 with its narrow end forward. This suggestion 
 arose from the consideration that a round form , 
 and that which is approximately so, presents a
 
 202 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 greater surface to the opposition of air; and 
 is, therefore, an insuperable obstacle to guiding 
 it by the action of the oar, wings, or any other 
 invention which might be contrived to turn it, 
 either in the current of the atmosphere, or even 
 in a perfect calm. Mr. Hoole, copying nature, 
 suggests the shape of a fish, the head of which 
 figure might serve to divide the fluid, and the 
 tail as a rudder, to steer the course of the balloon. 
 The traveller, he suggests, should sit in the 
 centre of gravity of the whole mass ; and thus 
 he would not only render it perfectly horizontal, 
 but be able, from his situation, to give an 
 impulse of sufficient force to move the whole 
 body : he should also be provided with instru- 
 ments analogous to the fins of fishes, says this 
 author, and of sufficient texture to bear the 
 whole force of his muscular strength. The oblong 
 form is, however, attended with the disadvan- 
 tage already named, as to its capacity being less 
 under the same surface than the sphere ; and 
 consequently, its power of buoyancy must be 
 calculated at a proportional diminution, to say 
 nothing of the positive augmentation necessarily 
 incurred by such a change of figure to its ponde- 
 rosity, or the superadded consideration of the 
 difficulty of balancing and governing such a 
 figure in the open heavens, exposed to the action 
 of violent winds and storms ; the first blast of 
 which might roll it sideways, sweep it away upon 
 its bosom, or perhaps turn it over. Other ad- 
 vantages of the spherical form are as follow. 
 The circumferences of spheres are as their dia- 
 meters ; their surfaces as their squares ; their 
 solid contents as the cubes of their diameters. 
 The diameter of the circumference being as 
 7 to 22. If the diameter of a spherical balloon be 
 35 feet, the circumference will be 110: that 
 diameter multiplied by the circumference, will 
 give the surface of the sphere, and in the case 
 above named 3850 feet. By knowing the weight 
 of a given portion of the materials of which the 
 balloon is formed, as of a square foot or yard, it 
 is easy to calculate the whole ; and, in order to 
 find the capacity, take |{ of the cube of the dia- 
 meter, or multiply j of the surface by the entire 
 diameter. 
 
 62. Having found the contents and surface of 
 the balloon, we calculate its buoyancy. If the 
 cubic foot of air weighs 1 of an ounce, we take 
 the number of cubic feet in the solid content of 
 the balloon, and add to them part of themselves, 
 considering the feet as ounces ; and hence we 
 have the weight of air displaced by the balloon. 
 If the balloon contain 22,458 cubic feet, each of 
 the weight of l^oz. we add to 22,458 ounces of 
 that quantity ; and hence have 26,949f ounces 
 the weight of the whole, supposing the dimensions 
 of the same weight as air. This, however, is 
 not the case. From the aggregate, then, of the 
 26,949 ounces, we deduct the weight of the 
 materials of which the vehicle is made, and the 
 remainder expresses the exact levity of the bal- 
 loon, on the supposition that it contains common 
 air. But inflammable air weighs from \ to -^ of 
 the weight of common air only, and, supposed in 
 the above case at J, will stand thus *Ji 280 ; 
 also 1256 280~976ths power of ascension. 
 The same general reasonings may be applied 
 in other cases for calculating the buoyancy of 
 
 spherical balloons of all sizes, the levities being 
 nearly as the cubes of the diameters, and con- 
 sequently the diameters as the cube roots of the 
 levities. But from the application of similar 
 reasonings to the oblong figure, there appears, 
 as wo should expect, an augment of weight, and 
 a decrease of capacity, under the same extent of 
 surface. 
 
 63. The power of ascension in balloons differs 
 considerably, according to the means of aerostation 
 or rarefaction employed. If a perfect vacuum 
 could be procured, a globe of 10 feet in diameter 
 would rise, with a force of 40 pounds ; one of 
 20 feel, 320 pounds; one of 30 feet, 1080 pounds, 
 in the ratio of the cube of the diameter. We have 
 already stated, the levities are as the cube of the 
 diameters, and consequently diameters as the 
 cube roots of the levities. But air expands by 
 heat at least 450th part of its bulk ; and it is 
 impossible to apply caloric in a sufficient degree 
 to obtain its whole ascensional power. That air 
 within a balloon or vehicle, heated 50 degrees, 
 would dilate by elasticity till one-nintli part was 
 driven out ; so that even then the tendency of 
 the balloon to rise would be equal only to the 
 ninth part of its whole buoyant force. That 
 being the relation in which 50 stands to 450, and 
 50 degrees of heat is as much, perhaps, as could 
 be supported. Humidity produces a dilation of 
 air, amounting, in good weather to an eightieth 
 part of the volume of fluid, and in the tropical 
 regions would exceed one-twentieth : hence 
 moist air thrown into a large bag, sufficiently 
 waxed, would cause it to rise. But heat and 
 moisture combined, produce a far greater rare- 
 faction of the air than either of them is capable 
 of producing alone. The smoke used by Mont- 
 golfier with so great success, was nothing scarcely 
 but air charged with vapour, produced by burn- 
 ing of vine-twigs, chopped straw, &c. and was 
 computed to be one-third specifically lighter 
 than common air, and therefore must have pos- 
 sessed a degree of rarefaction which it would 
 require 150 degrees of heat to produce operating 
 alone. From these data it is evident that the 
 force estimated at 12J pounds avoirdupoise in a 
 globe of 10 feet diameter, would amount to 
 1562J pounds, if the diameter were 50 feet, and 
 to 12,500, if it were a hundred, being as the 
 cube roots of the levities, from which is to be 
 deducted, the weight of the case, appendages, &c. 
 which, estimated at two-fifths of a pound, for a 
 sphere of one foot in diameter, demonstrates a 
 balloon of 100 feet diameter, capable of exerting 
 an ascending power of not less than 8500 pounds, 
 independent of the cordage, car, ballast, &c. 
 which still must be deducted; and one of 33|feet 
 diameter would exert a power capable of pro- 
 ducing a mere equilibrium between the weight 
 of the canvass and the buoyant force of the 
 rarefied air. 
 
 64. Balloons filled with gas remain to be consi- 
 dered. Hydrogen gas obtained from sulphuric acid, 
 acting on iron filings, is six times lighter than 
 common air, but gas evolved by a solution of 
 zinc in that acid, is twelve times lighter. We 
 may, therefore, independently of accidents, &c. 
 consider, that on a general scale the hydrogen 
 ga. that fills a balloon, is six times specifically 
 lighter than common air, the balloon must there-
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 203 
 
 fore exert of the buoyant force corresponding to 
 its capacity, and will have an ascending power 
 equal to 5 g of a pound avoirdupois for a globe 
 of one foot diameter, 11 2 J pounds for a balloon 
 of 15 feet diameter, 900 pounds for one of 30 
 feet, and 7200 pounds for one of 60 feet, the 
 weight of the balloon, &c. to be deducted, which 
 allowing, as has been calculated 5 ' part of a 
 pound for a varnished silk globe of one foot dia- 
 meter, would be in a balloon of 15 feet diameter, 
 11 J pounds, in one of 30 feet 45 pounds, in one 
 of 60 feet 1 80 pounds, and the consequent power 
 of ascension in such balloons would be 101 J, 
 855, and 7020 pounds, whilst a balloon of 1* 
 feet would just float in the atmosphere. There 
 being in that case an exact equilibrium between 
 the weight of the materials and the ascensional 
 power of the gas. The weight of the appendages, 
 it must be considered, has a tendency to com- 
 press the gas embodied in the balloon, and there- 
 by to render it more dense, but this effect is not 
 considerable. A load of 6000 pounds in a bal- 
 loon of 60 feet diameter, has been calculated to 
 produce a compression amounting to f of a 
 pound ; for a circle of one foot diameter in the 
 horizontal section, the 979th part of the pressure 
 of the atmosphere on a globe of those dimensions, 
 and rating the weight of gas at 1200 pounds, 
 there will be a diminution of buoyancy of 1^ 
 pounds. The balloon, according to its power of 
 ascension, would rise with a motion perpetually 
 accelerating, were not this velocity checked by 
 the resistance of the air through which it passes, 
 which according to the theory of dynamics, is to 
 that which a falling body acquires in the same 
 space of time, as the ascensional power is to the 
 weight of the apparatus and fluid. Still, not- 
 withstanding the opposition it meets with from 
 the atmosphere, it will attain its final velocity in 
 about double the time which would be otherwise 
 required for that purpose, after which its ascent 
 will be uniform, the resistance of the air being 
 just equal to the buoyancy of the balloon. The 
 resistance of a circle moving through any given 
 fluid in a direction perpendicular to its plane, is 
 measured by the weight of a column of that fluid 
 of equal base with the circle, and at an altitude from 
 which a heavy body falling will acquire the 
 same celerity ; a rule which arises out of the ge- 
 neral principle that air presses equally every way. 
 Near the level of the sea, at mean temperature, 
 a column of air 17 feet high, incumbent on a 
 circle of a single foot diameter, weighs a pound ; the 
 consequent resistance which such a circle would 
 suffer, propelled at the celerity of 33 feet each 
 second. Newton calculates the resistance of the 
 atmosphere to be just half that of its generating 
 circle, and therefore a velocity of 46 feet in a 
 second, would create a resistance of one pound 
 to a sphere of one foot diameter. In other cir- 
 cumstances the resistance will be proportionate to 
 the squares of the velocities and densities. Con- 
 sequently if the buoyant force were always the 
 same, the velocity of ascent in a balloon would 
 be inversely as its diameter. A balloon of 30 
 feet diameter and 100 pounds ascensional power, 
 has the same effect as the ninth part of a pound 
 for a globe of one foot diameter; and would 
 therefore meet a resistance corresponding to the 
 
 velocity of 46 divided by 3, the square root of 
 9 or 15| each second, consequently the balloon 
 would rise a mile in six minutes. 
 
 65. To determine the height to which a balloon 
 will rise, the rule is, to compute the contents of 
 the globe in cubic feet, and divide its restraining 
 weight in ounces by the content, and the quotient 
 will be the difference in the density of the atmos- 
 phere at the surface of the earth, and at the point 
 to which the balloon will rise. Subtract this quo- 
 tient from 1], the density at the earth, ard the re- 
 mainder will be the density at that height ; after 
 which, the height may be found by comparing 
 the density thus obtained, with philosophical 
 tables for that purpose." The balloon would in- 
 deed, at first, rise above this altitude, by reason 
 of the rapid celerity acquired in its ascent, and 
 afterwards sink below it ; but this is the point 
 at which it would ultimately settle and continue 
 in the diffuse medium ; the density of air, at that 
 degree of elevation, just balancing die ascen- 
 sional power. 
 
 66. Its equipoise cannot be stable so long as it 
 remains in a loose flaccid state ; but the circum- 
 stances of its ascent are to be determined by 
 means of ballast, and the safety valve appointed 
 for occasionally letting out a portion of the gas ; 
 for although the balloon designed for any con- 
 siderable altitude, is not more than half filled 
 with gas at first, still, by the increased rarefaction 
 of the air as it ascends, and the consequent 
 diminished pressure on the exterior, the expan- 
 sion sometimes becomes so great as to endanger 
 the bursting of the machine. 
 
 67. The rarefied air balloons have been com- 
 monly elevated or depressed by increasing or di- 
 minishing the fire ; the inflammable air balloons 
 by throwing out the ballast, or letting out the gas 
 in suitable portions, through the valve. But 
 these means will in time render the vessel inca- 
 pable of floating ; for in the air they can have 
 no supply of ballast, and with great difficulty can 
 procure gas. They will also rise or fall by the rare- 
 faction of the inclosed air ; and it has been pro- 
 posed to effect these purposes, by means of an- 
 nexing to the balloon a vessel of common air 
 by condensing and rarefying which, the machine 
 may be lowered or elevated at pleasure. M. 
 Meuvier proposed to inclose one balloon of 
 common air in another of inflammable air , 
 by this means, as the balloon ascends, the gas 
 becomes expanded, and compressing the balloon 
 of common air, diminishes its weight ; and to in- 
 crease the quantity of this air when needful, he 
 suggested the use of bellows. Some propose to 
 annex a small balloon with rarefied air, to one 
 of inflammable air ; and by altering the fire of 
 the lower one, to raise or depress the machine. 
 
 68. Several inventions have been offered for the 
 purpose of conducting these machines through 
 the air, and giving them a direction to whatever 
 point the aeronaut should wish to travel. Some 
 have proposed to govern them by sails and 
 rudder, in the same manner as ships at sea; but 
 this, as might have been expected, was found 
 impracticable, the course of balloons and ships 
 being so exceedingly different. A vessel upon 
 the water moves with less velocity than the 
 wind, and therefore the wind acts powerfully
 
 204 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 
 upon the sails; but ballous, having the same 
 velocity as the surrounding air, feel no wind, 
 and consequently can derive no benefit from 
 sails. Oars ( and wings have been applied with 
 as little success. The helm, indeed, was for 
 some time encouraged, from the motion of fishes 
 in the water; but from this no practical benefits 
 have been derived. Professor Dauzel is said to 
 have contrived a machine for the direction of 
 the balloon, an account of which may be seen in 
 the Philosophical Magazine, vol. iv. p. 108 ; but 
 it seems to have fallen into disuse ; and it is 
 probable that these contrivances will never be 
 brought to a state of perfection. The power 
 which the aeronaut has of raising and lowering 
 himself in the atmosphere, will, at present, best 
 enable him to take advantage of the different 
 currents of air, which are blowing at the same 
 time in various directions ; and, by committing 
 himself to the breeze he wants, to supersede the 
 necessity of contrivances, which would tend at 
 best to encumber the machine. The parachute, 
 however, is a useful appendage, by means of 
 which the voyager can, at any height, leave the 
 balloon, in case of danger, and escape to the 
 earth without incurring the inconvenience of a 
 rapid fall. A machine on the same principle is 
 said to have been long used in the east, by the 
 Vaulters, to enable . them to jump from great 
 heights. We have noticed its general principles 
 of descent already. 
 
 69. Sec.V. OF MAKING AND FILLING BALLOONS. 
 With respect to the construction of the bal- 
 loon or globe, the first thing to be considered, 
 is the formation of the gores of which it is com- 
 posed. In order to frame these, we must con- 
 sider that the edges are not segments of circles, 
 and cannot in consequence be described by 
 compasses. To shape them, the following 
 directions are necessary : first draw a right line 
 AB, (see plate I. fig. 1.) equal to half the cir- 
 cumference, which divide by the line C D into 
 two, equal parts at the point E, each equal to 
 the one-fourth of the circumference. Describe 
 the line A Bin feet and decimals; divide the 
 quarter circumference AE into eighteen equal 
 parts, and to the points of division apply the 
 lines fg, hi, kl, &c : divide the whole circum- 
 ference into twice the given number of pieces, 
 and make C E and E D each equal to the quo- 
 tient of this division : so that C D may be equal 
 to the breadth of one of those pieces : multiply 
 the above mentioned quotient by the decimals 
 at the end of the lines f g, hi, kl, &c., and you 
 have the length to which the line ought to be 
 continued. Draw a curve along the extremities 
 of these lines, and you have one quarter of the 
 pattern complete, by which you may shape the 
 rest. The reason of the rule is, that the several 
 breadths of each slip, at the several distances 
 from the point to the centre, are as the sines of 
 those distances, the radius being the size of half 
 the length of the slip. Having computed the 
 circumference of the balloon, it is comparatively 
 easy to form the gores after which nothing remains 
 to complete the machine, but fitting them 
 together, varnishing the exterior, and suspending 
 the car, which is commonly of wicker work, 
 covered with leather, to the balloon, by means 
 
 of ropes attached to a net, formed to fit the 
 shape of the balloon. For the greater con- 
 venience of aerostation, the ropes from the net 
 are attached to the circumference of a circle 
 about twenty feet below the balloon, whence 
 other ropes go to the edge of the boat. 
 
 70. The material universally employed for 
 aerostatic machines of a larger size, to be filled 
 with inflammable air, is varnished silk ; and for 
 those of the rarefied air kind, linen painted over 
 with some size colour, or lined with paper ; the 
 best varnish for an inflammable air balloon, is 
 that made with birdlime, and recommended by 
 M. Faujas de Saint Fond, in a treatise publish- 
 ed on the subject: 'Take one pound of bird- 
 lime, put it into a new proper earthen pot that 
 can resist the fire, and let it boil gently for about 
 one hour, viz., till it ceases to crackle ; or, which 
 is the same thing, till it is so far boiled, as that 
 a drop of it being let fall upon the fire, will 
 burn : then pour upon it a pound of spirits of 
 turpentine, stirring it at the same time with a 
 wooden spatula, and keeping the pot at a good 
 distance from the flame, lest the vapour of this 
 essential oil should take fire. After this, let it 
 boil for about six minutes longer; then pour 
 upon the whole, three pounds of boiling oil of 
 nuts, linseed, or poppy, rendered drying by 
 means of litharge ; stir it well, let. it boil for a 
 quarter of an hour longer, and the varnish is 
 made. After it has rested for twenty-four hours, 
 and the sediment has gone to the bottom, decant 
 it into another pot ; and when you want to use 
 it, warm and apply it with a flat brush upon the 
 silk stuff, whilst that is kept well stretched. One 
 coat of it may be sufficient, but if two are neces- 
 sary, it will be proper to give one on each ide 
 of the silk, and to let them dry in the open air, 
 while the silk remains extended. ' 
 
 On this subject, however, M. Cavallo ha? 
 made some improvements, as may be seen in 
 his printed publications. Much likewise has 
 been said in France of the elastic gum varnish, 
 and its composition, which was kept a secret ; but 
 Mr. Baldwin, after many expensive trials, declares 
 it to be made by melting in an iron ladle, properly 
 heated, pieces of elastic gum, and afterwards 
 stirring in a quantity of drying oil. M. Blan- 
 chard's method of making elastic gum varnish 
 for the silk of a balloon, is the following : ' Dis- 
 solve elastic gum, cut small, in five times its 
 weight of spirit of turpentine, by keeping them 
 some days together ; then boil one ounce of 
 this solution in eight ounces of drying linseed 
 oil for a few minutes lastly strain it. It must 
 be used warm. The pieces of silk, after the 
 varnish is sufficiently dry, may be joined by lay- 
 ing about half an inch of the edge of one piece, 
 over the edge of the other, and sewing them by 
 a double stitch.' 
 
 71. Having thus completed the structure of the 
 balloon mechanically, the next consideration is 
 that of filling it. This is commonly done with 
 gas, which may be obtained in different ways, 
 according as inclination and circumstances may 
 direct. The best way is by applying acids to 
 certain metals ; by exposing certain animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral substances, to a strong 
 rire, in a close vessel ; or by transmitting the
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 205 
 
 vapour of certain fluids through red hot tubes, from the boring of cannon, made the water boil 
 Since it is impossible to obtain a sufficient with vehemence, and passing the steam through 
 quantity in its natural state, latterly it has been this red hot tube, the iron yielded one half more 
 
 air than had ever been obtained from the action 
 of vitriolic acid. 
 
 75. Balloons of small dimensions may be filled 
 
 employed by scientific aeronauts, are iron or with gas in the following manner. Let A, 
 zinc, and vitriolic acid diluted with five or six (plate I. fig. 3.) be a bottle containing the re- 
 quisite ingredients, B C a tube in the shape 
 
 found convenient and cheaper for balloons to be 
 filled from the nearest gas works. 
 
 72. The materials that have been generally 
 
 parts of water. The chippings of iron, or the 
 borings of cannon are more suitable to the pur- 
 pose than iron filings, because the interstices 
 admit the diluted acid more easily, and the heat 
 attending the effervescence is much greater. 
 Iron in this way is capable of producing 1700 
 times its bulk of gas, four ounces and a half of iron, 
 the same weight of vitriol, and twenty-two and a 
 half ounces and a half of water, will produce one 
 cubic foot of inflammable air ; also six ounces 
 
 a 
 
 of a siphon, fastened at one end to the neck of 
 the vessel or the bottle. Let E pass through an 
 orifice in the stopper nearly to the bottom of 
 the bottle, or vessel E, almost full of water. In 
 another orifice in the stopper of E, place another 
 tube, to which fix the bladder or balloon. Then 
 the gas coming out of the end of the tube C, 
 and passing through the water, will collect itself 
 in the bottle D, and be conveyed by the ad- 
 ditional tube into the balloon. 
 
 76. It may also be done in the following man- 
 
 of zinc, six of oil of vitriol, and thirty of water, 
 
 will produce the same quantity, the inflammable 
 
 air thus obtained, weighing one seventh part of ner, (see fig. 4.) let A B C, represent a vessel of 
 
 clay or iron in the form of a Florence flask, con- 
 taining the materials. To C, the neck of the 
 vessel, let there be luted a tube of brass, and 
 then a leaden tube, as the materials will swell 
 during the action of the fire. Let the extremity 
 
 the weight of common air. By passing this air 
 through water in which quick lime has been dis- 
 solved, the elastic fluids generated with trie air, 
 become absorbed with the water, and the in- 
 flammable air is rendered cool and prevented 
 from overheating the balloon. The gas is col- 
 lected in casks lined with tin. M. Garnerin, in 
 
 of the tube pass through the water of the vessel 
 H I, and terminate under the inverted vessel E F, 
 
 1802, used thirty-six casks, every twelve of to the upper aperture of which the balloon is 
 
 which communicated with a collar, and three 
 tubes from three collars, conveyed the gas into 
 one large tube which joined the balloon. Pro- 
 fessor Robertson and Sacharof, had twenty-five 
 vessels into each of which were put 120 pounds 
 of iron filings, 600 pounds of water, and then 
 poured in 120 pounds of sulphuric acid. M. 
 Blanchard filled a balloon from only four casks, 
 each 120 gallons. Lunardi employed only two 
 casks, by which he filled a balloon in the shape 
 of a pea, twenty-three feet in diameter, and 
 thirty feet high, in the short space of half an 
 hour. He employed 2000 pounds of each, and 
 12,000 pounds of water, a quantity which has 
 been pronounced sufficient for a balloon thirty 
 
 fixed. The part A B of the vessel is then heated 
 red hot, and the inflammable air proceeding from 
 the tube C D, and passing through the water in 
 the vessel H I, will empty itself into the balloon 
 G. Two things, however, are to be observed, 
 first that the aperture of the vessel E F, be one 
 foot below the surface of the water in the vessel 
 H I, and the fire at a sufficient distance from H I, 
 that if any gas escape it may not explode. There 
 should also be a stop cock K, in the vessel E F, 
 through which the common air ought to be drawn 
 out before the operation commences, after which 
 the water will rise as far as the cock. 
 
 77. For filling a larger air balloon with gas, See 
 plate II. fig. 2. where AA are two tubs, about 
 
 feet in diameter, having a capacity of 14,137 three feet in diameter and nearly two feet deep, 
 
 feet. Zinc is said to be superior to iron, in as 
 much as the gas obtained from iron by the action 
 
 inverted in larger vessels. At the bottom of each 
 of the inverted vessels there is a hole to which is 
 
 of vitriolic acid is computed to be six times lighter adapted a tin tube E seven inches in diameter, 
 than atmospheric air ; whereas the gas evolved and seven or eight inches long, to which the 
 during the solution of zinc in that acid, is not silken tubes of the balloon are to be tied ; each 
 less than twelve times lighter than that fluid. of the tubs B is surrounded by several casks so 
 
 73. An inferior inflammable air is also ob- regulated as to be no less than half full when 
 tainedby the action of fire upon various sub- the materials are equally distributed. In the 
 stances as pit coal, asphaltum, wood, especially top of each cask are two holes, to one of which 
 oak, camphor, oil, spirits of wine, &c. but is not a tin tube is adapted, so formed as to pass over 
 so light as that obtained from iron or zinc. It the edge of the tub B and through the water, 
 may also be observed that animal substances terminating under the inverted tub A. The 
 yield from six to ten times more inflammable air other hole designed to supply the cask with ma- 
 when the fire is suddenly increased than when it terials, is to be secured with a wooden plug, 
 is gently raised. The common way of obtain- nearly of the same diameter as the tubes are, 
 ing it is, by enclosing the materials in iron vessels, about three inches and a half in diameter. The 
 which are afterwards heated red hot, when the two masts, ropes, &c. are designed to elevate 
 inflammable air immediately proceeds from the the balloon above the level of the tubs A A 
 aperture of the vessels. and during the process of filling the balloon a 
 
 74. M.Lavoisier made inflammable air, by pas- net is to be put over it, suspended as in the 
 sing the steam of boiling water through a red hot figure. When the common air is expelled the bal 
 
 _ gun barrel. Dr. Priestley, instead of this, took a loon, the silk tubes are fastened round the tin 
 
 "tube of brass, on which the steam of water has tubes E E, and by passing into the casks the vitri 
 
 no effect, and having filled it with iron obtained olic acid upon the other materials, the balloon
 
 206 
 
 AERONAUTICS. 
 
 will soon be sufficiently inflated to support itself, 
 and the rope G H will be unnecessary. The net 
 is adjusted round the balloon, during its infla- 
 tion the ropes are tied to the net and fastened 
 to the hoop M N : the boat I K is suspended 
 iom the hoop M N, all the necessaries depo- 
 sited, and as soon as the sphere is three parts 
 full the silk tubes are separated from the tin 
 tubes, their extremities tied and placed in the 
 boat, the aeronauts seated, the lateral ropes 
 slipped off, and the balloon ascends. 
 
 78. To fill a balloon with rarefied air the com- 
 mon way is as follows : (see plate II. fig. 3.) A B 
 C D is a scaffold, the breadth of which is two 
 thirds the diameter of the machine elevated six 
 or eight feet from the ground. In the middle is 
 a well E F, made of brick or plastered wood, 
 of less diameter than the balloon, rising two or 
 three feet above the scaffold from the ground, 
 and furnished with doors through which the fire 
 is supplied with fuel. H I and K L are two 
 masts erected one on each side the scaffold, each 
 having a pulley at the top, rendered firm by 
 means of the ropes K G, K P, H P, H N. The 
 balloon is placed on the scaffold with its neck 
 round the aperture of the well ; the rope pass- 
 ing over the pullies of the two masts serves, 
 by pulling its two ends, to lift the machine fifteen 
 feet or more above the scaffold, as represented 
 by dotted lines in the figure M N O. The ma- 
 chine is kept steady and held down by ropes, 
 passing through loops and holes about its equa- 
 tor which are disengaged as soon as the machine 
 can sustain itself. The materials burnt in the 
 well are such as burn quick and clear, rather 
 than those that produce much smoke. Hot air 
 is what should be introduced into the balloon, not 
 smoke; and to obtain which, small wood, straw, 
 spirits of wine, &c. are most eligible. As the 
 
 hot air ascends, the machine dilates and lift? 
 itself above the scaffold and gallery, making 
 efforts to ascend. Its aperture is then brought, 
 by ropes annexed to it, towards the side of the 
 well, a little above the scaffold, the fire-place 
 suspended in it, the fire lighted, the passenger's 
 fuel, instruments and other necessaria placed 
 in the gallery, the lateral ropes slipped off, and 
 the machine abandoned to the atmosphere. 
 
 79. On reviewing the entire history and pro- 
 gress of this imperfect science, we are naturally 
 led to reflect, both on the restlessness and the as- 
 tonishing capabilities of the human mind. ' Men 
 would be angels,' says the poet ; and to ' ride on 
 the wings of the wind' seems to be used by the 
 highest authority, as an expression^ of sublime 
 power. Our aeronauts, advancing from the feeble 
 conceptions of those who at first would have 
 imitated the flight of birds, have done this. But 
 they ride the wind as an inexperienced boy 
 first vaults into the saddle, for his steed to be 
 the teacher rather than he the governor of their 
 new connexion. 
 
 80. Still that much has been gained for science 
 by these aerial experiments, none can deny. 
 The uniformity of some of the most important 
 natural agencies has been established on a 
 larger scale ; the sciences of meteorology, pneu- 
 matology, &c. have been illustrated, and the at- 
 tention of mankind awoke to the exploring new 
 fields of nature. We only lament that of 
 late the subject has been singularly neglected ; 
 many years have now elapsed since men of 
 real and accredited pretensions to science have 
 concerned themselves with the management of 
 aeronautic machines. We venture to recal their 
 attention to them, that the past triumphs of phi- 
 losophy may not degenerate into the rewards of 
 ignorance, cupidity, and empiricism. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ACADEMY of Sciences, patronize the Montgolfiers, 15. 
 
 .3JRONAUTICS, the science defined, 1. Manner of 
 treating the subject, ib. General principles and 
 origin of the Science, ib. Obscure hints of Lord 
 Bacon on the subject, 5. Albert of Saxony first 
 suggests the true theory, 6. Bp. Wilkins on the 
 theory, 8. Scheme of Lana, 9. Guzman's plans 
 in 1709, 10. Numerous attempts at aerial naviga- 
 tion made by catholic priests, accounted for, 11. 
 Experiments by Mr. H. Cavendish, 12. Experi- 
 ments of M. Cavallo, ib. True doctrine of, an- 
 nounced by Montgolfier, 13. Utility of the science, 
 54. Its connexion with meteorology, &c. 55. 
 Principles of the machinery employed, 57. Im- 
 perfection of the science as a whole, 79. Some 
 scientific knowledge which has resulted from it, 
 80. 
 
 AIR, its compression and expansion the causes of 
 aerostatic phaenomena, 1 . Inflammable, first en- 
 closed in a balloon, 18. Resistance of to the 
 parachute, 39. Rarefaction of, in great heights, 40, 
 Kills a bird taken up, ib. Rarety of, affects the 
 bee, &c. of Gay Lussac, 44. Its temperature at 
 various heights, 49. Two flasks filled at a great 
 altitude, ib. Gay Lussac's flasks analyzed, ib. 
 Weight of a cubic foot, 58. Effect of heat on it, 
 ib. Rarefied, power of it in raising weight, 59. 
 
 ASCENT, AERIAL, first actually made, 1783, by M de 
 Rozier, 16. With a balloon filled with inflam- 
 mable air, 18. Of a lady first made, 23. One 
 
 of the longest and most remarkable, 27. The 
 first made in England, 29. The first made in 
 Scotland, 34. Fatal one made by M. de Rozier, 
 36. Phenomena observed in Mr. Robertson's, 40. 
 A second fatal one, 50. Of various speculators, 
 53. 
 
 BACON, LORD, some obscure hints of his on the 
 theory of aeronautics, 5. 
 
 BALDWIN'S ascent from Chester, 32. His sketch of 
 the Country, 33. 
 
 BALLOONS, supersede the ancient attempts at flying, 
 2. The first seen in England, 28. Utility of, only 
 partially demonstrated, 56. Applied to mili- 
 tary purposes by the French, ib. Their power oi 
 preserving heat, 60. The proper shape of, 61 
 Their buoyancy and the mode of calculating it, 62. 
 The power of ascension of, 63. Mode of calcu- 
 lating their final power of rising, 64, 65. Use 
 of ballast and safety valves, 66. Other modes of 
 elevating and lowering them, 67. Various modes 
 of conducting them, 68. Methods of making and 
 filling them, 69. The materials of, 70. Mode of 
 filling smaller ones, 75, 76. Larger ones, 77. Mode 
 of filling them with rarefied air, 78. 
 
 BIOT and Gay Lussac's ascent, 43. 
 
 BLANCHARD ascends to the height of 10,000 feet, 2L 
 Blanchard and Mr. Sheldon ascend from Chelsea, 
 
 30. And Dr. Jeffreys cross the Straits of Dover 
 
 31. Their dangers, ib. 
 
 BoRELLl demonstrates the imposibility of flying, 7.
 
 AER 
 
 207 
 
 JEKV 
 
 CARNUS and Lauchet's ascent, 124. 
 
 JAVALLO, M. his experiments, 12. 
 
 CAVENDISH. Mr. H. his experiments, ib. 
 
 CHARLES, M. ascends alone, and sees the sun set a 
 second time, 20. And Roberts attempt to guide 
 their balloon with wings, 2c>. 
 
 CHATRES, Duke de, ascends from Paris, 35. Dan- 
 gers of his voyage, ib. 
 
 COLD of the upper regions, 41. M. Gay Lussac's 
 sensations, at 21,790 feet altitude, 49. 
 
 ELECTRICAL experiments of Gay Lussac at 13,385 
 feet altitude, 45. 
 
 ELECTRICITY in the upper regions of the atmos- 
 phere, 44, 
 
 FILLING balloons, 71. 
 
 FLEORANT and Thible's ascent, 23. 
 
 FLYING with wings attempted in Scotland before 
 James IV. 3. And at Tubingen, 1628, 4. Its 
 impossibility demonstrated by Morelli, 7. 
 
 GARXERIN descends in a parachute, 37. Nocturnal 
 voyage, 51. Second nocturnal voyage, 52. 
 
 GAS, method of making it for balloons, 71. Gar- 
 nerin's do. 72. Lunardi's do. 6. Common me- 
 thod, 73. Lavoisiers, 74. Dr. Priestley's, ib. 
 
 GASES, used to fill balloons, 64. 
 
 GAY LUSSAC making his second ascent, 47. 
 
 GORES &c. of balloons, 69. 
 
 GOVERNMENT, French, patronizes Gay Lussac, 43. 
 
 GUZMAN'S speculations in aeronautics, 10. 
 
 HYGROMETER at 13,000 feet altitude, 46. 
 
 INSTRUMENTS of Gay Lussac in his second voyage, 
 47. 
 
 LAN A, T. his scheme of sending up copper balls, 9. 
 
 LINNET of Gay- Lussac liberated at 11,000 feet 
 altitude, 45. 
 
 LUNARDI. The first who ascended in England, 
 29. Makes his first ascent in Scotland, 34. 
 
 MAGNETIC NEEDLE, experiments on by Gay Lussac, 
 
 MAGNETISM, the same at all elevations, 40. 
 
 MATERIALS of balloons, 70. 
 
 MENDOZA, F. adopts and publishes the true theory ol 
 aeronautics, 6. 
 
 MONTGOLFIER, S. and J. their first announcement 
 of the true doctrine of aeronautics, 13. Construct 
 a bag which is made to ascend by burning straw 
 and wool under it, 14. Continue their experiments 
 before the French Academy of Sciences, 15. 
 Send up a sheep, cock, &c. ib. 
 
 MORVEAU and BERTRAND ascend 13,500 feet, 22. 
 
 MOSMENT'S fatal ascent, 50. 
 
 OARS and wings applied to balloons, 68. 
 
 PARACHUTE, first invented by Blanchard, 36. Adopt- 
 ed and improved by Garnerin, ib. Effect of cut- 
 ting it away from the balloon, 37. The principle 
 of its descent, 38. First used in the East, 68. 
 
 PIGEON, liberated at 11,000 feet altitude, 45. 
 
 POWER of rarefied air in raising weights, 59. 
 
 ROBERTS, M. and Charles, first enclose inflammable 
 
 air in a balloon, 18. 
 ROBERTSON, and Lhoest's voyage from Hamburgh, 
 
 40. Second ascent, 41. 
 ROZIER, de, the first actual aeronaut, 16. Second 
 
 ascent, ib. Third ascent, 17. Fatal ascent, 36. 
 
 SPEAKING TRUMPET, effect of, directed to the earth, 
 41. 
 
 TABLE of Gay Lussac's observations, 48. 
 
 TESTU's ascent from Paris, 27. In a storm for 
 
 three hours, ib. In the clouds all night, ib. 
 THERMOMETER at 12,800 feet, 45. 
 
 VARNISH of balloons, 70. 
 
 WAY-WISER first used, 41. 
 
 WlLKlNS, Bishop, on tho theory of aeronautics, 3. 
 
 WINGS attached to balloons, 25. Effect of them, 26 
 
 ZAMBECCARI, Count, first constructs a balloon in 
 England, 28. 
 
 AEROPHOBIA, of ano, and <j>of3o s , fear; a 
 term that Dr. Franklin, and others, have applied 
 to the dread of fresh air. He speaks of having 
 indulged it for many years himself ; but was at 
 last convinced that almost any air is preferable 
 to that of a close chamber which has been fre- 
 quently respired ; and ridicules those valetudi- 
 narians who, enclosing themselves in warm 
 garments, and carefully wrapping about them as 
 much of the noxious air of their close apartments 
 as possible, carry it with them into a close 
 carriage, from which the air is also carefully ex- 
 cluded, and call this taking the air! He speaks 
 of using the air as a tonic bath, by sitting in his 
 chamber without clothes to wash or write, half 
 an hour or an hour every morning, and that he 
 never found any ill consequences from the prac- 
 tice. See Posthumous and other works of Dr. 
 Franklin, v. vi. p. 172. 
 
 AEROPHYLACEA, in natural history, sub- 
 , terraneous receptacles of air or wind, from any, 
 air, and (j>v\aKt), custodia, keeping. Rircher 
 speaks much of aerophylacea, huge caverns, 
 replete with air, disposed under ground, from 
 whence, through numerous occult passages, that 
 element is conveyed either to subterraneous re- 
 ceptacles of water, which are raised into springs 
 or rivers, or into the funds of subterraneous fire, 
 which are hereby supposed to be fed for the re- 
 
 paration of metals, minerals, and the like. See 
 ABYSS. 
 
 AEROSIS, among the ancient physicians, 
 denotes the act whereby the blood is attenuated 
 and converted into an aura, for the support of 
 the vital spirits, and the m;iintenance of the flame 
 of life. 
 
 AEROSTATIC, adj. belonging to aerostation. 
 
 AEROSTATICA, AEROSTATICS, from ajp, 
 and ^ariKOQ, from i-rq/ui, statuo, is used by some 
 authors for AEKOMJETRY. It is properly the 
 doctrine of the weight, pressure, and balance of 
 the air and atmosphere. 
 
 AERSCHOT, o r ARSCHOT, a town in the 
 Netherlands, in Austiian Brabant, and capital of 
 the duchy of Aenscho.'t. It is seated on the river 
 Demer, twenty miles S. E. of Antwerp, and 
 seven N. E. of Louvai ji. 
 
 JERVA, in botany, a genus of plants of the 
 class monadelphia, o rder decandria. The cha- 
 racters of which are,, that the flowers are poly- 
 gamous : CAL. frve-l(5aved and patent: STAM. 
 five, and barren : PIS r. a globulous ovary, hav- 
 ing a filiform styk terminated by a bifid stigma; 
 the fruit is a cap >sule, which is oblong, single- 
 seeded, and encon ipas:>ed by the calyx. There 
 is one common sj >ecios, viz. M. aegyptiaca, or 
 tomentosa, which j ;row on sandy calcareous soil 
 in Arabia.
 
 208 
 
 J2RUGINOUS, in chemistry, something par- 
 taking of, or like the rust of copper. Authors 
 do not seem perfectly agreed about the colour 
 to be expressed by this word, some expressing 
 by it green, others brown. 
 
 AERUGO, in natural history, the rust of cop- 
 per, whether natural or artificial. The former is 
 found in copper mines, and the latter, called 
 verdigrise, made by corroding copper-plates with 
 acids. See VERDIGRISE. Dr. Grew says, the 
 turquoise stone is a kind of petrified aerugo. Ano- 
 ther species of natural aerugo is a greenish mar- 
 casite, like the drops of iron, found in copper 
 mines. There is also, on some mountains in 
 Moravia, a sort of grains, like sand, of a grass 
 green colour, when used in painting, which are 
 called the Hungarian, mountain, or sea verdigrise. 
 
 ./ERUGO RASILIS, a rust formed on copper, 
 by hanging a plate of it over the strongest vinegar 
 for ten days, without suffering it to touch it. 
 
 ^ERUGO SALIS, in natural history, a name 
 given by Pliny, and several other ancient authors, 
 to a reddish slimy matter, separated from the 
 Egyptian salt, called natrum, in purifying it. 
 We find this matter remain in the filter, on dis- 
 solving and filtering the Egyptian nitre, at this 
 time. It seems to be a mixture of a bituminous 
 matter, and a red earth, which had mingled 
 among the cakes of the salt, during the time of 
 their concreting from the water. 
 
 jERUSCATORES, in antiquity, a kind of 
 strolling beggars, like our gypsies, who drew 
 money from the credulous, by fortune-telling, 
 &c. It was also a denomination given to griping 
 collectors of the revenue. The priests of Cybele, 
 were called aeruscatores magnae matris, on ac- 
 count of their begging alms in the streets ; to 
 which end they had little bells to draw people's 
 attention to them, like some modern orders of 
 mendicants abroad. 
 
 AERY, or AIRY, among sportsmen, the nest 
 of hawks, or eagles. 
 
 ./ES, among the ancient Romans, had various 
 significations. It properly denoted brass or 
 copper ; but as copper was the first metal used in 
 coinage by the Romans, the word was used to 
 signify money in general, as well as the particu- 
 lar coin made of that metal. 
 
 .s CALDARICM, or CAST BRASS, otherwise 
 called aes olorium, or pot brass, is mentioned by 
 Pliny, as not capable of being hammered. This 
 is likewise a term used by the German mineral- 
 ists, for a substance which sometimes occurs to 
 those who work upon cobalt, and is used for 
 making the fine blue colour called smalt. 
 
 jEs CASDIDUM, among the ancients, was dif- 
 ferent from that which we call white brass ; it 
 was a purer and whiter kind of metal, found, it 
 is said, under the veins of silver, somewhat ana- 
 logous to Venetian talc. They had probably a 
 method of making copper white, as well as yel- 
 low, equal, if not superior, to that now in use. 
 The phrases of orichalcum album in Virgil, and 
 of \IVKOV icpa/ia, among the Greeks, strictly sig- 
 nify white brass. 
 
 JEs CORINTHIUM, a precious metallic compo- 
 sition, of a much finer colour th an common brass, 
 and ?n its beauty little inferior to gold. Pliny 
 
 says, that it was an accidental mixture of metals 
 at the burning of Corinth, by L. Mummius, when 
 the gold, silver, and brass statues, and all metal- 
 lic substances, melting and mingling together 
 formed this mass. But some refiners, who have 
 strictly examined this metal, find no gold in 
 it ; a circumstance which, if true, suggests one 
 reason, among others, for concluding, that this 
 account is fabulous. However, the fable has 
 been interpreted by some to signify, that the art 
 of making copper into brass was first discovered 
 by the Corinthians, who found the calamine 
 stone on the plains of Peloponnesus, or at least 
 that they brought this art to perfection. 
 
 ^Es CORNARIUM is used by Pliny, to denote 
 brass worked into thin plates. 
 
 ^Es FLAVUM, yellow copper. All the Roman 
 authors have mentioned the method of making 
 brass with calamine and copper; but their finest 
 kind which they called orichalcum, or auriclial- 
 cum, they distinguished from the inferior sorts 
 which had only the name of aes flavum. 
 
 jEs GRAVE, denoted money among the Ro- 
 mans, which was paid by weight, and not by 
 tale. Others understand by aes grave, large pieces 
 of copper coined, containing an as, or pound of 
 that metal, such as we find current in Sweden. 
 These they assert bore this name, till such time as 
 they were reduced to a smaller standard. 
 
 JEs HEPATICUM was of a silverish colour, and 
 probably what the moderns call bronze ; though 
 some confound it with the aes Corinthium. 
 
 BL,S PAUPERUM, copper ore, divested of its 
 silver. 
 
 l,s PER, ET LIBRAM, was a formula in the 
 Roman law, whereby purchases and sales were 
 ratified. Originally the phrase seems to have 
 been used only in speaking of things sold by 
 weight, or by the scales ; but it afterwards was 
 used on other occasions. Hence, even in adop- 
 tions, there was a kind of imaginary purchase ; 
 the formula whereof expressed,, that the person 
 adopted was bought, per as et libram. 
 
 .ZEs RUDE, money unshaped, or not fashioned 
 for any particular purpose. The money during 
 the first ages of Rome was all of this kind. 
 Others, by aes rude, understand metal unstamped ; 
 in opposition to aes signatum, money stamped 
 or coined. 
 
 JEs USTUM, a chemical preparation, made of 
 thin leaves of copper, sulphur, and nitre, placed 
 stratum super stratum in a crucible, and set in a 
 charcoal fire till all the sulphur is consumed ; 
 after which, the copper is taken out of the cru- 
 cible, and reduced to powder. Some quench 
 the leaves of copper in vinegar, and repeat the 
 calcination. Its principal use is in colouring 
 glass, to which it gives a beautiful tincture. The 
 surgeons use it as a detersive, and some have 
 given it internally ; but it is certainly a very 
 dangerous medicine, and should be avoided. 
 
 ./Es UXORIUM, in antiquity, a sum paid by 
 bachelors, as a penalty for living single. This 
 tax for not marrying seems to have been first 
 imposed in the year of Rome 350, under the 
 censorship of M. Furius Camillus and M. Post- 
 humus. At the census, or review of the people, 
 each person was asked, Et tu ex animae sententia
 
 209 
 
 uxorerr. habes liberum qurerendorum causa ? 
 He who had no wife, was hereupon fined, after 
 a certain rate. 
 
 7ESACUS, in fabulous history, one of the 
 sons of Priam, king of Troy, who is said to 
 have thrown himself from a rock into the sea, 
 because Hesperia, whom he was in love with, 
 and had followed into the woods, was stung to 
 death by a serpent; or, as others say, changed 
 into a bird. 
 
 .'"ESALON, in ornithology, a species of hawk, 
 called in English the merlin. It is the smallest 
 of all the hawk kind, and about the size of the 
 blackbird. It feeds on partridges and other 
 birds. 
 
 /ESCH, in ichthyology, a name which some 
 writers have given the grayling or tumbler, a 
 fish of the trutaceous kind. 
 
 ./ESCHINES, in ancient history, the son of 
 Charinus, a disciple and admirer of Socrates ; 
 who said of him (alluding to the trade of ./Eschi- 
 nes's father) that the sausage-maker's son was 
 the only person who knew how to pay a due re- 
 gard to him. It is said that poverty obliged him 
 to go to Sicily to Dionysius the Tyrant ; and that 
 he met with contumelious treatment from Plato, 
 but was extremely well received by Aristippus; 
 to whom he showed some of his dialogues, and 
 obtained from him a handsome reward. He 
 would not venture to profess philosophy at 
 Athens, Plato and Aristippus being in such high 
 esteem ; but he set up a school to maintain him- 
 self, and wrote orations for the Forum. Phryni- 
 cus, in Photius, ranks him among the best orators, 
 and mentions his orations as the standard of the 
 pure Attic style. Hermogenes has also spoken 
 very highly of him. He likewise wrote several 
 dialogues, of which there are only three extant : 
 
 1. Concerning virtue, whether it can be taught. 
 
 2. Eryxias, or Erasistratus ; concerning riches, 
 whether they are good. 3. Axiochus ; concern- 
 ing death, whether it is to be feared. Mr. Le 
 Clerc has given a Latin translation of them, with 
 notes, Amst. 1711, 8vo. 
 
 ./ESCHINES, one of the most celebrated orators 
 of Greece, was the son of Atrometus, a gramma- 
 rian and schoolmaster, and Glaucothea, who is 
 said by Lucian and others, to have been a tim- 
 brel-player. From this circumstance, perhaps, 
 it was that Demosthenes upbraided him with 
 being the son of a courtezan. Plutarch says, he 
 was distinguished neither by his birth nor riches. 
 Being in his youth,of a robust constitution, he de- 
 voted himself to the exercises of the gymnasium, 
 and having a clear voice, performed a part in 
 the exhibition of tragedies. Some say that he 
 attended the lectures of Isocrates and Plato : but 
 according to others, he received instruction from 
 Alcidamas, the preceptor of Gorgias. His pro- 
 gress, however, was rapid ; and he became so 
 respectable a competitor with Demosthenes, that 
 when the Athenians negociated a peace with 
 Philip of Macedon, he was sent with him as an 
 ambassador to that prince. Philip is said to 
 have successfully attempted to corrupt our orator 
 on this occasion, and that Vie in consequence per- 
 suaded the Athenians, in opposition to the re- 
 monstrances of Demosthenes, to confide in the 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 promises of the Macedonian prince, and gavc- 
 him an opportunity to possess himself of Ther- 
 mopylce. Philip, by further intrigues, engaged 
 the support of ^schines, to prevail with the 
 council of the Amphyctions, to elect him for 
 their general, by which means he obtained pos- 
 session of Elataa, the chief city of Phocis, and 
 established himself in a favourable situation for 
 his farther ambitious designs.' Demosthenes at 
 last roused the Athenians, to unite with the 
 Thebans in disconcerting the machinations of 
 Philip ; and the two hostile armies encamped 
 near Chcronaea, a city of Boeotia ; but his coun- 
 trymen being discomfited, Athens received a 
 shock, the effects of which she was never able to 
 recover, and /Eschines took the lead in crimi- 
 nating his rival. He, accordingly, drew up an 
 accusation against Ctesiphon, or rather against 
 Demosthenes. The conflict between the two 
 orators excited very general attention ; and the 
 attack and defence have been considered as the 
 master-pieces of ancient oratory. Eschines lost 
 his cause, and was sentenced to banishment for 
 his rash accusation, ante Christi, 230; when he 
 settled at Rhodes, and opened a school for elo. 
 quence. Here he re-delivered the two orations, 
 and when that of Demosthenes was received 
 with redoubled plaudits, Eschines exclaimed, 
 ' Had you heard him thunder out the words him- 
 self, what would you have thought of it?' De- 
 mosthenes was so sensible of the liberal spirit 
 of his rival, that when /Eschines left Athens, in 
 order to embark for Rhodes, he ran after him 
 and obliged him to accept a purse of money ; 
 upon which ./Eschines remarked, ' How will it 
 be possible for me not to regret a country, in 
 which I leave an enemy more generous than I 
 can hope to find friends in any other part of the 
 world ! ' ./Eschines finally removed to Samos, 
 where he died at the age of 75 years. He is said 
 to have been the first who delivered extempora- 
 neous orations. Philostratus extols him for lu- 
 minous perspicuity, decorous gravity, and dis- 
 tinguished energy ; and he is denominated by 
 Demosthenes /wyaXo^wvoraroc. Photius ascribes 
 nine epistles, (according to the number of the 
 muses), to ./Eschines; but there are twelve, 
 which were addressed to the Athenians when he 
 was in exile at Rhodes, in Wolfius's edition of 
 Demosthenes and ./Eschines, p. 205 ; and Taylor 
 has added them to his edition. The ancients 
 acknowledge only three genuine orations, viz. 
 1. Adversus Timarchum, Wolf. ed. p. 259. 2. 
 De falsa Legatione, Id. p. 395. 3. Adversus 
 Ctesiphontem, Id. p. 425. Fabricius com- 
 pares these orations to the Three Graces 
 Another entitled Aj\tajcoc vo/ioc, was formerly 
 inscribed with the name of /Eschines ; but the 
 ancients attribute it to another person of the 
 same name. See Plutarch and Philostratus, 
 ubi supra. Demosthtn. et JEchin. Opera, by 
 Wolfius Franco/. 1604. Fabricius Bibl. Gr&c, 
 torn. i. p. 412928, &c. Several other persons 
 called ./Eschines have been confounded both with 
 the Socratic philosopher, and the Athenian orator. 
 ./ESCHNA, in natural history, the name of a 
 species of water fly, of an ash colour, with four 
 wings, a long body, and hairy near the tail.
 
 JESC 
 
 210 
 
 /ESC 
 
 JESCHYLUS, the tragic poet, was born at 
 Athens, about the sixty-fifth or seventieth Olym- 
 piad, Stanley says in the sixty-third ; he was the 
 son of Euphorion, and brother to Cynegirus and 
 Aminias, who distinguished themselves in the 
 battle of Marathon, and the sea-fight of Salamis, 
 at which engagements ^Eschylus was likewise 
 present. In this last action, Aminias commanded 
 a squadron of ships, attacked, and sunk the ad- 
 miral of the Persian fleet, and signalized himself 
 above all the Athenians : so that when TEschylus 
 was charged by the Athenians with blasphemy, 
 and condemned to be stoned to death, Aminias, 
 throwing aside his cloak, showed his arm with- 
 out a hand, which he had lost at the battle of 
 Salamis. This sight made an impression on the 
 judges, and, touched with his fraternal affection, 
 they pardoned our poet; but he resented the in- 
 dignity of this prosecution, and resolved to leave a 
 place where his life had been in danger : he accord- 
 ingly retired to the court of Hiero, king of Syra- 
 cuse, where he soon after died at the age of sixty- 
 nine. Some affirm, that ./Eschylus never com- 
 posed but when he had drank liberally. He 
 wrote a great number of tragedies of which there 
 are but seven remaining, and appears to have 
 been the father of the tragic art. In the time of 
 Thespis, there was no public theatre, the players 
 driving about from place to place in a cart. 
 ./Eschylus furnished his actors with masks, dressed 
 them suitably to their characters, and introduced 
 the buskin, to make them appear like heroes. 
 The ancients gave him also the praise of having 
 been the first who removed murders and shock- 
 ing sights from the eyes of the spectators. He is 
 said likewise to have lessened the number of the 
 chorus. M. Le Fevre remarks, that .ZEschylus 
 never represented women in love in his tragedies ; 
 which, he says, was not suited to his genius; but, 
 in representing a woman transported with fury, 
 he was incomparable. Longinus says, that 
 ^Eschylus has a noble boldness of expression ; 
 and that his imagination is lofty and heroic. 
 His works were held in great esteem by the 
 Athenians, who made a public decree that his 
 tragedies should be played after his death. He 
 was killed by an eagle letting fall a tortoise upon 
 his head as he was walking in the fields : and 
 had the honour of a pompous funeral from the 
 Sicilians, who buried him near the river Gela ; 
 where the tragedians of the country performed 
 plays and theatrical exercises at his tomb'. One 
 of the best editions of his plays is that of London, 
 1663, folio, with a Latin translation, and a 
 learned commentary by Thomas Stanley : pro- 
 fessor Person edited them in 2 vols. 8vo. 1805; 
 Bishop Blomfield has also ably edited some of 
 the plays, and Archdeacon Potter in 1777 fur- 
 nished an able English translation of them. 
 
 ^SCHYNOMENE, BASTARD SENSITIVE- 
 PLANT : A genus of plants, of the decandria 
 order, and diadelphia class ; the characters of 
 which are : CAL. a one-leaved campanulated 
 bilabiated perianthium ; the lips equal, but the 
 superior one two-cleft, the inferior tridentate: 
 coil, papillionaceous ; the banner cordated and 
 aubringent; the alse ovate, obtuse, and shorter 
 than the banner ; and the carina, lunated, pointed, 
 arid the length of the alae. The STAM. consist, of 
 
 ten simple nine-cleft filaments ; the anthera are 
 small : PIST. an oblong villous columnar ger- 
 men ; the stylus subulated and ascending, the 
 stigma simple and somewhat obtuse. The peri- 
 carpium is along, compressed, unilocular jointed 
 pod. The seeds are kidney shaped, and solitary 
 within each joint. There are six species of this 
 genus, all natives of warm countries, viz. the 
 Americana, arborea, aspera, grandiflora, pumila, 
 and sesbana. 
 
 ^SCHYNOMENOUS PLANTS, a name some- 
 times given to sensitive plants. See the"' last 
 article. 
 
 ^SCULANUS, J^RES, or jEs, in antiquity, 
 are names given to the divinity who presided 
 over the coinage of copper-money. .ZEsculanus, 
 it is said, was the father of Argentinus, because 
 copper money was employed before silver ; and 
 Argentinus, the father of Aurinus, because gold 
 money succeeded silver. Thus they had three 
 divinities presiding over the coinage of the three 
 principal metals, and some medals of the em- 
 perors represent three goddesses, with balances, 
 a cornucopia, and near them a piece of the dif- 
 ferent metals. 
 
 ^ESCULAPII ANGUIS, in zoology, the name 
 of a harmless species of serpent, common in Spain 
 and Italy, called also paraea. The coluber sescu- 
 lapii of Linnaeus has white and black bands, bi- 
 sected by a white ring, and is found in both Indies. 
 JLSCULAPIUS, in astronomy, the ancient 
 name for the constellation Ophiuchus. 
 
 ^SCULAPIUS, in the heathen mythology, 
 the god of physic, was the son of Apollo and the 
 nymph Coronis. He was educated by the cen- 
 taur Chiron, who taught him physic ; by which 
 means ./Esculapius cured the most desperate 
 diseases: but Jupiter enraged at his restoring 
 to life Hippolitus, who had been torn in pieces 
 by his own horses, killed him with a thunder- 
 bolt. According to Cicero, there were three 
 deities of this name : 1 . The son of Apollo, in- 
 ventor of the probe, and bandages for wounds, 
 worshipped in Arcadia t 2. The brother of Mer- 
 cury, killed by lightning : 3. The son of Aristip- 
 pus and Arsinoe, who first taught the art of tooth 
 drawing and purging. At Epidaurus vEscu- 
 lapius's statue was of gold and ivory, with a long 
 beard, his head surrounded with rays, holding 
 in one hand a knotty stick, and the other en- 
 twined with a serpent; he was seated on a throne 
 of the same materials as his statue, and had a dog 
 lying at his feet. The Romans crowned him 
 with laurel, to represent his descent from Apollo ; 
 and the Phaliasins represented him as beardless. 
 The cock, the raven, and the goat, were sacred 
 to this deity ; and serpents, more particularly, as 
 symbols of the prudence and forethought neces- 
 sary in the profession he patronised. His chief 
 temples were at Pergamos, Smyrna, Trica, a city 
 in Ionia, and the isle of Coos ; in all which votive 
 tablets were hung up, showing the diseases cured 
 by his assistance. But his famous shrine was at 
 Epidaurus ; where, every five years, games were 
 instituted to him, nine days after the Isthmian 
 games at Corinth.. 
 
 /ESCULUS, in botany, the IJoRSE-CHESNfT: 
 A genus of plants of the monogynia order, and 
 heptandria class ; ranking in the natural method,
 
 211 
 
 under the thirty-ninth order, trihilatoe. The cha- 
 racters are: CAL. a small, single-leaved, bellied 
 perianthium, divided into five segments : COR. 
 
 philosopher, Xanthus, or as Herodotus calls him, 
 ladmon, from whom he obtained his liberty. 
 Some curious anecdotes are told of his domes- 
 
 (except in the pavia, where it is four-petaled and tication with this philosopher, 
 close,) five roundish, flat, expanding petals, un- Being exposed in an open market place for 
 equally coloured, and with narrow claws inserted sale, Xanthus entering the area, w"as attracted by 
 intotthe calyx : STAM. seven subulated declining the appearance of /Esop's companions, and en- 
 filaments, the length of the corolla ; the antherae quired of the merchant his price for them, which 
 ascending : PIST. a roundish germen, ending in he thought exorbitant ; and was on the point of 
 a subulated stylus ; the stigma pointed : the quitting the market, when some of the pupils, 
 pericarpium. a leathery, roundish, trilocular, three- by whom he was attended, pointed out TEsop to 
 valved capsule. The seeds are two, and subglo- his notice. At their solicitation, and jocularly, 
 
 more than with any serious intention, he put the 
 accustomed question to the despised captive, of 
 What he could do? Nothing at all replied 
 .ZEsop ; for I have just overheard my companions 
 answer your question, by affirming they could do 
 
 bular. In this genus Van Rozen and Miller 
 
 observe both male and hermaphrodite flowers. 
 
 There are two species ; viz. 
 
 1. ./ESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM, or common 
 
 horse-chesnut, brought from the northern parts 
 
 of Asia, about the year 1550, and sent to Vienna every thing ; therefore there is nothing left for me 
 
 to do. He afterwards boldly told Xanthus, that 
 a philosopher like him should appreciate a man 
 
 about 1588; the nuts of which are reckoned 
 good food for horses. 
 
 In Turkey, they are ground, and mixed with according to the vigour of his mind, and not to 
 
 the provender of these animals, especially those the appearance of his body ; and when the philo- 
 sopher's wife, (of a most furious and jealous tem- 
 
 which are troubled with coughs, or broken winded. 
 Deer are also very fond of the fruit : and at the 
 
 per,) asked in scorn, of Xanthus, ' whether it 
 
 time of their ripening keep much about the trees, were a beast or a man he had brought home ?' 
 
 but especially in strong winds, when the nuts 
 are blown down, which they carefully watch, 
 and greedily devour as they fall. 
 
 2. /ESCULUS PAVIA, or scarlet flowering horse- 
 chesnut, a native of Carolina, the Brasils, and 
 the East. 
 
 yESHNA, in entomology, a sub-division of the 
 unogata, or fifth class of insects, by Fabricius, 
 
 YEsop is said to have exclaimed, ' From the mer- 
 cies of fire, water, and a wicked woman, great 
 gods deliver us !' 
 
 /Esop once accompanying his master to a gar- 
 dener for the purpose of purchasing some herbs, 
 the agriculturist enquired the reason why those 
 plants which grew of themselves, and without 
 any artificial aid, should come up so fast and 
 
 comprehending several species of the libellula of thrive so well, whilst others, though never so 
 Linnams, characterized by equal lacinae, or fringes carefully cultivated, could scarcely be preserved 
 
 from perishing ? Xanthus contented himself 
 with saying, That so providence had ordered it 
 to be. Here yEsop interfered ; and, after a sarcasm 
 upon the imperfection of the school of philosophy 
 
 of the lip. 
 
 yESNECY, in law, priority of age, among co- 
 partners. 
 
 yESON, in fabulous history, the son of Cre- 
 theus, king of Thessaly, and father of Jason, the 
 
 in which Xanthus was bred, requested to be per- 
 
 famous Argonaut ; who was said to have been mitted himself to give the solution. ' For 
 
 restored to his youth, in his" old age, by the en- 
 chantments of Medea, Jason's wife. 
 
 yESOP, the Phrygian, lived in the time of So- 
 lon, about the 50th Olympiad, under the reign 
 of Croesus, the last king of Lydia. For genius 
 and abilities, he was greatly indebted to nature ; 
 but in other respects he was not so fortunate, 
 
 what,' said the slave, 'signifies a general 
 answer to a particular question, but an acknow- 
 ledgment of complete ignorance on the subject 
 proposed ? ' The earth then,' said yEsop, ' may 
 be considered as in the nature of a real mother 
 to that which she brings forth out of her own 
 bowels; but she is only a step-dame in the 
 
 her care, by means of the sheer industry of 
 another. It is natural for her to withdraw her 
 nourishment from the one, and to lavish her 
 
 being born a slave and extremely deformed. St. production of those plants which are cultivated 
 
 Jerome, speaking of him, says he was unfortu- and assisted, nay, sometimes even forced under 
 nate in his birth, condition in life, and death ; 
 hinting thereby at his deformity, servile state, 
 and tragical end. His great genius, however, 
 
 enabled him to support his misfortunes ; and to powers upon the other kind of plants.' 
 alleviate the hardships of servitude, he composed yEsop is said to have interpreted an obscure 
 those entertaining and instructive fables which have inscription which had utterly foiled his master; 
 acquired him so much reputation. He is gene- and, emboldened by his success, to have de- 
 rally supposed to have been the inventor of that manded of him what reward he would offer, if 
 kind of writing ; but this is contested by several, he were to point out to him a considerable hidden 
 particularly Quintilian, who seems to think that treasure ? One half of it and your liberty, said 
 Hesiod was the first author of fables ; and we Xanthus. Possessed of the property, however, 
 are certain that Jotham, the son of Gideon, was the faithless Samian conveniently forgot the con- 
 the author of a fable or parable, long before either ditions upon which he acquired it, and returned 
 of them. /Esop, however, certainly improved to the defenceless yEsop menaces and blows, 
 this art to a very great degree. The first master, On another occasion, the wife of Xanthus having 
 whom ./Esop served, was Carasius Demarchus, of eloped from her husband, notwithstanding the 
 Athens ; and there, in all probability he acquired acerbity of her disposition, he was desirous of 
 his purity in the Greek tongue. After him he recalling her, and .Esop undertook the task of 
 had several masters ; and at length came under a fulfilling his wishes. He prepared a plentiful
 
 ('east, and gave it publicly abroad, that his mas- 
 ter's first wife having separated from him, this 
 entertainment was prepared for a second mar- 
 riage. The effect was as he had imagined, the lady 
 immediately ordered her chariot to be prepared, 
 and returned to the house of her husband. At 
 another time, Xanthus in a moment of inebriety, 
 nad made a considerable wager, that he would 
 drink the sea dry ; and, on becoming sober, 
 applied to /Esop to extricate him from the diffi- 
 culty into which he had involved himself. Sir, 
 said the slave, be careful of Bacchus, it is the 
 humour of this god, first to make men cheerful, 
 then to make them drunk, and lastly to make 
 them mad. He exhorted him, however, to take 
 courage, and pursue his advice. Xanthus, ac- 
 cordingly, appeared next day on the sea shore, 
 attended by the man with whom he had made the 
 ridiculous agreement; and now, said he, am I 
 ready to drink the sea dry, but it is you who 
 must first stop all the rivers which run into it. 
 
 When he had obtained his liberty, he soon ac- 
 quired a great reputation amongst the Greeks ; 
 and the report of his wisdom having reached 
 Croesus, he sent and engaged him in his service. 
 He travelled through Greece soon after Pisistra- 
 tus had usurped the sovereign power, and finding 
 that the Athenians bore the yoke very impatiently, 
 he told them the fable of the frogs who petitioned 
 Jupiter for a king. Esop was put to death at 
 Delphi. Plutarch tells us that he came there 
 with a great quantity of gold and silver, being 
 ordered by Croesus to offer a sacrifice to Apollo, 
 and to give a considerable sum to each in- 
 habitant : but a quarrel arising betwixt him and 
 the Delphians,he sent back the moneyto Croesus; 
 for he thought those for whom the prince de- 
 signed it, had rendered themselves unworthy of 
 it. The inhabitants of Delphi contrived an ac- 
 cusation of sacrilege against him ; and pretending 
 they had convicted him, threw him headlong from a 
 rock. For this cruelty and injustice, we are told 
 they were visited with famine and pestilence; and 
 consulting the oracle, they received for answer, that 
 the god designed this as a punishment for their 
 treatment of Esop : they endeavoured to make an 
 atonement, by raising a pyramid to his honour. 
 
 ESOPUS, (Clodius,) a celebrated actor, who 
 flourished about the 670th year of Rome. He 
 and Roscius were contemporaries, and the best 
 performers who ever appeared upon the Roman 
 stage, the former excelling in tragedy, the latter 
 in comedy. Cicero put himself under their 
 direction to perfect his action. Esop lived in a 
 most expensive manner, and at one entertain- 
 ment is said to have had a dish which cost 
 800. It was filled, we are told, with singing 
 and speaking birds, some of which cost near 
 fifty pounds. The delight which Esop took in 
 this sort of birds, proceeded, as Mr. Bayle 
 observes, from the expence. He did not make 
 a dish of them because they could speak, ac- 
 cording to the refinement of Pliny upon this 
 circumstance, this motive being only by acci- 
 dent; but because of their extraordinary price. 
 Esop's son was no less luxurious than his father, 
 for he dissolved pearls for his guests to swallow. 
 Horace speaks of one pearl of very great value, 
 which he dissolved in vinegar and drank. Not- 
 
 withstanding his expences, Esop is said to have 
 died worth above 160,000. When he was 
 upon the stage, he entered into his part to such 
 a degree, as sometimes to be seized with a per- 
 fect ecstacy. Plutarch mentions it as reported 
 of him, that whilst he was representing Atreus, 
 deliberating how he should revenge himself on 
 Thyestes, he was so transported beyond himself 
 in the heat of action, that with his truncheon he 
 smote one of the servants crossing the stage, and 
 laid him dead on the spot. 
 
 ESPING, in zoology, a species of coluber. 
 
 ESQUILINUS, a hill in ancient Rome. 
 
 ESTHPHARA, incineration, or burning of 
 any part of the body. 
 
 ESTIMATIO CAPITIS, in our ancient law 
 books, a fine in proportion to the degree of the 
 person against whom the offence was committed. 
 King Athelstan, in a great assembly held at 
 Exeter, declared what mulcts were to be paid 
 pro &stimatione capitis; the estimation of the 
 king's head, to be 30,000 thrymsae ; that of an 
 archbishop or prince, 15,000 ; a bishop's or 
 senator's, 8000 ; a priest's or thane's, 2000, &c. 
 
 ESTIVAL, in astronomy, of, or belonging to, 
 summer ; as ./ESTIVAL POINT, is that whereby 
 the sun's ascent above the equator is determined. 
 
 ./ESTIVAL SIGNS, are those extended from the 
 sun's greatest declination northward, to the in- 
 tersection of the ecliptic and equinoctial south- 
 ward, including Cancer, Leo, and Virgo. 
 
 ESTIVATION, in botany, expresses the 
 state of the bud in summer, and is used by Lin- 
 naeus to denote one of those circumstances which 
 constitute the habit of plants. 
 
 ESTRUS, in entomology, a species of the 
 beetle. 
 
 ESTUARY, in ancient baths, a secret pas- 
 sage from the hypocaustum, or stove, into the 
 chambers. 
 
 /ESTUARY, ESTUARIUM, in geography, an arm 
 of the sea, running up a good way into the land, 
 such as Bristol Channel, many of the friths in 
 Scotland. 
 
 ESTUARY, in medicine, a vapour bath, or 
 any thing that conveys heat to the body. 
 
 ESYMNETIC MONARCHY, among ancient 
 writers on government, denotes a limited elec- 
 tive monarchy. Arist. Pol. c. 10. The word 
 is formed from aiarvfivaiw, regno, I govern. An 
 aesymnetic state stands opposed to a barbaric, or 
 hereditary one. 
 
 ESYMNIUM, in antiquity, a monument 
 erected "to the memory of deceased heroes, by 
 Esymnus. 
 
 ESYMNUS, a native of Megara, who con- 
 sulting the oracle in what manner the Megareans 
 might be most happily governed, was answered, 
 if they held consultation with the more nu- 
 merous ; whom he taking for the dead, built a 
 senate-house, with a monument to the dead 
 within it. 
 
 ETATE PROBANDA, in law, a writ to enquire 
 whether the king's tenant, holding in chief by 
 chivalry, were of full age to receive his lands into 
 his own hands. It was directed to the escheator 
 of the county, but is now disused. 
 
 ETERNITAS, Eternity, in mythology, was 
 worshipped as a god by the ancients, the Pytha~
 
 jETH 
 
 213 
 
 M'fll 
 
 goreans, Plato, and Hermes Trismegistus, made 
 time to be the image of it. On medals, eternity 
 was represented in various forms, sometimes 
 under the figure of the sun and moon ; sometimes 
 by that of the elephant, for its length of years, 
 as on a medal of Faustina, fig. 1, 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 where a chariot is drawn by two elephants; 
 sometimes by a phoenix and a globe, the one for 
 its long life, and the other for its supposed eter- 
 nity, as on the medal fig. 2, where a female is 
 holding a phoenix and a globe. There was also 
 the common representation of a serpent, winding 
 itself round a globe, or with its tail brought down 
 to its mouth ; of a figure veiled, to imply, that 
 eternity is inscrutable ; and of a head with two 
 faces, implying that it can see backwards and 
 forwards. The medals of the emperors which 
 have the figure of eternity, implying the per- 
 petuity of the government in their family, are 
 those of Augustus, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, 
 Severus, Caracalla, Geta, Alexander Severus, 
 Gordianus Philippus, Gallienus, Claudius Got- 
 thicus, Quintilian, and Maximian. 
 
 TEETH, or ATH, a strong well-fortified town in 
 the Netherlands, province of Hainault, situated 
 on the river Dender, about twenty-five miles 
 south-vyest of Brussels, and eighteen noith-west 
 of Mons. It is noted for its linen manufactories, 
 bleaching fields, and iron works. It was once a 
 castellany, having more than 100 villages under 
 its government. Population 7600. 
 
 .lETHALE, in natural history, a name given 
 by some writers to the cadmia fornacum, or tutty, 
 from its being the concreted soot of the lapis 
 calaminaris and copper, melted together, in the 
 making of brass. 
 
 ^ETHALIA, or ILVA, in ancient geography, 
 now Elba ; an island on the coast of Etraria, in 
 compass 100 miles, formerly abounding in iron, 
 as it still does. Stephanus calls it Aethale. The 
 port of Aethalia was called Argous. See ELBA. 
 
 7ETHELSTAN. See ATHELSTAN. 
 
 JSTHER, in chemistry, the lightest, most 
 volatile, and most inflammable of all liquids, is 
 produced by distillation of acids with rectified 
 spirit of wine. See the INDEXES to CHEMISTRY 
 and PHARMACY. 
 
 /ETHER, in physiology, Gr. from AiQtiv, to 
 burn or flame, the ancients supposing it of the 
 nature of fire, a thin subtile matter, much finer 
 and rarer than air ; which, commencing from the 
 limits of our atmosphere, is supposed to possess 
 the whole heavenly space. Mythologists speak 
 of it as the origin of all things, an attenuation of 
 fire, which, according to Hippocrates, was im- 
 mortal ; knows all things ; sees, hears, and deter- 
 mines whatsoever is, or shall hereafter be. From 
 this fluid, (existing in perfection only in the highest 
 
 heavens, and encircling the whole of the ma- 
 terial universe,) all grosser elements were said 
 to be first derived, and from them the various 
 productions of nature. Here the gods were 
 enthroned, and the stars rolled along in ' divinest 
 harmony.' 
 
 Philosophers cannot conceive that the largest 
 part of the creation should be perfectly void; 
 and therefore, they fill it with a species of mattev 
 under the denomination of aether. But they vary 
 extremely as to the nature and character of this 
 aether. Some conceive it as a body sui generis, 
 appointed only to fill up the vacuities between 
 the heavenly bodies ; and therefore, confined to 
 the regions above our atmosphere. Others sup- 
 pose it of so subtile and penetrating a nature, 
 as to pervade the air, and other bodies, and 
 possess the pores and intervals thereof. Others 
 deny the existence of any such specific matter; 
 and think the air itself, by that immense tenuity 
 and expansion it is found capable of, may diffuse 
 itself through the interstellary spaces, and be the 
 only matter found therein. In fact, aether, being 
 no object of our senses, but the mere work of 
 imagination, brought only upon the stage for the 
 sake of hypothesis, or to solve some phenomenon 
 real or imaginary; authors take the liberty to 
 modify it as they please. Some suppose it of an 
 elementary nature, like other bodies ; and only 
 distinguished by its tenuity, and the other affec- 
 tions consequent thereon : which is the philo- 
 sophical aether. Others will have it of another 
 species, and not elementary ; but rather a sort 
 of fifth element, of a purer, more refined, and 
 spirituous nature, than the substances about our 
 earth ; and void of the common affections thereof, 
 as gravity, &c. Some represent it as 7200 times 
 more rare than air ! Others make it more dense 
 than gold itself ! Others argue, that the heavenly 
 spaces being the supposed region or residence 
 of a more exalted class of beings, the medium 
 must be more pure and exalted in proportion. 
 Such is the ancient and popular idea of aether, 
 or aethereal matter. The term being thus em- 
 barrassed with a variety of ideas, and arbitrarily 
 applied to so many different things, later and 
 severer philosophers set it aside, and in lieu 
 thereof, substitute other more determinate ones. 
 Thus, the Cartesians use the term materia sub- 
 tilis, which is their aether: and Sir Isaac Newton, 
 sometimes a subtile spirit, as in the close of his 
 Principia; and sometimes a subtile, or aethereal 
 medium, as in his Optics. The truth is, there 
 are abundance of considerations, which seem to 
 evince the existence of some matter in the air, 
 much finer than air itself : an unknown some- 
 thing, which remains behind when the air is 
 taken away, as appears from certain effects which 
 we see produced in vacuo. Heat, Sir Isaac 
 Newton observes, is communicated through a 
 vacuum, almost as readily as through air ; but such 
 communication cannot be without some inter- 
 jacent body, to act as a medium. And such 
 body may be subtile enough to penetrate the 
 pores of glass ; and may be very well concluded 
 to penetrate those of all other bodies, and con- 
 sequently be diffused through all the parts of 
 space which answers to the full character of an 
 a.-ther. The existence of such an a-thcreal me.
 
 214 
 
 diuni being settled, our philosopher proceeds to 
 ; ts properties ; inferring it to be not only rarer 
 and more fluid than air, but exceedingly more 
 elastic and active : in virtue of which, he shows, 
 that a great piu of the phenomena of nature 
 may be produced by it. To the weight, e. g. of 
 this medium, he attributes gravitation, or the 
 weight of all other bodies ; and to its elasticity, 
 the elastic force of the air and of nervous fibres, 
 and the emission, rarefaction, reflection, and other 
 phenomena of light ; as also, sensation, muscular 
 motion, &c. In fine, according to his theory, 
 tether seems to be the primum mobile, the first 
 source or spring of physical action in the modern 
 system. Dr. Hartley constructed upon the 
 theory of a vibrating aether, the celebrated sys- 
 tem of vibration, and vibratiuncles of the me- 
 dullary substance of the nerves and brain ; by 
 which, he accounts for all our sensations and 
 ideas. He even thinks it a consequence of this 
 theory, that could matter be endowed with the 
 most simple kinds of sensation, it might arrive 
 at all the intelligence of which the human mind 
 is possessed ! The difficulties of Dr. Hartley's 
 system, are thus ably stated by Dr. Reid. Our 
 sensations arise from vibrations, and our ideas 
 from vibratiuncles, or miniature vibrations; and 
 he (Dr. Hartley) comprehends, under these two 
 words of sensations and ideas, all the operations 
 of the mind. But how can we expect any proof 
 of the connection between vibrations and thought, 
 when the existence of such vibrations was never 
 proved. The proof of their connection cannot 
 be stronger than the proof of their existence. 
 Por, as the author acknowledges, that we cannot 
 infer the existence of the thoughts from the ex- 
 istence of the vibrations, it is no less evident, 
 that we cannot infer the existence of vibrations 
 from the existence of our thoughts. The existence 
 of both must be known, before we can know their 
 connection. As to the existence of our thoughts, 
 we have the evidence of consciousness ; a kind 
 of evidence, that was never called in question. 
 But as to the existence of vibrations, in the me- 
 dullary substance of the nerves and brain, no 
 proof has yet been brought. 
 
 The Cartesian aether is supposed not only to 
 pervade, but adequately to fill all the vacuities 
 of bodies ; and thus to make an absolute plenum 
 in the universe. But Sir Isaac Newton overturns 
 this opinion, from divers considerations; by 
 showing, that the celestial spaces are void of all 
 sensible resistance: for the matter contained 
 therein must be immensely rare, as the resistance 
 of bodies is chiefly in proportion to their density ; 
 so that, if the heavens were thus adequately filled 
 with a medium or matter, how subtile soever, 
 they would resist the motion of the planets and 
 comets, more than quicksilver or gold. The late 
 discoveries in electricity have thrown great light 
 upon this subject, and rendered it extremely 
 probable, that the aether so often talked of, is no 
 other than the electric fluid, or solar light, which 
 diffuses itself throughout the whole system of 
 nature. See ELECTRICITY, FIRE, HEAT, LIGHT, 
 MAGNETISM, &c. 
 
 jETHERA, in botany, eringo. 
 
 /ETHEREAL, /ETHF.REUS, something that 
 'M longs to, or partakes of, the nature of /ETHER. 
 
 Thus we read of the aethereal space, aethereal 
 regions, &c. Some of the ancients divided the 
 universe, with respect to the matter contained 
 therein, into elementary and oethereal. Under 
 the aethereal world, was included in that space 
 above the uppermost element, viz, fire. This 
 they supposed to be perfectly homogeneous, 
 incorruptible, unchangeable, &c. See CORRUP- 
 TION. The Chaldeans placed an aethereal world 
 between the empyreum and the region of the 
 fixed stars. Besides which, they sometimes 
 also speak of a second athereal world, meaning 
 by it the starry orb : and a third aethereal world, 
 by which was meant the planetary region. 
 
 ^ETHEREAL OIL, is a fine, subtile, essential oil, 
 approaching nearly to the nature of a spirit. 
 Thus, the pure liquor rising next after the spirit, 
 in the distillation of turpentine, is called the 
 aethereal oil of turpentine. Some chemists dis- 
 tinguish two principles in urine ; the one a vola- 
 tile urinous salt, resembling spirit of nitre ; the 
 other, an aethereal oil, or sulphur, partaking of 
 the nature of spirit of wine. 
 
 ^ETHEREAL PHOSPHORUS, is a name generally 
 given, by Bernoulli, to that otherwise called 
 mercurial, or barometrical phosphorus. 
 
 ^LTHIONEMA, in botany, from oi0w, to 
 scorch, and vi\\n,a, a stamen, in allusion to some 
 tawny or sun-burnt tinge in the stamens ; a genus 
 of plants. Class and order, tetradynamia sili- 
 culosa. Natural order, siliquosae, linn ; cruci- 
 ferae, Juss. Its characters are : pouch with boat- 
 like winged valves, (sometimes not bursting.) 
 Longer filaments either combined, or finely 
 toothed towards the top. Insertion of the calyx 
 unequal. There are two species. Brown. 
 
 ^ETHIOPIA. See ETHIOPIA. 
 
 ./ETHIOPIAN CROWN, in natural history, the 
 name of a shell fish, of the genus of the doliuin, 
 or concha globosa. It is of a brown colour ; but 
 differs from the common shells of this genus, in 
 having the top, or head, dentated, so as to repre- 
 sent a crown. 
 
 JETHIOPIS, Ethiopian clary ; a decoction of 
 its roots is recommended in pleurisies and rheu- 
 matisms. 
 
 jETHIOPS, in entomology, a species of black 
 Cerambyx, with a spinose thorax, and with two 
 bands of the elytra; ; the point of the apex yellow, 
 and middle-sized antennae, found at the Cape of 
 Good Hope. Also a species of the carabus, 
 wholly black, found at Berlin, and of the cimex, 
 black, with a ridge on the middle of the thorax, 
 and black spinose tibiae, found at Cayenne. 
 
 ./ETHIOPS is also a species of papilio, with 
 black wings ; the primores marked with three 
 white bands, and caerulean spots on the upper 
 part ; the posterior with two longitudinal pale 
 furrows at the base, and a transverse ridge, with 
 five caerulean points; found out of Europe. 
 Also a species of apis, or the black bee, with the 
 margin of the segments of the abdomen white ; 
 found in America : and of the hairy black musca, 
 with black wings, white at the apex ; two points, 
 and a silvery anus ; found in Italy. 
 
 HLraiOTS, in natural history, a species of the 
 turbo, with the shell transversely furrowed and 
 black ; the first windings are nearly striated ; 
 the succeeding ones are of a silvery brightness,
 
 215 
 
 with the lip and limb brown ; the aperture is 
 dilated. 
 
 /ETHIOPS fulica, in ornithology, the wholly 
 black fulica or coot of Sparrman. 
 
 ./ETHIOPS Simia, in zoology, the white eye-lid 
 ape of Pennant, and mangabey of Buffon. 
 
 ^ETHIOPS ANTIMONIAL, MARTIAL, &c. See 
 INDEX to PHARMACY. 
 
 ./ETHOLICES, in medicine, from atQia, to in- 
 flame, superficial pustules, or boils in the skin, 
 occasioned by heat. 
 
 7ETHON, in mythology, of aiQw, to burn, 
 one of the four horses of the sun, which caused 
 the fall of Phaeton, according to Ovid. Clau- 
 dian calls one of the horses of Pluto's chariot 
 by the same name. 
 
 /ETHRA, a river of Sweden, that rises in 
 the lake Alsugan, and running by Falkenburg, 
 in South Halland, falls into the sea. It is also 
 called Falkenburg. 
 
 ./ETHRA, in fabulous history, the daughter of 
 Pittheus, king of Traezene, and mother of The- 
 seus. 
 
 7ETHUSA, in botany, a genus of the pen- 
 tandria digynia class; and, in the natural 
 method, ranking under the forty-fifth order, 
 umbellatae. The characters are : CAL. an uni- 
 versal umbel expanding, the interior rays shorter 
 by degrees ; with a partial umbel, small, and 
 expanding. There is no universal involucrum; 
 the partial one is dimidiated, with three or five 
 leaflets, and pendulous ; the proper perianthium 
 scarcely discernible : COR. uniform, with fer- 
 tile florets; the partial one has five heart-in- 
 flected unequal petals : STAM. five simple fila- 
 ments, with roundish antherae : PIST. a germen 
 beneath ; with two reflected styli ; the stigmata 
 obtuse. There is no pericarpium ; the fruit is 
 ovate, striated, and tripartite. The seeds are 
 two, roundish and striated. There is but one 
 species, viz. the aethusa cynapium, fools-parsley, 
 or lesser hemlock, a native of Britain, which 
 grows in corn fields and gardens. This plant, 
 from its resemblance to common parsley, hath 
 sometimes been mistaken for it ; and when eaten, 
 it occasions sickness. If the curled leaved 
 parsley only, were cultivated in our gardens, no 
 such mistakes would happen. Cows, horses, 
 sheep, goats, and swine, -eat it. It is noxious 
 to geese. 
 
 yETHYIA, in ornithology, a name by which 
 old authors have called one of the web-footed 
 fowls, the Utamania of Crete, or the common 
 auk, or razor-bill. 
 
 AETIANS, in church history, a branch of 
 Arians, who maintained that the Son and Holy 
 Ghost are in all things dissimilar to the Father. 
 See AETIUS. 
 
 ^ETIOLOGICA, ArioXoytKj;, Gr. that branch 
 of physic which explains the causes and reasons 
 of diseases, and their various symptoms in order 
 to their cure. Bailey. 
 
 /ETIOLOGICAL, something that assigns the 
 cause of an effect, or appearance. 
 
 ./ETIOLOGY, in medicine, from Aina, cause, 
 and Xoyoe, discourse, a discourse of the cause of 
 a disease. In this sense, we say, the aetiology of 
 the small pox, of the hydrophobia, of the gout, 
 the dropsy, &c. 
 
 /ETIOLOGY, in rhetoric, a figure, whereby, in 
 relating an event, we assign also the cause of it. 
 In this sense, aetiology differs from colour, as the 
 former assigns the true cause, the latter only a 
 feigned or specious one. The sceptics were pro- 
 fessed opponents of all aetiology, or argumenta- 
 tion from causes. 
 
 ./ETION, a celebrated painter, who has left 
 us an excellent picture of Roxana and Alexander, 
 which he exhibited at the Olympic Games: it 
 represents a magnificent chamber, where Roxana 
 is sitting on a bed of a most splendid appearance, 
 rendered still more brilliant by her beauty. She 
 looks downwards, in a kind of confusion, being 
 struck with the appearance of Alexander standing 
 before her. A number of little cupids flutter 
 about, some holding up the curtain, others un- 
 dressing the lady ; some pulling Alexander by 
 the cloak, and presenting him to his mistress, 
 others playing with his arms ; while his friend 
 Haephestion, and the god Hymen, are represented 
 attending with the matrimonial torch. This 
 picture gained /Etion so much reputation, that 
 the president of the games gave him his daughter 
 in marriage. 
 
 ^ETITES, is one of those curiosities, in na- 
 tural history, which merits a more full descrip- 
 tion than Br. Johnson has given it. It was 
 formerly in repute for several extraordinary 
 magical as well as medical powers ; such as pre- 
 venting abortion, discovering thieves, and other 
 ridiculous properties. The popular tradition is, 
 that it is found in the eagle's nest, whither it is 
 supposed to be carried while the female sits, to 
 prevent her eggs from being rotten. These 
 stones are found in several parts ; near Trevoux 
 in France, one can scarcely dig a few feet deep, 
 without finding considerable strata, of the coarser 
 or ferruginous kind. They are originally soft, 
 and of the colour of yellow ochre. But the 
 finest and most valued of all the eagle stones, 
 are accidental states of one or other of our com- 
 mon pebbles. These are so far from being a 
 peculiar species of fossil, though usually ac- 
 counted such, that they are not determinately of. 
 any one species of pebble. Those, however, 
 which most usually furnish them, are the brown 
 centered pebbles, with whitish, bluish, and 
 brown crusts. The plain history of this remark- 
 able fossil is this : the central nucleus of many 
 species of pebbles, particularly of this, is coarser 
 than the rest of the stone, that is, it is made up 
 of more earth and less crystal ; the natural conse- 
 quence of which must be, that being of a more 
 loose and rare texture, it is in drying more apt 
 to shrink than such masses as are composed 
 of a harder and purer matter. The central nu- 
 cleus in this species is also surrounded with a 
 whitish crust of a more loose texture, and more 
 subject to shrink in drying, than even the nucleus 
 itself; and being composed of more earth and 
 less crystal, is also more friable and soft. The 
 outer circles of this stone are of a much harder 
 substance. When the earthy matter in the nu- 
 cleus, and first crust of this pebble, exceeds its 
 just proportion, the consequence will be, that 
 the stone will become an aetites ; for the nucleus 
 contracting itself to a small size, on the evapo- 
 ration of its fluid matter, must separate from
 
 216 
 
 M T N A. 
 
 its first crust, and that also shrinking must be 
 drawn backward towards the other crusts ; 
 whence the cavity will become larger between 
 that and the nucleus, and consequently, the 
 nucleus will rattle in it when the stone is 
 shaken. The pebble in this state having been 
 afterwards rolled about by the waters, the 
 nucleus has by rolling broken to pieces all the 
 inner crust, and is usually found in the hollow 
 of the stone, buried in a large quantity of a 
 whitish powder. These eagle-stones are not 
 uncommon in our gravel pits. The setites is 
 also known by the names of eutocium, echites, 
 lapis aquila:, aquileus, and lapis pregnans. 
 
 AETIUS, a famous physician, born at Amida, 
 in Mesopotamia, and the author of a work en- 
 titled Tetrabibles, a collection from the writings 
 of former physicians. He lived about the end of 
 the fifth, and beginning of the sixth century. 
 
 AETIUS, governor of Gallia Narbonensis in 
 
 the reign of Valentinian III. forced the Franks, 
 who were passing into Gaul, to repass the 
 Rhine. He defeated the Goths ; and routed 
 Attila king of the Huns, who invaded Gaul 
 with an army of 700,000 men. But the em- 
 peror, jealous of the merit of this great man, 
 ungratefully murdered him, in 454, with his 
 own hand, under the pretence that he had per- 
 mitted the invasion of the Huns, after Attila's 
 defeat. 
 
 AETIUS, one of the most zealous defenders of 
 Arianism, was born in Syria, and flourished about 
 the year 336. After being a servant to a gram- 
 marian, of whom he learned grammar and logic, 
 he was ordained deacon, and at last bishop, by 
 Eudoxus, patriarch of Constantinople. St. Epi- 
 phanius has preserved forty-seven of his pro- 
 positions against the doctrines of the Trinity 
 His followers were called Aetians. 
 
 JE T N A. 
 
 ./ETNA, or ./ETHANA, (as Bochart thinks from 
 WJfiK Hebrew a furnace,) called also in mo- 
 dern times Gibello, a burning mountain on 
 the east of the island of Sicily, in the district of 
 Val de Demone, or Demona: a name derived 
 evidently from the superstitious notion of the 
 ancients, that daemons resided here, and held 
 their emporium in the caverns of the mountain. 
 In classic history, we learn that in this place 
 were the forges of the Cyclops, who were en- 
 gaged in making thunder-bolts for Jupiter, 
 under the superintending care of Vulcan. 
 
 Fen-ant exercebant vasto Cyclopes in antro 
 Brontesque Steropesque, et nudus membra Pyracmon. 
 On their eternal anvils here he found 
 The brethren beating and the blows go round. 
 
 Homer is altogether silent as to its eruptions, a 
 circumstance which has been thought to imply, . 
 that they were in his time not known ; or had 
 been for ages suspended. There was a temple 
 of Vulcan erected on the island, in which, ac- 
 cording to MYian, a perpetual fire was main- 
 tained : (De Animal. 1. xi. c. 3 :) and TEtna 
 was the fabled prison in which the giant En- 
 celadus was confined by Jupiter. 
 
 The dimensions of the mountain have never 
 yet been ascertained with accuracy ; and there 
 are no two travellers whose calculations on this 
 subject exactly correspond. M.Houel, one of the 
 most accurate observers of its phenomena, 
 makes it forty miles in circumference at the base ; 
 there are others that make it sixty ; others again' 
 make it 100 : M. Brydone, who copies the cal- 
 culations of Signior Recupero, affirms it to be 
 i3 miles round ; Mentelle makes the diameter 
 to be even thirty miles ; and Buffon gives 300 
 square leagues as the superficial extent of the 
 entire mountain. As to Brydone, if we com- 
 pare the account of Mount ^Etna's circumference, 
 given by Recupero, with its apparent circum- 
 ference on the map, prefixed to the 'Tour 
 through Sicily and Malta,' we must at once be 
 
 struck with the prodigious disparity. It is plain, 
 that in the map no room is found for any moun- 
 tain of these dimensions ; while by comparing 
 the distances of some of the Sicilian towns from 
 one another, Signior Recupero's calculation 
 will be found enormously, exaggerated. The 
 geographer, for instance, lias placed Catania, 
 which stands at the foot of Mount ./Etna, on one 
 side no more than twenty-eight miles from the 
 most distant point of the river Alcantara, which 
 forms the boundary on the opposite side ; so 
 that a circle, whose radius is fourteen or fifteen 
 miles, must encompass as much space as can 
 possibly be occupied by the basis of Mount 
 ./Etna. If then, we make the circumference of 
 this famous mountain to be between eighty and 
 ninety miles, we shall not be far perhaps from the 
 truth, though our data are far from satisfying us. 
 Nor do travellers differ less with respect to its 
 height : 
 
 Above the level of the sea. 
 Kircher makes it .... 4000 toises 
 
 Mentelle 1950 
 
 Recupero 2500 
 
 Buffon 2000 fath. 
 
 Faujas de St. Fond . . . 10,036 feet 
 Sir G. Shuckburgh . . . 10,954 
 
 Saussure 10,963 
 
 Brydoue 12,000 
 
 Some affirm it to be six, some eight, and others 
 even twelve miles high. Pindar, the first writer 
 who mentions an eruption of jtna, calls it ' the 
 pillared prop of heaven.' Pyth. Od. v. 36. 
 
 Presenting a picture of all the climates, ./Etna 
 epitomizes also the history of the world. Its 
 annals extend through all authentic history. 
 The first eruption taken notice of by ancient 
 and by no means contemporary authors, hap- 
 pened before the Greeks landed on the island, 
 and is supposed to have intimidated the Sicani 
 from continuing in the east part of Sicily. Thu 
 first recorded eruption was in the time of Py-
 
 JE T JN A. 
 
 thagoras. Plato was invited by tlie younger 
 Dionysius to examine the state of the mountain, 
 after the sixih. It threw up flames and lava 
 near 100 times between that period and the 
 battle of Pharsalia ; and was particularly furious 
 while Sextus Pompeius was adding the horrors 
 of war to its devastations. Charlemagne hap- 
 pened to be at Catania during one of its erup- 
 tions ; and from his reign the chronicles mention 
 fifteen down to that of the year 1669. Ascend- 
 ing this mountain, therefore, the traveller treads 
 on ground consecrated by the fears and reverence 
 of all ages. Hither Adrian and Plato held their 
 way and combated its difficulties before him ; 
 and animated by the same hope, thought them- 
 selves sufficiently rewarded by the unparalleled 
 scenery of its brow. 
 
 ./Etna from a distance has the appearance of 
 an obtuse truncated cone, terminating at an 
 immense altitude, in a bifurcated vertex, in which 
 two separate eminences are distinctly visible. 
 Aiound the great bulk of the mountain, are a 
 number of conical hills, which appear to have 
 bulged out of its sides in different eruptions, 
 each having a crater at the top, and standing to 
 the height of 300 or 400 feet. These hills 
 adorned with verdure, darkened by a thick shade 
 of trees, and scattered with villages and hamlets 
 the abode of 100,000 inhabitants, agreeably 
 diversify the scene; while a profusion of plants 
 and herbs, and a green belt of oaks and pines, 
 which seem planted by the hand of nature, give 
 _o the whole a romantic and highly picturesque 
 appearance. The mountain affords a specimen 
 of all climates, and is commonly divided into 
 three regions ; the fertile, the woody, and the 
 desert or barren region; which some writers 
 have not inaptly termed the torrid, the temperate, 
 and the frigid zones of ./Etna. 
 
 The fertile region is lowest, encircled by the 
 rivers Semetus and Alcantara, except where it 
 is bounded by the sea. Here are found vines, 
 and fruits of the most luxuriant variety ; the 
 roots of trees shoot along above the surface of 
 the soil, and the decomposition of the lava has 
 given to the pastures and orchards, a richness 
 and fertility rarely equalled. But Sir William 
 Hamilton observes, they keep their vines low 
 here, contrary to the custom of those who inha- 
 bit Mount Vesuvius ; and they produce a stronger 
 wine, but not in such abundance. Here also, 
 are the lavas of many terrible eruptions ; par- 
 ticularly of that in 1669. At the foot of the moun- 
 tain raised at that time, is a hole, through which 
 Sir William descended, by means of a rope, into 
 several subterraneous caverns, branching out, and 
 extending much farther than he chose to ven- 
 ture, the cold there being excessive, and a vio- 
 lent wind extinguishing some of the torches. 
 Many other caverns are known in this and the 
 other regions of ./Etna; particularly one near 
 this place, called La Spelonca della Palomba, 
 from the wild pigeons building their nests there. 
 Here Mr. Brydone was told that some people 
 had lost their senses, from having advanced too 
 far, imagining they saw devils and damned 
 spirits. Some of these caverns are made use of 
 as magaxmes for snow ; which they are well 
 id-ipted for, on account of their extreme cold. 
 
 These are with great probability supposed by 
 Sir William Hamilton, to be the hollows made 
 by the issuing of the lava in eruptions. In this 
 region the river Acis, so much celebrated by the 
 poets in the fable of Acis and Galatea, takes its 
 rise. It bursts out of the earth at once in a 
 large stream, runs with great rapidity, and about 
 a mile from its source throws itself into the sea. 
 Its water is remarkably clear ; and so extremely 
 cold, that it is reckoned dangerous to drink it ; 
 it js said, however, to have a poisonous quality, 
 from being impregnated with vitriol ; in con- 
 sequence of which cattle have been killed by it. 
 It never freezes, but is said often to contract a 
 greater degree of cold than ice. 
 
 After travelling twelve miles from Catania, 
 the traveller usually halts at Nicolosi, 2496 feet 
 above the level of the sea. The heat here is not 
 so fervent as at Catania, because it is higher up 
 the mountain. Mount Rosso, or the Red Moun- 
 tain, is near this station : so called from its 
 colour, which is not however entirely red, but 
 possesses an agreeable intermixture of other 
 shades : a deep bed of black sand envelopes the 
 bottom ; covered with a sort of grey lava, and 
 contains a multitude of openings which have 
 never been explored to any considerable dis- 
 tance in consequence of that excessive cold, of 
 which Sir William Hamilton complained. The 
 year 1669 was the period of its formation, when 
 it rose from the midst of a plain, and discharged 
 torrents of lava. It is one of those mouths 
 through which ./Etna has in modern times dis- 
 charged showers of ashes and flakes of flame. 
 
 The stream of lava reached, in 1669, from this 
 place to the sea. To the extent of two miles 
 Mount Rosso is surrounded with a black sand, 
 which was thrown out in that eruption, and 
 which then covered a space of fifteen miles, to 
 such a depth as to bury the vines and shrubs 
 that were scattered over the soil. Some of the 
 finer particles of it were wafted by the wind as 
 far as Calabria. The sand is very deep as you 
 approach the mountain ; which is forked at the 
 vertex. Sir William Hamilton estimates its 
 height at a mile, and its circuit at three miles ; but 
 Borelli makes its circumference at the base not 
 to exceed two miles, and its perpendicular 
 height not more than 150 paces : and with this 
 account Spallanzani agrees. This naturalist 
 bestowed some attention upon the formation of 
 this singular production of nature, the only one 
 out of the many similar eminences that sur- 
 round the volcano, with whose origin and com- 
 plete history we are acquainted. The base of the 
 lava of this eminence is horn-stone, of a grey co- 
 lour, rough to the touch, and of a moderately fine 
 grain. It gives sparks with steel, and sounds 
 when it is struck. It serves as a matrix to a 
 great number of felt-spathose or shoerlaceous 
 crystallizations. The scoriae, of which it is prin- 
 cipally composed, have the same kind of base, 
 containing shoerls and felt-spars ; but they are 
 more light and friable than the lava, and have a 
 kind of vitreous appearance. These and other 
 differences are produced by the mutual colli- 
 sion and pulverization of the scorise. The num- 
 ber of detached shoerls found on and near 
 Mount Rosso is very great. It has been thought
 
 218 
 
 T N A. 
 
 that they first entered into the body of lava, and 
 were separated from it by means of the sulphur, 
 which had scorified the lava, but had not pro- 
 duced the same effect on the shoerls, because 
 of the small quantity of iron which they con- 
 tain ; and consequently they remained free and 
 detached. Spallanzani rejects this hypothesis ; 
 as upon experiments with the magnetic needle, 
 he found that the martial principle was more 
 abundant in the shoerls than in their base ; 
 and he, therefore, accounts for their separation 
 from the lava in another way. The volcanic 
 fire, which melted the lava, was incapable of 
 melting these shoerls, which are not only re- 
 fractory to the fire, but of a different specific 
 gravity from the lava. When this was melted, 
 elevated to a great height, and separated into 
 small particles in the progress of the eruption, 
 a number of shoerls were detached from it, 
 and fell, isolated, partly within the crater, and 
 partly around it. Accordingly he found, that 
 the shoerls detached from the lava are infusi- 
 ble in the furnace ; but those which are incor- 
 porated with the lava sustain a proper fusion. 
 These shoerls are also found in many other 
 mountains of /Etna. Spallanzani analyzed them, 
 and from 100 docimastic pounds, he obtained 
 the following results : viz. 
 
 Pounds. 
 
 Silex - 34.5 
 
 Lime - 18.7 
 
 Iron 7.6 
 
 Alum - - - - 12.4 
 Magnesia - - - - 11 
 
 Sum 
 
 84.2 
 
 A crater on the summit of this sub- volcano 
 is of an elliptical form, and was explored by 
 Mr. Houel with torches, but he was soon obliged 
 to return, from the extreme cold he felt within it. 
 
 Niccolo del Arena, the next station, is a 
 building which was once in the possession of the 
 Benedictine friars, but they were compelled 
 to forsake it in consequence of the devasta- 
 tions of the lava. It is, however, extremely 
 fruitful; the black sand thrown up in 1669 
 having been converted into vegetable earth. 
 Contiguous to this place is another volcanic hill 
 of the height of 300 feet, richly overspread with 
 verdure, surrounded by other little eminences 
 on every hand, possessing like itself all the 
 charms of vegetable beauty, and rising like 
 spots of verdure amid a dreary waste of lava. 
 About three miles higher up the mountain 
 is the woody region; here the air is cool and 
 agreeable, the morning-breeze comes breathing 
 over beds of spices surcharged with delicious 
 and reviving odours. Trees shape their foliage 
 and spread their boughs in apparent security, 
 diffusing an air of magnificence and grandeur 
 over the whole landscape. The chesnuts of the 
 woody region are thought prodigies in nature ; 
 one, which is particularly celebrated, measures 
 196 feet at the surface of the earth. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton says, he observed a gradual de- 
 crease of the vegetation as he advanced up the 
 mountain ; the under part being covered with 
 - timber trees, which grew gradually less 
 
 as he approached the crater ; at last they de- 
 generated into the small plants of the northern 
 climates. lie also observed quantities of juni- 
 per and tansey; and was informed by his guide, 
 that later in the season (he visited ./Etna in June 
 1 769) there are a great many curious plants, and 
 in some places rhubarb and saffron in great plenty. 
 In Carrera's history of Catania, there is a list 
 of all the plants and herbs of ./Etna, in alpha- 
 betical order. This region is extolled by Mr. 
 Brydone as one of the most delightful spots on 
 earth. He lodged for a night in a large cave 
 near the middle, formed by one of the most 
 ancient lavas. It is called La Spelonca del Ca- 
 priole, or the goat's cavern ; because it is fre- 
 quented by those animals, which take refugre 
 there in bad weather. Here his rest was dis- 
 turbed by a mountain thrown up in the erup- 
 tion of 1766. It discharged great quantities of 
 smoke, and made several explosions like heavy 
 cannon fired at a distance; but they could 
 observe no appearance of fire. This gentleman 
 likewise visited the eastern side of Regione 
 sylvosa, intending to have ascended that way to 
 the summit, and descend again on the south 
 side to Catania ; but found it impracticable ; 
 though what the insurmountable difficulties 
 were, he does not mention. On this side, part 
 of the woody region was destroyed, in 1755, 
 by an immense torrent of boiling water, which 
 issued from the great crater. Its traces were still 
 very visible, about a mile and a half broad, and 
 in some places more. The soil was then only 
 beginning to recover its vegetative power, which 
 it seems this torrent had destroyed for four- 
 teen years. Near this place are some beautiful 
 woods of cork, and evergreen oak, growing 
 absolutely out of the lava, the soil having hardly 
 filled the crevices ; and not far off, our traveller 
 observed seven little mountains that seemed to 
 have been formed by a late eruption. Each of 
 these had a regular cup, or crater, on the top ; 
 and, in some, the middle gulph, or Voragine, 
 as the Sicilians call it, was still open. Into 
 these gulphs Mr. Brydone rolled several stones, 
 and heard the noise for a long time after. All 
 the fields round, to a considerable distance, were 
 covered with large burnt stones discharged from 
 these smaller volcanoes. The woody region, par- 
 ticularly the east side, called Carpinetto abounds 
 with very large chesnut trees ; the most remarkable 
 of which has been called, from its size, Castagno 
 de Cento Cavalli, or chesnut tree of a hundred 
 horse. Mr. Brydone was greatly disappointed 
 at the sight of this tree, as it is only a bush of 
 five large ones growing together ; but his guides 
 assured him, that all these five were once united 
 into one stem ; and Signior Ilecupero told him, 
 that he himself had been at the expence of 
 carrying up peasants with tools to dig round 
 this bush of trees, and found all the stems united 
 below ground in one root. The circumference, 
 as measured by Messrs. Brydone and Glover 
 who accompanied him, amounted to 204 feet. 
 Another of these, about a mile and a half higher 
 on the mountain, is called Castagna de Galea : 
 it rises from one solid stem to a considerable 
 height, after which it branches out, and is a much 
 finer object than the other ; this was measured
 
 M T N A. 
 
 219 
 
 two feet above the ground, and found to be 
 seventy-six feet in circumference. A third, 
 called Castagna del Nave, is pretty nearly of the 
 same size ; and Massa, one of the most esteemed 
 Sicilian authors, affirms that he has seen solid 
 oaks there upwards of forty feet round. All 
 these grow on a thick rich soil, which seems 
 originally to have been formed of ashes thrown 
 out by the mountain. Here the barometer stood 
 at twenty-six inches five lines and a half, indica- 
 ting an elevation of near 4000 feet. The snow 
 protto is 5054 feet above the level of the sea. 
 There are two mountains in the vicinity, whose 
 craters exceed in dimension that of Vesuvius. 
 
 The barren region includes all the higher part 
 of the mountain. Here the scene is no longer 
 woody : there is a flat expanse of snow and ice, 
 the traveller shivers under some of the coldest 
 blasts of the frigid zone ; sounds are heard in the 
 centre of the mountain, sulphurous exhalations 
 issue from its crevices ; at last the summit rears 
 its awful head, pouring out volumes of smoke 
 from its caverns. 
 
 The man who treads Mount ./Etna seems like 
 a man above the world. He generally is advised 
 to ascend before day-break; the stars now 
 brighten, shining like so many gems of flames ; 
 others appear which were invisible below. The 
 milky-way seems like a pure flake of light lying 
 across the firmament, and it is the opinion of 
 some that the satellites of Jupiter might be dis- 
 covered by the naked eye. But when the sun 
 arises the prospect from the summit of ./Etna is 
 beyond comparison the finest in nature. The eye 
 rolls over it with astonishment and is lost. The 
 diversity of objects ; the extent of the horizon ; 
 the immense height ; the country like a map at 
 our feet ; the ocean around ; the heavens above ; 
 all conspire to overwhelm the mind, and affect it 
 with sensations of astonishment and grandeur. 
 We must be allowed to extract Mr. Brydone's 
 description of this scene. There is not, he 
 says, on the surface of the globe, any one point 
 that unites so many awful and sublime objects. 
 The immense elevation from the surface of the 
 earth, drawn as it were to a single point, without 
 any neighbouring mountain for the senses and 
 imagination to rest upon and recover from their 
 astonishment in their way down to the world. 
 This point or pinnacle, raised on the brink of a 
 bottomless gulph, as old as the world, often dis- 
 charging rivers of fire, and throwing out burning 
 rocks, with a noise that shakes the whole island. 
 Add to this the unbounded extent of the pros- 
 pect, comprehending the greatest diversity, and 
 the most beautiful scenery in nature, with the 
 rising sun advancing in the east to illuminate 
 the wondrous scene. 
 
 ' The whole atmosphere by degrees kindled 
 up, and shewed dimly and faintly the boundless 
 prospect around. Both sea and land looked 
 dark and confused, as if only emerging from their 
 original chaos, and light and darkness seemed 
 still undivided; till the morning by degrees 
 advancing completed the separation. The stars 
 are extinguished, and the shades disappear. 
 The forests, which but now seemed black and 
 bottomless gulphs, from whence no ray was re- 
 flected to shew their form or colours, appear a 
 
 new creation rising to sight, catching life and 
 beauty from every increasing beam. The scene 
 still enlarges, and the horizon seems to widen 
 and expand itself on all sides; till the sun, like 
 the great Creator, appears in the east, and with 
 his plastic ray completes the mighty scene. All 
 appears enchantment : and it is with difficulty 
 we can believe we are still on earth. The 
 senses, unaccustomed to the sublimity of such a 
 scene, are bewildered and confounded ; and it 
 is not till after some time that they are capable 
 of separating and judging of the objects that 
 compose it. The body of the sun is seen rising 
 from the ocean, immense tracts both of sea and 
 land intervening ; the islands of Lipari, Panari, 
 Alicudi, Stromboli, and Volcano, with their 
 smoking summits, appear under your feet; 
 and you look down on the whole of Sicily as on 
 a map ; and can trace every river through all its 
 windings, from its source to its mouth. The 
 view is absolutely boundless on every side ; nor 
 is there any one object within the circle of vision 
 to interrupt it, so that the sight is every where 
 lost in the immensity ; and I am persuaded it is 
 only from the imperfection of our organs, that 
 the coasts of Africa, and even of Greece, are not 
 discovered, as they are certainly above the 
 horizon. The circumference of the visible horizon 
 on the top of ./Etna, cannot be less than 2000 
 miles. At Malta, which is near 200 miles dis- 
 tant, they perceive all the eruptions from the 
 second region : and that island is often discovered 
 from about one half the elevation of the moun- 
 tain : so that at the whole elevation the horizon 
 must extend to near double that distance, or 
 400 miles, which makes 800 miles for the 
 diameter of the circle, and 2400 for the circum- 
 ference : but this is by much too vast for our 
 senses, not intended to grasp so boundless a 
 scene. The most beautiful part of the scene 
 is certainly the mountain itself, the island of 
 Sicily, and the numerous islands lying round it. 
 All these, by a kind of magic in vision, that I 
 am at a loss to account for, seem as if they were 
 brought close round the skirts of ./Etna; the 
 distances appearing reduced to nothing. Perhaps 
 this singular effect is produced by the rays of 
 light passing from a rarer medium into a denser, 
 which (from a well-known law in optics) to an 
 observer in the rare medium, appears to lift up 
 objects that are at the bottom of the dense one, 
 as a piece of money placed in a bason appears 
 lifted up as soon as the bason is filled with 
 water. 
 
 ' The Regione Deserta, or the frigid zone of 
 j/Etna, is the first object that calls your attention. 
 It is marked out by a circle of snow and ice, 
 which extends on all sides to the distance of about 
 eight miles. In the centre of this circle, the great 
 crater of the mountain rears its burning head, 
 and the regions of intense cold, and of intense 
 heat, seem for ever to be united in the same point 
 The Regione Deserta is immediately succeeded 
 by the Sylvosa, or the woody region, which forms 
 a circle or girdle of the most beautiful green, 
 which surrounds the mountain on all sides, and 
 is certainly one of the most delightful spots on 
 earth. This presents a remarkable contrast with 
 the desert region. It is not smooth and even.
 
 220 
 
 ike the greatest part of the latter; but is finely 
 variegated by an infinite number of those beauti- 
 ful little mountains that have been formed by the 
 different eruptions of ./Etna. All these have now 
 acquired a wonderful degree of fertility, except a 
 very few that are but newly formed, that is within 
 these five or six hundred years ; for it certainly 
 requires some thousands to bring them to their 
 greatest degree of perfection. We looked down 
 into the craters of these, and attempted, but in 
 vain, to number them. 
 
 ' This zone is every where succeeded by the 
 vineyards, orchards, and corn-fields that com- 
 
 ase the Regione Culta, or the fertile region, 
 his zone makes a delightful contrast with the 
 other two regions. It is bounded by the sea to 
 the south and south-east, and on all its other 
 sides by the rivers Semetus and Alcantara, 
 which run almost round it. The whole course 
 of these rivers is seen at once, and all their beau- 
 tiful windings through these fertile vallies, looked 
 upon as the favourite possession of Ceres her- 
 self, and the very scene of the rape of her daughter 
 Proserpine. Cast your eyes a little further, and 
 you embrace the whole island ; all its cities, rivers, 
 and mountains, delineated in the great chart of na- 
 ture ; all the adjacent islands, and the whole coast 
 of Italy, as far as your eye can reach ; for it is no 
 where bounded, but everywhere lost in the space. 
 On the sun's first rising, the shadow of the 
 mountain extends across the whole island, and 
 makes a large track visible even in the sea and 
 in the air. By degrees this is shortened, and 
 in a little time is confined only to the neigh- 
 bourhood of ./Etna.' 
 
 Brydone also speaks of observing several of 
 those meteors, generally called by astronomers 
 falling stars ; which appeared as much elevated 
 as when viewed from the plain : a proof, says 
 he, that these bodies move in regions much 
 beyond the bounds that some philosophers have 
 assigned to our atmosphere. To have a full and 
 clear prospect from the summit of mount ./Etna, 
 it is necessary to be there before sun-rise ; as the 
 vapours raised by the sun, in the day time, 
 obscure every object: and all agree, that the 
 beauty of the prospect from thence cannot be 
 expressed. Here Mr. Hamilton also had a view 
 of Calabria in Italy, with the sea beyond it ; the 
 Lipari Islands, and Stromboli, (seventy miles 
 distance) appeared just under his feet ; the whole 
 island of Sicily, with its rivers, towns, harbours, 
 &c. appeared distinct as if seen on a map. 
 Massa, a Sicilian author, affirms, that the African 
 coast, as well as that of Naples, with many of its 
 islands, have been discovered from the top of 
 ./Etna. The visible horizon here is not less than 
 8 or 900 miles in diameter. 
 
 * Seated,' says Spallanzani, ' in the midst of this 
 theatre of the wonders of nature, I felt an inde- 
 scribable pleasure from the multiplicity and 
 beauty of the objects I surveyed ; and a kind of 
 internal satisfaction and exultation of heart. 
 The sun was advancing to the meridian, unob- 
 scured by the smallest cloud, and Reaumur's 
 thermometer stood at the tenth degree above the 
 freezing point ; I was therefore in that tempera- 
 ture which is most friendly to man, and the re- 
 fined air I breathed, as if it had been entirely 
 
 T N A. 
 
 vital, communicated a vigour and agility to my 
 limbs, and an activity and life to my ideas 
 which appeared to be of a celestial nature.' 
 
 On the summit, Mr. Hamilton observes, that 
 he was sensible of a difficulty in respiration, 
 from the too great subtilty of the air, independ- 
 ent of what arose from the sulphurous smoke 
 of the mount. Mr. Brydone takes no notice of 
 this ; which probably arose from the air being in 
 a more rarefied state at the time of Mr. Hamil- 
 ton's observation, than of Mr. Brydone's ; the 
 barometer, as observed by the former, standing 
 at eighteen inches and ten lines, by the latter at 
 nineteen inches six lines and a half. In these 
 high regions there is generally a very violent 
 wind, which, as all our travellers found it con- 
 stantly blowing from the south, may possibly be 
 commonly directed from that point. Here Mr. 
 Brydone's thermometer fell. 
 
 Near the foot of the great crater, is the Philo- 
 sopher's tower, called II Torre del Philosopho, 
 supposed to have been constructed by the philo- 
 sopher Empedocles while he was studying the 
 phenomena of ./Etna ; by others these are sup- 
 posed to be ruins of a temple of Vulcan. They 
 are of brick, and seem to have been ornamented 
 with marble. In this region Mr. D'Orville found 
 a great oblong block of polished marble, eight 
 or ten feet high, and three or four thick ; though 
 how it came there was quite unaccountable to 
 him. From Mr. D'Orville's and Mr. Brydone's 
 accounts, we must reckon this part of the moun- 
 tain steep ; but Mr. Hamilton says, the ascent 
 was so gradual as not to be in the least fatiguing ; 
 and had it not been for the snows, they might 
 have rode on their mules to the very foot of the 
 crater. 
 
 The great crater itself, may be described as a 
 cup, or hollow at the top of a conical hill, rising 
 equally on all sides. The hill is composed chiefly 
 of sand and ashes, thrown up from the mouth at 
 different periqds; and at present it is ten miles 
 in circumference, and a quarter of a mile in 
 height. The crater presents the appearance of 
 an inverted cone the inside of which is covered 
 with salts and sulphur of various colours ; it is 
 oval in its figure, shelving down from the aper- 
 ture. Sir W. Hamilton, 1769, calculated the 
 circumference at two miles and a half; Mr. 
 Brydone, 1770, at three miles and a half; Mr. 
 D'Orville, 1727, at three or four miles. In 1788, 
 Spalanzani, who visited this phenomenon, de- 
 scribes the inner sides as terminating in a plain 
 of half a mile in circuit, in the centre of which is 
 a circular aperture of five poles in diameter ; 
 contained within the cavity, apparently in a 
 state of ebullition. Several stones that he threw 
 in, fell dead as into a thick paste ; but those that 
 did not fall into the matter, made quite a different 
 sound, a circumstance which led him to conclude 
 that the bottom was solid. Riedesel observes, 
 that no sound at all was produced by throwing 
 stones into the gulph ; but he heard a roaring 
 like the sea. The crater stood to the east, with, 
 one opening, which no longer exists. Mr 
 D'Orville tells us that he and his companion 
 having fastened themselves by ropes, held by 
 men at the top, went down the shelving sides to 
 the very mouth of the gulph. They beheld a
 
 JE T N A. 
 
 221 
 
 conic mass of matter in the middle, to the height 
 of about sixty feet, the base as far as they could 
 trace it, nearly 800. feet, from which small lam- 
 Dent flames and smoke issued in every direction. 
 While they were there, the north side of the 
 mountain began to throw out flames and ashes, 
 accompanied by a bellowing noise, on which 
 they retired. Strabo describes the top of the 
 mountain as a level plain, with a smoking hill 
 in the centre. Spallanzani as bifurcated, for he 
 saw another eminence a quarter of a mile distant, 
 with another crater, though not of equal dimen- 
 sion. M. Ilouel speaks of three eminences, 
 1782, like an isosceles triangle, only two of 
 which could be perceived from any distance, in 
 the midst of which is the principal crater; in 
 diameter about sixty feet. According to Fazello, 
 there was a hill produced in 1444, which fell 
 into the crater after an eruption, and mingled 
 with the melted mass. Borelli writes that the 
 summit of the mountain rose up like a tower ; 
 and during the eruption of 1669, fell into the 
 crater. The whole structure and appearance of 
 the mountain is thus evidently subject to great 
 changes. 
 
 The stones ejected from /Etna are granitic, or 
 calcareous, surrounded with columns of Basalt, 
 which M. Dolomieu terms ' prismatic lava.' 
 Spalanzani supposes the shore to be volcanic 
 for twenty-three miles. The same writer ob- 
 serves that there is on /Etna a great scarcity of 
 water, owing, as he imagines, to the rain's falling 
 on scoriae, in which it sinks for want of those 
 various argillaceous strata, which retain it in 
 other mountains. Others affirm that the moun- 
 tain is well watered ; that there are intermitting 
 springs which flow during the day only, and stop 
 i'i the night, a fact which may arise from the 
 melting of the snow, which ceases as the night 
 comes on ; that there are streams always pouring 
 from the side of the mountain, unquestionably 
 originating in some permanent source; that there 
 are poisonous springs, fine salt springs, &c. 
 
 An approaching eruption of mount /Etna is 
 indicated various ways. There is at first an in- 
 crease of the white smoke issuing from the top 
 of the crater, intermingled with volumes of black 
 smoke in the centre. These are attended by slight 
 explosions, and followed by red flashes, or rather 
 streams of fire perpetually increasing in number, 
 and growing in dimension, till the whole becomes 
 one entire black column, highly electrical, illu- 
 minated by frequent lightnings, and attended by 
 occasional thunder. These phenomena are fol- 
 lowed by showers of red hot stones and ashes. 
 The former projected often to a great distance, 
 and the latter wafted sometimes by the winds, 
 and carried 100 miles, setting fire to buildings, 
 and destroying the face of vegetation. Recupero 
 tells us, that, he had known rocks thrown up to 
 the altitude of 7000 feet. M. Houel saw one 
 of these stones which had been projected from the 
 mouth of /Etna, whose weight was not less than 
 sixteen tons. It is generally three or four months 
 before the lava makes its appearance, boiling 
 over the top, or bursting through the sides of the 
 mountain ; a complete liquid mass of melted 
 mineral matter, running like a river, and de- 
 stroying the face of nature wherever it comes. 
 
 The explosions of /Etna have been recorded 
 from a very early period. Diodorus Siculus 
 mentions eruptions of it 500 years before the 
 Trojan war, or 1693 years before the Christian 
 asra. This is that which drove, he says, the 
 Sicani from the eartern part of Sicily, which 
 they then inhabited. Thucydides mentions three 
 eruptions, of which, the second was the most 
 remarkable. It happened the second year of the 
 seventy-fifth Olympiad, when Phaedon was 
 archon of Athens, and when the army of Xerxes 
 was defeated by the Athenians, at Plataea. Both 
 the victory and eruption are recorded in an 
 ancient inscription on the Oxford marble. Du- 
 ring this eruption, Amphinomus and Anapis, 
 two Sicilian youths, rushed into the midst of the 
 flames, and saved the lives of their aged parents, 
 at the imminent peril of their own ; on which 
 account, a temple has been consecrated to their 
 memory. 
 
 The third eruption mentioned by Thucydides, 
 occurred in the year before Christ 425, in the 
 eighty-eighth Olympiad, and desolated part of 
 the Catanian territory. He mentions it in the 
 third book on the Peloponnesian war, in these 
 words : ' About the spring of the year, a torrent 
 of fire overflowed from mount /Etna, in the same 
 manner as formerly, which destroyed part of the 
 lands of the Catanians, who are situated at the 
 foot of that mountain, which is the largest in all 
 Sicily. It is said that fifty years intervened be- 
 tween this flow and the last which preceded ; and 
 that, in the whole, the fire has thus issued thrice 
 since Sicily was inhabited by the Grecians.' 
 
 The fifth eruption, of authentic history, occur- 
 red in the consulship of Sergius Fulvius Flaccus, 
 and Quintus Calpurnius Piso, nearly 133 years 
 before the Christian sera. It was of some im- 
 portance ; but Julius Obsequius, and Orosius, 
 by whom it is recorded, have not transmitted any 
 details respecting it. 
 
 In the consulship of Lucius JEmilius Lepidus, 
 and Lucius Aurelius Orestes, about 125 years 
 before Christ, /Etna poured forth such a torrent 
 of fire, that the adjoining sea is represented as 
 absolutely hot, and immense numbers of fishes 
 were destroyed. One historian declares, that the 
 inhabitants of the isles of Lipari ate so many of 
 those fishes as to occasion a distemper, which 
 proved generally fatal. 
 
 Orosius states, that four years after the pre- 
 ceding eruption, the city of Catania was desola- 
 ted by another equally tremendous ; the roofs of 
 the houses were demolished by the burning 
 ashes, and so dreadful was the desolation, that 
 the Romans exempted the inhabitants from all 
 taxes for the space of ten years, to afford them 
 an opportunity for repairing the damages they 
 had sustained. 
 
 Livy mentions an eruption of /Etna, just pre- 
 vious to the death of Cassar, in the forty-third 
 year before Christ. It was not very considerable 
 in itself, but acquired importance from being after- 
 wards considered as an omen of Csesar's death. 
 
 In the life of Caligula is mentioned, by Sueto- 
 nius, an eruption that happened in the year forty, 
 of the Christian aera; on the same night in which 
 the emperor fled from Messina, where ne was 
 at the time.
 
 222 M T 
 
 According to Carrera, there was an eruption 
 of mount yF.tna, in the year of our Lord 253. 
 The same author records another in the year 
 420; and Geoffrey of Viterbo, in his Chronicle, 
 mentions an eruption in 812, in the reign of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 We cannot attempt to go into all the authentic 
 details of those occurrences: but that of 1169, 
 was the most tremendous eruption of ancient 
 times ; it happened on the 4th of February. At 
 day-break there was an earthquake in Sicily, felt 
 across the Strait, as far as Reggio, Catania sunk 
 in ruins, and 15,000 inhabitants perished in its 
 fall. The roof of St. Agatha's church fell in, and 
 killed the bishop ; new rivers burst forth, and 
 several of the ancient rivers disappeared. The 
 clear spring of Arethusa, so celebrated in an- 
 tiquity, became muddy and brackish. The 
 fountain of Ajo ceased two hours, and then 
 poured out more copiously than before, but its 
 waters became of a blood colour. At Messina, 
 the sea retired ; and then returning, it whejmed 
 the city walls, rolled through the town, and 
 swept multitudes away, men, women, and chil- 
 dren. The trees and vegetables were burnt up 
 by the showers of hot ashes and stones that fell 
 upon them. 
 
 In 1329, another awful visitation occurred, of 
 which a few particulars are furnished by Nicholas 
 Specioli. It happened about vespers, on the 
 23rd of June. The mountain began to send 
 forth dreadful sounds, and alarmed all the island, 
 a volume of smoke encompassing a blaze of fire, 
 arose from the mountain. Snow spread over 
 Moyona. The flames in the evening touched 
 the clouds ; many buildings were reduced to 
 ruins ; many rocks on the shore dashed into the 
 sea ; springs and streams of water were dried 
 away. The sun was eclipsed from morning to 
 evening, with clouds of smoke and ashes ; on the 
 south side of the St. John's church, fire issued 
 out from an opening made in the ground. Our 
 historian drew near to see the wonders of nature : 
 the earth tottered under his feet, and four volumes 
 or showers of red hot stones issued in a very 
 short space. The writer of this history affirms, 
 that neither Babylon nor Sodom suffered so tre- 
 mendous a visitation, and that many of the in- 
 habitants died for fear ; many birds died in the 
 heavens, and the fish in the surrounding seas. 
 
 In 1536, another terrible eruption took place, 
 and one which is memorable, on account of the 
 death of Francis Negro de Piazza, a celebrated 
 physician of Lentini, who, from a desire to ex- 
 amine the phenomenon, approached too near the 
 crater, and was killed by a volley of ignited 
 stones. 
 
 In 1537, the mountain was again disturbed. 
 It was rent in several places, and the lava poured 
 out with great violence, and destroyed Mont 
 Pellieri and Fallica, together with the gardens, 
 vineyards, and monastery of St. Nicholas D'Are- 
 na, and nearly all the inhabitants. The wind 
 tore up the trees, the river Simeto left its banks, 
 and swept away both people and cattle. The 
 summit of the mountain fell in with a noise so 
 dreadful, that the people of the island believed it 
 to be the last day, and prepared accordingly ; 
 many of the people were struck deaf by the 
 
 N A. 
 
 noise, and the castle of Corltone, though nearly 
 eighty miles from the volcano, was demolished. 
 No eruptions of ./Etna have been more terri- 
 ble or destructive than that of 1669. Eighteen 
 days before the commotion the sky was black 
 and cloudy, agitated by frequent thunder and 
 lightning. In the island of Stromboli, two vol- 
 canoes, to the westward of Sicily, raged more 
 than usual. Several houses were overturned bv 
 earthquakes in the village of Nicolosi, and the 
 crater seemed to exhibitsigns of great commotion. 
 On the 8th of March, the sky darkened over 
 La Pedara, and on the llth, a chasm of some miles 
 in length was opened in the mountain, twenty 
 miles from the crater towards the city of Catania 
 On the following night, many new chasms 
 opened in different places of the mountain, and 
 from them all burst columns of smoke, tremen- 
 dous thunders, accompanied by alarming earth- 
 quakes. From the principal crater a stream of 
 lava flowed towards the lake of La Hardia. On 
 the following day, it proceeded to the territory 
 of Mai Passo, and wasted it in twenty hours. 
 It then turned on Mont Pellieri, and in some 
 places the dreadful stream was two miles broad. 
 A new and immense chasm appeared on the 
 23d, and produced a hill of stones, sand, and 
 ashes two miles in circumference, covering the 
 surrounding country for a distance of fifteen 
 miles. On the morning of the 25th of March, the 
 whole mountain was agitated by an earthquake, 
 and the highest crater fell down into the focus 
 with a tremendous noise. A wide gulph of a 
 mile in extent, yawned in the place where it 
 stood, pouring out large masses of ashes and 
 stones, and among others the celebrated block of 
 lava, now on mount Frumento. The lava turned 
 its course towards Catania with a great noise 
 accompanied by alarming earthquakes : it over- 
 flowed the walls and desolated the gardens of the 
 Benedictine Convent, and ran down into the 
 sea. The stream of lava in forty days destroyed 
 the habitations of 27,000 persons, and of the 
 20,000 inhabitants of Catania, only 3000 sur- 
 vived. As the lava ran down the mountain, red 
 hot stones of a pale red might be seen swimming 
 along in it of the size of an ordinary table ; all 
 the country was covered with it, smoking like a 
 furnace of melted iron. Sometimes large masses 
 fell into the sea with a dreadful noise. But 
 when the lava rolled into the sea, the sound was 
 more dreadful than the most tremendous thunder, 
 and was heard to an immense distance. The 
 water retired, the sun was darkened, the fish 
 were destroyed, and the colour of the sea itself 
 was changed. A continued noise issued from 
 the mouth of the cleft, which could be heard 
 sixty, and sometimes 100 miles, and to this dis- 
 tance the ashes were carried. The mouth whence 
 this terrible inundation proceeded was only ten 
 feet in diameter. Burning rocks, sixty palms in 
 length, were thrown out of it to the distance of 
 a mile. The sun did not appear for many 
 weeks, and four months elapsed before the scene 
 was altered. A vineyard in the possession of a 
 convent, standing on ancient lava, was borne 
 up by the melting of the lava beneath it ; and in- 
 stead of being destroyed, the people with great 
 astonishment saw the whole field begin to move
 
 JE T N A. 
 
 223 
 
 off. Some of this vineyard remains to this 
 day. 
 
 A description of the scene in the neighbour- 
 hood of jEtna at the time, was sent to the court 
 of England by Lord Winchelsea, who happened 
 then to be at Catania in his way home from an 
 embassy at Constantinople. The account is not 
 now to be procured ; but Sir W. Hamilton found 
 a copy of it in Sicily, and gives an extract, part 
 of which follows : ' When it was night, I went 
 upon two towers in divers places, and I could 
 plainly see, (at ten miles' distance, as we 
 judged,) the fire begin to run from the mountain 
 in a direct line, the flame to ascend as high and 
 as big as one of the greatest steeples in your 
 majesty's kingdoms, and to throw up great 
 stones in the air; I could discern the river of 
 fire to descend the mountain, of a terrible fiery 
 or red colour, and stones of a paler red to swim 
 thereon, and some to be as big as an ordinary 
 table. We could see this fire move in several 
 other places, and all the country covered with 
 fire, ascending with great flames in many places, 
 smoking like a violent furnace of iron melted, 
 making a noise with the great pieces that fell, 
 especially those that fell into the sea. A cavalier 
 of Malta, who lives there, and attended me, told 
 me, that the river was as liquid, where it issues 
 out of the mountain, as water, and came out like 
 a torrent with great violence, and is five or six 
 fathom deep, and as broad, and that no stones 
 sink therein.' The account given in the Philo- 
 sophical Transactions is to the same purpose. 
 
 Since 1669, there have been several eruptions, 
 but none of them comparable to it. In that 
 which happened in 1766, the lava sprung up into 
 the air to a considerable height, twelve miles be- 
 ow the summit ; but formed a stream only six 
 miles in length, and one mile in breadth. Ano- 
 ther eruption happened in 1787. From the 1st 
 to the 10th of July, there were signs of its ap- 
 proach. On the llth, after a little calm, there 
 was a subterraneous noise, like the sound of a 
 drum in a close place, and it was followed by a 
 copious burst of black smoke. It was then calm 
 till the 15th, when the same prognostics recurred. 
 On the 17th, the subterraneous noise was heard 
 again; the smoke was more abundant, slight 
 shocks of an earthquake followed, and the lava 
 flowed from behind one of the two little moun- 
 tains which form the double head of JEtna. On 
 the 18th, while the spectators were in anxious 
 expectation of a more severe eruption, all was 
 quiet, and continued so more than twelve hours : 
 soon after they perceived some new shocks, ac- 
 companied with much noise ; and the mountain 
 threw out a thick smoke, which, as the wind 
 was westerly, soon darkened the eastern horizon : 
 two hours afterwards a shower of fine black bril- 
 liant sand descended ; on the east side it was a 
 storm of stones ; and, at the foot of the moun- 
 tain, a deluge of flashes of fire, of scoriae and 
 lava. These appearances continued the whole 
 day ; at the setting of the sun, the scene changed. 
 A number of conical flames rose from the volca- 
 no; one on the north, and another on the south, 
 were very conspicuous, and rose and fell alter- 
 nately. At three in the morning, the mountain 
 appeared cleft, and the summit seemed a burning 
 
 mass. The cones of light which arose from the 
 crater were of an immense extent, particularly 
 the two just mentioned. The two heads seemed 
 to be cut away : and at their separation was a 
 cone of flame, seemingly composed of many les- 
 ser cones. The flame seemed of the height of 
 the mountain placed on the mountain : so that it 
 was probably two miles high, on a base of a mile 
 and a half in diameter. This cone was still co- 
 vered with a very thick smoke, in which there 
 appeared very brilliant flashes of lightning, a 
 phenomenon which ^Etnahad not before afforded. 
 At times, sounds, like those from the explosion 
 of a large cannon were heard seemingly at u 
 less distance than the mountain. From the cone, 
 as from a fountain, a jet of many flaming volca- 
 nic matters were thrown, which were carried to 
 the distance of six or seven miles : from the base 
 of the cone a thick smoke arose, which, for a mo- 
 ment, obscured some parts of the flame, at the 
 time when the rivers of lava broke out. This 
 beautiful appearance continued three quarters of 
 an hour. It began the next night with more force; 
 but continued only half an hour. In the intervals, 
 however, ./Etna continued to throw out flames, 
 smoke, stones ignited, and showers of sand. 
 From the 20th to the 22d, the appearances gra- 
 dually ceased. The stream of lava was carried 
 towards Bronte and the plain of Lago. After 
 the eruption, the top of the mountain on the 
 western side was found covered with hardened 
 lava, scoriae, and stones. The travellers were an- 
 noyed by smoke, by showers of sand, mephitic 
 vapours, and excessive heat. They saw that the 
 lava which came from the western point divided 
 into two branches, one of which was directed 
 towards Libeccio ; the other, as we have already 
 said, towards the plain of Lago. The lava on the 
 western head of the mountain, had from its va- 
 rious shapes been evidently in a state of fusion : 
 from one of the spiracula, the odour was strongly 
 that of liver of sulphur. The thermometer, in 
 descending, was at 40 degrees of Fahrenheit's 
 scale ; while near the lava, in the plain of Lago, 
 it was 140 degrees. The lava extended two 
 miles ; its width was from 13 feet and 3-4 ths to 
 21, and its depth 13 feet and 3-4ths. 
 
 A violent eruption took place on the 27th of 
 March, 1809, which formed a row of craters 
 within the space of about two miles. From the 
 dark bosom of a wood of tall firs and huge oaks, 
 says a British officer present, spread over steep 
 craggy hills and close valleys, conceive twelve 
 craters or mouths, two unceasingly, and the rest 
 at intervals, with a noise like a tremendous 
 chorus of several thousand cannons, muskets, 
 and sky rockets, discharging flame, and showers 
 of burning rocks of various forms and all magni- 
 tudes, from several yards in diameter down to 
 the smallest pebble, which, according to their 
 weight and bulk, ascend from 200 to 1000 feet. 
 The two fore-mentioned craters, (or rather double 
 crater,) the lowest of the row down the moun- 
 tain, formed the principal object of this awful 
 and magnificent scene they were the only cra- 
 ters which did not seem to labour. Their joint 
 emissions had encompassed them with a black 
 oblong hill of ashes and lava stones ; thirty yards 
 above the top of which, their mingling flames
 
 224 
 
 T N A. 
 
 furiously ascended, in one immense blaze, which 
 seemed 100 yards in breadth. Amidst this 
 blaze, vast showers of rocks, rising arid falling, 
 vere continually passing each other. About the 
 middle of the whole line of craters was situated 
 one, which laboured the most, and made the 
 loudest, the heaviest, the highest, and the most 
 dangerous discharges ; from the rocks of which 
 our party twice narrowly escaped one or two 
 of very considerable size, falling within a pace 
 of us : I think the lava flowed only from a few 
 of the chief craters, particularly the double one. 
 During the emissions of rock and flame, the boil- 
 ing matter was seen in slow undulating waves 
 issuing through the sides, close to the bottom of 
 the black hills of ashes. The double crater ap- 
 oeared completely isolated by the lava of the 
 others. Just below it, all the lavas uniting, 
 formed one grand stream of various breadths, 
 from half a mile to fifty yards. 
 
 During the eruption, the images of the saints 
 were brought from Castiglione, and placed a few 
 yards in front of the fire, while mass was re- 
 peated. The priests told the people it was in 
 consequence of their sins, and exhorted them to 
 entreat all the saints to pray for them ; and when 
 the eruption stopped, they attributed it to the 
 interference of sainis. Eruptions also occurred 
 in the years 1811 and 1819, JDut less violent than 
 that of 1809. 
 
 Captain Smyth, a late British traveller in 
 these regions, estimates the whole altitude of 
 ./Etna at 10,874 feet, giving about 150 miles for 
 the radius of vision. The crater, as it at present 
 appears, and which other writers, we see, have 
 represented at from two miles and a half to even 
 four miles in circumference, he describes as ' an 
 oval, stretching from E. and by N. to W. and by 
 S., with a conjugate diameter of 493 yards ; the 
 transverse he was prevented from ascertaining by 
 a dense cloud that arose before his operations 
 were completed.' From the edge of the crater, 
 the interior, he adds, ' through successive strata 
 of volcanic substances, is incrusted with various 
 coloured efflorescences of ammonia, sulphur, 
 and martial vitriolic salts, to the depth of about 
 a hundred yards on the east, but considerably 
 less on the west side. The efflorescences of a 
 beautiful^ orange yellow are the most predomi- 
 nant. The bottom of the crater is plain, and 
 tolerably hard ; though, from being composed of 
 loose cinders, the feet sink in some places ; near 
 the centre, are two mounds of scoria and ashes, 
 each with a large aperture at the summit, and 
 several fissures around, from whence, at inter- 
 vals, issue volumes of thick smoke, with a rumb- 
 ling noise and hissing sound. There is, also, a 
 light thin vapour, occasionally oozing from the 
 bottom and sides of the huge amphitheatre in 
 every direction. I endeavoured to look into the 
 principal chasm, but the rapid ejection of the 
 cinders, and the strong sulphureous vapours 
 that exuded, prevented me from attaining my 
 object ; and, indeed, I could not but feel appre- 
 hensive that a nearer approach, where the foot- 
 ing was so frail, might prove too hazardous ; be- 
 sides which, the heat and smoke had increased 
 to such a degree, that it was high time to regain 
 thp summit ' 
 
 Our traveller accordingly ascended, ' When 
 on a sudden the ground trembled under our 
 feet, a harsh rumbling with sonorous thunder 
 was heard, and volumes of heavy smoke rolled 
 over the side of the crater, while a lighter one 
 ascended vertically with the electric fluid escap- 
 ing from it in frequent flashes in every direction; 
 The shortness of the time that had elapsed since 
 I was in the crater, rendered me thankful for so 
 providential an escape ; but even from the spot 
 on which we stood it was necessary to remove 
 with the utmost expedition, and before we could 
 effect our retreat, we were overtaken by a dis- 
 agreeable, cold, humid cloud that annoyed and 
 retarded our progress.' p. 152. 
 
 This gentleman's estimate and observations are 
 the more entitled to regard, as he was an officer 
 (R. N.) who has been for many years stationed 
 in the Mediterranean by Government, to survey 
 various parts of the coasts and islands of that 
 sea. 
 
 An able writer, in the Quarterly Review, ven- 
 tures to correct Captain S. however, upon one 
 point. ' He errs,' says this writer, ' in common with 
 almost every traveller in Sicily, and indeed with 
 the Sicilians themselves, in supposing that the 
 ascent of /Etna is not practicable in winter. In 
 defiance of the difficulties started by the people 
 of Catania,' continues our critic, * and repeated 
 by the Nicolosi guide, we gained the summit of 
 ./Etna on the 27th of January, 1819. That it is 
 a work of severe labour at such a season, cannot 
 be denied, the snow extending ten or twelve 
 miles down the mountain, and mules being con- 
 sequently so far useless. But the labour is no. 
 such as need deter a stout pedestrian from un- 
 dertaking it ; and splendid indeed is the reward 
 which awaits him when he seems to descry at once 
 from that proud pinnacle, ' all the kingdoms of 
 the world and the glory of them.' 
 
 We have stated this fact for the benefit of future 
 travellers in Sicily, whose wanderings may fall out 
 in the winter months. If they wish in earnest to 
 ascend yEtna, we charge them not to be discom- 
 posed by the ' e impossible, Signori,' of every 
 Sicilian they may meet; and we further advise 
 them to signify to their guide that they shall gra- 
 duate his pay by the altitude to which he leads 
 them. With these provisos, we venture to pre- 
 dict, that they will reach the summit. It is sin- 
 gular enough, that it was on the 28th of January 
 that Swinburne relinquished all thoughts of 
 gaining the summit, in compliance with the idle 
 counsel of his conductor. Possibly when the 
 spring is further advanced, and the snow is be- 
 ginning to melt, the ascent may not be feasible ; 
 in January the surface of the snow is hard, (at 
 least early in the morning) and will support the 
 foot.' Captain SMYTH'S Memoir on the Hi/do 
 graphy of Sicily, &c. 4 p. 1824 and Quarter k 
 Review, Aug. 1824. 
 
 Many ingenious hypotheses have been framed 
 relative to the causes of volcanic eruption. Some 
 have attributed it to electricity ; some to the fer- 
 mentation of sulphur and iron, which, mixed 
 with water to a paste, and buried in the earth, 
 will take fire, and produce, on a small scale, 
 similar phenomena. Immense beds of pyrites 
 have been thought to be deposited at the centra 

 
 /ETNA. 
 
 225 
 
 
 base of the mountain, which occasionally ex- 
 plode. Others imagine a central fire, to which 
 Vesuvius, /Etna, and other volcanic mountains, 
 are so many flues or chimneys, connecting them- 
 selves with the atmosphere. Some important 
 questions in mineralogy, geognosy, and geology, 
 connected with this topic, are asked by Humboldt, 
 and as yet unanswered. ' Is the conical moun- 
 tain of a volcano entirely formed of liquified 
 matter, heaped together by successive eruptions ; 
 or does it contain in its centre a nucleus of 
 primitive rocks covered with lavas, which are 
 the same rocks altered by fire ? What are the 
 affinities which unite the productions of modern 
 volcanoes with the basaltes, the phonolites, and 
 those porphyries with basis of felspar, which are 
 without quartz, and which cover the Cordilleras 
 of Peru, and Mexico, &c. ? Has the nucleus of 
 volcanoes been heated in its primitive position, 
 and raised up in a softened state by means of 
 elastic vapours, before these fluids communicated 
 by means of a crater with the external air? 
 What is the substance which for thousands of 
 years keeps up this combustion, which at some 
 umes is so active, and at others so slow ? Does 
 this cause act at an immense depth, or does it 
 ..ake place in secondary rocks lying on granite?" 
 Buffon regards ^Etna as one of the primitive 
 mountains, which subsisted as a volcano from 
 the creation of the world. He considers that 
 the eruptions ceased for a long period after the 
 deluge, for want of sufficient fluid to occasion 
 effervescence with the minerals it contained, 
 and were not renewed till the bursting open of 
 the straits of Gibraltar and the Bosphorus, when 
 the ocean, mixing with the Mediterranean, inun- 
 dated the territory between Italy and Sicily, and 
 the base of TEtna itself, producing an eruption of 
 the mountain, which, from a continuation of the 
 cause, has been successively repeated to the 
 present time. M. Dolomieu thinks that /Etna 
 existed as a mountain previous to its becoming 
 a volcano, shells having been found two thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea, and calcareous 
 strata beneath the lava, the deposition of which 
 must have preceded the eruption of the lava. 
 A more obvious conjecture respecting ^Etna is, 
 that it has been formed by successive eruptions, 
 each adding to its elevation and extent. New 
 mountains and hills are seen springing up at 
 every great eruption, and of these hills the moun- 
 tain seems formed. It is therefore to be re- 
 garded as a compilation of volcanoes, the growth 
 of many ages, and formed, by their own convul- 
 sions, into that vast mass of mountains that has 
 assumed so magnificent an appearance. Recently 
 an opinion has been current, that ,?Etna sensibly 
 diminishes, and it cannot be discerned to so 
 great a distance as formerly. M. Houel con- 
 siders the lower part of the mountain to consist 
 entirely of marine substances, deposited in dif- 
 ferent ages ; and the higher part, of matter that 
 has been thrown up from the crater and has 
 dropped upon the surface. He proposes in his 
 Voyage Picturesque, a theory of the volcanic 
 fire, which merits a particular detail. We can 
 form no idea of fire subsisting alone, he observes, 
 without any pabulum, and unconnected with 
 $ny other principle. It is only seen in conjunc- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 tion with some other body which nourishes it. 
 The matter in fusion, which issues from the 
 focus, is but the incombustible part of that which 
 nourishes the fire, into the bosom of which it 
 penetrates in search of pabulum. But the bot- 
 tom of the volcano is the only part on which it 
 acts, because the fire can only operate in propor- 
 tion to the facility with which it can dissolve 
 and evaporate ; and its action extends no further 
 than to keep the substances it has melted in a 
 state of ebullition. The fusible matter which is 
 ejected from the mouth of the volcano, hardens 
 by degrees as it cools in the external air, and 
 produces that species of stone which is commonly- 
 denominated lava. Even in a state of fluidity, 
 and when in the burning focus, lava, on account 
 of its gravity and density, must possess some 
 considerable degree of solidity ; in consequence 
 of which it resists and irritates the fire into a 
 state of ebullition. A quantity of matter, in 
 such circumstances, must resemble generally any 
 other thick substance or concreted mass in a boil- 
 ing state, and small explosions are liable to be 
 produced, from time to time, upon every part of 
 the surface of this heated matter, by which means 
 small particles or pieces are scattered around in 
 every direction. A similar process is carried 
 on, this writer contends, though on a much larger 
 scale, in the focus of a volcano, and the explo- 
 sions there, though precisely of the same nature, 
 produce proportionably greater effects, repelling 
 with the utmost violence, whatever lies in the 
 way, or offers any resistance. 
 
 An attempt has been made by some geolo-* 
 gists to impeach the Mosaic testimony respect- 
 ing the creation of the world, from some cir- 
 cumstances connected with this. Recupero dis- 
 covered a stratum of lava, which, he says, was 
 discharged from the mountain during the second 
 Punic war, and yet in his time was not covered 
 with depth of soil sufficient to produce vege- 
 tation. From this isolated part, which in it- 
 self is extremely questionable, he ascends into 
 the general principle, that it requires two thou 
 sand years to cover a stratum of lava. He found, 
 in digging into a pit, seven distinct strata, or 
 layers of lava overspread with rich mould, an_i 
 hence he attempts to infer that 14,000 years 
 must have elapsed since the deposition of the 
 lowest strata. Count Borch following the same 
 defective mode of reasoning, concludes ./Etna 
 to be eight thousand years old. In 1776 he 
 examined several beds of lava; that produced 
 in 1157 had twelve inches of earth ; that in 
 1329 had eight inches; that of 1669 had one 
 inch; that of 1766 being totally bare. But the 
 abbe Spallanzani observes, that the lava of 1329 
 had eight inches of earth; in 447 years after 
 its deposition. Yet the lava of Arso in Ischia, 
 emitted in 1302, was perfectly hard and sterile 
 in 1788 ; and lava, near Catania, which has been 
 used for the purpose of building upwards of 
 two thousand years, is unconquerably barren, 
 although cultivation has been attempted. Gioeni 
 again in the year 1787, found lava covered 
 with mould which had been produced little 
 more than twenty years ; and others entirely 
 barren, though of a much earlier date. The 
 ruins of Herculaneum are enveloped in sevec 
 
 Q
 
 226 
 
 beds of strata, each covered with rich mould, 
 so that the very process has taken place at Her- 
 culaneum which in Recupero's opinion would 
 require fourteen thousand years! It is clear 
 that lavas of different degrees of density placed 
 in various situations of altitude, and exposure 
 to the action of the elements, require different 
 periods of time to make them fertile, and that 
 no general rule can be established from any one 
 or even all of them, .ffitna being at the top 
 perpetually covered with snow, the whole island 
 is supplied from thence with that article, so 
 necessary in a hot climate, and without which, 
 the natives say, Sicily could not be inhabited. 
 So great is the demand for this commodity, that 
 
 the bishop's revenues, which are considerable, 
 arise from the sale of mount Etna's snow ; and 
 he is said to draw 1000 a year from one small 
 portion lying on the north side of the moun- 
 tain. Great quantities of snow and ice are 
 likewise exported to Malta and Italy, making 
 a considerable branch of commerce. On the 
 north side of this snowy region, Mr.Brydone 
 was assured, that there are several small lakes 
 which never thaw; and that the snow mixed 
 with the ashes and salt of the mountain are 
 accumulated to a vast depth. The quantity of 
 salts contained in this mountain, with great pro- 
 bability, he conjectures to be one reason of the 
 preservation of its snow. 
 
 ./ETN./E SAL, a nama given by some authors 
 to the sal ammoniac, which is found on the sur- 
 face and sides of the openings of ./Etna, and other 
 burning mountains, after their eruptions ; and 
 sometimes on the surface of the ferruginous matter 
 which they throw out. 
 
 JETOLARCHA, in Grecian antiquity, the 
 principal magistrate, or governor of the JEto- 
 lians. 
 
 jETOLIA, in ancient geography, (receiving its 
 name from ^Ltolus, the son of Endymion), was 
 a province of Middle Greece, bounded on the 
 east by Locris, on the west by Acarnania, from 
 which the river Achelous divided it, on the north, 
 by the country of the Perrhoebi, and Athamanes, 
 and part of Epirus, and on the south, by the 
 gulf of Corinth. Its extent from north to south 
 was about forty-eight miles ; and from east to west, 
 above twenty miles. Strabo says, (1. x. torn. ii. 
 p. 691,) it was customary to divide jEtolia into 
 two districts, the one called the ancient ./Etolia, 
 a level and fruitful country, which lay between 
 the rivers Achelous and Calydon, on the Evenus ; 
 and the other, en-iicrj/roc, o f the acquired, which 
 was craggy and barren, contiguous to the Lo- 
 crians, towards Naupactu^ and Eupalius; and 
 extended northwards towards the mountain Oeta. 
 The principal cities were Thermus, Calydon, and 
 Pleuron, said to be named after sons of ^.tolus. 
 Their only sea-port was Oenias, on the Corin- 
 thian bay. Livy and other historians, describe 
 the ^Etolians as warlike, proud, and arrogant ; 
 and they are said to have fought with one shoe, 
 whence the epithet /tovoicpjjiriSjjc, has been given 
 to them. Turbulent, and accused by Polybius 
 of faithlessness and treachery, so that the other 
 states of Greece were obliged to consider and 
 deal with them occasionally, as a horde of rob- 
 bers, the people of this minor state, were tena- 
 cious of liberty, and exercised in their struggles 
 for it, considerable influence over the general 
 affairs of Greece. To oppose the projects of 
 Philip of Macedon, they entered into a treaty of 
 alliance with the Romans, before Christ 211, 
 (confirmed, before Christ 213,) which was or- 
 dered by the Roman senate to be deposited in 
 me capitol, as a monument of their first Greek 
 alliance. The forces of Philip being employed 
 in Macedon, the TEtolians entered Acarnania; 
 but, though assured of assistance from Laevinus, 
 tne Roman general, they were intimidated by the 
 resolution of the Acamanians, returned home, 
 
 and directed their arms against Anticyra, a city 
 of the Locri, which, aided by the Romans, they 
 compelled to surrender. They now marched 
 into Achaia, to oppose the forces of Philip; 
 but were twice defeated, near Lamia, a city of 
 Phthiotis. After this, an embassy from Ptolemy 
 Philopater prevailed upon Philip to grant the 
 .ZEtolians a trace of thirty days, and they were 
 finally under a necessity of concluding a very 
 unfavourable peace with him ; before Christ 204. 
 An extraordinary diet being now held at Nau- 
 pactus, in which the friendship of the JEtolians 
 was solicited, not only by Philip, but also by 
 the two powerful republics of Athens and Rome ; 
 the Romans prevailed, and ./Etolia was again 
 involved in war with the Macedonian prince. 
 This new ally was nobly assisted by them in the 
 battle of Cynocephalae, in which, Philip was 
 totally defeated. Peace, however, was afterwards 
 concluded with Philip, before Christ 196, with- 
 out their concurrence, and they turned their arms 
 against Rome. Antiochus then became the 
 leader of a formidable confederacy of the Greeks ; 
 but, becoming enamoured at Chalcis, with the 
 daughter of one of the citizens, he spent an idle 
 winter in feasting and rejoicing ; of which the 
 Romans availed themselves, and sent a powerful 
 army into Greece, which drove him from the 
 country. The ./Etolian strength was concen- 
 trated at Heraclea, where they sustained a me- 
 morable siege of forty days, against one of the 
 best disciplined armies of Rome. The town fell 
 at length by stratagem ; Lamia soon followed ; 
 and Amtracia, before Christ 189. Here the 
 ./Etolians invented a singular kind of machine, 
 in order to drive the enemy out of a mine, which 
 accidentally opened into one of theirs. It was 
 a hollow vessel, with an iron bottom, bored with 
 holes, and armed with spikes, for preventing the 
 approach of the enemy. They filled this vesse 
 with feathers, and having brought it to the place 
 where the two mines met, set the feathers on fire ; 
 and, by driving with bellows the smoke on the 
 besiegers, obliged them to quit the mine : by 
 this stratagem, they gained time for repairing 
 the foundations of the walls. After this event, 
 the Etolians sent ambassadors to Rome, and 
 procured peace, on the humiliating condition of 
 delivering to the magistrates of Corcyra all pri- 
 soners and deserters, both of the Romans and 
 their allies, except those who had been taken 
 twice, or during her alliance with Rome; paying
 
 AFA 
 
 227 
 
 AFF 
 
 to the Roman general in .Etolia 200 Euboic 
 talents, of the same value with that of the Athe- 
 nian talents, and engaging to pay fifty talents 
 more within six years; to secure which, they 
 were to deliver to the consul forty hostages of 
 his choice, none of whom should be under 
 twelve, or above forty years of age ; the prater, 
 general of the horse, and those who had been 
 already hostages at Rome, excepted. After the 
 conquest of Macedon by Paulus Emilius, the 
 ./Etolian republic was further reduced. Five 
 hundred and fifty of the chief persons of the na- 
 tion were assassinated by the partisans of Rome, 
 under a suspicion of wishing well to Perses : 
 while those who had openly espoused his cause, 
 and others who had secretly favoured him, were 
 sent to Rome, and never allowed to return to their 
 native country. On the destruction of Corinth, 
 and the dissolution of the Achaean league, .flitolia, 
 with the other free states of Greece, was reduced 
 to a Roman province, commonly called the pro- 
 vince of Achaia. See ACHAIA. 
 
 The government of /Etolia was republican, 
 controlled by the Pantasolium, a general council 
 held as occasion required. The prsetor, the 
 general of horse, the public secretary, and the 
 ephori, were the principal public functionaries. 
 Livy states their cavalry was at one period es- 
 teemed superior to that of any other of the Grecian 
 states. 
 
 JEJTOS, in architecture, of auroe, an eagle, a 
 name given by the Greeks, to the pediment or 
 tympanum of an edifice. \Vinckelman suggests 
 that the ancients originally placed a representa- 
 tion of the bird of Jove in this situation, as being 
 the summit of their buildings, and therefore in 
 the earliest periods dedicated to Jupiter. Several 
 ancient medals have been seen with this bird on 
 the roof, particularly the coins of Tarsus and Per- 
 gamos. Besides these authorities, in favour of 
 the opinion that this custom gave this specific 
 name to the pediment, may be added the 
 authority of Shaw, who discovered the figure of 
 an eagle on the pediment of a temple near Tunis, 
 built in the time of the Antonines. Various 
 basso relievos, which decorated the ^Etos of 
 temples, are described and delineated in the 
 eighty-eighth plate of the fourth volume of the 
 Museo Pio Clementine. The Corinthians seem 
 first to have regularly formed this ornamented 
 pediment, which some have imagined them to 
 borrow from the Egyptians, who placed an ex- 
 tended hawk, in a similar position over their 
 temples. See Elmes' Dictionary of the Fine 
 Arts. 
 
 AFAR'. Adv : Apertnan, to lengthen. 
 Fajian, to go fare, to go. Gone hence, moved 
 to a distance. 
 
 And the pupplican stood afer : and wolde not 
 reise hise yghen to heuene, but smoot his breste and 
 seyde : God be mersyful to me synner. 
 
 Wiclif. Ltik. xviii. 
 
 We are carelesse of that which is neer us, and 
 follow that which is afarre off. 
 
 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. 
 So shaken, as we are, so wan with care ; 
 
 Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, 
 
 And breathe short-winded accents of new broils, 
 
 To be commenc'd in stronds afar remote ? 
 
 Shaksp. Henry IV. 
 
 We hear better, when we hold our breath than 
 contrary ; insomuch as, in listening to attain a sound 
 afar off, men hold their breath. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. Hist. No. 284. 
 Hector hastened to relieve his body. 
 Dismiss'd his burnish'd helm that shone afar, 
 The pride of warriours, and the pomp of war. 
 
 Dryden 
 
 The rough Vulturnus, furious in its course, 
 With rapid streams divides the fruitful grounds, 
 And from afar in hollow murmur sounds. 
 
 Addison on Italy. 
 
 Much suspecting his secret ends, he entertained a 
 treaty of peace with France ; but secretly and afar off"; 
 and to be governed as occasion should vary. 
 
 Sir John Hayward. 
 
 Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb 
 The steep where fame's proud temple shines afar! 
 Ah, who can tell Low many a soul sublime 
 Has felt the influence of malignant star, 
 And wag'd with fortune an eternal war ! 
 
 Beattie's Minstrel. 
 
 AFDELLES, in ichthyology, a name given 
 by the Cretans to the fish called at Rome, don- 
 zellina and zigurilla. It is the julis of others; 
 and according to the Artedian system, is a spe- 
 cies of the labrus. Artedi distinguishes it from 
 the others, by the name of palmar labrus, 
 with variegated sides, and two large teeth in the 
 upper jaw. 
 
 AFER, (Domitius,) a famous orator, was born 
 at Nismes, and flourished under Tiberius, Cali- 
 gula, Claudius, and Nero. He disgraced his 
 talents, by turning informer against some of the 
 most distinguished personages in Rome. Having 
 upon a statue he had erected in honour of Cali- 
 gula, declared that this prince was a second time 
 consul at the age of twenty-seven, Caligula re- 
 garded it as a sarcasm upon his youth, and raised 
 a process against him. Afer, instead of making 
 a defence, repeated part of the emperor's speech, 
 with the highest marks of admiration ; after which, 
 he fell upon his knees, and begging pardon, 
 declared, that he dreaded more the eloquence 
 of Caligula than his imperial power. This mean 
 flattery succeeded so well, that the emperor not 
 only pardoned, but raised him to the consulship. 
 He died in the reign of Nero, in the year of our 
 Lord, 59. 
 
 AFFA, a -weight used on the Gold Coast of 
 Guinea. It is equal to an ounce, and the half 
 of it is called eggeba. Most of the Africans on 
 the Gold Coast give these names to those 
 weights. 
 
 AF'FABLE, adj.~\ Ad : fari, to speak to. 
 
 AFFABIL'ITY, " > Whence affabilis, easy to 
 
 AF'FABLY. j be spoken to, granting a 
 
 facility of access, courteous ; spoken of su- 
 periors, 
 
 He was prudent, comely, princely, affable, ientie. 
 and amiable, he loued iustice, and punisshed the 
 malefactors. 
 
 The Exposicion of Daniel, by George Joye, fo. 181. 
 
 He was affable, and both well and fair spoken ; 
 and would use strange sweetness and blandishment of 
 words, where he desired to affect or persuade any 
 thing that he took to heart. Bacon. 
 
 Her father is 
 An affable and courteous gentleman. 
 
 Stabsp. Tarn. Shrew. 
 
 Q2
 
 AFF 
 
 228 
 
 AFF 
 
 Hearing of her beauty and her wit, 
 
 Her affability and bashful modesty, 
 
 Her wond'rous qualities, and mild behaviour. 
 
 Shaksp. 
 
 He was of a most flowing courtesy and affability to 
 all men -, and so desirous to oblige them, that he did 
 not enough consider the value of the obligation, or 
 the merit of the person. Clarendon. 
 
 All instances of charity, sweetness of conversation. 
 affability, admonition, all significations of tenderness, sense 
 care, and watchfulness, must be expressed towards 
 children. Taylor. 
 
 Gentle to me and affable hath been 
 
 Thy condescension, and shall be honour'd ever 
 
 With grateful memory. Milton's Par. Lost, b. viii. 
 
 A cheerful mind is not only disposed to be affable 
 and obliging ; but raises the same good humour in 
 those who come within its influence. Spectator. 
 
 Distinguished as he [Euphrates, the philosopher] 
 is by the sanctity of his manners, he is no less so by 
 his polite and affable address. 
 
 Melmoth's Pliny, letter x. 
 
 AFFAIR, n. Fr. affaire, from afaire, to do ; 
 deduced, says Menage, from adfacere. Whatever 
 is, has been, or may be, the object of attention 
 or pursuit ; business. Some of the Chroniclers 
 have written efferis, effers. 
 
 With light thereof I doe myself sustayne, 
 And thereon feed my love-affamisht hart. 
 
 Spenser. Sonnet Ixxxvi. 
 
 What can be more unjust, than for a man to en- 
 deavour to raise himself by the affamishing of others ' 
 Hall's Cases of Conscience. 
 
 AFFEAR' v. See To FEAR. Hence the par- 
 ticiple affear'd, now considered a vulgarism, but 
 used by Shakspeare and Ben Jonson, in the same 
 it is not however from the 
 
 To Joppyn whan he cam, be Soudan was not bere, 
 be flom be Soudan nam, Richard forto affere. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 187. 
 
 With scalled browes blake, and pilled herd : 
 Of his visage children were sore aferd. 
 
 Chaucer. The Prologue. The Sompnour. 
 This wif was not aferde ne affraide, 
 But boldely she saide, and that anon ; 
 Mary, I defie that false monk Dan John, 
 I kepe not of his tokenes never a del. 
 
 Idem. The Shipmanne's Tale. 
 A foole, where was thyne herte tho, 
 Whan thou thy worthie ladie sie ? 
 Were thou afered of hir eie ? 
 For of hir honde there is no dreade. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. b. iv. 
 
 Among monkes myght ich be. ac meny tyme ich spare Thauh jr,e come.by fore kynges. and clerkes of be lawe, 
 
 For pr beb meny folle frekus. myne afferes to aspye 
 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, p. 95. 
 No man that warreth, entangleth hym self with 
 the affaires of this life, because he wolde please him 
 that hathe chosen hym to be a souldier. 
 
 Geneva Bible, 2 Tim. iL 4. 
 
 douchty men, quod he, worthy in weris, 
 The gretest parte of our werkis and efferis 
 Bene endit now, sa that in tyme cumming 
 All fere and drede ard passit of ony thing. 
 
 Douglas, b. xi. p. 359. 
 Bot than percace, gif they behald or se 
 Sum man, of grete auctorite and effers, 
 Thay ceise, and all still standand, giffis him eris. 
 
 Idem, b. i. p. 17. 
 
 Css. I have eyes upon him, and his affaires come 
 to me on the wind : where is he now ? 
 
 Shaksp. Ant. $ Cleap. 
 
 1 was not born for courts or great affairs ; 
 
 I pay my debts, believe, and say my prayers. Pope. 
 A good acquaintance with method will greatly 
 assist every one, in rauging, disposing, and manag- 
 ing all human affairs. Watts's Logick. 
 
 What St. John's skill in state affairs, 
 What Ormond's valour, Oxford's cares, 
 To aid their sinking country lent ; 
 Was all destroy'd by one event. Swift. 
 
 The affairs of kingdoms, and the concerns of indi- 
 viduals are variegated alike with the checker work of 
 joy and sorrow. Cowper's Letters. 
 
 AFFA1T' v. Used by the Chroniclers for De- 
 feat. 
 
 bo be kyng hem adde afayted so, bat hyi ne kepte 
 
 nanmore hym mete, 
 jut he bo^te asayty be Scottes, arhe hem lete. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p. 177. 
 My father ye shall well bcleue, 
 The yonge whelpe, which is affaited, 
 Hath not his maister better awaited, 
 To couche. Gower. Can. A. b. i. 
 
 AFFAM'ISH, v. ) See FAMISH. To starve 
 AFFAM'ISHMENT, $ with hunger. 
 
 But the only image of that heavenly ray, 
 Whereof some glance doth in mine eye remayne, 
 Of which beholding the idea playne, 
 Through contemplation of my purest part, 
 
 Beeb nat aferd of bat folke. for ich shal jeve 
 
 tonge 
 Connynge and clergie. to conclude hem alle. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, p. 198. 
 Each trembling leafe, and whistling wind they heare, 
 As ghastly bug, does greatly hem affeare. 
 
 Sp. F. Q. 2, 3, 20. 
 Chin as woolly as the peach, 
 And his lip should kissing teach, 
 Till he cherish'd too much beard, 
 And made love or me afear'd. 
 
 Ben Jonson. Her Man Described. 
 Bleed, bleed, poor country ! 
 Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure ! 
 For goodness dares not check thee : 
 His title is affear'd. Shakspeare's Macbeth. 
 
 Be not affear'd, the isle is full of noises. 
 
 Shakspeare's Temp. 3rd. 2nd. 
 
 AFFECT', v. & n.^ Ad: Facio,factum, to 
 AFFECT'ED, make to or towards. In 
 
 AFFECT'EDLY, a strict and philosophical 
 
 AFFECTA'TION, sense, to produce a pleas- 
 
 AFFEC'TION, ing or painful impression, 
 
 AFFEC'TIONED, (which, in mental opera- 
 AFFEC'TIONATE, ' tions, is more or less in- 
 AFFEC'TIONATELY, dulged by the object 
 AFFEC'TIVE, acted upon, so as to oc- 
 
 AFFECT'ER, casion a re-action or mov- 
 
 AFFEC'TUOUS, ing towards another ob- 
 
 AFFEC'TUOUSLY. J ject, generally with kind- 
 ness, tenderness and love ; to influence ; also t<t 
 pretend to ; to assume ; to arrogate ; to manifest 
 self-conceit, formality, preciseness, and hypocrisy . 
 Affectation was formerly synonimous with affec- 
 tion, in the sense of love and benevolence. Af- 
 fectuous and effectuous, as we now use both 
 effectual and affectionate. 
 
 To pat sollempnite com lordes of renoun, 
 pat weddying for to se, for gret affectioun. 
 
 R.Brunne,p.l62. 
 
 Men schulen be louynge hemsilff, coueitouse, high 
 of berynge, proude, blasfemeris; not obedient to 
 fadir and modir, unkynde, cursed, withouten affee- 
 eioun. -(Arepyoi.) Wiclif. 2Tymo. c. iki.
 
 AFF 
 
 229 
 
 AFF 
 
 Be mery with them that are mery. Wcpe also 
 with tnemyt. wepc. Be of lyke affeccyon one towardcs 
 another. Bible. 1539. Rom. xii. 
 
 Then gan the palmer thus : most wretched man, 
 ' That to affections does the bridle lend ; 
 
 In their beginning they are weak and wan, 
 , But soon through sufferance grow to fearful end. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 The duke of Brabande, named Antony, a man of 
 great polycy and wysedome, forecastyng y e great 
 shedyng of Cristen mannys bloode, with many other 
 inconuenyencys lykely to haue ensuyd of this vari- 
 aunce atwene theyse ii dukis, made such affectuouse 
 labour, yt with great dyffycute he pacyfyed them 
 agayn for that tyme. Fabyan. p. 561. 
 
 In things of their own nature indifferent, if either 
 councils or particular men have at any time, with 
 sound judgment, misliked conformity between the 
 church of God and infidels ; the cause thereof hath 
 been somewhat else, than only affectation of dissimi- 
 litude. Hooker, b. iv. 7. 
 
 These antick, lisping, affected phantasies, these 
 new tuners of accents. Shahsp. Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 The passions that are enemies to the graces are, 
 impudence, affectation, strong and harsh degrees of 
 pride, malice, and austerity. Usher. 
 
 Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and 
 count it a bondage to fix a belief, affecting free-will 
 in thinking as well as in acting. 
 
 Lord Bacon's Essays. 
 
 It seemeth that, as the feet have a sympathy with 
 the head, so the wrists have a sympathy with the 
 heart j we see the affects and passions of the heart 
 and spirits are notably disclosed by the pulse. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. Hist. No. 97. 
 
 It is not possible a man should have any long con- 
 ference with God, and be no whit affected. 
 
 Hall's Contemplations. 
 The sun 
 
 Had first his precept, so to move, so shine ; 
 As might affect the earth with cold and heat, 
 Scarce tolerable. Milton's Par. Lost. b. x. 
 
 Didst thou pray with the same affection and la- 
 bour as thou didst purchase thy estate ? 
 
 Bishop Taylor's Sermons. 
 
 Some indeed have been so affectedly vain, as to 
 counterfeit immortality ; and have stolen their death, 
 in hopes to be esteemed immortal. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours, b. vii. c. 10. 
 
 Perhaps they are affectedly ignorant : they are 
 so willing it should be true, that they have not at- 
 tempted to examine it. 
 
 Government of the Tongue, 5. 
 
 By talking so familiarly of one hundred and ten 
 thousand pounds, by a tax upon a few commodities, 
 it is plain, you are either naturally or affectedly ig- 
 norant of our condition. Swift. 
 
 As a thinking man cannot but be very much affected 
 with the idea of his appearing in the presence of that 
 Being, whom none can see and live : he must be 
 much more affected, when he considers, that this 
 Being, whom he appears before, will examine the 
 actions of his life, and reward or punish him accord- 
 ingly. Addison, Spectator, No. 513. 
 Say,would'st thou conquer, have thy conquest crown'd 
 By hands of seraphs ; triumphed with the sound 
 Of heav'n's loud trumpet ; warbled by the shrill 
 Celestial choir ; recorded with a quill 
 Plucked from the pinion of an angel's wing ; 
 Confirmed with joy by heaven's eternal king 
 Conquer thyself, thy rebel thoughts repel, 
 And chase those false affections that rebel. Quarks. 
 
 Among the numerous stratagems by which pride 
 endeavours to recommend folly to regard, there is 
 scarcclv cue that meets with less regard than affec- 
 
 tation, or a perpetual disguise of the real character by 
 fictitious appearances. Rambler. 
 
 We are forbidden to murmur, but we are not for- 
 bidden to regret ; and whom we loved tenderly while 
 living, we may still pursue with an affectionate re- 
 membrance, without having any occasion to charge 
 ourselves with rebellion against the sovereignty that 
 appointed a separation. Cowper's Letters. 
 
 AFFECTIO BOVINA, in agricultural affairs, 
 a disease incident to black cattle, occasioned by 
 a little worm bred between the flesh and the 
 skin; which works its way over all parts of the 
 body. This seems to be the same disease de- 
 scribed by Mr. Loudon, in his excellent Ency- 
 clopedia of Agriculture, recently published 
 (1825,) as the wornals orpuckeridge ; or humours 
 on the backs of cattle, occasioned by a dipterous 
 insect which punctures their skin, and deposits 
 its eggs in each puncture; but which is 
 erroneously attributed to the fearn owl, or goat- 
 sucker, (caprimulgus Europeus, L.) When the 
 eggs are hatched, and the larvae or maggots are 
 arrived at their full size, they make their way 
 out, he observes, and leave a large hole in the 
 back, to prevent which, the destruction of the 
 egg should be attempted, by nipping the humour, 
 or thrusting in a hot wire. 
 
 AFFECTION, in a philosophical sense, implies an 
 attribute inseparable from its subject. Thus, 
 magnitude, figure, weight, &c. are affections of 
 all bodies ; and love, fear, and hatred, are affec- 
 tions of the mind. Affection seems to express a 
 settled bent of mind toward a particular being 
 or thing, and occupies a middle space between 
 disposition on the one hand, and passion on the 
 other. According to some writers, it is distin- 
 guishable from disposition, which being origi- 
 nally seated in one's nature, must exist before 
 there can be an opportunity to exert it upon any 
 particular object, whereas affection can never be 
 original, because, having a special relation to a 
 particular object; it cannot exist till the object 
 has once at least been presented. It is also 
 distinguishable from passion, which, depending 
 on the real or ideal presence of its object, 
 vanishes with it; whereas affection is a lasting 
 connexion, and subsists even when we do not think 
 of the person. A disposition to gratitude, has 
 thus been said to exist in a virtuous mind, which 
 through want of an object, may happen not to 
 be exerted; but the disposition, meeting with 
 a kindly office, makes a man grateful to his 
 benefactor. An intimate connexion is now 
 formed between them, termed affection : which 
 has a permanent existence, though not always in 
 view. The affection for the most part lies dor- 
 mant, till an opportunity offers for exerting it : 
 in that circumstance it is converted into a passion 
 of gratitude ; and the opportunity is eagerly 
 seized of testifying it in the warmest manner. 
 
 Dr. Cogan distinguishes between affection 
 and passion; and discriminates between both 
 these terms, and that feeling which is usually 
 denominated emotion. The term affection, he 
 says, has a different signification from either of 
 the other two, and represents a less violent, and 
 generally a more durable influence, which 
 things have upon the mind. It is applicable to 
 the manner in which we are affected by them.
 
 AFF 
 
 230 
 
 AFF 
 
 for a continuance; and supposes a more de- affected with different disorders. Hippocrat.de 
 liberate predilection and aversion, in consequence Epidem. Gal. Comm. 2. &c. 
 of the permanent influence of some prevailing 
 quality. This distinguishes it from the transient 
 
 AFFER'ERS, } Affier ; a kind of arbiters, or 
 AFFER'ORS. 5 referees appointed in courts 
 
 impulse of passion; nor is it so intimately con- j eetj & c . 
 
 nected with any external signs, which distin- 
 
 Afferors are scch as are appointed in courts leet, 
 
 it from emotion. The affections some- & c . upon oath, to mulct those who have committed 
 
 times succeed to passions and emotions, because faults arbitrarily punishable, and have no express 
 
 these may have been excited by something that penalty set down by statute. Cowel. 
 
 becomes permanently interesting ; or they may AFFERERS, in law, afferatores ; those who 
 
 be gradually inspired, by a deliberate attention i n courts-leet, settle and moderate the fines, upon 
 
 to the good or bad qualities of their objects. In O ath. Hawkins Pleas, C. 1. ii. c. 112. 
 
 this philosophic sense of the word, affection is To AFFERE, in law, signifies either ' as to af- 
 
 applicable to an unpleasant as well as pleasant f er e an amercement,' to mitigate the rigour of a 
 
 state of the mind, when impressed by any object fine; or 'to affere an account,' i. e. to confirm it 
 
 or quality : it may be produced by any thing upon oath in the Exchequer, 
 
 that torments or corrodes the heart, as well as by AFFERI, in archseol, are cattle fit for hus- 
 
 that which charms and delights it. Custom, bandry, according to our old law writers. 
 
 however, chiefly appropriates the term to the AFFETTUOSO, affetto, Ital. in music, in an 
 
 Jcindly and benevolent affections. See Philoso- affecting tender style ; a term employed in music- 
 
 vhical Treatise on t-he Passions. books at the beginning of a movement; it de- 
 
 Dr. Reid (Essays, p. 143, 167.) has applied notes a movement, says Mr. Dannely, between 
 
 in the same manner, the general name of affec- the adagio and the andante, 
 
 tions to those various principles of action in AFFIDATUS, or AFFIDIATTJS, a tenant by 
 
 man, which have persons for their immediate fealty. Affidati, are not properly vassals, but 
 
 object, and which imply, in their very nature, quasi vassals, or persons who vow fealty to, and 
 
 our being well or ill-affected to some person, or p u t themselves under the protection of another, 
 
 at least, to some animated being ; and whether They are otherwise called commendati and recom- 
 
 they dispose us- to do good or hurt to others, mendati. 
 
 He observes, however, that the word affection AFFIDA'VIT, Law : Lat. adfidare, affidavi, 
 
 seems, by custom, to be limited to good affec- to pledge faith ; a form of oath in writing, which 
 
 tions. Accordingly, when we speak of having C an be administered only by persons qualified. 
 
 affection for any person, it is always understood 
 to be a benevolent affection. In the extensive 
 
 sense above stated, our affections are very natu- 
 rally divided into benevolent and malevolent, 
 
 as they respectively imply our being well or ill 
 
 affected towards their object. The characters of 
 
 love and hatred, resulting from the infinitely 
 
 various situations and circumstances upon which 
 
 their developement and operations depend, 
 
 You said, if I return' d next size in Lent 
 I should be in remitter of your grace ; 
 In th' interim, my letters should take place 
 Of affidavits. Donne. 
 
 Count Rechteren should have made affidavit, that 
 his servants had been affronted ; and then Monsieur 
 Mesnager would have done him justice. 
 
 Spectator, No. 481. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT OFFICE, in law, is an office in the 
 
 entitle them to the denomination of primary or court o f Chancery, for taking an affidavit, or 
 cardinal affections. oath in writing, sworn before a master in Chan- 
 
 Our benevolent affections, whilst they differ cery . and made use of, and read in court, upon 
 in the feeling, or sensation, which is a common 
 ingredient in all of them, and in the objects to 
 which they are directed, agree in these two 
 respects, viz, that the feeling which accompanies 
 them is agreeable, and that they imply a desire 
 of happiness to their object. The first of these 
 
 motions ; though not allowed upon trials. 
 
 AFFIDIARE, in law, to be enrolled for a sol- 
 dier upon an oath of fidelity. 
 
 AFFIE', v or ^ Affier, Affidare ; to give or 
 AFFY', > pledge faith ; to trust, credit, 
 
 AFFI'ANCE. _) confide in ; to plight troth, to 
 
 . _ 
 
 affections is that of parents and children, and bind one > s self to & e performance of a promise, 
 other near relations, commonly called natural or particularly the marriage contract; to be- 
 affections : the second, is gratitude to benefac- 
 tors : the third, is pity and compassion towards 
 the distressed ; a fourth is esteem of the wise 
 
 Richard ansuered per tille, and said, " it is foly, 
 To schewe counseil and skille, pat not is to affie, 
 And phit per owen writte per dede dos ccrtifie. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 155. 
 
 She is Fortune verely 
 
 In whom no man should nffy, 
 Nor in her yefts haue^/wance 
 She is so full of variaunce. 
 
 Chaucer. R. of Rose, tol. 141, col. 4. 
 
 AFFECTION, affe.ctus, in medicine, denotes any A t last such grace I found, and meanes I wrought, 
 
 disorder under which the whole body or any part That I that lady to my spouse had wonne ; 
 
 of it suffers ; and it is generally defined by some Accord of friends, consent of parents sought. 
 
 epithet, as Affectio colica, the colic affection, or Affiance made, my happinesse begoune. 
 simply the colic. Affectio melancholica, melan- Faerie Queene, b. ii. 
 
 choly. Affectus implicatus, a complicated affec- The duke is virtuous, mild ; and too well given, 
 
 ion or disorder, or that in wliich many parts are To dream on evil, or to work my downfall. 
 
 a 
 
 and good : the fifth is friendship : the sixth, is 
 love between the sexes : and the last, is patriotism 
 or public spirit; that is, an affection to any 
 community to which we belong. The malevo- 
 lent affections, (commonly called passions) in the 
 arrangement of Dr. Reid, are emulation and 
 resentment.
 
 AFF 2, 
 
 Ah ' what's more dangerous than this fond affiance ? 
 Seems he a dove? his feathers are but borrowed. 
 
 Shaksp. Henry VI. 
 Wedded be thou to the hags of hell, 
 For daring to affy a mighty lord 
 Unto the daughter of a worthless king. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy 
 In thy uprightness and integrity, 
 That I will here dismiss my loving friends. 
 
 Shaksp. Titus Andr. 
 
 Religion receives man, into a covenant of grace ; 
 where there is pardon reached out to all truly peni- 
 tent sinners, and assistance promised, and engaged, 
 and bestowed, upon very easy conditions ; viz. humi- 
 lity, prayer, and affiance in him. 
 
 Hammond's Fundamentals. 
 
 There can be no surer way to success, than by 
 
 disclaiming all confidence in ourselves, and referring 
 
 the events of things to God with an implicit affiance. 
 
 Atterbury's Sermons, 
 
 AFFILE', v. or > See FILE. To rub or 
 AFILE'. $ smooth by filing. Obsolete. 
 
 For wel he wiste, whan that song was songe, 
 He must preche, and wel afile his tonge, 
 To winne silver, as he right wel coude : 
 Therefore he sang the merier and loude. 
 
 Chaucer. Prologue. The Pardonere, v. i. p. 29. 
 
 For whan he hath his tonge ajiled, 
 
 With softe speche, and with lesynge, 
 
 Forthwith his false pitous lokynge, 
 
 He wolde make a woman weene 
 
 To gone vpon the feire greene, 
 
 Whan that she fauleth in the myre. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. b. i. 
 
 AFFILIATION, ADFILIATIO, in writers of 
 he middle age, is the same with ADOPTION. See 
 kDFiLiATioN. Among the ancient Gauls, it was 
 a sort of adoption practised only among the great, 
 and performed with military ceremonies. The 
 tather presented a battle-axe to the person he 
 was to adopt for his son, as an intimation that he 
 was to preserve the effects he thus called him to 
 succeed to, by arms. 
 
 An ORDER OF AFFILIATION, in modern usage, 
 is that which a magistrate issues on the oath of a 
 woman to compel the father of an illegitimate 
 child, to provide for its maintenance. , 
 
 AFFINED', part. ) Ad : finis, end. Affinis 
 
 AFFIN'ITY. J is primarily a relative by 
 
 marriage; a relative of our relations; one who 
 touches the boundary (finis,) of another's rela- 
 tionship ; distinct from consanguinity. Applied 
 to things, it signifies a relation arising from 
 neighbourhood, association, real or supposed 
 similarity, or resemblance. 
 
 For I am sure that Fryth and al his felowes, with 
 al the friendes Jhat are of theyr affiniti, shal neither 
 be able to quenche and put out that faith. 
 
 Sir Thos. Note's Works, p. 903. c. 2. 
 
 Osway assemblyd his knyghtes, and made towarde 
 hym : and for affynite of maryage that was atwene 
 theyr children, Oswy offeryd to hym many great 
 offirs to thentent to have had peace with hym. 
 
 Fab yon, p. 118. 
 
 If partially affin'd, or leaguM in office, 
 Thou dost deliver more or less than truth, 
 Thou art no soldier. Shaksp. Othello. 
 
 The British tongue or Welsh was in use, only in 
 this island ; having great affinity with the old Gallick. 
 
 Camden. 
 
 .1 AFF 
 
 All things, that have affinity with the heavens, 
 
 move upon the centre of another, which they benefit. 
 
 Bacon. Essay xxiv. 
 
 They had left none alive ; by the blindness of 
 rage killing many guiltless persons, either for affinity 
 to the tyrant, or enmity to the tyrant-killers. 
 
 Sidney, b. ii. 
 
 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king 
 of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter. 
 
 1 Kings iu. 1. 
 
 The art of painting hath wonderful affinity with 
 that of poetry. Dryd. Dufresnoy, Pref. 
 
 Man is more distinguished by devotion than by 
 reason ; as several brute creatures discover some- 
 thing like reason ; though they betray not any thing 
 that bears the least affinity to devotion. 
 
 Addison. Sped. No. 201. 
 
 A breach was made with France itself, notwith- 
 standing so strait an affinity, so lately accomplished j 
 as if indeed, (according to that pleasant maxim of 
 state,) kingdoms were never married. Wotton, 
 
 AFFINITY, in law, preserving the sense of its 
 etymology, ad to, and^m's, a boundary, or limit, 
 denotes the approach of two families by marriage 
 to each other's boundaries : ' Quod duae cogna- 
 tiones per nuptias copulantur, et altera ad alterius 
 cognationes finem accedit.' 
 
 The Jewish law prohibits marriages with re- 
 gard to affinity, which seem not prohibited by 
 the law of nature. On its basis generally, 
 our own civil law, and that of most European 
 countries, has been established, ' No person,' 
 says the ninety-ninth canon (1603), 'shall marry 
 within the degrees prohibited by the laws of God, 
 and comprised in a table set forth by authority, 
 in the year 1563 ; and all marriages so made and 
 contracted shall be adjudged incestuous and un- 
 lawful.' A table of these degrees is therefore 
 commanded by the ecclesiastical law, to be hung 
 up in all the churches of England. The statutes 
 that contain them are 18 Henry VIII. c. 7, and 
 25 Heu. VIII. u. 12 
 
 The Mosaic law positively enjoined, in some 
 cases, one particular marriage, the lawfulness of 
 which has often been discussed in modern times, 
 i. e. that between a man and his brother's widow. 
 See Deut. XXT. 5. 
 
 Bishop Hall well remarks on this topic, ' I 
 know no reason why you may not conclude it is 
 not unlawful. The question of the expedience 
 would require another debate. Doubtless, in all 
 cases of this nature, it must needs be yielded 
 that it were more meet and safe, since the world 
 yields so large a latitude of choice, to look fur- 
 ther off. A wise and good man will not wil- 
 lingly transgress against the rules of just expe- 
 dience, and be as careful to consider what is fit 
 to be done, as what is lawful.' Works, vol. 8. 
 p. 493. 
 
 A question of affinity, real or pretended, it is 
 remarkable, became the exciting cause, in Eng- 
 land, of our final deliverance from the domination 
 of the see of Rome. 
 
 The canon law distinguishes three species of 
 affinity : The first, contracted between the 
 husband and the relations by blood of his wife ; 
 and between the wife and the relations by blood 
 of her husband. The second, between the hus- 
 band and those related to his wife by marriage, 
 and the wife, and those so related to her husband.
 
 AFF 
 
 232 
 
 AFF 
 
 The third, between the husband and the relations 
 of his wife's relations ; and the wife, and the re- 
 lations of her husband's relations. By the fourth 
 council of Lateran, held in 1213, it was decreed, 
 that none but the first kind was any real affinity : 
 the two last being mere refinements, which 
 ought to be set aside. The degrees are reckoned 
 after the same manner in affinity as in consan- 
 guinity ; and therefore differently in the canon 
 law, from what they are in the civil law. Thus, 
 whatever line or degree of consanguinity the 
 kindred of one of the parties married, are in, they 
 are in the same line and degree of affinity to the 
 other. And again, in whatever line or degree of 
 affinity persons are, in the first kind, they are in 
 *he same in the second and third kinds of affinity. 
 Hence arise what we may call a direct and colla- 
 teral, an ascending and descending line of affinity. 
 Affinity does not found any real kinship ; it is a 
 kind of fiction, introduced on account of the close 
 relation between husband and wife. It is even 
 said, in law, to cease when the cause of it ceases. 
 Hence a woman who is not capable of being a 
 witness for her husband's brother, during his life, 
 is allowed to be a witness, when a widow, be- 
 cause the affinity is dissolved. Yet with regard to 
 the contracting marriage, affinity is not dissolved 
 by death, though it be in every thing else ; for a 
 man is not allowed to marry the widow of his fa- 
 ther, brother, or son; such connection being 
 considered as incestuous, nearly as much as if 
 they were formed with the blood relations of the 
 the same degree. 
 
 The degrees and denominations of affinity are 
 chiefly, First, father-in-law, i. e. husband's or 
 wife's father, in Latin, socer; Second, step-father, 
 i. e. mother's husband, vitricus ; Third, mother- 
 in-law, i. e. husband's or wife's mother, socrus ; 
 Fourth, step-mother, i. e. father's wife, noverca ; 
 Fifth, son-in-law, i. e. daughter's husband, ge- 
 ner ; Sixth, daughter-in-law, son's wife, nurus ; 
 Seventh, step-son, i. e. husband's or wife's son 
 by a former marriage, privignus ; Eighth, step- 
 daughter, i. e. husband's or wife's daughter by a 
 former marriage, privigna ; which two last, con- 
 sidered in relation to each other, are called com- 
 privigni. These four last degrees are often 
 confounded, and mistaken for each other ; the 
 step-son being called son-in-law, and the step- 
 daughter, daughter-in-law, et vice versa, although 
 no degrees of relationship are more distinct. 
 Ninth, brother-in-law, i. e. husband's brother, 
 sister's husband, levir, or wife's brother, uxoris 
 frater; Tenth,sister-in-law, i. e. husband's or wife's 
 sister, glos, or brother's wife, fratria. All these 
 degrees are prohibited fiom intermarrying: to 
 which may be added, Eleventh, the uncle-in-law, 
 i. e. the aunt's husband ; Twelfth, the aunt-in-law, 
 i. e. the uncle's wife ; Thirteenth, the nephew-in- 
 law, i. e. the niece's husband ; and Fourteenth, the 
 niece-in-law, i. e. the nephew's wife, on either 
 side. 
 
 AFFINITY, in chemistry, is a term which cor- 
 responds to attraction in mechanical philosophy, 
 and denotes the tendency which the constituent 
 parts of bodies have to unite, and the power by 
 which they adhere when united. It has also fre- 
 quently been called elective attraction. See 
 CHEMISTRY, and ATTRACTION. 
 
 Otnei writers speak of compound affinity, the 
 union of different bodies in one homogeneous mass. 
 Intermediate affinity, an union by the help of a 
 medium ; as azote, with fixed alkalies, by the 
 help of nitric acid. Quiescent and divellent 
 affinity ; the former of these terms, expresses,, 
 according to Kirwan, the force exerted to pre- 
 serve the old combination ; and the latter, that 
 which tends to destroy it. Reciprocal affinity, 
 when a separation is caused between two sub- 
 stances by a third, with which one of them is 
 united, but afterward separated again by the in- 
 fluence of the separating principle. Compound 
 elective affinity, or double elective attraction, 
 when there are more than four substances ; as, if 
 nitric acid be added to the sulphate of ammonia, 
 decomposition takes place ; but if nitrate of pot- 
 ash be added, then two new bodies are formed, 
 that is, the potash attracts the sulphuric acid, and 
 the nitric acid the ammonia. 
 
 AFFINITY, in civil law, is divided into civil, 
 between free persons; and servile, between 
 slaves. 
 
 AEFIXITY, LEGITIMATE, is contracted by a 
 proper and legal matrimony ; or between slaves, 
 by contubernium. 
 
 AFFINITY, QUASI, that subsisting either after 
 the dissolution of a marriage, as between a hus- 
 band and his wife's daughter, after divorce ; or 
 before the marriage is solemnized, as that between 
 a father and a daughter-in-law, not married but 
 only betrothed to his son. 
 
 AFFINITY, SPIRITUAL, in the church of Rome, 
 is contracted by the sacraments of baptism and 
 confirmation ; according to which, a god-father 
 may not marry with his god-daughter without a 
 dispensation. 
 
 AFFINITY, KEYS OF, or relative keys, in music, 
 regular pieces being composed in keys properly 
 fixed and determined, with which they begin 
 and end, and which are occasionally resumed, 
 they are called primitive or principal keys, major 
 or minor ; and these are, properly speaking, sur- 
 rounded by five others, to which they bear a 
 strong affinity, or relationship ; for example : 
 
 C major, primitive key. 
 D minor, first relative key ; 
 E minor, second relative key ; 
 F major, third relative key ; 
 G major, fourth relative key; 
 A minor, fifth relative key. 
 
 A minor, primitive key; 
 C major, first relative key; 
 D minor, second relative key ; 
 E minor, third relative key; 
 F major, fourth relative key; 
 G major, fifth relative key. 
 
 ' These six primitive keys offer, in their com- 
 bination,' says Mr. Dannely, ' 720 changes, and 
 were those formerly used by the most celebrated 
 composers, from the time of Palestrina to Sebas- 
 tian Bach; but unfortunately for the cause of 
 music, scarcely any mention is made of them 
 in the present day. See ENCHAINING OF HAR- 
 MONIES. 
 
 AFF1ON, in chemistry, a name given by the 
 Arabians to opium ; and also to an electuaiy, in 
 which opium is an ingredient.
 
 AFF 
 
 233 
 
 AFF 
 
 Ad : firnto, to support ; 
 
 opposed to the word 
 
 I deny ; to certify, declare 
 
 ^positively, avouch the 
 
 truth, assure, ratify > to 
 
 affirm is a solitary, to 
 
 confirm is an assisted 
 
 AFFIRM, v. 
 
 AFFIRM'ABLE, 
 AFFIRM'ANCE, 
 AFFIRMA'TION, 
 
 AFFIRM'ATIVE, adj. 
 AFFIRM ATIVELY, 
 AFFIRM'ER. 
 asseveration, 
 pc pape set pat tenne, for his hopyng was, 
 pe pes pei suld afferme for drede of hardere kas. 
 
 R. Bnmne, p. 316. 
 
 And take this for a gcnerall reule, that every con- 
 seil that is affirmed so strongly, that it may not be 
 rbaunged for no condition that may betide, I say 
 that thilke conseil is wicked. 
 
 Chaucer. Tale of Melibeiu, vol. ii. p. 93. 
 Dame Pertelote I say you trewely, 
 Macrobius that writ the avision 
 In Affrike of the worthy Scipion, 
 Affirmeth dremes ; and sayth that they ben 
 Warning of thinges that men after seen. 
 
 Chaucer. Nonnes Preeste's Tale. 
 To appease the multytude, the kyuge toke the 
 childe in his armys, and so bare hym into the place 
 of th assemble of the people, and there shewed vnto 
 theym, w' affirmance of great othes, that his entent 
 was oonlv for the wele of the childe, and for defence 
 of his countre. 
 
 Fabyan, p. 187. 
 
 Yet it is not euen so, so fieble as his owne, where 
 
 he argueth in the negatiue, as I lay the sample for 
 
 th affyrmatiue. Sir T. More's Works, p. 1131. c. 1. 
 
 For the affirmative, we are now to answer such 
 
 proofs of theirs, as have been before alleged. 
 
 Hooker. 
 
 The common opinion of the Oestridge, struthio- 
 
 camelus, or sparrow camel, conceives that it digests 
 
 iron, and this is confirmed by the affirmations of many. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 It is as gross a paradox to hold there are no anti- 
 podes, and that the negative is now as absurd as the 
 affirmative seemed at first. Howel's Letters. 
 
 Whether there are such beings or not, 'tis suffi- 
 cient for my purpose, that many have believed the 
 affirmative. Dry den. 
 
 One may affirm, with all respect to the inspired 
 writings, that the divine Spirit made use of no other 
 words but what were intelligible and common to men 
 at that time, and in that part of the world ; and as 
 Homer is the author nearest to those, his style must 
 of course bear a greater resemblance to the sacred 
 books, than that of any other writer. Pope, 
 
 AFFIRMATION, in law, signifies the ratifying 
 or confirming a former law, or judgment : Thus 
 we say, the house of lords, on an appeal, affirmed 
 a decree of the lord chancellor, or of the court of 
 Session. Affirmation is also a solemn form of 
 attesting the truth, allowed to be used by the 
 Friends or Quakers, instead of an oath, which 
 they hold absolutely unlawful to take. 
 
 The Friends have, from the earliest appearance 
 of the society, been very steady in their objec- 
 tions, and have submitted to all kinds of civil 
 disadvantages and open persecution, on account 
 of their repugnance to oaths. It is our plan to 
 bring forward the opinions of all respectable 
 parties, with their own way of stating them. 
 The last, and one of their most respectable 
 writers, Mr. Jos. John Gurney, says, that ' Such 
 a line of conduct they deem to be both justified 
 and required, first, by certain plain moral prin- 
 ciples ; and secondly, by divine commands of the 
 
 most impressive and comprehensive character. 
 For the moral principles concerned, he quotes 
 James i. 12; Matt. v. 37 ; and adds, ' Since the 
 law of truth in the verbal communications be- 
 tween man and man, a law strenuously sup- 
 ported even by heathen moralists, and obviously 
 essential to the well being of all human societies, 
 is very frequently enjoined in the records of God's 
 revealed will ; since it is plainly of universal obli- 
 gation on the followers of Jesus ; and since, on the 
 other hand, there is nothing more decisively con- 
 demned than the false tongue: it follows, that with 
 true Christian? a deliberate and serious, yet simple 
 affirmation, or negation, possesses a force so per- 
 fect in its kind as to be incapable of any real 
 augmentation. Hence there arises a plain moral 
 obligation in conformity with the precept of the 
 apostle James, that our yea should be yea, and 
 our nay nay that is to say, that our affirmations 
 and our negations should be naked and simple, 
 and wholly unaccompanied by any form of oath. 
 For if, on any particular occasion, a man swear 
 in addition to his yea and nay, in order to render 
 them more obligatory and convincing, their force 
 becomes comparatively weak at other times, when 
 they receive no such confirmation. If such an 
 one be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 especially if he be a serious professor of religion, 
 it is plain, that by his conduct he gives counte- 
 nance to the false and dangerous notion that the 
 oath of a Christian is more binding upon his 
 conscience, and therefore more credible than his 
 deliberate word, and thus he invariably lowers 
 the standard of the law of truth.' Gurney on the 
 Religious Peculiarities of the Friends, 8vo. 1024. 
 The question of the admissibility of a Quaker 
 to a seat in the house of commons, upon his so- 
 lemn affirmation, first occurred in the year 1699, 
 when John Archdale, of the society of Friends, 
 was returned for the borough of Chipping Wy- 
 combe. This gentleman presented his claim, by 
 letter, to the speaker ; and, upon its being sub- 
 mitted to the house, which was done without 
 hesitation, it was met by an order directing the 
 speaker to issue a new writ for that borough. 
 The second instance of a member of this amiable 
 sect being returned to parliament occurred in the 
 person of Joseph Pease, Esq., who was duly 
 elected for the southern division of the county of 
 Durham, in 1832. The result of Mr. Pease's 
 claim proved more fortunate than that of his pre- 
 decessor ; for, upon the assertion of his privi- 
 lege, a committee was appointed to report pre- 
 cedents and enactments relative to the case. The 
 report being laid before the house, a decision 
 was come to, on the 14th of February, 1833, 
 " that Joseph Pease, Esq., was entitled to take 
 his seat upon making his solemn affirmation and 
 declaration, instead of taking the usual oaths." 
 And this is the first instance of a member of the 
 society of Friends having been admitted to a 
 seat in the commons' house of parliament. 
 
 AFFIRMATION, in logic, a proposition asserting 
 an argeement between the subject and predicate. 
 In algebra, also, affirmative or positive quan- 
 tities, terms introduced by Vieta, i. e. those 
 which have their appropriate characters. 
 
 AFFIRMATIVE, in grammar. Authors distin- 
 guish affirmative particles, such as yes, from ne-
 
 AFF 
 
 234 
 
 AFF 
 
 u TK m affirmative k also row > or calamity ; to undo ; trouble, disquiet, 
 
 gatives, such as no. The term arnrmative is a . t 
 
 used substantively, because we say, the affirma- d 
 live is the more probable side of the question ; 
 there were so many votes, or voices, for the affir- 
 
 mative, &c. 
 
 AFFIRMATIVE, in the Romish inquisition, is 
 applied to such heretics as own the errors and 
 opinions with which they are charged; and 
 
 Abbay and priorie, and ober religions, 
 For vs salle pray and crie in per afflictions. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 202. 
 For as Salamon sayth : the hope that is differred 
 id delaied, paineth and afflicteth the soule. 
 
 Sir T. More's Works, p. 1080. c. 2. 
 For as the afflictions of Christ are plenteous in vs, 
 
 maintain them in their examination with firmness cuen so is oure consalacion plenteous by Christ. 
 
 and resolution. 
 
 AFFIX', v. & . 
 AFFIX'ION, n. 
 
 Bible, 1539, 2 Cor. i. 
 , .. To the flesh (as the apostle himself granteth) all 
 
 Ad :figO,fixum; to taster. a jjn ci i m j s naturally grievous; therefore nature, 
 to; to unite to the end; sub- which causet h fear, teacheth to pray against all ad- 
 
 versity. Hooker, b. v. 48. 
 
 We'll bring you to one that you have cozened of 
 think, to repay that money, will be a 
 _ ion. Shakspeare. 
 
 If a man be gracioas and courteous to strangers. 
 
 join ; attach ; closely connect with. 
 
 AFFIX, in grammar, a particle added at the 
 close of a word, either to diversify its form or 
 
 alter its signification ; in which sense affix is the an e ^ ^ wurieuui| io sira 
 
 same with suffix ; though affix is sometimes, but ft ghews he ig a citizen of the world . and that 6 hig 
 less properly, applied more generally, so as to heartis no island cutoff from other lands, but a con- 
 include prefix articles. We meet with affixes tinent ^^ j oins to them< If he be compassionate 
 in the Saxon, the German, and other northern towards the afflictions of others, it shews that his 
 languages ; but more especially in the Hebrew, heart is like the noble tree, that is wounded itself, 
 and other oriental tongues. The Hebrew affixes -when it gives the balm. Lord Bacon's Essays. 
 
 are single syllables, frequently single letters, Nothing does so powerfully call home the con- 
 subjoined to nouns and verbs ; and contribute science, as affliction. Hall's Contemplations. 
 not a little to the brevity of that language. The Yet in * middes of this affliccio, and to make an 
 oriental languages are much the same as to the end of * e same > Godof . tis ineffable goodnes, look- 
 radicals ; and differ chiefly from each other as to ^ n * T*^ wrth h ls > yes of P me and aspect 
 , J of mercie hath sent me in the truth to restore again 
 amxes and prefixes. . t , j. t u this decayed kyngdo to his auncient fame and olde 
 
 A-FLAT, in music, is the ninth diatomc-chro- renoune . HaUf p< 247> 
 
 matic note of the scale C. 
 
 A-FLAT MAJOR, one of the twenty-four keys in 
 modern music, requiring a signature of four 
 flats. 
 
 A-FLAT MINOR, one of the twenty-four keys in 
 modern music, requiring a signature of seven 
 flats. 
 
 AFFLATUS. Ad: flo, to breathe upon; 
 
 What ! when we fled amain, pursued and struck 
 With heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 
 The deep to shelter us ? This hell then seem'd 
 A refuge from those wounds. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, b. ii. 
 
 And because affliction is of such a nature as to try 
 the temper, disposition, and intentions of men, there- 
 fore temptation often is used for affliction. Barrow. 
 God deals with his children as a merciful father \ 
 
 ... - . . i VIULl UCal5 W1U1 1113 1.1111U1C11 tli tl 111C1L.11U1 1UL11U1 _ 
 
 a dmne influence communicating to the receiver he doeg not> as he himself tells ^ afflict willi , > 
 supernatural powers, particularly the gift ot pro- ^ sons of men 
 
 phecy. 
 
 The poet, writing against his genius, will be like 
 a prophet without his afflatus. 
 
 Spence on the Odyssey. 
 
 Cowper's Letters. 
 
 AFFLUENCE, n.-\ Ad : fiuo, to flow to ; 
 AF'FLUENT, 9 a metaphor derived from 
 
 AF'FLUX, the flowing of water, 
 
 AFFLTJX'ION. J which announces speedy 
 
 abundance : hence, affluence is the forerunner 
 AFFLATUS. Naturalists sometimes speak of the f prosperity, and denotes wealth, plenty, exu- 
 
 afflatus of serpents. Tully uses the word figura- oerance. 
 
 lively, for a divine inspiration. In which sense, 
 
 he ascribes all great and eminent accomplish- 
 ments to a divine afflatus. The Pythian priestess 
 
 being placed on a tripod or perforated stool, over 
 
 the sacred cave, received the divine afflatus, 
 
 and fell into phrenetic agitation ; during which, 
 
 she pronounced, in hollow groans and broken 
 
 sentences, the will of the deity. The afflatus is 
 supposed by some, to have been a subterraneous 
 gas, or exhalation, wherewith the priestess was 
 
 As they lived in great affluence and ease, we may 
 presume that they enjoyed such pleasures as that 
 condition afforded, free and uninterrupted. 
 
 Sydney's Criticism on Pastoral Writing. 
 
 External or worldly prosperity, consists in an ac- 
 comodate condition of man in this world, as health 
 of body, comfort of friends and relations, affluence 
 or at least competency of wealth, power, honour, ap- 
 plause, good report, and the like. 
 
 Hole's Contemplations. 
 
 An inflammation, either simple, consisting of a hot 
 
 literally inspired ; and that, it had the effects of and sanguineous affluxion ; or else denominate from 
 
 a real physical disease ; the paroxysm of which 
 was so vehement, that Plutarch observes, it some- 
 times proved mortal. But Van Dale, with more 
 probability, supposes the pretended enthusiasm 
 
 other humours, according unto the predominancy of 
 melancholy, phlegm, or choler. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 Though an unwieldly affluence may afford some 
 empty pleasure to the imagination ; yet, that small 
 pleasure is far from being able to countervail the im- 
 bittering cares that attend an over-grown fortune. 
 
 Boyle's Occasional Reflections, 4. dis. 11. 
 
 , - - The cause hereof cannot be a supply by piocrea- 
 
 AFFLICTIVE, t deject; throw into a state tions; ergo, it must be, by new affluxet to Txmdoa 
 AFFLIC'TIVELY. ) of consternation, grief, sor- out of the country. Gravm. 
 
 aromatics, or perhaps of intoxicating liquors. 
 AFFLICT', v. ~\ Ad : Jligo, to throw to 
 AFFLIC'TION, /the ground; to cast down;
 
 AFF 
 
 235 
 
 AFF 
 
 The infant grow* bigger out of the womb, by ag- 
 " glutinating one afflux of blood to another. 
 
 Harvey on Consumptions. 
 
 An animal that must lie. still, receives the afflux of 
 colder or warmer, clean or foul water, as it happens 
 to come to it Locke , 
 
 AFFLUX, in electricity, is opposed to efflux ; 
 it was a term in general use previously to 
 the discovery of positive and negative electricity. 
 It was apprehended that in all electrical 
 operations, there was both an afflux of electrical 
 matter to the globe and the conductor, and an 
 efflux of the same matter from them. Dr. Wat- 
 son soon corrected this opinion ; but the Abbe" 
 Nollet was more tenacious ; and was confirmed 
 in his attachment to this theory, by observing, 
 that bodies not insulated, plunged in electric 
 atmospheres, showed signs of electricity; not 
 perceiving, that the electricity of such bodies 
 was in its nature and effects different from, and 
 directly opposite to, that of the electrified body, 
 in the atmosphere of which they were involved. 
 See ELECTRICITY. 
 
 AFFORAGE, in the French customs, before 
 the revolution, was a duty paid to the lord of a 
 district, for permission to sell wine, or other 
 liquors, within his seignory. 
 
 AFFORARE, in old law, to set a value on 
 any thing. 
 
 AFFORCEMENT, or AFFORCIAMENT, in 
 ancient charters, a fortress, or work of fortifica- 
 tion and defence. 
 
 AFFORCIAMENTUM CURIJE, in law, the 
 calling a court on any extraordinary occasion. 
 
 AFFORCIARE, in law, to add, increase, or 
 strengthen ; as in the case of a jury, cum in veri- 
 tate dicenda sunt sibi contrarii ; i. e. when they 
 are not agreed on their verdict. 
 
 AFFORD', v. The etymologies given of this 
 word are unsatisfactory. It signifies to yield, 
 produce, grant, give ; also, to furnish for a cer- 
 tain price. 
 
 So soon, as Maunnon there arriv'd, the door 
 
 To him did open, and afforded way. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 MOWB. The purest treasure mortal times afford, 
 Is spotless reputation ; that away, 
 Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. 
 
 Shakspeare's Richard 77. 
 
 This is the consolation of all good men, unto 
 whom his ubiquity affordeth continual comfort and 
 security ; and this is the affliction of hell, to whom 
 ^t affordeth despair and remediless calamity. 
 
 Broom's Vulgar Errours. 
 KING. Why speakest thou not? 
 HlER. What lesser liberty can kings afford, 
 Than harmless science ? Then afford it me. 
 
 Spanish Tragedy, 2nd edit, act v. 
 They fill their magazines, in times of the greatest 
 plenty ; that so they may afford cheaper, and in- 
 crease the public revenue, at a small expence of its 
 members. Addison on Italy. 
 
 AFFORESTING, part, turning ground into 
 forest. William the Conqueror, and his succes- 
 sors, continued afforesting the lands of the sub- 
 ject for many reigns ; till the grievance became 
 so notorious, that the people of all degrees and 
 denominations were brought to sue for relief; 
 which was at length obtained, and commissions 
 were granted to survey and perambulate the 
 
 forest, and separate all the afforested lands, and 
 re-convert them to the uses of their proprietors, 
 under the name and quality of purlieu or pouralle 
 land. 
 
 AFFRAP' v. Ital. affrapare ; ?T.aflrapper, 
 to strike ; to make a blow at ; encounter ; strike 
 down. Obsolete. 
 
 He gan to encounter him in equal race, 
 They beene ymet, both ready to affrap, 
 When suddenainly that warriour gan abase, 
 His threatned speare, as if some new mishap 
 Had him betide, or hidden danger did entrap. 
 
 Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 1 . 
 
 I have been trained up in warlike stowre, 
 To tossen speare and shield, and to affrap 
 The warlike rider to his most mishap. 
 
 Idem. b. iii. c. 2. 
 
 ' " & "' 
 
 The verb is obsolete ; the noun signifies a tu 
 multuous assault upon one or more persons in 
 public. 
 
 pe stones were of Rynes, pe noyse dredefulle & grete 
 It affraied pe Sarazins, as louen pe fire out schete. 
 pe noyse was vnride, it lasted alle day, 
 Fro morn till euentide, per of had many affray. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 174. 
 Me met thus in my bed al naked, 
 And loked forthe, for I was waked 
 With small foules a great hepe, 
 That had afraied me out of my slepe, 
 Through noise, and swetnesseof ther songe. 
 
 The Dreame of Chaucer, fol. 241, c. 1. 
 I was out of my swowne affraide, 
 Wherof I sigh my wittes straide, 
 And gan to clepe hem home ageyne. 
 
 Gower. Con. A.b. viii. 
 
 Thys wourthy knycht the common wele Romane, 
 In grete affray perturbit to rest agane 
 And quiet sail restore. 
 
 Douglas, b. vi. p. 196. 
 
 God so affray ed me w* so terrible a dreame, that 
 all things beganne to be to me suspecte, ferefull, un- 
 sauory and redye to fall fro me. 
 The Exposition of Daniel, by George Joye, f. 50. c. 2. 
 Be not youre herte afrayed, ne drede it : ye bileuen 
 in God, and beleeue ye in me. In the hous of mv 
 fadir, ben manye dwellingis. 
 
 Wiclif. Jon. c. xiv. 
 
 And lightly started vp as one affray 'd, 
 Or as if one him suddenly did call. 
 So, oftentimes he out of sleep abrayd, 
 And then lay muzing long, on that him ill apay'd. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. iv. cant. 6. 
 To be afraid to die, or wish for death, 
 Are words and passions of despairing breath ; 
 Who doth the first, the day doth faintly yield, 
 And who the second basely flies the field. ' 
 
 Quartet 
 
 A goddess arm'd; 
 
 Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seiz'd 
 All the host of heaven ; back they recoil'd afraid 
 At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign 
 Portentous held me. 
 
 Milton's Par. Lost. b. ii. 
 
 Be not of us afraid, 
 
 Poor kindred man ! thy fellow-creatures we, 
 From the same parent-power our beings drew, 
 The same our Lord, and laws, and great pursuit. 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 AFFRAY, in English law, from the French, 
 effrayer, to affright, formerly was defined, to be
 
 AFF 
 
 236 
 
 AFF 
 
 a public offence to the terror of the king's sub- 
 'ects,' as where persons appeared with armour 
 or weapons, not usually worn, to the terror of 
 others. Stat. 2 Edw. III. cap. 3. Its legal 
 description is still best contained in the words of 
 that statute : ' That no man of what condition 
 soever, except the king's servants in his pre- 
 sence, and his ministers in executing their office, 
 and such as be in their company assisting them ; 
 and also upon a cry made for arms to keep the 
 peace, shall come before the king's justices, or 
 other of the king's ministers doing their office, 
 with force and arms, nor bring any force in 
 affray of peace, nor go nor ride armed, by night 
 or day, in fairs or markets, or in the presence 
 of the king's justices, or other ministers else- 
 where ; upon pain to forfeit their armour to the 
 king, and their bodies to prison at the king's 
 pleasure. And the king's justices in their pre- 
 sence, sheriffs, and other ministers in their baili- 
 wicks, lords of franchises and their bailiffs in 
 the same, and mayors and bailiffs of cities and 
 boroughs within the same, and borough-holders, 
 constables, and wardens of the peace within 
 their wards, shall have power to execute this act. 
 And the judges of assize may punish such 
 officers as have not done their duty therein.' 
 But it now also implies a skirmish or fighting 
 between two or more, in some public place, to 
 the terror of his majesty's subjects ; and there 
 must, it is said, be a stroke given or offered, or 
 a weapon drawn, otherwise it is not an affray ; 
 for if the fighting be in private it is no affray, 
 but an assault. 3 Inst. 158. It is inquirable 
 in the courts-leet, and punishable by justices of 
 peace in their sessions, by fine and imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 An affray differs from an assault, in that it is 
 a wrong to the public ; whereas assault is of a 
 private nature. Lamb. lib. ii. Affrays may be 
 suppressed by any private person present, who is 
 justifiable in endeavouring to part the com- 
 batants, whatever consequences may ensue. But 
 a constable, or other similar officer, may break 
 open doors to suppress an affray, or apprehend 
 the affrayers ; and he may either take them be- 
 fore a justice, or imprison them by his own 
 authority for a convenient time, till the heat is 
 over ; and may then, perhaps, also make them 
 find sureties for the peace. 3 Inst. 158. 1 Haw- 
 kins P. C. 134. 136. 138. 
 
 Affrays admit of several degrees of aggravation, 
 as when two persons deliberately engage in a 
 duel, though no mischief has actually ensued ; 
 or when the officers of justice are disturbed by 
 an affray, in the due execution of their office, or 
 where it occurs in the king's court and such 
 places. All affrays again in a church or church- 
 yard are deemed heinous offences ; and there- 
 fore it is enacted, by Stat. 5 and 6. Edw VI. 
 c. 4. that if any person shall, by words only, 
 quarrel, chide, or brawl, in a church or church- 
 yard, the ordinary shall suspend him, if a lay- 
 man, ab ingressu ecclesig; and, if a clerk in 
 orders, from the ministration of his office, during 
 pleasure. And, if any person in such church or 
 church-yard proceed to smite or lay violent 
 hands upon another, he shall be excommunicated, 
 ipso facto ; or if he strike him with a weapon, 
 
 or draw any weapon with intent to strike, ne 
 shall, besides excommunication (being convicted 
 by a jury,) have one of his ears cut off; or, 
 having no ears, be branded with the letter F. in 
 his cheek. Blackst. vol. iv. p. 146. 
 
 AFFREIGHTMENT, AFFRETAMENTUM, from 
 the French fret, in law, signifies the freight of a 
 ship. 
 
 AFFRET, v. See FRET. 
 
 A trumpet blew ; they both together met 
 With dreadfull force and furious intent, 
 Careless of perill in their fierce affret. 
 
 Spencer's Faerie Qiteene, b. iv. c. 3. 
 
 AFFRIEND', v. See FRIEND. 
 
 Where when she saw that cruel war so ended, 
 
 And deadly foes so faithfully affrended, 
 
 In lonely wise she gan that lady greet, 
 
 Which had so great dismay so well amended. 
 
 Spencer's Faerie Qiteene, b. iv. c. 3. 
 AFFRIGHT, v. & w.-x A. S. Apynhtan, or 
 AFFRIGHT'ER, / Apoenan, to frighten ; 
 
 AFFRIGHT'EDLY, \ to affect with sudden 
 
 AFFRIGHT'FUL, i fear ; to terrify. 
 
 AFFRIGHT'MENT. J 
 
 William was oglyft, his helm was fulle of myre, 
 William was not paied, pat falle mad him a/right 
 He stode alle dismaied R. Brumie, p. "0. 
 
 By God me mette I was in swiche mischefe 
 Right now, that yet min herte is sore afright. 
 Chaucer. The Nonnes Preeste's Tale, v. ii. p. 178 
 When now the genius of this woeful place, 
 Being the guide to his affrightful ghost, 
 With hair dishevell'd, and a ghastly face, 
 Shall haunt the prison where his life was lost. 
 
 Drayton. Baron's Wan, 
 As one affright 
 
 With hellish fiends, or furies mad uproar, 
 He then uprose. Faerie Queene, b. ii. caut. 5. 
 As the moon, cloathed with cloudy night, 
 Does shew to him, that walks in fear and sad affright. 
 
 Idem. 
 K. JOHN. Nay, but make haste, the better foot 
 
 before, 
 
 O let me have no subjects enemies, 
 When adverse foreigners affright my towns 
 With dreadful pomp of stout invasion. 
 
 Shakspeare'i K. John. 
 Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI f 
 
 Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone, 
 Or never feel the rage, or never own, 
 What happier natures shrink at with affright, 
 The hard inhabitant contends is right. 
 
 Pope. Essay on Man. 
 
 AFFRONT', v. & n. Ad : frontem, stare : 
 ad frontem contumeliam allidere, to insult a man 
 to his face ; to present a hostile front to a person 
 like opposing armies ; to meet face to face ; to 
 face ; to encounter ; to offer an insult ; to offend 
 designedly ; to treat contemptuously or rudely. 
 
 Forich ne wiste wher to etc. ne in what place 
 
 And neyhede ny pe noon, and with neode ich mette 
 
 That afrontede me foule. and faitour me calde. 
 
 Vuion of Pier's Plouhman,p. 392. 
 
 In this meane whyle king Philip and the French 
 
 king with two more puyssaunt armies, affronted echo 
 
 other neere vnto the water of Some, eyther of them 
 
 being obstinately bent to driue the other out of the 
 
 fielde, for which cause they entrenched their campcs. 
 
 Graf ton, v., ii. p. 565.
 
 AFGHAUNISTAUN. 
 
 237 
 
 He highly leapt out of his place of rest, 
 
 And rushing forth into the empty field, 
 
 Against Cambello, fiercely him addrest ; 
 
 Who him affronting, soone to fight was ready prest. 
 Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 3. 
 
 Skilfull captaines in arraunging of their battailes, 
 place first in the vantguard, thicke and strong 
 squadrons to affront the ennemie, then light armed 
 souldiors, afterwards the archers and darters, and last 
 of all in the rereward, the companies of succours. 
 
 Holland's Trans, of Ammianus Marcel. 
 
 Ho -scould often maintain Plantianus, in doing 
 affronts to his son Bacon'* Essays. 
 
 I neer attempted aught against thy life, 
 Nor ma'de least line of love to thy loose wife, 
 Or in remembrance of thy affront and scorn, 
 With clowns and tradesmen kept thee clos'd in horn^ 
 Ben Jonson. Execration of Vulcan^ 
 Did not this fatal war affront thy coast ? 
 
 Yet sattest thou an idle looker on Fairfax, i. 51. 
 
 But harm precedes not sin ; only our foe, 
 Tempting, affronts us, with his foul esteem 
 Of our integrity. Par. Lost, b. ix. 
 
 Ah '. spare your swords, where beauty is to blame ; 
 Love gave th' affront, and must repair the same. 
 
 Waller. 
 
 I would learn the cause, why Torrismond 
 (Within my palace walls, within my hearing, 
 Almost within my sight,) affronts a prince, 
 Who shortly shall command him. 
 
 Dry. Span. Friar. 
 
 This brings to mind Faustina's fondness for the 
 gladiator, and is interpreted as satire : but how cau 
 one imagine, that the fathers would have dared to 
 affront the wife of Aurelius ? Additan. 
 
 Yea, often plac'd 
 
 Within his sanctuary itself, their shrines, 
 Abominations ; and with cursed things 
 His holy rites, and solemn feasts profan'd, 
 And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 AFFRONTEE, from ad, to, and frons, the 
 forehead, in heraldry, an appellation given to 
 animals facing one another on an escutcheon ; a 
 kind of bearing which is otherwise called confron- 
 tee, and stands opposed to adossee. 
 
 AFFUIAGE, AFFUIAGIUM, from ajfoer, q. d. 
 uffocure, to make a fire, of ad and focus, in an- 
 cient customs, a right of cutting fuel in a forest, 
 for domestic fire. 
 
 AFFUSE', ) Ad : fundo, fusum ; to pour 
 
 AFFUS'ION. \ one thing on another. 
 
 I poured acid liquors, to try if they contained any 
 volatile salt or spirit; which would probably have 
 discovered itself, by making an ebullition -with the 
 affused liquor. Boyle. 
 
 Upon the affusion of a tincture of galls, it imme- 
 diately became as black as ink. Grew's Museum 
 
 When the Jews baptized their children in order 
 to circumcision, it seems to have been indifferent to 
 them whether it was done by immersion or affusion. 
 Wheatley on the Com. Prayer, p. 362. 
 
 AFGHAUNISTAUN. 
 
 AFGHAUNISTAUN or AFGHANISTAN, a 
 kingdom of Asia, situated between Persia and 
 Hindostan, and forming a considerable portion 
 of Caubul, bounded on the E. by the river Nib- 
 lab or Indus, on the N. by Hindoo Coosh and 
 the Paropamisan range of lofty mountains, sepa- 
 rating it from Bulkh and Budukhshan, on the 
 W. by Persia, on the S. by Baloochistan. It 
 lies between 29 and 36 degrees of N. Lat. and 
 61 and 71 E. Long, including the ancient king- 
 doms of Zabuliston, (Ghizne and Kandahar) 
 and Kabuliston. All that lies west of the paral- 
 lel of Mooklor, 68, 30', is comprehended in the 
 extensive province of Rhorassaun. The moun- 
 tains are considerable. The peaks of Hindoo 
 Coosh are said to be higher than the Andes. 
 Lieutenant Macartney estimated one of the 
 summits of this range of mountains at 20,493 
 feet. The elevation must be very great, since 
 the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone could 
 perceive no diminution of snow on any part of 
 this lofty range in the midst of June, although 
 in the plain of Peshawer, the thermometer was 
 113. The course of these mountains is W. 
 from the Indus to L. 71, beyond which their 
 direction is not accurately known. 
 
 The lower ranges are clothed with woods, and 
 adorned with flowers. The range of Solimaun 
 commencing from Suflaid Coh, or White Moun- 
 tain, runs S. S. E. through Janjee, and then 
 striking off afresh in a southerly direction, forms 
 the country of the Jadrauns, extending as far as 
 31 N. Lat. It is accompanied by two minor 
 
 ranges of beautiful hills in a parallel direction 
 along its eastern side, reaching as far as latitude 
 32 20', every where diversified with valleys, and 
 intersected with rivers, beside several minor hills, 
 which running E. and W. divide and beautify 
 the landscape on both sides of the great chain. 
 The first and loftiest range is chiefly composed 
 of black stone; the two less chains consist, 
 one of red stone, and the other of a friable grey 
 sand stone. The Suffaid Coh is always covered 
 with snow. The Paropamisan chain runs 350 
 miles E. and W., and extends 200 N. and S. 
 the whole forming one rude mass of barren moun- 
 tains, the interior of which has never been ex- 
 plored by Europeans. 
 
 Of the rivers, the Indus is the most important, 
 which, although it has been traced 1350 miles, 
 its entire course is not known. The desolate 
 condition of the country has prevented its springs 
 from being correctly ascertained. It receives 
 many rivers in its source, and fifty miles from 
 Mullau, flows along an open country, and 
 spreading upon the plain near the fort of 
 Attock, forms a multitude of islands, receives 
 the river Caubul, and then suddenly contracting, 
 rushes through a narrow opening into the branches 
 of the Solimaun. At the distance of fifteen miles 
 from Neelaub, it is said to be only a stone's throw 
 across, but very deep and rapid. It afterwards 
 winds among the hills, passes through the Salt 
 range in a clear quiescent stream, and then wi- 
 dening to its full extent, it flows along in grand 
 and beautiful magnificence, till receiving the
 
 238 
 
 AFGHAUNISTAUN. 
 
 river Punjund, H takes a south-west curve 
 across the country of Sind, where it forms an 
 island, dividing itself into two streams, the prin- 
 cipal of which again divides, till at last the whole 
 river disembogues itself by many mouths into 
 the Arabian gulph. 
 
 The Helmund or Etymander, rises on the 
 eastern side of the Parapamisan range, a few miles 
 west of Caubul, after a course of 200 miles 
 among mountains, enters the plain of Dooraunes, 
 then enters a desert, and terminates in the lake 
 of Seestaun, the whole length being about 400 
 miles. There are many other rivers, but of 
 comparatively little importance. 
 
 The climate of Afghaunistaun is very various, 
 in consequence of the different degrees of eleva- 
 tion, direction of the winds, &c. The higher 
 parts are hot, the middle temperate, and the lower 
 cold. The average heat is inferior to that of 
 India. The cold in the winter is not great, and 
 when Mr. Elphinstone was at the plain Peshawer, 
 snow had been seen but once in the memory of 
 the oldest inhabitants. Some Indian plants are 
 in leaf all the year, and early in April the barley 
 was in ear, which was cut the first week in May. 
 The heat was often intense, but attained its 
 height by the 23d pf June ; and in the middle of 
 July, a cool wind set in from the east, which was 
 succeeded by cool cloudy weather. The greatest 
 height of the thermometer, during the year, was 
 120, its greatest depression 25. 
 
 The summer in Hindostan is intensely hot, so 
 much so, that the inhabitants wet their clothes 
 before they go to sleep, but south of the valley 
 of Turnuk, the cold is as great as in any part of 
 the country. Western winds are common, and 
 generally bring rain. The easterly winds are 
 hot and dry. In the warmest parts of the king- 
 dom, the pestilential simoon is common. Al- 
 though the climate is on the whole favourable to 
 longevity, fevers and agues are common, and the 
 small pox is extremely prevalent, notwithstand- 
 ing the almost universal practice of inoculation. 
 Opthalmia is also frequent, and the diseases of 
 Afghaunistaun have been generally observed to 
 be much more fatal than those of India. 
 
 The monsoon is attended with less violence 
 than in the latter kingdom, and is exhausted near 
 tne sea. In the N. E. however, it is more vio- 
 lent ; and what is most remarkable is, that it 
 comes from the east. What the Indians call the 
 S. W. monsoon, commences on the Malabar 
 coast in May ; but is later in Mysore, and in the 
 north commences in June. The rains diminish 
 toward the west, while the winter rains extend 
 as far as the Hellespont. The spring rains are, 
 generally speaking, short; in some places not 
 more than a fortnight. 
 
 The animals of Afghaunistaun are not numer- 
 ous. There are, nevertheless, tygers, lions, 
 wolves, and bears, in the woods. The antelope 
 is found in the plains. Buffaloes, dromedaries, 
 and sheep, are in great abundance. The do-s 
 are similar to those of England, and the cats are 
 so valuable as to be exported, Hevant and 
 some other districts have been long celebrated 
 for beautiful horses, and deer with long, curiously 
 twisted, branching horns. 
 
 The birds are, generally, similar to our own. 
 
 There are however three kinds of eagles. The 
 shauheen is taught to attend the falconer, and to 
 strike the quarry in its attempt to escape. The 
 chirk strikes on the antelope, and holds it till the 
 greyhounds arrive. 
 
 Scorpions are found ; but their bite is seldom 
 fatal. Bees and mosquitoes abound in every 
 part of the empire. The locusts, which are the 
 most terrible, come up over the face of the 
 whole country, bringing famine and desolation. 
 The chief fish are turtles and tortoise. 
 
 The trees greatly resemble those of Europe; 
 they are, however, much finer, and more numer- 
 ous : our finest fruits grow wild. Oaks, cedars, 
 and cypresses, are common ; also the mulberry, 
 tamarisk, willow, plane, and poplar. One species 
 of pine flourishes here, called jelgoozeh; the 
 cones of which are larger than artichokes, and 
 contain seeds resembling pistachio nuts. 
 
 Gold is found in the rivers, especially those 
 which flow from Hindoo Coosh. Silver is found 
 in the country of Caufirs. In the country of 
 Afreedes and Hazaurehs, and other places, are 
 lead and antimony. Iron and copper are found 
 in the country of Vizeeres ; alum in the clay of 
 Callabaugh ; orpiment in the country of Hazau- 
 rehs and Bulkh ; salt-petre is made from the soi". 
 all over the kingdom ; and sulphur is found in 
 Bulkh and Seeweestaun. 
 
 The Afghauns trace their descent from Af- 
 ghaun and Usbec, grandsons of Saul, king of 
 Israel, whom they represent as the forty-fifth in 
 descent from Abnah, raised from a shepherd to 
 a king, because his stature was exactly the length 
 of a reed which the angel Gabriel gave Samuel, 
 by which to try the man who should be king ot 
 Israel. Afghaun is also described as an extraor- 
 dinary character. 
 
 Sir W. Jones, in his Asiatic Researches, thinks 
 the chronology of the Afghauns highly probable. 
 He argues that the Afghauns are, by the best 
 Persian writers, said to be descended from the 
 Jews. ' We learn/ says he, ' from Esdras, that 
 ten of the Jewish tribes came to Arzareth, where 
 they settled. The Pushtoo language has a re- 
 semblance to the Chaldaic ; and a district under 
 their dominion is called Hazareh, or Hazaret, 
 which is perhaps the very word intended by 
 Esdras.' 
 
 This theory is overturned by the fact, that the 
 Hazarehs have but recently occupied a part of 
 Afghaunistaun. The Persian historians, it is 
 true, grounded their histories upon the traditions 
 extant; but nothing is more uncertain than the 
 mere rumours of an uncivilized people, respect- 
 ing their origin and chronology. The most 
 arcient names bear no resemblance to the Jews, 
 and the probability is, that they derived their 
 name from the Arabs, in common with all other 
 Mahomedan tribes. Some historians, neverthe- 
 less, contend that they were descended from the 
 Egyptians ; whilst others, refer them to the Hun 
 or Scythian tribes. They are divided into 
 numerous toomaus or clans, whose names are 
 probably derived from the chief of the family 
 at the time of their settlement. The principal 
 in history are, Khulijy, Soory, Lody, Roh or 
 Rohilla GhiljaorGilyauce, Bunguish, Abdaly, 
 and Hazareh, although the latter are said to be
 
 AFGHAUNISTAUN. 
 
 239 
 
 of Persian origin. Their national name is 
 Alkai; but by the Persians they are called 
 Afghauns, and by the Hindoos Pataus. Kyse 
 Abdoreshed, whom they acknowledge as their 
 founder, is said to be the thirty-seventh from 
 Saul. 
 
 The government consists of an assemblage of 
 commonwealths, or tribes, each being a subor- 
 dinate government, formed into one state through 
 the supreme authority of one common sovereign. 
 Their principal distinctions are said to spring 
 from the four sons of Kyse Abdoreshed. A tribe 
 is called ooloos, and is placed under the jurisdic- 
 tion of a chief, called a khaun, chosen from the 
 oldest family, by an election of the people. The 
 attachment is, however, rather to the community 
 than to the chief. The fighting men receive no 
 pay ; but if a horse is killed, the owner receives 
 the value of him from government. 
 
 The general law of the kingdom is that of 
 Mahomet; and, in most of the oolooses, is 
 adopted in civil cases ; but the criminal code is 
 the Pooshtoonwulle, or usage of the Afghauns ; 
 and in some oolooses, the parties are compelled 
 to submit to arbitration, or to quit the ooloos. 
 Trifling offences are also settled occasionally by 
 the jeerga of the sub-division. When the jeerga 
 meet, they take their seats on the ground, and 
 utter a short prayer before they proceed to 
 business. A penalty is annexed to every offence 
 among the Afghauns, with the exception of the 
 Berdooraunees. It always includes a public sub- 
 mission and acknowledgment ; and frequently a 
 number of young women are consigned over in 
 marriage to the injured party and his relations. 
 After the prisoner has been delivered up to the 
 accuser, the parties are directed to salute each 
 other with the usual address of Salaum alaikum : 
 ' Peace be unto thee.' 
 
 If a division quits its ooloos it is readily re- 
 ceived into another, and the king is the head 
 of the tribe Dooraune. One or two tribes are 
 entirely independent. 
 
 The Afghaun language is called the Pushtoo, 
 the alphabet is Persian and the Nushk cha- 
 racter is generally employed in writing. The 
 chief words relative to science, religion, &c. 
 are derived from the Arabic through the Per- 
 sian. They have several authors in poetry, 
 law, and theology; and some of the kings have 
 not only written poems themselves, but have 
 given great encouragement to letters generally. 
 
 Ahmed Shauh held an assembly of the learned 
 once a week, which practice is still continued. 
 They study the sciences and read their books 
 in methodical order, so that if one person asks 
 another what books he has read, he answers ' up 
 to so and so,' and the other perfectly under- 
 stands him. Rehmaun is the most popular 
 poet. Khooshhaul is, however, the best ; hav- 
 ing spent his life in struggles against the Great 
 Mogul, his intellectual associations have given 
 a martial air and spirit to his composures. 
 
 In childhood the Afghauns commit the educa- 
 tion of their children to a moollah or priest, 
 by whom they are taught passages from the 
 Koran, &c. Every village and town has its 
 own schoolmaster, who is supported by cer- 
 tain lands and contributions. AtPeshawer and 
 
 other places are establishments for finishing 
 the education of youth for the higher profes- 
 sions, &c. 
 
 They grow barley, corn, turnips, melons, cu- 
 cumbers, pumpkins, gourds, rice, Indian corn, 
 arzem, nukhod, peas, beans, &c. The assa- 
 foetida plant runs wild in the western hills, and 
 the palma christi, or castor oil-plant, commonly 
 called budaugeer, is every where found. The 
 lands are usually watered by irrigation through 
 the means of embankments, channels, &c. and, 
 except in the colder districts, they have two 
 harvests in the year. They have five classes of 
 cultivators ; proprietors who cultivate their own 
 lands; tenants who rent lands; buzgurs, or 
 farmers, like the metayers of France; hired 
 labourers ; and villains, who cultivate their lord's 
 land without wages. 
 
 The Afghauns keep no shop, and follow no 
 handicraft or trade. There are bankers, mer- 
 chants, artizans and labourers. The Hindoos 
 are the chief bankers, owing to the prohibition 
 in the Koran, which forbids Mussulmen taking 
 interest. There are some considerable mer- 
 chants who are divided into thirty-two trades, 
 each having its cudkhoda to manage all trans- 
 actions with government; for though not taxed, 
 they are nevertheless liable to exactions, when the 
 king, for instance, marches to any considerable 
 city, he sends to the cudkhodas to find a shop of 
 each trade to attend him to the next considerable 
 city, town, &c., sending presents to the mer- 
 chants, instead of regular payments by which 
 means they sustain considerable loss. 
 
 They trade chiefly with India, Persia, and 
 Toorkistaun, and from Tibet they obtain a 
 cloth called ussul toos, manufactured of shawl 
 wool. Their exports are horses, furs, shawls, 
 Mooltaun chintz, madder, assafoetida, fruits, &c. 
 Their imports are cloths, muslins, indigo, ivory, 
 sandal wood, wax, spices, silk, cottons, gold 
 and silrer. Their internal trade is considerable. 
 
 The people are generally divided into the 
 inhabitants of houses, and the inhabitants o. 
 tents. Their furniture commonly consists of a 
 coarse woollen carpet, and pieces of felt to sit 
 upon, which they usually do cross-legged ; and 
 in case of ceremony the person kneels and then 
 sinks back on his heels. They converse freely, 
 and are fond of taking snuff. When a visitor is 
 introduced, he salutes the party, by saying, 
 'Assalaum, Alaikoom,' peace be to thee. The 
 company answer, ' O Alaik Assalaum,' and 
 unto thee be peace. The master of the house 
 then takes the stranger's hands and says, ' Shu 
 Rauglee, &c.' you are welcome, may you often 
 come; to which the reply is, ' Shupucheiree,' 
 may you prosper. After dinner they sing songs 
 and play music. 
 
 They are fond of the chace. Races are fre- 
 quent, and at a wedding the bridegroom com- 
 monly gives a camel to be run for. The higher 
 ranks also tilt with lances, practise firing at a 
 mark, with guns, bows and arrows, &c. They 
 have, a great passion for the sail, or the enjoy- 
 ment of fine prospects ; dancing, and a game 
 called khossye or cubuddee, in which two men 
 advance, each holds his left foot with his right 
 hand, and hops forward to upset his adversary.
 
 CnO 
 
 AFGHAUNISTAUN. 
 
 They commonly bathe twice a week, and al- 
 ways on the Friday. The shops on that day are 
 shut. The Afghaun goes to the bath, has his skin 
 scrubbed till it is quite clean, his beard dyed, 
 and superfluous hair burnt from off his body 
 for an hundred dinars, or threepence-halfpenny ; 
 after which, on leaving the bath, he joins a 
 party for the day to some favourite hill or gar- 
 den, defraying the expences by subscription; 
 and for a trifling sum at the entrance, each per- 
 son takes what fruit he pleases. 
 
 Their dress is not unlike the Persian, espe- 
 cially in the upper classes of society, and con- 
 sists of loose cotton trowsers, a low cap of 
 black silk or satin, crowned with gold brocade, 
 half boots reaching to the calf, a large frock 
 shirt, with sleeves reaching below the knee, to 
 which is superadded a large cloak reaching to 
 the ancles, either of sheepskin tanned with the 
 wool inside, or soft grey felt. The dress of 
 women is not much unlike that of the men. 
 Their shirts, however, are larger and of finer 
 materials. They have a cap of silk interwoven 
 with gold thread, to which is annexed a large 
 sheet thrown over their heads, with which, in 
 the presence of strangers, they cover their faces. 
 They wear pendants in the nose, rings in their 
 ears and on their fingers. They also wear tight 
 trowsers commonly white; and those that are 
 unmarried have their hair loose. 
 
 The people are less debauched than the 
 Asiatics are in general, although their virtues 
 are said to be on the decline. They have the 
 same tendency to imitate the manners of the 
 Persians, as European nations have to imitate 
 the French. They are, however, at present 
 laborious, generous, brave, and temperate, their 
 chief vices being envy, revenge, and obstinacy. 
 
 Amongst the common people it is customary 
 to rise before twilight, and go before break- 
 fast to pray at the mosque. They lunch upon 
 vegetables, curds, and flesh, but the shaumee, or 
 great meal, is after the last prayers. 
 
 Sun-rise is the time when the great commonly 
 rise, and after having read the Koran for an hour, 
 and been at court, where there are apartments 
 for their use and in which they receive commu- 
 nications, and transact business ; they lunch and 
 sleep ; and in the evening receive company and 
 amuse themselves till a late hour. 
 
 Wives are purchased, and may be divorced at 
 pleasure. The brother of a deceased person 
 marries his widow, except she have children, in 
 which case she commonly remains single. Those 
 who cannot purchase a wife remain in a state of 
 celibacy. The rich marry early, seldom exceed- 
 ing twenty years of age in the man, and sixteen 
 in the woman. Before marriage, the arrange- 
 ment of all preliminary circumstances is managed 
 by the relations on both sides, for after a lover 
 has intimated his wishes, a deputation from his 
 parents wait on the parents of the girl, and 
 make the necessary provisions, sometime before 
 the ceremony. Polygamy is allowed, but seldom 
 practised, owing to the common poverty of the 
 people : and the middle class consider two wives 
 and two concubines a large establishment The 
 women in general are not very cultivated, since 
 it is thought immodest to write, as by that means 
 
 a woman might correspond with her gallants and 
 admirers. 
 
 The Afghauns are hospitable, and the greatest 
 affront you can offer a man is to carry off his 
 guest. If a man become noted for want of 
 hospitality, he is reproached with having no 
 poosh toonwulle, ' Nothing of the customs of the 
 Afghauns.' 
 
 They have a custom called nannawautee, in 
 English, ' I have come in.' When a man has 
 to ask a favour he goes into the house of his 
 friend, and refuses to take any refreshment cr 
 eren to sit on his carpet till the request is granted, 
 nor is it honourable to refuse it. A man in 
 danger often goes nannawautee to another's house, 
 who must then take up his quarrel, especially 
 if a woman sends her veil and implores assist- 
 ance, the claim in that case, is thought irresis- 
 tible. The Afghauns, notwithstanding their 
 hospitality often rob the stranger after his depar- 
 ture, the rites of hospitality being considered as 
 over. So that the only way to pass the country 
 with safety is to agree with the chiefs, and pro- 
 cure an escort for the journey. 
 
 In religion they are confirmed Mahommedans 
 of the Soone sect, who hold the first three 
 caliphs as the legitimate successors of Mahomed 
 and believe their traditions. They consider that 
 no infidels can be saved, but nevertheless they 
 cherish no feelings of asperity toward them. They 
 never speak of any thing they expect without 
 adding Inshaulla, ' please God,' and often say 
 ' please God I am so many years old.' They 
 often count their beads in conversation ; and 
 before they enter on any undertaking repeat the 
 Fauteheh, or the commencement of the Koran. 
 Their prayers are repeated five times a day, 
 and every Mussulman prays with his face turned 
 toward Mecca, to which every person performs 
 a pilgrimage at least once in the course of his 
 life. The hour of prayer is announced from 
 the tops of the minarets by the shout of Allaho 
 Akbar, ' God is most great.' The man who hears 
 it, though in the midst of business, instantly with- 
 draws. The first part of the prayer is said 
 standing, the rest sitting on the heels, often 
 bending forward and touching the ground with his 
 forehead. Their oaths are very solemn, as' I swear 
 by God and his prophet :' ' may I go an infidel out 
 of this world if it is not true :' but the most solemn 
 is the name of God, Allah, three times repeated 
 in different forms ' Wullah, Billah, Tillah.' 
 
 There is an officer called Mooshtesib, who 
 superintends the public morals, sometimes they 
 inflict forty blows with a leather thong, and often 
 send the culprit round the town on an ass, with 
 his face toward the tail. The Moollahs, who 
 have the title of Ulima, or learned, are greatly 
 venerated ; they profess great austerity, and have 
 the care of youth, the practice of the law, and 
 the administration of justice. When two ooloo- 
 ses are about to meet in battle, they often rush 
 between them holding out the Koran, and at- 
 tempt a reconciliation, in which from their great 
 sanctity, they commonly succeed. A Moollah 
 cannot be injured with impunity ; they are in 
 general capable of taking sufficient revenge by 
 excommunicating, suspending worship, refusing 
 to bury, &c. ; but when this does not succeed,
 
 AFL 
 
 241 
 
 AFL 
 
 they take the green standard of the prophet, and 
 parade the country with drums, uttering the war 
 cry and inciting the people to take up arms in 
 their cause. They are always known by a large 
 loose white or black gown, and a peculiar sort of 
 large turban. Their wives have nothing remark- 
 able in their dress to distinguish them from other 
 women. 
 
 Besides regular clergy, they have other orders, 
 as Sijuds, the supposed descendants of Mahomet, 
 Fuheers, Dervises, &c. One particular sect is 
 exceedingly venerated, even the places where 
 they are buried are sacred, and in war time the 
 women are placed there during the absence of the 
 tribe as a place of security. The people generally 
 believe in ghosts, alchemy, magic, &c., reverence 
 burial grounds, called ' cities of the silent' ; con- 
 sider every mountain and cavern inhabited by 
 a daemon called the goule, or spirit of the waste. 
 They believe the power of talismans, &c. 
 
 With respect to their history, the most early 
 accounts we have, represent the Afghauns as 
 inhabiting the mountains of Chore, in or about 
 the ninth century, when they were established 
 in all the north-east territories, although a con- 
 siderable part of the nation was subject to the 
 Arabians. The people who still dwelt in Ghore 
 had their own kings. Their prince Mahomet 
 was taken by Mahmood king of Ghazni, by 
 
 whom the people also were greatly oppressed. 
 They rebelled in the twelfth century, dethroned 
 the king, burnt the capital, and reduced alike 
 Bulkh, India, Budukhshaun, part of Kharas- 
 saun, and the kingdom of Caubul. They held 
 India for the most part during the three follow- 
 ing centuries, and even the provinces that were 
 wrested from them, were retaken from the king 
 of Khwarizm, by Jengheez Khaun, during whose 
 government, and also that of his son Tamerlane, 
 they maintained their independence. After his 
 death Bauber, the father of the great Mogul, sub- 
 dued Caubul, and made it his capital, in which one 
 of his sons succeeded him. Sheer Shauh founded 
 an Afghaun dynasty in India, and succeeded in 
 driving the other son of Bauber entirely from 
 the peninsula. The house of Timour, the 
 father of Bauber, was at length established, and 
 all Afghaunistaun, excepting the mountains, 
 divided between Persia and Hindostan. 
 
 About 1720 the two tribes of Ghiljie shook off 
 the Persian yoke, and extended their empire as 
 far.west as the confines of Russia and Turkey. 
 The Afghauns considered their authority an 
 usurpation, and in 1737, Nadir Shauh conquered 
 them, and annexed the greater part of the kingdom 
 to the Persian dominions. The present Af- 
 ghaunistaun monarchy was founded after his 
 death. 
 
 AFIELD'. In or into the field. 
 Tho was peers ful proude. and putte hem al to werke. 
 In daubyng and in delvyng. in donge o/eWberynge. 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, p. 138. 
 
 We drove afield ; and both together heard, 
 What time the grey fly winds her sultry horn ; 
 Batt'ning our flocks, with the fresh dews of night. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Afield I went, amid the morning dew, 
 To milk my kine, for so should housewives do. 
 
 Gay. 
 
 Oft did their harvest to his sickle yield, 
 His furrow oft the stubborn glebe hath broke ; 
 How jocund did he drive the team afield! 
 How bowed the woods beneath his sturdy stroke ! 
 
 Gray's Elegy. 
 
 AFINE . On fine. See FINE. 
 For no man at the first stroke 
 Ne may not fell doune an oke 
 Nor of the reisins haue the wine, 
 Till grapes be ripe and well ajine 
 Before empressed, I you ensure 
 And drawen out of the pressure. 
 
 Chaucer. R. of R. foil 133. col. 3. 
 AFIRE'. On fire. 
 
 While there is oyle for to fire 
 The lampe is lightly set afire. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. b. viii. 
 Of Deiphobus the palace large and great 
 Fell to the ground, all ouerspred with flash. 
 His next neighbour Ucalegon afire : 
 The Sygean seas did glister all with flame. 
 
 Surrey. JEneis, b. ii. 
 Powder is ready, and enough to work it, 
 The match is left afire. 
 
 Beaunwnt and Fletcher's Island Princesi, ii. 1 . 
 AFLAT'. On the flat. 
 
 When you would have many new roots of fruit 
 trees, take a low tree ; and bow it, and lay all his 
 VOL. I. 
 
 branches aflat upon the ground, and cast earth upon 
 them, and every twig will t*ke root. 
 
 Bacon's Natural History. 
 
 AFLIGHT'. A word in use till the time of 
 Elizabeth ; applied to the want of courage, &c. 
 at the approach of danger. See FLIGHT. 
 Upon this worde hir herte aflight, 
 Thynkende what was best to doone. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. b. ii. 
 
 And yet were they all in case safelye to escape ; 
 whereas Judas on the other syde which nothing feared 
 at all, but tooke a speciall pleasure to see them so 
 aflyghted, lost hys lyfe for euer, and that in fewe 
 howres after. Sir T. More's Works, p. 1389. col. 2. 
 AFLOAT'. On float. 
 
 Now er alle onflote, God gif pam grace to spede, 
 With douhty fo to note, whan bei com to dede. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 169. 
 There is a tide, in the affairs of men ; 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries : 
 On such a full sea, are we now afloat ; 
 And we must take the current when it serves, 
 Or lose our ventures. Shaksp. Juliut Ceesar. 
 
 His legions, angel forms, who lay intranced 
 Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
 In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades, 
 High over-arch'd imbower ; or scatter'd sedge 
 Afloat, when, with fierce winds, Orion arm'd 
 Hath vex'd the Red-sea coast. Par. Lost, b. i. 
 
 Take any passion of the soul of man, while it ig 
 predominant and afloat, 'and, just in the critical 
 height of it, nick it with some lucky or unlucky word ; 
 and you may as certainly over-rule it to your own 
 purpose, as a spark of fire falling upon gunpowder, 
 will infallibly blow it up. South. 
 
 There are generally several hundred loads of tim- 
 ber afloat; for they cut, above twenty -five leagues up 
 the river, and other rivers bring in their contributions. 
 
 Addisun't Italy. 
 K
 
 242 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 Whatever is afloat in the stream of time, may, when 
 it is very near us, be driven away by any accidental 
 blast which shall happen to cross the general course 
 of the current. Rambler. 
 
 AFOBA, in botany, a name given, by the na- 
 tives of Guinea, to a kind of plant, of the phase- 
 olus genus, or kidney-bean. They use it pounded 
 and mixed with oil, to cure cutaneous disorders. 
 It is more hairy than the common kinds, and its 
 leaves are very small. 
 AFOOT. On foot; implying action. 
 And thei sayen hem go awey and manye knewen 
 and thei wenten afoote fro al citees and runnen thidir 
 and camen bifore hem. 
 
 Wiclif. Mark vi. 
 
 I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
 Strainingupon the start. The game's afoot: 
 Follow your spirit ; and upon this charge, 
 Cry, God for Harry, England, and St. George. 
 
 Shakspeare's Hen. V. act ii. 
 
 The king [Harolde] himselfe stoode afoote by the 
 standarde, and his brethren Girthe and Leofwine with 
 him, to the ende that in such a common perill and 
 ieopardy no man should once thinke to flie or run 
 awav . State's Chronicle. 
 
 AFORE', ad. &prep. On the fore part ; much 
 used in composition. It has respect to time and 
 
 olace. 
 
 I meane this, tha^respace hight 
 But reason concelieth of a sight 
 Shame of that I speake aforne. 
 
 Chaucer. R. of R. fol. 130. col. 3. 
 He, back returning by the yuorie dore, 
 Remounted up as light as cheerfull larke, 
 And on his little winges the dreame he bore 
 In haste unto his lord, where he him left afore. 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 1. 
 Approaching nigh, he reared high afore 
 His body monstrous, horrible, and vast. 
 
 Faerie Q. 
 
 Whosoever should make light of any thing afore 
 spoken or written, out of his own house a tree shall 
 be taken, and he thereon be hanged. 
 
 Esdras, vi. 22. 
 
 If he never drank wine afore, it will go near to re- 
 move his fit. Shakspeare. Tempest. 
 
 ^Emilia, run you to the citadel ; 
 
 And tell my lord and lady what hath hap'd : 
 
 Will you go on afore ? Shakspeare. Othello. 
 
 AFORE, in maritime affairs, avant, Fr. fore 
 Sax. all that part of a ship which lies forward, 
 or near the stem ; it likewise implies farther, 
 forward, or nearer the prow ; as, the manager 
 stands afore the foremast, i. e. farther forward, or 
 nearer the stem. In both these senses afore is 
 used in contradistinction to abaft. See ABAFT. 
 
 AFRA, in natural history. See PINTADO. 
 
 AFRANIUS, a Roman comic poet, who lived 
 about the 170th Olympiad, and wrote comedies 
 in imitation of Menander. He is commended 
 by Tully and Quintilian. 
 
 AFRESH'. On fresh. 
 
 But when y remnat of the wicked shal attempt 
 afresh to raise vp again such abhominatios, the Lord 
 shal sodainly without warning fal vpo them with his 
 most fearfull tirrible last iudgment. 
 
 Bale's Image, second part, R. 5. 
 
 Never was there any thing more pitiful than to hear 
 my master blame the dog for loving his master's mur- 
 therer, renewing afresh his complaints with the dumb 
 counsellor. Sidney's Arcadia. 
 
 The faction still defying Edward's might, 
 
 Edmond of Woodstock, with the men of Kent, 
 
 Charging afresh, renew the doubtful fight 
 
 Upon the barons, languishing and spent. 
 
 Drayton. Barons' Wan, 
 
 The Germans, serving upon great horses, and 
 charged with heavy armour, received great hurt by 
 light skirmishes ; the Turks, with their light horses, 
 easily shunning their charge, and again (at their 
 pleasure,) charging them afresh, when they saw the 
 heavy horses almost weary. 
 
 Knolles's History of the Turks. 
 
 When once we have attained these ideas, they 
 may be excited afresh by the use of words. 
 
 Wattt's Logick. 
 
 Bleat out afresh ye hills ; ye massy rocks, 
 Retain the sound : the broad responsive low, 
 Ye valleys raise ; for the great Shepherd reigns, 
 And his unsuffering kingdom yet will come. 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 AFRICA, one of the great divisions, com- 
 monly called, ' the four quarters,' of the earth, 
 the third in magnitude and population, is rising 
 in importance, though probably less known to 
 Europeans than any other. It forms an imper- 
 fect triangular peninsula, of which the north 
 is the base, and is separated from Europe by 
 the Mediterranean Sea, the eastern side from 
 Asia, by the Isthmus of Suez, the Arabian gulph, 
 and the Indian Ocean, whilst the Atlantic and 
 Pacific wash the west and south. The length 
 of Africa, calculated from Cape Serra to Cape 
 Aguilhas, is about 4320 geographical miles, and 
 its greatest breadth 4140, including an area 
 lying between the 37th degree of north, and the 
 35th of south latitude, and the 18th degree of 
 west, and 51st of east longitude. 
 
 NAME. The present name of this continent, 
 among the ancients, was exclusively applied to 
 Africa Propria, a small province in the nor- 
 thern part. Its origin has been traced by the 
 
 learned to different sources. Bochart deduces it 
 from the Punic word feric, an ear of corn ; and 
 supposes it employed to express the great fertility 
 of those parts that were known to the ancients. 
 Others derive it from the Phoenician word Ha- 
 varca or Avreca, anciently applied to the country 
 of Barca. Servius derives it from the Greek priva- 
 tive a and 0piioj, cold, considering it to express the 
 great heat of the climate. It has been also, with 
 great probability, traced to the Hebrew ' phreka/ 
 broken off, or separated, describing its geogra- 
 phical figure, as detached from the continent of 
 Asia. 
 
 DIVISIONS. Africa, under the name of Lybia, 
 was divided by the ancients into Africa Propria, 
 and Africa Interior. AFRICA PROPRIA, com- 
 monly called the territory of Carthage, had va- 
 rious limits assigned to it. Mela and Ptolemy 
 comprehended in this division, all the kingdoms 
 situated between the river Ampsaga, and the 
 borders of Cyrenaica, inhabited, according to
 
 ) -V j\-*if-ujjt ^<j 
 
 ^^-^300^ 3 IVn H i<1 <>*'<'"<' 
 
 .I'.'/trji,* ' v 
 
 Equator or Equinoctial Line
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 243 
 
 Pliny, by twenty-six different nations, Numidia 
 and Regio Syrtica inclusive. Its true limits, 
 however, were the river Tusca, or boundary of 
 Numidia on the west; the Mediterranean or 
 African Sea, on the north ; the frontiers of Ga- 
 ramantes and the deserts of Libya interior, on 
 the south, with the Lesser Syrtis and the Medi- 
 terranean, on the east. This portion of Africa 
 v/as divided into two great provinces, Regio 
 ZFUGITANA and BYZACIUM, with which the 
 summer and winter circuits of the king- 
 dom of Tunis, as exhibited in the travels of 
 Dr. Shaw, nearly correspond. It was remark- 
 able for the ancient lakes Hipponitis, Palus 
 Sisara, Palus Tritonis, Palus Pallas, and Palus 
 Libya; for the famous river Bagrada, and for 
 the contiguous islands of Cossyra, Tarichiae, Lo- 
 padusa, ./Egusa, Dracontia, Galatia, .ZEgimurus, 
 and Larunesise. AFRICA INTERIOR, compre- 
 hended those more remote southern countries, 
 little known to the Greeks and Romans, other- 
 wise than by report. ' Libya Interior,' the 
 western point of this division was inhabited by 
 the Hesperian ^Ethiopians, Nigritae, Gatuli, and 
 Garamantes ; whilst the eastern part was deno- 
 minated by Ptolemy, ' ^Ethiopia sub ^Egypto,' 
 including several countries, too well known to 
 need any specification. Restricted as the Ro- 
 mans were, both in their conquests and com- 
 merce by the tropic of cancer, they acquired 
 scarcely the names of the more retired and 
 southerly kingdoms ; whilst with Numidia, Gaetu- 
 lia, and Mauritania, they were more immediately 
 connected. 
 
 The modern DIVISIONS of Africa, are, 
 
 1. Northern Africa, a term which best ex- 
 presses perhaps, the Barbary states and their 
 dependencies, (exclusive of Egypt, which is 
 principally an eastern country of this continent,) 
 includes all that portion of the globe, extending 
 from the great ' Desert of Sahara' to the Medi- 
 terranean, and from Egypt to the Atlantic. It 
 is inhabited by different nations, hostile to each 
 other, but being overrun by the Mahommedans 
 during the first aera of their power, has ever since 
 
 etained the religion, government, and manners, 
 then impressed upon it. The configuration of 
 the deserts S. and E. of this division, have led 
 some historians to imagine that they were for- 
 merly covered with sea ; and that Barbary, thus 
 rendered insular by the rolling of the wide ocean 
 wave over the deserts east and west of the Atlas, 
 constituted the island of Atlantis, so often 
 mentioned by the ancients. The states of this 
 territory are those of Morocco, Algiers, Barca, 
 TuniSj and Tripoli. 
 
 2. Western Africa, including a spacious terri- 
 tory and many countries, imperfectly known to 
 Europeans, which may be arranged under three 
 divisions. 1 . Those lying between the southern 
 limits of Sahara and the mountains of Khong, 
 refreshed by the magnificent streams of the Se- 
 negal and Gambia. 2. The coast of Guinea, 
 widening from the heights of Kong to the Equi- 
 noctial line. 3. The wide region stretched on 
 both sides of the Zaire or Congo, with the in- 
 cluded kingdoms of Congo, Loango, Angola, 
 Metamba, Benguela, &c. extending from the 
 equator to 15 of S. latitude, from which, down 
 
 as far as the southern promontory^ the internal 
 geography is unknown. 
 
 3. Southern Africa, or Caffraria, is a term 
 given to that division of the African continent 
 which immediately surrounds the Cape of Good 
 Hope, projecting more than 30 south of the 
 equator. On the south-east coast are the king- 
 doms of Inhambane, Sabia, Manica, Sofala, and 
 Monomotapa, or Mocaranga ; but the inhabi- 
 tants, especially those in the immediate vicinity 
 of the Cape, are very low in point of civili- 
 zation. 
 
 4. Eastern Africa,in its approach to the vertex 
 of the peninsula, is much less known than the 
 western coast, being colonized only by the Por- 
 tuguese. It includes Zanguebar, Ajan, and 
 Adel, with their tributary kingdoms. In the 
 higher regions, the kingdoms of Egypt, Ethiopia, 
 and Abyssinia, are well known. 
 
 5. Central Africa, stretching on both sides the 
 Niger, almost across the Continent, is an im- 
 mense tract of country, including the interior of 
 the peninsula; of which, vast regions remain 
 undiscovered. The nations commonly included 
 in this division are Timbuctoo, Houssa, Bor- 
 nou, Durfur, Bergoo, Kordofan, Dabarku, ind 
 Ranga. 
 
 6. A sixth division may include the numerous 
 islands with which Africa is in a manner encir- 
 cled, lying both in the Atlantic and Pacific 
 oceans. These are commonly arranged in groups, 
 as the Cape de Verd isles, the Canary isles, 
 Porto Santo, and Madeiras. Madagascar is 840 
 geographical miles in length, and one-fourth that 
 distance in breadth. St. Helena is famous as the 
 late residence of Buonaparte. The St. Matthew, 
 Ascension, and St. Thomas's islands, together 
 with Zanzibar, Pemba, Mauritius, Bourbon, 
 Monifa, and others, are included in this division. 
 
 GULFS AND STRAITS. The gulfs belonging 
 to Africa, are those of Guinea, Sofala, Sidra, 
 Goletta, France, &c. The straits are those of 
 Gibraltar, Babelmandel, and the Mozambique 
 channel. 
 
 CAPES. The capes are those of Good Hope, 
 Bona, Spartel, Gibraltar, Geer, Bojador, Blanco, 
 Verd, Guardafui, and others. 
 
 MOUNTAINS. The mountains of Africa run 
 in chains, and are scarcely inferior to any others 
 in the known world. The Atlas mountains, fabled 
 by the ancients to be the pillars of heaven, have 
 in some places an elevation of more than 13,000 
 feet from the level of the sea, and stretch over 
 more than half the Continent. This, which is 
 the only African range fully explained, has been 
 described by M. Desfontaines as running forward 
 in two grand divisions; of which, the one toward 
 the Desert is called the great Atlas, and the 
 other toward the Mediterranean, the less. Their 
 course is parallel from east to west, and the in- 
 tervening space broken by hills and mountains, 
 forms a number of deep and beautiful vallies, 
 watered by numerous rivers and streams. The 
 whole range is of primitive granite, and attains 
 its loftiest height towards the western extremity, 
 where it towers above the sultry plain of Morocco ; 
 but even there, notwithstanding the heat of 
 the climate, it is covered with perpetual snow. 
 The Mountains of the Moon supposed to ex- 
 
 R2
 
 244 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 tend across the entire Continent, between the 
 seventh and eleventh degrees of north latitude, 
 must be of still more formidable magnitude, if 
 we may judge of them by their fame throughout 
 the Peninsula, and those mighty rivers, of which 
 they contain the source. 
 
 The highest and most celebrated portions, 
 are those immediately south of Abyssinia, and 
 the country of Nigritia. On the opposite side of 
 the Continent, and nearly in the same parallel, 
 are the mountains of Kong, running in a course 
 from west to east, and stretching from near the 
 point of Cape Verd, as far as the meridian of 
 Tombuctoo, where they are supposed to connect 
 themselves with the Mountains of the Moon, and 
 so to form one entire range, reaching across the 
 whole breadth of the African Continent. Abys- 
 sinia is almost entirely a country of mountains, 
 intersected by deep and extensive vallies. The 
 southern shores of Africa are also overlooked by 
 lofty mountains. Those of Lupata surround 
 the kingdom of Mocarana. The Chrystal moun- 
 tains, the kingdoms of Congo, Angola, and Ben- 
 guela. The numerous and large rivers that water 
 Mozambique on the one side, and Congo on the 
 other, indicate some extensive ranges intervening 
 between these two regions, and accordingly, such 
 have been reputed to exist ; but, as they have 
 never been laid down with geographical accuracy, 
 their directions and magnitude appear ) to be 
 unknown. 
 
 RIVERS. The rivers of Africa are nume- 
 rous and interesting, more remarkable, perhaps, 
 than even its mountains, and their course 
 wrapt in deeper mystery. The innumerable and 
 vast streams poured down from the Atlas, and 
 other lofty ranges, are many of them lost in the 
 sands of the desert; others, circumvolving through 
 the unknown interior, at last empty themselves 
 into the ocean. 
 
 The Nile is the largest river at present en- 
 tirely discovered ; the source of this celebrated 
 stream, after much speculation, is now satisfac- 
 torily ascertained to be the mountains of the 
 Moon, some hundred miles south of Darfur. 
 The immense mass of waters poured down 
 from those celebrated heights, swelled by large 
 tributary accessions from Abyssinia, forces its 
 way across the sands of Nubia, divides the 
 vale of Egypt, and at last empties into the 
 Mediterranean. It is at first called Bahr el Abiad 
 or White River, and in the sixteenth degree of 
 latitude forms an union with the Bahr el Azrek 
 or Blue River, the latter of which, although 
 mistaken by the Portuguese and other geogra- 
 phers, for the Nile, was well known to the an- 
 cients as a mere auxiliary. The whole course of 
 this river is estimated at 2000 miles, abounding 
 with magnificent cataracts, and exercising an 
 unparalleled influence on the fertility of the sur- 
 rounding country. 
 
 The Niger has been for many years an object 
 of uncommon interest, and of speculative and 
 practical research. Its source, as well as that of 
 the Senegal, has been long since known to be in 
 the mountains of Kong, in the west of the con- 
 tinent, but its embouchure remained undis- 
 covered, and exercised the conjecture of philo- 
 sophic topographers for many years back. Some 
 
 imagined the Niger and Congo to be identical ; 
 others believed that this great river united with 
 the Nile ; while a third party conjectured that it 
 evaporated in the warm districts of Central 
 Africa. All future theories, however, have been 
 rendered useless by the discovery of John and 
 Richard Lander, in the year 1830. These en- 
 terprising travellers, the former of whom had 
 been a companion of captain Clapperton in his 
 last journey, proceeded from the coast to Boora, 
 on the Niger, and, pursuing the stream down- 
 wards, reached the Atlantic Ocean in the month 
 of November, 1830, through the channel of the 
 river Nun, flowing into the Bight of Benin. 
 This channel proves to be one of the numerous 
 conduits by which the Niger discharges its 
 waters into the ocean, and which intersect and 
 enclose a delta, one side of which extends 240 
 miles along the coast. 
 
 The Zaire, or Congo, is the next in interest 
 and importance to those already named, and 
 pours into the ocean an extraordinary mass of 
 waters. Of the rivers that flow into the Indian 
 Ocean, may be mentioned the Zambeze, the 
 Quillimanci, and the Magdasho, whose source 
 and early flow are involved in equal ob- 
 scurity. The last two are supposed to arise from 
 the same source as the Nile. With respect to 
 the first, although it has been ascended some 
 hundreds of miles in search of gold, nothing 
 satisfactory has been ascertained. 
 
 DESERTS. One of the most striking features 
 of Africa, is the immensity of its deserts. The 
 great desert of Sahara alone reaching from the 
 shores of the Atlantic, [to the confines of Egypt ; 
 and covering a superficial area of more than 
 2500 miles in length, by 700 its average 
 breadth. Over this immense world of desola- 
 tion are scattered numerous oases, of which 
 Fezzan is the most remarkable. These beau- 
 tiful islands of verdure, rendered doubly delight- 
 ful from their pointing up from such wide oceans 
 of sand, furnished some of the most happy 
 pictures of the ancients ; and formed their Hes- 
 perian gardens, the Fortunate islands, and the 
 islands of the Blest. Besides the great de- 
 sert above mentioned, there are several smaller 
 ones still of very considerable magnitude and 
 geographical importance. Some of these lie near 
 the European settlements ; and modern travellers 
 have supposed another wide wilderness lying 
 between the eastern and western ranges of 
 mountains. 
 
 To cross these immense deserts is an under- 
 taking attended with great danger and difficulty; 
 hence travellers- commonly go in caravans, each 
 consisting of a number of persons seldom fewer 
 than 2000, for the purpose of mutual safety. 
 They have no track to direct them ; and as the 
 shifting sands soon obliterate any impression, they 
 are guided by the sun and stars, a few rocks of 
 peculiar form, heaps of stone piled up, Sec., and 
 so great is the aridity of the climate, that should 
 they miss their calculation, with respect ;to one 
 of these stations, they frequently perish for want 
 of water. So late as 1805, a whole caravan, 
 consisting of 2000 persons, was lost in conse- 
 quence of the drying up of a well, on which 
 they depended for a supply. Water is carried
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 1M5 
 
 from station to station in skins, by means of 
 camels, the same as other goods. A certain 
 portion of their beasts of burden being set 
 apart for that purpose ; the load of a camel is 
 about three or four hundred weight, and the ex- 
 pence of carriage a farthing a mile for every 
 hundred weight. 
 
 The heat of the climate arises from its being 
 almast equally intersected by the equator ; and 
 is so intense that Mr. Park lying in his hut of 
 reeds in the dry season, could not endure to 
 hold his hand against the hot wind that blew 
 through the crevices, and even the negroes, 
 when the wind blew from E. or N. E. could not 
 bear to touch the ground with their feet ; ne- 
 vertheless, owing to a different elevation and 
 other circumstances, the climate is in some parts 
 agreeable. The southern side of the equator is 
 milder than the north, though at an equal dis- 
 tance; but near the Mediterranean, even the 
 north is not disagreeable to Europeans refreshed 
 as it is by its sea-breezes, and rendered cool by 
 its vicinity to the mountains. 
 
 QUADRUPEDS. The beasts of Africa are nume- 
 rous, and are considered amongst the most ex- 
 traordinary in the world, for strength, size, and 
 ferocity. They reign undisturbed in the vast 
 deserts of this amazing peninsula, fostered by the 
 sultry heat of the climate, which seems more suit- 
 able to them than to any other of its productions. 
 The majestic lion roams at large, and there are 
 but few tracts where the traveller is safe from his 
 dreadful incursions. The tiger is never seen ; 
 but the panther, the leopard, and the hyaena, 
 are almost peculiar to this division of the globe ; 
 as is also one species of the rhinoceros, distin- 
 guished by two horns on the nose ; and one of the 
 elephant, remarkable for a round head, convex 
 forehead, large ears, and only three toes on the 
 hind feet. Baboons, apes, and monkies, leap in 
 myriads through the woods, and many of them 
 grow to an astonishing stature. 
 
 The simia troglodytes chimpanse, or ourang- 
 outang, in appearance greatly resembling the 
 human species, commonly running to the height 
 of from five to six feet, is a native of Africa. 
 Crocodiles and hippopotami abound in the rivers ; 
 the black bear is a native of Barbary ; horses 
 and asses run wild. The zebra and quagga are 
 seen commonly by travellers : and there are no 
 fewer than thirty kinds of antelopes, celebrated 
 for their fleetness and beauty. The great Caf- 
 frarian buffalo is very ferocious, and is said to be 
 a species peculiar to Africa. The dromedary is 
 emphatically called ' the ship of the desert ;' and 
 is the most useful animal in that part of the 
 world. His large flat hoof, the power of carry- 
 ing water for himself and his master, together 
 with his great strength to support burdens, ren- 
 der him almost the only animal capable of travel- 
 ling in the burning sands, and without him, many 
 of these deserts would be totally impassable. 
 The camel dromedary is more lightly formed 
 than the camel, and is used when extraordinary 
 swiftness is required. He will walk fifty miles 
 i day, with ease, and when made to gallop will 
 travel 200 miles for many days in succession, and 
 frequently, in cases of extreme exigence, has been 
 known to travel 300 miles in twenty hours. Dro- 
 
 medaries are trained by the Moors for the pur- 
 poses of war and plunder. South of the Niger, 
 the ass is commonly employed for travelling ; the 
 ground being so irregular and mountainous, that 
 the camel would not be of any service. But 
 elephants are perhaps the most numerous of all 
 the larger animals of Africa : they roam in vast 
 herds, through the forests of the interior, and 
 have been thought a species quite distinct from 
 those of Asia. The inhabitants, -when they see 
 an elephant, hunt him down, feast upon his flesh, 
 make sandals of his hide, and sell his teeth to 
 Europeans. Their mode of attacking them is 
 by fire-arms ; as soon as they have discharged 
 their pieces at one of them, they fall flat on the 
 ground to avoid the first effects of his resent- 
 ment ; but no sooner is he become faint with 
 the loss of blood, than they rise and make a 
 second discharge, which commonly terminates 
 his life. In some parts of Africa, elephants are 
 caught in pits, in a manner similar to that prac- 
 tised in the island of Ceylon. 
 
 BIRDS. There have been calculated 643 
 species of birds, of which nearly 500 are pecu- 
 liar to Africa ; and of eighty-seven genera, six or 
 eight are peculiar. Parrots are generally scarce 
 in Africa ; but insectivorous and frugivorous 
 birds are very numerous. The guinea fowl, of 
 which there are three species, is a native. The 
 ostrich commonly rising to the height of six or 
 eight feet, abounds in the sandy deserts, and is 
 remarkable for swiftness. They flock together 
 in large troops, at a distance resembling an army 
 of soldiers, and in swiftness exceed the fleetest 
 horse. The eggs of the ostrich frequently exceed 
 three pounds in weight ; and these the bird de- 
 posits in the sand to be hatched by the heat of 
 the sun. The didus or dodo, formerly known in 
 some parts of the continent, is supposed to be 
 now entirely extinct, none of the species having 
 been seen for a great length of time. 
 
 INSECTS. Africa swarms with the most beautiful 
 insects. The migratory locust is the most formid- 
 able, marching forth in myriads, and spreading its 
 ravages over the most fertile provinces ; they 
 have been known to cover an area of 2000 square 
 miles ; and hitherto no means have been able to 
 prevent their progress. The ant is also nume- 
 rous, building nests, each from ten to twenty 
 feet in height ; not only destroying every thing 
 in the houses, but even cutting through the 
 trunks of trees in a few weeks. The tsaltsalya is 
 a dreadful scourge, particularly in Abyssinia. 
 The scorpion is a native : of spiders there are 
 two kinds, the tarantula, which abounds in 
 Barbary ; and the tendaraman, a native of Mo- 
 rocco, whose bite is fatal. The great -centipede 
 is found in every part of the interior regions. 
 The conchologist meets innumerable varieties 
 of the most beautiful shells, on the borders of all 
 the coasts and rivers ; where are also found many 
 species of zoophytes, in some places construct- 
 ing reefs and islands of immense magnitude and 
 extent. The guinea worm is frequently met 
 with ; and the famous nautilus of the ancients, 
 is found in the African seas. 
 
 REPTILES. Africa is full of reptiles and ser- 
 pents of every description; of these the larger 
 ones belong to the Python tribe. Crocodiles
 
 246 
 
 APR I C A. 
 
 abound in the large rivers ; but, happily for the 
 people, one species of tortoise, called tyrse", 
 devours the young crocodiles in great numbers, 
 the moment they are hatched. The ouaran of 
 the Nile also, a species of lizard from three to 
 six feet long, greatly venerated by the ancient 
 Egyptians, devours the crocodile's eggs. The 
 boa constrictor is one of the most terrible snakes 
 in Africa, both from its prodigious size, and 
 habits. The haje, which the ancients called aspic, 
 is taught by the Egyptian jugglers to dance ; 
 this animal, from the practice of erecting itself 
 ' on being approached, was adopted by the ancients 
 as the emblem of protection, and sculptured as 
 such on the portals of their temples. The came- 
 Icon is a native of many parts of Africa. 
 
 PLANTS, &c. The vegetable kingdom opens 
 to the botanist a field untraversed, at present, 
 by the foot of science ; containing a beautiful 
 variety of all those plants that charm the eye, 
 and adorn the fair face of nature. The baobab, 
 or calabash tree, exhibits the most extraordinary 
 dimensions. Its height, though commonly 
 reaching sixty or seventy feet, bears no propor- 
 tion to the trunk. Adanson is said to have 
 found one in the island of Senegal, which mea- 
 sured seventy-four feet in circumference; the 
 branches of which, spreading in all directions, 
 were as large as common trees ; thus constituting, 
 of itself, a species of forest. The mangrove, 
 which grows on the banks of rivers, strikes root 
 in its bed, forming a platform above the water, 
 and a little arcade below the stream. The shea, 
 or vegetable butter-tree, is curious and impor- 
 tant to the natives ; whilst, on the borders of the 
 desert, is found the celebrated lotus tree, the 
 fruit of which, (a farinaceous berry,) when pre- 
 pared, becomes very nutritious, and equal in 
 taste to the sweetest gingerbread. The flora of 
 Africa is not yet half explored : although it has 
 already added to botany many new and interest- 
 ing species, a great harvest yet remains in the 
 interior. 
 
 MINERALS. Various metals have been found 
 in Africa, but none of them characteristic, ex- 
 cepting gold. This metal is found on every 
 part of the central mountains, occurs frequently 
 in an alluvial soil, and is also found in the 
 rivers. That which is brought to Egypt, Fez, 
 Algiers, Morocco, &c. is commonly brought from 
 Bambouk, north-west of the Kong mountains. 
 Pure gold is said to be found in veins in the dis- 
 trict opposite Madagascar. Africa produces 
 besides the jasper, agate, emerald, topaz, nu- 
 merous other precious stones. Copper is found 
 in the Western Atlas ; also in the adjacent region 
 about Fertit, Abyssinia, Mozambique, Congo, 
 and the mountains beyond the Orange river. 
 Mines of silver are found in the territory of 
 Tunis: iron abounds in Morocco and other 
 places. 
 
 INHABITANTS. Africa is considered to have 
 been first peopled by Ham and his immediate des- 
 cendants. Mizraim peopled Egypt, (Gen. x. 
 6, 13.) The Pathrusim, Naphtalim, Cafluhim, 
 and Ludim, took possession of other parts, but 
 their relative situations are not accurately known. 
 The Lehabim have been supposed to have 
 Gcttle/1 in Libya; Phut, between Numidia and 
 
 Libya, along the Mediterranean ; and that many 
 of the Canaanites retired into Africa when driven 
 from their own country by Joshua. The Auses, 
 whose chief city was Auza, the Maxyes, and 
 Machlyes, (Libyan nations) the Zaueces, and 
 Zygantes, are supposed all to have been a mix- 
 ture of the old Libyans and Phoenicians. The 
 Garamantes, Gsetuli, Hesperiani, /Ethiopians, 
 &c. inhabited the western regions. The Asta- 
 curi, Dolopes, Blemmyes, Cadupi, Ichthyopagi, 
 Lotophagi, Elephantophagi, &c. are feigned to 
 have inhabited the southern regions. The 
 present inhabitants of this peninsula are com- 
 monly divided into Moors and Negroes. The 
 former supposed to be the descendants of the 
 ancient Arabs, blended with numerous other 
 nations, who have settled in Africa. These have, 
 for the most part, occupied the habitable parts, 
 and driven the negroes into the southern regions, 
 or beyond the great rivers. The Moors are 
 piratical, treacherous, unsettled, roaming like 
 their ancestors, from place to place ; and being 
 superstitious Mahommedans, are generally very 
 hostile to Europeans. The term is, however, 
 vaguely applied, since, during the middle ages, 
 all the Mahommedans were called Turks and 
 Moors ; and all who were not of the former, were 
 considered of the latter. At present the name 
 is chiefly restricted to the inhabitants of the cities 
 of Barbary. Their general character is rudeness 
 and austere superstition. Their towns are 
 gloomy, having narrow streets. Their houses 
 have walls of earth, and are destitute of windows; 
 and even their internal splendour is barbarous. 
 Compared with the Turks, the Moors are gene- 
 rally an inferior race. Jews exist in great num- 
 bers in Barbary, where, as they exhibit their 
 peculiarities and political distinctions, they are 
 the objects of derision and contempt. * The in- 
 habitants of Egypt are chiefly foreigners. The 
 Copts are of a yellow dusky complexion ; the 
 females elegant and interesting. They are said 
 to be the only race descended from the original 
 natives. The proper Arabians chiefly occupy the 
 country districts, residing in tents woven of 
 camels hair and the fibres of the palm ; forming 
 a sort of moveable towns and villages. The 
 government is under a sheik and emir, or patri- 
 archal chiefs, tributary to the sovereign of the 
 Moors. The mountains are occupied by inde- 
 pendent tribes. The negroes are gentle, hospi- 
 table, and affectionate ; but, withal, improvident, 
 thievish, and superstitious. They are divided 
 into two classes, Foulahs and Mandingoes. 
 The former hold Mahommedanism, divested of 
 some of its gloomy features, and are esteemed 
 one of the most respectable tribes in Africa. 
 Their original country is situated east of Bam- 
 bouk, and is denominated Fooladoo ; but their 
 principal kingdom is that behind Sierra Leone, 
 of which Temboo is the capital. Amidst all the 
 different tribes and kingdoms occupying this 
 great peninsula, the forms of government are 
 almost infinitely diversified. 
 
 AGRICULTURE. Agriculture and the arts are 
 in a very imperfect state amongst all the native 
 tribes of this continent. In none, with the ex- 
 ception of Whydah, is landed property at all 
 recognized, nor liave they the means of applying
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 247 
 
 the advantages which have resulted from Euro- 
 pean skill, or even European implements to the 
 cultivation of the earth. The hoe is the only 
 instrument with which the ground is tilled ; and 
 Park mentions it as a surprizing instance, no 
 where else seen in Africa, that for a mile round 
 Kirwanny the country was entirely cleared of 
 wood. The labour of cultivating the earth is 
 common to a whole village during two short 
 seasons, seed, time, and harvest, when all the in- 
 habitants go out headed by their chief, while 
 their musicians attend and cheer the toil by the 
 conjoined harmony of their different voices and 
 instruments. 
 
 MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE. Manufac- 
 tures are in a still less advanced state, the most 
 extensive department of which is cotton cloths, 
 and this is mostly carried on by each family for 
 its own use. Dressing of leather alone, of all 
 African manufactures, forms an article of export 
 to Europe. 
 
 Meantime, commerce, except on the coasts of 
 the Mediterranean and Red Sea, has never been 
 in a flourishing state ; the west of Africa having 
 nothing but an immeasureable waste of ocean 
 before it, wanted an opposite coast with which 
 to trade Inland commerce has, however, been 
 more extensive, and has overcome the mightiest 
 obstacles ever presented to mutual communi- 
 cation. Deserts full of shifting sands, where 
 wide desolation seemed fatal to every thing 
 endued with life, are traversed by large and 
 numerous caravans. In these the camel, called 
 'the ship of the land', is almost exclusively 
 employed ; and by his means the commercial 
 Arabs have penetrated even to the depths of In- 
 terior Africa. 
 
 CARAVAN ROUTES. The number of camels 
 composing a caravan is various, but generally 
 from 500 to 2000. They travel at the rate of 
 three miles an hour, and for six or seven hours 
 in the day, from station to station till they have 
 completed the entire route. The party are sup- 
 ported by the milk of the camel, barley meal, 
 Indian corn, dates, &c. ; and on arriving at the 
 different stations commonly remain a few days 
 to recruit their stock of provisions, and refresh 
 themselves and cattle. Without professing to 
 enumerate all the caravan tracts which stretch 
 across the vast deserts of Africa, we shall specify 
 the principal points from which they set out, 
 and some of the places where they stop for re- 
 freshment, occasionally making a short stay of 
 two or three days. The points whence they 
 generally set out are three, Morocco, Fezzan, 
 and Egypt. The caravans from Morocco are 
 very large, and proceed to Soudan, or Tom- 
 buctoo, chiefly the latter. The principal sta- 
 tions being the rendezvous Akka or Tatta, Tegaz- 
 za, Taudeny and Arawdu or Arodu. The whole 
 journey occupies 129 days, sixty-five of which 
 are spent in rest. Another route to the same 
 point is by Wedinoon, Cape Bojador, and 
 Gualata, although many travellers prefer direct- 
 ing their course to Bambarra, and the banks of 
 the Senegal. Of late, a negro state has been 
 established on the borders of Morocco, forming 
 a species of entrepot for the commodities of 
 Soudan, which prevents many Moorish mer- 
 
 chants crossing the deserts. Mcurzouk, the 
 capital of Fezzan, is a sort of central point for 
 the trade of Interior Africa, and has several 
 caravan routes of considerable importance ; one 
 to Cairo which requires about forty days. The 
 halting places being Seivah, Augila, and Te- 
 missa ; another leads to Bornou, through the 
 deserts of Bilma and Tibesti, a journey of fif- 
 teen days. The principal halts of which are 
 Temissa, Dourboo and Kavem. A third leads 
 to Timbuctoo by Gadamis. Its longest, and 
 perhaps most important route, is to Cashna, a 
 jou'ney of sixty days, although the caravan 
 frequently crosses the Niger, and turning west- 
 ward proceeds over the mountains of Kong to 
 Ashantee. Egypt sends out three caravans for 
 the general rendezvous at Cairo, one to Seunaar, 
 another to Darfur, and a third to Fezzan; the 
 latter is annual, the two former once in two 
 ,or three years. The caravan with which Mr. 
 Browne travelled consisted of 500 camels 
 but the number often amounts to as many as 
 2000. 
 
 INTERNAL COMMERCE. Salt, the chief article 
 of commerce from North Africa, is an article of 
 luxury in the interior regions, where the inha- 
 bitants suck it as children do sweetmeats. It 
 is sold in its rocky state, in slabs of twenty- 
 four feet long, each worth 2 or 2 10s. and 
 is exchanged by the caravans for the gold of 
 Nigritia. 
 
 Dr. Shaw assures us that the western Moors 
 carry on a trade with the barbarous nations 
 bordering upon the Niger, without ever seeing 
 the persons they trade with. ' They make this 
 journey,' says he, ' in a numerous caravan, 
 carrying along with them coral and glass beads, 
 bracelets of horn, knives, scissars, and such like 
 trinkets. When they arrive at the place ap- 
 pointed, which is on such a day of the moon,they 
 find in die evening several different heaps of gold 
 dust, lying at a small distance from each other, 
 against which the Moors place so many of their 
 trinkets as they judge will be taken in ex- 
 change for them. If the Nigritians the next 
 morning approve of the bargain, they take up 
 the trinkets and leave the gold dust, or else 
 make some deductions from the latter. In this 
 manner they transact their business without 
 seeing one another, or without the least instance 
 of dishonesty or perfidiousness.' The antiquity 
 of this custom is at least as high as Herodotus, 
 as appears from the following passage. * It 
 is their custom,' speaking of the Carthaginians, 
 1 to unload their vessels, and dispose their goods 
 along the shore. This done, they again embark, 
 and make a great smoke from on board. The 
 natives seeing this, come down to the shore, and 
 placing a quantity of gold, by way of exchange 
 for the merchandize, retire. The Carthaginians 
 then land a second time ; and if they think the 
 gold equivalent take it and depart, if not they 
 go aboard their vessels again. The inhabitants 
 return and add more till the crews are satisfied. 
 The whole is conducted with the strictest in- 
 tegrity, for neither will the one touch the gold 
 till they have left the value in merchandize, nor 
 the other remove the goods till the Carthagi- 
 nians have taken the gold.' ' Herod. Melp. 196.'
 
 248 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 The articles furnished for the internal com- 
 merce of Africa, are chiefly sashes, silk hand- 
 kerchiefs, carpets, woollen caps, and leather 
 furnished by the Mediterranean states, gold, 
 ivory, gums, hides, oil, skins, woods, &c. are 
 derived from all parts of the peninsula, together 
 with arms, agricultural implements, and orna- 
 ments for the chiefs and the women. 
 
 EARLY GEOGRAPHY. Little of the geography 
 of this vast section of the earth was known to the 
 ancients, and of what information they had ac- 
 quired respecting it we are but imperfectly in- 
 formed. Many voyages made in the early ages 
 were never written; and others have perished 
 in the lapse of time. Geography rose like the 
 morning sun, first breaking through the clouds 
 of the east, and brightening most of all, that divi- 
 sion of the hemisphere; but, as it arose, it 
 widened its influence, and seemed to pour its 
 broad sun-beams upon every portion of the world. 
 Early attempts were made to explore the re- 
 gion of Africa, as is evident from facts and evi- 
 dences recorded in history. Eratosthenes notices 
 the first division of the old world into continents. 
 This began in the islands of the Cyclades, 
 and was, no doubt, intended originally to dis- 
 tinguish between the opposite shores of Greece 
 and Caria. The latter of these, including a 
 small district denominated Asia, has since given 
 its name to that division of the globe. The coast 
 of Lybia was called Africa, or Southland, from 
 its position with respect to Greece. The north 
 coast was known early to the European nations 
 of the north, whose several districts are fre- 
 quently mentioned in their writings ; and along 
 the western coast, discovery proceeded with a 
 more advanced step than on that directly oppo- 
 site ; but all expeditions to effect its circumnavi- 
 gation are considered to have failed. 
 
 Herodotus says, that Necho, king of Egypt, 
 having desisted from his attempt to cut a canal 
 from the Nile to the Arabian Gulph, fitted out 
 an expedition under the direction of Phoenician 
 navigators, to sail round this Continent. Their 
 directions were, to take their course down the 
 Red Sea, to sail down the Southern Ocean, to 
 double the Columns of Hercules, and return by 
 way of the Mediterranean. The navigators are 
 said to have succeeded ; but Herodotus himself 
 avows a degree of scepticism, because they said, 
 that having sailed round Lybia, they had the sun 
 on their right hand. Such, however, must have 
 been their actual observation during their voyage 
 down the regions south of the equinoctial line, 
 according to the subsequent demonstrations of 
 astronomy. The great and numerous obstacles 
 they must have encountered in that rude period 
 of navigation, have always rendered the long 
 voyages of the ancients suspicious, especially 
 those which relate to the circumnavigation of 
 Africa. The Portuguese experienced innumera- 
 ble difficulties in doubling the Cape Bojador, 
 and effected it at last only by means of the com- 
 pass, which enabled them to stand out to sea : 
 destitute of that instrument, M. Gosselin thinks 
 they never could have succeeded. Huet, (Com- 
 merce et Navigation des Anciens, 34, 275,) the 
 Abbe" Paris, (Academic des Sciences, vii. 79,) 
 Montesque, (Esprit des Lois, b. xxi. c. 10,) con- 
 
 tend that it was really performed, while Vossius, 
 (in his Notes to Pomponius Mela,) D'Anville, 
 and others, are very unbelieving. A discussion 
 of the question has taken place between Major 
 Rennell on the one side, and Dr. Vincent and 
 M. Gosselin on the other. In the opinion of the 
 last two gentlemen named, Gibbon, in an essay 
 written upon that subject, appears to coincide; 
 viz. that such an expedition exceeds all th 
 means and resources of ancient navigation. 
 Whatever disputants may advance with respect 
 to this voyage, one fact is certain, viz. that if 
 Africa was circumnavigated by the Phosnicians, 
 all their discoveries have entirely perished. 
 Subsequent to the attempt of Necho, Sataspcs 
 made an attempt to sail round Africa. He was 
 a Persian nobleman, whom Xerxes had con- 
 demned to be crucified ; but afterwards altered 
 the sentence to that of making a voyage round 
 Africa. He commenced his undertaking, and 
 passed the straits ; but sailing for months together 
 down the western coast, and having no prospect 
 before him but immense deserts on the one 
 hand, and a trackless ocean on the other, his 
 courage failed him, and he returned. Eudoxus, 
 a native of Cyzicus, who made the next attempt, 
 procured from surrounding states a pretty large 
 expedition, with a view to the same object, but 
 his intimidated crew, compelling him to keep 
 near the shore, the ship ran aground. He then 
 constructed a new vessel out of the old materials, 
 and set out afresh, but was obliged to return, the 
 vessel being too small to effect any useful pur- 
 pose. Bocchus, king of Mauritania, afterwards 
 engaged to send him out afresh ; but doubting the 
 sincerity of his patron, he retired to Iberia, 
 where he fitted out an expedition superior to the 
 former ; but the narrative, which was written by 
 Strabo, closed about the time the expedition 
 sailed, and we have nothing further of its success. 
 Other voyages were undertaken with nearly the 
 same success. Sixty vessels were sent out by the 
 Carthaginians, containing 30,000 persons, under 
 the conduct of Hanno, for the purposes of the bet- 
 ter discovery and colonization of Africa ; they 
 doubled the promontory of Lybia, erected the ce- 
 lebrated temple of Neptune, and crossing the bay, 
 came to the great river Lixus, and landed on the 
 island of Cerne, where they planted a colony. 
 They afterwards proceeded along the coast, and 
 saw numerous islands ; but discouraged perhaps 
 at the greatness of the undertaking, returned to 
 Cerne. How far they went is not distinctly 
 known. M. Gosselin considers they proceeded 
 along the coast of Morocco, to the river Nun ; 
 but Major Rennell thinks they went beyond Sierra 
 Leone, whose mountains are the identical ones 
 which they denominated the Chariot of the 
 gods. Their descriptions correspond with the 
 present features of the coast about the Gambia 
 and Senegal. The Periplus of Hanno, contain- 
 ing the journal of this voyage, has given rise to 
 much learned and elaborate discussion, and 
 was opposed by numerous objections by Dod- 
 well, in the Oxford edition of the Minor Greek 
 Geographers. The authenticity of this celebrated 
 document, is now, nevertheless, acknowledged ; 
 and the work itself thought one of the most 
 curious and valuable memoirs of antiquity. As
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 249 
 
 to the portion of coast sailed over, different 
 opinions are entertained ; and upon the detail of 
 the voyage, three different systems have been 
 advanced by Bougainville, Gosselin, and Rennell. 
 The earliest voyages to the east, are those men- 
 tioned in Bible history, viz. to Tarshish and 
 Ophir. These evidently extended a consi- 
 derable distance along the coast of the Indian 
 Ocean. With regard to the interior, remote an- 
 tiquity is almost silent upon well attested facts 
 of geographical exploration. Herodotus men- 
 tions an adventurous journey of five young 
 Nasamonians, who penetrated the great sandy 
 Desert, and were taken by some little dark- 
 coloured men, and carried to a city inhabited 
 by people like themselves. This city is sup- 
 posed by Rennell to be a city of Central Africa, 
 and a river mentioned by the same author, to 
 have been the river Niger. To the countries 
 watered by the Niger, the knowledge of the an- 
 cients was in a great measure confined. A dis- 
 tinction stated by Herodotus between Ethiopians 
 and Africans, appears to correspond with the mo- 
 dern division of Moors and Negroes. He ap- 
 pears to have adopted the error still popular in 
 Africa, viz. that of confounding the Niger with 
 the Nile. He supposed the river just mentioned 
 to have been the western part of the Nile. But by 
 his tracing the Nile four months sail from the 
 lower extremity of Egypt, and considering it as 
 flowing from the south-west, that he was ac- 
 quainted with the true source of that river, to 
 say the least, is probable. The expedition of 
 two divisions of the army of Cambyses, (to the 
 south and west of Egypt,) the latter of which is 
 supposed to have perished in the desert, consti- 
 tuted the next effort to explore the interior of 
 Africa. Alexander, when at Memphis, visited 
 the temple of Jupiter Ammon, but lost a great 
 part of his troops in the attempt. War and 
 commerce, however, gradually opened a way 
 into these regions. Under the Ptolemies we 
 may suppose many efforts were made, and by 
 the Romans, expeditions were sent under Septi- 
 mius Flaccus and Julius Maternus, as intimated 
 by Ptolemy, b. i. c. 8. The best ancient descrip- 
 tion of interior Africa is to be found in Ptolemy. 
 Though unacquainted with the extent of Sahara, 
 and the geographical scite of Nigritia, he 
 has shown himself acquainted with the whole 
 course of the Niger, and the general geogra- 
 phy of the African rivers. His description 
 of the Niger is, that it ' joins together Mount 
 Thala and Mount Mandrus,' lib. iv. c. 6. His 
 predecessor, Eratosthenes, who is said to have 
 formed the first regular geographical system, 
 evinced considerable knowledge of the African 
 rivers. His theory respecting the Nile is cu- 
 rious. Placing, in common with Strabo, Mela, 
 and other writers, the southern extremity of 
 Africa, on this side the equator, they supposed 
 beyond the equator a great antichthonos or ba- 
 lancing continent, and convinced that the true 
 source of the Nile must be beyond what they 
 then imagined the limit of the southern extremity 
 of Africa, they placed the source of the Nile in 
 the southern continent, and supposed its early 
 course to be under the ocean till it emerged on the 
 southern shore of Africa. The Arabians have given 
 
 some little information, which is correct and 
 valuable, with much that is poetic and fabulous. 
 The most copious of their writers is Edrisi. 
 Nubia was little known to him. The Nubians and 
 Egyptians being of different religions, even the 
 merchants of each country, instead of travelling 
 into the territories of the other, brought their com- 
 modities to the opposite side of the great cataract; 
 where, as soon as they had landed and made the 
 exchange, they immediately re-embarked. In 
 the absence of this medium, the Arabians opened 
 for themselves another. They had penetrated at 
 a remote period, across the great Desert, to the 
 eastern shores of the Niger ; and through the fer- 
 tility of its banks and the richness of its golden 
 sands, they formed settlements. Emigration and 
 revolution swelled the tide, till, in the course of 
 two centuries, several great Mahommedan king- 
 doms were established on the Niger. Of these 
 new establishments Ghana or Gana, stood pre- 
 eminent, bordering upon the Wangara, where the 
 overflowings of the Niger impregnated the soil 
 with gold. A regular system of commerce was 
 established with other Mussulman states ; and ca- 
 ravans were seen in all directions, traversing the 
 vast expansire deserts. The position of Ulil, de- 
 scribed by Edrisi as an island situated in the sea 
 at one day's sail from the mouth of the ' Nile of 
 the negroes,' or Niger, is not positively deter- 
 mined. It is highly probable that this sea must 
 have been an inland lake, which, supposition 
 has extended much to the west of Tombuctoo. 
 East of Gana lay Wangara, the celebrated ' coun- 
 try of gold,' represented by the Arabs as nearly 
 surrounded with the branches of the Nile, by 
 which it is inundated during the rainy season ; 
 and as containing two lakes near the cities of 
 Semegonda and Reghehil. The Tocrur, and se- 
 veral other kingdoms being founded, the Arabs 
 extended themselves westward through Barbary. 
 Flourishing settlements were also formed on the 
 coast, colonized by Arabians. These were mostly 
 at Melinda, Monbaza, and Sofala, called com- 
 monly the Golden Sofala, Vakvak, or Ouac ; 
 Ouac forms here the indistinct limit of knowledge. 
 The Arabians had no idea of the existence of 
 Good Hope Cape. It appears by the curious 
 map of Edrisi, on the contrary, that, like Pto- 
 lemy, he extended it to the east till it became 
 conterminous with India and China : hence his 
 placing the island Vakvak in the sea of China, 
 which so perplexes Hartmann. 
 
 Subsequent to the flourishing aera of Ara- 
 bian science, extending from the tenth to the 
 fourteenth century, geographical discovery has 
 been the exclusive boast of Europeans. In the 
 fifteenth century Africa was circumnavigated, its 
 figure was ascertained, its country colonized. The 
 Portuguese one of the most insignificant states 
 of Europe, influenced by curiosity, avarice, and 
 a desire to detect, in the person of a rumoured 
 Christian sovereign on the eastern coast, that 
 real Prester John, whose abode they were most 
 anxious to ascertain, penetrated at the two op- 
 posite points of Abyssinia and Congo ; but, in- 
 stead of making fresh discoveries, only darkened 
 and perplexed what had been known before. 
 The Nile for instance, was said to rise in Abys- 
 sinia. Abyssinia itself was immensely extended.
 
 250 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 even beyond the southern frontier of Congo and 
 Monomotapa. Lake Zambre was placed 2000 
 miles south of its real position, and made the 
 common source of the Nile, Congo, and Zambezi. 
 The Niger was thought to be a mighty river, 
 emptying itself into the ocean by two mouths, 
 the Gambia and Senegal. It is true they were 
 divided in their opinions ; some fixed its source 
 in the lake Dembea ; others, in a lake south of 
 Boraou ; others thought it one of the branches 
 of Gion, which took its sweep in this direction im- 
 mediately after it issued from Paradise ; but the 
 conjectures were no satisfaction to geographers. 
 
 John I. equipped a powerful armament to 
 attack the Moors on the coast of Barbary; 
 and several vessels appointed to precede it, in 
 exploring the western coast, advanced as far as 
 Bojador Cape, but were deterred from attempt- 
 ing to double it, by the tremendous aspect of the 
 sea at that point. 
 
 In the year 1415, Don Henry fitted out a 
 vessel, under the command of Gonzalez Zarco, 
 and Tristan Vaz, for the purpose of extending 
 the line of maritime discovery. In this, the ex- 
 pedition failed ; but, being driven back by the 
 squalls from their intended course, they fell in with 
 the island since called Porto Santo. In the 
 following year, a fresh expedition under the com- 
 mand of the same persons, deputed to take 
 possession of the island, fell in with Madeira, 
 so called from its being covered with wood; 
 and in 1432, Gilianez, one of the prince's com- 
 manders, venturing on a bolder navigation, 
 pushed beyond Bojador in the open sea, and saw 
 the Continent stretching down to the south. 
 From this period the Portuguese continued ad- 
 vancing from place to place, till they had explored 
 the whole line between Cape Blanc, and Cape 
 Verd. At one inlet of the sea, finding a few 
 Moors with a small quantity of gold, they named 
 the place ' Rio d'Oro,' the golden river. The 
 island of Arguin, Cape Verd, Senegal, and 
 Gambia, were shortly after colonized; a settlement 
 was formed at Elmina, on the Gold Coast, the 
 present capital of the Portuguese dominions in 
 Africa ; the castle of Mina became the central 
 point of fresh discoveries ; and the king assuming 
 the title of ' lord of Guiana,' directed his com- 
 manders in future to erect pillars of stone, dig- 
 lified with the arms and escutcheons of Portugal, 
 accompanied by appropriate inscriptions, to mark 
 the limit of their discoveries. 
 
 From Mina was sent Diego Cam, who soon 
 after his departure fell in with a powerful cur- 
 rent from the land, which led to the discovery of 
 a river which, from the country through which it 
 flowed, was called the Congo, by the Portuguese, 
 and by the natives the Zaire. Sailing up the 
 river he saw multitudes of black natives, and 
 after having enticed some of them on board, he 
 set sail for Portugal. In a few months he re- 
 turned, and proceeded along the coast as far as 
 200 leagues. John II. successor of Alphonso, 
 sent out a large fleet, which after discovering the 
 kingdoms of Benin and Congo, sailed 1500 miles 
 beyond the equinoctial line : in the course of 
 which voyage, negotiations! were entered into, 
 colonies planted, and forts erected. Covillan 
 
 and Payna being sent on an embassy to the 
 court of Abyssinia, received orders to explore 
 the Red sea, and the coasts of the Indian Ocean. 
 Bartholomew Diaz was directed to proceed to 
 the southern extremity of the peninsula, and to 
 explore his projected passage to India; and 
 after having discovered a thousand miles of new 
 country, he at length saw the lofty southern 
 promontory he called Cabo Tormentosa, or 
 Storm Cape, which the king from the conviction 
 that it was the prelude to more noble and in- 
 teresting discoveries, afterwards changed to the 
 Cape of Good Hope. Covillan visited Hin- 
 dostan, sailed to Sofala, and proceeded northward 
 along the eastern coast of Africa, and the favour- 
 able accounts he transmitted from Abyssinia, 
 induced the king once more to fit out a powerful 
 squadron under the command of Vasquez de 
 Gama. To this and the preceding voyage, is 
 ascribed the discovery of the real form of the 
 African continent. 
 
 INTERIOR AFRICA. During all these impor- 
 tant discoveries, the interior was little known, 
 the peninsula being chiefly visited for the pur- 
 pose of procuring slaves ; but in the eighteenth 
 century, the French penetrated into the interior. 
 Claude Jannequin in 1637, represented himself 
 as having ascended the Senegal seventy leagues. 
 Queen Elizabeth granted a patent to certain 
 merchants of Exeter, enabling them to carry on 
 trade with the Senegal and Gambia. The latter 
 created at the time a little jealousy with the 
 Portuguese. 
 
 In the seventeenth century a report of the 
 extreme riches of Africa, induced a number of 
 English gentlemen to form themselves into a 
 company, for the purposes of exploration and 
 commerce. Several voyages were accordingly 
 undertaken, in one of which, made by Jobson in 
 1620, an African king made a cession of Tenda 
 and its vicinity for some bottles of brandy. 
 Captain Stubbs went out by request of the Royal 
 African Company, to ascend the Gambia, and 
 ascertain the truth of the reports respecting the 
 great quantity of gold found there. Other ex- 
 peditions followed ; but little information was 
 brought to England till the deputation of Mungo 
 Park of whom we shall speak hereafter. 
 
 AFRICAN INSTITUTION. In 1788, was formed 
 the African Institution, and Ledyard was de- 
 puted to that great continent, to ascertain if 
 possible the geography of Interior Africa. He 
 was of an enterprising spirit, had sailed round 
 the world with Captain Cook, had formed the 
 design of crossing the continent of America from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific; and having laid 
 down a plan for travelling by land to Kams- 
 chatka, had proceeded by Denmark and the 
 Sound to Stockholm, and attempted to cross the 
 Gulph of Bothnia, the middle of which being 
 unfrozen he was prevented. His expedition to 
 Africa produced much valuable knowledge 
 respecting Egypt, and would no doubt have 
 been equally successful in the central legions, 
 but the delay of caravans, together with other 
 difficulties and disappointments, operated so on 
 his mind as to produce a bilious fever, of which 
 he died.
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 251 
 
 Mr. Lucas, who was afterwards deputed by 
 tne same society, resided three years in Morocco, 
 out made very little progress in the object of his 
 mission ; and Major Houghton, the next geo- 
 graphical missionary, was alike unfortunate. 
 
 About this time the society turned their atten- 
 tion to the celebrated Mungo Park, a native of 
 Scotland. He had been educated for the medical 
 profession, and was all that the society could 
 have desired. He sailed from Portsmouth, on 
 the 22d of May, 1795, and reached Jillifree, on 
 the Gambia, on the 21st of June, where he 
 devoted himself to the study of the Mandingo 
 language, in the house of Dr. Laidley,of Pisania; 
 and at the commencement of the dry season, 2d 
 of December, 1795, proceeded towards the in- 
 terior. He advanced into the kingdom of Walli, 
 and on the 5th, reached Medina, the capital. 
 The chief earnestly prayed him not to attempt so 
 dangerous an expedition ; but, nevertheless, 
 offered him a guide if he resolved to proceed. 
 On the llth, he reached the frontier town of 
 Woolli, and hired three elephant hunters as 
 companions through the wilderness. On the 
 18th, he reached Tallika, the frontier town of 
 Bondou, and found an open fertile country, 
 reaching to Koorkarany, in latitude 13, 53', 
 north. On the 21st, he reached Fatteconda, the 
 capital of Bondou, where he conversed with the 
 very king who ordered the plunder of Major 
 Houghton, and presented to him the blue coat 
 which he wore, for which he received in return, 
 five drachms of gold. . The ladies of the seraglio 
 derided the whiteness of his skin and the pro- 
 minence of his nose ; and he complimented them 
 on the glossy jet of their skins, and the lovely 
 depression of their noses. On the 24th he 
 reached Joag, the frontier town of Kajaaga. The 
 house of the judge in which he slept, was, shortly 
 after his arrival, surrounded by horsemen, who 
 demanded duties for the king, which they said 
 he ought to have paid on entering the kingdom, 
 and hiving helped themselves to about half his 
 property, departed. Shortly afterwards, he 
 arrived at Teessee, where he was plundered of 
 half his remaining property by his friend Demba. 
 At Kooniary, the capital, N. lat. 14, 34', and fifty- 
 nine and a half geographical miles east of Joag, 
 he was favourably received by the king, and after- 
 wards proceeded through Ludamar, and on the 
 27th of February, arrived at Deena. From this 
 place he proceeded to Sampaka, and thence to 
 Dalli and Goomba, where he was seized by a 
 party of Moors, whom All ordered to convey 
 him to Benown, that his wife Fatima might see 
 a white man. At the latter place, he was treated 
 with great brutality ; the people shut him up 
 with a wild hog, and amused themselves with 
 worrying and teazing him. They examined very 
 curiously, his person and his clothes : some of 
 them proposed putting him to death. The king's 
 brother proposed putting out his eyes, which he 
 said resembled those of a cat : the queen alone 
 compassionated his distress, and sent him provi- 
 sions ; at length however he effected his escape, and 
 the next day arrived at Foulah, and on the 5th of 
 July, at Wawra beyond Ludamar, and the king- 
 dom of Ali. From this place he went to Dingyee, 
 then to Moorja, and on the 21st, reached Sego, 
 
 where he saw the long sought Niger, as broad 
 as the Thames at Westminster, rolling its mag- 
 nificent stream from west to east; its banks 
 crowned with the four townships which compose 
 the city, including a population of 30,000 people. 
 The king would not allow his entrance into the 
 city ; but a poor woman took him to her hut and 
 treated him with great kindness ; she and her 
 daughters sung an extempore song on the occa- 
 sion : < The winds roared and the rains fell, the 
 poor white man faint and weary sat under our 
 tree ; he has no mother to bring him milk, no 
 wife to grind him corn.' Chorus, < let us pity 
 the poor white man : no mother has he.' The 
 next day, Park was presented with 5000 cowries, 
 250 of which are worth one shilling, and ordered 
 to quit the vicinity. 
 
 Africa has supplied many striking proofs of 
 female kindness and hospitality. Ledyard's 
 ' Praise of Women,' is well known to have been 
 derived from facts that occurred in his African 
 journeys. Mr. Park's testimony was equally de- 
 cided on this subject. The above simple ex- 
 pressions of kindness to a stranger have been 
 formed into verse by the late duchess of Devon- 
 shire, and set to music by Ferrari ; the song ij 
 as follows : 
 
 I. 
 
 The loud wind roar'd, the rain fell fast; 
 The white man yielded to the blast; 
 He sat him down, beneath our tree ; 
 For weary, sad, and faint was he : 
 And ah ! no wife or mother's care, 
 For him, the milk or corn prepare : 
 
 The white man shall our pity share : 
 Alas ! no wife no mother's care, 
 For him the milk or corn prepare. 
 
 II. 
 
 The storm is o'er ; the tempest past : 
 And mercy's voice has hushd the blast; 
 The wind is heard in whispers low, 
 The white man far away must go : 
 But ever in his heart will bear 
 Remembrance of the negro's care. 
 
 Go, white man, go ; but with thee bear 
 The negro's wish, the negro's pray'r : 
 Remembrance of the negro's care. 
 
 Leaving Sego, he then advanced to Sansand- 
 ing, containing 10,000 inhabitants; thence to 
 Sibili, Negara, Nyaneebo, Modiboo, Kea, and 
 thence in a canoe to Moorzan ; after which, he 
 crossed the Niger to Silla, nearly 1100 miles east 
 of Cape Verd. Here, being exposed to violent 
 tropical rains, and finding his advance would be 
 attended with imminent peril, he returned by the 
 same route, and after innumerable difficulties 
 and privations, arrived at Pisania. In one part 
 of his journey, he was robbed and stripped of 
 his clothes, and left alone in the wilderness, in
 
 252 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 the heavy rainy season/almost 500 miles distant 
 from the nearest European settlement. The 
 king of Bambarra had also sent a canoe in pur- 
 suit of him, to bring him back to Sego. He 
 nevertheless cheered up his spirits, and pro- 
 ceeded through swamps, bogs, and marshes ; 
 sometimes swimming over creeks with his horse's 
 bridle between his teeth, and his papers in his 
 hat, and frequently subsisting on nothing else 
 but the corn intended for his horse. This was, 
 however, an important journey, during which, 
 he fixed the boundaries of the Negroes and 
 Moors; traced the resources of the Senegal, 
 Gambia, and Niger ; confirmed the ancient ac- 
 counts relative to the course of the last river, 
 illustrated the history of the ancient Lotophagi, 
 the mode of propagating the Mahommedan reli- 
 gion by proselytism, and established a number 
 of geographical positions in a direct line of 1100 
 miles from Cape Verd. 
 
 About this time Mr. Browne entered Dartur, 
 with a view of crossing the entire continent from 
 east to west ; but he could not proceed, and all 
 his effects were seized for the use of the sultan. 
 He nevertheless learned while at Darfur, that 
 the sources of the White river, Bahr el Abiad, or 
 Western Nile, are forty hills called Kumbri, or 
 the Mountains of the Moon, that the stream flows 
 north-west, exactly coinciding with the Gir of 
 Ptolemy, and Nile of the Negroes ; that Azran west 
 of Bornou, abounds with silver, the inhabitants 
 having literally such an abundance of that metal, 
 as to apply it to the most common purposes. 
 
 Dr. Blumenbach, in 1795, recommended to the 
 African society, a person well qualified to un- 
 dertake another expedition into Africa. He was 
 the son of a clergyman, and had studied divinity 
 at the university of Gottingen. Such was the re- 
 commendation, that Sir Joseph Banks in making 
 a reply, said, if Mr. Horneman is the person you 
 describe, he is the identical person we are in 
 pursuit of. In one night he laid out the plan of 
 his entire journey, and after studying the oriental 
 languages, in 1796 he went to London in the 
 February of the following year, and immediately 
 embarking, arrived on the 10th of September, in 
 the bay of Caroube" ; and taking with him from 
 Alexandria, an aged monk who spoke Arabic, 
 went to Cairo, where he studied the language of 
 the Western Arabs. Buonaparte, who had just 
 landed in Egypt, offering him every assistance, 
 he set off with a caravan, on the 5th of September, 
 and arrived shortly after at the borders of the 
 Libyan desert, passed Ummesogeir, and came to 
 Siwah, where he saw the ruined temple of 
 Jupiter Ammon. He proceeded from this sta- 
 tion to the territory of Fezzan, 300 miles in 
 length, and 200 in breadth; here he visited 
 Tripoli ; and in a letter addressed to the society, 
 intimated that he was about to proceed in a 
 caravan for Bornou; but unhappily this was 
 the last intelligence they ever heard respecting 
 him. 
 
 Next to him the society sent out Mr. Nicholls, 
 whose career terminated fatally; and a young 
 German deputed as his successor, shared the 
 same fate. 
 
 Burckhardt, a Swiss, came to London at 
 ibout this time, on a similar recommendation 
 
 from Gottingen, and proceeded on the 2nd of 
 March, 1809, to Aleppo. In Syria, he devoted 
 himself to the attainment of an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the Arabic language and man- 
 ners, visited Palmyra, and Baalbec, and 
 returned to Cairo through Arabia Petrasa, and 
 across the great desert of El Ty. He afterwards 
 made excursions to Mecca and Medina, ob- 
 taining a full account of the powerful Mahom 
 medan sect of Wahabees ; and to Mount Sinai, 
 and the deserts passed by the Israelites in then 
 journey from Egypt. Here studies and travels 
 occupied him until the summer of 1817; and 
 his papers, which have not yet been published, 
 are spoken of highly by Mr. Salt, who gives an 
 interesting account of his death, at Cairo, of a 
 dysentery, in October of that year. 
 
 Mungo Park was shortly after sent out by 
 government with an expedition ; and accordingly 
 departed from Pisania, the 4th of the following 
 May, and reached Medina on the llth, from 
 which point he shortly after entered the woods of 
 Simbani. Having crossed the woods, they ap- 
 proached the Gambia, 100 yards in breadth ; 
 entered the Tenda wilderness, and crossed 
 Faleme, where they were overtaken by a tor- 
 nado. The ground was shortly covered with 
 water three inches deep, and half the men were 
 sick. They ascended the neighbouring hill with 
 great difficulty, the natives following and plun- 
 dering them all the time ; but when they reached 
 the top, they found a serene atmosphere, and a 
 sweep of prospect highly grand and romantic. 
 Departing from this place they leached Kemi- 
 noon, or Maniakarro, the best foitified town on 
 the continent; on the 19th, crossing the Ba 
 Woollina, they came to Bangassi, four or five 
 times the extent of Maniakorro ; and shortly 
 having ascended a ridge of mountains, they be- 
 held the Niger rolling its vast stream along the 
 plain nearly two miles in breadth. 
 
 Two days afterwards, he obtained a canoe foi 
 present convenience, and embarked with Mr. 
 Anderson on the way to Sego through Bam- 
 barra. He received permission to build his boat 
 any where in the country, and assurances of pro- 
 tection. While he remained at Sansanding, col- 
 lecting intelligence, and building a vessel, his 
 friend and relative Mr. Anderson, died ; and his 
 whole party consisted, at that time, of only four 
 Europeans. Still, in writing to Lord Camden, 1 1 i s 
 spirits seemed as ardentas ever ; ' I shall set sail/ 
 says he, ' for the east, with the fixed resolution to 
 discover the termination of the Niger, or perish 
 in the attempt;' and perish he did. In con- 
 sequence, however, of the uncertain rumours 
 that agitated the public mind respecting him, 
 lieutenant colonel Maxwell, then governor of 
 Senegal, obtained permission from government 
 to engage a proper person to institute an enquiry 
 into the probability of Mr. Park's death. By 
 this means he learnt that from Sansanding, our 
 traveller went to Silla, and thence proceeded 
 with his party, nine in number, towards Ginne ; 
 but as they passed Sibbie, or Dibbie, they were 
 attacked by three canoes full of armed men, 
 which they repulsed. Afterwards they had to 
 oppose sixty canoes, after defeating which, they 
 passed Kaffau and Gourman, where they sup
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 253 
 
 plied themselves with provisions, and entered 
 the kingdom of Haoussa ; but the king having 
 learnt that the white men left without giving pre- 
 sents, sent an army to oppose them at a village 
 called Boussa, situated on a rock, in which there 
 was a large opening that admitted the water to 
 pass in a strong current ; in this place, therefore, 
 Mr. Park, on his attempting to pass, was at- 
 tacked with arrows and lances; and after fight- 
 ing for some time, overpowered with numbers, and 
 unable to keep up the canoe against the current, 
 Mr. Park, and a Mr. Martyn, leaped into the 
 water, to escape by crossing the stream, but were 
 drowned in the attempt. This journey was full 
 of adventures, and the unhappy manner in which 
 it terminated will be long remembered. 
 
 Tombuctoo had long excited the attention of 
 modern travellers, none of whom had been able 
 to give any accurate description of it. Some 
 interesting intelligence of it was about this time 
 obtained by means of an American sailor. The 
 American ship, Charles, on a voyage to the 
 south of Africa, was wrecked near El Gazie, 
 south of Cape Blanco, and the crew swam safe 
 to land, but were shortly surrounded by Moors, 
 stripped naked, and carried to the east, forty 
 day's journey, as far as the village of Soudenny, 
 north of Bambarra ; whence they were after- 
 wards sent as slaves to Tombuctoo. A sailor of 
 the name of Adams was taken as a curiosity to 
 the palace, where he was well treated, and had 
 every opportunity of enquiry. He thought the 
 city about the size of Lisbon, although the 
 houses were more scattered. The palace stands 
 in a square of half an acre, encompassed by a 
 mud wall. The houses of the higher classes are 
 built with wood ; those of the lower orders with 
 branches of trees overlaid with the palmetto, and 
 covered with earth. It seemed altogether a 
 negro city, from which Moors seemed to be ex- 
 cluded. The government is despotic but mildly 
 administered, the chief punishment being slavery. 
 The people can neither read nor write, but keep 
 their accounts by notching sticks, &c. Marriage 
 is performed in a very simple manner ; concu- 
 bines are kept, and illicit intercourse prevalent 
 among all classes. They hunt slaves once a 
 month ; and exchange slaves, gold-dust, and 
 ivory, with the Moors for tobacco, tar, nankeens, 
 and other articles. About 200 yards S. E. of 
 the town, flows a river called La mar Zarah, 
 three quarters of a mile wide. Such are the 
 general statements of this American sailor. 
 
 Mr. Jackson also gives a description of Timbuc- 
 too, as he derived it from native Africans ; but he 
 has evidently committed a perfect anachronism in 
 stating, that, in 1800 it was subject to Woolo 
 king of Bambarra ; since it appears from Park, 
 that in 1796,and also in 1805 the king of Bambarra 
 was Mansong, and Tombuctoo was independent. 
 Isaden's journal, noticed by the editor, it is true, 
 mentions thatWoolo, predecessor to Mansong, was 
 a celebrated warrior ; so that it is not unlikely 
 that at a certain period he might have possessed 
 the sovereignty ; still this could not have been in 
 1800. The same gentleman also mentions an 
 excellent police, managed by a divan of twelve 
 Alemma, subject to an election every three years. 
 He mentions the countries of Lamlam, and Melli, 
 
 in the geographical scite assigned them by the 
 Arabs, and not in the position fixed by Leo. 
 These countries are said to be inhabited by one 
 of the lost tribes of Israel, who fled from the 
 arms of the Saracens. 
 
 With respect to the Niger, Mr. Jackson seem 
 of opinion that it loses itself in an inland lake, or 
 sea, in the interior of Africa. He states that 
 fifteen day's journey east of Tombuctoo, there is 
 an immense lake, called the Bahar, or sea of 
 Soudan, inhabited by a race of people who 
 navigate it with large decked vessels, containing 
 from 100 to 150 men. Mr. Park received no 
 intelligence of any lake beyond the Dibbie during 
 his first journey ; but in his second journey ob- 
 tained the following intelligence at Sansanding : 
 ' One month's journey S. of Baedoo, through 
 the kingdom of Gotto, will bring the traveller to 
 the country of the Christians, who have their 
 houses on the banks of the Ba Sea Feena, 
 which is incomparably larger than the Dibbie, 
 and flows sometimes one way, and sometimes 
 another.' Now from Sansanding to Silla two 
 days, thence to Tombuctoo fourteen, thence to the 
 sea of Sandan fifteen, makes up Park's month, 
 being in all thirty-one days. Amidst all the 
 opinions at present given respecting the termi- 
 nation of this river, none appear satisfactory. 
 Some have supposed it to enter the Nile, others 
 the sea of Sandan. The Congo, the Atlantic, 
 Sands, Absorption, have been alike assigned, as 
 the solution of the mysterious problem. Sidi 
 Hamet, in Riley's Narrative of his Captivity, 
 gives some interesting observations respecting 
 the eastern part of this river. The above gen- 
 tleman visited Timbuctoo; and while he re- 
 mained there, the shegan, or king of the state 
 sent a caravan to the city of Wassanah, and 
 compelled him to accompany it. The journey 
 was fifty-seven days to the south east; some- 
 times on the banks, and at others in sight of the 
 river in question, which about 1140 miles op- 
 posite Wassanah is called Zadi, and is so broad 
 that a man can scarcely be seen on the opposite 
 bank. ' The king's brother told one of my Moo- 
 selmin companions/ says he, that, ' he was going 
 to set out in a few days, with sixty boats to carry 
 500 slaves down the river, first to the southward, 
 and then to the westward, where they should 
 come to the great water, and sell them to pale 
 people, who came there in great boats, and 
 brought muskets, and powder, and tobacco, and 
 blue cloth, and knives, &c. He said it was a 
 great way, and would take him three moons to 
 get there, and he should be gone twenty moons 
 before he could get back by land, but should be 
 rich.' ' We saw,' he continues, ' a great many 
 of these people who had been down the river, to 
 see the great water, with slaves, teeth, &c. They 
 said the pale people lived in great boats, and 
 had guns as big as their bodies, that made a 
 noise like thunder, and would kill all the people 
 in a hundred negro boats, if they went too near 
 them. See NIGER, p. 244. 
 
 Since the spirit of African exploration has been 
 excited, and so effectively patronised by govern*- 
 ment, many valuable accessions have been mada 
 annually to our knowledge of this continent. 
 The adventures of Riley, who, after encountering
 
 254 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 a series of hardships, penetrated to Tombuctoo, sons to Cape Coast castle for education. The 
 confirmed the previous intimations of Adams conductor of this mission, T. E. Bowditch, Esq. 
 respecting that place and its inhabitants; but ^ """>" * Ko ""^ a " an 1( > <""""' * 
 are, from his total illiterateness, necessarily de- 
 fective in all scientific information. 
 
 In 1816, Captain Tuckey sailed on an expe- 
 dition to the Congo, but unhappily perished with 
 most of his party, after ascending that river 
 considerably beyond the first rapids. The gene- 
 ral information which the survivors brought 
 home, may be thus stated. This river com- 
 mences about Point Padran, and runs to Inga, 
 about forty miles distant; its breadth at that 
 place not exceeding 400 yards. It afterwards 
 leaves the mountains, and expands to the breadth 
 of from two to four miles, around which the 
 kingdom of Congo extends itself indefinitely ; and 
 
 has given the world an ample account of 
 'Ashantee, with Geographical notices of other 
 parts of the interior of Africa,' in one vol. 4to. 
 price 3/. 3s. which is now before us. 
 
 Ashantee, according to the information thus 
 obtained, extends beyond the kingdoms of Fan- 
 tee, Akim, Assin, and Wassaw, from about 
 0, 45'. to 3, 0' W. long. ; and from about 7, 
 20'. to 6, 8' N. lat. ; commanding a population 
 of one million, and including an area of about 
 14,000 square miles. The line of Ashantee au- 
 thority on the Gold Coast, is marked from the 
 Assinee to the Volta, including the once power- 
 ful state of Aquamboo. The capital, Coomassie, 
 stands in N. lat. 6, 30'., and VV. long. 2, 6'., 
 
 is divided into chenooships, or petty states, held and contains about 1 5,000 regular inhabitants. 
 
 under some personage, real or fabulous, sup- It has daily markets, which are well supplied 
 
 posed to be in the interior. The population in- with provisions ; and regular streets, named after 
 
 creases as the traveller advances towards the the European manner, from fifty to a hundred 
 
 central regions : vegetables and fruits are both yards wide, and from half to three quarters of a 
 
 numerous and excellent, the winter being as mile long. See ASHANTEE. 
 
 In the latter end of the year 1818, Mr. Ritchie, 
 
 mild here as the spring in Italy. The inhabi- 
 tants are said to be the lowest of the Negro class ; 
 distinguished, on the male side by indolence, on 
 the female, by degradation. The component 
 parts of a tribe are, first, the chenoo, or chief; 
 second, the branches of his family ; third, ma- 
 fooks, or collectors of taxes ; fourth, foomos, who 
 are the yeomanry, having houses and land of their 
 own ; fifth, fishermen, and the labouring classes. 
 The saleable slaves are those taken in war, or 
 kidnapped in the interior. Every man has a 
 charm or fetiche, which he carries with him, as 
 a horn, a noof, a shell, &c. as a protection from 
 lions, alligators, thunder, &c. The chief crimes 
 are poisoning and adultery. 
 
 accompanied by Captain G. F. Lyon, arrived at 
 Tripoli, for the purpose of proceeding from that 
 place into the interior of Northern Africa, under 
 the protection of the Bey of Fezzan. The party 
 took a preparatory journey, (until the Bey was 
 prepared to proceed to Benioleed,) over the 
 Gharian mountains. Captain Lyon, on this oc- 
 casion, assumed the dress, and endeavoured in 
 every way to qualify himself for passing as a 
 good Mussulman. He even ventured into the 
 streets of Tripoli in his new character, and on 
 occasion of a solemn Mahommedan procession, 
 when no person of another religion can with 
 safety show himself. In March 1819, Mukni 
 
 fairs. She had the reputation of being the most 
 beautiful woman in this part of Africa. Captain 
 Lyon found her so fat that she could scarcely 
 walk, and gives the following account of her ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 ' On my entrance, she so veiled herself as to 
 
 Major Peddie commanded a military expedi- Bey, with a caravan of about 200 men, and 
 tion, which started from Senegal in October, camels, were ready to depart for the interior; 
 1816; but this gentleman died at Kacundy, on and again arriving at Benioleed, Captain Lyon 
 
 the river Nunez, and Lieutenant Campbell sue- had the honour of an introduction to the wife of 
 
 ceeded to the command, who proceeded up the Sheik Barood, a chief manager of the Bey's af- 
 country, by the head of the Rio Nunez, to a 
 place called Pangettoe, on the road to Labay 
 and Teembo, a hundred and fifty miles beyond 
 Kacundy. Here he was detained for three months, 
 in consequence of a war between the foulahs, 
 (whose chiefs would not allow him to proceed,) 
 
 and a neighbouring tribe. His horses, camels, exhibit to "ad vantage' her arm, with all its gay or- 
 and the greatest part of his asses, being lost at naments ; and on my requesting to be favoured 
 this place, our traveller felt disheartened at the with a view of her face, she, with very little re- 
 prospect of proceeding ; and returning to Ka- luctance, gratified me. Her chin, the tip of he- 
 cundy, is said to have died there of a broken nose, and the space between her eyebrows, were 
 " eart - . marked with black lines; she was much rouged, 
 
 In April, 1817, the African Company de- her neck, arms, and legs, were covered with tat- 
 
 spatched a party, consisting of Mr. James Bow- tooed flowers, open hands, circles, the names of 
 
 dich, Mr. Hutchinson, and Mr. Tedlie, with God, and of her numerous male friends. She 
 
 other persons, amounting in the whole to 130, had a multitude of gold ear-rings and ornaments, 
 
 to Coomassie, the capital of Ashantee. Their set with very bad and counterfeit jewels, and 
 
 route was through Annamaboe, Abrah, and the weighing altogether, I should think, two or 
 
 lantee territory. Mr. James was recalled, and, three pounds. Her shirt was of striped silk; 
 
 Mr. Bowdich becoming chief of the embassy, a and she had a rich purple silk barracan, or man 
 
 formal treaty of perpetual ' peace and harmony ' tie, gracefully thrown round her, and fastened at 
 
 was made between Sal Totoo Quamina, king of the breast by a gold pin, with ornaments of the 
 
 Ashantee, Boitmnee Quama, king of Dwabin same metal suspended from it : all the other arti- 
 
 id its dependencies (his intimate ally), and the cles of finery which she possessed were displayed 
 
 tish government ; a resident was left at Coo- round the tent, whilst a multitude of poor thin 
 
 mussie; and both the kings agreed to send their wretches, resembling witches, sat round bar in
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 255 
 
 astonishment, never having in their lives seen 
 such a paragon of perfection. Like all other 
 Arabs, they touched whatever pleased them most ; 
 one admiring this object, another something near 
 it, so that our poor belle was sometimes poked 
 r>y a dozen fingers at once ; all, however, agree- 
 ing on one point, that she was beautifully and 
 excessively fat ; and, I must say, I never before 
 beheld such a monstrous mass of human flesh. 
 One of her legs, of enormous size, was uncovered 
 as high as the calf, and every one pressed it, ad- 
 miring its solidity, and praising God for blessing 
 them with such a sight. I was received most 
 graciously, and invited to sit close to her, when 
 one of the first questions she asked me was, if in 
 my country the ladies were as fat and handsome 
 as herself. For the plumpness of my country- 
 women, I owned, with shame, that I never had 
 seen one possessed of half such an admirable 
 rotundity, which she took as a great compliment; 
 but I did not attempt to carry the comparison 
 farther, though she was really very handsome in 
 face and features. She amused herself, while 
 speaking, with playing on a kind of drum made 
 of clay, called derbooka, by beating with one 
 hand, and playing with the fingers of the other ; 
 and perceiving that I was amused by it, she or- 
 dered an old man to get up and dance. The 
 females sang and clapped their hands in good 
 time, and the dancer went through a variety of 
 figures, all equally indelicate. A woman then 
 succeeded him, and in this respect quite threw 
 him into the shade ; but as I knew it to be the 
 general mode of dancing in this part of Barbary, 
 I of course applauded it. Lilla Fatma herself 
 then thought proper to honour us with a few 
 graceful attitudes in the same style; but Mr. 
 Ritchie's entrance into the tent soon put a stop 
 to the exhibition, and the ceremony of veiling 
 took place in the same manner as before.' p. 62. 
 
 Their advance was now into a dreary country, 
 and on the frontier of Fezzan they experienced 
 one of those dreadful eastern storms called the 
 sirocco, of which our traveller observes, that in 
 addition to their excessive heat and dryness, they 
 are so impregnated with sand, that the air is 
 darkened by it, the sky appears of a dusky yellow, 
 and the sun is barely perceptible. The eyes 
 become red, swelled, and inflamed ; the lips and 
 skin, parched and chopped ; whilst severe pains 
 in the chest are very generally felt, in conse- 
 quence of the quantities of sand unavoidably 
 inhaled. 
 
 The country of Fezzan is, for the greater part 
 a vast desert, extending from about 30, 30 . to 
 24, north latitude; and from 13 to 20, east 
 longitude ; being about 450 miles in length, by 
 370 broad, and containing a population of about 
 75,000 souls ; of which Mourzouk, the capital, 
 contains 2500. It stands in latitude, 25 54' 
 north ; longitude, 15 52' east ; and, is sui- 
 rounded by walls of mud, about 15 feet in height, 
 having round buttresses, with loop-holes for 
 musketry, rudely constructed. There are seven 
 gates, four of which are built up in order to pre- 
 vent the people from escaping when required to 
 pay their taxes ; and the other three are guarded. 
 The houses are mostly of one story ; and those 
 of the poorer classes, have no other light than 
 
 they receive from the doors, which are so low 
 as to require stooping nearly double to enter 
 them. The streets are narrow; but there are 
 many open spaces. The castle, compared with 
 the other buildings, may be called immense, 
 rising to the height of eighty or ninety feet, with 
 battlements on the walls, which at the foundation 
 are fifty or sixty feet in thickness. The rooms 
 are small and mean ; the best of them are occu- 
 pied by the women, of whom the number may 
 be from fifty to sixty, half a dozen of which are 
 considered superior to the rest. They are watched 
 by five eunuchs, who have the privilege of beat- 
 ing them, if necessary, to support their au- 
 thority. 
 
 The burying-places are without their walls ; 
 but many of the graves are so little below the 
 surface, that in a strong wind the sand is dis- 
 persed, and the bodies exposed ; such, however, 
 is the dryness of the air, that no bad smell or 
 putridity ensues. Within the town are sixteen 
 mosques ; some of them, however, are very 
 small. The Cadi is the head of the whole, but 
 each has its own imaum ; captain Lyon thus 
 describes the dress of the Fezzan ladies. 
 
 ' The dress of the women here differs materially 
 from that of the Moorish females, and their ap- 
 pearance and smell are far from being agreeable : 
 they plait their hair in thick bobbins, which hang 
 over their foreheads, nearly as low down as the. 
 eyebrows, and are there joined at the bottom, as 
 far round to each side as the temples. The hair 
 is so profusely oiled, that it drops down over the 
 face and clothes ; this is dried up by sprinkling 
 it with plenty of a preparation made of a plant 
 resembling wild lavender, cloves, and one or two 
 more spices, pounded into powder, and called 
 Atri'a ; it forms a brown, dirty looking paste, 
 and, combined with perspiration and the flying 
 sand, becomes in a few days far from savoury in 
 appearance or odour. The back hair is less dis- 
 gusting, as it is plaited into a long tress on each 
 side, and is brought to hang over the shoulders ; 
 from these tresses, ornaments of silver or coral 
 are suspended. Black wool is frequently worked 
 in with these back locks, to make them appear 
 longer. In the centre of the forehead, an orna- 
 ment of coral or beads is placed, hanging down 
 to the depth of an inch or two. A woollen 
 handkerchief is fastened on the back of the head; 
 it falls over behind, and is tied by a leather strap 
 under the chin. Each ear is perforated for as 
 many rings as the woman possesses, some wear 
 even six on one side ; the largest, which is about 
 five inches in diameter, hanging lowest, sup- 
 ported by a string from the head. Round the 
 neck, a tight flat collar of beads, arranged in 
 fancy patterns, is worn with coral necklaces, and 
 sometimes a broad gold plate immediately in 
 front. A large blue shirt is generally worn, the 
 collar and breast ornamented with needle-work : 
 the women also wear white shirts, and striped 
 silk ones, called shami, which are brought from 
 Egypt; a jereed and red slippers complete their 
 dress.' p. 170, 171. 
 
 On the 20th of November, Mr. Ritchie died 
 at Mourzouk, after a protracted illness ; and cap- 
 tain Lyon, and his only companion Belford, were 
 in an extremely weak state. * And now fcr the
 
 256 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 first time,' says captain Lyon, ' in all our dis- eastward, which singularly agree with the infer 
 
 fresses, my hopes did indeed fail me. At day- mation collected by Ilorneman, Burckhardt, &c. 
 
 ight I went out and informed our kind friends, There was almost an unanimity among the na- 
 
 fussuf, and Hadje Mahmoud, of our misfor- tives respecting the identity of the Niger and the 
 
 nines ; 'at which, they were much affected, and Egyptian Nile. He thus sums up the information 
 offered us all the assistance in their power. 
 Belford, as well as he was able, hastened to 
 
 he obtained on this subject : 
 
 The Nil, Goulbi, Joliba or Kattagum, runs 
 
 form a rough coffin out of our chests ; and, a sad from Tombuctoo, through Melli, in the country 
 
 and painful task it was. The washers of the of the Fellata ; thence to Kebbi, which is three 
 
 dead came to us to perform their melancholy days north of Nooffy : past this place or country, 
 
 office, and Mr. Ritchie's body was washed, per- it runs to Yaowri, which is seven days east ; 
 
 fumed, and rubbed with camphor; and I pro- from thence to Fendah, a Fellata country, S.W. 
 
 cured some fine linen, with which the grave- of Kashna, which latter kingdom it passes at 
 
 clothes were made. During our preparations thirteen days south of the capital. It again 
 
 for the burial, the women, who are always hired makes its appearance at Kattagum, four days 
 
 to cry at the death of persons whose friends are W. S. W. of the capital of Bornou, where it runs 
 
 able to pay them, proposed to perform that dis- into a lake, called the Tsaad. Beyond this lake, 
 
 gusting office in our house ; but I would not a large river runs through Baghermee, and is 
 
 allow it, and very unceremoniously shut the door called the Gambarro and Kamadakoo ; the word 
 
 against them. While I was out of sight, either Nil being also used for the same stream. Thus 
 
 our servant, or some of our officious visitors, stole far are we able to trace the Nil, and all other 
 
 several of our effects, and I clearly saw that we accounts are merely conjectural. All agree, 
 
 were now considered as lawful plunder. The however, that, by one route or other, these waters 
 
 coffin being completed, I hired men to carry it join the great Nile of Egypt, to the southward of 
 
 with ropes, but one of them having suddenly Dongola.' p. 148. 
 
 gone away, poor Belford was obliged to take his Coffles or caravans, conducting slaves from the 
 
 place; when, attended by our small party of interior, are frequently seen at Mourzouk. One 
 
 Mamelukes, we proceeded at a quick pace to of them conducting 1400 slaves, the greater part 
 
 the grave, at about ten o'clock. The clay below females, entered the place during Captain L.'s 
 
 the sand was white, which was considered as a 
 good omen ; and, Belford and myself threw the 
 
 stay. They are said to remain here for some 
 time to be fattened, when they are said to be 
 
 first earth into the grave. During the night we sent off for Tripoli, Benghazi, and Egypt : thus 
 had, unknown to the people, read our protestant marching about for 1800 or 2000 miles before 
 burial-service over the body : and now publicly they can be settled, and frequently passing through 
 recited the first chapter of the Koran, which the the hands of eight or ten masters, most of whom 
 most serious Christian would consider as a refuse to consider them as human beings. Yet, 
 
 says Captain Lyon, 
 
 ' In justice to the poor unenlightened creatures 
 whom they make their prey, I must say that I 
 never witnessed such innocence, tenderness, and 
 
 beautiful, and applicable prayer, on such an 
 occasion.' 
 
 When recovered a little from the effects of this 
 dispiriting scene and his own illness, Captain L. 
 proceeded under protection of the sultan's tas- 
 kera or order, on his journey southward ; and 
 passed through Traghan and Zuela to the east- 
 ward. The springs at the former place, Captain 
 
 mildness as most of them evince when brought 
 to Mourzouk, particularly at the death of any of 
 their companions in adversity. On these occa- 
 sions, they do not, like their persecutors, scream 
 
 Lyon says, are the pride of Fez/an. They con- and make an insincere wailing ; but sit silent and 
 sisted of four ponds of brackish water, each in tears, and often refuse to take their little al- 
 thirty or forty feet in diameter, covered with a lowance of food. Should one of the females fall 
 
 green crust, and swarming with frogs. Near 
 Zuela, Captain Lyon observed a blacksmith 
 
 sick, the others nurse, feed, comfort, and very 
 often give up the whole of their scanty meal to 
 
 burning the side of a patient with a red hot iron the sufferer.* I speak merely of the women, for 
 
 for the cure of the liver. Our travellers reached the men are not blessed with very kind hearts ; 
 
 Gatrone or Kattron, on the 30th of December ; and it would be considered by them as disgrace- 
 
 and on the 2d of January, arrived at Tegerry, ful to betray any soft and tender feeling. Should 
 
 which has a ruined mud castle, surrounded by a woman have an infant belonging to her, each 
 
 several pools of stagnant water. It stands in la- of her companions in turn will carry and endea- 
 
 titude 24 4' N. being situated on the borders vour to amuse it. The women very seldom be- 
 
 of the great Desert, is a sort of resting-place for come sullen, and are lively without being at all 
 
 all the caravans from Soudan, Bornou, and Wa- boisterous or noisy ; they are clean in their per- 
 
 day ; and was once, in consequence, a flourish- sons, very fond of ornaments, tractable, and easily 
 
 ing place. The inhabitants here were found to taught ; but in acquiring knowledge they unfor 
 
 speak the language of Bornou : and here termi- tunately lose much of their native simplicity.' 
 
 nated Captain Lyon's travels southward. He p. 140. 
 
 was himself much exhausted by the climate, and Our traveller describes the young Tibboo girls 
 
 Belford had fallen from his camel from excessive as of light and elegant forms, with expressive 
 
 weakness. eyes, aquiline noses, fine teeth, and lips like 
 
 At Mourzouk, Captain Lyon availed himself those of Europeans ; the colour of their skin is 
 
 of the constant arrival of caravans from other of the brightest black ; their gait graceful and ele- 
 
 parts of northern Africa, to obtain many notices gant ; their feet and ankles are delicately formed, 
 
 respecting the countries to the southward and and ornamented generally with copper or silver
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 257 
 
 anklets and neat red slippers. Their hair is 
 plaited in a peculiar manner, and decorated with 
 gold, silver, coral, agates, cowries, &c. according 
 to the taste and ability of the wearer. They are 
 fond of dancing, and sing and keep time remark- 
 ably well ; some of their dances are not unlike 
 those of the ancient Greeks. The men have in- 
 telligent countenances ; are very active, but too 
 slight in their make to be much esteemed as 
 slaves, being unable to perform hard labour. 
 These people are distributed over Bornou, Wa- 
 day, Borgoo, and Bhagarmie, and many of them 
 live in a free state in the southern parts of Fez- 
 zan : numerous camels, horned cattle, asses, 
 sheep, and goats, are found amongst those to the 
 eastward. 
 
 Major Laing, who in the former part of the 
 year 1822, penetrated into Africa, from Sierra 
 Leone, as far as Soolimana, has published an in- 
 teresting volume of travels. This gentleman 
 describes the Timannee country, into which he 
 first entered, particularly that part of it which is 
 under the jurisdiction of BaSimera, as populous 
 and. fertile, intersected by numerous rivers, and 
 navigable creeks ; and possessing a soil, which 
 with a little attention would raise its inhabitants 
 to opulence. It is bounded on the east by 
 Kooranko, on the west by Sierra Leone, part of 
 Bullom and the ocean, on the north by the coun- 
 tries of Mandingo and Limba, and on the south 
 by Bullom and Kooranko. Its length from east 
 to west may be computed at ninety miles, and 
 its breadth from north to south about fifty. At 
 Toma, which is only sixty miles from Sierra Leone, 
 no white man had ever before been seen ; and 
 a woman who first descried the party, stood 
 fixed like a statue in admiration of them, until 
 they had passed ; then ' she gave a loud halloo 
 of astonishment, and covered her mouth with 
 both her hands.' . The natives generally have 
 very little clothing, and many of them none at 
 all : but the dress of the females, near the water 
 side is peculiar ; the young women wear ' a 
 narrow piece of cloth, called a tutunge, or 
 a covering of beads called a patie,' fastened 
 to a few strings, or a narrow strip of cloth 
 wrapped round their loins; whilst the married 
 women adopt the more decent attire of two yards 
 of blue baft, wrapped round the body like a 
 petticoat./ Amongst other superstitions, those 
 connected with the burial of their dead, are the 
 most remarkable : when a death takes place, 
 various methods are adopted to appease the 
 wrath of the evil spirits, supposed to have been 
 the agents in the decease, and much pagan cere- 
 mony is exhibited. Whilst our traveller was at 
 Bung, a girl died suddenly ; immediately upon 
 the decease, a loud yell was uttered from about 
 a hundred people assembled upon the occasion ; 
 after which, several hundred women, some of 
 them beating small drums, sallied through the 
 town, confiscating every moveable article that 
 they could find out of doors. The elders and 
 Greegree men assembled a few hours afterwards, 
 in the palaver hall, to ascertain, if possible, the 
 cause of her death. They enquired whether any 
 one had threatened her life; afterwards they 
 queried whether she had been killed by witch- 
 craft ; and at last, after a consultation of three 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 days, concluded, that she died by the agency of 
 the devil. The first two nights, during the time 
 of this consultation, large parties of the inhabi- 
 tants paraded the town, clapping their hands, 
 yelling and shouting, to avert the wrath of the 
 greegrees ; and on the third, the night of inter- 
 ment, presents of rice, palm wine, cassada, and 
 cloth, were deposited at the greegree houses, to 
 satisfy the evil spirits that they might not kill 
 any more people. Five or six men, strangely 
 dressed, appeared about midnight, intimated that 
 the evil spirits were satisfied, took away the pre- 
 sents, telling the people that no other death 
 should happen in the town for some time. The 
 joy which this assurance diffused among the peo- 
 ple, was celebrated by dancing and revelry, till 
 after day break. The Timannees in common 
 with numerous other tribes of Africa, before eat- 
 ing or drinking, consign a portion to the dead, 
 by throwing it upon the ground ; ' Charnel houses' 
 says our traveller, ' in which the remains of the 
 kings or head men are deposited, are never 
 opened ; but small apertures are left in the walls, 
 through which cooked provisions and palm wine, 
 are at times introduced.' These the Timannees 
 imagine, are needful for the dead ; ' of whose 
 spiritual existence they seem to be satisfied.' Small 
 houses containing skulls, images, &c. are to be 
 found generally near^^ entrance of the towns ; 
 the supposed residencwbf the greegees, and ' al- 
 most every house has its protecting spirits, who 
 are often invoked in a manner that is calculated 
 to excite the commiseration of the European 
 spectator.' 
 
 The Purrah, so much dreaded in this country, 
 is an institution, or rather a confederation, whose 
 power supersedes that of the head man of the 
 districts, and whose deeds of darkness are as 
 little enquired into in Africa, as were those of the 
 inquisition in Europe. Its origin our traveller 
 was not able to ascertain ; the head quarters of 
 the Purrah are in enclosures, situated in the 
 woods, and any man approaching them is ap- 
 prehended, and seldom heard of after ; single 
 travellers, and even whole parties are frequently 
 carried off in the same way, and there is reason, 
 to believe that a great number of the slaves sold 
 at the Gallinas are supplied by this association. 
 On some occasions they make incursions into 
 towns by night, and carry off every thing 
 valuable, dead or alive. ' One night' says our 
 travellei, ' the town in which we slept, was 
 visited by the purrah, and my sentinel remained 
 firm at his post ; when the purrah came up an 
 attack was made upon him, but the application 
 of the bayonet, kept them at a distance, until I 
 made my appearance, when the purrah uncertain 
 of their power over a white man, scampered off; 
 they were mostly naked and unarmed, but a few 
 had,knives. The outward distinguishing marks 
 of the purrah, are two parallel tattooed lines 
 round the middle of the body, inclining upwards 
 in front towards the breast, and meeting in the 
 pit of the stomach.' As a proof, however, that 
 the slave trade is not entirely carried on by the 
 rapacity of the purrah, major Laing was twice 
 offered children for sale by the mothers them- 
 selves, and might have bought them for ten bars 
 or about thirty shillings sterling. 
 

 
 258 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 The country of Kooranko from its mountains 
 and picturesque appearance, as beheld from Ma 
 Boom, excited Jn our traveller considerable in- 
 terest. At Ma Biss, about two hours walk from 
 the town of Ma Boom, to the north-west he 
 found the river Rokelle flowing in a W. by S. 
 direction, at the rate of nearly three miles an 
 hour. The banks of the river were composed 
 of argillaceous- schist, or clay slate, interspersed 
 with stupendous blocks of granite, lifting their 
 rugged heads on either side to the height of 
 thirty or forty feet. The channel of the river 
 appeared about three hundred feet across, and 
 was deep in the centre. Down this river he 
 was informed the inhabitants floated their canoes 
 to Rokou, during the rains, in the space of four 
 days ; but respecting the source of it, could ob- 
 tain no intelligence. 
 
 The Mandingoes scattered over this district, 
 are described by our author as a shrewd and well 
 made people, superior to any who inhabit the wes- 
 tern parts of Africa. Their costume is plain and 
 neat ; the width of the trowsers is a consider- 
 able mark of distinction, so much so, that ' Korte 
 Abooniato,' i. e. large trowsers, a common ex- 
 pression amongst them, is synonymous with 
 ' great man.' 
 
 At Kooloofa, on the frontiers of Kooranko, 
 our traveller was again hailed by the natives as 
 the first white man who 'had ever set foot in 
 these parts; and making enquiries respecting the 
 Kabauka Pampana, he learned that it was not 
 more than three miles to the southward ; after 
 walking which distance he ' fell in with it, mean- 
 dering along a deep channel about 200 feet in 
 breadth in a mean direction from N. E. to S. 
 W.' He describes the banks as lofty and pic- 
 turesque, beautified with trees of luxuriant and 
 various foliage in which he particularizes the 
 camwood. On leaving Kooloofa the day fol- 
 lowing, he traversed a delightful country open- 
 ing fine views of the picturesque hills of 
 Kooranko, streaked down their sides with the 
 courses of numerous rivulets tributary to the 
 Kabauka Pampana. The soil here is extremely 
 fertile where properly cultivated, resembling in 
 IT any parts the soil of Ma Boom and the 
 circumjacent region, being a rich black loam, 
 mixed with a little clay and fine sand, the debris 
 of granite washed from the Kooranko hills. 
 ' In many places,' says our traveller, ' we met 
 with extensive beds of granite intersected with 
 veins of quartz, and in others the rock was 
 found in a rapid state of decomposition.' The 
 civility which Major Laing received at Nyiniah 
 reminds us of some features of the classic page, 
 and at the same time shews that the embers of 
 humanity are not quite extinguished in the 
 native African. The head man of Nyiniah 
 forced him by civility to remain at his town 
 one day longer than he intended, and visited 
 him early in the morning attended by his chiefs 
 and principal griot, the latter of whom enter- 
 tained him for some time, by vociferating (or 
 as he considered it singing) the praises of his 
 master. Then he sung 'of the white man 
 who came out of the water to live among the 
 Kooranko people; the white man ate nothing 
 but fish when he lived in the water, and that 
 
 was the cause of his being so thin. If he came 
 among black men he would get fat, for they 
 would give him cows, goats, and sheep to eat ; 
 and his thirst should be quenched with draughts 
 of milk.' The song being concluded, our tra- 
 veller was presented with a fine young bull, 
 which being thrown down, was encircled by a 
 crowd of people. ' Those nearest the animal 
 placed their hands upon him, and joined in 
 a short prayer which a Mahommedan repeated 
 aloud ; the purport of which,' said our traveller, 
 was, that I might get safe to my journey's end 
 and home again among the white men, and 
 that God might leng preserve my life.' The 
 Moslem immediately took the knife and re- 
 peating aloud, ' Bissim Alia Hi,' i. e. ' May 
 God enable you to bear what is going to happen 
 to you,' severed with one cut the wind pipe 
 of the victim. Every knife being now drawn 
 and employed, so much execution was dis- 
 played that in the course of ten minutes the 
 animal was cut up and portioned off. On these 
 occasions the maraboo, who kills the animal, 
 is entitled to the head, neck, and feet; the 
 guarauge expects the hide, liver, and other parts 
 of the inside; the head man of the town re- 
 ceives the right hind leg for his portion, and 
 the blacks with fimo, and jelle, all come in 
 for their share by right of ancient usage, so 
 that the breast is all that is reserved for the 
 person to whom the present is made. On 
 leaving Nyiniah our author was charmed with 
 the country, which he describes with a luxuri- 
 ance and beauty characteristic of his volume ; 
 he passed two rapid streams traversing the plain 
 nearly in a N. E. direction, and at a short 
 distance fell in with the source of another, the 
 spring of which forms a bason of ten yards 
 diameter, embanked in masses of granite, and 
 becomes one of the tributary accessions to the 
 Kamaranka. The contiguous mountains ap- 
 peared to consist of micacious granite and mica 
 slate, the strata running from E. to W. In the 
 valleys were found pebbles of red and white 
 quartz, and flat stones of various dimensions, 
 so strongly impregnated with iron as to draw 
 and repel the needle at the distance of several 
 inches. A few miles N. by E. from Neta Koota 
 flows the river Ba Jafana, about fifteen yards in 
 breadth. This river springs about three miles 
 distant from this spot in the Belakonko moun- 
 tain ; and after running about eighteen miles 
 to the N. W. unites with the Rokelle. Be- 
 tween Foodayia and Kaniagama is a noisy 
 rapid stream, about thirty yards broad, tribu- 
 tary to the same river. After passing the source 
 of the Tongolelle, and overcoming considerable 
 danger from the treachery of his carriers, our 
 traveller arrived at Kania. He was not very 
 much pleased here with the conduct of the 
 women. Before he left the town their hus- 
 bands returned from the war in which they had 
 engaged, and the evening previous to his de- 
 parture, dancing commenced, which was ac- 
 companied by the songs of the females. ' They 
 sung of the white man who had come to their 
 town ; of the houseful of money which he had, 
 such cloth, such beads, such fine things as 
 had never been seen in Kooranko bt-foie. If
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 259 
 
 their husbands were men and wished to see 
 their wives well dressed, they ought to take 
 some of the money from the white man !' It 
 was with difficulty and artifice that this was 
 avoided. Tamba, one of his attendants, mixed 
 with the singers, and 'sung of Sierra Leone, 
 of houses a mile in length rilled with money, 
 that the white man who was here had nothing 
 compared to those in Sierra Leone ; if there- 
 fore they wished to see some of the rich men 
 from that country come into Kooranko they 
 must not trouble this one ; whoever wanted to 
 see a snake's tail must not strike it on the 
 head.' The Koorankos, generally, greatly re- 
 semble the Mandingoes both in language and 
 costume. The women adorn each other's head 
 with great skill, file their teeth to a point, and 
 are ornamented on the breast and back with 
 various devices burnt into the skin. The prin- 
 cipal vegetables produced in the country of 
 Kooranko are rice, plantains, yams, white spin- 
 age, ground nuts, cassada, delicious pines, and 
 bananas. 
 
 Komato is the frontier town of the Kooranko 
 country towards Soolimana ; and here, on the 4th 
 of June, our traveller was met by a party from 
 Falaba, with horses sent by the king of Sooli- 
 mana, to conduct him to Falaba, his capital. 
 Leaving the town, he crossed a river not far 
 to the east, the Rokelle, upon what was called a 
 Nyankata, a species of suspension bridge, which 
 he thus describes. ' From the branches of two 
 stupendous trees, which growing in an inclined 
 direction, nearly embraced one another across 
 the river, were suspended to numberless stays, 
 composed of vine and twisted bark of trees, three 
 strong ropes of well twisted figs, one to support 
 the feet, and the other two (attached to the third 
 by cords of bark) to enable the passenger to 
 balance himself by holding on with both hands, 
 who in this manner by cautious steps is enabled 
 to gain the opposite side ; the twigs are not 
 drawn tight, but are permitted to hang in a sort 
 of curve, so that the effect is like that of walking 
 on a slack rope, a ladder of cross branches is 
 affixed to the trees at the extremities, so that the 
 traveller mounts about forty feet before he steps 
 upon the Nyankata, but when he reaches the 
 centre of the river, he is not more than ten feet 
 above its level. This Nyankata, for I must call 
 it by its native name, having none of my own, 
 was the first indication I had met with since I 
 had left Sierra Leone of co-operation in works 
 of public utility, and I hailed it with pleasure as 
 a symptom of progressive improvement.' p. 214. 
 
 Major Laing thus describes his entrance into 
 Falaba. ' About ten o'clock we came in sight 
 of this long-looked for town, which covered a 
 large extent of ground in a beautiful valley, 
 hemmed in on all sides by gentle acclivities. 
 We descended upon it by the south, but were 
 conducted along to the northern gate, through 
 which we were ushered into the capital of the 
 Soolima nation. We passed along a street, or 
 defile, of about half a mile in length, to a spacious 
 piece of open ground, which stands nearly in 
 the centre of the town, in one corner of which 
 we found seated upwards of 2000 men, armed 
 with muskets, bows, and spears ; on my entrance 
 
 I was saluted by a heavy and irregular discharge 
 of musketry, which, unfortunately, put my horse 
 on his mettle, and as I had neither whip nor 
 spur to teach him good manners, I was obliged 
 to resort to jerking him with the curb, of the 
 severity of which 1 was as yet ignorant ; in con- 
 sequence he backed among the armed assem- 
 blage, who were, by this retrograde movement^ 
 thrown into some confusion, and certainly not 
 impressed with much opinion of my horseman- 
 ship. Being recovered from the awkwardness 
 of my first appearance, I ordered the salute to be 
 returned with three rounds from my party, and 
 then alighting, shook hands with his xnajesty, 
 who put into my hand two massive rings of 
 gold, and made a motion for me to sit down 
 beside him. I found him a good-looking man, 
 about sixty years of age ; his countenance mild, 
 agreeable, and inoffensive in its expression ; he 
 is rather taller than the generality of Soosoos, 
 being about five feet eleven inches in height; 
 and his plain loose garment of black country 
 cloth became him well. I was scarcely seated 
 when my old friend, Yarradee, (habited in rather 
 a more costly manner than when I first beheld 
 him at the camp in the Mandingo country,) 
 mounted on a fiery charger, crossed the parade 
 at a full gallop, followed by about thirty warriors 
 on horseback and 2000 on foot, the latter making 
 a precipitous rush, and firing in all directions. 
 After a lapse of a few minutes, the party on 
 horseback returned, and performed various 
 movements and evolutions for about half an hour, 
 much to the amusement and admiration of my 
 party, several of whom had been with the late 
 unfortunate Major Peddie, and subsequently 
 with Major Gray in Boondon; and who de- 
 clared it to be a show passing any thing they 
 had ever witnessed. Yarradee now alighted 
 from his horse, and seizing his bow, pulled the 
 string to the full extent, affecting to shoot an 
 arrow at some distant object ; he appeared to 
 watch it on tiptoe with eager expectation till it 
 reached its destination, when he gave a leap and 
 a smile of satisfaction ; then striking his breast 
 with his right hand, and distorting his naturally 
 ugly visage into a most hideous grin, he beckoned 
 his war-men to follow, which they did, with a 
 shout that rent the skies : after advancing a few 
 paces they stopt short, and watching Yarradee, 
 who, with the eye of a hawk, was intent on the 
 motions of the supposed enemy, waited his 
 direction to discharge their arrows ; and having 
 done so, each individual appeared to trace the 
 flight of his own arrow, and betrayed signs of 
 satisfaction or disappointment at its supposed 
 execution or failure; a discharge of musketry 
 followed the flight of arrows, after which the 
 spears and cutlasses were put in requisition to 
 hack and cut in pieces the discomfited foe, 
 while those warlike movements were going for- 
 ward, another set of people were by no means 
 idle ; there were above one hundred musicians 
 who playing upon divers instruments, drums, 
 flutes, ballafoos, harps of rude workmanship, 
 with many other kinds, which it would b<* 
 tedious to enumerate, kept up a din sufficient 
 almost to crack the tympanum of ordinary ear* 
 and which compelled me to fortify mine with * 
 
 S 2
 
 260 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 little cotton; two fellows, in particular, with 
 crooked sticks, kept hammering with provoking 
 perseverance, and with the violence of black- 
 smiths at the anvil, upon two large drums which 
 stood about four feet high, in shape similar to a 
 chess-castle turned upside down; their only 
 desire appeared to be that of making a noise, 
 and in that I suppose the chief art consisted, for 
 the harder they beat, the more applause they 
 obtained. A nod from the king at length put a 
 stop to this clang of steel and din of drums, and 
 I was flattering myself with the hope of being 
 permitted to retire to the apartment allotted to 
 me, but my motion was interrupted by the king 
 who said 1 must hear something more. Being 
 again seated, a jelle, or singing man, elegantly 
 attired in the Mandingo costume ; his wrists 
 and elbows ornamented with bells, and beating 
 on a sweet-toned ballafoo, the notes of which he 
 ran over with taste and velocity, stepped out, 
 and after playing a sort of symphony, or prelude, 
 commenced a dialogue in song with some per- 
 sons who were to be invisble at first, but who 
 afterwards joined him.' p. 228 233. 
 
 During the residence of major Laing at the 
 capital of Soolima, he frequently mentioned his 
 solicitude to visit the source of the Niger, which 
 he felt convinced was at no great distance. The 
 king shook his head and said, ' White man, it is 
 impossible, I am at war with the people of 
 Kissi, the country from which the river comes ; 
 and if they were to know you came from me 
 they would that moment kill you.' Numerous 
 obstacles were at different times thrown in his 
 way, but he expresses the fullest confidence that 
 had his time been at his own disposal, a longer 
 stay would have enabled him to accomplish the 
 desirable object. He held some conversation 
 with a caravan of merchants who came to Falaba 
 from Kowia, a town on the banks of Falico, a 
 branch of the Niger, who gave him much infor- 
 mation respecting the source of that celebrated 
 river, assuring him that it might be reached from 
 Falaba in three days. He ascended a sugar- 
 loaf hill, called Konkodoogore, he states, four 
 miles south of Falaba, from which he saw the 
 hill Loma, whence the Niger springs ; also the 
 source of the river Mungo, originating in three 
 hills which stretch to the westward. The source 
 of the Rokelle he visited, tracing its diminished 
 stream to the foot of a hill where ' springing 
 from under a rock, and shaded by a thick foliage 
 of date trees, it bubbles up and scatters itself 
 over a wide surface of red clay, in appearance 
 Jike a stream formed by the bursting of a water 
 pipe in the streets. About a hundred yards or 
 more below the source, the water collects into a 
 channel of about a foot in breadth, and runs off 
 rapidly to the S.S.E.' Afterwards it makes a 
 circuitous sweep, shaping its course in a south- 
 westerly direction, between Setacolia and Tigia- 
 tamba, where receiving considerable accessions, 
 it widens and deepens, till it assumes the mag- 
 nificence of a noble river. 
 
 Our author lays down the source of the Niger 
 from the best information he could obtain, as 
 being in lat. 9 25'. N. and long. 9, 45. W. 
 It is at its source, he says, called Tembie, 
 and that it runs due north to Kang Rang, a dis- 
 
 tance of many miles, its course being marked by 
 a ridge of hills breaking off at right angles 
 from the chain, running easterly from Sierra 
 Leone. Of this northerly branch, Loma forms 
 a part; and the continuance, in the opinion of 
 our author, of the mountains of Kong, the posi- 
 tion of which has long been a subject of much 
 speculation. On reaching Kang Kang, the river 
 assumes an easterly direction, \ and exchanges 
 the name Tembei, for Ba Ba, and Joli Ba, syno- 
 nymous with each other, and signifying, ' Large 
 River,' which it carries to Sego, Jinne, and 
 Tombuctoo, after which the name Joliba is lost 
 amid a multiplicity of designations. 
 
 Numerous traditions are found amongst the 
 negroes, respecting it, one particularly is remark- 
 able ; ' that although not more than half a yard 
 in diameter at its source, if any one was to at- 
 tempt to leap over it, he would fall into the 
 spring, and be instantly swallowed up ; but that 
 a person may step over it quietly without any 
 apprehension of danger.' Another of these 
 fictions relates, ' that it is forbidden to take 
 water from the spring; and that any one who at- 
 tempts it, will have the calabash wrested from 
 his hands by an invisible power, and perhaps 
 lose his arm.' 
 
 The limited success of preceding African ex- 
 peditions, did not deter his majesty's govern- 
 ment from again (1821) endeavouring to extend 
 the knowledge of the British name and character 
 in this direction. We follow a species of demi- 
 official account of the last expedition, dis- 
 patched into the interior of Africa, from a res- 
 pectable periodical journal. 
 
 ' The bashaw of Tripoli had signified to the 
 British consul his readiness to escort as far as 
 Bornou, with the sultan of which he was in strict 
 alliance, any British travellers who might be 
 accredited by their government. Of so good 
 an opportunity Lord Bathurst readily availed 
 himself; and three gentlemen, volunteers, were 
 appointed for this service Doctor Oudney, a 
 well informed North Briton, and a navy sur- 
 geon ; Mr. Clapperton, a lieutenant in the navy, 
 and lieutenant (now major) Denham, who was 
 educated at the Royal Military College, and 
 served in the Peninsular war. To these was 
 added a carpenter from the dock-yard at Malta, 
 by name John Hilman. From the private 
 correspondence of these gentlemen with their 
 friends, we are able to glean some little account 
 of their proceedings. They were kindly re- 
 ceived by the bashaw ; and, after the usual delay 
 in preparing for the journey, set out with an 
 escort for Mourzouk. They had been advised 
 by the bashaw to clothe themselves, as all for- 
 mer travellers had done, in Moorish or Arab 
 dresses ; but this disguise is so easily seen 
 through, that they determined to wear their own 
 dress, and openly to avow themselves English- 
 men and Christians wherever they might go ; 
 and the result has been, that they have never 
 experienced the slightest insult or inconvenience 
 among any of the numerous tribes with whom 
 they have had intercourse. Another tedious 
 delay of a whole year at Mourzouk had at least 
 one good effect, that of inuring them to a still 
 warmer climate ; while their frequent journeys
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 2(31 
 
 to various parts of Fezzan brought them ac- 
 quainted with the manners, the language, and 
 the disposition of the natives. During their 
 long residence here, they experienced no ill 
 effects either from climate, want of provisions, 
 or badness of water. The doctor's fame spread 
 rapidly into every part of Fezzan and beyond it ; 
 and patients poured in from every side to enjoy 
 the benefit of his advice and his physic. 
 
 ' At length the time of their departure arrived ; 
 and Boo Khaloom, a particular friend of the 
 bashaw of Tripoli, was appointed to command 
 the escort, consisting of 300 Arab horsemen 
 far more than were necessary, but ordered out 
 of the abundant care of the bashaw for the sub- 
 jects of his cousin of England. In the month 
 of November, 1822, they left Mourzouk, follow- 
 ing the route laid down by Captain Lyon, as far 
 as Tegherry. -From this place they crossed a 
 dreary desert, occasionally somewhat enlivened 
 by little hollows or valleys, in which wells were 
 found for themselves and their cattle, consisting 
 of a multitude of camels in addition to the 
 horses. In the course of four or five hundred 
 miles, they passed a few villages and several 
 towns inhabited by the Tibbos, whose territories 
 cover a large extent of this wild region, and who 
 consider themselves entitled to a certain tribute 
 for keeping the wells in repair. These people, 
 the most harmless perhaps of the numerous 
 tribes whom a life of precarious subsistence has 
 thrown upon this miserable country, treated our 
 travellers with great kindness, and in their whole 
 conduct fully justified the character given of them 
 by Captain Lyon. Yet they are not safe or un- 
 molested even in their deserts, being subject to 
 the depredations of the Tuaricks, a fiercer race, 
 who plunder the unprotected villages situated in 
 the valleys, or little oases, but seldom venture 
 to attack the larger towns, erected on the tops 
 of detached and naked brown hills, which here 
 and there rise out of the gray surface, like rocks 
 out of the sea. Of these towns our travellers 
 passed four, whose names are Kishbee, Ash- 
 anumrna, Dirkee, and Bilma. Bilma is the 
 great mart of salt for a considerable part of Sou- 
 dan, 30,000 camel loads of which are said to be 
 carried away yearly by the trading part of the 
 Tuaricks. This is not dug out of the earth in 
 masses, as has been represented ; but manufac- 
 tured by a very simple process : shallow pits, 
 banked round with sand and mud, are dug, after 
 the rains, which soon fill by water oozing in 
 from below. The heat of summer evaporates 
 the water, and leaves behind an incrustation of 
 good culinary salt. From Bilma to Agades one 
 desert of sand succeeded another, with here and 
 there ridges of dark sandstone peeping out of 
 the dreary surface, exhibiting neither plant nor 
 living creature, nor any other object to rest or 
 relieve the wearied eye. One single wadey, or 
 valley, near Bilma, about half way between 
 Mourzouk and Bornou, produced grass and 
 shrubs, and a few date trees. There was no 
 want, indeed, of frequent wells, the water of 
 which was tolerably good ; and near these gene- 
 rally were found a few tufts of grass ; great 
 numbers of their camels,5 however, perished for 
 want of food. 
 
 On the 4th of February, twenty days after 
 their departure from Bilma, they reached Lari, 
 the frontier town of Bornou. Here the country 
 suddenly changed for the better. Large herds of 
 antelopes were bounding over the plains ; guinea 
 fowls and turtle-doves were most abundant, and 
 grass and accacia trees clothed in some degree 
 the surface. Several villages also made their 
 appearance, the houses of which, like those of 
 Lari, consisted of bell-shaped huts, formed of the 
 straw of dhurra. Lari is situated in about 14. 
 40'. north latitude, and nearly on the same meri- 
 dian with Mourzouk. Here our travellers sud- 
 denly got sight of the great lake of Bornou, called 
 the Tsaad, which, extending easterly, receives 
 the little streams of those northerly valleys in 
 which most of the Kanem villages are situated. 
 Hence they continued their route in a southerly 
 direction for seven days, without leaving the 
 Tsaad at any great distance, the road mostly ly- 
 ing within sight of its waters or banks ; the 
 former presenting numerous bays and inlets, and 
 islands covered with thickets and tall reeds ; the 
 latter were low, though a sandy embankment, of 
 forty or fifty feet in height, ran parallel to the 
 margin of the lake, at the distance of one and 
 sometimes two miles from it, having apparently 
 formed, at one time, the bank of the lake, and 
 still, perhaps, forming it in the rainy season ; as 
 the ground between this and the lake was in 
 many places observed to be overflowed, even 
 from the effect, as it appeared, of the north-east 
 wind. Several elephants were seen among the 
 accacia woods, and two or three were observed 
 browsing among the reedy islands. The whole 
 neighbourhood was well stocked with villages, 
 among which was one of a larger kind, named 
 Burwa, with mud walls, whose houses and huts 
 were observed to be neat and clean, and all its 
 inhabitants decently clothed. Leaving Lari, and 
 at the distance from it of about sixty miles be- 
 yond the commencement of the lake, they crossed 
 the river Yaou, (the Zad of Horneman, and the 
 Tsaad of Burckhardt,) flowing from the westward 
 into the lake, being now a stream of about one 
 hundred feet wide, and running at the rate of 
 a mile an hour, between high sandy banks from 
 two to three hundred feet apart. It is this river 
 which is said to overflow in the rainy season, 
 and into which Burckhardt says a female slave 
 is thrown on the occasion by order of the king. 
 At the ford where our traveller crossed, two rude 
 ill-shapen boats were lying on the bank. Their 
 gratification in meeting with such a river, after 
 a thousand miles nearly of desert, will readily be 
 imagined. In all their letters they speak warmly 
 of its beauties, the calmness and sweetness of its 
 waters, the comfort it seemed to add to the nu- 
 merous little villages scattered along its banks, 
 and the possibility of its being the far-famed 
 Niger, which it unquestionably is. A walled 
 town of the same name, Yaou, stood on its banks. 
 From this place to Kouka, the residence of the 
 sheik, is a fine beaten track, covered with kofilas 
 of bullocks transporting merchandize, and with 
 foot passengers mostly armed with spears, and 
 cheerfully trooping along Approaching within 
 one day's journey of the residence of the sheik, 
 our travellers received a message from him, in
 
 262 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 answer to one announcing their arrival, mat ne 
 would receive them at Kouka the next day. The 
 accounts of this personage had been so contra- 
 dictory, that they appioached his capital in an 
 interesting state of uncertainty, whether they 
 should find him at the head of thousands, or 
 whether he would receive them under a tree, 
 surrounded by a few negroes. 
 
 They were soon, however, relieved from their 
 suspense ; for, on arriving within a few miles of 
 Kouka, they were astonished with the appear- 
 ance of about four thousand cavalry drawn up to 
 receive them, well armed with spears, and a 
 body of negroes, called the sheik's guard ; these 
 latter were clothed in coats of iron chain-work, 
 closed at the neck, and drawn over the head like 
 a Guernsey frock, which, dividing both before 
 and behind, fell on each side of the horse, and 
 protected the thighs also. On their heads they 
 wore skull-caps of iron or brass, fastened on with 
 turbans, yellow, red, and white, and tied under 
 the chin ; the horses' heads were also defended 
 by plates of the same metal : their saddles were 
 small and light ; their stirrups of brass, in which 
 four toes of the foot only are placed ; a sandal of 
 leather covers the foot, ornamented with the 
 skin of a crocodile, and to this the spur is fixed. 
 * They really,' says Major Denham, in one of 
 his letters, ' rode beautifully, and charged ra- 
 pidly to within a few feet of our horses' heads, 
 without checking their speed, when they brought 
 up, shaking the reversed spear at Boo Khaloom, 
 with a cry of Barca, Barca ! welcome, welcome ! ' 
 After this, he says, they closed their flanks and 
 completely surrounded the travellers and their 
 little party of Arabs ; ' they had nearly put an 
 end to us,' he adds, ' by the dust alone which they 
 raised ; and their spears rattled over our heads 
 in rather discordant notes of welcome all this, 
 however, was managed with a skill and address 
 that was any thing but savage.' Surrounded by 
 this tumultuous escort they approached the town; 
 and after about an hour's delay, were ordered to 
 move on through several dark avenues of the 
 sacred palace of the sheik of Spears, lined with 
 his guards, in plain blue Soudan shirts, and 
 armed each with a spear and dagger. In the 
 same garb the sheik received them, seated in an 
 inner room, on a small carpet, but having on 
 his head a Cashmere turban. Two slaves, with 
 loaded pistols, were lying at his feet. Having 
 read the letter of the bashaw of Tripoli, he 
 merely said they were welcome, and ordered a 
 negro to shew them to the huts that had been 
 prepared for them. They were pleased with the 
 cast of his countenance, and his affable and en- 
 gaging manner : his age appeared to be about 
 forty-five. The sultan's court at Birnie is de- 
 scribed as one of fans, silks, and feathers, while 
 the sheik's is one of spears. Dr. Oudney paid 
 a visit to this mock sovereign, to whom he was 
 conducted by a troop of horsemen of most gro- 
 tesque appearance, dressed in high round-topped 
 turbans and short thick stuff cotton jackets, 
 looking < so thick and bunchy,' says the Doctor, 
 ' that they sat on their horses as steady and un- 
 moveable as if they had been so many well 
 stuffed sacks of corn. The great horse of state, 
 with a huge man upon him, headed the proces- 
 
 sion; (we are glad to find such respectable 
 authority for the Lord Mayor's man in armour ;) 
 but so swelled out was the horse with the cover- 
 ing of a thick stuffed carpet, and so loaded wa$ 
 the man with clothing and charms, that both oi 
 them appeared incapable of moving. The sul- 
 tan was perched in a kind of cage in the wall, 
 from which he did not descend ; but sent his am- 
 bassador to bid the strangers welcome; and in 
 the mean time the drums beat, and the long 
 wooden trumpet sounded, whilst a sort of herald 
 under a tree, with a mace in his hand, was voci- 
 ferating, with all his might, the genealogy, the 
 titles, and the praises of the sultan. 
 
 Our travellers having satisfied their curiosity 
 at Kouka, and the neighbouring towns, were 
 desirous of prosecuting their discoveries beyond 
 the dominions of Bornou ; Dr. Oudney and 
 Lieutenant Clapperton wishing to proceed to 
 Soudan, and Major Denham to the eastward ; 
 but the sheik gave them to understand that his 
 cousin, the bashaw of Tripoli, having strictly 
 charged him with the care and protection of 
 their persons, he considered himself responsible 
 for their safety, and could not, therefore, allow 
 them to depart on any service of danger. No- 
 thing, indeed, could exceed his kindness to the 
 strangers : and Major Denham entertained a 
 sanguine hope that he might be allowed to 
 accompany him on a projected expedition against 
 Bagherme, after the rainy season. ' He is never 
 tired,' says the Major, ' of asking questions about 
 sieges; and gun-powder is his delight. Thirty 
 or forty English muskets, and two camel-loads 
 of good powder would be to him a more accept- 
 able present than any other that could be given 
 him. My rockets are here invaluable ; he has 
 seen two, which have delighted and frightened 
 the whole nation. I have given him a dozen, 
 all that were left ; and they are preserved with 
 the utmost care ; ' and he adds, ' by means of 
 these alone I shall get to Bagherme, as they are 
 to accompany an expedition to that country, 
 which is in agitation, and they cannot as yet set 
 them off; one of them bursting over the town, 
 he assures me, will cause its immediate surrender 
 by its inhabitants.' In the mean time, however, 
 an occasion offered for this enterprising officer 
 to proceed beyond the boundaries of Bornou. 
 Boo Khaloom, who had attended our travellers 
 from Tripoli, thought it no bad opportunity, be- 
 fore his return, to avail himself of the advanced 
 situation in the interior, to proceed on aGrazzie, 
 a sort of marauding expedition which the native 
 tribes of Africa are in the habit of making upon 
 each other. At the earnest solicitation of Major 
 Denham to accompany this expedition, the sheik 
 reluctantly consented, but insisted on sending an 
 old negro servant to take care of him. The 
 number composing the Grazzie consisted of about 
 3000 men, partly Arabs of Boo Khaloom, partly 
 natives of Bornou, under the command of Barca 
 Gana, his chief Mameluke and general, and some 
 of the troops of the Sheik. They travelled south ; 
 and after a march of six days reached Mora, 
 the capital and residence of the Sultan of Man- 
 dara, situated in,a valley at the foot of a noble 
 chain of hills, at the distance of 170 miles from 
 Kouka. These hills or mountains ("said to ex
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 263 
 
 tend to the distance of thirty or forty days to the 
 south-west) are composed of granite, and their 
 sides clothed with trees. In the valleys are many 
 towns inhabited by Mussulmans ; but those who 
 dwell in the mountains are Kindies, or savages, 
 ho receive protection from the sultan of Man- 
 ira, in consideration of furnishing him with a 
 certain number of slaves. Boo Khaloom had 
 expected that a portion of these would have been 
 'ven to him at Mara; but this was positively 
 fused : he therefore proceeded still southerly 
 against the Fellata, a very powerful nation, on 
 the offer of the sultan to add to his forces. The 
 Major's account of this enterprize, written to a 
 friend of his at Malta, is so curious and full of in- 
 terest, that we shall give it in his own words. 
 
 ' On the 25th of April, the sheik's troops, the 
 Arabs, and about 2000 horse of the sultan of 
 Mandara, with himself, set forth for Musfeia, the 
 capital of the Fellatas. Our road lay through 
 extensive valleys, thickly planted with trees, and 
 bounded by those beautiful hills, the sides of 
 which presented here and there clusters of huts, 
 and the height of which, sometimes exceeded 
 1500 feet. On the 28th, soon after daylight, we 
 approached the Fellatas' towns, having marched 
 nearly the whole night. Two of them were 
 quickly burnt, and passing on we came upon a 
 third, situated between two low hills, with a dry 
 wadey in front. Here the Fellatas had mustered 
 their forces, had carried a strong fence of pointed 
 stakes from one hill to the other, were themselves 
 on a rising ground behind, and covered by the 
 huts. The position was extremely strong and 
 well chosen. The Arabs moved on with great 
 gallantry, Boo Khaloom at their head; and, 
 notwithstanding the showers of arrows (some 
 poisoned and some not) that poured on them 
 from behind the palisades, they carried them in 
 less than half an hour, and pushing on, drove 
 the Fellatas up the sides of the hills. A few of 
 the Bornou spearmen now supported the Arabs, 
 and pierced through and through about fifty un- 
 fortunates whom the fire of the Arabs had obliged 
 the Fellatas to leave wounded near the stakes. 
 Had even a small part of either the Mandara 
 troops, or those of the sheik, now moved up 
 boldly, they must have carried the town, for the 
 Fellatas did not exceed 1000 or 1200 men at 
 the utmost ; but they still kept on the other side 
 of the wadey, out of reach of the arrows. The 
 Arabs advanced to the v-ary houses, and got pos- 
 session of some of them, Barca Gana, myself, 
 and about forty of his own people alone accom- 
 panying them. Seeing the backwardness of their 
 enemies, they now made an attack in their turn; 
 the arrows were so thick, that there was no 
 standing against them, and the Arabs quickly fell 
 back. Barca Gana had two horses hit under 
 him, that died almost immediately, the arrows 
 being poisoned ; and, here poor Boo Khaloom 
 received his death wound by an arrow of the 
 same description, which struck him in the foot. 
 My horse was badly wounded in the shoulder, 
 and in his near hind leg; an arrow had struck 
 me in the face as it passed, merely bringing the 
 blood, and two others stuck in my bornouse ; 
 most of the Arabs had two, and some three 
 
 wounds, and one dropped near me with five 
 sticking in his head alone. 
 
 ' No sooner did the Mandara and Bornou 
 troops see the retreat of the Arabs, than they 
 one and all took to flight in the most dastardly 
 and confused manner possible ; and I now, for 
 the first time, as I saw Barca Gana on a fresh 
 horse, lamented my own folly in thus exposing 
 myself, being badly provided against accidents. 
 If either of my horse's wounds were from poison- 
 ed arrows, I felt that nothing could save me ; 
 however, there was not much time for reflection. 
 We instantly became a confused flying mass, 
 and plunged, in the greatest disorder, into that 
 wood which we had but a few hours before 
 moved through with order and very different 
 feelings. 
 
 ' I had got a little to the west of Barca Gana's 
 track, and was following one of the sultan of 
 Mandara's eunuchs, mounted on a white horse, 
 when the cries behind of the Fellata's horse pur- 
 suing, made both him and me quicken our pace. 
 The spur however had the effect of incapacitating 
 my animal altogether. The arrow I found after- 
 wards had reached the shoulder bone, and in 
 passing over some rough ground he stumbled and 
 fell. Almost as soon as I was on my legs, the 
 Fellatas were on me. I had however, kept hold 
 of the bridle, and seizing a pistol from the holster 
 presented it at .two, who were pressing me with 
 their spears. They instantly went off; but 
 another, who came on me more boldly just as I 
 was trying to remount, received the contents 
 somewhere in his left shoulder, and again I was 
 enabled to raise my foot to the stirrup. Once 
 more mounted, I again pushed my retreat. I 
 had not however, proceeded many hundred yards, 
 when my horse again came down with more vio- 
 lence than before, threw me to a considerable 
 distance against a tree, and, alarmed at the horses 
 behind him, he quickly started up, escaped, and 
 left me on foot and unarmed. My life was now 
 preserved by one of those wonderful interpositions 
 of Divine Providence, which ought to fill the 
 mind of man with gratitude and devotion. 
 
 ' I was almost instantly surrounded, and, in- 
 capable of making the least resistance, as speedily 
 stripped. In an attempt first to save my shirt, 
 and then my trowsers, one villain made two 
 thrusts at me with a spear that badly wounded 
 my hands in two places, and slightly my body, 
 just under my ribs on the right side. Indeed 
 I saw nothing before me but the death I had 
 seen inflicted 'on those who had fallen into the 
 hands of the enemies of the people, in whose 
 power I now was but it was otherwise or- 
 dained. 
 
 ' Scarcely were my clothes torn off me, when 
 my plunderers began to quarrel for the spoil. 
 Without a moment's reflection, I crept under the 
 belly of the horse nearest to me, and started, as 
 fast as my legs would carry me, for the thickest 
 part of the wood. Two of them followed me, 
 and I ran on towards the east, knowing that our 
 stragglers would be in that direction, but still 
 almost as much afraid of friends as foes. A deep 
 mountain-stream obstructed my passage, which} 
 by swimming a few strokes, I quickly got over.
 
 264 
 
 AFRICA 
 
 and then felt myself quite safe from my pursuers. 
 My feelings at this moment, (what could I do in 
 the helpless state of nakedness in which I was,) 
 cannot be described. I now saw horsemen 
 through the trees still farther to the east, and I 
 determined on reaching them if possible, whether 
 friends or enemies and my feelings will readily 
 be imagined, when I discovered Boo Khaloom, 
 with about six Arabs, and Barca Gana pressed 
 by a party of Fellatas, whom they had halted to 
 drive back, being the only people who carried 
 guns. 
 
 ' My voice however, would never have reached 
 their ears had not Maranny, the sheik's negro, 
 who accompanied me from Kouka, seen and 
 known me at a distance, and to this man am I 
 indebted for my life. He rode up to me, assisted 
 me to mount up behind him, while the arrows 
 whistled over our heads, and he then galloped 
 off to the rear as fast as his wounded horse could 
 carry him. Boo Khaloom now rode up to me, 
 and desired one of the Arabs to cover me with 
 a bornouse ; these were the last words I heard 
 him speak, and we had scarcely proceeded ten 
 miles, when Maranny exclaimed, ' Look ! look ! 
 Boo Khaloom is dead ! ' I turned my head 
 round, almost as great an exertion as I was ca- 
 pable of making, and saw him fall into the arms 
 of an Arab.' The major then proceeds to state, 
 that, after riding forty-five miles, he reached the 
 territories of Mandara in a most deplorable con- 
 dition, and with some difficulty succeeded in 
 borrowing a shirt, which had been worn eight or 
 ten days. The Arabs had lost every thing ; 
 forty-five of them were killed, and nearly all of 
 them wounded. The sheik, on his return, re- 
 ceived him with the greatest kindness ; and, his 
 wounds were speedily healed. 
 
 ' The distance from Kouka to the Fellata vil- 
 lages in the mountains, the Major informs us, is 
 about 230 miles nearly south, or 3. 20'. difference 
 of latitude, which would make the latitude of 
 these villages about 9. 30'. Assuming the lon- 
 gitude to be the same as that of Mourzouk, 14. 10'. 
 it will be seen, by inspecting the charts, that he 
 was not more than about 300 miles from old 
 Calabar; so that Captain Adams was unwittingly 
 right in saying that the best, at least the nearest, 
 way to the Niger, or its waters, would be across 
 the country from that quarter. While the Major 
 was absent, another important step in African 
 geography was made by Dr. Oudney and Lieute- 
 nant Clapperton. With the consent of the sheik 
 they set out on an excursion to examine the river 
 Shary, which, by proceeding southerly, they 
 found at the distance of ninety miles from Kouka. 
 It is a noble stream, nearly a mile broad, flow- 
 ing gently at the rate of about a mile an hour, 
 and containing a great number of flat islands. It 
 flows from the southward, and is supposed to 
 have its origin in the chain of granite mountains 
 mentioned by Major Denham. They traced its 
 stream to the northward, till it emptied itself by 
 five or sixth mouths into the lake Tsaad; di- 
 rectly in the face of the report which they had 
 gleaned from all quarters, that this river flowed 
 out of the lake. Our travellers had never had 
 the lake fairly open to them before ; for it is so 
 
 studded near its banks with islands, and the 
 country is so perfectly flat, that there is no seeing 
 beyond them ; but here it presented a noble 
 sheet of water, extending north, north-east, and 
 east, farther than the eye could reach. Some of the 
 islands in the Tsaad are inhabited by a people 
 called Buddooma, who carry off, on rafts, not only 
 cattle which they find grazing near the shore, 
 but frequently women and children ; yet the 
 sheik has no canoes, nor any means of punishing 
 these marauders. John Hillman, the carpenter, 
 had made himself very useful in fabricating 
 sofas and palanquins for the sheik, and had be- 
 come of course a favourite ; the greatest service he 
 could perform for the natives, however, would be 
 that of instructing them in the art of boat-build- 
 ing and of navigating the lake. There is no 
 want of wood for this purpose, and their cotton 
 would supply them with ropes and sails. We 
 trust it will have occurred to our travellers, that 
 the best and surest way of examining its 
 eastern shores is by means of a boat. Our travel- 
 lers first saw this lake at Lari, which is 130 
 miles to the northward of Kouka, and as Kouka 
 is said to be ninety miles to the northward of 
 the mouth of the Shary, the lake must be at least 
 200 miles in that direction ; and may be more, 
 provided these two points should happen not to 
 be its northern and southern extremities. A por- 
 tion of it would appear to occupy the position 
 assigned by major Rennell to the swamps of 
 Wangara ; but our travellers had no better suc- 
 cess in hearing any thing of this name than 
 Burckhardt, Ritchie, Lyon and others ; and so 
 little did it resemble a swamp, that in the month 
 of April, at the end of the dry season, when not 
 a drop of rain had in all probability fallen for six 
 or seven months, it had all the appearance of 
 being full and perfectly transparent. It is not 
 stated, however, in any of the letters which we 
 have seen, whether the water be fresh or salt, 
 though the very omission may almost be as- 
 sumed as a proof of its being fresh; a still 
 stronger proof is that of its abounding with 
 hippopotami and crocodiles two animals that 
 exist only in fresh water. Burckhardt, indeed, 
 had positive information that the lake of Bornou 
 was fresh. The probability is, that it is fresh 
 and has an outlet ; and if any reliance can be 
 placed on Arab authority, the Gambarroo, which 
 flows by Bagherme and Fittri to the eastward, is 
 that outlet. ' Some report,' Doctor Oudney says, 
 ' that the Shary gives off a large branch which 
 falls to the southward of Bagherme two days, and 
 runs to Fittri, and thence to the Nile ;' and Ma- 
 jor Denham learned from an Arab sheik of 
 Waday, that a branch of the Shary, called the 
 Bahr el Dago, goes into the Nile; tlrat it receives 
 additional supplies from Lake Fittri, twelve days 
 journey from those mouths of the Shary which 
 flow into the Tsaad ; and that it then takes a 
 course to the south-eastward, till, as before, it 
 reaches the Nile. He was further informed, by 
 the Sheik, of some Mourzouk merchants having 
 spread a report that it was their (the travellers') 
 intention to come up that river (El Dago) from 
 Misr (Egypt) with ships as large as elephants, 
 loaded with guns and gunpowder. There must
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 265 
 
 be something, we think, in this universal belief 
 that the waters, which we have now traced into 
 the Tsaad, find their way to the Nile of Egypt. 
 There is nothing whatever against their reaching 
 the Bahr el Abiad, except the low level of the 
 Tsaad, which is evidently the sink of North 
 Africa ; yet the comparative difference of levels 
 between it and the former river is not at all known ; 
 nor do we find, in the letters of the travellers, 
 any estimate of its level above that of the sea. 
 
 ' But where/ asks Dr. Oudney, naturally 
 enough, ' where is the celebrated Niger ? The 
 Yaou is the only probable river coming from 
 Soudan, and it is almost too small.' Yet the 
 wonder is, that in the dry season it was not 
 smaller. Most rivers that have no feeders, and 
 more especially African rivers, that lose so much 
 by absorption and evaporation, diminish as they 
 proceed in their course ; and if the Niger (for so 
 will we not scruple to call it) had not been con- 
 fined within very narrow banks, but had spread 
 out a more considerable surface, the probability 
 is, that the whole of its waters at this season, 
 and at this distance from its source, would have 
 been evaporated. Major Denham, who went 
 directly south, beyond the 10th degree of lati- 
 tude, crossed no river between Kouka and the 
 termination of his journey, and there is none 
 between that city and the Yaou ; so that if this 
 stream be not the Joliba, which has been pretty 
 well ascertained to run into the lake Nyffe, about 
 300 miles to the westward of the Tsaad, and 
 nearly on the same parallel, there certainly is no 
 other in Bornou that can be considered as the 
 Niger. If, indeed, the account of all travellers, 
 and the Arab waiters, can be depended on, and 
 particularly the result of Horneman's enquiries, 
 no doubt whatever can remain that the Yaou is 
 the Niger, which Major Rennell has traced satis- 
 factorily into the swamps of Wangara, or (for 
 they must be the same) the lake of Bornou ; what 
 becomes of it afterwards, and whether it termi- 
 nates in the lake, is a point which we trust our 
 travellers will be able to determine. 
 
 ' From the multitude of villages, observed by 
 our travellers along the western shores of the 
 lake, and the several large towns not very dis- 
 tant from it, there can be no doubt that this part 
 of Africa is well stocked with inhabitants. The 
 town of Kouka, which may be called the sheik's 
 head-quarters or military depot, has only about 
 80CO inhabitants. It is situated at the distance 
 of fifteen miles from the western borders of the 
 Tsaad, in lat. 12. 51'. N. and long. 13. 14'. E. 
 being nearly twenty miles to the westward of the 
 meridian of Mourzouk ; and the travelling dis- 
 tance is about 1000 miles from the same place, 
 which occupied the expedition ninety-two days. 
 Bernie, the residence of the sultan, is eighteen 
 miles S. S. E. of Kouka, and is said to contain 
 30,000 inhabitants ; and Engornou, sixteen miles 
 S. E. by S. of Kouka, not less than 50,000. At 
 this place there is a weekly market held on 
 \\ ednesdays, to which all the surrounding coun- 
 tries, the people of Kanem and of Soudan resort; 
 so that the numbers who occasionally attend 
 are said to amount to eighty and sometimes a 
 hundred thousand souls ! Major Denham made 
 a visit to this place, and was much pleased with 
 
 it. The currency appeared to consist of amber, 
 coral, and glass beads; but dollars were well 
 known and most in demand. A large diamond- 
 cut drop of a glass chandelier, the Pitt diamond 
 of central Africa, was, however, an object of con- 
 test among the ladies of the court. How such a 
 population is supported, it is not easy to ima- 
 gine : the whole kingdom, on the western side 
 at least, is one dead flat of sand and clay, with- 
 out a single stone of any description. In the 
 season of heat and drought, every vestige of 
 verdure takes its departure, except from the 
 various kinds of accacia trees and the tamarind : 
 yet herds of elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, and 
 antelopes of various kinds, are everywhere seen, 
 and especially along the borders of the lake. 
 Major Denham says he counted forty-seven large 
 elephants in one group. Where and on what 
 they feed at this season does not appear. Tame 
 bullocks are met with in droves of a thousand or 
 fifteen hundred, and flesh meat is very cheap : a 
 fine ox might be bought for three dollars; and 
 fowls at the rate of forty for a dollar. Of vege- 
 tables, our travellers saw little but onions and a 
 few yams ; and no fruit except the tamarind. In 
 the sheik's garden is a single lime-tree. The 
 quadrupeds above mentioned, and many smaller 
 species, supplied our travellers with abundance 
 of game, which were procured chiefly by Clap- 
 perton,who is an excellent shot. The lake too, 
 abounds with a great variety of water fowl, some 
 of which are said to be of extraordinary beauty; 
 and the ducks and geese were so tame, that he 
 killed eight or ten at one shot. Snipes rise in 
 thousands, like so many clouds. 
 
 The temperature in March and April was 
 uniformly high, seldom lower than 100. and 
 sometimes 104. at two or three o'clock ; yet the 
 constant refreshing breeze prevented it from feel- 
 ing oppressive. The barometer was steady at 
 twenty-nine inches. So little did the heat ap- 
 pear to affect Clapperton, that he used to go out 
 for several days together, along the margin of 
 the Tsaad, to kill game, and suffered nothing 
 from the exertion : the people were uniformly 
 civil and obliging, A numerous tribe of Arabs 
 had settled in the sheik's dominions. They 
 came from the banks of the Shary, and are de- 
 scribed as different from those of the north ; their 
 complexions are of a light copper colour, with 
 handsome aquiline noses, and large expressive 
 eyes ; they are savage in their manners, and of 
 undaunted courage. Major Denham says they 
 resemble very much some of the best looking of 
 our gipsy race, particularly the women, and 
 their Arabic is nearly pure Egyptian.' Quar- 
 terly Review, No. L VIII. 
 
 We have detained the reader amongst these 
 interesting details, with the greater pleasure, as 
 they have certainly contributed to enhance our 
 knowledge of this portion of Africa materially. 
 Major Denham, we are happy to learn from the 
 public papers, has returned in safety, and we 
 look forward for the publication of his journal 
 and papers to enrich various future articles 
 of our work. 
 
 Mr. Laing, to whom we have already alluded, 
 started afresh from Tripoli, and joined a caravan 
 to Timbuctoo. He survived a very dangerous
 
 266 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 attack from the Fellatahs, in which he received 
 twenty-eight sabre cuts, and reached Timbuctoo 
 in safety. He resided there some months, but 
 the Fallatah chiefs not only insisted on his leaving 
 Africa, but assassinated him while- sleeping a 
 short distance from that capital. He was accom- 
 panied by several of his countrymen who were 
 most anxious for his success. Had he succeeded 
 according to his expectations, his next object 
 would have been to fall down one of the streams, 
 as far as the Tsaad of Bornou, where he expected 
 to meet with our countrymen, who have been 
 for some time domiciliated at Kouka. 
 
 Two of those countrymen, Dr. Oudney and 
 lieutenant Toole, we are concerned to state, have 
 paid the debt of nature ; the latter fell a victim 
 to exertions which, in an African climate, were 
 too severe for his youth, immediately afte. per- 
 forming a fatiguing journey across the desert 
 from Mourzouk; the other, to a complaint which 
 he carried out with him, but to which he firmly 
 persuaded himself an African climate would 
 prove friendly a disease of the lungs. We 
 nave still to regret the absence of their journals, 
 itineraries, geographical observations, and other 
 documents, which however, are believed to be 
 safe ; but various letters to the consul at Tripoli 
 and to their friends in England supply, in some 
 degree, the deficiency of these details by the ge- 
 neral outline they give of their proceedings. 
 
 On the 21st of May 1823, Dr. Oudney, lieu- 
 tenant Clapperton, and a confidential slave of 
 the sheik's as a guide, set out on a journey into 
 Soudan. They reached in four days, (travelling 
 in a north by west direction,) Old Birnie, once 
 the capital of Bornou, and formerly a city of great 
 consequence : its walls were of brick, mixed with 
 clay, thirty feet high, ten or twelve feet thick, 
 and eight or nine miles in circumference ; but 
 they were now in ruins, as was a magnificent 
 palace of the sultan's of Bornou, which covered 
 a vast extent of ground, the latitude of this place 
 13. 4'. north long, about 1. 15'. west of Kouka. 
 Here they were joined by the sheik, who invited 
 them to accompany him on an expedition against 
 the Munga tribes, in which they passed succes- 
 sively the towns of Kubshara, Biskour, Surgum, 
 and Bailey, the latter being about a hundred 
 and twenty miles from Kano, the capital of 
 Hpussa, and a celebrated resort of merchants, in 
 this part of Africa. From this place they re- 
 turned to Kouka; but recommenced their jour- 
 ney on the 14th of December, and in twelve days 
 passed the western frontier of Bornou, and en- 
 tered the Beder territory, the sudden change 
 to severe cold, which they here experienced, 
 proved fatal to Dr. Oudney. 
 
 * On the morning of the 12th,' says Lieutenant 
 Clapperton, ' when the camels were loaded, 
 Doctor Oudney came out of his tent. I then 
 saw but too plainly that the hand of death was 
 Upon him, and that he had not an hour to live. 
 I prevailed on him to return to his tent, and I 
 sat down beside him : he expired about an hour 
 afterwgurds. The only request he made was, 
 that I would forward his papers to Lord Bathurst, 
 and to say, that he wished Mr. Barrow might 
 have the arrangement of them, if agreeable to 
 his lordship. I sent i mmediately to the governor 
 
 of the town to acquaint him with what had hap- 
 pened, and to request that he would point out a 
 spot where I might be allowed to bury the re- 
 mains of my friend, to hire some of his people to 
 wash the body, and to dig a grave; all of which 
 was immediately complied with; and, as we tra- 
 velled in the character and habits of Englishmen, 
 I considered it an indispensable duty to read the 
 funeral service over the body in the tent and at 
 the grave side, according to the rites of the 
 church of England; and, so far from meeting 
 with the least interruption, the. natives, on the 
 contrary, took pains to show me every possible 
 respect for having so done. Having killed two 
 sheep, to be distributed among the poor, I caused 
 a wall of clay to be built round the grave ; and 
 the next morning, being extremely unwell from 
 exposure to the sun, and grief for the loss of my 
 friend and companion, to whose good and amia- 
 ble qualities no language of mine can do justice, 
 I left Murmur with a heavy heart, and on the 
 20th at noon arrived at the city of Kano, where 
 I was received with great ceremony.' 
 
 It may be proper to add that lieutenant Clap- 
 perton delivered the sheik's letter, and a present, to 
 tne sultan of Kano, who received him with great 
 kindness, and promised to forward him in safety 
 to his master Bello, the sultan of the Fellatas. 
 The letter alluded to, is an extraordinary instance, 
 both of the benevolence and cultivation of this 
 chieftain's mind After the usual formal saluta- 
 tions, he says, Some distinguished persons, 
 Englishmen and Christians, between whom and 
 Mussulmen an ancient friendship and brother- 
 hood has existed, as is no secret but known to all 
 the world, are about to visit your country. The 
 love between these people and the followers of 
 the true faith has continued for ages, and descends 
 from one generation to another, even as the 
 wealth of a father descends to his children ; and 
 by this friendship, frequent amicable intercourse 
 is kept up between them and Mussulmen. But 
 this love is most observable in the ease with 
 which Mussulmen now visit their countries, 
 which are rich and extensive, going and return- 
 ing without danger or molestation. And now 
 these Christians have visited us, through the 
 medium and love of our master Yussuif, Bashaw 
 of Tripoli, at their own desire, to see the coun- 
 try, which is by God's mercy ours, and what is 
 wonderful in the land, its rivers, lakes, and peo- 
 ple, all of which may differ from those of their 
 own country. We have enabled them to see all 
 the country of Bornou, even in the way they 
 wished, with freedom ; and they ask of us a pas- 
 sage to yours, in order that the wonders which 
 are not here, may be seen by them there. We 
 have granted their request, and have furnished 
 them with letters of kindness and greeting, which 
 letters will tell you how we esteem them : 
 
 ' We remind you, but it is needless, for your 
 great knowledge will inform you, that it is writ- 
 ten, that even our prophet himself, our interposer 
 and advocate, (praise be to God and his angels !) 
 ordered, that these should not be molested nor 
 injured when they came in peace, and did no 
 harm. We throw them upon your care and pro- 
 tection. You know that there are believers who 
 strike down and trample upon the weak and un-
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 267 
 
 protected. You know, also, that justice is not 
 always done to the good by the wicked. We 
 trust therefore to you, and beg that you will sup- 
 port and protect these Englishmen and Chris- 
 tians ; that you will not permit them to be buffeted 
 or abused, nor allow them to be pained either by 
 privations or blows, or even regarded with dis- 
 dain, until such time as it shall please God that 
 they shall return to their native land. 
 
 'They are people of a pure heart and true 
 tongue; such we have found them; be you their 
 supporter, and cause them to rejoice in our 
 recommendation ; so may God reward you, and 
 grant you what you hope for and desire ! and by 
 his blessing may we together proceed on the 
 road to heavenly bliss ! May all health, and 
 happiness, and virtue, and faith, be to you and 
 to those near you, and all that belong to you, 
 and not to yourself alone ! Dated the evening, &c. 
 (Signed) SLAMEES BEN KAXERRY, 
 
 Sheikh of the Koran.' 
 
 * On the 23d of January, Major Denham, ac- 
 companied by Lieutenant Toole, left Kaouka, 
 and arrived at the river Shary on the 30th, which 
 they found, in lat. 12. 47*. above six hundred 
 yards in breadth, and running N. E. at the rate 
 of about five miles an hour. Here they em- 
 barked for the lake Tsaad, before mentioned, 
 with eight canoes, furnished them by the Raid 
 of Showey, a small town in this neighbourhood, 
 and found the whole course of the river highly 
 interesting. On its banks, thickly clothed with 
 trees and beautiful shrubbery, they saw numbers 
 of crocodiles. 
 
 ' The Shary was found to empty itself into the 
 great lake by two branches formed by the island. 
 Descending the western branch the following 
 morning, for about two hours, our travellers 
 found themselves on that sea of fresh water 
 which, says major Denham, we called the Lake 
 of Waterloo. They had not proceeded however, 
 beyond two miles on the open lake, when the 
 heavy swell from the north-east, caused the 
 canoes to ship so much water, and the paddling 
 became so laborious to the men, that they were 
 obliged to return. They understood that the 
 nearest of the Beddoumy islands was a voyage 
 of three days from the mouth of the Shary (about 
 ninety miles) in the direction of north-east, 
 during two of which they lose sight of land. 
 These people carry on a piratical war with the 
 borderers of the lake. It is said that they fre- 
 quently muster from sixty to one hundred 
 canoes. They make no slaves, but demand 
 ransom for their prisoners, who, if it be refused, 
 become islanders, take wives, and remain among 
 them. The whole of the islands are said to be 
 able to muster a thousand canoes, with fifteen to 
 twenty men in each. In every other respect, 
 but that of plundering, they are said to be a 
 mild and inoffensive people, not given to cruelty, 
 and never known to murder their prisoners. 
 They say of themselves that ' they have a strong 
 arm and a cunning head, a small country and 
 poor cattle, and that they must take from those 
 who are richer than themselves.' 
 
 ' Returning up this stream, they saw a variety 
 of water fowl, and other birds, abundance offish, 
 and numbers of large hippopotami. Attempting 
 
 to cross the country from Showey to the Loggun 
 territory, Mr. Toole seems to have received a 
 cold that terminated his earthly career. The 
 journey was through a succession of swamps and 
 stagnated waters, ' where,' says major Donham, 
 ' flies, bees, musquitoes and immense black toads, 
 vie with each other in displaying their peace- 
 destroying powers,' The inhabitants, are so 
 molested by them that they construct within their 
 houses nests of cells one within another, to the 
 number of five or six, to secure a retreat from 
 them. At Kissery, in the midst of these swamps 
 Mr. Toole's sufferings became so great that he 
 could no longer mount and dismount from his 
 horse. They attempted to halt, and their situa- 
 tion may be conceived from the circumstance of 
 their being obliged to light fires at the entra ace 
 of their tents, and constantly to supply them 
 with weeds and wet straw, in order to procure 
 a temporary relief from the millions of insects 
 that hovered round them. Their horses refused 
 all food, and naturally averse to flame and smoke, 
 rushed to the fire, and suffered their heads to -be 
 actually scorched, in order to obtain a little 
 respite from the stings of their persecutors. 
 
 ' Painful as their condition was, the Shua 
 Arabs, who guarded the frontier of the Loggun 
 territory, refused to let them pass,' until they 
 had received permission from the sultan. On 
 the 16th February this permission came, but 
 poor Mr. Toole was now quite insensible, and 
 was obliged to be lashed upon a camel. In 
 this state they entered the town, and took pos- 
 session of a decent hut which had been assigned 
 to them. The next morning major Denham 
 was summoned before the sultan, who, like him 
 of Bornou, was caged up in a box, the front of 
 which was lattice work of cane. This being 
 removed, the major says, something alive was 
 discovered on a carpet, wrapped up in silken 
 robes with the head enveloped in shawls, nothing 
 but the eyes being visible; the whole court 
 prostrated themselves, and threw sand on their 
 heads, while eight trumfrums and as many horns 
 blew a loud and most tremendous blast. On re- 
 ceiving a small present, he whispered welcome ! for 
 speaking out, it seems, is considered extremely 
 ill-bred in a Loggun gentleman. This old gentle- 
 man in the box, on being asked for his per- 
 mission to proceed up the Shary, enquired 
 particularly if the major wished to purchase any 
 siriahs, or handsome female slaves, 'for if you 
 do, he gently whispered, you need go no farther ; 
 I have some hundreds, and will let you have 
 them cheap.' Finding however, that he was not 
 likely to gain a customer, the sh?de was drawn 
 and the audience finished. 
 
 ' The name of this capital of Loggun is Kur- 
 nuck, and it is situated on the banks of the 
 Shary in Lat. 11. 7'. and contains about fifteen 
 thousand inhabitants, who speak a language half 
 Arabic and half Baghermie. They hare a con- 
 siderable trade with the Shua Arabs, from whom 
 they receive bullocks, milk, and fat, in exchange 
 for blue striped cottons, which they manufacture 
 well, and dye of a very clear and beautiful colour. 
 The people are described as much handsomer 
 than those of Bornou, and more intelligent ; the 
 women particularly so, possessing a superior
 
 268 AFRICA. 
 
 carriage and manner to those of any black nation begged, as his last request, that Lord Bathurst 
 that major Denham had ever seen. He was would recommend his next brother to succeed to 
 visited by the ladies of some of the principal his ensigncy in the 80th regiment, 
 persons of the country, who examined every Major Denham now accompanied the sheik's 
 thing about his person, begged every thing, and army, on an expedition towards Fittre, round the 
 stole every thing they could secrete, and when northern end of the lake. The major was more 
 discovered, only laughed heartily, clapped their anxious to proceed to Kanem on the northern side, 
 hands together, and exclaimed, ' why, how sharp and thence along the eastern shore of the lake, 
 he is! only think, he has caught us!' They have The sheik at first refused, but at length con- 
 no pretensions, it would seem, to modesty, sented that he should go to the southward, cross 
 Major Denham gives them the credit of being the the Shary, and take with him twenty horsemen, 
 cleverest and the most immoral race he had ever with some of his best Arabs, all armed with 
 met with, though they call themselves Moslem, guns, while he (the major) was only to have a 
 There was no difficulty in getting permission couple of the fastest going maharies, the fleetest 
 to proceed up the river, which was here about 400 animal that is known. He stipulated with the 
 yards wide; and as the major's colleague seemed sheik that he should encompass the lake, and re- 
 a little better, he embarked for the purpose of turn by Laree, on the northern extremity, to 
 exploring it higher up. The canoes were here Kouka. The wars between Bornou and the 
 better than those lower down, measuring about neighbouring nations, however, prevented him 
 fifty feet in length, and capable of carrying from from realizing his hopes. Both travellers 
 twenty to twenty-five persons, built of a fine- reached England in safety, after accomplishing a 
 grained red wood which grows plentifully on greater extent of travel than any of their prede- 
 the banks of the Shary; the planks were from cessors. Captain Clapperton left Europe a few 
 two to three feet wide. He had only proceeded months after, on a second expedition. He started 
 a few miles when a boat was seen rowing after from the Bight of Benin, and passing through 
 them as quickly as possible, and on its coming many interesting countries, and meeting with 
 up, the whole seven that were with him, made to comparatively few obstacles, he again established 
 the shore at once in the utmost confusion. He himself with sultan Bello, intending to proceed 
 soon discovered that the Baghermie were advanc- to Bornou, with presents to the sheik of that 
 ing towards Loggun, and the sultan had sent word place. These presents, however, excited the 
 that the sheik of Bornou's people should instantly cupidity of Bello, and our traveller was not per- 
 quit the city. It was in vain for the major to mitted to advance. The treachery of this mon- 
 plead the sickness of his friend and of his ser- arch, and the disappointment of his hopes, preyed 
 vant; ' go,' said he, ' go while you can, I can so heavily upon him, that he died at Soccatoo. 
 give you no protection.' Finding there was no Lieutenant-colonel Denham went to the new 
 alternative, poor Mr. Toole, unable to assist him- English settlement of Fernando Po, as inspector 
 self, was again lashed on a camel, and they quitted general of the liberated Africans, and afterwards 
 the walls of Kurnuk, when the three gates were became governor in chief of our settlements on 
 shut upon them one after the other, with great the western coast ; he however fell a victim to 
 satisfaction, by an immense crowd of people, the climate of Sierra Leone in a very few months. 
 It was the fourth day before they reached Angala, The history of the discovery of Western Africa 
 in Bornou, having enjoyed very little rest, and is here exhibited carefully, perhaps tediously ; 
 scarcely any food ; the poor sick traveller being but it seemed a subject of deep interest to 
 delirious the greater part of the time, lashed on inquire into the many persevering and even 
 a camel, and exposed to the scorching rays of painful exertions made by brave Englishmen to 
 the sun. On being told that they had reached increase the store of scientific knowledge, and 
 Angala, he said, ' thank God, then I shall not open an intercourse with almost a new world 
 die !' Every hope, however, vanished two days of fellow-creatures. Park, Laing, Denham, 
 afterwards ; a ccld shivering seized him, and his and Clapperton, fell sacrifices either to the 
 extremities were like ice; in this state he con- treachery of the ignorant natives, or the fatal 
 tinued a few hours, and expired without a strug- character of a tropical climate ; but each acquired 
 gle or a groan, being completely worn out some additional geographical information, or 
 and exhausted. ' The same afternoon,' says augmented, by some new discovery, our know- 
 Major Denham, ' I followed his remains to their ledge of the natural productions of this vast 
 last lodging place, where six of the sultan of portion of the globe. It was the more fortunate 
 Angala's slaves lowered them into a deep grave lot of Messrs. Richard and John Lander, to 
 they had dug, overhung by a clump of mimosas survive the discovery of that great mystery, the 
 in full blossom, and a silent prayer breathed termination of the Niger, which proved but too 
 over them was the best funeral service which fatal to their bold forerunners in this great at- 
 circumstances allowed me to perform.' Mr. tempt. Those gentlemen have ascertained that 
 Toole had not completed his twenty-second year, the Niger discharges itself into the Atlantic 
 and was in every sense a most amiable and pro- Ocean in the Bight of Benin, by many mouths, 
 raising young officer. His manners are said to as the Ganges, Nile, and other large rivers; and 
 have been extremely pleasing, and his disposi- they had the happiness to reach the sea through 
 tion kind, gentle, and obliging. He was per- one of the channels, called the river Nun, in Nov. 
 fectly resigned to his fate ; and when major Den- of the year 1830. See Niger, Africa, p. 244. 
 ham, the day before his death, spoke of their AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. See SLAVE TRADE. 
 return to Kouka, he smiled, shook his head, and The AFRICAN INSTITUTION is a society in- 
 said, ' No, no, it is all over ;' and shortly after stituted for purposes of benevolence, or rather
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 269 
 
 of reparation toward Africa ; its views cannot be 
 better stated than in the resolutions which were 
 adopted at the constituent meeting on the 14th of 
 April,,1807, and which were circulated with the 
 irst report, as the basis of the society. 
 
 1 \ . That this meeting is deeply impressed 
 ?ith a sense of the enormous wrongs which the 
 atives of Africa have suffered in their intercourse 
 vith Europe ; and from a desire to repair those 
 prongs, as well as from feelings of benevolence, 
 
 anxious to adopt such measures as are best cal- 
 culated to promote their civilization and happiness. 
 
 '2. That the approaching cessation of the 
 slave trade, hitherto carried on by Great Britain, 
 America, and Denmark, will, in a considerable 
 degree, remove the barrier which has so long ob- 
 structed the natural course of social improve- 
 ment in Africa ; and that the way will be thereby 
 opened for introducing the comforts and arts of 
 a more civilized state of society . 
 
 * 3. That the happiest effects may be reasonably 
 anticipated from diffusing useful knowledge and 
 exciting industry amongst the inhabitants of 
 Africa; and of obtaining and circulating through- 
 out this country, more ample and authentic in- 
 formation concerning the agricultural and com- 
 mercial faculties of that vast continent ; and that, 
 through the judicious prosecution of these 
 benevolent endeavours, we may ultimately look 
 forward to the establishment, in the room of 
 that traffic by which Africa has been so long de- 
 graded, of a legitimate and far more extended 
 commerce, beneficial alike to the natives of Africa 
 and to the manufacturers of Great Britain and 
 Ireland. 
 
 ' 4. That the present period is eminently fitted 
 for prosecuting these benevolent designs; since 
 the suspension, during the war, of that large 
 share of the slave trade, whicfe has commonly 
 been carried on by France, Spain, and Holland, 
 will, when combined with the effect of the abo- 
 lition laws of Great Britain, America, and Den- 
 mark, produce nearly the en tire- cessation of that 
 traffic along a line of coast exterMing between 
 two and three thousand miles in length ; and 
 thereby afford a peculiarly favourable oppor- 
 tunity for giving a new direction to the industry 
 and commerce of Africa. 
 
 ' That for these purposes a society be imme- 
 diately formed, to be called ' The African Insti- 
 tution.' Disclaiming all colonial and mercantile 
 speculations, and all direct aim at the propaga- 
 tion of religion, which they deemed the sole and 
 legitimate purpose of the Christian missionary, 
 they further resolved to pursue their object by 
 such means as the following. To collect and 
 diffuse information respecting the natural pro- 
 ductions of Africa, and respecting its agricultural 
 and commercial capacities, its intellectual, 
 moral, and political condition to cultivate a 
 friendly connexion with the natives, and promote 
 their instruction in the art of reading, and in 
 useful knowledge in general to enlighten them 
 with regard to their true interests, and the means 
 by which they may improve the present oppor- 
 tunity of substituting a beneficial commerce for 
 the slave trade to introduce amongst them the 
 improvements and most useful arts of Europe 
 to promote the cultivation of the African soil. 
 
 by furnishing the natives with seeds, and 
 plants, implements of husbandry, and agricul- 
 tural instruction to acquaint them with medical 
 discoveries to obtain a knowledge of the 
 African languages, and reduce them to a writt n 
 form, and to employ agents for establishing cor- 
 respondences, &c. From its commencement 
 the society has maintained a most jealous cir- 
 cumspection with regard to the execution of the 
 abolition laws, communicating information to 
 government, and aiding its measures with the 
 wisdom of practical experience. We wish we 
 could add, in respect to foreign nations, with a 
 success proportionate to its zeal. In conse- 
 quence of the scantiness of the society's funds, 
 the latter purpose has hitherto been that to 
 which its principal attention has been directed, as 
 the primary step to improvement. The annual 
 Reports of this society very ably detail its pro- 
 ceedings, which are under the management of a 
 patron and president, twenty vice-presidents, a 
 treasurer, and a committee of management, con- 
 sisting of thirty-six persons, annually chosen. 
 The president is the duke of Gloucester. 
 
 AFRICAN COMPANY, a society of mer- 
 chants, established by Charles II. for trading to 
 Africa. An association of merchants of the city 
 of Exeter gave rise to this company, and first 
 received a patent in 1588, from queen Eliza- 
 beth, which conferred on them the exclusive 
 privilege of trading to the rivers Senegal and 
 Gambia for ten years. A similar charter was 
 granted by her successor James I. to certain 
 merchants forming a joint stock company in 
 1618, but it was soon dissolved : a third com- 
 pany created in 1631, by Charles I. shared a simi- 
 lar fate. A demand for negroes for our West 
 India islands began however to be pretly constant 
 about this time, and the duke of York, with 
 some other persons of distinction, in 1662, ob- 
 tained a charter from Charles II. which secured 
 to the English a monopoly of all commerce 
 with Africa, from Cape Blanc to the Cape of 
 Good Hope. Of this company also the direc- 
 tors in a few years resigned their charter ; when 
 in 1672 the last incorporation of this descrip- 
 tion was formed by letters patent, and con- 
 ducted for some time a flourishing trade. They 
 raised a jdint capital of 111,000, and erected 
 various forts on the coast, until the existence 
 of these monopolies by grants from the crown, 
 being considered at the Revolution inconsistent 
 with the declaration of rights, the trade to Africa 
 was thrown open. All private traders, how- 
 ever, were obliged, by stat. 9 and 10 William 
 and Mary, to pay 10 per cent, towards main- 
 taining the forts and factories already erected ; 
 and in 1730, l 0,000 was granted by parlia- 
 ment in aid of this expence. 
 
 In 1750, the original company being com- 
 pletely bankrupt, its forts and various establish- 
 ments on the African coast were vested, by 23 
 Geo. II. cap. xxxi., in a new company of mer- 
 chants trading to Africa. This company could 
 not trade as a corporate body, nor possess 
 transferrable stock ; its duties were to maintain 
 all the forts and garrisons in good repair that 
 lie between Cape Rouge and the Cape of Good 
 Hope; any British subject might be admitted
 
 070 
 
 A F R 1 C A. 
 
 into it on the payment of 40s.; and the manage- 
 ment of its affairs are vested in nine commis- 
 sioners, chosen annually, for London, Liverpool, 
 and Bristol, in equal numbers. The commis- 
 sioners appointed to enquire into the state of 
 the African Settlements, in 1812, gave the fol- 
 lowing as the annual expence of each of these 
 forts: 
 Appollonia ----- 879 7 10 J 
 
 Dixcove ------- 926 2 .5 
 
 Succondee ------- 429 j 5J 
 
 Commenda ------- 842 2 3 
 
 Cape Coast Castle - - - - 4768 
 
 Annamaboe ------ 1885 1: 
 
 Tantumquery ------- 771 17 6 t 
 
 Winnebah 776 8 11 
 
 Accra -------- 1328 1 
 
 Whydali ------- 587 16 6f 
 
 13195 2 5 
 
 The whole annual expenses of the company 
 in Africa, for forts, salaries of officers, &c., was 
 stated to be 25,327 Is. 5f</. It further ap- 
 peared froro this Report that the trade of the 
 coast was chiefly in the hands of the governors of 
 .he forts, to each of whom it afforded a perquisite 
 of from 800 to 1000 a year. 
 
 The company's annual expenditure at home 
 consisted of 100 to each of the nine members 
 of the committee ; and 300 to the secretary ; 
 in all 1200. The number of persons in their 
 tmploy, at Christmas 1813, consisted of forty- 
 seven governors and subordinate officers, and 450 
 soldiers and menials. The company was dis- 
 solved in 1820. 
 
 The AFRICAN ASSOCIATION, distinguished 
 for its early patronage of travellers in Africa, 
 originated witn gentlemen 01 various parties, wno 
 in 1788, united themselves, to the number of 
 about ninety-five, to promote the discovery of 
 the interior of this great continent. Their affairs 
 were conducted by a committee of five distin- 
 guished individuals. Lord Rawdon (the pre- 
 sent marquis of Hastings"), the late Dr. Watson, 
 Bishop of Landaff, Sir Joseph Banks, H. Beau- 
 foy, Esq. and Mr. Stuart ; who had the honour 
 to dispatch the intrepid Ledyard on his first 
 journey to Africa, in the year of their institu- 
 tion ; and it was to Henry Beaufoy, Esq. that 
 Ledyard made the memorable answer, on being 
 asked, upon the first interview, when he would 
 set out ? ' To-morrow morning.' The com- 
 mittee assigned him, in conformity with his own 
 desire, the course from east to west, in the sup- 
 posed latitude of the Niger. In August he 
 arrived at Cairo ; but died before entering upon 
 the route proposed. Mr. Lucas was their 
 next traveller, but with little more success. 
 Embarking for Tripoli in October, (1788), he 
 was instructed to penetrate the desert of Zaara 
 to Fezzan, and to return by way of Gambia. 
 
 But at Mesurata, he found those difficulties 
 which deterred him liom proceeding farther. 
 In 1790 Major Houghton was engaged by the 
 committee to ascend the Gambia eastward, ant] 
 to continue on the same line of route over the 
 continent. He reached the coast in November, 
 and went up the river 900 miles, to Bambouk, 
 and from thence to the adjoining province of 
 Kasson, where he died in September, 1791. 
 The association now had the honour of engag- 
 ing the celebrated Mungo Park, who in 1795 
 entered upon the same route as his predeces- 
 sor ; explored the source of the Niger to Silla, 
 and after almost incredible exertions returned 
 in about two years. He was afterwards, it is 
 but too well known, sent out by government, 
 in 1805, to renew these labours, and never more 
 returned. 
 
 To the individuals who first directed and en- 
 couraged the enterprises of our countrymen in 
 this direction, it is due thus to re-state the 
 names and objects of their travellers, of whom 
 Messrs. Horneman and Burckhardt were the 
 last. Both these gentlemen perished in their 
 ardent thirst for the diffusion of knowledge. The 
 former embarked from London in 1797, and 
 was heard of at Tripoli in April 1800, but since 
 that period no intelligence whatever has been 
 obtained respecting him. The latter, who 
 particularly distinguished himself, after passing 
 through Nubia, died at Grand Cairo. Latterly 
 government has directed and equipped various 
 expeditions to the interior of Africa, and nobly 
 superseded those exertions of private societies. 
 
 AFRICA is represented on medals by the 
 different symbols of the elephant, Pegasus, 
 scorpion, lion, &c., as on a medal of Adrian, 
 bearing on tne obverse the head of the empero 
 HADRIANUS AUG. COwSwZ III. Pater Pa- 
 trios, on the reverse the 
 figure of a female crowned 
 with the proboscis, &c. of 
 an elephant, and holding a 
 scorpion in her hand ; 
 from the abundance of 
 those animals in that coun- 
 try, inscription AFRICA. 
 The female has also a cor- 
 nucopije in her arms, and 
 a basket with ears of corn at her feet, emble- 
 matical of its fertility. A medal 
 of Severus bears on the obverse 
 the head of Severus crowned 
 with laurel, inscription SE- 
 VERUS PIUS AUG. ; on the 
 reverse a figure of Africa stand- 
 ing, having ears of corn in her 
 right hand, and a lion at her 
 feet; inscription Ponlij'ex Maxnws TRibunus 
 Populi COnSul III. P. P. 
 
 AFRICANUS FLOS. Gerard mentions four 
 species of this flower ; Miller enumerates and 
 describes thirteen ; but they are of no repute in 
 medicine. 
 
 AFRICANUS, (Julius,) an historian of the third 
 century, the author of a chronicle which was 
 
 greatly esteemed, and in which he reckons ooOO 
 years from the creation of the world to Julius 
 Caesar. This work, of which we have now no 
 more than what is to be found in Eusebius, 
 ended at the 221st year of the vulgar sera 
 Africanus also wrote a letter to Origen on the
 
 AFT 
 
 271 
 
 AFT 
 
 history of Susanna, which he regarded as sup- 
 positions ; and we have a letter of his to Aris- 
 tides, in which he reconciles the seeming con- 
 tradictions in the two genealogies of Christ, 
 recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke. The 
 emperor Heliogabalus at his request rebuilt the 
 abbey of Nicopolis on the site of the ancient 
 Emmaus. The remains of this author were 
 printed among the Mathematici Veteres, Paris, 
 folio, 1693, and were translated into French by 
 M. Guischardt in his Memoires Militaires des 
 Grecs et des Romains, Paris, 1774. The early 
 part of his Chronology is supposed to be an 
 abridgment of the work of Manetho, who lived 
 300 years B.C. The exact time of his death is 
 doubtful. Lardner says 'We may glory in 
 Africanus as a Christian/ 
 
 AFRICANUS, (Scipio.) See SCIPIO. 
 
 AFRICTA, a kind of wafers, which the an- 
 cients used in their sacrifices. 
 
 AFRIQUE, St. a town of France m the 
 department of the Aveyron, on the Sorgues, 
 eleven leagues and a half S. S. E. from Rodez. 
 Population 3580. 
 
 AFRICUS, a name sometimes given to the 
 wind S.W. and by W. so called from its blow- 
 ing from Africa. Horace calls it protervus. 
 
 AFRONT'. In front. 
 
 AFSLAGERS, in commerce, persons appoint- 
 ed by the burgomasters of Amsterdam to preside 
 over the public sales made in that city. They 
 must always have a clerk of the secretary's office 
 with them, to take an account of the sale. They 
 correspond to our brokers, or auctioneers. 
 
 AFT', -\ Gothic, aftaro, A. S. 
 
 AFT'ER, prep. & adv. 9 ^Eprtji : according to 
 
 AFT'EREYE, {Tooke, the compara- 
 
 AFT'ERWARDS. J tive of the noun aft ; 
 
 it is synonymous with hind, and back, and is a 
 frequent prefix in compound words, but affects 
 their signification no otherwise than its general 
 acceptation imports ; i. e. succession in order of 
 ime and place. 
 
 In be vyf hondred ger of Grace Seynt Austyn hyder 
 
 com. 
 
 And four score ^er and tuo, to prechy Cristendom. 
 And aboute an hondred jer yt was and fyfty al so, 
 After pat Saxons and Englysse verst come pys lond 
 to. R. Gloucester, p. 230. 
 
 Help pi kynne Crist bit. for per by gynnep charite, 
 And afterwards awhaite, hoo hap moost neede 
 And per help yf pou hast. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, p. 288. 
 Therfore kepe ye and do ye alle thingis, what- 
 ever thingis thei seyen to you : but nyle ye do aftir 
 hir werkis ; for thei seien and do not. 
 
 Wiclif, Matt, xxiii. 
 
 O ye sonnes of men, how longe wyll ye blaspheme 
 myne honour? ad haue soch pleasure in vanyte, and 
 seke after lesyng ? Bible, Ps. iv. 
 
 And saw the fox toward the wode is gon 
 And bare upon his back the cok away. 
 They crieden, out ! harow and wala wa ! 
 Aha the fox ! and after him they ran 
 And eke with staves many another man. 
 
 Chaucer. Nonnes Preestes Tale, v. ii. p. 196. 
 Uses, not thought upon before, may afterward 
 spring up ; and be reasonable causes of retaining 
 that, which former considerations did formerly pro- 
 cure to be instituted Hooker. 
 
 Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs dcwii a 
 hill ; lost it oreak thy neck, with following it: but 
 the great one, that goes upward, let him draw thee 
 after. Shakspeare's King Lear. 
 
 Thou shouldst have made him. 
 As little as a crow, or less ; ere left 
 To after-eye him. Shaksp. Cymbelme* 
 
 Good after ill, and after pain delight ; 
 Alternate, like the scenes of day and night. 
 
 Dryden's Fable*. 
 
 Those, (who from the pit of hell, 
 Roaming to seek their prey on earth) durst fix 
 Their seats long after, next the seat of God. 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 Far be it from me, to justify the cruelties which 
 were at first used towards them, which had their re- 
 ward soon after. Bacon. 
 When o'er the ship m undulation vast, 
 A giant surge down rashes from on high, 
 And fore and aft the severed ruins lie. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 
 AFT, in maritime affairs, abaft or behind, near 
 the stern of the ship, as, 'To run out the guns 
 afore and aft,' i. e. from one end to the other. 
 ' Right aft,' i. e. in a direct line with the stern 
 when applied to any distant object. 'To haul 
 aft the fore sheet or maiu sheet,' i. e. to pull the 
 sails more towards the stern. 
 
 AFTER, in maritime affairs, the hinder part 
 of the ship, as the after-hatchway, the after-cap- 
 stan, after-sails, &c. 
 
 AFTER-GUARD, the seamen who are stationed 
 on the poop and quarter-deck of vessels, to at- 
 tend and work the after-sails, &c. 
 
 AFTER-BIRTH, in midwifery. See PLACENTA.- 
 
 AFTER-MATH, in agriculture, or after-grass, 
 the second crop, or grass which springs up after 
 mowing : or grass-math, that is cut after some 
 kinds of corn. In cutting rowen or second 
 crops of grass, says Mr. Loudon, more attention 
 will be requisite than in the first, as the crops 
 are mostly much lighter and more difficult to cut, 
 the scythe being apt to rise and slip through the 
 grass without cutting it fairly, except when in 
 the hands of an expert workman. Crops of this 
 sort should always be cut as much as possible 
 when the dew is upon them- and as soon as 
 ever there is a tolerable growth, as by waiting, 
 the season is constantly getting more unfavour- 
 able for making them into hay ; and when not 
 well made this hay is of little or no value. 
 When the grass has been decided to be in the 
 proper condition for being cut down, a set of 
 mowers proportioned to the extent of the crop 
 should be immediately provided. In some dis- 
 tricts, it is the custom to pay these labourers by 
 the day ; but a better and more general practice 
 is, to let the work at a certain price by the acre. 
 The extent or proportion of ground that can be 
 mown in any given space of time, must obvi- 
 ously vary much according to the nature of the 
 ground, the fulness of the crop, and the good- 
 ness of the workman, but in general an acre is 
 supposed a full day's work for an expert mower. 
 
 AFTER-KINDRED, a term used by some writers 
 for remote kindred. 
 
 AFTER-NOON. The Romans professed to de- 
 dicate their mornings to business, and their after- 
 noons to diversions, as at their game called pila, 
 and other exercises of the body, especially walk-
 
 AFT 
 
 272 
 
 ing or riding. These lasted till the eighth or 
 ninth hour, answering to our three o'clock, which 
 was the time for the baths. After bathing, they 
 anointed and perfumed themselves; and about 
 the tenth hour, went to coena, supper, about three 
 hours before sun-set ; which done, the day was 
 ended at the public spectacles, theatrical or am- 
 phitheatrical sports; with music, singing, and 
 the like. 
 
 AFTER-SAILS, in maritime affairs, comprehend 
 all those which are extended on the mizen mast, 
 and on the stays, between the mizen and main- 
 masts : they are opposed to the head sails. 
 
 AFTER-THROES, or pains, enixus posteri, do- 
 lores post partum, in midwifery, are pains re- 
 sembling labour pains, though ordinarily less 
 violent, and which occur after the expulsion of the 
 placenta; being occasioned by the contraction 
 of the uterus to expel foreign bodies from its ca- 
 vity, as well as to reduce the capacity of the 
 blood-vessels, which, during pregnancy acquire 
 a considerable magnitude. They are more or less 
 severe in different women, but are found very 
 rarely to occur after first labour?. They are 
 more frequent after the birth of large, than of 
 small or middling-sized children; or after la- 
 bours that have terminated in an unusually 
 quick and rapid manner, particularly if the pla- 
 centa has been extracted almost immediately 
 after the birth of the child. After-pains, even 
 when most severe, are seldom attended with dan- 
 ger ; and are best relieved by the application of 
 warm cloths, with gentle fric'tion; by giving inter- 
 nally twenty-five or thirty drops of the tincture of 
 opium, or by assiduously rubbing upon the re- 
 gion of the uterus, a mixture composed of four 
 parts volatile linament, and one of the tincture of 
 opium; by administering frequent draughts of 
 warm gruel, or giving castor oil, or some other 
 gentle purge on the following day. See LABOUR. 
 
 AFTER-SWARM, are secondary or posterior 
 swarms of bees, frequently found to quit the hives 
 within a fortnight after the first. Some writers 
 distinguish the after swarms from the prime, in 
 that the latter are directed by the vulgar, or 
 crowd of bees, whose only rule is the fulness of 
 the hive ; whereas the former are appointed by 
 the ruling bees, and indicated by a noise or call, 
 which these make for the space of two or three 
 days, as it were, to give warning to the common 
 herd to prepare for a march. Within eight or ten 
 days after the prime swarm is gone, if the princess 
 next in order find a competent number fledged 
 and ready, she begins to tune her treble voice, in 
 a mournful and begging note, as if she prayed 
 the queen-mother to let them go ; to which voice, 
 if she vouchsafe a reply, by tuning her base to the 
 other's treble, it marks her consent ; in conse- 
 quence of which, within a day or two after, if the 
 weather allow, the new swarm appears. If the 
 prime swarm be broken, the after will both call 
 and swarm the sooner, perhaps the next day ; in 
 which case a third, sometimes a fourth, succeeds 
 in the same season ; but all usually within a fort- 
 night after the prime swarm See SWA RM . 
 
 AFTO, in botany, a narna ^iven by the natives 
 of Guinea, to a plant of the erysimum kind, which 
 they grind to powder, and take as snuff, to cure 
 toe head-ach. Petiver has called this plant the 
 
 woody and woolly erysimum, or hedge-mustard* 
 of the coasts of Guinea. 
 
 AFUERA, an isle of Juan Fernandez, m the 
 Pacific, on the coast of Chili. Its coasts abound 
 with sea-fowl and wolves. W. long. 80. 4 1'. 
 S. lat. 33. 47'. 
 
 AFWESTAD, a town of Sweden, in Dalecar- 
 lia, seated on the Dala ; which has a copper 
 work, a church, a post-office, and a 'mint for 
 coining. In the middle of the last century, a 
 portion of the copper coinage of the country was 
 here conducted, but this is now discontinued. 
 
 AFWIOWARA, a village and district of Kan- 
 tokeino, in Lapland, situated on the mountains 
 under Norway. It has a bailiwick and a court 
 of law. 
 
 AFZELIA, in botany, a genus of the didyna- 
 mia angiospermia class and order ; the characters 
 of which are, CAL. quinque-partite, COR. campa- 
 nulated, and the capsule rotundated, acuininated, 
 double-celled, gaping at the apex and polysper- 
 mous; with hemisphermic receptacles. There 
 is one species, the Afzelia Cassioides, the Afzelia 
 of Gmelin. Also anew species of the decandria 
 monogynia class and order, near the Hymenaa, 
 and of the natural order of leguminosae : the 
 essential characters of which are, CAL. tubulose 
 with a limb quadrifid, deciduous ; PET. four, 
 unguiculated, with a very large head : the fila- 
 ments two, superior, sterile ; the legumen many- 
 celled ; the seeds arillated at the base. It is 
 found in Africa, near the equinoctial. Linnaean 
 Trans, vol. iv. p. 221. 
 
 AGA, in the Turkish language, signifies a 
 great lord or commander. Hence the general of 
 horse is denominated spahilar agassi ; and the 
 aga of the Janissaries is the commander in chief 
 of that corps. He is an officer of great import- 
 ance ; and is the only person who is allowed to 
 appear before the Grand Signior, without his 
 arms across his breast, in the posture of a slave. 
 Eunuchs at Constantinople are in possession of 
 most of the principal posts of the seraglio, and 
 the title aga is given to them all, whether in 
 employment or out. It is also given to all such 
 as are without employ, and especially to wealthy 
 landholders. We find also agas in other coun- 
 tries. The chief officers under the Khan of 
 Tartary are called by this name. And among 
 the Algerines, we read of agas chosen from 
 among the boluk bashis (the first rank of military 
 officers), and sent to govern in the chief towns 
 and garrisons of that state. The aga of Algiers 
 is the president of the divan, or senate. For 
 some years, the aga was the supreme officer, and 
 governed the state in place of bashaw, whose 
 power dwindled to a shadow. But the soldiers 
 rising against the boluk bashis, or agas, mas- 
 sacred most of them, and transferred the sovereign 
 power to the califf, with the title of Dey or king. 
 
 AGA, or ADJA, in geography, a village about 
 half a mile from Anamaboa, on the gold coast of 
 Africa, where the Dutch formerly had a fort. 
 The landing is difficult and dangerous ; but the 
 adjacent country produces several valuable com- 
 modities, and among others a very fine cotton. 
 
 AGAAZI, or AGAGI, in geography, the Abys- 
 sinian denomination of a class of shepherds, who 
 are said to have been employed by the descend-
 
 AGA 
 
 273 
 
 AGA 
 
 ants of Cush, the first inhabitants of the country, 
 and by dispersing the produce of Arabia and the 
 eastern coast of Africa over the continent, to 
 nave acquired wealth and influence. Agag, 
 says Mr. Bruce, denoted the nobles and chiefs of 
 the armed shepherds, whence came their title 
 King of kings ; and the plural of this is agagi, or, 
 as it is written in the Ethiopic, agaazi. The 
 king of Amalek, mentioned 1 Samuel, ch. xv. 
 and slain by Samuel, was, according to this 
 writer, a shepherd of this kind. Bruce's Trav. 
 v. i. 387. 
 
 AGA CRETENSIUM, in botany, the Spanish 
 milk-thistle. 
 
 AGABUS, Aya/3oe, Gr. a grass-hopper, a pro- 
 phet, who foretold the famine that happened in 
 the reign of Claudius Caesar, A. D. 44, and the 
 persecution of Paul by his countrymen at Jeru- 
 salem. See Acts xi. 28, and xxi. 10. He is 
 said to have suffered martyrdom at Antioch. 
 
 AGA DA, an Egyptian or Abyssinian wind 
 instrument, of the flute species, but with a 
 mouthpiece, like a clarionet. 
 
 AGADEER, theGesert Ghessem of Leo Afri- 
 canus, or SAXTA CRUZ, a noble port, and once 
 a very flourishing town of Morocco. No port of 
 the empire has so fine and secure a road for ves- 
 sels. The town stands on the summit of a 
 mountain, and is defended with batteries. Its 
 inhabitants were transferred by Seedy Mahomet 
 to Mogodor, and the place has never since reco- 
 vered its original constitution. 
 
 AGADES, (Audagost, of Edrissi,) a flourish- 
 ing town of central Africa, on the caravan route 
 from Tripoli and Fezzan to Cassina. It is forty- 
 seven days journey from Mourzouk, and many 
 of the merchants from that quarter stop at 
 Agades, to change their commodities for those of 
 Soudan, and the countries to the south of the 
 Niger. The merchants of this place are the 
 sole carriers of the salt which is found on the 
 banks of the lake of Domboo, in the desert of 
 Bilma, though that territory belongs to Bornou. 
 Senna of a very superior quality grows in the 
 neighbouring mountains. The African Associa- 
 tion (1792) states Agades to be one of the cities 
 of Kashna, but Horneman reports it to be the 
 capital of an independent kingdom called Asben. 
 It is the centre of the trade of the interior of 
 Africa. 
 
 AGADEEP, a town of Bengal, on the Bhaga- 
 rutty, 14 miles south of Plassey. The word 
 signifies 'The extreme Island,' and the Hindoos 
 state that the sea originally reached this place. 
 
 AGAG, JJK, Heb. i. e. an upper room, a king 
 of the Amalekites, equally cruel and effeminate, 
 who was spared by Saul, notwithstanding the 
 express command of the Almighty, and slain by 
 Samuel, because ' his sword had made many 
 women childless.' His cowardly dread of death, 
 recorded in 1 Samuel, xv. affords one of num- 
 berless proofs recorded in history, that those 
 monsters, who put no value on the lives of 
 others, are generally most anxious to preserve 
 their own. 
 
 AGAG IT E, an epithet given to Haman, the 
 proud prime minister of Persia, probably because 
 he claimed, or deduced his descent from the ty- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 rant mentioned in the last article ; an ancestor, 
 worthy of such a descendant. 
 
 AGAGEER, a name given in Abyssinia to 
 those who hunt and kill the wild elephants. Theii 
 name is derived from the word Agar, which sig- 
 nifies to hough or ham-string with a sharp wea- 
 pon. These persons dwell constantly in the 
 woods, and live entirely on the flesh of the beasts 
 which they kill, which are chiefly the elephant 
 and rhinoceros. They are light and agile, both 
 on horseback and on foot ; of a swarthy com- 
 plexion : and have European features. The 
 manner in -which they kill the elephant is as fol- 
 lows: two men, altogether naked, mount the 
 same horse, which the foremost manages, and the 
 hindmost has a broad sword, the handle of which 
 he grasps with his left hand, whilst with his right 
 he takes hold of a part of the blade, round which 
 whip-cord is twisted. The edges of the sword 
 are as sharp as a razor, and yet he carries it with- 
 out a scabbard. When the elephant is found 
 feeding, the horseman runs before him, making 
 noises to irritate him ; the animal incensed by 
 this, attempts to seize the horse and rider with 
 his trunk, instead of endeavouring to make his 
 escape. The horseman after some evolutions 
 of this kind, rides up to the elephant and 
 drops his companion on the off side ; and, 
 whilst the rider engages the attention of the 
 animal, the other person gives him a stroke above 
 the heel, in that part which in the human subject 
 is called the tendon of Achilles. After which, 
 the horseman turns round and takes up his com- 
 panion. Sometimes an expert Agageer will kill 
 three out of one herd. The blow commonly se- 
 parates the tendon, or at least wounds it to such 
 a degree that the weight of the animal breaks it. 
 In this state the horseman and his companion 
 speedily dispatch the animal with their javelins 
 and lances ; when he is slain, the flesh is cut 
 off the bones into strings, and these are hung on 
 the branches of trees to dry, without salt ; and, 
 are then laid by for their stock of provision in 
 the season of the rains. 
 AGAI. See AGIO. 
 
 AGAIN', a. -\ Sax. ajen, from Onsejjen, 
 
 AGAINST,' (to meet; to oppose; to en- 
 
 AGAIN'WARD, counter: Tooke. Again, 
 
 AGAIN'SAY. J and its cognate words, denote 
 
 repetition, transition, opposition; in our earlier 
 
 literature, we find ayen, ayenst, agane ; agens, 
 
 agen, still later. 
 
 He gedere ys ost anon 
 
 To werre, and to stonde a%eyn pe Romaynes ys fou. 
 R. Gloucester, p. 80. 
 
 Sir, said kyng Guyon, turne ageyn, I rede, 
 Frankis and Burgoillon, els alle gos to, dede. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 191. 
 
 For I schal gyue to you mouth and wisdom to 
 
 whiche all youre aduersaries schulen not mowe agen- 
 
 ttonde and agenseye. Wiclif. Luke xxi. 
 
 Not yeldinge yuel for yuel, neither cursyng for 
 
 cursyng, but agenward blessynge. 
 
 Wiclif. Peter iii. 
 
 And therfore is I come, and eke Alein, 
 
 To grind our corn, and carry it home agein: 
 
 I pray you spede us heuen that ye may. 
 
 Chaucer. The Reeve'a Tale, v. i. p. 159. 
 T
 
 AGA 
 
 274 
 
 AGA 
 
 Long was I, lady Luckc, your snniing man, 
 And now haue lost agayne all that I gat, 
 Wherfore whan I thinke on you novre and than, 
 And in my mynde remember this and that, 
 Ye may not blame me though I beshrew your cat, 
 But iM fayth I blesse you agayne a thousand times, 
 For lending me now some laysure to make rymes. 
 Sir T. More's Davy the Dycer. 
 
 flow oft do they [angels] with golden pinions cleave 
 
 The flitting skies like flying pursuivant, 
 
 Against foul fiends to aid us militant. Spenser. 
 
 Thence she them brought into a stately hall, 
 Wherein were many tables fair dispred, 
 And ready dight with drapets festival, 
 Against the viands should be ministred. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 The like charge was given them against the time, 
 
 they should come to settle themselves in the land 
 
 promised unto their fathers. Hooker. 
 
 Some say, that ever, 'gainst that season comes, 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long : 
 And then they say, no spirit walks abroad ; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike ; 
 No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm ; 
 So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. 
 
 Shakspeare's Hamlet. 
 
 Hope is a lover's staff, walk hence with that, 
 And manage it against despairing thoughts. 
 
 Shakspeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona. 
 
 AGALACTIA, AGALAXY, from a and yoXa, 
 Or. Want of milk. 
 
 AGALLOCHUM, from AyoXXojuai, I boast, 
 alluding to its excellent odour, a medicinal wood 
 imported from the East Indies, usually in small 
 pieces, and of a very fragrant scent. See XYLO- 
 ALOES. 
 
 AGALMA, AGALMATA, Gr. AyaX/za, in an- 
 tiquity, a term originally used to signify any 
 kind of ornament in a temple; but afterwards 
 for the statues only, as being most conspicuous ; 
 or the temple itself. >. 
 
 AGALMATOLITE, a soft mineral substance, 
 capable of being cut with the knife, of a dull 
 greenish, reddish, or yellowish-white color, and 
 consisting of silex and alumine, with a little 
 potash. It is chiefly found in China, where it is 
 wrought into figures and various ornaments. It 
 has lately been recommended as a substitute for 
 the bricks made of Cornish porcelain clay, to 
 measure high heats in the pyrometer of Wedge- 
 wood ; it being capable of standing a great heat, 
 and of contracting its dimensions very consider- 
 ably and equably. 
 
 AGAMA, in zoology, a species of the lacerta, 
 :n a long and round tail, under the head and 
 above the neck aculeated with reverse scales 
 It is the iguana cordylina. 
 
 AGAMA, in zoology, another variety, called 
 guana salam andrina, is imbricated on the tail 
 with large scales. 
 
 AG'AME. In game. See GAME. 
 For by my trouth, I sa> it not in yame, 
 To wend as now, it were to me a shame 
 
 Chaucer', Third Book of Troilut, fol. 170 
 I am right glad with you to dwellen here 
 
 'Ut agame I would go. j dem 
 
 AGAMEDES, in fabulous history, is said 
 
 along with his brother Trophonius, to have built 
 
 the chancel, or oracle, of the famous temple of 
 Apollo, at Delphi, of five whole stones : and 
 that when they had finished their work, they re- 
 quested of the god that they might receive for 
 their reward what he judged best : and within 
 three days after, they were both found dead in 
 bed! 
 
 AGAMEMNON, the son of Atreus and 
 JErope, was captain-general of the Trojan ex- 
 pedition. It was foretold to him by Cassandra, 
 that his wife Clytemnestra would be his death 
 yet he returned to her, and accordingly was mur- 
 dered by ^Egisthus, who had corrupted his wife 
 in his absence, and by her means usurped the 
 government. Homer calls him icpawv, and ava 
 
 AGAMENTICUS, a mountain of north Ame- 
 rica, in the province of Maine. Lat. 43. 16'. 
 It is about eight miles from the sea, and is a 
 noted land-mark for mariners. Also a river of 
 North America, in the centre of York county, and 
 district of Maine. It receives its waters from 
 the ocean through the bay of Pascataqua, and 
 has only a scanty supply from streams of fresh 
 water. Its mouth is about four miles south from 
 Cape Neddie river, and admits small vessels. 
 
 AGAMESTER,the eleventh archon of Athens. 
 
 AGAMI, in ornithology, a name applied by 
 Buffon to the psophia crepitans of Linnaeus, the 
 grus psophia of Pallas, the Phasianus Antilla- 
 rum of Brisson, and the gold-breasted trumpeter 
 of Latham ; the specific character of n hich is, 
 that its head and breast are smooth, green, and 
 shining. The bird is about twenty-two inches 
 long. 
 
 AGAN, one of the Ladrone islands, where 
 Magellan, in search of the Moluccas, was assas- 
 sinated. 
 
 AGANA, a large town of Guam, one of the 
 Ladrones, built by the Spaniards when they 
 colonized the island. It is pleasantly situated on 
 the western coast, 12 miles N. E. of the harbour. 
 The houses, which stand on posts about three 
 feet from the ground, are mostly composed of 
 wood, and are laid out in straight and long streets. 
 The Spaniards have a large government house, 
 a royal magazine, and barracks for 500 men. 
 These, together with a fine church in the Spanish 
 style, and two convents or colleges, are of brick. 
 The town has some beautiful gardens, and is 
 very well defended. It stands in Lat. 13. 
 26'. N. 
 
 AGANIPPE, in antiquity, a fountain of Bce- 
 otia, at mount Helicon, on the frontier of Phocis 
 and Bceotia, sacred to the Muses, and running 
 into the river Permessus ; Ovid seems to make 
 Aganippe and Hippocrene the same. Solinus 
 distinguishes them, and ascribes the blending 
 them to poetical license. 
 
 AGANIPPIDES, in ancient poetry, a desig- 
 nation given to the Muses, from Aganippe. 
 
 AGAOMA, or AGAMA, a district of Abyssinia, 
 m the province of Tigre, to the south of Dixan. 
 During the government of Ras Michael it paid 
 a considerable tribute of gold and cattle; but 
 since Shum Woldo became master of it, it has 
 yielded but a small revenue. 
 
 AGAPANTHUS, quasi oyaTrjjroc av0oc, plea
 
 AGA 
 
 275 
 
 AGA 
 
 sant flower, in botany, a genus of the hexandriu 
 monogynia class and order, of the natural order 
 Liliacese, the Spathaceaj of Linnaeus, and the 
 Narcissi of Jussieu. Its characters are,CAL. aspathe 
 common gaping at the side; COR. one-petalled, 
 funnel-shaped and regular ; tube cornered, as if 
 composed of six claws, border six-parted, with 
 the parts oblong and spreading ; STAM. six fila- 
 ments inserted in the throat, shorter than the co- 
 rolla, declinate ; the anthers kidney-shaped and 
 incumbent; PIST. a superior germ, oblong, three- 
 cornered : the style filiform, of the length of the 
 stamens -and declinate ; the stigma simple, or 
 trifid ; the pericarpium is an oblong capsule, 
 three-sided, three-celled, three-valved : valves 
 navicular, with contrary dissepiment; the seed 
 numerous, oblong, compressed, and enlarged 
 with a membrane. There is one species, viz. 
 agapanthus umbellatus, the crinum Africanum 
 of Linnaeus, or African blue lily. This is the 
 African tuberose hyacinth, with a blue umbel- 
 lated flower. The root of this plant is composed 
 of thick fleshy fibres ; from the same head arises 
 a cluster of leaves, and a stalk supporting an 
 umbel of blue flowers, each flower standing on 
 a pedicle, about an inch long, which make a fine 
 appearance. They come out at the end of Au- 
 gust, or beginning of September, and frequently 
 continue in beauty till spring. The flowers are 
 those of the hemerocallis, but this genus is dis- 
 tinct from it in its spathe. It is a native of the 
 Cape of Good Hope, from whence it was brought 
 to Holland, and in 1692 it was cultivated at 
 Hampton Court. 
 AGAPE'. See GAPE. 
 
 In himself was all his state ; 
 More solemn than the tedious pomp, that waits 
 On princes ; when their rich retinue long, 
 Of horses led, and grooms besinear'd with gold, 
 Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape. 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 Dazzle the crowd, and set them all agape. Philips. 
 
 AGAPE, in ecclesiastical history, from Aya-irq, 
 Gr. love, the love feast, or feast of charity, in 
 use among the primitive Christians ; when a 
 liberal contribution was made by the rich to feed 
 the poor. St. Chrysostom gives the following 
 account of this feast, which he derives from the 
 apostolical practice. He says, ' The first Chris- 
 tians had all things in common, as we read in 
 the Acts of the Apostles ; but, when that equality 
 of possessions ceased, as it did even in the Apos- 
 tles time, the agape, or love feast, was substituted 
 in the room of it. Upon certain days, after par- 
 taking of the Lord's supper, they met at a com- 
 mon feast ; the rich bringing provisions, and the 
 poor, who had nothing, being invited.' It was 
 always attended with receiving the holy sacra- 
 ment ; but, there is some difference between the 
 ancient and modern interpreters as to the cir- 
 cumstance of time, viz. Whether this feast was 
 held before, or after the communion. St. Chry- 
 sostom is of the latter opinion ; the learned Dr. 
 Cave of the former. These love feasts, during 
 the three first centuries, were held in the church 
 without scandal or offence ; but, in after times, 
 the heathens began to tax them with impurity. 
 This gave occasion to a reformation of the agapse. 
 The kiss of charity, with which the ceremony 
 
 used to end, was no longer given between dif- 
 ferent sexes; and it was expressly forbidden to 
 have any beds or couches, for the conveniency of 
 those who should be disposed to eat more at 
 their ease. Notwithstanding these precautions, 
 the abuses committed in them became so noto- 
 rious, that the holding of them, (in churches at 
 least,) was solemnly condemned, at the council 
 of Carthage, in the year 397. Some modern 
 sects, as the Wesleyans, Sandemanians, &c. have 
 attempted to revive this feast. 
 
 AGAPETyE, in ecclesiastical history, a aame 
 given to certain virgins and widows, who, in the 
 ancient church, associated themselves with, and 
 attended on, ecclesiastics, from motives of piety 
 and charity. In the primitive days there were 
 women instituted deaconesses ; who, devoting 
 themselves to the service of the church, took up 
 their abode with the ministers, and assisted them 
 in their functions. They afterwards degenerated 
 into libertinism ; insomuch, that St. Jerome asks, 
 with indignation, unde agapetarum pestis in ec- 
 clesias introiit ? This gave occasion to councils 
 to suppress them. 
 
 AGAPIS, in natural history, a stone of a dusky 
 yellow, or the colour of a lion's skin ; held in 
 great esteem in many nations, on account of its 
 supposed virtues, as an anodyne and vulnerary. 
 
 AGAR, Abraham's concubine. See HAGAR. 
 
 AGARD, Arthur, a learned English antiqua- 
 rian, born at Foston, in Derbyshire, in the year 
 1540. His fondness for English antiquities in- 
 duced him to make many large collections ; and 
 his office as deputy chamberlain of the exche- 
 quer, which he held forty-five years, gave him 
 great opportunity of acquiring skill in that study. 
 Similarity of taste brought him acquainted with 
 Sir Robert Cotton, and other learned men, who 
 associated themselves under the name of The 
 Society of Antiquaries ; of which society Mr. 
 Agard was a conspicuous member. He made the 
 Doomsday book his peculiar study; and com- 
 posed a work to explain it, under the title of 
 Tractatus de usu et obscurioribus verbis libri de 
 Domesday : he also compiled a book for the ser- 
 vice of his successors in office, which he de- 
 posited with the officers of the king's receipt, as 
 a proper index for succeeding officers. A selec- 
 tion of his Enquiries into the polity and con- 
 stitution of England, was published after his 
 death by Mr. Hearne in the papers of the Anti- 
 quarian Society. All the rest of his collections, 
 consisting of at least twenty volumes, he be- 
 queathed to Sir Robert Cotton : and died in 1615. 
 
 AGAREE, a station for caravans between, 
 Cassena and Gadanus, in the great Desert 
 of Sahara, one hundred and thirty miles S. E. of 
 Gadanus. 
 
 AGARENI, or AGARENIANS, the followers of 
 the religion of Mahomet. The word is derived 
 from Agari, or Hagar, handmaid of Abraham 
 and mother of Ishmael ; and properly denotes the 
 Arabs, called also Ishmaelites, and more lately 
 Saracens. 
 
 AGARIC, in botany. See AGARICUS. 
 
 AGARIC, in pharmacy, a kind of fungous ex- 
 crescence, growing on the trunks and large 
 branches of several trees ; but chiefly on the 
 larch tree, and upon some kinds of oak, when 
 
 T 2
 
 AGA 
 
 decayed. Three fourths of it consist of a re- 
 sinous substance, and the remainder is a slimy 
 mucilaginous earthy matter, so tenacious, as 
 scarcely, by any method to be dissolved by 
 water. It is easily cut with a knife, friable be- 
 twixt the fingers, and has no hard, gritty, or 
 roloured veins. It is an ingredient in the the- 
 riaca Andromachi, where it is admitted in the 
 quality of a cordial : though its cardiac virtue is 
 excepted to as much as its purgative. It was 
 in much esteem among the ancients, but has 
 deservedly fallen into disrepute of later years, 
 as it occasions insupportable nausea. Tourne- 
 fort enumerates eighteen species of agaric. But 
 it is more generally divided into three kinds; 
 the male, the female, and the false or spurious 
 agaric. The best comes from the Levant; that 
 which comes from Savoy and Dauphiny being 
 less esteemed. Holland also affords some, but 
 that is reckoned the worst ; because it is grated, 
 and whitened at the top with chalk. By a 
 chemical solution it passes almost wholly into 
 oil ; it yields no volatile salt, but abounds with 
 a sort of flaky earth, and acid phlegm ; as to 
 texture, it seems much to resemble colocynth. 
 
 AGARIC, FALSE, or bastard, or oak agaric, 
 is that which grows on those trees. It is com- 
 monly reddish, and very heavy, it is very little 
 esteemed, which probably occasioned its being 
 called the false agaric. The druggists look only 
 upon that which grows on the larch tree to be 
 the right sort. 
 
 AGARIC, FEMALE, is the most esteemed in 
 medicine. To be good it ought to le white, 
 'arge, brittle, and bright, so as to be easily pul- 
 verised ; of a lively and penetrating scent, and 
 of a bitter taste. This was thought efficacious 
 as a styptic, to restrain not only venal, but ar- 
 terial haemorrhages without the use of liga- 
 tures. Its reputation, however, did not long 
 subsist ; and after repeated trials, the surgeons 
 of London were obliged to discontinue it as in- 
 efficacious and unsafe. 
 
 AGARIC, MALE, otherwise called the common 
 or heavy agaric, is of a yellowish colour, and 
 pretty solid. It is commonly used in dyeing 
 black, and is reckoned among the non-colouring 
 drugs, which the dyers of the best woollen cloth 
 and serges are obliged to use in France. It is 
 called non-colouring, because it can produce no 
 colour of itself, without being mixed with other 
 ingredients. 
 
 AGARIC, MINERAL, a kind of stone, or marie 
 which is found in the cliffs of rocks in different 
 parts of Germany. It is very white and light 
 whence, it is called milk of the moon. It 
 s also named marrow of stone, or lithoma- 
 gra, and stenomagra. Some tell us that the 
 calcination of this stone is performed by the 
 vapours of the metals within the rocks where 
 J found. It is used internally against haemorr- 
 hages, the stranguary, gravel, and especially 
 dysenteries ; externally, to dry and heal old ul- 
 cers, stop defluxions of the eyes, &c. 
 
 ON. See last and next articles 
 
 fABICU8, or MUSHROOM, a genus of the 
 mler of fungi, belonging to the cryptogamia 
 dass of plants. Only the esculent kinds of 
 nushrooms are cultivated; and the following 
 
 AGA 
 
 method is used by the gardeners who raise them 
 for sale. If the young mushrooms cannot be 
 procured from gardens, they must be looked for 
 in rich pastures during August and Septem- 
 ber: the ground must be opened about their 
 roots, where it is frequently found full of small 
 white knots ; which are the off-sets, or young 
 mushrooms. These must be carefully gathered 
 in lumps, with the earth about them : but as 
 this spawn cannot be found m the pasture, ex- 
 cept at that season when the mushrooms are 
 naturally produced, it may be searched for at 
 any time in old dung-hills, especially where 
 there has been much litter, and it hath not 
 been penetrated by wet so as to rot ; it may 
 also be found very often in old hot-beds ; or 
 it may be procured by mixing some long dung 
 from the stable, which has not been thrown 
 on a heap to ferment, with strong earth, and 
 put under cover to prevent wet getting to it. 
 The spawn commonly appears in about two 
 months after the mixture is made ; but propor- 
 tionably the sooner the more effectually the air 
 is excluded, provided the mixture is not kept 
 so close as to heat. Old thatch, or litter which 
 has lain long abroad so as not to ferment, is 
 the best covering. The spawn has the appear- 
 ance of white mould shooting out into long 
 strings, by which it may be easily known where- 
 ever it is met with. The beds for receiving 
 the spawn are now to be prepared. These 
 should be made of dung in which there is 
 plenty of litter, but which should not be thrown 
 on a heap to ferment : that dung which has 
 lain spread abroad for a month or longer is 
 best. The beds should be made on dry ground, 
 and the dung laid on the surface ; the width at 
 the bottom should be two and a half or three 
 feet, the length in proportion to the quantity of 
 mushrooms desired; then lay the dung about 
 a foot thick, covering it with strong earth about 
 four inches deep. Upon this lay more dung, 
 about ten inches thick; then another layer of 
 earth, still drawing in the sides of the bed, so 
 as to form it like the roof of a house ; which 
 may be done by three layers of dung, and as 
 many of earth. When the bed is finished, it 
 must be covered with litter or old thatch, both 
 to prevent its drying too fast and to keep out 
 wet. In this situation it ought to remain eight 
 or ten days, when it will be in proper temper- 
 ature to receive the spawn ; for this is destroyed 
 by too much heat; though, before planting, it 
 may be kept very dry, not only without detri- 
 ment, but with considerable advantage. The 
 bed being in a proper temperature for the 
 spawn, the covering of litter should be taken off, 
 and the sides of the bed smoothed; then a 
 covering of light rich earth, about an inch thick, 
 should be laid all over the bed ; but this should 
 not be wet. Upon this the spawn must be 
 thrust, laying the lumps two or three inches 
 asunder : then gently cover this with the same 
 light earth, above half an inch thick; and put 
 the covering of litter over the bed, laying it 
 so thick as to keep out wet, and prevent the 
 bed from drying. In spring or autumn the 
 mushrooms will begin to appear, perhaps in a 
 month after making; but when *he beds are
 
 AGA 
 
 277 
 
 AGA 
 
 made in summer or winter, they are much 
 longer before they produce. In any season, 
 however, they ought not to be hastily destroyed ; 
 since mushroom beds have been known to pro- 
 duce very plentifully, even after the spawn has 
 lain in them five or six months. When the 
 beds are destroyed, the spawn should be care- 
 fully preserved, and laid up in a dry place, at 
 least five or six weeks before it is again planted. 
 The difficulty of managing mushroom beds 
 is, to keep them always in a proper degree of 
 moisture. In the summer season they may be 
 uncovered to receive gentle showers of rain at 
 proper times; and in long dry seasons the beds 
 should now and then be watered, but much wet 
 ought by no means to be suffered to come to 
 them. During the winter season they must be 
 kept as dry as possible, and so closely covered 
 as to keep out cold. In frosty or very cold 
 weather, if some warm litter, shaken out of a 
 dung heap, is laid on, the growth of the mush- 
 rooms will be promoted : but betwixt this and 
 the bed, a covering of dry litter must be inter- 
 posed ; which should be renewed as it decays ; 
 and as the cold increases, the covering must be 
 thickened. By attending to these directions, 
 plenty of mushrooms may be produced all the 
 year round. One bed will continue good for many 
 months. For a particular, perhaps fabulous, 
 method of producing mushrooms, see LYNCU- 
 RIUS. Botanical writers enumerate fifty-five 
 species belonging to this genus; of which the 
 most remarkable are the following : 
 
 1. AGARICUS CAMPESTRIS, or common mush- 
 room, which has the top or cape first of a dirty 
 cream colour, convex, and if but just expand- 
 ing, the under part, or what is called the gills, 
 is of a bright flesh red. It is found in woods, 
 old pastures, and by road sides ; and is in the 
 greatest perfection in September. 
 
 2. AGARICUS CHANTARELLUS, or chantarelle 
 agaric, is rather a smaller fungus than the former. 
 This plant broiled with salt and pepper has 
 much the flavour of a roasted cockle ; and is 
 esteemed a delicacy by the French, as is the 
 Agaricus Pratensis. It is found in woods and 
 high pastures, and is in perfection about the 
 end of September. 
 
 3. AGARICUS CINNAMOMEUS, or brown mush- 
 room, has a cap the colour of fresh tanned hides. 
 At first it is hemispherical, firm, even, and fleshy, 
 with mostly a small rising in the centre ; but 
 when old is quite flat. The whole plant has a 
 pleasant smell, and when broiled gives a good fla- 
 vour. It is found in woods in September and 
 October. 
 
 4. AGARICUS CLYPEATUS, or long-stalked 
 mushroom, has a hemispherical hat tapering to 
 a point, and clammy ; the pillar is long, cylin- 
 drical, and white ; the gills are white, and not 
 concave, dusted with a fine powdery substance 
 on each side ; the root is bulbous, long, and 
 hooked at the end. It is found in September, 
 in woodlands and pastures. 
 
 4. AGARICUS DELICIOSUS, or orange agaric. 
 This fungus, well seasoned and then broiled, has 
 the exact flavour of a roasted muscle. Its prime 
 time is September, and it is to be found in high 
 dry woods. 
 
 6. AGARICUS MCSCARIUS, or reddish mush- 
 
 room. This is the moucho-more of the Russians, 
 Kamtschadales, and Koriacs, who use it as an 
 instrument of intoxication. 
 
 7. AGARICUS PRATENSIS, or champignon, very 
 common upon heaths and dry pastures. 
 
 8. AGARICUS QUERCINUS, or agaric of the oak, 
 as well as many other species of this genus, 
 grow on dunghills, or rotten wood, in cellars, or 
 on the trunks of trees. It was formerly an article 
 in the Materia Medica; but is now deservedly 
 rejected. 
 
 9. AGARICUS VIOLACEUS, or violet musl}- 
 room. It is found in woods in October. Hud- 
 son's bulb sus is only a variety of this plant. 
 
 AGARICUS. Medical men have differed about 
 the qualities of mushrooms ; some considering 
 them as a rich nourishment and perfectly inno- 
 cent, when properly chosen ; and others assert- 
 ing them to be extremely deleterious. Most of 
 the fungi are indeed of a hurtful quality; and 
 with respect to the whole tribe, the esculent are 
 very few. But esculent mushrooms are very 
 nutritive, very readily alkalescent, and more so 
 without immediate acescency than any other 
 vegetable : they are therefore a rich nourishment, 
 and much akin to animal food ; on which ac- 
 count they may be indulged in considerable 
 quantity to strong persons. It requires, how- 
 ever, skill to distinguish this esculent kind ; and 
 very few, especially of those who are commonly 
 employed to gather them, viz. the servants, have 
 studied Clusius, or other authors who have been 
 at the pains to distinguish them. Perhaps our 
 esculent mushrooms, when old, acquire a dan- 
 gerous acrimony; and for these reasons Dr. 
 Cullen is of opinion, that it is for the most part 
 prudent to avoid them. In the warmer climates 
 they may be used as light food ; but here it is 
 preposterous to use them along with animal food, 
 as they do not correct its alkaline tendency. The 
 1st, 2d, 3d, 5th, 7th, and 9th species above enu- 
 merated, are the only species that can be safely 
 recommended as edible. It is well known, that 
 soil and situation have a great influence upon 
 the properties of plants ; and these being of a 
 singular nature, and absolutely between that of 
 an animal and vegetable, may be more power- 
 fully affected than a complete species of either- 
 because they have neither leaves nor branches 
 to carry off the noxious damps and vapours of a 
 stagnant soil, as a perfect vegetable has ; nor 
 have they any gross excremental discharges, like 
 those of a living animal. The gills, no doubt, 
 exhale some of their superfluous moisture ; but 
 their situation is such, that any thick steam from 
 Ihe earth may lodge in them, and by clogging 
 their excretory ducts, render the plants morbid. 
 Thus they soon run into a state of putrefaction, 
 and become a prey to worms, flies, and other 
 insects. The common mushroom, which is in 
 general esteem, though we have several others 
 better, is not safely eaten when produced from a 
 moist soil. Those who gather mushrooms for 
 sale, should therefore have particular regard to 
 the lands they collect them from, especially it 
 they know they are to be broiled ; but if they 
 be intended for catchup, perhaps -they may be 
 less cautious, as the salts and spices, with which 
 the juice is boiled, may correct any evil dispo- 
 sition in the plants. But, even in this case
 
 AGA 
 
 278 
 
 AGA 
 
 catchup made of mushrooms taken from a dry 
 soil, has a more aromatic and pleasant flavour, 
 than that which is made from those taken from a 
 moist one, and it will always keep a great deal 
 better. 
 
 AGASI, or AGASSI, in Turkey, a title of ho- 
 nour, synonymous with AGA, which see. 
 ' - 
 
 AST'o From A. S. Eer-ean, to see, to 
 AGAZE', > look at ; or from the Gothic, agyan, 
 AGAZED'. j to fear ; in our usage, the two roots 
 are apparently combined, as it signifies to gaze 
 with terror ; amazed ; frighted to astonishment. 
 So com a tempest wilde. his schip had alle ouer 
 
 ronnen, 
 
 )>e maryner was agast, bat schip bat -wild not go. 
 Lotes did pei kast, for whom pei had pat wo. 
 
 R. Brunne, p 124. 
 
 And he pat eete of pat seed, sholde beevene trywe 
 With God and nat agatt. bote of gyle one. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plouhman, p. 381. 
 So as they travell'd, so they 'gan espy 
 An armed knight toward them gallop fast ; 
 That seemed from some feared foe to fly, 
 Or other grisly thing that him agast. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 Hucdreds he sent to hell ; and none durst stand 
 
 him 
 
 Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he flew : 
 The French exclaim'd, ' The devil was in arms ! ' 
 All the whole army stood agased on him. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI. 
 Thus roving on, 
 
 In confus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands 
 ( With shudd'ring horror pale, and eyes agast) 
 View'd first their lamentable lot ; and found 
 No rest. Paradise Lost. 
 
 Loud was the noise, aghast was every guest, 
 The women shriek'd, the men forsook the feast. 
 
 Dryden's Theodore and Honoria. 
 Stout Glo'stcr stood aghast in speechless trance : 
 To arms ! cried Mortimer, and couch'd his quivering 
 lance. Gray's Bard. 
 
 - The pilgrim oft, 
 At dead of night, mid his Oraison hears 
 Aghast the voice of time, disparting towr's 
 Tumbling all precipitate down dash'd, 
 Rattling around loud thund'ringto the moon. 
 
 Dyer's Ruins of Rome. 
 
 The church-bell tolls, deep sounding down the glade, 
 The solemn hour for walking spectres made ; 
 The simple plough-boy, wakening with the sound, 
 Listens aghast, and turns him startled round, 
 Then stops his ears, and strives to close his eyes, 
 Lest at the sound some grisly ghost should rise. 
 
 Kirke White's Poems. 
 
 AGASYLLIS, in the Materia Medica, a name 
 given by some of the ancient Greek writers to 
 gum ammoniac ; and by Dioscorides, to the tree 
 which produced that gum. By their descrip- 
 tions of this medicine, it appears not to have been 
 the same which we know by this name. 
 
 AGATE, an instrument used by gold wire- 
 drawers ; so called from the agate in the middle 
 of it, which forms its principal part. See the 
 following article. 
 
 AGATE, in mineralogy, a species of precious 
 stone, or rather a silicious mixture of jasper, 
 amethyst, quartz, opal, heliotrope, and cornelian! 
 blended in variable proportions with a base of 
 ralcedony. Its combinations, however complex, 
 are distinguished by a characteristic speciality' 
 the component parts sliding into each other by 
 such nice gradations, as show them to have been 
 
 all of simultaneous formation. In this respect it 
 differs from silicious BRECCIA, in vhich angular 
 fragments of silicious pebbles are cemented by a 
 compost of quartz, calcedony, or flint, of a con- 
 stitution wholly distinct from that of the invested 
 parts. Differing according to the appearance 
 and transparency of its component substances, 
 the agate is never wholly opaque like the jasper, 
 nor transparent like the quartz crystal. Its most 
 common colours are yellow, red, blue, milk- 
 white, honey-orange, an ochre yellow, flesh- 
 blood, reddish brown, brownish green, violet- 
 blue, &c. through which the opaquer parts appear 
 like dots, eyes, zones, bands, with various other 
 ramifications, and are sometimes variegated with 
 clouds and veins of various colours, figures, and 
 dimensions. This species of mineral is found in 
 the form of irregular rounded nodules, from the 
 size of a pin's head, to more than a foot in dia- 
 meter; sometimes in strata, and occasionally 
 stalactitic. Several varieties of agate are dis- 
 tinguished by the lapidaries : the finer semi- 
 transparent kinds, consisting principally of chal- 
 cedony, are called oriental : in the banded agates 
 the colours are disposed in straight parallel lines 
 or bands; while in the fortification agate, the 
 most beautiful of all the varieties, they are ar- 
 ranged in waved and angular concentric zones : 
 the landscape agate, by the name alone, suffici- 
 ently declares its irregular appearance : the moss 
 agate, or Mochoa stone, is filled with dendritical 
 crystallizations of iron ore, so nearly resembling 
 some kinds of moss as to have been actually 
 mistaken for real vegetables by Daubenton. 
 These semipellucid gems were originally found 
 on the banks of the river AXHTTIG, in Sicily, whence 
 their name is derived. They are now, neverthe- 
 less, common in many parts of the world. The 
 largest and most beautiful agates which this 
 island produces are known by the name of Scotch 
 pebbles, and are found chiefly in the neighbour- 
 hood of Dunbar. 
 
 We enumerate the following varieties of this 
 mineral as the most remarkable, arranged ac- 
 cording to the different colours of the ground. 
 
 I. Of those with a white ground there are three 
 species. 1. The dendrachates macoa stone, so 
 called from that part of Arabia, whence it is 
 derived, seems to be the same with what some 
 authors call the achates with rosemary in the 
 middle, and others achates with little branches 
 of black leaves. It consists of translucent cal- 
 cedony. Its dark outline of arborization, like 
 vegetable filaments were formerly attributed to 
 deposits of iron, and manganese ; but are now 
 thought to arise from mineralized plants of the 
 crypto gamus. 2. The dull milky-looking agate. 
 This, though greatly inferior to the former, is a 
 very beautiful stone. It is common on the shores 
 of rivers in the East Indies and also in Germany 
 and some other parts of Europe. Our lapidaries 
 cut it into counters for card playing, and other 
 toys of small value. 3. The lead-coloured 
 agate, called the phassachates by the ancients. 
 
 II. Of the agates with a reddish ground there are 
 four species. 1 . An impure one of a flesh co- 
 loured white, which is but of little beauty in 
 comparison with other agates. The admixture 
 of flesh-colour is but very slight; and it is often 
 found without any clouds, veins, or other variega-
 
 AGA 
 
 279 
 
 AGA 
 
 tions; but sometimes it is prettily veined or 
 variegated with spots of irregular figures, having 
 fimbriated edges. It is found in Germany, 
 Italy, and some other parts of Europe; and is 
 wrought into toys of small value, and into the 
 German gun-flints. It has been sometimes 
 found with evident specimens of the per- 
 fect mosses bedded deep in it. 2. That of a 
 pure blood-colour, called hasmachates, or the 
 bloody agate, by the ancients. 3. The clouded and 
 spotted agate, of a pale flesh-colour, called by 
 the ancients the cornelian agate, or sardachates. 
 4. The red lead-coloured one, variegated with 
 yellow, called the coral agate, or corolla achates, 
 by the ancients. III. Of the agates with a yel- 
 Imcish ground, there are only two known species ; 
 the one of the colour of yellow wax, called 
 cerachates by the ancients; the other a very 
 elegant stone, of a yellow ground, variegated 
 with white, black, and green, called the leonina, 
 and leonteseres by the ancients. IV. Of the 
 agates with a greenish ground, there is only one 
 known species, called by the ancients jaspachates. 
 
 The Ribbon agate, which exhibits so elegant an 
 appearance, occurs in porphyry and gneiss, and 
 consists of alternate parallel layers of chalcedony 
 with jasper, quartz, or amethyst. The brecciated 
 a^ate, a beautiful variety containing fragments 
 of the former, lies in a base of amethyst ; of both 
 the most beautiful specimens are found in Saxony 
 and Siberia. Fortification agate, found in nodules 
 of various imitative shapes, occurs at Oberstein, 
 on the Rhine, and in Scotland. It is imbedded 
 in amygdaloid, and on cutting it across the 
 interior zig zag, parallel lines are found to re- 
 semble the plan of a modern fortification. Even 
 the centre contains a splintery mass of quartz 
 and amethyst, surrounded by a jasper and chal- 
 cedony. The moss agate, to which we have al- 
 ready referred, appears to consist of chalcedony, 
 arborized after the form of vegetable filaments; 
 and on some occasions irregularly traversed 
 with veins of red jasper. According to the con- 
 jecture of Daubenton, Dr. M'Culloch discovered 
 in mocha and moss agates, aquatic confervas, 
 coated with iron oxyde; but exhibiting their 
 natural form and colours. Mosses and lichens 
 have been also detected along with chlorite, in 
 vegetations. In the possession of the earl of 
 Powis, is an onyx agate set in a ring which con- 
 tains the chrysalis of a moth. Hollow nodules 
 of agate, called geodes, present interiorly crystals 
 of colourless or amethystine quartz, scattered 
 occasionally with crystals of stilbite, chabasie, 
 and capillary mesotype. In the interior of those 
 found among the hills of Dauria, on the right bank 
 of the Chilca, M. Patrin occasionally detected 
 bitumen. The geodes found in volcanic districts 
 occasionally contain water in their cavities; 
 These are chiefly found in insulated blocks of a 
 lava, distinguished by an eardiy fracture. When 
 cracked the liquid escapes by evaporation, but 
 may be restored by immersing them in hot water 
 for a short time. 
 
 Agates are most prized when the internal 
 figure nearly resembles some animal or plant ; 
 and these are more numerous than might be ima- 
 gined, some containing natural representations of 
 men, lions, tigers, &;c. Yelschius had in his 
 
 custody a flesh-coloured agate, on one side of 
 which appeared a half moon ii gre^ perfection, 
 represented by a milky scm.circle ; on the other 
 side, the phases of vesper, or the evening star : 
 whence he denominated it an aphrodisian agate. 
 An agate is mentioned by Kircher, on which was 
 the representation of a heroine armed ; and one 
 in the church of St. Mark in Venice, has the re- 
 presentation of a king's head adorned with a 
 diadem. On another, in the museum of the 
 prince of Gonzaga, was represented the body 
 of a man, with all his clothes, in a running pos- 
 ture. A still more curious one is mentioned by 
 De Boot, wherein appears a circle struck in 
 brown, as exactly as if done with a pair of com- 
 passes, and in the middle of the circle the exact 
 form of a bishop with a mitre on : but invert- 
 ing the stone a little, another figure appears ; 
 and if it is turned yet further, two others appear, 
 the one of a man, and the other of a woman. 
 But the most celebrated agate of that kind is 
 that of Pyrrhus, wherein were represented the 
 nine muses, each with their proper attributes, 
 and Apollo in the middle playing on the harp. 
 In the emperor's cabinet is an oriental agate of 
 a surprising bigness, being fashioned into a cup, 
 whose diameter is an ell, abating two inches. 
 In the cavity is found delineated in black specks, 
 b. xristor. s. xxx. Other agates have also been 
 found, representing the numbers 4191, 191 ; 
 whence they are called arithmetical agates, as 
 those representing men or women have obtained 
 the name of anthropomorphous. Agates may 
 be stained artificially with solution of silver m 
 spirit of nitre, and afterwards exposing the par: 
 to the sun ; and though these artificial colours 
 disappear on laying the stone for a night in aqua- 
 fortis, yet a knowledge of the practicability of 
 thus staining agates, must render those curious 
 figures above mentioned strongly suspected of 
 being the work, not of nature but of art. The 
 oriental agates are all said to be brought from 
 the river Gambay. A mine of agates was some- 
 time ago discovered in Transylvania, of divers 
 colours, and some of a large size, weighing se^ 
 veral pounds. Considerable quantities of these 
 stones are still found near the river Achates in 
 Sicily. There are found in some of these the 
 surprising representations above mentioned, or 
 others similar to them. By a dexterous manage- 
 ment of these natural stains, medals have been, 
 produced, which seem master-pieces of nature : 
 for this stone bears the graver well ; and ^as 
 pieces of all magnitudes are found of it, they, 
 make all sorts of work of it. The high altar of 
 the cathedral of Messina is all over encrusted 
 with it. The lapidaries pretend that the Indian 
 agates are finer than the Sicilian; but father 
 Labat informs us, that in the same quarries, and 
 even in the same block, there are found .pieces 
 much finer than others, and these fine pieces are 
 sold for Indian agates, in order to enhance their 
 price. Antiquaries put no small value upon 
 stones of this kind engraven by art. In this 
 sense, agates make a species of antique gems, in 
 the workmanship whereof we find eminent proofs 
 of the great skill and dexterity of the sculptors. 
 Several agates of exquisite beauty are preserved 
 in the cabinets of the curious; but the facts re-?
 
 AGA 
 
 280 
 
 AGA 
 
 presented on these antique agates, however well 
 executed, are now become so obscure, and their 
 explications so difficult, that several diverting 
 mistakes and disputes have arisen among those 
 who undertook to give their true meaning. The 
 great agate of the apotheosis of Augustus, in the 
 treasury of the holy chapel, when sent from Con- 
 stantinople to St. Lewis, passed for a triumph of 
 Joseph. An agate, in the fete French king's cabi- 
 net, had been kept 700 years with great devo- 
 tion, in the Benedictine abbey of St. Evre at 
 Toul, where it passed for John the Evangelist 
 carried away by an eagle, and crowned by an 
 angel : but the heathenism of it having been fully 
 detected, the religious would no longer give it a 
 place among their relics, but presented it to the 
 icing. The antiquaries found it to be the apo- 
 theosis of Germanicus. In like manner the 
 triumph of Joseph was found to be a representa- 
 tion of Germanicus and Agrippina, under the 
 figures of Ceres and Triptolemus. Another was 
 preserved, fiom time immemorial, in one of the 
 ancient churches of France, where it had passed 
 for a representation of paradise and the fall of 
 man ; there being on it two figures, representing 
 Adam and Eve, with a tree, a serpent, and a 
 Hebrew inscription round it, taken from the 
 third chapter of Genesis, ' The woman saw that 
 the tree was good/ &c. The French academists, 
 instead of our first parents, found Jupiter and 
 Minerva represented by the two figures : the in- 
 scription was of a modern date, written in a 
 Rabbinical character, very incorrect, and poorly 
 engraven. The prevailing opinion was, that this 
 agate represented simply the worship of Jupiter 
 and Minerva at Athens. 
 
 Some account for the phenomena observed in 
 genuine agates from natural causes. Thus 
 Kircher, who had seen a stone of this kind, in 
 which were depicted the four letters usually in- 
 scribed on crucifixes, I. N.R.I, apprehends that 
 some real crucifix had been buried under ground, 
 among stones and other rubbish, where the in- 
 scription happening to be parted from the cross, 
 and to be received among a soft mould or clay 
 susceptible of the impression of the letters, 
 came afterwards to be petrified ! In the same 
 manner he supposes the agate of Pyrrhus to 
 have been formed. Others resolve much of the 
 wonder into fancy, and suppose those stones 
 formed in the same manner with the camieux 
 or Florentine stones. See CAMIEDX. 
 
 The agate is used for making cups, rings, 
 seals, handles for knives and forks, hilts for 
 swords and hangers, beads to pray with, smelling 
 boxes, patch boxes, &c. being cut or sawed with 
 no great difficulty. Great medicinal virtues 
 were formerly attributed to the agate, such as 
 resisting poisons, especially those of the viper, 
 scorpion, and spider; but they are now very 
 justly rejected from medicinal practice, 
 
 AGATHA, St. a town of Italy, in the ulterior 
 principality of Naples, with a bishop's see. It is 
 six miles south-east of Reggio; of great natural 
 strength, and has the title of a principality. 
 Also a town with the title of a duchy, on the 
 coast of Capitanata. 
 
 AGATHARCHIDES, or AGATHARCITJS of 
 Cnidus, in biography, a Greek historian, and 
 
 grammarian, mentioned by Josephus, and other 
 ancient writers, was contemporary with Eratos- 
 thenes, and flourished under Ptolemy Philometer 
 about 177 years before Christ. He was reader 
 to Heraclida, president of the Alexandrian 
 Library, and wrote several historical treatises ; 
 of which Photius mentions forty-nine books, 
 concerning the affairs of Europe, ten of Asia, 
 five of the Red Sea, and an epitome of what had 
 been written on this subject in one book. Some 
 fragments of his writings may be found in Jose- 
 phus and Photius. The testimony of Agathar- 
 chides is alleged to prove, that in the reign of 
 Ptolemy Philometer, the Greek sovereigns of 
 Egypt had not yet traded directly to India, but 
 imported the commodities of India, from Saba, 
 the capital of Yemen. This ancient writer's 
 description of the western coast of the Red Sea 
 closes at Ptolemais, as if there were no regular 
 commerce beyond that point. 
 
 AGATHIAS, or AGATHIUS, surnamed Scho- 
 lasticus, a Greek Byzantine historian, of the sixth 
 century under Justinian. He was born at 
 Myrina, in Asia the less, at the mouth of the 
 river Pythicus. He was an advocate at Smyrna, 
 had a taste for poetry, and wrote a history which 
 begins with the twenty-sixth year of Justinian's 
 reign, where Procopius ends, and terminating 
 with the slaughter of the Huns, 559. It was 
 printed in Greek and Latin, with Bonaventure 
 Vulcanius's, at Leyden, 1594, in quarto; and at 
 Paris, 1660, in folio. 
 
 AGATHO, a tragic and comic poet, disciple 
 of Prodicus and Socrates, applauded in Plato's 
 dialogues for his virtue and beauty. His first 
 tragedy obtained the prize ; and he was crowned 
 in the presence of upwards of 30,000 spectators, 
 in the fourth year of the ninetieth Olympiad, 
 None of his works are extant, except a few 
 quotations in Aristotle, Athenseus, and others. 
 Agatho delighted so much in antitheses, as to 
 give him occasion for saying to a person, who 
 wished him to expunge them, 'you do not con- 
 sider that you would rend Agatho from himself.' 
 Athenseus (Deipnosophist, 1. v. p. 211. ed. Ca- 
 saub.) cites the following, .'If I tell you the 
 truth, I shall not please you ; and if I please 
 you, I shall not tell you the truth.' And Aris- 
 totle gives us these, ' The only thing impossible 
 to God, is to cause that not to be made that has 
 been made ; ' ' fortune loves art, and- ;art loves 
 fortune ; ' ' it is probable, that a great many im- 
 probable things may happen to mortals.' There 
 was also a pope of this name in the seventh cen- 
 tury who was very active against the Monothelites. 
 
 AGATHOCLES, the famous tyrant of Sicily, 
 was the son of a porter at Reggio. He was 
 successively a common soldier, a centurion, 
 a general, and a pirate. He defeated the 
 Carthaginians several times in Sicily, and 
 was once defeated himself. He first made 
 himself tyrant of Syracuse, and then- of all Sicily: 
 after which he vanquished the Carthaginians 
 again, both in Sicily and Africa. But at length 
 having ill success, and being in arrears with his 
 soldiers, they mutinied, forced him to fly to his 
 camp, and cut the throats of his children, whom 
 he left behind. Recovering himself again he 
 elieved Corfu, besieged by Cassander; burnt
 
 AGA 
 
 281 
 
 AGA 
 
 the Macedonian fleet ; returned to Sicily ; mur- 
 dered the wives and children of those who had 
 murdered his ; afterwards meeting with the 
 soldiers themselves, he put them all to the sword ; 
 and ravaging the sea coast of Italy, took the 
 city of Hipponium. He was at length poisoned 
 oy his grandson, Archagathus, in the seventy- 
 second year of his age, 290 years before Christ, 
 after having reigned twenty-eight years. 
 
 AGATHOCLES, the unfortunate son of Lysima- 
 chus king of Thrace and Macedon, who, after 
 defeating and putting to flight Demetrius Poli- 
 orcetes, was murdered by his father's orders, at 
 the instigation of his step-mothr Arsinoe, who 
 was also his wife's sister, A. A. C. 282. 
 
 AGATHOD^EMON, from aya0oc, good, and 
 ain<i>v daemon, a beneficent genius. Among 
 ancient writers, agathodaemon is a denomination 
 given to a kind of serpents, bred up and revered 
 by the Egyptians, from an opinion of some 
 sanctity residing in them. They are also called 
 dragons, and fabulously described as having wings. 
 AGATHOPOLIS, the city of Montpelier in 
 France. See MONTPELIEK. 
 
 AGATHYRNA, or AGATHYRSA, in ancient 
 geography, a town of Sicily, now St. Marco ; as 
 old as the war of Troy. 
 
 AGATHYRNUS, in ancient history, the son 
 of /Eolus, and founder of Agathyrna. 
 
 AGATTON, a town of Africa, seated near 
 the mouth of the river Formosa, on the coast of 
 Guinea, eighty miles south of Benin. It was 
 formerly a considerable place ; and the neigh- 
 bourhood is considered healthy; but frequent 
 wars have depopulated it. 
 
 AGATTOO, one of the Aleutian islands, 
 about sixteen miles long, with a lofty mountain 
 in the middle. Distant from Attoo 20 miles. 
 Long. 175. E. Lat. 52. 30'. N. 
 
 AGATY, a Malabar tree, bearing a fruit in 
 taste and shape like the kidney-bean. 
 
 AGAVE, the common American aloe : a genus 
 of the monogynia order, belonging to the hex- 
 andria class of plants ; and in the natural method 
 ranking under the tenth order, coronarite. The 
 characters are : there is no calyx ; COR. monope- 
 talous and funnel-shaped ; the border six-parted, 
 with lancet erect divisions : STAM. six erect fila- 
 ments, longer than the corolla ; the anthers are 
 linear, shorter than the filaments, and versatile : 
 FIST, an oblong germen ; the stylus is filiform, 
 the length of the stamina, and triangular; the 
 stigma headed and triangular : PER. an oblong 
 triangular capsule, trilocular, and three valved : 
 the seeds are numerous. Of this genus, botanical 
 writers enumerate eight species. 
 
 AGAVE AMERICANA, or the great American 
 aloe : the stems generally rise upwards of twenty 
 feet high, and branch out on every side towards 
 the top, so as to form a kind of pyramid : the 
 slender shoots being garnished with greenish 
 yellow flowers, which stand erect, and come out 
 in thick clusters at every joint : these make a 
 fine appearance, and continue long in beauty ; a 
 succession of new flowers being produced for 
 near three months in favourable seasons, if the 
 plant is protected from the autumnal colds. The 
 seeds do not ripen in England. It has been 
 gene.-ally thought, that these plants do not 
 
 flower til! they are 100 years old; but this is a 
 mistake, for the time of their flowering depends 
 on their growth ; so that in hot countries, where 
 they grow fast, and expand many leaves every 
 season, they will flower in a few years ; but in 
 colder climates, where their growth is slow, it 
 will be much longer before they shoot up their 
 stem. There is a variety of this species with 
 striped leaves, common in the English gardens. 
 The other sorts are so tender, that they must 
 constantly remain in the stove. 
 
 AGAUPE, in botany, a name used by some 
 authors for the common white water-lily. 
 
 AGDE, a populous city of France, in Lower 
 Languedoc, in the department of Herault, and 
 arrondissement of Beziers. It trades in fine wool, 
 wine, oil, corn, and silk. It is seated on the 
 river Herault, a mile and a quarter from its 
 mouth, where it falls into the gulph of. Lyons, 
 on which there is a fort built to guard its en- 
 trance. The houses are principally built of 
 black stone, and there is an entrance into the 
 city by four gales. The public buildings are not 
 handsome. The city is extended along the river, 
 where it forms a small port, which small craft 
 may enter. There was formerly a great con- 
 course of pilgrims here to the chapel of Notre 
 Dame de Grace. It is a little without the city, 
 between which and the chapel there are numerous 
 oratories, which they used to visit with bare feet. 
 Long. 3. 33'. E. Lat. 43. 19'. N. Population 
 7200. 
 
 AGDENAS, a district of Norway, in the ter- 
 ritory of Drontheim, into which the bay runs. 
 AGE, n. ~) -Age, Fr. deduced by Junius 
 A'GED, >from aa, which in the Teutonic 
 A'GEDLY. j dialect signified long duration; 
 A. S. ajan past : time in general, or a particular 
 period ; as human life, or any portion of it. 
 Fro }?e by gynnyng of be world, to be tyme bat now 
 
 is, 
 Sene ages ber habbeb y be, as sene tyme y wys. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p. 9. 
 
 Suld thou not first think quhare thou left, but leis, 
 Thy wery fader the agit Anchises ? 
 
 Douglas' JEneid, b. ii. p. 58. 
 
 If the comparison do stand between man and man, 
 the aged (for the most part) are best experienced, 
 least subject to rash and unadvised passions. 
 
 Hooker. 
 
 Novelty is only in request : and it is as dangerous 
 to be aged in any kind of course ; as it is virtuous to 
 be constant in any undertaking. 
 
 Shakspeare's Measure for Measure. 
 One man in his time plays many parts, 
 His acts being seven ages. ShaJtspeare. 
 
 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt, seventeen 
 years : so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred 
 forty and seven years. Genesis xlvii. 28. 
 
 Hence lastly springs care of posterities ; 
 For things, their kind would everlasting make : 
 Hence is it, that old men do plant young trees, 
 The fruit whereof another age shall take. 
 
 Sir J. Davit:. 
 Next to the Son, 
 
 'Destin'd Restorer of mankind, by whom 
 New heav'n and earth shall to the ages rise, 
 Or down from heav'n descend. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost 
 
 And on this forehead (where, your verse has said, 
 The loves delighted, and the graces play'd)
 
 AGE 
 
 Insulting age will trace his cruel way, 
 
 And leave sad marks of his destructive sway. 
 
 No longer now the golden age appears, 
 
 When patriarch wits surviv'd a thousand ypars. 
 
 252 
 
 AGE 
 
 Prior. 
 
 He feeds yon alms-house, neat, but void of state, 
 Where age and want sit smiling at the gate 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 Where age and 
 
 Immortal ! ages past, yet nothing gone ! 
 Morn without eve ! a race without a goal ! 
 Unshorten'd by progression infinite ! 
 Futurity for ever future ! life 
 Beginning still, where computation ends ! 
 
 Young. 
 
 The love of retirement has in all ages adhered 
 closely to those minds which have been most en- 
 larged by knowledge, or elevated by genius. 
 
 Rambler. 
 
 His house was known to all the vagrant train, 
 He chid their wand'rings, but relieved their pain ; 
 The long-remembered beggar was his guest, 
 Whose beard descending swept his aged breast. 
 
 Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 
 And if no future age shall hear my name, 
 I lurk the more secure from fortune's blast, 
 And with more leisure feed this pious flame, 
 Whose rapture far transcends the fairest hopes of 
 fame. Seattle. 
 
 AGE, among the ancient poets, was used for ; 
 the space of thirty years ; in which sense, age 
 amounts to much the same with generation. 
 Thus, Nestor is said to have lived three ages 
 when he was ninety years old. The interval 
 since the first formation of man they divided into 
 four ages, distinguished by the epithets of golden, 
 silver, brazen, and iron. During the golden 
 age, Saturn reigned in heaven, and justice and 
 innocence in this lower world. The earth then 
 yielded her productions without culture ; men 
 held all things in common, and lived in perfect 
 friendship. This period was supposed to have 
 lasted till the expulsion of Saturn from his king- 
 dom. The silver age commenced when men 
 began to deviate from the paths of virtue ; and 
 their lives became less happy. The brazen age 
 commenced on a farther deviation, and the iron 
 age took place in consequence of one still greater. 
 The East Indian Brahmins seem to have adopted 
 the idea of the Grecian poets, if the latter did 
 not borrow it from them ; or rather, if both were 
 not indebted for it, to the Mosaic account of the 
 original paradisaical state of man. The Brahmins 
 seem evidently to have had at least a traditional 
 account of the longevity of the antediluvian patri- 
 archs, from the description they give of the four 
 ages of the world. The first, which they repre- 
 sent as a sort of golden age, lasted, according to 
 them, 1,728,000 years; in this period, the god 
 Brahma was born, and men were all giants ; their 
 manners were innocent ; they were exempt from 
 diseases, and lived 400 years. In the second 
 age, which lasted 1,296,000, their rajahs were 
 born : vice now crept into the world ; men's lives 
 were fallen to 300 years, and their size retrenched 
 proportionally. Under the third age, which 
 lasted 8,064,000 years, vice being more in- 
 creased, men only attained to 200 years. The 
 
 last age is that wherein we now live, of which 
 4,027,213 years are already gone ; and the life 
 of nun is sunk to one fourth of its original dura- 
 
 tion. A late author, however, reflecting on the 
 barbarism of the first ages, will have the order 
 which the poets assign to the four ages inverted ; 
 the first, being a time of rudeness and ignorance, 
 would be more properly denominated an iron 
 than a golden age. When cities and states were 
 founded, the brazen age succeeded ; when they 
 began to improve, the silver age commenced; 
 and since arts and sciences, navigation and com- 
 merce, have been cultivated, the golden age has 
 taken place. The ingenious M. Merciep carries 
 this idea still farther in his work entitled, Me- 
 moirs of the year 2500 ; and supposes, that man- 
 kind, when that period arrives, will be so much 
 improved, that vice and folly of every kind will 
 be totally extirpated from the earth. 
 
 AGE, in history, is used to express certain 
 periods, or divisions of time. Thus, among the 
 ancient Greek historians, the time elapsed since 
 the beginning of the world was divided into three 
 ages. The first reached from the creation to 
 the deluge, which happened in Greece during 
 the reign of Ogyges ; this they called the obscure 
 or uncertain age, because the history of mankind 
 is altogether uncertain during that period. The 
 second, they called the fabulous or heroic age, 
 because it is the period in which the fabulous 
 exploits of their gods and heroes are said to hare 
 been performed. It began with the Ogygian 
 deluge, and continued to the first Olympiad ; 
 when the third, or historical age, commenced. 
 This division, however, it must be observed, 
 holds good only with regard to the Greeks and 
 Romans, who had no histories earlier than the 
 first Olympiad : the Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians, 
 and Chaldeans, (not to mention the Indians and 
 Chinese, who pretend to much higher antiquity,) 
 are not included in it. Among the Jews, the 
 duration of the world is divided into three ages , 
 First, the seculum inane, or void age, is the space 
 of time from the creation to Moses. Second, the 
 present age, denotes all the space of time from 
 Moses to the coming of the Messiah ; and, third, 
 the age to come, denotes the time from the coming 
 of the Messiah to the end of the world . Various 
 other divisions of the duration of the world into 
 ages have been made by historians. The Sibyl- 
 line oracles, supposed to be written by Jews ac- 
 quainted with the prophecies of the Old Testp- 
 ment, divide the duration of the world into ten 
 ages; and according to Josephus, each age 
 contained 600 years. It appears, by Virgil's 
 fourth eclogue, and other testimonies, that the 
 age of Augustus was reputed the end of those 
 ten ages, consequently as the period of the 
 world's duration. By some modern historians, 
 the space of time commencing from Constan- 
 tine, and ending with the taking of Constanti- 
 nople by the Turks in the fifteenth century, 
 is called the middle age. Others choose rather 
 to date the middle age from the division of 
 the empire made by Theodosius at the close 
 of the fourth century, and extend it to the 
 time of the emperor Maximilian I. in the be- 
 ginning of the sixteenth century, when the 
 empire was first divided into circles. The 
 middle is by some styled the barbarous age, 
 and the latter part of it the lowest age. Others 
 divide it into the non-academical and acudemi-
 
 AGE 
 
 283 
 
 AGE 
 
 cal ages. The first includes the space of time 
 from the sixth to the ninth centuries, during 
 which schools or academies were lost in Europe. 
 The second from the ninth century, when schools 
 were restored, and universities established, chiefly 
 by the care of Charlemagne. The several ages 
 of the world may be reduced to three grand 
 epochas, viz. the age of the law of nature, 
 called by the Jews the void age, from Adam 
 to Moses : the age of the Jewish law, from 
 Moses to Christ : and the age of grace from 
 Christ to the present year. 
 
 AGE OF HEBREW AND GREEK manuscripts of 
 the scriptures. The Hebrew Bible is placed be- 
 fore us by critics as the most ancient book in the 
 world. The truth of this pretension, involving 
 its entire authority as an inspired book, is there- 
 fore a point of the last importance ; and various 
 criteria of the age of the Hebrew MSS. of the 
 Old Testament have been given by different 
 scholars. They may be divided into External 
 Testimony and Internal Evidence. The former 
 consisting of the subscriptions affixed by the 
 transcribers, specifying the time when the manu- 
 scripts were copied, cannot always be depended 
 upon, since cases have occurred in which the 
 earliest dates have been superadded to the pro- 
 ductions of modern copyists, to enhance the value 
 of their labours. With respect to the latter, the 
 marks are more decisive. Of these the following 
 are stated by Dr. Kennicott and M. De Rossi 
 as the principal. 1. The inelegance and rude- 
 ness of the character, although Jablonski lays 
 down the simplicity and elegance of the charac- 
 ter as a criterion of antiquity. 2. The yellow 
 colour of the vellum. 3. The total absence or 
 rare occurrence of the Masora and of the Keri 
 and Ketib. 4. The writing of the Pentateuch 
 throughout in one book without any greater 
 mark of distinction appearing at the beginning 
 of books, than at the beginning of sections. 5. 
 The absence of critical emendations and cor- 
 rections. 6. The absence of vowel points. 7. 
 Obliterated letters being written and re-written 
 with ink. 8. The frequent occurrence of the 
 name Jehovah in lieu of Adonai. 9. The in- 
 frequency of capital and small letters. 10. The 
 insertion of points to fill up blank spaces. 11. 
 The non-division of some books of Psalms. 
 12. The poetical books not being distin- 
 guished from those in prose by dividing them 
 into hemistichs. 13. Readings frequently dif- 
 fering from the Masoretic copies, but agreeing 
 with the Samaritan text, with ancient versions, 
 and with the quotations of the fathers. The 
 conjunction of all or of several of these internal 
 marks is said to afford certain evidence of the 
 antiquity of Hebrew manuscripts. 
 
 The Greek manuscripts of the New Testa- 
 ment, which are extant, are written either on 
 vellum or on paper, and their external form and 
 condition vary like those of other ancient manu- 
 scripts. The vellum is either purple coloured, 
 <>: of its natural hue; and is either thick or 
 thin. Manuscripts on very thin vellum are held 
 in the highest esteem. The paper also is either 
 made of cotton, or the common sort manufac- 
 tured from linen, and is either glazed or vire- 
 markcd, that is of the ordinary roughness. Not 
 
 more than six manuscript fragments on purple 
 vellum are known to be extant. The Codex 
 Claromontanus is written on very thin vellum. 
 All manuscripts on paper are of much later date, 
 those on cotton paper being subsequent to the 
 ninth century; those on linen to the twelfth. If 
 the paper be of a very ordinary quality, Wetstein 
 pronounces them to have been written in Italy, 
 in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The 
 letters again, especially the capitals, which in the 
 time of St. Jerome were called uncial i. e. initial, 
 are of two kinds, either unadorned and simple, 
 and made with straight thin strokes ; or thicker, 
 uneven, and angular. Some of these letters are 
 supported on a sort of base, whilst others are 
 decorated, or rather burthened with various tops. 
 As letters of the former kind are those for the 
 most part seen in ancient Greek manuscripts, 
 whilst those of the latter resemble the paintings 
 of semi-barbarous times ; manuscripts written 
 with the former are supposed to be as ancient 
 as the fifth century, whilst those in which the 
 latter are employed are thought posterior to the 
 ninth. Before the Seventh century, Greek 
 manuscripts were usually written in capital let- 
 ters, and most without any divisions of words. 
 Capitals were also in great use in the eighth 
 century, and even so late as the ninth, but there 
 is a striking difference in the forms of the letters 
 after the seventh century. Great alterations took 
 place in the eight, ninth, and tenth centuries. 
 The Greek letters copied in the ninth century by 
 the Latins are by no means regular, the a, e, and 
 r , being inflected like the a, e, and y, of the 
 Latin alphabet. Towards the close of the tenth 
 century, small or cursive letters were adopted 
 generally, and Greek manuscripts written in the 
 eleventh century, and after it are in small letters, 
 and greatly resemble each other with some few 
 exceptions. In the Greek manuscripts of the 
 thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries 
 flourished letters occur but seldom. The most 
 ancient manuscripts are written without accents, 
 spirits, or any separation of the words ; nor was 
 it till after the ninth century that the copyists 
 began to leave spaces between the words. 
 Michaelis after Wetstein, ascribes the insertion of 
 accents to Euthalius bishop of Sulca. in Egypt, 
 A.D. 458. 
 
 Abbreviations are another evidence of the 
 age of Greek manuscripts. See ABBREVIA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 AGE, in law, that special time when men and 
 women are enabled to do what, for want of 
 years, they are prohibited doing : thus, twelve 
 is the age for taking the oath of allegiance 
 in a leet ; fourteen, or for a woman twelve, the 
 age of discretion, for consenting to a marriage, 
 or choosing a guardian, twenty-one, the full age. 
 A person under the age of twenty-one may make 
 a purchase; but at his full age, he may agree or 
 disagree to it. Fourteen is the age by law to 
 be a witness, although a child of nine years of 
 age has, in some cases, been admitted to give 
 evidence. No one can be chosen member of 
 parliament under the age of twenty-one ; ordained 
 a priest before the age of twenty-four ; nor be a 
 bishop before thirty. 1 Inst. 78. 
 
 AGE or A HORSE. See HORSE.
 
 AGE 
 
 284 
 
 AGE 
 
 AGE or A TREE. Trees after a certain age 
 waste. An oak at 100 years old ceases to grow. 
 The usual rule for judging of the age of wood, is 
 by the number of circles which appears in the 
 substance of a trunk or stock cut perpendicularly, 
 each circle being supposed the growth of a year ; 
 though some reject this method as precarious, 
 alleging that a simple circle is sometimes the 
 produce of several years ; besides that, after a 
 certain age, no new circles are formed. 
 
 AGE PRIOR, in law, is when an action being 
 brought against a person under age, for lands 
 descended to him, he, by motion or petition, 
 shews the matter to the court, praying the action 
 may be staid till his full age, which the court 
 generally agrees to. 
 
 AGEDA, SYNOD of, in modern ecclesiastical 
 history, an assembly of Jewish doctors, held 
 A. D. 1650, so denominated from a plain on 
 which they met, about thirty leagues distant from 
 Buda in Hungary. On this occasion, no fewer 
 than three hundred rabbies, with multitudes of 
 other Jews of different nations, publicly convened, 
 in order to examine and debate the question, 
 whether the Messiah had appeared ? R. Zacha- 
 ria, of the tribe of Levi, was chosen president 
 and speaker. The negative of the question was 
 carried by a majority of voices, and it was agreed 
 that the advent of the Messiah was delayed on 
 account of their sins and impenitence. They 
 agreed also in the circumstances that would at- 
 tend his appearance ; and were of opinion, that 
 as a great conqueror, he would deliver them 
 from every foreign yoke that he would alter 
 nothing in the Mosaic religion that he was to be 
 born of a virgin ; and that his miraculous con- 
 ception was to be a characteristic, by which he 
 should be known to those who were strangers to 
 the covenant. Some ecclesiastics, deputed from 
 Rome, attended this meeting; and when they 
 began to extol the worship, ceremonies, and au- 
 thority of their church, a tumultuous outcry was 
 excited of ' No Christ ! no intercession of saints ! 
 no worship of images ! no prayers to the Virgin ! 
 accompanied with loud clamours, rending of 
 clothes, &c. Thus the conference of that day 
 terminated ; but on the 8th day, they agreed to 
 hold another council, three years after this, in 
 Syria. Some of the Jewish doctors are said to 
 have expressed a desire of conversing with pro- 
 testant divines ; but the interference of so many 
 monks deterred them, and made them fear some 
 tragical conclusion of the assembly. 
 
 AGELASTUS, of a priv. and y Xau>, to laugh, in 
 ancient history, a surname of the grandfather of 
 Crassus, who is said to have laughed only once 
 in his life, at the wonderful event of seeing an 
 ass eat thistles. It was also a surname of Pluto 
 Cicero de Fin. v. Plin. vii. 19, &c. AGELASTIC, 
 is an adjective of similar signification, i. e. mol 
 rose, sullen. 
 
 AGELNOTH, or &THELNOTH, surnamed the 
 Oood, Abp. of Canterbury, under Canute the 
 Great, succeeded to that see in 1020 He was 
 son of earl Agilmer, and when elected, dean of 
 Canterbury. In going to Rome, to receive his 
 pall, he is said to have purchased St. Ausmstin's 
 arm, which was kept at Pavia as a relic, and 
 which he sent over to England as a present to 
 
 Leofric, earl of Coventry. He was much in 
 favour with Canute, and Malmsbury observes, that 
 this prince was excited to acts of piety, and re- 
 strained from excesses, by his regard for the 
 Archbishop. He has also the reputation of ma- 
 nifesting a singular degree of British spirit on a 
 memorable occasion : for when called upon to 
 crown Canute's successor, Harold, in the absence 
 of the legitimate claimant, Hardicanute, he alto- 
 gether, according to some writers, refused to 
 conduct the ceremony, alleging a promise which 
 he had made to the late king, that he would 
 place the crown only upon the head of the issue 
 of queen Emma. Dr. Lingard represents him 
 as appearing at the ceremonial, but refusing the 
 episcopal benediction. He placed, according to 
 to this writer, the royal insignia on the altar ; and 
 addressing the king and his surrounding prelates, 
 said, ' These are the crown and sceptre which 
 Canute entrusted to my charge. To you I neithei 
 give nor refuse them ; you may take them if you 
 please ; but I strictly forbid any of my brother 
 bishops to usurp an office, which is the preroga- 
 tive of my see.' Agelnoth wrote, 1. A panegy- 
 ric on the Virgin Mary ; 2. A letter to earl Leo- 
 fric concerning St. Augustin; and other epistles, 
 He died in 1038, in the 17th year of his archi- 
 episcopate. 
 
 AGEM, in botany, a name sometimes given 
 to the Persian lilac. 
 
 AGEMA, Aye/ia, vehemence, Gr. in Mace- 
 donian antiquity, was a body of soldiers, not 
 unlike the Roman legion. Livy speaking of the 
 army of Antiochus, says, ' Addita his ala mille 
 ferme equitum, agema earn vocabant,' 1. xxxvii. 
 c. 40 ; and in another place, ' Delecta deinde et 
 viribus, et robore setatis ex omni csetratorum 
 numero duo erant agemata ; hanc ipsi legionem 
 vocabant,' 1. xlii. c. 51. Some writers suppose 
 it derived from ayw, to lead, because the agema 
 sometimes consisted of elephants, horse, and foot, 
 who preceded generals and princes, as a sort ot 
 body guard. Arrian speaks of it as a wing 01 
 horse. De Exped, Alex. 1. vii. p. 217, Gronor. 
 
 AGEMOGLANS, or AZAMOGLANS, from 
 Q3K, agem, barbarous; and C-tihy, moglan, 
 child; Arab, in the Turkish polity, are children 
 purchased from the Tartars, or raised every third 
 year, by way of tribute, from the Christians tole- 
 rated in the Turkish empire ; who, after being 
 circumcised and instructed in the religion and 
 language of their tyrannical masters, are taught 
 the exercises of war, till they are of proper age 
 for carrying arms ; and from this corps, the 
 janissaries are recruited. Those who are thought 
 unfit for the army, are employed in the lowest 
 offices of the seraglio. The troops so raised, it 
 is well known, become in their turn the real 
 masters of the grand Seignior, and have fre- 
 quently effected the most important revolutions 
 in the state : an ' even-handed' justice in pro- 
 vidence, which thus seems to make the success 
 of this tyranny its own punishment. 
 
 AGEN, a city of France, on the banks of the 
 Garonne, formerly the capital of Agenois, now 
 the chief town in the department of Lot and 
 Garonne. Vestiges remain of very ancient for- 
 tifications, but prove that its former circuit 
 was not so great as the present. The palace
 
 AGE 
 
 285 
 
 AGE 
 
 formerly called the castle of Montravel, was 
 seated beyond the walls of the old city, on the 
 ide of the fosse, near other ruins of a castle called 
 La Sagne. The situation of Agen is very con- 
 venient for trade, which here consists principally 
 of corn, wine, brandy, and hemp. Prunes are 
 also a considerable article of commerce with the 
 Dutch, who take great quantities for long voy- 
 ages. The chief manufactures are linen, cam- 
 blets, serges, and sail cloths. The city was the 
 residence of Julius Scaliger, and the birth-place of 
 his celebrated son, Joseph. It is seated in a plea- 
 sant country ; but, is itself rather a disagreeable 
 place, the houses being ill-built, and the streets 
 narrow, crooked, and dirty. It is 100 miles S. E. 
 of Bourdeaux, and 408 S. S. E. from Paris. 
 
 AGENDA, among divines and philosophers, 
 signifies the duties which a man lies under an 
 obligation to perform : thus the phrase, the agenda 
 of a Christian, or the duties he ought to perform; 
 in opposition to the credenda, or things he is to 
 believe. 
 
 AGENDA, among ecclesiastical writers, also de- 
 notes the service or offices of the church. We 
 meet with agenda matutina and vespertina, 
 ' morning and evening prayers;' agenda diei, 
 ' the office of the day,' whether feast or fast day ; 
 agenda mortuorum, called also simply agenda, 
 ' the service of the dead.' It is also applied to 
 church books, compiled by public authority, pre- 
 scribing the order to be observed by the ministers 
 and people, in the ceremonies and devotions of 
 the church. In which sense agenda amounts to 
 the same with what is otherwise called ritual, 
 liturgy, acalouthia, missal, formulary, &c. 
 
 AGENDA, among merchants, a term sometimes 
 used for a memorandum book, in which is set 
 down all the business to be transacted during the 
 day, at home or abroad. 
 
 AGENDICUM, the classical name for Sens, 
 in France. See SENS. 
 
 AGENFRIDA, or AGENFRIGA, in ancient 
 customs, Saxon ; from agen, own ; and fria, lord ; 
 one who has the absolute property and dominion 
 of a thing. 
 
 AGENHINE, in our old writers, signifies a 
 guest that has lodged at an inn for three nights, 
 after which time he was accounted one of the 
 family ; if he offended the king's peace, his host 
 was answerable for him. 
 
 AGENOIS, a fertile district of France, in 
 Guienne. It is twenty leagues long, and ten 
 broad, and a portion of the department of the 
 Lot and Garonne. 
 
 AGENOR, in fabulous history, a king of the 
 Phoenicians, the son of Belus, and father of Cad- 
 mus and Europa. 
 
 AGENOR, in natural history, a species of pa- 
 pilio eques, with black wings, sanguineous at 
 their base ; the posterior having a white disc with 
 black spots. It is found in China. 
 
 AGENORIA, in mythology, ayj/vwp, Gr. 
 strong, the goddess of courage and industry. 
 A'GENT, n. & adj.~) -Ago, agens, from ayw 
 A^GENTSHIP, Mo lead, or conduct; 
 
 A'GENCY. 3 usually applied to one 
 
 who conducts the affairs, or is entrusted with 
 the commission of another. 
 
 The moral agency of the Supreme Being who acts 
 
 only i.s a Ruler tovards his creatures, differs from 
 the moral agency of created intelligent beings. 
 
 Edwardt. 
 
 This success is oft truly ascribed unto the force 
 of imagination upon the body agent ; and then, by a 
 secondary means, it may upon a diverse body ; as, 
 far example ; if a man carry a ring on some part of 
 a beast, believing strongly that it will help him to 
 obtain his love ; it may make him more industrious, 
 and again more confident and persisting, than other- 
 wise he would be. Bacon's Nat. Hut. 
 
 So goodie agent ! and you think there is no punish- 
 ment due for your agentship. 
 
 Beaum. and Fl. Lover's Progress. 
 
 An agent is an acting being, some substance, not 
 a manner of being. Wollaston's Religion of Nat. 
 
 It is the faculty of remembrance which may be 
 said to place us in the class of moral agents. Rambler. 
 
 A few advances there are in the following papers, 
 tending to assert the superintendence and agency of 
 providence in the natural world. 
 
 Woodward's Preface to Nat. Hist. 
 
 Should God again, 
 
 As once in Gibeon, interrupt the race 
 
 Of the undeviating and punctual sun, 
 
 How would the world admire ! but speaks it less 
 
 An agency divine, to make him know 
 
 His moment when to sink, and when to rise ? 
 
 Cowper's Task. 
 
 AGENT, AGENS, in physics, that whereby a 
 thing is done or effected ; or that which has a 
 power to act on another thing or being ; or by 
 its action induces some change in it. It is used 
 in contradistinction to patient. The schools 
 divide agents into natural and free. 
 
 AGENTS, natural or physical, are those im- 
 mediately determined by the author of nature, to 
 produce one sort of effect ; with an incapacity to 
 produce the contrary. These are again divided 
 into uni vocal, i. e. such as produce effects of the 
 same kind and denomination with the agents 
 themselves ; and equivocal, whose effects are of 
 a different kind, &c. from the agents. The 
 schoolmen reckon it necessary to the being of an 
 agent, that it be contiguous to the object, dis- 
 tinct from it, have a power over it, a sphere of 
 activity, and a proportion or rate of acting. 
 
 AGENT, free or voluntary, in metaphysics, is he 
 who may equally do any thing, or its opposite ; as 
 acting not from any pre-determination, but from 
 choice. Such is the mind supposed to be, which 
 has a spontaneous power of choosing or refusing. 
 
 Whether a man be a free, or a necessary agent? 
 is a celebrated question among philosophers and 
 divines. It may be thus stated : man is a neces- 
 sary agent, if all his actions are so determined by 
 the cause preceding each action, that no one past 
 action could possibly not have come to pass, or 
 have been otherwise than it was ; nor one future 
 action can possibly not come to pass, or be 
 otherwise than it shall be. On the contrary, 
 man is a free agent, if he be able at any 
 time, in certain circumstances, to do different 
 things ; or, in other words, if he is not ever 
 unavoidably determined in every point of time, 
 by the circumstances he is in, to do that one 
 thing he does, and not possibly to do any 
 other. See LIBERTY, NECESSITY, and WILL. 
 
 According to Dr. Price, the term agent evi- 
 dently implies a power of self determination ; 
 and the epitbet necessary, applied to agent,
 
 AGE 
 
 286 
 
 AGE 
 
 forms a solecism both in sense and language. 
 Price's Review, &c. p. 315, &c. 
 
 An AGENT, in political affairs, is the minister 
 of a prince or state, at another court. In which 
 sense, agents are commonly reputed a species of 
 public ministers, or ambassadors : but they differ 
 from them essentially, as agents are not invested 
 with any representative character, although en- 
 trusted with the affairs and interests of their 
 princes. See ENVOY. 
 
 In the exchequer, there are four agents for 
 taxes. 
 
 AGENTS, in medicine, powers which act 
 upon the body, in contradistinction from ali- 
 ments, which are supposed rather to be acted 
 on than to act. 
 
 AGENTS, of Bank and Exchange, are public 
 officers, established in the trading cities of 
 France, to negociate matters between merchants 
 relating to bills of exchange, and the buying and 
 selling of goods : the same with those who, 
 among us, are called exchange-brokers. 
 
 AGENT, in military affairs, a person in the 
 civil department of the army, between the pay- 
 master-general, and the paymaster of a regi- 
 ment, through whom every regimental concern 
 of a pecuniary nature must be transacted. He 
 gives security to government, or to the colonels 
 of regiments, who are reponsible to government, 
 for all monies which may pass through his hands, 
 in the capacity of an agent, and by the mutiny 
 act it is provided, that if an agent shall with- 
 hold the pay of officers or soldiers, for the space 
 of one month, he shall be dismissed from his 
 office, and forfeit lOO.(39th Geo. III. sec. 69.) 
 
 AGENT, navy, is a person employed on shore 
 to manage the pecuniary and other concerns of 
 navy officers and seamen : particularly to re- 
 ceive their pay, prize-money. &c. and apply it 
 to their use. By an act of parliament passed 
 in the forty-ninth year of his late majesty, 
 entitled an act to explain and amend an act 
 made in the forty-fifth year of his late majesty, 
 for the encouragement of seamen, and the more 
 effectually manning his majesty's navy during 
 the war, all agents, who act for petty officers, 
 seamen, and others, serving in any of his 
 majesty's ships, to receive their pay, wages, 
 prize, and bounty money, are obliged to take 
 out a license from the Navy Pay-office ; which 
 license is liable to be immediately with-drawn, 
 on any grounds being produced that they have 
 abused the trust reposed in them. 
 
 AGENTS of the victualling office, are officers 
 under the commissioners appointed to buy and 
 contract for provisions, &c. Some of these are 
 Jttled in the ports, where they have much the 
 same office and authority as the commissioners 
 in London. 
 
 AGENT and patient in common law, is where 
 a person does, or gives, something to himself 
 
 that he is at the same time both the doer and 
 giver, and the' receiver or party it is done to 
 buch is a woman, when she endows herself with 
 part of her husband's inheritance. 
 
 AGENT, in chemistry. Ancient chemists, re- 
 irded all substances as composed of active and 
 
 sive principles ; the latter of which received im- 
 pressions from, and were modified by the former 
 
 without exerting any reciprocal action. Spirits, 
 oil, and salt, were active ; earth and water, pas- 
 sive principles. This distinction evidently arose 
 from the phenomena of solution, and the appa- 
 rent energy which acids and other fluids exhi- 
 bit in their combination with metals and solids 
 in general. It is now however universally al- 
 lowed, and indeed necessarily follows from the 
 doctrine of affinity, that whenever two sub- 
 stances combine together, it is in consequence 
 of a mutual attraction, which belongs as much 
 to one element as to the other of a compound; 
 this definition therefore of chemical agent is no 
 longer adhered to, and though we still continue 
 to use the expression of one body having a 
 powerful action on any other, it is by no means 
 intended to deny the equal reciprocity of che- 
 mical attraction. The general term agent sig- 
 nifies, therefore, in strictness, any substance 
 capable of producing chemical action; and 
 when, in explaining a process, the quality of 
 agent is attributed to a body, it is only used as 
 a designation of the substance whose presence 
 determines the combination or decomposition ; 
 in which sense it is sometimes attributed to 
 menstrua, or such bodies as in mixture have the 
 greatest share of activity and motion : and it is 
 sometimes also used for what we more usually 
 call instrument. Thus fire, water, air, earth, 
 and menstrua, are chemical agents. 
 
 AGENTE, in music, a term given by the 
 Italians to the note of percussion that occa- 
 sions and accompanies a prepared discord upon 
 a binding note ; which note was termed the 
 patient. 
 
 =t 
 
 
 In the preceding example, C is the patient, 
 E prepares the discord, D is the moving note or 
 agent, and B its resolution. 
 
 AGENTES in rebus, one of the ranks of officers, 
 in the court of the Constantinopolitan emperors, 
 whose business it was to collect and convey 
 the corn both for the army and household ; carry 
 letters and messages from court to all parts 
 of the empire ; regulate couriers, and their 
 vehicles; to make frequent joutnies and expe- 
 ditions through the provinces ; inspect any 
 motions, disturbances, machinations tending that 
 way, and give early notice thereof to the em- 
 peror. Aquin. Lex. Mil. torn. i. Pitisc. Lex. 
 Ant. torn. i. Cal. Lex. Jur. The agentes in 
 rebus, are by some made synonymous with 
 our post-masters, but their function was of 
 great importance. They correspond to what the 
 Greeks call Trvpo^opot, and the Latins veredarii. 
 
 There were divers orders or degrees of agentes 
 in rebus, as tribuni, primicerii, senatores, duce- 
 narii, biarchi, circitores, equites, tyrones, &c. 
 through all which they rose gradatim. Their 
 chief was denominated princeps, which was a 
 post of great dignity, being reckoned on a level 
 with that of proconsul. 
 
 The princeps agentmm in rebus resided at 
 Constantinople, others of them were settled in
 
 AGE 
 
 287 
 
 every part of the empire ; and are also said to 
 have served as interpreters. 
 
 AGEMETRIA, a defect in point of geome- 
 try, or a deviation from the strict principles and 
 conclusions of that science. 
 
 AGERvectigalis privatus, in Roman antiquity, 
 that whose property was granted to private per- 
 sons on the reserve of a certain rent, or tribute. 
 
 AGER vectigalis publicus, that whose pro- 
 perty was reserved to the public, and being let 
 out to farm, the rents or profits accrued to the 
 public treasury. 
 
 ACER is also used for a certain portion or 
 measure of land, anciently allowed in the divi- 
 sion of grounds to each citizen. In the early 
 days of the Roman state, the ager was only two 
 jugera, amounting to one English acre and a quar- 
 ter. After the expulsion of the kings, seven ju- 
 gera were allowed to a plebeian. Under the tri- 
 bunate of C. Licinius Stolo, in the year of Rome 
 379, a law was made to limit estates to 500 ju- 
 gera, or 330 English acres, and to decree the 
 distribution of the surplus in the possession of 
 any individual amongst those who had no land. 
 Under Julius Caesar another Agrarian law was 
 published, by which, those who enlarged their pit- 
 tance of land, were to pay 50 aurei to the public. 
 
 ACER, or ACRE, See ACRE. 
 
 ACER NATURE, a name sometimes given to the 
 womb. 
 
 ACER Pic EX us, in ancient geography, a ter- 
 ritory of Italy to the south-east of Umbria, 
 reaching from the Apennine to the Adriatic : so 
 called from the bird picus, under whose conduct 
 the first settlers removed from the Sabines, of 
 whom they were a colony. 
 
 AGERASY, from a, primitive, and ytpov, 
 old age, a vigorous old age. 
 
 AGERATUM, from a primitive, and ytpac, 
 old age because the flowers do not easily wither, 
 bastard hemp agrimony : A genus of the poly- 
 gamia aequalis order, belonging to the syngene- 
 sia class of plants ; and in the natural method, 
 ranking under the forty-ninth order, compositae 
 discoides. The characters are : common CAL. 
 oblong, with many scales : the compoi ind COR. 
 uniform; the corollets hermaphrodite, tubular, 
 and numerous; the proper corolla is funnel- 
 shaped ; the border four-cleft, and expanded : 
 STAM. five capillary very short filaments; the 
 anthera cylindric and tubular : FIST, an oblong 
 germen ; with a filiform stylus, and two slender 
 erect stigmata : there is no pericarpium ; the 
 calyx unchanged : the seeds are solitary, oblong, 
 and angular : the receptaculum is naked, convex, 
 and very small. Of this genus there are three 
 species; viz. 1. ageratum altissimum; 2. agera- 
 tum conyzoides ; 3. ageratum houstonianum ; all 
 nativesi of warm climates. The two last are an- 
 nual plants, and consequently can be propagated 
 only by seeds ; which, however, come to perfec- 
 tion in this country. The first species will bear 
 the severest cold of this country, but its seeds do 
 not ripen in it. 
 
 AGERATUM, or MAUDLIN. See ACHILLA. 
 
 AGERATUS lapis, in the ancient Materia 
 Medica, a stone mentioned by Galen and others, 
 said to be of the nature of the Phrygian stone, 
 v>- * a- n astringent; and as that was used in 
 
 dyeing, this wfts in dressing of leather. We 
 have no account of its external appearance, but 
 probably it contained vitriol, and perhaps alum. 
 It is used by shoemakers to polish women's 
 shoes. 
 
 AGERCITE, a sea-port town of Travancore, 
 Hindostan, twenty miles north of Anjengo. 
 
 AGERIUM. See AGISTMENT. 
 
 AGESANDER, a sculptor of Rhodes, who 
 lived about the fifth century, B.C. in the eighty- 
 eighth Olympiad. In conjunction with his sons, 
 Athenodorus and Polydoros, he executed the 
 celebrated Laocoon, which was discovered in the 
 sixteenth century in the baths of Titus, where 
 it attracted admiration in Pliny's time. Julius 
 II. handsomely rewarded the discoverer of this 
 invaluable work, which was carried away from 
 Rome by the French army, but afterwards was 
 restored. Lessing, from the exquisite finishing 
 of 'this group, thinks it was executed under the 
 Caesars ; but Borghini and Winkelman deem it 
 a production of the finest sera of Grecian art. In 
 any case it has immortalized its sculptors. Ages- 
 ander's name stands first on the plinth of the 
 groupe. 
 
 AGESILAUS, I. king of Lacedasmon, of the 
 family of Agidae, and son of Dorysius, was con- 
 temporary with Lycurgus, the famous Spartan 
 legislator. Herod, vii. 204. 
 
 AGESILAUS, II. king of the Lacedaemonians, 
 the son of Archidamus II. was raised to the 
 throne notwithstanding the superior claim of 
 Leotychides. Upon his promotion, he advised 
 the Lacedaemonians to anticipate the king of 
 Persia, who was making great preparations for 
 war, and to attack him in his own dominions. 
 Being himself chosen to command this expedi- 
 tion, he gained so many advantages over the 
 enemy, that if the league, which the Athenians 
 and the Thebans formed against the Lacedaemo- 
 nians, had not obliged him to return home, he 
 would have carried his victorious arms into the 
 heart of the Persian empire. He gave up, how- 
 ever, all these triumphs, to come to the succour 
 of his country, which he happily relieved by his 
 victory over the allies in Boeotia. He obtained 
 another near Corinth : but to his great mortifica- 
 tion, the Thebans afterwards gained several suc- 
 cessive battles against the Lacedaemonians. These 
 misfortunes at first raised some clamour against 
 him. He had been sick during the first advan- 
 tages which the enemy gained ; but as soon as 
 he was able to act in person, by his valour and 
 prudence he prevented the Thebans from reap- 
 ing the advantages of their victories ; insomuch 
 that it was generally believed, had he been in 
 health at the beginning, the Lacedaemonians 
 would have sustained no losses ; and that all would 
 have been lost had it not been for his assistance. 
 It cannot be denied but that he loved war moi 
 than the interest of his country required ; for if 
 he could have lived in peace, he would have 
 saved the Lacedaemonians several losses, and thev 
 would not have been engaged in many enterpriser, 
 which in the end contributed much to weaken 
 their power. In the decline of life, this prince 
 accepted a command which reflected no credit 
 on either himself or his country, i. e. that of the 
 troops of Tachos, an adventurer who aspired to
 
 AGE 
 
 288 
 
 AGG 
 
 the throne of Egypt : nor was his conduct in this 
 expedition worthy his previous fame. For on 
 being refused the supreme command in Egypt, 
 he joined Nectaneb, the rival of Tachos ; and 
 aided him in expelling his former associate. He 
 died the third year of the 104th Olympiad, being 
 the eighty-fourth year of his age, and forty-first 
 of his reign. Agesilaus would never suffer 
 any picture or sculpture to be made of him, and 
 prohibited it also by his will : this he is supposd 
 to have done from a consciousness of his own de- 
 formity ; for he was of a short stature, and lame 
 in one foot. His fame went before him into 
 Egypt, where they had formed the highest idea 
 of him. When he landed, the people ran in 
 crowds to see him : but when they beheld an 
 ill-dressed, slovenly, lame man lying upon the 
 grass, they could not forbear laughing, and ap- 
 plied to him the fable of the mountain in labour. 
 He was, however, the first to jest upon his 
 own person ; and such was the gaiety of his 
 temper, and the strength with which he bore 
 the roughest exercises, that these qualities made 
 amends for his corporeal defects. He was re- 
 markable for plainness and frugality in his 
 dress and way of living. Cornelius Nepos 
 says, that, ' although great presents were sent 
 him by kings, governors, and states, he brought 
 none of them to his own house ; that he changed 
 nothing of the diet, and apparel of the Lace- 
 daemonians. He was contented with the same 
 house in which Euristhenes, the founder of his 
 family, had lived : and whoever entered there, 
 could see no sign of debauchery, or luxury, 
 but many of moderation and abstinence ; for it 
 was furnished in such a manner, that it differed 
 in nothing from that of any poor or private per- 
 son.' Upon his arrival in Egypt, all kinds of 
 provisions were sent to him ; but he chose 
 only the most common, leaving the perfumes, 
 the confections, and all that was esteemed most 
 delicious, to his servants. Agesilaus was ex- 
 tremely fond of his children, and would often 
 amuse himself by joining in their diversions : 
 one day when he was surprised riding upon a 
 stick with them, he said to the person who 
 had seen him in this posture, ' Forbear talking 
 of it till you are a father.' Hearing the king of 
 Persia spoken of as the great king, on one oc- 
 casion, he is reported to have said, < I cannot 
 conceive wherein he is greater than I, unless he 
 be more just.' His life and actions are the 
 theme of Xenophon's praise ; and are recorded 
 also by Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Nepos. 
 This was also the name of a brother of The- 
 mistocles, who, being sent as a spy into the Per- 
 sian camp, stabbed Mardonius instead of Xerxes : 
 and a surname of Pluto. 
 
 AGESIPOLIS I. and II. reigned in Sparta, 
 after Agesilaus II., the former fourteen years, 
 and the latter only one year 
 
 AGESISTRATA, the wife of Eudamidas II 
 
 and mother of Agis III. kings of Sparta, who was 
 
 murdered in pnson, along with her son Agis and 
 
 tier mother, by the Ephori, about A. A. C. 300. 
 
 AGEUSTIA, or AGHEUSTIA, of a privative 
 
 and ytvouat, to taste, in medicine, a defect in the 
 
 Jnse of taste. This disease may arise from an 
 
 organic affection, or an atonic state of the organs; 
 
 from fur, mucus, apththae, ulcers, &c. on the 
 .on<nie; or from a diseased secretion of saliva; 
 and the taste may be entirely abolished by in- 
 juries done to the nerves of the tongue or palate. 
 When the taste is diminished or depraved by 
 fur or mucus, as usually happens in fevers, it is 
 rarely possible to restore it by any other means 
 than those which subdue the fever; but the 
 tongue, teeth, and fauces, should be washed with 
 detergent gargles, of which the aqua ammoniac, 
 or common sal volatile, properly diluted with 
 water, is the most effectual in dissolving the 
 mucus. The tongue may also be gently scraped 
 when moist, and the teeth brushed. When the 
 taste is depraved by a diseased secretion of saliva, 
 the cure depends on restoring the natural secre- 
 tion. If bile, or any saburra in the stomach, 
 disorder the natural taste, recourse must be had 
 to emetics, or the proper correctors of the offend- 
 ing cause : acidity is removed by alkalies, chalk, 
 magnesia, and even by other acids. 
 
 AGGA, AGONNA, or AGOONA, a country on 
 the Gold Coast of Africa, extending about twenty 
 miles from east to west, and fifteen north to south. 
 The chief towns are Winnebah, Agoona, Beracoe, 
 and Fettah. On the coast the ground is very 
 light and sandy, but improves in the interior; 
 and at six or eight miles inland, is fertile for a 
 tropical region, and the climate is more healthy 
 than on many other parts of the coast. Not a 
 tenth part of the land is under cultivation ; the 
 rest is the property of any one who chooses to 
 cultivate it. The population has suffered severely 
 from the inroads of the Ashantees, and cannot at 
 present be estimated at more than 10,000 souls, 
 of whom 7000 are women and children. The 
 chief object of exportation is gold ; their mode of 
 procuring which is not very exactly known. 
 Gold and cowries form the medium of circula- 
 tion ; 32,000 cowries go to the ounce of gold, 
 valued at 4. The district is divided into a 
 number of petty states, which are variously 
 governed. 
 
 AGG AD A, in Jewish antiquity, an ingenious 
 tale, of which there are many in the Talmud. 
 Several books are extant among the Jews under 
 this title. R. San Israel Ben Juda has published 
 Novella Aggadarum, or new explanations of the 
 stories in the Talmud, discovering their hidden 
 meaning. 
 
 AGGELATION, n. Lat. ad : gelu, ice 
 
 It is round in hail, and figured in its guttulous des- 
 cent from the air ; growing greater or lesser, accord- 
 ing to the accretion or pluvious aggelation about the 
 fundamental atoms thereof. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 AGGENERATION, n. Ad : genera, genus ; 
 yivo^ai, to produce. 
 
 To make a perfect nutrition, there is required a 
 transmutation of nutriment : now, where this conver- 
 sion or aggeneratwn is made, there is also required, in 
 the aliment, a similarity of matter. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 AGGER, in ancient authors, denotes the 
 middle part of a military road, raised into a ridge, 
 with a gentle slope on either side, to make a 
 drain for the water, and keep the way dry. The 
 term was also used for the whole road, or military 
 way. Where highways were to be made in low- 
 grounds, as between two hills, the Romans used
 
 AGG 
 
 to raise them above the adjacent land, so as to 
 make them level with the hills. These banks they 
 called aggeres. Bergier mentions several in 
 Gallia Belgica, which were thus raised, ten, fif- 
 teen, or twenty feet above ground. They are 
 sometimes also called aggeres calceati ; and are 
 now generally known by the name choussees, or 
 causeways. 
 
 AGGER, in the ancient military art, a work of 
 fortification, used both for the defence and the 
 attack of towns, camps, &c. In which sense it 
 is the same with what was otherwise called val- 
 lum, and in latter times aggestum ; and among 
 the moderns, lines, cavaliers, terrasses, &c. The 
 agger was usually a bank, or elevation of earth 
 or other matter, bound and supported with tim- 
 ber ; having sometimes turrets on the top, wherein 
 the workmen, engineers, and soldiers, were 
 placed. It was also accompanied with a ditch, 
 which served as its chief defence. The usual 
 materials of which it was made were earth, 
 boughs, fascines, stakes, and even trunks of trees, 
 ropes, &c. variously crossed, and interwoven 
 somewhat in the figure of stars ; whence they 
 were called stellati axes. Where these were 
 wanting, stones, bricks, or tiles, supplied the office : 
 on some occasions, arms, utensils, pack-saddles, 
 were thrown in to fill it up. We even read of 
 aggers formed of the carcases of the slain ; some- 
 times of dead bones mixed with lime ; and even 
 with the heads of slaughtered citizens. For want 
 of the due binding of solid materials, aggers 
 have occasionally given way, with infinite mis- 
 chief to the men. The besiegers used to carry 
 on a work of this kind, gradually approaching 
 the place, till at length they reached the very 
 wall. The methods taken, on the other side, to 
 defeat them, were by fire, especially if the agger 
 were of wood ; by sapping and undermining, if 
 of earth ; and in some cases, by erecting a counter 
 agger. The height of the agger was frequently 
 equal to that of the wall of the place. Caesar tells 
 us of one he made, which was thirty feet high 
 and 330 feet broad. Besides the use of aggers 
 before towns, the generals used to fortify their 
 camps with such works ; for want of this precau- 
 tion, armies have often been surprised and 
 ruined. There were vast aggers made in towns 
 and places on the sea side, fortified with towers, 
 castles, &c. Those made by Caesar and Pompey 
 at Brundusinm, are famous. Sometimes aggers 
 were even built across arms of the sea, lakes, and 
 morasses ; as was done by Alexander before 
 Tyre, and by M. Antony and Cassius. The wall 
 of Severus, in the north of England, may be con- 
 sidered as a grand agger, to which belonged 
 several lesser ones. See SEVERUS'S WALL. 
 
 AGGER TARQUINII, Tarquin's agger, was a fa- 
 mous one built by Tarquin II. on the east side. 
 of Rome, to stop the incursions of the Latins. 
 Criminals were thrown down from the top of 
 this rampart. Juv. Sat. vi. 288: and Sueton. 
 in Cal. 
 
 AGGER is also used for the earth dug out of a 
 trench and thrown up on the brink of it. In 
 which sense, Folard thinks the word to be under- 
 stood, when used in the plural number, since 
 we can hardly suppose they would raise a num- 
 ber of cavaliers, or terrasses. It is also used for 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 AGG 
 
 a bank, or wall, erected against the sea, or son.e 
 great river, to confine or keep it within bounds ; 
 called also a tumulus and moles ; the Dutch, 
 dyke ; we, dam, and sea-wall. 
 
 AGGER also denotes a heap of earth, raised 
 over the graves of the ancients. In which sense, 
 it amounts to the same with what is sometimes 
 called aggestum. 
 
 AGGER, in geography, a river of the circle of 
 Westphalia, which waters the county of Marck 
 and the duchy of Berg. It falls into the Sieg, 
 below Siegberg. 
 
 AGGERHUUS, or CHRISTIANIA, the largest 
 diocese or general government in the south part 
 of Norway ; and the richest, as well as most con- 
 siderable, in the whole kingdom. It was for- 
 merly called Hammerslift, and Opseloe. It is 
 bounded on the north by Drontheim, on the west 
 by Bergen and Christiansand, on the south by 
 the Skager-Rack, and on the east by Sweden ; 
 and contains several towns, six royal bailiwics, 
 and the counties of Jarlsburg and Larwig. In 
 1769, the number of inhabitants amounted to 
 315,144; but they are now supposed to exceed 
 400,000. Excellent timber for ship-building is 
 furnished here ; and at Korsberg and Stroemsoe 
 are some valuable silver mines ; iron mines at 
 Lariveg and Lassoe, and a copper mine at 
 Quickul. Opseloe yields upwards of 500 tons of 
 alum per annum, from a sort of black slate ; and 
 loadstones are found in several places. 
 
 This is also the name of a royal bailiwic, of 
 several districts, and of a fortress in this diocese, 
 on the west side of the bay, near which lies the 
 city of Christiania. It is not known when it was 
 built ; but it has been repeatedly besieged by the 
 Swedes, viz. in 1310, in 1567, and in 1717, by 
 Charles XII., without success. The governor of 
 Aggerhuus is the chief governor of Norway : he 
 presides in the high court of justice, called Over- 
 noflet, which judges, in the last resort, all civil 
 causes above a certain value. In all causes sur- 
 passing that value, an appeal lies to the supreme 
 court at Copenhagen. N. lat. 59. 6'. E. long. 
 10. 20'. The oldest church in this diocese, 
 said to have been built about 700 years ago, and 
 called Aggers, is situated about a quarter of a 
 Norway mile north of the castle. 
 
 AGGERS-HERRED, a fief of Aggerhuus, 
 which comprises three districts, with as many 
 courts of judicature, viz. Ascher, East and West 
 Barum, and Ager. Christiania is situated in this 
 district. 
 
 AGGEROUT, or AGGEROUD, supposed to be 
 the ancient Arsinoe, is situated at the extremity 
 of the Red Sea, about two leagues from the port 
 of Suez. Here terminated the famous canal, be- 
 gun by Necos and finished by Ptolemy Philadel- 
 phus, for joining the Nile to the Red Sea. Since 
 the time of Ptolemy, the Red Sea has retired 
 two leagues, which is the distance of Aggeroud 
 from Suez. 
 
 AGGLESTONE, otherwise called Stone Bar- 
 row, and vulgarly the Devil's Cap, is a remark- 
 able monument of antiquity, situated in the N.E, 
 extremity of the isle of Purbeck. Its dimensions 
 are sixty feet in circumference at the bottom, in 
 the middle eighty, and at or near the top ninety ; 
 and it is computed to contain 407 tons of stono 
 
 u
 
 AGO 
 
 AGG 
 
 The name seems 
 
 to have been derived from the named agglutinants ; but these remedies are now 
 n~hafi2 ; or htelig, holy, and stoned, stan, known to act only by keeping the separated 
 stone, which expresses its ancient use ; as it was parts inexact apposition. See Bell's Princi- 
 probably a rock idol in the British age. 
 AGGLOM'ERATE, J Ad : glomero, to roll 
 
 AGGLOMERA'TION. \ up thread. To gather 
 together ; to assemble in a mass. 
 
 An excessive agglomeration of turrets, with their 
 fans, is one of the characteristick marks of the florid 
 mode of architecture, which was now almost at its 
 height. 
 
 Warton. History of English Poetry, ii. 223. 
 Besides, the hard agglomerating salts, 
 The spoil of ages, would impervious choke 
 Their secret channels. 
 
 Thomson's Autumn. 
 
 Worlds ! systems ! and creations ! And creations 
 
 In one agglomerated cluster, hung, 
 
 Great vine ! on thee, on thee the cluster hangs. 
 
 Young. Night ix. 
 
 Thus we break the vast periods of time into centu- 
 ries and years; and thus, if we would know the 
 amount of moments, we must agglomerate them into 
 days and weeks. Blair. 
 
 He seeks a favour'd spot ; that where he builds 
 Th' agglomerated pile, his frame may front 
 The sun's meridian disk, and at the back 
 Enjoy close shelter, wall or reeds, or hedge 
 Impervious to the wind. Cowper's Task. 
 
 AGGLUTINATE, v. 
 
 AGGLUTINA'TION, 
 
 AGGLU'TINANT, 
 
 AGGLU'TINATIVE. 
 
 To the nutrition of the body there are two essen- 
 tials required, assumption and retention ; then there 
 'ollow two more, concoction and agglutination, or ad- 
 h> s sion. Howell's Letters, i. 5. 
 
 The body has got room enough to grow into its full 
 dimensions ; which is performed by the daily inges- 
 tion of food that is digested into blood ; which, be- 
 ing diffused through the body, is agglutinated to those 
 parts, that were .immediately agglutinated to the foun- 
 dation parts of the womb. 
 
 Haney on Consumptions. 
 
 Rowl up the member, with the agglutinative rowler. 
 
 Wiseman. 
 
 AGGLUTINANTS, in pharmacy, more particu- 
 larly comprehend that class of strengthening 
 medicines, whose office and effect are to adhere 
 
 pies of Surgery ; and the article WOUNDS. An 
 unnatural agglutination of the eyelids, constitutes 
 the disease, anchyloblepharon. 
 
 AGGLUTINATION, in astronomy, the meeting 
 of two or more stars in the same part of the zo- 
 diac; also the seeming coalition of several stars, 
 
 1 
 
 Ad : gluten, glus, 
 glue. To stick or ad- 
 here together. 
 
 to the solid parts of the body, and thus recruit 
 and supply the place of what is wasted by the , 
 animal exertions. They are such as are easily for devotlonal Purposes, 
 formed into jellies, and the principal simples 
 which come under this class, are isinglass, oliba- 
 num, gum Arabic, dragon's blood, cassia, sago, 
 vermicelli, pulse, comfrey, plaintain, &c. If 
 the term, says Dr. Cullen, has any foundation 
 at all, it must have the same meaning with that 
 of nutrient; and there is no propriety in using 
 a doubtful theoretical term. Nor is the term 
 improperly applied to medicines that are 
 
 [, a healing or 
 reducing the hairs of the eye-lids that grow in- 
 wards, to their natural situation. This may be 
 done by mastic applied with a probe, which 
 bends the hairs back into their proper order. 
 Bitumen, the slime of a snail taken off with a 
 needle, the juice of hawk's weed, the liquor of 
 agglutinants, or ammoniac, produce the same 
 effect. 
 
 AGGRACE', v. & n. ) Ad : gratia, to treat 
 AGC-RATE'. J with favour. 
 
 So goodly purpose they together fond 
 
 Of kindnesse and of courteous aggrace. 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene. 
 
 And iii the midst thereof, upon the floor, 
 A lovely bevy of fair ladies sate, 
 
 Courted of ir>any a jolly paramour, 
 The which them did in modest wise amate ; 
 And each one sought his lady to aggrate. Idem 
 
 AGGRAMMES, in ancient history, a cruel 
 king of the Gangarides. His father was a hair- 
 dresser, of whom the queen was enamoured, and 
 having been made governor of the king's children 
 by the queen, (in order the more easily to gra- 
 tify her passion,) he killed them all, that Agram- 
 mes, his son by the queen, might be raised to the 
 throne. Curtius, ix. 2. 
 
 AG'GRANDIZE, t>. i Ad : grandis,grandior, 
 AG'GRANDIZEMENT. J to advance; to ascend, 
 Fr. aggrandir, to make greater ; to increase the 
 power, rank, wealth, or reputation. 
 
 If the king should use it no better than the pope 
 did, only to aggrandize covetous churchmen ; it cannot 
 be called a jewel in his crown. Ayliffe's Parerg. 
 
 These furnish us with glorious springs and me- 
 diums ; to raise and aggrandise our conceptions, to 
 warm our souls, to awaken the better passions ; and 
 elevate them, even to a divine pitch, and that 
 
 suited to cement and reunite parts preternatu- Chaucer an 
 rally separated, and therefore employed in 
 wounds and ulcers. British surgeons neither 
 know nor employ any such medicines : the bu- 
 siness is the work of nature ; and their concern 
 is to remove impediments to its operation. Mat 
 Med. vol. i. 163. 
 
 AGGLUTINATION, in surgery, adhesion. The 
 reunion of wounds was formerly supposed to 
 be effected by means of certain applications, 
 
 Watts' s Improvement of the Mind. 
 
 It is true greatness that constitutes glory; and 
 virtue is the cause of both : but vice and ignorance 
 taint the blood ; and an unworthy behaviour degrades 
 and disennobles a man, more than birth and fortune 
 aggrandize and exalt him. Guardian. 
 
 AG'GRAVATE, v.^ Ad: grab's; Fr. ag- 
 
 AGGRAVA'TION, \grever, to make heavy ; 
 
 AGGREGE'. j to increase trouble, pain, 
 
 or sorrow. Agredge or aggrege are used by 
 
 And up he stertis in this ilk thraw 
 
 With thir wourdis Turnus to ouer charge, 
 
 Aggregeing on wraith and malice large. 
 
 Douglas, b. xi. p. 374. 
 
 She graunted ; and that knight so much agrostc 
 That she him taught celestial discipline. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, ix. 18. 
 I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies 
 out of their wits, they would have no more discretion
 
 AGG 
 
 291 
 
 AGG 
 
 but to hang us ; but I will aggravate my voice so, 
 that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove ; I 
 will roar you an 'twere any nightingale. 
 
 Shahspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 Sins are so much the greater as they are universal ; 
 so far is evil from being extenuated by the multitude 
 of the guilty, that nothing can more aggravate it. 
 
 Hall's Contemplations. 
 
 Good turns aggravate unkindnesses, and our offences 
 are increased with our obligations. Idem. 
 
 Till over head a sheet 
 Of livid flame discloses wide ; then shuts, 
 And opens wider ; shuts and opens still 
 Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. 
 Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar, 
 Enlarging, deepening, mingling. 
 
 Thomson's Summer. 
 
 Oh! friendship's generous ardour then suppress, 
 Nor hint the fatal cause of my distress ; 
 Nor let each horrid incident sustain 
 The lengthen'd tale to aggravate his pain. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 
 AGGRAVATION, in the Romish canon law, 
 is particularly used for an ecclesiastical censure, 
 threatening excommunication, after three ad- 
 monitions used in vain. From aggravation they 
 proceed to re-aggravation ; which is the last step 
 to excommunication. 
 
 AG'GREGATE, v. & n. Ad : gregare. 
 
 AG'GREGATE, adj. ^ Adgregarc, says 
 
 AGGREGATELY, f Festus, est ad 
 
 AGGREGATION, ?" gregem ducere ; 
 
 AGGREGA'TIVE, \ to bring to the 
 
 AGGREGA'TOR. flock; to collect 
 
 into a company, or assemblage ; to amass. 
 
 The reason of the far greatest part of mankind, is 
 but an aggregate of mistaken phantasms ; and, in 
 things not sensible, a constant delusion. 
 
 Glanville's Scepsis Scientifica. 
 
 A great number of living and thinking particles 
 could not possibly, by their mutual contact, and press- 
 ing, and striking, compose one greater individual ani- 
 mal, with one mind and understanding, and a vital 
 conscension of the -whole body ; any more, than a 
 swarm of bees, or a crowd of men and women, can 
 be conceived to make up one particular living crea- 
 ture, compounded and constituted of the aggregate of 
 them all. Bentley. 
 
 The aggregated soil 
 
 Death, with his mace petrific, cold and dry, 
 As with a trident, smote. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 Their individual imperfections being great, they 
 are moreover enlarged by their aggregation ; and, be- 
 ing erroneous in their single numbers, once huddled 
 together, they will be errour itself. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Err ours. 
 
 The water resident in the abyss, is (in all parts of 
 it) stored with a considerable quantity of heat ; and 
 more especially in those, where these extraordinary 
 aggregations of this fire happen. 
 
 Woodward's Natural History. 
 
 They had, for a long time together, produced many 
 other inept combinations, or aggregate forms of parti- 
 cular things, and nonsensical systems of the whole. 
 
 Ray on the Creation. 
 
 AGGREGATE, in botany, is a term used to 
 express those flowers, which are composed of 
 parts or florets, so united, by means either of 
 the receptacle or calyx, that no one of them can 
 be taken away, without destroying the form of 
 the whole. They are opposed to simple flowers, 
 which have no such common part, and are usually 
 
 divided into seven kinds, viz. the aggregate pro- 
 perly so called, whose receptacle is dilated, and 
 whose florets are supported by foot-stalks ; such 
 are the blue daisy, thrift, or sea spink, &c. the 
 compound ; the umbellati ; the cymose ; the 
 amentaceous ; the glumose ; and the spadiceous. 
 AGGREGATE, GLANDULE, in anatomy, the 
 small glands in the cellular, which is next to the 
 villous coat of the intestines ; as these glands are 
 not visible in an uninjected gut, many ana- 
 tomists suspect them to be only little bits of 
 separated wax. 
 
 AGGREGATE TERR.E, in theLinnsean system of 
 mineralogy, denotes the seventh order of earths, 
 comprehending those that are formed of the ag- 
 gregate earths of the preceding orders. To this 
 order belong the six following genera, viz. 
 granites, gneissum, porphyrias, amygdalites, 
 breccia, and arenarius. 
 
 AGGREGATION, in physics, a species of union, 
 whereby several things which have no natural 
 dependence or connection with one another are 
 collected together, so as in some sense to con- 
 stitute one. Thus, a heap of sand, or a mass of 
 ruins, are bodies by aggregation. 
 AGGRESS', "} Ad : gredior, gressus, to step 
 AGGRES'SION, > or go to ; to advance against ; 
 AGGRES'SOR. 3 to begin a quarrel; to com- 
 mence hostile proceedings, assault or fall upon. 
 
 The glorious pair advance, 
 With mingled anger and collected might ; 
 
 To turn the war and tell aggressing France, 
 How Britain's sons and Britain's friends can fight. 
 
 Prior. 
 
 There is no resisting of a common enemy, without 
 an union for a mutual defence ; and there may be 
 also, on the other hand, a conspiracy of common en- 
 mity and aggression. L' Estrange. 
 
 Fly in nature's face ! 
 But how if nature fly in my face first ? 
 Then nature's the aggressor. Let her look to't. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 It is a very unlucky circumstance to be obliged to 
 retaliate the injuries of such authors ; whose worka 
 are so soon forgotten, that we are in danger already 
 of appearing the first aggressors. Pope and Swift* 
 AGGRESSES, in heraldry, pellets or balls. 
 AGGRESTEIN, in falconry, a disease of 
 hawks. 
 
 AGGR1EVE>. ) Lat. gravis, heavy; Fr. 
 AGGRIEV'ANCE. } agrever, to weigh down with 
 grief; to depress; to vex. 
 
 Grete was pat linage & many to pam cheued, 
 & of pat ilk outrage pe fest pam sore agreued. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 323. 
 
 For John, ther is a lawe that saieth thus, 
 That if a man in o point be agreved 
 That in another he shall be releved. 
 
 Chaucer. The Reeves Tale, vol. i. p. 165. 
 The dredful figures gan appere to me 
 And great Gods eke aggreued with our town. 
 
 Surrey's JEneiA. 
 
 I saw alas ! the gaping earth devour 
 The spring, the place, and all clean out of sight : 
 Which yet aggrieves my heart, even to this hour. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 Sewell, archbishop of York, much aggrieved with 
 some practices of the Dope's collectors, took all pa- 
 tiently. Camden. 
 Of injured fame, and mighty wrongs received, 
 Chloe complains, and wondrously's aggrieved. 
 
 Granville , 
 U 2
 
 AGI 
 
 AGGROUPE'. See CROUPE. 
 
 AGHABOE, a parish in the barony of Upper 
 Ossory, Queen's County, Ireland. It was an- 
 ciently a bishop's see, and an abbey was 
 founded here in the sixth century by St. 
 Canice. 
 
 AGHADES. See AGADES. 
 
 AGHAL GORI, a small city of Georgia, m 
 the province of Kartel, situated in a narrow 
 valley in the neighbourhood of which are iron 
 mines The inhabitants are chiefly weavers of 
 cotton and hemp, and they manufacture hand- 
 kerchiefs, as also stuffs that are rough on both 
 sides. The neighbourhood is very fertile. 
 
 AGHER, a town of Ireland, in the southern 
 part of Ulster, not far from Clogher, which sent 
 two members to the Irish parliament. 
 
 AGHOGILL, or AHOGILL, a town of Ireland 
 in the county of Antrim, and province of Ulster. 
 
 AGHRIM, a town of Ireland, in the county 
 
 292 
 
 AGI 
 
 The immediate and agile subservience of the spirits 
 to the empire of the mind or soul. 
 
 Hole's Origin of Ufankhtil. 
 With that he gave his able horse the head ; 
 And, bending forward, struck his agile heels 
 Against the panting sides of his poor jade, 
 Up to the rowel head. Shakspeare's Henry IV. 
 Once more, I said, once more I will inquir , 
 What is this little, agile, pervious fire, 
 This fluttering motion, which we call the mind ? 
 How does she act? and where is she confined ? 
 
 Prior's Solumon. 
 
 To guide its actions with informing care, 
 In peace to judge, to conquer in the war, 
 Render it agile, witty, valiant, sage ; 
 As fits the various course of human age. Idem. 
 
 First he bids spread 
 
 Dry fern or littered hay, that may imbibe 
 Th' ascending damps ; then leisurely impose, 
 And lightly, shaking it with agUe hand, 
 From the full fork, the saturated straw. 
 
 Cowper's Task. 
 AGILITY. Among the ancient Greeks, the 
 
 of Wicklow, and province of^Leinster, situated improving of agility "was one of the chief objects 
 village, distant seventy-five miles from Dub- of cu itivating*and improving agility. Agility ot 
 
 about thirteen miles S.W. of Wicklow. 
 
 of the institution of games and exercises. The 
 
 AGHRIM, or AUGHRIM, in Galway ; a small at hi e tae made particular profession of the science 
 
 lin, and rendered memorable by a decisive battle bo< j y j s o ften supposed peculiar to some people 
 fought there, and at Kilcommodon hill, the 12th t it seems i es s owing to any thing peculiar in 
 of July, 1691, between general Ginckel and - - 
 Monsieur St. Ruth, the commanders under king 
 William III. and James the II. when St. Ruth, 
 the general of the Irish army, with 7000 of his 
 
 men, were slain ; but of the English only 600 
 The victory was the more considerable, as the 
 
 their frame and structure, than to practice. 
 
 AGILENSY, in botany, a name used by some 
 writers for the common hazel. 
 
 AGILLARIUS, in ancient law books, a 
 keeper of cattle in a common field. The agilla- 
 rius, or heyward of a town, or village, was to 
 
 English army consisted of not more than 18,000 SU p erv ise the cattle, and keep them within their 
 men ; whereas the Irish were computed at 20,000 
 foot, and 5000 horse and dragoons. They lost 
 likewise nine pieces of brass cannon ; and all 
 
 due bounds ; and was otherwise called bubulcus, 
 q. d. cow-wards, whence the reproachful term 
 coward. If he was a cottager, or other servile 
 
 their ammunition, tents, and baggage ; most of tenantj he was exempted from the customary 
 their small arms, which they threw away to ex- services, as being presumed to be always attend- 
 
 _T,_ .1 /IT 1_. _!il_ _1 .-.,].,.]. ,.,.,] P * it I rt 1_ 
 
 pedite their flight; with eleven standards, and 
 thirty-two pairs of colours. 
 
 AGIADES, in the Turkish armies, a kind of 
 
 ing on his cattle, as a shepherd on his flock, 
 who had therefore the like privileges. The agil- 
 larius of the lord of the manor, or a religious 
 
 pioneers employed ^in fortifying camps, smooth- house, was an officer appointed to take care of the 
 
 tillage and harvest-work, to pay the labourers, 
 and see there were no encroachments made, or 
 trespasses committed: the same in effect with 
 what has been othenvise called fieldsman, and 
 tithing-man ; and among us bailiff. 
 
 AGIMERE, AGMEER, AJMEER, or RAJPOO- 
 TANA, an extensive province of Hindostan, 
 bounded on the north by the provinces of Moul- 
 tan and Delhi ; on the south by Malwah and 
 Gujrah ; on the east by Delhi and Agra ; and 
 on the west by Sinde. It lies between 25 
 and 30 N. lat. and is about 350 miles long, by 
 220 in breadth. The province of Ajmeer is oc- 
 casionally named Marwar ; but this appellation 
 is properly restricted to the Joudpoor territories 
 The northern division, comprehending Bicanere 
 and neighbouring districts, is a barren plain, 
 almost destitute of rivers and rivulets, and but 
 very thinly inhabited; the central territory, 
 which includes Joudpoor and Jyenagur, is more 
 hilly, and better supplied with water, yet no* 
 in sufficient quantities for wet crops : the soil is 
 remarkably saline, containing salt lakes and 
 springs, and producing salt and salt-petre spon- 
 taneously. The southern division is verybiiiy 
 and of difficult access ; but, in general, well co- 
 
 ing roads, and the like offices. 
 
 AGIAHALID, in botany, an Egyptian tree, 
 called also licio and lycium, which resembles 
 the wild pear. 
 
 AGIASMA, from aywc, holy, among ancient 
 writers, is sometimes used for the whole church, 
 sometimes for the bema, or more sacred part, 
 wherein mass was said. 
 
 AGID^E, the elder branch of the royal fa- 
 mily of Sparta, so called from Agis, their second 
 king. 
 
 AGILD, or AGILDE, from the Gr. a, privative, 
 and the Sax. gildon, to pay, in our ancient cus- 
 toms, a person so vile, that whoever kills him 
 was to pay no mulct for his death. 
 
 AG'ILE, adj. 1 Ago, agilis, able to act; ac- 
 
 AGIL'ITY. J tive, brisk, nimble. 
 
 Yet God bathe suffered theym [the fiendes] to 
 keepe their gyftes of nature styll, as wytte, betwye, 
 strength?, ayylytie, and guche other lyke, 
 
 Sir That. Mare's Works, p. 863, col. 2. 
 
 He [the thief ] was pursued close by a fierce mas- 
 
 iff dog, and was forced to save himself by leaping 
 
 over a hedge, which being of an agile body he effected. 
 
 Bacon'* Apophthegm*.
 
 AGI 
 
 293 
 
 AGI 
 
 vered with trees and shrubs, and watered by 
 many mountain streams, besides the Banass and 
 Chumbul rivers. 
 
 The three great modern divisions of Ajmeer 
 or Raj poo tana, are, 1st, The state of Odeypoor, 
 named also Mewar, or the Rana of Chitore ; 
 Sndly, Joudpoor, named also Marwar, and its 
 sovereign occasionally described as the Rhatore 
 Rajah, being of that tribe ; 3dly, Jyenagur, Jey- 
 poor, or Ambeer. 
 
 The city of Ajmeer, and the forty-six surround- 
 ing pergunnahs, belong to Dowlet Row Sindia, 
 the Mahratta chief, and the district of Tonk 
 Rampoorah, to the Holcar family. 
 
 The eastern quarter of the central division is 
 occupied by the Jyenagur Rajah ; and the south- 
 eastern division by the Rajahs of Kotah, Boonde, 
 and other petty Rajpoot chiefs tributary to the 
 Mahrattas, and engaged in a constant state of 
 hostilities with each other. 
 
 The western parts of the central division are 
 subject to the Rajah of Joudpoor, whose domi- 
 nions are of great extent ; and the south-western 
 are possessed by the Rana of Odeypoor. 
 
 From these principalities the Malwah Mahrat- 
 tas, when they are strong enough, levy annual 
 contributions, which is the easier effected, on ac- 
 count of their disunion and unceasing internal 
 warfare. The barren and desolate region to the 
 north, is very little known, having, from its po- 
 verty, attracted but little attention. 
 
 The constitution of these countries is feudal ; 
 each district, town, and even village, being go- 
 verned by petty chiefs, dignified with the title of 
 thakoor, or lord, who frequently yield but a 
 nominal obedience to the person who is reputed 
 to be their superior or sovereign. The rents are 
 very low ; but every village is obliged to furnish 
 a certain number of horsemen at the shortest 
 notice. The Rajpoots are hardy and brave, and 
 extremely attached to their respective chiefs ; 
 they are much addicted to the use of opium 
 this destructive drug being produced by them on 
 all occasions, and presented to visitors as betel 
 is in other parts of India. They are usually 
 divided into two tribes the Rhatore, and the 
 Chohan Seesodya Rajpoots. 
 
 The inhabitants, who are principally of the 
 Rajpoot or military tribes of Hindoos, though oc- 
 cupying a vast territory, do not exceed five mil- 
 lions. The principal towns are Jyenagur, Joud- 
 poor, Odeypoor, Ajmeer, Kotah, Boondee, Ran- 
 tampoor, Chitore, Amber, and Shahpoorah. Both 
 lead and copper mines are found in this 
 province, which contains also a large salt-water 
 lake, that yields a good revenue to the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Ajmeer, though extending over the centre of 
 Hindostan, (its eastern frontier is within ninety 
 miles of Delhi,) was never thoroughly subjugated 
 either by the Patan or Mogul emperors. The 
 Rajahs are mentioned by Ferishta so early as 
 A. D. 1008 ; at which period they joined a 
 combination of Hindoo princes against Mahmood 
 ofGhizni, and in 1193, it was conquered, or 
 rather overrun by Mahomet, the first Gauride 
 sovereign of India. From this period it conti- 
 nued tributary to the throne of Delhi ; and, on 
 account of the refractory conduct of its princes, 
 
 was frequently invaded by the emperors, who 
 took and destroyed their chief towns. Yet the 
 province never became a regular organized pos- 
 session, like Delhi, Agra, and many much more 
 remote countries, but remained in a sort of half- 
 independent state, paying a tribute, and furnish- 
 ing the imperial armies with a certain number of 
 Rajpoot mercenaries, who were always held in 
 high estimation, on account of their bravery and 
 fidelity, and formed a counterpoise to the Mo- 
 guls and Afghans. On Aurengzebe's death, in 
 1707, and the dissolution of the Mogul empire, 
 which ensued, it continued for some time under 
 a nominal subjection to the Delhi throne ; but 
 about 1748, assumed total independence. The 
 interval since that period has been filled up by 
 internal warfare, and invasions by the Mahrattas 
 and other hordes of plunderers. During the latter 
 part of the reign of Madhajee Sindia, and the com- 
 mencement of that of Dowlet Row Sindia, they 
 were very nearly subdued by the disciplined troops 
 under generals Du Boigne and Perron in the 
 pay of those chiefs. They have since recovered 
 a little, not by any intrinsic addition to their 
 own strength, but by the depression of their most 
 dangerous adversary, Dowlet Row Sindia. In 
 1807, the Rajahs of Jyenagur and Joudpoor con- 
 tinued their mutual pretensions to marry the 
 daughter of the Rana of Odeypoor, and engaged in 
 hostilities, w hich were fermented and supported by 
 Ameer Khan, Holkar, Sindia, and other depre- 
 dators, who benefit by the dissensions among the 
 Rajpoots. See AbulFazel, Rennel, Scott, Brough- 
 ton, Maurice, MS. &>c. 
 
 AGIMEER, or AJMEER, the capital of the pro- 
 vince of that name, is in Lat. 26. 35'. N. Long. 
 74. 48'. E. is situated in the centre of the 
 Rajpoot states of Jyenagur, Joudpoor, and Odey- 
 poor. In 1800 it was held by M. Perron. The 
 boundary to the west is at the town of Meerta, 
 which separates Ajmeer from Joudpoor. It is 
 subject to Dowlet Row Sindia. 
 
 The fort of Ajmeer, named Taragur, (the 
 house of the slaves,) is built on the north east 
 end of a range of hills, and consists principally 
 of a plain stone wall along the edge of the moun- 
 tain, strengthened with a few round bastions. 
 The city lies at the bottom of the hill, and is 
 surrounded by a stone wall and ditch in bad re- 
 pair. The* streets are narrow and dirty, and 
 most of the houses small, and in a state of de- 
 cay. It possesses a palace, built in a garden by 
 Shah Jehan ; besides which, there are scarcely 
 any remains of magnificence to be seen, either 
 internally or externally. 
 
 The country round Ajmeer is a flat sandy 
 amphitheatre, surrounded by low hills, in conse- 
 quence of which the place is uncommonly sultry ; 
 but it is well supplied with water from two lakes, 
 which are close under its walls. The most 
 northern is six miles in circumference, and very 
 deep; and, at particular seasons, both are co- 
 vered with flocks of ducks and geese. 
 
 Ajmeer contains the tomb of Khaja Moyenud 
 Deen, one of the greatest Mahommedan saints of 
 Hindostan, who flourished about 600 years ago. 
 It is of white marble, but remarkable neither for 
 beauty nor style of architecture. Although the 
 distance from this tomb to Agra be 230 raikf.
 
 AGI 
 
 294 
 
 AGI 
 
 yet the great and wise emperor Acber made a 
 pilgrimage on foot to the tomb of this saint, to 
 implore divine blessings on his family, which 
 consisted only of daughters ; but, after this pil- 
 grimage received the addition of three sons. The 
 peer zadas, or attendant priests, who subsist on 
 the contributions at the tomb, exceed 1100 in 
 number, and demand, or rather extort charity 
 from all visitors. Madhajee and Dowlet Row 
 Sindia, although Hindoos, were remarkable for 
 their devotion to Mahommedan saints and cus- 
 toms. The latter bestowed a superb pall and 
 canopy of cloth and gold on the tomb, and is 
 particularly bountiful to the devotees and peer 
 zadas. Four miles from the city is also a re- 
 markable place of Hindoo pilgrimage, named 
 Pooshkur, or Pokur. It is distant from Delhi 
 230 miles ; from Bombay 680, and from Cal- 
 cutta 1000 miles. 
 
 AGINCOURT, a village of the French Nether- 
 lands, in the department of the straits of Calais. 
 Lon. 2. 10'. E. Lat. 50. 31'. N. ; rendered 
 famous by the battle fought near it in 1415, 
 wherein Henry V. defeated the French, although 
 the English army had to struggle with every 
 disadvantage. After landing in France, it had 
 been by various accidents reduced to 10,000 
 men, of whom not a few were sick, or slowly 
 recovering from sickness ; they had to traverse 
 a long tract of country, inhabited by exasperated 
 enemies, from whom they were to procure pro- 
 visions, lodgings, guides, intelligence, and every 
 thing they wanted ; that country was defended 
 by many strong towns, intersected by deep rivers, 
 and defended by an army of 100,000, or (accord- 
 ing to some contemporary writers,) 140,000 men. 
 Henry, undaunted by all these dangers and dif- 
 ficulties, departed from Harfleur, marching his 
 army in three lines, with bodies of cavalry on 
 the wings. He proceeded by very easy journeys, 
 that he might not fatigue his troops, or discourage 
 them by the appearance of a flight; observing 
 the strictest discipline, and paying generously 
 for every thing he received ; which induced the 
 country people to bring provisions to his camp, 
 in spite of all the commands they had received 
 to the contrary. To keep his army from repin- 
 ing, the king fared as ill as the meanest soldier, 
 always appearing with a cheerful countenance, 
 and addressing them in the most friendly and 
 encouraging language. They arrived at the vil- 
 lage of Agincourt, in the county of St. Pol, on 
 the evening of October 24th ; and there beheld 
 the whole French army, at a small distance, 
 directly in their route. The king took an at- 
 tentive view of it from an eminence; and being 
 fully convinced, that it was impossible to proceed 
 any further on his way to Calais without a battle, 
 and equally impossible to return to Harfleur 
 with so great an army in his rear, he resolved to 
 hazard an action next morning, as the only means 
 of preserving himself and his little army from 
 destruction. The English army lodged that night 
 in the villages of Agincourt, Maisoncelle, and 
 some others ; where they met with better accom- 
 
 odation than they had been accustomed to for 
 some time past, and spent part of their time in 
 mutual exhortations to fight bravely in the ap- 
 proaching battle. The king, overhearing some 
 
 of his nobles expressing a wish, that the many 
 brave men, who were idle in England, were 
 present to assist them, is said to have cried out 
 
 ' No ! I would not have one man more : if 
 
 we are defeated, we are too many if it shall 
 please God to give us the victory, as I trust he 
 will, the smaller our number the greater our 
 glory.' The moon happening to shine very 
 bright, Henry, with some of his best officers, care- 
 fully examined the ground, and pitched upon a 
 field of battle, admirably calculated to preserve a 
 small army from being surrounded by a great 
 one. It was a gentle declivity from the village 
 of Agincourt, of sufficient extent for his small 
 army, defended on each side by hedges, trees, 
 and brush-wood. Having placed guards, and 
 kindled fires on all sides, the king and his army 
 betook themselves to rest ; except such as were 
 of a more serious turn of mind, who, considering 
 that as the last night of their lives, spent it in 
 devotion. The French, exulting in their num- 
 bers, confident of victory, and abounding in pro- 
 visions, spent the night in noisy festivity, and in 
 forming fanciful schemes about the disposal of 
 their prisoners and their booty. It was in general 
 resolved to put all the English to the sword, 
 except the king and the chief nobility, who were 
 to be taken prisoners for the sake of their ransoms. 
 On the morning of the 25th of October, A. D. 
 1415, the English and French armies were ranged 
 in order of battle, each in three lines, with bodies 
 of cavalry on each wing. The constable D'Albret, 
 who commanded the French army, fell into the 
 snare that was laid for him, by drawing up his 
 army in the narrow plain between the two woods. 
 This deprived him, in a great measure, of the 
 advantage he should have derived from the pro- 
 digious superiority of his numbers ; obliged him 
 to make his lines unnecessarily deep, about thirty 
 men in file ; to crowd his troops, particularly his 
 cavalry, so close together, that they could hardly 
 move or use their arms ; and, in a word, was the 
 chief cause of all the disasters that followed. The 
 French, it is said, had a considerable number of 
 cannon of different sizes in the field : but, we do 
 not hear that they did any execution, probably 
 for want of room. The first line of the French 
 army, which, consisting of 8000 men at arms on 
 foot, mixed with 4000 archers, and 500 men at 
 arms mounted on each wing, was commanded 
 by the constable D'Albret, the dukes of Orleans 
 and Bourbon, and many other nobles; the dukes 
 of Alenpon, Brabant, and Bar, &c. conducted 
 the second line ; and the earls of Marie, Damar- 
 tine, and Fauconberg, were at the head of the 
 third line. The king of England employed 
 various arts to supply his defect of numbers. 
 He placed 200 of his best archers in ambush, in 
 a low meadow, on the flank of the first line of 
 the French. His own first line consisted wholly 
 of archers, four in file ; each of whom, besides 
 his bow and arrows, had a battle-axe, a sword, 
 and a stake pointed with iron at both ends, whicli 
 he fixed before him in the ground, the point in- 
 clining outwards, to protect him from the cavalry ; 
 which was a new invention, and had a happy 
 effect. That he might not be incumbered, he 
 dismissed all his prisoners, on their word of 
 honour to surrender themselves at Calais, if he
 
 AGI 
 
 295 
 
 AGI 
 
 obtained the victory ; and lodged all his baggage 
 in the village of Agincourt, in his rear, under a 
 slender guard. The command of the first line 
 was, at his earnest request, committed to Edward, 
 duke of York, assisted by the lords Beaumont, 
 Willoughby, and Fanhope ; the second was 
 conducted by the king, with his younger brother 
 Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, the earls of 
 Oxford, Marshal, and Suffolk; and the third was 
 led by the duke of Exeter, the king's uncle. 
 The lines being formed, the king, in shining ar- 
 mour, with a crown of gold adorned with precious 
 stones on his helmet, mounted on a fine white 
 horse, rode along them, and addressed each 
 corps with a cheerful countenance and animating 
 speeches. To inflame their resentment against 
 their enemies, he told them, that the French had 
 determined to cut off three fingers of the right 
 hand of every prisoner ; and, to rouse their love 
 of honour, he declared, that every soldier who 
 behaved well, should henceforth be deemed a 
 gentleman, and entitled to bear coat-armour. 
 When the two armies were drawn up in this 
 manner, they stood a considerable time gazing 
 at one another in solemn silence. But the king, 
 dreading the French would discover the danger 
 of their situation, and decline a battle, com- 
 manded the charge to be sounded about ten 
 o'clock in the forenoon. At that instant, the first 
 line of the English kneeled down, and kissed the 
 ground ; and then starting up, discharged a flight 
 of arrows, which did great execution among the 
 crowded ranks of the French. Immediately after, 
 upon a signal being given, the archers in ambush 
 arose, and discharged their arrows on the flank 
 of the French line, and threw it into some dis- 
 order. The battle now became general, and 
 raged with uncommon fury. The English archers 
 having expended all their arrows, threw away 
 their bows, and, rushing forward, made dreadful 
 havoc with their swords and battle-axes. The 
 first line of the enemy was, by these means, 
 defeated ; its leaders being either killed, or taken 
 prisoners. The second line, commanded by the 
 duke D'Alencon, (who had vowed either to kill, 
 or take the king of England, or to perish in the 
 attempt,) now advanced to the charge, and was 
 encountered by the second line of the English, 
 conducted by the king. This conflict was more 
 close and furious than the former. The duke of 
 Gloucester, wounded and unhorsed, was pro- 
 tected by his royal brother till he was carried off 
 the field. The duke D'Alencon forced his way 
 to the king, and assaulted him with great fury ; 
 but that prince brought him to the ground, where 
 he was instantly dispatched. Discouraged by 
 this disaster, the second line made no more re- 
 sistance ; and, the third fled without striking a 
 blow ; yielding a complete and glorious victory 
 to the English, after a violent struggle of three 
 hours. The king did not permit his men to pur- 
 sue the fugitives to a great distance, but encou- 
 raged them to take as many prisoners as they 
 could on or near the field ; in which they were 
 so successful, that, in a little time, his captives 
 were more numerous than his soldiers. A great 
 proportion of these prisoners were men of rank 
 and fortune ; for many of the French noblesse 
 being on foot, and loaded with their heavy armour, 
 
 could not make their escape. Among these, 
 were the dukes of Orleans, and Bourbon, the 
 martial Boucicaut, the counts D'Eu, Vendome, 
 Richemont, and Harcourt, and 7000 barons, 
 knights, and gentlemen. The French left dead 
 on the field of battle, the constable D'Albret, the 
 dukes of Alencon, Brabant, and Bar, the arch- 
 bishop of Sens, one marshal, thirteen earls, 
 ninety-two barons, 1500 knights, and a vast num- 
 ber of gentlemen, besides several thousands of 
 common soldiers. Even the French historians 
 acknowledge, that the loss of the English was 
 inconsiderable : those of our own contemporary 
 writers, who make it the greatest, affirm, that it 
 did not exceed 100, and that the duke of York, 
 and the earl of Suffolk, were the only great 
 men who fell on that side, in this memorable 
 action. 
 
 AGIO, in commerce, an Italian word, signi- 
 fying aid, and used chiefly in Holland, and at 
 Venice, for the difference between the value of 
 bank money, and current money. So that if a 
 merchant stipulates to be paid either 100 livres 
 bank money, or 105 cash, or current money, in 
 such case the agio, is said to be five per cent. 
 The bank agio varies in almost every place, and 
 is greater or smaller, according as the currency 
 is supposed to be more or less degraded below 
 the standard of the state. At Amsterdam it used to 
 be generally about five per cent. ; and by a resolu- 
 tion adopted not long before the late period of 
 confusion, the bank sold bank-money for cur- 
 rency, at five per cent, agio, and bought it again 
 at four per cent, agio. In consequence of this 
 resolution, the agio could never either rise above 
 five, or sink below four per cent. ; and the pro- 
 portion between the market-price of bank, and 
 that of current money, was kept at all times 
 very near to the proportion between their in- 
 trinsic values. One part of the profit of the 
 bank accrued from selling bank-money at five 
 per cent, agio, and buying it in at four. At 
 Venice, the agio was twenty per cent, fixed ; at 
 Genoa, from fifteen to sixteen per cent. The 
 agio of the bank of Hamburgh, which is said tc. 
 be commonly about fourteen per cent, is the sup- 
 posed difference between the good standard 
 money of the state, and the dipt, worn, and 
 diminished currency poured into it from all the 
 neighbouring states. See EXCHANGE. 
 
 AGIO is also used for the profit arising from 
 discounting a note, bill, or the like. It is also 
 used, though with some impropriety, for the rate 
 of exchange of a sum negotiated, whether to 
 profit or loss. It is also sometimes called AGAI. 
 
 AGIO of assurance is used, by some, for what 
 we more usually call policy of assurance. 
 
 AGIOSYMANDRUM, from oy.oc, holy ; and 
 ffrjfiaivh), to signify, or intimate; a wooden in- 
 strument used by the Greeks and other churches 
 under the dominion of the Turks, to call to- 
 gether assemblies of the people. The agiosy- 
 mandrum was introduced in die place of bells, 
 which the Turks prohibited their Christian sub- 
 jects the use of, lest they should make thera 
 subservient to sedition. 
 
 AGIRU, a name by which some writers 
 designate the western part of the island of Corfu 
 in the gulf of Venice. It contains twenty vil
 
 AOI 
 
 296 
 
 AGI 
 
 lages,and 8000 inhabitants. The most remarkable 
 place in it is a convent, called Palleo Castrizza. 
 
 AGIS, the son of Eurystheus, the second 
 king of Lacedaemon, of the race of the Heraclidce, 
 was cotemporary with David, king of Israel, 
 and Medon the first archon of Athens. 
 
 AGIS, I. of the Proclidae race, the son of Ar- 
 chidamus II. and elder brother of Agesilaus II. 
 kings of Sparta, reigned twenty-seven years, 
 and was contemporary with Alcibiades ; who 
 was suspected of being too familiar with his 
 queen, Timaea, on which account her son Leo- 
 tychides was set aside from the succession, and 
 Agesilaus raised to the throne. 
 
 AGIS II. king of Sparta, son of Archidamus 
 III. and grandson of the famous Agesilaus, 
 reigned only nine years, being defeated by 
 Antipater, one of Alexander's generals, in the 
 second year of his universal empire. 
 
 Acis III. king of Sparta, the son of Euda- 
 midas II. and the fifth in the direct line from 
 Agesilaus II. He was a patriotic prince, and 
 attempted the reformation of his kingdom, by 
 restoring the laws of Lycurgus : but fell under 
 the weight of an enterprize that could not but 
 be disagreeable to all who had great possessions, 
 and had been long accustomed to a voluptuous 
 life. Agis however, in the flower of his age, set 
 the example to his subjects, by practising the 
 ancient discipline first in his own person : his 
 clothes and his table being conformed to the 
 primitive manners ; although he is said to have 
 been brought up voluptuously. When he sound- 
 ed the minds of the people, he found the younger 
 classes opposed his plan less than those who 
 had enjoyed a relaxation for several years. But 
 the greatest difficulty was expected to arise from 
 the women ; and Agis's mother did not at all 
 approve of a reformation, by which she was to 
 lose part of her beloved riches. However Agesi- 
 laus her brother, whom Agis had engaged in his 
 interests, obtained a promise from her to second 
 the enterprize, and she endeavoured to gain the 
 Spartan ladies. An opposing party then applied 
 to Leonidas III. the other king of Lacedsemon, 
 to frustrate the designs of his colleague. Leoni- 
 das durst not oppose it openly, for fear of irrita- 
 ting the people, with whom the reform was 
 generally popular, because they found their 
 account in it : but he countermined it by sowing 
 suspicions, as if Agis had aspired to tyranny, by 
 pulling down the rich and raising the poor. 
 Agis proposed his new laws to the senate, upon 
 the discharge of debts, and a new division of 
 the lands. Leonidas, being supported by the 
 rich, opposed the measure so strongly, that there 
 was a majority of one against it. But Lysander, 
 one of the ephori, who had been a principal 
 promoter of the reform, called him to account ; 
 whereupon Leonidas took refuge in a temple, 
 ^hither his daughter, Chilonis, wife of Cleom- 
 brotus, followed him. He was summoned, but 
 not appearing, was degraded of his dignity 
 which was conferred on his son-in-kw Cleom- 
 brotus, and Leonidas was banished to Tegsea 
 
 e new ephori had Lysander and Mandrel 
 lidas tried for innovation ; who persuaded the 
 two kings to unite and turn out the ephori 
 was brought about; but not without diffi- 
 
 culty. Agesilaus, one of the ephori that suc- 
 ceeded those who were just turned out, would 
 have caused Leonidas to be killed on the way 
 to Tegaea, if Agis had not sent him a strong guard ; 
 a favour which was repaid with the most shock- 
 ing ingratitude. The reformation might then 
 have been established, if Agesilaus had not 
 found means to elude the good intentions of the 
 two kings. Whilst this was transacting, the 
 Achjeans asked assistance ; which was given 
 them, and Agis had the command of the troops. 
 He acquired a good deal of reputation in this 
 campaign, but upon his return, found his affairs 
 so embroiled by the ill conduct of Agesilaus, 
 that it was impossible for him to maintain him- 
 self. Leonidas was recalled to Lacedaemon : 
 Agis retired into one temple and Cleombrotus 
 into another. The wife of the latter behaved 
 herself in such a manner that she became the 
 admiration of every body. Leonidas was con- 
 tented with banishing his son-in-law; but he 
 applied himself entirely to the ruin of Agis. 
 One of the ephori, who was unwilling to return 
 what Agesistrata had lent him, was the diabolical 
 instrument of the ruin of this family. Agis 
 never went out of his sanctuary but to bathe 
 One day, as he was returning from thence to the 
 temple, he was seized by the ephorus, and carried 
 to prison, brought to his trial, condemned to 
 death, and delivered to the executioner. His 
 mother and grandmother used all possible im- 
 portunity, that, as he was king of Lacedsemon, 
 he might at least be permitted to plead his cause 
 before the people. But the ephori were appre- 
 hensive lest his words might make too great an 
 impression, and they ordered him to be strangled 
 on the spot. The ephorus, who was the un- 
 grateful debtor to Agesistrata, permitted that 
 princess to go into the prison, as well as Agis's 
 grandmother; but he gave orders to strangle 
 them both. Agesistrata died in a manner that 
 was extremely to her honour. Perceiving the 
 fate of her son and mother, she kissed the corpse 
 of Agis, and exclaimed, ' My son, thy too great 
 moderation and humanity have ruined both us 
 and thee.' Being told that, as she approved 
 his actions, she must also die, she immediately 
 prepared for death, exclaiming, ' May all this 
 be for the good of Sparta ! The wife of Agis 
 who was a princess of great fortune and pru- 
 dence, one of the finest ladies in Greece, and 
 was passionately fond of her husband, was forcei 
 away from her apartment by king Leonidas, and 
 obliged to marry his son, Cleomenes, then very 
 young, and was afterwards the last king of- 
 Sparta. Thus failed the final attempt to restore 
 the primitive virtue of the Spartans ; an evi- 
 dence, amongst many others, how difficult it is 
 to bring about a reform amongst a people, who 
 are once enervated by luxury. Not long after 
 this, Sparta became a Roman province ; and 
 the son and grand-children of Leonidas perished 
 miserably in Egypt. 
 AGIS, in anatomy, the thigh. 
 AGIST', v. ) A law term, supposed to be 
 AGIST'MENT. S derived from the old law Fr. 
 gute, a lying place ; the lying or pasturing of 
 cattle in another man's ground, on paying a cer- 
 tain sum of money to the proprietor.
 
 AGI 
 
 If a man take a liorso or other cattle to graze and 
 depasture his grounds, which the law calls agistment, 
 he takes them upon implied contract to return them 
 safe to the owner. Blachstone. 
 
 A forest hath laws of her own, to take cognizance 
 of all trespasses ; she hath also her peculiar officers, 
 foresters, verderers, regarders, agisters, &c. whereas a 
 chase or park hath only keepers and woodwards. 
 
 Howell's Letters. 
 
 AGIST, in law, signifies to take in and feed 
 the cattle of strangers in the king's forest, and to 
 gather up the money due for the same. The 
 officers appointed for this purpose are called agis- 
 ters, or gistakers, and are made by the king's 
 letters patent : there are four of them in every 
 forest, wherein the king hath any pannage. The 
 time for this is fifteen days before Michaelmas, 
 and as many after, when the running of the 
 cattle cannot prejudice the game. Manw. For. 
 Laws, 8vo. Chart, de Foresta, 9 Henry, III. 
 cap. 9. 
 
 AGISTMENT, from the French giste, a bed, 
 or lying place : though Rennet derives it from 
 ager, the field, or feeding-place for cattle ; ima- 
 gining agistment to have originally been the 
 same with agrarium, agerium, or agroticum, the 
 profit of feeding cattle on such a piece of ground. 
 The term is applied to taking other men's cattle 
 into any ground at a certain rate per week. It 
 is so called, because the cattle are suffered agiser, 
 that is, to be levant and couchant there ; and 
 many great farms are employed to this purpose, 
 (2 Inst. 643.) Our graziers call cattle, which 
 they thus take in to keep, gisements ; and to gise, 
 or juice, the ground, is when the occupier thereof 
 feeds it not with his own flock, but takes in the 
 cattle of others, to agist or pasture it. Agist- 
 ment is likewise the profit of such feeding in a 
 ground or field : and extends to the depasturing 
 of barren cattle of the owner, for which tythes 
 shall be paid to the parson. 
 
 AGISTMEXT is also used metaphorically for 
 a charge or burthen on any thing. In this 
 sense we meet with terra ad custodiam maris 
 agistata, i. e. charged with a tribute to keep 
 out the sea. So terrae agistatae, are lands whose 
 owners are bound to keep up the sea-banks. 
 Agistment denotes likewise the duty or levy 
 for repairing the banks and walls in Romney 
 marsh, which was particularly called agistamen- 
 tum : and the act of laying such a proportion 
 of this duty on the several estates, was called 
 agistatio. Spelmun. 
 
 AGISYMBA, in ancient geography, now 
 Zanguebar, a district of Libia Interior, situated 
 to the S.E. of the yEthiopes Anthropophagi ; the 
 parallel passing through which, at 16. S. of the 
 equator, was the utmost extent of the geographi- 
 cal knowledge of the ancients to the south. 
 
 AGITATE,!;.-^ Agito: ago, to act often; 
 
 AGITATION, Mo move quickly, frequently, 
 
 AGITA'TOR. j and successively; to affect 
 with a certain degree of violence ; to disturb ; to 
 make a subject the matter of debate, and active 
 examination ; to discuss a point. 
 
 Putrefaction asketh rest ; for the subtle motion, 
 which putrefaction requireth, is disturbed by any 
 Ration. Bacon. 
 
 A great perturbation in nature ! to receive at once 
 the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. 
 
 AGI 
 
 In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and 
 other actual performances, what have you heard her 
 say 1 Shakspeare. Macbeth. 
 
 Though this controversy be revived, and hotly agi- 
 tated among the moderns ; yet I doubt, whether it be 
 not, in a great part, a nominal dispute. 
 
 Boyle on Colours. 
 
 The project now in agitation, for repealing of the 
 test act, and yet leaving the name of an establish- 
 ment to the present national church, is inconsistent. 
 
 Swift's Miscellanies. 
 
 Where dwells this sov'reign arbitrary soul, 
 Which does the human animal controul, 
 Inform each part, and agitate the whole ? 
 
 Blackmore. 
 
 A kind of school question is started in this fable, 
 upon reason and instinct ; this deliberative proceed- 
 ing of the crow was rather a logical agitation of the 
 matter. L'Estrange's Fables. 
 
 AGITATION, in medicine, exercise, and more 
 particularly applied to that of swinging. Mau- 
 rice, prince of Orange, found this method a re- 
 lief against the severe pains of the gout and 
 stone. Bartholine mentions fits of the tooth-ach, 
 deafness, &c. removed by vehement agitations 
 of the body. Dr. Sydenham attributes the great 
 benefits of riding to agitation, which is very effica- 
 cious in removing obstructions in the viscera. 
 
 AGITATION, in physics, is often used for an 
 intestine commotion of the parts of a natural 
 body. Fermentation and effervescence are at- 
 tended with a brisk agitation of the particles ; and 
 it is one of the chief causes or instruments of 
 mixtion. By the agitation of the parts of the 
 blood and chyle, in their continual circulation, 
 sanguification is in a good measure effected. 
 Butter is made out of milk by the same means ; 
 in which operation, a separation is made of the 
 oleous parts from the serous, and a conjunction 
 of the oleous together. Digestion itself is only 
 supposed to be an insensible kind of agitation. 
 Agitation has been imputed as one of the symp- 
 toms of inspiration. 
 
 AGITATO, in music, agitated; with emo- 
 tion. 
 
 AGITATOR, in antiquity, a term sometimes 
 used for a charioteer, especially those who drove 
 in the circus at the curule games. 
 
 AGITATORS, in English history, were offi- 
 cers appointed by the army in 1647, to take 
 care of its interests. Each troop or company 
 furnished two private men or inferior officers 
 under this title, who represented the army whilst 
 a council of the principal officers was appointed 
 after the model of the house of peers ; and thus 
 a military parliament was formed in opposition 
 to the parliament at Westminster. In their first 
 institution Cromwell leagued himself with the 
 agitators, whom he found to have greater interest 
 than the council of war ; and who undertook to 
 make proposals relating to the reformation of 
 religion and the state. The agitators as well as 
 the council of officers were altogether moved by 
 his direction, and conveyed his wish to the whole 
 army. By means of these instruments he over- 
 awed the parliament, and reduced it to sub- 
 mission; and having gained possession of the 
 king's person, to whom for some time he and his 
 officers paid attention and respect, he contrived 
 to terrify him by the menaces of the agitators,
 
 AGL 
 
 298 
 
 AGM 
 
 and thus induced him to make his escape from 
 Hampton-court, and to take refuge at Carisbroke 
 castle, in the Isle of Wight. Cromwell being 
 entirely master of the parliament, and free from 
 all anxiety with regard to the custody of the 
 King's person, applied himself seriously to quell 
 those disorders in the army, which he himself 
 had artfully raised and successfully employed, 
 against both king and parliament. With this 
 view, besides other measures which he adopted, 
 he issued orders for discontinuing the meetings 
 of the agitators ; and pretended to pay entire 
 obedience to the parliament, whom, being now 
 fully reduced to subjection, he proposed to 
 make, for the future, the instruments of his 
 authority. But the levellers, (for so that party 
 was called, because they wished to abolish 
 royalty and nobility, to level all ranks of men, 
 to introduce an universal equality both of pro- 
 perty and of power, and who maintained that 
 the meanest sentinel, if enlightened by the 
 Spirit, was entitled to equal regard with the 
 greatest commander,) having tasted the sweets of 
 dominion, would not easily be deprived of it. 
 They secretly continued their meetings; they 
 asserted, that their officers, as much as any part 
 of the church or state, needed reformation ; and 
 several regiments joined in seditious remon- 
 strances and petitions. Separate rendezvouses 
 were concerted; and every thing tended to 
 anarchy and confusion. But this distemper was 
 soon cured by the rough but dexterous hand of 
 Cromwell. He chose the opportunity of a re- 
 view, that he might display the greater boldness, 
 and spread the terror the more widely. He 
 seized the ring-leaders before their companions ; 
 held in the field a council of war ; shot one 
 mutineer instantly, and struck such dread into 
 the rest, that they presently threw down the 
 symbols of sedition, which they had displayed, 
 and thenceforth returned to their discipline 
 and obedience. Hume's Hist. vol. vii. p. 109. 
 8vo. 
 
 AGITATORS, MILIARIAN, were those who drove 
 in the forum at Constantinople, a place adorned 
 with statues, &c. after the manner of the circus 
 at Rome, having a milium, or miliarium, in the 
 middle. 
 
 AGLAIA, in mythology, the youngest of the 
 three Graces. 
 
 AGLAIA, in botany, ayXawt, splendour and 
 beauty, alluding to the shining verdure of the 
 leaves, and elegance of the whole plant. A 
 genus of plants of the class and order, pentandria 
 digynia, (rather perhaps pentandria monogy- 
 nia.) Natural order trihilatae, Linn. Meliae, Juss. 
 General character: CAL. Perianth, inferior, of one 
 leaf, witn five notches, minute, permanent : COR. 
 Petals five, ovate, concave, fleshy, converging 
 almost closely into the form of a globe. Nectary 
 tubular, with five plaits, rather shorter than the 
 petals : STAM. filaments none; anthera five 
 ovate, included in the folds of the nectary! 
 PIST. Germen ovate, superior; style none; 
 stigmas two, oblong, erect : PERIC. berry 
 ovate, smooth, watery, of one cell. Seed solitary, 
 ovate, slightly compressed, with four furrows. 
 Essential character: CALYX inferior, five-toothed! 
 Petals five, converging i n the form of a globe. 
 
 Berry with one seed. It is a native of China 
 and Cochin China. 
 
 AG LAURA, or AGLAUROS, in mythology, the 
 daughter of Cecrops, founder and king of Athens, 
 who had two sisters, Hersa, and Pandrosa. 
 Minerva having concealed Ericthonius after his 
 birth, in a basket, committed him to the custody 
 of these three princesses, forbidding them to 
 open it. Hersa and Pandrosa observed the order, 
 but Aglaura unable to restrain her curiosity, 
 opened the basket and found the infant with 
 feet like serpents. Minerva punished her by 
 means of Envy, who made her jealous of Hersa, 
 the favourite of Mercury. When she attempted 
 to prevent the access of this deity to his mis- 
 tress, he struck her with his caduceus, and con- 
 verted her into a rock. Nevertheless she was 
 honoured after her death in a temple at Salamis 
 with a yearly sacrifice of a human victim ; which 
 Dephelus, king of Cyprus, in the time of Se- 
 leucus, changed into an ox. 
 
 AGLOPHOTIS, in botany, a name used for 
 Piony. 
 
 AGLUAS, in mythology, a poor Arcadian, 
 whom Apollo pronounced more happy than 
 Gyges, because he had never travelled beyond 
 his own ground. 
 
 AGLEED, among florists, the same as AGLET, 
 The pendants at the ends of the chives of flowers, 
 as in tulips. 
 
 AGLIA, among ancient physicians, a whitish 
 cicatrice, or spot in the eye, formed by a con- 
 gestion of humours. 
 
 AGLIBOLUS, in mythology, a title under 
 which the Palmyrenes worshipped the sun. 
 
 AGLIONBY, (John,) an English divine, chap- 
 lain to king James I. a man of universal learn- 
 ing, who had a considerable share in translating 
 the New Testament, in 1604. 
 
 AGLISH, a small town of Ireland, in the 
 county of Waterford, where are the remains of 
 an ancient fortification : the ruins of an abbey 
 stand in the neighbourhood. Distant 179 miles 
 from Dublin. 
 
 AGLITHES is used by Hippocrates for a 
 clove of garlic. 
 
 AGMET, or AGMAT, a river, town, and dis- 
 trict of Morocco, on the western declivity of the 
 Atlas. The town is said to have been once 
 considerable, and to have contained 6000 houses, 
 but is now greatly declined; 18 miles S. E. of 
 Morocco. 
 
 AGME, in surgery, a fracture. 
 
 AGMEN, in antiquity, a Roman army in 
 march : in which sense, it stands contradistin 
 guished from acies, which denoted the army in 
 battle array ; though, on some occasions, we 
 find the two words used indifferently for each 
 other. The Roman armies, in their marches, 
 were divided into primum agmen, answering 
 to our van-guard ; medium agmen, our main 
 battle ; and postremum agmen, the rear-guard. 
 The order of their march was thus : At the first 
 signal with trumpets, &c. the tents were taken 
 down, and the baggage packed up ; at the second, 
 the baggage was to be loaden on the horses 
 and carriages; and at the third, they were 
 to begin their march. First came the ex- 
 traordinarii ; then the auxiliaries of the first
 
 AGN 
 
 299 
 
 AGN 
 
 wins, with their baggage; these were followed 
 by the legions. The cavalry marched either on 
 each side or behind. 
 
 A--.MEN PILATUM, an army disposed in a 
 narrow oblong form, or column; being withal 
 close and compact ; thus called, as resembling 
 the figure of a pila or pier. This form was 
 chiefly used in marching without their baggage, 
 through bad ways, and close countries. 
 
 AGMEN QUADRATUM, an army arranged in 
 a square form, the method ordinarily observed 
 in the Roman armies. This was also called ag- 
 men grave, by the Greeks Ttrpaywvos ratp.. 
 The three columns, in which the army usually 
 marched, were considerably more in length, or 
 breadth, than in depth; but as the baggage 
 marched in the same order, the whole ap- 
 proached to the figure of a square. 
 
 AGMONDESHAM. See AMERSHAM. 
 AGMONIA, or ACMONIA, in ancient geo- 
 graphy, a town of Phrygia Minor, (Cic. pro. 
 Flacco, c. xv.) Also a city of Dacia upon the 
 Danube, according to Ptolemy. The former 
 town appears on many medals both of gold and 
 silver. 
 
 AGNACAT, in botany, a species of pear tree, 
 that grows in America, beyond the Terra de 
 Labrador, toward the isthmus of Darien. It is 
 of the figure and size of a pear tree, always 
 covered with leaves, and of an extraordinary 
 lustre. It bears a fruit like a pear, but green 
 even when it is ripe ; the pulp is of the same 
 colour, and tastes sweet and somewhat like but- 
 ter. 
 
 AGNADELLO, or AQUADELLO, a town of 
 Italy, in the duchy of Milan, district of Ghiera 
 d'Adda, between Lodi and Bergamo, where 
 Louis XII. of France obtained a victory over 
 the Venetians in 1509, as did the duke of Veii- 
 dome over Prince Eugene in 1706 ; it is twelve 
 miles north of Lodi. 
 
 AGNAN, a town of France, in the depart- 
 ment of the Cher, in the form of an amphitheatre, 
 at the foot of which runs tne Cher, 60 miles from 
 Bourges. It is in the arrondissement of St. Amand. 
 AGNANO, a lake lying west of Naples. In 
 its neighbourhood are the famous grotto del 
 Cane and the baths of St. Januarius. The 
 former is noted for tne suffocating vapors of 
 carbonic acid gas, which ascend from its bottom. 
 The baths are beneficial in cases of gout, sy- 
 phylis, &c. Their reputation has been increased, 
 of late years, by the way in which they have been 
 applied by Mr. Von Gimbernat to restore the 
 weakened electricity of the sick. 
 
 AGNANTHUS, from ayvo, chaste, andavfloc, 
 a flower, in botany, a genus of plants, called by 
 Linnaeus, cornutia. 
 
 AG'NATE, adj } Ad : nascor, natus, (ori- 
 
 ACNAT'ICK, >ginally gnatus,) born to; 
 
 AGXA'TIOX. 5 a kin by the fatiier's side. 
 
 This I tale to be the true reason of the constant 
 pivlrrence of the agnatick succession, or issue de- 
 rived from the male ancestors through all the stnsres 
 of collateral inheritance. 
 
 Blackstone's Law of Descent. 
 
 AGNATE, in law, any male relation by the 
 father s side. 
 
 AGN EL, an ancient French gold coin, first 
 
 struck in the reign of St. Louis, worth twelve 
 sols, six deniers. The angel is also called some- 
 times mouton d'or, and agnel d'or. The deno- 
 mination is supposed to have arisen from the 
 figure of a lamb, struck on one side. 
 
 AGNELET, an ancient French silver coin, 
 first struck under Philip the Fair, worth about 
 twenty sols. 
 
 AGNELLUS, an archbishop of Ravenna, in 
 the ninth century, who wrote the history of his 
 predecessors in that see. This biography con- 
 tains many curious facts, but is erroneous in re- 
 gard to dates. It was published by Bacchini 
 in 1708, and reprinted by Muratori in his col- 
 lection of Italian historians. Moreri. 
 
 AGNEREINS, a small place in France, for- 
 merly the seat of a castellan, in the govern- 
 ment of Dombes, now in the department of the 
 Ain, arrondissement of Trevoux, from which it 
 is distant 3 leagues to the N. E. 
 
 AGNES, St. one of the most considerable, 
 and perhaps, the most fertile, of the Scilly 
 Islands, lying in N. lat. 49. 53'. and W. long. 
 6. 20'. It is about three miles S. E. of St. 
 Mary's, and nine leagues W. S. W. from the 
 Land's End. The whole island contains about 
 300 acres of land, well cultivated both in corn 
 and grass, but badly watered ; and from 250 to 
 300 regular inhabitants. 
 
 The light-house, after which it is sometimes 
 called Light-house Island, is its most important 
 feature, and is a noble column of stone, fifty- 
 one feet from the foundation to the lantern, 
 standing on an eminence. The gallery is four 
 feet high ; and the lights rise eleven feet and a 
 half above it. Twenty-one Argand lamps are 
 placed in the respective centres of as many para- 
 bolic reflectors of copper, disposed in three 
 clusters of seven each, on a frame standing 
 perpendicularly to the horizon; and so con- 
 structed as to turn round on a common shaft 
 or centre every two minutes; by which motion 
 all parts of the horizon receive in succession, the 
 benefit of these brilliant lights. This compara- 
 tively recent disposition of them was suggested 
 by Mr. Adam Walker, a well known lecturer 
 on natural philosophy. Prior to this the light 
 was that of a stationary fire, emitted through 
 sixteen large sashed windows. Its white ap- 
 pearance by day, and its well-regulated fire at 
 night, make this light-house an invaluable sea 
 mark. The care of it is vested in the Trinity- 
 House, who appear to have erected the original 
 light in 1680. The present was completed in 
 1790. 
 
 Leland mentions a chapel here, dedicated to 
 St. Warna, an Irish saint, who is said to have 
 come here in a wicker-boat covered with hides. 
 There is a well called after her name, which was 
 formerly much resorted to. He also mentions 
 the destruction of all the inhabitants of the 
 island in his time, amounting to five thousand in- 
 dividuals, who were drowned in returning from 
 a feast at St. Mary's. At present there is a 
 small church here, where divine service is per- 
 formed at irregular intervals, by a clergy- 
 man appointed by the Society for promoting 
 Christian Knowledge. Other benevolent so- 
 cieties among the Dissenters also occasionally
 
 AGN 
 
 300 
 
 AGN 
 
 send a minister here. On the east is the mlet of 
 Gue, which is only divided from St. Agnes by the 
 flowing of the tide. 
 
 AGNES, ST. a parish and market town in the 
 hundred of Pydar, Cornwall, five miles N. W. 
 from Truro, 167 from London. It stands on the 
 Bristol Channel, and is accessible only to fish- 
 jig-boats. In the neighbourhood are some of 
 ihe richest mines in Cornwall. It was formerly 
 famous for St. Agnes's well, said to be of great 
 sanative and restorative power. Market, Thurs- 
 day. 
 
 AGNESI, (Maria Gaetana,) a lady of extraor- 
 dinary genius, and most extensive acquirements, 
 was born at Milan on the 16th of May, 1718. 
 Her rather, Pietro Agnesi of Milan, was royal 
 feudatory of Monteveglia and its dependencies ; 
 and being a man of some rank and consequence, 
 he was disposed, from paternal affection, to pro- 
 vide suitably for the education of his infant 
 daughter, who gave the most striking indications 
 of talent. From her tenderest years she dis- 
 covered a wonderful aptness, and a vehement 
 desire, for acquiring languages. Under the di- 
 rection of proper masters, she studied at the 
 same time the Latin and Greek, the French and 
 German ; and while the rapidity of her progress 
 excited astonishment, such were the prodigious 
 powers of her memory, that she could easily 
 pursue those diversified objects without feeling 
 the smallest degree of confusion. When yet 
 scarcely nine years old, this surprising child de- 
 livered a Latin oration, to prove that the cultiva- 
 tion of letters is not inconsistent with the female 
 character, before an assembly of learned persons, 
 invited to her father's house. At the age of 
 eleven, the young Agnesi could not only read 
 Greek, and translate it instantly into Latin, but 
 could even speak that refined language, and 
 with the same apparent ease and fluency as if 
 it had been her native tongue. Nor did these 
 acquisitions absorb her whole attention ; a nobler 
 field was opened to the exercise of her mental 
 faculties. She now began to read Euclid's Ele- 
 ments, and proceeded in algebra as far as qua- 
 dratic equations. Thus prepared, she advanced 
 with ardour to the study of natural philosophy ; 
 but not content with the sober truths there un- 
 folded, she soared to the heights of metaphysics, 
 and engaged in the most abstruse and intricate 
 disquisitions of that contentious science. After 
 this young lady had attained the age of fourteen, 
 her father, anxious to forward her ardour for im- 
 provement, and willing to gratify her ambition 
 for literary distinction, invited occasionally to his 
 house a number of persons, the most respectable 
 in Milan by their rank and learning. In the 
 midst of this grave auditory, Donna Agnesi 
 made her appearance, and without resigning the 
 native delicacy of her sex, she maintained a suc- 
 cession of new theses on various difficult parts 
 of philosophy, and handled the arguments with 
 such dexterity and commanding eloquence, as 
 singly to vanquish every opponent that entered 
 the field of controversy. These disputations 
 were all of them carried on in the Latin lan- 
 guage, which she spoke with the utmost ease, 
 purity, and copious elegance. Every thing con- 
 spired to heighten the impression produced on 
 
 the admiring spectators. In the full bloom of 
 youth, her person agreeable, her manner grace- 
 ful, an air of gentleness and modesty gave ir- 
 resistible charms to her whole demeanour. Such, 
 for several years, was the great theatre of her glory. 
 But having nearly completed the circle of philo- 
 sophy, and exhausted the chief topics of discus- 
 sion, she resolved at length to close that career 
 with a solemnity suitable to the occasion. In 
 the year 1738, Agnesi made her last brilliant 
 display, before an august assembly, composed of 
 the most learned and illustrious of the Milanese 
 nobility, the senators, and foreign ministers. 
 with the most distinguished professors in all the 
 branches of science and literature. The sub- 
 stance of these philosophical conferences was 
 afterwards published in a quarto volume, entitled 
 Propositiones Philosophies, quas, crebris Dis- 
 putationibus domi habitis, coram clarissimis viiis, 
 explicabat extempore, et ab objectis vindicabat 
 Maria Cajetana de Agnesiis Mediolanensis. Ag- 
 nesi now bent her whole attention to the culture 
 of mathematics ; and without guide or assistance, 
 she composed a very useful commentary on 
 L'Hopital's Conic Sections, which is said to 
 exist still in manuscript. In the sublimer de- 
 partments of that science, her studies were di- 
 rected by the matured experience of Rampinelli, 
 professor of mathematics in the university of 
 Pisa ; but she soon gave proofs of her amazing 
 proficiency, in digesting a complete body of the 
 modern calculus. This excellent work, entitled, 
 Analytical Institutions, for the use of the Italian 
 Youth, appeared in 1748, in two volumes quarto, 
 and was highly esteemed by the best judges, and 
 justly regarded as exhibiting the fullest and 
 clearest view of the state of the science at that 
 period. She was, in consequence, elected by 
 acclamation, a member of the Institute of 
 Sciences of Bologna ; and the Pope farther con- 
 ferred on her the title of Professor of Mathema- 
 tics in the university of that city. But Agnesi 
 was already sated with literary fame. That sun, 
 which in its ascent had shone forth with such 
 dazzling radiance, was, through the rest of its 
 course, shrouded in clouds and darkness. The 
 fever of genius had preyed on her mind, and the 
 high fit of excitement was quickly succeeded by 
 a hopeless depression of spirits. She repelled 
 the seductions of human learning, and abandoned 
 for ever her favourite mathematical pursuits. Re- 
 nouncing the vanities of this world, she withdrew 
 from society, embraced a life of rigid seclusion, 
 and sunk by degrees into the langour of religious 
 melancholy. She studied nothing but Hebrew, 
 and the rhapsodies of the Greek fathers of the 
 church. For upwards of twenty years she de- 
 nied all access to strangers. The famous La- 
 lande complains, in his ' Travels through Italy,' 
 that he was not allowed the honour of visiting 
 this prodigy; and Father Boscovich himself, 
 whose religious principles must have been unex- 
 ceptionable, experienced, notwithstanding his 
 repeated importunities, a similar refusal. In- 
 dulging that gloomy temper, she retired into a 
 convent, and assumed the habit of a Blue Nun. 
 She sought to forget the world, and was herself for- 
 gotten. Shedied about the year 1770, but we have 
 not been able to discover the precise period of her
 
 AGN 
 
 301 
 
 AGN 
 
 demise. The Instituzioni Analytiche of Agnesi 
 were translated into English many years ago, by 
 Mr. Col son. Lucasian professor of mathematics 
 at Cambridge. The translation was discovered 
 among the papers of that ingenious mathemati- 
 cian, by the learned Baron Maseres, who put the 
 manuscript into the hands of Mr. Hellins, as 
 editor, and generously defrayed the expenses at- 
 tending the publication. 
 
 AGNIFER, from agnus, a lamb, and ferre, 
 to bring, an appellation applied, by some eccle- 
 siastical writers, to John the Baptist, and used, 
 in the same sense with precursor, or fore- 
 runner. 
 
 AGNIL. See INDICUM. 
 
 AGNINA, in botany, lamb's tongue or plan- 
 tain. 
 
 AGNINA LACTUTA. See LACTUTA. 
 
 AGNINA MEMBRANA, the same as the Amnios. 
 
 AGNO, a river of Naples, which, taking its 
 rise in the mountainous parts of Terra di Lavora, 
 washes the town of Acerra ; and, passing between 
 Capua and Aversa, falls into the Mediterranean, 
 about seven miles north of Puzzuoli. 
 
 AGNODICE, in biography, an Athenian lady, 
 who attended the lectures of Herophilus, in the 
 disguise of a man, and acquired so much know- 
 ledge of the treatment of diseases, as to be in 
 great request among her own sex ; particularly 
 in the practice of midwifery. At length the 
 physicians, jealous of her fame, it is said, and 
 ignorant of her sex, accused her of introducing 
 herself to the women under the pretence of as- 
 sisting them in their labours and complaints, 
 but in reality from views of incontinence. Being 
 cited to the areopagus, she made herself known : 
 and the judges were so well satisfied with her 
 conduct, and perhaps with the women for patro- 
 nizing her, that they repealed a law then existing 
 prohibiting women to practice any branch of me- 
 dicine, and decreed that women of the rank of 
 citizens might be allowed that liberty. A physi- 
 cian, M. Hecqup, Eloy says, published a volume 
 in the year 1 708, entitled, l)e 1'Indecence aux 
 Hommes d'accoucher des Femmes, written 
 with much ingenuity ; in which he attributes the 
 looseness in the morals of the present age, to the 
 custom of admitting men to the general practice 
 of midwifery, for in particular cases he acknow- 
 ledges their assistance to be necessary. The 
 argument against admitting men into the general 
 practice is, that in ordinary cases, women are 
 perfectly competent ; but this is fully answered 
 by the fact, that cases do, and must for ever 
 occur, in which a kind of assistance is required 
 that women are incapable of giving, if men 
 were not to attend in ordinary cases, they would 
 not acquire the expertness that is necessary to 
 enable them to deliver in difficult ones. 
 
 AGNOET.SL, from ayvoew, to be ignorant of; 
 in church history, a set of ancient heretics, who 
 maintained that Christ, considered as to his 
 human nature, was ignorant of certain things, 
 and particularly of the time of the day of judg- 
 ment. Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria, ascribes 
 this heresy to certain solitaries in the neighbour- 
 hood of Jerusalem, who built their opinion upon 
 the text, Mark xiii. 32. ' Of that day and hour 
 knoweth no man, no not the angels that are in 
 
 heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.' 
 The same passage was made use of by the 
 Arians ; and hence the orthodox divines of those 
 days were induced to give various explications 
 of it. Some alleging that our Saviour here had no 
 regard to his divine nature, but only spoke of 
 his human : others, that the knowledge of the 
 day of judgment does not concern our Saviour 
 considered in his quality of Messiah, but as God 
 only. 
 
 AGNOIA, in medicine, a word used by phy- 
 sicians, when a person in a fever does not know 
 his acquaintance. When a rigour accompanies 
 this symptom, Hippocrates says, it is dangerous. 
 
 AGNOITES. See AGNOETJE. 
 
 AG'NOMEN, ^ Ad : nomen, Lat. a name 
 
 AGNOM'INATE, v. >in addition. A name given 
 
 AGNOMINA'TION. j by the Romans in conse- 
 quence of adoption, some great action, or a par- 
 ticular adventure ; as Lucius Cornelius, Scipio 
 Africanus. It came last in the order of names. 
 Agnomination is applied to the repetition of 
 words of similar sound ; or to allusions founded 
 on some other fanciful resemblance. 
 
 The British continueth yet in Wales, and some 
 villages of Cornwall, intermingled with provincial 
 Latin ; being very significative, copious, and plea- 
 santly running upon agnominations, although harsh 
 in aspirations. Camden. 
 
 White is there usurpt for her brow ; her forehead ; 
 and then sleek, as the parallel to smooth, that went 
 before. A kind of paranomasee, or agnomination : do 
 you conceive, sir? Ben Jonson's Poetaster, iii. 1. 
 
 Our bards hold agnominations, and enforcing of 
 consonant words or syllables one upon the other, to 
 be the greatest elegance : as for examples, in Welsh, 
 Tewgeis, to dyrris, ty'r derryn, gwillt, &c. So have 
 I seen divers old rhymes in Italian running so : 
 Donne, Odenno, che Felo affronto aftronta : In selva 
 salvo a me : Piu caro cuore, &c. 
 
 Howell's Letters, ii. 40. 
 
 AGNOMEN, in antiquity, an epithet given to 
 a person, either by way of praise or dispraise, 
 or from some remarkable event, which became, 
 as it were, an additional t name, but peculiar to 
 the person, and not descendible to his issue. 
 Thus, one of the Scipios obtained the agnomen 
 of Africanus, and the other of Asiaticus, from 
 the brave achievements which the one performed 
 in Africa, and the other in Asia. The agnomen 
 was generally the third in order, and sometimes 
 the fourth of the Roman names ; but it was 
 always ranked last, even when there were more 
 of them. Thus, in Marcus Tullius Cicero, Mar- 
 cus is the prsenomen, Tullius the nomen, and 
 Cicero the agnomen. But in the case of the 
 Scipios, who had previously three names each > 
 viz. Publius Cornelius Scipio, the agnomen was 
 the fourth, and the third, Scipio, was styled the 
 cognomen, and was. heritable, like the nomen or 
 family name. The emperor Antoninus, not to 
 multiply instances, had five names, viz. Marcus 
 ^.lius Aurelius Antoninus Boionius ; of which, 
 he received the second by adoption, from his 
 predecessor Adrian ; the third and fourth, by 
 descent; and the fifth, was the agnomen, ob- 
 tained by a victory over the Boionii. 
 
 AGNON, the Clanius of the ancients, a river 
 of Campania, in Italy. 
 
 AGNOS, in ichthyology, a name given by
 
 AGN 
 
 302 
 
 AGO 
 
 Athenspus, and other Greek writers, to the fish 
 called callyonymus, or uranoscopus. It is a 
 species of the trachynus, and is distinguished 
 by Artedi, from the rest of that genus, by the 
 name of the trachinus, with a great number of 
 beards growing from the lower jaw. 
 
 AGNONA, a market-town of Italy, in Pied- 
 mont, with 1100 inhabitants. 
 
 AGNOUE, a small town of Naples, in the 
 province of Abruzzo Citra, nine miles S. S. E. of 
 Civita Borella. 
 
 AGNUS, a lamb, in zoology, the young of the 
 ovis, or sheep. See Ovis. 
 
 AGNPS CASTUS, in botany, the trivial name of 
 a species of the vitex. See VITEX. The Greeks 
 call it ayvoc, chaste ; to which, has since been 
 added the reduplicative castus. The Athenian 
 ladies, who made profession of chastity, lay 
 upon leaves of agnus castus during the feasts of 
 Ceres. 
 
 AGNUS DEI, in the church of Rome, a cake of 
 wax, stamped with the figure of a lamb, sup- 
 porting the banner of the cross. These being 
 consecrated by the pope with great solemnity, 
 and distributed among the people, are supposed 
 to have great virtues ; such as, to preserve those 
 who carry them worthily, and with faith, from 
 all manner of accidents; to expel evil spirits, 
 &c. The name literally signifies Lamb of God ; 
 this being supposed an image, or representation 
 of the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of 
 the world. They cover it with a piece of stuff 
 cut in form of a heart, and carry it very devoutly 
 in their processions. The Romish priests and 
 religious, derive considerable pecuniary advan- 
 tages from selling these agnus dei's to some, and 
 presenting them to others. The pope provides 
 a regular supply, by consecrating them once in 
 seven years ; they are distributed by the master 
 of the wardrobe, and received by the cardinals 
 and other prelates, with great reverence, in their 
 caps and mitres. This ceremony they pretend 
 to derive from an ancient custom of the church, 
 wherein part of the paschal taper, consecrated 
 on Holy Thursday, was distributed among the 
 people, to perfume their houses, fields, &c. ; in 
 order to drive away devils, and to preserve them 
 from storms and tempests. The agnus dei is 
 forbidden to be brought into England, under 
 pain of incurring apremunire; 13th Elizabeth, 
 cap. 2. Agnus dei is also a popular name for 
 that part of the mass wherein the priest, striking 
 his breast three times, rehearses, with a loud 
 voice, a prayer beginning with the words agnus 
 dei. The masses of Giovanni Pietro Aloisio da 
 Palestrina, are still the admiration of the world, 
 although composed in the sixteenth century. The 
 agnus dei is said to hare been first brought into 
 the missal, by pope Sergius I. 
 
 AGNUS SCYTHICUS, in natural history, a 
 kind of zoophite, or plant-animal, said to grow 
 in Tartary, resembling the figure and structure 
 of a lamb. See ZOOPHYTON. The Scythian lamb 
 is also called agnus vegetabilis, agnus tartaricus, 
 and by the people of the country, borometz, bo- 
 rumetz, or boranetz. The usual account given 
 of this extraordinary production is, that the Tar- 
 tars sow in their ground a seed resembling that. 
 of a melon, but less oblong; from whence arises a 
 
 plant called by them borometz, i. e. lamb, growing 
 almost to the height of three feet, and having 
 feet, hoofs, ears, and the whole head, excepting 
 horns, resembling that apimal. In lieu of horns, 
 it has a peculiar sort of hair, not unlike horns ; 
 it is covered with a fine thin skin, which being 
 pulled off, is worn by the natives as a cover for 
 the head. The pulp within resembles that of 
 the gammarus; and when wounded, a liquor 
 oozes out like blood. It lives as long as there is 
 grass and herbage around it; but when these 
 are consumed, it wastes and dies. They add 
 that wolves are fond of it, while no other beasts 
 will feed on it. Deusingius seems to have been 
 the first who suspected this account to be fabu- 
 lous ; and Kempfer, when in the country, made 
 diligent enquiry concerning it, but could hear of 
 nothing like it. As to the plants shewn under this 
 denomination, in some repositories of rarities, they 
 appear to be originally the roots, orstalks of certain 
 vegetables, probably of the capillary kind, covered 
 with a woolly moss, which, naturally bearing re- 
 semblance to the figure of a lamb, have been 
 helped out and brought near to it by art, and the 
 addition of new parts. Sir Hans Sloane, and 
 Breynius, give us the figures and descriptions of 
 such borometzes in their collections. It is from 
 these plants that the Indian moss is gathered, 
 famous for its use in staunching blood. Brey- 
 nius and Libavius have written expressly on the 
 agnus scythicus. 
 AGO', .-_ 
 
 Participles more or less corrupted 
 of the verb, to go. Those now used 
 are employed adverbially. 
 
 AGON', 
 AGONE', 
 YGON', 
 AGOING. 
 
 For in swiche cas wimmen have swiche sorwe, 
 
 Whan that hir housbons ben fro hem ago. 
 
 Chaucer. The Knightes Tale, v. i. 
 
 Hast thou not heard, how I haue ordeyned soch a 
 thynge a great wtyle a goo, and haue prepared it from 
 the beginnynge. Bible. 1539. 4 Kings xix. 
 
 For news the world is here turn'd upside down, 
 and it hath been long a going so. Howell's Letters, 
 
 This, both by others and myself, I know : 
 
 For I have serv'd their sovereign, long ago ; 
 
 Oft have been caught, within the winding train. 
 
 Dryden's Fables. 
 
 I shall set down an account of a discourse, I 
 chanced to have with one of them some time ago. 
 
 Addison's Freeholder. 
 
 AGOG', v. supposed to be derived from the 
 Ang. Sax. janjan, to gang, or go, and signifies 
 alert, eager, elate. 
 
 And worst of all, the women that doe go with them, 
 set them agog that doe tarrie. Golden Book, y. 5. 
 
 Neither am I come to please thee, or set thee agoa 
 with a vain salutacion, but I am come vnto thee as a 
 messagier of a matier bothe passyng ioyful, & al?o 
 verai great. Udall. Luke, c. i. fol. 9. c. 2. 
 
 As for the sense and reason of it, that has little or 
 nothing to do here : only let it sound full and round, 
 and chime right to the humour, which is at present 
 agog ; just as a big, long, rattling name is said to com- 
 mand even adoration from a Spaniard : and no doubt, 
 with this powerful senseless engine, the rabble-drivei 
 shall be able to carry all before him. 
 
 Smith's Sermons, 
 
 The gawdy gossip, when she's set agog, 
 In jewels drest, and at each ear a bob,
 
 AGO 
 
 303 
 
 AGO 
 
 Goes flaunting out ; and, in her trim of pride, 
 Thinks, all she says or does is justify 'd. 
 
 Dryd. Juv. Sat. vi. 
 
 This maggot has no sooner set him agog, but he 
 pets him a ship ; freights her, builds castles in the 
 air, and conceits both the Indies in his coffers. 
 
 L'Eitrange. 
 So three doors off the chaise was stay'd, 
 
 Where they did all get in ; 
 Six precious souls, and all agog 
 To dash thro' thick and thin. 
 
 Cowper's John Gilpin. 
 
 AGOGA, a ditch or drain for carrying off the 
 water from a mine. 
 
 AGOGE, ductus, guide ; in music, one of the 
 sub-divisions of the ancient Melopseia which pre- 
 scribed rules respecting the progress of a melody, 
 by disjointed, or conjointed degrees, alternately, 
 whether ascending or descending ; it also served 
 to denote the degree of movement, as well as the 
 character of the piece executed. 
 
 ACOGE RYTHMICA, the Greeks denoted by this 
 term, what we now understand by tempo, time 
 or measure. 
 
 AGOMPHASIS, or GOMPHIASIS, in medicine, 
 a distemper in the teeth, consisting in their 
 being loose in the sockets. 
 
 AGON', ra. ~\ Gr. aytov, conflict, en- 
 AGONIS'TICAL, I counter. A combat among 
 AGONIS'TICK, Vthe ancients, particularly ap- 
 AG'ONIZE, i plied to wrestlers and prize- 
 AG'ONY. ./fighters. Agonize and agony 
 
 apply to mental suffering accompanied with ex- 
 cessive pain. 
 
 And he was maad in agonye, and preiede the lenger 
 and his swoot was maad as dropis of blood rennynge 
 doun into the erthe. Wiclif. Luke xxii. 
 
 Betwixt them both, they have me done to dy, 
 Thro' wounds, and strokes, and stubborn handeling ; 
 
 That death were better, than such agony, 
 As grief and fury unto me did bring. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 Thee I have missed, and thought it long deprived 
 Thy presence ; agony of love ? till now 
 Not felt, nor shall be twice. 
 
 Milton. Paradise Lost. 
 
 Never was there more pity in saving any, than in 
 ending me j because therein my agony shall end. 
 
 Sidney. 
 
 Thou, who for me didst feel such pain, 
 Whose precious blood the cross did stain, 
 Let not those agonies be vain. Roscommon. 
 
 To propose oup desires, which cannot take such 
 effect as we specify, shall (notwithstanding) other- 
 wise procure us his heavenly grace ; even as this very 
 prayer of Christ obtained angels to be sent him, as 
 comforters in his agony. Hooker. 
 
 Dost thou behold my poor distracted heart, 
 Thus rent with agonixing love and rage j 
 And ask me what it means ? Art thou not false ? 
 
 Howe's Jane Shore. 
 Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, 
 To smart and agonise at every pore ? 
 
 Pope's Essay on Man. 
 The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, 
 Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel 
 To men remote from power but rarely known, 
 Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own. 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 I see before me the gladiator lie ; 
 He leans upon his hand his manly brow 
 Consents to death, but conquers agony. 
 
 Lord Byron's Childe Harold. 
 
 AGON, among the ancients, implied any dis 
 pute or contest either in bodily exercises, or the 
 accomplishments of the mind ; and therefore 
 poets, musicians, painters, &c. had their agones, 
 as well as the athletae. Games of this kind were 
 celebrated at most of the heathen festivals, with 
 great solemnity, either annually, or at certain pe- 
 riods of years. Among the latter were celebrated 
 at Athens, the agon gymnicus, agon Nemaeus, in- 
 stituted by the Argives in the 43d Olympiad, and 
 the agon Olympius, instituted by Hercules 430 
 years before the 1st Olympiad. The Romans also, 
 in imitation of the Greeks, instituted contests of 
 this kind. The emperor Aurelian established one 
 under the name of agon solis, the contest of the 
 sun ; Dioclesian another, which he called agon 
 Capitolinus, which was celebrated every fourth 
 year after the manner of the Olympic games. 
 Hence the years, instead of lustra, are sometimes 
 numbered by agones. 
 
 AGON also signified one of the ministers em- 
 ployed in the heathen sacrifices, and whose 
 business it was to strike the victim. The name 
 is supposed to have been derived from hence, 
 that, when standing ready to give the stroke, he 
 asked, Agon ? or Agone ? Shall I strike ? 
 
 AGON, among physicians, the struggle of death. 
 See AGONY OF DEATH. 
 
 AGONALES, in heathen mythology, an epi- 
 thet given to the Salii, or priests of Mars. 
 
 AGONALIA, in Roman antiquity, festivals 
 celebrated in honour of Janus, or Agonius, three 
 times a year. 
 
 AGONALIS CIRCUS, now La Piazza Navona, 
 a long, large, and beautiful street in the heart 
 of Rome, adorned with fountains, and the 
 obelisk of Caracalla, still retaining the form of 
 that circus. The reason of the name Agonalis 
 is doubtful. Ovid seems to derive it from the 
 agones, or solemn games, there celebrated ; 
 supposed to have been the Ludi Apollinares, or 
 Actiaci, instituted by Augustus : whence the cir- 
 cus was called Apollinaris : also Alexandrinus 
 from the emperor Alexander Severus, who either 
 enclosed or repaired the circus. 
 
 AGONATA, in entomology, the fourth class of 
 insects in the system of Fabricius : comprehend- 
 ing the cancer, the pagurus, the hippa, the 
 scillarus, the astacus, the squilla, and the gam- 
 marus. Linnaeus has included this class under 
 the genus Cancer. 
 
 AGONICHE, a river of Nova Scotia, British 
 North America, which enters the bay of Fundy, 
 in a south-east course, between the river Me- 
 chicor and St. John. 
 
 AGONISMA, in antiquity, the prize given 
 the victor in a game or combat. 
 
 AGONISTARCHA, from aywv, combat, and 
 PXC> chief, in antiquity, seems to have been 
 much the same with agonotheta : though some 
 suggest a difference, making it the office of the 
 former to preside at and direct the private exer- 
 cises of the athletae, which they went through by 
 way of practice, before they made their appear- 
 ance on the public theatres or amphitheatres. 
 
 AGONISTIC, AGONISTICA, the science of 
 what relates to the combats or agones of the 
 ancients. In which sense, agonistic amounts to 
 much the same with athletic, and makes a 
 branch of gymnastics
 
 304 
 
 AGO 
 
 AGONISTICI, in church history, a name 
 ^iven by Donatus to such of his disciples as he 
 sent to fairs, markets, and other public places, 
 to propagate his doctrine ; for which reason they 
 were also called Circuitores, Circelliones, Catro- 
 pitse, Coropita:, and at Rome Montenses. They 
 were called Agonistici, from the Gr. ayov, com- 
 bat, in regard they were sent as it were to fight 
 and subdue the people to their opinions. 
 
 AGONIUM, in Roman antiquity, was used 
 for the day on which the rex sacrorum sacrificed 
 a victim, as well as for the place where the 
 games were celebrated, otherwise called agon. 
 
 AGONIUS, a god whom the Romans invoked 
 before they undertook any enterprize of import- 
 ance. 
 
 AGONIZANTS, Roman friars, who assist 
 those who are in agony. 
 AGONNA. See AGGA. 
 AGONOS, in physic, barren. Hippocrates 
 applies it to women who have no children, 
 though they might have them, if the impediments 
 were removed. 
 
 AGONUS, in ichthyology, the fish called by 
 'some sarrachus, by others, chalcis and sardella. 
 It is in many particulars very like the alausa, or 
 shad, called the mother of herrings, but smaller, 
 never arriving at more than a foot in length ; 
 and is always lean and lank in spring, and fat in 
 autumn. But the distinctions between it and 
 the alausa, if real, are so very small, that Mr. 
 Ray, and many of the most accurate naturalists, 
 have suspected it to be the same fish, only in 
 a different state. 
 
 AGONOTHETA, or AGONOTHETES, in Gre- 
 cian antiquity, was the president or superin- 
 tendant of the sacred games; who not only de- 
 frayed the expences attending them, but inspect- 
 ed the manners and discipline of the athleta?, 
 and adjudged the prizes to the victors. 
 
 AGONY OF DEATH. Much of the terror of 
 death arises from the pangs and convulsions 
 wherewith the agony seems attended ; though 
 we have reason to believe that the pain in such 
 cases is not extremely acute ; a course of pain 
 and sickness having usually stupified and indis- 
 posed the nerves for any quick sensations. 
 However, various means have been thought of 
 for mitigating the agony of death. Lord Bacon 
 considers this as part of the province of a physi- 
 cian ; and that not only when such a mitigation 
 may tend to a recovery, but also when, there 
 being no further hopes, it can only tend to make 
 the passage out of life more calm and easy. 
 Complacency in death, which Augustus so much 
 desired, is certainly no small part of happiness. 
 Accordingly the author last cited ranks eutha- 
 nasia, or the art of dying easily, among the de- 
 siderata of science ; and does not even seem to 
 disapprove of the course Epicurus took for 
 that end : 
 
 Hinc stygias ebrius hausit aquas. 
 
 Opium has been applied for this purpose, with 
 the approbation of some, but the condemnation 
 of more. 
 
 The agony of Jesus Christ in the garden of 
 Gethsemane has perplexed several commenta- 
 tors ; and some learned persons seem studiously 
 to have avoided the term agony in their transla- 
 
 tions, as Beza, Le Clerc, and Lcnfant : in the 
 translations of the Syriac version by Tremellius, 
 Trostius, and others, we have timor, or fear, for 
 agony. Lardner suggests that ytvo/jitvoc tv 
 ayuva, (Luke xxii. 44.) might be translated, 
 being under great concern. The effect of this 
 agony has been differently explained. Many 
 expositors have thought with M. Le Clerc, that 
 the expression b idfxaiQ avra taffii Srponfioi ot/tarof, 
 only implies, that the drops of sweat were large 
 and clammy, like clots of gore. Grotius under- 
 stands the expression metaphorically, as denoting 
 excessive sweat; but Dr. Whitby (in loc.) ob- 
 serves, that Aristotle (Hist. Anim. lib. iii. c. 19. 
 Oper. torn. i. p. 809. De part. An. lib. iii. c. 5. 
 Oper. torn. J. p. 1008.) and Diodorus Siculus 
 (lib. xvii. Oper. torn. ii.p. 230.) mention bloody 
 sweats, as attending some extraordinary agony 
 of mind. Leti also, in his life of pope Sextus 
 V. p. 200. and sir John Chardin, in his History 
 of Persia, vol. i. p. 126, mention a similar phe- 
 nomenon ; to which Dr. Jackson (Works, vol. ii. 
 p. 819.) adds another from Thuanus, lib. x. 
 p. 221. See Doddridge's Family Expositor, vol. 
 ii. p. 517. Bartholinus (de Cruce, p. 184. 193.) 
 produces examples of sweats that have been ac- 
 tually mixed with blood. So does Maldonat in 
 Mat. xxvi. 37. The possibility of this circum- 
 stance is ascertained by a fact well known in 
 history, viz. that Charles IX. of France died of 
 a malady, in which his blood gushed out of all 
 the pores of his body. Voltaire (Univ. Hist, 
 chap. 142.) describes it thus : ' Charles IX. died 
 in his twenty-fifth year, the malady being very 
 extraordinary, the blood gushing out of all his 
 pores.' 
 
 AGONYCLIT^E, or AGONYCMTES, from a, 
 privative, yovv knee, and icXiyw, to bend, in 
 church history, a sect of Christians, in the seventh 
 century, who prayed always standing, as thinking 
 it unlawful to kneel. 
 
 AGOOD', a. In good. See GOOD. 
 At that time I made her weep agood, 
 For I did play a lamentable part. 
 
 Shakspeare's Two Gent, of Verona. 
 
 AGOONA, or AGONNA. See AGGA. 
 
 AGOR/EUS, from ayopa, a market, in hea- 
 then antiquity, an appellation given to such 
 deities as had statues in the market places ; par- 
 ticularly Mercury, whose statue was to be seen 
 in almost every public place. 
 
 AGORANOMUS, from oyopa, a market, and 
 vo/ioc, law, in Grecian antiquity, a magistrate of 
 Athens, who had the regulation of weights and 
 measures, the prices of provisions, &c. The 
 agoranomi, at Athens, were ten in number, five 
 belonging to the city, and as many to the Piraeus ; 
 though others make them fifteen in all, of whom 
 they assign ten to the city. To these a certain 
 tribute was paid by all who brought any thing 
 to sell in the market. 
 
 AGOSTA, or AUGUSTA, a maritime town on 
 the south-east coast of the island of Sicily, on a 
 peninsula at the bottom of a gulf, eighteen miles 
 north of Syracuse. It was built originally by the 
 emperor Frederic II. and was a place of con- 
 siderable opulence previous to the earthquake 
 of 1693, which spread havoc and devastation 
 throughout its whole extent. The subterraneous
 
 AGO 
 
 305 
 
 AGO 
 
 vapours, and the rapid motion of the earth, set 
 fire to the powder magazine in the citadel, split 
 the water-side forts to their foundation, and pre- 
 cipitated the light-house into the sea. It has 
 since been rebuilt on a regular plan, with low 
 houses, in order to prevent such dreadful conse- 
 quences on the recurrence of a similar calamity. 
 The harbour also is now cleared, and forms one 
 of the safest ports in the island. Number of 
 houses 1835; population 15,000. Long. 15. 
 14'. E. Lat. 37. 16.' N. 
 
 AGOT, an island in the English channel, near 
 the coast of France. Long. 2. 4'. W. Lat. 48. 
 38'. N. 
 
 AGOU, or AGOEN, a small island of Sweden, 
 in the province of Ilelsingland, with a good har- 
 bour. Long. 17. 14'. E. Lat. 61. 32'. N. 
 
 AGOU, a town and territory of Whydah, on 
 the Slave Coast of Guinea. 
 
 AGOSTUS, aye-roc, in anatomy, the arm from 
 the fingers to the elbow ; also the palm or hollow 
 of the hand. 
 
 AGOUTI, or AGUTI. See Mus. 
 
 AGOVVS, in geography, the inhabitants of a 
 province of Abyssinia, which is bounded by the 
 mountains of Amid Amid on the east ; by Bure 
 and Umbarma, and the country of the Gongas, 
 on the west ; by Damot and Gafat on the south ; 
 and by Dingleber on the north. They consist of 
 two nations ; the one near the fountains of the 
 Nile, called the Agows of Damot, from their 
 vicinity to that province, the other near the head 
 of the Tacazze, in the province of Lasta, called 
 the Tcheretz Agows, from Tchera, a principal 
 town, tribe, and district, near Lasta and Begem- 
 der. They are described by Mr. Bruce as one 
 of the most considerable people in Abyssinia. 
 
 The country of the Agows is in a very elevated 
 situation, and forms a kind of amphitheatre 
 of lofty mountains; the climate is tempe- 
 rate and wholesome. In the shade, or in a 
 house, the air is cool, as there is a constant 
 breeze which mitigates the scorching heat of the 
 sun, even at noon day, though the latitude is not 
 much greater than 10. But notwithstanding 
 the exceeding temperature of the climate, the 
 Agows do not live to any great age, which is 
 probably owing to the oppression they suffer. 
 Their country abounds with all the necessaries of 
 life; and yet their taxes, tributes, and services, 
 are so numerous, and their dependent condition 
 so distressing, that they are only the manufac- 
 turers of the commodities they sell, in order to 
 satisfy the exorbitant demands of their oppres- 
 sors ; and are constrained to live in a state of 
 Snury and misery, that is scarcely conceivable, 
 r. Brace informs us, that he saw a number of 
 women, wrinkled and sun-burnt so as hardly to 
 appear human, wandering about under a burning 
 sun, each of whom had one and sometimes two 
 children upon their back, and gathering the seeds 
 of bent grass 1o make a kind of bread. 
 
 The Agows are said to be able to bring into 
 the field 4000 horse, and a great number of foot ; 
 nut their power has been much reduced by the 
 incursions of the Gallas. Their riches, however, 
 are still greater than their power; for though 
 their province is hardly 60 miles long, and 30 
 miles broad, yet Gorular and the whole neigh- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 bouring country, depend for the necessaries of 
 life, cattle, honey, butter, wheat, hides, wax, and 
 a number of such articles, upon the Agows, who 
 frequent the capital to the amount of 1000 and 
 1500 at a time, in order to dispose of these com- 
 modities. The Abyssinian princes have therefore 
 compounded with them for an increase of tri- 
 bute, in lieu of military service ; but when they 
 have deviated from this prudent practice, the 
 Agows have been great sufferers. The butter 
 which they carry to a great distance in this hot 
 climate, is prevented from putrefaction by a 
 root called moc-moco, resembling a carrot; 
 which they bruise and mix with it, and thus they 
 preserve it fresh for a considerable time. This 
 root answers the purpose more certainly than 
 salt, which could not be conveniently appro- 
 priated to this use, as it serves for money, and is 
 used instead of silver coin as change for gold. 
 Brides paint their feet, the palms of their hands, 
 and their nails, with this drug. Mr. Bruce 
 brought a considerable quantity of the seed, re- 
 sembling that of coriander, into Europe. The 
 Agows dispose of their commodities, not only at 
 the market of Gondar, but to the neighbouring 
 black savages, the woolly-headed Shangalla, and 
 receive in exchange elephants' teeth, horns of 
 the rhinoceros, gold, and fine cotton. This trade, 
 which might be materially beneficial, is very 
 much interrupted by the barbarity and fraud 
 of both nations. Besides what they sell, and 
 what they pay to the governor of Damot, the 
 Agows present a tribute to the king of 1000 
 dabra of honey, each dabra containing about 
 60lb. weight: 1500 oxen, and 1000 ounces of 
 gold. The clothing of the Agows consists of 
 hides, which they soften and manufacture in a 
 manner peculiar to themselves. Of these they 
 form a kind of skirt, which reaches down to their 
 feet, and is girded with a belt about their middle. 
 The lower part resembles a large double petti- 
 coat, one fold of which they turn back over their 
 shoulders, fastening it with a skewer across their 
 breast before, and the married women carry their 
 children in it behind. The younger sort are 
 generally naked. The women are commonly 
 thin, and, like the men, below the middle size. 
 Barrenness is unknown among them. They are 
 marriageable at nine years of age; at eleven 
 they actually marry and bear children ; and con- 
 tinue child-bearing to the age of thirty, and in 
 some instances beyond that period. 
 
 The Agows are grossly idolatrous and super- 
 stitious. The Nile, or the spirit residing in that 
 river, is the object of their worship ; whom they 
 address under the titles of ' the everlasting God, 
 light of the world, eye of the world, God of 
 peace, their Saviour, and father of the universe.' 
 To this deity they present their supplications for 
 seasonable rain, plenty of grass, and the preser- 
 vation of a particular kind of serpents ; at the 
 same time deprecating thunder ; and their prayers 
 are pronounced very pathetically with a kind of 
 tone or song. The shuro or priest of the river, 
 with whom Mr. Bruce conversed, pretended to 
 have intercourse with a spirit which occasionally 
 appeared to him, and revealed to him future 
 events. This spirit, he said, was of the river, 
 God. the father of mankind. Thunt'er was de- 
 
 X
 
 AGR 
 
 306 
 
 AGR 
 
 precated, as the priest informed him, because it interests, 
 was hurtful to the bees, and their chief revenue divisi 
 was honey and wax. They prayed for serpents 
 
 is one of the largest of the old 
 of Ilindostan ; being 250 miles in 
 length, and 180 in its average breadth. It is 
 
 beT-xu'seThey'taught the approach of good or bounded on the north by Delhi, on the south by 
 
 evu Serpents are kept in some of their houses ; Malwah, on the west by Ajmeer, and on the east 
 and'they are fed with butter and milk, before by Oude and Allahabad. 
 
 It is watered by 
 the 
 Chumbul, and contains, besides Agra, the strong 
 
 ihey undertake a journey, or any affair of conse- branches of the Ganges, the Jumna, and the 
 auence ; and if they do not eat, this is considered 
 
 as a bad omen. Before an invasion of the Gallas, fortresses of Bburtpoor and Deeg, and the town* 
 they say these serpents disappear, and are no of Canoge, Kalpy, and Narwar Bhurtpoor re- 
 where to be found. Fasil, a sagacious governor sisted the whole force of the British, under Lord 
 
 Lake, in the last Mahratta war : and the siege 
 is said to have cost our army a greater loss of men 
 than it ever sustained in three of our greatest 
 battles in India. The rajah is independent. 
 Doeg, or Deeg, was defended by Holkar, at the 
 
 of the country, who was addicted to this species 
 of divination, would never mount his horse, or 
 go from home, if an animal of this kind, which 
 he had in his custody, refused to eat. Once a 
 year, on the first appearance of the dog-star, or. 
 
 VC.Cl.la \/l* ***** .J<, MWUVWH O ' ' -I . .-\ ft i .. % 
 
 as others say, eleven days after, their devotion is same period, with ranges of batteries extending 
 
 . " . f> i __i 1 ,,,-,,1. +ir/i t,-ii1ijt? j-vP nrwiiiTirl V\nt it foil Vkofrtro *Vn 
 
 attended with circumstances of peculiar solemni- over two miles of ground ; but it fell before the 
 
 ty; on which occasion, they sacrifice a black British attack. The portions of Agra, finally 
 
 heifer, distribute parts of it to several clans, eat 
 
 the carcase raw, and drink the water of the Nile. 
 
 The bones are then burned to ashes ; and the 
 
 head is carried into a cavern, which they say 
 
 reaches below the fountains of the river, and 
 
 there they perform their secret worship, which 
 
 ceded to our arms, are part of the Bengal pre- 
 sidency. 
 
 No part of Ilindostan contains a richer soil, 
 or one that has been better cultivated, than por- 
 tions of this province. The devastations of war, 
 and its being divided among so many hostile 
 
 no one is allowed to divulge. The Agows of masters, has much checked its general prosperity ; 
 Damot worship the Nile; and those of Lasta pay 
 nearly the same worship to the Siris or Tacazze. 
 These last have a separate language, and are 
 Troglodytes, who live in caverns. Mr. Bruce 
 apprehends that Agow is a compound of two 
 words, Ag-hoa, q. d. the shepherds of the river ; 
 and that the species of idolatry introduced by 
 them is a proof that they originally came from 
 Canaan, where they imbibed materialism instead 
 of the pure Sabaean worship of the shepherds of 
 Agaazi, which was, at an early period, the only 
 religion of this part of Africa. The mountains 
 in all the districts or clans of Agows are per- 
 forated in caves of a very large size, which some 
 suppose were their ancient habitations when 
 they were Troglodytes, or places of retreat when 
 they were alarmed by the approach of their most 
 formidable enemies, the Gallas. Others think it 
 not improbable, that these caverns were used for 
 religious purposes ; that of Geesh, in particu- 
 lar, was without doubt, a place of secret worship 
 paid to the river, as it is still appropriated to that 
 use, not only by the inhabitants of the village, 
 but by the assembly of the clans in general, who 
 retire for the celebration of those rites, to which 
 none but the heads of families in the Agows 
 country are ever admitted. Bruce's Trav. vol. i. 
 401. vol. iii. 527. 
 
 AGRA, a kind of sweet scented wood, found 
 in the island of Hainan, on the coast of China. 
 
 AGRA CARAMBA, another sweet scented wood, 
 which also comes from the island of Hainan. 
 
 AGRA, a province of Hindostan Proper, 
 situated between the twenty-fifth and twenty- 
 
 but grain of all kinds, sugar, indigo, and cotton, 
 are yielded, with little labour, in all the British 
 districts. At Futtehpore and Sikri, are marble 
 quarries, and some inferior copper mines are 
 said to have been opened in the same neighbour- 
 hood ; but they were never worked with any 
 success. The province was formerly celebrated 
 for its silks. It yields superior horses, and con- 
 tains about 6,000,000 of inhabitants. 
 
 AGRA, the chief city of the above province, is 
 situated on the S.W. bank of the Jumna, in N. 
 lat. 27. 12'. and E. long. 77. 56'. This place 
 is connected with the whole of the modern 
 history of India, during which it has passed into 
 the hands of various masters. In 1 509 it was first 
 brought into notice, by the emperor of Hin- 
 dostan, Secunder, the son of Balloli, transferring 
 to this place, from Delhi, the seat of his govern- 
 ment. In the reign of his successor, the nobles 
 of Agra invited hither Baber, a Mogul prince of 
 the house of Timur Bee, to take possession of 
 the throne, and Ibrahim, their monarch, was 
 killed on the plain of Paniput, with 16,000 of 
 his followers. Acber, the grandson of Baber, 
 was the ablest and most prosperous prince in 
 the history of the Mahommedan empire in 
 India. He divided Hindostan into soubahs, 
 circars, and pergunnahs, and possessed an army 
 of 600,000 men, horse and foot, with an annual 
 revenue of upwards of 30,000,000 sterling. 
 After him, this capital was for a while called 
 Akbarabad, and to this prince it was indebted 
 for a noble castle, which is said to have cost him 
 2,000,500 rupees. The Ayeen Acberry was a 
 
 eighth degrees of north latitude, whose capital, compendium of jurisprudence, compiled at Agra 
 Agra, is in the possession of the British, toge- by the enlightened minister of Acber, Abul 
 
 ther with a small tract in the vicinity, and all 
 the country east of the Jumna. Several rajahs, 
 allies of the British, possess the western and 
 north-western districts. That portion of the 
 province which is south of the Chumbul, is under 
 the dominion of the Mahrattas. 
 
 The whole province, thus important to British 
 
 Fazul, under whose auspices it became the most 
 considerable city of India, for extent and mag- 
 nificence. The mausoleum of Acber is still to 
 be seen here; but the chief ornament of the 
 town is the Taje Mahal, or Crown of Edifices, 
 an unrivalled tomb to the memory of the em- 
 press of Shah Jehan, her grandson, who died in
 
 AGR 
 
 307 
 
 AGR 
 
 the year 1632. This is wholly built of the 
 finest white marble, inlaid with precious stones, 
 and is said to have cost the emperor 60 lacks of 
 rupees, or about 750,000 sterling. Just before 
 this period, Sir Thomas Roe, the first English 
 ambassador that was sent to the emperor of 
 Hindostan, appeared at Agra ; and shortly after 
 we read of a college of Jesuits, which was pro- 
 tected and patronized here by the father of 
 Aurengzebe. This monarch converted the castle 
 of Agra into a prison for his father, and trans- 
 ferred the seat of empire to its ancient capital, 
 Delhi. During his reign, the Mogul empire 
 reached its utmost limits of prosperity; and 
 Agra has ever since been on the decline. The 
 city is a long and narrow crescent, surrounded 
 by the ruins of a strong wall of red stone, and 
 a ditch one hundred feet wide. The houses are 
 lofty, and well built of stone ; but the streets are 
 so narrow, as to admit of no two carriages pass- 
 ing. Its whole appearance is that of an empire 
 which has been. From Agra to Lahore, a dis- 
 tance of 500 miles, the road was completely 
 shaded by lofty trees. 
 
 In 1784, Agra finally passed from the do- 
 minion of the Moguls to that of the Mahrattas, 
 from whom it was taken, in 1803, by general 
 lord Lake. But our possession of it will ever 
 be uncertain in the neighbourhood of the many 
 rival states that divide the province, and par- 
 ticularly while the Bhurtpoor rajah is so very 
 equivocally inclined, as at present, toward the 
 British interests. Agra is 137 miles from Delhi, 
 and 830 from Calcutta. 
 
 AGRARIvE NAVES, was used for vessels 
 placed to keep watch, or guard. 
 
 AGRARI.E STATIONES, in the ancient military 
 art, corps of guards posted in the fields, and in 
 the open air 
 
 AGRA'RIAN, adj. ) Agrarius,agrestes, from 
 
 AGRE'STICK. > ager, a field. 
 
 Agrarian, relating to the fields, especially ap- 
 plied to the division of conquered lands ; agres- 
 tes, growing in the country, hence rural, rustic ; 
 unpolished ; a word of doubtful authority. 
 
 He [Nimrod] was called a hunter, because he was 
 so indeed ; but not so only, but an oppressor too ; his 
 continual conversation with brute beasts, changed his 
 humane disposition into a barbarous and agrestick 
 behaviour. 
 
 Gregory, Posthuma, p. 222. 
 
 It appears that the jubilee could not be intended 
 for an agrarian law. 
 
 Wren's Monarchy Asserted, p. 137. 
 
 AGRARIAN LAWS, among the Romans, those 
 relating to the division and distribution of 
 lands ; of which there was a great number ; but 
 the principal are, the lex Cassia, in the year of 
 Rome 268 ; the lex Licinia, in 386 ; the lex 
 Flaminia, in 525 ; two Sempronian laws, in the 
 year 620 ; the lex Apuleia, in the year 653 ; the 
 lex Bsebia ; the lex Cornelia, in 673 ; the lex 
 Servilia, in 690 ; the lex Flavia ; the lex Julia, 
 in the year 691 ; the lex TElia Liciuia, the lex 
 Liria, the lex Marcia, the lex Roscia, made 
 after the taking of Carthage ; the lex Floria, and 
 the lex Tnia. See ACER. 
 
 That called the agrarian law, by way of emi- 
 nence, was published by Spurius Cassius, about 
 
 the year of Rome 268, :or dividing the con- 
 quered lands equally among all the citizens, and 
 limiting the number of acres which each citizen 
 might enjoy. The Roman lands were of several 
 kinds ; some conquered from the enemies, and 
 not yet brought to the public account; others 
 brought indeed to the public, but clandestinely 
 usurped by private great men ; lastly, others pur- 
 chased with the public money in order to be 
 divided. Agrarian laws, either for dividing 
 lands from the enemy, or the public lands, or 
 those purchased with the public money, were 
 easily passed without disturbance ; but those 
 whereby private rich men were to be deprived 
 of their lands, and the common people put in 
 possession of what had been held by the nobility, 
 were never attempted without great commotions. 
 
 The agrarian law alluded to originated in the 
 ambitious views of Cassius, who thus intrigued 
 for gainingthe favour of the people, and for attain- 
 ing absolute power. The law has the appearance 
 of equity, and could not fail to be agreeable to 
 the people, whose misery it relieved. But as 
 the lands, which Cassius wished to have distri- 
 buted among the poorer citizens, had been un- 
 justly usurped by the rich, the proposal alarmed 
 the senators, partly because they were perso- 
 nally interested in it, and partly because they 
 apprehended its dangerous consequences. The 
 people were at first pleased ; but when they un- 
 derstood that the Latins were to partake with 
 them of the advantage, they wete disgusted. To 
 conciliate the Latins, and to engage their concur- 
 rence in his favour, were the objects which Cas- 
 sius had in view ; but the jealousy and dissatis- 
 faction of the Roman people disappointed his 
 hopes, and terminated in his death. As soon as 
 he was found guilty of aspiring to the sovereignty, 
 and sentence was passed upon him, he was car- 
 ried by the questors to the Tarpeian rock, which 
 fronted the forum, and thrown down from the 
 top to the bottom in the presence of the people; 
 such was the customary punishment of this crime 
 amongst the Romans. His house was also de- 
 molished, and his estate sold by auction. With 
 the money arising from it a statue of brass was 
 erected to Ceres. The plebeians, when they 
 afterwards found that the decree of the senate, 
 for the distribution of lands, was not executed, 
 nor any measures adopted for this purpose, re- 
 proached themselves with the condemnation of 
 Cassius, as an act of imprudence, and even of 
 injustice. In the year of Rome 299, the subject 
 of the agrarian laws, which had been suspended 
 for thirty years, was revived by the tribunes; 
 and the people demanded, that as they shared 
 with the patricians in the labours and dangers 
 of the commonwealth, they might also share with 
 them in the benefits accruing from them. But a 
 new partition would have been attended with 
 great difficulties; and it seemed impossible to 
 proceed in this business, without manifest injus- 
 tice to many persons in actual possession of the 
 lands to be distributed, who had really bought 
 them, and without occasioning great and univer- 
 sal commotions in the commonwealth. For 
 these reasons the senate firmly opposed the 
 establishment of the agrarian law. 
 
 About the year 377, C. Licinius Stilo, a rich
 
 AGR 
 
 303 
 
 AGR 
 
 plebeian, and tribune of the people, attempted 
 to restrain the overgrown power and wealth of 
 the patricians, by proposing a law, which should 
 restrict every Roman citizen to the possession 
 of 500 acres, and oblige him to surrender the 
 overplus, in order to be divided among the 
 poorer citizens. His motion, though enforced 
 by the influence of his colleague in the tri- 
 buneship, L. Sextius, was over-ruled; and new 
 commotions occasioned by the approach of the 
 Gauls, having engaged the public attention, the 
 business of the agrarian law was deferred for 
 nine years ; and about the end of that time it 
 was again revived, and the law was established : 
 this was called the Licinian law ; and the mover 
 of it was soon afterwards condemned by his 
 own law. Having been found to possess more 
 than 1000 acres, 500 of them were distributed 
 among the poor citizens, and he was com- 
 pelled to pay the fine, which he had annexed 
 to the violation of the law. In consequence 
 of this abuse, the law itself was abolished. In 
 process of time, however, the great and rich 
 possessed themselves of almost all the lands 
 that belonged originally to the state, either by 
 purchase, or by paying a greater quit-rent, or 
 by violence. Several regulations had been pro- 
 posed for restraining these usurpations. At 
 'length, other measures having been found in- 
 effectual, (A. U. C. 620 B. C. 134,) Tiberius 
 Gracchus, urged by his mother Cornelia, pro- 
 posed the revival of the Licinian law ; and that 
 the rich should quit the lands which they held 
 contrary to the laws, after having received from 
 the public the value of them ; and that the 
 citizens, whose circumstances required relief, 
 should take possession of them. Many ob- 
 jections were urged against this mild and hu- 
 mane regulation, as Plutarch calls it : and the 
 prosecution of it brought the commonwealth to 
 the brink of destruction, and cost the two illus- 
 trious brothers, the Gracchi, their lives. Their 
 efforts were of little avail, as the laws they 
 kboured to introduce were gradually abolished 
 after their death. Cicero, in speaking of the 
 partition of lands and the remittance of debts, 
 says (Offi.l. 2. n. 78.) 'that to undertake to 
 licharge debtors by the authority of the magis- 
 trate, or to pass the law so often proposed for 
 the distribution of lands, is to sap the two prin- 
 cipal foundations of the commonwealth: of 
 which the one is peace between the citizens, 
 which could not subsist, if creditors were to 
 lose their fortunes by the discharging of debtors; 
 and the other justice, which is entirely sub- 
 verted, from the instant no one can assure him- 
 
 If of continuing peaceable possessor of his 
 
 The agrarian law of the tribune Satur- 
 
 ninus, which was carried with violence A. U. C. 
 
 652, was of very short duration, and that of 
 
 Rullus in the year 689, which was more ex- 
 
 sitant than any other ; and gave up to a small 
 lumber of citizens, under the pretext of reliev- 
 ing the poor, almost all the revenues of the 
 commonwealth, afforded Cicero an admirable 
 opportunity of displaying his eloquence in ex- 
 posing -t and inducing the people to resist it. 
 1 he exordium of his oration on this occasion has 
 been much admired. Cic. II. i n R u ll The 
 
 ag-arian law of Caesar was presented to the 
 senate in the beginning of his consulship, 
 A. U. 693 ; and he urged in its favour, that a 
 distribution of lands among the poor citizens 
 was altogether useful, and necessary to deliver 
 the city from a multitude of people with which 
 it was overburdened, and often gave rise to 
 seditions ; to re-people and cultivate several 
 parts of Italy, which were abandoned ; to re- 
 compense the soldiers who had served the com- 
 monwealth, and to give subsistence to many 
 citizens who wanted it. He proposed the ex- 
 ecution of it in the mildest and most moderate 
 manner ; and that twenty commissioners should 
 preside at the distribution of the lands, except- 
 ing himself out of the number. Notwithstand- 
 ing these specious pleas, Cato inveighed loudly 
 against the project of Caesar, alleging that he 
 did not so much apprehend the division of the 
 lands, as the wages that would be required of 
 the people by those who sought to inveigle them 
 by this present. Cato was imprisoned for his 
 opposition; and when another senator was 
 asked by Czesar why he departed before the 
 senate broke up, he replied, ' because 1 had 
 rather be with Cato in a prison, than with you 
 in the senate.' Caesar appealed to the people ; 
 and having engaged the concurrence of Pompey 
 and Crassus, the resistance of Bibulus, Csesar's 
 colleague in the consulship, and the vehement 
 opposition of Cato were ineffectual. The law 
 was authorised by the suffrages of the people. 
 Cicero acquiesced in this measure, by observing 
 a kind of neutrality; and argues to this pur- 
 pose : ' Let us remain neuter, as if buried in 
 a house in the country. Caesar hopes that I 
 will second him and invites me to it. See the 
 advantages I shall gain by taking this party ; 
 the friendship of Pompey, and even that of 
 Csesar, if I desired it ; a reconciliation with 
 my enemies ; the peace of the multitude ; and 
 the assurance of quiet in my old age ; but after 
 the conduct I have maintained in nry consul- 
 ship, and the principles which I have main- 
 tained in my writings, ought not my rule to 
 be this maxim of Homer (II. M. 243), 'the best 
 of all counsels is, to defend one's country ?' 
 Cicero ad Attic, ii. 3. In persuading Cato to 
 give up his resistance to this measure, he con- 
 jures him to consider, ' that if Cato has no 
 need of Rome, Rome has need of Cato.' Cir. 
 pro. Sext. p. 61. 
 
 Niebhur, a modern writer, has shown satis- 
 factorily that these Agrarian Laws, which have 
 so long been considered as unjust attacks on 
 private property, had for their object only the 
 distribution of lands that belonged to the state, 
 and that the troubles they occasioned were im- 
 putable to those who had settled upon them 
 without any title. 
 
 AGREDA, a frontier town of Spain, in Old 
 Castile, near the borders of Arragon, and eight 
 miles south-west of Taracona. It is enclosed 
 with a good wall. 
 
 AGREDULA, is a name given to a species 
 of the frog. Also, a city of South America, in 
 the province of Popayan, forty-two leagues from 
 Quito, and thirty-seven from the South Sea. It 
 was founded in 1561.
 
 AGR 
 
 309 
 
 AGR 
 
 AGREE', v. 
 
 AGREE'ABILITIE, 
 
 AGREE'ABLE, 
 
 AGREE'ABLENESS^ 
 
 Fr. agreer, gre, from 
 gralurn, to maintain friend- 
 ship, sociability, or con- 
 sistency ; to reconcile, suit, 
 
 AGREE'ABLY, ^-approve, allow, accept, 
 AGREED'. consent, concur. A fa- 
 
 Ac REE'ING, vourable and pleasing sig- 
 
 AGREE'INGLY, nification characterizes the 
 AGREE'MENT. J root and its derivatives. 
 Whom I ne founde froward ne fell. 
 But toke agree all whole my plaie. 
 
 Chaucer. R. of R. fol. 136, col. 3. 
 All fortune is blisful to a man, by the agreability, 
 or by the egality of hym that suffereth it. 
 
 Idem. Baecins, b. ii. fol. 218, col. 1. 
 Than ilk man smertlie tastis the wyne at tabil, 
 Pray and thare Goddis to be aggreabil. 
 
 Douglas, b. viii. p. 250. 
 
 And thus the couenant that ye made wt death shall 
 be disannulled : and your agremente that ye made with 
 Lell, shall not stande. Bible, 1539. Isaiah xxviii. 
 
 What agreement is there between the hyena and 
 the dog ? and what peace, between the rich and the 
 poor? Eccles. xiii. 18. 
 
 The delight, which men have in popularity ; fame, 
 submission, and subjection of other men's minds ; 
 seemeth to be a thing (in itself, without contempla- 
 tion of consequence) agreeable and grateful, to the 
 nature of man. Bacon's Nat. Hut. 
 
 What you do, is not at all agreeable, either with so 
 good a Christian, or so reasonable and so great 
 a person. Temple. 
 
 It is a peculiar excellency of our religion, that it 
 doth not much employ men's care, pains, and time, 
 about matters of ceremonial observance ; but doth 
 chiefly (and in a manner wholly) exercise them in 
 works of subtantial duty, agreeable to reason, per- 
 fective of man's nature, productive of true glory to 
 God, and solid benefit to men. Barrow. 
 
 Must the whole man (amazing thought ! ) return 
 To the cold marble and contracted urn ? 
 And never shall those particles agree, 
 That were in life this individual he ? Prior. 
 
 It is very much an image of that author's writing ; 
 who has an agreeabieaess that charms us, without cor- 
 rectness ; like a mistress, whose faults we see, but 
 love her with them all. Pope. 
 
 No object is more pleasing to the eye than the sight 
 of a man whom you have obliged ; nor any music so 
 agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one that owns you 
 for his benefactor. Spectator. 
 
 AGREGAN, or AGRIGAN, or island of St. 
 Xavier, one of the Ladrones or Marianne islands, 
 in the South Pacific ocean, situated between 
 Pagon and Assonsong. It is forty-eight miles 
 in circuit, very mountainous, and contains seve- 
 ral volcanoes. North lat. 19. 4'. East long. 
 14. 6'. 
 
 AGREVE, ST., a town of France, in the 
 Vivarais. It is the head of a canton in the de- 
 partment of the Ardeche, arrondissement of 
 Tournon, and contains 2540 inhabitants. Seven 
 leagues and a half north-west of Privas. 
 
 AGRESSES. See AGGRESSES. 
 
 AGRESTA, a name that has been sometimes 
 given to the juice of unripe grapes. 
 
 AGRESTI DA FORLI, (Livio,) an histo- 
 rical painter, the disciple of Pierino del Vaga. 
 He is commended for the richness of his inven- 
 tion, the goodness of his colouring, and the cor- 
 rectness of his design. Many of his works, both 
 in fresco and oil, are in the Vatican, where he 
 
 v.-as employed by Gregory XIII. There are also- 
 at Rome, several altar-pieces of his hand. He 
 died in that city, in 1580. 
 
 AGRIA, a river in Upper Hungary, on the 
 banks of which is a town of that name. 
 
 AGRIA, called by the Germans Eger, a small 
 but strong town in Upper Hungary, with a 
 bishop's see : is situated on the Agria, forty- 
 seven miles, north-east of Buda, and fifty-five, 
 west of Cossovia, has a citadel called Eriow. In 
 1552 it was besieged by the Turks, with 70,000 
 men : but they lost 8000 in one day ; and were 
 obliged to raise the siege, though the garrison 
 consisted only of 2000 Hungarians, assisted by 
 the women, who performed wonders on this oc- 
 casion. However, it was afterwards taken by 
 Mahomet III. in 1596 ; but, was retaken by the 
 emperor, in 1689; since which time, it has con- 
 tinued under the dominion of the house of Aus- 
 tria. Lon. 20. 10'. E. Lat. 48. 10'. N. 
 
 AGRIA, in botany, holly. 
 
 AGRIA, in medicine, a malignant pustule, of 
 which there are two sorts. The one is small, 
 with a roughness, redness, and slight corrosion 
 of the skin ; it is of a round figure, its centre is 
 smooth, and it spreads slowly. The other sort 
 ulcerates with a violent redness and corrosion, so 
 as to make the hair fall off ; it is of an unequal 
 form, and turns leprous. It is cured by poultices 
 of pelitory of the wall. 
 
 AGRIJE, in natural history, an order of quad- 
 rupeds, which have no teeth, but have a very 
 long cylindric tongue. Of this order, there are 
 only two known genera, the myrmecophaga, and 
 the manis. 
 
 AGRIAMPELOS, from ayptoc, wild, and 
 apiriXoG, vine, the wild vine ; and, according tc* 
 Gerard, the black briony. 
 
 AGRICOLA, (Cneius Junius,) born at Frejus 
 Province, was, in Vespasian's time, made lieu- 
 tenant to Vettius Bolanus, in Britain ; and, upon 
 his return, was ranked by that emperor among 
 the patricians, and made governor of Aquitania. 
 This post he held three years ; was afterwards 
 chosen consul, and at last appointed governor of 
 Britain, where he greatly distinguished himself. 
 He reformed many abuses occasioned by the 
 avarice of former governors, put a stop to extor- 
 tion, and caused justice to be impartially ad- 
 ministered. Vespasian dying about this time, 
 his son Titus, knowing the great merit of Agricola, 
 continued him in the government. In the spring 
 he marched towards the north, where he made 
 some new conquests, and ordered forts to be 
 built for the Romans to winter in. He spent 
 the following winter in concerting schemes to 
 bring the Britons to conform to the Roman cus- 
 toms. He considered that the best way of 
 diverting them from rising and taking arms, was 
 to soften their rough manners, by proposing to 
 them new kinds of pleasure, and inspiring them 
 with a desire of imitating the Roman manners. 
 Accordingly, he adorned the country with mag- 
 nificent temples, and many other fine buildings. 
 The British nobles at length sought education 
 for their sons ; and those, who before had the ut- 
 most aversion to Roman language, now began 
 to study it with great assiduity : they wore like- 
 wise the Roman habit; and, as Tacitus observes,
 
 310 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 they were brought to consider those things as 
 marks of politeness, which were only so many 
 badges of slavery. Agricola, in his third cam- 
 paign, advanced as far as the Tweed ; and in his 
 fourth, he subdued the nations betwixt the Tweed 
 and the friths of Edinburgh and Dumbritton, 
 into which the rivers Glotta and Bodotria, (the 
 Clyde and the Forth,) discharge themselves ; and 
 here he built fortresses to shut up the nations 
 yet unconquered. In his fifth, he marched be- 
 yond the friths ; whence he made some new 
 acquisitions, and fixed garrisons along the western 
 coasts, over against Ireland. In his sixth cam- 
 paign, he passed the river Bodotria, ordering his 
 fleet (the first which the Romans ever had in 
 those parts,) to row along the coasts, and take a 
 view of the northern parts. In the following 
 spring, the Britons raised an army of 30,000 
 men ; and the command was given to Galgacus, 
 who, according to Tacitus, made an excellent 
 speech to his countrymen on this occasion. Agri- 
 cola likewise addressed his men in strong and 
 eloquent terms. The Romans gained the victory, 
 and 10,000 of the Britons are said to have been 
 killed. This happened in the reign of the em- 
 peror Domitian, who growing jealous of the glory 
 of Agricola, recalled him, under pretence of 
 making him governor of Syria. Agricola died 
 soon after ; and his death was suspected to have 
 been occasioned by poison given him by that 
 emperor. Tacitus, the historian, married his 
 daughter, wrote his life, and laments his death in 
 the most pathetic manner. 
 
 AGRICOLA, (George,) a German physician fa- 
 mous for his skill in metals, was born at Glaucha, 
 in Misnia, in 1494. The discoveries which he 
 made in the mountains of Bohemia, gave him so 
 great a desire of investigating every thing relating 
 to metals, that though he had engaged in the 
 
 practice of physic at Joachimstal, he still prose- 
 cuted his study of fossils with great assiduity ; 
 and at length removed to Chemnitz, where he 
 entirely devoted himself to it, and spent in pur- 
 suit of it, the pension he had received from 
 Maurice, duke of Saxony, and part of his own 
 estate ; so that he reaped more reputation than 
 profit from his labours. He wrote several pieces 
 on this and other subjects ; and died at Chem- 
 nitz, in 1555, a firm papist. In his younger 
 years, he seemed not averse to the Protestant 
 doctrine ; and he highly disapproved of the 
 scandalous traffic of indulgences, and other cor- 
 ruptions of the church of Rome ; but in the 
 latter part of his life he attacked the Protestant 
 religion ; which rendered him so odious to the 
 Lutherans, that they suffered his body to remain 
 unburied for five days together ; so that it was 
 obliged to be removed from Chemnitz to Zeits, 
 to^be interred. 
 
 AGRICOLA, (John,) a Saxon divine, born at 
 Eislebenin 1492. He was chaplain to count 
 Mansfield, when he attended the elector of 
 Saxony to the diet of Spire, in 1526, and that 
 of Augsburg, in 1530. But he was of a restless 
 ambitious temper, rivalled, and wrote against 
 Melancthon, and gave count Mansfield occasion 
 to reproach him severely. He obtained a professor- 
 ship at Wittenberg, where he became founder of 
 the sect of Antinomians; which occasioned warm 
 disputes between him and Luther, who had before 
 been his friend. Though he was never able to 
 recover the favour either of the elector of Saxony, 
 or of Luther, he acquired great fame at Berlin, 
 where he became a preacher at court ; and was 
 chosen in 1548, in conjunction with Julius Phlug 
 and Michael Heldingus, to compose the famous 
 Interim, which made so much noise in the world. 
 He died at Berlin, in 1566. 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 AGRICULTURE, n. } Ager, a field, colo, 
 \cultum, to till; the 
 
 AGRICULTURAL, 
 AGRICULTURIST. 
 
 J culture of the fields. 
 
 He strictly adviseth not to begin to sow before the 
 etting of the stars ; which notwithstanding, without 
 injury to agriculture, cannot be observed in England. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 The disposition of Ulysses inclined him to war 
 
 rtV^Vr 1 m re lucrative > but more secure, 
 method of life, by agriculture and husbandry. 
 
 Broome, Notes on the Odyssey. 
 
 1 AGRICULTURE, properly defined, is 
 ie art of cultivating and improving the territo- 
 
 duiv s ? v- so ? lo render h fertile and Pro- 
 
 Si . ,1 m ltS m St extensive sense > " 
 divides itself ,nto two great branches, TERRII-O- 
 
 cludUT" Y> ^ HUSBANnBY ; the formerin- 
 
 n HT 116 " 1 and S eneral man age- 
 ment of landed property; the latter in a more 
 limited sense the manual practice of agriculture 
 Combining both these divisions, which are ?n 
 Aemsehres collateral, agriculture is the mart 
 
 ortant science to which the human inteHec 
 directed-the parent of all other sc i'n ce 
 
 and art alike interesting all nations and all ages 
 born with the birth of time given to man in 
 the primeval state of his being, and spreading 
 an influence over the whole circle of his wants, 
 comforts, pleasures, passions, luxuries, arts, 
 manufactures, commerce ; together with his phy- 
 sical peculiarities of constitution, his natural, 
 moral, political, and civil relations. From 
 this view of its importance, we cannot wonder 
 that it should have attracted the attention of 
 mankind, in the earliest periods of the world, 
 and have furnished employment for the highest 
 classes of society; since this alone preserved 
 them from all the miseries of famine, and af- 
 forded a more permanent subsistence than either 
 the bow or the chase. When God created man, 
 and placed him in the garden to till the ground, 
 it seemed to imply that the resources of animal 
 Me were treasured up in the soil ; all nations 
 have acted upon this general principle instinc- 
 tively ; and the rich harvests that waved over the 
 ancient site of Chaldeaand Phanicia, or adorned 
 ie rich and fertile vale of Egypt, evinced that 
 the soil when cherished by cultivation, was capable 
 * producing in great abundance, not only the
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 necessaries, but the luxuries of life. The Chal- 
 deans and Phoenicians carried this valuable art to 
 a pitch of improvement little short of excellence. 
 The Chinese consider it as the most noble and 
 honourable of all employments ; and have placed 
 it from time immemorial, under the protection of 
 their princes and nobility. The Egyptians were 
 so sensible of its importance, that they wor- 
 shipped even the animals that laboured in it. 
 The Greeks thanked the gods for so unexpected 
 a present; and those of Athens, withdrawing 
 their subjects from war, employed them solely 
 in cultivation. Hesiod, contemporary with Ho- 
 mer, was the first who wrote on the subject, in 
 his poem, entitled ' Weeks and Days;' besides 
 whom Democritus of Abdera, Xenophon, Taren- 
 tinus, Architas, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and 
 other eminent Greek writers have successively 
 employed themselves upon the same interesting 
 topic. So assiduous were the Carthaginians in 
 the study of agriculture, that their general Mago 
 wrote no fewer than twenty-eight books upon it , 
 which, being translated, at the command of the 
 senate, into the Roman language, are said to 
 have been the model on which Virgil com- 
 posed his Georgics. The estimation in which 
 this art was held in Rome, is known to most of 
 our readers ; the most illustrious citizens deem- 
 ing it their most honourable employment. Ge- 
 nerals, who put themselves at the head of her 
 armies, pushed her conquests, and carried her 
 eagles round the world, could handle the plough as 
 well as the sword ; they retired from the conquest 
 of kingdoms to the cultivation of their farms ; 
 and thought it a reward for their labours, when 
 they could obtain a manumission from the ser- 
 vice of the state to enjoy the rural pleasures of 
 the country. M. Cato, that illustrious censor, 
 general, lawyer, orator, and politician, devoted 
 to this subject a Latin volume, dedicated to his 
 son. Varro composed an agricultural treatise, 
 replete with Greek and Latin erudition, and his 
 example was followed by other illustrious Ro- 
 mans. Virgil adorned the subject with the lan- 
 guage of the Muses ; and in the majesty of his 
 verse, finely embellished those first principles of 
 husbandry, which were laid down in the writings 
 of Hesiod and Mago. Agriculture stood upon the 
 Roman capitol in the robes of Ceres, and over- 
 looked a considerable portion of the civilized world. 
 2. In modern times, however, agriculture has 
 been carried to the greatest perfection, and as- 
 sumes an aspect decidedly superior to what it 
 did in Rome. The political advantages enjoyed 
 by all classes in our free and commercial coun- 
 try ; the recent discoveries in geology, chemistry, 
 botany, &c. ; the establishment of agricultural 
 societies in many of the most important parts of 
 Europe ; the endowment of professorships of 
 rural economy, in many celebrated universities ; 
 and the numerous publications that have issued 
 from the press all combining their influence, 
 have awakened an unparalleled spirit of inquiry 
 in all classes, have given a tone to the public 
 mind, and directed it from science to art ; from 
 objects purely intellectual, to their bearings upon 
 other subjects of practical utility. The prepara- 
 tion of land for tillage by means of enclosure, 
 drainage, embanking, &c. requiring, as it does, 
 
 scientific investigation, have called into existence 
 a new profession of artist agriculturists, under 
 the name of land-surveyors, and land-engineers. 
 The changes in occupancy, successive valuation, 
 and transfer of landed property, have given birth 
 to the professions of land valuators, and land 
 agents. From the frequent wide dimensions of 
 landed property, especially by estates which 
 descend by right of primogeniture, have arisen 
 the lower orders of agriculturists, as hinds, land- 
 stewards, bailiffs, 8cc. under whom are placed the 
 inferior or working classes, as ploughmen, carters, 
 spades-men, shepherds, &c. 
 
 3. In this article we shall confine ourselves 
 to three topics. First, a sketch of those sciences 
 that are connected with agriculture ; a know- 
 ledge of which is necessary to every farmer who 
 would conduct his operations on the surest and 
 most advantageous principles ; these are, botany, 
 mineralogy, meteorology, physiology, &c. re- 
 ferring our readers to these respective articles for 
 complete treatises on them. Secondly, a general 
 view of soil, and of jhe principles on which the 
 farmer ought to proceed in ameliorating them 
 by ploughing, manures, &c. and by a proper ro- 
 tation of crops, in order to raise the fertility ot 
 his land to the highest pitch : and here we add 
 a slight sketch of those general principles of 
 animal nature with which the scientific farmer 
 will become acquainted. Thirdly, a brief history 
 of agriculture, ancient and modern, with a rapid 
 sketch of its present state. 
 
 4. With respect to the practical rules and details 
 of agriculture, they will be found under the 
 article HUSBANDRY. By far the largest portion 
 of the territorial surface of the British empire is 
 cultivated under, first, the arable system; secondly 
 the grazing, for rearing and fattening cattle and 
 sheep ; thirdly, the dairy for butter and cheese ; 
 or fourthly, the modern and most improved 
 system, called the convertible, in which the arable 
 and grazing alternate. Under the article HUS- 
 B AN DRY, all the rules and details necessary to carry 
 on these respective systems in the best manner, 
 and to the greatest advantage, will be given. 
 There are, however, other products of the soil, 
 which in some particular parts of the kingdom 
 are the objects of the agriculturist; these, as not 
 interesting to farmers in general, we shall notice, 
 not under husbandry, but under their own heads ; 
 such as orchards, including the manufacture of 
 cider and perry ; cherry, filbert, &c. orchards : 
 hops, including their preparation for the market, 
 as well as their culture ; carraway, coriander 
 seed, &c. and woods and plantations. 
 
 5. In the present article, agriculture, and 
 those we have just enumerated, the cultivator of 
 the soil will learn all he requires to know. The 
 proprietors of the soil we refer to the article 
 LANDED PROPERTY for information respecting the 
 valuation, sale, and purchase of estates ; the 
 laws regarding them ; the duties of a land steward ; 
 leases, &c. : and to the article LANDSCAPE GAR- 
 DENING for information regarding the ornamental 
 laying out of ground. The articles LAND-SUR- 
 VETING and RURAL ARCHITECTURE, will complete 
 the circle of agricultural information in all its 
 branches. 
 
 6. SECT. I. SKETCH or THE SCIENCES CON
 
 312 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 a base, apex, midrib, and lateral nerves ; and 
 the frond, a compound incorporation of the 
 leaf, leaf-stalk, and branch or stem, apparently 
 
 WITH AGRICULTURE. The object of 
 agriculture in that view of it which we are now 
 
 presenting to the reader, is to augment the ieai, icm-siaiK, u uiau^u ui sicm, a^pui-eimy 
 
 quantity, and to improve the quality of vege- forming one organ, the parts of which do not 
 
 table and animal substances, with the least possi- separate from each other by means of the frac 
 
 ble expenditure. To do this effectually, the ture of any natural joint, but adhere togethei 
 
 student ought to have a scientific initiation into even in a state of decay, as is the case in ferns 
 
 the leading principles on which his art is founded, and palms. 
 
 with all their collateral branches and relations. 11. CONSERVATIVE APPENDAGES. Accessory 
 He ought to have acquired mensuration and or supernumerary appendages, as gems, glands, 
 algebra, a rapidity of sketching objects both tendrils, stipulse, ramenta, armature, and pu- 
 animal and vegetable ; also of taking off and bescence, form an accompaniment to the con- 
 forming geometrical plans, especially he ought servative organs, although not invariably ; they 
 
 to have studied chemistry, hydraulics, and other 
 sciences ; without which he cannot proceed in 
 the prosecution of his object on the basis of any 
 fixed and established principles. It is true, 
 agriculture in common with other arts, may be 
 
 are however permanent wherever they are found, 
 and vary in different species. Gems or bulbs 
 are organized substances ; the rudiments of new 
 individuals detaching themselves from the parent 
 plant, and fixing themselves in the soil. Glands 
 
 pursued without any philosophical knowledge are small and minute substances of various forms, 
 
 of its theory ; established practices may be imi- 
 tated : but the mere routine practitioner cannot 
 derive advantage from favourable occurrences, 
 nor guard against the recurrence of others that 
 are unfavourable ; for unforeseen events he will 
 have no resource but ordinary expedients, no 
 grammar but his own observations ; while the 
 man of science, referring events to their true 
 causes, has recourse to general principles, and 
 meets every accident with scientific and appro- 
 priate remedies. 
 
 7. A due acquaintance with systematical bo- 
 tany, vegetable and animal anatomy, chemistry, 
 physiology, and pathology, if united with prac- 
 tical knowledge in the art of agriculture, will 
 enable the farmer to derive the greatest advan- 
 tages from his profession. 
 
 With respect to the first of these, viz. 
 systematic botany. 
 
 protruding mostly from the leaf and petiole, and 
 supposed to be the organs of secretion. The 
 tendril is generally a thread-shaped spiral pro- 
 cess, issuing from the stem, branch, or petiole ; 
 and occasionally from the expansion of the leaf, 
 by which plants of climbing disposition adhere 
 to other plants, or adjacent substances, for their 
 support. Stipulae are foliaceous appendages 
 accompanying the leaves, of which they seem to 
 present a new miniature species. Ramenta are 
 oblong appendages issuing from the surface of 
 the plant, strongly resembling the stipulae, al- 
 though not necessarily accompanying the leaves. 
 The armature consists of auxiliary parts adapted 
 by nature to defend the plant. The pubescence 
 includes all sorts of vegetable down, surround- 
 ing the surface of the plant. 
 
 12. RE-PRODUCTIVE ORGANS. The re-pro- 
 ductive organs including the flower, flower-stalk, 
 
 8. CLASSIFICATION. The vegetable kingdom receptacle, inflorescence, and ovary, are thos<; 
 is divided into classes, orders, genera, species, and parts necessary to the propagation of the species 
 varieties. A class is an assemblage of plants dis- by terminating the old individual, and beginning 
 tinguished by some common peculiarity ; an the new. The flower, distinguished by the 
 order is a division of a class known by some beauty of its colouring and odoriferous ex- 
 character; a genus is formed by a still more cellence of its perfume, emerges from the ex- 
 hmited coincidence ; and each individual which tremity of the branches, root, stem, and occa- 
 remains unchanged when raised from seed, is sionally the leaves ; and forms the apparatus 
 called a species ; any accidental deviation from 
 which, forms a variety, and returns by seed to 
 its original specific character. 
 
 9; . VEG : ETABI - E ANATOMY forms another lead- ~^ uul acM u C . *,= ic^putuic, i c ;*,. ^ i uc 
 ach of botany necessary to be understood flower, is the point of union between its different 
 'cry intelligent agriculturist, before he can parts, or between the flower and the plant, whe- 
 rry on cultivatic i upon any fixed and scientific ther it be sessible or mediate. The inflorescence 
 
 destined by nature for the production of the 
 fruit. The flower-stalk is a partial trunk or 
 stem, supporting the flower or flowers, if they 
 are not sessile. The receptacle, the seat of the 
 
 principle. The structure of plants has com- is 
 monly been considered as EXTERNAL and IN- 
 TERNAL. With respect to the former, the organs ovary or fruit is 
 >t perfect plants are CONSERVATIVE and REPRO- the flower 
 
 DUCTIVE. 
 
 10. CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. The conserva- 
 tive organs are those parts of a plant which are 
 : to its growth ; as, the root 
 alimentary juices of the soil ; 
 which SDrinrinsr immediately from 
 
 the root, ascends in a vertical position "above It" 
 the branches or divisions of the trunk, diverging 
 
 ^numerous points toward the 
 or the stem, and 
 
 the mode of aggregation, arrangement, or 
 distribution of the flowers upon the plant. The 
 the seed vessel that succeeds 
 The appendages to the re-produc- 
 tive -organs, besides being of a finer and more 
 delicate texture than those proper to the parts 
 conservative, are many of them peculiar, as the 
 involucre, spathe, bracte, &c. proper to the 
 flower, and others, as the persisting calyx, ex 
 emplified in the pomegranate, to the fruit. 
 
 13. IMPERFECT PLANTS, EXTERNAL STRUC- 
 TURE OF. Imperfect plants are those that are 
 
 and are commonly distributed into filices, equi- 
 sitaceae, lycopodime, musci, hepaticse, 
 
 b r , , pon*, musc, epac*, a 
 
 des an upper and under surface, lichen*, and fungi. Of these the three former
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 313 
 
 die down to the ground in winter ; but are fur- 
 nished with a perennial root, from which issues 
 annually a frond, producing fructification. The 
 moss tribe are for the most part perennial, and 
 herbaceous plants, approaching to shrubby, con- 
 sisting of a root surmounted with a tuft of 
 minute leaves, furnished with a stem and 
 branches, on which the leaves are closely im- 
 bricated ; and the fructification terminal or 
 lateral. The hepaticte resemble the mosses ; but 
 chiefly constituting fronds, and producing their 
 fruit in a capsule that splits into longitudinal 
 valves. The algae, commonly called sea weeds, 
 include many plants that are not even aquatic ; 
 whose herbage is nevertheless frondose, rarely 
 admitting the distinction of root, stem, and leaf. 
 This tribe with that of the lichenae, are important 
 to agriculture. The fungi, forming the con- 
 necting link between the vegetable and animal 
 kingdoms, are a tribe of plants whose herbage 
 is a frond of a fleshy, pulpy texture, rapid in 
 growth, and short lived in duration, producing 
 seeds in an exposed membrane, or interspersed 
 throughout its whole mass. 
 
 14. INTERNAL STRUCTURE. The internal 
 structure of plants, without a knowledge of 
 which the agriculturist will neither understand 
 well the process of vegetation, nor be able to 
 apply remedies in cases of vegetable sickness, 
 are reducible into component parts, which are 
 again resolved into constituent and primary 
 organs. These are subject to the three following 
 divisions, the decomposite, composite, and ele- 
 mentary. 
 
 15. DECOMPOSITE ORGANS. The decomposite 
 organs, constituting the elementary parts of the 
 individual are, l.The seed, distinguished into two 
 primary divisions, viz. the integuments, and 
 nucleus or embryo, and envelopes. The in- 
 leguments are exterior and interior; the former 
 of which, the original cuticle of the nucleus, is 
 detachable on the maturity of the fruit ; the latter 
 lining the exterior testa, immediately envelopes 
 the nucleus, and in the ripe walnut, for instance, 
 forms a fine net-like membrane. The nucleus 
 within the tegument consists, for the most part, 
 of the albumen, an organ like the white of an 
 egg forming its exterior portion ; the vitellus, an 
 organ of a fleshy, firm contexture, si*uate, when 
 present, immediately within the albumen and 
 the embryo, or germ of the future plant, occupy- 
 ing the centre of the seed, of which it forms the 
 most essential part. Of the embryo, the cotyde- 
 lon, or seed lobe, is that portion which incloses 
 and protects the plantlet, and springs up in the 
 germinating process into what is called the 
 seminal leaf, if the lobe is solitary, and the seed 
 monocotyledonous ; and into seminal leaves, in 
 the case of a plurality of lobes, and a dicotyle- 
 donous seed, (exemplified in the garden bean), 
 or a polycotyledonous seed, as in lepidium 
 satirum, and genus pinus. The plantlet, or 
 miniature of the future plant is the interior and 
 essential part of the embryo, and the seat of 
 vegetable life. 2. The pericarp, by a diversity of 
 modification, rather than of substance, assumes 
 numerous varieties of contexture in different 
 hpeaes. The valves of the capsule, but par- 
 ucuiar/y the partitions which divide it into cells, 
 
 are composed of a skinny membrane, or epi- 
 dermis, covering a pulp, indurated, and covered 
 with longitudinal fibres. The pome is composed 
 of a fine double epidermis, enclosing a soft 
 fleshy pulp, with numerous longitudinal fibres, 
 passing through it in the direction of its longitu- 
 dinal axis. The valves of the legume consist of 
 an epidermis inclosing a pulp lined with a fine 
 membrane, and of numerous longitudinal fibres, 
 forming the seam. The nut-shell is composed of 
 an indurated pulp, covered with an epidermis, 
 and interspersed with longitudinal fibres. The 
 drupe consists of an epidermis, surrounding a 
 fleshy pulp, occasionally so interwoven with 
 longitudinal fibres, as in the case of the cocoa- 
 nut, to consist wholly of threads: the berry is an 
 epidermis, which is a soft pulp. The scales of 
 the strobile are a tough epidermis, with an in- 
 terior pulp, spongy, and often highly indurated, 
 interspersed with longitudinal fibres, pervading 
 the axis. 3. The flower-stalk is a prolongation of 
 the stem, for the support of the flower ; or it is 
 a partial stem, striking out from the parent, and 
 consists of an external envelope or epidermis, a 
 soft pulpy mass, or parenchyma, and a contexture 
 of longitudinal threads, originating in the stem, 
 and passing along the interior of the parenchyma. 
 The organs of the flower are in reality a prolonga- 
 tion of the elementary parts of the stem on which 
 it diverges and spreads its beauty under different 
 modifications, although the longitudinal fibres 
 are seldom found except in the calyx and co- 
 rolla. 4. The leaf-stalk, or petiole, with respect to 
 the leaf answers the same purpose as the former, 
 with respect to the flower, exhibits the same or- 
 ganization and component divisions. 5. Of germs 
 there exists four species, the bud and bulb, pe- 
 culiar to perfect plants ; the propago and gongylus 
 to those which are imperfect ; the former of which 
 are denominated compound germs,beiug furnished 
 with a single envelope, the latter simple germs, 
 because provided with a plurality. The bud con- 
 sists of scales, overlapping each other, and 
 converging towards a point in the apex, cemented 
 often by a mucilaginous substance, exuding 
 from their surface. These scales, by dissection, 
 under the microscope, consist, like the divisions 
 of the calyx, of an epidermis enclosing a pulp, 
 interspersed with a net-work of fibres, unaccom- 
 panied, however, with longitudinal threads. On 
 stripping off the scales of a leaf bud, the remain- 
 ing part will be found to consist of the rudiments 
 of a young branch, terminated by a bunch of 
 incipient leaves, imbedded in a white species of 
 down, complete in all their proportions, and 
 curiously folded in the bud. Bulbs are either 
 radical or caulinary, and exhibit several distinct 
 varieties, solid, coated, or scaly ; protruding, after 
 the natural order of their species, the stem, leaf, 
 and flower. The propago, peculiar to certain 
 genera of imperfect plants, consists, as exempli- 
 fied in the lichens, of a pulpy mass, forming au 
 irregular granule, either naked or enveloped 
 with a fine epidermis. The gongylus simple 
 like the former, and peculiar to certain genera 
 of imperfect plants, consists, as exemplified in 
 the fuci of a pulp slightly indurated, and moulded 
 into a small globular granule of a firm contex- 
 ture, surrounded with an epidermis, or envelope.
 
 314 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 6. The caudtx includes the whole body of both it may be premised that all plants spring origi- 
 
 the trunk and root ; and is, with respect to its 
 inward modification and external appearance, 
 exceedingly different in different tribes. The 
 
 nally from seed, on the internal state, or out- 
 ward circumstances of which the conditions of 
 germination depend. Seeds to germinate must 
 
 first general mode for its internal structure, is be mature. There are, nevertheless, some seeds 
 that in which an epidermis encloses an homo- whose germination commences in the seed 
 geneous pulp or mass of fibres, as exemplified vessels, while attached to the parent plant, and 
 
 particularly "in the algae and fungi. The second 
 is that in which it encloses several heterogeneous 
 substances. This mode is divided into several 
 varieties ; as first, when an epidermis incloses 
 
 before the fruit is ripe, as the garden-radish, 
 pea, lemon, agave vivipara of East Florida, the 
 cyamus nelumbo, or sacred bean of India, &c. 
 In general, seeds will retain the productive faculty 
 
 a soft pulpy mass, interspersed with longitudinal for years, if properly taken care of; and when 
 
 nerves and fibres, extending from the base to 
 the apex, and disposed in a manner peculiar 
 to a tnbe or genus. Another variety, when a 
 
 sown are properly defended from the immediate 
 action of the rays of the sun. Warmth is a 
 capital principle in germination. Seeds, though 
 
 strong bark surrounds a circular layer, or layers sown in winter, do not germinate till the return 
 
 of longitudinal fibres, interwoven with divergent 
 layers of pulp ; thus forming a substance con- 
 centrating a certain medulla, or pith. 
 
 16. COMPOSITE ORGANS. The composite or- 
 gans are the epidermis, pith, pulp, layers, cor- 
 tical and ligneous, vegetable fibre, &c. The 
 epidermis is the envelope of the whole plant, 
 exhibiting a different appearance and tex- 
 ture in proportion to the solidity of the parts 
 which it encloses. The pulp is a soft juicy sub- 
 stance, forming the principal mass of the succulent 
 parts, and has been compared to an accumulation 
 of hexagonal cells formed of the doublings and 
 foldings of a fine delicate membrane. The pith 
 is a spongy substance, enclosed within the 
 centre of the root, stem, and branches, in the 
 direction of their longitudinal axis, forming the 
 substance of the bark. The cortical layers lie 
 immediately under the cellular integument, and, 
 where that member is wanting, beneath the epi- 
 dermis. In some cases they are themselves ex- 
 ternal. They are composed of two elementary 
 bundles of longitudinal fibres, constituting a net- 
 work, and the meshes are supplied by a mass ot 
 pulp more or less indurated. The innermost of 
 
 of spring, when the temperature has been raised 
 to a proper degree ; which, however, varies in 
 different seeds, as is evident from observing the 
 different periods at which they germinate as the 
 summer progressively advances. Germination is 
 accelerated in proportion to the degree of heat : 
 seeds that will germinate in a cool climate in a 
 given time, on being removed nearer the tropics, 
 have their germination accelerated ; and seeds 
 removed from a warmer to a colder climate, 
 have their germination proportionably contracted. 
 Seeds that usually require twelve hours to ger- 
 minate in our ordinary degree of heat, by in- 
 creasing the temperature, may be made to ger- 
 minate in three ; but too powerful a degree of 
 heat destroys the vital principle. Moisture is a 
 necessary condition to germination, but there 
 may be too much water or too little ; if too little, 
 the seed dies for want of moisture; if too much; 
 it rots in the earth. Different degrees of mois- 
 ture are, however, necessary in different plants. 
 The access of atmospheric air is a capital consi- 
 deration in the germination of seed, which is 
 evident from the fact, that 110 seeds will germi- 
 nate in a vacuum, although after lying in a 
 
 these layers, denominated the fibre, is extremely vacuum they will vivify on the admission of 
 fine and delicate, and in some cases, beautifully air. It appears from experiments made by 
 
 reticulated and varied by bundles of longitudinal 
 fibres. It was used by the ancients to write 
 upon before the invention of paper ; that of the 
 daphne lagetto is said to be as beautiful and deli- 
 cate as the finest lace, and to be used by the in- 
 
 Achard, that no seed will germinate in nitro- 
 gen, hydrogen, or carbonic acid, gas, except 
 when mixed with oxygen ; whence it appears that 
 oxygen is the only constituent part of the atmos- 
 phere really essential to the vegetating process. 
 
 habitants of the countries where the tree is native, Humboldt found that seed, previously steeped 
 
 in the place of neck-cloths. On a right know- in water, impregnated with the oxymuriatic acid, 
 
 ledge of these layers depends the agriculturist's exhibits a more rapid germination. Cress-seed, 
 
 success, in grafting, which is effected by uniting the ordinary period of which is thirty-two hours, 
 
 *Kn Hlhdu. -r *1, A. J _. i mi " V . . * 
 
 the liber of the graft and stock. The "ligneous 
 layers concentric and divergent, constitute the 
 
 treated after this manner, germinated in three. 
 19. PERIOD OF GERMINATION. In germina- 
 
 wood, and are seated in the intermediate portion tion, generally speaking, grasses are the most 
 
 Kotll7jnn tV.0. V.1.J, _J ^ :*!- * . * V. JO 
 
 between the baik and the pith. 
 
 17. VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. For vegetable 
 chemistry, including the various products of ve 
 
 rapid ; next to these, cruciform plants ; then legu- 
 minous plants ; then labiate plants ; then umbel- 
 liferous plants; to which succeed the last and 
 
 getables, whether simple, as carbon, oxygen, hy- slowest in the series, viz. rosaceous plants. Of 
 ;en, nitrogen and other elementary principles, the periods which the most common seeds re- 
 nmg by their modifications, the peculiar cha- quire, the following may, for general purposes, 
 racter and properties of plants; or compound, be sufficient : 
 
 gluten, gum, tannin, acids, oils, resins, bal- Wheat, millet-seed 1 day 
 
 sams, alkalies, earths, metallic oxides, campha, Barley 7 days 
 
 charcoal, &c. which are capable of still further 
 decompositions, we must refer to the article 
 Chemistry; also to Dr.Thomson's Chemistry, &c. 
 
 18. GERMINATION OF THE SEED. With re- 
 spect to germination, the first part of vegetation, 
 
 Wheat, millet-seed 
 
 Barley 
 
 Orache 
 
 Spinage 
 
 Beans 
 
 Mustard . 
 
 Lettuce
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 315 
 
 Aniseed 
 Melon 
 Cress-seed 
 Cucumber 
 Radish, beet-root 
 Purslain . 
 Cabbage . 
 Farsley 
 
 and sometimes 
 Hyssop 
 Almond 
 Chesnut 
 Peach 
 Rose 
 Filbert 
 Hawthorn 
 
 . 4 days 
 . 5 
 . 5 
 . 5 
 6 
 
 . 9 
 . 10 
 . 40 
 . 50 
 . 30 
 
 . 1 year 
 . 1 
 . 1 
 . 2 
 . 2 
 . 2 
 
 20. The first symptom of germination is the 
 prolongation of the radicle, bursting through its 
 hteguments, and shooting downwards in the 
 soil. Some persons account for this on the prin- 
 ciple of gravitation ; others from a sort of vege- 
 table instinct, directing infallibly to that situation 
 best suited to the acquisition of nutriment. The 
 next stage of the process exhibits the evolution 
 of the cotyledon or cotyledons, unless the seed is 
 acotyledonous or the cotyledons hypogean, as in 
 the acorn. In the case of seeds furnished with coty- 
 ledons, the next visible step is the extrication of 
 the plumelet, or first real leaf from cotyledons, 
 and its expansion in the open air, after which, if 
 congenial to the nature of the species, are deve- 
 loped the rudiments of a stem, and the plant is 
 complete the radicle descending into the earth, 
 the plumelet ascending into the air. For the 
 philosophy of germination, we must refer the 
 reader to BOTANY. 
 
 21. NOURISHMENT OF PLANTS. The future 
 nourishment of the plant may be considered as 
 derived from the following sources, water, gases, 
 vegetable extracts, salts, earths, manures. 
 
 22. WATER. If plants are deprived of water 
 the leaves become flaccid, and assume a withered 
 appearance ; but if the roots are again supplied 
 with water, the weight of the plant is increased 
 and its freshness restored. And since many 
 plants, as tulips, hyacinths, marine plants, and 
 others, will thrive if the root be fixed in the 
 water independent of the soil, it cannot be 
 doubted but that water answers the purpose of 
 a vegetable aliment. But it does not follow 
 that water is the sole food of plants, as Van Hel- 
 mont, Boyle, and others supposed, or that it is 
 sufficient to form all the substances contained in 
 vegetables, without any other auxiliary. Over- 
 flowing the ground with water greatly increases 
 the fertility of any soil. It is well known how 
 much Egypt owes to the annual overflowing of 
 the Nile ; and even in this country the overflow- 
 ing of any ground is found to be attended with 
 great advantage. This was practised by Mr. 
 Bakewell of Leicestershire, famous for his im- 
 provements in the breed of cattle; and he found 
 it fully answer an annual manuring of any other 
 sort. It is also recommended by Dr. Anderson 
 of Monkshill, in his Essays on Agriculture. 
 The fertilizing quality of water will easily be 
 accounted for on the same principles. When 
 grown vegetables are covered with water, their 
 growthj however vigorous before, is immediately 
 
 stopt, unless they be of the aquatic kind ; they 
 die, are dissolved, and putrified ; in which case 
 their finer parts are undoubtedly absorbed by the 
 earth ; and thus the floating, as it is called, of 
 fields with water, answers the purpose of fallow- 
 ing with very little trouble. This is not all ; for 
 stagnate water always deposits a sediment, 
 which, mixing with the dissolved parts of the 
 vegetables all over the field, forms an excellent 
 manure ; and when the water is allowed to run 
 off, the heat of the sun soon brings the highest 
 degree of putrefaction on the dead vegetables : 
 the effluvia of which mixing with the mud de- 
 posited from the water, makes it exceedingly 
 rich. 
 
 23. GASES. Tliat atmospheric air is necessary 
 to the life and vigour of the plant, may be seen 
 by looking at the different appearance of those 
 plants which are exposed to a free circulation of 
 air, from those which are deprived of it. If a 
 plant is placed even under a glass, to which no 
 new supply of air can have access, it withers and 
 dies. Of the component parts of air required by 
 the plant, may be enumerated a portion of car- 
 bonic acid gas, especially in the higher stages of 
 vegetation ; and oxygen, which is of capital import- 
 ance in every stage of the process. The flower- 
 bud will not expand if confined in an atmosphere 
 deprived of oxygen, nor will the fruit ripen; 
 nitrogen, though it constitutes by far the greater 
 proportion of atmospheric air, is incapable of 
 affording any nutriment to plants. Seeds will 
 not germinate, neither will plants vegetate in 
 it, except for a very limited time. Hydrogen 
 gas is also unfavourable to vegetation, notwith- 
 standing the opinion of Dr. Priestley, that it not 
 only serves for vegetable food, but constitutes 
 the true and proper pabulum of the plant. Al- 
 though both these gases are found in the con- 
 stitution of plants, by chemical analysis, they are 
 derived in some other form than air, the former, 
 nitrogen, perhaps on the extractive principles of 
 vegetable mould, and hydrogen as an element of 
 water. 
 
 24. VEGETABLE EXTRACT. Another part of 
 food for plants consists of vegetable extract or 
 mould. When plants have attained the maturity 
 of their species, they begin to decay : and after their 
 dissolution, are converted into vegetable dust, 
 with a probability of its being again converted 
 into vegetable nourishment, and entering the 
 plant. The whole of it however, cannot enter 
 the plant, because not soluble in water; but the 
 portion that is soluble, and therefore capable of 
 being absorbed by the root, is what is called 
 vegetable extract. There are two ways in which 
 decayed animal and vegetable substances com- 
 municate nourishment to the plant. By the first, 
 floating in the atmosphere, they attach themselves 
 and enter the plant in solution imbibed by the 
 pores; by the second, they enter the root by 
 means of the soil. 
 
 25. SALTS. Salts form a considerable part of 
 the food of plants, d fferent salts being requisite 
 iu different species ; trefoil, lucerne, and clover, 
 Lave their growth much accelerated by sulphate 
 of lime, (gypsum) wheat by phosphate of lime ; 
 barley by nitrate of soda, or potash. Salts, as 
 nitrate, muriate, and sulphate of potash or soda,
 
 316 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 are found in most plants. It is not however, 
 determined in what way salts assist vegetation, 
 whether by hastening the putrefaction of animal 
 substances contained in the soil, or by attracting 
 the humidity of the atmosphere. 
 
 26. EARTHS. Earths, as they are found in 
 different proportions in plants, are derived 
 chiefly from the soil, probably by solution in 
 water, especially as all earths hitherto found in 
 plants are known to be in a slight degree soluble. 
 The experiments of Woodward tend to prove 
 that they are absorbed by the root. Giobert 
 mixed lime, alumina, silica, and magnesia in the 
 same proportions as they are commonly found in 
 fertile soils; and after moistening them with 
 water, sowed different grains in them. These, 
 although they germinated, did not thrive ; and 
 perished when the nourishment of the cotyledons 
 was exhausted. This, in his opinion, established 
 the fact that though beneficial to the growth of 
 some species, and requisite to the health of 
 others, earths are not capable of affording any 
 considerable nourishment to the plant. The 
 supply of food received from the earth depends 
 upon the mechanical or chemical constitution of 
 the soils. The former may be altered by pulveri- 
 zation, consolidation, watering, draining, &c. : the 
 latter by the addition of earths, and other sub- 
 stances, the supply of manures liquid and solid, 
 by irrigation, distribution of dungs, &c. On 
 the whole therefore, we may conclude that although 
 vegetables will grow in any kind of earth, and 
 flourish vigorously, if plentifully supplied with 
 water, yet some kinds of soil are found much 
 more proper for supplying them with nourish- 
 ment than others. The inference which some 
 would draw from experiments on plants set in 
 mere sand, &c. are not quite fair : viz. that the 
 earth is of no other use to vegetation, than to 
 afford a proper support to the plant, that it be 
 not easily moved out of its place ; because the 
 experiments made on single vegetables are always 
 performed in, or very near houses, where the 
 air is not so pure as in the open fields, and con- 
 sequently where they have an opportunity of 
 receiving as much nourishment from the air, as 
 may compensate the want of what they would 
 have derived from the earth, if planted in a rich 
 soil. 
 
 27. Lord Kames, in the Gentleman Farmer, 
 mentions an experiment wherein a pea was 
 planted in some cotton spread on water, in a 
 phial. It sprung up, and pushed roots through the 
 cotton into the water. The plant grew vigorously, 
 and, at the time of his writing, the experiment 
 carried large pods full of ripe seed. From this 
 experiment, or others of a similar kind, however, 
 a fanner would not be thought to act very ju- 
 diciously, who should conclude that nothing more 
 was requisite to produce a plentiful crop, than 
 to keep his fields constantly soaking with water, 
 and apply his labour only for that purpose, with- 
 out regarding either tillage, manure, or the dif- 
 ference of soils. Experience has shown, that by 
 certain operations performed on the earth itself 
 it is rendered much more capable of supplying 
 vegetables with plenty of nourishment, than if 
 such operations were omitted ; and, that some 
 kinds of soil cannot, without certain additions, 
 
 be rendered so fit for this purpose as otners; and 
 this is what constitutes the difference between a 
 rich, and a poor soil. 
 
 28. That species of earth which is capable of sup- 
 plying the vegetable kingdom with nourishment 
 in the greatest plenty, is found best in well culti- 
 vated gardens. It is not, however, even in these, 
 found in perfect purity ; being constantly mixed 
 with greater or less proportions of sand, small 
 stones, &c. It can be had by itself, and entirely 
 separated from all other substances, only by suf- 
 fering vegetable or animal bodies to putrefy. By 
 undergoing this operation, they are at last resolved 
 into a kind of earth, which appears perfectly the 
 same, from whatever substance it is produced. 
 Of this earth, Dr. Lewis gives us the following 
 characters. It is indissoluble in acids, somewhat 
 tenacious when moistened with water, friable 
 when dry, and acquires no additional hardness 
 in the fire. The chemistry of nature, and that of 
 art, however, are so very dissimilar, that an ac- 
 count of the chemical properties of this earth, 
 can be but of very little service to the practice 
 of agriculture ; however, to those above-men- 
 tioned we may add, that when it is distilled with 
 a violent fire, a volatile alkaline spirit, and foetid 
 oil, similar to those of hartshorn, or other animal 
 substances, are obtained. 
 
 29. As the volatile alkali is produced in great 
 plenty by distilling putrid substances, either 
 animal or vegetable : the obtaining an alkaline 
 spirit from this kind of earth, is a strong argu- 
 ment of its being much impregnated with the 
 putrid effluvium, mentioned above, as the proper 
 vegetable food contained in the air and water. 
 Indeed, considering that this kind of earth is 
 produced by putrefaction, it is next to an im- 
 possibility that it should not be impregnated with 
 putrid steams, as much as earth can be ; and, it' 
 the earth which is most impregnated with these 
 steams, is found to afford the greatest quantity 
 of nourishment to vegetables, we have thence an 
 addditional proof, that they live on the putrid 
 matter emitted from dead animals and vegetables 
 like themselves. 
 
 30. That we may be the more ascertained of 
 this, it must be considered, that the earth, which is 
 the greatest source of nourishment to vegetables, 
 is capable of absorbing putrid effluvia in much 
 greater quantity, before it is saturated, than 
 either the air or water. The burying of dead 
 bodies affords a proof of this. They are laid but 
 a small depth under ground ; yet the abominable 
 stench emitted by the carcase, is retained in the 
 earth, and never penetrates so as to become 
 offensive. That earth may be saturated with this 
 putrid matter, as well as air or water, is certain ; 
 and, in case of such a saturation, either of these 
 will take up the superfluous quantity, and become 
 noxious ; but unless the earth is fully saturated, 
 both will deposit part of what they contain in 
 the earth, and thus become more salutary than 
 before. 
 
 31. That earth is capable of attracting putrid 
 effluvia from the air, perhaps, may not be readily 
 granted ; but, if we consider the exceeding great 
 salubrity of the air in the country, and the 
 healthiness of those who follow the plough, or 
 are employed in digging the ground, we must
 
 A G K J C U L T U R t. 
 
 317 
 
 al'ow, that when the ground is turned up, it 
 communicates no kind of noxious quality to the 
 air ; which it would certainly do, if it emitted a 
 putrid effluvium. So far from this, the smell of 
 moist earth is always agreeable and wholesome ; 
 and, here our theory is confirmed, by the cele- 
 brated Baron Van Swieten, late physician to the 
 empress of Hungary. { Physicians,' says he, 
 ' usually advise their patients to rustication, not 
 only that they may enjoy a pure and freely cir- 
 culating air, but that, as their strength increases, 
 they may, disengaged from all care, exercise their 
 body by the slighter labour of agriculture, and 
 other country amusements.' 
 
 32. There may, perhaps, be another cause 
 \vhy rustication will be of benefit in consump- 
 tions. It is well known, that, after some days 
 drought, on the falling of rain that moistens the 
 earth, there arises a grateful smell, which we all 
 are sensible of; and, this is commonly attributed 
 to the vegetables, which, before sapless, but now 
 refreshed by rain, perspire more copiously. 
 Reaumur observed, that a like fragrancy is also 
 perceptible after rain, when the corn has been cut 
 down in the fields, where there only remains dry 
 stubble. He further observed, that this fragrancy 
 does not diffuse itself to any thing at a great 
 distance, without being much diminished, and 
 soon entirely gone. 
 
 33. This property of emitting a fragrant smell 
 is likewise taken notice of by Dr. Home, in his 
 Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation. Some 
 physicians have prescribed a bath of earth for the 
 cure of consumptive patients ; and Dr. Solano 
 de Luque was of opinion, that the earth had the 
 property of absorbing contagious miasmata into 
 it : but whether it can absorb these miasmata 
 from living bodies or not, it certainly can absorb 
 them from dead ones ; for a piece of putrid meat 
 will be much sweetened by lying for a short time 
 in the ground. 
 
 34. From all this we cannot indeed infer that 
 putrid air is sweetened by mere earth ; but we 
 discover what is more important, viz. that though 
 earth is the common receptacle of all putrid 
 matters, both animal and vegetable, there is a 
 change made on both of them when in it, which 
 cannot be made either by air or water. Thus, if the 
 carcase of a small animal is left to putrefy in the 
 air, it becomes exceedingly offensive, and con- 
 tinues so from first to last. The same thing hap- 
 pens if it is left to putrefy in water. But, in 
 earth, the case is quite different. After the car- 
 case is consumed, the earth which has imbibed 
 all the putrid steams, instead of exhaling an 
 offensive odour, diffuses an agreeable one ; and 
 thus we may see that it is endued with a power 
 no less remarkable than that of attraction or re- 
 pulsion, and which we may call transmutation. 
 With regard to water, the case is more evident ; 
 for the most putrid water will be sweetened by 
 percolation through earth, or even running in a 
 channel for some time on its surface ; but, if it 
 contains any impurities of the saline kind, they 
 will not be separated. 
 
 35. We must admit the existence of this power 
 of transmutation, whatever we imagine the vege- 
 table food to consist of; for it is impossible to 
 solve the phenomena of vegetation by attractions 
 
 and repulsions. If we suppose the vegetable 
 food to be salt, let us attract and repel salt as we 
 will, it remains salt from first to last. Let us 
 suppose it water, the case is the same ; and, by 
 mere attraction, nothing but masses of salt, 01 
 pools of water, could be produced. The case is 
 the same on our own hypothesis ; for, supposing 
 plants composed of the putrid effluvia of others, 
 and of dead animals, if nature was endued wi'-i 
 no other power than attraction or repulsion, th* 
 vegetable would be a corrupted mass like that o\ 
 which it was composed. This power resides 
 only in the earth and vegetables : air and water 
 can indeed act as powerful solvents, but cannot 
 transform or compound. 
 
 36. PROCESS OF VEGETABLE NUTRITION. With 
 regard to the process of vegetable nutrition we 
 perceive a great similarity to what is observed 
 in the animal economy ; the food whether im- 
 bibed from the atmosphere or taken up from 
 the soil, in the form of gases, or other fluids, 
 passes into the body of the plant and forms 
 what is, in popular language, called the sap. 
 This ascending into the leaves is elaborated, 
 like the blood of 'animals in the lungs, after 
 which it enters the general circulation of the 
 plant, and becomes the great instrument of 
 circulation. The intro-susception (as it has 
 been called) of plants is by absorption or in- 
 halation, as chyle into the animal lacteals, or 
 air into the lungs : the former expresses the 
 reception of non-elastic fluids, the latter those 
 which are gaseous. Non-elastic fluids are ab- 
 sorbed by the epidermis. That leaves inhale 
 air has been demonstrated; and the inhaling 
 power which, according to Saussure, is the 
 effect of their organization, in the opinion o* 
 Dr. Priestley is performed chiefly by the up- 
 per surface. It has also been thought that 
 other parts of the plant absorb moisture and 
 inhale gases, by means of pores in the epider- 
 mis. . 
 
 37. DIFFUSION OF THE SAP. The fluids ab- 
 sorbed from the soil, as we have already shown, 
 are called sap; a lymph which before it can 
 distribute nourishment to the different parts of 
 the plant must either be conveyed to some 
 viscus by which its elaboration shall be pro- 
 pelled upon some mechanical principle ; or be 
 immediately diffused over the whole body of 
 the plant. The sap is in motion at all seasons 
 of the year more or less, even the severity of 
 the winter not entirely suspending its opera- 
 tions. Buds receive a gradual development 
 throughout the whole winter; roots follow the 
 same process; evergreens retain their leaves; and 
 many of them, as the laurustinus, arbutus, and 
 the tribe of the mosses protrude their blossoms, 
 thus affording infallible evidence that the mo- 
 tion of the sap is not wholly suspended. Various 
 opinions have been entertained with respect to 
 the medium through which the sap ascends from 
 the lower to the upper extremity ; some imagin- 
 ing it to be by the bark, wood, and pith in- 
 discriminately; others by the intervening medium 
 between the bark and the wood. By steeping 
 the extremities of branches of the fig, elder, 
 honeysuckle, and filbert, in coloured infu- 
 sions, the fact is now ascertained that the sap
 
 318 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 with its leaves and seed-vessels, was 
 in a decoction of madder-root. After 
 remaining so for several days, the colour of the 
 
 ascends through the vessels of the longitu- to the plant what the blood is to the body, 
 
 diiuil fibres, and constitutes the woody part of the immediate principle of nourishment and 
 
 herbaceous 'plants. With respect to the man- life; in which state it is supposed to be con- 
 
 ner in which the sap enters into the leaves, it veyed to all parts of the plant by an ap- 
 
 was found, by means of the coloured infusion, propriate set of vessels. The most scientific 
 
 lhat its medium is through the centre of the experiment on this subject is that of Dr. Dar- 
 
 bundles of tubes or fibres extending in a Ion- win. A perfect stalk of the euphorbia helis- 
 
 gitudinal direction along the interior of the leaf- copia 
 
 stem, extending upwards to the extremity of placed 
 
 the leaves and in their direction downwards, remain 
 
 penetrating the bark and alburnum, the tubes decoction was distinctly seen passing through 
 
 of which they join, still proceeding obliquely each leaf. Many of the ramifications going 
 
 till they reach the pith. In case of the fruit- from the mid-rib towards the circumference on 
 
 stalk, the central vessels were detected as be- the upper side of the leaf, were observed to be 
 
 fore ; but the colouring infusion was found to tinged with red, and on the under side was 
 
 have penetrated the fruit also, diverging round observed a system of branching vessels, ori- 
 
 the cone, afterwards converging in the eye of ginating in the extremities of the leaf, and 
 
 the fruit, and terminating in the stamen. Thus carrying, not a red, but a pale milky fluid. 
 
 was discovered the mystery of the sap's course These, after uniting in two sets on each side of 
 
 in the nourishment of vegetable life. It is re- the mid-rib, descended with it into the leaf- 
 
 ceived by the pores of the epidermis into the stalk, and were the proper vessels for returning 
 
 longitudinal vessels of the root. It is con- the elaborated sap, distinguished by the appella- 
 
 ducted thence to the collar, conveyed by the tion of veins, as those on the upper surface by 
 
 longitudinal vessels of the alburnum to the 
 base of the leaf, stalk, and peduncle, from 
 which it receives its final transmission to the 
 
 that of arteries. Knight, in his subsequent ex- 
 periments, detected in the leaf-stalk, besides the 
 vessels, which he calls central tubes, through 
 
 extremities of the leaves, flower, and fruit. It which, together with their appendages, the spiral 
 
 appears also from the fact of a branch continu- 
 ing to live, when the tubes directly leading to 
 it, were cut in the trunk; that the sap, though 
 
 tubes, the coloured infusion ascended, another 
 set of vessels surrounding the former, which 
 conveyed in one direction or other, a fluid that 
 
 propelled most copiously in the direct line of was not coloured, and which proved eventually 
 
 ascent, is at the same time circulated in a trans- 
 verse direction. For the various theories re- 
 specting the cause of the sap's motion, see 
 VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
 38. ELABORATION OF THE SAP. On boring a 
 
 to be the descending juice. These vessels ex- 
 tended upwards to the summit of the leaf; and 
 downwards to the base of the leaf-stalk, pene- 
 trating the inner bark, whence the sap descends 
 through the channel of the bark, or rather he- 
 
 tree in the proper season, the sap that issues tween the bark and alburnum, by means of the 
 
 being different from the moisture of the soil, longitudinal vessels of the inner bark, down to 
 
 proves that the latter in its absorption has un- the root. The descent of the juice has been 
 
 dergone a change, either in passing through ascribed to gravitation. Gravitation certainly 
 the glands of the cellular tissue, which it reaches 
 through the medium of a lateral communica- 
 
 has its influence, as is evident in the practice of 
 gardeners ; who to prevent the descent of sap in 
 
 tion ; or in mingling with the juices contained young shoots of trees which have grown up- 
 
 in the cells, and being in its passage impreg- right, bend them down after being fully grown, 
 
 nated with a portion of them. The incipient by which means they produce larger buds, and 
 
 stage of this elaboration effected within the often blossoms instead of leaf-buds, 
 interior of the plant, must remain a mystery, 40. ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT. The pro- 
 
 although its future progress and change may duction of the different parts or organs is not 
 
 e more evident. The process of elaboration the same in herbaceous and annual plants as it 
 
 -j the leaf ' the Sap exhalin g is in woody and perennial plants, the former 
 
 [ht fluid on the principle of perspiration, comprising apparently but one act of the vital 
 
 ith some of its substance, thus altering principle, the parts being unfolded in immediate 
 
 us proportions and consequently its properties, succession; whereas in the latter, the process is 
 
 itmous exudation found on the leaves of carried on by gradual and definite stages, from 
 
 pie, poplar, and lime tree, together with the opening of the spring, to the approach of 
 
 J watery fluid, m a high state of elabora- winter, when the functions of vitality are in a 
 
 lomerating into large drops and great measure suspended, till the spring next 
 
 down the leaves of the poplar and succeeding, rouses them again to action. The 
 
 viuow in ^ not calm weather, afford sufficient embryo of the plant, when it first emerges from the 
 
 evidence of sensible perspiration. For further in- 
 formation on the subject of elaboration we must 
 refer the reader to BOTANY. 
 
 seed, consists of a root, plumelet, and incipient 
 stem ; and in dissection exhibits an epidermis 
 enveloping a soft pulpy substance, furnished 
 
 CENT OF THE JUICE When the sap perhaps with a central longitudinal fibre or perhaps 
 duly elaborated in the leaf it assumes an accumulation of them. 
 
 41. UNFOLDING 01? COMPOSITE ORGANS. 
 
 hec , amblum '. or Foper juice 
 
 of t,, t ,. 
 
 A K S f ate J ls l f Und in 
 e W d - 
 
 The unfolding of the composite organs requires 
 
 II t0 be se P ara * l y considered in reference to the 
 
 n 
 
 m '^ ,/ ? P6culiar annual Pt, and the perennial. With respect 
 
 >ur, and was regarded by Malphurhi as being to the organization of the former plant, and the
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 original shoot of the latter, both proceed the 
 the first year on the same general principle. A 
 perennial of one year's growth, taken up in the 
 beginning of winter, when the leaves have fallen 
 away, is found to consist of root and trunk, the 
 extremity of which is spotted with one or two 
 buds. By being cut in two transversely, the 
 trunk is found to consist of bark, wood, and 
 pith. The pith seems merely a modification of 
 the original pulp, but the pith and pulp are 
 afterwards subject to a more complete conversion 
 of their parts, and are organized in the several 
 ramifications and divisions of the future plant. 
 A perennial of two years is found to have in- 
 creased in height by the addition of a perpen- 
 dicular shoot, consisting like the former one, of 
 bark, pith, and wood; and in circumference to 
 have received the augment of a new layer of 
 wood and bark, formed between the wood and 
 bark of the former year. This covering of the 
 original cone has excited considerable difference 
 as to its origin. The same difficulty occurs each 
 succeeding year, as long as the plant continues 
 to live ; a new layer being formed exterior to the 
 one preceding it, increasing the diameter of the 
 parent stock, the outermost layer of bark and 
 innermost layer of wood originally tangent, 
 being the growth of the first year, the second 
 layer of bark and second layer of wood, the 
 produce of the second year, &c. The tree also 
 insinuates itself in height by means of an ad- 
 ditional shoot, or branch every year after the 
 manner of the first. Malphigfu supposed the 
 new layer of wood was formed from the fibre of 
 the preceding year ; but it appeares from the dis- 
 coveries and experiments of Knight, that the 
 leaf gives the elaboration requisite to the form- 
 ation of new parts. The medullary canal is 
 filled with an interior layer, formed by a sort of 
 cambium, deposited by the medullary tubes. 
 These layers from the periods at which they are 
 deposited, are of different degrees of solidity. 
 The conversion of the alburnum into perfect 
 wood, is attributed by some to the loss of sap 
 which the tree sustains after it has exceeded the 
 bounds of maturity : by Knight and others its 
 induration in the winter is attributed to a de- 
 posit left in the preceding summer, consisting of 
 the proper juice of the tree in a state of conge- 
 lation. Whether there be a circulation of veget- 
 able juices in plants, analogous to that of the 
 blood, is a question that has been repeatedly 
 agitated, but has met with many supporters and 
 many opposers. 
 
 42. DECOMPOSITE ORGANS. The progress 
 and development of the decomposite organs, as 
 the root, stem, branch, bud, leaf, flower, and 
 fruit, comes next under consideration. The 
 root, like the upper surface, is augmented an- 
 nually by the addition of a new layer ; and by 
 the accession of- a new shoot, f merging from the 
 extremity of the preceding fibre. The root, 
 provided it meets no obstacle, descends perpen- 
 dicularly to a considerable depth. The root of 
 some young oak trees taken up by Du Hamel, 
 was found to be four feet, while the upper part 
 did not exceed six inches. If the root in its de- 
 scent meets with an obstacle, it takes an hori- 
 zontal direction, by sending out lateral shoots. 
 
 When a root ceases to elongate itself, it shoots out 
 lateral fibres, which are the more vigorous as 
 they are nearer the trunk, which is attributed to 
 the easy access of oxygen in the upper division ; 
 although the reverse of this is the case, provided 
 the roots are horizontal, owing, as has been 
 thought, to the more ample supply of nutriment 
 it receives from the earth. Roots when injured 
 send out lateral branches ; and where the soil has 
 been loosened, extend themselves to a considerable 
 length. The strength acquired by roots, where 
 difficulties are to be overcome, almost exceeds 
 belief; they will penetrate through the hardest 
 soil, to reach a soil that is more nutritive ; they 
 will insinuate their fibres into crevices of walls 
 and rocks, which they have been known to burst 
 and overturn. 
 
 43. The stem, as we have already observed, re- 
 ceives an augment of an additional layer, and a 
 new shoot annually ; not produced like the in- 
 crement of the root, by the super-addition of 
 vegetable particles to th? extremity ; but by the 
 principle of intro-susception. The extension of 
 the shoot is also rapid during the period it re- 
 mains herbaceous ; but slow after the time of its 
 induration ; and the small cone, rising during the 
 first year, increases no more after the first winter, 
 when it is perfectly consolidated. Palms, how- 
 ever, are to be regarded as an exception. 
 
 44. Branches, which in their development as- 
 sume all the varieties of position, originate in 
 a bud, and form a cone consisting of pith, 
 wood, and bark. The lower branches are 
 parallel to the earth ; even though the tree itself 
 stand obliquely on the slope of a hill ; a circum- 
 stance which, for the most part, has been attri- 
 buted to the forming of a greater proportion of 
 buds on the side forming the obtuse angle with 
 the base, from its greater exposure to the action 
 of the atmosphere. 
 
 45. The bud is not common to all plants, nor 
 to plants of all climates ; numerous shrubs, and 
 all annuals being destitute of them ; also plants 
 growing within the tropics, the leaf protruding 
 immediately from the bark. But to the woody 
 plants in cold climates, no new part is added 
 but what emerges out of a pre- existent bud itself, 
 clothed with new buds, each of which, sur- 
 rounded with glutinous scales, forms the cradle 
 of a new infant shoot, to burst its way the follow- 
 ing spring. Of the natural origin of the bud 
 much uncertainty ot opinion seems to exist; 
 but its development is by the action of the 
 proper juice of the plant elaborated in the pre- 
 ceding buds, and originally in those of the 
 plumelet. 
 
 46. The leaves, before they direrge from the 
 expanding bud, are complete in all their parts, 
 which proves that the infant individual, like the 
 shoot itself, effects its final development by the 
 intro-susception of new particles, augmenting at 
 once the whole of its dimensions ; though this 
 rule is not without exception, as in the case of 
 the liliaceous plants, kc. 
 
 47. The flower, which, according to Knight, 
 is a prolongation of the wood, pith, and bark, is 
 complete in all its parts, like the leaves. Interest- 
 ing anomalies, connecting themselves with all 
 the above considerations, present an interesting
 
 320 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 and instructive field of research to the practical 
 agriculturist; but, referring the reader for the 
 consideration of them to the science of agricul- 
 ture, we shall proceed to make some observations 
 on the sexuality of vegetables. 
 
 43. VEGETABLE SEXUALITY, AND IMPREGNA- 
 TION OF THE SEED. The sexuality of plants was 
 well known to the Greeks, from their mode of cul- 
 tivating palms and figs. Aristotle, Theophrastus, 
 Pliny, Galen, and Dioscorides, appear to have 
 had some indistinct notions of the same subject. 
 Pliny investigated all the various facts and evi- 
 dences connected with this intricate subject, and 
 at length established it upon the basis of logical 
 induction. The male and female organs of vege- 
 table generation are the stamens and pistils ; and 
 the substance, by which the impregnation of the 
 seed is effected, is the pollen. This, when the 
 above organs are near to each other, is dispersed 
 by the elastic spring with which the authera flies 
 open. In many cases it is, however, conveyed 
 from the anther to the stigma, by the instrumen- 
 tality of insects, who, in their search for honey, 
 settling upon a male flower, become covered with 
 pollen, and afterwards fly to other plants of the 
 same species ; by which, females, though remote, 
 form plants of the opposite sex. The fecundation 
 of the ovary has, nevertheless, given rise to a great 
 diversity of opinion. One class of experimenters 
 imagined that the embryo, pre-existent in the 
 ovary, is quickened by the pollen, or trans- 
 mitted through the stylus. Others, observing 
 that the embryo never makes its appearance till 
 after fecundation, imagined that it must pre-exist 
 in the pollen of the anther, from which it passes 
 through the styli into the ovary. Others consider 
 the embryo exists neither in the pollen nor 
 ovary ; but is produced by the generating union 
 of the male and female organs ; the fecundating 
 virtue of the former consisting in a fluid which 
 issues from the pollen when it explodes ; and 
 that of the latter, a fluid exuding from the sur- 
 face of the stigma. Hybrid productions unite 
 the properties of both the male and female, from 
 which they originate. On impregnation, the 
 flower declines ; the stamens, petals, and calyx, 
 for the most part, decay ; whilst the ovary swells, 
 and advances to perfection ; its colour is deepened 
 and enriched, its appendages are added, and its 
 figure ultimately conformed according to its 
 respective species. 
 
 49. PROPAGATION. Propagation is carried 
 on by means of the seed, which when it has 
 reached maturity, detaches itself from its parent 
 plant; and dropping into the earth originates 
 the germinating process of a new individual. 
 Sometimes by the elasticity of the pericarp 
 which opens with a sudden spring, it is thrown 
 to a distance from the plant, after the seed has 
 wen discharged from the original stem ; some 
 species, as barley and wild oats, are provided 
 with instruments for their dispersion, the awn of 
 bailey, with its little teeth, by mere contraction 
 and distension, the effects of drought and mois- 
 ture, often travels many feet from the stalk 
 on which it grew. Winds, birds, and ani- 
 als, together with the streams, rivers, and cur- 
 rents of the ocean all become instrumental 
 .n effecting a still wider dispersion of the ger- 
 
 minating principle replenishing the earth with 
 the numerous variety of plants for the per- 
 petuating of the vegetable kingdom. The pro- 
 pagating of plants by means of germs, includ- 
 'ng bulbs and buds, also by leaves, slips 
 unners, layers, offsets or suckers, together 
 with the scientific application of grafting and 
 oudding, belong properly to the science of hor- 
 ticulture. 
 
 50. PATHOLOGY. Pathology, the next thing re- 
 quisite for an extensive cultivator to understand, 
 includes the injuries, diseases, and that natural 
 decay to which plants are liable. Injuries, 
 wounds, and accidents, may be considered in 
 the following order : 1 . Incision ; this, if it 
 merely affects the epidermis, heals up without 
 leaving a scar ; if it penetrates the interior of the 
 bark it heals, but leaves a scar ; but if it pe- 
 netrates into the wood, it never heals properly ; 
 but new wood and bark are formed Incisions 
 are often requisite for the vigour of the plant. 
 2. Boring, which is done to make them part 
 with their sap ; and, like the former, closes up by 
 the formation of new bark and wood. 3. Gird- 
 ling ; a practice common in North America, 
 especially when the farmer wishes to clear his 
 land of timber. It is the practice of making 
 parallel and horizontal notches in the trunk of 
 the tree, penetrating through the alburnum ; and 
 afterwards scooping out the intervening portion. 
 4. Fracture, which happens when a tree is bent 
 far back by storms, hurricanes, or any other 
 means. If bark only of the cortical, or woody 
 fibres, are affected, and the stem but small, the 
 parts will reunite by being put back in their 
 natural position, and propped up; but if the 
 stem is large, and the fracture attended with con- 
 tusion, a cure is not to be expected, the herba- 
 ceous substance exuding from between the wood 
 and fibre, seldom sufficiently insinuating itself into 
 the interstices to produce induration. 5. Prun- 
 ing may be mentioned ; the only precaution ne- 
 cessary to which, is, that of cutting the branch 
 in a sloping direction, so as to prevent the rain 
 from lodging on the exposed surface of the sec- 
 tion. For more particulars upon which, as also 
 upon grafting, which is a wound both of the 
 stick and graft, uniting to each other by means 
 of an herbaceous substance, exuding in the or- 
 dinary manner, we refer to HORTICULTURE. The 
 destruction of buds and leaves, inflorescence, 
 failure in the produce of flowers, seeds, &c 
 premature inflorescence, and decortication, are 
 the effects of those general accidents to which 
 trees are liable. 
 
 51. DISEASES OF PLANTS. The common 
 diseases of plants are ; 1 . Blight, arising from 
 various causes, exceedingly detrimental to the 
 interest of the farmer. It is often occasioned by 
 the cold easterly winds of spring, which kill the 
 infant shoots of the plant, by stopping the circu- 
 lation of the juices. The juices thus stopped in 
 their passage, swell and burst the vessels ; and 
 supply nutriment to the numercv tribes of in- 
 sects that make their speedv appearance, and are 
 generated in them. These are commonly sup- 
 posed to be the cause of the disease, and in the 
 farmer's opinion are wafted on the east wind. In 
 the spring the blossoms, that so delitjht the be-
 
 AGRICULTURE, 
 
 321 
 
 holder by their premature protrusion, are com- 
 monly subject to a similar disease, by means of 
 the spring frosts. Another species of blight 
 originates in pestilential vapours, and commonly 
 occurs in the middle of the summer, after heavy 
 showers, succeeded by immediate sunshine. In 
 hop grounds, the centre is the point at which it 
 originates. It was this species which damaged 
 the vineyards of ancient Italy, and at present 
 greatly injures our agricultural produce. Wheat 
 crops are often entirely destroyed by this means. 
 Blight often arise from fungi ; and for the most 
 part attacks our grains and grasses : this blight 
 assumes the appearance of a rusty-looking powder, 
 and soils the finger. The blades of some wheat 
 attacked in 1807, exhibited the appearance 
 of a number of rusty looking patches, dispersed 
 over the surface, containing thousands of small 
 globules collected in groupes under the epidermis. 
 Sir J. Banks ascertained these to be patches of a 
 small fungus, the seeds of which, floating in the air, 
 enter the pores of the leafy envelope, or exist in 
 the manure, and pass into the root by means of the 
 pores. This blight, which the farmer calls red-rust, 
 generally confines its attack to the stalk and the 
 blade. " It is, however, to be distinguished from 
 another species called red-gum, which attacks 
 the ear only. 2. Smut; the next disease 
 converts the farina of the grain with its integu- 
 ments and a portion of the husk, into a species 
 of fine sooty dust. It is seldom general in a 
 crop ; and it is said may be prevented by steep- 
 ing the seed, before it is sown, in a weak solution 
 of arsenic. The disease called bags, or smut- 
 balls is prevented in the same way. 3. Mil- 
 dew, is a thin whitish coating, covering the 
 kaves of vegetables, and causing their decay 
 and death. On wheat it assumes the shape of 
 a glutinous exudation ; and is found particularly 
 when the days are hot, and the nights without 
 dew. Mildew is said, in cases of cultivated 
 crops, to be prevented by manuring with soot; 
 and sulphur was found by J. Robertson, the 
 only specific cure. 4. Honey-dew is a sweet 
 clammy substance, coagulating on the surface 
 of leaves during hot weather. With respect to 
 its origin, agriculturists are not agreed. 5. 
 From long continued rain, or too much watering, 
 plants and vegetables are subject to a disease 
 called the dropsy, which is generally incurable. 
 It consists of a preternatural swelling of particular 
 parts, gives fruits a watery taste, and occasioning 
 an immoderate protrusion of roots from the 
 stem, prevents the ripening of seed. 6. Flux 
 of juices is another disease to which vegetables 
 are liable, as the tears of the vine, or spontaneous 
 extravasation of sap, exudation of gum, chilblains, 
 &c. 7. Gangrene, etiolation, contortion, suf- 
 focation, and consumption, are calamities, in- 
 cident to vegetables, to meet which every agricul- 
 turist should be prepared. But although the 
 plants should be subject to none of the before 
 mentioned accidents and diseases, decay after 
 a few years, according to the vigour of its species, 
 is nevertheless certain. Many vegetable subjects 
 die annually, others which are as to their com- 
 posite organs perennial, are subject to a decay 
 pf the temporary organs. The falling of the 
 leaves, the fall of the flower, and the fall of the 
 VOL. I. 
 
 fruit are sufficiently familiar, and are frequently 
 compared in the animal economy to the moult- 
 ing of birds, &c., because after sheddirg its 
 foliage, by the powerful blasts of winter, the 
 tree clothes itself as fresh as ever by the warmth 
 of the succeeding spring. The temporary or- 
 gans at last decay, old age creeps upon the sys- 
 tem, the root no longer receives nourishment from 
 the soil, or what it receives is feebly propelled ; 
 elaboration is difficult, the descent of the juice 
 is almost totally obstructed, the bark becomes 
 thick, and covered with lichens, or moss, the 
 shoots decay first, then the branches, the trunk, 
 and last of all the root; and nature hastens their 
 decomposition till it crumbles away to mould. 
 
 52. As thesubjectof the diseases of plants is one 
 of the utmost importance to the farmer, we shall 
 add to this scientific arrangement of their nature, 
 some miscellaneous remarks and facts. 
 
 53. Tournefort divides the diseases of plants 
 into five classes : first, those which arise from 
 too great an abundance of juice; second, from 
 too little ; third, from its bad qualities ; fourth, 
 from its unequal distribution ; and fifth from ex- 
 ternal accidents. 
 
 54. Too great an abundance of juices causes 
 at first a prodigiously luxuriant growth of the 
 vegetable, so that it does not come to the requisite 
 perfection in a due time. Wheat is subject, in 
 some climates, to a disease of this kind ; it vege- 
 tates excessively, without ever carrying ripe 
 grain ; and the same disease may be artificially 
 produced in any grain, by planting it in too 
 rich a soil. Too much rain is apt likewise to do 
 the same. When a vegetable is supplied too 
 abundantly with juices, it is very apt to rot ; one 
 part overshadowing another in such a manner as 
 to prevent the access of fresh air ; upon which 
 putrefaction soon ensues, as has been already 
 observed. 
 
 55. In grass, or any herbaceous plant, where 
 the leaves only are wanted, this over-luxuriancy 
 cannot be called a disease, but is a very desirable 
 property ; but in any kind of grain it is quite 
 otherwise. Dr. Home, in his Principles of 
 Agriculture and Vegetation, classes the smut in 
 grain among the diseases arising from this cause. 
 He says that too great an abundance of juices in 
 a vegetable will produce diseases similar to those 
 occasioned by repletion in animal bodies ; viz. 
 stagnations, corruptions, varices, cariosities, &c. 
 along with the too great luxuriancy just men- 
 tioned, which he expresses by too great an 
 abundance of water shoots. Hence he is in- 
 duced to class the smut among diseases arising 
 from this cause ; it being a corruption happen- 
 ing most in rainy seasons, and to weak grain. 
 Like other contagious diseases, he says, the smut 
 may be communicated from the infected to 
 healthful grain. As a preventative, he recom- 
 mends steeping the grain in a strong pickle of 
 sea-salt. Besides the effect which this has upon 
 the grain itself, it is useful for separating the good 
 from the bad ; the best seed falling to the bottom, 
 and the faulty swimming on the top of the 
 liquor. 
 
 56. Dr. Home says, dung is a preventative o 
 diseases arising from too great moisture ; in 
 proof of which he relates the following expert
 
 322 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 merit. ' Two acres of poor ground, which had 
 never got any manure, were fallowed, to be 
 sown with wheat ; but the scheme being altered, 
 some dung was laid on a small part of it, and the 
 whole sowed, after it had got five furrows, with 
 barley. A great quantity of rain fell. The bar- 
 ley on that part which was dunged was very 
 good; but what was on the rest of the field 
 turned yellow after the rains, and when ripe 
 was not worth the reaping.' . 
 
 57. The want of nourishment in plants may 
 be easily known by their decay. The only re- 
 medy is, to supply them with food, according to 
 the methods above directed, or to remove from 
 their neighbourhood such other plants as may 
 draw off the nourishment from them. In the 
 Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for 1728, 
 M. Du Hamel mentions a disease, which he calls 
 le mort, that attacks saffron in the spring. It is 
 owing to another plant, a species of trefoil, fixing 
 some violet-coloured threads, which are roots, to 
 the roots of the saffron, and sucking out its juice. 
 This disease is prevented by digging a trench, 
 which saves all the unaffected. 
 
 58. The bad qualities or unequal distributions 
 of the juices of plants, are the occasion of so few 
 of the diseases to which vegetables in this country 
 are subject, that we need not mention them. 
 Most of the diseases of our plants are owing to 
 external accidents, particularly to the depreda- 
 tions of insects. The insects by which the greatest 
 devastations are committed in this country are, 
 snails, caterpillars, grubs, and flies. The snails 
 and caterpillars feed on the leaves and young 
 shoots, whereby they often totally destroy the ve- 
 getable. Where the plants are of easy access, 
 these vermin may be destroyed by sprinkling the 
 vegetable with lime-water ; for quicklime is a 
 mortal poison to these creatures, and throws them 
 into the greatest agonies the moment they are 
 touched with it. On trees, however, where this 
 method cannot so well be followed, fumigation is 
 the most proper ; and for this purpose nothing is 
 better than the smoke of vegetables not perfectly 
 dry. In some cases the eggs of these destroying 
 creatures may be observed, and ought imme- 
 diately to be taken away. On fruit trees, as 
 apples, pears, medlars ; on some forest-trees, the 
 oak and dwarf-maple especially, and the white 
 and black thorn in hedges, a kind of little tufts 
 are to be observed, resembling, at first sight, 
 withered leaves twisted by a cobweb about the 
 uppermost twigs or branches. These contain 
 a vast number of little black eggs, that in the 
 spring produce swarms of caterpillars which de- 
 vour every thing. To prevent this, all the twigs 
 on which these cobwebs appear should be taken 
 off and burnt as soon as possible. This ought to 
 be done before the end of March, that none of 
 the eggs be allowed sufficient time for hatching. 
 
 59. The grubs are a kind of worms which de- 
 troy the corn by feeding upon its roots ; they are 
 transformed every fourth year into the beetles 
 called cock-chaffers, may-bugs, &c. They are 
 >ery destructive when in their vermicular state 
 and cannot then be. destroyed, because they go 
 leep in the ground. When become beetles/they 
 conceal themselves under the leaves of trees 
 where they seem asleep till near sun-set, when 
 
 they take their flight. It is only then that they 
 can be destroyed, and by a very laborious me- 
 thod, namely, by spreading pack-sheets below 
 the trees in the day-time, when the beetles are in 
 their torpid state, then shaking them off and 
 burning them. Some time ago they made such 
 devastations in the county of Norfolk, that several 
 farmers were entirely ruined by them ; one 
 gathered eighty bushels of these insects from the 
 trees on his farm. In 1574, there fell such a 
 multitude of these insects into the Severn, that 
 they stopped and clogged the wheels of the water- 
 mills. 
 
 60. Turnips, when young, are apt to be totally 
 destroyed by a multitude of little black flies, 
 thence called the turnip-fly. As a preventative 
 of these, some advise the seed to be mixed with 
 brimstone ; but this is improper, as brimstone is 
 poisonous to vegetables. The best method seems 
 to be the fumigation of the fields with smoke of 
 half-dried vegetables. For this purpose weeds 
 will answer. This fumigation must be often re- 
 peated, to drive away the innumerable multitudes 
 of these insects which are capable of destroying 
 a large field of turnips. Some suppose that the 
 fly is either engendered in new dung, or enticed 
 by it ; and therefore advise the manure to be laid 
 on in the autumn preceding, by which it loses all 
 its noxious qualities, while its nutritive ones are 
 retained, not being exhaled by the sun. This 
 method is ascertained by experiments; and 
 another material advantage accruing from autumn 
 manuring for turnips is, that all the seeds con- 
 tained in the dung, and which, being carried on 
 the land with it, vegetate almost immediately, 
 are mostly killed by the cold of winter, and the 
 few that remain seldom escape destruction by 
 the plough-share. 
 
 61. The following method of sowing has also 
 been recommended as a preventative of the fly : 
 ' About midsummer, when it rains, or there is 
 an apparent certainty of rain approaching, sow 
 your turnip-seed ; if about the full moon, the 
 better. In this case, neither harrow, brush, nor 
 roll, after sowing. The natural heat of the 
 ground at that season, and the consequent fer- 
 mentation occasioned by copious rain, will give 
 an astonishingly quick vegetation to the seed, 
 which in a few days will be up and out of all 
 danger from the fly. At all events, sow not till 
 it rains ; it is better to wait a month, or even 
 longer, for rain, than to sow (merely for the sake 
 of sowing about the usual time) when the ground 
 is parched with heat. By the scorching of the 
 sun, the oil and vegetative quality of the seed 
 are exhausted; and the few weak plants that 
 come up will be destroyed by the fly before they 
 can attain strength to put forth their rough leaves. 
 The fly infests the ground abundantly in dry hot 
 weather, but does no injury in rain. The falling 
 rain will sufficiently wash the turnip-seed into 
 the ground without harrowing it in ; which, in- 
 stead of merely covering, too often buries this 
 small seed at so great a depth, as never after- 
 wards to get above ground.' 
 
 62. The following remedies are also recom- 
 mended as having often prored successful. A 
 small quantity of soot sown over the land at 
 their first appearance. Branches of eldei, with
 
 AGRICULTURE 
 
 323 
 
 the leaves bruised, drawn in a gate over them. 
 Musk mixed with the seed before it is sown. 
 And sulphur burnt, under it, after moistening it 
 with water in which tobacco has been steeped. 
 But showers on the plants as soon as they ap- 
 pear above ground are esteemed the best pre- 
 servatives. They enfeeble and kill the fly, and 
 hasten the plants into the rough leaf, when they are 
 out of danger. The sweet smell of turnip has 
 been thought to attract the fly; upon which 
 supposition, the remedy appeared to consist in 
 overpowering that smell by one which is strong, 
 fetid, and disagreeable. Hence it has been re- 
 commended, that upon an acre of turnips sown 
 in the usual way, a peck or more of dry soot be 
 thrown after the ground is finished, and in as 
 regular a way as the seed is sown. 
 
 63. Some years ago, an insect, called the corn 
 butterfly, committed such ravages while in its 
 vermicular state, in France, that upwards of 200 
 parishes were ruined by it; and the ministry 
 oft'ered a reward to the discoverer of an effectual 
 remedy against this destroying worm. The cure 
 which was at last discovered, was, to heat the 
 corn in an oven so much as not to destroy its 
 vegetative power, but sufficiently to destroy the 
 small worms which made their nest in the sub- 
 stance of the grain, and at last ate the substance 
 completely. Though insects can bear a great 
 deal of cold, they are easily destroyed by a slight 
 degree of heat ; nor is the vegetative power of corn 
 easily destroyed, even kept for a long time in a 
 pretty strong heat. This method must therefore 
 be effectual for destroying all kinds of insects 
 with which grain is infested : but care must be 
 taken not to apply too great a heat ; and the ad- 
 justing of the precise degree necessary to destroy 
 the insect, without hurting the corn, will require 
 attention. 
 
 64. The curled disease in potatoes has long 
 been a subject of investigation and experiment 
 among farmers ; and the knowledge of its cause 
 and cure seem yet to remain a desideratum. See 
 POTATOES. The ' Agriculture Society ' at Man- 
 chester, a few years ago, offered a premium for 
 discovering by actual experiment the cause of the 
 disease in question j and many letters were, in 
 consequence, addressed to them upon the sub- 
 ject. As these contain some interesting remarks, 
 though very little decisive on the subject, we 
 shall give a short extract from them. 
 
 LETTER I. The writer of the first letter ascribes 
 this disease to an insect produced by frost or bad 
 keeping before setting. In autumn 1776, he got 
 up a bed of potatoes to lay by in winter, leaving 
 plenty in the ground as regular as possible; and, 
 before the severity of winter came on, covered 
 part of the bed with straw and peas-haulm, and 
 left the other part of the bed uncovered. That 
 part of the bed which was covered was quite free 
 from curled ones ; but the uncovered part pro- 
 duced many curled, owing, as the writer says, to 
 frost. 
 
 II. This writer had about a quarter of an acre 
 of potatoes, well manured with cow and horse 
 dung, and took great care in picking the fine 
 smooth-skinned potatoes for sets ; yet nine out of 
 ten were curled. He attributes the cause of this 
 disease to a white grub which he found near the 
 
 root, about half an inch long, with eight or t?n 
 legs, its head brown and hard ; as, upon examin 
 ing a number of the curled roots, he found them 
 all bitten, from the surface to the root, which 
 stopped the progress of the sap, and threw the 
 leaf into a curl. The uncurled were not bitten. 
 First, he put soot to the insects in the rows for 
 two days ; and after that, he pat lime to them 
 for the same time, but they still kept lively ; next 
 he put a little salt, which destroyed them in a 
 few hours. From which he infers, that if coarse 
 salt were put into the ground at the time the 
 land is preparing for potatoes, it would cure this 
 distemper. 
 
 III. In this letter, the cause of the disease is 
 attributed to the method of earthing the stems 
 while in cultivation ; and it is recommended to 
 take the sets from those potatoes that have not 
 bred any from the branch covered. 
 
 IV. According to this writer, the disorder 
 proceeds from potatoes being set in old tilled or 
 worn-out ground. Hence he says, that no sets 
 ought to be used from such land ; and that, to 
 have good sets, they should be procured from 
 land that was purposely fallowed for them ; from 
 fresh ley land, where they are not curled ; or 
 from ley land that was burnt the preceding spring, 
 To make certain of getting good sets, he re- 
 commends crabs to be gathered from potatoes 
 growing on fresh land free from curl, and the 
 next spring to sow them on fresh ley land ; and 
 continue to sow them on fresh ley land yearly. 
 All the good potatoes he saw, either on fresh ley 
 land or on old tilled land, were raised from sets that 
 grew upon fresh ley land last year ; and where 
 he has seen curled potatoes, he found, upon en- 
 quiry, that the potatoe sets grew upon old tilled 
 and worn-out land last year. 
 
 V. In 1772, this writer planted some potatoes 
 by accident full nine inches deep ; when taken 
 up, many of the plan*; -;vere rotted, and a few 
 curled. He kept the whole produce for seed, 
 and planted two acres with it in 1773, not quite 
 six inches deep. The crop was amazingly great ; 
 and he did not observe any curled plants among 
 them. In 1774, many of these were planted in 
 different soils ; yet they were so infected with 
 the curled disease, that not one in twenty escaped. 
 In 1775, the disease became general. In 1776, it 
 occurred to him that the good crop of 1773 was 
 owing to the accidental deep setting of 1772 ; and 
 that the reason why the same seed became curled 
 in 1774, was their being set so near the surface 
 in 1773. In 1777, he took some potatoes from a 
 crop that was curled the year before, and after cut- 
 ting the sets, left them in a dry room for a month. 
 Half were planted in ground dug fourteen days 
 before ; the other half having been steeped in a brine 
 made of whitesters ashes for two hours, were also 
 planted in the same land at the same time. The 
 steeped ones came up ten days before the others, 
 and hardly any missed or were curled. The un- 
 steeped ones generally failed, and those few that 
 came up were mostly curled. He therefore ad- 
 vised, First, that the potatoes intended for next 
 year's sets be planted nine inches deep. Secondly, 
 that they remain in the ground as long as th- 
 season will permit. Thirdly, That these sets be 
 well defended from frost till the beginning of 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 
 
 AGRI-CULTURE. 
 
 March. Fourthly, that the sets be cut a fortnight 
 before planting. Fifthly, that they be steeped, 
 as above, two hours in brine or ley. Sixthly, 
 that the dung be put over the sets. And, 
 seventhly, that fresh sets be got up every year 
 from sandy soils near the coast, or on the shore. 
 At planting, the hard dry sets should be cast 
 aside, for they will probably be curled. Curled 
 potatoes always proceed from sets which do not 
 putrefy in the ground. 
 
 VI. This writer had five drills of the old red 
 potatoes, and four of the winter whites, growing 
 at the same time in the same field. The drills 
 were prepared exactly alike. Among the red not 
 one was curled. The winter whites were nearly 
 all curled. He says he has found by expe- 
 rience, that the red never curl. 
 
 VII. Two of this writer's neighbours had their 
 sets out of one heap of potatoes. They both set 
 with the plough, the one early and the other late, 
 in the season. Most of those set early proved 
 curled, and most of those set late smooth ; the 
 latter on clay land. A few roods of land were 
 also planted with small potatoes, which had lain 
 spread on a chamber floor all the winter and 
 spring till the middle of May. They were soft 
 and withered ; they proved smooth and a good 
 crop. Middle sized potatoes, withered and soft, 
 which had been kept in a large dry cellar, and 
 the sprouts of which had been broken off three 
 times, produced a smooth and good crop. Hence 
 he was led to think a superfluity of sap, occa- 
 sioned by the seed being unripe, might cause the 
 disease. To be satisfied of this he asked the far- 
 mer whether he had set any of the same pota- 
 toes this year, and what was the nature of his 
 land ? He told him, he had ; that they had been 
 set on his farm fourteen years without ever 
 urling ; that the soil was a poor whitish sand 
 of little depth; that he let those he designed for 
 keeping grow till they were fully ripe. Hence 
 he concludes, the only sure way to prevent the 
 curl, is to let -the potatoes intended for seed 
 stand till they are fully ripe, and to keep them 
 dry all the winter. 
 
 VIII. This writer set a quantity of red pota- 
 toes, without having a curled one amongst. them. 
 His method is, when the sets are cut, to pick out 
 such as are reddest in the inside. On digging 
 them up at Michaelmas, he mixes none of the 
 curled seed among the others. The curled are 
 easily distinguished by their stalks withering two 
 months before the rest of the crop. The cause of 
 the curled disease he attributes to potatoes be- 
 ing of late years produced from seed instead of 
 roots, as formerly. Such will not stand good 
 more than two or three years, use what method 
 you please. Last spring he set the old red and 
 white russets, and had not a curled potatoe amongst 
 e ' L " r ^e lime-stone land about Denbigh 
 in North Wales, they have no curled potatoes! 
 
 this be owing to the nature of that land, per- 
 haps hme might prevent the disease. 
 
 IX. According to this writer all sorts of erain 
 wear out and turn wild if sown too long on the 
 same land; the same will hold good in all sorts 
 >t pulse, peas, beans, and potatoes. Those who 
 have most curled potatoes generally plant very 
 small sets. Eleven years ago he bought a parcel 
 
 of fresh sets, oi the golden dun kind, and has 
 used them without change to the present year, 
 without any being curled. This he principally 
 attributes to his haying always planted good 
 large sets. To prevent the evil, cut the sets from 
 clear and middle sized potatoes, gathered from 
 places as clear of the curl as possible; preserve 
 them till spring; if any are harder, or crash 
 more in cutting than usual, cast them aside. 
 He also recommends the raising a fresh sort from 
 the crab produced on the sorts least affected, 
 which in Lancashire are the long duns. 
 
 X. Set potatoes with the sprits broke off, and 
 they will (says the writer of this letter) be curled 
 ones ; if set with the sprits on, they will not be 
 curled. Again, take a potatoe which is sprit, 
 and cut an offset, with two sprits ; break one sprit 
 off, and let the other stay on, and set it ; the 
 former will be curled, and the latter will not. 
 When the potatoes are holed, take th<;m out be- 
 fore they sprit, and lay them dry until you set 
 or sow them, and you will have none curled. 
 
 XI. This writer was at the expence of procur- 
 ing sets from fifty miles distance, and where this 
 disease was not known. The first year's trial 
 was successful ; the year following he procured 
 sets from the same place, but one fifth of his crop 
 was infected. By way of experiment, he planted 
 sets from roots which had been infected the year 
 before, and some of these produced healthy 
 plants, free from all infection. He supposed the 
 cause to be some insect, which, living on the 
 leaves, gave them that curled and sickly appear- 
 ance, 'as is the case in the leaves of many shrubs 
 and trees ; he made the following experiments. 
 On a piece of ground that had not been dug for 
 twenty years, he planted four rows of sets, which 
 he knew to be perfectly clear ; the drills were two 
 feet distant, the sets one foot distant in each 
 drill. He then planted on the same ground four 
 rows with sets from curled potatoes, at equal 
 distances ; in each row were about twenty sets. 
 Lot I. the curled state. No. 1. Without manure , 
 2. In salt; 3. In soot; 4. In quicklime. Lot 
 II. the clear sets. No. 1. Without manure; 
 2. In salt; 3. In soot; 4. In lime. Those 
 planted in salt and soot in both lots were 
 destroyed. In Lot I., No. 1. and 4., all curled. 
 Lot II., No. 1. and 4., quite clear. This experi- 
 ment was made on a supposition that the insect 
 lodged in the set, and must be destroyed on 
 planting. But of that he is not satisfied. He 
 repeated salt, soot, and quicklime, on the branches 
 of several curled potatoes. Salt destroyed all he 
 touched with it. Lime and soot had a partial 
 effect on the plants. After some time, they ap- 
 peared almost as healthy as the rest. Thus, al- 
 though he has done little towards the cure, he 
 flatters himself he has pointed out the cause, the 
 insects on the curled plants being not only very 
 numerous, but visible to the naked eye. 
 
 XII. This writer ascribes the cause of the 
 disease to the frost, and bad keeping in winter 
 and spring before setting. They are liable to 
 be damaged by frost after they are set, but this 
 may be prevented by covering. If it be asked, 
 why frost did not injure them formerly; he 
 answers, it is only the new kinds which are apt 
 to curl, and less care is now taken of the seed
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 325 
 
 than formerly. Let them remain in the ground 
 covered with haulm or litter till they are wanted 
 for setting ; and, if no frost touches them after- 
 wards, they will be free from the disease. 
 
 XIII. This writer says, the red potatoe was as 
 generally planted as the winter white and the 
 Lincolnshire kidney are now. The first, being 
 a later potatoe, did not sprout so early as the 
 others. The white sprout very early, and there- 
 fore should first be moved out of the place where 
 they have been preserved in winter. Instead of 
 that, they often remain till their roots and 
 sprouts are matted together. On separating them, 
 the sprouts are generally rubbed off, and they 
 are laid by till the ground is ready ; during which 
 interval they sprout again ; but these second 
 sprouts, being weak and languid, shrink, sicken, 
 and die ; and the fruit at the roots will be small, 
 hard, ill-shaped, and of a brown colour. Now, 
 if pulling off the sprouts once or more, before the 
 sets are put in the ground, be the cause (as he 
 believes it is) of the curled disease, an easy 
 remedy is at hand. When the potatoes intended 
 for sets are dug up, lay them in a west aspect as 
 dry as possible ; in such a situation they will not 
 sprout so soon. The best time for removing 
 most sorts is the first fine day after the 24th of 
 February. Cut them into sets, and let them re- 
 main covered with dry sand till the ground is 
 prepared, which should be a winter fallow. Lay 
 the sets in without breaking off any of the sprouts, 
 for the second will not be so vigorous. This ac- 
 counts for one sprout out of three from the same 
 set being curled. The two stems not curled rose 
 from two later eyes, and were first sprouts. The 
 sprout curled was a second, the first having been 
 nibbed off. 
 
 XIV. This writer says, that, last spring, one of 
 his neighbours cut and set, by drilling, some 
 loads of the largest potatoes he could procure ; 
 and more than half of them proved curled . Being 
 a few sets short of the quantity wanted, he planted 
 some very small potatoes which he had laid by 
 for the pigs. These being fully ripe and solid, 
 there was not a curled plant among them. He 
 thinks the others being curled was owing to their 
 not being folly ripe. A crop of potatoes, set in 
 rows on ground that had borne a crop of them 
 the preceding year, were mostly curled ; but 
 many plants came up from seed left in the 
 ground the former season, and there was not a 
 curled one among them. 
 
 XV. Of late years, this writer says, great im- 
 provements have been made in setting potatoes 
 and cutting the sets. The ground is dressed 
 cleaner and dunged stronger. Many people, in 
 drilling, wrap up the sets entirely in the dung ; 
 by which means, though their potatoes are larger, 
 the disease seems to be increased. They also 
 cut their sets out of the richest and largest pota- 
 toes, which is perhaps another cause of this evil. 
 In cold countries, where they set their own seed, 
 which has grown on poor land, with less dung, 
 they have no curled plants. On the contrary, 
 when they bought rich and large potatoes for 
 s*:ed, they have been curled in great quantities. 
 He believes the richness and largeness of the 
 seed to be tb.e cause of the evil ; for he does not 
 
 remember to have seen a curled stem which did 
 not spring from a set of a large potatoe. 
 
 XVI. This writer apprehends the curled disease 
 in potatoes to proceed from a defect in the planta 
 seminalis, or seed-plant; and from comparing 
 curled ones with others, there appeared to be a 
 want of, or inability in the powers of expanding 
 or unfolding the parts of the former ; which, 
 from this defect, forms shrivelled, starved, curled 
 stems. On examining some of the sets at the 
 time of getting the crop, he found them hard 
 and undecayed ; so hard, indeed, that some of 
 them would not be soft with long boiling. Some 
 have thought that the fermentation is occasioned 
 by too great quantities being heaped together; 
 but this writer has seen an instance, wherein a 
 single potatoe, preserved by itself, when set, pro- 
 duced stems of the curled kind. He thinks the 
 disease is occasioned by the potatoes being taken 
 from the ground before the stamen, or miniature 
 plant, is properly matured and ripened. For the 
 potatoe, being a native of a warm climate, has 
 there more sun, and a longer continuance in the 
 ground, than in its exotic state ; consequently, it 
 has not the same natural causes to mature the 
 seed-plant as in its native state. We ought, 
 therefore, to give all the opportunities our cli- 
 mate will admit for nature to complete her work, 
 and fit the stamen for the next state of vegetation, 
 especially in those intended for seed. But if 
 the potatoe be taken up before the seed plant be 
 fully matured, or the air and sap vessels have 
 acquired a proper degree of firmness or hardness, 
 it must, when thus robbed of further nutrition, 
 shrivel up ; and when the vessels, in this imma- 
 ture state, come to act again in the second state 
 of vegetation, they may produce plants which are 
 curled. Before the present mode of setting them 
 took place, people covered them, while in the 
 ground, with straw, to protect them from frost. 
 If it be asked, why one set produces both curled 
 and smooth stems ? he answers, we suppose 
 every eye to contain a planta seminalis ; that alt 
 the embryos or seed plants, contained in one 
 potatoe, are nourished by one root ; that, as in 
 ears of corn, some of these seed plants may be 
 nourished before others. One of his neighbours, 
 last year, set two rows of potatoes, which proving 
 all curled, he did not take them up ; and this 
 year there is not a curled one among them. Such 
 potatoes, therefore, as are designed for seed, 
 should be preserved as long in the ground as 
 possible. 
 
 XVII. This writer advises such sels to be planted 
 as grow in moss land ; and, he says, there will 
 not be a single curled one the first year. This is 
 affirmed by the inhabitants of two townships, 
 where they raise amazing quantities. A medical 
 gentleman sowed the one year two bushels of 
 sets from one of the above places ; and had not 
 one curled ; but on sowing them again the fol- 
 lowing year he had a few. 
 
 65. Although there seems to be a diversity of 
 opinions among the above writers, occasioned by 
 the different appearances of their crops, and res- 
 pecting the meajis proper to prevent or cure the 
 disease, the following genemi propositions may 
 be fairly drawn from the whole: 1. That some
 
 326 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 kinds of potatoes are (caeteris paribus) more 
 liable to be affected by the disease than the rest; 
 and that the old red, the golden dun, and the 
 long dun, are the most free from it. 2. That the 
 disease is occasioned by one or more of the fol- 
 lowing causes, either singly or combined : First, 
 by frost, either before or after the sets are planted : 
 Second, From planting sets out of large unripe 
 potatoes : Third, From planting too near the 
 surface, and in old worn-out ground: Fourth, 
 From the first shoots of the sets being broken off 
 before planting ; whence there is an incapacity 
 in the planta seminalis to send forth others 
 sufficiently vigorous to expand so fully as they 
 ought. 3. That the most successful methods of 
 preventing the disease are, cutting the sets from 
 smooth middle-sized potatoes, that were fully 
 ripe, and had been kept dry after they were 
 taken out of the ground ; and, without rubbing 
 off their first shoots, planting them pretty deep 
 in fresh earth, with a mixture of quicklime, or 
 n lime-stone land. 
 
 66. A correspondent of the Bath Society is 
 convinced, that, whatever may be its cause, the 
 fault itself is inherent in the seed ; and has com- 
 municated the following method of avoiding it : 
 'I made a hot bed in the following manner, 
 which method I have used ever since: I laid 
 horse dung, &c. as in making hot beds, about 
 eighteen inches thick; over which I spread a 
 layer of fine rich mould about four or five 
 inches thick ; upon the top of this I laid, in 
 different divisions, a certain number of potatoes 
 of various sorts, some of my own growth, and 
 others brought from different parts, and covered 
 these lightly over with more mould ; they soon 
 came up. I then observed which was freest 
 from the blight or curl ; for if there were not 
 more than one defective in forty or fifty, I con- 
 cluded I might set of that sort with safety. This 
 method I have now practised near twelve years, 
 <md never lost my crop, or any part thereof worth 
 mentioning ; whilst my neighbours, who followed 
 the old method, were frequently disappointed in 
 their crops ; and to the best of my knowledge, 
 all those of my neighbours who have of late been 
 persuaded to take the trouble of using the same 
 means as myself, have never failed of success in 
 one instance ; nor do I ever think it will fail, if 
 duly attended to ; the fault being some hidden 
 cause in the seed, unknown at present, and I 
 believe incurable by any means, at least which 
 have yet come to my knowledge. My reason for 
 planting my hot bed so soon is, that if the frost 
 hinders the first experiment, or they all prove 
 bad, I may have time to make a second or third 
 with different sorts of seed, before the proper 
 season arrives for planting in the fields and 
 grounds appointed for the great and general 
 crop.' 
 
 67. The principles of agriculture may be re- 
 duced to a very small compass, viz. imitatino- 
 the native habitations and propagating the species 
 of the several plants. To improve their qual- 
 ities, as also to increase their number, the chief 
 thing requisite is, to facilitate their mode of nu- 
 trition, by removing all obstacles, by drainin^ 
 and numerous other operations above and below 
 
 the soil; also by supplying food, as by manuring. 
 &c. The manure best adapted is decayed plants 
 of their own species ; some containing peculiar 
 substances in their composition, as wheat for in- 
 stance, which contains gluten and phosphate o f 
 lime. It is also important to ameliorate the cli- 
 mate, by increasing or diminishing its tempera- 
 ture, according to the nature of the plant ; to 
 shelter and shade some species of vegetables by 
 means of walls, hedges, banks, or sloping sur- 
 faces, to receive more directly or indirectly the 
 solar rays, with numerous other iota, which a 
 slight practice of agriculture will suggest ; as 
 thinning away the leaves immediately over- 
 shadowing fruits and flowers, blanching, shading, 
 cuttings, seeds, &c. ; imitating, by artificial ap- 
 plications of water, the dews and showers of 
 heaven ; cutting ridges for surface drainage, 
 conduits, &c. To improve the quality, and in- 
 crease the number of particular parts of veget- 
 ables, it is needful frequently to amputate all 
 other parts that are unnecessary, as in pruning the 
 vine ; and to form new varieties, we must take 
 advantage of their sexual difference, and imi- 
 tate the example of animal nature in crossing 
 the breed. 
 
 68. PRESERVATION OF FRUITS. In the pre- 
 servation of the fruits, when produced, consider- 
 able judgment is necessary. The great object is 
 to prevent, as long as possible, the process of 
 chemical de-composition. The air around de- 
 priving them of their carbon, the moisture 
 within enfeebling the affinity of their component 
 elements ; and together with heat tending greatly 
 to promote their de-composition ; potatoes, 
 turnips, &c. are best preserved by drying them 
 in the sun, and burying them in a dry soil, a few 
 degrees above the freezing point of temperature. 
 By drying in the sun, and afterwards burying 
 in dry cool pits, closed, so as to shut out the 
 air, some may be effectually preserved for many 
 years ; the internal air becoming carbonic acid 
 gas, in which no animal can live, and in which, 
 without oxygen, no seed will vegetate. 
 
 69. Drying in ovens answers the same pur- 
 pose as drying in the sun, and is one of the 
 most obvious modes of preserving vegetables for 
 use: it destroys, however, in most cases, the 
 principle of life in seeds, as also in the roots and 
 sections of the shoots of ligneous plants, and 
 thus prevents the possibility of future germina- 
 tion. It is of capital importance in preservation, 
 after the vegetables are thoroughly dried, so to 
 bury them, as effectually to exclude the atmos- 
 pheric air, by which means, not only decompo- 
 sition is prevented, but the ravages of insects, 
 vermin, and even vegetation. It was no proof 
 of the skill of our ancestors, when they changed 
 this practice of the ancients, for the less success- 
 ful mode of enclosing in granaries and store- 
 houses. The Remans preserved their coro 
 in chambers hewn out of dry rock, a practice, 
 the advantages of which, set forth by their moR 
 valuable writers, are justified by modern ex. 
 perience. The Moors, from time immemorial, have 
 been accustomed to bury their corn in the sides 
 of hills, by which famines have been frequently 
 prevented, and supplies readily obtained after the
 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 327 
 
 most deleterious seasons. The Chinese at the unless in crevices where they have been carried 
 present time bury their store-grain in deep pits by the rains. 
 in dry soil, a practice which has distinguished 
 them from the earliest history. The origin of 
 
 71. SECT. II. A GENERAL VIEW OF SOILS, 
 AND THEIR CULTIVATION. Soils are divided into 
 
 these expedients, are all obvious imitations of two grand classes, primitive and secondary ; 
 what commonly takes place in nature : they are 
 applications of natural principles of which the 
 whole circle of sciences, with all the numerous 
 modifications and practises founded upon them, 
 are but a varied development, and as such, 
 may be satisfactorily explained by chemistry and 
 physiology. The instinct of animals has guided 
 
 the former consisting chiefly of inorganic matter, 
 the latter of both organic and inorganic in mix- 
 tures. These two classes may be subdivided 
 into orders depending on the presence or ab- 
 sence of saline, metallic, and carbonic matter. 
 These orders form certain genera, calculated 
 from the prevailing metals, earths, salts, car- 
 men of genius in many cases to the discovery of bon, &c. The species, the next inferior to the 
 them ; as in the winter store of the hedge-hog, 
 in the repository of the ant, whilst the success- 
 ful preservation of vegetable substances on this 
 
 inferior scale, has demonstrated their practical 
 importance more effectually than a thousand 
 arguments. 
 
 70. MINERALOGY. Our next object in the 
 
 genera, is founded on their various mixtures. 
 Varieties dependent upon colour or texture form 
 component divisions of the species and sub- 
 varieties of the varieties, according to the re- 
 lative dryness, richness, brightness, moisture, 
 &c. To determine the genera of soil, the first 
 thing is to ascertain the prevailing earth or 
 
 present article, will be to exhibit the science of earths, as clay, sand, lime, &c. or the particular 
 
 agriculture in its immediate connexion with the 
 mineral kingdom, including all the primary ele- 
 ments concerned in vegetation. Earths are the 
 production of rocks, exposed on the earth's sur- 
 face; and soils are earths mixed with certain 
 proportions of the de-composed matter, arising 
 from the bodies of dead plants and animals. 
 With respect to its geological structure, the under 
 surface of the earth presents four distinct species 
 of rocky substances. The first, consisting chiefly 
 of granite and marble, are called primitive ; and 
 
 rocks from which the soil has been produced, as 
 basalt, granite, &c. The earths that prevail 
 supply the generic name of the soil, as the cal- 
 careous soil, clayey soil, &c., but when two 
 prevail equally, the names of both must be con- 
 joined, basalt and sand, clay and sand, &c. 
 Precision in the application of the terms greatly 
 facilitates a knowledge of the subject. No soil 
 should be called sandy that does not contaiu 
 seven-eighths of sand, and if effervesing with acids 
 should be called calcareous sandy soil, in oppo- 
 
 are supposed to be co-eval with the formation of sition to that which is siliceous. Clayey soil 
 
 the world. The second series, sometimes called 
 transition rocks, appear to be of more recent 
 formation ; and are probably the result of some 
 great catastrophe. Of these, clay-slate is the 
 most remarkable, to which may be added, trap 
 or whinstone, sandstone, &c. Secondary rocks, 
 
 should denominate land containing not less than 
 one-sixth of impalpable earthy matter, freely 
 effervescing with acids. Peaty soil should con- 
 tain one-half or more of vegetable matter. Whea 
 the soil is composed of the decomposed matter 
 from one particular rock, the name of that 
 
 as sandstones, limestones, conglomerations of rock may be applied. On this principle fine 
 fragments of other rocks, &c. form a third series, red earth, found above decomposing basalt, 
 They probably owe their formation to local re- 
 volutions, and are indicated by their soft fragile 
 
 texture, superincumbent situation, and horizontal 
 
 may be called basaltic soil ; that in which quartz, 
 and mica are abundant, 'may be denominated 
 granitic soil, &c. Alluvial soil, or those formed 
 
 position. The fourth and last series consists of by the depositions of rivers, are commonly the 
 irregular strata, of alluvial or earthy depositions most difficult to define, but may be for the 
 
 from water assuming the modification of immense 
 beds of clays, sands, or marls. Earths are 
 variously composed according to the rocks or 
 strata from which their elementary particles have 
 been derived. Those formed from slate-rocks 
 commonly assume the modification of blue clays ; 
 Those from sandstones are called siliceous 
 Jhroughout their several varieties. The additions 
 made by the decay of animal and vegetable sub- 
 
 most part designated by the terms siliceous, 
 calcareous, argillaceous, &c., in some cases 
 saline. The species of soil is determined by 
 the mixture of matters rather than by the colour 
 or texture, the latter being the characteristic 
 distinctions of varieties. A clayey soil, with 
 sand, is denominated a sandy, clayey species ; 
 if yellow, it might be called a yellow sandy 
 clay, which would express the genus, species, 
 
 stances, have given rise to the appellation of and variety. A soil containing equal parts of 
 
 soils, which differ from earths inasmuch as they clay, lime, and sand, would be called clay, 
 
 contain a greater or less portion of animal or lime, and sand entire; or to express at the 
 
 icgetable matter. They are also distinguished same time its varieties, it might be called a 
 
 By their friable texture, dark colour, and by the brown, stiff, free, fine, or coarse entire clay, 
 
 presence of some vegetable fibre or carbonaceous lime, and sand. The common genera, species, 
 
 matter. The depth of soil upon cultivated and varieties of soils, are enumerated in the fol- 
 
 grounds is only a few inches below the surface, lowing table.
 
 328 
 
 AGRICULTUR E. 
 
 Clots. Order 
 
 Earths. 
 
 Genut. 
 
 Clay. . 
 
 Species. 
 
 r 
 
 \ Lime 
 (Sand 
 
 Entire 
 
 rClay. . 
 
 Earths and I 
 salts, or / Lime . 
 metals. ] 
 
 I Sand . 
 
 Earths with 
 
 organic re- ( 
 
 mains. 
 
 (-Clay . . 
 
 I Lime . 
 Sand . 
 
 -* 
 Basalt . 
 
 Clay. . 
 
 Coal. . 
 
 Granite 
 
 Lime . 
 
 Earths with 
 organic re- 
 mains, me- 
 tals, salts, x 
 and rocks. 
 
 Limestone 
 
 Sand 
 
 Sandstone 
 
 Schist . 
 
 Entire 
 
 Entire 
 
 f Cupreous 
 
 < Ferruginous . . 
 
 I Saline 
 
 C Cupreous and ferruginous 
 
 $ Saline 
 
 f Cupreous 
 
 < Ferruginous . 
 
 C Saline 
 
 f Limy ...... 
 
 1 Loamy . . . . 
 1 Mouldy ..... 
 
 * Peaty and sandy . . 
 C Clayey 
 
 < Loamy and mouldy 
 
 Peaty and sandy . . 
 C Clayey and limy . . 
 
 < Loamy ..... 
 f Mouldy and peaty . . 
 C Columnar .... 
 
 < Ferruginous .... 
 f Whinstone .... 
 
 'Cinerous, loamy, &c. . 
 Cupreous, loamy, &c. . 
 Ferruginous, limy, &c. 
 Ferruginous, loamy, &c. 
 Ferruginous, mouldy, &c. 
 Ferruginous, peaty, &c. 
 Ferruginous, sandy, &c. 
 Saline, loamy, &c. . 
 
 r Pyritic, &c 
 
 ) Slaty, &c 
 
 Stony, -woody, &c, . 
 f Ferruginous, &c. . . 
 Quartzose, &c. . . . 
 Cinerous, limy, &c. 
 Cinerous, loamy, &c. 
 Cupreous, loamy, &c. . 
 Cupreous, sandy, &c. . 
 Ferruginous, loamy, &c. 
 Ferruginous, sandy, &c. 
 Saline, loamy, &c. . . 
 -Saline, sandy, &c. . . 
 
 (-Chalky, &c 
 
 Cupreous, &c. . . . 
 Argillaceous, &c. . . 
 Ferruginous, &c. . . 
 Magnesian, &c. . . . 
 
 Marble, &c 
 
 Shelly, &c 
 
 Siliceous, &c. . . . 
 "^Sulphuric, &c. 
 'Cinerous, limy, &c. 
 Cinerous, loamy, &c. 
 Cupreous, limy, &c. 
 Cupreous, loamy, &c. 
 Ferruginous, limy, &c. . 
 Ferruginous, loamy, &c. 
 Saline, limy, &c. 
 Saline, loamy, & c . . . 
 f Argillaceous, &c. . . 
 1 Calcareous, &c. . . 
 1 Cupreous, &c. 
 V Ferruginous, &c. . 
 C Chlorite, &c. . . . 
 < Ferruginous, &c. 
 * Micaceous, &c. . . 
 
 Variety. 
 
 Black I 
 
 Red and yellow . . . 
 Coarse and fine .... 
 Black, red, yellow, fine, &c. 
 Black, red, yellow, fine, &c. 
 
 Black, red, &c 
 
 Black, red, yellow, fine, &c. 
 Black, red, &c. . , . 
 
 Black, red 
 
 Black, red, yellow, fine, &c. 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, red, yellow, fine, &c. 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, red, yellow, &c. 
 Black, red, yellow, &c. 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, red, yellow, &c. 
 
 Black 
 
 Black ....... 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, red, yellow, &c. 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black . 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, red, yellow, &c. 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, red, yellow, &c. 
 
 Black 
 
 Black . 
 
 Black . 
 
 Black . . . 
 
 Black . . . 
 
 Black . . . 
 
 Black . . . 
 
 Black . . . 
 
 Black . . . 
 
 Black, red, &c. 
 
 Black . . . 
 
 Black . . . 
 Black . 
 
 Black 
 Black 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, &c 
 
 Black 
 
 Black, red, yellow, &c. 
 Black . 
 
 Sub-variety. 
 Wet dry rich 
 poor sterile. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet, dry, rich, &c. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet, dry, rich, &c. 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, dry, rich, &c. 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, dry, rich, %r, 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, dry, &c. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, 
 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, &c. 
 
 Wet. 
 
 Wet, &C. 
 
 Wet.
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 329 
 
 73. DISCOVERING QUALITIES OF SOILS. 
 The different qualities of soils and the conse- 
 quent value to the cultivator, are discovered 
 botanically by the natural plants produced upon 
 them ; chemically by analysis ; and mechanically 
 by handling them. 
 
 74. The plants that grow upon the soil decide, 
 in the opinion of the farmer, its agricultural value 
 with more popular certainty than even chemical 
 analysis. The most valuable soils for the farmer 
 distinguished by their several plants are the fol- 
 lowing : Argillaceous, distinguished by thalic- 
 trum flavum, carex, many species; juncus, 
 various species; tussilago farfara, potentilla 
 anserina, argentea, reptans, and others. The 
 tussilago farfara is an universal symptom of an 
 argillaceous soil. Calcareous soil produces gal- 
 lium pusillum, veronica spicata, lithospermum 
 officinale, purpuro-cseruleum, campanula glome- 
 rata, and hybrida, cistus helianthemum, clematis 
 vita alba, &c. Silicious soil bears the veronica 
 tiriphyllus, and verna, arenaria rubra, &c. silena 
 anglica, and other species. Ferruginous soil 
 produces the rumex acetosa, and acetosella. 
 Peaty soil bears vaccinium myrtillus, uligino- 
 sum and oxycoccus : erica four species, tormen- 
 tilla officinalis. Saline soil produces the zostera 
 marina, pulmonaria maritima, convolvulus sol- 
 danella, arenaria maritima, &c. Aquatic soil 
 bears caltha palustris, hippuris vulgaris, lythrum 
 salicaria, samolus valerandi, &c. Dry soils 
 are distinguished by the rumex aretosella, trifo- 
 lium arvense, acinos vulgaris, thymus serpyllum, 
 arenaria rubra, &c. Some of these plants afford, 
 it is to be confessed, an evidence not always to 
 be depended upon ; but the saintfoin is an evi- 
 dence of a calcareous soil ; coltsfoot ( Tussilago 
 farfara) of blue clay ; arenaria rubra of poor sand; 
 the small wood-sorrell of the presence of iron 
 and peat ; arundo phragmites^Ae common reed 
 grass), polygonum amphibium (the common pond 
 weed), grow in good alluvial soil ; whilst the 
 equisetum arvense (field horse tail), indicates a 
 cold retentive subsoil. Anagallis arvensis, she- 
 rardia arvensis, lithospemium arvense, and 
 fedia olitoria, i. e. field pimpernell, field madder, 
 corn gromwell, and lambs lettuce, grow in culti- 
 vated black loamy soil, on a dry bottom. Soil 
 of this description, when wet, produces the 
 stachys palustris, or (clown's all heal). The 
 presence of the red dead nettle (lamium purpu- 
 reum) evinces a light sandy soil, as also the 
 shepherd's pn<cse,(thalspibursapastoris.) Where 
 the parsley piert, (aphanes arvensis) is found, 
 the soil is unproductive ; where the corn spurry 
 (spergula arvensis) grows thick, the ground has 
 been too much harrowed. Where the common 
 ragwort and the cornthistle (seneciojacobaa, and 
 serratula arvensis) grow freely, the soil gene- 
 rally is fertile consisting of light strong loams. 
 It is, however, the whitlow grass, and the 
 common knawell, (draba muralis, and scleran- 
 thus annuus) which indicate extremely poor, dry, 
 and sandy soil. The common rest harrow, 
 (ononis hircinu) is often found on dry pasture, 
 and where the soil is incumbent on rotten rock. 
 Considerable dependence is to be placed on those 
 plants which are common to aquatic, peaty, and 
 saline soils, as indicating their several qualities. 
 
 75. QUALITY OF SOIL EVINCED BY CUEMI- 
 CAL ANALYSIS. The discovery of the qualities 
 of soils by chemical analysis is extremely diffi- 
 cult, and is seldom performed successfully by 
 the cultivator. In selecting specimens, care 
 should be taken to procure them from different 
 situations. When the field is in one part calca- 
 reous, and in another silicious, the portion 
 should be separately submitted to experiment. 
 From two to four hundred grains is the proper 
 quantity for a perfect analysis, which should be 
 taken in fair weather, and when perfectly dry, 
 preserved in phials, closed with ground glass 
 stoppers, till the period of examination. The 
 soil best for culture according to the analysis 
 of Bergman, contains four parts of clay, three of 
 sand, two of calcareous earth, and one of mag- 
 nesia. Kirwan observes, that the fertility of the 
 soil depends much upon its capacity for retain- 
 ing water. The ingredients of the soil, however, 
 do not always correspond to the nature of the 
 climate ; the quantity of rain that fertilizes a wet 
 soil, cannot be equally suited to a dry one. Si- 
 lica in the soil exists under the modification of 
 sand, alumina under that of clay. Soils in 
 which the sand preponderates, are called dry, 
 retaining the least moisture : those in which clay 
 preponderates, retaining the greatest portion, are 
 called wet. Before either of them are capable 
 of culture, the excess must be retrenched, or the 
 defect supplied. Besides the above, the pro- 
 perties of soil may be ascertained mechani- 
 cally. Its specific gravity may be ascertained 
 by introducing into a phial known to con- 
 tain a certain weight of water, equal volumes 
 of .water, and of soil ; to do which, it is neces- 
 sary to pour in the water first, till the vessel is 
 half full, and then put in earth till it reaches the 
 brim. The difference between the weight of 
 the soil and water will be the result. Thus, if a 
 bottle which holds 400 grains of water, gains 
 200 grains when half filled with water, and half 
 with soil ; the specific gravity of the soil is 2 ; 
 that is, it will be twice as heavy as water. Clay 
 in any soil may be known by its tenacity ; sand 
 by its roughness. Calcareous matter in soil is 
 known by its effervescing freely upon meeting 
 with an acid. The presence of organized matter 
 in soil, may be ascertained by weighing it when 
 it is perfectly dry ; and after having subjected it 
 to a red heat, weighing it again, which will give 
 the proportion of organic matter. Metallic 
 oxydes in soil may in general be known by their 
 colour. Ferruginous soils are red and yellow ; 
 cupreous soils are interspersed with greenish 
 streaks ; salt, coals, sulphur, &c. may be known 
 by the appearance of the water in such soils, and 
 also by the peculiarity of vegetation. 
 
 76. USES OF SOIL. Earths are of no further 
 service to plants than providing them with a me- 
 dium by which they fix themselves to the globe ; 
 and even the portions of earth taken up into them 
 by vegetation, are not convertible to any other 
 substance ; and are supposed to afford the plant 
 nothing but firmness of organization, as wheat, 
 oats, and many hollow stalked grasses, have an 
 epidermis of earth to defend them from the 
 attacks of insects and parasitical plants. Plants 
 are nourished exclusively by means of water and
 
 330 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 decomposing organic matter. Earths, neverthe- 
 less, retain the water, and supply it to the roots ; 
 they also afford the means of distributing the 
 proper nutrimer* ; supply, as they are wanted, 
 those parts which are soluble, and prevent the 
 too hasty decomposition. Notwithstanding soils 
 are the genial aliment and support of plants, 
 yet, from their numerous variety of roots, they 
 require a corresponding variety of soil. Roots 
 that are bulbous require a loose soil ; such as 
 are fibrous, one more solid, and those possessing 
 short fibrous radicles, a soil considerably more 
 compact and firm than those that have extensive 
 lateral roots. Finely divided matters not only 
 give tenacity and coherence to the soil, but 
 greatly promote vegetation, a small quantity be- 
 ing sufficient to fit the soil for the production of 
 barley or turnips. The latter have been produced 
 upon a soil, eleven parts out of twelve of which, 
 have been sand, and the remainder of vegetable 
 or animal matters. Impalpable matters, however, 
 must not be in too great a proportion. In order 
 to promote the growth of vegetables friability and 
 a looseness of texture are requisite in the soil ; 
 so that the water, not lying in the soil in a 
 state of aggregation, but being suspended in it, 
 as water in a sponge, may have free access to the 
 fibres of the root, communicated by capillary 
 attraction. And since alumina possesses the 
 properties of adhesiveness, and silex those of 
 friability, in an eminent degree, it is evident that 
 a due mixture of both is requisite to adapt the 
 soil to the common purposes of cultivation. The 
 absorbent power of soil by cohesive attraction, 
 depends in some degree upon the division of its 
 parts, and is highly necessary to fertility, because 
 moisture absorbed from the atmosphere, counter- 
 acts the effect of daily evaporation, and supplies 
 the plant with moisture in the dryest seasons. 
 Stiff clays, which, like pipe-clays, take up the 
 greatest quantity of water when poured upon 
 them in a fluid form, are not the soils that in dry 
 weather absorb the most from the atmosphere, 
 because they cake, and present only a surface 
 containing the absorbent power. To answer 
 this purpose, a due mixture of sand, clay, carbo- 
 nate of lime, and organized matter, are necessary 
 to give that looseness and lightness that shall 
 render it permeable to the atmospheric air. Re- 
 gard is, however, to be had to the site and cli- 
 mate in which the soil is situate ; the nature and 
 contiguity of the inferior strata, declivity of po- 
 sition, frequency of showers, moisture of cli- 
 mates, &c. exerting considerable influence. 
 
 77. The division of soils into cold and hot is 
 extremely natural : some are more heated by the 
 sun than others; and others, though equally 
 heated, cool in different times. Clayey soils, 
 being clammy and moist, are heated with diffi- 
 culty, and some cool chalks are difficultly heated 
 but retain it longer. The soils most heated by 
 exterior causes, are perhaps olack containing 
 much soft organized matter ; coloured soils, un- 
 der the same circumstances, absorb a greater 
 degree of caloric than those of a pale complexion 
 especially those possessing a considerable propor- 
 tion of carbonaceous or ferruginous matter In 
 dry soils, those that are heated with the greatest 
 lacihty, cool the most rapidly; but the eldest 
 
 coloured dry soil, containing a considerable 
 mixture of decomposed matter, cools much more 
 slowly than a clammy, pale, earthy soil Besides, 
 the above soils are often characterized from the 
 relative proportion of chemical agency which 
 they contain, earths and earthy carbonates having 
 a degree of attraction for many of the principles 
 of vegetable and animal substances. If an acid 
 solution of alumina be mixed with a solution of 
 soap, the oily matter and alumina will unite, and 
 forming a white powder, will sink to the bottom 
 of the fluid. On the same principle, the extract 
 from decomposing vegetable matter, boiled with 
 pipe-clay or chalk, forms a combination by which 
 vegetable matter is rendered more difficult of de- 
 composition. Soils which contain considerable 
 alumina and carbonate of lime, have considera- 
 ble action of this kind, and from this chemical 
 energy in the preservation of manures and other 
 vegetable nourishment, are denominated rich 
 soils. With siliceous sands, it is quite the re- 
 verse. The vegetable and animal matters they 
 contain, not subject to attraction as above, are 
 more liable to decompositive evaporation. In 
 the case of black and brown moulds, the earth 
 is combined with an extractive matter, which, 
 derived from the decomposition of vegetables, is 
 of primary importance in vegetation. 
 
 78. The quality of the subsoil is often of as 
 much importance as that of the soil itself: it 
 may be classed under two heads; first, when 
 it is of the same description as the upper soil, 
 but differing from it only in not having been 
 loosened by ploughing, &c. and enriched by 
 manure; secondly, where it differs in its na- 
 ture from the upper soil : in this case, it is 
 almost always of inferior quality. The much- 
 agitated question whether deep ploughing, or 
 ploughing beyond the usual depth, is beneficial 
 or not, must depend for its solution on the nature 
 of the subsoil, and of the climate. The imme- 
 diate effect of deep ploughing in all cases, must 
 be injurious ; but the injury will soon pass away, 
 where the subsoil is of the same nature as the 
 upper soil ; whereas, if the subsoil differs mate- 
 rially in quality from the upper soil, especially 
 where, as is generally the case, when it does 
 differ, it is impregnated with the oxyde of iron ; 
 there is great hazard in deep ploughing ; and the 
 mischief can be eradicated only by much labour 
 and expence, by frequent exposure to the air, 
 the application of lime, &c. and by draining. 
 
 79. SOILS, IMPROVEMENT OF. For the im- 
 provement of soils numerous methods have been 
 devised. 1. Pulverization; this is needful in 
 the best of soils, to facilitate the admission of air, 
 rain, and the warmth of the atmosphere, &c. 
 The first object of this is to give scope to the roots 
 of vegetables, on the numerous fibres of which 
 '.he prosperity of every plant in a great measure 
 depends ; and also to increase the capillary at- 
 traction of the soil by which its moisture is more 
 uniformly applied. Water being essential to 
 the growth of plants, not only by its immediate 
 application as a fluid, but by that operation by 
 which it facilitates the extraction of vegetable 
 matters, the soil, if not naturally so, should 
 be so constituted artificially, as to retain a re- 
 quisite portion ; for the want of water will impede
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 331 
 
 the germinating principle, and render eren ma- 
 nure an ineffective auxiliary. The different 
 species of earths being among the worst con- 
 ductors of heat, it is necessary to lay the land 
 open, and by the free ingress of the warm air, 
 and tepid rains of spring, artificially increase its 
 temperature. Pulverization also contributes to 
 the increase of vegetable food, conveys water, 
 and with it carbonic acid gas, to the roots of 
 vegetables ; accelerates the putrefaction of vege- 
 table and animal substances by the combined 
 action of heat, light air, and moisture ; buries a 
 portion of the atmospheric air in the soil : in 
 short, so numerous are its advantages, that Tull 
 and others conceived no other assistance to be 
 necessary. No principles, however, admit of in- 
 discriminate application ; for while the pulveriza- 
 tion of some lands contributes to their improve- 
 ment, there are others that require consolidation. 
 
 80. The practice of fallowing is attended with 
 numerous advantages to soils ; the weather has 
 free admission to their interior parts ; the soil is 
 thus heated to a degree which would be impos- 
 sible, while covered with foliage : weeds are in 
 a great measure eradicated, and the top, bottom, 
 and middle of the soil more effectually blended. 
 Where fallows are judiciously applied, and the 
 land, by frequent ploughing and narrowing, left 
 for twelve months in a state of constant tillage 
 and movement, the profits will amply repay both 
 the trouble and expence. Soils are to be al- 
 tered by the addition of those ingredients in 
 which they are deficient ; and the subtraction of 
 those in which they abound. Thus, a soil strongly 
 impregnated with sulphate of iron, will be sterile ; 
 but it is to be improved by the application of quick 
 lime : also a soil containing too great a propor- 
 tion of peat, drifted sand, gravel, &c. is to be 
 improved by taking them away, as the most 
 simple and effectual mode. 
 
 81. The soils improved by the burning process, 
 are those which contain too much dead vegetable 
 fibre; and which, in consequence, lose from one 
 third to one half their weight by torrefaction ; 
 and those which contain a super-abundance of 
 stiff clays and marls ; but poor sandy soils are 
 injured by this process. The common advan- 
 tages of incineration are, that it renders the soil 
 not only less compact, but less tenacious, and 
 retentive of moisture ; affording considerable im- 
 provement to such as are cold and damp. It di- 
 minishes the coherence, and tenacity of clays, 
 and destroys useless vegetable matter, converting 
 it to manure. The water of the soil should be 
 withdrawn when abundant, and when deficient 
 should be supplied. Stagnant water is exceedingly 
 pernicious to all classes of useful plants. Springs 
 are more injurious than surface water, as being 
 colder and generally permanent. Hence the pro- 
 priety of under-draining, &c. as well as removing 
 every obstacle that would prevent the percolation 
 of water to the strata below. See HYDRAULICS. 
 
 82. The great art of irrigation is to imitate 
 nature in all her various modes of communicat- 
 ing moisture ; observing especially, to apply 
 water in the morning and evening, at moderate 
 intervals, and under a clouded sky. It may be 
 applied by surface or subterraneous irrigation. 
 Employed too often, it would have the same 
 
 effects as attend stagnant water, land springs, or 
 aquatic soils, and administered after hot sun- 
 shine, or after violent heats, would check eva- 
 poration, and destroy life. That water which 
 breeds the best fish, is in general the best for 
 watering meadows; and often the imitation of 
 the overflowing of alluvial lands, may be in many 
 cases successfully employed to manure and en- 
 rich the soil. Shading, sheltering, &c. whether 
 by walls, hedges, or plantations ; changing the 
 condition of lands, with respect to solar influence, 
 by erecting mounds, forming slopes, so that the 
 surface may be more or less at right angles with 
 the plane of the sun's rays, hare frequently a very 
 beneficial influence upon the quality of the soil. 
 
 83. PRINCIPLES OF ROTATION. Growing dif- 
 ferent crops in succession approves itself to 
 the practical cultivator, however much its pro- 
 priety may be questioned by the pertinacity of 
 chemical refinement. The principles of this 
 rotation, as laid down by the most eminent 
 agriculturists, are : First. That every plant ex- 
 hausts the soil. Second. That all plants do not ex- 
 haust the soil equally. Third. Plants of different 
 kinds do not exhaust the soil in the same 
 manner. Fourth. All plants do not restore to the 
 soil the same quality or quantity of manure. From 
 these principles the following inferences have 
 been drawn. 1 . That no soil, however well it 
 may be prepared, can long nourish crops of 
 the same kind in succession. 2. Every crop 
 exhausts the soil more or less, as more or less 
 is restored by the plant cultivated. 3. Such 
 plants as root perpendicularly, and such as 
 root horizontally ought to succeed each other. 
 4. Those plants favourable to the growth of 
 weeds, ought not to succeed each other ; nor 
 should plants of the same kind return too 
 speedily in rotation. 5. Plants remarkable 
 for exhausting the soil, as the grains and oil- 
 plants, should be sown only when the land is 
 in a proper state. 6. In proportion as a soil 
 exhausts itself by successive crops, it should 
 be sown with such plants as exhaust but 
 little. The application of these principles to 
 practical farming will be given under the arti- 
 cle Husbandry. A few general observations, 
 however, on the two grand divisions of crops 
 cultivated by the farmer may be added, as the 
 due alternation of these, forms the most simple 
 and fundamental principles on which every ro- 
 tation ought to proceed. The crops raised by 
 the farmer are of two kinds, culmiferous and 
 leguminous, differing widely from each other 
 Wheat, rye, barley, oats, rye-grass, are of the 
 first kind ; of the other kind are, peas, beans, 
 clover, cabbage, and many others. 
 
 84. Culmiferous plants, says Bonnet, have three 
 sets of roots. The first issue from the seed, 
 and push to the surface an upright stem ; the 
 second set issue from a knot in that stem ; and 
 a third from another knot, nearer the surface. 
 Hence the advantage of laying seed so deep 
 in the ground as to afford space for all the 
 sets. Leguminous plants form their roots dif- 
 ferently. Peas, beans, and cabbage, have a store 
 of small roots, all lifting from the seed, like the 
 outermost sets of culmiferous roots; and they 
 have no other roots. A potatoe and a turnip
 
 332 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 have bulbous roots. Red clover has a strong 
 tap root. Some plants rob the soil, others are 
 penial to it. Culmiferous plants, having small 
 leaves and few in number, depend mostly on 
 the soil for nourishment, and little on the air. 
 During the ripening of the seed they draw 
 their nourishment from the soil, as the leaves, 
 by this time being dry and withered, must 
 have lost their power of drawing nourishment 
 from the air. Culmiferous plants are chiefly 
 cultivated for their seed, and are not cut down 
 till the seed be fully ripe. But such plants, 
 while young, are all leaves ; and in that state 
 draw most of their nourishment from the air. 
 And the foggage, excluding the frost by cover- 
 ing the ground, keeps the roots warm. A legu- 
 minous plant, by its broad leaves, draws much 
 of its nourishment from the air. A cabbage, 
 which has very broad leaves, and a multitude 
 of them, owes its growth more to the air than to 
 the soil. A cabbage cut and hung up in 
 a damp place, preserves its verdure longer 
 than other plants. A seed is that part of a 
 plant which requires the most nourishment ; 
 and for that nourishment a Culmiferous plant 
 must be indebted entirely to the soil. A legu- 
 minous crop, on the contrary, when cut green 
 for food, must be very gentle to the ground. 
 Peas and beans are leguminoiis plants ; but 
 being cultivated for seed, they seem to occupy 
 a middle station ; their seed makes them more 
 severe than other leguminous crops cut green ; 
 their leaves, which grow till reaping, make them 
 less severe than a Culmiferous plant left to ripen. 
 85. These plants are distinguished no less re- 
 markably by the following circumstance : All 
 the seeds of a Culmiferous plant ripen at the same 
 time. When they begin to form, the plant be- 
 comes stationary, the leaves wither, the roots 
 cease to push, and the plant when cut down is 
 blanched and sapless. The seeds of a legumi- 
 nous plant are formed successively ; flowers and 
 fruit appear at the same time in different parts 
 of the plant. This plant accordingly is con- 
 tinually growing, and pushing its roots. Henc<5 
 the value of bean or peas straw above that of 
 wheat or oats; the latter is withered and dry 
 when the crop is cut ; the former green and suc- 
 culent. The difference therefore, with respect 
 to the soil, between a Culmiferous and leguminous 
 crop, is great. The latter, growing till cut down, 
 keeps the ground in constant motion, and leaves 
 it to the plough loose and mellow. The former 
 gives over growing long before reaping ; and the 
 ground by want of motion, turns compact and 
 hard. Nor is this all. Dew falling on a culmife- 
 rous crop after the ground begins to harden, rests 
 on the surface, and is sucked up by the next sun. 
 Dew that falls on a leguminous crop, is shaded 
 from the sun by the broad leaves, and sinks at 
 leisure into the ground. The ground accord- 
 ingly, after a Culmiferous crop, is not only hard, 
 but dry ; after a leguminous crop, it is not only 
 loose, but soft and unctuous. 
 
 86. Of all Culmiferous plants, wheat is the most 
 severe, by the long time it occupies the ground 
 without admitting a plough. And as the grain is 
 heavier than that of barley or oats, it probably 
 requires more nourishment. Culmiferous crops 
 
 are not robbers when cut green; the soil, far I 
 from hardening, is kept in constant motion by j 
 the pushing of the roots, and is left more tender 4 
 than if it had been left at rest without any bear- 1 
 ing crop. Bulbous-rooted plants are peculiarly 
 useful in dividing and pulverizing the soil. I 
 Potatoe roots grow six. eight, or ten inches under I 
 the surface ; and by the size and number, they I 
 divide and pulverize the soil better than the I 
 plough ; consequently, whatever be the natural 
 colour of the soil, it is black when a potatoe 
 crop is taken up. The potatoe, however, with 
 respect to its quality of dividing the soil, must ! 
 yield to a carrot or parsnip ; which are large i 
 roots, and pierce often to the depth of eighteen \ 
 inches. The turnip, by its tap-root, divides the 
 soil more than can be done by a fibrous-rooted 
 plant ; but as its bulbous root grows mostly above 
 ground, it divides the soil less than the potatoe, 
 the carrot, or the parsnip. Red clover, in that 
 respect, may be put in the same class with 
 turnips. 
 
 87. Whether potatoes or turnips be the more 
 gentle crop, is a puzzling question. The former 
 bears seeds, and probably draws more nourish- 
 ment from the soil ; potatoes divide the soil more 
 than turnips, and leave it more loose and friable. 
 It appears no less puzzling, to determine between 
 cabbage and turnip ; the former draws more of 
 its nourishment from the air, the latter leaves 
 the soil more free and open. The result of the 
 whole is that culmiferous plants are robbers ; 
 some more, some less; they at the same time 
 bind the soil ; some more, some less. Legumi- 
 nous plants in both respects are opposite; if any 
 of them rob the soil, it is in a very slight degree ; 
 and all of them without exception loosen the soil. 
 A culmiferous crop, however, is generally the 
 more profitable ; but few soils can long bear the 
 burden of such crops, unless relieved by inter- 
 jected leguminous crops. These, on the other 
 hand, without a mixture of culmiferous crops, 
 would soon render the soil too loose. 
 
 88. These preliminaries will carry the farmer 
 some length in directing a proper rotation of 
 crops. Where dung, lime, or other manure can 
 be procured in plenty to recruit after severe 
 cropping, no rotation is more proper or profit- 
 able in a strong soil than wheat, peas or beans, 
 barley, oats, fallow. The whole farm may be 
 brought under this rotation, except so far as hay 
 is wanted. But as such command of manure 
 is rare, it is of more importance to determine 
 what should be the rotation when no manure can 
 be procured but the dung collected in the farm. 
 Considering that culmiferous crops are the more 
 profitable in rich land, it would be proper to make 
 them more frequent than the other kind ; but 
 as there are few soils in Scotland that will admit 
 such frequent culmiferous crops without suffering, 
 it may be laid down as a general rule, that alter- 
 nate crops, culmiferous and leguminous, ought to 
 form the rotation. Nor are there many soils that 
 will stand good, even with this favourable rotation, 
 unless relieved from time to tim by pasturing a 
 few years. If such extended rotation be artfully 
 carried on, crops without end may be obtained 
 in a tolerably good soil, without any manure but 
 what is produced in the farm. Clay answers best
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 333 
 
 for wheat, moist clay for beans, loam for barley 
 and peas, light soil for turnip, sandy soil for 
 rye and buck-wheat ; and oats thrive better in 
 toarse soil than an) other grain. Now, in di- 
 ecting a rotation it is not sufficient that a eul- 
 miferous crop be always succeeded by a legumin- 
 ous: attention must always be given that no 
 crop be introduced that is unfit for the soil. 
 Wheat, being a great binder, requires, more 
 than any other crop, a leguminous crop to fol- 
 low. But every such crop is not proper ; po- 
 tatoes are the greatest openers of soil ; but they 
 are improper in a wheat soil,neither will turnips 
 answer, because they require a light soil. A very 
 loose soil, after a crop of rye, requires rye grass 
 to bind it, or the treading of cattle in pasturing ; 
 but to bind the soil, wheat must not be ventured; 
 for it succeeds ill in loose soil. 
 
 89. Another consideration of moment in di- 
 recting the rotation, is to avoid crops that en- 
 courage weeds. Peas are the fittest of all crops 
 for succeeding to wheat, because it renders the 
 ground loose and mellow, and the same soil agrees 
 with both. But peas are improper, unless the 
 soil be left by the wheat perfectly free from weeds ; 
 because peas, if not an extraordinary crop, 
 foster weeds. Barley may be ventured after 
 wheat, if the farmer be unwilling to lose a crop. 
 It is indeed a robber; better, however, any 
 crop, than run hazard of poisoning the soil with 
 weeds. But to prevent the necessity of barley 
 ^fter wheatj the land ought to be fallowed before 
 the wheat ; it cleans the ground thoroughly, and 
 makes peas a secure crop after wheat. And 
 after a good crop of peas, barley never fails. 
 A horse-hoed crop of turnips is equal to fallow 
 for rooting out weeds ; but turnips do not suit 
 land that is proper for wheat, Cabbage does 
 well in wheat soil ; and a horse-hoed crop of 
 cabbage which eradicates weeds, is a good pre- 
 paration for wheat to be succeeded by peas; 
 and a crop of beans, diligently hand-hoed, is in 
 that view little inferior. As red clover requires 
 the ground to be perfectly clean, a good crop of 
 it ensures wheat and next peas. In loam, a 
 drilled crop of turnips or potatoes prepares the 
 ground, equal to a fallow, for the same succession. 
 
 90. Another rule is, to avoid a frequent repe- 
 tition of the same species; for to produce good 
 crops, change of species is no less necessary 
 than change of seed. The same species return- 
 ing every second or third year, will infallibly 
 degenerate, and be a scanty crop. This is re- 
 markably the case with red clover. Nor will our 
 fields bear pleasantly perpetual crops of wheat 
 after fallow, which is the practice of some 
 English farmers. Hitherto we have treated of 
 rotation in the same field ; which is, to avoid 
 crowding crops one after another in point of time ; 
 but to choose such as admit intervals sufficient 
 for leisure dressing, which gives opportunity to 
 manage all with the same hands, and with the 
 same cattle ; e. g. beans in January or February, 
 peas and oats in March, barley and potatoes 
 in April, turnips in June or July, wheat and 
 rye in October. 
 
 91 . It is of capital importance to have the whole 
 of the manure employed, so that those parts 
 which are not fitted for one crop may remain 
 
 as nourishment for another. If tuniip is in- 
 troduced upon a soil, this crop, recently ma- 
 nured, finds the soil kindly disposed towards 
 germination. If barley, with grass seeds, be 
 the next in succession, the land having been 
 little exhausted by the turnips, finds sufficient 
 nourishment for the grain, while the grasses 
 or clover, requiring little aliment, probably de- 
 rive the gypsum which would be useless to 
 other crops. The roots and leaves of those 
 plants ploughed in at the end of two years, 
 afford manure for the wheat crop ; and as soon 
 as the most exhausting crop is taken, recent 
 manure is applied. Peas and beans always 
 seem adapted to prepare the ground for wheat ; 
 and in rich lands are sometimes raised in 
 alternate crops for years together. On the 
 whole, nothing can be more evident than that, 
 though the general composition of plants is 
 analogous, their specific difference in their pro- 
 ducts, must be derived from different materials 
 in the soil. Hence lands in a course of years 
 cease to give good grasses; and strawberries^ 
 and potatoes, although they flourish ex- 
 ceedingly in virgin mould, degenerate in a few 
 years and require fresh mould. The influ- 
 ence of rotation of crops in destroying insects, 
 is too important to be passed over in silence. 
 The myriads of these creatures that live upon the 
 collar or crown of the cereal grasses, are chiefly 
 tipulre, and muses, which, when the soil pre- 
 sents the same crop for several years in suc- 
 cession, multiply themselves without end ; but 
 when a crop intervenes in which these insects 
 cannot live, the whole race perish from the field. 
 92. MANURES. Our consideration will now 
 be directed to the subject and proper use of 
 manure, including every species of matter capa- 
 ble of promoting the growth of vegetables. 
 Since vegetables are composed of oxygen, hy- 
 drogen, nitrogen, or azote, and carbon, with 
 a portion of saline bodies, vegetable aliment re- 
 quires to be composed of the same elements. 
 Hence decaying animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances form the most important class of ma- 
 nures ; and when deposited in the soil are con- 
 sumed during the process of vegetation. The 
 great object in the application of manure is 
 to make it afford as much soluble matter as 
 possible to the roots of the plant, in a manner 
 so slow and gradual that it may be entirely con- 
 sumed in forming its sap and organization. 
 Whenever manures consist principally of matter, 
 soluble in water, as is the case with organic 
 manures generally, their fermentation or putre- 
 faction should be prevented as much as pos- 
 sible, by preserving them dry, defending them 
 from the contact of air, and keeping them 
 as cool as possible. The different species of 
 manures are extremely various ; containing dif- 
 ferent proportions of the requisite elements of 
 vegetation, and requiring a different treatment 
 in their practical application. Plants which 
 are green and succulent contain saccharine or 
 mucilaginous matter ; and like sea-weed, when 
 intended for manure, should be used as fresh 
 as possible. Rape-cake, malt-dust, and lin- 
 seed-cake make excellent manure when judi- 
 ciously applied. Dry straw of wheat, barley,
 
 334 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 oats, beans, peas, &c. are used with advan- 
 tage, although, perhaps, too indiscriminately, 
 they' are made to ferment before they are em- 
 ployed. It may be doubted whether any vege- 
 
 nesia aro the only ones that have been employed 
 in their proper state. The most common form 
 in which lime is found on the territorial surface, 
 is in a state of combination with fixed air or 
 
 table substance except woody fibres and inert carbonic acid ; and if thrown into a fluid acid, 
 peaty matter, which is of much the same na- 
 ture," requires this process. In general vegeta- 
 
 will cause an effervescence by the emission of 
 its carbonic acid gas. Quick lime, when first 
 
 ble manures ought, as much as possible, to be made, is caustic and burning to the tongue, is 
 
 applied to the nourishment of plants of their soluble in water, and renders vegetable blues 
 
 own species. Animal substances used as ma- green ; but when combined with carbonic acid 
 
 nure require no chemical preparation to fit them 
 
 for the soil ; and the only care requisite is, to 
 
 blend them with earthy constituents, and pre- same as chalk and lime-stone. Few limestones 
 
 gas, it loses these properties, regains its powers 
 of effervescing, and becomes chemically the 
 
 vent their too rapid decomposition. Fish make 
 excellent and powerful manure, though it can- 
 
 or chalks consist entirely of lime and carbonic 
 acid ; but are mingled with alumine, or alumi- 
 
 not be ploughed in too fresh. The effects of the nous earth, oxide of iron, magnesia, &c. But all 
 refuse pilchards, thus employed in Cornwall, its different ingredients variously modify their 
 were perceived for several years. Oily substances, properties, when limestone is used as manure. 
 
 as blubber, have been applied with success. The 
 powerful effects of bones, when properly ground, 
 are well known; and horn, as it contains a 
 large quantity of decomposable acrid matter, is a 
 still more powerful manure than even bone. 
 
 Quick-lime is injurious to plants, when adminis- 
 tered in its pure state ; but in its state of com- 
 bination with carbonic acid, becomes a useful 
 ingredient in the soil ; and falling in contact with 
 fibrous vegetable matter, forms a compost of 
 
 flair, woollen rags, feathers, the refuse of skins, which a part is soluble in water ; thus rendering 
 
 and leather chippings, putrid urine, and in short 
 all the excrementitious animal substances, form 
 excellent manures. Soot is also well fitted to be 
 used in the dry state. 
 
 93. Organic manures, it is to be feared, are ge- 
 nerally suffered to decompose too much before 
 they are applied. An incipient fermentation 
 is favourable; but rather than it should be 
 carried too far, better if there were no fermen- 
 tation at all. Manure to be preserved, should 
 be kept under sheds, or at least be defended 
 from the sun. This, though it would be an 
 additional care and little more expence, would 
 increase the harvest and enrich the farm. Animal 
 
 that matter nutritive which was before inert, 
 Mild limes, marls, chalks, or powdered lime- 
 stone, have no action of this kind. They have 
 no tendency to form soluble matters ; but pre- 
 vent the too rapid decomposition of substances 
 already dissolved. Hence the operation of these 
 differs from that of quick-lime, being useful only 
 to improve the texture of soils in its power of 
 absorption ; whereas the former converts hard 
 vegetable matter into proper nutriment, by bring- 
 ing it into a state of more rapid decomposition 
 and solution. From these general principles, it 
 follows that the propriety or impropriety of ap- 
 plying quick-lime to a soil, depends upon the 
 
 substances decompose rapidly by being buried quantity of inert vegetable matter that it contains. 
 
 in the soil, and care should be taken in their 
 proper application to the field. Organized forms 
 are in the earth resolved into their chemical 
 constituents ; and after having lived their day 
 fall into dust, and become the food of others. 
 From their fermentation and putrefaction forms 
 of beauty and usefulness emerge; the fetid gas 
 constitutes the aroma of the flower ; and what 
 
 The propriety of employing marl, mild lime, or 
 powdered limestone, depends upon the quantity 
 of calcareous matter already in the soil. One 
 capital rule to be observed is, that all soils which 
 do not effervesce with acids, and sands more 
 than clays, are improved by the application of 
 lime, and ultimately by quick-lime. Lime should 
 ne.ver be applied with animal manures, except 
 
 might be poison, distilled over again, is formed they are too rich ; or for the purpose of prevent- 
 
 into nourishment. See CHEMISTRY. 
 
 94. MINERAL MANURES. Mineral manures 
 are of more recent invention and uncertain ap- 
 
 ing noxious effluvia. It possesses, however, 
 two great advantages for vegetable nutrition. It 
 forms certain insoluble bodies to soluble com- 
 
 plication than those of which we have already pounds, and also prolongs the nutritive action of 
 
 treated ; yet the propriety of their use depends substances beyond the term which they would 
 not only upon laws of chemistry, but just induc- 
 tions from facts. It seems a fair conclusion, 
 
 bUUSld.Il CCS **/pj.i_cn,j,i_;ij, IAJ |i;ui;>. i uv; J_^ixetiu vjiic \JL n*t mwc*. 
 
 id m the organs of plants, are supplied by fertile parts of Cornwall, has mild magnesian earth 
 
 s m which they grow. Thus compound forms mingled with the soil. Calcareous matter is 
 
 1 by the combination and chemistry also applied for agricultural purposes in other 
 
 imple air ; and the elements of the soil, the combinations, one of which is, gypsum or sul- 
 
 atmosnhere and the earth absorbed, and made to phate of lime. Plaster of Paris is of this nature. 
 
 .selves m different proportions, into the Gypsum was introduced into America with great 
 
 n ostd.versmed and beautiful structures. Alkaline success by Dr. Franklin, on his return from Pa- 
 
 unmixed with the remains of any matter ris. The ashes of sainfoin, clover, and rye-grass 
 
 or g an,zedbein g s,aretheonlysubstance S which afford considerable quantities of gypsum, which 
 
 rO y> K 6 ed T ral manures ; in all probability, forms a necessary part of their 
 
 ^J^ 1 .^, *k,the two wood/fibre. Gypsum is contained in stable 
 
 U OC f 510I } all y ln j of dung, and the dung .of all cattle fed on grass. 
 
 compounds; hme and mag- Hence, it is probable that gypsum might be sue- 
 
 retain them, independent of such combination. 
 Magnesian limestone is used with good effect in 
 application to peats. The Lizard, one of the most 
 
 ir
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 335 
 
 cessfully employed in the cultivation of these 
 substances, and form an efficacious species of 
 manure. Sulphate of iron or green vitriol, are 
 efficacious in calcareous soils ; otherwise all vi- 
 triolic impregnations are injurious. Phosphate of 
 lime, a combination of lime and phosphoric acid, 
 is thought necessary to the cultivation of corn, 
 and white crops in general. The saline com- 
 pounds of magnesia and wood-ashes, are employ- 
 ed in some cases by eminent agriculturists. Soda, 
 or mineral alkali, is found in the ashes of sea- 
 weed, and may be obtained from common salt; 
 even salt itself being offensive to insects, and 
 assisting the decomposition of animal or vegeta- 
 ble matter, may be applied in small quantities in 
 the form of manure. In Cornwall, a refuse salt, 
 mingled with some of the oil and exuviae of fish, 
 makes excellent manure. Sulphate of potassa, 
 nitre, muriate, and carbonate of ammonia, are 
 strongly recommended as manure. Soot owes 
 a great measure of its efficacy to the ammoniacal 
 salt it contains. 
 
 95. AEROLOGY. The other agents in vegeta- 
 tion are heat, light, electricity, water, &c. ; to 
 which we may add the atmosphere, with its ele- 
 ments and changes. 
 
 96. The heat radiated by the sun to the earth, 
 would, if suffered to accumulate, speedily destroy 
 its constitution; but its deleterious effects are pre- 
 vented by the nocturnal radiation of heat to the 
 heavens; when the surface of the terraqueous 
 globe, having become colder than the contiguous 
 fluid, condenses the watery vapour in the form 
 of dews, falling where it is most wanted, on her- 
 bage and low plants. Dense clouds, near the 
 earth's surface, reflect back again the- heat they 
 receive from it by radiation ; but if they lie at 
 considerable elevation from the atmosphere, by 
 radiating to it less heat than they receive from it, 
 they admit of bodies on its surface becoming 
 considerably colder than the contiguous air. 
 Islands and continental regions, bordering im- 
 mediately upon the ocean, subject as they are to 
 a cloudy sky, will, from the reasons assigned, be 
 less cold in winter than regions that are more re- 
 mote. Fogs proceed upon the same principle 
 as clouds, and serve to corroborate the general 
 rule, that, whatever impedes the passage of 
 radiant heat, will tend to prevent bodies on the 
 surface of the earth becoming colder than the 
 contiguous atmosphere, the water deposited 
 upon the earth during fogs at night, serving to 
 bathe the vegetables, especially those that have 
 the greatest attraction ; for humidity arises from 
 two sources, viz. a precipitation of moisture 
 from the atmosphere by means of its cold, and a 
 real formation of dew arising from the ordinary 
 principle of condensation. Heat and cold, then, 
 by reason of their mechanical effects produced 
 upon the atmosphere, exert a necessary and 
 powerful influence upon the principles and pro- 
 cess of vegetation. 
 
 97. The hurtful effects of cold occur chiefly in 
 flollows ; and, in clear still nights, frosts are less 
 severe upon the hills than in the plains. The 
 tops of trees also are sometimes found dry when 
 the grass upon the earth's surface is covered with 
 dew, all which phenomena may be satisfactorily 
 resolved into the philosophy of the before men- 
 
 tioned principles. Much cold is to be prevented 
 by a slight covering, which Dr. Wells recom- 
 mends to be placed at a little distance above 
 tender plants and fruits which it is intended to 
 shelter. He observed from experiments, that 
 grass, slightly sheltered, was one night 8, and 
 another night 11, warmer than grass fully ex- 
 posed to the atmosphere, notwithstanding some 
 disadvantages in the medium of experiment ; and 
 that grass, sheltered by a cambric handkerchief, 
 raised a few inches in the air, was 3, and on 
 one occasion 4, warmer than grass covered with 
 a similar handkerchief, but actually in contact. 
 Walls, in addition to other purposes which they 
 subserve mechanically, have the advantage that 
 they prevent the loss of heat which the con- 
 tiguous plants, were they perfectly exposed, 
 would sustain by radiation. From the same 
 principle arises the utility of snow as a covering 
 for vegetables in the winter. The influence or 
 the different solar rays on vegetation, though not 
 made perhaps so much as it ought to be the sub- 
 ject of study, is no doubt considerable. Plants 
 kept in darkness, however supplied with air, 
 heat, moisture, and every requisite species of 
 aliment, never obtain their natural colours ; nor 
 acquire any other juices than such as are watery 
 and saccharine. 
 
 98. Electricity has been thought to have a much 
 greater influence on the germination of seeds 
 than we are commonly aware ; although, in the 
 opinion of Dr. Darwin, no profitable application 
 of it to this purpose has ever yet been discovered. 
 Compound bodies are capable of being decom- 
 posed by it, and corn has been found to sprout 
 much more rapidly in water negatively electrified, 
 than when positively so. Experiments have 
 already evinced that the clouds are usually nega- 
 tive, the probable conclusion is that the earth is 
 positive. This circumstance, with the electrical 
 changes constantly taking place in the atmos- 
 phere, and upon the terraqueous surface, de- 
 mands a greater degree of attention than it has 
 at present received. 
 
 99. The influence of the atmosphere is too 
 well known to require any elaborate discussion. 
 Composed of water, carbonic acid gas, azote, 
 and oxygen, it forms a chemical compound which 
 envelopes the earth, varies the weather, and is 
 essential to the support and continuance of life. 
 Its action on plants differs at different periods of 
 their growth and development. In the exhausted 
 receiver seeds moisten and swell, but shew no 
 further signs of vegetation; and, if kept there, 
 lose their living powers, and undergo putrefac- 
 tion. The process is the same in pure azote, or 
 carbonic acid. But if a healthy seed be moistened, 
 and exposed to air of 45 temperature, germina- 
 tion commences, the radicle descends, and a 
 plume is shot upward in the atmosphere. A 
 seed examined before germination will be found 
 to be more or less insipid ; but after germination 
 it is sweet, its coagulated mucilage being con- 
 verted into sugar. It is this, which rendered 
 soluble, and carried through the cells or vessels 
 of the cotyledons, forms the nourishment of the 
 infant plant. The process is evidently effected 
 by the direct action of the atmosphere, and hence 
 semination, unless so conducted as to leave the
 
 336 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 deposit exposed to the influence of the air, can 
 nrvcr produce a vigorous and healthy plant. 
 
 100. Besides the above immediate action upon 
 vegetables, the atmosphere is subject to nu- 
 merous changes, all of which exert a nearer or 
 more remote influence upon the general business 
 of agriculture. The first of these variations is 
 that of temperature, considered exclusive of the 
 different seasons and climates. The rays of the 
 sun concentrated, have no kind of effect on air ; 
 but communicating the heat to the surface of 
 our globe, the warmth is communicated to the 
 atmosphere. Hence the temperature decreases 
 in proportion to the height of the air from the 
 earth's surface, varies according to the season, 
 and becomes highest where the place is so si- 
 tuated as to receive the rays of the sun with 
 most effect. The air and the earth, which are 
 most heated at the equator, where the rays fall 
 perpendicularly, gradually diminish in temper- 
 ature as they approach the poles, allowing for 
 differences of geographical position, qualities of 
 surface, &c. ; continents being colder than is- 
 lands. 
 
 101. The ascent and descent of water, may 
 be considered under the form of vapour or water, 
 evaporated by means of rarefaction from the sur- 
 face of the earth, and afterwards formed into 
 clouds. When water is made to boil, evapora- 
 tion flies off in the form of visible steam. The 
 same process is observed, only on a much lower 
 scale, in the daily evaporations that ascend the at- 
 mosphere. In the maritime countries this is more 
 considerable than in those which are inland; 
 and is greater in the warmth of summer than in 
 the cold of winter. Dew is moisture deposited 
 by the atmosphere on the earth, and is precipi- 
 tated in proportion to the humidity contained in 
 the atmosphere, by means of the cold of the 
 body on which it is seen. Dr, Wells lays down 
 the principle, on the authority of numerous facts, 
 reasonings, and experiments, that bodies must 
 of necessity become colder than the neighbour- 
 ing air before they are bedewed. Rain is con- 
 sequent upon evaporation, by which the clouds 
 are charged with vapour. Dalton accounts for 
 its phenomena in the following manner : - ' If 
 two masses of air, of unequal temperatures, by 
 the ordinary currents of the winds, are inter- 
 mixed when saturated with vapour, a precipita- 
 tion ensues.' In proportion as the masses are 
 under saturation, is the extent and density of the 
 shower ; and in warm air a greater quantity of 
 vapour is precipitated under the same degree of 
 saturation. Hail is considered as frozen rain, 
 differing however in this respect, that hail stones 
 are not formed of single pieces of ice, but of 
 many Kttle spherules, of different degrees of 
 consistence, agglutinated together. Frost pro- 
 ceeding from the atmosphere commences upon 
 the surface; and extends its influence downwards, 
 into earths, waters, &c. Snow consists of the 
 frozen vapours of the atmosphere, the particles 
 of which proceeding down to the earth, are 
 joined by numerous others of their own species, 
 which form constant additions to their bulk! 
 Its whiteness is the consequence of its division 
 into an exceeding variety of little particles, as 
 will appear trom the fact, that ice when finely 
 
 powdered will exhibit the same appearance. Ice 
 is water in a state of congelation, increased one 
 eighth part of its bulk by the process of transmu- 
 tation. It remains at the temperament of thirty-two 
 degrees of Fahrenheit, and acquires its increased 
 dimensions with a force which would burst the 
 strongest vessels, and even pieces of artillery. 
 It freezes more rapidly than it thaws. 
 
 102. Wind is air in motion. It is necessary to 
 carry off putrid exhalations, to purify the air and 
 preserve it fit for respiration. The prevailing 
 winds in our own country, as stated by the 
 Royal Society of London, are 
 
 At London. At Glasgow. 
 
 North . . . 16 days. North West . 40 days. 
 South . . .18 South East. . 47 
 
 East ... 26 North East . 104 
 
 South East .32 South West . 174 
 
 West ... 53 
 NorthWest . 50 
 North East . 58 
 SouthWest. 112 
 
 103. As the winds carry the clouds along with 
 them, much depends on them with regard to the 
 local and more general diffusion of rains. For pro- 
 per acquaintance with their prevailing directions, 
 for the phenomena of thunder, as also for curious 
 and interesting information relative to the prog- 
 nosticating of weather, 8cc. See METEOROLOGY 
 AEROMANCY, &c. 
 
 104. We must now be allowed to offer, as 
 supplementary to the general information con- 
 tained in this section, a slight sketch of those 
 general views and principles of the animal sys- 
 tem, with which the scientific farmer should cer- 
 tainly be acquainted. This system has much 
 less engaged the attention of naturalists than 
 botany. In describing animals they have followed 
 the same rules as those commonly observed in 
 the naming of plants ; but the classification of 
 them is by no means established on so firm and 
 philosophical a basis. The system of Linnaeus 
 is founded on a particular system of organs. 
 Another system has been founded on the joint 
 consideration of all the systems of organs exter- 
 nal and internal. On the basis of this has been 
 established several natural methods, particularly 
 that of Cuvier. But several naturalists have 
 adopted a mixed method, as being, in their 
 opinion, the most convenient. The male is 
 understood in all cases to be the representative 
 of the species ; and the female, although greatly 
 differing in appearance from the male, presents, 
 with the exception of the re-productive organs, a 
 perfect agreement in structure. So long as the 
 internal structure was entirely or partially over- 
 looked, the classification of female individuals 
 was a work of great difficulty ; but by attending 
 to the internal peculiarities, the arrangement is 
 comparatively easy. 
 
 105. ANATOMY. From these considerations 
 the anatomy of animals becomes a primary 
 object of consideration, and may be regarded as 
 external and internal. 
 
 106. EXTERNAL ANATOMY. That which is 
 exterior, relates to the covering or skin of animals, 
 which includes the cuticle, trie corpus mucosum, 
 the corium, the panniculus, and the cellular 
 web. The cuticle is destitute of nerves, fibres.
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 2nd blood vessels, and consists of a thin trans- 
 parent membrane, in many cases so soft and 
 delicate, that it appears like mucus. The corpus 
 mucosum lies beneath the cuticle, and the true 
 skin below. The corium, or true skin, is entirely 
 destitute of colour, and in some animals consists 
 of solid fibres, which cross one another in every 
 possible direction, forming an extensible elastic 
 substance, penetrated by a delicate net-work of 
 blood-vessels and nerves. The muscular web 
 consists of a layer of muscles, the extremities of 
 'vhose fibres are externally inserted in the corium. 
 The use of this layer of the integument is to cor- 
 ruerate the skin ; and may be observed in the 
 human species in the upper parts, moving the 
 skin of the face, cheeks, and head. The cellular 
 web forms the innermost layer of the common 
 integuments, and rests immediately on the flesh 
 of the body. The appendices of the skin are 
 hairs, feathers, horns, scales, shells, and crusts. 
 Hair is the most permanent of all the substances 
 consisting of animal matter, and resists putrefac- 
 tion the longest. It grows by a root in the form 
 of a bulb, taking its rise in the cellular web, from 
 which it passes through the corium, mucus web, 
 and cuticle. In some species the hair falls oflT, 
 and is reproduced annually. Hairs are generally 
 round, but sometimes flat, two-edged, and thick- 
 est in the middle. Sometimes they are long and 
 straight, at others curled and crooked. When 
 crisped they are called wool ; when stiff, they 
 are called bristles ; and when inflexible, they are 
 called spines. Feathers are of different colours, 
 depending in some birds upon seasons, food, &c. 
 They are readily reproduced, and renewed perio- 
 dically. The parts of the feathers are, the quill, 
 which takes its rise in the cellular membrane ; 
 the central portion, a shaft of a texture resem- 
 bling cork, and the web which clothes the sides, 
 composed of barbes, each of which is again 
 clothed with barbules. Horns are considered 
 as hairs so agglutinated as to form a hollow 
 cone ; and at the base where it unites with the 
 skin, its fibrous texture may in many animals be 
 seen. The apex of the cone is in this part push- 
 ed out in proportion to the increase originating 
 at the root. There is, however, this difference 
 between horn and hair, that the former has its 
 central cavity filled by a bony or other solid 
 projection from the body ; whereas the central 
 part of the latter is composed of medulla or pith. 
 The different markings of horns, particularly the 
 transverse ridges, indicate the different layers of 
 gro%vth, and correspond in some cases with the 
 years which the animal has lived. They do not 
 experience those periodical renovations which are 
 common to hairs and feathers ; and the case of 
 the stag forms no real exception, inasmuch as 
 the deciduous parts are not true horns. Va- 
 rious appendices of the skin are included under 
 this general denomination ; as beaks, which cover 
 the maxillary bones of birds ; hoofs, which are 
 peculiar to certain herbivorous quadrupeds; 
 claws, having a bony centre and covering the 
 extremities of the feet in animals ; nails, covering 
 the fingers and toes of the human species, and 
 differing from horns in the circumstance of their 
 not being tubular, but consisting of a plate, con- 
 rex on the exterior ; and spurs occurring upon the 
 VOL. I. 
 
 legs of gallinaceous birds. The use of horns in 
 every modification of them is to prevent the parts 
 that are particularly tender from being injured 
 by coming into immediate contact with hard 
 bodies. From the skin arise three different 
 kinds of secretions; one lubricates the skin 
 itself, another regulates the temperature of the 
 body, and a third carries off superfluous carbon. 
 Unctuous secretions are peculiar t6 warm-blooded 
 animals, whose cellular web is filled with fat. 
 Viscous secretions are peculiar to animals of 
 cold blood, but answer the same purpose of de- 
 fending the skin from the action of the surround- 
 ing element. 
 
 107. INTERNAL ANATOMY. The internal ana- 
 tomy of animals, includes the entire structure, 
 osseous, muscular, and nervous. The structure 
 of the bones is the first consideration with respect 
 to the strength and locomotion of animals. Bones 
 are composed of the periosteum; the texture of 
 which is obviously fibrous, serving the same 
 purpose to the bone as the skin- with respect to 
 the body ; the cartilaginous basis consisting of 
 gelatine, and coagulated albumen ; earthy mat- 
 ter, which is chiefly phosphate of lime, and fat, 
 resembling fixed oils. Bones increase in size by 
 the expansion of the cartilaginous basis ; which, 
 when saturated with earthy matter, is capable of 
 further extension. Bones are readily reproduced, 
 especially in youth, as in case of fracture. In 
 animals of the deer kind, the horns which are 
 the true bones, are shed annually, and reproduced. 
 The articulation of bones exhibit numerous va- 
 rieties in respect to surface, connection, and mo- 
 tion. The only two which we shall introduce 
 into the present article, are motionless junctions, 
 and joints. In the former, the connecting sur- 
 faces of bones come into immediate contact, as in 
 the serrated edges of the bones of the human skull ; 
 or when a pit in one bone receives the extremity 
 of another, like a wedge, as in the case of the 
 human teeth. Sometimes one bone has a cavity 
 with a protuberance at its centre, which receives 
 another bone, as in the claws of cats, seals, &c. 
 In the osseous structure of the human species, 
 the ribs are united with the breast-bone by means 
 of cartilage, as are the two sides of the lower jaw, 
 with each other in vertebral animals. In joints, 
 the articular surfaces are enveloped with car- 
 tilage, intimately united to the bone which they 
 protect. Muscles are the organs by which mo- 
 tion is executed. They appear in the form of 
 large bundles, consisting of cords, which again 
 are divided into smaller threads, capable of a still 
 further subdivision with their primary filaments. 
 The muscles with their component cords and 
 filaments, are individually enveloped by a cover- 
 ing of cellular membrane, supplied by nerves and 
 blood-vessels; whilst at the extremities of the 
 muscular fibres lie the sinews, of a silvery colour, 
 possessing great tenacity, and exhibiting a firm, 
 though fibrous texture, which forms a passive 
 link from the muscle to the bone. The muscles 
 possess the power of irritability, execute all the 
 motions of the body, and are the most active 
 members of the frame. Standing, walking, leap* 
 ing, flying, in short, every species of action being 
 attributed to their instrumentality. The nervous 
 system is that which contains the organs of sen-
 
 338 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 *tion or volition. It includes the brain, spinal and form important and useful additions to the 
 marrow, and the nerves. The brain exhibits a farm. The chief employed, or retained on 
 The spinal marrow origi- 
 
 slightly viscous mass. 
 
 nates in the brain, and consists of four cords, 
 united in one body. The nerves also originate 
 in the brain, or spinal marrow, from different 
 parts of which arise several filaments ; uniting, 
 they form the trunk of a nerve, which sub- 
 divides in various ways, spreading its rami- 
 fications over the whole system, under the 
 form of plexus or net-work ; between the dif- 
 
 British farms, are the horse, ox, sheep, swine, 
 fowls, &c. 
 
 112. BREEDING. In the breeding of animals, 
 an object of primary importance is the selection of 
 the parents. Two theories have, however, obtained 
 with respect to this subject, viz. breeding from 
 individuals of the same parentage, called the in- 
 and-in system ; and breeding from individuals of 
 two .different offspring, called cross-breeding. It 
 
 ferent parts of which, a perfect connection is is a common mistake, that the breed of animals 
 
 maintained. is improved by the largest males ; and cross- 
 
 108. DIGESTIVE ORGANS. Of the digestive breeding has only succeeded, to any extent, in 
 
 system of animals, it will be necessary to take those instances where the females were larger 
 
 some notice. Animal appetite originates from than the usual proportion. The external form is 
 
 the activity of the organs of the stomach, and is to be studied only as an indication of internal 
 
 prompted by cold air applied to the skin ; by structure. The lungs are of the first importance ; 
 
 exercise ; or by cold, acid, or astringent fluids since on their size and soundness depend, in a 
 
 introduced into the system. Thirst is occasioned great measure, the health and strength of the ani- 
 
 by the excessive expenditure of the fluids, and mal. The chest, which indicates the size of the 
 
 originates in a variety of causes. Of hunger and lungs, should approximate to the figure of a 
 
 thirst, there are many remarkable varieties, cone, having its apex situated between the 
 
 Sometimes they are directed after the objects of shoulders, and its base towards the loins. The 
 
 the animal kingdom, when the subject of the sen- head should be small. This not only indicates a 
 
 sation is said to be carnivorous ; piscivorous, when good breed, but facilitates the birth. The length 
 
 directed towards fishes ; insectivorous, when di- of the neck should be proportioned to the height 
 
 reeled towards insects ; if directed towards seeds, of the animal. The muscles should be large. 
 
 gramvorous ; if towards grasses, graminivorous, 
 &c. For the process of digestion and circulation, 
 see ANATOMY. 
 
 109. REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM. In the repro- 
 
 Large bones generally indicate imperfection in 
 the organs of nutrition. Of the external appear- 
 ances, by which varieties of the same species are 
 distinguished, those of the male parent most fre- 
 
 ductive system of animals, it is the business of quently predominate in the offspring : thus, if a 
 
 the female to prepare the germ, or ovum, and 
 bring it to maturity ; whilst the office of the male 
 is to impregnate the germ, by means of the 
 spermatic fluid secreted in the testicles, and 
 transmitted by its appropriate organs. The 
 
 hornless ram be put to horned ewes, almost ail 
 the lambs will be hornless. In Norfolk, crossing 
 with the Ryeland rams would effectually remove 
 the horns, enlarge the chest, and improve the 
 quality of the wool. The same may be said of 
 
 germ thus impregnated, is farther improved in Devonshire cattle, with respect to Galloway 
 
 the uterus, and eventually brought forth in the bulls. The good effects of cross-breeding are 
 
 ordinary way of nature. In viviparous animals evident in the improved state of English horses ; 
 
 the reproductive organs are in general similar ; by crossing with diminutive stallions, Barbs, and 
 
 but with the sexual organs of the oviparous tribes Arabians. But when it became fashionable in 
 
 it is otherwise; and the manner in which the eggs London to drive large bay horses, the farmers in 
 
 of birds are impregnated by the male has never Yorkshire, by putting their mares to very large 
 
 been properly determined. horses, produced a race of small-chested, large- 
 
 10. PATHOLOGY. Animal life is exposed to boned, long-legged, worthless animals, and thus 
 
 numerous accidents, diseases, and casualties, exhibited the bad effects of cross-breeding, where 
 
 Health is precarious; which circumstance ren- injudiciously applied. 
 
 ders animal pathology an important subject to 113. REARING. Immediately after the birth of 
 understand. The health and longevity of animals every animal, its immediate nourishment is sup- 
 depend, in a great measure, upon the organs of plied by the mother, for which reason, the latter, 
 respiration and digestion, and the manner in during her gestation and afterwards, should be 
 nch they perform their various functions. In carefully attended to and well supplied. As the 
 >s where the air of the atmosphere, or water animal increases in size and strength, it should 
 ns noxious particles, it brings on epidemi- have abundance of food, air, and exercise, to lay 
 il and endemical diseases, as the epizooty, or the foundation of a firm and vigorous constitu- 
 ; murrain, which attacks horses, sheep, and tion. Food, however, though supplied in abund- 
 ws, called by some farmers, the distemper, ance, ought not to be given to satiety: even 
 scarcity is exceedingly detrimental to animals, animals feeding on a rich pasture have been found 
 diseases; and for the diseases of to improve by being taken from it once a day, and 
 cattle, we have few effectual antidotes. There is put into a fold on inferior pasture. If rich food 
 ar maintained all over the animal king- is supplied to young growing animals, and exer- 
 m, tnbe ,s dmded against tribe; so that few cise withheld, diseases are generated, and growth 
 imals comparatively, live to the period of is impeded. Good air and water are necessary 
 , at to feeding all species of animals with success. 
 ,e most important uses of animals to the Tranquillity, comfort, and cleanliness should be 
 
 IP?P ' L ' l r g j and f d - attended t0 ' ^d where, in addition to these, 
 
 these views they are reared, domesticated, : ni , als are sheltered in sheds and houses, so
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 339 
 
 as to moderate the different extremes of 
 weather, a good state of health will be the na- 
 tural consequence. The feeding of animals for 
 extraordinary labour or for long journeys, should 
 oe effected by dry rich food; rubbing, clean- 
 ing, and warmth in the intervals between labour 
 and rest, will be found very powerful auxilia- 
 ries. 
 
 114. SECT. III. HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE, 
 
 WITH A SKETCH OF ITS PRESENT STATE. We 
 
 shall now conclude our observations with a brief 
 abstract of the history of agriculture from the 
 earliest periods, and a rapid sketch of its present 
 state. Chronologically, the science of agricul- 
 ture may be traced to the period immediately 
 succeeding the deluge, when it formed the prin- 
 cipal occupation of Noah and his descendants. 
 The plains of Shinar, no doubt, witnessed the 
 earliest improvements ; Egypt, Greece, and 
 Carthage, successively, the dawn, day-break, sun- 
 rise, and ascensional development of this in- 
 teresting pursuit, whether viewed abstractedly as 
 a theory of scientific principles, or in its applica- 
 tion as a useful art. Through the above route 
 agriculture has been conveyed to our part of the 
 world, on the changing and crooked high-road of 
 political revolution and emergency. In China 
 and the eastern countries, whose antiquity is ce- 
 lebrated as so justly sublime, it was, perhaps, 
 coeval with their early plantation and government, 
 and has been retained through all the periods of 
 time ; has stood like the colossus of Rhodes, and 
 lustred the hemisphere ; while the rapid and 
 more aggrandized improvements of military re- 
 publics, shaken by the earthquakes to which war- 
 like nations are liable, have fallen to ruin and 
 decay. Of the agriculture of the ancients little 
 is known. That which is distant is always par- 
 tially obscured, and presents little else than a 
 covering of clouds ; and although books, like 
 glasses, bring distant objects near, we have few 
 glasses of sufficient focus to reach the stretch of 
 time, not to say that through a glass vision is 
 dark, and detail is not to be expected. The 
 geographical situation of Egypt presented many 
 advantages for cultivation. During the famines 
 of Palestine there was corn in Egypt, to which 
 Abraham and his descendants had frequent re- 
 course. ' The plain of Jordan was every where 
 as the garden of the Lord.' The aboriginal 
 Greeks or Pelasgi, are supposed to have been 
 taught the art in Egypt. Of the agriculture of 
 the Phoenicians and Jews, little is known, except 
 that it appears to have originated in the same 
 source with that of other nations, viz. the family 
 of Noah. Different nations have had their dif- 
 ferent productions and modes of culture : their 
 traditions ascribe the invention to different per- 
 sonages, as Osiris, Ceres, Triptolemus, Janus, 
 Chin-hong, &c.but this was the common origina- 
 tion ; this was the parent stream which came 
 flowing out of even antediluvian antiquity ; and 
 which, dividing like the rivers of Paradise, 
 began to advance over the earth, and beautify 
 the face of nature ; supplying innumerable 
 myriads of creatures with the instruments 
 and aliment of life; opening by mysterious 
 development sources of the most rational enjoy-- 
 mem ; and fulfilling, in an inferior sense, the 
 sublime language of prophecy : ' I will make the 
 
 wilderness like Eden, and the desert as the gar- 
 den of the Lord.' 
 
 115. Agriculture amongst the Romans, in 
 its different modes and stages, is capable of 
 being ascertained with a much greater degree 
 of certainty. Roman authors on this subject 
 are numerous; amongst whom may be enu- 
 merated the names of Cato, Varro, Virgil, Pliny, 
 Palladius, and Columella. The peculiar manner 
 in which agriculture was carried on at Rome, 
 was the primary cause of that notable success 
 which attended it. Romulus having conquered 
 a small part of Italy, divided the land among his 
 followers, allowing, by an agrarian law, two 
 jugera, or 1^ acre, to every citizen. Six centu- 
 ries before the Christian sera, at the expulsion of 
 the kings, seven yoke, or 3| acres, were allotted. 
 The same custom, with respect to the distribu- 
 tion of conquered lands, continued to be observed; 
 and after every division, the remainder being 
 sold in lots, any citizen might acquire as 
 much land as he could purchase, till a new law 
 passed by Stolo, the second plebeian consul, 
 B. C. 377, enacted that no person should possess 
 more than 500 jugera. In the first ages of the 
 commonwealth, and for four or five centuries 
 afterwards, the lands were cultivated by the pro- 
 prietors themselves, whence corn became very 
 abundant. But when Rome acquired an im- 
 mense stretch of territory, and spread her con- 
 quests far and near, rich individuals were allowed 
 to purchase large estates, and to cultivate them 
 by means of bailiffs and farmers. In the time of 
 Columella, land was cultivated by farmers and 
 servants, the latter including free servants and 
 slaves. It was cultivated by slaves in the time 
 of Pliny the elder. This change in the managers 
 of the soil, produced a corresponding effect 
 upon agriculture. Varro complains, that in 
 his days the degree of attention bestowed upon 
 this useful art had very much declined ; and Co- 
 lumella tells us, that in his time it was almost 
 entirely neglected. 
 
 116. The surface of Italy is irregular, broken 
 by prominent hills, which pass through its whole 
 length, forming numerous interior valleys of dif- 
 ferent dimensions, watered by lakes and rivers. 
 The climate is dry, clear, regular, and of warm 
 temperament. The soil is various; as yellow 
 marley clay, blue clay, containing sulphur and 
 alum, volcanic earth, rich black loam, deep, soft, 
 moist earth, &c. The artificial appearance of 
 Italy greatly resembles what it was in the time of 
 the Romans. The cultivated lands and open 
 enclosures, are to be seen only near the villas; 
 and the landscape, (as Daniel Malthus observes,) 
 which Pliny mentions, as seen from his villas two 
 thousand years ago, does not appear to have been 
 different from what it is at present. The Ro- 
 mans selected those spots for their farms which 
 were remarkable for their geographical advan- 
 tages ; and employed themselves in the cultiva- 
 tion of them from their youth. They built the 
 villa in proportion to the size of the farm. The 
 villa was divided into three parts. 1 . The urbana, 
 consisting of the apartments of the landlord. 2. 
 The rustiat, containing the kitchen, servants' 
 houses, stables, piggeries, &c. adjoining to which 
 was commonly the aviary or apiary, a place for 
 dormice, a warren for hares and rabbits, a place 
 
 'L >
 
 340 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 for snails, and a large park for live deer, and 
 beasts taken in the chase. 3. The Jructuaria, 
 containing oil and wine cellars ; places for the 
 
 oil and wine presses, barns, store-houses, repo- Georgics. 
 sitories for fruit, corn-yards, granaries, &c. Par- 
 ticular directions have been given as to the rela- 
 tive situation and construction of these buildings, 
 
 have been invented about tne time of Pliny, and 
 attributes the invention to the Cisalpine Gauls ; 
 but Virgil evidently refers to such ploughs in his 
 
 The ligo appears to have been a 
 
 spade, and the pala a shovel ; they were both 
 made of oak, shod with iron, or a blade 
 entirely of iron. The urpex or ripex, was a 
 
 "nothing" as" "to the materials of which they plank with several teeth, used as our brake or 
 were composed. Pliny proportions the whole cultivator, to break rough ground, tear up roots, 
 expence to the profits arising from the farm ; so &c. The crates was a kind of harrow, the ras- 
 
 . _ .1 - ...,, +*iim o 1*0 Ira tVio CQ r/"iiliiiYi a nanri_nr*P tno marii 
 
 that if it were destroyed, one, or at most two 
 years' rent, might be sufficient to rebuild it. 
 
 117. With respect to domestic management, 
 a farmer fed and clothed his own servants ; and 
 bailiffs were appointed, whose office it was to see 
 
 trum a rake, the sarculum a hand-hoe, the marra 
 an inferior hoe, the bidens a two-pronged hoe, 
 used in vineyards, with a hammer at the other 
 end to break the clods. The securis was an 
 although the same term was applied to the 
 
 that they were fed on wholesome provisions, and crescent-like blade of the pruning knife. Be- 
 
 made comfortable. The beasts employed were sides reaping hooks which resembled modern 
 
 chiefly the ox, the ass, and mule ; the horse but ones, they had invented a reaping machine, 
 
 seldom. Oxen were most commonly employed which appears to have resembled that used in 
 
 in the field, and were worked in pairs, whether 
 in the cart or plough. Asses were chiefly used 
 for the burden/ the mill, or for ploughing, where 
 the land was light. Of mules, they had two de- 
 scriptions ; mules properly so called, and hinni, 
 the first being the offspring of a mare and an 
 ass, and the second of a horse and an ass. Both 
 were commonly used for the road and the 
 plough. 
 
 118. The implements used in Roman agricul- 
 ture are very little known. Cato mentions two 
 kinds of ploughs, one for strong, the other for 
 light soils. Varro mentions one with two mould 
 boards, for the purpose, he observes, of ridging 
 when they plough after sowing the seed. 'They 
 had ploughs,' says the Rev. A. Dicksou, * with 
 mould boards, and without mould boards, with 
 and without coulters, with and without wheels, 
 with broad and narrow pointed shares, and with 
 shares, not only with sharp sides and points, 
 but with high raised cutting tops.' Hush, of An. 
 Professor Martyn has given the figure of a mo- 
 dern Italian plough to illustrate Virgil's descrip- 
 
 Suffolk, for cropping the heads of clover left for 
 seeds. Their threshing implements, and some 
 for striking off the ears of corn, are imperfectly 
 known. 
 
 120. The Romans did not bind their corn into 
 sheaves, as was customary amongst the Jews, 
 Egyptians, and Greeks. Threshing, for the most 
 part, was performed in the open air, in a circular 
 threshing-floor of forty or sixty feet diameter ; 
 where the corn being spread to the depth of one 
 or two feet, was either trod out by the hoofs 
 of cattle, or by means of a dragging machine. 
 That used in the Carthaginian territory, consisted 
 of rollers, studded with iron knobs, and furnished 
 with a seat for the driver. Rods or flails were 
 also occasionally employed. Corn was winnowed 
 by throwing it from one side of the floor to the 
 other, in the wind, by means of a shovel called 
 ventilarium ; but when the wind was inconsider- 
 able, the fan was employed, (probably a kind 
 of sieve.) After -the corn was deposited, the 
 straw, when not laid aside for litter, was sprinkled 
 with brine, then dried, and rolled up in bundles, 
 
 tion. Rosier gives a figure of a Roman plough, as provision for the oxen. Pasturing and harrow- 
 
 which corresponds with those still used in the 
 south of France. That used from time imme- 
 morial in Valencia, is supposed to come nearest 
 to the common implement of the Romans, and 
 consists of the following parts : 1 . the buris, or 
 head; 2. the temo, or beam; 3. the stiva, or 
 handle ; 4. the dentales, or share head ; 5. the 
 vomer, or share. The aura or mould board, 
 
 ing corn were practised, when too luxuriant, as 
 soon as the blades equalled the furrow Fencing 
 was carried only to a limited extent, and their 
 other agricultural operations differ little from 
 those of the ancients on the one hand, and the 
 moderns on the other. 
 
 121. A great part of the Roman harvest ap- 
 peared to depend upon fruits ; figs, pears, &cc. 
 
 and the culler or coulter, formed no part of the were grown "in gardens and orchards, and the 
 
 simple Roman plough. The plough staff, or vine was supported by a row of elms or poplars, 
 
 paddle, was also a detatched part. The manicu- &c. 
 
 la, which the ploughman took hold of, was a 122. Of animals reared by the Romans, the 
 
 hort bar fixed across ; and to the draught pole most common sort were the quadrupeds now in 
 
 the oxen were attached. The plough described 
 by Virgil had a mould board, and was used for 
 covering seed and ridging; but the common 
 plough described above, instead of the mould 
 board, required either a stick inserted in the 
 share-head, or to be held obliquely. Circum- 
 
 use ; besides these, they reared snails, dormice, 
 bees, and fish. To the farmer's or bailiff's wife 
 was committed the care of the poultry ; which, 
 besides those common amongst the moderns, 
 included thrushes, larks, turtle doves, and pea- 
 cocks; but it was chiefly Rome and Naples 
 
 * f _ A ^ * y -/**. ii. vv do V^Hldiy 1V.VJ111C u.1111 J.^ ClLJl^i 
 
 .ving furrows, as employed by us, were not that were remarkable for rearing extensively 
 
 nrHPtlQWl amrtTfT tK \<r\mr\-r*c, . |u*A *l, ._.*!_ .1 i .. . Jf 
 
 practised among the Romans ; but the cattle re- 
 turned in the same furrow. 
 
 the more delicate birds. In the time of the 
 Csesars, when Rome was in the zenith of her 
 
 1 1 (1 T *U O 1 i*-J, ' 4*^11 J.LVJU1C was 1U LUC fcCUUUl Ul 11C1 
 
 ,reek monuments of antiquity are splendour, fat birds, as thrushes, and blackbirds, 
 
 ir tir tivn nvQTv\r\lr>o f\F -..rU^^l _i 1. _ T _ _. i i 
 
 four or five examples of wheel ploughs. Las- 
 teyiiehas given figures of these implements from 
 Caylus's Collection of Antiquities,, and from a 
 Sicilian medal. He indeed imagines them to 
 
 sold at two shillings each, although 5000 of them 
 were frequently sold in a year from one farm. 
 Pea fowls were sold at l. 13s. 4d.; an egg 
 was sold at 3s. 4d. Var. lib. iii. c. 2, A pair
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 341 
 
 of fine dover> were commonly of the same price 
 as a peacock ; but, if very handsome, often sold 
 as high as 8. 6s. 8d. L. Anius, a Roman 
 knight, refused to sell a pair under 13. 6s. 8d. 
 Var. lib. iii. c. 7. Fishes of certain species 
 in the time of Varro, were so valued by the 
 Romans that his friend Hortensius would rather 
 have parted with a pair of his best coach mules 
 than with a bearded mullet, Var. lib. iii. c. 17, 
 and according to Pliny, Nut. Hist. lib. ix. c. 55. 
 Herrius's fish-ponds, from the quantity they 
 contained, were sold for 33,333. 6s. 8d. and 
 those of Lucullus at the same price, Idem. lib. 
 ix. c. 54. One capital principle in all Roman 
 agriculture was, ' to sow less and plough better,' 
 since there is more gained by cultivating a small 
 spot well, than a larger one indifferently. This 
 they illustrated by many short sayings and 
 stories. Pliny mentions a freed-man who made 
 his vineyard produce crops so much larger than 
 those of his neighbours, that they accused him of 
 witchcraft, and accordingly brought him to trial. 
 When he appeared in the forum, he produced a 
 stout daughter, and some excellent implements, 
 as iron spades, shears, &c. and presenting these, 
 together with his oxen to the Senate, said, 
 ' these, Romans, are my charms.' He was ac- 
 quitted with honour. Nat. Hist. lib. xviii. c. 6. 
 The following fact was also frequently advanced 
 in favour of the above maxim. 'A vine dresser 
 had two daughters, and a vineyard. When his 
 eldest daughter was married, he gave her one 
 third of his vineyard for a portion ; notwith- 
 standing which, he had the same quantity of 
 fruit as formerly. When his younger daughter 
 was married, he gave her the half of what re- 
 mained, and still the produce of his vineyard 
 was not diminished.' Col. lib. iv. c. 3. 
 
 123. The profits of Roman agriculture are 
 difficult to be ascertained. The returns of seed 
 mentioned by the ancients, are remarkable. 
 St. Mark the evangelist speaks of seed sown on 
 good ground, bringing forth, some thirty, some 
 sixty, and others an hundred fold. Varro in- 
 forms us that an hundred fold was reaped about 
 Grenada, in Syria; and Byzacium, in Africa. 
 From the latter place, Pliny informs us, Augus- 
 tus received from his factor nearly 400 stalks, 
 all of which originated in one single grain ; and 
 to Nero were sent 340 stalks produced in the 
 same manner. In Italy itself the returns were 
 not so great ; good land in the time of Varro not 
 producing more than ten, and in some places 
 fifteen, for one ; or about twenty-one and thirty- 
 two bushels to an English acre ; which, consider- 
 ing the popular ignorance as to chemistry, 
 physiology, and other branches of natural phi- 
 losophy, will not be thought inconsiderable. 
 
 124. Agriculture, it has been thought, derived 
 little improvement from the Romans, and it does 
 not satisfactorily appear that they advanced in this 
 science beyond the Egyptians, Jews, Babylo- 
 nians, and Greeks. Even what they knew, ap- 
 pears to have declined from the time of Varro 
 to Pliny. The corruption and luxury of the 
 period immediately succeeding the Christian 
 sera, the civil wars at the end of the second cen- 
 tury, the tyranny of the emperors in the third, and 
 the removal of the seat of empire to Constan- 
 
 tinople in the middle of the fourth, prepared 
 the way for ihe invasion of the Goths in the 
 beginning of the fifth, when agriculture re- 
 ceived a civil blight; swarms of intruder? 
 gathering upon the leaves and foldings of every 
 useful science, withered the intellectual face o 
 the empire ; and all the arts, useful and orna* 
 mental, sunk to decay. The Romans had carried 
 agriculture to considerable perfection in the 
 several provinces of the empire. In Cartha- 
 ginia, part of Spain, the southeast part of 
 France, it had advanced nearly as far as Italy ; 
 because the Greeks, who flourished before the 
 Romans, had planted colonies in Carthage and 
 Marseilles. In Helvetia, Britain, and Ger- 
 many, its advance was not so considerable; 
 but at the fall of the Roman empire it began 
 to decline generally in Spain and Africa, by 
 the invasion of the Moors ; in France, from the 
 incursions of the Germans ; in Britain, from the 
 Saxons, Picts, and Scots ; and in Germany, and 
 Helvetia, from the predatory excursions in pur- 
 suit of which the inhabitants left their lands t) 
 the wild hand of nature. 
 
 125. Agriculture, however, did not perish, but 
 amid the darkness of the middle ages, began 
 gradually to emerge, and was seen through the 
 dense atmosphere, like the morning star, glim- 
 mering upon the world, the peaceful harbinger 
 of wealth and comfort. 
 
 126. In our own country the natives depended 
 chiefly for their support upon, flocks and herds, 
 which the Saxons seized and pastured for their 
 own use. Where cultivation was followed, 
 especially in Wales, the people were not suffered 
 to plough with horses, mares, or cows, but only 
 with oxen, Leges Walliceee, p. 228. No man 
 might guide a plough who could not make 
 one ; and the ropes with which it was drawn 
 were to be made of twisted willows : it was 
 usual for six or eight persons to form them- 
 selves into a society, for fitting out one of these 
 ploughs. The Anglo-Saxons, esteeming agri- 
 culture too ignoble for a warlike people, com- 
 mitted the cultivation of the earth to their women 
 and slaves. The division of landed property 
 into inlands and outlands, originated with the 
 Saxon princes, who, after the distribution of 
 conquered lands, denominated those parts con- 
 tiguous to their respective residences, inlands, 
 and let the outlands, or those which were more 
 remote, to ceorls, or farmers. The rents were 
 established by law. According to the laws of 
 Ina, king of the West Saxons, at the beginning 
 of the eighth century, the rent of a farm, consist- 
 ing often hides, or plough-lands, was, 'ten casks 
 of honey, three hundred loaves of bread, twelve 
 casks of strong ale, thirty casks of small ale, 
 two oxen, ten wethers, ten geese, twenty hens,, 
 ten cheeses, one cask of butter, five salmon,, 
 twenty pounds of forage, and one hundred eels.' 
 Wilkins, Leges Saxon, p. 25. 
 
 127. A curious picture of a ploughman is found 
 in Strutt's work, entitled Saxon Rarities of the 
 Eighth Century, which shews the rude and 
 imperfect state of agriculture during that period. 
 The invasion of Britain by the Normans tended 
 greatly to the improvement of agriculture, by 
 bringing over many thousands of cultivators
 
 342 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 from the fertile plains of France and Normandy, 
 who introduced their own methods. Richard 
 <le Rolos, lord of Bnmne and Deeping, and cham- 
 berlain to William the Conqueror, was in this a 
 very effective instrument. The Norman clergy 
 also practised agriculture ; and Thomas a Becket, 
 archbishop of Canterbury, used to go out with the 
 monks frequently, and assist them in hay-mak- 
 ing, reaping, &c. 
 
 128. IMPLEMENTS. The implements in use 
 at that period were nearly the same as those 
 employed at present. Of the two species of 
 ploughs then in common use, one appears from 
 ancient pictures, which yet remain, to have been 
 used for strong lands, and attended by an instru- 
 ment in the right hand of the ploughman, for 
 breaking the clods, &c. The other, without 
 wheels, was used in light soils. The husbandry 
 operations of this period are not very dis- 
 tinctly known. In the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries, the Legum Angliae of Judge Fortes- 
 cue shews, that agriculture was carried on with 
 vigour. In the fifteenth century, England was 
 engaged in civil wars, and agriculture declined. 
 The prelates, barons, and other great proprietors, 
 nevertheless, kept extensive tracts of land round 
 their castles, called demesne lands, which they 
 cultivated by means of their villains and hired 
 servants. The dearths of Henry VII. still fur- 
 ther evince the low state of agriculture ; for, in 
 1437 1438, wheat rose from 4s. or 4s. 6d. per 
 quarter, to l 6s. 8d. equivalent to 13 6s. 8d. of 
 our money. In Scotland, cultivation was at a low 
 ebb. In 1424 a law was passed, enacting, that every 
 labourer of a simple estate should dig every day 
 a piece of ground equal to seven square feet ; and 
 in 1457, it was enacted, that every farmer who 
 had eight oxen should sow as follows one firlot, 
 or bushel of wheat, half a firlot of peas, and forty 
 of beans ; and in default should pay ten shillings 
 to the baron, who, should he be deficient in the 
 same with respect to his own lands, should pay 
 the same sum to the king. 
 
 129. From the period of the accession of 
 Henry VII. in 1485, to nearly the middle of the 
 eighth century, cultivation began to pour upon 
 the kingdom all its numerous advantages. The 
 culture of hops was introduced, and the breed- 
 ing of horses was much encouraged. After 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, agri- 
 culture partook ojf the general improvement 
 that followed upon the invention of printing. 
 The first book upon this subject in England, was 
 The Book of Husbandry, published in 1534, 
 by Sir A. Fitzherbert, judge of the Common Pleas. 
 After some excellent observations, the propriety 
 of which posterity have seen, he describes the ad- 
 vantage of ' quycksettynge,dychynge, and hedg- 
 yng,' and lays down a line of conduct ' for a 
 yonge gentylman that intendeth to thryve,' he 
 afterwards points out the duty of a farmer's wife, 
 distasteful, certainly, to the wives of modern far- 
 mers, but applicable no doubt to the times in which 
 he lived. He observes, 'she is to make clothes 
 for her husband and herself; and she may have 
 the lockes of the shepe either to make blankettes 
 orcoverlettes, or both.' ' It is a wife's occupation,' 
 still further ' to wynowe all manner of cornes, to 
 make rnalte, to washe and wrynge, to make heye, 
 
 shere corn, and in time of node, to help her hus- 
 bande to fyll the muckewayne or dounge carte, 
 drive the ploughe, to load heye, come, and suche 
 other; and to go or ride to the market to sel 
 butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekyngs, capons, 
 hennes, pygges, gese, and all manner of conies.' 
 Many parts of this book have not been improved 
 upon. 
 
 130. The state of agriculture, at this period, 
 also receives additional illustration from the Book 
 of Surveying, by the same author, published in 
 1539. ' Four manner of commens ' are de- 
 scribed ; several sorts of mills, for corn and 
 other purposes ; and also ' quernes that goo with 
 hand ;' tenants of different orders, down to the 
 ' boundmen,' who, he tells us, in some places 
 ' continue as yet,' ' and many tymes by colose 
 thereof there be many freemen taken as bond- 
 men, and their lands and goods is taken from 
 them/ In the conclusion of his work he gives 
 directions ' how to make a township that is worth 
 xx marke a yere worth xx li ayere,' viz. by en- 
 closing, and having the closes or fields alternately 
 cropped with corn and ' let lye ' for some time. 
 In the reign of Elizabeth agriculture greatly ad- 
 vanced, but was, according to Tusser, best under- 
 stood in Essex and Suffolk. Harrison observed, 
 Description of England, p. 188, a farmer ' will 
 thinke his gaines very small towardes the end of 
 his terme if he have not six or seven years rent 
 lieing by him, therewith to purchase a new 
 lease ; besides a fine garnish of pewter on his 
 cupboard, with as much more in odd vessels 
 going about the house; three or four feather 
 beds ; so many coverlets and carpets of tapestrie; 
 a silver salt ; a bowle for wine, if not a whole 
 neast ; and a dozen of spoones to furnish oute 
 the suite.' The condition of a yeoman, at that 
 period, is also exemplified in the following case 
 of bishop Latimer's father. ' My father,' says 
 Hugh Latimer, ' was a yeoman, and had no land 
 of his own, only he had a farm of three or four 
 pounds by the year at the utmost, and hereupon 
 he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men. 
 He had a walk for a hundred sheep, and my 
 mother milked thirty kine, &c. He kept his son 
 at school till he went to the university, and 
 maintained him there : he married his daughters 
 with five pounds or twenty nobles apiece: he 
 kept hospitality with his neighbours ; and some 
 alms he gave to the poor ; and all this he did 
 out of the said farm.' Gilpin's Latimer. Cattle 
 were not plentiful, as appears from the exordium 
 of an act passed in 1563, enacting that no person 
 should eat flesh on the Wednesday and Friday 
 in every week, under pain of forfeiting three 
 pounds, cases of sickness and special licence ex- 
 cepted, neither of which even then extended to 
 beef or veal. Harrison complains of the number 
 of parks kept in the kingdom, of which he says, 
 ' there are not less than one hundred in Essex 
 alone, where almost nothing is kept but a sorte 
 of wilde and savage beasts, cherished for plea- 
 sure and delight,' and ' that if the world last a 
 while after this rate, wheat and rie will be no 
 graine for poore men to feed on.' Description 
 of Britain, p. 168. 
 
 131. Great attention was still devoted to the 
 breed of horses. Henry VIII. from his predilcc
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 343 
 
 tion for splendid tournaments, at this time the 
 i>assion of the age, had greatly encouraged the 
 promotion of a particular species, of great strength 
 and stature ; which were indeed required to bear 
 the weight of the complicated panoply, with 
 which the knight and his courser were invested. 
 Statutes were enacted for allotting to all parks 
 a certain proportion of breeding mares, and en- 
 joining not only nobles and prelates, but all per- 
 sons whose wives wore velvet bonnets, to have 
 stallions of a certain size for their saddle. The 
 legal standard was fifteen hands in horses, and 
 thirteen for mares ; but it now became necessary 
 to lower this standard in the counties of Hunt- 
 ingdon, Northampton, Cambridge, Lincoln, Suf- 
 folk, and Norfolk, to thirteen hands for stallions, 
 and no stallion of less stature might be turned 
 out on commons and forests, for fear of diminish- 
 ing the breed. The English draught horses were 
 also very powerful and of great size ; five or six 
 of them according to Harrison, being capable of 
 drawing three thousand weight of the greatest 
 tale for a long journey. Horses at that time, 
 were so numerous in the kingdom, that Elizabeth, 
 when she removed her residence, demanded a 
 quota of 24,000 from the country, in the 
 neighbourhood of her palace. Descrip. Brit. 
 p. 220. 
 
 132. In the mean time the civil dissensions of 
 Scotland, which continued nearly the whole of 
 the sixteenth century, had almost crushed agri- 
 cultural improvement in the bud ; when the 
 ecclesiastical land-holders were totally expelled, 
 the calamities of the farmers increased, and the 
 nature of their misfortunes may be guessed at, 
 from the statutes enacted in their favour. Stat. 
 110, Par/. 7, Jac. VI. The first of these was to 
 the purport, that all ' slayers and houchers 
 (houghers) of horses and uther cattel,' with their 
 employers and maintainers, had ' incurred the 
 paine of death, and confiscation of all their gudes 
 movvabil.' A second act denounced the same 
 penalty on ali who maimed horses, oxen, or other 
 cattle ; also on those who cut or destroyed 
 ploughs, or plough-geers, (in time of tilling) 
 injured trees, corn, 8cc. Stat. 83, Pa/7. 7, Jac. 
 VI. Other acts were framed for the protection 
 of the farmer against petulant and obnoxious 
 tithe gatherers, &c. The Scots, like the English, 
 used every effort to improve their breed of horses; 
 but so great was the jealousy of the two king- 
 doms, that it was made felony to export horses 
 thither from England, lest they should improve 
 their breed by our stallions. The Scottish go- 
 vernment, about this period, condescended to 
 consider the proper period for horses to be turned 
 out to grass, so as most effectually to prevent 
 the waste of corn ; and, were pleased to enact, 
 that all horses should be put to grass from May 
 15th, till October 15th, on pain to the owner of 
 forfeiting each horse, or its value, to the king ; 
 gentlemen of 1000 marks yearly rent excepted. 
 Stat. 122, Purl. 7, Jac. VI. 
 
 133. In England, the vine which had been for- 
 merly cultivated for wine, declined with the sup- 
 pression of the monasteries ; and was superseded 
 by the more general cultivation of barley. Potatoes 
 were introduced in this reign from Santa Fe, by 
 captain Hawkins, about the year 1565; although 
 
 they did not come into general use for nearly 
 two centuries afterwards. Several agricultural 
 authors also flourished in this reign, particularly 
 Thomas Tusser, born at Rivenhall, in Essex, 
 in 1527, whose ' Five Hundred Points of Hus- 
 bandry,' published in 1562, were recommended 
 by lord Molesworth to be taught in schools. 
 Barnaby Googe, a Lincolnshire gentleman, and 
 Sir Hugh Platt; the Rev. W. Harrison, cotem- 
 porary of Platt, and chaplain to Baron Cobham. 
 This latter gentleman translated ' Boethius's His- 
 tory of Scotland,' and wrote ' A Description of 
 England,' in which he asserts, that the Spanish 
 and Merino sheep were derived originally from 
 this country. 
 
 1 34. In the seventeenth century many important 
 improvements were introduced, particularly the 
 cultivation of clover and turnips ; for the adop- 
 tion of which we are indebted to Sir Richard 
 Weston, although the latter is commonly attri- 
 buted to lord Viscount Townsend. The potatoe, 
 Houghton describes ' as a bacciferous herb, with 
 esculent roots, bearing winged leaves and a bell 
 flower.' He observes, it was brought from Vir- 
 ginia, by sir Walter Raleigh, who planted some 
 first in Ireland ; afterwards, they were introduced 
 into Lancashire, whence they began to spread all 
 over the kingdom. When boiled or roasted, and 
 eaten with butter and sugar, they form, says this 
 author, a pleasant food. A sort brought from 
 Spain of a larger form, (convolvulus batatas,) 
 more luscious than ours, he adds, are much set 
 by, and sold for sixpence or eight-pence the 
 pound. The chief writers of the seventeenth 
 century were Weston, Hartlib, Blythe, Evelyne, 
 Norden, Gabriel Plattes, &c. The embank- 
 ments, drainage of morasses, &c. the enclosures 
 of land by act of parliament, and otherwise, to- 
 gether with the establishment of tolls in 1663, 
 are to the honour of the period; and have tended, 
 greatly, to advance the agricultural interests of 
 this kingdom. 
 
 135. The agriculture of Scotland, during the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries considerably lan- 
 guished ; the reformation of religion having taken 
 the husbandry out of the hands of the monks, 
 by whom alone it was practised upon correct 
 principles, and placed it in the hands of men 
 unskilled in the art of cultivation. In the seven- 
 teenth century the grounds in the south eastern 
 countries were improved ; but even then appeared 
 in a wretched condition. Ray, who made a 
 tour along the eastern coast in 1660, observed 
 that fallow grounds were few ; that the men 
 were lazy, and frequently ploughed in their 
 cloaks. The accession of James V. to the crown 
 of England, was unfavourable to the agriculture 
 of Scotland. The soldiers of Cromwell, who lay 
 in Scotland for many years, and being mostly 
 English yeoman, raised the low country districts 
 into a higher state of improvement than had 
 been known at any former period. The large 
 fines exacted during the reign of Charles II. 
 and his brother James, tended greatly to im- 
 poverish the proprietors and cultivators. Still, 
 however, the laws passed in the seventeenth 
 century paved the way for the present improved 
 system. A Persian wheel, made by Worlidge, 
 author of Si/stcma Agriadtura, capable of con-
 
 344 
 
 AGRICULTURE 
 
 vc\inc water more than twenty feet high, for the the rate of one forty-sixth part per annum. The 
 watering of meadows, throws a light upon the state of tne people generally, is certainly that ot 
 advancement of irrigation. On the whole, from extreme indigence, as must be the case in every 
 the imperfect glimerings of the science, in this country where the increase of its inhabitants 
 dark but interesting period, we may mark the exceeds the progress of its wealth and industry. 
 
 Their houses, furniture, clothing, provisions, in 
 short, every thing relating to domestic economy, 
 fully elucidate the above observation. The lower 
 classes have no conception of the comforts of 
 life, which even if they knew how to appreciate, 
 they have not the means of obtaining. The ab- 
 solute necessaries of life are, however, supplied 
 
 dawn of those vast improvements which have 
 since been effected upon our island. 
 
 136. The general progress of agriculture, from 
 the revolution to the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, was not so considerable as might have 
 been expected from the exportation of corn ; but 
 the increase of population, and the wealth deriv- 
 ed from manufactures, has at length augmented by the superabundant cultivation of potatoes, 
 capital, and called forth a race of ingenious and which except in years of extraordinary calamity, 
 enterprising cultivators. The inventions that have rarely been known to fail. To this is, in a 
 
 great measure, attributed that deep-rooted indo- 
 
 have been introduced for increasing produce, 
 and economizing labour, the garden-like appear- 
 ance of the country, together with the passing 
 of more than three thousand bills of enclosure, 
 during the late reign, more effectually illustrate 
 the state of British agriculture, than any thing 
 verbal that could be advanced on the subject. 
 
 137. The shock sustained by the agriculturists 
 since the peace of 1815, by the fall of prices, 
 originating in the diminished circulation of 
 money, was so severe, that many farmers lost all 
 their capital, whilst others retained just enough 
 to enable them to emigrate to other countries. 
 The replies sent to the circular of the ' Board of 
 Agriculture,' exhibit a melancholy picture of the 
 distress of cultivators generally. Rents are 
 now, however, greatly lowered ; and things begin 
 to assume a more promising appearance. The 
 rapid improvement of agriculture is shown by 
 nothing more clearly than the organization of 
 agricultural societies, in nearly all the counties 
 of the kingdom ; among which the Bath and 
 West of England Society, in 1777; and the 
 Highland Society of Scotland, in 1784, are the 
 most important. The benefits of these institu- 
 tions have never been appreciated, whether we 
 look to those which are nearer or more remote. In 
 their own immediate firmaments, they are the most 
 distinguished orbs shining upon surrounding in- 
 stitutions, and pouring light, warmth, and fertility 
 upon our native island. The Agricultural Board 
 ceased in 1819, being thought no longer neces- 
 sary ; but the effects produced by these institutions 
 yet remain, and shall remain, when the original 
 founders of them are forgotten, to ameliorate 
 the state of man to fulfil the great command 
 to imitate the Father of Lights to pour their 
 broad blessings on the earth; and when the 
 clouds which overcast the southern hemisphere 
 shall have cleared away, their instructions, like 
 the rays of the sun, shall travel over the blue 
 ocean wave, and dawn upon the Unenlightened 
 Indian, and semi-civilized Hindostanee. Pro- 
 fessorships of this science have been established 
 in Edinburgh, and several continental universi- 
 ties; and are in contemplation for those of Oxford 
 and Cambridge. 
 
 1 38. We cannot close the present article without 
 a few observations on the general state and dis- 
 tresses of Ireland with regard to agriculture. The 
 primary cause of suffering amongst the Irish is 
 ascribed by Young, and other writers, to the re- 
 dundancy of population, which in 1791 amounted 
 to 4,200,000, and has been ever since increasing at 
 
 lence, which forms the prominent characteristic 
 of the people. Their wants limited to the mere 
 sustenance of animal life without its comforts, 
 destroy the sources of artificial desire ; and the 
 usual mode in which the labourers are paid, viz. 
 by giving them a piece of potatoe land by the 
 year, whilst it supplies the cravings of animal 
 necessity, neutralizes every collateral principle 
 which would propel them to exertion. After the 
 plantation of the esculent vegetable above-men- 
 tioned, the Irish peasant has little to do till 
 the digging season approach; and during the 
 apyrexia intervening between these troublesome 
 seasons, acquires those idle habits which the 
 subsequent transfer to a more regular employ- 
 ment is unable to eradicate. It is indeed re- 
 markable, that Ireland, circumflowed by the same 
 ocean whose warm vapours prove so refreshful to 
 England under the same genial diversity of 
 climate in the same average latitude posses- 
 sing a soil so singularly prolific, as to be able with 
 little labour and manure to yield an alternate 
 crop of wheat and potatoes for ever, combined 
 with the natural advantages of mineralogy, and 
 facilities for manufacture and commerce, should 
 remain for so many centuries in a state of almost 
 absolute barbarism, while the contiguous parent 
 isle is increasing in wealth, advancing in mag- 
 nificence, and flourishing in all the useful arts 
 that civilize and polish human life. 
 
 139. We would, in conclusion, entreat our 
 readers of other pursuits and professions, not tc 
 look with jealousy on the space now devoted, or 
 which we shall continue to devote to the impor- 
 tant topics of this paper. 'Though mines of 
 gold and silver, (says Dr. Johnson in one of his 
 minor pieces) should be exhausted, and the 
 species made of them lost ; though diamonds 
 and pearls should remain concealed in the 
 bowels of the earth, and the womb of the sea ; 
 though commerce with strangers be prohibited; 
 though all arts, which have no other object than 
 splendour and embellishment, should be abolish- 
 ed ; yet the fertility of the earth alone would 
 afford an abundant supply for the occasions of 
 an industrious people, by furnishing subsistence 
 for them, and such armies as should be mustered 
 in their defence. We, therefore, ought not to be 
 surprised that agriculture was in so much 
 honour among the ancients ; for it ought rather 
 to seem wonderful that it should ever cease to 
 be so, and that the most necessary and mo^t 
 indispensable of all professions should have
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 345 
 
 fallen into any contempt.' (Works, v. ii. p. 
 384, 5.) The same excellent writer has noticed 
 the extraordinary demand for books on agri- 
 culture under the peaceful sway of James I. 
 'It deserves to be remarked,' he observes, be 
 cause it is not generally known, that the trea- 
 tises of husbandry and agriculture which were 
 published about that time are so numerous, 
 that it can scarcely be imagined by whom they 
 were written, or to whom they were sold.' 
 (Origin and Importance of Fugitive Pieces, John- 
 M-H'S Works, v. xi. p. 191.) On which an able 
 contemporary thus comments 'Nothing can 
 illustrate more strongly the effects of a pacific 
 system of policy, in encouraging a general 
 taste for reading, as well as an active spirit 
 r.f improvement. At all times, and in every 
 
 country, the extensive sale of books on agri- 
 culture, may be regarded as one of the most 
 pleasing symptoms of mental cultivation in the 
 body of the people.' 
 
 140. These (1826) are times of peace : states- 
 men are more willing to learn how to govern 
 mankind in times of peace than formerly, and 
 seem sincerely directing their attention to every 
 commercial topic. Let them not neglect agri- 
 culture ; let the laws connected with it engage 
 that share of parliamentary and general con- 
 sideration which their importance demands ; 
 let commercial men sympathize with the pecu- 
 liar burdens of agriculturalists; and let the 
 agriculturalist consider his own true interests 
 best pursued in conjunction with those of the 
 entire country. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AGRICULTURE, definition of, 1. Two great branches 
 of, ib. Universal interest of, ib. Its early intro- 
 duction, ib. Practised by the Chaldeans, ib. The 
 Chinese, ib. The Egyptians, ib. Arrangement of 
 this treatise, 3. Respective systems of, 4. Re- 
 ferences for information concerning, 5. Requisites 
 to the practice of, 6. Sciences connected with, 7. 
 Principles and objects of, 67. History of, 114. 
 In Egypt, ib. Its antiquity, ib. Among the Ro- 
 mans, 115. Roman authors on, ib. Laws of 
 Romulus respecting it, ib. In the middle ages, 
 125. Saxon, 126. Norman, 128. Of England, 
 in Henry VII's. reign, 129. First author on the 
 subject, ib. In Elizabeth's reign, 130. Writers 
 on it in the seventeenth century, 134. Progress 
 of it in the eighteenth, 136. Shock it sustained in 
 1815, 137. Present favourable prospects of, ib. 
 Its paramount importance, 13!'. Sale of books on 
 this subject in James I. reign, ib. 
 
 AlR, no plant healthy unless duly supplied with it, 99. 
 
 ALBURNUM, causes of conversion of, 41. 
 
 AMMONIA, as manure, 94. 
 
 AMpt'TATION of parts of'plants, 67. 
 
 ANATOMY of animals, 105. External, 106. Inter- 
 nal, 107. 
 
 ANIMAL system, a sketch of, 104. Digestive organs 
 of the, 108. Reproductive organs, 109. 
 
 ANIMALS, their pathology, 110. Thrir uses in agri- 
 culture, 111. Breeding them, 112. Rearing 
 them, 113. Bones of, 106. 
 
 AQUATIC soils, 74. 
 
 ARGILLACEOUS soils, 74. 
 
 ASCENT and descent of vapours, 101. 
 
 ATMOSPHERE, its connection with vegetation, 99. 
 Its changes important, 100. 
 
 BAGS, prevention of, 51. 
 
 BAKEWELL'S manuring by water, 22. 
 
 BANKS, Sir J., discoveries respecting blight, 51. 
 
 BARLEV, 88. May succeed wheat, 89. 
 
 BEANS, 84. 88. 
 
 BEETLES in 1574, 59. 
 
 PIRDS, &c. at Rome, enormous price of, 122. 
 
 BLIGHT, cause of, 51. Species of, ib. Effects, ib. 
 arising from fungi, ib. Evidences of, ib. Sir 
 J. Banks's discoveries respecting it, ib. 
 
 BONES, as manure, 92. Of animals, how composed 
 106. 
 
 BOOK of survey in 1539, 130. 
 
 BORING, object of, 50. 
 
 BOTANY, systciauic, 7. Classification of, 8. Ana- 
 lomy of, 9. 
 
 BRAIN of animals, how composed and connected, 
 107. 
 
 BRANCHES, organization of, 44. Parts of, ib. Di- 
 rection of, ib. 
 
 BREEDING of animals, 112. 
 
 BRITAIN, ancient, as an agricultural country, 124. 
 
 BUD, constitution of, 15. Organs of, ib. Frequent 
 deficiency of, 45. Origin of, ib. Development 
 of, ib. 
 
 BULBS, classification of, 15. Constitution of, ii. 
 
 BULBOUS roots divide the soil, 86. 
 
 BURNING of soils, 81. 
 
 CABBAGE and turnips compared, 87. Flourishes in 
 a wheat soil, 89. 
 
 CALCAREOUS earths, 74, 75. Matter as manure, 94. 
 
 CARTHAGINIAN threshing, 120. 
 
 CAUDEX of plants imperfect, 15. Modes of, ib. 
 
 CHALDEANS, agriculture of, 1. 
 
 CHALK, as manure, 94. 
 
 CHEMICAL analysis of soils, 75. Its difficulty, mode 
 of conducting it, &c. i6- 
 
 CHINESE, agriculture of, 1. 
 
 CLAY in soils, 75. Answers for wheat, 88. Moist 
 answers for beans, ib. 
 
 CLIMATE to be consulted, shelter, and shade, 67. 
 
 CLOVER, red, ensures wheat, 89. 
 
 CLOUDS, their agency in vegetation, 96. 
 
 COLD and hot soils, 77. Cold, its general causes, 96. 
 Effects on vegetation, ib. 
 
 COMPOSITE ORGANS of imperfect plants, 16. Unfold- 
 ing of, 41. 
 
 CoRl'JM, or true skin of animals, 106. Colourless 
 and penetrated with blood-vessels and nerves, ib. 
 
 CORN, mode of destroying grubs in it, 59. Corn- 
 butterfly, ravages of in France, 63. Cure of, ii. 
 
 CORPUS MUCOSUM of animals, 106. 
 
 CORTICAL Layers, description of the, 16. Constitu- 
 tion of, ib. Use in grafting, ib. 
 
 CROPS that encourage weeds to be avoided, 90. Re- 
 petition of, to be avoided, 92. 
 
 CRUSTS, appendages of the skin, 106. 
 
 CULMIFEROUS Plants, 84. Depend largely on the 
 soil for nourishment, ib. AH their seeds ripe to- 
 gether. 85. Affected by the dews, ib. 
 
 CULTIVATION of soils, 71. 
 
 CURLED disease in potatoes, remarks on the, 64. (I.") 
 Causes of, ib. (III. and XVI.) Reversion of, ib. 
 (IV. and XVII.) Experiments on, ib. (V. VI. 
 and XVII.) Conclusions respecting the disease, 
 65. New mode of avoiding it, 66. 
 
 CUTICLE of animr.ls, 106.
 
 346 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 DECAY of vegetables, certainty of, 11. Annual de- 
 cay, il>- Miscellaneous remarks on, 52, 53. 
 Classification of, 53. From abundant juice, 54. 
 
 DEEP ploughing considered, 78. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT, order of, 42. 
 
 DEWS to be regarded, 67. Their effects on culmife- 
 rous crops, 85. On a leguminous crop, ib. Gene- 
 ral effects, 101. 
 
 DIGESTIVE organs of animals, 108. 
 
 DISEASES, miscellaneous, of vegetables, 51. Gene- 
 ral causes of, 58. 
 
 DISTRESS of Ireland, cause of, 138. 
 
 DIVISION of soils, 71. 
 
 DBOPSY', causes of, 51. Its progress and separation, 
 ib. 
 
 DRY soils, 74, 75. 
 
 EAUTH, vegetable, characters of, 28. Means of as- 
 certaining, 29. Saturation of, with putrid efflu- 
 via, 30. Effluvia attracted by, 31. 
 
 EARTHS, experiments on, 26. Principle of nourish- 
 ment, ib. 
 
 EGYPTIANS, agriculture of, 1. 
 
 ELECTRICITY, its agency in vegetation, 95. 98. 
 
 EMBRYO, vegetable parts of, 40. Vegetable anato- 
 my of, ib. 
 
 EPIDERMIS, description of, 16. 
 
 FALLOWING, 80. . 
 
 FARMER, Roman, described, 116. 
 
 FEATHERS of birds, an appendage of the skin, 106. 
 
 FERRUGINOUS soils, 74. 
 
 FIBRE, ancient uses of, 16. Texture of, ib. 
 
 FECUNDATION, opinions upon, 48. 
 
 FISH, as manure, 92. Should be ploughed in fresh, 
 ib. Bred by the Romans, 122. 
 
 FISH-PONDS, Roman, their value, 122. 
 
 FlTZHERBERT, Sir A. (1534) first writer 'on agricul- 
 ture in England, 129. 
 
 FLOWER, early completion of, 47. Anomalies of, ib. 
 
 HISTORY of agriculture, If 4. In Egypt, ib. Its 
 antiquity, ib. Among the Romans, ib. 
 
 HOME, Dr. his opinion of smut, 55. Modes of pre- 
 venting it, ib. 
 
 HONEY-DEW, nature of, 51. Its origin, ib. 
 
 HORN, as a manure, 92. Horns of animals, an ap- 
 pendage of the skin, 106, 
 
 HORSES much attended to in Henry VIII. 's reign, 
 131. 
 
 HOT and cold soils, 77. 
 
 IMPLEMENTS, Roman, 118. Greek, 119. Ancient, 
 128. 
 
 IMPREGNATION, means of, 48. By insects, ib. signs 
 of, ib. 
 
 INJURIES, causes of, 50. Cure of, ib. Necessity 
 of, ib. 
 
 INSECTS destroyed by heat, 63. 
 
 INTRO-SUSCEPTION, means of, 36. 
 
 IRELAND, agricultural state of, 138. 
 
 JOHNSON, Dr. on agriculture, 138. 
 
 IRON, sulphate of, as manure, 94. 
 
 IRRIGATION of soils, 82. 
 
 ITALY, blight of, 51. As an agricultural country, 116. 
 
 JUICE, descent of, 39. Colour and use of, ib. Dr. 
 Darwin's experiment on, ib. Supposed cause of de- 
 scent of, ib. Of plants, flux of, 51. 
 
 LANDS exhausted in a few years, 91. 
 
 LATIMER, Bp. His father's farm described, 130. 
 
 LAYERS, successive formation of, 43. 
 
 LEAF-STALK of plants, imperfect, 15. Uses of, ib. 
 Anatomy of, ib. Knight's discoveries in, 41. 
 
 LEAVES, air inhaled by, 36. Principle of, doubtful, 46. 
 
 LEATHER CHIPPINGS as a manure, 92. 
 
 LEGUMINOUS plants nourished by the air, 84. 
 affected by dew, 85. 
 
 LIGHT, its agency in vegetation, 95, 96. 
 
 LIME as manure, 94. Sulphate of as ditto, ib. 
 
 LIMESTONE, 94. Ditto powdered, ib. 
 
 How 
 
 FLOWER-STALK of plants imperfect, 15. Description LINSEED-CAKE, a good manure, 92. 
 
 of, ib. Anatomy of, ib. Constitution of, ib. 
 
 FRACTURE, causes of, 50. Cure of, ib. 
 
 FLIES in turnips, 60. Preventive of, 60 62. 
 
 FLUX of juices in plants, 51. 
 
 FROST, its causes, 101. 
 
 FRUIT, mode of preserving, 68. 
 
 FUNGI, definition of, 13. 
 
 GENERA of soils, how determined, 71. 
 
 GEOLOGICAL structure of the earth, 70. 
 
 GERM of imperfect plants, 15. 
 
 GERMANY, ancient, as an agri.ultural country, 124. 
 
 GERMINATION, commencement of, 18. Conditions 
 of, ib. Influence of warmth upon, ib. Necessity 
 of moisture to, ib. Influence of air upon, ib. Ex- 
 periments on, in gases, ib. Accelerated by acid, 
 *** P J ;riod of ' in P lants > 19. First symptom of, 
 
 LONDON, prevailing winds at, 102. 
 
 MAGNESIA as manure, 94. 
 
 MALT-DUST, a good manure, 92. Marl, 94. 
 
 MANURE, best, 67. The whole to be employed, 91. 
 
 Animal, 92. Vegetable, ib. Other species of, ib. 
 
 Some to be used fresh, ib. Rape-cake, malt-dust, 
 
 linseed-cake, and sea-weed, good manures, ib. 
 
 Fish, ib. Organic, 93. Mineral, 94. Alkaline 
 
 earth as, ib. Lime, ib. Magnesia, ib. Marl, ib. 
 
 Chalks, ib. Limestone powdered, quick-lime, &c. 
 
 ib. Vegetable, should be applied to its own 
 
 species, 92. 
 
 MANURING by water, principle of, 22. 
 METALLIC oxides in soils, 75. 
 MILDEW, nature of, 51. On wheat, shape of, ib, 
 
 Prevention of, ib. 
 
 20. First symptom of, accounted for, ib. Pro- MINERALOGY connected with agriculture, 70. Gcne- 
 
 gressive steps of, ib. Philosophy of, ib. 
 GIRDLING, mode of, 50. 
 GLASGOW, prevailing winds at, 102. 
 GOOGE, B. an early writer on agriculture, 133. 
 GRASS, sheltering it, the effects of, 97. 
 GREEKS, agriculture of, 1. 
 GROUND improved by immersion, 22. 
 GRUBS in corn, 59. Their ravages in Norfolk, i&. 
 GYPSUM, as manure, 94. 
 HAIL, its causes, 101. 
 HAIR, as n 
 
 the skin, 
 HAMEL, Du. on disease of saffron, 57. 
 
 ral principles of that science, ib. 
 
 Moss tribe, description of, 13. 
 
 MUSCULAR structure of animals, 107. 
 
 NERVES of animals, 107, 
 
 NERVOUS system, 107. 
 
 NITRE, as manure, 94. 
 
 NORMAN agriculture, 127. 
 
 NOURISHMENT of plants by water, 22. Want of nou- 
 rishment, its evidences, 57. 
 
 OIL as a manure, 92. 
 92. Of animals an appendage of ORGANIZED matter in soils, 75. 
 
 ORGANS, decomposite, development of, 42. 
 
 OSSEOUS structure of animals, 107. 
 
 JARRisoN.Rev. Mr.an early writeron agriculture,. 33. PATHOLOGY, definition of, 50. Of animals, 1 10. 
 HEAT, ,te agency in vegetation, 95, 96. And co.u, PEAS, 88. And beans, 84. The best crop to succeed 
 
 their general causes, 96. 
 JU.I. VKTIA, as an agricultural country, 124. 
 HKNRYVH. Agriculture in his reign, 129. 
 HEPATIC.*:, description of, 13. 
 
 wheat in many cases, 89. 
 PEATY soils, 74. 
 
 PERICARP, its various contexture, 15. Organs of, 16. 
 PITH, definition of the, 16.
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 347 
 
 PLANTS, twofold structure of, 9. Perfect, external 
 structure of, ib. Conservative organs of, 10. Con- 
 servative appendages, 11. Reproductive organs, 12. 
 Imperfect, external structure of, 13. Imperfect, 
 definition of, ib. Imperfect, distribution of, ib. 
 Imperfect, internal structure of, 14. Imperfect, 
 internal organs of, ib. Imperfect, decomposite or- 
 gans of, 15. Imperfect, pericarp of, ib. Nourish- 
 ment of, 21. Nourishment of by air, 23. Experi- 
 ments on in gases, ib. Nourished by vegetable 
 extract, 24. Nourished by salts, 25. Salts in 
 composition of, ib. Nourished by earths, 26. 
 Diseases of, 51. Culmiferous, 84. Leguminous, 
 depend much on the air, ib. Sheltered by snow, 
 97. 
 
 PLATT, Sir H., an early writer on agriculture, 133. 
 
 POTASSA, sulphate of, as manure, 94. 
 
 POTATOES, curled disease of, 64. Improvements in 
 setting, 64, (XV.) How best preserved, 68. Their 
 quality of dividing the soil, &c., 86. And turnips 
 compared, 87. First introduced into England, 133. 
 
 PRESERVING fruit, 68. 
 
 PRICE of birds, &c. at Rome, 122. 
 
 PRIMITIVE soils, 71. 
 
 PRUNING, &c. 50. 67. 
 
 PROPAGATION, means of, 49. 
 
 PULP, description of the, 16. 
 
 PULVERIZING of soils, 79. Its advantages and dis- 
 advantages, ib. 
 
 QUICK LIME as manure, 94. 
 
 RAIN, its causes, 101. 
 
 RAPE-CAKE, a good manure, 92. 
 
 RAY'S account of agriculture in Scotland, 1660, 135. 
 
 REARING of animals, 113. 
 
 RED-RUST, nature of, 51. 
 
 RED-GUM, 51. 
 
 REPETITION of the same crop to be avoided, 90. 
 
 REPRODUCTION of animals, 109. 
 
 ROBERTSON'S mode of curing mildew, 51. 
 
 ROMAN agriculture, 1. Roman villa described, 116. 
 Implements, 118. Threshing, 120. Animals, 
 birds, &c. reared, 122. Maxim of agriculture, ib. 
 Roman, profits of, uncertain, 123. 
 
 ROOT, annual augment of, 42. Perpendicular de- 
 scent of, ib. Influence of oxygen upon, 16. Strength 
 of, ib. 
 
 ROOTS and leaves good manure for wheat, 91. 
 
 ROTATION of crops, 83. Principles of it, ib. It 
 destroys insects, 91. 
 
 SAFFRON, disease of, 57. 
 
 SAP, diffusion of, 37. Constant motion of, ib. Con- 
 stant motion of proved, ib. Opinipns of the ascent 
 of, ib. Ascent, means of discovered, ib. Ascent 
 of in leaves, ib. Ascent of in fruit-stalk, ib. En- 
 tire course, mystery of, ib. Elaboration of, 38. 
 Incipient elaboration of, unknown, ib. Elaboration 
 of in leaves, ib. 
 
 SALINE soils, 74. 
 
 SALT as manure, 94 
 
 SAND in soils, 75. 
 
 SEA-WEED a good manure, 92. 
 
 SAXON agriculture, 126. Laws of respecting agricul- 
 ture, ib. 
 
 SCALES of animals, an appendage of the skin, 106. 
 
 SCOTLAND as an agricultural country, 128. Laws in 
 it respecting agriculture, 132. 
 
 SEED, divisions of, 15. Anatomy of, ib. 
 
 SERIES of earths, primitive, second, third, &c. 71. 
 
 SNOW, its use as a shelter of plants, 97. 
 
 SHELLS of fish, &c. an appendage of the skin, 106. 
 
 SHELTERING of grass, its effects, 97. 
 
 SHOOT, annual formation of, 41. 
 
 SHOWERS, to be consulted and imitated, 67. 
 
 SILICA, its modifications, 75. 
 
 SILICEOUS soils, 74. 
 
 SKIN of animals includes several coats, 106. Its ap- 
 pendices, ib. Secretions, ib. 
 
 SMUT, nature of, 51. Prevention of, ib. Dr. Home's 
 opinion of, 55. 
 
 SNOW, its causes, 101. 
 
 SOIL, cause of difference in, 27. 
 
 SOILS, table of, 71. Qualities of, 73. Decided by 
 what plants grow in them, 74. Argillaceous, cal- 
 careous, silicious, &c. described, ib. Quality of, 
 evinced by chemical analysis, 75. Specific gravity 
 of, ib. Their uses, 76. A variety required, t'6. 
 For bulbous roots, t'6. For barley and turnips, ib. 
 Mixture of alumina and silica required, t'6. Clayey 
 requires mixture with sand, &c. t6. Cold and hot, 77. 
 Black and pale, t&. Those which cool quickly, t'6. 
 Rich, t'6. Pulverization of, 79. To be improved 
 according to their predominant quality, 80. Burn- 
 ing of, 81. 
 
 SOOT as manure, 92, 94. 
 
 SPECIES of soil, how determined, 71. 
 
 SPECIFIC gravity of soils, 75. 
 
 SPINAL marrow of animals, 106. 
 
 STEM, progression of, 43. 
 
 STRUCTURE of the earth, 70. 
 
 STIFF clays, 76. 
 
 SUB-SOIL, its quality very important, 78. Should 
 regulate ploughing, &c. t'6. Often impregnated with 
 oxide of iron, t'6. 
 
 SULPHATE of lime as manure, 94. Of iron, ib. Of 
 potassa, ib. 
 
 TABLE of soils, 71. 
 
 THRESHING, Roman, 120. Carthaginian, ib. 
 
 TORREFACTION of soils, 81. 
 
 TURNIPS, how best preserved, 68. And potatoes 
 compared, 87. And cabbage, t'6. 
 
 TUSSER'S, account of agriculture in 2nd. Elizabeth's 
 reign, 130. His Five Hundred Points of Hus- 
 bandry published, 133. 
 
 VEGETABLES, fragrancy of, 32. Bath of recom- 
 mended, 33. Transmutation of putrid matters by, 
 34. Transmutation, necessity of, 35. 
 
 VEGETABLE sexuality, and impregnation of the seed, 
 48. Known to the Greeks, t'6. Several organs 
 of, t'6. 
 
 VEGETABLE chemistry, nature of, 17. 
 
 VEGETABLE nutrition, process of, 36. 
 
 VEGETATION, lord Kames's experiments on, 27. 
 Earth best suited for, 28. 
 
 VERMIN, modes of destroying, 58. 
 
 VILLAS, Roman, described, 116. 
 
 VINE the, cultivated in England, 133. 
 
 Viscous secretions of the skin, 106. 
 
 UNCTUOUS secretions of the skin, 106. 
 
 USES of animals in agriculture, 111. 
 
 WATER used as manure by Mr. Bakewell, 22. Dr. 
 Anderson's essays on, t6. Its abundance to be 
 rectified, 81. Must be supplied when deficient, ib. 
 Its agency in vegetation, 95. 
 
 WEEDS, crops that encourage them to be avoided, 
 89. 
 
 WESTON, Sir R. improves the culture of clover and 
 turnips, 134. 
 
 WHEAT requires more nourishment than other grain, 
 86. Requires a leguminous crop to follow, 88. 
 
 WIFE'S occupation in ancient times, curious account 
 of, 129. 
 
 WILD GRAIN, cause of, 64, (IX.) 
 
 WIND, as connected with agriculture, 102. Prevail- 
 ing winds at London and Glasgow, ib. 
 
 WOOD, constitution of, 16. 
 
 WOOLLEN RAGS, as a manure, 92.
 
 348 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 AGRICULTURE, BOARDS and SOCIETIES, 
 for the ENCOURAGEMENT of. The first society 
 for the promotion of agriculture in the British 
 isles, of whose history we have any account, was 
 The Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of 
 Agriculture in Scotland, instituted in 1723. This 
 association exerted itself with considerable suc- 
 cess, in introducing cultivated herbage and 
 turnips, and improving on former modes of cul- 
 ture. The earl of Stair, one of its active 
 early members, is said to have been the first 
 who cultivated turnips in that country. But the 
 example appeared to have little effect upon the 
 practice of the common tenantry. Maxwell, who 
 for one or two sessions, delivered lectures on 
 agriculture, at Edinburgh, gives the first notice 
 of a threshing machine, in his Transactions of the 
 Society of Improvers. It appears to have been 
 invented by Michael Menzies, advocate, who 
 obtained a patent for it; and, according to the 
 report of the above society, one man by the assis- 
 tance of this machine, might do the work of six. 
 One of the machines was ' moved by a great 
 water-wheel and treddles ;' and another, ' by a 
 wheel of three feet diameter, moved by a small 
 quantity of water.' See Encyc. Brit, and Ed. 
 Encyc. Art. Agr. and Brown's Rural Affairs. 
 Draining, inclosing, summer-fallowing, sowing 
 flax, hemp, grass seeds, turnip and rape, planting 
 cabbages after, and potatoes with, the plough, in 
 large fields, were now introduced ; and more 
 corn was grown, where it was never known 
 to grow before, by one sixth of the former pro- 
 duce of the kingdom. Hope, of Rankeillor, a 
 member of this society, among other patriotic 
 exertions, drained the morass, near Edinburgh, 
 formerly known as Straiton's Loch; and projected 
 the walks over the grounds now known as the 
 meadow walks, for some time a fashionable place 
 of resort. Cockburn, of Ormiston, was a prin- 
 cipal member and founder of this institution; 
 and, the dukes of Hamilton, and Athol, Hopeton, 
 and Irlay, exerted themselves to facilitate the 
 objects of this society. At length, this excellent 
 institution, at one time consisting of more than 
 300 members, became neglected, and was dis- 
 solved, after about twenty years of valuable ser- 
 vices to Scotland. 
 
 The establishment of the Dublin Agricul- 
 tural Society, in 1749, gave a stimulus to 
 agriculture in Ireland. Its origin may be traced 
 as early as 1731 ; when Prior, of Rathdowney, 
 Queen's County, and a number of other gentle- 
 men, associated themselves for the improvement 
 of agriculture and husbandry. In 1749, Prior, 
 by means of the lord lieutenant, procured a 
 grant of l 0,000 per annum, from the Irish 
 government, in aid of so desirable an object. 
 This institution has changed its character ma- 
 terially since its foundation. It more properly 
 belongs to the arts and sciences at the present 
 day, and is called the Royal Dublin Society. 
 
 COUNTY SOCIETIES, for the promotion of 
 agriculture, which multiplied in every direction 
 during the eighteenth century, evince the interest 
 attached to that pursuit in England. Among 
 them, the highest rank may certainly be claimed 
 
 the Bath and West of England, established 
 
 1777, and the Highland Society of Scol'and 
 
 founded in 1793. The Agricultural Reports of 
 the different counties, many of them surveyed 
 a second time, exhibit great ability, and have 
 been followed by a General Report of the Agri- 
 cultural State and Political circumstances of 
 Scotland, of considerable value. Many of these 
 county societies were in operation prior to the 
 existence of the Board of Agriculture, and con- 
 tributed to prepare the public mind for that 
 national institution. 
 
 THE LONDON BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 
 was established by act of Parliament, 17th May, 
 1793, and constituted by royal charter, 22d of 
 August following, for the encouragement of 
 Agriculture and Internal Improvement. ' The 
 circumstances/ says Sir J. Sinclair, the president 
 and founder of this excellent institution, ' which 
 led to the establishment of a board, so likely to 
 be of material service both to this country and 
 to society at large, cannot fail to be interesting to 
 the public.' ' In 1 786,' this gentleman informs us, 
 ' he undertook an extensive journey through the 
 most interesting parts of Europe, to obtain 
 political information, to ascertain the state of 
 other countries, and to discover every means 
 which had been sanctioned by the experience of 
 other nations, that could be successfully intro- 
 duced for the improvement of Great Britain :' 
 that, ' in the coiirse of that tour,' in which he 
 travelled 7500 miles in seven months and a half, 
 'he became acquainted with the most distin- 
 guished authors, the ablest statesmen, and the 
 most zealous patriots, that Europe could then 
 boast :' and ' returned full of ardour, to establish, 
 in his own country, the beneficial institutions, 
 which were scattered over others ; and to make 
 this island the centre of the various improve- 
 ments of which political society was capable, 
 more especially those of an agricultural nature.' 
 Circumstances, however, having occasioned a 
 coldness with the minister, he found that any 
 attempt, to carny such measures into effect, was 
 not likely to be successful in parliament, and 
 thence he was under the necessity of waiting for a 
 more favourable opportunity.' Sir John Sinclair 
 adds, that having published his History of the 
 Revenue, which he had intended to have con- 
 cluded with a chapter on the political circum- 
 stances of the country ; he then saw the 
 necessity of forming some institution for the ex- 
 press purpose of collecting statistical information, 
 the public having felt the most serious incon- 
 veniences and losses, from information of that 
 nature not being any where to be obtained. 
 This suggested the idea of beginning that useful 
 and extensive work, the Statistical account of 
 Scotland, concluded in 21 vols. 8vo. and to the 
 completion of which 900 individuals of intelli- 
 gence and ability contributed their assistance. 
 About the same time, Sir John, having received 
 information respecting the celebrated wool of the 
 Shetland isles, and of the dangers to which 
 their flocks were exposed, was led to lay a 
 statement of these facts before the Highland So- 
 ciety, who gave every assistance in their power, 
 and to suggest the erection of a new Society, en- 
 titled the British Wool Society, for the special 
 purpose of improving British wool. The busi- 
 ness of that Society was carried on with sucli
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 349 
 
 energy and success, that in the summer of 1792, 
 * the greater part of this island had been sur- 
 veyed, by persons skilled in the management of 
 sheep, whose observations were circulated over 
 the kingdom.' It was in the preface to an ac- 
 count published by that Society of one of these 
 tours, that Sir John first hinted at the establish- 
 ment of a Board of Agriculture. After stating 
 that ' they had established many important facts ; 
 that they had proved that the finest breeds of 
 Spain or of England will thrive on the wildest of 
 the Cheviot hills, and that very fine woollen 
 breeds may be propagated in the most moun- 
 tainous districts of Scotland,' he adds, 'but un- 
 less a Board of Agriculture be constituted, for 
 the purpose of superintending the improvements 
 of the sheep and wool of the country, and other 
 objects connected, either with the cultivation or 
 pasturage of the soil, he should despair of any 
 considerable success in those pursuits.' Im- 
 pressed with these ideas, Sir John Sinclair went 
 vo London in December 1792, resolving to at- 
 tempt the establishment of such a Board. 
 
 On the 15th of May, 1793, this gentleman 
 made his motion in parliament for this pur- 
 pose, ' It is supposed,' said he, ' that there are 
 sixty-seven millions of acres in Britain, of which 
 seven millions are occupied with houses, roads, 
 rivers, lakes, &c. There remained sixty millions, 
 of which five millions only were employed in 
 raising grain ; twenty-five millions were appro- 
 priated to pasturage, and there remained thirty 
 millions either completely waste, or under a very 
 defective system of husbandry. That was an ob- 
 ject of astonishing importance. Disgraceful, in- 
 deed it was, that nearly one half of the kingdom, 
 which might furnish subsistence to above ten 
 millions of people, should remain in such a state.' 
 By the efforts of the proposed institution, he 
 considered the stock of the farmer might be ren- 
 dered infinitely more valuable, without requiring 
 a greater quantity of food, or any additional care 
 or expense.' The additional value of black 
 cattle, of which it is supposed there are five 
 millions in the island, he estimated, at 20s. a 
 head, would add five millions per annum to the 
 national wealth. There are at least twenty mil- 
 lions of sheep in Britain. By improving the 
 fleece, Is. per sheep might be added to the value 
 of the wool, which would produce one million : 
 the manufacturer of the wool can treble the value ; 
 hence an addition of other five millions per 
 annum ; and the profits arising from improving 
 the carcase would be still more considerable. 
 Great improvements might also be made in other 
 kinds of stock. Great savings would arise by 
 the use of improved instruments of husbandry, 
 while by following judicious systems adapted to 
 the different soils, ground would be cultivated 
 at much less expence and with greater advantage. 
 These improvements would furnish the means of 
 healthful occupations to many thousands, almost 
 millions of people, who, from the integrity of 
 their private conduct, and the vigour of their 
 constitutions, should as much as possible be 
 multiplied.' To secure these advantages a 
 Board of Agriculture was absolutely neces- 
 sary, 1. As a general magazine for agricultural 
 knowledge. 2. As the best means of collecting 
 
 and circulating that knowledge, and exciting a 
 spirit of experiment. 3. As the most certain 
 method of establishing an extensive foreign cor- 
 respondence, to procure the most speedy infor- 
 mation of agricultural improvements and dis- 
 coveries, in all quarters of the globe. 4. As a 
 public body, capable of being entrusted with 
 the privilege of franking, to render its corres- 
 pondence less expensive. 5. As the only me- 
 dium, through which any general improvement 
 of stock could be expected, the authority and 
 influence of a public board far surpassing the 
 exertions of private societies, however active, in 
 removing deep-rooted prejudices, and concentrat- 
 ing the knowledge of many individuals of dif- 
 ferent professions. And, 6. As the best means 
 of obtaining a statistical account of England, and 
 giving a view of the real state of that country; 
 such as had already been nearly completed in 
 Scotland, and which might soon be universally 
 followed in other countries : ' And thus the prin- 
 ciples of political society, and the sources of 
 national improvement, would be more completely 
 ascertained, than in any former period of history.' 
 For when persons talked with raptures of the 
 great wealth brought into this country by com- 
 merce, they did not consider that the nation in 
 many cases lost as much by neglecting agricul- 
 ture, as they gained by commerce. The Board 
 was finally appointed to consist of a president, 
 treasurer, secretary, under-secretary, two or more 
 surveyors, one or more clerks, with such other 
 officers as may be necessary, and thirty ordinary 
 members : besides the archbishops of Canterbury 
 and York, the lord chancellor, or lord keeper of 
 the great seal, lord president, lord privy seal, 
 lord treasurer, or first commissioner of the Trea- 
 sury, lord high admiral, or first lord commis- 
 sioner of the admiralty, the bishops of London 
 and Durham, the two secretaries of state, the 
 master of ordnance, the speaker of the house of 
 commons, the president of the Royal Society, 
 the surveyor general of woods and forests, and 
 the surveyor of the crown lands, for the time 
 being; who are all members ex officiis. The 
 annual election of officers and members was ap- 
 pointed for the 25th of March, when five of the 
 ordinary members were to go out, and five others 
 to be chosen. At all meetings of the Board, seven 
 should be a quorum for doing business, the presi- 
 dent or the deputy being always one : and the 
 number of honorary members to be unlimited. 
 
 At first Sir J. Sinclair's friends had little 
 hopes of his success, and when he informed Mr 
 A. Young, that he had an appointment with Mr 
 Pitt to explain the advantages of the measure, 
 Mr. Young wrote, ' When you come from Mr. 
 Pitt, I shall have won the wager, (that he would 
 not succeed.) Pray don't give ministers more 
 credit than they deserve. In manufactures and 
 commerce, you may bet securely, but they never 
 did, and never will do any thing for the plough. 
 Your board will be a Board in the Moon.' Sir 
 John, however, took every prudent measure to 
 insure success. M. Dundas early promised his 
 assistance, notwithstanding their political dif- 
 ferences; and Mr. Pitt assured him, 'that he 
 would not oppose the measure, but that his sup- 
 port would depe:..d on what he judged was the
 
 350 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 sense of the house.' To satisfy the house of the 
 beneficial tendency of such a measure, Sir John, 
 previous to his motion in parliament, circulated 
 a printed paper among the members, containing 
 a plan of the board, its objects, advantages, and 
 probable expenses. Still, however, a few mem- 
 bers, suspecting some scheme of corruption or 
 ministerial influence to be at the bottom, op- 
 posed it vehemently ; but it was carried by a 
 majority of seventy-five ; 101 voting for it and 
 twenty-six against it. Mr. Sheridan and others, 
 who then opposed it, have since very handsomely 
 expressed their conviction of the utility of the 
 measure, and their wishes for its success. The 
 board was established by Act of Parliament, on 
 the 17th May 1793, 3000 per annum voted for 
 its support, and the charter drawn up and ulti- 
 mately sanctioned by the Great Seal, on the 23rd 
 of August, although the high fees paid for it, 
 which amounted to no less than 1189. 12s. 2d. 
 might, one would think, have expedited the 
 business more quickly. The board could not 
 be assembled till the 4th of September, and the 
 regular meetings did not commence till January 
 23rd, 1794. One of the first objects of their 
 attention was to collect materials for a statistical 
 account of England. Accordingly specimens 
 of parochial reports were printed, with a view 
 of rousing the clergy of the church of England 
 to exertions similar to those of their brethren in 
 Scotland. But it was afterwards thought proper 
 on various accounts, to prefer general to par- 
 ticular enquiries, and to procure county instead 
 of parochial reports. Accordingly surveys were 
 made and reports printed of the state of agri- 
 culture, in all the counties of the United King- 
 doms : and many gentlemen employed, executing 
 their tasks gratis. The charge of collecting this 
 mass of information, and surveying the whole 
 island, did not exceed the sum of 2170. The 
 expense of printing the reports, however, was 
 great. As a specimen of the expedition with 
 which the business of the board was carried on, 
 it is worth mentioning, that no fewer than 
 seventy-four of these reports were given in, and 
 cither printed or in the press, within little mor 
 than six months after its second meeting ; that 
 during the first session above 80,000 papers 
 were printed and circulated, of w^hich above 100 
 were returned with valuable hints and observa- 
 tions written in the margins, before the 29th of 
 July, 1794; and that by the end of the second 
 session, the survey of the whole kingdom had 
 been nearly completed, and the reprinting of 
 some of the reports had actually commenced. 
 Such a quantity of important business, begun 
 and executed within so short a period, we are 
 persuaded is not to be found paralleled in the 
 annals of any public society. Nor were these 
 the only exertions made by the board within that 
 period. Through their recommendation and in- 
 fluence extraordinary merit was rewarded, l 000 
 being granted by parliament, to Mr. Joseph Elk- 
 ington, who had carried the art of draining land 
 to a degree of perfection hitherto unknown ; and 
 the interests of a most useful class of the com- 
 munity, viz. the common labourers, had been at- 
 tended to, by introducing and passing the ' act 
 for the more effectual prevention of the use of 
 
 defective weights, and false and unequal ba- 
 lances.' And there is every reason to believe, 
 that in consequence of the recommendations 
 of the board, in January, 1795, 50,000 addi- 
 tional acres were planted with potatoes, and a 
 famine, consequently, prevented by thus pro- 
 viding six months provisions for about a mil- 
 lion of people. The crop of wheat in 1795, how- 
 ever, proving defective, the president recom- 
 mended to the board, an extra cultivation of that 
 necessary grain, in a letter which was sent to 
 all the members, and to the quarter sessions of 
 the counties, as well as inserted in fifty different 
 newspapers, in consequence whereof a greater 
 quantity of wheat was sown, and, with the ad- 
 vantage of a favourable season, a more produc- 
 tive and plentiful crop was reaped in autumn 
 1796, than perhaps at any former period in the 
 annals of British agriculture. 
 
 We should protract this article beyond all 
 bounds, were we to enumerate all the objects of 
 this truly patriotic institution. We shall, there- 
 fore, after giving the great outlines of investiga- 
 tion, as stated by Sir J. Sinclair to the board, in 
 his ' General View of the Inquiries essential for 
 the internal improvement of the kingdom,' only 
 mention one or two important objects of their 
 attention. The former are thus ranked by the 
 president. 1. The riches to be obtained from 
 the surface of the national territory. 2. The 
 mineral or subterraneous treasures of which the 
 country is possessed. 3. The wealth to be 
 derived from its streams, rivers, canals, inland 
 navigations, coasts and fisheries; and 4. The 
 means of promoting the improvement of the 
 people in regard to their health, industry, and 
 morals, founded on a statistical survey of every 
 parochial district in the kingdom, and the cir- 
 cumstances of its inhabitants. Under one or 
 other of these heads, every point of real impor- 
 tance, that can tend to promote the general hap- 
 piness of a great nation, seems to be included 
 Three objects of attention were pointed out 
 
 1. To ameliorate the condition of the lower or- 
 ders of the people, by promoting improvements 
 in the construction of cottages, and ascertaining 
 the means of lessening the consumption of fuel. 
 
 2. To recommend the annexing of a large garden 
 to each cottage ; and, 3. To encourage the ex- 
 tension of friendly societies. Another important 
 object of the board was, to procure an act for the 
 enclosure and cultivation of the waste lands in 
 Great Britain : and thus to 
 
 Cut off those legal bars 
 
 Which crush the culture of our fruitful isle. 
 In a word, the great objects of the board were 
 to collect and condense every particle of infor- 
 mation, that could be interesting either to indi- 
 viduals or society. 
 
 In his address to the board, 24th of May, 
 1796, Sir John Sinclair justly observes, 'that a 
 single additional acre, cultivated at home, is more 
 truly valuable than the most extensive possessions 
 acquired abroad, at an enormous expense of 
 treasure and of blood, and retained with diffi- 
 culty and danger.' And in a former address, on 
 the 29th July, 1794, after stating that the proba- 
 ble addition to the national capital by the im- 
 provement of 22,351,000 acres of waste lands
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 351 
 
 would amount at thirty years purchase to 
 905,215,500 ; besides 30,193,850 of additional 
 national income. He allows an objection may be 
 urged, that the improvement of these 22,351,000 
 acres at 4 per acre would occasion an expense 
 of 89,404,000. To this, after replying, that 
 * in a national account this expense is no 
 object; that the public, instead of losing, gains 
 by the expenditure ; and that the money thus 
 laid out might have lain dormant ; might have 
 been wasted, or destined for the cultivation of 
 distant territories, with all the risk of being taken 
 by an enemy, &c. ; ' he adds ' That here it is 
 impossible not to advert to the astonishing differ- 
 ence between spending eighty-nine millions in 
 improvements at home, or in foreign conquest. 
 After the expenditure of that sum in war, it 
 would be accounted a most fortunate means of 
 reimbursement, if we could secure any territory, 
 by a commercial intercourse with which, five 
 millions per annum could be gained ; whilst, at 
 the same time, it would be necessary to pay at 
 least five millions of additional taxes. But if 
 that money were laid out at home, or rather, if 
 individuals were encouraged to expend a part of 
 their wealth, in the internal improvement of the 
 country, instead of new taxes being necessary, 
 the old ones would become lighter and more 
 easily paid ; and instead of dragging 5,000,000 
 per ann. from an enormous distance, with much 
 risk and expense, thirty millions would be pro- 
 duced within our own domain, and always at 
 our command.' Sir John Sinclair closes his 
 account of the board, with *his philanthropic 
 proposal, that a ' Plan of an agreement be en- 
 tered into among the powers of Lurope and the 
 United States of America, for rewarding disco- 
 veries of general benefit to society.' The general 
 outlines are, ' that each power should agree to 
 pay a sum according to its revenue, for reward- 
 ing those who make any useful discovery in rural 
 ceconomy, medicine, or the arts ; and that such 
 discoveries should be rapidly extended to the dif- 
 ferent countries ; and brought to their ultimate 
 state of perfection. The attention of mankind 
 being thus directed to such objects, it is impossi- 
 ble to say, to what perfection the arts necessary 
 for their comfort and sustenance might be carried. 
 The desire for fame and emolument, and the 
 emulation of many nations rivalling each other 
 in such arts, would produce discoveries, the im- 
 portance of which can hardly be estimated. And 
 such an undertaking might have the effect of ren- 
 dering wars less frequent and ferocious.' He 
 concludes, ' If the measures above hinted at were 
 adopted, a new scene in politics might be the 
 happy consequence, and rulers of nations might in 
 future boast, not of their numerous fleets, not 
 of their gallant armies, not of extended com- 
 merce, of splendid or luxurious arts, or acqui- 
 sitions by intrigue or conquest, but of this, 
 that within their respective dominions, a greater 
 number of human beings enjoyed all the bless- 
 ings of political society, in greater perfection, 
 than hitherto they had ever been enabled to attain 
 in any former period of history.' 
 
 We have dwelt thus long on the formation 
 and history of a society, now in fact, extinct, 
 (for in 1819, the usual parliamentary vote for its 
 
 support, was withdrawn,) because, with some 
 little prolixity, important agricultural details 
 are included in it : and as a tribute of respect 
 to the unwearied and public-spirited exertions of 
 more than one excellent individual. 
 
 AGRIEL^EA, in botany, the wild olive. 
 
 AGRIFOLIUM, or AQUIFOLIUM, in botany. 
 See ILEX and HOLLY. 
 
 AGRIGAN. See AGRIGNAN. 
 
 AGRIGENTUM, AGRAGAS, or ACRAGAS, in 
 ancient geography, a celebrated city on the 
 southern shore of Sicily, the site of which is 
 now partially occupied by the town of Gir- 
 genti. The ancient name (Acragas) was also 
 that of a neighbouring stream; and both, ac- 
 cording to Polybius, were so called (aicpayq) 
 from the fertility of the surrounding country. 
 The situation of this city was peculiarly strong 
 and imposing, chiefly standing on a bare and 
 precipitous rock, elevated 1100 feet above the 
 level of the sea. Mr. Swinburne and M. 
 Houelle contend that a considerable part of 
 the ruins reach into the vale. It was protected 
 on the southern side by the river Acragas, and 
 on the western, by the Hypsas. A strong wall 
 was erected along the margin of the rock, and 
 in the eastern part of the town, on the site 
 now occupied by Girgenti, was placed the citadel 
 of Cocalus, so environed by a deep gulph, as to 
 b e approachable only by a single narrow path. 
 
 Dedalus, the most famous mechanic of 
 fabulous antiquity, fled to this spot for pro- 
 tection against Minos, and built many splen- 
 did edifices for Cocalus, king of the island. 
 Long after his flight, A. A. C. 600, the people of 
 Gela sent a colony hither. These Greeks con- 
 verted the ancient abode of the Siculi into a 
 citadel, to guard the magnificent city, which 
 they erected on the hillocks below. An ad- 
 vantageous situation, a free government, with 
 all its happy effects, exalted their common- 
 wealth to a degree of riches and power, un- 
 known to the Greek settlements, Syracuse alone 
 excepted. 
 
 To its advantages as a place of great strength, 
 the city added others of a commercial nature 
 being within two miles and a half of the sea, by 
 which an easy intercourse was afforded with 
 the ports of Africa, and the south of Europe. 
 The soil about Agrigentum being very fertile, 
 was laid out chiefly in olive yards, the products 
 of which were carried to Carthage, and brought 
 immense wealth to the cultivators. This ena- 
 bled them so splendidly to adorn the city with 
 temples and other public works, that Polybius, 
 1. ix. says, it surpassed in grandeur of appear- 
 ance most of its contemporaries. Among the 
 more important of its buildings, were the tem- 
 ples of Minerva, and of Jupiter Atabyris, (who 
 was worshipped under this appellation in the 
 island of Rhodes,) built on the highest ground 
 in the city ; and the temples of Jupiter Olym- 
 pius, and of Hercules. 
 
 The temple of Jupiter Olympius, which vied, 
 in size and grandeur of design, with the fines* 
 edifices of Greece, is said by IJiodorus Sic. 1. xiii. 
 to have been 340 feet long, sixty broad, and 120 
 high, the foundation not being included, which 
 was itself remarkable for the immense archfij
 
 AGH 
 
 352 
 
 AGR 
 
 pon which it stood ; the walls of the building 
 had half-columns let into them, measuring 
 twenty feet round on the outside, and flutings of 
 !epth sufficient to allow a man to stand in them. 
 The porticoes were very grand ; the eastern re- 
 prejenting, in admirable sculpture, the battles of 
 the giants; and the western the siege of Troy. 
 A war prevented the completion of this temple, 
 when the roof only remained unfinished. There 
 was also an artificial lake, cut out of the solid 
 rock, near the city, of about a mile in circuit, 
 and thirty feet deep, from which fish were ob- 
 tained in abundance for the public feasts, and 
 which was rendered an object of pleasure to the 
 citizens, by the number of swans and other water- 
 fowl which frequented it. But the mud being 
 suffered to accumulate in this basin, it was at 
 length filled up, and vines being planted, it 
 became a remarkably fruitful spot. This lake, 
 and the temple just described, were the work of 
 a number of Carthaginian captives, by whose la- 
 bour were also built the public sewers, which were 
 objects of admiration for their strength and size. 
 
 The inhabitants of Agrigentum were enfeebled 
 by luxury and pleasure. Empedocles, as Dio- 
 genes Laertius informs us, 1. 8. seg. 63. tome i. 
 p. 532. ed. Meibom, reproached them ' with de- 
 voting themselves every day to pleasure as if 
 they were to die on the morrow, and yet building 
 houses as if they were to live for ever.' They are, 
 however, commended for their hospitality. Gellias, 
 a rich citizen, is particularized by historians for his 
 practice of setting porters at his gate for the 
 purpose of inviting strangers to refresh them- 
 selves in his house. On one occasion, when 
 500 horsemen applied to him for a lodging, they 
 were all liberally entertained, and furnished 
 during their stay with garments from his ward- 
 robe. The Agrigentines were famous for their 
 attention to the breeding of horses, Virgil, 
 Mn. 1. iii. v. 705 ; and as an instance of their 
 possessions in this way, Diodorus relates, that 
 when a native had been crowned victor at the 
 Olympic games, he was brought into the city 
 with great pomp, attended by 300 chariots, each 
 drawn by a pair of white horses, the property 
 of the citizens. 
 
 With respect to the early history of this an- 
 cient city, and even its founders, much obscurity 
 prevails. Strabo calls it an Ionian colony. Po- 
 lybius says its first inhabitants were Rhodians. 
 Thucydides, in his sixth book, relates that the 
 Geloi, who were of Rhodian origin, built this 
 city after having been about 100 years in Sicily. 
 Some fabulous accounts even assign its erection 
 to Daedalus, whose flight to this place we have 
 already noticed. 
 
 In the early period of their history the Agri- 
 gentines were formidable for their military en- 
 terprizes. In the fifty-second Olympiad, B. C. 
 571, the cruel Phalaris, whose name and brazen 
 bull are familiar to most of our readers, usurped 
 the sovereignty ; but after a reign of sw*een 
 years shared the common fate of tyrants, and is 
 supposed to have been put to death in his own 
 bull. After his death, the people are said to 
 have enjoyed their liberty about fifty years ; when 
 Thero, a second usurper, ascended the throne ; 
 who, by his justice, moderation, and valour, re- 
 
 conciled the people to the obscurity of his origit v 
 He joined his son-in-law Gelo, king of Syracuse, 
 in a war against the Carthaginians; in the 
 course of which, victory attended all his steps 
 and Sicily saw herself for a time delivered from 
 her African oppressors. Soon after his decease, 
 his son Thrasydeus was deposed, and the old 
 democratical government restored. Ducetius 
 next disturbed the general tranquillity. He was 
 a chief of the mountaineers, descendants of the 
 Siculi ; and was an overmatch for the Agrigen- 
 tines, while they were unsupported by alliances, 
 but sank under the weight of their union with 
 the Syracusans. Some trifling differences dis- 
 solved this union, and produced a war, in which 
 the Agrigentines were worsted, and compelled 
 to submit to humiliating terms of peace. Re- 
 sentment led them to embrace with joy the pro- 
 posals of the Athenians, then meditating an 
 attack upon Syracuse. Their new friends, how- 
 ever, soon made them feel, that the sacrifice of 
 liberty and fortune would be the price of their 
 protection ; and this consideration brought them 
 speedily back to their old connections. But 
 this reconciliation and its effects drew upon 
 them the anger of the Carthaginians, by whom 
 their armies were routed, their city taken, their 
 race almost extirpated, and scarce a vestige of 
 magnificence was left. Hannibal opened his 
 campaign with the siege of this city, which 
 lasted eight months. Many of the inhabitants 
 removed during its continuance, and went to 
 Gela ; those who remained were, by the orders of 
 Himilcon, committed to the sword, and the riches 
 of a city, containing 200,000 inhabitants, plun- 
 dered by the conquerors. 
 
 Agrigentum lay fifty years buried under its 
 own ruins; when Timoleon, after triumphing 
 over the Carthaginians, and restoring liberty to 
 Sicily, collected the descendants of the Agrigen- 
 tines, and sent them to re-establish the dwellings 
 of their forefathers. Their exertions were re- 
 warded with astonishing success ; for Agrigentum 
 rose from its ashes with such a renewal of vigour, 
 that in a very short time we find it seizing a 
 happy moment, when Agathocles and Cartilage 
 had reduced Syracuse to the lowest ebb, and 
 arrogating to itself supremacy over all the Sicilian 
 republics. Xenodicus was appointed the leader 
 of this arduous enterprize ; and had his latter 
 operations been as fortunate as his first campaign, 
 Agrigentum would have acquired such a pre- 
 ponderance of reputation and power, that the 
 rival states would not even have dared to attack it. 
 But a few brilliant exploits were succeeded by 
 a severe overthrow, and the Agrigentines were 
 obliged to sue for peace to Agathocles. This 
 commonwealth afterwards took part with Pyr- 
 rhus, king of Epirus, in his attempt upon Italy ; 
 and when he left Sicily to the mercy of het 
 enemies, threw itself into the arms of Carthage. 
 During the first Punic war, Agrigentum was the 
 head-quarters of the Carthaginians, and was be- 
 sieged by the Roman consuls, who after eight 
 months' blockade, took it by storm, about the 
 year B. C. 198. The chiefs of the Agrigentines 
 were, by order of the consul Laevinus, first 
 scourged with rods, and then beheaded. The 
 common people were made slaves, and sold to
 
 AGR 
 
 353 
 
 AGR 
 
 the best bidder. The spoils of the city were put 
 up to sale, and the money returned to the 
 public treasury. Livy, lib. xxvi. c. 40. torn. iii. 
 p. 1138. ed Drakenb. Polybius, lib. i. p. 15 
 19. After this period, Agrigentum is seldom 
 mentioned in history ; nor is it easy to ascertain 
 the precise time of the destruction of the old 
 city, and the building of the. new one. 
 
 The further history of this famous place, may 
 oe reduced within a very short compass. From 
 the best information, it appears that the inhabi- 
 tants, or at least all that escaped the Roman 
 severity, still adhered to their noble walls. The 
 citadel still remained upon the mountain of 
 Cocalus ; every requisite for defence, pleasure, 
 and comfort of life still surrounded them ; a 
 natural wall, formed by abrupt rocks, presented 
 a strong barrier against assailants ; pleasant hills 
 sheltered them on three sides without impeding 
 the circulation of air ; before them a broad plain, 
 watered by the Acrages, gave admittance to ihe 
 sea-breeze, and to a fine prospect of that ele- 
 ment ; the port, Emporium Agrigentinorum, 
 lay in view at the mouth of the river, and pro- 
 bably the road across the flat was lined with 
 populous suburbs. Often, by means of its com- 
 merce, the commonwealth was long able to re- 
 sist the shocks of adversity, and to rise again 
 with fresh splendour. It was, however, crushed 
 in the general fall of Grecian liberty ; and the 
 feeble remnants of its population were at length 
 driven out of its walls by the Saracens. 
 
 The present town of Girgenti occupies the 
 mountain on which the ancient citadel stood. At 
 the north-east angle of the old limits, upon 
 some foundations of large regular stones, a church 
 has been erected ; a road appears hewn in the 
 solid rock for the convenience of the votaries that 
 visited this temple in ancient days. It was then 
 dedicated to Ceres and her daughter Proserpine, 
 the peculiar patronesses of Sicily. Bishop 
 Blaise has succeeded to their honours. At the 
 south-east corner, where the ground, rising 
 gradually, ends in a bold eminence, which is 
 crowned with majestic columns, are the ruins of 
 a temple said to have been consecrated to Juno. 
 To the west of this, stands the building com- 
 monly called the Temple of Concord ; the stone 
 of which, and the other buildings, is the same 
 ns that of the neighbouring mountains and cliffs, 
 a conglutination of sea-sand and shells, full of 
 perforations, of a hard and durable texture, and 
 a deep reddish brown colour. The Doric temple 
 has many of its columns, entablature, pediments, 
 and walls, entire; only part of the roof is wanting. 
 It owes its preservation to the piety of some 
 Christians, who have covered half the nave, and 
 converted it into a church, consecrated under 
 the invocation of St. Gregory, bishop of Gir- 
 genti. In the same direction are rows of se- 
 pulchres cut in the rock. Some masses of it 
 are hewn into the shape of coffins; others 
 drilled full of small square holes employed in 
 a different mode of interment, and serving as 
 receptacles of urns. One ponderous piece of 
 it lies in an extraordinary position ; by the 
 failure of jts foundation, or the shock of an 
 earthquake it lias been loosened from the gene- 
 ral quarry, and rolled down the declivity, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 where it remains supine, with the cavities 
 turned upwards. Only a single column marks 
 the confused heap of moss-grown ruins be- 
 longing to the temple of Hercules. It stood 
 on a projecting rock above a chasm in the 
 ridge, which was cut through for a passage to 
 the port. In the same tract over some hills, 
 is situated the Tomb of Thero. It is sur- 
 rounded by aged olive-trees, which cast a wild 
 irregular shade over the ruin. The edifice in- 
 clines to the pyramidal shape, and consists at 
 present of a triple plinth, and a base supporting 
 a square pedestal : upon this plain solid founda- 
 tion is raised a second order, having a window 
 in each front, and at each angle two Ionic pilasters 
 crowned with an entablature of the Doric order. 
 Its inside is divided into a vault, a ground room, 
 and one in the Ionic story, communicating with 
 each other by means of a small internal staircase. 
 In the plain are seen the fragments of the tem- 
 ple of TEsculapius ; part of two columns, and 
 two pilasters, with an intermediate wall, support 
 the end of a farm house, and were probably the 
 front of the cells. Towards the west, are the 
 gigantic remains of the temple of Jupiter Olym- 
 pus, minutely described by Diodorus Siculus. 
 It may literally be said that it has not one stone 
 left upon another ; and it is barely possible, with 
 the help of much conjecture, to discover the 
 traces of its plan and dimensions. Diodorus 
 calls it the largest temple in the whole island : 
 but adds, that the calamities of war caused the 
 work to be abandoned before the roof could be 
 put on; and, that the Agrigentines were ever 
 after reduced to such a state of poverty and de- 
 pendence, that they never had it in their power 
 to finish this superb monument of the taste and 
 opulence of their ancestors. The length of this 
 temple was 370 Greek feet ; its breadth, sixty ; 
 and its height 120, exclusive of the foundations : 
 the extent and solidity of its vaults and under- 
 works, its spacious porticoes, and exquisite 
 sculpture, were suited to the grandeur of the 
 whole. The next ruin belongs to the temple of 
 Castor and Pollux ; vegetation has covered the 
 lower parts of the building, and only a few frag- 
 ments of columns appear between the vines. 
 This was the point of the hill where the wall 
 stopt on the brink of a large fish pond, spoken 
 of by Diodorus : it was cut in the solid rock 
 thirty feet deep, and water was conveyed to it 
 from the hills. In it were bred a great quantity 
 of fish, for the use of public entertainments ; 
 swans, and various other kinds of wild fowl, swam 
 along its surface, for the amusement of the citi- 
 zens ; and the great depth of water prevented an 
 enemy from surprising the town on that side. 
 It is now dry, and used as a garden. On the 
 opposite bank are two tapering columns, without 
 their capitals, placed in a tuft of carob trees. 
 Monte Toro, where Hanno encamped with the 
 Carthaginian army, before the Roman consuls 
 drew him into an engagement that ruined his 
 defensive plan, is a noble back ground to this 
 picturesque group of objects. The whole space, 
 comprehended within the walls of this ancient 
 city, abounds with traces of antiquity ; founda- 
 tions, brick arches, and little channels for the 
 conveyance of water; but in no part are any 
 
 2 A
 
 AGR 
 
 354 
 
 AGR 
 
 ruins that can be presumed to liave belonged to 
 places of public entertainment. This is the more 
 extraordinary, as the Agrigentines were fond of 
 shows and dramatic performances ; and the 
 Romans never dwelt in any place long without 
 introducing their savage games. See GIRGENTI. 
 AGRIGINTINE SALT, in natural history, a 
 kind of salt famous among the ancients for its not 
 crackling in the fire as the common salt does. 
 
 AGRIGNAN, one of the Ladrone islands. It 
 is mountainous, has a volcano, and is 50 miles in 
 circumference. N. lat. 19 4', E. long. 146. 
 
 AGRII, in ancient geography, a people of 
 Ethiopia, called by the Greeks Cynamolgi. 
 
 AGRILIUM, in ancient geography, a town of 
 Asia Minor, in Bithynia, to the south-east of Nicaea. 
 AGRIMONIA, AGRIMONY, in botany, a 
 genus of the dodecandria digynia class and order, 
 of the natural order of senticosae, and of the 
 rosaces of Jussieu; CAL. one-leafed, five cleft, 
 acute, small, superior : PERIANTH, permanent, 
 fenced with an outer calyx: COR. five, flat, 
 emarginate petals, with the daws narrow, in- 
 serted into the calyx ; STAM. capillary filaments, 
 shorter than the corolla, inserted into the calyx ; 
 ANTH. small, twin, and compressed ; PIST. germ, 
 inferior ; STYLES, simple, of the length of the 
 stamina; STIGMAS, obtuse, no pericarpium; CAL. 
 contracted at the neck, and hardened ; the seeds 
 are two and roundish. The number of stamina 
 is very uncertain, twelve, ten, seven. The 
 agrimonia of Tournefort has the outer calyx 
 growing to the inner ; two seeds ; stamina twelve 
 to twenty ; fruit fenced with bristles. The agri- 
 monoides T. has the outer calyx detached ; one 
 seed ; stamina about seven. Of this genus there 
 are five species. 
 
 AGRIMONOIDES, in botany, a species of 
 agrimony. This plant flowers in April, and 
 comes to perfection in May. It grows in some 
 mountainous parts of Italy ; and is sometimes 
 called pimpinella solio agrimonite. 
 
 AGRIMONY, HEMP. See EUPATORIUM. 
 AGRIMONY, WATER HEMP. See BIDENS. 
 AGRIOCARDAMUM, in botany, CAHDA- 
 MINE, which see. 
 
 AGRIOCASTANUM, earth nut, pig nut. 
 AGRIOCIN ARA, a species of wild artichoke. 
 AGRIOCOCCIMELA, theprunus sylvestris, 
 or plum tree. 
 
 AGRIOMELLA, the crab apple. 
 AGRIOMELANZANION, in the botanical 
 writings of the ancients, a word that has per- 
 plexed many later botanists. The Arabian 
 writers, Avicenna and Serapion, used the word 
 bedengian, for the fruit of the pomum amoris, a 
 kind of esculent nightshade, or solanum, called 
 by the old Greek writers, as Theophrastus, &c. 
 strychnus, and only distinguished from the other 
 strychni, or nightshades, by its being described 
 as wholesome, not poisonous. From this Arabic 
 word bedengian, the Italians formed their word 
 melanzaua, and the late Greek writers their me- 
 lanzanion, which they used as the name of the 
 same fruit. This, when the plant was cultivated 
 in gardens, was probably larger and fairer than 
 when it grew wild ; but, in this latter state, was 
 not less used, and was distinguished by the term 
 Sigriomelanzanion. 
 
 AGRION. See PEUCEDANVM 
 
 AGRIONARDUM, valerian. 
 
 AGRIONIA, in Grecian antiquity, festivals 
 annually celebrated by the Bo3Otians in honour 
 of Bacchus. At these festivals the women pre 
 tended to search after Bacchus as a fugitive; and 
 after some time, gave over their enquiry, saying, 
 that he was fled to the Muses, and was concealed 
 among them. 
 
 AGRIOPHAGI, from cryptoc, wild, and Qayu 
 I eat ; in antiquity, a name given to those who 
 were supposed to feed on wild beasts, such as 
 lions, panthers, &c. Pliny and Solinus speak 
 of Agriophagi in Ethiopia ; and Ptolemy of others 
 in India on this side the Ganges. 
 
 AGRIOPHYLLON. See PEUCEDANUM. 
 
 AGRIORIGANUM, in botany, wild mar- 
 joram. 
 
 AGRIOSELINUM, wild parsley. 
 
 AGRIPALMA, mother Wort. 
 
 AGRIPPA, an ancient nty of Apulia. 
 
 AGRIPPA, in midwifery, a name anciently ap- 
 plied to children, born in an unusual or irregular 
 manner ; particularly such as presented the feet 
 instead of the head. This was, according to Pliny, 
 because they were (aegre parti) born with dif- 
 Jlculty. Salmasius derives it from the Greek 
 aypav, venari, and VTTTTOC, equus, q. d. a hunter 
 of horses, and Daventer has a particular chapter 
 of agrippas, or infants coming with their feet 
 foremost, which, according to him, is one of the 
 most convenient and safe ways for a mature 
 birth. 
 
 AGRIPPA, (Cornelius,) born at Cologne in 1486 
 a man of considerable learning, and by common 
 report a great magician ; for the monks at that 
 time suspected every thing to be heresy or sor- 
 cery which they did not understand. He com- 
 posed a Treatise on the Excellence of Women, to 
 insinuate himself into the favour of Margaret of 
 Austria, governess of the Low Countries : and 
 accepted of the charge of historiographer to the 
 emperor, which that princess gave him. The 
 treatise on the Vanity of the Sciences, which 
 he published in 1550, enraged his enemies ex- 
 tremely ; as did that of Occult Philosophy, which 
 lie printed soon after at Antwerp. He was im- 
 prisoned in France, for a satire he had written 
 against the mother of Francis I. but was liberated, 
 and went to Grenoble, where he died in 1534. 
 
 AGRIPPA, (Herod I.) the son of Aristobulus 
 and Mariamne, and grandson to Herod the 
 Great, was born A. M. 3997, three years before 
 the birth of our Saviour, and seven years before 
 the vulgar aera. After the death of Aristobulus 
 his father, his grandfather took care of his edu- 
 cation, and sent him to Rome to make his 
 court to Tiberius The emperor conceived a 
 great affection for him, and placed him near 
 his son Drusus. Agrippa very soon won the 
 graces of Drusus, and of the empress Antonia ; 
 but Drusus dying suddenly, all those who had 
 been much about him, were commanded by 
 Tiberius to withdraw from Rome, lest the sight 
 and presence of them should renew his afflic- 
 tion. Agrippa, who had been extravagant, 
 being thus obliged to leave Rome, overwhelmed 
 with debt, retired to Massada, where he lived 
 rather like a private person than a prince.
 
 AGR 
 
 355 
 
 AGR 
 
 Herod, the Tetrarr.h, his uncle, who had married 
 Herodias his s.stei-in-law, assisted him for 
 some time, made him principal magistrate of 
 Tiberius, and presented him with a large sum 
 of money : but all this was not sufficient to 
 answer the excessive expenses and profusion 
 of Agrippa ; so that Herod growing weary of 
 assisting him, and reproaching him with his bad 
 O3conomy, Agrippa returned to Rome. Upon 
 his arrival, he was received into the good graces 
 of Tiberius, and commanded to attend Tiberius 
 Nero, the son of Drusus. Agrippa, however, 
 chose rather to attach himself to Caius Cali- 
 gula, the son of Germanicus, as if he had 
 some prophetic views of the future elevation 
 of Caligula, who at that time was universally 
 beloved. The great assiduity and agreeable 
 behaviour of Agrippa, so far engaged this 
 prince, that he kept him constantly about him. 
 But Agrippa being overheard one day by 
 Eutyches, a slave whom he had made free, to 
 express his wishes for Tiberius's death and the 
 advancement of Caligula, the slave betrayed 
 him to the emperor ; whereupon he was loaded 
 with fetters, and committed to the custody 
 of an officer. Tiberius soon after dying, and 
 Caligula succeeding, he heaped many favours 
 upon Agrippa ; changed his iron fetters into 
 a chain of gold ; set a royal diadem on his 
 head ; and gave him the tetrarchy which Philip, 
 the son of Herod the Great, had been pos- 
 sessed of, viz. Batanaea and Trachonitis. To 
 this he added that of Lysanias ; and Philip 
 returned into Judea to take possession of his 
 new kingdom. Caligula being soon after killed, 
 Agrippa, who was then at Rome, contributed 
 much by his advice to maintain Claudius in 
 
 Eossession of the imperial dignity, to which 
 e had been advanced by the army. But in 
 this affair Agrippa exhibited more cunning than 
 honesty; for while he made a show of being 
 in the interest of the senate, he secretly advised 
 Claudius to be resolute, and not to abandon 
 his good fortune. The emperor, as an acknow- 
 ledgment for his kind offices, gave him Judea 
 and the kingdom of Chalcis, which had been 
 possessed by Herod his brother. Thus Agrippa 
 became suddenly one of the greatest princes 
 of the East ; and was possessed of as much, 
 if not more territory than his grandfather. He 
 returned to Judea, and governed it to the great 
 satisfaction of the Jews. But the desire of 
 pleasing them, and a mistaken zeal for their 
 religion, induced him to commit an unjust ac- 
 tion, which is recorded Acts xii. 1, 2, &c. for 
 about the feast of the passover, A. D. 44. St. James 
 the son of Zebedee, and brother to St. John 
 the Evangelist, was seized by his order and 
 put to death. He also imprisoned St. Peter, till 
 the festival was over, that he might then have 
 him executed. But Peter being miraculously de- 
 livered the designs of Agrippa were frustrated. 
 After the passover he went from Jerusalem 
 to Caesarea, where he had games performed 
 in honour of Claudius. Here the inhabitants 
 of Tyre and Sidon waited on him to sue for 
 peace. Agrippa being come early in the morn- 
 ing to the theatre, to give them audience, seated 
 himself upon his throne, dressed in a robe of 
 
 silver tissue, worked in the most admirable 
 manner. The rising sun darting full upon it, 
 gave it an uncommon lustre, and therefore, 
 when the king spoke to the Tynans and Sido- 
 nians, the parasites around him began to say 
 that it was the voice of a god, and not of a man., 
 Instead of rejecting these impious flatteries, 
 Agrippa received them with an air of compla- 
 cency ; but the gratification of his vanity was 
 disturbed by observing an owl above him. He 
 had seen the same bird before, when he was 
 in bonds by order of Tiberius ; and it was then 
 told him that he should soon be set at liberty : 
 but that whenever he saw the same bird a 
 second time, he should not live above five days 
 afterwards. He was therefore extremely ter- 
 rified ; and died at the end of five days, racked 
 with tormenting pains in his bowels, and de- 
 voured with worms. Such was the death of 
 Herod Agrippa, after a reign of seven years, in 
 the year of Christ 44. 
 
 AGRIPPA, Herod, II. son of the preceding 
 Herod Agrippa, was made king of Chalcis, but 
 three or four years after, was deprived of his 
 dignity by Claudius, who gave him other pro- 
 vinces instead of it. In the war Vespasian car- 
 ried on against the Jews, Herod sent him a 
 succour of 2000 men; by which it appears, 
 lhat though a Jew by religion, he was yet en- 
 tirely devoted to the Romans, whose assist- 
 ance indeed he wanted, to secure the peace 
 of his own kingdom. He lived to the third 
 year of Trajan, and died at Rome, A. C. 100. 
 He was the seventh and last king of the family 
 of Herod the Great. It was before him and 
 Berenice his sister and wife, that St. Paul 
 pleaded his cause at Caesarea. 
 
 AGRIPPA, (Marcus Vipsanius,) although of 
 plebeian birth, was son-in-law to Augustus, and 
 one of the most considerable generals among 
 the Romans. Augustus's victory over Pompey 
 and Marc Antony was owing to his counsel. 
 He adorned the city with the pantheon, baths, 
 aqueducts, &c. 
 
 AGRIPPINA COLONIA UBIORUM, in ancient 
 geography, now Cologne ; so called from Agrip- 
 pina, who had a colony sent thither by the em- 
 peror Claudius, to honour the place of her birth. 
 See COLOGNE. 
 
 AGRIPPINA, the daughter of Germanicus, sister 
 of Caligula, and mother of Nero ; a woman of 
 wit, and of some learning, but excessively licen- 
 tious. She was thrice married, the last time to 
 Claudius, her uncle, whom she poisoned to make 
 way for Nero her son. Nero afterwards caused 
 her to be murdered in her chamber, when she 
 bid the executioner stab her first in the womb, 
 that had brought forth such a monster. 
 
 AGRIPPINIANS, in church history, the fol- 
 lowers of Agrippinus, bishop of Carthage, in the 
 third century, who first introduced and defended 
 the practice of rebaptization. 
 
 AGRIPPINUS. See last article. 
 
 AGRISE', v. or > Ajruran, Sax. to crush ; by 
 
 AGGRISE'. ] an easy transition, to af- 
 
 fright ; to astonish ; to make frightful ; to dread. 
 
 And powring forth their bloud in brutish wize, 
 
 That any iron eyes, to see, it would agrixe. 
 
 Spencer's Faerie Queen*, v. x. 28. 
 2 A 2
 
 AGR 
 
 356 
 
 Yet not the colour of the troubled deep, 
 Those spots supposed, nor the fogs that rise 
 From the dull earth, me any whit agrue. 
 
 Draytoni Man in the Moon. 
 
 AGRIUM, in the materia medica of the an- 
 cients, a name given to an impure sort of natrum. 
 ? pure sort o'f this salt they called halmyrhaga 
 
 AGU 
 
 AGROT'ED. Cloyed, surfeited, saturated. 
 Skinner and Tyrwhit. 
 This honorable quene Philis doth him chere 
 Her liketh wel his sport and his manere, 
 But I am agroted here bcforne, 
 To write of hem that inloue been forsworne. 
 
 Chaucer. The Legend of Good. Women. 
 ancient geography, the most 
 
 The pure son - v~ o > AGBO TIRI, m ancient geograpuy, . 
 
 and the coarse kind agrmm. The iormer they h promO ntory of the island of Cyprus, 
 
 , * THT_J:_ *l, rt li4*A ttvMYi I nrapp. j\j\**>* ^- * ,_j ...i*u *u ~ 
 
 east of Limassol. 
 by a very 
 
 It is connected with the con- 
 tongue of land, now 
 of th 
 
 nad from Media, the latter from Thrace 
 
 AGROM, in medicine, a disease frequent in 
 
 Bengal, and other parts of the Indies, wherein ^ 
 
 the tongue chaps and cleaves in several places, . t kept by the monks, who in the 
 
 is extremely rough, and sometimes covered with J UI er c n ob ine d permission to establish 
 
 white soots. The Indians are much afraid o ^_ IMO th * rej ^ well s on mount Olympus, 
 
 of keeping a great number of those 
 
 white spots. 
 
 this disease, which they attribute to extreme 1 conaiuon 01 ^ v ^ . 6 . 
 
 of the stomach. Their remedy is, to dnnk some J^ 1 ^ huntin * S 8 na kis, which had multi- 
 
 chalybeate liquor, or the juice of mint. 
 AGROP'E v. See GROPE. 
 
 For who so will it wel agtope, 
 To hem belongeth all Europe, 
 Whiche is the third parte euen 
 Of all the worlde vnder the heuen. 
 
 Cower. Con. A. b. v. 
 
 AGROSTEMA, WILD LYCHNIS, or CAMPION, 
 a genus of the pentagynia order, belonging to 
 the decandria class of plants ; and in the natural 
 method ranking under the twenty-second order, 
 caryophyllei. The characters are: CALYX, a 
 single leaved perianthium, leathery, tubular, 
 quinquedentated, and persistent : COR. five un- 
 gulated petals : STAM. ten subulated filaments ; 
 the anthers simple : FIST, has an egg-shaped 
 germen; the styli are five, filiform, erect, and 
 the length of the stamina; the stigmata are 
 simple : the pericarpium is an oblong covered 
 capsule, having two cells and five valves : the 
 
 plied to an alarming degree ; and which, it is 
 said, have no greater enemies than cats. See 
 Sonnini's Travels in Greece and Turkey. 
 
 AGROUND' a. On ground. 
 And headlong downe the master falles, and thrice 
 
 the keele aground, 
 
 The water whirld, and at the last the wilde sea 
 swallow'd round. 
 
 Virgil's Mneitos, b. 1. By Thos. Phaer. 
 With our great ships, we durst not approach the 
 coast ; we having been all of us aground. 
 
 Sir W. Raleigh's Essays. 
 
 Say what you seek, and whither were you bound, 
 Were you by stress of weather cast aground? 
 
 Drydens Mneid. 
 The bear, presuming in his skill, 
 Is here and there officious still, 
 Till, striking on the dangerous sands ; 
 Aground, the shattered vessel stands. 
 
 Gay. Fable 5. 
 
 A-GROUND, in maritime affairs, the situation 
 a ship whose bottom, or any part of it, rests 
 on the ground. 
 AGRYLA, in ancient geography, a city of 
 
 seeds are numerous and kidney-shaped ; the re- of a ship whose bottom, or any part of it, rests 
 
 ceptacula are as many as the seeds, the interior upon the ground. 
 
 ones gradually longer. The most remarkable AGRYLA, in " * T> 
 
 species are: 1. The Agrostema coronaria, or Sardinia, founded, according to Stephen Byz, by 
 
 single-rose campion. 2. The agrostema githago, a colony from Athens. 
 
 hairy wild lychnis, or common campion, which AGRYPNIA, aypvTrvia, Gr. among physi- 
 
 Britain. And 3. The agrostema jovis, or um- torn of nervous and febrile diseases. It is other- 
 
 belliferous mountain campion, which grows na- wise called, vigilse, pervigilium, &c. In the 
 
 turally upon the Helvetian mountains. Greek church, it is used for the vigil of any of 
 
 AGROSTIS, BENT-GRASS, in botany, a genus the greater feast days, observed by the monks 
 
 of the triandria order, belonging to the digynia and clergy, 
 class of plants ; and in the natural method, ranking 
 under the fourth order, gramina. The characters 
 are : CAL. a one-flowered, two-valved, pointed 
 gluma, rather less than the corollas COR. two- 
 
 AGUACAGUA, a town of Guiana, of South 
 America, situated on the Caroni, which enters 
 the Orinoco. Long. 62. 42'. W. lat. 8. 22'. N. 
 AGUACATAL, a town of South America, in 
 valved, and pointed. STAM. three capillary the province of Antioouia, on the river Cauca. 
 
 AGUACATENANGO, a town of South Ame- 
 rica, in the kingdom of Guatemala. Long. 91. 
 57". W. Lat. 16. 18'. N. 
 
 AGUADA, a town of Porto-Rico, situated in 
 a bay and on a river of its name. Long. 67. 6 . 
 W. Lat. 18. 25'. N. 
 
 AGUADA', a river of Brazil, in the province 
 of Rio Grande, which enters the sea close to 
 Cape San Roque. 
 
 AGUADA, a point of the province ofCarthagena, 
 
 tion of grasses. John Schenchzer composed a which forms the mouth of the gulf of Darien, 
 learned and laborious work under this title, con- South America, 
 taining an exact description of about 400 differ- 
 ent species of grass, and yet the subject is still 
 
 filaments, which are larger than the corolla. The 
 antherae are forked. PIST. a roundish germen ; 
 the styli are two, reflected and villous ; the 
 stigmata hisped longitudinally. The pericarpium 
 is the corolla growing to the seed, not gaping. 
 The seed is one, globular, and pointed at both 
 ends. There are fifteen species ; eight of them 
 natives of Britain. 
 
 AGROSTOGRAPHIA, from aypuxru;, grass, 
 and ypa^rj, description, the history or descrip- 
 
 See GRASS. 
 
 AGUADA, CAPE, a cape on the western coast 
 of East Florida, in the gulf of Mexico. Long. 
 82. 15'. W. Lat. 26. 22'. N
 
 AGU 
 
 357 
 
 AGU 
 
 AGUADILLA, a river of South America, in 
 the province of Terra Firma, which enters 
 Chagre near its estuary. 
 
 AGUAGUIN, in botany, the name of a shrub 
 among the Africans, who regard it as a balsamic 
 and anti-vulnerary. The leaves of this shrub re- 
 semble those of our common lilac ; they grow 
 alternately, and stand upon foot-stalks of half an 
 inch long ; and when held up to the light, shew a 
 fine texture of the smaller veins. Philosophical 
 Transac. N*. 232. 
 
 AGUAPECACA, in ornithology, the name of 
 a Brazilian bird of the moor-hen species. It is 
 of the size of a pigeon, very long-legged, and has 
 a beak like that of the gallinaceous kind. Its 
 back and the upper part of its wings are brown, 
 and in each wing is a sharp horn, or prickle, 
 serving for defence. 
 
 AGUARA-PONDA, in botany, a plant other- 
 wise called viola spicata Brasiliana. It grows 
 to the height of a foot and a half, or more, with 
 a smooth, round, green, and jointed stalk : the 
 top of the stalk bearing an ear a foot long, 
 smooth, and covered with flowers of a fine violet 
 azure, or the colour of our viola martia, consist- 
 ing of five roundish leaves. At each joint come 
 forth four, five, or more, narrow, serrated, 
 pointed, green, and unequal leaves. The whole 
 flower is not unlike the viola martia, and has 
 somewhat of its smell. The root is straight, of 
 a moderate thickness, and shoots out into abun- 
 dance of lesser ones, and these again into fila- 
 ments. There is another kind, distinguished by 
 the wideness of its ear of flowers, which repre- 
 sents a helmet of a green colour. It is marked 
 with cubic pits, from whence proceed azure 
 flowers. 
 
 AGUARA-QUIVA, in botany, a Brazilian 
 plant, thought, by Ray, to be the solanum vul- 
 gare, or common night-shade. 
 
 AGUARICO, a river in the province of Mai- 
 nas, South America, which descends from the 
 grand Cord : llera of the Andes, near the town of 
 San Miguel de Ibarra, washes the territory of the 
 Sucumbios Indians, and enters the Napo, in lat. 
 1. 23'. S. Its sands contain much gold. 
 
 AGUAS BELLAS, a town of Portugal, in 
 Estremadura, with a district of two parishes. 
 It is in the circle of Thomar. Also, a river of 
 South America, which enters the Parana from 
 the W. 
 
 AGUAS CALIENTES, a city of New Spain, South 
 America, in the kingdom of New Gallicia. It 
 contains three convents, and about 500 Spanish 
 families, besides mulattoes, and those of a mixed 
 breed. The natural curiosities belonging to this 
 place are two warm springs, about ten yards 
 apart, each affording an abundant supply of 
 water, which is impregnated with copper, and is 
 more than thirty-three degrees above blood heat. 
 It is 140 leagues N. N. W. of Mexico, and 
 thirty-five of Guadalaxara. Long. 101. 51 . 
 30". W. ; lat. 22. 2'. N. Also a settlement on the 
 coast of Venezuela. 
 
 A^GUE, v. & n. ^ Gothic, agis, terror ; an 
 
 A'GUED, > intermitting fever, in which 
 
 A'GUISH. 3 cold fits are succeeded by 
 
 hot ; the cold fit is the ague, the hot the fever. 
 
 For I will bring vpon you fearfulnesse, swellyng 
 of body, and the burnynge agew, to consume youre 
 eyes and gendre sorrow of hert. 
 
 Bible, 1539, Leuit. xxvi. 
 
 This Alastor hath left nothing unsearched or nn- 
 assailed by his impudent and licentious lying in his 
 aguith writings, for he was in his cold quaking fit all 
 the while. Ben Joruon' Discoveries. 
 
 All hurt behind, backs red, and faces pale, 
 With night and agued fear ! 
 
 Shakipeare't Coriolanus. 
 Our castle's strength 
 
 Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie, 
 Till famine and the ague eat them up. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 Though 
 
 He feels the heats of youth, and colds of age, 
 Yet neither tempers nor corrects the other ; 
 As if there were an ague in his nature, 
 That still inclines to one extreme. Den. Sophy. 
 AGUE, in medicine, a disorder belonging 
 strictly to the class of fevers, and consisting of 
 paroxysms recurring at stated periods, with lon- 
 ger or shorter intervals of apyrexia. It is in- 
 cluded in the febres intermittentes of nosological 
 writers. But with personal recollections of its 
 cold embrace, we shall subjoin a popular descrip- 
 tion of it ; and a few of the best remedies. 
 
 An ague paroxysm is divided into the cold, 
 the hot, and the sweating stages. The cold stage 
 is marked by yawning, lassitude, coldness of the 
 surface of the body, shaking or trembling of the 
 limbs, paleness of the countenance, and con- 
 striction of the skin ; more or less nausea, and 
 sometimes vomiting, a weak and small pulse, 
 and not unfrequently a considerable degree of 
 stupor ; together with an irresistible shaking of 
 the teeth and jaws. We have sat shivering with 
 this disorder before a large fire, in the height of 
 summer. To this succeeds the hot stage, in 
 which there is a preternatural degree of warmth 
 over the whole body, accompanied by a redness 
 and turgescence, together with a strong and full 
 pulse, great irritation, and often some degree of 
 delirium. These symptoms are followed by the 
 sweating-stage, in which there is a profuse ex- 
 halation from the pores of the skin, with a flow 
 of urine, depositing a copious sediment, of a 
 lateritious or brick-dust appearance. By these 
 evacuations of sweat and urine, the febrile 
 symptoms are carried off, and the patient gene- 
 nerally falls into a refreshing sleep, from which 
 he awakes without any remains of indisposition, 
 except a slight degree of languor and debility. 
 He then continues capable of sitting up and 
 going about, with tolerable appetite and spirits, 
 until the next return of the paroxysm. Accord- 
 ing to the length of the apyrexia, or intermission 
 between one febrile paroxysm and another, agues 
 are denominated quotidians, tertians, or quar- 
 tans; which see under their respective titles. 
 Sydenham distinguished them, from the season 
 of the year in which they appeared, into vernal 
 and autumnal agues ; the former of which are 
 always more easily cured than the latter. By 
 others they have been distinguished into simple 
 and complicated, regular and irregular, mild and 
 malignant, &c. Of all agues or intermittents, 
 the quartans are the most obstinate, being gene- 
 rally accompanied with more or less of visceral
 
 AGU 
 
 358 
 
 AGU 
 
 obstruction. Hence they are apt to terminate 
 in dropsy, and thus sometimes prove fatal. In 
 general, however, it may be said of agues, that 
 they are rather obstinate than dangerous dis- 
 orders. 
 
 They occur chiefly in low situations, where 
 there are shallow stagnant waters. Hence their 
 frequency in Holland and Flanders, and in the 
 flat marshy parts of some counties in England, 
 such as Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Kent, &c. 
 For the same reason they are very common in 
 America, the East and West Indies, &c. Within 
 our personal knowledge,the drainage and improve- 
 ment ot a district of this description, has almost 
 banished the complaint. The exhalations which 
 arise from stagnant muddy waters (marsh mias- 
 mata, as they are teimed) in these situations, are 
 considered as the exciting cause of agues. 
 Hence the prophylactic measures are obvious ; 
 viz. to avoid or remove from such situations. 
 Where this cannot be done, the body should be 
 protected from damp by proper woollen cloth- 
 ing ; fatigue, and sudden alternations of heat and 
 cold should be avoided, and the whole system 
 be fortified by proper exercise and a somewhat 
 generous diet. 
 
 Agues are cured by medicines which, at the 
 same time that they exert a tonic action, pro- 
 duce and keep up an impression upon the sys- 
 tem, greater than that communicated by the 
 causes which occasioned the disease. Such 
 medicines are the Peruvian bark, various bitter 
 and astringent drugs (given alone or in combi- 
 nation with opiates and aromatics,) certain me- 
 tallic salts, such as vitriolated iron, vitriolated 
 copper, vitriolated zinc, &c. See Lind on 
 Diseasei of Hot Climates, Appendix, p. 308, 
 et seq. But as these medicines are only em- 
 ployed during the intermissions, it will be pro- 
 per first to mention what should be done during 
 the fits. 
 
 It will be sufficient in the cold stage, to cover 
 the patient with bed-clothes, and to give some 
 warm tea with a tea-spoonful of hartshorn drops ; 
 or some weak warm wine and water, with the 
 same quantity of hartshorn. In the hot stage, an 
 antimonial, joined with saline medicines and 
 opiates, will be proper, in order to bring on a 
 perspiration, whereby the fit is carried off. The 
 opiate, in conformity with Dr. Lind's directions, 
 should be given in a full dose ; viz. fifteen or 
 twenty drops of laudanum in some lightly 
 aromatic draught, or in case of costiveness, in 
 an ounce or two of aloetic wine. The sweating 
 stage will thus be accelerated ; and as soon as it 
 is over, the Peruvian bark should be freely ad- 
 ministered, in doses of one or two drachms, 
 every two hours. In some instances, however, 
 it may be previously necessary to cleanse the 
 stomach by an emetic, and the bowels by a gen- 
 tle cathartic. The bark is then to be continued 
 throughout the whole intervals of apyrexia, un- 
 the next accession of the paroxysm. This 
 method is to be persisted in until the disorder is 
 removed; and even for some time after, in order 
 to prevent a relapse. The bark may be given 
 in various vehicles, in combination with aromatics 
 and other additions, according to circumstances. 
 
 For examples of which see Thesaur. Med. or 
 New Collection of Medical Prescriptions, third 
 edition, under the class of tonics. 
 
 If the Peruvian bark disagree with, or is re- 
 fused by the patient, combinations of other 
 tonics, and bitters may be given; such as pow- 
 ders composed of dried chamomile flowers and 
 myrrh, each a scruple ; prepared kali ten grains, 
 or boluses composed of alum fifteen grains ; nut- 
 meg and extract of gentian, each ten grains. 
 These may be administered every five or six 
 hours during the intermissions. Some agues 
 have been cured by giving a quarter of a grain 
 of the cuprum vitriolatum every three or four 
 hours during the apyrexia ; this, however, is a 
 very rough medicine, and commonly produces 
 too much sickness to be persisted in. Vitriolated 
 zinc has been employed with better success, in 
 doses of three grains every fourth hour. Some 
 practitioners recommend certain preparations of 
 arsenic ; but while so many other powerful and 
 safer remedies present themselves, arsenic (in 
 our opinion) should rarely be resorted to. The 
 best authors who, in this country, have written 
 upon agues, are Sydenham, Morton, Cleghorn, 
 Lind, Fordyce; also Wilson on Febrile Dis- 
 eases. Among foreigners, Torti, Werlhof, 
 Quaria, &c. 
 
 AGUE-CAKE, a name sometimes given to a 
 hard tumor on the left side of the belly, lower 
 than the false ribs, said to be the effect of inter- 
 mitting fever. 
 
 AGUE-DROPS. See ARSENIC. 
 
 AGUE-TREE, sometimes written corruptly, 
 AGUE-PER, is a name given by some to sassafras, 
 on account of its febrifuge virtue. 
 
 AGUEPERSE. See AIGUEPERSE. 
 
 AGU'ERRY, v. Fr. aguerrir, to accustom 
 to the hardships of war ; to discipline troops. 
 
 An army the best aguerried of any troops in Europe 
 that have never seen an enemy. Lyttleton. 
 
 AGUESSEAU, (Henry Francis D'), chan- 
 cellor of France, was born at Limoges in 1668, 
 of an ancient family of Saintonge. Voltaire 
 speaks of him as the most learned magistrate his 
 country ever produced. He received the first 
 rudiments of his education from his father, and 
 his taste for poetry from the society of Boileau, 
 Racine, and other eminent writers, with whom 
 he associated at an early period of life. Having 
 held the office of advocate-general of Paris for 
 ten years, he was appointed procureur-general in 
 1700 ; and in this situation distinguished himself 
 by introducing several excellent jurisprudential 
 regulations. He also directed a particular at- 
 tention to the hospitals, and to the hardships oc- 
 casioned by the scarcity in 1709 ; and was the 
 strenuous defender of the liberties of the Gallican 
 church, in opposition both to Louis XIV. and 
 the chancellor Voisin, who solicited his concur- 
 rence in favour cf the bull Unigenitus. After 
 the death of Voisin, and in the regency of the 
 duke of Orleans, he was made chancellor ; and 
 performed the duties of his office with eminent 
 wisdom and success. In his resistance of the 
 financial project of law, he prevailed for some 
 time ; but when the regent determined to adopt
 
 AGU 3 
 
 it, he was constrained to retire to his country seat 
 at Fresnes ; but was recalled in 1 720. He was 
 again deprived of his office in 1722, recalled by 
 cardinal Fleury in 1727, and re-invested with tne 
 seals in 1737, which he held till his death. 
 From the year 1729 to 1749 he was sedulously 
 employed in reforming the laws, and remedying 
 the notorious abuses that disgraced and ob- 
 structed their administration. But in this exten- 
 sive and laborious employment his progress was 
 slow, and his conflicts with opposing interests 
 so great as to produce great apparent indecision 
 in his judgment. His apology will remind our 
 readers of what, it is possible, might be the lan- 
 guage of a living and most upright English 
 judge : ' When I recollect,' said he, ' that the 
 decree of a chancellor is a law, I think myself 
 permitted to take a long time for consideration.' 
 His life, though assiduously occupied, was pro- 
 longed by his temperance and equanimity ; but 
 in the year 1750 his increasing infirmities ad- 
 monished him of the necessity of withdrawing 
 from public employments; and in 1751, he closed 
 his life at the advanced age of eighty-three 
 years. 
 
 Besides' the languages of antiquity, Aguesseau 
 was acquainted with all the principal modern 
 ones ; and to his knowledge of the history of all 
 ages and nations, he added that of jurisprudence 
 in its most extensive sense. He never sought 
 office ; but always manifested a disposition su- 
 perior to the honours which his talents and merit 
 claimed, and a desire to be useful rather than to 
 aspire after power. Of his frugality, and of the 
 various emoluments annexed to the dignities he 
 possessed, the only fruit that remained was his 
 library, in the improvement of which he limited 
 himself to a certain annual expence. In the 
 period of his retirement, which he called 'the 
 fairest days of his life,' he devoted himself to the 
 maturing of his plan of legislation, to the educa- 
 tion of his children, and to a variety of literary 
 pursuits, among which were mathematics and the 
 belles leitres ; and these, together with agricul- 
 ture, he deemed his recreations in the intervals 
 of his severer occupations. When the public 
 however demanded his services, he surrendered 
 the satisfactions of retirement and the pleasures 
 of domestic life. Having in 1694 married Anne 
 le Febure d'Ormesson, it was said on this occa- 
 sion, that virtue and the graces were now first 
 seen in alliance ; but he had the misfortune to 
 lose her in 1735. His grief corresponded to the 
 affection that subsisted between them; but he 
 hastened to devote himself to the functions of his 
 office ; alleging, ' that his services were due to 
 the public, and it is not just,' said he, ' that it 
 should suffer by my domestic affliction.' It is 
 said that he never passed a day, from his child- 
 hood, without reading some parts of the scrip- 
 tures ; and was heard to say, that this was the 
 balm of his life. Of his works nine volumes 4to. 
 have been published. In these, he is said to 
 have thought like a philosopher, and spoken as 
 an orator. His style is chaste and harmonious, 
 but deficient in warmth. When he once con- 
 sulted his father on a discourse which he had 
 taken pains to compose, and which he wished 
 farther to improve, his father gave his opinion : 
 
 >9 AGU 
 
 ' the fault of your discourse is its being too ele- 
 gant ; it will certainly be less so if you touch it 
 again.' Nouv. Diet. Hist. Biog. Diet. 
 
 AGUGLIA, in ichthyology, the name given 
 by the Italians to the acus ofOppian, called in 
 English the gar-fish. 
 
 AGUJA POINT, part of the land of Terra 
 Firma, which projects farther into the sea, be- 
 tween Santa Marta and Cape Chichibacoa. Also 
 of a low point on the coast of the South Sea, in 
 the province of Piura, Peru. 
 
 AGUIGNAN,,or island of Holy Angels, an 
 island in the South Pacific Ocean, three miles in 
 circuit, and a mile distant from the south- 
 western point of Tinian. It was visited by Ser- 
 vi tores, a Spanish priest, in the year 1669. Lat 
 14. 48'. N. 
 
 AGUILA, a town and river in the province of 
 Habat, in the kingdom of Fez, subject to the 
 emperor of Morocco. 
 
 AGUILA CAPE, a point or cape of one of the 
 Falkland Isles, so named from having been dis- 
 covered by the French frigate the Aguila. 
 
 AGUILA, VILLA GUTTIEREZ DE LA, a town of 
 Mexico, in the intendancy of Guadalaxara, for- 
 merly very considerable, but now much decayed. 
 It is nine leagues E. of Xeres, 
 
 AGUILAR, a town of Spain, in the kingdom 
 of Navarre, 24 miles W. of Estella. 
 
 AGUILAR-DEL-CAMPO, a town of Spain, ii? 
 Old Castile, on the Alhama. 
 
 AGUILER, from aguille, a needle, French, t 
 needle-case. 
 
 AGUILLANEUF, or AUGILLANEUF, a form 
 of rejoicing used among the ancient Franks on 
 the first day of the year. The word is com- 
 pounded of the French a, to, gui, misleto, and 
 I' an neuf, the new year. Its origin is traced from 
 a ceremony of the druids, who used to go early 
 in December, which with them was reputed a 
 sacred month, to gather misleto of the oak in 
 great solemnity. The prophets marched in the 
 front, singing in honour of their deities ; after 
 them came a herald with a caduceus in his 
 hand ; these were followed by three druids a- 
 breast, bearing the things necessary for sacrifice ; 
 last of all came the chief or arch druid, accompa- 
 nied with the train of people. The chief druid climb- 
 ing the oak, cut off the misleto with a golden 
 sickle, and the other druids received it with a white 
 cloth ; on the first day of the year it was distri- 
 buted among the people, after having blessed 
 and consecrated it, by crying, a gui 1' an neuf, 
 to proclaim the new year. This cry was conti- 
 nued in Picardy, with the addition of plantez, 
 plantez, to wish a plentiful year. The name 
 aguillaneuf was also given to a sort of begging 
 for church tapers, practised in some dioceses, on 
 new year's day, by troops of young people of 
 both sexes, having chiefs, &c. It was attended 
 with various ridiculous ceremonies, as dancing in 
 the church, &c. which occasioned the synods to 
 suppress it. 
 
 AGUILLES, or AUGUILLES, cotton cloth, 
 manufactured at Aleppo. 
 
 AGUILLON, or AGUILLONIUS, Francis, a 
 Jesuit, born at Brussels, at the close of the six- 
 teenth century, was rector of the Jesuits college 
 at Antwerp, and eminent for his skill in math*-
 
 AGU 360 AGY 
 
 He was the first who introduced that writings^ be ranked along with those of Solo- 
 science among the Jesuits in the low countries : 
 entitled, ' Opticorum, lib. 
 
 His book on optics, 
 
 vi. Philosophicis juxta ac Mathematicis utiles,' 
 
 mon and Lemuel. 
 
 AGURAH, mUK, Heb. in Jewish antiquity 
 the thirtieth part of a silver shekel. The agurab 
 
 was printed at Antwerp in 1613, fol. and he was is the same with gerah, and keshitah. The sep- 
 
 employed in finishing a treatise on ' Catoptrics tuagint renders it oj3o\oQ. 
 
 and Dioptrics,' at the time of his death, which AGURIUM, or AGYRIUM, in ancient geo- 
 
 happened at Antwerp in 1617, in the 50th year graphy, a town of Sicily, in the Val di Demona, 
 
 of his age. Aguillon is also said to have written near the river Semetus. It was the birth-place 
 
 a treatise on ' Projections of the Sphere.' He 
 
 understood several languages, and his judgment 
 
 was as accurate as his learning was extensive. 
 
 Under severe paroxysms of the asthma, to which 
 
 he was subject, he is reported to have often said : 
 
 ' Let God's will be done I submit to it I am 
 
 willing to form myself absolutely upon the divine 
 
 of Diodorus Siculus, as he himself testifies ; but 
 he calls it Argyrium. It is now called S. Phi- 
 lippo d' Arginone. 
 
 AGUSADURA, in ancient customs, a fee due 
 from vassals to their lord, for sharpening their 
 plowing tackle. Anciently, the tenants in some 
 manors were not allowed to have their rural 
 
 pleasure I have now the torments'which I often implements sharpened by any but whom the lord 
 
 wished for, and desired of God.' 
 
 AGUIR, a small .town of Portugal, in the 
 Provedoria of Beja, in Alentejo, containing about 
 450 inhabitants. 
 
 AGUIRRA, (Joseph Saenz de,) a Benedictine, 
 and one of the most learned men of the seven- 
 teenth century, was born in 1 630. He was censor 
 
 and secretary of the supreme counsel ofthelnqui- professor Tromsdorff has designated a supposed 
 sition in Spain, and interpreter of the scriptures new earth, discovered by him in 1800. It bears 
 in the university of Salamanca. He printed 
 three volumes in folio upon philosophy, a com- 
 mentary on Aristotle's ten books of Ethics, and 
 
 appointed ; for which an acknowledgment was 
 to be paid, called agusadura, which some take 
 to be the same with what was otherwise called 
 reillage; from the ancient French reille, a plough- 
 share. 
 
 AGUSAGE. See last article. 
 
 AGUSTINI, in mineralogy, a term by which 
 
 Annales de 
 
 other pieces. He died at Rome in 1699. 
 
 AGUIRRA, a river of Guiana, South America, 
 which rises about fifty miles north of the great 
 
 a great resemblance to alumina. 
 Chemic. xxxiv. p. 133. 
 
 AGUTI, in zoology, an American animal, 
 much resembling the Guinea pig, having the 
 characters of the rat kind, with the voice and 
 hair of the hog. The hairs are very hard, thick, 
 
 river Orinoco, in the territory of the missions of and glossy, and are of a mixed colour, of a reddish 
 
 the Capuchins, and descending by the mountains 
 of Itamaca, falls into the Orinoco, on the south 
 side, just at its mouth. Its navigation is greatly 
 impeded by the tall trees which line its banks ; 
 so that though formerly accessible to schooners 
 and brigs, it can now hardly be navigated, ex- 
 cept by small shallops. 
 
 AGUIRRE, a river of South America, in Ve- 
 nezuela, which, rising near the city of Niura, 
 runs south, and enters the Sarara. 
 AGUISE', v. See GUISE. 
 As her fantastic wit did most delight, 
 Sometimes her head she fondly would aguise 
 With gaudy garlands, or fresh flowers dight 
 About her neck, or rings of rushes plight. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 Then gan this crafty couple to devise, 
 How for the court they might themselves aguise, 
 
 Spenser's Mother Hubbard's Tale. 
 AGUL, in botany, a synonime of the hedysa- 
 rum. See HEDYSA.RUM. 
 
 AGUR, the son of Jakeh, the author of the 
 thirtieth chapter of the Proverbs, a person of 
 
 and brown, with more or less black ; those on 
 the belly, however, are yellowish ; its head and 
 whiskers are like those of the rabbit kind, but 
 that of the nose is sharper, and the upper ch^p 
 longer than the under one, as in the hog ; the 
 upper lip is split as in the hare, and the legs are 
 naked, or have at the utmost only a few hairs on 
 them; the fore feet have four toes, and the hinder 
 ones six, and these are much longer than the fore 
 legs ; its tail is very short, its eyes prominent, 
 and its voice altogether resembles the grunting 
 of a hog. It is a very voracious animal, devour- 
 ing its food with extreme eagerness, and using 
 its fore feet for hands, in the manner of the squir- 
 rel. It runs very swiftly, and is very expert at 
 digging, so that it soon buries itself in the earth. 
 When provoked, it raises all the hair of its back 
 upright, and strikes the earth with its hinder 
 feet. 
 
 AGUTIGUEPA obi Brasiliensibus, in medi- 
 cine, the arrow-root, or sagittaria alexipharmaca 
 of the West Indies. 
 
 AGUTI TREVA, insulte marignanae, in bo- 
 
 whom neither sacred nor profane history records tany, a plant mentioned by De Laet. It has the 
 
 any thing more than is contained in the first leaves of the orange-tree, only thinner, a dewy 
 
 verse of that chapter. On this account he has " ' - ' 
 
 become the subject of much fruitless conjecture 
 
 flower, a large fruit, with a greenish rind, which 
 contains kernels like those of the pomegranate, 
 
 and idle controversy, among commentators; thin, sweet, and not ill-tasted, 
 some of whom confound him with Solomon, AGYEI, in antiquity, a kind of obelisks con- 
 while others make him altogether an ideal being, ' 
 by telling us, that the word agur signifies a con- 
 gregation. The emphatic and sublime queries 
 in the fourth verse, and the much admired prayer 
 for a moderate competency, equally removed from 
 
 secretated to Apollo, or Bacchus, or both, and 
 placed in the vestibulus of houses, for their se- 
 curity. They were generally huge stones, and 
 sometimes timber, having either a circular or 
 
 ncy, equally removed from square basis, and terminating in a point at the 
 the extremes of poverty and riches, in the eighth top 
 and ninth, sufficiently prove the title of his AGYLLA, Cervateri, in ancient geography,
 
 AGY 
 
 361 
 
 AHA 
 
 a town of Etruria, near the sea, so called by the 
 Pelasgi, who came hither from Thessaly. Strabo 
 says, it was afterwards called Caere, from the 
 Lydians hearing the inhabitants frequently re- 
 peating to them the Greek expression x at P > * e - 
 rejoice. Others, thinking this etymology more 
 fanciful than just, deduce Agylla from gillah, 
 water, as they had fountains in the neighbour- 
 hood ; and Caere, might be formed from cari, or 
 cariah, a town, in the language of the Lydians. 
 Tarquin's family was banished to this town ; and 
 hither the vestals retired, when, in the year 363, 
 the Gauls laid siege to Rome. The laws and 
 police of this city are much commended. It 
 was one of the first cities which became muni- 
 cipal. Tt was known only by its baths in Strabo's 
 time. 
 
 AGYLL/EI, in ancient history, a denomina- 
 tion given to the Pelasgi, in Etruria. Here they 
 preserved, with little alteration, the manners and 
 religion of the ancient inhabitants of Greece ; 
 and furnished considerable fleets. They amassed 
 a treasure at Delphi, by transmitting thither a 
 tenth of their maritime profits ; and by their 
 commerce, acquired a degree of power, which 
 rendered them important allies, or formidable 
 enemies to their neighbours. Herodotus says, 
 that their power was considerable in his time ; 
 and that, in consequence of an oracle, they had 
 instituted funeral sacrifices and annual games, 
 which they then celebrated. These people, who 
 were sometimes called Tyrrhenians, sent succour 
 to the Athenians in the Sicilian war, not long 
 before the ruin of the Veii by the Romans. They 
 formed an alliance with the Romans, which gave 
 them all the advantages belonging to Roman 
 citizens, without the charges attending them ; 
 and they became, under the name of Ca;rites, the 
 third order of the republic. The Caerites bore 
 arms in the Roman army, and were almost always 
 united to the Romans, as Livy, lib. vii. c. xx. 
 informs us ; being considered not merely as allies, 
 but as a part of the nation. At length, deserted 
 by the Roman marine, which found more spa- 
 cious and convenient ports ; and losing its com- 
 merce, Caere declined, and the inhabitants, who 
 were Romans, were indiscriminately blended 
 with the other citizens. 
 
 AGYNEIA, formed of a, priv. and yvvn, a 
 wife, in botany, a genus of the monoecia mona- 
 delphia class and order, according to Martyn ; 
 but in Gmelin's Linnaeus, of the triandria mono- 
 gynia, of the natural order of tricoccae, and the 
 euphorbiae of Jussieu. Its generic characters 
 are, that the male flowers are below the female ; 
 CAL. six-leaved : the leaflets oblong, obtuse, 
 equal, and permanent ; no corolla ; in the male, 
 instead of filaments, a column shorter than the 
 calyx ; three or four antherae, oblong, growing to 
 the column below the top ; in the female flowers, 
 the germ of the size of the calyx, sub-ovate, 
 obtuse, perforated at top with a six notched hole ; 
 neither style nor stigma ; the pericarpium sup- 
 posed to be a tricoccous capsule. There are two 
 species, viz. 1. A. impubes, with leaves smooth 
 on both sides. 2. A. pubera, with leaves downy 
 underneath ; both are natives of China. 
 
 AGYNIANI, AGYNII, or AGYNNENSES, from 
 a, negative, and yvvij, a woman, in church his- 
 
 tory, a sect who condemned the use of flesh, and 
 marriage, as not instituted by God, but intro- 
 duced at the instigation of the devil. They are 
 said to have appeared about the year 694. 
 
 AGYRINENSES, or AGYRINI, the inhabi- 
 tants of Agurium. 
 
 AGYRIUM. See AGURIUM. 
 AGYRT^E, aywproi, Gr. in antiquity, a kind 
 of strolling impostors who, like our gypsies, 
 wandered about the country, telling fortunes at 
 rich men's doors, pretending to cure diseases by 
 charms, sacrifices, and other religious mysteries ; 
 and to expiate the crimes of their deceased an- 
 cestors by the virtue of certain odours and fumi- 
 gations; to torment their enemies by the use of 
 magical verses, &c. See .&RUSCATORES. 
 
 AH, interj. This may be denominated a word 
 in the vocabulary of nature, common at least to 
 several languages, and expressing sometimes 
 dislike and censure, contempt and exultation, 
 compassion and complaint. 
 
 A hi sinful nation, a people laden with iaiquity, a 
 seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters, they 
 have forsaken the Lord. Isaiah, i. 4. 
 
 Let them not say in their hearts, Ah! so we would 
 have it : let them not say, we have swallowed him 
 up. Psalm xxxv. 25. 
 
 Ah me ! the blooming pride of May, 
 And that of heauty, are but one : 
 At morn both flourish bright and gay, 
 Both fade at evening, pale and gone. Prior. 
 In youth alone, unhappy mortals live, 
 But ah ! the mighty bliss is fugitive : 
 Discolour'd sickness, anxious labour come, 
 And age and death's inexorable doom. 
 
 Dry den. Virg. Gear. 
 In goodness, as in greatness, they excel, 
 Ah! that we lov'd ourselves but half so well. 
 
 Dryden. Juv. 
 
 Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep, 
 And to the murmurs of these waters sleep ; 
 Whoe'er thou art, ah ! gently tread the cave, 
 Ah ! bathe in silence, or in silence lave. 
 Pope's Translation of a Latin Inscription on an an- 
 cient Statue placed near a stream of water. 
 
 AHA, or AHU, in zoology, a name given by 
 the Persians to the cervus pygargus of the Lin- 
 naean system, or the tail-less roe of Pennant. 
 It inhabits the lofty mountains of Hyrcania, 
 Russia, and Siberia, beyond the Volga ; and at 
 the approach of winter descends into the plains 
 and becomes hoary : it is called by the Russians 
 dikeja roza, and by the Tartars saiga. It resem- 
 bles the roe, but is much larger, being of the 
 same deep red colour, with a large bed of white 
 on the rump and btittocks, extending up the 
 back: the fur is thick, in spring rough and 
 erect, on the limbs and belly yellowish; the 
 sides of the under lip and the space about the 
 nose are black; but the point of the lip is 
 white ; the hairs of the eye-lids and round the 
 orbits are long and black ; the horns are very 
 rugged at the bases, and full of knobs : the ears 
 are covered on the inside with a very thick white 
 fur. 
 
 AHAB, DSHK, Heb. i. e. the brother's father, 
 the son of Omri, king of Israel, succeeded his 
 father, A. M. 3086. Of this monarch, it is difli- 
 cult to determine, whether his wickedness and 
 impiety, in establishing idolatry, and persecuting
 
 AHA 
 
 362 
 
 AHA 
 
 the true prophets of the Almighty, notwith- 
 standing repeated warnings and extraordinary 
 visitations both of judgment and mercy from 
 heaven, or his weakness and folly, in being thus 
 led to his destruction by the advices of a beautiful 
 but abandoned woman, were greatest. His mar- 
 riage with Jezebel, his multiplied idolatries; 
 the repeated warnings of Elijah and other pro- 
 phets ; the extraordinary famine of three years' 
 continuance; the still more extraordinary cir- 
 cumstances attending the restoration of fertility 
 and plenty ; his discontent at Naboth's refusing 
 to sell his patrimonial vineyard ; his wicked 
 queen's iniquitous murder of that honest Israelite, 
 under colour and form of law; his seizure of the 
 forfeited vineyard, with the dreadful judgments 
 denounced against the whole royal family in 
 consequence; and the complete execution of the 
 threatened vengeance by the extirpation of the 
 whole race, are recorded in the I and II books 
 of Kings, and II Chronicles, and are well known 
 to every reader of the scriptures. Ahab was 
 slain at Ramoth Gilead, A. M. 3117, in the 
 thirty-first year of his reign, and A. A. C. 887. 
 
 AHAB, the son of Kolaiah, a false prophet, 
 who, along with another, named Zedekiah, se- 
 duced the Jewish captives at Babylon, with de- 
 ceitful hopes of a speedy deliverance, and thus 
 excited their enmity against Jeremiah. But 
 their pretences to inspiration were severely 
 punished, for Nebuchadnezzar gave them the 
 death he intended for Shadrach, Meshach, and 
 Abednego, or rather a more cruel one, for it is 
 said. Jer. xxix. 22. that he roasted them in the 
 fire. 
 
 AH.&TULA, the trivial name of a species of 
 the coluber. See COLUBER. 
 
 AHALOTH, in the materia medica, a Hebrew 
 name used by some writers for the lignum aloes, 
 or aloes wood. 
 
 AHANIGER, in ichthyology, a name given 
 by Albertus, and others, to the fish acus vulgaris, 
 or gar fish. The shape of this fish, which is very 
 long and slender, has caused it to be confounded 
 with the syngnathus, or tobacco-pipe fish, called 
 also acus ; but they differ extremely when ex- 
 amined ; that being a true species of the syngna- 
 thus, and this of the esox or pipe. 
 
 AHANTA, a kingdom on the Gold Coast of 
 Africa, extending from the Ancobra to the Cha- 
 mah ; bounded on the west by Appollonia, and 
 on the east by the Fantee territories. It is the 
 richest, and in every respect the most improved 
 district upon this coast. The sugar cane in par- 
 ticular grows to a great size. It produces also 
 many kinds of excellent timber, one of which is 
 little inferior to mahogany. The country con- 
 tains mines of gold, but these are placed under 
 Fetiche, from the idea that the working of them 
 would corrupt their industrious habits. It is 
 procured, however, of fine quality, from the in- 
 land countries of Warsaw and Dinkara. The 
 coast contains many convenient creeks and har- 
 bours. The people are on the whole well dis- 
 posed, and treat Europeans with respect, when 
 their behaviour merits it. The government is a 
 monarchy, but under very strict limitations. The 
 principal towns are Axim, Dixcove, and Suc- 
 condre. 
 
 AHASUERUS, in scripture history, king of 
 Persia, the husband of queen Esther, to whom 
 the Jews were indebted for a singular deliver- 
 ance from extirpation, which they commemorate 
 to this day, by an annual feast, i. e. that of 
 PURIM, preceded by what is called the fast of 
 Esther. Scaliger supposes Xerxes to be the 
 Persian monarch intended by the sacred histo- 
 rian, who had a queen named Harrestris, of which 
 he regards Esther as a corruption. Nor do we 
 know that the fact which Herodotus supplies, of 
 Xerxes having a son by Harrestris in the seventh 
 year of his reign, is, in itself, any proof to the 
 contrary. According to Prideaux, Conn. v. i. 
 p. 361, &c. the Ahasuerus of Scripture was Ar- 
 taxerxes Longimanus; the LXX. constantly 
 using the word Artaxerxes, as he alleges, for that 
 monarch's name, as do the apocryphal additions 
 to the book of Esther. And Josephus asserts, that 
 Artaxerxes Longimanus was the protector of his 
 nation on this occasion. But archbishop Usher 
 and F. Calmet contend, principally from the 
 chronology of the period, that this Ahasuerus 
 was Darius Hystaspes : and we incline to this 
 opinion, as on the whole the most probable. 
 Only when these learned writers suppose that 
 Atossa was the Vashti of scripture, they seem to 
 forget, that the princess of the former name is 
 said to have retained her influence over Darius 
 until his death, to have outlived him, and to 
 have obtained the succession to the crown, for her 
 son Xerxes ; whereas Vashti was finally removed 
 from the king's presence according to Esther, 
 i. 19. and resigned her station to Esther. It has 
 been well remarked, that the successive missions 
 of Ezra and Nehemiah into Judea to relieve their 
 countrymen and restore their ancient prosperity, 
 is strong presumptive proof that they possessed 
 a friend at the Persian court, and that kind of 
 influence ascribed to Esther. See archbishop 
 Usher's Annot. Vet. Test. Ann. Jul. per. 4193. 
 Josephus, Art. lib. xi. chap. 6, &c. 
 
 AHASUERUS, is also a scripture name for 
 Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, Ezra, iv. 6. ; and 
 for Astyages, king of the Medes, Dan. ix. \. 
 
 AHA V AH, a river in Assyria, on the banks 
 of which Ezra, with his countrymen, observed 
 a solemn fast, for direction in their return to 
 Jerusalem. Ezra viii. 15 21. 
 
 AHAZ, f^K, Heb. i; e. possessing, the son of 
 Jotham, king of Judah, succeeded his father, 
 A. M. 3265, and during his short reign of sixteen 
 years, proved to be one of the worst princes that 
 had reigned in that state, from the first conversion 
 of the commonwealth into a monarchy. The 
 various judgments that followed his establish- 
 ing idolatry, and abolishing the true religion; 
 the repeated invasions of his kingdom by Pekah, 
 king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria; the 
 dreadful slaughter of 120,000 of his men in one 
 day, the capture of 200,000 men, women and 
 children, by these tyrants ; with their restoration 
 at the request of the prophet Oded ; the ravages 
 committed by the Edomites and Philistines ; his 
 bribing Tiglath-pileser with the gold of the tem- 
 ple to assist him against them, the consequent 
 death of Rezin, and the destruction of his king- 
 dom, with the other particulars of his unfortu- 
 nate and infatuated reign, and his d*>aih, A. M.
 
 AHI 
 
 363 
 
 AHI 
 
 3278, and A. A. C. 726, are recorded in 2 Kings 
 xv. and xvi. 2 Chron. xxvii. and Isaiah vii. 
 
 AHAZIAH, n^fiK, Heb. i. e. the vision of the 
 Lord, king of Israel, the son of Ahab and Jeze- 
 bel, a foolish and wicked monarch, worthy of 
 such parents. His imitation of their idolatrous 
 example ; his attempt to trade with Ophir, de- 
 feated by the destruction of his fleet ; his mortal 
 bruise by a fall from his balcony ; his folly in send- 
 ing to consult the oracle of Baalzebub ; the severe 
 reprimand and, vengeance denounced by Elijah ; 
 his repeated messages to that prophet, with the 
 destruction of two companies of his messengers, 
 and his own death, in the second year of his 
 reign, A. M. 3108, are narrated in 1 Kings xxii. 
 2 Kings i. and ii. Chron. xx. 
 
 AHAZIAH, king of Judah, the so* and suc- 
 cessor of Jehoram, by Athaliah the daughter of 
 Ahab, came to the crown, A. M. 3119, and 
 reigned only one year. During this short period, 
 however, he gave sufficient evidence of his being 
 more inclined to follow the bad example of his 
 mother, and her idolatrous and bloody house, 
 than the good one set by his paternal grand- 
 father Jehoshaphat ; but he was stopt in his 
 career, and mortally wounded by Jehu, king of 
 Israel, the avenger of the blood of Naboth. 
 
 AHEAD' On head. See HEAD. In ad- 
 vance ; used chiefly of vessels on the water. 
 
 And now the mighty Centaur seems to lead ; 
 And now the speedy Dolphin gets ahead. 
 
 Dryden's JEneid. 
 
 It is mightily the fault of parents, guardians, tutors, 
 and governours, that so many men miscarry. They 
 suffer them at first, to run ahead ; and, when perverse 
 inclinations are advanced into habits, there is no 
 dealing with them. L' Estrange' s Fables. 
 
 A calm ensues ; adjacent shores they dread, 
 The boats, with rowers mann'd, are sent ahead ; 
 With cordage fastened to the lofty prow, 
 Aloof to sea the stately ship they t/w. 
 
 Dryden> 
 
 AHEAD, in sea language, signifies not only 
 farther onward than the ship, but at any dis- 
 tance before her, lying immediately on that 
 r>oint of the compass to which her stern is di- 
 iccted. It is used in opposition to astern, which 
 expresses the situation of any object behind the 
 ship. See ASTERN. 
 
 AHIAH, the son of Ahitub, and great grand- 
 son of Eli, the high priest of Israel under kiug 
 Saul. 
 
 AHIAH, the son of Sisha, and his brother Eli- 
 horeph, were chief scribes, or secretaries of state, 
 under king Solomon. 
 
 AHICCYATLI, in zoology, the name of an 
 American serpent, approaching to the nature of 
 the haemorrhus and rattle-snake, but larger than 
 the former, and wanting the rattle of the latter. 
 It is as fatal in the effects of its poison as any 
 known species of serpent. 
 
 AHIEZER, nfynK, i. e. a brother's help, a 
 prince of the tribe of Dan, who was selected to 
 assist Moses in numbering the Israelites. 
 
 AHIGHi, ) On high. See HIGH. 
 
 AHEIGHT'. $ 
 
 And so some mounted vpon the walles, and 
 
 threwe themselfe from ahygte, downe to the groundc, 
 the more parte of whom dyed. 
 
 Nicoll't Thucydides, fol. 47. c. 2. 
 
 But have I fallen or no, 
 
 From the dread summit of this chalky bourne ? 
 Look up aheight ! the shrill-gorg'd lark so far, 
 Cannot be seen or heard. King Lear. 
 
 AHI JAH, an inhabitant of Shiloh, and an in- 
 spired prophet of Israel, who tore Jeroboam's 
 new garment in twelve pieces, and gave him 
 ten of them, as an emblem that the ten tribes, 
 over which he foretold that Jeroboam should 
 reign, would be rent from the house of David. 
 He also foretold the death of Jeroboam's son, 
 and wrote a history of the reign of Solomon, 
 which is lost. He flourished about the year 3046. 
 
 AHIKAM, the son of Shaphan, and father 
 of Gedaliah, the vice-roy of Jerusalem, under 
 Nebuchadnezzar, a prince of Judah, who was 
 one of those employed by king Josiah to con- 
 sult Huldah the prophetess, and who, in the 
 reign of his son Jehoiakim, protected and pre- 
 served the prophet Jeremiah. 
 
 AHIMAAZ, the son and successor of Zadok 
 the high priest, a zealous friend of David in his 
 adversity. His exertions along with Jonathan 
 in favour of the old monarch, during the un- 
 natural rebellion of his son ; the imminent risk 
 they both ran at Bahurim, from Absalom's party ; 
 with his anxious zeal to bring the earliest in- 
 telligence to David of the victory, are recorded 
 in 2 Sam. xv. xvii. and xviii. 
 
 AHIMELECH, jSnTIK, i. e. a king's bro- 
 ther, the son of Ahitub, great grandson of Eli, 
 and brother and successor of Ahia, high priest 
 of Israel under Saul. His kindness to David, 
 in giving him and his followers the shew-bread 
 to eat, when he had no other, and the bar- 
 barous massacre, that followed, of him and 
 eighty-four priests, by Doeg the Edomite, Saul's 
 bloody informer, with the total extirpation of 
 the whole inhabitants of his city Nob, not ex- 
 cepting the women, the children, or even the 
 cattle, are mentioned in 1 Sam. xxi. and xxii. 
 These bloody transactions, which happened 
 about A. M. 2944, place the character of Saul 
 in a worse point of view, than almost any other 
 event of his whole unfortunate reisn. 
 
 AHIMELECH, the son of Abiathar, oy Saul's 
 appointment, succeeded his name sake and pre- 
 decessor as high priest, and acted as sagan, or 
 second priest, in the end of David's reign. 
 
 AHINOAM, the daughter of Ahimaaz, and 
 wife of king Saul. 
 
 AHINOAM of Jezreel, one of king David's 
 wives. 
 
 AHITOPHEL, VSTPHN, Heb. i. e. a brother 
 forsaken, a native of Giloh, one of king David'-s 
 counsellors, and highly esteemed for his politi- 
 cal sagacity. He was undoubtedly the Machia- 
 vel of his age, both for wisdom and wickedness, 
 His advice to Absalom, who followed the wicked 
 part of it, but left the wise part unaccomplished, 
 together with the deserved tragical end of this 
 disappointed politician, who is the first suicide 
 recorded in history, are well known. 
 
 AHITUB, the son of Pnineas, succeeded his 
 grandfather Eli, as high priest of Israel. 
 
 AII1US. See SALT-STONE.
 
 AHM 
 
 304 
 
 AHN 
 
 AHLAB, a city of Canaan, from which the 
 original inhabitants were not expelled by the 
 Israelites ; Judges i. 31. 
 
 AHLDEN, ALEN, or AHLEN, a town and 
 nailiwick of Hanover, principality of Lune- 
 burr, situated on an arm of the river Leine, not 
 far from the Aller. Long. 9. 40'. E, Lat. 52. 
 49'. N. 
 
 AHLEN, ALEN, or AALEN, in Suabia, once a 
 free imperial town ; but since 1802, the head of 
 an upper bailiwick, in the kingdom of Wirtem- 
 berg, district of Ellwangen. It is seated on the 
 Kocher, and not far from the town of Gemund : 
 forty miles north-west of Augsburg. It contains 
 1930 inhabitants, 
 
 AHLWARDT, (P.) professor of logic and 
 metaphysics at Griefswalde, was born in that 
 place, Feb. 1716, and became a student of theo- 
 logy in 1727 ; but applied chiefly to mathematics 
 and philosophy. In three years he removed to 
 the university of Jena ; and in 1732, returned to 
 Griefswalde, where he read a course of lectures 
 on his favourite studies. In 1743, he became 
 an adjunct of the philosophical faculty, and nine 
 years after was chosen professor ; he also 
 preached often with great approbation. Ahlwardt 
 largely contributed to the critical researches of 
 the society at Griefswalde, of which he was a 
 member, and founded the order of the Abelites. 
 His principal works are, Considerations on the 
 Confession of Augsburgh ; Thoughts on the 
 Powers of the Human Understanding ; An In- 
 troduction to Philosophy ; A Treatise on the Im- 
 mortality of the Soul ; and Brontotheologia, or 
 Thoughts on Thunder and Lightning. He is 
 said, never to have corrected what he had once 
 written. He died March 1, 1791. 
 
 AHMED (KHAN,) emperor of the Moguls in 
 1282, was of the race of Jenghis or Zingis, the son 
 of Hulaku, and brother of Abaka khan, whom 
 he succeeded. He assumed the name Ahmed, 
 on his embracing Mahommedanism ; and offered, 
 on this occasion, protection to all Mussulmans. 
 This change of religion offended the princes of 
 his family to such a degree, that he could never 
 regain their affection. His nephew Argun raised 
 an army against him, but he was soon defeated 
 and taken prisoner. He was afterwards released 
 by some conspirators, and having killed the 
 emperor's principal officers, he pursued and 
 overtook him ; and delivered him up to his 
 mother-in-law, who, in revenge for the loss of her 
 own sons whom Ahmed had caused to be slain, 
 put him to death, after a reign of two years 
 and two months, A. D. 1284. Mod. Un. Hist. 
 vol. iv. 
 
 AHMEDABAD, the capital of the province of 
 Gujerat in Hindostan : was founded by sultan 
 Ahmed in the year 1409. It stands in long. 
 72. 37*. E. and 23". N. lat. on the banks of the 
 river Sabermaty, which falls into the gulph of 
 Cambay, near to the city of that name : was for- 
 merly famous for its manufacture of chintz, 
 brocade, velvet, arms of various kinds, &c. ; 
 and is one of the best fortified cities in Hindostan. 
 The walls are of brick and stone, flanked at cer- 
 tain distances with large round towers and battle- 
 ments. It has twelve gates, and, including the 
 suburbs, is about four miles and a half in length. 
 
 On the west is the castle, walled with free-stone, 
 and almost a spacious city of itself. The caravan- 
 sary is south of the King's square, which is 700 
 paces long and 400 broad. 
 
 Ahmedabad was taken by the English in the 
 year 1780. On the conclusion of the peace in 
 1783, it was restored to its former possessors, the 
 Poonah Mahrattas, under whom it still continues. 
 AHMEDNUGGAR, a city of Hindostan, iu 
 the province of Aurungabad, a modern division 
 of the Decan. It belongs to the Paishwa, a de- 
 pendent of the British empire, and was founded 
 by Ahmed Nizam Shah, in 1493. Before the 
 close of the century, this chieftain established 
 an independent empire, which he called after 
 the name of this city, and which continued in 
 the dynasty of the founder until 1600, when the 
 last prince of his race was seized, while an in- 
 fant, by the Moguls, and the whole of his 
 dominions in a few years became a province of 
 the Mogul empire. On the death of Aureng- 
 zebe, it partook of the precarious fate of all the 
 neighbouring provinces ; but finally fell into the 
 hands of the Mahratta Paishwa, from whom it 
 was wrested by Dowlet Row Scindia, in 1797. 
 The former prince having placed himself en- 
 tirely under British protection, in 1801, the 
 army of Fort St. George, headed by our im- 
 mortal Wellington, then General Wellesley, ad- 
 vanced upon Poonah, to re-instate him in his 
 sovereignty. The British were at this time at 
 war with Holkar and Scindiah, and one of the 
 first operations of the campaign of 1803 was 
 the reduction of the fortress of Ahmednuggar, 
 which led to the victories of Assaye and Arga- 
 um, in the former of which Wellesley's army 
 of 4,500 men, beat the allied forces of Scin- 
 diah, and the rajah of Nagpoor, amounting to 
 30,000 men. Ahmednuggar was replaced in the 
 hands of the Paishwa in 1804, and commands 
 the best entrance into his dominions, as well as 
 into those of our neighbouring ally, the Nizam. It 
 stands in N. Lat. 19. 1'. and E. Long. 75. 4'. 
 83 miles from Poonah, and 181 from Bombay 
 
 AHMEDPORE, a town of Hindostan, in the 
 province of Orissa, thirty-four miles south of 
 Cuttack. 
 
 AHMELLA, in botany, a species of bidens, 
 or water hemp agrimony. Its flowers are large, 
 and resemble those of the marigold ; growing 
 in large numbers on the tops of the stalk, 
 and large branches, and succeeded by oblong 
 seeds, which have the same sort of points at one 
 end with those of our common bidens. The 
 stalks are square, and the leaves in pairs, in 
 shape like those of the common nettle. We 
 have one species of it very common in all parts 
 of England, about watery places, and easily 
 known by its seeds, in autumn, sticking to the 
 clothes and stockings of those who go near the 
 plant. This plant, and the others of the same 
 genus, bear the name bidens, from the teeth or 
 prickles at the ends of the seeds; but the word 
 should be tridens, for there are certainly three of 
 them. 
 
 AHMOOD, a town of Gujerat, belonging to 
 the Mahrattas. 
 
 AHNA, a bailiwick of Germany, in lower 
 Hesse, belonging to the elector of Hesse-Cassel.
 
 AHW 
 
 365 
 
 AJA 
 
 AHRBERG, a bailiwick, market town, and 
 castle in Germany, in the upper division of the 
 bishopric of Eichstad ; now in the Bavarian circle 
 of the Rezat, district of Herrieden. Population 
 3300. The town is three miles S. W. of Ohren- 
 bau. 
 
 AHRENFELS, a domain (formerly imperial) 
 with a castle, lyipg on the Rhine, not far from 
 Lintz, and belonging, till lately, to the house of 
 Nassau-Usingen. Also a village, 17miles N.N W. 
 of Coblentz. 
 
 AHU, in zoology, the ibex capensis of Kol- 
 ben, the kevel of Buflbn, the flat-homed ante- 
 lope of Pennant, and the antelope kevella of 
 Gmelin's Linnaeus. 
 
 AHUCYATLI, in natural history, an Ameri- 
 can serpent, approaching to the nature of the 
 haemorrhus and rattle-snake, but larger than the 
 former, and wanting the rattle of the latter ; it is 
 as fatal in the effects of its poison as any known 
 species of serpent. 
 
 A-HULL, in sea language, the situation of a 
 ship when all her sails are furled on account of 
 the violence of the storm, and when, having 
 lashed her helm on the lee side, she lies nearly 
 with her side to the wind and sea, her head 
 being somewhat inclined to the direction of the 
 wind. 
 
 AHUN, a town of France, in the department of 
 C reuse, seated on the C reuse, eight miles S. E. of 
 Gueret, and in the arrondissement of that name ; 
 thirty miles N. E. of Limoges, and fifty-five 
 S. E. of Moulins. Long. 2. 4'. E. lat. 46. 5'. N. 
 
 When any of the gheastes would have touched 
 any thinge, it vanished suddainely awaie, and was 
 turned to nothings. And so, when their eies were 
 ful, they put vp theire kniues and rose ahungred. 
 
 Jewel'* Defence of the Apologie. 
 I am not a hungry, I thank you, forsooth. 
 
 Shafupeare't Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 And when he had fasted forty days and forty 
 nights, he was afterward an hwigred. 
 
 St. Matt. iv. 2. 
 
 AHUYS, a sea-port town of Sweden, small, 
 but very strong by its situation. It is seated in 
 the principality of Gothland, in the territory of 
 Bleckingby, near the Baltic Sfea, about eighteen 
 miles from Christianstadt Lon. 14. 15'. E. 
 Lat. 56. 15'. N. 
 
 AHUZZATH, the friend of Abimelech II. 
 king of Gerar, and who, along with Phicol, ac- 
 companied him, to witness the alliance made 
 between him and the patriarch Isaac. 
 
 AHW AS, AHUAZI, or HAVISA, a town of 
 Persia, on the river Karoon or Karasu, in the 
 province of Kuzistan. It was formerly a large 
 and flourishing city, the capital of a province of 
 the same name, and the wintering place of Arta- 
 banes, the last of the Parthian kings. After- 
 wards it seems to have been independent of the 
 sophis of Persia, and governed by a descendant 
 of Mahomet, who exercised the rights of sove- 
 reignty. It is now incorporated with the do- 
 minions of the same king, whose authority is 
 acknowledged by most of the Persian provinces : 
 but is a poor place, whose population does not 
 exceed COO or 700 souls. Close to the edge of the 
 
 river are the ruins of a spacious palace, whose 
 walls consist of massy hewn stone. Distant forty- 
 eight miles south of Shuster, or Suster, the ca- 
 pital of Kuzistan, and forty north of Bussorah. 
 Long. 48. 58'. E. Lat. 46. 10. N. 
 
 AI, in ancient geography, a town of Judea, N. 
 from Jericho, called by Josephus An/a, originally 
 a kingdom of the Canaanites, before it was cap- 
 tured by Joshua. See vii. and viii. chapters of 
 Joshua. Some critics pretend to find a discord- 
 ance between the third verse of the eighth 
 chapter, where 30,000 men are mentioned as 
 ' sent away by night,' and the twelfth verse, 
 where it is said, that ' Joshua took about 5000 
 men, and set them to lie in ambush.' But this 
 difficulty is easily removed, either by supposing 
 with Masius, that 5000 lay in wait, while 25,000 
 attacked the city; or with Calmet, and most 
 other interpreters, that two bodies were placed 
 in ambuscade, the one consisting of 25,000, and 
 the other of 5000 men. Ai, being burnt upon 
 this occasion, was rebuilt by the Benjamites, and 
 long after this period, was taken by Senacherib. 
 After the captivity, it was rebuilt a second time. 
 Nehem. xi. 31. 
 
 Ai, a city of the Ammonites, taken and plun- 
 dered by the Chaldeans. 
 
 AIAIA, in ornithology, the name of a Brazilian 
 bird, of the platea, or spoon-bill kind, called by 
 the Portuguese colhorado. It is exactly of the 
 same shape, and much of the same size, with the 
 European spoon-bill, and its beak is in the same 
 manner, broad at the end. It is of a pale, but 
 very bright and shining flesh-colour on the back 
 and wings ; the other parts of its body are per- 
 fectly white. It is common upon the shores of 
 rivers, and its flesh is well tasted. 
 
 AJACCIO. See AJAZZO. 
 
 AJALON, or AIJALON, a town of the tribe of 
 Benjamin, about three miles east from Bethel, 
 rendered memorable by Joshua's victory over 
 the five Canaanitish kings in the adjacent valley 
 and still more so, by the extraordinary circum- 
 stance attending it, of the miraculously length- 
 ened day. Whether this was accomplished by 
 an arrestment of the earth's motion round its 
 own axis, or by that of the rays of light proceed- 
 ing from the sun, and reflected from the moon, 
 it is impossible to determine. But while each 
 of these hypotheses are within the bounds of 
 possibility, and do not, like transubstantiation, 
 baffle the power of credulity itself to believe, 
 those who are willing to give credit to divine 
 revelation, and who believe, that he who esta- 
 blished the laws of nature can alter or suspend 
 them at his pleasure, will not readily listen to 
 the scoffs of infidels against this miraculous 
 interposition of divine power. 
 
 AJALOJJ, or AIJALON, the name ot three other 
 cities in Palestine, viz. \ . a city of Dan, which 
 stood between Timna and Bethshemesh, assigned 
 to the Kohathites, though the Amorites kept 
 possession of it long after. It was taken how- 
 ever by Uzziah, and retaken by the Philistines 
 from Ahaz. 2. A city in the tribe of Ephraim, 
 about two miles from Shechem. 3. A town of 
 Benjamin, between Bethel on the north and Jeru- 
 salem on the south. 4. A town of Zebulon, whose 
 situation is not precisely known.
 
 AJA 
 
 366 
 
 AJA 
 
 AJAN, a coast and country of Africa, which 
 has the river Quilmanci on the south ; the moun- 
 tains from which that river springs, on the west; 
 Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, and the Straits of Babel- 
 raandel, on the north ; and the Eastern, or Indian 
 Ocean, on the east. The coast abounds with 
 all the necessaries of life, and has plenty of very 
 good horses. The kings of Ajan are often at war 
 with the Abyssinians ; and all the prisoners they 
 take, they sell to the merchants of Cambaya, those 
 of Aden, and other Arabs, who come to trade in 
 their harbours, and give diem in exchange, co- 
 loured cloths, glass beads, raisins, and dates ; for 
 which they also take back, besides slaves, gold 
 and ivory. The whole sea-coast, from Zangue- 
 bar, to the Straits of Babelmandel, is called the 
 coast of Ajan ; and a considerable part of it the 
 Desert coast. 
 
 AJANTIA, AutvrtM, an annual feast, conse- 
 crated to Ajax, the son of Telamon, and observed 
 with great solemnity in the island of Salamis, as 
 well as in Attica : where, in memory of his valour, 
 a bier was exposed, set out with a complete suit 
 of armour. 
 
 AJAR : On jar, i. e. on char, on the turn. 
 A. S. Dyban Acypan, to turn. 
 
 The leuys remanis vnsterit of thare place, 
 Na partis not furthe of reule, quhill per case 
 The pyping ~wynd blaw vp the dure on char, 
 And driue the leuis. 
 
 Douglas, b. iii. p. 83. JEned. 
 
 The mystic numbers m the cavern laid, 
 Are rang'd in order by the sacred maid ; 
 There they repose in ranks along the floor ; 
 At length a casual wind unfolds the door ; 
 The casual -wind disorders the decrees, 
 And the loose fates arp scatter'dby the breeze. 
 Pitt. 
 
 So rumour says, who will believe, 
 But that they left the door ajar, 
 Where safe, and laughing in his sleeve, 
 He heard the distant din of war. 
 
 Gray'* Long Story. 
 
 ALAS, or AJASSO, a sea-port of Asiatic Turkey, 
 the ancient Issus, in the government of Marasch, 
 standing in a bay of the Mediterranean, of the 
 same name. It is thirty-six miles S.S.W. of Ma- 
 rasch, and twenty north of Scanderoon, and 
 famous for its warm baths. 
 
 AJASSALUCK, die Turkish name for a vil- 
 lage standing on or near die site of the ancient 
 Ephesus. It occupies the side of a hill, at the 
 top of which is a large mosque, broken aque- 
 ducts, and ruinous buildings, interspersed. Its 
 name signifies the temple of die moon, and die 
 whole place seems to have been built from die 
 ruins of Ephesian grandeur. The seats of a 
 theatre, or stadium, some bearing Greek letters, 
 constitute die buttresses of the casde ; and over 
 die arch of die gateway are sculptures of die 
 most exquisite workmanship, supposed to repre- 
 sent incidents related in the Iliad. A long 
 Greek inscription also is exhibited in the mosque ; 
 and its marbles, together with die large granite 
 columns supporting die roof, are die spoils of 
 Ephesus. Many of the scattered structures, 
 with square domes, have been baths, testifying a 
 more numerous population, whose dwellings 
 
 have fallen to decay. Several circumstance* 
 combine in demonstrating the former importance 
 of Ajassaluck, but its history is imperfectly 
 known. It has flourished chiefly, if not solely, 
 under the Mahommedans ; and its origin has been 
 referred to the thirteenth century. Tamerlane 
 encamped here, after subduing Smyrna in 1 402 ; 
 and the events recorded of Ephesus posterior to 
 this date seem to relate to Ajassaluck, which is 
 thirty-nine miles south of Smyrna, and two west 
 of Ephesus. 
 
 AIATASTO, a river of Peru, in the province 
 and government of Tucuman, having pasturage 
 on its banks, which feed about 40,000 cattle and 
 6000 horses. 
 
 AJAX Oiliades, in classical biography, one 
 of the most celebrated of the Greek leaders, in die 
 expedition against Troy, and the son of Oileus, 
 a powerful chief of the Locrians. Homer as- 
 cribes to him agility, and promptitude in executing 
 whatever he undertook ; and he is said to have 
 excelled in the use of the bow and javelin. Ho- 
 race is, by some commentators, supposed to re- 
 fer to him, Od. xv. lib. i. v. 19. Homer Odyss. 
 lib. iv. 502, says, 
 
 Impious he roarM defiance to the gods, 
 To his own prowess all the glory gave. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 He is said to have incurred die displeasure 
 of the gods, by his violation of Cassandra, 
 the daughter of Priam, in the sanctuary of 
 Minerva, where she had taken refuge. Ajax, 
 however, denied the fact, and imputed the charge 
 to the artince of Agamemnon, who wished 
 to keep Cassandra for himself. In his return 
 home, he and his whole fleet were wrecked by 
 the vengeance of Minerva. Some say that he 
 escaped ; and that in the moment of danger he 
 exclaimed : ' In spile of the gods, I will escape: 
 Homer ubi supra, v. 504. 
 
 AJAX Telamonius, the son of Telamon, prince 
 of Salamis, and one of the principal heroes of the 
 Iliad, is by Homer represented as inferior only to 
 Achilles in strength and valour, and as the chief 
 bulwark of die Greeks, after the secession of that 
 warrior. ' His character,' says Dr. Aikin, ' seems 
 to be intended as the model of that steady agree- 
 able courage which is ever at hand, when its exer- 
 tions are wanted, and requires no aid of circum- 
 stances to excite its energy. He is the only hero, 
 who neither asks nor receives the assistance of a 
 deity.' Homer pardy vindicates him from die 
 charge of irreligion : for though he did not pray to 
 Jupiter himself, when he prepared to engage die 
 valiant Hector, he desired others to pray for him, 
 either with a low voice, lest theTroj ans should har, 
 or louder if they pleased ; ' for,' says he, ' I fear 
 no person in die world.' Iliad, lib. vi. v. 194. 
 When the arms of Achilles were adjudged by 
 die Greek chieftains to his rival Ulysses, Ajax 
 was bereaved of his understanding; and first 
 venting his rage against a fleck of sheep, taking 
 them to be Greeks, he then turned his sword against 
 himself. Fable reports, that the flower called 
 hyacinth sprung from his blood. The Greeks 
 erected a noble monument to him on the pro- 
 montory of Rhceteum. Pausanias says, lib. i. 
 that one of their tribes bore the name of Ajax, 
 and that the people of Salamis built a temple to
 
 AJA 
 
 367 
 
 AID 
 
 de: 
 
 I 
 
 him. Herodotus, lib. viii. c. 64. c. 121, in- 
 forms us that the whole country of Greece in- 
 voked him a little before the battle of Salamis, 
 and dedicated to him, as part of the first-fruits 
 due to the gods, one of the ships which they had 
 taken from the Persians in that battle. Pausa- 
 nias states, among other wonderful things, that 
 the waves cast the arms of Achilles upon the 
 tomb of Ajax, after the shipwreck of Ulysses. The 
 fate of Ajax was the subject of several eminent 
 tragedies. In his last exploit, when he was en- 
 deavouring to preserve and rescue the dead body 
 Patroclus, and when he was overwhelmed 
 ith a mist or darkness, which intercepted his 
 iew of the Grecian host, he made the following 
 .dress to Jupiter, which has been much ad- 
 mired for its sublimity : 
 
 Lord of earth and air, 
 O king ! O father ! hear my humble pray'r : 
 Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore : 
 Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more : 
 If Greece must perish, we thy will obey, 
 But let us perish in the face of day. 
 
 Pope. Iliad, lib. xvii. v. 645, &c. 
 
 Dr. Aikin thus sums up his character : ' Such 
 is the Ajax of the Iliad ; a hero (as far as so 
 rude an age admits of heroism) in grain ; tried 
 and proved by every difficulty and danger ; not 
 the meteor of a day, but shining with equal lustre 
 " rough the whole period of action ; always in 
 place; resorted to on every emergency, and 
 in vain ; not hurried along by idle bravado 
 or enthusiastic ardour, but making utility the 
 guide of his actions ; finally, never yielding but 
 when mortal assistance was unavailable, and 
 when a heaven-born champion, with celestial 
 aid, was necessary to turn the tide of fortune. 
 He may then stand in the number of able and 
 useful men, whose value is superior to their 
 fame : a class of which there are members in 
 every profession and rank of life, and to whose 
 assistance, the first-rate characters owe great 
 part of their celebrity and success.' 
 
 AJAX, in Grecian antiquity, a furious kind of 
 dance, in use among the Greeks ; intended to re- 
 present the madness of that hero after his defeat 
 by Ulysses, to whom the Greeks had given the 
 preference in his contest for Achilles' arms. 
 Lucian, in his treatise of Dancing, speaks of 
 dancing the Ajax. 
 
 AJAZZO, or AJACCIO, the capital, formerly, of 
 one of the five provinces of the division of the 
 island of Corsica, called Di la da Monte, is the 
 chief town in this island, the seat of the existing 
 administrative offices, and the head of an arron- 
 dissement. It is the best built town on the island, 
 being walled and protected by a citadel ; and is de- 
 lightfully situated on the north side of the Golfo 
 d'Ajaccio, which forms a secure and commodious 
 harbour for ships of the largest size ; having a 
 strong mole, but the entrance is rendered some- 
 what dangerous by a small projecting rock. 
 The number of inhabitants in the town and 
 suburbs, which stretch along the harbour, was in 
 1815, 6845, having increased rapidly daring the 
 present century, in consequence chiefly of the 
 encouragement given to settlers by the French 
 government, who spared no pains on its improve- 
 meD. and embellishment. It is remarkable for 
 
 being the birth place of Napoleon Buonaparte. 
 Long. 8. 53'. E. lat. 41. 46'. N. 
 
 AICH, a town of Germany, in Bavaria, seated 
 on the river Par. It was taken by the Swedes, 
 in 1634, and some time after reduced to ashes 
 
 AICHMALOTARCHA. See JECHMALOTAR- 
 
 CHA. 
 
 AICHSTAET, a town of Germany, in Franco- 
 ma, and the ancient capital of a bishopric of the 
 same name. Itcontains several hospitals, a cathe- 
 dral and other churches, one of which is built after 
 the model of the church called the Holy Sepul- 
 chre at Jerusalem; and is remarkable for a 
 curious piece of workmanship, called the Sun of 
 the Holy Sacrament. 
 
 AICHSTETTEN, a town of Bavaria, in 
 Suabia ; containing 1380 inhabitants. 
 
 AICURUS, in ornithology, a species of parrot. 
 See PSITTACUS. 
 
 AID', v. & n.~\ A j j. r> . 
 AID'ANCE i Ad : JUVO > jutum : "' atder * 
 AZD'ANT, ' * contraction of the foregoing 
 AID'ER I -^ atin wor( i to ne lp > to carry 
 
 AID'LESS. 
 
 a burthen ; to assist. 
 
 And in the ayd of Turnus and supple, 
 Ane thousand feirs folkis assemblit he. 
 
 Douglas, b. 7. p. 234. 
 
 Also thou shall not swere for envie, neyther for 
 favour, ne for mede, but only ior rightwiseuesse and 
 for declaring of trouthe to the honour and worship of 
 God, and to the aiding and helping of thin even 
 Cristen. Chaucer. The Persones Tale, v. ii. p. 333. 
 Into the lake he leapt, his lord to aid ; 
 And, of him catching hold, him strongly staid 
 From drowning. Fairy Queen. 
 
 Neither shall they give any thing unto them, that 
 
 make war upon them, or aid them with victuals, 
 
 weapons, money, or ships. Maccabees viii. 26. 
 
 All along, as he went, were punished the adhe- 
 
 rents and aiders of the late rebels. 
 
 Bacon's Henry VII. 
 Oft have I seen a timely parted ghost, 
 Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless, 
 Being all descended to the lab'ring heart : 
 Who, in the conflict that it holds with death, 
 Attracts the same, for aidance 'gainst the enemy. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI. 
 He had met 
 
 Already, ere my best speed could prevent, 
 The aidless innocent lady, his wish'd prey. 
 
 Milton's Comus. 
 - She can unlock 
 
 The clasping charm, and thaw the mumming spell, 
 If she be right invok'd in warbled song ; 
 For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 
 To aid a virgin, such as was herself. Comut. 
 
 BOAB. Advise, or aid, but do not pity me j 
 No monarch born can fall to that degree j 
 Pity descends from kings to all below j 
 But can, no more than fountains, upward flow. 
 
 Dry den's Conquest of Granada, Part 1. 
 - To Turnus' aid, 
 A thousand men the youthful hero 'fed. Dry den. 
 The memory of useful things may receive consider- 
 able aid, if they are thrown into verses. 
 
 Watts'a Improvement of the Mind. 
 A golden coffer in her hand she bore, 
 The present treacherous, but the bearer more. 
 Twas fraught with pangs ; for Jove ordain'd above, 
 That gold should aid, and pangs attend on love. 
 
 ParneU's Henod.
 
 AID 
 
 368 
 
 AIG 
 
 AID, in ancient customs, a subsidy paid by 
 vassals to their lords on certain occasions. Such 
 were the aids of relief, paid upon the death of 
 the lord mesne to his heir ; the aid cheval, or 
 capital aid, due to the chief lord on several oc- 
 casions, as, to make his eldest son a knight, to 
 make up a portion for marrying his daughter, &c. 
 
 AID, in the menage, is the same with what 
 some writers call cherishing, and used to avoid 
 the necessity of correction. The inner heel, inner 
 leg, inner rein, &c. are called inner aids ; as the 
 outer heel, outer leg, outer rein, &c. are called 
 outer aids. 
 
 AID, in theology ; the aids or assistances of 
 divine favour, which are offered to man, have 
 been the subject of much dispute betwixt the 
 Jansenistsand Jesuits; for the composing whereof 
 a celebrated congregation was erected at Rome, 
 under the title of congregation of aids, congrega- 
 tio de auxiliis. 
 
 AID, ROYAL, is a name sometimes given for- 
 merly to the land-tax. 
 
 AIDAB, or GAIDHAB, a town on the confines 
 of Abyssinia in Africa, opposite to Giodda, from 
 whence, great numbers of Africans take shipping 
 to visit Mecca. 
 
 AIDAN, a famous Scotch bishop, of Landis- 
 farne, or Holy Island, in the seventh century, 
 was employed by Oswald, king of Northumber- 
 land, in the conversion of the English, in which 
 he was very successful. He died in 651. We 
 have an extraordinary instance of this bishop's 
 liberality to the poor. Having received a present 
 from king Oswin of a fine horse and rich housings, 
 he met with a beggar, and dismounting, gave him 
 the horse thus caparisoned. When the king ex- 
 pressed some displeasure at this singular act of 
 humanity, and the slight put upon his favour, 
 Aidan quaintly, but forcibly asked, ' which do 
 you value most, the son of a mare or a son of 
 God?' Bede describes the character of Aidan 
 in terms of high commendation, and ascribes to 
 him miracles, which the credulity 'of the times 
 in which he lived would be disposed to admit. 
 To the report of one of his miracles we are in- 
 clined to give our assent. When the bishop gave 
 the priest, who was to conduct the betrothed 
 wife of Oswi by sea to Northumberland, a phial 
 of holy oil, instructing him, in case of a storm, 
 to pour it into the sea, and assuring him that it 
 would soon become calm, it is possible he might 
 not be unacquainted with the efficacy of oil thus 
 applied; which has been long known, and is now 
 sufficiently established by observation and ex- 
 periment. Biog. Brit. 
 
 AID-DE-CAMP, in military affairs, an officer 
 employed to receive and carry the orders of a 
 general. 
 
 AIDERBEITZAN, ADERBIJAN, or, as the 
 Persians call it, AZERBEYAN, in geography, 
 a province of Persia, adjoining east on the 
 province of Ghilan, the Caspian Sea and Tabri- 
 stan, to the south on Irac-Ajemi, to the west 
 and north-west upon Curdistan and Upper Ar- 
 menia, and to the north on Schirwan and Geor- 
 gia. The etymology of the name imports a 
 country of fire ; and it is so called on account of 
 the temple erected in it for keeping their sacred 
 fire. The soil is fruitful, and the climate healthy, 
 
 though cold. The most considerable cities in it 
 are Tauris, Ardevil, and Sultania. The province 
 extends from about N. lat. 36. to 39. and from 
 E. long. 48. to 54. 
 
 AID-MAJOR, or ADJUTANT, in military affairs, 
 is an officer, whose business is to ease the major 
 of part of his duty ; and to perform it all in his 
 absence Some majors have several aid-majors. 
 Each troop of guards has but one major, who 
 has two aid-majors, as it contains battalions. 
 When the battalion is drawn up, the aid-major's 
 post is on the left, beyond all the captains, 
 and behind the lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 AIDIN, a district of Asiatic Turkey, of which 
 the city of SMYRNA is the capital, which see. 
 
 AIDON, Aidon, ancient British or Wels'i, the 
 wing of an army, a castle in Northumberland, 
 where Camden supposes there was a station of 
 the Roman army, under Julius Caesar. 
 
 AIDONEUS, in fabulous history, a king of 
 the Molossians, who imprisoned Theseus, for at- 
 tempting to steal his daughter Proserpine, near 
 the river Acheron ; whence the poetical fable of 
 Theseus's descent into hell. 
 
 AIEREBA, in ichthyology, the name of a fish 
 of the pastinacha marina kind, but differing from 
 all the others, in that the form of its body is re- 
 gularly round, and its head placed far within the 
 verge of its thin part. It is common in the 
 Western Ocean.: but is not much esteemed for 
 the table, being more loose in its flesh than the 
 other kinds. 
 
 AIGHENDALE, the name of a liquid mea- 
 sure used in Lancashire, containing seven quarts. 
 
 AJG'LET, or ) Fr. aiguillette, the tag of a 
 
 AG'LET. 5 lace, or of the points formerly 
 
 used in dress; sometimes formed into small 
 figures ; spangles, &c. 
 
 He gyueth alwaye hys old point at one end or 
 other some new aglet ; but when al his cost is don 
 theron, it is not al worth an aglet of a good blewe 
 poynte. Sir Thos. More' a Workes, p. 675. c. 2. 
 
 It all above besprinkled was throughout 
 With golden aigulets, that glister'd bright, 
 Like twinkling stars ; and all the skirt about, 
 Was hemm'd with golden fringes. 
 
 Faerie Queens. 
 
 He thereupon gave for the garter a chain worth 
 2001. and his gown addressed with aglets, esteemed 
 worth 251, Mayward. 
 
 Why, give him gold enough, and marry him to a 
 puppet, or an aglet baby, or an old trot, and ne'er a 
 tooth in her head. Shaksp. Taming of the Slirew. 
 
 AIGILULF, AIGILULFUS, a king of the Lom- 
 bards, who took Ravenna, and put an end to 
 the exarchate, A. D.752, after it had lasted 171 
 years. 
 
 AIGITHALUS, aiytBaXoQ, in ornithology, a 
 name by which some old authors call the parus 
 or titmouse. 
 
 AIGLE, or AELEN, a district in the Swiss 
 canton of Vaud, (formerly in that of Berne,) with 
 the title of a government. It lies east of the lake 
 of Geneva, was anciently reckoned in the Pays 
 de Vaud, and belonged to the dukes of Savoy. 
 Through this district lies the great road from 
 Vallais into Italy, by Villeneuve, which is at 
 the head of the lake of Geneva, through a deep 
 valley, three miles wide, bordered on one side 
 with the Alps of Switzerland, and on the other
 
 AIG 
 
 3G9 
 
 AIK 
 
 with those of Savoy, and crossed by the river 
 Rhone. It passes through the town of Aigle. 
 See next article. Ivorna, in the district of Aigle, 
 was in part buried by the fall of a mountain, 
 occasioned by an earthquake in 1584. 
 
 AICLE, a large thriving town in the canton of 
 Berne, seated on the banks of the Rhone, six 
 miles from its entrance into the lake of Geneva, 
 is surrounded with vineyards, fields, and mea- 
 dows. The houses are built of a white marble, 
 found in the neighbourhood. The governor's 
 castle is on an eminence, above the town, and 
 has a lofty marble tower, inhabitants 2500. It is 
 twenty-six miles north-east of Geneva. 
 
 AIGLE, a lofty promontory on the coast of 
 Provence, in France, between Marseilles and 
 Toulon. Also a town on the river Rille, in 
 Lower Normandy, the head of a canton in the 
 department of the Orne, arrondissement of Mor- 
 tagne. 14 leagues N. E. of Alencon. 
 
 AIGLE, or EG RE, is likewise a small river 
 of France, in the department of the Loir and 
 Cher, which falls into the Loir. Also a small 
 island in the St. Lawrence, formed by the conflu- 
 ence with that river of the Riviere des Prairies, 
 which bounds the southern shore of the island of 
 Montreal. It is mostly good meadow land. 
 
 AIGLETTE, in heraldry. See EAGLET. 
 
 AIGNAN, or AGNAN, a town of France, in the 
 department of the Gers, arrondissement of Mi- 
 rande. It has a population of 2610, and lies on 
 the river Midou. 
 
 AIGNAN (St.), a small town of France, below 
 the conflux of the Saudre and Cher, in the de- 
 partment of the Loir and Cher. It is 8 leagues 
 south of Blois, and 47 S. S. W. of Paris. 
 
 AIGNAN, St. an uninhabited island in the 
 South Pacific ; one of those denominated the 
 Archipelago of Louisiadeby the French. It rises 
 from a precipitous coast on the north into woody 
 mountains ; the eastern extremity is in Lon. 152. 
 56'. 30". E. Lat. 10. 41'. 19". S. 
 
 ArGNAN, (M.) a modern French author of 
 some celebrity, who died in Paris, in the be- 
 ginning of 1825. He has enriched the French 
 language with a new translation of Homer, 
 which some critics consider very similar in cha- 
 racter with that of Pope, in our own tongue 
 elegant as a composition, rather than an accu- 
 rate transcript of his author's meaning. He 
 wrote also the tragedy of ' Brunehaut,' once 
 very popular ; was the editor of a provincial 
 review, called, Bibliotheque Etrangere, which 
 contains some curious learning ; and furnished, 
 on the coronation of Napoleon, a letter-press 
 description of the plates engraved to illustrate 
 that ceremony. 
 
 AIG RE, a town of France, formerly in the 
 Angoumois, diocese of Saintes, intendancy of La 
 Rochelle, now the head .of a canton, in the de- 
 partment of the Charente, arrondissement of lluf- 
 fec. Inhabitants 1430. It is 7 leagues N.W. of 
 Angouleme. 
 
 AIGRE-FEUILLE, a small town of France, the 
 head of a canton, in the department of the Lower 
 Charente, arrondissement of Rochefort, two 
 leagues and three quarters E.S.E. of La Rochelle. 
 Likewise the name of several villages in Brittany 
 and Lansuedoc. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 AIGRETTA, in ornithology, the name of a 
 species of heron, which seems to be a synonyme 
 of the ardea alba minor, or the small white heron. 
 AIGUE MARINE. See AQUA MARINA 
 AIGUE-PERSE, a town of France, in Au- 
 vergne, the head of a canton, in the department of 
 Puy de Dome, near which there is a very cold 
 spring, which bubbles up with a strong ebullition, 
 and is fatal to animals that drink it. It lies 18 
 miles N. of Clermont, and 25 S. of Paris, in the 
 arrondissement of Riom. Inhabitants, 5050. 
 
 AIGUES-MORTES, a town of France, in 
 Lower Languedoc, in the department of the 
 Card, arrondissement of Nismes. It formerly 
 stood near the sea, which has retired two leagues 
 from the town, leaving it in a morass, which, 
 however, serves as a defence for it. It is 7 leagues 
 S.S.W. of Nismes. 
 
 AIGUES-VIVES, a town of France, in the de- 
 partment of the Gard, 4 leagues S. W. of Nismes. 
 Also a town of France, in the province of Touraine. 
 not far from the Cher ; now in the department 
 of the Indreand Loir. 
 
 AIGUI.LLON, a town of France, situated at 
 the conflux of the Lot and Garonne, in the depart- 
 ment of the Lot and Garonne, contains 2380 in- 
 habitants. Five leagues and a half N.W. of Agen. 
 AIGUISCE, in heraldry, denotes a cross with 
 its four ends sharpened, but so as 
 to terminate in obtuse angles. It 
 differs from the cross fitchee, in as 
 much as the latter tapers by degrees 
 to a point, and the former only at 
 the ends. ' - 
 
 AIKIN, (John, M. D.) a modern author, and 
 editor of various useful works, was born 15th 
 of January, 1747, at Kibworth, Leicestershire, 
 being the only son of Dr. T. Aikin, a dissenting 
 minister, and master of a respectable academy at 
 that place. He received the rudiments of his 
 education at home ; but was sent early to the 
 Dissenters' academy at Warrington, which was 
 then in considerable repute. 
 
 Mr. Aikin evincing a taste for medical pur- 
 suits, was first articled to the late Dr. Garthshore, 
 then a practising surgeon and apothecary, at 
 Uppingham, in the county of Rutland. He be- 
 came a member of the University of Edinburgh, 
 in 1764, where he continued for two years ; and 
 after passing three years more as a pupil to Mr. 
 White, of Manchester, settled as a surgeon in 
 Chester ; but soon removed to Warrington. In 
 this place he began his career as an author, by 
 publishing several miscellaneous pieces in con- 
 junction with his sister, Mrs. Barbauld ; and an 
 excellent translation of Tacitus's De moribus 
 Germanorum; and Life of Agricola. Here 
 also commenced his friendship with Dr. Priestley, 
 and with Gilbert Wakefield, both of whom were 
 then connected with the Warrington academy. 
 In 1784, Mr. Aikin proceeded to Ley den 
 where he graduated as a physician ; in which 
 capacity, he soon after settled at Yarmouth, in 
 Norfolk. Dr. Aikin throughout life, was distin- 
 guished for the liberality of his opinions, as well 
 as the candour and fearlessness with which he 
 professed them. Joining at this time in the 
 strenuous efforts of his fellow dissenters, to obtain 
 a repeal of the corporation and test acts, he ex- 
 
 2 B
 
 AIK 
 
 370 
 
 AIL 
 
 cited considerable jealousy in the high church 
 party of the place ; which was increased, by his 
 becoming the advocate of the early measures of 
 the French revolutionists. Our author is said to 
 have been finally compelled to leave Yarmouth 
 upon these grounds. In 1796, Mr. now Sir 
 Richard Philips, engaged him to conduct the 
 Monthly Magazine ; of which he was the sole 
 editor for ten years. The volumes published, 
 under his superintendence, contain numerous 
 striking proofs of his talents as an essay-writer. 
 During this engagement he projected, in con- 
 junction with Dr. Enfield, a General Biographical 
 Dictionary, which was continued at various in- 
 tervals of publication, to the extent often volumes 
 quarto. The first volume appearing in 1799, 
 and the last in 1815. Dr. Aikin also conducted 
 for Messrs. Longmans a superior magazine, (but 
 of short-lived success,) called the ' Athseneum.' 
 He was also the author of a life of Huet, bishop 
 of Avranches ; and of a volume of Medical 
 Biography, 8vo. He likewise edited for the 
 booksellers in 1806, a superior edition of Spenser, 
 6 vols. 8vo. ; bishop Newton's Works of Mil- 
 ton, with a prefatory critical essay, which passed 
 through three editions ; and, a volume that fully 
 justified its title, called Select Works of the 
 British Poets, comprising a chronological series 
 of our classical poets, from Ben Jonson to 
 Beattie, without mutilation or abridgment. ' The 
 contents are so comprehensive, that few poems, 
 it is believed, are omitted ; except such as are of 
 a secondary merit, or unsuited to the perusal of 
 
 Emth.' Dr. Aikin died at Stoke Newington, 
 ec. 7, 1822, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. 
 AIRMAN, (William,) in biography, a painter 
 of eminence, the son of William Aikman, Esq. 
 advocate of Cairney in Scotland. He was born 
 October 24th, 1682, and intended by his father, 
 for his own profession ; but devoted himself to 
 the fine arts, and particularly to that of painting. 
 In 1707, he went to Italy ; and having resided 
 for three years at Rome, passed to Constanti- 
 nople and Smyrna, and in 1712 returned to his 
 own country. Here he followed the profession 
 of painting under the patronage of the duke of 
 Argyle, the earl of Burlington, Sir Godfrey 
 Kneller, and other patrons of the arts. For the 
 earl of Burlington he painted a large picture of 
 the royal family, now in the possession of the 
 duke of Devonshire, which his death prevented 
 his finishing; and there are several portraits 
 painted by him in Scotland, which are now in 
 the possession of the duke of Argyle, the duke ef 
 Hamilton. &c. Mr. Aikman died in London, 
 June 4th, 1731 ; having lost his son about six 
 months before, at the age of seventeen. Amongst 
 his intimate friends were Somerville, the well- 
 known author of the Chase, Mallet, Mr. Allan 
 Ramsay, and the celebrated author of the Seasons, 
 each of whom paid an elegiac tribute to his me- 
 mory. A very neat epitaph by Mallet was 
 engraven on his tomb. 
 
 Thomson's poem on the death of Mr. Aikman, 
 contains the following beautiful lines : 
 
 A friend, when dead, is but removed from sight, 
 Sunk in the lustre of eternal light; 
 And when the parting storms of life are o'er, 
 May yet rejoin us on a happier shore. 
 
 As those we love decay, we die in part ; 
 String after string is sever'd from the heart. 
 Till loosen 'd life at last but breathing clay, 
 Without one pang is glad to fall away, 
 Unhappy he, who latest feels the blow 
 Whose eyes have wept o'er every friend laid low ; 
 Dragg'd ling'ring on from partial death to death, 
 Till dying, all he can resign is breath. 
 
 AIL', v. & n. ) A. S. Aiblian, to be sick ; 
 
 AIL'MENT. 5 to pain; to trouble; to affect 
 in any manner. 
 
 And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, 
 and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar ? fear not, 
 for God hath heard the voice of the lad, where he is. 
 
 Gen. xxi. 17. 
 
 Love smiled, and thus said, ' Want, joined to 
 desire, is unhappy ; but, if he nought do desire, what 
 can Heraclitus ail ? ' Sidney. 
 
 What ails me, that I cannot lose thy thought ! 
 
 Command the empress hither to be brought : 
 
 I, in her death shall some diversion find ; 
 
 And rid my thoughts at once, of woman-kind. 
 
 Dryden'a Tyrannick Love. 
 Little ailments oft attend the fair, 
 Not decent for a husband's eye or ear. 
 
 Granrille . 
 
 AILAH, a small but ancient town of Asia, in 
 Arabia Petraea, seated on the east side of one of 
 the north bays of the Red Sea, near the Sinus 
 Elanites. It is supposed to be the place called 
 Elath and Eloth in Scripture. It lies near the 
 road, which the pilgrims travel, from Egypt to 
 Mecca. Long. 36. 40'. E. Lat. 29. 10'. N. 
 
 AILANAH, AILATH, or AHELOTH. See last 
 article. 
 
 AILE, or AIEL, from aieul, Fr. grand-father, 
 in law, a writ which lies where the grand-father, 
 or great-grandfather, called befaile, was seized 
 in lands or tenements in fee simple, on the day 
 he died ; and a stranger abates or epters the 
 same day, and dispossesses the heir or grand- 
 child. See ABATEMENT. 
 
 AILERONS, in natural history, petty wings, 
 a French term, expressing two small fleshy sub- 
 stances, resembling part of wings, or young and 
 just growing wings, and found in the two-winged 
 flies, situated at the root of the larger wings. It 
 is a diminutive of the French aile, wing. 
 
 AILESBURY, or AYLESBURY, an ancient 
 borough and market town of Buckinghamshire, 
 eighteen miles from Buckingham, and thirty-nine 
 from London. It is the TEglesbury of the Saxons ; 
 and was a well fortified British town, maintain- 
 ing its independence against the incursions of 
 the Saxon invaders, till reduced by Cuthwolf, 
 brother to Cealwin, king of tV.e West Saxons, in 
 the year 571. St. Osyth, who was beheaded 
 by the Pagans in Essex, was buried at this 
 place, about the year 600 ; and numerous mira- 
 cles were believed to have been wrought by her 
 relics in the church here ; on which account a 
 religious house was erected to her memory. 
 Camden, speaking of this town, says, that it was 
 bequeathed by Frewald to his daughter Editlia ; 
 but to whom it descended from this pious lady 
 does not appear. Subsequently, however, it be- 
 came a royal manor; and \Villiam the Conqueror, 
 invested his favourites with some of its lands, 
 under the tenure of providing ' straw for his bed 
 chamber; three eels for his use in winter;
 
 AIL 
 
 371 
 
 AIM 
 
 and in summer, straw, rushes, and two green 
 geese, thrice every year, if he should visit 
 Ailesbury so often.' In the reign of this monarch, 
 the manor of Ailesbury was purchased by Sir 
 John Baldwin, chief justice of the Court of 
 Common Pleas, whose daughter having been 
 married to one of the Packingtons, this manor 
 came into that family, and has regularly descended 
 in it to the present time. Drayton says, 
 
 Aylesbury's a vale that walloweth in her wealth, 
 And (by her wholesome air, continually in health) 
 Is lusty, firm, and fat ; and holds her youthful strength. 
 
 Fuller, in his Worthies of England, states, that 
 'the best, and biggest-bodied sheep in England, 
 are in the Vale of Ailesbury, where it is nothing 
 to give ten pounds or more for a breed-ram. So 
 that, should a forrainer hear of the price thereof, 
 he would guess the ram rather to be some Ro- 
 man engine of battery, than the creature com- 
 monly so called.' In Leland's time the houses 
 were of timber, but now they are mostly of 
 brick. Here is a county gaol, and the Lent 
 assizes are holden here. Ailesbury consists of 
 several irregular streets, containing altogether 
 about 16,671 inhabitants. The county hall is a 
 handsome modern fabric, and the church a very 
 ancient and spacious edifice. It was made pre- 
 bendal to the see of Lincoln by William the 
 First. The town was incorporated by royal 
 charter, and empowered to return two members 
 to Parliament in 1553. In the Rolls chapel, 
 among the writs for the parliamentary returns, 
 in the 14th Eliz. is a curious document, addressed 
 by ' Dame Dorothy Packington, late wife of Sir 
 John Packington, Kt., lord and owner of the 
 town of Ailesbury,' to ' all Christian people, &c.' 
 stating, that she had ' chosen, named, and ap- 
 pointed her trusty and well-beloved Thomas 
 Litchfield and George Burden, Esqrs., to be her 
 burgesses of her said town of Aylesbury ;' and 
 further stating, that whatever the said Thomas 
 and George should ' do in the service of the 
 Queen's Highness, in that present parliament,' 
 &c. ' she did ratify and approve to be of her own 
 act, as fully and wholly as if she were witness or 
 present there !' On first receiving the privileges 
 of a borough, the electors of Ailesbury were 
 confined to the bailiff, nine aldermen, and 
 twelve burgesses ; but this charter being lost 
 through neglect, the elective franchise was ex- 
 tended to all householders not receiving alms ; 
 who amounted to between 300 and 400. This 
 privilege also having been abused and corrupted, 
 in the year 1804 a bill was brought into parlia- 
 ment for still further extending the right of elec- 
 tion to the three adjoining hundreds ; so that the 
 number of voters are now nearly tripled. Be- 
 sides the church, already mentioned, there are 
 various places of worship for several denomi- 
 nations of Protestant Dissenters. During the 
 late exile of the royal family of France, Louis 
 XVIII., with various members of his family, re- 
 sided some years at Hartwell, about two miles 
 from this town ; and here his consort, Marie 
 Josephine Louise de S voie', comtesse de Lille, 
 died on the 13th Nov. 1810, in her 58th year. 
 Ailesbury gives the title of earl to the Brudenel 
 family. Markets on Saturday. 
 
 AILESFORD, Eaglesford, Sax. the eagle's 
 ford, a town in Kent, famous for the great victory 
 obtained by Vortimer, the British king, over 
 Hengist and his Saxon army. 
 
 AILES VITREES, in natural history, a French 
 term used to express the wings of a series of in- 
 sects, which seem of a middle nature, between 
 the fly and the butterfly kind, and are therefore 
 called papilion mouches by these writers. The 
 wings of these insects arc in part covered with 
 dast, or scales, and in part free from it, and 
 transparent. In these free parts they look 
 glassy; whence their name, signifying glassy 
 wings. 
 
 AILMER, or ^ETHELMARE, earl of Cornwall 
 and Devonshire, in the reign of king Edgar. It 
 is not known of what family he was. His au- 
 thority and riches were great, and so also in ap- 
 pearance was his piety. He founded the abbey 
 of Cerne, in Dorsetshire. In 1016, when Canute 
 invaded England, and found himself stoutly op- 
 posed by Edmund Ironside, this earl Ailmer, 
 with Eadric Streone, earl of Mercia, and earl 
 Algar, joined the Dane against their natural 
 prince, which was one great cause of the ruin of 
 the Saxons. 
 
 AILRED, EALRED, abbot of Revesby in Lin- 
 colnshire, in the reigns of Stephen and Henry II., 
 was born in 1109, of a noble family, and edu- 
 cated in Scotland with Henry the son of king; 
 David. On his return to England, he became 
 Cistertian monk in the monastery of Revesby, ot 
 which he afterwards was made abbot. He died 
 in 1166, aged fifty-seven, and was buried in hig 
 monastery. ' He was,' says Leland, ' in great 
 esteem during his life ; celebrated for the miracles 
 wrought after his death ; and admitted into the 
 catalogue of saints.' He was author of several 
 works ; most of which were published by Gilbo 
 the Jesuit at Douay, 1631 ; part of them may 
 be also found in the Bibliotheca Cistertiensis, 
 and Bibliotheca Patrum. His principal work is 
 Speculum Charitatis. 
 
 AILSA, an insulated rock on the western 
 coast of Scotland, between the shores of Ayrshire 
 and Cantyre. It is two miles in circumference 
 at the base, is accessible only at one place, and 
 rises to a great height in a pyramidical form. 
 A few goats and rabbits pick up a subsistence 
 among the short grass and furze ; but the im- 
 portance of the rock consists in the great variety 
 and boundless numbers of birds, by which it is 
 frequented; particularly the gannets or solan 
 geese, whose young are used at the best tables, 
 and bring a good price. Other birds are caught 
 for their feathers. The rock is rented from the 
 Earl of Cassilis. The depth of water around the 
 base is from seven to forty-eight fathoms. It is 
 surrounded with excellent banks, well stocked 
 with cod and other white fish. An ancient castle 
 surmounts this rock, which is useful as a sea 
 mark, in W. Long. 5. 8'. N. Lat. 55. 18'. 
 AIM' v. & n. \ Old Fr. esme, to point at. 
 AIM'LESS. S Cotgrave and Skinner. 
 amyer, presenter, dresser. Ducange. Perhaps 
 from the Gothic haim, home, primarily, then to 
 direct a missile weapon to a point ; to have an 
 immediate object in view, to which the attentioa 
 is particularly directed. 
 
 2B2
 
 AIN 
 
 372 
 
 AJO 
 
 Then Turnus aiming long in hand a dart of sturdy oke. 
 Well tipt with steele, at Pallas forth it flung, and 
 
 and thus he spoke, 
 
 Lo, see if that our dart be sharper than thy weapon 
 was. JEneidoi, Booh 11, by Phaer fy Twyne. 
 Lo, here the world is bliss ; so here the end, 
 To which all men do aim, rich to be made ; 
 Such grace now, to be happy, is before thee laid. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 It is impossible, by aim to fell it ; and for ex- 
 perience and knowledge thereof, I do not think that, 
 there was any of the particulars thereof. 
 
 Spenser on Ireland. 
 
 There is a history in all men's lives, 
 Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd : 
 The which observ'd, a man may prophesy 
 With a near aim, of the main chance of things, 
 As yet not come to life ; which, in their seeds 
 And weak beginnings, lie intreasured. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI. 
 
 Another kind there is, which although we desire 
 for itself, as health, and virtue, and knowledge; 
 nevertheless, they are not the last mark, whereat we 
 aim, but have their further end, whereunto they are 
 *ef erred. Hooker. 
 
 He trusted to have equall'd the Most High, 
 If he oppos'd : and with ambitious aim, 
 Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
 Rais'd impious war. Paradise List, 
 
 But see, how oft ambitious aims are crost ; 
 And chiefs contend, till all the prize is lost. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Aim'st thou at princes, all amaz'd they said, 
 The last of games ? Pope's Odyssey. 
 
 Ascanius, young and eager of his game, 
 Soon bent his bow, uncertain of his aim ; 
 But the dire fiend the fatal arrow guides, 
 Which pierc'd his bowels through his panting sides. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. vii. 1.621. 
 
 AIMARAEZ, a province of Peru, bounded by 
 that of Andahuailas, on the north-west and west, 
 on the south by Parinacochas, on the south-east 
 "by Chumbivilcas, and east by Cotabamba. It is 
 120 miles from north to south, and 26 miles 
 from east to west. Its surface is full of lofty 
 ridges and snowy summits, and on this account 
 the climate is generally cold, with the exception 
 of some valleys, where the land produces abun- 
 dantly, sugar, cattle, and grain. It is inter- 
 sected by three rivers, of little use on account 
 of the lowness of their beds, but which after- 
 wards unite, and form the Pachachaca. There 
 are innumerable veins of gold and silver in the 
 province, which are not worked. Some mines 
 of quicksilver, which have been discovered, have 
 been forbid to be wrought. The number of in- 
 habitants in the province amounts to 15,000. 
 The yearly tribute formerly received by the 
 corregidpr used to be 800,000 dollars. The 
 jurisdiction contains fifty settlements. 
 
 AIMARGUES, a town of France, in the de- 
 partment of the Gard, five leagues from Nismes 
 Number of houses 400, inhabitants 1800. 
 
 AJMEER, or RAJPOOTANA- See AGI 
 MEER. 
 
 AIN, a river of France, giving name to the 
 department of the Ain, and which, rising at the 
 foot of Mount Jura, falls into the Rhone above 
 Lyons. 
 
 AIN, a department of France, formed out of 
 the ancient districts of Bresse, Bugey, and a 
 part of Bumindy. It is enclosed by Savoy, 
 
 Switzerland, and the departments of the Isere ; 
 the Rhone and Loire, the Saone and Loire, 
 and finally of Jura, and extends about twenty- 
 two leagues from east to west, and seventeen 
 from north to south ; the number of square 
 leagues is 299. It is divided into the four 
 arrondissements of Bourg, Nantua, Belley, and 
 Trevoux, and contained, according to the most 
 recent returns to the board of statistics at Paris, 
 322,608 inhabitants. 
 
 AIN, a town in the pachalic of Bagdad, ninety 
 miles west of Bussorah. 
 
 AINA, the name given by Josephus to Ai, 
 which see. 
 
 AINOS, or AINUS, sometimes called also Wild 
 Kuriles, the aborigines of Jesso, and Saghalin. 
 See JESSO. 
 
 AINIMOSA, a large and opulent town, in 
 the N.E. of Wallachia, N.W. of Tergovitz. 
 
 AINOD, a splendid castle and lordship, on 
 the river Gurk, in Carniola, 5 miles N.W. of 
 Rudolfswerth. 
 
 AINSA, a town of Spain, in the principality 
 of Sorbrabe. and kingdom of Arragon, seated in 
 a plain, on the river Cinca. 
 
 AINSWORTH, (Dr. Henry,) an eminent 
 nonconformist divine, who, about the year 1590, 
 distinguished himself among the Brownists, 
 which drew upon him such troubles, that he re- 
 tired to Holland, and became minister of a church 
 at Amsterdam. His skill in the Hebrew lan- 
 guage, and his excellent Annotations on the 
 Holy Scriptures, which are still highly esteemed, 
 gained him great reputation. He also wrote 
 several pieces in defence of the Brownists, (to 
 which bishop Hall replied,) with other works. 
 The circumstances that occasioned his death, are 
 somewhat extraordinary, and deserve to be men- 
 tioned. Having found a diamond of great value 
 in the streets of Amsterdam, he advertised it ; 
 and when the owner, who was a Jew, came to 
 demand it, he offered him any acknowledgment 
 which he would desire. Ainsworth, though 
 poor, would accept of no remuneration but a 
 conference with some of the Jewish rabbies, upon 
 the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to 
 the Messiah, which the Jew promised ; but not 
 having interest sufficient to obtain it, through 
 shame or vexation, or from some other motive, 
 he is said to have poisoned Ainsworth. This 
 event happened about the year 1629. 
 
 AINSWORTH, (Robert,) born at W^oodyale, in 
 Lancashire, 1660, was master of a boarding- 
 school at Bethnal-Green, whence he removed to 
 Hackney, and other places in the neighbourhood 
 of London. After acquiring a moderate fortune, 
 he retired, and lived privately till 1743, when 
 he died. We are indebted to him for the best 
 Latin and English Dictionary extant : he pub- 
 lished itm 1736 ; and in 1752, the fourth edition, 
 under the care of Dr. Ward, of Gresham College, 
 and the Rev. William Younge, was enlarged to 
 two vols. folio. It has been since published in 
 quarto and octavo, with various improvements 
 
 AINTAB. SeeANTAB. 
 
 AJOVEA, in botany, a genus of the hexandria 
 monogynia class and order; the characters of 
 which are : CAL. single-leaved and tridentated ; 
 COR. three petals, the filaments terminated with
 
 A I R 
 
 373 
 
 two glandules, the antherae doubly excavated ; STIG . 
 divided into six segments, and the fruit a round- 
 ish, single-celled, monospermous berry. There 
 is one species, viz. A Guianensis ; which grows 
 in the forests of Guiana. 
 
 AIOU, a group of sixteen islands, in the 
 Eastern seas, off the north coast of Waygion, 
 and surrounded by a reef fifty miles in compass, 
 which is penetrated by a deep channel on the 
 north-west side. 
 
 AIOU BABA, is the largest about five miles in 
 circuit, and 500 feet high, and lies in 128. 25'. 
 
 . Long, and 0. 32'. N. Lat. Tropical fruits 
 and roots are produced here ; and the inhabitants 
 obtain abundance of fish and turtle. They pro- 
 cure sago from Waygion and Rawak ; and sel! 
 tortoise-shell and biche de mer, (an animal of 
 the mollusca tribe, much sought for in the East- 
 ern seas,) to the Chinese. 
 
 AIPJXIMIRA, in ichthyology, the name ot 
 an American fish, more usually known by the 
 name of pudiano. It is small, of the shape of 
 a pearch, with a purple back, and yellow sides 
 and belly. 
 
 A I R. 
 
 AIR, v. & 71.^ Gr. arip, aiifu, to breathe. 
 R RIAL, Fr. air. The noun designates 
 
 jE'RiE, the fluid which constitutes our 
 
 AIR'INESS, (atmosphere, and which sur- 
 AIR'ING, (rounds or penetrates all sub- 
 AIR'LESS, stances with which we are con- 
 
 AIR'LIXG, I versant; it is variously com- 
 AIR'Y. J bined and modified, and is 
 
 necessary to animal life. The different signifi- 
 cations of the root and its derivations, are 
 deduced from the attributes of the air ; hence, 
 when its motion is forcible, it is the wind. 
 
 The adjectives mostly refer to that which is light, 
 gay, and unsteady. Through the medium of the 
 French and Italian tongues, air signifies the 
 carriage or deportment of a person ; sound in 
 music and poetry ; aery, is the eagle's nest, so 
 called from its aerial situation. 
 
 Lyke as when an arowe is sbott at a marck, it 
 parteth the ayre, which immediatly commeth together 
 agayne, so that a ma can not knowe where it wete 
 thorow. Bible, 1539. Wysdome, c. v. 
 
 For Jupiter had from the heuynnis fare, 
 Send down Iris, quhilk duellis in the are 
 Unto his spous and sister thare at hand, 
 Ful scharp chargis bringis and command. 
 
 Douglas, b. ix. p. 307. 
 Joy'd to range abroad in fresh attire, 
 Thro' the wide compass of the airy coast. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 There be many good and healthful airs, that do 
 appear by habitation and other proofs ; that differ 
 not in smell from other airs. 
 
 Bacon's Natural History, No. 904. 
 The first is the transmission, or emission of the 
 thinner and more airy parts of bodies ; as in odours 
 and infections ; and this is of all the rest, the most 
 corporeal. . . . Bacon. 
 
 Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top, 
 And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. 
 
 Richard III. 
 
 He that is merry and airy at shore, when he sees 
 a sad tempest on the sea ; or dances when God 
 thunders from heaven ; regards not, when God speaks 
 to all the world. Taylor. 
 
 Fresh gales and gentle airs 
 
 Whisper'd it to the woods ; and from their wings 
 Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub, 
 Disporting ' Paradise Lost. 
 
 Nor think, with wind 
 
 Of any threats to sv/e, whom yet with deeds 
 Thou can'st not. Idem. 
 
 Nor (to avoid such meanness) soaring high, 
 With empty sound and airy notions fly. 
 
 Roscommon 
 
 I have found a complaint concerning the scarcity 
 of money ; which occasioned many airy propositions, 
 for the remedy of it. Temple's Miscell. 
 
 The painters draw their nymphs in thin and airy 
 habits ; but the weight of gold and of embroideries is 
 reserved for queens and goddesses. Dryden. 
 
 There are fishes that have wings, that are no 
 strangers to the airy region. Boyle. 
 
 If I were to tell what I mean by the word air ; I may 
 say, it is that fine matter which we breathe in and 
 breathe out continually : or it is that thin fluid body, 
 in which the birds fly, a little above the earth ; or it 
 is that invisible matter, which fills all places near 
 the earth, or which immediately encompasses the 
 giooe of earth and water. Watt's Logick. 
 
 As I was here airing myseif on the tops of the 
 mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation, on 
 the vanity of human life ; and passing from one 
 thought to another, surely said I, man is but a, 
 shadow, and life a dream. Spectator. 
 
 As meadows parch'd, brown groves, and with'ring 
 
 flow'rs, 
 
 Imbibe the sparkling dew, and genial show'rs, 
 As chill dark air inhales the morning beam, 
 As thirsty harts enjoy the gelid stream ; 
 Thus to man's grateful soul from heav'n descend, 
 The mercies of his Father, Lord, and Friend. 
 
 Sir W. Jones, 
 
 The eagle falls from her aerial tower, 
 And mingles with irrevocable dust j 
 But man from death springs joyful, 
 Springs up to life and to eternity. 
 
 Kirk White's Poena. 
 
 1. AIR, is a generic name for permanently 
 elastic fluids ; or, to speak with more strictness of 
 language, for those exceedingly rare substances 
 which are not condensable, even into what is com- 
 monly called the fluid state, by any degree of cold 
 that has hitherto been found in nature, or produced 
 by art. But as this term air, is, in its common sig- 
 nification, limited to the specification of that com- 
 pound of aeriform fluids by which the atmosphere 
 is constituted, we shall in the present article 
 restrict ourselves to the consideration of this last 
 compound, and treat of other gaseous fluids under 
 the words GAS and CHEMISTRY. 
 
 2. The atmosphere demands to be considered 
 in three points of view ; in the first instance we 
 are naturally called upon to describe its physical 
 and sensible properties ; secondly, its chemical 
 composition affords a rich source for minute in- 
 vestigation ; and, lastly, it may be found in- 
 teresting to discuss the medicinal relations ot tl 
 air we breathe to the general conditions of health
 
 374 
 
 A I R. 
 
 or sickness. It is in this order then that we now 
 proceed. 
 
 3. SECT. I. PHYSICAL OR MECHANICAL PRO- 
 PERTIES OF AIR. The atmosphere is a thin, 
 transparent, invisible, and elastic fluid, which 
 surrounds our planet ; and reaches to a consider- 
 able height above its surface, probably about 
 forty miles. 
 
 4. Air is a ponduous body. Of this property 
 the ancients seem to have had some confused 
 notions ; thus Aristotle says that all the elements 
 have gravity, and even air itself; and as a proof 
 of it, he says, that a bladder inflated with air 
 weighs more than the same when empty ; and 
 Plutarch and Stobreus quote him as teaching 
 that the air in its weight is between that of fire 
 and earth ; and, further, he himself, treating of 
 respiration, reports it as the opinion of Empe- 
 docles, that he ascribes the cause of it to the 
 weight of air, which by its pressure forces itself 
 into the lungs ; and much in the same manner 
 are the sentiments of Asclepiades expressed by 
 Plutarch, who represents him as saying, among 
 other things, that the external air by its weight 
 forcibly opened its way into the breast. Never- 
 theless it is certain, however unreasonable it 
 may seem, that Aristotle's followers departed in 
 this instance from their master, by asserting the 
 contrary for many ages together. Several of the 
 phenomena arising from this property of pon- 
 derosity in the air, had, indeed, been remarked 
 from the highest antiquity. Many centuries 
 since, it was known that, by sucking the air 
 from an open pipe, having its extremity immersed 
 in water, this liquid arises above its level, and 
 occupies the place of the air. In consequence 
 of such observations, sucking pumps were con- 
 trived, and various other hydraulic machines ; 
 as Heron's syphons, described in his Spiritalia, 
 or Pneumatics, and the water clocks known in 
 Aristotle's time, under the name of clepsydrae, 
 which alternately stop or run as the finger closes 
 or opens their upper orifice. Indeed, the reason 
 assigned by philosophers, many ages after, for 
 this phenomenon, was a pretended horror which 
 nature conceives for a vacuum ; so, that rather 
 than endure such vacuum, it makes a body as- 
 cend contrary to the powerful solicitations of its 
 gravity. It is curious, we may remark by the 
 way, to observe, how, in every part of ancient 
 philosophy, final were thus mixed and confounded 
 with efficient causes. Every thing in nature was 
 explained on the principle of design. 
 
 5. Among the more modern investigators of 
 the properties of air, we may first mention 
 Galileo, who was born in the latter part of the 
 sixteenth century. He found that a copper ball, 
 in which the air had been condensed, weighed 
 heavier than when the air was in its ordinary 
 state of tension. The fact was afterwards demon- 
 strated by Torricelli, whose attention was drawn 
 to the subject by the attempt of a well-digger at 
 Florence, to raise water, by a sucking pump, to 
 a height exceeding thirty-three feet. It was 
 then found that the pressure of the atmosphere, 
 and not nature's abhorrence of a vacuum, was 
 the cause of the ascent of the water in the pump- 
 pipes ; and that a column of about the height 
 mentioned, was sufficient to equipoise the atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 6. In the year 1643, this able disciple of 
 Galileo took a glass tube of some feet in length, 
 sealed it hermetically at one end, and filled it 
 with quicksilver ; then inverting it, and holding 
 it upright, by pressing his finger against the 
 lower or open orifice, he immersed that end in a 
 vessel of quicksilver ; then removing his finger, 
 and suffering the fluid to run out, the event 
 verified his conjecture; the quicksilver descended 
 till the column of it was about thirty inches high 
 above the surface of that in the vessel below. 
 Hence Torricelli concluded that it was no other 
 than the weight of the air, incumbent on the sur- 
 face of the external quicksilver, which counter- 
 balanced the fluid contained in the tube. The 
 empty space, formed by the descent of the quick- 
 silver from the upper part of the tube, has been 
 called the Torricellian vacuum, and is as perfect 
 as any that can be formed. 
 
 7. Torricelli thus, not only proved that the 
 air had ponderosity, but also that it is this 
 property of the atmosphere which keeps water 
 and quicksilver raised in pumps and tubes. 
 
 8. This experiment and its results soon be- 
 came generally known. It was repeated and 
 varied in several ways; Messrs. Pascal and 
 Petit in France, especially occupied themselves 
 in the investigation At the age of twenty three, 
 an experimental treatise was published by the 
 former, entitled Experiences Nouvelles touchant 
 la Vuide, in which the writer, after first rea- 
 soning on the old notion of nature's abhorrence 
 of vacuum, adopts the Torricellian principle of 
 pressure from the air, and devises several ex- 
 periments in confirmation of it. 
 
 9. The very important discovery was now 
 made, that upon ascending a mountain, quick- 
 silver fell in the tube, because there was less 
 air above to press upon the surface of the metal 
 in the basin; and in this way the doctrine in 
 question was not only illustrated and confirmed, 
 but a method was discovered for ascertaining 
 the height of mountains, by means of the baro- 
 meter, this instrument, by the rise and fall of 
 its contained fluid, indicating a corresponding 
 change in the density of the atmosphere. See 
 BAROMETER and METEOROLOGY. 
 
 10. At the surface of the earth, it has been 
 seen that the mean density or pressure, is equal 
 to the support of a column of quicksilver thirty 
 inches high. 
 
 At 1000 feet above the surface the column 
 falls to ... 28-91 inches. 
 
 2000 27-86 
 
 3000 26-85 
 
 4000 25-87 
 
 5000 ....;.. 24-93 
 
 1 mile 24-67 
 
 2 20-29 
 
 3 16-68 
 
 4 13-72 
 
 5 11-28 
 
 10 4-24 
 
 15 1-60 
 
 20 0-95 
 
 11. The weight of the air, and its mechanics 
 properties in general are well illustrated by the 
 uir-jmip; but for an account of this instrument 
 and its uses, we must refer to another part of
 
 A I R. 
 
 our work See PNEUMATICS. It is sufficient for 
 our present purpose to have established the 
 principle that air has a positive weight, and that 
 its density decreases in proportion to the alti- 
 tude from the earth at which experiments are in- 
 stituted. 
 
 12. The next quality of air which we may no- 
 tice is its ELASTICITY, by which it is capable of 
 being compressed into a smaller bulk than ordi- 
 nary, but returns, like a spring to its original 
 volume, immediately upon the pressing force 
 being removed. It may be proper to remark, 
 that this property of air is susceptible of some 
 diminution, by long-continued and violent pres- 
 sure. The property itself is easily rendered 
 evident by the following simple experiment. 
 Take a shrivelled bladder, which contains only a 
 small quantity of air, and put it under the receiver 
 of the air-pump ; then exhaust the receiver of its" 
 air, and the bladder, from being shrivelled or 
 collapsed, will expand itself to its full dimen- 
 sions ; thus proving the elasticity of the air con- 
 tained within the bladder, which only awaited 
 the taking off of the pressure from without, thus 
 to expand its volume. 
 
 13. This property of air is distinct from its 
 density, and indeed is, in a manner, opposed to 
 it ; and it will be found a law of elasticity, that 
 it increases as, the density of the air increases, for 
 there must necessarily be a balance between ac- 
 tion and re-action ; i. e. the gravity of the air, 
 which is a compressing power, and its elasticity, 
 which is an expanding quality, will prove equal. 
 Hence, its elasticity increasing or diminishing 
 universally as the density increases or diminishes, 
 it is of no consequence whether the air be com- 
 pressed and retained in a given space by the 
 weight of the atmosphere, or by any other 
 means ; it must endeavour, in either case, to re-act 
 or expand with the same force. And hence, if 
 air near the earth be pent up in a vessel, and all 
 communication with the circumambient fluid be 
 cut off, the pressure of the enclosed air will 
 be equal to the weight of the atmosphere, at the 
 time the quantity was confined. 
 
 14. By this property of expansion, air enters 
 with facility into all parts not already occupied 
 by the pressure of solid matter : thus it gains 
 access into the pores of bodies, and creates a 
 perpetual oscillation among the particles of the 
 material universe. Indeed the degree of heat, 
 and the air's gravity and density, and conse- 
 quently its elasticity and expansion, never re- 
 maining the same for the least space of time, 
 there must be an incessant vibration, dilation, 
 and contraction in all bodies. From this cause 
 it is, that the air contained in bubbles of ice, 
 by its continued action bursts the ice. Thus, 
 also, entire columns of marble sometimes are 
 cleft in the winter, from the increased elasticity 
 of some little bubble of air contained in them ; 
 and for the same reason it is that few stones will 
 bear to be heated by fire without cracking into 
 many pieces, by the increased expansive force of 
 some air confined within their pores. 
 
 16. This principle of reciprocation is indeed 
 traceable in its effects, even upon organic ex- 
 istence, although in this case, it is more under 
 he modification of laws, which apply only to 
 
 living or osganized matter; but the compression 
 and expansion of vessels, in the vegetable king- 
 dom, for example, must depend greatly upon the 
 conditions of the atmosphere already alluded to ; 
 and it is found that no vegetation or germination 
 is carried on in vacuo. The effects which follow 
 the application of cupping glasses to the surface 
 of the animal body are in proof and illustration 
 of this principle. 
 
 16. It has not, however, been fully ascertained 
 to what degree, air of the density which it pos- 
 sesses at the surface of the earth, is susceptible 
 of being compressed. Dr. Hales, by means ot 
 a press, condensed it thirty-eight ; and afterwards, 
 by forcing water in an iron globe, into 1551 
 times less space than it naturally occupies. But 
 Dr. Halley, from experiments made both in 
 London and at Florence, concluded that no 
 force whatever is able to reduce air into 800 
 times less space than that which it naturally 
 possesses on the surface of our earth. Experi- 
 ments made by Mr. Boyle, however, in reference 
 to the dilatability of the air, present astonishing 
 results. This philosopher dilated it to even 
 13,679 times its natural space, and this without 
 the help of fire. It is stated, indeed, that the 
 air we constantly inspire, is compressed by its 
 own weight into at least the 13679th part of the 
 space it would occupy in vacuo. But if the same 
 air be compressed or condensed by art, the space 
 it would take up when most dilated, to that it 
 occupies when condensed, will be, according to 
 experiments, as 5500 to 1. PUMP, AIR. 
 
 17. This elastic property of the air is exerted 
 equally in all directions ; and when air is at 
 liberty and freed from the cause which com- 
 pressed it, it of course expands equally in all 
 directions ; and, in consequence, always assumes 
 a spherical figure in the interstices of fluids in 
 which it is lodged. This is evident when liquors 
 are placed in the receiver of an air-pump, and 
 the air exhausted ; at first there appear a multi- 
 tude of exceedingly small bubbles, like grains of 
 fine sand, dispersed through the fluid mass, and 
 rising upwards; and as more air is pumped out, 
 they enlarge in size, but still they continue 
 round. Also, if a plate of metal be immersed in 
 the liquor, on pumping, its surface will soon be 
 covered over with small round bubbles, composed 
 of the air which adhered to it, now expanding itself : 
 and for the same reason it is, that large glass 
 globes, &c. are always blown up of a spherical 
 shape, by blowing air through an iron tube into 
 a piece of melted glass at the end of the pipe. 
 
 18. It will be understood, from what has been 
 said, that the space occupied by a determinate 
 quantity of air, is in the inverse ratio of the 
 elastic force; and, from this law, it follows, 
 that, with the same given temperature, the elas- 
 ticity of two moleculae of air does not augment 
 by their mutual approach. 
 
 19. In order to render this inference sensible, 
 let a mass of air be conceived to be enclosed in a 
 bladder, which communicates with a recurved 
 or syphon-like tube containing mercury, and let 
 it be supposed that its elastic force is in equi- 
 librio with a column of mercury ; of thirty inches- 
 high : if the bladder be compressed in such 
 manner that the air shall be reduced to half its
 
 376 
 
 A I 11. 
 
 volume, the stratum of air contiguous to the 
 surface of the liquid mercury, will evidently 
 have a density twice as great as it had b fore 
 the compression ; and consequently, a double 
 number of moleculx of air will touch and act 
 upon the surface ; therefore, since, according to 
 the experiment, the height of the column of 
 mercury has been doubled, the elasticity of 
 each moleculae has necessarily been the same ; 
 thence it follows, as we have stated, that with 
 a given temperature, the elasticity of the mo- 
 leculffi of air is not increased by their mutual 
 approach, the number is merely multiplied of 
 moleculae acting upon an assumed surface. 
 
 The truth thus established, manifestly con- 
 lucts to the following results. 
 
 20. i. The moleculae of gas yield sensibly 
 only to the repulsive force of heat, and the at- 
 traction which they exercise one upon another, is 
 very small,with respect to that force : thus, their 
 elasticity depends exclusively upon the temperature, 
 and the quantity of free caloric which exists in a 
 mass of air, is, at equal temperature, proportional 
 to its volume ; for, if there were more under the 
 same volumes in the state of condensation, than 
 in dilatation, the repulsive force of two neigh- 
 bouring moleculae would be augmented. 
 
 21 ii. If the volume of a gas be diminished, a 
 third or a half, there must be disengaged a third 
 or a half of the free caloric which existed between 
 its moleculae. The effect of the caloric thus 
 disengaged, is perceptible upon the velocity of 
 sound; it produces the excess of that velocity, 
 over that given by the ordinary theory ; as has 
 been shewn by the calculus of Laplace and others. 
 
 22. iii. If we conceive equal volurnes of two 
 different gases comprised in two envelopes of the 
 same capacity, and inextensible ; and suppose 
 that at a given temperature, the elasticity of 
 these two gases is the same ; on augmenting 
 in the same manner their temperature, the aug- 
 mentation of their elasticity will be the same, 
 since it depends only upon their temperature. 
 If we now conceive the envelope comprising 
 the two gases to become extensible, the gases 
 will dilate, until their elasticity is in equi- 
 librio with the pressure of the atmosphere sur- 
 rounding the envelope ; and since for each gas 
 the volume is in the inverse ratio of the elastic 
 force, the two gases will assume the same vo- 
 lume, and will dilate equally; which is con- 
 formable to experience. 
 
 23. FLUIDITY is another property which philo- 
 sophers have ascribed to air ; but this quality 
 should be, perhaps, in strict propriety, regarded 
 negatively, or considered as an insusceptibility 
 of being made to assume the condition of a solid, 
 by any extent of condensing power, or pressure, 
 which art is capable of effecting, or perhaps, 
 man of conceiving. True it is, as we shall im- 
 mediately see, when treating on the chemical 
 properties of the atmosphere, that the specific 
 principles which enter into the formation of ~ir, 
 are capable of passing from an aerial, or fluid' 
 into a solid state; and there is even some com- 
 plication connecting itself with this result, when 
 minute investigation is given to its rationale; 
 but that air, as air, should be solidifiable, im- 
 
 plies, under our present acquaintance with the 
 laws of the universe, a contradiction in terms. 
 
 24. SECT. II. We now then proceed to the 
 second division of our subject, viz. THE CHEMI- 
 CAL COMPOSITION, AND PROPERTIES OF ATMOS- 
 PHERIC AIR a subject which cannot be con- 
 templated in all its bearings, without exciting 
 astonishment and admiration a subject, indeed, 
 which involves all the leading, and many of the 
 minor circumstances, by which the line of de- 
 marcation is marked out between the chemistry 
 of former times, and the chemistry of the pre- 
 sent day, with more decision, fulness, and force, 
 than, perhaps, is done in any other department 
 of scientific inquiry. 
 
 25. In following the march of philosophy, com- 
 mencing from the earliest periods, the reflecting 
 observer will often meet with announcements 
 and intimations, which imply, on the part of the 
 persons making them, and the periods in which 
 they were made, a greater precision and accuracy, 
 in respect of particular insights into nature's 
 laws, than either the persons or the times in 
 other ways substantiate : this remark will be 
 found to apply with especial propriety to the 
 topic now under discussion; so much so indeed, 
 that some have refused the credit of novelty and 
 discovery, to the development of those laws of 
 atmospheric composition, and the circumstances 
 of gaseous being, which have recently operated 
 that vast reformation in chemical research, to 
 which we have above adverted. But it should 
 be recollected, in justice to the moderns, that the 
 lights alluded to were spent and dispersed amidst 
 the surrounding darkness of the aera in which 
 they appeared that the individuals by whom 
 these anticipations of future discoveries were 
 made, seemed scarcely themselves conscious of 
 the great fundamental truths they were indicating; 
 and even at farthest, as was remarked by a mo- 
 dem chemist of most deserved celebrity : ' We 
 are not to consider conclusions as unavailing, 
 because anticipated; the very circumstance of 
 attaining them by different means justifies the 
 research ; and he, whose investigations disclose 
 new views, and unfold new truths, may rest 
 satisfied that he has not laboured in vain, because 
 he ultimately arrives where others have been 
 before him. In estimating, however, the true 
 merits of chemical discoveries and inventions; 
 and more especially in determining the excel- 
 lence and originality of theories, it is requisite to 
 look to their sources, to examine the steps which 
 led to them, and the paths by which they are 
 surrounded ; and upon that examination to found 
 our opinion.' 
 
 26. The leading feature and important novelty 
 of the science, as influencing its progress in the 
 last century, was certainly the discovery of 
 gaseous bodies, and the perfection of pneumatic 
 chemistry, without which, analysis could have 
 made little progress; and independent of which, 
 all improvement in theory would have been but 
 lame and ineffectual : it was also materially, 
 though less directly assisted by those investiga- 
 tions respecting the agency of heat, in which Dr. 
 Black made himself so eminently conspicuous.' 
 
 27. We deem it expedient then, in this place.
 
 A 1 R. 
 
 377 
 
 instead of limiting ourselves to a statement of 
 the chemical components of the air we breathe, 
 first to give a succinct history of the several cir- 
 cumstances by which the great laws at present 
 known to regulate aerial bodies, became 
 gi-adually developed into their present state of 
 maturity. 
 
 28. It is now about two hundred years, since 
 the burning of some substances in the open air, 
 was distinctly observed to be attended with an 
 increase of weight. Le Brun having melted two 
 pounds six ounces of tin, found that in six hours 
 the whole had passed into a state of calx, weigh-, 
 ing three pounds one ounce : and, being puzzled 
 at the circumstance, he consulted REY, a physi- 
 cian of Perigord, as to its cause, who imme- 
 diately set about an investigation of the matter, 
 which terminated in explicitly referring the cause 
 of the increase to the fixation afair. 
 
 29. We request the reader particularly to 
 notice the above, as being the first among modern 
 intimations, of the relation in which certain kinds 
 of solid substances stand, to the invisible matter 
 oy which they are surrounded. 
 
 30. Hooke in his investigations, and Boyle by 
 his experiments with the air-pump, which was 
 now just perfected and coming into use, suc- 
 ceeded not merely in demonstrating the impor- 
 tant part performed by the pressure of atmos- 
 pheric air in combustion, but Hooke carried his 
 enquiries still further, and, in his mind's eye at 
 least, seems to have seen, and anticipated, the re- 
 sults that were gained at a much later period of 
 chemical science, and established upon a less 
 questionable authority. 
 
 31. These, more than intimations, we may 
 almost say, of Hooke, were further illustrated by 
 John Mayow, who was born in Cornwall, in the 
 year 1645, and died in London, 1697, at the 
 house of an apothecary, in York-street, Covent 
 Garden. This experimentalist seems to have been 
 early struck with the analogy between the phe- 
 nomena of combustion and those of respiration. 
 He burned a candle-end in a bell-glass, and 
 found the air so deteriorated, as to be unfit for 
 the continuance of combustion. He then con- 
 fined a mouse in a similar portion of air, and it 
 soon manifested the want of its renewal. Then, 
 by putting a mouse and a candle under the same 
 bell-glass, he found it live only half the time 
 that it had survived when under the glass alone. 
 He then renewed the experiment, and endeavour- 
 ed to fire combustible matter in air that had been 
 spoiled by breathing ; and finding that it would 
 not burn, he observes, that ' the nitro-derial par- 
 ticles are absorbed both by the candle and the animal.'' 
 
 32. Examining the residuary air standing over 
 water after combustion, he found that it was a 
 little lighter than the atmosphere, and extinguish- 
 ed flame ; then he described the deleterious as 
 well as the vivifying portion of the atmosphere, 
 and speaks of the former as a non-supporter of 
 combustion, of its being not absorbable by water, 
 and, as we have intimated, of its being lighter 
 than atmospheric air itself. The next individual 
 whom it is in order to name, in this historical 
 sketch, is Dr. Hales, who was born in Kent, in 
 the year 1677, and died at Teddington, 1761. 
 Hug highly talented and virtuous man commenced 
 
 the communication of his lesearches to the 
 Royal Society about the year 1717: and in 1727 
 he published his 'Statical Essays,' containing 
 a specimen of an attempt to analyse the air by 
 a great variety of chemico-statical experiments, 
 which were read at several meetings berore the 
 Royal Society.' 
 
 33. Dr H. employed several methods of col- 
 lecting and examining the gaseous products of 
 a variety of bodies, many of which, approach 
 those that now are in use. Sometimes he placed 
 substances upon a stand, under a bell-glass, in- 
 verted over water ; or he employed a flask to 
 contain the materials, producing aeriform matter, 
 over which was placed a bell-glass, the whole 
 being confined over water as before ; or, where 
 a high temperature was required foi the pro- 
 duction of the gaseous bodies, he used an iron 
 retort, formed of a bent gun-barrel, and received 
 the air into a vessel inverted in a tub of water. 
 
 34. In the course of his investigations, Dr. H. 
 observed that phosphorus, when burned, absorbed 
 air, and produced white fumes ; but he neglected 
 any examination of the product and of the re- 
 sidue. He distilled air from wood, and found 
 it fatal to animals ; from Newcastle coal he ob- 
 tained one third its weight of gas ; from nitre, 
 one hundred aud eighty times its bulk ; and from 
 salt of tartar urged by intense heat, he also pro- 
 cured aeriform matter; but in no one instance 
 did he examine these gaseous bodies with the 
 attention that might have been expected from 
 an experimentalist so diligent and original. He 
 found that iron filings, and oil of vitriol produced 
 scarcely any air ; but that upon the addition of 
 water, gas was abundantly evolved from such a 
 mixture. Here he obtained hydrogen, but in- 
 stead of stopping to examine its properties, he 
 hastens on to irrelevant observations, and seems 
 always eager rather to multiply experiments, 
 than to examine their results. 
 
 35. In the experiments on respiration, Dr. 
 Hales obtained results of such interest, that one is 
 surprised (says the intelligent historian whom we 
 are now principally following) at the coldness 
 with which he pursued them, and the careless- 
 ness with which he drops the enquiry. Finding 
 that a given quantity of air could only be re- 
 spired for a given time ; and that it soon pro- 
 duced oppression and difficulty of breathing, 
 in consequence, as he says, ' of the gross and 
 sulphureous vapours with which it becomes load- 
 ed,' he endeavoured to discover some substance, 
 which by absorbing those vapours, might render 
 respired air more fit for breathing and conse- 
 quently contribute to its purification in small 
 and crowded rooms, and other similar situations. 
 In other experiments the author notices the puri- 
 fication of air spoiled by the burning of candles, 
 and of brimstone, by the action of calcined tar- 
 tar ; but he takes no pains to enquire into the 
 specific actions of the salt, and confounds it with 
 that of saline bodies generally. 
 
 36. These charges of oversight and neglert, 
 when seemingly a little closer attention might 
 have effected so much in the way of discovery, 
 scarcely seem applicable to this great man's re- 
 searches respecting the connection of the vege- 
 table world with the circumambient an-; and
 
 378 
 
 A I R. 
 
 besides otner important particulars, which are 
 not applicable to our present purpose, he en- 
 gaged in a series of experiments, to shew that a 
 considerable quantity of air is inspired by plants; 
 but still he always fails of precisely discriminating 
 between common air and the various gaseous 
 products that resulted from some of his experi- 
 ments ; and therefore, as was likewise the cass 
 with his contemporary Boerhaave, stopped short 
 of giving any thing like a satisfactory account of 
 the component parts of atmospheric air. 
 
 37. Indeed the fixability of air, if we may 
 so express it, remained for proof, until the two 
 great discoveries of Dr. Black came to oe ap- 
 plied to the investigation of gaseous being ; and 
 it has always appeared to us, that these dis- 
 coveries effected more towards producing a 
 thorough reformation in the whole body of chemi- 
 cal doctrines, than any thing prior or posterior 
 to them. What were these discoveries ? When 
 Dr. Black first entered the precincts of che- 
 mistry, ( we, in this and several other places, 
 use the words of Brande,) there was a busy 
 and acute controversy respecting the cause of 
 causticity, in earths and alkalies; it was, by some, 
 supposed that the conversion of lime-stone into 
 quicklime depended upon its absorbing certain 
 igneous particles ; by others, the change was 
 referred to an acrid acid, contracted in the fire ; 
 by others, to non-descript saline particles. 
 
 38. Dr. Black's notice appears to have been 
 drawn to this enquiry, by the researches of 
 Hoffman concerning the nature of magnesia : 
 he found that when that earth was obtained, 
 by adding a mild alkali to a solution of Epsom 
 salts, it effervesced upon the addition of an 
 acid ; but that, if heated red hot, it no longer 
 effervesced, and, moreover, lost considerably in 
 weight. The same fact applied equally to lime, 
 and led him to believe, that that substance, in- 
 stead of acquiring its acrimony by the absorp- 
 tion of something from the fire, became caus- 
 tic, by the loss or expulsion of one of its ele- 
 ments, in consequence of being heated. He 
 then distilled some magnesia in a retort ; but 
 finding that though it diminished considerably in 
 weight, the only visible loss it sustained was 
 a minute portion of water, he conceived the pos- 
 sibility of the escape of some gaseous matter ; 
 and, on mixing common magnesia and an acid 
 in a proper phial, he collected a considerable 
 quantity of a permanently elastic gaseous body ; 
 from chalk, or lime-stone, and from the mild 
 alkalies he procured a similar gas, and termed 
 itfxed air a term which, however improper, 
 may be taken partly in proof of the fact, that 
 our present discoverer was the first properly 
 to appreciate the concentrability of gaseous prin- 
 ciples. Dr. Black was born in France, of Scotch 
 parents, in 1728. He died at Edinburgh in 1799. 
 
 39. The next of the two great discoveries of 
 this extraordinary man, respects the different cir- 
 cumstances in which bodies exist in relation to 
 heat. This power, heat, had only been thought 
 of as a cause of raising the temperature, or 
 changing the form of bodies; but Dr. B.'s re- 
 marks established this very important and com- 
 manding principle, viz. that, independently of 
 temperature and even of form, heat attaches itself 
 
 to material substances in such sort as to be lost to 
 the senses, or become hidden. It had already, 
 indeed, been observed, that ice, during liquefac- 
 tion, retained an uniform temperature of 32, and 
 that water, during its boiling, never became hotter 
 than 212, hence the use of those fixed points in 
 the graduation of thermometers. See THERMOME- 
 TER. We have now to indicate merely the views 
 which these phenomena suggested to Dr. Black, 
 and the results that followed his enquiries into 
 their cause and effect. It will be more in order to 
 engage in the detail of these important investiga- 
 tions, in another place, See CHEMISTRY and CA- 
 LORIC ; but it will be necessary here just to say 
 sufficient for the detection of the principle. 
 
 40. When water, it has already been said, 
 is made to boil, the steam which rises is not 
 hotter than the water itself, although there be a 
 continual influx of heat, which, therefore, must 
 become latent in the steam ; and consequently 
 steam and other vapours may be regarded as 
 compounds of liquids and heat. Again, let two 
 masses of matter be mixed together, and the 
 temperature of the mass will not prove a mean 
 of the temperature of the two, but will be 
 higher or lower, according to the nature of the 
 materials employed, without a proportionate 
 quantity of heat being presented to the senses, 
 or even demonstrating itself by causing ther- 
 mometrical variation : hence the heat which 
 thus by admixture has been made to dis- 
 appear, was said to become latent; and the 
 principle which effects this, is one which pre- 
 sents a clue to the whole secret of vaporous, 
 aerial, and gaseous existence ; and gives a facility 
 to our experiments and reasoning on the sub- 
 ject of gaseous constitution, to an almost in- 
 calculable extent. 
 
 41. We have now to advert to the labours 
 of another philosopher, whose investigations on 
 the subject of air, have proved especially availa- 
 ble in reference to the topic under notice, viz. the 
 chemical habits and circumstances and compo- 
 sition of the air we breathe. What was by 
 him called dephlogisticated air, and wi.^t is 
 now usually termed oxygen gas, was discovered 
 by Dr. Priestley, on the first of August 1774. 
 The method of experimenting, which he adopted, 
 consisted in exposing a quantity of red preci- 
 pitate of mercury to the action of the sun's 
 rays, concentrated by a burning lens ; the red 
 precipitate was contained in a small flask, 
 filled up with quicksilver, and inverted in a 
 basin of the same metal : ' I presently found (he 
 says) that by means of this lens, air was expelled 
 from it very readily. Having got about three 
 or four times as much as the bulk of my ma- 
 terial, I admitted water to it, and found that 
 it was not imbibed by it. But what surprised 
 me more than I can well express, was, that 
 a candle burned in this air with a remarkably 
 vigorous flame, very much like that enlarged 
 flame with which a candle burns in nitrous air, 
 exposed to iron, or liver of sulphur; but, as 
 I got nothing like this remarkable appearance 
 from any kind of air, besides this particular modi- 
 fication of nitrous air, and I knew no nitrous acid 
 was used in the preparationof the mercurius calci- 
 naius, I was utterly at a loss how to account for it.
 
 A I R 
 
 37Q 
 
 42. Nitre and other substances were afterwards 
 shown by Dr. Priestley to afford this kind of air, 
 and in the event it came to be ascertained, that 
 the matter thus detected by our experimentalist, 
 as a constituent, so to say, of those bodies, is in 
 truth the main vivifying ingredient of the aerial 
 mass in which we are enveloped. 
 
 43. The constitution indeed of the atmosphere, 
 was one among the many enquiries that engaged 
 Dr. Priestley's diligence, and that was made out 
 during the period of his activity. In 1772, Dr. 
 Rutherford demonstrated the existence of a pe- 
 culiar elastic fluid in atmospheric air, differing 
 from fixed or mephitic air ; and yet, like it, ex- 
 tinguishing flame, and unfit for respiration. 
 This component part of the atmosphere, was 
 denominated by Dr. Priestley phlogisticated 
 air, as the other had been dephlogisticated. 
 
 44. While Priestley was thus occupied in 
 Britain, Scheele, on the Continent, was almost 
 simultaneously engaged in investigations that led 
 to nearly similar results. Finding air necessary 
 for the production of fire, this last experimen- 
 talist turned his attention to its analysis. He 
 found that a solution of liver of sulphur, and cer- 
 tain other sulphurous compounds, occasioned a 
 diminution in the bulk of air to which they 
 were exposed, equal to one part in about five. 
 He likewise obtained what he calls empyreal 
 air, the dephlogisticated air of Priestley, and the 
 oxygen gas of the new nomenclature, by the 
 decomposition of the nitrous acid, and other 
 processes ; he also shews by direct experiments, 
 that the absorption occasioned in atmospheric 
 air by liver of sulphur, is referrible to the ab- 
 straction of its empyreal portion ; that it totally 
 absorbs empyreal air; and that upon adding to 
 the residuary portion of atmospheric air, a quan- 
 tity pf empyreal air, equal to that absorbed by 
 the sulphureous liquor, an air is again com- 
 pounded, similar in all respects to that of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 45. But now the terms dephlogisticated, em- 
 pyreal, &c. were to be exploded, and a new 
 nomenclature introduced into the science of 
 pneumatic chemistry, founded on the principle, 
 that the old theories assumed the presence of an 
 undemonstrable material. It has already been 
 said, that one of the first steps leading to the de- 
 tection of aerial circumstance was, the obser- 
 vation that the burning of some materials in the 
 open air, occasioned an increase of weight in 
 the materials so treated ; this increase of weight 
 in the calcined body, was subsequently found to 
 correspond, cateris paribus, with the quantity of 
 air that disappeared during the experiment ; and 
 it is upon this fact that the Lavoisierean or 
 oxygenous theory came to oppose itself to the 
 phlogistic principles and nomenclature of Priestley 
 and others. Lavoisier analysed atmospheric air 
 in the following way : he exposed fifty cubic 
 inches of it to heated mercury, by which it un- 
 derwent a decrease equal to one sixth of its 
 original bulk, and became unfit for respiration 
 and combustion ; at the same time the quick- 
 silver was partly converted into a reddish 
 matter, forty-five grains of which, heated red 
 hot in a proper retort, afforded 41.5 of run- 
 
 ning mercury, and seven or eight cubical 
 inches of gas, eminently supporting combustion, 
 and being the dephlogisticated air discovered by 
 Priestley. The recombination of the forty-two 
 cubical inches of the mephitic air of the retort, 
 with the eight cubical inches of dephlogisticated 
 air, separated from the mercury, reproduced fifty 
 cubic inches of atmospheric air. 
 
 46. Here then, say the opponents of the phlo- 
 gistic hypothesis, we have both analysis and 
 synthesis, both composition and reduction, to 
 prove that the principle of phlogiston is a gratui- 
 tous and unnecessary assumption, complicating 
 what is simple, and implying a contradiction 
 in terms. All aeriform fluids, says Lavoisier, 
 are compounds of a ponderable. basis, with heat 
 and light; in the above experiment, the ponder- 
 able part of what, in the school of Priestley, was 
 named dephlogisticated air unites to the quick- 
 silver ; this union is effected under other cir- 
 cumstances in different ways and various degrees, 
 and according to the manner of junction, or the 
 quantity combined with the base, different com- 
 pounds are formed ; in all instances, however, it 
 is assumed that the process of combination is 
 effected by taking this same something from the 
 air, and fixing it in the material employed in 
 the experiment. This something was deno- 
 minated oxygen gas by the new theorists, from its 
 general tendency to form acids; and a system 
 of highly ingenious and plausible, but in some 
 instances, as has been subsequently proved, 
 of untenable generalization, was now made to 
 apply in the way of exposition to all the pheno- 
 mena of pneumatic chemistry. See COMBUSTION. 
 
 47 Thus we see, by taking a slight retrospec- 
 tive glance upon the ground that has been gone 
 over, that Le Bran's experiment on combus- 
 tion, together with Mayow's observation of the 
 concentration of nitro-aerial particles, that Hale's 
 subsequent experiments proving the absorption 
 of air during combustion and respiration that 
 Black's discovery of the actual fixidity of air, 
 and the latency of heat ; and lastly, that Priestley's 
 detection of the presence of dephlogisticated air, 
 or according to the more modern nomenclature, 
 oxygen gas, in the presence of certain metallic 
 substances, have constituted altogether the ma- 
 terials out of which our present knowledge of 
 the laws and constitution of the atmosphere has 
 come to be established ; and we now proceed to 
 state more precisely, the component parts of 
 which it is formed, the general habits of the 
 ingredients which enter into its composition, and 
 the means to which nature resorts in order to 
 perpetuate its uniformity and purity. 
 
 48. Atmospheric air is composed of at least 
 two species of air, or elastic fluid the one called 
 oxygen gas or vital air, the other azotic, or 
 more recently nitrogen gas. The first of these is 
 the great agent in respiration and combustion ; 
 and upon the proper proportion of it depends 
 the purity of the atmosphere. The latter pos- 
 sesses contrary qualities, is noxious to animals, 
 and incapable of maintaining combustion; the 
 proportion of these two parts of atmospheric 
 air, is commonly about twenty-six or twenty- 
 seven parts of oxygen air, and seventy-fo .1 or
 
 380 
 
 A I R. 
 
 seventy-three parts of azotic gas by weight ; or 
 about twenty-two parts of the former, and seventy- 
 eight of the latter by bulk. A small portion of 
 hydrogen and carbonic acid gases are found in- 
 deed to enter its composition ; but these two last 
 ingredients are naturally in such small quantity 
 as scarcely to deserve notice. 
 
 49. The immense mass of permanently elastic 
 fluid, (says Ure,) which surrounds the globe 
 we inhabit, must consist of a general assemblage 
 of every kind of air which can be formed by the 
 various bodies which compose its surface. Most 
 of these, however, are absorbed by waters ; a 
 number of them are decomposed by combination 
 with each other, and some of them are seldom 
 disengaged in considerable quantities by the pro- 
 cesses of nature. Hence it is that the lower 
 atmosphere consists chiefly of oxygen and nitrogen, 
 together with moisture, and the occasional 
 vapours or exhalations of bodies. The upper 
 atmosphere seems to be composed of a large 
 proportion of hydrogen, a fluid of so much less 
 specific gravity than any other, that it must natu- 
 rally ascend to the highest places, where, being 
 occasionally set on fire by electricity, it appears 
 to be the cause of the aurora borealis and fire- 
 balls. It may easily be understood that this will 
 only happen on the confines of the respective 
 masses of common atmospherical air, and of the 
 hydrogen, or inflammable air, that the combus- 
 tion will extend progressively, though rapidly, 
 in flashings from the place where it commences ; 
 that when by any means a stream of inflam- 
 mable air, in its progress towards the upper atmos- 
 phere, is set on fire at one end, its ignition may be 
 much more rapid than what happens higher up, 
 where oxygen is wanting, and at the same time 
 more definite in its figure and progression, so as 
 to form the appearance of a fire-ball. See ME- 
 TEOROLOGY. 
 
 50. In the historical sketch we have above 
 given, of the successive steps by which we 
 have acquired the knowledge of aerial compound, 
 will have been seen the Lavoisierean mode of 
 analyzing the air ; but it may be right to be still 
 more particular on this head, and give the fol- 
 lowing experimental method of ascertaining the 
 component principles of the atmosphere. If 
 heat, then, be applied to mercury enclosed in a 
 proper vessel of atmospheric air, the air will be 
 diminished, and the mercury will lose its splen- 
 dour, gradually changing to a reddish powder, 
 and acquiring an addition to its weight. When 
 no further change is observed, the separation of 
 the principles of air has taken place. That por- 
 tion which remains in the receiver is unfit for 
 supporting flame, or maintaining respiration, and 
 is azotic or nitrogen gas ; the other part which is 
 oxygen gas, is absorbed by the mercury, which 
 it reduces to the state of an oxide, and from which 
 it may afterwards be extracted by heat. By this 
 last operation the mercury will be restored to its 
 metallic state, and will lose the weight it had ac- 
 quired during its oxidation. These separated 
 gases thus differing in their properties from each 
 other, and from atmospheric air, being again 
 mixed in the proportions above stated, form at- 
 mospheric air of the ordinary degree of purity ; 
 differing from it, however, in some trifling re- 
 spects, yet not so much as to invalidate the gene- 
 
 ral conclusion, but which differences are probably 
 occasioned by our inability to combine the in- 
 gredients so perfectly as they are combined by 
 nature. 
 
 51. Oxygen, then, and azote, being the main 
 and primary, while carbonic acid, and hydrogen 
 gases are the less and more incidental compo- 
 nents of the atmosphere, we now go on to treat 
 separately of these several ingredients in the order 
 above enumerated. 
 
 52. i. OF OXYGEN GAS. This gas forms 
 about a fifth part of the atmosphere. Water 
 contains 88.88 per cent, of it ; and it exists in 
 most vegetable and animal products, acids, salts, 
 and oxides. 
 
 53. This gas may be obtained from nitrate of 
 potash, exposed to a red heat in a coated glass, 
 or earthen retort, or in a gun barrel, from a pound 
 of which about 1200 cubic inches may be ob- 
 tained ; but this is liable, particularly towards 
 the end of the process, to a mixture of nitrogen. 
 It may be expelled from the red oxide of mer- 
 cury or that of lead, and still better from the 
 black oxide of manganese heated red hot in a 
 gun-barrel, or exposed to a gentle heat in a re- 
 tort with half its weight, or somewhat more of 
 strong sulphuric acid. To obtain it of the greatest 
 purity, however, the chlorate of potash is pre- 
 ferable to any other substance, rejecting the 
 portions that first come over, as being debased by 
 the atmospheric air in the retort. Growing vege- 
 tables exposed to the solar light, give out oxygen 
 gas : so do leaves laid on water in similar situa- 
 tions, the green matter that forms in water, and 
 some other substances. 
 
 54. Oxygen gas has neither smell nor taste. 
 Its specific gravity is 1.1111, 100 cubic 
 inches weigh 33.88 gr. It is a little heavier than 
 atmospheric air. Under great pressure water 
 may be made to take up about half its bulk. It 
 is essential to the support of life hence called 
 vital air ; an animal will live in it a considerable 
 time longer than in atmospheric air ; but its respi- 
 ration becomes hurried and laborious before, the 
 whole is consumed, and it dies, though a fresh 
 animal of the same kind, can still sustain life for 
 a certain time in the residuary air. 
 
 55. Combustion is powerfully supported by 
 oxygen gas. Any inflammable substance previ- 
 ously kindled and introduced into it, burns ra- 
 pidly and vividly. If an iron or a copper wire 
 be introduced into a bottle of oxygen gas, with a 
 bit of lighted touch-wood or charcoal at the end, 
 it will burn with a bright light, and throw out a 
 number of sparks. The bottom of the bottle 
 should be covered with sand, that these sparks 
 may not crack it. If the wire coiled up in a 
 spiral form like a cork-screw, as it usually is in 
 this experiment, be removed with a jerk, the in- 
 stant a melted globule is about to fall, so as to 
 throw it against the sides of the glass, it will 
 melt its way through in an instant ; or if the jerk 
 be less violent lodge itself in the substance of 
 the glass. If it be performed in a bell-glass, set 
 in a plate filled with water, the globules will fre- 
 quently fuse the vitrious glazing of the plate, and 
 unite with it so as not to be separable without 
 detaching the glaze, though it has passed through 
 perhaps two inches of water. 
 
 56. ii. OF AZOTIC OR NITROGEN .T.AS.
 
 A 1 R. 
 
 381 
 
 This gas constitutes four-fifths of the volume of - 6 3. 'Carbonic gas is emitted in large quantities 
 
 the atmosphere. The readiest mode of procuring by bodies in the state of the vinous fermentation - 
 
 it is to abstract its oxygenous associate, by the and on account of its great weieht it occupies the 
 
 combustion of phosphorus, or hydrogen. It may apparently empty space, or upper part of the 
 
 be also obtained from animal matters, subjected vessels in which the fermenting process is going 
 
 in a glass retort to the action of nitric acid 
 diluted with eight or ten times its weight of water. 
 
 A/ * o o 
 
 variety of experiments may be made in 
 this elastic fluid. Lighted paper, or a candle 
 
 57. Azote possesses all the physical properties dipped into it, is immediately extinguished and 
 of air. It extinguishes flame and animal life, the smoke remaining in the carbonic acid gas 
 It is absorbaWe by about 100 volumes of water, renders its surface visible, which by agitation may 
 Its specific gravity is 0.9722. 100 cubic be thrown in to waves like water. If a dish of water 
 inches weigh 29.65 grains. It has neither taste be immersed in this gas, and briskly agitated it 
 nor smell. It unites with oxygen in four pro- soon becomes impregnated, and obtains the pun- 
 
 portions, beside that of atmospheric air, forming gent taste of Pyrmont water. In consequence of 
 four important compounds. These are, 1st. The its weight, this' gas may be lifted out in a pitcher 
 nitrous oxide, or protoxide of azote. 2d. Ni- or bottle, which, if well corked, may be used to 
 trous gas, nitric oxide, or deutoxide of azote, convey it to great distances, or it may be drawn 
 
 out of a vessel by a cock like a liquid. The effects 
 produced by pouring it from one vessel to another 
 have a singular appearance. If a candle or small 
 animal be placed in a deep vessel, the former be- 
 comes extinct, and the latter expires, in a few 
 
 general article CHEMISTRY, and turn to the re- seconds after the gas is poured upon them, though 
 spective substances : some under the head of Gas, the eye is incapable of distinguishing any thing 
 and others in their respective alphabetical order, that is poured. If, however, it be poun.d into a 
 58. Azote has hitherto resisted all attempts vessel full of air, in the sun-shine, its density, 
 to decompose it; but it is supposed to be of a being so much greater than that of the air, renders 
 compound nature, from its being found abun- it slightly visible by the undulations and streaks 
 dantly in the organs of animals, which feed on it forms in this fluid as it descends through it.' 
 
 3d. Nitrous acid. 4th. Nitric acid. It also 
 combines with chlorine and iodine, constituting 
 by the union, two very formidable compounds. 
 For an account of the habits of these se- 
 veral compounds, the reader must consult the 
 
 substances that do not contain it. 
 
 59. Its uses in the economy of the globe are 
 little understood. This is likewise favourable 
 to the idea that its real chemical nature is as yet 
 unknown, and leads to the hope of its being 
 decomposable. 
 
 60. It would appear that the atmospheric 
 azote and oxygen spontaneously combine in 
 other proportions, under certain circumstances, 
 in natural operations. Thus we find that mild 
 calcareous, or alkaline matter favours the forma- 
 tion of nitric acid in certain regions of the 
 
 Ure. For a further account o* this gas see 
 CARBONIC ACID, and CHEMISTRY. 
 
 64. IT. OF HYDROGEN GAS. This is the 
 lightest species of ponderable matter hitherto 
 discovered. It can be procured from water, of 
 which it forms an essential ingredient. It was 
 discovered by Mr. Cavendish in 1766. 
 
 65. Hydrogen gas is about 14.4 times less 
 dense than common air ; sixteen times less dense 
 than oxygen ; and fourteen times less dense than 
 azote. It is colourless and possessed of all the 
 physical properties of air. It has usually a 
 
 earth ; and that they are essential to its produc- slight garlic odour, arising probably from ar- 
 senical particles, derived from the zinc used in 
 its preparation. When water is transmitted 
 over pure iron in a state of ignition, it yields 
 hydrogen free from smell. It is eminently 
 combustible, and if pure, burns with a yellowish 
 white flame; but from accidental combination, 
 its flame has frequently a reddish tinge. Animal 
 
 tion in our artificial arrangements for forming nitre 
 from decomposing animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances. 
 
 61. iii. OF CARBONIC ACID GAS. This gas 
 cannot be formed by the chemist from the direct 
 combination of its constituents ; for, at the tem- 
 perature requisite for effecting a union, the 
 
 carbon attracts its full dose of oxygen, and thus life> and flame are extinguished by this gas, 
 generates carbonic acid. To obtain it pure, though Sir H. Davy has shewn, that if the lungs 
 our only plan is to abstract one proportion of De not previously exhausted by a forced expira- 
 
 oxygen from carbonic acid, either in its gase- 
 ous state, or as condensed in the carbonates. 
 Thus by introducing well-calcined charcoal into 
 a tube traversing a furnace, and, when heated 
 to redness, passing over it backwards and for- 
 wards, by means of two attached mercurial 
 gasometers, or bladders, a slow current of car- 
 bonic acid, we convert the acid into an oxide 
 more bulky than itself. Each prime of the 
 carbon becomes now associated with only one 
 of oxygen, instead of two as before. The carbon 
 acting here by its superior mass is enabled to 
 effect the saturation of the oxygen. 
 
 62. The specific gravity of this gas is slated by 
 
 tion, it may be breathed for a few seconds with- 
 out much seeming inconvenience. 
 
 66. When five measures of atmospheric air 
 are mixed with two of hydrogen, and a lighted 
 taper, or an electric spark is applied to the mix- 
 ture, explosion takes place, three measures of 
 gas disappear, and moisture is deposited on the 
 inside of the glass. When two measures of 
 hydrogen, mixed with one of oxygen, are de 
 tonated, the whole is condensed into water 
 These/ experiments give us, on a small scale, 
 instances of thunder, lightning, and rain. 
 
 67. Hydrogen, combined with oxygen forms 
 water, with chlorine, muriatic acid ; with iodine, 
 
 Lussac and Thenard, from theoretical considera- hydriodic acid ; with prussme, prussic acid ; with 
 
 tions, to be -96782, though Mr. Cruikshanks's ex- 
 perimental estimate was little more than -9500. 
 
 carbon, subcarbonates, carbonates, and hydrafs; 
 will* azote, ammonia; with phosphorus, phos-
 
 382 
 
 A I R. 
 
 phates, &c. ; with sulphur, sulphates, &c. ; with 
 arsenic, arsenuretted hydrogen ; with tellurium, 
 telluretted hydrogen; with potassium, potass- 
 uretted hydrogen; for an account of which, see 
 CHEMISTRY, and the articles in their alphabetical 
 order. 
 
 68. A Question of much interest has been 
 agitated among chemical philosophers, viz. whe- 
 .her the different ingredients, which enter into 
 the composition of air, be commingled in a merely 
 mechanical manner, or whether there be an 
 actually chemical junction of the materials by 
 which the atmosphere is constituted. 
 
 69. Now, as oxygen and azote, or nitrogen, 
 differ in specific gravity, in the proportion of 
 135 to 121, according to Kirwan, and 139 to 
 120 according to Davy, it has been presumed, 
 that the oxygen would be more abundant in the 
 lower regions, and the azote in the higher, if 
 they constituted a mere mechanical mixture, 
 which appears contrary to fact, because they 
 both retain their distinctive propertiec unaltered, 
 and no change of temperature or density takes 
 place on their union. But perhaps it may be 
 said, as they have no repugnance to mix with 
 each other, as oil and water have, the continual 
 agitation to which the atmosphere is exposed, 
 may be sufficient to prevent two fluids, differing 
 not more than oxygen and nitrogen in gravity, 
 from separating by subsidence, though simply 
 mixed. On the contrary, it may be argued, 
 that to say chemical combination cannot take 
 place without producing new properties which 
 did not exist before in the component parts, is 
 merely begging the question; for though this 
 generally appears to be the case, and often in a 
 very striking manner, yet combination does not 
 always produce a change of properties, as ap- 
 pears in M. Biot's experiments, with various 
 substances, of which water may be instanced, 
 the refraction of this being precisely the mean 
 of that of the oxygen and hydrogen, which are 
 indisputably combined in it 
 
 70. Mr. Dalton considers the general atmos- 
 phere as composed of four fluids principally, or 
 four particular atmospheres, namely, those of the 
 four gases above-mentioned. These, he supposes, 
 to be totally unconnected with each other ; the 
 particles of the one, not acting on the particles of 
 the other; agreeably to his opinion that in a 
 mixture of two or more different elastic fluids, 
 the particles of the one neither attract nor repel 
 those of the other, differing in this, from the 
 particles of homogeneous elastic fluids,which repel 
 each other, with a force reciprocally proportional 
 to the distance of their centres from each other. 
 Applying this principle to atmospheric air, he 
 supposes that the density and elastic force of each 
 gas at the earth's surface, are the effects of the 
 the weight of the atmosphere of that gas solely ; 
 different atmospheres not gravitating one upon 
 another, any more than if each were in a vacuum. 
 
 71. This hypothesis, says Dr. Ure, might ac- 
 count for the state of the atmosphere, it is true ; 
 but it does not agree with certain facts. In the 
 case of the carbonic acid gas in the Grotto del 
 Cani. and over the surface of brewers' vats, why 
 does not this gas expand itself freely upward, if 
 the superincumbent gases do not press upon it? 
 
 Mr. Dalton himself too, instances as an argu- 
 ment for this hypothesis, that oxygen and hydro- 
 gen gases when mixed by agitation, do not separate 
 on standing. But why should either oxygen or 
 hydrogen, require agitation to diffuse it through 
 a vacuum in which, according to Mr. Dalton, 
 it is placed ? 
 
 72. The theory of Berthollet (continues Dr. U.) 
 appears consistent with all the facts, and sufficient 
 to account for the phenomena. If two bodies 
 be capable of chemical combination, their par- 
 ticles must have a mutual attraction for each 
 other. This attraction, however, may be so 
 opposed by concomitant circumstances, that it 
 may be diminished in any degree. Thus we 
 know that the affinity of aggregation, may occa- 
 sion a body to combine slowly with a substance 
 for which it has a powerful affinity ; or, even 
 entirely prevent its combining with it ; the pre- 
 sence of a third substance may equally prevent 
 the combination ; and so may the absence of a 
 certain quantity of caloric. But in all these 
 cases the attraction of the particles must subsist, 
 though diminished or counteracted by opposing 
 circumstances. Now we know that oxygen and 
 nitrogen are capable of combination, their par- 
 ticles therefore must attract each other ; but in 
 the circumstances in which they are placed in 
 our atmosphere, that attraction is prevented from 
 exerting itself to such a degree, as to form them 
 into a chemical compound, though it operates 
 with sufficient force to prevent their separating 
 by their difference of specific gravity. Thus the 
 state of the atmosphere is accounted for, and every 
 difficulty obviated without any new hypothesis. 
 
 73. It is a curious fact, that the proportions 
 of the atmosphere are preserved under a vast 
 variety of circumstance and place ; and the pro- 
 portion of oxygen to its antagonist ingredient, 
 appears to be very nearly the same, whether it 
 be in this country, or on the coast of Guinea ; on 
 low plains, or lofty mountains, or even at the 
 height of 7250 yards above the level of the sea; 
 as ascertained by Gay Lussac, in his aerial 
 voyage in September, 1805. This being the case, 
 it becomes interesting to ascertain, or to endea- 
 vour at ascertaining, what are the provisions of 
 nature by which this proportion of oxygen in 
 the atmosphere, that is continually consumed 
 in respiration and combustion, is again restored 
 to the atmosphere. As far as an estimate can be 
 formed of the great and general operations of 
 nature, there appears to be at least as great an 
 emission as there is consumption of oxygen. 
 Thus in volcanic eruptions there appears to be 
 at least as much oxygen emitted, or extricated by 
 fire from various minerals, as is sufficient to 
 maintain the combustion, and perhaps to ame- 
 liorate the atmosphere; and in the bodies of 
 plants and animals, which appear in a great 
 measure to derive their sustenance and augmen- 
 tation from the atmosphere and its contents, it 
 is found that a large proportion of nitrogen exists. 
 Most plants, as shewn by the experiments of 
 Dr. Priestley and others, emit oxygen in the 
 sunshine, from which it is highly probable, that 
 they imbibe and decompose the air, retaining 
 carbon, and emitting the vital part. Lastly, it 
 to this we add the decomposition of water, and
 
 A I R. 
 
 383 
 
 the effects consequent upon the agitation of large 
 seas and rivers, there will be numerous occasions 
 in which the aqueous fluid will supply us with 
 disengaged oxygen ; while, by a very natural 
 supposition, the hydrogen of this fluid may be 
 considered as having entered the bodies of plants, 
 for the formation of oils, sugars, mucilages, &c. 
 from which it may again be extricated. On this 
 head, however, we have still much to learn. 
 
 74. On this interesting topic, which as we 
 have just said, demands further investigation, 
 we may here, with propriety introduce an ex- 
 tract from an author, whose labours we have 
 already made use of in the present article. 
 Among the many and ingenious investigations of 
 Dr. Priestley, says Mr. Brande, none have pro- 
 duced more pleasing subjects of inquiry, than 
 those relating to the influence of vegetation upon 
 air, contaminated by combustion, respiration, 
 and the putrefaction of animal matter. 
 
 75. Finding that air was not spoiled by the 
 growth of a sprig of mint kept in it for some 
 months, our author thought it possible that the 
 process of vegetation might restore the air in- 
 jured by burning candles ; and, accordingly, on 
 the 17th of August, 1777, he put a sprig of mint 
 into air, in which a wax candle had burned out; 
 and on the 27th of the same month, found that 
 another candle burned perfectly well in it ; and 
 then, to verify the conclusion, he divided the in- 
 jured air into two separate portions, putting the 
 plant into one of them, and merely leaving the 
 other standing over water ; he never failed to 
 find, that a candle would burn in the former, but 
 not in the latter. 
 
 76. This restoration of air, says Dr. Priestley, 
 I found, depended upon the vegetating state of 
 the plant; for though I kept a great number 
 of the fresh leaves of mint, in a small quantity 
 of air, in which candles had burned out, and 
 changed them frequently for a long space of 
 time, I could perceive no melioration in the 
 state of the air. This remarkable effect does not 
 depend upon any thing peculiar to mint ; for I 
 found a quantity of this kind of air, to be per- 
 fectly restored by sprigs of bjlm.' Grounsel, 
 spinach, and some other plants were used, with 
 like effect, to show that it did not depend upon 
 aromatic effluvia. 
 
 77. In Dr. Priestley's observations on air, 
 infected with animal respiration and putrefac- 
 tion, a multitude of facts are adduced to demon- 
 strate its renovation, when exposed to growing 
 vegetables, and he is thus led to the following 
 general remarks on the subject. ' These proofs 
 of a partial restoration of air, by plants in a state 
 of vegetation, though in a confined and unnatural 
 situation, cannot but render it highly probable, 
 that the injury which is continually done to the 
 atmosphere by the respiration of such a number 
 of animals, and the putrefaction of such masses of 
 both vegetable and animal matter is, in part, at 
 least, repaired by the vegetable creation, and 
 notwithstanding the prodigious mass of air that 
 is corrupted daily by the above mentioned causes ; 
 yet, if we consider the immense profusion of ve- 
 getables upon the face of the earth, growing in 
 places suited to their nature, and, consequently 
 at full liberty to exert all their powers, both in- 
 
 haling and exhaling, it can hardly be thought but 
 that it may be a sufficient counterbalance to it, 
 and that the remedy is adequate to the evil. 
 
 78. When treating on the economy of vege- 
 tation, we shall have again to advert to this 
 subject, and to mention the experiments o. 
 Ingenhousz and others in reference to these par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 79. The air of the atmosphere, like other 
 fluids, appears to be capable of holding bodies 
 in solution ; and ' the dissolving faculty of the air,' 
 is treated of by authors among its chemical pro- 
 perties. It indeed takes up water in consider- 
 able quantities, with a consequent diminution of 
 its own specific gravity ; from which circum- 
 stance, as well as from the consideration that 
 water rises very plentifully in the vaporous state 
 in vacuo,\\. seems probable that the air suspends 
 vapour, not so much by a real solution, as by 
 keeping its particles asunder, and preventing 
 their condensation. Under the word METE- 
 OROLOGY, we shall have more fully to engage 
 in considerations relative to the circumstances of 
 air, in connection with aqueous fluid. 
 
 80. We now proceed to the last division of our 
 subject and treat of the PROPERTIES OF AIR ON 
 THE LIVING SYSTEM. When chemistry had at 
 length succeeded in fully unfolding the constitu- 
 tion of the atmosphere, it was natural enough to 
 conceive that variations in the ingredients of 
 which it was composed, whether found naturally 
 or produced in an artificial manner, would be 
 productive of much variety of effect on the phy- 
 sical constitution ; hence were broached theories 
 and opinions, respecting a more or less oxygenous 
 atmosphere and hence too, speculations were 
 eagerly engaged in, on the probable influence that 
 artificial airs might possess in controlling the 
 actions, or abating the malignancy of disease. It 
 happened that pneumatic chemistry came into 
 play and repute, about the time that the public 
 mind was agitated by the political convulsions 
 that were going on in France and other countries ; 
 and this circumstance, aided by the novelty and 
 interest of the new views and doctrines, excited 
 in the minds of some of the more ardent and 
 enthusiastic, anticipations of the happiest re- 
 sults in the physical, as had already been sup- 
 posed about to take place in the moral and 
 political relations of man. 
 
 ' See palsy dance, spasmodic action still ; 
 And asthma pace, without a puff, up hill.' 
 
 81 . These golden visions have, however, passed 
 by, and it even appears that the administration 
 of medicinal aid, through the medium of the 
 pulmonary organs is now become unjustifiably 
 neglected : there certainly are cases in which the 
 inspiration of air made artificially more than 
 ordinarily vivifying, might much assist iu in- 
 vigorating the frame, and restoring a healthy tone 
 of action to organs debilitated by protracted 
 disease ; and it has often appeared to us probable, 
 that a judicious employment of that singular 
 combination of oxygen and azote, which con- 
 stitutes the nitrous oxide, or protoxide of azote, 
 as above noticed, might in the hands of judicious 
 physicians, be made to apply beneficially under 
 several conditions of nervous derangement. 
 
 82. To justify this opinion, we may here cite
 
 384 
 
 A I R. 
 
 a few examples taken from the researches of Sir which he was unable to divest himself. His first 
 II. Davy, of the extraordinary effects whicli fol- definite sensations, were a fulness and dizziness 
 
 lowed the inspiration of this, as it had been called, 
 laughter-producing gas. 
 
 83. Sir H. Davy first describes the effect it 
 had upon himself as follows : ' Having previously 
 closed my nostrils, and exhausted my lungs, I 
 breathed four quarts of nitrous oxide from and 
 into a silk bag. The first feelings were those of 
 giddiness; but in less than half a minute, the 
 respiration being continued, these feelings di- 
 minished gradually, and were succeeded by a 
 sensation analogous to gentle pressure on all the 
 muscles, attended by a highly pleasurable 
 thrilling, particularly in the chest and in the ex- 
 tremities. The objects around me became 
 dazzling, and my hearing more acute. Towards 
 the last inspiration the thrilling increased, the 
 sense of muscular power became greater, and at 
 last an irresistible propensity to action was in- 
 dulged in. I recollect but indistinctly what fol- 
 lowed : I know that my motions were various 
 and violent. 
 
 84. These effects very soon ceased after respi- 
 ration. In two minutes I had recovered my 
 natural state of mind. The thrilling in the ex- 
 tremities continued longer than the other sensa- 
 tions. 
 
 85. The gas has been breathed by a great 
 number of persons, and almost every one has 
 observed the same things. On some few, in- 
 deed, it has no effect whatever ; and on others 
 the effects are always painful. 
 
 in the head, such as to induce a fear of falling 
 This was succeeded by a laugh, which was in- 
 voluntary, but highly pleasurable, accompanied 
 with a peculiar thrilling in the extremities ; a 
 sensation perfectly new and delightful. For 
 many hours after this experiment, he imagined 
 that his taste and smell were more acute ; and is 
 certain that he felt unusually strong and cheerful. 
 In a second experiment, he felt pleasure still 
 superior ; and has once poetically remarked, 
 that he supposes the atmosphere of the highest 
 of all possible heavens to be composed of this 
 gas. 
 
 91. Robert Kinglake, M.D. Additional free- 
 dom and power of respiration, succeeded by an 
 almost delirious, but highly pleasurable, sensa- 
 tion in the head, which became universal, with 
 increased tone of the muscles. At last, an in- 
 toxicating placidity absorbed for five minutes 
 all voluntary power, and left a cheerfulness and 
 alacrity for several hours. A second stronger 
 dose, produced a perfect trance for about a 
 minute; then a glow pervaded the system. The 
 permanent effects were, an invigorated feeling of 
 vital power and improved spirits. By both trials, 
 particularly by the former, old rheumatic feelings 
 seemed to be revived for the moment. 
 
 92. Mr. Wedgewood breathed nitrous-oxyde 
 gas, without knowing it was so. He declared it 
 to have no effect, which confirmed him in his 
 disbelief of the power of the gas. After breathing 
 
 86. Mr. J. W. Tobin, (after the first imperfect this some time, however, he threw the bag from 
 trials) when the air was pure, experienced some- him, kept breathing on laboriously with an open 
 
 times sublime emotions, with tranquil gestures ; 
 sometimes violent muscular action, with sensation 
 indescribably exquisite ; no subsequent debility 
 no exhaustion ; his trials have been very nu- 
 merous. Of late he has only felt sedate pleasure. 
 87. Mr. James Thomson. Involuntary laugh- 
 ter, thrilling in his toes and fingers, exquisite 
 sensations of pleasure. A pain in the back and 
 
 mouth, holding his nose with his left hand, with- 
 out power to take it away, though aware of 
 the ludicrousness of his situation ; all his muscles 
 seemed to be thrown into vibrating motions ; he 
 had a violent inclination to make antic gestures, 
 seemed lighter than the atmosphere, and as if 
 about to mount. Before the experiment, he was 
 a good deal fatigued by a long ride, of which he 
 
 knees, occasioned by fatigue the day before, re- permanently lost all sense, fn a second experi- 
 i tew minutes afterwards. A similar ment, nearly the same effect, but with less plea- 
 observation, we think, we have made on others ; 
 and we impute it to the undoubted power of the 
 gas to increase the sensibility, or nervous power, 
 
 In a third, much greater pleasure.' 
 93. The effects of a gas containing more than 
 
 .... y} , .,,. ^(/n/c, , its natural proportion of oxygen have already 
 
 S. 1.!!* _ ther agent > and P robabl y ^ a pe- been noticed, both upon vegetable and animal 
 
 life ; and it is so stimulating upon the respiratory 
 organs as to have endangered, and even pro- 
 duced, inflammation, when unduly or inju- 
 diciously employed. That azote, and carbonic 
 acid gases, breathed without any admixture, are 
 speedily fatal to life, has also been made evi- 
 dent by a variety of experiments and observa- 
 tions. Every one has heard of the destructive 
 effects upon dogs, consequent upon these animals 
 breathing the air of the Grotto del Cani ; and 
 when faintness, or suspended animation, is 
 caused by holding the head over the fermenting 
 vats of brewers, the i 
 the 
 
 culiar manner. 
 
 88. Mr. Thomas Pople. At first unpleasant 
 feelings of tension ; afterwards agreeable luxurious 
 languor, with suspension of muscular power ; 
 lastly, powers increased both of body and mind! 
 
 89. Mr. Stephen Hammick, surgeon of the 
 
 yawning and languor. It shoi ' " " 
 that the first sensation has often 
 
 bserVed 
 
 have 
 
 , high 
 
 and more 
 
 A 
 

 
 A I R. 
 
 385 
 
 Paul at Geneva, in breathing pure hydrogen air. 
 He inspired it with ease, and did not perceive 
 that it had any sensible effect on him, either in 
 entering his lungs or passing out. But after he 
 had taken in a very large dose, he was desirous 
 of speaking, and was astonishingly surprised at 
 the sound of his voice, which was become soft, 
 shrill, and even squeaking, so as to alarm him. 
 Paul made the same experiment on himself, and 
 the same effect was produced. 
 
 94. It may be said in objection to proposed 
 medicinal trials of factitious airs, founded upon 
 these and other observations, that their effects are 
 loo transient and uncertain for any practical 
 inference that might otherwise be deduced from 
 them; but it should be recollected, that even 
 medicinal substances that are taken into the 
 stomach, lay claim to no more than temporary 
 excitation ; and the degree of uncertainty that 
 accompanies medicinal agency altogether is pro- 
 verbial. In giving it, however, as our opinion 
 that more might be made of pneumatic medicine 
 than the fashion of the present day inclines to 
 believe, we protest against any mis-use that may 
 be made of our admissions, by unwarrantable 
 enthusiasm, or bungling indiscrimination. 
 
 95. But it was not only on air artificially pro- 
 duced, but on that presented by the hand of 
 nature at once, that speculation grew out of 
 pneumatic discoveries ; and air was talked of for 
 the sick, as being more oxygenous, or more 
 azotic, or more hydrogenous, according to the 
 several circumstance? of individual requirement. 
 On this head, however, much of what was not 
 only crude and inapplicable, but absolutely falla- 
 cious, was conceived and propagated. It has 
 already been intimated, that the relative propor- 
 tions of the air are generally preserved amidst 
 every variety of place and circumstance ; and we 
 may here repeat, from a modern author, that the 
 most celebrated chemists have been unable to 
 discover any difference in the component parts 
 of the atmosphere taken from different situations. 
 Berthollet found the proportions the same in 
 Egypt and in France. Dr. Thomson found them 
 the same at Edinburgh at all seasons of the year ; 
 and Gay Lussac examined air brought from the 
 height of 21,000 feet above Paris, and found it 
 precisely the same as the air at the earth's sur- 
 face : nor does it appear that an increased pu- 
 rity of the atmosphere would be so congenial to 
 human life as has been supposed. It is well 
 known, that the effect of inhaling an atmosphere 
 with a superabundant proportion of oxygen is 
 to produce a state of morbid excitement, and 
 greatly to quicken the circulation. And so, it 
 will be advanced, does a lightened atmosphere ; 
 but there is a wide difference between an aided 
 and a stimulated circulation, between the in- 
 creased action effected by external and me- 
 chanical means, and that produced by external 
 stimuli. In the one case, the materia motus, or 
 which is the same thing, the removal of resist- 
 ance, is supplied from without, and calls for no 
 additional exertion of the power of life. In 
 the other, the same principle and the same 
 effect aie to be produced by direct sensorial ex- 
 citement, and increased labour of the vital 
 powers. In the feverish and inebriating ex- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 citement of the one, the powers of life are too 
 quickly exhausted. In the other, they are as- 
 sisted in their labours, and enabled to maintain 
 them for a longer period. Mansford, on the in- 
 fluence of situation on the duration of life. 
 
 96. {The author, from whom we have made the 
 above quotation, has endeavoured to prove that 
 health and longevity, as far as situation and air 
 are concerned, are best secured by situations that 
 are at once high, dry, and temperate. He sup- 
 poses, that although there be no appreciable dif- 
 ference in the chemical ingredients of the air in 
 any part of the habitable globe, yet that the dif- 
 ference of the weight of the atmosphere may, at 
 different elevations, when it comes permanently 
 to operate, be productive of permanent re- 
 sults. 
 
 97. An elevation, says he, of 500 feet, a very 
 common variation in the surface of a hilly coun- 
 try, diminishes the average weight of the atmos- 
 phere pressing on the human body something 
 more than a sixtieth part, or nearly 600 pounds ; 
 and although this reduction of pressure is not 
 felt, it cannot be doubted, but that the removal 
 of so large a degree of resistance, must give a 
 greater freedom of action to the main spring o. 
 the circulation, as well as a greater power of dis- 
 tension to the vessels themselves, especially to 
 the superficial vessels ; both of which causes, 
 like all others, will operate most powerfully on 
 a diseased part. 
 
 98. This last effect is supposed to prove un- 
 favourable to those individuals whose pulmonary 
 system and general frame are already under the 
 influence of morbid irritation ; he therefore in- 
 fers, that the situation which will prove genial 
 and productive of longevity to the individual 
 free from pulmonary taint, will prove the re- 
 verse to those who have such taint. He is 
 disposed to think, that under these last circum- 
 stances, low and moist situations are best 
 adapted to the demands of the case ; and this 
 opinion Dr. Wells has supported in the third vol. 
 of Transactions of a Society for improving Me- 
 dical and Chirurgical Knowledge. Sir James 
 Mac Grigor, in his Observations on the Diseases 
 of the Army in Portugal, also gives his testimony 
 to the same effect. Dr. Harrison, whose situa- 
 tion afforded peculiar opportunities of observa- 
 tion, says, in an Address to the Medical Society 
 of Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, that idiopathic 
 consumptions, which were frequent in the wolds 
 of that country, were seldom found in the fens ; 
 which he attributes to a difference in the 
 component parts of the air in those situations. 
 This observation was confirmed by Mr. Wayet, 
 an experienced practitioner at Boston. Dr. 
 Harrison also asserts, on the authority of Mr. 
 Boucherett, M. P. for Great Grimsby, that con- 
 sumption is a rare disease in Holland. We 
 have also the testimony of Dr. Cogan, who re- 
 sided several years in that country, that consump- 
 tions were much less frequent than in England. 
 These concurrent testimonies, says our author, to 
 which others might be added, would appear suf- 
 ficient to establish, as a fact, that air impregnated 
 with moisture, or with different effluvia, or mias- 
 mata, by which its purity is lowered, is rathe* 
 favourable to the consumptive than otherwise. 
 
 2 C
 
 386 
 
 A I R. 
 
 But air answering to these conditions, is for the 
 most part, to be found only in low situations ; 
 where the increased density of the atmosphere, 
 and the resistance offered by it to inordinate ac- 
 tion of the vessels, especially of their extreme 
 branches, may be supposed to have a skare in 
 the beneficial effect. 
 
 99. We feel but little doubt that there is 
 something both in the above statements, and in 
 the inferences made from them by Mr. Mans- 
 ford; at the same time, it should be observed, 
 that the observation does not obtain universally 
 of fenny countries being comparatively free from 
 consumptive ailment. In Dr. Southey's Work 
 on Consumption, we recollect to have seen two 
 letters from respectable physicians in Chelms- 
 ford, stating, that disorders of the lungs were as 
 common in the fenny, as in other parts of the 
 county of Essex ; and other remarks might be 
 cited of the same import. At any rate, we are 
 disposed fully to concur in the opinion advanced 
 by the writer to whose speculations we are now 
 referring, respecting the advantage of elevation 
 and dryness, and moderate temperature, as con- 
 ducing generally to the preservation of health 
 and the maintenance of life : a short residence in 
 an elevated place may be sufficient to invigorate 
 the young convalescent; but that of the old man 
 must be more permanent ; he may perhaps quit it 
 occasionally a short time with impunity, but he 
 must consider it as his residence, where nine- 
 tenths of his time are to be spent. Above all, 
 those who have passed the whole, or the greater 
 part, of a long life in an elevated situation, 
 should be cautious of quitting it, to reside in a 
 lower one. If lightening the atmospheric load 
 can give fresh vigour to the vital actions, and 
 thus prolong life ; increasing it must necessarily, 
 by depressing them, shorten it. The lives of Parr 
 and John Jacobs soon terminated after quitting 
 their native hills ; the one of Jura, and the other 
 of Shropshire. 
 
 100. Now, beyond these sensible qualities in 
 the air, viz. of different degrees of temperature 
 and humidity, and density, we fear the experi- 
 mental observer can go but little way in pre- 
 dicating medicinal property. Contagious and 
 infectious miasmata are indeed conveyed on 
 the wings of the wind' the malaria of the 
 southern parts of Europe carries sickness and 
 death with it wherever it travels ; but still these 
 changes and circumstances are only known in 
 their effects ; and we must be possessedof a nicer 
 test of ascertainment, than any we have hitherto 
 been furnished with, before the why and the 
 wherefore of endemic and epidemic visitations 
 can be satisfactorily made out. In a variety of 
 of instances catarrlial affections visit the in- 
 habitants of this great metropolis with a fre- 
 quency and force l>eyond what even the cir 
 tumstances of temperature, or humidity, or 
 dryness can account for:, this being the case, 
 the imagination is naturally led to something 
 noxious in the air that surrounds us, of a spe- 
 cific nature ; but no eudiometrical trials have 
 satisfied us as to what this something is ; and, 
 for the present, at least, we must rest content 
 with what mere observation, unassisted by science 
 imparts to us. 
 
 101. Even respecting the extent to which 
 animal and vegetable poison impregnates the air 
 of districts, and causes disease, opinion is nut 
 unanimous. It has been observed, for instance, 
 that fevers of a certain kind and aspect, appear 
 in much greater frequency where shallow stag- 
 nant waters abound ; and these forms of dis- 
 order have thence been attributed to a poison 
 generated by the decomposed vegetable matter 
 of the marsh or morass ; but of what this mat- 
 ter consists, and how it impregnates the atmos- 
 phere, are so far from being matters of demon- 
 stration, that some have derided altogether the 
 notion of its specific agency, contending that 
 the cold and humidity of the places in question, 
 are quite sufficient sources -whence to trace their 
 diseases: and that temperature and humidity 
 have a great deal to do with it, may be inferred 
 from the especial unhealthiness of these regions 
 where a rapid transition is made from the sul- 
 triness of the day to the damps and fogs of 
 the night ; but it certainly implies too much of 
 a sceptical and generalizing disposition to deny, 
 that besides the common physical and chemical 
 conditions of an atmosphere, a something is 
 superadded of a positive and specific nature. 
 
 102. In the counteraction of this something, 
 however, it is pleasing to feel that much may be 
 accomplished by the industry of man nay, 
 that much has been effected. During the last 
 century, as stated by a modern writer, the 
 greater part of Europe has been most happily 
 and efficaciously acting upon this principle of 
 counteraction swampy lands have been drained 
 waste marshes cultivated filth removed from 
 our cities air made to circulate through our 
 dwellings superstitious apprehensions respect- 
 ing pestilential visits considerably lessened 
 and, adds the writer from whom we are now 
 extracting, ' in consequence, shall we say, with- 
 out incurring the charge of assuming where 
 we ought to prove, the greater part of Europe, 
 and our own country and cities in particular, 
 instead of harbouring and fostering contagion 
 into venomous, and permanent, and wide spread- 
 ing pestilence, have merely afforded a short 
 and niggardly entertainment to the mildest forms 
 of contagious fever.' See CONTAGION and 
 INFECTION. 
 
 103. We now bring this article to a conclu- 
 sion, by subjoining the following observations 
 on the medicinal qualities of air, from the Me- 
 dical Dictionary of Dr. Parr. 
 
 104. 'The physical or medicinal qualities of 
 the air have occasioned numerous disquisitions. 
 But extensive enquiries, the comparison of the 
 tables of mortality, and experience long continued, 
 have allowed us to draw few conclusions that 
 will bear the test of careful examination. In 
 spring we find inflammatory complaints, in 
 autumn bilious diseases ; in every season fevers, 
 in the commencement inflammatory, in the con- 
 clusion more or less of an opposite type. To 
 be more particular, continued cold produces that 
 tension of the fibres, that strong and steady action 
 which we style inflammatory diathesis; high 
 situations with a pure bracing atmosphere pro- 
 duce similar effects. These are partly owing 
 to an excess of oxygen ; but in a great measure
 
 A I R. 
 
 387 
 
 to moderate continued cold. A previous moist 
 temperate winter, which predisposes to scrophu- 
 lous complaints, will at this period produce the 
 most fatal consequences in hectic cases. The 
 fever will increase, the ulceration proceed with 
 rapidity, and the heat of the ensuing summer 
 close the scene. Those, however, who are mo- 
 derately healthy, and not peculiarly robust, will 
 find a winter of no extreme cold healthy ; and 
 the opening spring expanding the fibres, will 
 give a genial glow and new life to every organ. 
 Summer of course may produce its own dis- 
 eases ; but if we peruse the history of Epi- 
 demics, we shall with difficulty trace any par- 
 ticularly bad effects of the heat, till the evenings 
 begin to cool, the fruit to be plenty, and the bile 
 to become a conspicuous cause of disease, from 
 its accumulation and excessive discharges. Win- 
 ter again recurs; and Dr. Heberden has endea- 
 voured to show, from the bills of mortality, that 
 it is a fatal season. ' It may be so in general ; 
 old people resist cold with difficulty, and the 
 catarrhous sufrbcations,asthma, and similar com- 
 plaints, are often fatal at this period. In our 
 experience, however, it is not the cold, but the 
 early warmth of spring succeeding cold, which 
 is most injurious ; the constitution, braced by 
 cold, cannot bear the subsequent relaxation. A 
 long damp summer has had similar effects. 
 
 105. Philosophers have taught us how much 
 pressure we bear from the atmosphere ; and of 
 course from the diminution of that pressure, we 
 shall feel the want of tension or tone, which 
 results from the removal of any support. Thus, 
 when the air is lighter we find a languor come 
 on when heavier, we find our spirits are more 
 brisk and lively. The whole, however, is not 
 owing to the absolute weight of the air, but in 
 part to its elasticity ; or rather our feelings of 
 health and activity are in the compound ratio of 
 both. Thus, at the height of from 1200 to 2000 
 feet above the level of the sea, the pressure is 
 greatly diminished ; but we feel increased acti- 
 vity, as we are in general above the region of the 
 clouds, and the air is more elastic ; and the lan- 
 guor felt in very high situations is not uniform 
 or constant ; so that it cannot depend on a 
 constant cause. During rain, the mercury in the 
 barometer is not depressed half an inch. Yet, 
 we feel more languor than on the tops of moun- 
 tains, where it has probably fallen from five to 
 ten inches. 
 
 106. In other respects, the physical properties of 
 the air seem to have little influence. The warmest 
 and longest summers are often healthy ; the 
 coldest winters, with the exception of inflamma- 
 tory complaints, are the same. The warmest 
 weather, with the dampest fogs, have been followed 
 by no peculiar epidemic. It is what Hippocrates 
 long since called the TO 9eiov, something divine 
 or inexplicable, that produces fevers, or similar 
 diseases ; but before we notice ' the divinity that 
 stirs within us,' we must add a few remarks on 
 our situation, as connected with the physical 
 properties of the air. 
 
 107. A dry elevated spot, on a gravelly soil, 
 is said to be most wholesome, especially if shel- 
 tered from the east wind. Elevation is, however, 
 relative; light clouds float in the atmosphere, 
 
 about 1000 feet above the level of the sea, and 
 the healthier spot is said to be some way above 
 this elevation. This appears, however, to be 
 fanciful ; and it has not been proved that atmos- 
 pheric moisture alone is injurious. In dry 
 gravelly elevated spots, experience has fixed the 
 most salutary residence for consumptive cases ; 
 yet in these oxygen seems to abound, which is 
 peculiarly injurious in such complaints; and 
 air of a lower quality, as it has been styled, is 
 seemingly as good, in die opinion of some pre- 
 ferable. In asthmatic cases, elevated spots are 
 manifestly injurious. In fact, theorists may de- 
 claim, but facts give the lie to the most plausible 
 declamations. A change is often necessary ; 
 and from the effects of the change, the conduct 
 proper for each individual must be ascertained. 
 
 108. It is observed by some authors, that 
 vaults, corn magazines, and apple garrets, &c. 
 should open to the north ; for that point is inva- 
 riably proper ; but the south and west are con- 
 stantly improper. The most healthy exposure, 
 if a house is to be built, is said to be found by 
 cutting one of the trees that grow there trans- 
 versely with a saw, observing the rings ; the 
 side of the tree on which the distances between 
 each ring is widest, is the most healthy exposure, 
 and the windows of the house, all other circum- 
 stances being the same, should ever face that 
 way. 
 
 109. We have mentioned the effects of the 
 east wind in general, and we shall now notice 
 them more particularly, though it cannot be yet 
 determined whether they belong to the chemical 
 or physical properties of the air. The atmosphere, 
 while the east wind prevails, is lucid; and 
 even when clear, the sun has not its brilliant hue. 
 The strength is not equal to the usual exertions, 
 the respiration not free, the spirits not lively. 
 Asthmatics and hypochondriacs feel it severely. 
 Yet it is often dry, and when it rains during a 
 south-east wind, its fall is frequently periodical, 
 extending only to twelve or twenty-four hours. 
 While the clouds constantly display a promise of 
 fair weather, there is seemingly a perpetual 
 contest between the causes of rain and their 
 antagonists, whatever they may be. 
 
 110. As we have now instruments by which 
 the quality of the air may be measured, it 
 might be presumed that these would inform 
 us of the cause of this singular state of the 
 atmosphere. The east wind is not peculiar to 
 any situation, so that it is not injurious from 
 passing over a baleful desert, or a successive 
 series of marshes ; nor does the eudiometer show 
 any particular ingredient which may impair 
 health or induce disease. The assistance which 
 this instrument affords to the medical chemist 
 is indeed inconsiderable. In crowded cities, 
 and the most apparently healthy situations, re- 
 mote from ' the busy hum of men,' its results 
 are nearly the same. Chemists must decide 
 whether this similarity in the appearances 
 are owing to the imperfections of the instru- 
 ment, or whether the injurious qualities of the 
 air are not cognizable by it, 
 
 111. The aerial pathology has not yet been 
 successfully cultivated. Man can live and en- 
 joy health from the heat of twenty-eight to one 
 
 2C2
 
 388 
 
 A I R. 
 
 hundred and eight degrees of Fahrenheit. He 
 can exist in a constant fog, where the hygrome- 
 ter proceeds beyond the extreme of humidity ; 
 and in air which supports the mercury only at 
 twenty-two or twenty-three inches, he is robust 
 and active. Sudden changes are injurious ; but 
 the injuries are often transitory or inconsider- 
 able ; or if severe, producing only temporary or 
 acute diseases. Yet the air is accused as the 
 cause of numerous diseases, and it really is 
 so. Sudden cold, checking perspiration, will 
 apparently produce almost every form of the 
 pyresiae. . Partial cold will produce rheuma- 
 tisms ; damp air, catarrhs ; and, in old people, 
 those diffusions which are called humours, as 
 asthmas, and catarrh suffocavit. The conti- 
 nued heat of summer occasions bilious disor- 
 ders ; and the cold of winter, return of the 
 more active inflammations. The air, how- 
 ever, is chiefly a vehicle of injurious effluvia, 
 some of which only can be ascertained. Marsh 
 miasmata, as they are styled by pathologists, 
 are the causes of numerous intermittent and 
 remittent fevers, as well as those apparently 
 of a more continued form. It has been ascer- 
 tained that a clayey soil, when moistened, will 
 attract the oxygen of the air, and leave the azotic 
 part not sufficiently guarded to support the vis 
 vitae; and it is found that districts become un- 
 healthy, chiefly when the earth begins to appear 
 in consequence of a diminution of the water. 
 
 It is singular that Linngeus, with a view to 
 prove the cause of intermittents to be an argil- 
 laceous earth, has traced very minutely the pre> 
 valence of intermittents in clayey countries 
 a circumstance which may be explained front 
 the views just assigned. To this diminution 
 of the oxygen must be added a larger and 
 unusual proportion of inflammable air, from the 
 parts of marshes still covered with water. To 
 these conjoined causes many epidemics are owing; 
 and when the changes in the physical properties 
 of the air appear to produce fevers, they act 
 only as exciting causes of these miasmata. 
 
 112. Many objections might be taken to some 
 of the above views of our ingenious author. 
 We shall only advert to two particulars, in 
 which there appears to be a fallacy in Dr. 
 Parr's reasoning. The unhealthiness of an ar- 
 gillaceous, or clayey soil, seems to be rather 
 referrible to the difficulty with which moisture 
 percolates through it; and the extreme, or, if 
 it may be so said, evaporating dryness of east 
 winds appears to be in a great measure the 
 cause of their peculiar unhealthiness. Dr. Hut- 
 ton, of Edinburgh, found that a wetted ther- 
 mometer, exposed to a moderate east wind, in 
 the month of March or April, sunk between 
 eight and nine degrees below the temperature of 
 the air, but in the driest summer weather, it 
 never fell more than four, and often only two or 
 three. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ACIDITY, principle of, 46. 
 
 ACTION and re-action in the air, 13. 
 
 AlR, definition of, 1. Its properties and composition 
 but recently discovered, 25. Gravity of, 4. Elas- 
 ticity of, 12. Compressibility of, 16. Chemical 
 composition of, 24. Composed of two ingredients 
 mainly, with two additional ones in small quantities, 
 48. How purified, 74. But little different in dif- 
 ferent regions of the globe, 73, 95. Volume of, 
 diminished by combustion, 45. Purity of, inter- 
 fered with by respiration, 31. Not discoverably 
 different when plagues and pestilences prevail, other- 
 wise than by its effects, 100. Medicinal properties 
 of, 89. 
 
 ANIMAL LIFE, how affected by air, 31. Processes 
 of, render the air impure, 77. 
 
 ATMOSPHERE, pressure of, 4. Chemical composition 
 of, 24. Not so different as might be supposed 
 under different circumstances of place, &c. 73, 95. 
 How kept in a pure state, 74. Proportion of its 
 component parts, 48. 
 
 AZOTIC AIR, forms part of the atmosphere, 48. How 
 procured, 56. Properties of, 59. Its unison with 
 oxygen, in a given proportion, constitutes the main 
 portion of the atmosphere, 56. In another pro- 
 portion forms the gaseous oxide of azote, or pro- 
 toxide of azote, or laughing-gas, 57. Properties and 
 effects of this last, 83. 
 
 BERTHOLLET'S, theory of the mode in which the par- 
 ticles of air are mixed in the atmosphere, as op- 
 posed to the hypothesis of Dalton, 72. 
 
 BLACK, Dr. the importance of his two discoveries in 
 the science of aerology, 37. His discovery of car- 
 bonic acid gas, first called fixed air, 38. His dis- 
 covery of the different relations of bodies to heat 
 independently on temperature, 39. 
 
 BLADDER, experiment with a shrivelled one, to show 
 the different forms under which air exists, 12. 
 
 BOYLE, Mr. his remarks on the gravity and elasticity 
 of air, 16. 3 
 
 BRANDE, Mr. his history of pneumatic chemistry 
 
 alluded to, and extracts made from, 27. 
 CALCINATION, effects of, upon the air, and upon the 
 body calcined, 50. 
 
 CARBONIC ACID AIR, first discovered by Dr. Black, 
 38. Composition and property of, 61. 
 
 CATARRHS, occasioned by a poison in the air,100. 
 
 CAVENDISH, Mr. discoverer of hydrogen air, 64. 
 
 CLAYEY SOIL, how it affects air, 112. 
 
 COMBUSTIBLE BODIES take oxygen from the air during 
 combustion, 48. 
 
 COMMON AIR, its properties, 3. Its chemical compo- 
 sition, 48. 
 
 COMPRESSIBILITY of air, 5. 
 
 CONSUMPTIVE individuals, what kind of air most 
 suitable to, 98. 
 
 CONTAGION, not detectable in air, 100. 
 
 CONTAMINATED AIR, how purified by nature, 74. 
 
 DALTON, Mr. his hypothesis respecting the mode in 
 which the moleculae of air are mixed, 70. 
 
 DAVY, Sir Humphrey, extracts from his researches, 83. 
 
 DENSITY of air, 4. 
 
 DEPHLOGISTICATED AIR, 41. 
 
 DILATATION of air, 12. 
 
 DISEASES, how influenced by air, 98. By factitious 
 gases, 80. 
 
 DRYNESS of air, 96, 112. 
 
 ELASTICITY, a property of air, 12. 
 
 ELECTRICITY, its action on hydrogen air, 49. 
 
 ENTHUSIASTIC feelings from gases, 80. 
 
 EUDIOMETRICAL TRIALS fail in detecting certain im- 
 purities in the air, 100. 
 
 EVAPORATION, quick in an east wind, 112. 
 
 EXPANSIBILITY of air, 12. 
 
 EXPLOSION from hydrogen being inflamed by the 
 electric spark, 66. 
 
 FACTITIOUS GASES, their operation upon the living 
 system, 80. Question whether their medicinal 
 powers are sufficiently appreciated in the presentday, 
 81 .
 
 A I R. 
 
 389 
 
 FtXBD AlR, discovered by Dr. Black, 38. Pro- 
 portion of, m common air, 48. Properties of, 61. 
 Poisonous qualities of, 63. 
 FRENCH CHEMISTRY, notice of, 45. 
 OASES factitious, their medicinal and other proper- 
 ties, 80. 
 GASEOUS SUBSTANCES, their nature, and mode of 
 
 being, only recently ascertained, 24. 
 HALES, DR. on the compressibility of air, 16. 
 HEAT LATENT, Black's discovery of, how important in 
 
 the science of aerology, 39. 
 HIGH SITUATIONS, why salubrious, 97. 
 HOOKE, his investigations referred to, 30. 
 HYDROGEN AIR, qualities of, 65. Discovered by 
 Cavendish, 64. Exists in larger proportions in 
 very high regions, 49. Inflamed by the electric 
 spark, 66. Forms water with oxygen, 67. 
 ICE, cause of the bursting of, in certain circumstances, 
 
 14. 
 
 IMPURITY of air falsely judged, 95. 
 INFECTION, not discoverable in the air, 100. 
 INFLAMMABLE AIR, discovered by Cavendish, 64. 
 Inflames by the electric spark, 66. Exists in greater 
 proportions in very high regions, 49. Qualities of, 
 65. Forms water with oxygen, 67. 
 INFLAMMATORY complaints^where prevalent, 104. 
 INGESHOUSZ, his experiments alluded to, 78. 
 KIRWAN, Mr. his experiments on the specific gravity 
 
 of oxygen, &c. 69. 
 
 LATENT HEAT, importance of the discovery of, 39. 
 LAVOISIER, his proposed alteration in chemical theory 
 
 and nomenclature, 45, 
 LIME, carbonic acid gas in, 38. 
 MAGNESIA, contains carbonic acid in its impure state, 
 
 38. 
 
 MANGANESE, gives out oxygen, 53. 
 MANSFOKD, his speculations on the best air for con- 
 sumptive invalids, 98. 
 MARSHES, kind of air from, 101. Miasmata, what 
 
 do they consist of ? ib. 
 
 MAYOW, came near to the actual discovery of oxygen 
 gas, 31. And the true principles of combustion, 32. 
 MERCURY, experiments with, 41. 
 MOLECULE of air, how intermingled, 69. 
 
 MORASSES, kind of air from, 101. 
 
 MOUNTAINOUS AIR, why salubrious, 97. 
 
 NITROGEN, 43. Its properties. 57. How procured, 
 56. Proportion in which it exists in the atmos- 
 phere, ib. 
 
 Noxious AIR, nature's processes for rectifying, 74. 
 
 OXYGEN AIR, how procured, 53 Its properties, 54. 
 Origin of the term, 46. 
 
 PARR, DR., his account of the medicinal qualities of 
 air, 104. Erroneous notions of, 112. 
 
 PHILOSOPHERS, erroneously referring to final causes, 
 4. 
 
 PHLOGISTON derided by the French chemists, 45. 
 
 PLANTS, manner in which they promote the purity of 
 the air, 74. 
 
 PNEUMATIC CHEMISTRY, nearly discovered by Mayow, 
 31. Progressive development of, 47. 
 
 PRESSURE of air, 4. 
 
 PRIESTLEY, DR., the importance of his discoveries, 
 41. He first discovered oxygen, which he called 
 dephlogisticated air, 41. His observations and ex- 
 periments on the economy of nature in preserving 
 the purity of the air, 74. 
 
 PURITY of air falsely judged of, 95. How preserved, 
 74. 
 
 RAIN, how produced in the atmosphere, 56. 
 
 REGIONS, sameness of the air in different, 73. 
 
 SCHEELE, his observations and experiments, 44. 
 
 SOIL, why certain kinds of, unhealthy, 112. 
 
 SITUATIONS more or less salubrious, 96. 
 
 SOLIDIFICATION of air, 23. 
 
 SPRING SEASON, disorders of, 104. 
 
 TABLE shewing the different degrees of the air's weight 
 in different altitudes, 10, 
 
 TEMPERATURE of air, important, 96. 
 
 TESTS, eudiometrical, fail in shewing upon what s&- 
 lubrity or insalubrity of air depends, 100. 
 
 THUNDER, how produced, 66. 
 
 URE, DR., extracts from, 71. 
 
 WATER, consists of hydrogen and oxygen, 67. Exists 
 in air in the form of moisture, 79. Of the sea and 
 rivers, purifies the air, 73. 
 WEIGHT of bodies increased by burning, 28. 
 WIND, easterly, why noxious, 112. 
 
 AIR, in music, is taken in different senses. 
 It is sometimes contrasted with harmony ; and, 
 in this sense, it is synonymous with melody in 
 general. Its proper meaning is, a tune, which 
 is set to words, or to short pieces of poetry. 
 Sometimes it denotes simply the treble part 
 of a musical composition. There are three 
 kinds of airs in dramatic music ; the aria can- 
 tabile, or the air of song ; the aria di bravura, 
 the air of execution ; and the aria parlanta or 
 speaking air. The first is usually applied to 
 the pathos, or effect of music ; the second, (bra- 
 vura) to prove the brilliancy and difficulty of 
 execution ; and the parlanta to that music which 
 approaches nearest to the natural manner of 
 earnest speech. This last is therefore used in 
 recitative. These and the several correspond- 
 ing movements are varied to infinity , whence 
 also air, with variations, a melody varied, ad 
 libitum, by the compiler. Air teudre, an air, 
 so denominated for the tenderness of its style. 
 
 In operas, the name of air is given to such 
 pieces of music, as are formed with measures 
 and cadences, to distinguish them from the re- 
 citative ; and, in general, every piece of music 
 is called an air, which is formed for the voice, 
 or even for instruments, and adapted to stanzas, 
 
 whether it forms a whole in itself, or whether it 
 can be detached from any whole of which it 
 forms a part, and be executed alone. If the 
 subject admits of harmony, and is set in parts, 
 the air is, according to their number, denomi- 
 nated a duett, a trio, a quartette, &c. We need 
 not follow Rousseau and others in their endea- 
 vours to investigate the etymologyof the word air. 
 The curious may consult this whimsical writer's 
 article in the Dictionaire de Musique. In mo- 
 dern music, there are several different kinds of 
 airs, each of which agrees to a certain kind of 
 dancing, and from these dances, the airs them- 
 selves take their specific names. The airs of oui 
 operas, are, if we may be permitted the expres- 
 sion, the canvas, or substratum, upon which are 
 painted all the pictures of imitative music ; 
 melody is the design, and harmony the colour- 
 ing ; every picturesque object selected from the 
 most beautiful parts of nature, every reflected 
 sentiment of the human heart, are the models 
 which the artist imitates; whatever gains atten- 
 tion, whatever interests the soul, whatever charms 
 the ear, or causes emotion in the heart, these are 
 the objects of his imitation. See IMITATION. 
 An air which delights the ear, and discovers the 
 talents of the composer; an air invented by
 
 AIR 
 
 390 
 
 AIR 
 
 genius, and composed with taste, is the noblest 
 effort of music : it is this which explores the 
 compass, and displays the delicacy, of a beauti- 
 ful voice ; it is this in which the charms of a 
 well-conducted symphony shine ; it is by this, 
 that the passions, excited and inflamed by nice 
 gradations, reach and agitate the soul through the 
 avenues of external sense. After hearing a beau- 
 tiful air, the mind is acquiescent and serene : 
 the ear is satisfied, it remains impressed on the 
 fancy, it becomes a part of our essence, we carry 
 it with us, we are able to repeat it at pleasure 
 without the ability acquired by habit to breathe 
 a single note of it, we execute it in our imagina- 
 tion, in the same manner as we heard it: one 
 beholds the scene, and the musician : one hears 
 the accompaniments and the applauses. The real 
 enthusiast in music never forgets the beautiful 
 airs which he has heard : when he chooses, the 
 opera recommences. The words to which airs 
 are adapted, are not always rehearsed in regular 
 succession, nor spoken in the same manner with 
 those of the recitative ; and though, in general, 
 they are very short, yet they are interrupted, re- 
 peated, transposed, at the pleasure of the artist. 
 They do not constitute a narrative, which once 
 told is over : they either delineate a picture, which 
 it is necessary to contemplate in different points 
 of view, or inspire a sentiment in which the heart 
 acquiesces with pleasure, and from which it is 
 neither able nor willing to be disengaged : and the 
 different phrases of the air, are nothing else but 
 different manners of beholding the same image. 
 This is the reason why the subject of an air should 
 be one. It is by these repetitions properly placed, 
 it is by these redoubled efforts, that an impres- 
 sion, which at first was not able to move you, at 
 length shakes your soul, agitates and transports 
 you out of yourself: and it is likewise upon the 
 same principle, that the runnings, as they are 
 called, or those long, mazy, and inarticulated in- 
 flections of the voice, which, in pathetic airs, fre- 
 quently seem, though they are not always so, im- 
 properly placed - r whilst the heart is affected with 
 a sentiment exquisitely moving, it often expresses 
 its emotions by inarticulate sounds, more strongly 
 and sensibly than it could do by words them- 
 selves. The form of airs is of two kinds. The 
 small airs are often composed of two strains, 
 which ought each of them to be sung twice ; but 
 the important airs in operas are frequently in the 
 form of rondeaus. 
 
 AIR, in mythology, was adored by the hea- 
 thens, under the names of Jupiter, and Juno ; the 
 former representing the superior and finer part 
 f the atmosphere, and the latter the inferior and 
 grosser part. The augurs also drew presages 
 from the clouds, thunder, lightning, &c. 
 
 AIR, in painting, &c. denotes the manner and 
 very life of action ; or it is that which expresses 
 the disposition of the agent. It is sometimes 
 also used in a synonymous sense with gesture or 
 attitude. Thus Correggio and Guido are said to 
 have excelled in the airs of the heads, as well 
 as of the whole figures they painted. 
 
 AIR, in surgery, has a medicinal efficacy that 
 has attracted the consideration of various emi- 
 ent writers. Fixed air, or carbonic acid gas 
 fc* been applied by means of the fermenting 
 
 cataplasm to fetid and gangrenous sores. It haa 
 also been used in malignant ulcers of the fingers, 
 nose, &c. as well as in caries of the bones. Mr. 
 Witstock recommends the application of it by 
 means of a receiver or air bell, connected with 
 a flexible tube or pipe sufficiently air-tight 
 supposing the fixed air to be produced from the 
 effervescence of fixed alkali and vegetable acid. 
 Others impregnate water with the gas, and soak- 
 ing compresses therein, lay them on the seat of 
 the disorder. Mr. Loeffler, a German surgeon, 
 has recommended a particular apparatus for this 
 purpose, which may be easily constructed, and 
 which he employs for saturating water with 
 fixed air, by the mixture of chalk and vitriolic 
 acid, or during the process of fermentation. 
 When we wish to apply the air to a cancerous 
 breast, for example, we are to fill a bladder with 
 the air as it rises from the above mixture. Then 
 introduce a tube, fixed to its orifice into another 
 bladder, which is to be cut round in such a man- 
 ner that it can be applied like an open bag to 
 the breast, and held close to it with the hands. 
 When it is fastened below,, it must be untied,, 
 so that the fixed air may pass out of the first 
 into the second bladder, and find access to the 
 ulcerated part. In order to facilitate this pro- 
 cess, a gentle degree of pressure is to be ap- 
 plied to the bladder, and as one bladder will 
 not be sufficient, a number of them should be 
 provided in readiness, and filled for immediate 
 use in succession. This operation is to be con- 
 tinued half an hour or longer each time, and re- 
 peated twice or thrice a day. 
 
 AIR, in the menage, is the artificial motion of a 
 taught horse ; as the demi volt, curvet, capriole, &c. 
 
 AIR, CIRCULATION OF, IN ROOMS. To ren- 
 der the circulation of air perceptible, let the air 
 of a room be heated by a strong fire, whilst that 
 of a contiguous room is cold ; then let the door 
 between those two rooms be opened, in which 
 case the hot air of one room being lighter, will 
 pass through the upper part of the opening of the 
 door into the cold room ; and, on the contrary, 
 the cold air of the other room being heavier, will 
 pass into the former room through the lower part 
 of the opening. Accordingly, it will be found, 
 that applying a lighted candle at the top, in the 
 middle, and at the lower part of the opening be- 
 tween the two rooms, a strong current of air will 
 appear to pass from the hot into the cold room 
 near the top ; a contrary current of air will ap- 
 pear to pass from the latter into the former room 
 near the lower part of the said opening , as may 
 be clearly perceived by the direction of the flame 
 of the candle, whilst in the middle there is little 
 or no morion at all. It is for the same reason 
 that when the fire is lighted in a grate, a strong 
 current of air is occasioned to enter the room, 
 which may be felt by applying the hand near the 
 key-hole, or other such small opening, if the doors 
 and windows are shut ; for the air over the fire, 
 being heated, becomes lighter, and ascends into 
 the chimney ; consequently other colder air must 
 supply its place, which forces its way through all 
 the small openings it can find. Were a room 
 with a fire in it to be perfectly closed, excepting, 
 the chimney, the air in it would soon become un- 
 wholesome for respiration, and the fire would be'
 
 AIR 
 
 391 
 
 AIR 
 
 soon extinguished, besides other inconveniences. 
 Hence it appears that those persons mistake 
 who expect to keep the air of a room sweet and 
 wholesome, especially for convalescents, by ac- 
 curately stopping all the smallest openings that 
 admit fresh air. When the current of air that 
 enters into a room is on some side of it, and 
 falls immediately on persons of delicate con- 
 stitution, it maybe injurious. In that case, such 
 opening should be closed ; but at the same time 
 another should be made for admitting fresh air, in 
 a more convenient part; for a circulation of 
 air, especially in rooms where a fire is kept, is 
 not only salutary and useful, but is absolutely 
 necessary. See PNEUMATICS. 
 
 In an ingenious publication, entitled, a Prac- 
 tical Treatise on Chimneys, there are the follow- 
 ing useful remarks, on the best method of 
 admitting air into a room. The author directs a 
 vent-hole to be made near the top of the room, 
 in order to expel the heated and contaminated 
 air, and says, that ' this might be done by means 
 of a small tube opening into the room, either in 
 or near the ceiling ; which should be carried to 
 the top of the building, or be made to com- 
 municate with the external air, by a small per- 
 foration through the wall at the roof of the room ; 
 by means of either of which, a proper circula- 
 tion would be established, and the foul air 
 carried off. For the fire would no sooner have 
 warmed any particle of air within the room, than 
 these would be greatly expanded, and rise im- 
 mediately upwards, so as to fill the higher parts 
 of the room with rarefied air ; and as other par- 
 ticles would be successively heated and rarefied 
 in their turn, by their expansive force they would 
 press upon the sides of the apartment in every 
 place, so as to force the lightest particles through 
 the opening, left for that purpose, in the top 
 of the rooms : by which means the foul air 
 would be gradually drawn off, without descend- 
 ing again into the lower regions.' But in order 
 to admit fresh air into the room, ' Let,' says he, 
 ' another opening be made in the ceiling of the 
 room, having a communication with a small pipe 
 that should lead from thence, either to the out- 
 side of the wall of the house, or to any other 
 part of the building that might be judged more 
 convenient, where it should be bent, and con- 
 ducted downwards, till it reached the ground ; 
 where it should be left open, to communicate 
 with the external air. In this situation, the cool 
 external air would be forced in at the lower 
 opening of the tube, and made to ascend into 
 the apartment, in proportion to the quantity that 
 escaped towards the higher regions, by means of 
 the ventilator. And as that weighty air would 
 no sooner enter the room, than it would tend to- 
 wards the floor by its own natural gravity, it 
 would gradually mix with the heated air in its 
 descent ; become, in some measure, warmed by 
 that means, and equally dispersed through the 
 room, so as slowly and imperceptibly to reach 
 the candles and the company in the room, and 
 supply them with a sufficient quantity of fresh 
 and wholesome air, without the inconveniences 
 to which the company are subjected, by the 
 usual way of admitting fresh air.' Such of our 
 readers as have been unaccustomed to specula- 
 
 tions of this sort, will be at a loss to comprehend 
 in what manner two holes, both of them in the 
 roof of the room, and communicating with the 
 air, without any valve, or other contrivance for 
 opening or closing of themselves, should yet an- 
 swer the two very opposite purposes, the one, of 
 constantly bringing cool air into the room with- 
 out emitting any warm air, and the other, of as 
 constantly emitting warm and admitting no cool 
 air. They will observe, that the one of these 
 tubes communicates with the atmosphere, at the 
 bottom of the house, and the other towards the 
 top : the opening of the one is beneath the level 
 of the room, that of the other above it. Now, 
 as the air is more dense at the surface of the 
 ground, than at the height above it, the warm 
 rarefying air will naturally issue at the opening 
 where it meets with least resistance, which must 
 invaribly be through that which opens to the 
 external air at the greatest height ; and as the 
 cool air will naturally be pressed into the room, 
 by that opening where the air is most weighty, 
 this must invariably be by that which is nearest 
 the surface of the earth. 
 
 A friend of Dr. Franklin's, whose observations 
 on a topic of this kind are always as useful and 
 practical, as they are philosophical, writes thus : 
 
 ' Dr. Franklin was, if I mistake not, the 
 first who observed that respiration communicated 
 to the air a quality resembling the mephitic ; 
 such as the Grotto del Cano near Naples. The 
 air impressed with this quality rises only to a 
 certain height, beyond which it gradually loses 
 it. The amendment begins in the upper part, 
 and descends gradually until the whole becomes 
 capable of sustaining life. The Doctor confirmed 
 this by the following experiment. He breathed 
 gently through a tube into a deep glass mug, so 
 as to impregnate all the air in the mug with this 
 quality. He then put a lighted bougie into the 
 mug; and upon touching the air therein the 
 flame was instantly extinguished ; by frequently 
 repeating this operation, the bougie gradually 
 preserved its light longer in the mug, so as in a 
 short time to retain it to the bottom of it ; the 
 air having totally lost the bail quality it had con- 
 tracted from the breath blown into it. 
 
 'At the same time that the lower part 
 of the air is thus affected, an acrid noxious 
 quality may be communicated to its upper part 
 in the room, occasioned by the volatile putres- 
 cent effluvia of the persons enclosed therein. 
 ' It is surprising,' says Sir John Pringle, in his 
 observations on the diseases of the army, fourth 
 edit. p. 109, ' in how few days the air will be 
 corrupted in close and crowded wards ; and what 
 makes it hard to remedy the evil, is the difficulty 
 of convincing either nurses or the sick them- 
 selves, of the necessity of opening the windows 
 and doors at any time for a supply of fresh air.' 
 
 'It may be inferred from the preceding ac- 
 count of mephitic air, that such air can be but 
 little altered by a ventilator in the ceiling of a 
 room ; and Dr. Franklin justly concluded, that 
 in crowded rooms, and especially in bed-rooms 
 in dwelling-houses, a current of air should be 
 kept up in the lower part of the rooms, to carry 
 off what is thus affected. He approved of the 
 use of chimnies for this purpose, especially when
 
 AIR 
 
 392 
 
 AIR 
 
 <he current is quickened by a fire. Even when 
 there is not any fire in the chimney, a current of 
 air is constantly kept up in it, by its ascending 
 or descending in the flue, as the weight of the 
 internal or external air preponderates. This 
 creates a kind of tide in the flue, conducing much 
 to the healthiness of air in rooms : and hence we 
 may see the injudiciousness of having chimney 
 boards which fit closely, and thereby prevent a 
 salutary circulation in the air. Hence also in 
 warm weather we may account for liquors or 
 other things kept in a chimney being cooled, and 
 more so if means are used to create an evapora- 
 tion around them. 
 
 ' Every person has an atmosphere of his 
 own, he observed, heated by the warmth of his 
 body, which can be dissipated only by motion in 
 the circumambient air. Thus in warm weather 
 wind cools the body, by carrying off the personal 
 atmosphere, and promoting at the same time a 
 more free evaporation of the effluvia arising from 
 the body. This creates a great degree of coolness 
 on the skin. The personal atmosphere can be 
 but little affected by a ventilator in the ceiling of 
 a room, unless the admission of external air is so 
 directed as to act principally on the air sur- 
 rounding those in the room. Dr. Franklin, when 
 consulted on ventilating the House of Commons, 
 represented that the personal atmosphere, sur- 
 rounding the members, might be carried off by 
 making outlets in the perpendicular parts of the 
 seats, through which the air might be drawn off 
 by ventilators, so placed, as to accomplish this 
 without admitting any by the same channels. It 
 will appear from what has been said, that win- 
 dows placed high in the walls of churches, or 
 rooms intended for large assemblies, can contri- 
 bute but little towards correcting the mephitic 
 quality of the lower part of the air, or towards 
 carrying off the personal atmospheres.' 
 
 ' Dr. Stephen Hales endeavoured to sug- 
 gest an easy and effectual way to carry off such 
 yitiated air. But his ventilators were attended 
 with the inconveniency of occasioning smoky 
 ehimnies, by drawing off so much air, that there 
 was not a sufficiency left to keep a current strong 
 enough to carry the smoke up the chimney, un- 
 less a door or window was left open. And the 
 circulating ventilators in windows were intended 
 for refreshing the air in rooms, without affecting 
 the current of air up the chimney ; but they did 
 not affect the mephitic air, nor the higher air 
 near the ceiling of lofty rooms, which is most 
 vitiated with putrescent particles ; and they were 
 besides often out of repair. 
 
 ' Instead of either of these, Dr. Franklin 
 proposed that openings should be made close to 
 the ceilings of rooms communicating with a flue, 
 which should ascend in the wall close to the flues 
 of the ehimnies, and, where it* can be done con- 
 veniently, close to the flue of the kitchen chim- 
 ney ; because the fire burning pretty constantly 
 there, would keep the sides of that flue warmer 
 than those of the other ehimnies; whereby a 
 quicker current of air would be kept up in the 
 ventilating flue. Such a flue might be carried 
 irom the vaults or under ground offices. This 
 would render them drier, without altering their 
 temperature much as to heat or cold. These 
 
 ventilating flues would cause a constant dis- 
 charge of the volatile putrescent effluvia without 
 interfering with the current of air up the chim- 
 ,nies, whilethe current towards the chimney would 
 carry off the mephitic air below. These ven- 
 tilating flues would be peculiarly beneficial in 
 bed-rooms, the ceilings of which are low, 
 
 ' Dr. Franklin mentioned an instance of 
 number of Germans, who on their arrival in. 
 Pennsylvania were obliged to live in a large barn ; 
 there being at that time no other place of resi- 
 dence fit for them. Several small windows were 
 made on both sides of the barn under the eaves 
 These windows were kept constantly open, even 
 during a severe frost in the winter ; and this 
 without any detriment to the health of the 
 Germans. Prejudice, said he, has raised so 
 great a dread against cold air in England, that 
 such openings would make persons shudder at 
 the thought of being exposed to so great a degree 
 of cold : and therefore I did not dare to recom- 
 mend a practice, the good effects of which I had 
 known. The dormitory for the youths of West- 
 minster school is a similar instance ; for the glass 
 put in their high lofty windows is soon broken, 
 but seldom repaired; yet without prejudice to 
 the health of the youths. 
 
 ' An attentive observer will soon be con- 
 vinced,' continues our author, ' that there is a 
 current of warm air which ascends in the room 
 from the chimney, while a fire burns. Dr. 
 Franklin showed that this was the case, by the 
 following experiment. He suspended by a 
 thread, a piece of pasteboard cut in a spiral 
 form. The thread was fastened to the chimney- 
 piece, so that the pasteboard drawn out in a 
 spiral form, came near to the edge of the chim- 
 ney. The constant current of warm air, heated 
 by the fire, gave a continued circular motion to 
 the pasteboard. This warm air ascending to the 
 ceiling, there spread, and kept a constant motion 
 in the upper part of the air. The warm air thus 
 ascending, coming into contact with the cool 
 walls, and being thereby condensed, become? 
 heavier, and so falls along the sides of the walls. 
 Also the glass in windows being exposed to the 
 temperature of the external air, in cold weather, 
 becomes colder than any other part of the room : 
 therefore more sensibly descends, as may be 
 seen by approaching a lighted taper to a win- 
 dow. The flame is then carried downwards by 
 the air; or if the flame is extinguished, the 
 smoke will more clearly shew this truth, by de- 
 scending along the window till it meets the air 
 of an equal temperature. This will be the case, 
 however tight the window ; and the more so, the 
 brighter and stronger the fire is, and the colder 
 the external air ; the circulation of the air being 
 thereby quickened. This accounts for the fami- 
 liar caution of avoiding to sit in or near a win- 
 dow. This circulation of the air is yet more 
 evidently proved by the following instance : 
 When there is a bright strong fire in a close 
 room, open the door and present immediately a 
 lighted candle to the upper part of the door- 
 way, the flame will bend outward; though warm- 
 air in the higher part rushes out, lower the candk 
 gradually, and the strength of the current outward 
 will lessen by degrees, as the candle is lowered,.
 
 AIR 
 
 393 
 
 AIR 
 
 till it comes to a space in which the flame shall 
 lise upright: continue to lower the candle 
 gradually, and then the current of cold air in- 
 ward will gradually increase and more strongly 
 bend the flame of the candle inward. This will 
 be the case even in frosty and windy weather. 
 May it not be inferred from this circumstance, of 
 so strong a current of air outwards in the upper 
 part of the door-way, that an opening over or 
 in the upper part of the door in the ward of an 
 hospital might be of advantage, especially if there 
 is no ventilating flue in the ceiling ? By such 
 means a circulation of the air in the upper part 
 of the ward could be constantly kept up ; and 
 thereby a vent would be given to the volatile 
 putrescent particles. This vent might remain 
 open at all times, without any prejudice to the 
 patients. 
 
 ' What is said on this subject by Dr. John 
 Armstrong, a gentleman no less remarkable for 
 his benevolence than for his judgment and fine 
 taste, may be properly mentioned here. ' A con- 
 stant circulation of fresh air is so necessary, so 
 important in fevers, and in all feverish disorders, 
 that it ought to be particularly considered in the 
 construction of houses. It would be well, if in 
 all the apartments of every house, but especially 
 in bed-chambers, the upper sashes of every win- 
 dow were contrived to let down ; for by this 
 means the admission of fresh air would at all 
 times be perfectly safe ; except during a raw r 
 damp, foggy night ; as the body, even when 
 under such a sweat as could not without danger 
 be interrupted, may receive all the refreshing, 
 restorative, and invigorating influence of the air, 
 without being exposed to a stream of it ; mean- 
 time, where this is wanting, the best method to 
 supply it, is by drawing the bed-curtains close, 
 now and then, for a few minutes at a time, while 
 a free passage is made to the foul air, by opening 
 the doors and windows.' Medical Essays, 
 page 22. 
 
 ' The noxious vapours that fill a sick room 
 are not only offensive, but dangerous to those 
 who continue in it for any time. If dangerous 
 then to people in health, how detrimental must 
 they be to one oppressed and struggling under 
 an enfeebling disease ! It is a common thing in 
 a campaign to dLoibute the sick soldiers, ill of 
 malignant fevers, in open barns, where the putrid 
 volatile poison is in a short time dissipated. 
 
 ' There is in a volume of the Memoirs et Obser- 
 vations recueillies par la Societe' Economique de 
 Berne, aletter concerning the health of the inhabi- 
 tants of the Pays de Vaud ; part of which I beg to 
 present here as bearing a near analogy to this sub- 
 ject. The letter is written by a most accurate and 
 judicious clergyman. 'One fact/sayshe, '"deserves 
 to be noticed. Taking one year with another, 
 a greater proportional number always die in 
 towns than in villages. But whence comes it, 
 that when epidemic diseases prevail, the morta- 
 lity takes quite a different road ; that is, it is 
 much more considerable in villages than in 
 towns ? I have taken great pains to find out the 
 cause of this phenomenon, and am apt to im- 
 pute the difference to the difference of habita- 
 tions. The poor in cities and great towns dwell 
 in houses originally not intended for them ; but 
 
 which being so old and past repairing-, as to be 
 no longer tenantable by persons at their ease r 
 fall to the lot of the lower class of people. In 
 these houses the rooms are spacious, cold as ice,, 
 where the air plays freely around, with doors and 
 windows that do not half shut. The inhabitants 
 of these shattered houses are pitied ; and yet the 
 very circumstance of their being out of repair, 
 is what contributes to the health of those who 
 live in them, and facilitates their cure when dis- 
 eases reign.' 
 
 ' The more I see of hospitals, the more I am 
 convinced of the great want of instructions on 
 duly ventilating them.' 
 
 The many excellent observations of a variety 
 of eminent men, on a universally interesting 
 topic, may excuse the length of this extract 
 from Mr. SMALL'S ' Essay on Ventilation, con- 
 taining Dr. Franklin's Observations on the SUD 
 ject,' lately published in the complete works o* 
 Dr. F. 6 vols. 8vo. See VENTILATION. 
 
 The ' Philosophical Survey of Ireland' has this 
 singular passage : ' Smith mentions a Dr.Lyne, 
 of Cork, who, for the last fifty years of his life, 
 never glazed a window in his house ; four of 
 which he had in his bed-chamber, two on each 
 side of his bed. It is remarkable, mat during all 
 that time, nobody died in the house, till he was 
 himself carried off by the small pox, at the age of 
 eighty-five. After the windows were glazed by 
 his own son, death became a frequent visitor.* 
 
 AIR-BAG, in botany, or FOLLICULUS, a small 
 distended seed-bag, or bladder, opening on one 
 side, as in the perriwinkle, or bladder-sena, and 
 having the seeds loose in it. Also a name 
 given by Withering to little bags filled with 
 air in other parts of plants, as at the root of the 
 utricalaria. 
 
 AIR-BALLOON, in aeronautics, the machine 
 that has of late been so frequently used for 
 the purposes of aerial navigation. See AERO- 
 NAUTICS. 
 
 AIR-BLADDER, in ichthyology, vessels contain- 
 ing elastic air, found in the bodies of fish, and 
 sometimes called the swim, or swimming-bladder, 
 sometimes the sound. This membranous bag by 
 means of which, fish elevate, sustain, and sink 
 themselves in water, lies close to the back-bone, 
 and is furnished with a strong muscular coat, 
 by which it has the power of contraction and 
 dilatation. Because it is connected with a glan- 
 dular substance, which contains a quantity of red 
 blood, some have supposed that the air con- 
 tained in the swimming-bladder is derived from 
 this substance. Two processes or appendices 
 issue from its anterior part, and terminate in the 
 fauces. But cartilaginous and cetaceous fish, (or 
 sea-animals,) are wholly without air-bladders. 
 This membrane was discovered by observing, that 
 a bubble of air, in rising from the bottom of a 
 fluid, dilates till it reaches the top, by reason of 
 the continual diminution of the weight, or pres- 
 sure of the incumbent water. The air, in the 
 bladder, is like the bubble, more or less com 
 pressed, according to the depth the fish swims 
 at, and takes up less or more space ; and conse- 
 quently the body of the fish, part of whose bulk 
 this bladder is, is greater or less according to 
 the several depths, though it retains the same
 
 AIR 
 
 394 
 
 AIR 
 
 weight. Now by a rule of hydrostatics, if the 
 fish in the middle region of the water be of equal 
 weight with an equal bulk of the water, it 
 will rest there, without any tendency either up- 
 wards or downwards ; and if the fish be deeper 
 in the water, its bulk becoming less by the com- 
 pression of the bladder, and yet retaining the 
 same weight, it will sink and rest at the bottom : 
 on the other hand, if the fish be higher than the 
 middle region, the air dilating itself, and the bulk 
 of the fish consequently increasing, without any 
 increase of the weight, the fish will rise and rest 
 at the top of the water. 
 
 Fish have been supposed to have some power 
 of emitting air out of the bladder, and afterwards 
 out of their bodies ; also that when there is not 
 enough, to take in more air, and convey it to 
 this bladder ; in which case it will be easily ac- 
 counted for, that there should be always a pro- 
 per supply of air in the bodies of fish, according 
 to the depth of water they live in. Perhaps also, 
 by some muscle, the fish can contract this blad- 
 der beyond the pressure of the weight of water ; 
 and by its sides, or some other defence, keep off 
 the pressure of the water and permit the air to 
 dilate. 
 
 In lieu of a bladder, the water-snake, has a 
 large membranous air-bag on its back, which 
 empties and fills with air at pleasure, by an 
 aperture, which it can shut very close, by means 
 of a sort of valve, so that the least globule of 
 water cannot enter without its consent. By this 
 artifice it can enlarge or lessen the bulk of its 
 body, and inhabit all depths of the water. Ray 
 has conjectured that it is by the help of water, 
 which they take in and let out by two holes in 
 the lower part of their abdomen, near to the 
 ventricle, that they ascend and descend ; that 
 they sink in the water, by letting in some of it 
 at these holes ; the orifices whereof are opened 
 and shut at pleasure, by means of proper muscles, 
 and the water being thus received into the abdo- 
 men, which it contracts or dilates at pleasure, 
 that portion of its body becomes, in fact, its air- 
 bladder. In some fish, as carp for instance, the 
 air-bladder is divided into two compartments, in 
 others into three. Some maintain that all fish 
 which have teeth in their jaws, have only a single 
 air-bladder ; but this seems no certain criterion. 
 If the air-bladder of a fish be pricked or broken, 
 the fish presently sinks to the bottom, unable either 
 to support or raise itself up again. Flat fishes, as 
 soles, plaice, &c. which always lie grovelling at 
 the bottom, have no air-bladder. Dead fishes 
 are found swimming on the surface of the water, 
 because the muscles of this membrane cease to 
 act ; and their bellies are uppermost, as the back- 
 bone cannot yield, and the distended sac is pro- 
 truded into the abdomen : the back becomes con- 
 sequently heaviest at its upper part. 
 
 In most fishes there is a channel, leading from 
 the gullet, or upper orifice of the stomach to the 
 air-bladder, which doubtless serves for conveying 
 air into it. In a sturgeon it has been observed, 
 that upon pressing the bladder the stomach pre- 
 sently swelled ; so in that fish it seems the air 
 passes freely both ways ; and possibly the fish 
 nrny have a power to raise up this valve, and let 
 out air on occasion. 
 
 In a variety of other fishes there are com- 
 munications with some parts of the alimentary 
 canal, particularly the oesophagus and stomach. 
 The salmon has an opening from the fore end of 
 the air-bladder into the oesophagus, which is sur- 
 rounded by a kind of muscular fibres. The 
 herring has a sort of runnel, connecting the bot- 
 tom of the stomach with the air-bag ; by which 
 the air probably comes out from it. 
 
 Dr. Priestley supposes that the air, enclosed 
 in the air-bladder of fishes, serves some further 
 purpose in their economy besides that of enabling 
 them to rise or sink in water. Some fish have 
 no air-bladder, and yet rise or sink without dif- 
 ficulty. That fishes cannot live without air is a 
 well known fact, established long ago by the ex- 
 periments of Mr. Haukshee. The fishes he em- 
 ployed were gudgeons, which are lively in the 
 water, and which subsist for a considerable time 
 when taken out of it. Having put three of these 
 into a vessel of water which had no communica- 
 tion with the external air, and which was de- 
 signed to resemble a frozen pond, and other three 
 into a vessel of water exhausted of its air ; he 
 observed, that in about half an hour the latter 
 manifested signs of uneasiness by an unusual 
 motion of their mouth and gills ; and the former 
 frequently ascended to the top of the vessel in 
 which they were confined and then sunk down 
 again, without any sensible alteration. After 
 five hours the gudgeons in the vessel exhausted 
 of its air, became less active ; and in about three 
 hours more those in the confined air lay at the 
 bottom of the vessel with their bellies upwards, 
 without moving their fins or tail, but indicating 
 life by a motion with their mouths. On un- 
 covering the vessel, they revived in two or three 
 hours, and were perfectly well next morning ; at 
 which time those in the vessel purged of its air 
 were also recovered. When this last vessel was 
 put under the receiver of an air-pump, and the 
 air was exhausted, they all died . When the air 
 was exhausted they remained at the top, but on 
 its re-admission, they sunk to the bottom. It is 
 not easy to explain the manner in which fishes 
 are supplied with air, nor the benefit they derive 
 from it ; nor are the nature and qualities of the 
 air, contained in their air-bladder, satisfactorily 
 ascertained. Priestley confined minows, and other 
 small fish in water without any access of com- 
 mon air, till they died, and upon examining this 
 water, he found that it was somewhat worse than 
 air in which a candle just goes out. Hence he 
 infers, that air contained in water, in an un- 
 elastic state, is as necessary to the life of fishes, 
 as air in an elastic state is to that of land-animals. 
 Upon putting fish into water impregnated with 
 phlogisticated air, he found that it was not only 
 injurious, but in process of time fatal to them; 
 although he observes, that fish, like insects and 
 some other exsanguinous animals,can live a con- 
 siderable time without any thing equivalent to 
 respiration. In mentioning some experiments 
 on the state of the air, which is contained in the 
 air-bladder of fish, he remarks, that when these 
 are taken out of the fish, the air cannot be dis- 
 charged from them by pressure through any exist- 
 ing aperture, but he was always obliged to cut 
 or burst them. The air itself, obtained from
 
 AIR 
 
 395 
 
 AIR 
 
 many of them was not affected by nitrous air ; 
 but that of some, particularly of roaches, ex- 
 hibited slight indications of the effect of this test. 
 It thus appears, that he seldom met with oxygen, 
 and with that only in a small quantity. Exp. 
 and Obs. relating to Nat. Philos. vol. ii. p. 138. 
 Fourcroy found that for the most part, the air 
 contained in the air-vessel of the carp, was per- 
 fectly pure azotic gas, though it sometimes con- 
 tained a small quantity of carbonic acid gas. 
 From the nature of the fluid, he infers, that the 
 air in the bladders of fishes is produced in the 
 stomach. Ann. de Chem. i. 47. Dr. Monro, 
 in his lectures, led his auditors to conclude, that 
 it was fixed air. But Dr. Brodbelt of Jamaica, 
 collecting about a quart of the air from the 
 bladder of a large sword-fish, which, he says, 
 consisted of innumerable cells that had no com- 
 munication with one another, found to his sur- 
 prise that it was oxygen. A flame was brightened 
 and an ignited stick was rekindled by it; and it 
 was so strong and pure, that the common ex- 
 periment of a piece of steel-wire, heated and put 
 into it, succeeded well, and threw out a most 
 vivid light when melting. This pure air, he sup- 
 poses, is adapted to serve the purposes of life, 
 when the fish is far below the surface of the 
 water. Duncan's Ann. of Med. for 1796, p. 393. 
 AIR-BLADDERS, or AIR-BAGS, in ornitho- 
 logy, cells or receptacles of air in the bodies 
 of birds, which are found to be lodged both 
 among the fleshy parts, and in the hollow bones 
 of these animals. Hunter contends that the 
 air-cells, which are found in the soft parts of 
 birds, have no communication with the cavity 
 of the common cellular membrane of the body ; 
 some of them communicate immediately with 
 one another ; and all of them may be said to have a 
 communication together, by means of the lungs as 
 a common centre. Some are placed in larger ca- 
 vities, such as the abdomen; others are so lodged 
 in the interstices of parts, that they would, at 
 first, appear to be the common connecting mem- 
 brane, as about the breast, axjlla, &c. The 
 bones, which receive air are of two kinds ; 
 some, as the sternum, ribs, and vertebrae, have 
 their internal substance divided into innumera- 
 ble cells ; whilst others, as the os humeri and 
 the os femoris, are hollowed out into one large 
 canal. These bones may be distinguished from 
 those that do not receive air, by their less spe- 
 cific gravity ; by being less vascular, and con- 
 sequently whiter, than others ; by containing 
 little or no oil ; by having no marrow nor bloody 
 pulpy substance, even in their cells; by not 
 being, in general, so hard and firm as other 
 bones ; and by the ease with which the passage 
 that conveys the air into the bones may be per- 
 ceived. The mechanism by which the lungs are 
 adapted for communicating air to the above- 
 mentioned parts consists principally in the at- 
 tachment of the lungs to the diaphragm and their 
 connection with the ribs and sides of the vertebra. 
 These adhesions are peculiar to this tribe of ani- 
 mals. For the communication of the air from 
 the lungs to the other parts, the diaphragm is 
 perforated with large holes, which open a free 
 passage between the cells of the lungs and the 
 abdomen : to each of these perforations is an- 
 
 nexed a distinct membranous bag, which is very 
 thin and transparent, and these bags, which re- 
 ceive the air, are extended over the whole ab- 
 domen. The lungs open at their anterior part, 
 or towards the sternum, into membranous cells, 
 which lie open upon the sides of the pericar- 
 dium, and communicate with the cells of the 
 sternum. The superior part of the lungs opens 
 into large cells of a loose net work, through 
 which the trachea, oesophagus, and large vessels, 
 in their way from and to the heart pass. When 
 these cells are distended with air, the size of 
 the part where they lie is enlarged, and this 
 distension indicates passion, as appears in the 
 turkey-cock, pouting pigeon, &c., and in the 
 breast of a goose, when it cackles. These cells 
 communicate with others in the axilla, under 
 the large pectoral muscle, &c. ; and those again 
 with the cavity of the os humeri by small open- 
 ings in the hollow surface, near the head of that 
 bone. The posterior edges of the lungs, which 
 lie on the sides of the spine, and project back- 
 wards between the ribs, open into the cells of 
 the bodies of the vertebra;, ribs, canal of the 
 medulla spinalis, sacrum, and other bones of the 
 pelvis ; and thus the air finds a passage to the 
 cavity of the thigh-bone. This supply of the 
 bones with air is not wholly by means of the lungs ; 
 for the cells of the bones of the head, in some 
 birds, are filled with it, as in the case of the owl r 
 which has the diploe between the two plates of 
 the scull cellular, and capable of admitting a con- 
 siderable quantity of air from the Eustachian tube. 
 Hunter finally conjectures that these air-blad- 
 ders are to be considered as appendages to the 
 lungs ; and that they answer the same purpose 
 with the two bags that form the lungs of am- 
 phibious animals, which are continued down 
 through the belly, the upper part of which per- 
 forms the office of respiration, and the re- 
 mainder of which is a reservoir of air. In 
 consequence of this conformation, these animals 
 can breathe less frequently than others ; and 
 birds are thus aided in their flight, which must 
 render frequency of respiration difficult, and a 
 reservoir of air singularly useful. He farther 
 suggests that this construction of the respiratory 
 organs may assist birds in singing ; and that 
 the long continuance of the song of a canary- 
 bird between its breathings may be owing to 
 this cause. See Philos. Trans, vol. Ixiv. p. 205. 
 Dr. Latham, Linnaean Transactions, vol. iv. 
 p. 94, queries, whether this construction may 
 not enable some birds to dive and stay for a 
 considerable time tinder water. According to 
 Dr. Monro, these air vesicles are of consider- 
 able use in two respects. They serve, by dis- 
 tending the lungs with air, to render the bodies 
 of birds specifically light, and also to straiten 
 the trachea arteria, and thus return the air ; 
 and moreover to supply the place of a muscular 
 diaphragm and strong abdominal muscles, and 
 thus to aid the exclusion of the eggs and faeces. 
 
 AIR-CAKE, an air-gun adapted to the shape 
 and dimensions r and commonly carried about as 
 a walking-stick, see the following article. It 
 is the same in principle as the air-gun, the only 
 difference being, that the syringe is applied 
 to the extremity of the barrel, and the lock
 
 AIR 
 
 396 
 
 AIR 
 
 and trigger shut up in a brass case, and the 
 trigger pulled, or the discharge made by pulling 
 the chain. In this form of the machine, there is 
 a round .chamber for the condensed air ; and it 
 has a valve acting in a similar manner to that of 
 the copper ball. 
 
 The AIR-GUN is a pneumatic instrument for 
 the projection of bullets by the condensation of 
 air. The ancients were certainly acquainted with 
 the principles of its construction, as well as 
 the general properties of air. Aristotle speaks 
 of all the elements having weight, with the ex- 
 ception of fire ; and Plutarch and Strobceus 
 represent him as having taught, that the weight 
 of air was between that of fire and earth. The 
 last philosopher also quotes Empedocles, as 
 attributing the action of respiration to the pres- 
 sure of air, by which it insinuates itself into the 
 lungs. Hero, of Alexandria, in his work, Spi- 
 ritalia, applies the principle of the elasticity of 
 the air to explain various phenomena, and in 
 such a way as sufficiently to prove that he was no 
 stranger to its common properties. Ctesibus adopt- 
 ing the principle of elasticity, as is well known, 
 constructed ' wind-guns,' between which, and 
 the modern air-gun, there was only this difference, 
 that in the former the ball was not immediately 
 exposed to the action of the air, but was impelled 
 by the longer arm of a lever, while the air acted 
 on the shorter ; but the principle of operation is 
 the same in both, and shows clearly that the 
 elastic property of common air, if it could not 
 be accurately measured, was at least well known 
 at that time. The first modern account of an 
 air-gun which we meet with, is in the Elemens 
 d'Artillerie of David Rivaut, who was preceptor 
 to Louis XIII. He ascribes the invention to 
 Marin, of Lisieux, who presented one to Henry 
 IV. of France. 
 
 The elasticity of gunpowder has been esti- 
 mated as equal to about 1000 times that of com- 
 mon air : admitting, therefore, this to be correct, 
 (although there seems to be great reason to sup- 
 pose it to be under-rated) it would be necessary 
 that air should be condensed 1000 times more 
 than in its natural state, to produce the same 
 effect as gunpowder. There is, however, this 
 important consideration to be attended to, viz. 
 that the velocities with which equal balls are im- 
 pelled, are directly proportional to the square 
 roots of the forces ; so that if the air in an air-gun 
 be condensed only ten times, the velocity with 
 which it will project a ball will be one-tenth of 
 that arising from gunpowder ; and if the air were 
 condensed twenty times, it would communicate 
 a velocity of one-seventh of that of gunpowder 
 and so on. 
 
 But air-guns project their balls with a much 
 greater proportion of velocity than that stated 
 above, for this reason, that as the reservoir, or 
 magazine of condensed air, is commonly very 
 large in proportion to the narrow tube which 
 contains the ball, its density is very little altered 
 by expanding through that tube, and, conse- 
 quently, the ball is urged all the way by nearly 
 the same uniform force as at the first "instant ; 
 whereas the elastic fluid arising from inflamed 
 gunpowder, is but very small in proportion to 
 the tube or barrel of the gun, occupying, indeed, 
 
 but a very small portion of it next the butt-end ' 
 and, therefore, by dilating into a comparatively 
 large space as it urges the ball along the barrel, 
 its elastic force is proportionally weakened, and 
 it acts always less and less on the ball in the 
 tube. Whence it happens that air condensed 
 into a pretty large machine only ten times, will 
 project its ball with a velocity but little inferior 
 to that given by gunpowder ; and if the valve 
 of communication be suddenly shut again by a 
 spring, after opening it to let some air escape, 
 then the same charge may serve to impel several 
 balls in succession. In all cases where a con- 
 siderable force is required, and, consequently, a 
 great condensation of air, it will be requisite to 
 have the condensing syringe of a small bore, 
 perhaps not more than half an inch in diameter ; 
 otherwise the force requisite to produce the 
 compression will become so great, that the ope- 
 rator cannot work the machine ; for, as the pres- 
 sure against every square inch is about 15 Ibs., 
 and against every circular area of an inch 
 diameter, 12 Ibs. ; if the syringe be an inch in 
 diameter, it will require a force of as many times 
 12 Ibs. as the density of the air in the receiver 
 exceeds that of the common atmosphere ; so that 
 when the condensation is ten times, the force 
 required will be 120 Ibs. ; whereas, with a half- 
 inch bore, it will only amount to 30 Ibs. 
 
 The common air-gun is made of brass, and 
 has two barrels ; the inside barrel A, plate II. 
 fig. 10, which is of a small bore, from whence the 
 bullets are exploded ; and a large barrel, E C D R, 
 on the outside of it. There is a syringe, SMP, 
 fixed in the stock of the gun, by which the air is 
 injected into the cavity between the two barrels 
 through the valve E P. The ball K is put down 
 into its place in the small barrel, with the ram- 
 mer, as in any other gun. At S L is another 
 valve, which, being opened by the trigger O, 
 permits the air to come behind the bullet so as 
 to drive it forwards. If this valve be opened 
 and shut suddenly, one charge of condensed air 
 may be sufficient for several discharges of bul- 
 lets ; but if the whole air be discharged on one 
 single bullet it will drive it out with a greater 
 force. This discharge is effected by means of 
 a lock, fig. 13, placed as in other guns ; for the 
 trigger being pulled, the cock will go down and 
 drive the lever O, fig. 10, which will open the 
 valve, and let in the air upon the bullet K. 
 
 An improvement of this air-gun has been made 
 by Dr. Ellis, in which the chamber containing the 
 condensed air is not in the stock, but in five or 
 six hollow copper balls, about three inches in 
 diameter. These are fitted to a screw on the lock 
 of the gun, and are so furnished with valves as to 
 retain at pleasure the air forced into their cavities, 
 whereby they may be carried about from place to 
 place, ready charged with condensed air, and the 
 gun itself is rendered as light and portable as the 
 smallest fowling-piece. 
 
 The best construction, of modern times, has, 
 however, been suggested by the late Mr. B. Mar- 
 tin, and is represented fig. II A is the barrel with 
 the lock, stock, ram-rod, &c. of the size and weight 
 of a common fowling-piece. Under the lock at b, 
 is a round steel tube, having a small moveable 
 pin in the inside, which is pushed out when the
 
 Vol. .1 PAGE 3S8. 
 
 AIR <&TUH& & CAIf E
 
 AIR 
 
 397 
 
 AIR 
 
 trigger o is pulled, by the spring work within the 
 lock ; to this tube, a hollow copper ball c, screws 
 perfectly air-tight. This copper ball is folly 
 charged with condensed air by the syringe, B 
 fig. 9, previous to its being applied to the tube b 
 of fig. 11. It is then evident that if a bullet be 
 rammed down in the barrel, the copper ball 
 screwed fast at b, and the trigger a be pulled, 
 that the pin in b will, by the action of the spring 
 work within the lock, forcibly strike out into 
 the copper ball, and thereby in pushing suddenly 
 a valve within the copper ball, let out a portion 
 of the condensed air ; which air will rush up 
 through the aperture of the lock, and forcibly act 
 against the bullet, driving it to the distance of sixty 
 or seventy yards, or further. If the air is strongly 
 condensed, at every discharge only a portion of 
 the air escapes from the ball ; therefore, by re- 
 cocking the piece, another discharge maybe made; 
 and thus repeated to the amount of fifteen or six- 
 teen times. An additional barrel is sometimes 
 made, and applied for the discharge of shot, in- 
 stead of the one above described. The air in the 
 copper ball is condensed by means of the syringe, 
 B, %. 9, in the following manner. The ball c is 
 screwed quite close on the top of the syringe. 
 At the end of the steel-pointed rod a, is a stout 
 ring through which passes the rod k : upon this 
 rod the feet should be firmly set ; then the hands 
 are to be applied to the two handles ii, fixed on 
 the side of the barrel of the syringe. Now by 
 moving the barrel B steadily up and down on 
 the rod a, the ball c will become charged with 
 condensed air; and it may be easily known 
 when the ball is as full as possible, by the ir- 
 resistible action that the air makes against the 
 piston when you are working the syringe. At 
 the end of the rod k is usually a four-square hole, 
 which, with the rod, serves as a key to fasten the 
 ball c fast on the screw b of the gun and syringe, 
 close to the orifice in the ball c. In the middle 
 is fixed a valve and spring which gives way for 
 the admission of air; but upon its emission comes 
 close up to the orifice, shutting up the internal 
 air. The piston rod works air-tight by a collar 
 of leather on it, in the barrel B; it is therefore 
 plain, when the barrel is drawn up, the air will 
 push in at the hole h. When the barrel is pushed 
 down, the air therein contained will have no other 
 way to pass from the pressure of the piston but 
 into the ball c at top. The barrel being drawn 
 up, the operation is repeated, until the conden- 
 sation is so strong as to resist the action of the 
 piston. Sometimes the syringe is applied to the 
 end of the barrel C, see fig. 12, the lock and 
 trigger shut up in a brass case d ; and the trigger 
 pulled, or discharge made, by pulling the chain b. 
 In this contrivance there is a round chamber for 
 the condensed air at the end of the syringe at e, 
 and it has a valve acting in a similar manner to 
 that of the copper ball. When this instrument 
 is not in use, the brass case d is made to slide 
 off, and the instrument then becomes a walking 
 stick ; from which circumstance, and the barrel 
 being made of cane, brass, &c. it has received 
 the appellation of air-cane. The head of the 
 cane unscrews and takes off at a, where the ex- 
 tremity of the piston rod in the barrel is hown : 
 an iron rod is placed in a ring at the end of this, 
 
 and the air condensed in the barrel in a similar 
 manner to that of the gun as above ; but its force 
 of action is not near so strong and permanent as 
 that of the latter. 
 
 M. L. Colbe's magazine air-gun is also an im- 
 provement of the common air-gun. By his 
 contrivance ten bullets are so lodged in a cavity ; 
 near the place of discharge, that they may be 
 drawn into the shooting barrel, and successively 
 shot so quickly, as to be nearly of the same use 
 with so many different guns ; the only motion 
 required, when the air has been previously in- 
 jected, being that of shutting and opening the 
 hammer, and cocking and pulling the trigger. 
 In fig. 18 is exhibited a section of the gun, as 
 large in every part as the gun itself; and so 
 much of its length is shown as is necessary to give 
 a complete idea of the stock; G Fig. 14 is the end 
 of the injecting syringe, with its valve H ; opening 
 into the cavity, FF 16 between the barrels. KK 
 is the small or shooting barrel, which receives the 
 bullets, one at a time from the magazine, E D, 
 which is a serpentine cavity, fig. 1 5, wherein the 
 bullets, b, b, &c. are lodged, and closed at the end, 
 D. The circular part, S I s k M i, is the key of 
 a cock, having a cylindrical hole, I K, through 
 it, equal to the bore of the small barrel, and 
 forming a part of it in the present situation, 
 When the lock is taken off, the several parts, 
 Q, R,T,S, W, &c. come into view, by means of 
 which the discharge is made by putting up the 
 pin, P p, which raises and opens a valve, V, to 
 let in the air against the bullets, I, from the 
 cavity, FFF; which valve is immediately shut 
 down again by means of a long spring of brass. 
 N N. This valve V, being a conical piece of 
 brass, ground very true on the part which receives 
 it, will of itself be sufficient to confine the air. 
 To make a discharge, pull the trigger, Z Z, 
 which throws up the seer, y x, and disengages 
 it from the notch, x ; upon which the strono- 
 spring, W W, moves the tumbler, T, 17, to 
 which the cock is fixed. The end, u, of this 
 tumbler bears down the end, v, of the tumbling 
 lever, R, which, by its other end, m, raises the 
 flat end, I, of the horizontal lever, Q, by which 
 means the pin, Pp, is pushed up, and opening 
 the valve, V, discharges the bullet ; all which 
 is evident from a bare view of the figure. 
 
 To bring another bullet instantly to succeed 
 I, there is a part, H, called the hammer, repre- 
 sented in fig. 19, and fig. 20, which by a square 
 hole goes upon the square end of the key of the 
 cock, and turns it about, so as to place the cylin- 
 dric bore of the key I k, in any situation required. 
 
 Thus, when the bullet is in the gun, the bore 
 of the key coincides with that of the barrel K K ; 
 but when it is discharged, the hammer, H, is 
 instantly brought down to shut the pan of the 
 gun ; by which motion the bore of the key is 
 turned into the situation ik, so as to coincide 
 with the orifice of the magazine; and upon lift- 
 ing the gun upright, the ball next the key tum- 
 bles into its cavity, and falling behind two springs, 
 ss, fig. 18, is by them detained. Then lifting 
 the hammer again, the ball is brought into its 
 proper place, near the discharging valve, and the 
 bore of the key again coincides with that of the 
 shooting-barrel. It appears how expeditious a
 
 AIR 
 
 3D8 
 
 AIR 
 
 methoij this is of charging and discharging a 
 gun; and if the force of condensed air was as 
 preat as that of gunpowder, such an air gun 
 would actually answer the end of many guns, 
 and prove the best defence against highway- 
 men or robbers ; because, when there is reason 
 to suspect them, they might then make five or 
 six discharges before the robber could come 
 within pistol-shot. See PNEUMATICS. 
 
 AIR-JACKET, a sort of jacket made of leather, 
 in which are several bags, or bladders, composed 
 of the same materials, communicating with each 
 other. It is designed for the use of bathers and 
 young swimmers. The bags or bladders are 
 filled with air through a leather tube having a 
 brass stop-cock accurately ground at the ex- 
 tremity, by which means the air blown in through 
 the tube is confined to the bladders. The jacket 
 must be wet before the air be blown into the 
 bladders, as otherwise, it will immediately escape 
 through the pores of the leather. By the help of 
 these bladders, which are placed near the breast, 
 the person is supported in the water. 
 
 The AIR-LAMP is formed by a combination of 
 inflammable air and electricity : and although 
 depending upon principles different from the 
 foregoing instruments, is generally classed with 
 pneumatic machines. The construction of it is 
 as follows : 
 
 A, fig. 57, is a glass jar, containing inflammable 
 air, B an open glass urn holding water, by the 
 pressure of which, the air is forced out of the jar 
 A, through the brass pipe a ; C is the stop-cock, 
 so perforated that the water may descend from 
 B into A, and the air pass out through the pipe 
 a. By turning the bar of the stop-cock into a 
 horizontal position, the communication between 
 the two vessels is cut off, and the passage of the 
 air obstructed ; but by placing it in a vertical 
 position, the communication is again opened. 
 The lower jar A is supplied with inflammable 
 air by means of the bladder, fig. 58, and two 
 bladders of this kind are attached to each lamp. 
 The method of using the machine is as follows : 
 Take off the cover D from the lamp, and turn 
 the stop-cock upwards, then pour as much clean 
 water into it as will fill the vessel A up to the 
 . pipe a, unscrew this pipe, and put in its place 
 the small brass piece W, and to this screw one 
 of the stop-cocks and bladder, fig. 58. 
 
 With the bladder under one arm, and with 
 one hand applied to the cock at C, while the 
 other is directed to the bladder, press the latter, 
 and at the same time open the apertures ; by 
 which means, the air will be forced upon the 
 water in A, and driven up the glass pipe through 
 the tube into B. When the vessel A is thus 
 charged with air, the stop-cocks are to be turned, 
 so as to cut off the communication with the ex- 
 ternal air ; and care must be taken that the com- 
 mon atmospheric air does not mix with the 
 inflammable ; for, if this takes place, the ex- 
 plosion would be great, and might be attended 
 with unpleasant circumstances. 
 
 For lighting the lamp the electric fluid is em- 
 ployed, the apparatus being as follows: The 
 wooden base EF, fig. 59, is a sort of box, about 
 twelve inches square, and five inches deep ; and 
 in this is placed an electrophorus, consisting of a 
 
 resinous cake c, and metallic plate d, which, by 
 a hinge at its back, admits of being pulled 
 upwards and downwards by the silken string b, 
 connected both with it and with the stop-cock C. 
 When this cake is once excited, its electric effect 
 upon the metallic plate will be continued a long 
 time. A metallic chain G, communicates with a 
 wire and ball, passing through a brass tube below, 
 in the box over the plate ; and above, with a fine 
 wire passing through a glass tube. This upper 
 wire is bent to about one-eighth of an inch distance 
 from the flame-pipe. It is evident that when 
 the electrophorus in the box is previously ex- 
 cited, and the stop-cock C turned, the silken 
 string b will raise the metallic plate ; and this 
 will give an electric spark to the ball and wire 
 above, which will convey it instantly to the 
 flame-pipe, and inflame the air issuing out of 
 the pipe, in consequence of the pressure of the 
 water in its descent into the vessel A. The 
 cock C being turned back, the flame ceases ; 
 and turned again, appears ; and will serve to 
 light a candle, match, &c. whenever it may be 
 thought proper. 
 
 The number of times in which light may be 
 produced will be very great, depending on 
 the quantity of inflammable air in the vessel 
 A. If the cock be not turned back, the flame 
 will continue till the whole of the inflam- 
 mable air is consumed. The light thus pro- 
 duced will be sufficient for reading a large print 
 in the night, or seeing the hour by a watch. 
 When the electrophorus is to be excited, the 
 silken string b is unhooked from the plate, and 
 the apparatus taken out of the box ; and the me- 
 tallic plate is lifted up, whilst with a silken string, 
 or dry cat-skin rubber, you may briskly rub the 
 surface of the resinous cake. About 20 revolu- 
 tions in rubbing will be sufficient, so that the 
 plate will give a spark to the knuckle about the 
 distance of an inch ; and by the strength of the 
 spark the degree of excitation is to be estimated. 
 The silken string and small glass tubes, through 
 which the wire G passes, should always be very 
 dry, that the passage of the electrical spark may 
 be quite perfect. The whole length of this ap- 
 paratus is about 22 inches ; but it may be made 
 of any dimensions. Dr. Ingenhousz used a small 
 apparatus, constructed upon a similar principle, 
 in obtaining light for domestic purposes, both 
 when at home and on his travels. Adams's 
 Lectures, by Jones, vol. ii. p. 99, &c. 
 
 AIR-PIPES, are an invention for drawing foul 
 air out of ships, or any other close places, by 
 means of fire, and were first suggested by Mr. 
 Sutton, a brewer in London ; from him they 
 received the name of Sutton's air-pipes. The 
 principle on which their operation depends, is 
 this simple one, that air is necessary for the sup- 
 port of fire ; and, if it have not access from the 
 places most adjacent, it will not fail to come 
 from those that are more remote. Thus, in a 
 common furnace, the air enters through the 
 ash-hole ; but if this be closed up, and a hole 
 made in the side of a furnace, the air will rush 
 in with great violence ; if a tube of any length 
 whatever is inserted, the air will rush through 
 the tube into the fire, and of consequence there 
 will be a continued circulation of air in that
 
 a tt> />.
 
 AIR 
 
 399 
 
 AIR 
 
 place wnere the extremity of the tube is laid. 
 Mr. Sutton's contrivance, as communicated to 
 the Royal Society by Dr. Mead, is thus de- 
 scribed : ' As, in every ship of any bulk, there 
 is already provided a copper or boiling-place, 
 proportionable to the size of the vessel ; it is 
 proposed to clear the bad air, by means of the 
 fire already used under the said coppers or boil- 
 ing-places for the necessary uses of the ship. 
 It is well known, that, under every such copper 
 or boiler, there are placed two holes, separated 
 by a grate; the first of which is for the fire, and 
 the other for the ashes falling from the same; 
 and that there is also a flue from the fire-place 
 upward, by which the smoke of the fire is dis- 
 charged at some convenient place of the ship. 
 It is also well known, that the fire once lighted 
 in these fire-places, is only preserved by the con- 
 stant draught of air through the forementioned 
 two holes and flue ; and that if the said two 
 holes are closely stopped up, the fire, though 
 burning ever so briskly before, is immediately 
 put out. But if, after shutting up the above- 
 mentioned holes, another hole be opened, com- 
 municating with any other room or airy place, and 
 with the fire, it is clear, the said fire must again 
 be raised and burn as before, there being a like 
 draught of air through the same as there was be- 
 fore the stopping up of the first holes ; this case 
 differing only from the former in this, that the 
 air feeding the fire, will now be supplied from 
 another place. It is therefore proposed, that, in 
 order to clear the holds of ships of the bad air 
 therein contained, the two holes above-mentioned, 
 the fire-place and ash-place, be both closed up 
 with substantial and tight iron-doors ; and that 
 a copper or leaden pipe, of sufficient size, be 
 laid from the hold into the ash place, for the 
 draught of air to come in that way to feed the 
 fire. And thus it seems plain, from what has 
 been already said, that there will be, from the 
 hold, a constant discharge of the air therein con- 
 tained ; and consequently, that the air, so dis- 
 charged, must be as constantly supplied by 
 fresh air down the hatches or such other com- 
 munications as are opened into the hold ; whereby 
 the same must be continually freshened, and its 
 air rendered more wholesome and fit for respi- 
 ration. And if into this principal pipe so laid 
 into the hold, other pipes are let in, communi- 
 cating respectively, either with the well or lower 
 decks, it ntust follow, that part of the air, con- 
 sumed in feeding the fire, must be respectively 
 drawn out of all such places to which the com- 
 munication shall be so made.' It is evident, 
 that, by means of pipes of this kind, a constant 
 circulation of fresh air would be occasioned 
 through those places where it would otherwise 
 be most apt to stagnate and putrefy. Several 
 other contrivances have been used for the same 
 purpose ; and Doctor Hale's ventilators have, 
 by some, been reckoned superior in efficacy, and 
 even simplicity, to Mr. Sutton's machine. 
 
 A machine capable of answering the same 
 purpose was invented by Mr. Desaguliers, 
 which he called the ship's lungs. It consisted 
 of a cylindrical box set up on its edge, and 
 fixed to a wooden pedestal. From the upper 
 edge of the box issued a square trunk open at 
 
 the end, and communicating with the cavity of 
 the box. Within this box was placed a cylin- 
 drical wheel turning on an axis. It was divided 
 into thirteen parts, by means of partitions placed 
 like the radii of a circle. These partitions did not 
 extend quite to the centre, but left an open space 
 of about eighteen inches diameter in the middle : 
 towards the circumference, they extended as far 
 as possible without interfering with the case, so 
 that the wheel might always be allowed to turn 
 freely. It is plain, that if the wheel were now 
 turned towards that side of the box on which 
 the trunk was, every division would push the 
 air before it, and drive it out through the trunk, at 
 the same time that fresh air would come in 
 through the open space at the centre, to supply 
 that which was thrown out through the trunk. 
 By turning the wheel swiftly, a strong blast of 
 air would be continually forced out through the 
 square trunk, on the same principles on which a 
 common fanner winnows corn. If the wheel is 
 turned the opposite way, a draught of air may 
 be produced from the trunk to the centre. If 
 this machine, then, is placed in a room where a 
 circulation of air is wanted, and the trunk made 
 to pass through one of the walls ; by turning the 
 wheel swiftly round, the air will be forced with 
 great velocity out of that room, at the same time 
 that fresh air will enter, through any chinks by 
 which it can have access, to supply that which 
 has been forced out. It is evident, that the cir- 
 culation which is promoted by this machine, is 
 entirely of the same kind with that produced by 
 Mr. Sutton's ; the turning of the wheel in Mr. 
 Desagulier's machine being equivalent to the 
 rarefaction of the air by fire in Mr. Sutton's ; 
 but that the latter is vastly superior, as acting of 
 itself, and without intermission. Mr. Sutton's 
 machine has yet another conveniency, of which 
 no other contrivance for the same purpose can 
 boast ; namely, that it not only draws out putrid 
 air, but destroys it by causing it to pass through 
 fire ; and experience has abundantly shown, that 
 though putrid air is thrown into a great quan- 
 tity of fresh air, it is so far from losing its per- 
 nicious properties, that it often produces noxious 
 diseases. We do not say, indeed, that putrid 
 air becomes salutary by this means; but it is 
 undoubtedly rendered less noxious than before ; 
 though, whether it is equally innocent with the 
 smoke of fire fed in the common way, we can- 
 not pretend to determine. Besides this machine 
 by Mr. Desagulier, and the ventilators of Dr. 
 Hale, already mentioned, those called wind- 
 sails, are likewise used for the same purpose. 
 The former of which is an improvement of the 
 Hessian bellows, see VENTILATOR; the other 
 is a contrivance for throwing fresh air into those 
 places where putrid air is apt to lodge ; but this 
 has the last mentioned inconvenience in a much 
 greater degree than any of the others, as the 
 blast of fresh air throws out that which was 
 rendered putrid by stagnation, in such a man- 
 ner as to contaminate all around it. See WIND- 
 SAILS. 
 
 AIR-PUMP, in PNEUMAHCS. The discovery 
 of this pneumatic instrument was perhaps the 
 most important event connected with the history 
 of that science. It is ascribed to Otto de Oue-
 
 400 
 
 ricke, the consul of Magdeburg, who exhibited 
 his first public experiments with it before the 
 emperor and the states of Germany, at the break- 
 ing up of the Imperial diet, at llatisbon, in the 
 year 1654 ; and his description of the instrument, 
 and of the experiments performed upon it, were 
 first published in his Experimenta nova Mag- 
 deburgia de Vacuo Spatio, in the year 1672; 
 but like many other important inventions and 
 discoveries, its true origin has been warmly con- 
 tested. Dr. Hook and M. Duhamel ascribe the 
 invention of the air-pump to Mr. Boyle ; but 
 that ingenious philosopher frankly confesses, that 
 
 * De Guericke was before-hand with him.' In 
 a letter which Boyle wrote to his nephew, Lord 
 Dungarvon, at Paris, about two years after 
 Schottus's book was published, he introduces the 
 acknowledgment of his obligation for the disco- 
 very of this useful machine, to what he had heard 
 of it, though he had not perused it, by that well- 
 applied passage of Pliny, ' benignum est et 
 plenum ingenui pudoris fateri per quos profece- 
 ris.' Some attempts, he assures us, he had 
 made upon the same foundation, before he knew 
 any thing of what had been done abroad ; but 
 the information he afterwards received from 
 Schottus's Mechanica Hydraulico Pneumatica, 
 published in 1657, wherein was given an account 
 of De Guericke's experiments, first enabled him 
 to bring his own instrument to maturity. Hence, 
 with some assistance from Dr. Hook, arose a new 
 air-pump, more simple and manageable than 
 the German original, but this noble instrument 
 has since received various modifications and im- 
 provements. We shall now, therefore, give a 
 sketch of De Guericke's pump, and the one 
 first constructed by Mr. Boyle, that contrasting 
 them with the modern instruments, the progress 
 of this important invention may be clearly traced. 
 De Guericke's machine is exhibited in plate 
 I. fig. 1, AIR PUMP. It consists of an iron 
 three-legged frame a b c df, supporting a round 
 iron plate b c, in the middle of which is inserted 
 a brass syringe g h. The upper part of this 
 syringe is furnished with a rim of lead y, fig 1-a, 
 and it is fastened below by means of an iron ring 
 k, k, and three iron arms, o, o, o, to the legs of the 
 frame. Within the rim y there is a brass plate, m n 
 fig. 1-6, encompassed by a ring of leather, and 
 fixed by three screws, which terminate upwards in 
 a small tube n, into which the pipe connected with 
 the vessel to be exhausted is inserted as occasion 
 requires. To this, on the lower side, is adapted 
 a valve of leather, through which the air passes 
 into the syringe. In this plate there is also 
 another small valve at z, opening upwards, 
 through which it escapes-, the plate being co- 
 vered by a copper vessel, x,x, intended for 
 containing water. The piston of the syringe 
 
 * A, fig. 1, and fig. 1-c, is connected by a joint at 
 t, with the iron rod t u, which is fastened to the 
 landle wuu, and this moves round the pin at it', 
 oy which it is connected with one of the legs of 
 ihe frame. In order to prevent the air from 
 entering into the syringe, a copper vessel of 
 water is suspended by hooks to the arms o, o, o, 
 so that the lower part of the syringe at k, k, and 
 the piston, mav be always covered with water 
 when the macnine is at work. 
 
 A1R-P UM ^ 
 
 The receiver L is a glass sphere, adapted to a 
 brass cap p p, which has a pipe with a stop-cock 
 q r, and this pipe is fitted to the tube n above- 
 mentioned. From this brief description of the 
 machine, its operation may be easily understood. 
 When the piston s h is depressed, the air will be 
 expanded in the syringe g h, and that o f the 
 receiver, will descend into it through the val /e in 
 the lower surface of the plate m n ; but when the 
 piston is elevated, and the air is compressed, this 
 valve, shutting upwards, will close the passage to 
 the receiver, and make it escape through the 
 valve 2, which opens upwards. In order to 
 render the exhaustion more complete, a small 
 exhausting syringe is adapted to the plate, which 
 is represented at m. 
 
 Considering that at this time the elastic pro- 
 perty of the air was but little l<nown, this machine 
 has not perhaps more defects than were to be 
 expected in a first attempt ; but amongst others, 
 the labour of working it was very considerable, 
 and its operation very slow; moreover, being 
 worked under water, the number of experiments 
 that might be performed upon it was very 
 limited. 
 
 Mr. Boyle's air-pump is represented in the 
 same plate fig. 2. It consisted of a spherical 
 receiver A, with a hole at the top, whose diame- 
 ter B C was about four inches ; this was covered 
 with a plate, having a brass rim DE, which was 
 firmly cemented to the ring of glass that sur- 
 rounded the hole, and to the tapering orifice of 
 the brass rim was adapted a brass stopple F G, 
 ground so exactly as to prevent, as much as pos- 
 sible, the admission of air. In the centre of the 
 cover was a hole, of about half an inch diameter, 
 provided with a socket; to which the brass 
 stopple K was so fitted as to prevent the en- 
 trance of the air ; the lower part of this stopple 
 was perforated with a hole, and through this 
 passed a string for the convenience of moving to 
 and fro the subjects of experiments. To the 
 neck of the receiver a stop-cock N was fastened, 
 and to the shank of the cock X, a tin plate, 
 M T U W, was so cemented as to prevent the ad- 
 mission of air. The lower part of the machine 
 consisted of a wooden frame with three legs, a, a, a, 
 and a transverse board 6, b, b, on which the 
 pump rested. The cylinder of the pump was 
 cast brass, and it was fitted with a sucker, of 
 which one part was covered with shoe leather, 
 so as exactly to fill the cavity of the cylinder ; 
 and to this was fastened the other part, which 
 was a thick narrow plate of iron e e, somewhat 
 longer than the cylinder, indented on one edge 
 with narrow teeth, so as to admit the corres- 
 ponding teeth of a small iron nut, fastened by 
 two staples to the under side of the transverse 
 board b, b, b. On this the cylinder rested, and 
 was turned to and fro by means of the handle f. 
 The last part of this cylinder is the valve R, con- 
 sisting of a hole bored through at the top of the 
 cylinder, somewhat tapering towards the cavity, 
 into which a ground peg of brass is fitted, to 
 be taken out or put in at pleasure. In order 
 to prevent more effectually the admission of air, 
 and to prepare the sucker of the pump for mo- 
 tion, a quantity of oil was poured in at the top 
 of the receiver, and also into the cylinder. The
 
 - 
 
 N 

 

 
 A I R-PUM P. 
 
 401 
 
 operator having fixed the lower shank of the 
 stop-cock into the upper orifice of the cylinder, 
 turns the handle, and thus forces the sucker to 
 the top of it, so that no air may be left in its 
 upper part. Then shutting the valve with the 
 plug, and turning the handle the other way, he 
 draws down the sucker to the bottom of the 
 cylinder, and thus its cavity, into which no air 
 is admitted, will be in an exhausted state. By 
 turning the stop-cock, and opening a passage 
 between the cylinder and the reservoir, the air 
 contained in the one will descend into the other; 
 and this air being prevented from returning, by 
 turning back the key of the stop-cock, will be 
 raade to open the valve, and to escape into the 
 external air, by forcing the sucker to the top of 
 the cylinder ; thus, alternately moving the sucker 
 upwards and downwards, turning the key, and 
 stopping the valve, as occasion requires, the 
 exhaustion may be carried on to any extent. 
 We now pass to 
 
 AIR-PUMP, BOYLE'S, AS IMPROVED BY HAWKES- 
 BEE. The description of this machine as given 
 by Desaguliers, in vol. ii. of his Exper. Philos. 
 is as follows : It consists of two brass barrels 
 a a, a a, fig. 22, twelve inches high and two wide. 
 The pistons are raised and depressed by turning 
 the winch b b. This is fastened to an axis pass- 
 ing through a strong-toothed wheel, which lays 
 hold of the teeth of the racks c c c c, the one 
 being raised, while the other is depressed; by 
 which means the valves, which are made <?f lim- 
 ber bladder, fixed in the upper part of each 
 piston, as well as in the openings into the bottom 
 of the barrels, perform their office of discharging 
 the air from the barrels, and admitting into them 
 the air from the receiver to be afterwards dis- 
 charged ; and when the receiver becomes pretty 
 well exhausted of its air, the pressure of the at- 
 mosphere in the descending piston is nearly so 
 great, that the power required to raise the other 
 is little more than is necessary for overcoming 
 the friction of the piston ; this renders the pump 
 preferable to all others, which require more force 
 to work them as the rarefaction of the air in the 
 receiver advances. The barrels are set in a 
 brass dish about two inches deep, filled with 
 water or oil to prevent the insinuation of air. 
 The barrels are screwed tight down by the nuts 
 e e, e e, and thus force the frontispiece ff down on 
 them, through which the two pillars, gg,gg, pass. 
 From between the barrels rises a slender brass 
 pipe h h, communicating with each by a perfora- 
 tion in the transverse piece of brass on which 
 they stand. The upper end of this pipe commu- 
 nicates with another perforated piece of brass, 
 which screws on underneath the plate i i i i, of 
 ten inches diameter, and surrounded with a brass 
 rim to prevent the shedding of water used in some 
 experiments. This piece of brass has three 
 branches : first, an horizontal one communicating 
 with the conduit-pipe hh. Second, an up- 
 right one screwed into the middle of the pump- 
 plate, and terminating in a small pipe k, rising 
 about an inch above it. Third, a perpendicular 
 one, pointing downwards in the continuation of 
 the pipe k t and having a hollow screw in its end 
 receiving the brass cap of the gage-pipe I HI, 
 which is of glass, thirty-four inches long, and 
 VOL. I. 
 
 immersed in a glass cistern, m m, filled with mer- 
 cury. This is covered on the top with a cork 
 float, carrying the weight of a light wooden scale 
 divided yito inches, which are numbered from 
 the surface of the mercury in the cistern ; and the 
 scale will therefore rise and fall with the mercury 
 in the cistern, and indicate the true elevation of 
 that in the tube. 
 
 There is a stop-cock immediately above the in- 
 sertion of the gauge-pipe, by which its communi- 
 cation may be cut off; and another at n, by which 
 a communication is opened with the external air, 
 for allowing its re-admission; there is sometimes 
 also another, immediately within the insertion of 
 the conduit-pipe, for cutting off the communica- 
 tion between the receiver and the pump. This 
 is particularly useful when the rarefaction is to be 
 continued long, as there are by those means 
 fewer chances of the insinuation of air by the 
 many joints. The receivers are made tight by 
 simply setting them on the pump-plate with a 
 piece of wet or oiled leather between; and the 
 receivers, which are open at the top, hare a brass 
 cover set on them in the same manner. In these 
 covers there are perforations and contrivances 
 for various purposes. The one in the figure has 
 a slip wire passing through a collar of oiled 
 leather, having a hook or a screw in its lower 
 end for hanging any thing on, or for producing a 
 variety of motions. Sometimes the receivers are 
 set on another plate, which has a pipe screwed 
 into its middle, furnished with a stop-cock and a 
 screw, fitting the middle pipe k. When the 
 rarefaction has been made in it the cock is shut, 
 and then the whole may be unscrewed from the 
 pump, and removed to any convenient place. 
 This is called a transporter-plate. 
 
 It only remains to explain the gage II 1 1. In 
 the ordinary state of the air its elasticity balances 
 the pressure of the incumbent atmosphere. We 
 find this from the force that is necessary to press 
 it into less bulk in opposition to this elasticity. 
 Therefore the elasticity of the air increases with 
 the vicinity of its particles ; consequently it is 
 reasonable to expect, that when we allow it to 
 occupy more room, and its particles are further 
 asunder, its elasticity will be diminished, though 
 not annihilated ; that is, it will no longer balance 
 the WHOLE pressure of the atmosphere, though it 
 may still balance part of it. If, therefore, an up- 
 right pipe have its lower end immersed in a vessel 
 of mercury, and communicate by its upper end 
 with a vessel containing rarefied, and therefore 
 less elastic, air, we should expect that the pres- 
 sure of the air will prevail, force the mercury 
 into the tube, and cause it to rise to such a height 
 that the weight of the mercury, added to the 
 elasticity of the rarefied air, acting on its upper 
 surface, shall be exactly equal to the whole 
 pressure of the atmosphere. The height of the 
 mercury is the measure of that part of the whole 
 pressure which is not balanced by the elasticity 
 of the rarefied air, and its deficiency from the 
 height of the mercury in the Torricellian tube, 
 is, in like manner, the exact measure of this re- 
 maining elasticity. It is evident, therefore, that 
 die pipe will be a scale of the elasticity of the 
 remaining air, and will indicate the degree of 
 rarefaction ; for there must be some analogy be- 
 
 2 D
 
 402 
 
 AIR-PUMP. 
 
 tween the density of the air and its elasticity, 
 and we have seen, (except in extreme cases of 
 condensation and rarefaction) that they increase 
 and diminish together and according to the same 
 law. This gage must be considered as one of 
 the most important improvements introduced 
 into this machine by Hawkesbee ; at the same 
 time it must be acknowledged to have certain 
 imperfections and inconveniences attending it, 
 which are obviated in other contrivances of a 
 like kind. 
 
 It will be immediately perceived, that air- 
 pumps merely serve to rarefy the air to a greater 
 or less degree, and that none of them can pro- 
 duce a complete exhaustion. But, independent 
 of this theoretical impossibility, there are me- 
 chanical defects which prevent us from carrying 
 on the exhaustion according to the law laid down 
 in theory ; few pumps will bring the mercury, 
 in such a gage as that above described, to within 
 one-tenth of an inch ; and that of Hawkesbee's, 
 fitted up according to his own instructions, will 
 seldom bring it within one-fifth. Pumps with 
 cocks of the best construction, and under the 
 most favourable circumstances, will bring it 
 within one-fortieth ; but this degree of rarefaction 
 has never been attained, when valves fitted up 
 with wet leather were employed : in such cases, 
 one-fifth of an inch is the least that the gage falls 
 short of the Torricellian column. Pumps with 
 stop-cocks, when well made and newly put 
 together, are generally found to rarefy the air to 
 a greater degree than those which are made with 
 valves ; but after being used for some time they 
 become less accurate than those with valves. 
 The valves, however, are also imperfect, because 
 the external air, pressing upon that in the piston, 
 prevents its rising when the elastic force of air 
 in the receiver under exhaustion is much di- 
 minished; and attempts have therefore been 
 made, particularly by the Abbe Nollet and 
 Gravesande, to perfect the construction of 
 cocks. 
 
 In the latter author's double-barrelled-pump, 
 the cocks at the bottom of the pistons are turned 
 by an apparatus that is moved by the handle of 
 the pump. The piston has no valve, and the 
 rod is connected with it by a stirrup, as in a 
 common pump. This rod has a cylindrical part, 
 which passes through the stirrup and moves 
 stiffly in it, through the space of about half an 
 inch, between a shoulder above and a nut below. 
 The stirrup supports a round plate, which has a 
 short square tube that fits tight into the hole of a 
 piece of cork, and which has also a square shank 
 that goes into the square tube. Between the plate 
 and the cock is put a piece of thin leather, 
 soaked in oil, and another is placed between the 
 cork and the plate, which forms the sole of the 
 stirrup. When the winch is turned to raise the 
 piston from the bottom of the barrel, the friction 
 of the piston against it keeps it in its place, and 
 the rod is drawn up through the stirrup. The 
 wheel has thus liberty to turn about an inch, 
 and this is sufficient to turn the cock, so as to 
 cut off the communication with the external air, 
 and to open that with the receiver. When this 
 is done, the continued motion serves to raise up 
 the piston to the top of the barrel. When the 
 
 winch is turned in the opposite direction, the 
 piston remains fixed till the cock is turned, so as 
 to shut the communication with the receiver and 
 open that with the external air. The cock has 
 one perforation diametrically through it, and 
 another in a perpendicular direction to this, and 
 after reaching the centre, it passes along the axis 
 of the cock, and communicates with the external 
 air. By means of this communication, when it 
 is opened, the air rushes in and balances the 
 pressure on the upper side of the piston in this 
 barrel, so that the pressure on the other must be 
 counteracted by the person who works the pump. 
 In order to obviate this inconvenience, Grave- 
 sande put a valve on the orifice of the cock, by 
 tying over it a slip of wet bladder, or oiled 
 leather ; and by means of this the piston is 
 pressed down as long as the air in the barrel is 
 rarer than the outward air, just as if the valve 
 were in the piston itself. This is all that is 
 necessary to be described in Gravesande's pump ; 
 its performance is highly extolled by him, as far 
 exceeding his former pumps with valves ; and 
 the same preference was given to it by his suc- 
 cessor Muschenbroeck. Hawkesbee's pump, 
 however, maintained its pre-eminence in this 
 country, and, indeed, pretty generally on the 
 continent, except in France, till about the year 
 1750, when Smeaton, so celebrated for his 
 mechanical skill, undertoook to improve and 
 perfect the cock-pumps, which, however, he at 
 length, after various attempts, gave up, finding 
 it absolutely impossible to bring them to that 
 degree of accuracy he had in view ; and he then 
 turned his attention to the valve-pumps ; and the 
 great advantages, gained by his construction, 
 have been thus explained: 
 
 His first object was to diminish the resistance 
 to the entry of the air from the receiver into the 
 barrels, which he rendered almost nothing, by 
 enlarging the surface on which this feebly elastic 
 air was to press. Instead of making these 
 valves to open by the pressure of the air on a 
 circle of one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, 
 he made the valve hole an inch in diameter, thus 
 enlarging the surface 400 times ; and to prevent 
 this piece of thin leather from being burst by 
 the great pressure upon it, when the piston in its 
 descent was approaching the bottom of the bar- 
 rel, he supported it by a delicate but strong 
 grating, dividing the valve-hole like the section 
 of a honey-comb ; and that the points of con- 
 tact between the bladder and grating might be 
 as few as possible, the holes were made hexagonal, 
 and the partitions filled almost to an edge. The 
 breadths of these hexagons are three-tenths of an 
 ouch, and, consequently, the surface nine times 
 larger than common ; and, as the circumference 
 is three times greater than that of the common 
 valve, and the cohesion to be overcome is, in the 
 first moment of the air exerting its force, pro- 
 portional to the circumference of the hole, the 
 valve over any of these holes will be raised with 
 three times more ease. Beside, the raising of 
 the valve over the centre hole is aided on all 
 sides by those that are placed round it ; and, as 
 they all contribute as much to raise the bladder 
 over the centre hole, as the air acting imme- 
 diately under it, the valve will be raised .with
 
 A I R-PUMP. 
 
 403 
 
 much more facility than we have already sup- 
 posed, that is, with about one-sixth of the force 
 commonly necessary. The other defect in the 
 common constitution would still hinder the 
 rarefaction from being carried on beyond a cer- 
 tain degree; for, as the piston does not fit so 
 closely to the bottom of the barrel as totally to 
 exclude the air, this air, as the piston rises, will 
 expand itself, and, pressing upon the valves in 
 proportion to its density, prevent the air within 
 the receiver from coming out. Therefore, if a 
 vacancy, for example, equal to 150th part of the 
 capacity of the whole barrel had place, no air 
 could pass out of the receiver when expanded 150 
 times, though the piston were constantly drawn 
 to the top ; because the air in the receiver 
 would be in equilibrio with that in the barrel 
 when in its highest state of rarefaction. In or- 
 der to obviate this inconvenience, Mr. Smeaton 
 shut up the top of the barrel with a plate, 
 having in the middle a collar of leather, through 
 which the cylinder works that carries the pis- 
 ton ; by which means the external air is pre- 
 vented from pressing on the piston ; but, for the 
 discharge of the air that passes from below through 
 the valve of the latter, there is another valve 
 applied to the plate at top, which opens up- 
 wards. By this construction, when the piston 
 is put down to the bottom of the cylinder, the 
 air under it will evacuate itself so much the 
 more, as the valve of the piston opens more 
 easily when pressed by the rarefied air above it, 
 than when pressed by the whole weight of the 
 atmosphere ; and, as the piston may be made to 
 fit as nearly to the top of the cylinder as it can 
 to the bottom, the air may be rarefied as much 
 above the piston as it could before have been in 
 the receiver ; whence it follows, that the air may 
 now be rarefied in the receiver, in the duplicate 
 proportion to what it could be upon the common 
 principle. By this means a pump, (consisting of 
 a common barrel, may be worked with more 
 ease than the common pump with two barrels, be- 
 cause the pressure of the outward air is taken off 
 by the upper plate ; and when a considerable 
 degree of rarefaction is required, it will produce 
 it more speedily. 
 
 This gentleman's air-pump, as constructed by 
 Nairne, may be described as follows : Upon a 
 solid base or table are set up three pillars F, H, H, 
 fig. 23 ; the pillar F supports the pump-plate 
 A; and the pillars H, H, support the front or 
 head, containing a brass cog-wheel, which is 
 turned by the handle B, and works in the rack 
 C fastened to the upper end of the piston- 
 rod. The whole is still farther steadied by two 
 pieces of brass, c 6 and o k, which connect the 
 pump-plate with the front, and have perforations 
 communicating between the hole a in the middle 
 of the plate and the barrel. DE is the barrel of the 
 pump, firmly fixed to the table by screws through 
 its upper flanch ; e f d c is a slender brass tube 
 screwed to the bottom of the barrel, and to the 
 under hole of the horizontal canal c b. In this 
 canal there is a cock which opens a communica- 
 tion between the barrel and the receiver, when 
 the key is in the position represented in the figure ; 
 but when the key is at right angles with this 
 position, this communication is cut off. If that 
 
 side of the key which is here drawn next to the 
 pump-plate be turned outwards, the external air 
 is admitted into the receiver ; but if turned in- 
 wards the air is admitted into the barrel, g h is 
 another slender brass pipe, leading from the 
 discharging valve atg to the horizontal canal h /c, 
 to the under side of which it is screwed fast. In 
 this horizontal canal there is a cock n which opens 
 a passage from the barrel to the receiver when 
 the key is in the position here drawn ; from the 
 barrel to the external air when the key is turned 
 outwards, and from the receiver to the external 
 air when the key is turned inwards. This com- 
 munication with the external air is not imme- 
 diate, but through a sort of box i ; the use of 
 which is to receive the oil discharged through 
 the top valve g. In order to keep the pump 
 tight, and in working order, it is proper some- 
 times to pour a table-spoonful of olive oil into 
 the hole a of the pump-plate, and then to work 
 the pump . The oil goes along the conduit 6 c dfe r 
 gets into the barrel and through the piston-valve, 
 when the piston is pressed to the bottom of the 
 barrel, and is then drawn up, and forced through 
 the discharging valve g, along the pipe g h, the 
 horizontal passage h n, and finally into the box . 
 This box has a small hole in its side, near the 
 top, through which the air escapes. From the 
 upper side of the canal c b there arises a slender 
 pipe, which bends outward and then turns down- 
 wards, and is joined to a small box, which cannot 
 be seen in this view. From the bottom of this 
 box proceeds downwards the gage-pipe of glass, 
 which enters the cistern of mercury G fixed be- 
 low. On the upper side of the other canal at o 
 is seen a small stud, having a short pipe of glass 
 projecting horizontally from it, close by, and 
 parallel to, the front piece of the pump, and 
 reaching to the other canal. This pipe is closed at 
 the further end, and has a small drop of mercury 
 or oil in it at the end o. This serves as a gage in 
 condensing, indicating the degree of condensa- 
 tion by the place of the drop ; for this drop is 
 forced along the pipe, and condenses the air 
 before it in the same degree that it is condensed 
 in the barrel and receiver. In constructing this 
 pump, Mr. Smeaton introduced a method of join- 
 ing together the different pipes and other pieces, 
 which has great advantages over the usual man- 
 ner of screwing them together with leather 
 between, and which is now much used in hy- 
 draulic and pneumatic engines. The piece hip 
 in fig. 24, is the same with the little cylinder 
 observable on the upper side of the horizontal 
 canal c d, in fig. 23. The upper part h i is 
 formed into an outside screw, to fit the hollow 
 screw of the piece deed. The top of this last 
 piece has a hole in its middle, giving an easy 
 passage to the bent tube c b a, so as to slip along 
 it with freedom. To the end c of this bent tube 
 is soldered a piece of brass cfg, perforated in 
 continuation of the tube, and having its end 
 ground flat on the top of the piece h ip, and also 
 covered with a slip of thin leather strained across, 
 and pierced with a hole in the middle. It is 
 plain, from this form, that if the surface/g be 
 applied to the top of h i, and the cover deedbe 
 screwed down on it, it will draw or press them 
 toeether, so that no air can escape by the joint, 
 2 D 2
 
 404 
 
 AIR-PUMP. 
 
 and this without turning the whole tube c b a 
 round, as is necessary in the usual way.. The 
 conduit-pipe, E e fc, fig. 23, is fastened to the 
 bottom of the barrel, and the discharging pipe 
 g h to its top, in the same manner. 
 
 In describing Hawkesbee's, or Desagulier's 
 air-pump, we mentioned the gage employed by 
 that author for estimating the degree of rarefaction 
 produced by the operation of the machine ; we 
 have also stated that it was subject to some in- 
 conveniences, and particularly on account of its 
 length, which rendered its application very in- 
 commodious. In order to remove this incon- 
 venience, a short barometer-gage was next in- 
 troduced. This was, in fact, only the bottom 
 part of a common barometer, about eight or nine 
 inches in length, filled with mercury, and im- 
 mersed with its aperture into a small quantity of 
 mercury contained in a glass vessel, which forms 
 the cistern. This may either be placed under the 
 receiver, upon the principal flat of the pump, or 
 under a small receiver, upon a small auxiliary 
 plate, which is annexed to some air-pumps for this 
 purpose. As this gage is not equal to a whole baro- 
 meter, it will not show the first stages of the rare- 
 faction ; but its indications will commence when 
 about three-fourths of the air have been removed 
 from the receiver ; that is,when the air has been rare- 
 fied till its remaining elasticity is not able to sup- 
 port that short column of mercury. The siphon- 
 gage, which is shown in the figure of Smeaton's 
 air-pump, differs from the short barometer-gage 
 merely in this circumstance, that, instead of ter- 
 minating in a cistern, the tube is here bent and 
 rises upwards with its aperture, which, by means 
 of a brass tube, is made to communicate with 
 the inside of the pump, so that the ascending leg 
 of the tube performs the office of a cistern. 
 Hence, in rarefying the air, the mercury descends 
 from the closed end of the tube, and rises into 
 the ascending leg; and, consequently, the alti- 
 tude of it in one leg, above its altitude in the 
 other, shows the degree of rarefaction ; and this 
 altitude, as in the long and short barometer-gages, 
 is shown by an annexed scale of inches and parts. 
 The gages above mentioned evidently indicate 
 the elasticity of the fluid, which remains in the 
 receiver of the pump after a certain degree of 
 rarefaction ; and it is immaterial whether that 
 elastic fluid be air or vapour. Mr. Smeaton in- 
 vented another instrument of this kind, which, 
 from its form, is called a pear-gage ; this shows 
 (not at the actual time, but after the re-admission 
 of the air into the receiver) how much of that 
 fluid had been left in the receiver in the preced- 
 ing rarefaction. This gage is also shown in the 
 figure of Smeaton's pump above described. It 
 consists of a glass vessel, which has a small pro- 
 jecting orifice, and at the other end it is extended 
 into a tube closed at the upper extremity ; the 
 capacity of which is 100th part of that of the 
 whole vessel. The instrument is suspended with 
 its aperture downwards to the lower end of a 
 slip of wire, or a wire which passes through a 
 collar of leather, within the glass receiver of the 
 pump, and exactly under it, a small cup, con- 
 taining quicksilver, is placed upon the plate of 
 the pump. When the machine has been worked 
 to the intended degree, the air in the pear-gage 
 
 is evidently rarefied as much as it is in the re- 
 ceiver ; and in that state, by lowering the slip of 
 wire, the pear-gage is let down till its aperture 
 has reached the bottom of the mercury. This 
 done, the external air is admitted into the re- 
 ceiver ; which cannot, as is obvious, enter the 
 pear-gage, on account of the aperture being im- 
 mersed in the quicksilver ; but the pressure of 
 the atmosphere, now acting on the surface of the 
 mercury, forces that fluid into the gage, and fills 
 it up to a certain degree, for instance to r; then 
 the upper part of the gage will contain all the air 
 or vapour which occupied the whole cavity of it 
 during the rarefaction. To the upper part of the 
 gage is annexed a divided scale, which shows 
 what part of the capacity of the whole gage is 
 filled with air, and of course measures the degree 
 to which the rarefaction of the air had been carried. 
 Mr. Smeaton on making use of this gage, was 
 much surprised to find that it did not give always 
 the same results as the common gages above 
 described. When the receiver contains no other 
 fluid besides air, the pear-gage and the other 
 gages will indicate the same degree of rarefaction ; 
 but if the receiver contain the vapour of water 
 or of other liquor, then the pear-gage will indi- 
 cate a much greater degree of rarefaction, than 
 the siphon or short barometer-gage ; because the 
 vapour, which has elasticity sufficient to supply 
 the place of air in the receiver, on the re-admis- 
 sion of air, is condensed into a much smaller 
 space than the same quantity of rarefied air could 
 be, so that the pear-gage shows the quantity of 
 air alone which had been left in the receiver, 
 whereas the other gages show the quantity of 
 elastic fluid which is actually remaining in it. 
 This cause, however, of the difference in these 
 two kinds of gages was not in the least suspected 
 at first; but some experiments upon it being 
 repeated before the honourable Mr. Cavendish, 
 the latter accurate philosopher immediately ac- 
 counted for the difference which the two gages 
 indicated on the principles above stated, by re- 
 ferring to some experiments of his father, lord 
 Charles Cavendish; from which it appeared, that 
 water, whenever the pressure of the atmosphere 
 'on it is diminished to a certain degree, is imme- 
 diately turned into vapour, and reduced as sud- 
 denly to water again on restoring the pressure. 
 The degree of pressure varies according to the 
 temperature of the water ; for when the heat is 
 72 of Fahrenheit's scale, it is converted into 
 vapour as soon as the pressure is reduced to 
 three-quarters of an inch of quicksilver, or about 
 one-fortieth of the usual pressure of the atmos- 
 phere ; but when the heat is only 41 of Fahren- 
 heit's scale, the pressure must be reduced to 
 that of a quarter of an inch of quicksilver, or 
 to a one hundred and twentieth part of the usual 
 pressure, before the water turns into vapour. 
 According to this hypothesis, whenever the air 
 in the receiver is exhausted to the above-men- 
 tioned degree, the moisture adhering to the dif- 
 ferent parts of the machine will be converted 
 into an elastic vapour, and supply the place of 
 the air which is drawn away by the working of 
 the pump, and the fluid left in the receiver and 
 pear-gage will be chiefly this vapour. When 
 the air is let into the receiver a ain the vapour
 
 AIR-PUMP. 
 
 405 
 
 within the pear-gage will be reduced to water, 
 and only the real air will remain uncondensed ; 
 consequently, this gage shows only how much 
 real air is left in the receiver, and not how much 
 the pressure or spring of the included air is 
 diminished ; whereas either of the other gages 
 shows how much the included elastic fluid is 
 diminished, and that equally, whether it consist 
 of air or vapour. 
 
 In order to ascertain the truth of this theory, 
 Mr. Nairne proceeded to free every part of his 
 apparatus as much as possible from any adhering 
 moisture, concluding that, by these means, he 
 should be able to bring the two gages to an 
 agreement. Instead, therefore, of placing the 
 receiver on leather as before, he put it on the 
 pump-plate, made as clean and dry as pos- 
 sible, and applied a cement round its edge 
 to exclude the outward air. When the pump, 
 in this state, was worked for ten minutes, the 
 barometer-gage indicated a degree of exhaustion 
 nearly equal to 600 ; and on letting the air into 
 the receiver, the pear-gage showed also an ex- 
 haustion but little exceeding the former. In 
 another experiment he put a piece of the oiled 
 leather above-mentioned into the receiver, and 
 found, on working the pump, that the barometer- 
 gage indicated a degree of exhaustion of nearly 
 300, while, on the re-admission of the air, the 
 pear-gage gave an exhaustion of little less than 
 400, and thus confirmed the hypothesis ad- 
 vanced by Mr. Cavendish. He performed, like- 
 wise, numerous other experiments relating to 
 this subject, which may be seen in vol. Ixvii 
 Phil. Trans. . 
 
 There still remained one imperfection which 
 
 I Mr. Smeaton had not attempted to remove. 
 The discharging- valve was opened against the 
 pressure of the atmosphere; and although the in- 
 genious contrivances of this celebrated mechanist 
 had greatly diminished, it had not annihilated, 
 the obstructions to the passage of the air from 
 the receiver into the barrel. His success, how- 
 ever, encouraged other attempts, but they are 
 too numerous for us to enter upon in detail in 
 this article ; we shall, therefore, pass over some 
 of minor importance, and proceed at once to 
 describe that of Mr. Prince, a native of America, 
 who conceived the idea of dispensing with the 
 the valves entirely. In order to effect this, he 
 removed the lower valve, and opened the bot- 
 tom of the barrel into a cistern on which it was 
 placed, and which had a free communication 
 with the receiver; for the valve on the upper 
 plate on the top of the barrel, constructed like 
 Mr. Smeaton's, made it unnecessary, that there 
 should be any at the bottom, in order to rarefy 
 the air in the receiver. The cistern was made 
 deep enough to admit the piston descending into 
 it below the bottom of the barrel. If the piston 
 be solid, that is, without a valve, when it enters 
 the barrel and rises to the top plate, which 
 is made air-tight with a collar of leather, like 
 Smeaton's, it forces out all the air above it ; and, 
 as the air cannot return into the barrel on account 
 of the valve in the top plate, when the piston 
 descends there will be a vacuum between it and 
 the plate, every thing being supposed perfect. 
 : But, in working the pump, the piston is not 
 
 allowed to descend entirely into the cistern, so 
 far as to leave the barrel open ; it descends only 
 below a hole in the side of the barrel near the 
 bottom, which opens a free communication be- 
 tween the barrel, cistern, and receiver. Through 
 this hole the air rushes from the cistern into the 
 exhausted barrel, when the piston has dropped 
 below it; and by the next ascent, this air is 
 forced out as the other was before. If the capa- 
 city of the receiver, cistern, pipes, &c. below 
 the bottom of th barrel, taken together, be 
 equal to the capacity of the barrel, half the re- 
 maining air will be expelled at every stroke. But 
 in order to save the labour that would attend the 
 working of this pump with a solid piston, the 
 constructor pierced it with three holes, at equal 
 distances from each other, and by a circular 
 piece of bladder tied over the top of the piston, 
 formed a sort of valve over the holes, which 
 opened with sufficient ease to save any labour in 
 working the pump, by allowing the air to pass 
 through the piston in its descent. The escape 
 of the air, however, does not depend upon a 
 passage through the piston into the barrel ; for 
 when the air, weakened by rarefaction, cannot 
 open this valve, it will still get into the barrel 
 when the communication is opened with the hole 
 at the bottom. This piston will, therefore, de- 
 scend as easily as any other, nor will the rare- 
 faction be in any respect impeded by the valves. 
 By this construction the valves, made to open 
 with more ease by Mr. Smeaton, are rendered 
 useless for rarefying the air, and that at the bot- 
 tom of the barrel is entirely removed ; the valve 
 on the top plate being the only one necessary in 
 the rarefaction. 
 
 The next object of this mechanist was to ex- 
 pel the air more perfectly out of the barrel than 
 was effected in the machine last described, by 
 making a more complete vacuum between the 
 piston and the top plate, so that more of the air 
 might be allowed to expand itself into the bar- 
 rel from the receiver. Mr. Prince also con- 
 trived to connect the valves on the top plate 
 with the receiver, occasionally, by means of a 
 pipe and cock, by the turning of which the 
 machine might be made to exhaust or condense 
 at pleasure. It still remained to remove the 
 pressure of the atmosphere from the valve 
 on the top plate, so that this might open as 
 easily as the piston-valve; with which view he 
 connected with the duct on the bottom piece, 
 which conveys the air from the valves to the 
 cock, a small pump of the same construction 
 as the large one, having the barrel opening into 
 the cistern ; the piston-rod, which is solid, mov- 
 ing through a collar of leathers, and a valve at 
 the top, through which the air is forced into 
 the atmosphere. This is called the valve-pump ; 
 its principal use being to rarefy the air above 
 the valves, or to remove the weight of the at- 
 mosphere from them. When this valve-pump 
 is used, the passage through the cock is shut 
 up ; and, therefore, instead of placing three 
 ducts at equal distances round the cock, after 
 the manner of Mr. Smeaton, the whole is di- 
 vided into five equal parts, leaving the distance 
 of one-fifth part between the ducts leading from 
 the cistern and the valves to the cock, and two-
 
 406 
 
 A I ll-P U M P. 
 
 fifths between each of these and the one leading 
 from the cock to the receiver ; therefore, when 
 the communication is open between the receiver 
 and the valves for condensation, the other hole 
 through the cock opens the cistern to the at- 
 mosphere ; but when the communication is made 
 between the cistern and the receiver, for ex- 
 haustion, a solid part of the key comes against 
 the duct leading to the valve, shuts it up, and 
 the air which is forced out of the barrel passes 
 through the atmosphere into the valve-pump. 
 One advantage in this construction is, that the 
 pump with two barrels may be made like the 
 common pump, which cannot be conveniently 
 done where the lower valve is retained. In this 
 pump the pistons do not move the whole length 
 of the barrel, a horizontal section being made 
 in them a little more than half way from the 
 bottom, where the top plates are inserted ; on 
 which account it is more convenient and sim- 
 ple, as the head of it is brought down from the 
 top of the barrels, in the same manner as in the 
 common air-pump. The barrels also stand upon 
 the receiver-plate, which is raised high enough 
 to admit the long barometer-gage, of thirty-two 
 or thirty-three inches, to stand under it, without 
 inconvenience in working the pump ; as the 
 winch moves through a smaller portion of an arc 
 at each stroke, than it would do if the piston 
 moved through the whole length of the barrels. 
 A gage is placed between the barrels when 
 the condensation is to be measured, having a 
 free communication with the valves, cock, &c. 
 This is likewise so constructed that it will serve 
 to measure the rarefaction above the valves, 
 when the air is worked off by the valve-pump ; 
 and consists of a pedestal, the die of which is 
 made of glass (which forms a cistern for the 
 mercury), a hollow brass pillar, and a glass tube 
 hermetically sealed at one end, which moves 
 up and down in the pillar through a collar of 
 leathers. When the pump is used as a con- 
 denser, the degree of condensation is shown 
 by a scale marked on one edge of the pillar, 
 and when as an exhauster, -the rarefaction is 
 marked on the other edge. This gage will also 
 show when the valves have done playing, either 
 with the weight of the atmosphere on them, or 
 taken off. For the purposes of great con- 
 densation, the inventor has fitted a condenser 
 of a smaller bore than the great pump, to the 
 cistern of a valve-pump, to be screwed on oc- 
 casionally. Or even without this condenser, 
 the valve pump may be adapted to the purpose, 
 by being made a little larger, and by having a 
 plate made to screw into the bottom of the cy- 
 linder, with a valve on it opening into the cis- 
 tern ; a hole must be made to open on the same 
 occasion near the top of the cylinder, to let air 
 in below the piston, when this is drawn up 
 a'love it. The common gage, which is generally 
 placed under the receiver-plate, is here situated 
 i:i the front of the pump, so that it may be 
 seen by the person working the machine ; and 
 tnat the plate itself may be left free for other 
 i.ses, the plate is also so fixed to the pipe lead- 
 lag to the cock, that it may be taken off at 
 pleasure, and used as a tiansferrer, or for other 
 purposes. 
 
 The head is made whole, except a small piece 
 on the back, where the wheel is let in ; the latter 
 being freed from the piston-rods by pushing it 
 into the back part of the head, where it is kept 
 in its place by a button, screwed into the socket 
 in the axis behind. The piston-rods are thus 
 dislodged from the wheel, and let down into the 
 cistern when the pump is not in use, in which 
 cistern they may have the advantage of being 
 covered with oil ; the same may also be done 
 with all the principal joints which are sunk 
 into the sockets, that the leathers which close 
 them may be covered with oil, to prevent their 
 leaking after a long disuse. A perspective view 
 of Prince's air-pump, as constructed by Mr 
 Jones, is shown in fig. 25 ; which will render 
 the above account more intelligible. 
 
 CUTHBERTSON'S AIR-PUMP. The last improve- 
 ment in the construction of air-pumps which it 
 will be necessary for us to mention, is that by 
 Mr. Cuthbertson, a machine so excellent in its 
 structure, and so powerful in its effects, as to 
 claim particular notice and desciiption. 
 
 A perspective view of it is given in fig. 26, 
 with its two principal gages screwed into their 
 places, which need not, however, be used toge- 
 ther, except in cabes where the utmost exactness 
 is required. In common experiments one of 
 them is removed, and a stop-cock put in its 
 place. When the pear-gage is used, a small, 
 round plate, on which the receiver may stand, 
 must be first screwed into the hole at A ; but 
 this hole is stopped on other occasions by a 
 screw. When all the three gages are used, and 
 the receiver is exhausted, the stop-screw B, at 
 the bottom of the pump, must be unscrewed, to 
 admit the air into the receiver ; but when they 
 are not all used, any of the stop-screws will an- 
 swer the purpose. Fig. 27 represents a cross- 
 bar for preventing the barrel from being shaken, 
 either by working the pump, or by accident ; 
 its place in fig. 26 is represented by the dotted 
 lines ; where it is confined and kept down close 
 to the barrels by two slips of wood, N N, which 
 must be drawn out, as well as the screws O O, 
 when the pump is taken asunder. The figures 
 28, 29, &c. exhibit a section of all the working 
 parts of the pump, except the wheel and rack, 
 in which there is nothing uncommon. Fig. 28 
 is a section of one of the barrels, with all its 
 internal parts; and figs. 29, 30, 31, and 32, are 
 different parts of the piston, proportioned to the 
 size of the barrel. In fig. 28, C D represents the 
 barrel, F the collar of leathers, G a hollow cy- 
 lindrical vessel to contain oil, R is also an oil- 
 vessel to receive the oil which is drawn along 
 with the air through the hole a a, when the piston 
 is drawn upwards ; and when this is full, the oil 
 is carried over with the air, along the tube T, 
 into the oil vessel G ; c c is a wire, which is 
 driven upwards from the hole a a by the passage 
 of the air; and as soon as this has escaped, it 
 falls down again by its own weight, shuts up the 
 hole, and prevents all return of air again into 
 the barrel. At dd are fixed two pieces of brass to 
 keep the wire c c in a vertical position, in order 
 that it may accurately shut the hole ; and H is 
 a cylindrical wire or rod, which carries the pis- 
 ton I, being made hollow to receive a long wire

 
 A !l K i ' 1 ' 
 
 London, .fiMixhed by Tim in,:.* /;,/,/, :;t < i 
 
 ir'y 1JS31 . 
 
 J.Slrarv sculp.
 
 AIR-PUMP. 
 
 407 
 
 gg, which opens and shuts the hole L. On the 
 other end of the wire O, is screwed a nut, which, 
 oy stopping in the narrowest part of the hole, 
 prevents the wire from being driven up too far ; 
 these are seen more distinctly in figs. 29 and 33 ; 
 they slide in a collar of leather r r, fig. 29 and 32, 
 in the middle piece of the piston. Figs. 31 and 32 
 are the two mean parts which compose the piston, 
 and when the pieces, figs. 30 and 33, are added 
 to it, the whole is represented by fig. 29 ; and fig. 
 32 is a piece of brass of conical form, having a 
 shoulder at bottom, in which is cut a long hol- 
 low screw, about two-thirds of its length-, and 
 the remaining part of the hole, in which there is 
 no screw, is of about the same diameter as the 
 screwed part, except a thin plate at the end, 
 vhich is of a width exactly equal to the thick- 
 ness of gg. 
 
 That part of the inside of the conical brass 
 ii which no screw is cut, is filled with oiled 
 leathers, having holes, through which gg Can 
 side stiffly. An external screw, with a hole in 
 it, is also fitted to gg, and serves to compress the 
 leuhers rr. In fig. 31, aaaa is the outside of 
 thi piston, the inside of which is turned so as 
 exictly to fit the outside of fig. 32; bb 'are 
 round leathers about sixty in number ; and c c 
 is a circular piece of brass of the size of the 
 leathers, while d d represent the screw serving 
 :o compress them. The screw at the end of fig. 
 50 is made to fit the screw fig. 32, and if fig. 33 
 be pushed into fig. 32, this into fig. 31, and fig. 
 30 be screwed into the end of fig. 32, these will 
 compose the whole piston, as shown in fig. 28. 
 [n fig. 28 and 29, H represents the same part, 
 aeing that to which the rack is fixed ; if, there- 
 fore, this be drawn upwards, it will cause fig. 
 32 to shut close into fig. 31, and drive out the 
 air above it; and on the contrary when it is 
 pushed downwards, it will open as far as the 
 shoulder a a will permit, and suffer the air to pass 
 through. A A, fig. 34, is the receiver-plate, BB 
 is a long square piece of brass, screwed into the 
 under side of the plate, through which a hole is 
 drilled, corresponding to that in the centre of 
 the receiver-plates, and with three internal screws, 
 b, b, c. 
 
 Let us now endeavour to explain the process 
 of rarefaction, which is carried on as follows. 
 Conceive the piston to be at the bottom of the 
 barrel, the inside of which, from a, fig. 28, con- 
 tains common air. Now when the rod is drawn 
 up, the upper part of the piston sticks fast in the 
 barrel, till the conical part connected with the 
 rod shuts the conical hole, and its shoulder ap- 
 plies close to its bottom. The piston being now 
 shut, the whole is drawn up by the rack-work, 
 driving the air before it through the hole a c into 
 the oil-vessel at R, and out into the atmosphere 
 by the tube T. The piston will then be at the 
 top of the barrel at a, and the wire gg will stand 
 nearly as shown in the figure, just raised from 
 the hole L, where it is prevented from rising 
 higher by the nut O. During this motion the 
 air will expand in the receiver, and come along 
 ihe bent tube m, into the barrel. By this means 
 he barrel will be again filled with air, which, as 
 Ue piston rises, will be rarefied in the propor- 
 on of the capacity of the receiver, pipes, and 
 
 barrel together, to that of the latter alone. 
 When the piston is moved down again by the 
 rack-work, it will force the conical part, fig. 32, 
 out of the hollow part, fig. 31, as far as the 
 shoulders a a; fig. 29 will rest on a a fig. 31, 
 which will then be so far open as to permit 
 the air to pass freely through it, while at the 
 same time the end of gg is forced against the top 
 of the hole, and by shutting prevents any air 
 from returning into the receiver ; thus the piston 
 moving downwards, suffers the air to pass out 
 between the sides of figs. 31 and 32 ; and when 
 it is at the bottom of the barrel, it will have the 
 column of air above it, and, consequently, when 
 drawn up it will shut, and drive out this air, 
 and, by opening the hole at L, will, at the same 
 time, give a free passage to more air from the 
 receiver. This process being continued, the air 
 of the receiver will be rarefied as far as its ex- 
 pansive power will permit ; for, in this machine, 
 there are no valves to be forced open by the 
 elasticity of the air in the receiver, which at last 
 it is unable to effect ; there is, therefore, nothing 
 to prevent the air from, expanding to its utmost 
 degree, which is the peculiar excellency of this 
 construction. 
 
 When this machine is used for condensation, 
 at the same time that it rarefies, or sepa- 
 rately, the piece containing the bent tube T 
 must be removed, and fig. 35 put in its place, 
 and fixed by its screws. This figure, as drawn 
 in the plate, is intended for a double-barrelled 
 pump ; but for a single-barrel, only one piece 
 is used, represented by b a a, the double piece 
 being cut off at the dotted line a a. In this 
 piece is an internal screw, to receive the end 
 of a long brass tube, to which a bladder (if 
 sufficient for the experiment of condensation), 
 or a glass, properly secured for this purpose, 
 must be screwed : then the air, which is ab- 
 stracted from the receiver on the pump-plate, 
 will be forced into the bladder, or glass ; but, if 
 the pump be double, the apparatus fig. 35, is 
 used, and the long brass tube screwed on at c. 
 Figs. 36 and 37 represent two gages, the former 
 of which is screwed into c b, or into the screw at 
 the other end of c ; fig. 34, and fig. 37 into the 
 screw ab, fig. 34. When the machine is used 
 as a single pump, either to rarefy or condense, 
 the screw K which fastens the rack to the piston 
 rod H, must be taken out; then turning the 
 winch till H is depressed as low as possible, the 
 machine will be fitted to exhaust as a single 
 pump, and if it be required to condense, the direc- 
 tions above given must be observed with regard 
 to the tube T and fig. 35. 
 
 Mr. Cuthbertson, by a variety of experiments 
 with this air-pump, has shown its great power of 
 exhaustion with the double siphon-gage, as also 
 with the long gage, compared with an attached 
 barometer, in which the mercury had been re- 
 peatedly boiled ; and the difference between the 
 heights of the mercurial columns was found not 
 to exceed one-fortieth of an inch, the barometer 
 standing at thirty inches, which gives a rarefac- 
 tion of 1200. On some occasions, when the air 
 was in a very dry state, the difference has been 
 observed as low as an hundredth part ot an 
 inch, a rarefaction more than double the former.
 
 408 
 
 AIR-PUMP 
 
 See A Description of an. Improved Air-Pump, 
 iy John Cuthbertson j and Nicholson's Philoso- 
 phical Journal, vol. i. 
 
 The latter work, in examining the compara- 
 tive merits of Prince's and Cuthbertson's air- 
 pumps, offers the following observations : 
 
 ' There is no provision to open the tipper 
 fixed valve of Prince's greater barrel, except the 
 difference between the pressures of the elastic 
 fluid on each side of the stripe of bladder : and 
 this may reasonably be inferred to limit the 
 power of his small pump. In Cuthbertson's 
 pump, the same valve is exposed to the action of 
 the atmosphere, together with that of a column 
 of oil in the oil-vessel. The mischief in either 
 instrument is probably trifling ; but in both the 
 valve might have been opened mechanically. If 
 this were done, the small pump of Prince might, 
 perhaps, be unnecessary in most states of the 
 atmosphere. With regard to the lower valves, 
 Cuthbertson, by an admirable display of talents 
 as a workman, has insured their action ; Prince, 
 on the other hand, has, by the process of reason- 
 ing, so far improved the instrument, that no 
 valve is wanted. In this respect he has the ad- 
 vantage of simplicity and cheapness with equal 
 effect. The mechanical combination of Cuth- 
 bertson's pump, reduces the operation to one 
 simple act of the handle; but Prince's engine 
 requires some manipulation with regard to the 
 play of the small pump ; though this might have 
 been remedied by a more skilful disposition of 
 the first mover. 
 
 * The most perfect scheme for an air-pump, 
 taking advantage of the labours of these judi- 
 cious operators, seems to be that in which two 
 pistons, of the construction of Prince, should 
 work in one barrel, one piston being fixed at 
 the lower end of the rod, and the other at the 
 middle. The lower piston must come clear out 
 of the barrel when down, and work air-tight 
 through a diaphragm at an equal distance from 
 the effective ends of the barrel. In the diaphragm 
 must be a metallic valve of the form of Cuth- 
 bertson's lower valve, but with a short tail 
 beneath, that it may be mechanically opened 
 when the piston comes up. Above the dia- 
 phragm must work the open piston, similar to 
 the first ; but as it cannot quit the barrel when 
 down, a small portion of the barrel must be 
 enlarged just above the diaphragm, so that the 
 leathers may be clear in that position. Lastly, 
 the top of the barrel must be closed, and fitted 
 with a valve and oil-vessel, according to the 
 excellent contrivance of Cuthbertson.' 
 
 We shall conclude our sketch with the de- 
 scription of a table, or portable air-pump, which 
 is from its size and figure, very convenient and 
 sufficiently powerful for most common experi- 
 ments. 
 
 AIR-PUMP, TABLE, OR PORTABLE. This has 
 two brass barrels, which are firmly retained in a 
 perpendicular situation to the square wooden 
 table on which they rest, by a transverse beam, 
 which is pressed upon them by screws at the 
 top of the two pillars. From the hole in the 
 centre of the pump-plate there is a perforation, 
 or canal, in a brass piece to the fore part of the 
 frame of the pump ; and from this canal there 
 
 is a perforation, at right angles to the former, 
 passing to the centre of the base of each barrel. 
 At each of these centres a valve is placed, open- 
 ing upwards, to admit the air into the barrels ; 
 and to each barrel a piston is so fitted that the 
 air cannot pass between it and the sides of the 
 barrel. Both pistons have a valve opening up- 
 wards, that the air in the lower part of the barre 1 
 may escape through them into the room o 
 atmosphere. They are also connected by a 
 rack, and raised or depressed by a handle, the 
 lower part of which is fixed to the axis of a cog- 
 wheel, whose teeth lay hold of the rack. One 
 piston is raised, and the other is depressed by 
 the same turn of the handle, and the operation 
 of exhaustion is the same as in the common 
 pump first described. The two barrels arJ 
 advantageous, because they perform the wort 
 more speedily, and also because the weiglt 
 of the atmosphere, pressing upon the rising 
 piston, is counterbalanced 'oy an equal weigh 
 pressing upon the other piston descending. 
 Behind the large receiver on the pump plae, 
 there is sometimes a small plate for sustaining a 
 small receiver ; and from the hole, at the cente 
 of this plate, there is a canal communicathg 
 with that, which passes from the large receher 
 to the barrels. Under the receiver is a small 
 bottle containing mercury, and a small tube filled 
 with mercury, freed from air, inverted with the 
 open end in the mercury ; which is, in fact, the 
 short barometer-gage described. This pump, 
 without the gage, is shown by fig. 38. 
 
 AIR-PUMP, EXPERIMENTS WITH THE. Having 
 now illustrated its construction under a variety 
 of forms, it may be interesting to many of our 
 readers to be furnished with a few familiar de- 
 ductions confirmed and established by experi- 
 ments on this important apparatus. 
 
 1 . One of the most interesting experiments of 
 this kind, showing the weight and pressure of 
 atmospheric air, is to take a large copper ball, 
 as light as is consistent with the purpose it is 
 intended to answer, having a small neck to it, 
 furnished with a stop-cock ; this neck is to 
 be screwed on the receiver-plate, so that it may 
 be exhausted of air after the same manner as 
 the common receiver ; this being done, turn the 
 stop-cock, which will prevent any air from en- 
 tering when the ball is unscrewed. Let now 
 the weight of the ball be taken by a very accurate 
 balance, and when this is well ascertained, turn 
 again the stop-cock, and the air will immediately 
 rush in, and the ball will in consequence prepon- 
 derate. The weight necessary to bring the 
 balance to an equilibrium will be equal to the 
 weight of the air re-admitted. In this manner, 
 the specific gravity of air has been ascertained 
 to be .00128, that of water being 1. 2. Let a 
 receiver be placed on the plate of the air-pump, 
 having a hole an inch or an inch and a half in 
 diameter at the top ; cover this hole with the 
 palm of the hand, while another person works 
 the machine so as to produce the exhaustion ; 
 and the pressure which, after two or three strokes 
 of the piston, will be experienced on the hand from 
 the external atmosphere, will be such as to con- 
 vince the most sceptical of the truth of the propoJ 
 sition. If the exhaustion be carried to any consil 
 
 /
 
 MR PUMPS 
 
 fiff 
 
 \ 
 
 .l.Stnu-v s<-nl|>.
 
 AIR-PUMP. 
 
 409 
 
 derable degree, it will be difficult to remove the 
 hand without violence, or without re-admitting 
 the air. 3. Place a small receiver, O fig. 39, over 
 the hole of the pump-plate, and, upon exhaust- 
 ing the air, the receiver will be fixed down to 
 the plate by the pressure on its outside; then, 
 oy turning the cock of the pump, and re-ad- 
 mitting the air, the receiver will become loose. 
 In order to prove that the receiver O is held 
 down by the pressure of the air, suspend it on 
 the hook of the wire P P passing through the 
 collar of leathers at the top of the receiver M, 
 by which it is covered, and thus let it down on 
 the plate of the pump; and when the air is 
 exhausted from both receivers, the large receiver 
 M will be fixed to the plate by the pressure of 
 the external air ; but the small one will be loose 
 and easily removed ; then again, in letting in the 
 air, the lesser one will be fixed to the plate, and 
 the other will be released. 4. The same may 
 be otherwise shown by the glass employed in 
 experiment '2, viz. by tying over the hole at top 
 a piece of bladder; then, as the air is exhausted, 
 the bladder will be pressed into the receiver in 
 a concave hemispherical form, and by carrying 
 the exhaustion to a sufficient extent, the bladder 
 will at length burst with a loud report ; or, in- 
 stead of the bladder, a piece of common window 
 glass may be employed, resting on a rim of 
 leather; when it will be found that the pressure 
 of the external air will break the glass as soon as 
 the air is exhausted. 5. Join together the two 
 hollow brass hemispheres A and B, fig. 40, the 
 edges of which must be made very perfect, or 
 otherwise they must have a circle of wet leather 
 placed between them ; screw the end D into the 
 plate of the pump, and open the stop-cock E of 
 the pipe C D communicating with the hemis- 
 pheres ; and having exhausted the air, turn the 
 cock again so as to stop the pipe ; remove the 
 ball from the plate, and screw on at the end D 
 the handle F H. Two strong men now, one 
 taking hold of each handle, and pulling straight 
 against each other, will find considerable diffi- 
 culty, or will be, perhaps, wholly unable to 
 separate the two hemispheres. The degree of 
 strength that will be requisite depends upon the 
 diameter of the sphere and the nature of the 
 exhaustion. If the latter be nearly complete, 
 and the diameter be four inches, the area of the 
 section will be 
 
 4 2 x .7854 =: 12.5664 inches; 
 and, assuming the pressure on every square inch 
 to be about 15lbs. we shall have 
 
 12.5664 x 15 r= 188lbs. 
 
 for the force or strength requisite to produce the 
 separation. 6. The pressure of the air may be 
 also shown as follows : Set a square phial of 
 thin glass upon the pump-plate, and, to prevent 
 accidents, cover it with .a wire cage, and place 
 both under a close receiver. The phial must be 
 supplied at top with a small valve opening up- 
 wards, so as to be exhausted with the receiver, 
 but which shuts and prevents the air from after- 
 wards entering. Let the air be exhausted from 
 the receiver and phial, and it will be found that, 
 upon re-admitting the air into the former, the 
 latter will be crushed into a number of small 
 pieces. Quicksilver may also be forced into 
 
 the pores of wood, and made to pass through 
 it by the pressure of the atmosphere. 7. Immerse 
 the neck c d of the hollow glass ball e b, fig. 41, 
 in the water of the vessel a a ; place it on the 
 plate of the pump, and cover it and the hole of 
 the plate by the receiver A ; exhaust this re- 
 ceiver, and the air will escape by its spring, from 
 the ball e b, through the neck c d, rise in bubbles 
 through the water, and pass off into the external 
 air. When the water has done bubbling, turn 
 the cock of the pump, and the air that is ad- 
 mitted will, by its pressure on the surface of the 
 water, force it up in a jet into the ball e b, and 
 nearly fill it ; the small quantity of remaining 
 air which occupied the whole ball, and which is 
 now reduced to a small space by condensation, 
 is all that prevents the water from filling the 
 whole cavity of the ball. This experiment may be 
 varied by screwing the end A of the brass pipe 
 A B F, fig. 42, into the hole of the pump-plate, 
 and placing it, by means of a circle of leather, 
 \ipon the plate c d, a tall receiver GH, close at 
 top, exhausting the receiver of air, and stopping 
 the pipe by the cock e : when this is done, re- 
 move the apparatus from the pump, set its end A 
 in a basin of water, and open the pipe by 
 turning the cock e, when it will be found that 
 the pressure of the air on the water will force it 
 up through the pipe, so that it will ascend in a 
 jet to the top of the receiver 
 
 Again, place the tall open receiver, A B, 
 fig. 43, on the pump-plate over the jar D. con- 
 taining quicksilver ; the latter being placed near 
 the hole or pipe communicating with the barrels. 
 Into the plate C, placed upon the upper end of 
 this receiver, introduce the open glass tube gf t 
 immersed at its lower extremity in the quick- 
 silver of the jar D, and screwed by a brass top 
 annexed to it at h, to the syringe H, which is 
 itself screwed to the plate C. By means of the 
 ring I, draw up the piston of the syringe, and 
 thus exhaust the tube of its air ; and the quick- 
 silver in the basin, pressed by the undilated air 
 of the receiver AB, will ascend in the tube. 
 That this ascent is owing to the pressure of the 
 air, and not to what is vulgarly called suction, 
 may be shown by exhausting the receiver of its 
 air, which will cause the quicksilver to descend 
 into the jar, and, by re-admitting the air, it will 
 rise again in the tube, although the piston of the 
 syringe be not moved. If the tube be thirty- 
 two or thirty-three inches in length, the quick- 
 silver will rise nearly as high in the tube as it 
 stands at that time in the barometer ; and if the 
 syringe have a small hole at m, and the piston 
 be drawn up above that hole, the air will pass 
 through it into the syringe and tube, and the 
 quicksilverwill immediately fall down into the jar. 
 
 Once more : the jar A, fig. 44, being filled 
 with quicksilver, and placed on the pump-plate, 
 cover it with the receiver B, and push the open 
 end of the glass tube d e through the collar of 
 leather in the brass neck C, almost down to the 
 quicksilver in the jar; then exhaust the receiver 
 B of its air, and the tube d e, which is close to 
 the top /, will at the same time be exhausted. 
 When the exhaustion has been carried on to a 
 sufficient extent, push the open end of the tube, 
 into the quicksilver in the jar, and it will be
 
 410 
 
 AIR-PUMP. 
 
 found, that although the tube is exhausted, the 
 mercury will not rise in it, because there is no 
 pressure on the surface of that in the jar ; but 
 upon admitting the air into the receiver, the 
 quicksilver will immediately rise, and stand as 
 high as it did, in consequence of the action of 
 the syringe, in the preceding experiment. These 
 latter experiments not only exhibit the weight 
 and pressure of the atmosphere, but they also 
 show that they are increased or diminished in 
 proportion to the increase or decrease of the 
 density of the air. 
 
 The elasticity of the air may be shown in the 
 most satisfactory manner, by placing under the 
 receiver of an air-pump a flaccid bladder, well 
 tied and secured at its neck, so as to prevent the 
 air within it from escaping. Exhaust the air 
 out of the receiver, and the bladder, as the pro- 
 cess proceeds, will continue to expand, till at 
 length it will appear like one full-blown, and 
 even burst if the exhaustion be carried on to a 
 sufficient degree ; but upon re-admitting the air, 
 it will quickly return to its original flaccid state. 
 In experiment 6, we supposed the glass ball, fig. 
 41, to be filled with water, with the exception of 
 a small bubble of air; if, in this state, it be 
 placed with its neck downwards into the empty 
 jar a a, and covered with a close receiver, and 
 the air of the latter be exhausted, the air-bubble 
 will expand itself, and ty its elastic force pro- 
 trude the water out of the globe into the jar. 
 The same may be shown by screwing the pipe 
 A B, fig. 42, into the pump-plate, and by placing 
 the tall receiver G H upon the plate c d; for now, 
 exhausting the receiver, remove the apparatus, 
 and screw it into the copper vessel C C, fig. 45, 
 half filled with water: then turn the cock e, 
 fig. 42, and the air confined in this vessel will, 
 by its spring, force the water through the pipe 
 A B, and cause it to form a jet into the exhausted 
 receiver equal to that which was produced by 
 the pressure of the air in the former experiment. 
 
 The little amusing experiment called the Car- 
 tesian devil, depends upon principles nearly the 
 same as the above. The figure of a man, made 
 of glass, or enamel, is so constructed as to have 
 the same specific gravity as water, and will 
 therefore remain suspended in a mass of that 
 fluid. A bubble, similar to that in the last ex- 
 periment, communicating with the water, is 
 placed in some part of the figure, sometimes in a 
 small globe, as shown at m, fig. 46. At the 
 bottom B of the vessel is a diaphragm of bladder 
 which can be pressed upwards by applying the 
 finger to the extremity e of lever e o, moving 
 about a centre o. The pressure applied to e is 
 communicated through the water to the bubble 
 of air which is thus compressed. The specific 
 gravity of the figure is thereby increased, and it 
 consequently sinks to the bottom ; but by re- 
 moving the pressure, the figure again rises, so 
 that it may be made to oscilate or dance in the 
 vessel without any visible cause. Fishes made 
 of glass are sometimes substituted for the human 
 shape, and when a common jar is used for the 
 experiment, the pressure is applied to the upper 
 surface of it at A, which is, in this case, a piece 
 
 f bladder, instead of being placed at the bot- 
 tom as shown in the figure. The same effects 
 
 will be produced by placing the jar under the 
 receiver of an air-pump, and varying the pres- 
 sure by rarefaction ; but, in this case, the specific 
 gravity of the figure ought a little to exceed that 
 of the water in the jar. 
 
 Bodies cannot move about in the atmosphere 
 without displacing it, which requires force, and 
 therefore the resistance of the air always diminishes 
 the velocity of moving bodies ; but this diminu- 
 tion will be greater or less according to the density 
 of the falling or moving mass ; for which reason 
 those bodies which we call light, fall much slower 
 than more dense or heavy substances. To show 
 that this is actually the case, we need only let 
 fall a feather and a piece of metal out of our 
 hands at the same instant, and it will be found 
 that the metal has reached the floor while the fea- 
 ther is yet falling; but place them both under the 
 receiver of an air-pump and exhaust the air, and 
 then let them fall, and they will both be found to 
 reach the bottom in the same time : an apparatus 
 for performing this experiment is shown in fig. 
 49 ; the two bodies being laid together on the 
 brass flap d or e, which may be at any time let 
 down, by simply turning the wire f, which 
 passes through a collar of leathers g, placed in 
 the head of the receiver A B. Figure 50 repre- 
 sents another apparatus for showing the same 
 thing. It consists of two sets of brass vanes 
 put on separate axles, in the manner of wind- 
 mill-sails. One set has the edges placed in the 
 direction of their whirling motion, that is, in a 
 plane to which the axis is perpendicular. The 
 planes of the other set pass through the axis, 
 and they are, therefore, trimmed so as exactly to 
 front the air through which they move. Two 
 springs act upon pins projecting from the axis, 
 and their strengths or tensions are so adjusted, 
 that when they are disengaged in a vacuum, the 
 two sets continue in motion equally long ; but if 
 they are disengaged in air, those vanes which 
 oppose the air by their planes will stop long 
 before those that cut it edgewise. 
 
 In the preceding account of the air-pump we 
 have seen that the most modern of these machines 
 may be made use of either for the purpose of 
 rarefaction or condensation ; but in many cases 
 the latter operation is required to be performed 
 when no pump is at hand : and moreover, it does 
 not always require the same delicacy of process 
 as that of rarefaction, and more simple apparatus 
 are, therefore, frequently employed. 
 
 Take, for example, a prismatic tube AB, fig. 
 51, shut at one end, and fit it with a piston, or 
 plug C, so that no air can pass by its sides, 
 which, in a cylindrical tube, is best done with a 
 turned stopper, covered with oiled leather, and 
 fitted with a long handle CD. When this is 
 thrust down, the air, which formerly occupied 
 the whole capacity of the tube, is condensed 
 into less room, and the force necessary to pro- 
 duce any degree of condensation, may be con- 
 cluded from the weight necessary for pushing 
 down the plug to any depth; but it is obvious 
 that the instrument in this form is not sufficiently 
 accurate for us to deduce, from experiments 
 upon it, any very accurate conclusions ; the fol- 
 lowing is, therefore, more commonly the form of 
 the condenser. The end of the tube, instead of
 
 VOL1 .PAOE41O 
 
 AIR-P 
 
 E rm.
 
 AIR 
 
 411 
 
 AIR 
 
 being closed as - described above, is perforated 
 with a very small hole ef, and being externally 
 turned to a small cylinder, a narrow slip of 
 bladder, or of thin leather, soaked in a mixture 
 of oil and tallow, must be tied over the hole. 
 Now, let us suppose that the piston is forced 
 down to the bottom of the barrel, to which it 
 applies close ; then, when it is drawn up to the 
 top, it leaves a void behind, and the weight of 
 the external air presses on the slip of bladder, 
 which, therefore, claps close to the brass, and 
 thus performs the part of a valve, and keeps it 
 close, so that no air can enter. But, the piston 
 having reached the top of the barrel, a hole F 
 in the side of it is just below the piston, and the 
 air rushes through this hole and fills the barrel. 
 Push the piston down again, it immediately 
 passes the hole F, and no air escapes through it, 
 therefore it forces open the valve a.tf, and escapes 
 while the piston moves to the bottom. 
 
 Now, let any vessel E, as, for instance, a glass 
 bottle, or brass ball, have its mouth furnished 
 with a brass cap firmly cemented to it, having a 
 hollow screw, which fits a solid screw p q, turned 
 on the cylindric nozzle of the syringe, and this 
 vessel may be considered as a receiver. Screw 
 the syringe into this cap, and it is evident that 
 the air forced out of the syringe will be ac- 
 cumulated in this vessel ; for upon drawing up 
 the piston, the valve f always shuts by the elas- 
 ticity or expansive force of the air in E ; and 
 on pushing it down again, the valve will open 
 as soon as the piston has got so far down that 
 the air in the lower part of the barrel is more 
 powerful than the air already in the vessel. Thus, 
 at every stroke, an additional barrel-full of air 
 will be forced into the vessel E ; and it will be 
 found that, after every stroke, the piston must 
 be pushed down further before the valve will 
 open; for, as stated above, it cannot open till 
 the air, condensed in the barrel by the down- 
 ward motion of the piston, exceeds that in the 
 receiver ; and as the latter is increased at every 
 stroke, so also must the stroke be longer every 
 time before the valve will be opened. 
 
 A construction somewhat different to the above 
 is now very commonly adopted : this consists in 
 supplying the piston itself with a valve ; that is, 
 instead of being, as above described, one solid 
 piece, it is made of two pieces perforated. The 
 upper part, i k m n, is connected with the rod or 
 handle, and has its lower part turned down to a 
 small cylinder, which is screwed into the lower 
 part k Ion; and has a perforation g h going up 
 the axis, and terminating in a hole h in one side 
 of the rod, and a piece of oiled leather is stretch- 
 ed across the hole g. When the piston is drawn 
 up, and a void left below it, (he weight of the 
 external air forces it through the hole h g, opens 
 the valve g, and fills the barrel. Then, on 
 pushing down the piston, the air being com- 
 pressed into less space, presses on the valve g, 
 shuts it, and none escaping through the piston, 
 it is gradually condensed, as the piston descends, 
 till it opens the valve f, and is added to that al- 
 ready accumulated in the vessel, E. We may 
 thus force any quantity of air consistent with the 
 strength of the vessel into it, and it will be 
 ready for any experiments that we may be de- 
 
 sirous of making with it. Instead of the glass 
 bottle, or simple hollow globe supposed above, 
 we may use the latter furnished with a neck and 
 stop-cock ; in this case, the cock may be turned, 
 the ball unscrewed from the syringe, and be thus 
 in a state to be transferred and applied to any 
 other purpose required. 
 
 The condensation thus produced may be 
 measured by a gage fitted to the instrument as 
 follows : a glass tube G H, fig. 51-, of cylindri- 
 cal bore, and close at the end, is screwed into 
 the side of the cap on the mouth of the vessel 
 E ; a small drop of water or mercury is taken 
 into this tube by warming it a little in the hand, 
 which expands the contained air, so that when 
 the open end is dipped into water, and the 
 whole allowed to cool, the water advances a 
 little into the tube. The tube is furnished with 
 a scale, divided into small equal parts, num- 
 bered from its close end. Now, since this tube 
 communicates with the vessel, it is evident that 
 the condensation will force the water along the 
 tube, acting like a piston, on the air beyond it, 
 and the air in the tube and vessel will always be 
 of one density. Suppose, for example, the 
 number at which the drop stands, before the 
 condensation is made, to be c, and that it stands 
 at d, when the condensation has attained the re- 
 quired degree ; the density of the air at the re- 
 mote end of the gage, and consequently in the 
 
 vessel, will be - . It was by such means that 
 
 the laws of the condensation and elasticity of 
 common air were originally deduced. 
 
 AIR-SHAFTS, among miners, denote holes or 
 shafts let down from the open air to meet the 
 adits, and furnish fresh air. The damps, want, 
 and impurity of air, which occur, when adits are 
 wrought thirty or forty fathoms long, make it ne- 
 cessary to let down air shafts, in order to give 
 the air liberty to play through the whole work, 
 and thus discharge bad vapours, and furnish good 
 air for respiration : the expense of which shafts, 
 in regard of their vast depths, hardness of the 
 rocks, drawing of water, &c. sometimes equals, 
 nay exceeds, the ordinary charge of the whole 
 adit. Sir Robert Murray describes a method, 
 used in the coal mines at Liege, of working mines 
 without air-shafts. When the miners at Mendip 
 have sunk a groove, they will not be at the 
 charge of an air-shaft till they come at ore ; and 
 for the supply of air have boxes of elm exactly 
 closed of about six inches in the clear, by which 
 they carry it down about twenty fathoms. They 
 cut a trench at a little distance from the top of 
 the groove, covering it with turf and rods dis- 
 posed to receive the pipe, which they contrive to 
 come in sideways to their groove, four feet from 
 the top ; which carries down the air to a great 
 depth. When they come at ore, and need an 
 air-shaft, they sink it four or five fathoms distant, 
 according to the convenience of the breadth, and 
 of the same fashion with the groove, to draw as 
 well ore as air. See Phil. Trans. No. V. and 
 XXXIX. 
 
 AIR-THREADS, in natural history, a name given 
 to the long filaments, so frequently seen in autumn 
 floating about in the air. These threads are the 
 work of spiders, especially of that species called
 
 AIR 
 
 412 
 
 AIR 
 
 the long legged field spider; which, having 
 mounted to the summit of a bush or tree, darts 
 from its tail, several of these threads, till one is 
 produced capable of supporting the creature in 
 the air : on this it mounts in quest of prey, and 
 frequently rises to a very considerable height. 
 See ARANIA. They are long, downy, and very 
 soft, and though they hold together when un- 
 touched, they stick to the fingers in handling, and 
 easily break with a light touch. The general 
 method of these creatures in spinning and weav- 
 ing the webs, is to let down the thread, then 
 draw it after them, and so dispose it as they 
 think proper ; but in the midst of their work of 
 this sort, if they are closely observed, they will 
 sometimes be found to desist, and turning to the 
 contrary way of the wind, will emit a thread with 
 great rapidity, no less than that with which a jet of 
 water is discharged from a cock. In this man- 
 ner they continue darting forth the thread, which 
 the wind takes, and carrying it forwards, it soon 
 becomes many yards long. Soon after this the 
 creature will throw itself off from the web, and 
 trusting to the air, with this long tail, will ascend 
 swiftly, and to a great height with it. The frag- 
 ments of these lines, and the spiders attached to 
 them, though unobserved, make these air-threads; 
 and the use nature destines them for, is evidently 
 the wafting of the creature along in the air, and 
 giving it an opportunity of preying on gnats, and 
 many other insects that inhabit the air, out of 
 the reach of these creatures by any other means. 
 When the threads are newly spun, they are 
 always single, and are generally seen ascending 
 higher and higher in the air; but when they are 
 seen coming down, they are found sometimes 
 composed of three or four others, and either with- 
 out any spider at the ends, or with two or three, 
 or more. It is plain that this happens from the 
 meeting of these threads one with another in the 
 air, and their tangling together ; and this incom- 
 modes the creatures, and brings them down. 
 
 As these soon entangle together, and bring one 
 another down, it is no wonder that they are more 
 frequent in the lower regions of the air, than 
 those with the spiders adhering to them, which 
 usually rise to great heights, and sustain them- 
 selves there. And hence the origin of the threads 
 was much perplexed among the enquirers, because 
 they were found without any mark of the animal 
 to which they owed their existence. The business 
 of feeding is not all the use of these threads, but 
 the creatures evidently sport and amuse them- 
 selves by means of them, floating about in the 
 air, and changing height and place at pleasure. 
 When a spider has once raised itself from the 
 earth in this manner, it does not descend always 
 on the same thread it arose by, but draws that 
 up at times, and winds it up into a hank with 
 its fore-feet, and darts out another by way of sup- 
 port ; and the new thread is made more or less 
 long, as it is intended for a higher or lower flight 
 Philos. Trans. No. L. 
 
 AIR-TRUNK, is a contrivance by Dr. Hales to 
 prevent the stagnation of putrid effluvia in jails, 
 and other places where a great number of people 
 are crowded together, in a small space. It con- 
 sists only of a long square trunk, open at both 
 ends ; one of which is inserted into the ceiling of 
 
 the room, the air of which is required to be kept 
 pure ; and the other extends a good way beyond 
 the roof. Through this trunk a continued circula 
 tion is carried on : and the reason is, that the 
 putrid effluvia, which do so much mischief when 
 collected, being much lighter than the pure at- 
 mosphere, rise to the top of the room ; and, if 
 they there find a vent, will continually go out 
 through it. These effluvia arise in a very con- 
 siderable quantity, being calculated by the late 
 Dr. Keil, at no less than thirty-nine ounces from 
 one man in twenty-four hours. These trunks 
 were first made trial of by Mr. Yeoman, over 
 the House of Commons, where they were nine 
 inches wide within ; and over the Court of King's 
 Bench in Westminster hall, where they were six 
 inches wide. They are sometimes made wider, 
 and sometimes narrower ; but the wider they are, 
 the longer they ought to be, more effectually to 
 promote the ascent of the vapour. The reason 
 why vapours of this kind ascend more swiftly 
 through a long trunk than a short one, is, that the 
 pressure of fluids is always according to their 
 different depth, without regard to the diameter 
 of their basis, or of the vessel which contains 
 them ; and, upon this principle, a gallon of 
 water may be made to split a strong cask. See 
 HYDROSTATICS. 
 
 When the column of putrid effluvia is long 
 and narrow, the difference between the column 
 of atmosphere pressing on the upper end of the 
 trunk, and that which presses on the lower end, 
 is much greater than if the column of putrid 
 effluvia were short and wide ; and consequently 
 the ascent is much swifter. One pan of a single 
 pair of scales, which was two inches in diameter, 
 being held within one of these trunks over the 
 House of Commons, the force of the ascending 
 air made it rise so as to require four grains to 
 restore the equilibrium, and this when there was 
 no person in the house ; but when it was full, 
 no less than twelve grains were requisite to 
 restore the equilibrium ; which clearly shows 
 that these trunks must be of real and very great 
 efficacy. 
 
 AIR-VESSELS, are spiral ducts in the leaves, 
 &c. of plants, supposed to be analogous to the 
 lungs of animals, in supplying the different parts 
 of a plant with air. See PLANTS. 
 
 Dr. Grew, in his enquiry into the motion and 
 cause of the air in. vegetables, enters at some 
 length into the structure of these remarkable ves- 
 sels ; and shews that air enters plants in various 
 ways, not only by the trunk, leaves, and other 
 visible parts, but also at the root. The pores 
 designed for the reception and expulsion of air, 
 are so very large in the trunks of some plants, 
 as in the thick walking cane, that they are visi- 
 ble to the naked, eye ; but with a glass, the 
 cane seems as if it were full of laige pin-holes, 
 resembling the pores of the skin in the ends of 
 the fingers, and ball of the hand. In the leaves 
 of the pine, through a glass, they make an ele- 
 gant appearance, standing almost exactly in 
 rank and file throughout the length of the leaves 
 The chief admission of air into plants, however 
 is at the root : much as in animals, some part of 
 the air may continually pass into the body and 
 blood hy the pores of the skin ; but the chief
 
 AIR 
 
 113 
 
 AIR 
 
 draught is at the mouth. If the chief entrance 
 of the air were at the trunk, before it could be 
 mixed with the sap in the root, it must descend ; 
 and so move not only contrary to its own nature, 
 but in a contrary course to the sap : whereas by 
 its reception at the root, and its transition from 
 thence, it has a more natural and easy motion of 
 ascent. The same fact is farther evident, from 
 the fineness and smallness of the diametrical aper- 
 tures in the trunk, in comparison of those in the 
 root ; which nature has plainly designed for the 
 separation of the air from the sap, after they are 
 botn together received into them. Grew. Anat. 
 of Root, chap. iii. p. 127. 
 
 Air-vessels are found in the leaves of all plants, 
 and are even discoverable in many without the 
 help of glasses ; for upon breaking the stalk or 
 chief fibres of a leaf, the likeness of a fine woolly 
 substance, or rather of curious small cob-webs, 
 may be seen to hang at both the broken ends. 
 This is taken notice of only in some few plants, 
 as in scabious, where it is more visible ; but may 
 also be seen more or less in most others, if the 
 leaves be very tenderly broken. This wool is 
 really a skein of air-vessels, or rather of the fibres 
 of the air-vessels, loosed from their spiral posi- 
 tion, and so drawn out in length. Id. ibid. 
 chap. iv. p. 155. 
 
 Dr. Hales has proved that air is inspired by 
 vegetables ; and has shewn that air, in many in- 
 stances, freely enters the vessels of trees, and is 
 wrought in great abundance into their substance. 
 But as to particular air-vessels in plants, he 
 asks, may not the use of those spiral wreaths, 
 that are coiled round the insides of those vessels, 
 which are supposed to be air-vessels, and which 
 are manifestly to be seen in several trees, and 
 in the leaves of the vine and scabious, be designed 
 by nature to promote the quicker ascent of air, 
 by being in some measure conformed to its 
 elastic contortions ? For such spiral wreaths 
 seem to be altogether useless for promoting the 
 ascent of any liquor, as the sap, which ascends 
 most freely through, innumerable other capillary 
 vessels, having no such spiral coils in them : not 
 that we are to suppose the air in its elastic state 
 actually to touch, and thereby to be determined 
 in the course of these spirals, as any liquor would 
 be. But as the rays of light, when they are re- 
 flected from a solid body, are found to be re- 
 flected, without actually touching the reflecting 
 body in the point of reflection ; so it is not un- 
 reasonable to suppose, that elastic air may, like 
 light, be diverted from one course, and so be 
 determined to another, by the solid bodies it 
 approaches, without touching them, but rebound- 
 ing like light from those solid bodies near the 
 point of contact. 
 
 This ingenious writer has observed, that these 
 spirals are coiled in a course opposite to those of 
 the sun, that is, from west to east. Vide Static. 
 Ess. vol. i. p. 155, and vol. ii.p. 265, and 266. 
 
 Dr. Darwin in his Phytologia, contends that 
 the vessels which Malpighi, Grew, and many 
 others, have denominated bronchia, and errone- 
 ously thought to be air-vessels, and to serve the 
 purpose of respiratory organs, are absorbent 
 vessels, destined to imbibe the nutriment of 
 plants, and that they are the genuine lungs of 
 
 vegetables. 'These absorbent vessels.' he says, 
 1 which resemble the lacteals of animal bodies, 
 are found in the roots of plants for imbibing 
 nourishment from the moist earth, on the ex- 
 ternal surfaces of the bark and leaves, for ab- 
 sorbing the humidity of the atmosphere, and 
 also in the internal surfaces of the cells and 
 cavities of the vegetable system, where they ab- 
 sorb the secreted fluids, after they have per- 
 formed the offices to which they are adapted. 
 The existence of the first sort of absorbents is 
 evinced by the growth of plants, whilst mois- 
 ture is applied to their roots, and by their 
 withering when it is withdrawn. Those of the 
 second sort are manifested by plucking off a 
 leaf and laying it in water, which is found not 
 to wither so soon as if it were left exposed to 
 the dry air. The third class of vessels of this 
 kind will be perceived to perform its office by 
 moistening the alburnum or sap-wood, and the 
 inner surface of the bark of a branch severed 
 from a tree ; which are thus preserved, whilst 
 the same parts left unmoistened in the dry air 
 are observed to wither. Besides, if vegetables 
 be inserted in glass-tubes or narrow vessels, 
 filled with water, the surface of the water will 
 be seen to subside much sooner than by evapo- 
 ration alone in similar circumstances.' Dr. Dar- 
 win contrived to exhibit these absorbent vessels 
 to the eye, by dipping twigs of a fig-tree in a 
 decoction of madder and of log-wood, which 
 after some time, upon cutting off about an inch 
 of the stalk near the bottom, exhibited a circ', 
 of red points, believed by him to be the co- 
 loured ends of the absorbents, that existed in 
 the newly formed alburnum. He expresses his 
 astonishment that any person should have con- 
 ceived these vessels, that are found in the al- 
 burnum, and which consist of a spiral line, to 
 be air vessels or tubes ; and farther observes, 
 that the absorbent vessels of trees in passing 
 down their trunks, consist of long, hollow cylin- 
 ders, of a spiral form, and of such large diameters 
 in some vegetables, e. g. in cane, as to be visible, 
 when dry and empty, to the naked eye. Through 
 these air will pass rapidly upward and down- 
 ward; and hence Dr. Hales has been led to 
 coincide with Grew and others in opinion, that 
 they are air-vessels or lungs designed for res- 
 piration, and receiving atmospherical air in their 
 natural state. But to this Dr. D. objects, that 
 they have no communication with the hori- 
 zontal air-vessels of plants, and they exist in the 
 root, as well as in the trunk, where, not 
 being exposed to the atmosphere, they cannot 
 serve for the purpose of respiration. Air, how- 
 ever, in its combined state, or dissolved in 
 water, may be absorbed by these vessels ; and 
 may appear when the pressure of the atmos- 
 phere is removed in the exhausted receiver, or 
 when it is expanded by heat ; as is the case 
 in the froth observed at one end of a green 
 stick, when the other is burning in the fire. 
 Dr. Darwin apprehends, that the structure of 
 those large vegetable absorbents, which have 
 been erroneously called air-vessels, consists of 
 a spiral line, and not of a vessel interrupted with 
 valves ; and in this respect it differs from that 
 of animal lymphatics. According to this writer,
 
 AIR 
 
 414 
 
 AIR 
 
 the proper air-vessels are horizontal vessels of 
 large diameter, which pass through the bark of 
 trees to the alburnum. Malpighi has given a 
 figure of them, and Duhamel mentions fine 
 horizontal perforations through the bark of trees, 
 which he believes to be perspiratory or excre- 
 tory organs ; and besides these, he takes notice 
 of others, that are larger, standing prominent 
 in the birch-tree, and piercing the exterior bark; 
 which probably contain air during the living 
 state of the tree. Dr. Darwin supposes, that 
 the horizontal vessels first mentioned contain 
 air, enclosed in a thin moist membrane, which 
 may serve the purpose of oxygenating the fluid 
 in the extremities of some fine arteries of the 
 embryo buds, in a manner similar to that by 
 which the air at the broad end of the egg is 
 thought to oxygenate the fluids in the termi- 
 nation of the placental vessels of the embryo 
 chick. 
 
 AIR, or AYRSHIRE, in geography, an extensive 
 county of Scotland, stretching ninety miles in 
 length, along the western coast, from its southern 
 boundary near Loch Ryan, in Wigtonshire, to 
 Kelly bridge, which separates it from Renfrew- 
 shire on the North ; and extends in breadth, ge- 
 nerally from twenty to twenty-five miles. It is 
 bounded on the north by Renfrew, on the south 
 by Galloway, on the east by Lanarkshire, and on 
 the west by the Frith of Clyde. It comprehends 
 the districts of Carrick, Coil, Kyle, and Cunning- 
 hame, which are divided into forty-six parishes, 
 and contains 526,602 Scotch acres, or 662,005 
 English. From Colonel Fullarton's General 
 View of this county, drawn up for the Board of 
 Agriculture, we learn, that within these forty 
 years, it has rapidly improved in its cultivation, 
 trade, and commerce, as well as in the popula- 
 tion, industry, and opulence of its inhabitants ; 
 that in 1791, its entire population being 83,892 
 souls, above 780 were proprietors of land ; 1592 
 farmers ; and about 461 paupers ; that the an- 
 nual funds for relief of these last, were upwards 
 of 1262 sterling, that the valued rents amounted 
 to 191,605 Os. Id. Scots ; and the real rents to 
 between 150,000 and 160,000 sterling ; the 
 number of horses were about 4300 ; of sheep 
 about 135,000 ; and of black cattle upwards of 
 34,000. This county exhibits the form of two 
 wings extending to the N.W. and S.W. and 
 forming a vast bay at the mouth of the Frith of 
 Clyde. The principal rivers m it are the Ayr, 
 the Stencher, the Gervan, the Doon, and the 
 Irwin. The roads are excellent, and the plan- 
 tations and clumps of trees numerous and beau- 
 tiful. The county abounds in coal, iron, and 
 other minerals. For its improvements in general, 
 it was formerly much indebted to the exertions 
 of the late earl of Eglington and Mr. Fairly, of 
 Fairly, nor has the spirit of improvement re- 
 laxed of late years. Its population, according to 
 the last census, was 127,299. Vast quantities 
 of sea-weed are thrown on shore here, from 
 which many tons of kelp are annually made. 
 Most of the lochs have plenty of marl, the prin- 
 cipal of which is loch Doon. The rivers abound 
 with salmon, and the coasts are admirably 
 adapted for the white fishing. The county is 
 particularly adapted for the purpose of manu- 
 
 factures, from the abundance of the fuel ; and 
 those of cotton, woollen, thread, and muslin, are 
 carried to a very considerable extent. In the 
 hills of Carrick, a few curious fragments of 
 agate, porphyry, jaspar, and calcareous petri- 
 factions have been found ; and galena and plum- 
 bago in the parishes of Stair and New-Cumnock, 
 together with a species of whet-stone, known by 
 the name of Ayr-stone. This county gave birth 
 to Sir William Wallace, who in the reign of 
 Alexander III. after fighting gloriously for his 
 country, was at length betrayed into the hands 
 of the English'. 
 
 AIR, or AYR, or as it is spelt in some ancient 
 writings, ARE, a parish of Scotland, situated in 
 the county of that name, of a quadrangular form, 
 about three miles long from north to south, and 
 four miles broad at its eastern extremity, though 
 not two at its western. It contained, according 
 to the return made to Sir John Sinclair, by Drs. 
 Dalrymple and M'Gill, in 1791, about 4100 
 inhabitants. The climate is moist, notwithstand- 
 ing which many of the natives live to a great 
 age. Tradition reports, that a battle was fought 
 in this parish, in the valley of Dalrymple, be- 
 tween the Scots and Picts, before the Christian 
 sera, wherein both the sovereigns, Fergus and 
 Coilus, were slain. Here is a strong chalybeate 
 spring, famous in scrofulous and scorbutic com- 
 plaints ; and the parish is distinguished as the 
 birth place of the celebrated Johannes Scotus, 
 and Robert Burns, the poet. 
 
 AIR, or AYR, a royal burgh of great antiquity, 
 the county-town of Ayrshire, and the seat of a 
 circuit court. It is seventy-five miles south-west 
 from Edinburgh ; contains 944 houses, and 7455 
 inhabitants within the parish. In 1202, it was 
 made a royal burgh by king William the Lion. 
 It is situated on the southern bank of the river 
 Ayr, near its influx into the Frith of Clyde. In 
 the centie of the town, which is in the shape of 
 a crescent, stand the tol-booth and town-hall, 
 with a spire 135 feet high. Ayr has two churches 
 and several other places of worship. Here are 
 also a theatre, a public academy, a library, and a 
 reading-room, a dispensary, a work-house, and 
 a savings-bank. It is also intended to erect a 
 range of public buildings, including a court house, 
 and a gaol for criminals and debtors, on an im- 
 proved plan. The harbour formed by the mouth 
 of the Ayr, is subject to the inconvenience of a 
 shifting bar of sand ; to remedy which, two re- 
 flecting light-houses have been erected. The 
 principal manufactures are tanning, boot and 
 shoe making, soap-boiling, also ship-building to a 
 small extent. The exports are cotton and woollen 
 goods, pig-iron, coals, paint, and whetstones; 
 the imports, grains, spirits, bricks, slates, timber, 
 and lime-stone : the principal trade is with Ire- 
 land. Besides the salmon fishery, the sand-banks 
 on the coast abound with all kinds of white fish, 
 and one or two companies are established here 
 for catching and curing them. Sir William 
 Wallace began his exploits, and Edward I. fixed 
 a powerful garrison at this place. Oliver Crom- 
 well converted the church into a garrisoned 
 fortress and armoury, and gave the inhabitants 
 100 merks English to build another. In the Old 
 Church the parliament met, which confirmed
 
 AIS 
 
 4io 
 
 AJU 
 
 
 Robert Bruce's title to the throne. Ayr sends a 
 member to parliament along with Irvine, Roth- 
 say, Inverary, and Campbeltown. Ayr is a 
 fashionable place of resort, has well-attended 
 races, and is sometimes the seat of the Cale- 
 donian hunt. It is governed by a provost, two 
 bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and twelve 
 councillors. It has two weekly markets, and 
 four annual fairs. 
 
 AIR A, in botany, alpa, the Greek name for 
 lolium or darnel, has been given by Linnaeus to 
 a genus of plants, class 3, triandria ; order 2, di- 
 gynia, called in English aira grass, or hair grass. 
 Its gen. characters are : CAL. glume, two flowered ; 
 valves, ovate-lanceolate: COR. bivalve; nectary 
 two-leaved ; leaflets acute : STAM. filaments capil- 
 lary ; antherae oblong : PIST. germ ovate ; styles 
 cetaceous ; stigmas pubescent : PER. none ; seeds, 
 sub-ovate. The species mostly consist of different 
 species of the avena, or gramina of other writers. 
 Fourteen have been enumerated, nine of which 
 are natives of Great Britain. 
 
 AIRANI, or AIRANITJE, in church history, an 
 obscure sect of Arians, in the fourth century, 
 who denied the consubstantiality of the Holy 
 Ghost with the Father and the Son. 
 
 AIRDRIE, a market-town of Scotland, in 
 East-Monkland parish, county of Lanark, on the 
 great road to Edinburgh, twelve miles east of Glas- 
 gow. It is regularly built, with fine wide streets, 
 extending nearly a mile in length. Here are dis- 
 tilleries, an iron foundry, a cotton manufactory, 
 and a Burgher chapel. It has a weekly market, 
 Fairs, second Tuesday of January, second Tues- 
 day of February, third Thursday of May, O. S. 
 last Tuesday of August, and first Thursday of 
 November, O. S. population 4860. 
 
 AIRE, a town of France, formerly the chief 
 town of Gascony Proper, now the head of a 
 canton in the department of the Landes, &c. ar- 
 rondissement of St. Sever, situated in a fertile 
 and agreeable country, on the slope of a hill on 
 the left bank of the Adour. It is. nine leagues 
 N. N. E. of Pau, and twenty-two S. S. E. of 
 Bourdeaux. Population 3000, including the 
 suburb village of Le Mas. Long. 0. 12'. W. 
 lat. 43. 42'. N. 
 
 AIRE, or ARIEN, a town of France, in the 
 county of Artois ; the head of a canton in the de- 
 partment of the Pas de Calais, arrondissement of 
 St. Omer. It is situated on the Lys, thirteen miles 
 from St. Omer, with which it has communication 
 by canal. Long. 2. 29'. E. lat. 50. 38'. N. 
 
 AIRLY, a parish of Scotland, in the county 
 of Angus; containing 1070 inhabitants. It is 
 situated partly in the vale of Strathmore, and 
 partly on the Grampian hills. AIRLY CASTLE, 
 the residence of the earl of Airly, is a fine modern 
 structure, erected on the ruins of an ancient 
 castle of the same name. The castle of Balrie is 
 another ruin of considerable extent, in the same 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 AIRVAUX, or AIRVAULT, a town of France, 
 in the province of Poitou, included in the mo- 
 dern department of the Deux Sevres. . It con- 
 tains 440 houses and 2070 inhabitants ; and is 
 fourteen leagues N. E. of Niort. 
 
 AISEAU, a marqvusate, with a village of the 
 
 same name, in the kingdom of the Netherlands 
 three miles E. S. E. of Chatelet. 
 
 AISLE', n. Latin, ala; fr.aile; a wing; 
 the walks in a church, or wings in the choir of 
 a cathedral. 
 
 The abbey is by no means so magnificent as one 
 would expect from its endowments. The church is 
 one huge nef, with a double aisle to it ; and at each 
 end is a large quire. Additon. 
 
 Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 
 If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, 
 Where through the long drawn aisle and fretted vault, 
 The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 
 
 Gray's Elegy. 
 
 AISLINGEN, formerly a free county of the 
 empire, belonging to the bishopric of Augsburgh, 
 now included in the kingdom of Bavaria, circle 
 of the Upper Danube. A market town of the 
 same name lies about four miles south of Dil- 
 lingen, has a castle, a baihvick, and 1170 in- 
 habitants. 
 
 AISNE, or AINE, a considerable river of 
 France, which, after a course of forty leagues, 
 unites itself with the Oise, a little above Cham- 
 paigne. It becomes navigable near Chateau- 
 Porcien, in the department of the Ardennes ; and 
 attempts have been made to connect it with the 
 Maese by means of canals ; but as yet without 
 success. 
 
 AISNE, a department of France, consisting of 
 portions of the ancient Compeigne, Isle of France 
 and Picardy. It derives its name from the above 
 river; and is said to contain 432,239 inhabitants. 
 It is a grain district of considerable importance. 
 AlSTULFUS, the last king but one of the 
 Lombards in Italy, succeeded his brother Ra- 
 chisuis, A. D. 748, had divers unsuccessful wars 
 with Pepin, king of France, and ended a short 
 and inglorious reign, A. D. 753, by breaking his 
 neck at a hunting match. 
 
 AJUGA, BUGLE ; in botany, a genus of the 
 gymnospermia order, belonging to the didynamia 
 class of plants ; and in the natural method rank- 
 ing under the 42d order, asperifoliae. The cha- 
 racters are : CAL. a one-leaved short perianthium, 
 cut half-way into five clefts, with the segments 
 nearly equal : COR. is monopetalous and rin- 
 gent ; tube cylindric and bent in ; the upper lip 
 very small, erect, bifid, obtuse ; the lower, large, 
 spreading, trifid, obtuse ; middle division, very 
 large and obcordate, side ones small : STAM. 
 subulate, erect filaments, longer than the upper 
 lip, anthers twin : PIST. a four-parted germ, style 
 filiform, and with respect to situation and length 
 as in the stamina; stigmas two, slender, the 
 lowest shorter ; no pericarpium ; the calyx which 
 is converging, fosters the seeds, which are some- 
 what oblong. There are six species, viz. first, 
 A. orientalis, or eastern bugle ; second, ajuga 
 Geneversis, a native of Switzerland ; third, ajuga 
 pyramidalis ; fourth, ajuga acpina, or mountain 
 bugle; fifth, ajuga decumbens, the Japanese 
 bugle ; sixth, ajuga reptens, or common bugle. 
 
 AJURU-CATINGA, in ornithology, the 
 Guiana red-billed parrot, a variety of the psit- 
 tacus rufirostris, the psittaca aquarum Lupiarum 
 insulse of Brisson, and the Guiana green parrot 
 of Bancroft, and of Latham ; has the bill, legs,
 
 AJU 
 
 416 
 
 AIT 
 
 feet and claws of a whitish-red colour, and the 
 orbits ash-coloured. It inhabits South America ; 
 and is about the size of a thrush ; the irides have 
 two coloured circles, of which the outer one is 
 reddish, and the inner ash-coloured. 
 
 AJURU-PARA, a species of Brasilian parrot 
 of a small size ; of a beautiful green, and with 
 white legs, a white beak, and white skinny cir- 
 cles round its eyes. 
 
 AJURU PARROT, or PSITTACUS ^Esnvus, 
 in ornithology, the ajuru-curau of Marcgrave, 
 the aourou-couraou of Buffon, the middle-sized 
 parrot of Willughby, and the common Amazons 
 parrot of Latham, is of a green colour, slightly 
 spotted with yellow ; with a blue front, blood- 
 red shoulders, and flesh-coloured orbits. It is 
 twelve inches long, and its body about the size of 
 a pigeon : the back has a number of tawny yel- 
 low feathers, interspersed over its green plumage. 
 The face is yellow, with a blue forehead and 
 white crown; the tail-quills are green with 
 paler tips : the first, second, and third on each 
 side are red on their inner webs near the base ; 
 the outer web of the first being blue ; the 
 shoulders are either tawny or blood-red ; the pri- 
 mary wing-quills are black, with bluish tips, the 
 outer webs being green, and the inner black ; the 
 first four or five of the secondaries have their 
 outer webs red near the base ; the bill is black 
 at the tip. This inhabits Amazonia, Guiana, 
 and Brasil ; and has several varieties, to the four 
 first of which the above description is applica- 
 ble : e. g. first, the ajuru of Jamaica ; this is the 
 psittacus viridis melanorinchos of Aldrovand, 
 the black-billed green parrot of Willughby, and 
 the Jamaica parrot of Brown and Latham : 
 second, the; main ajuru parrot, with the lesser 
 wing coverts red ; the crown yellow, the cheeks 
 and chin paler, the- forehead blue, the under 
 half of the five middle wing-quills, and the in- 
 ner webs, at the base of four tail-quills on each 
 side red ; a variety which inhabits Guiana and 
 Amazonia: third, Brasilian ajuru parrot, with 
 cap blue, variegated with black, a yellow spot 
 on the crown, and one on each side below the 
 eyes, and a blue chin. This is the ps. Brasil. 
 cyanocephalos of Brisson, the ajuru-curuca of 
 Marcgrave, Ray, and Willughby, and the blue- 
 topped parrot of Latham. The primary wing- 
 quills, according to Mr. Latham, are variegated 
 with yellow, red, and violet-blue. It inhabits 
 Brasil : fourth, varied ajuru parrot, with the 
 crown, cheeks, and chin yellow, and the front 
 blue. The crown is varied with blue, the scrag 
 and upper part of the back with yellow, and the 
 bill is ash-coloured. This is the ajuru curau 
 secundus of Marcgrave and Ray, and the West 
 India green parrot of Edwards and Latham : 
 fifth, Amazonian ajuru parrot, pale green, with a 
 pale yellow front and tawny temples. This is 
 the ps. arnazonicus of Gmelin, and the Brasilian 
 yellow-fronted parrot of Latham. It inhabits 
 Brasil and Amazonia, and is almost twice the 
 size of those above-mentioned : sixth, great ajuru 
 parrot, green, with a blue forehead, the crown, 
 cheeks, and chin, and middle of the belly yellow. 
 It is nearly as large as the former, and inhabits 
 Brasil: seventh,yellow-necked ajuru parrot, green, 
 
 with yellow head and neck, and red shoulders, 
 of the size of the former, and like it, the wing- 
 quills are marked with a red spot, and the la- 
 teral tail-quills are red at the base : eighth, 
 counterfeit ajuru parrot, green, variegated with. 
 yellow, having a blue forehead and red shoulders. 
 It inhabits Brasil. Gmelin s Linn. torn. i. p. 340. 
 Kerr's Linn. p. 598. Buffun's Birds, &c. 
 
 AITON, (William) in biography, an eminent 
 botanist and gardener, was born in 1731, at a 
 small village near Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, in 
 Scotland. Having been accustomed from his 
 youth to the science and practice of horticulture, 
 he came into England in 1754, and was engaged 
 as an asistant by Mr. Philip Miller, well known 
 as the author of the Gardener's Dictionary, and 
 then superintendent of the physic-garden at 
 Chelsea. In this situation he soon attracted 
 notice, and in 1759 was recommended to the 
 princess dowager of Wales, as a fit person to 
 manage the botanical garden at Kew. In this 
 office to which he was then appointed he con- 
 tinued during life ; and here he laid the founda- 
 tion both of his fame and fortune. As the garden 
 at Kew was destined to be the repository of all 
 the curious plants that could be collected from 
 the various quarters of the globe, Mr. Aiton had 
 the most favourable opportunity for indulging 
 his taste, and employing his care and skill in 
 their cultivation ; and in so doing he acquired 
 distinguished reputation amongst the lovers of 
 this science, and the particular esteem of his 
 royal patrons. Under his superintendence, Kew 
 gardens became the principal scene of botanical 
 culture in the kingdom. In 1783 Mr. Aiton was 
 promoted to the more lucrative office of managing 
 the pleasure and kitchen gardens at Kew, which 
 he was allowed to retain in connection with the 
 botanical department which he had before occu- 
 pied. In 1789 he published his Hortus Kew- 
 ensis, or Catalogue of the Plants cultivated in 
 the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew, in three 
 vols. 8vo. with thirteen plates ; a work which 
 had been the labour of many years, and which 
 justly entitles him to respectful commemoration 
 among the promoters of science. The number 
 of species, contained in this catalogue, is between 
 five and six thousand. A new and curious 
 article in it relates to the first introduction of 
 particular exotics into tn'e English gardens. 
 The system of arrangement is that of Linnsus, 
 with such improvements as the advanced state 
 of botanical science required. To Sir Joseph 
 Banks, Dr. Solander, and Mr. Dryander, Mr. 
 Aiton respectfully acknowledges his obligations 
 for assistance in compiling this celebrated work. 
 The Hortus Kewensis, was much valued by 
 the best judges, and a large impression of it 
 found a rapid sale. Notwithstanding the tem- 
 perance and activity of Mr. Aiton, he laboured 
 under the incurable malady of a scirrhous liver, 
 which occasioned his death in 1793, in his sixty- 
 second year. His eldest son, devoted to the 
 same pursuits, and distinguished by his talents, 
 was appointed by the king's own nomination, 
 to all his father's employments. The private cha- 
 racter of Mr. Aiton was highly estimable for 
 mildness, benevolence, piety, and every domestic
 
 AIX 
 
 417 
 
 AIX 
 
 and social virtue. He was interred in the church- 
 yard of Kew, amidst a most respectable con- 
 course of friends. Gen. liiog. 
 
 A1TONIA, in botany, so called from Mr. W. 
 Aiton, his majesty's late gardener at Kew, a genus 
 of the monadelphia octandria class and order, and 
 of the natural order of columnifenE. Its characters 
 are : CAL. a one-leafed, erect, four-parted, short, 
 perianthium, divided into four ovate, sharp, seg- 
 ments : COR. four erect, equal, broadly-ovate, con- 
 cave, very obtuse petals : STAM. have filaments, 
 joined as far as the middle, divided above into 
 eight, awl-shaped, furrowed, standing out of the 
 corolla, and having ovate, furrowed anthers : PIST. 
 a germ, superior, ovate, smooth, and subangular ; 
 style one, filiform, of the same length with the 
 stamina; stigma obtuse, undivided: PERICARP. 
 an ovate, dry, membranaceous, four-cornered, 
 one-celled, brittle berry, the corners are produced 
 and sharp ; the seeds many, fixed to a column, 
 globular and smooth. It varies with five-cleft, 
 ten-stamined flowers. There is one species, viz. 
 A. Capensis, found at the Cape by Thunberg, 
 and introduced here in 1774 by Mr. F. Masson. 
 
 AITZEMA, (Leo) a celebrated historian of 
 Friesland, born A. D. 1600. and author of a His- 
 tory of tha United Provinces, in fifteen volumes 
 quarto, and seven folio. As a large collection 
 of authentic pieces, this work is extremely valu- 
 able. JVoMu. Diet. Hist. 
 
 AIUS LOCUTIUS, i. e. a speaking voice, one 
 of the Dii minores, to whom the Romans erected 
 an altar. The following incident occasioned the 
 Romans to erect an altar to this ideal Deity. 
 M. Seditius, a plebeian, acquainted the tribunes, 
 that, in walking the streets by night, he had 
 heard a voice over the temple of Vesta, giving 
 the Romans notice that the Gauls were coming 
 against them. This intimation was, however, 
 neglected ; but after the truth was confirmed by . 
 the event, Camillus supposed this voice to be a 
 new deity, and erected an altar to it under the 
 name of Aius Locutius. A more rational sup- 
 position might have been, that the goddess Vesta 
 herself had given them the warning ; but in this 
 absurd manner did the heathens multiply their 
 gods and their superstitions without end. Cicero 
 de Diviu. i. 45. 
 
 AJUTAGE, or ADJUTAGE, from ajouter, to adapt, 
 in hy draulif s, part of the apparatus of an artificial 
 fountain, or jet d' eau ; being a sort of tube, 
 fitted to the mouth, or aperture of the vessel, 
 through which the water is to be played, and by 
 it determined into this or that figure. It is 
 chiefly the diversity in the ajutages, that makes 
 the different kinds of fountains ; and hence, by 
 having several ajutages to be supplied oc- 
 casionally, one fountain comes to have the effect 
 of many. Marriotte enquires into the best kind 
 of ajutages, or spouts, for jets d' eau ; affirming 
 from experiment, that an even polished round 
 hole, in the end of the pipe, gives a higher jet 
 than either a cylindric, or a conical ajutage. See 
 FOUNTAIN and HYDROSTATICS, and Phil. Traits. 
 181. 
 
 AIX, a small island on the coast of France, 
 between the isle of Oleron and the continent. It 
 is 12 miles N.W. of Rochfort, and 12 S.S.W. 
 of Rochelle, now included in the department of 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Charente Inferieure. The English made a descent 
 on it, in 1758, and demolished the fort. Lon"-. 
 1.5.'W. Lat. 46. 45'. N. Inhab. about 15,000. 
 
 AIX, a handsome and ancient city of France, 
 in the department of the Mouths of the Rhone, 
 the capital of the ci-devant province called Pro- 
 vence, and now the chief town of an arrondisse- 
 ment. It is about 89 miles S. by E. of Paris, 
 48 S. E. of Avignon, and 21 N. of Marseilles. 
 It is a well-built city, and is said to resemble 
 Paris more than any other town in France. Ex- 
 cellent wine is produced in its neighbourhood, 
 but its principal trade is in oil, which is un- 
 commonly fine ; and there are also some silks 
 and other stuffs manufactured in it. Their 
 articles of export are wine, brandy, almonds 
 wool, silk, grain, raisins, figs, capers, plums, 
 olives, nuts, fish, vermicelli, linen, and hardware. 
 The city is populous, and is seated in a large 
 plain, chiefly planted with olive trees ; and is 
 embellished with abundance of fine fountains, 
 and several beautiful squares. The place des 
 preacheurs is on the side of a hill ; it is about 
 150 yards in length and breadth; and is sur- 
 rounded with trees, and houses built with stone 
 three stories high. The town hall is at one end 
 of the city, and is distributed into several fine 
 apartments. The hotel de ville is a handsome 
 building, but hid by the houses of the narrow 
 street in which it is placed . The cathedral church 
 is a gothic structure, and contains several ancient 
 monuments. The cours, in the orbitelle quarter, 
 is a magnificent walk, above 300 yards long, 
 formed by a triple avenue of elms, and two rows 
 of regular and stately houses ; and ornamented 
 in the centre by several fountains. The churches 
 in general are handsome buildings. In one of 
 them, was formerly a silver statue of the Virgin 
 Mary, almost as large as life. The baths without 
 the city, which has eight gates, were discovered 
 in 1704, and have good buildings, raised at a 
 vast expense, for the accommodation of those 
 who drink the waters. As well as a college of 
 Jesuits and other seminaries, there was here a 
 famous university, founded in 1409 by Pope 
 Alexander V. The College de Bourbon was 
 intended as a superintending court over the uni- 
 versity. Both institutions were dissolved at the 
 revolution, and replaced by a Lycee. 
 
 Although Aix was the first Roman settlement 
 in Gaul, it is not remarkable for Roman antiqui- 
 ties. The warm springs, for which it is now 
 known and frequented, induced Sextus Calvinus 
 to found a colony here, to which he gave the 
 name of Aquae Sextiae, which, in correct maps 
 of the west empire, occupies a conspicuous 
 place on the shores of the Mediterranean. But 
 Aix is indebted for its greatest improvements to 
 Louis XIV. The baths are supposed to possess 
 particular virtues in cases of debility ; and seve- 
 ral altars have been dug up sacred to Priapus, 
 the inscriptions on which indicate the gratitude 
 of its ancient inhabitants to that deity. Long. 
 5. 31'. E. Lat. 43. 32'. N. Population about 
 27,000. 
 
 Aix, an ancient town of France, in the c 
 partment of Mont Blanc, in the ci-devant duchy 
 of Savoy, eleven miles north of Chamberry. 
 is seated on the lake Bourget, at the foot of a 
 
 2 E
 
 418 
 
 AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 
 
 mountain, between Chamberry, Annecy, and 
 Rumilly. There is here a triumphal arch of the 
 ancient Romans, but it is almost entirely mined. 
 The mineral waters bring a great number of 
 strangers to this place. It was originally called 
 Aquae Gratianae, from the hot baths built there by 
 the emperor Gratian. Long. 5. 48.' E. Lat. 
 45. 40.' N. Population 1600. 
 
 AIX-LA-CHAPELI.E, a large and handsome city 
 of Germany, once included in the circle of West- 
 phalia and duchy of Juliers, now in the grand 
 duchy of the Lower Rhine. It is situated 17 
 miles N. of Limburgh, 22 N. E. of Leige, 21 
 from Spa, and 40 W. of Cologne. It has a 
 castle, built upon a hill, from which may be 
 seen sixty different towns, the ocean, and even 
 England, in a clear day. The town is seated in 
 the valley, and is surrounded with woods and 
 mountains, notwithstanding which the climate is 
 good. It was a free imperial town for ages, and 
 all authors agree about its antiquity ; it being 
 mentioned in Csesar's Commentaries, and the 
 Annals of Tacitus. The Romans had colonies 
 and fortresses in it, when they were at war with 
 the Germans ; but the mineral waters and the 
 hot baths so increased its fame, that, in process 
 of time, it was advanced to the privileges of a 
 city, by the name of Aquasgranii, that is, the 
 waters of Granius. That of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 was given it by the French, on account of a 
 chapel built in honour of the Virgin Mary, by 
 Charlemagne ; who, having repaired, beautified, 
 and enlarged the city, which had been destroyed 
 by the Huns in 451, made it the usual place of 
 his residence. He lies interred in the church of 
 Notre Dame, where were long kept his sword, 
 his belt, and the four evanglists written in letters 
 of gold, and used at the coronation of the emperors : 
 but the emperor of Austria is said to have trans- 
 ferred the three principal appendages of the 
 chapel to Vienna; i.e. the gospels, Charlemagne's 
 sword, and the shrine above mentioned, as in- 
 dispensably necessary to the future coronation 
 of the emperors. The last crowned here was 
 Ferdinand I. in 1531, since which time the cere- 
 mony has taken place at Frankfort on the Maine. 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, however, retains the greater 
 number of the privileges conferred on it by 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 The town may be divided into the inward and 
 outward city. The inward is about three quar- 
 ters of a league in circumference ; and the out- 
 ward wall, in which there were eleven gates, is 
 about a league and a half in circumference. 
 There are rivulets which run through the town and 
 keep it very clean,besides various pwblic fountains, 
 and many private ones. They have stone quar- 
 ries in the neighbourhood, which furnish the 
 inhabitants with proper materials for their mag- 
 nificent buildings, of which the stadt-house, and 
 the cathedral are the chief. There are likewise 
 thirty parochial churches, and numerous con- 
 vents ; but the greater part have been suppressed. 
 The market place is very spacious, and the 
 houses round it stately. Aix-la-Chapelle con- 
 tained, in 1807, 3080 houses, and 27,164 inhabi- 
 tants. Its manufactures of broad-cloth from 
 Spanish wootare utill famous, and occupy thirty- 
 four flourishing stablishrnents. Here are also 
 
 copper and brass works of some celebrity. Its 
 revenues, including, among other things, the tax 
 or licence paid by lottery agents, may amount to 
 70,000 rix-dollars, or l 2,000 sterling. Part 
 of this arises from the adjacent lands, which are 
 productive of iron and coal. 
 
 This place is famous for several councils and 
 treaties of peace concluded in it ; particularly 
 those between France and Spain in 1668, and 
 between Great Britain and France in 1748. 
 In the year 1792, it was taken by the revolutionary 
 forces of France; was retaken in 1793, and 
 finally again seized by the French, under the 
 command of general Jourdan, in 1794, who de- 
 feated Clairfait, near Juliers, and made the 
 French masters of Cologne and Bona. Until 
 the fall of Napoleon it continued to form a part 
 of the French empire, being the capital of the 
 department of the Roe'r, and head of the arron- 
 dissement. It was ceded to Prussia by the 
 treaty of Vienna. During this period, the bishop 
 and clergy of Aix-la-Chapelle, testified their 
 gratitude to the ci-devant emperor, (then first 
 consul) as the restorer of the Gallican church, 
 by an elegant column in the area to the principal 
 entrance of the cathedral, bearing in the inscrip- 
 tion, Heroi Bonaparte Reipublicae Gallicre Primo 
 Consuli, Episcopus Clerusque Aquisgranus 
 Posuerunt, and recording the triumphs of France. 
 The Cossacks, when here, overturned it to get at 
 the coins which were deposited beneath ; but the 
 king of Prussia restored it, only altering some 
 parts of the inscription dishonourable to his 
 country. 
 
 The hot sulphureous waters, for which this 
 place has so long been celebrated, arise from 
 several sources, which supply baths constructed 
 in different parts of the town. The waters near 
 the sources are clear and pellucid ; and have a 
 strong sulphureous smell, resembling the washing 
 of a foul gun ; but they lose this smell by ex- 
 posure to air. Their taste is saline, bitter, and 
 urinous. They do not contain iron. They are 
 also neutral near the fountain ; but afterwards 
 are manifestly and pretty strongly alkaline, 
 insomuch that clothes are washed with them 
 without soap. The heat of the water of the 
 hottest spring, by Dr. Lucas's account, raises the 
 quick-silver of Fahrenheit's thermometer to 136, 
 by Mons. Monet's account, to 146; and the 
 heat of the fountain, where they commonly drink, 
 by Dr. Lucas's account, to 112. Dr. Simmons 
 has given the following account of their several 
 temperatures, as repeatedly observed by himself, 
 with a thermometer constructed by Nairne. 
 The spring which supplies what is called the 
 
 Emperor's Bath, the New Bath, and the Queen 
 
 of Hungary's Bath, 127. 
 
 St. Quirin's Bath, 112. 
 
 The Rose Bath, and the Poor's Bath, both 
 
 supplied by the same spring, . . . 112. 
 Charles's Bath, and St. Corneille's Bath, 112. 
 The spring used for drinking is in the 
 
 High Street, opposite to Charles's 
 
 Bath ; the heat of it at the pump is . 106. 
 Dr. Lucas evaporated the water of the hottest 
 spring, the Emperor's Bath,- and obtained 268 
 grains of solid matter from a gallon, composed 
 of fifteen grains of calcareous earth, ten grains of
 
 AIX 
 
 419 
 
 AKB 
 
 selenites, and 243 grains of a snlina matter made 
 up of natron and sea salt. They are at first 
 nauseous and harsh, but by habit become familiar 
 and agreeable. At first drinking, also, tSiey 
 generally affect the head. A chemical analysis 
 of this water discovers its gaseous contents to be 
 a small portion of carbonic acid, and much sul- 
 phurated hydrogen gas, highly supersaturated, 
 and of great volatility and pungency. The sul- 
 phur is sublimed, in a cistern, in a solid form, 
 adhering to the upper stone, in the form of a 
 fine powder ; which is gathered, as it accumulates 
 from time to time, and sold in the shops as Aix 
 sulphur. That which is still retained in the 
 water, becomes volatilized by evaporation ; for 
 when the water is exhausted by boiling, no par- 
 ticles remain in the residuum. A quantity of 
 uncombined soda, is among the most important 
 articles of its solid contents. There is also a 
 minute portion of common salt and carbonated 
 lime ; but it does not appear that there are any 
 purely metallic properties belonging to these 
 waters. According to Bergman's analysis, an 
 English pint, wine measure, is found to contain 
 four grains and three quarters of carbonated 
 lime, five grains of common salt, and twelve of 
 carbonateld soda. The quantity to be drank, as 
 an alterative, is to be varied according to the 
 constitution and other circumstances of the 
 patient. In general, it is best to begin with a 
 quarter or half a pint in the morning, and in- 
 crease the dose afterwards to pints, as may be 
 found convenient. The water is best drank at 
 the fountain. When it is required to purge, it 
 should be drank in large and often repeated 
 draughts. In regard to bathing, this also must ' 
 be determined by the age, sex, strength, &c. of 
 the patient, and by the season. The degree of 
 heat of the bath should likewise be considered. 
 The tepid ones are in general the best, though 
 there are some cases in which the hotter ones are 
 most proper. But even in these, it is best to 
 begin with the temperate baths, and increase the 
 heat gradually. These waters are efficacious in 
 diseases proceeding from indigestion, and from 
 foulness of the stomach and bowels. In rheu- 
 matisms ; in the scurvy, scrofula, and diseases 
 of the skin; in hysteric and hypochondriacal 
 disorders ; in nervous complaints, and melan- 
 choly ; in the stone and gravel ; in paralytic com- 
 plaints ; in those evils which follow an injudicious 
 use of mercury ; and in many other cases. They 
 ought not, however, to be given in hectic cases 
 where there is heat and fever, in putrid disorders, 
 or where the blood is dissolved, or the constitu- 
 tion much broken down. The time of drinking, 
 in the first season, is from the beginning of May 
 to the middle of June ; and in the latter season, 
 from the middle of August to the latter end of 
 September. There are galleries or piazzas, 
 under which the company walk during the time 
 of drinking, in order to promote the operation of 
 the waters. The Poor's Bath, (Campus-bud) is 
 free for every body, and is frequented by crowds 
 of poor people. It is scarcely necessary to add, 
 that there are all kinds of amusements common 
 to other places of public resort ; -but the sharpers 
 appear more splendid here than elsewhere, as- 
 suming titles, oquij.:;g'-s, See. 
 
 AIZET-LE-DUC, a town and barony of 
 France, in Burgundy, department of Cote d'Or, 
 nine leagues N. W. of Dijon. 
 
 AIZOON, in botany, called by Mr. Miller 
 sempervive, though the name Aizoon has been 
 by some writers applied to the house-leek, 
 and also to the aloes : a genus of the penta- 
 gynia order, belonging to the icosandria class 
 of plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
 under the thirteenth order, succulentEe. The 
 characters are : CAL. a single leaved perian- 
 thium, divided into five segments, and persis- 
 tent: there is no corolla : ST AM. very numerous 
 capillary filaments ; the anthera simple : PIST. 
 a five-cornered germen above, with five simple 
 styli ; and the stigmata simple : The pericar- 
 pium is a bellied, retuse, five-cornered capsule, 
 having five cells and five valves : The seeds are 
 many and globular. Linnseus mentions three 
 species, viz. 1. Aizoon Canariense, a native of 
 the Canary islands. 2. Aizoon Hispanicum, a 
 native of Spain ; and, 3. Aizoon Paniculatum, 
 a native of the Cape of Good Hope. They may 
 all be raised in this country in hot beds ; but 
 are not remarkable for their beauty. 
 
 AKANIMINA, a town on the coast of Guinea, 
 near cape Apollonia, about three-fourths of a 
 league from the shore. The anchorage is good ; 
 and gold dust and ivory are procured here. 
 
 AKAS AK A, a town on the south coast of the 
 island of Niphon, belonging to Japan, the houses 
 of which were remarked by Kaempfer to be 
 larger than those of any other place, even Jeddo 
 the capital. It also contains some elegant 
 inns, and is 100 miles E. of Meaco, 140 W. S. W. 
 of Jeddo. 
 
 AKASI, an open town on the south coast of 
 the above island, intersected by a broad and 
 deep river, having a fortress where the governor 
 resides. 
 
 AKBAH, a celebrated Saracen conqueror, 
 who overran the whole of Africa, from Cairo to 
 the Atlantic Ocean. At the head of ten thou- 
 sand of the bravest Arabs, he marched from 
 Damascus, and gradually increased his army by 
 numbers of the barbarians, whom he had con- 
 quered and converted. Amid the fictions of 
 oriental writers, it is not easy to follow Akbah 
 through the line of his victories. We know 
 merely that he penetrated with dauntless intre- 
 pidity the very heart of the country ; and after 
 traversing the wilderness, where his successors 
 erected the capitals of Fez and Morocco, carried 
 his arms to the Western Ocean. Distressed 
 at this limitation which nature had set to his 
 brilliant career, he is said to have spurred his 
 horse into the ocean, and exclaimed, ' Great 
 God ! if my course were not terminated by this 
 sea, I would still advance to the unknown re- 
 gions of the West, preaching the unity of thy 
 holy name, and putting to the sword the rebel- 
 lious nations that worship any other God than 
 thee.' A general revolt among the Greeks and 
 Africans recalled him from the West, and proved 
 the means of his destruction. The insurgents 
 trusted to the revenge of an ambitious chief, 
 who had disputed the command, and having 
 failed in his designs was led about as a prisoner 
 in the camp of Akbah. He revealed their de- 
 2 E 2
 
 420 
 
 AKBAR. 
 
 sign, however, to the Arabian general, who, 
 under the impulse of gratitude, loosened his 
 fetters, and gave him leave to retire. The ge- 
 nerous chief chose rather to die with his be- 
 nefactor, and having embraced each other as 
 fellow martyrs, and broken to pieces their scab- 
 bards, they fell by each other's side, after aglorious 
 conflict with the insurgents. Akbah, proposed 
 to establish an Arabian colony in the interior of 
 Africa, in order to check the barbarians and 
 secure a place of refuge to the families of the 
 Saracens. He accordingly founded Cairoan, 
 under the title of a Caravan Station, in the 
 fiftieth year of the Hegira. He encompassed an 
 area 12,000 paces in diameter with a brick wall, 
 and in five years the palace of the governor was 
 encircled with a number of private dwellings; 
 and a splendid mosch was erected upon five 
 hundred columns of granite, porphyry, and Nu- 
 midian marble. See Qckley's Hist, of the Sa- 
 racens, vol. ii. Leo Africanus, fol. 75. Shaw's 
 Travels. Marmol. Description de V Afrigue, 
 torn. iii. &c. 
 
 AKBAR, or AKBER, sultan, in biography and 
 history, the sixth of the descendants of Timur Bek 
 or Tamerlane, who reigned in Hindostan under 
 the appellation of Moguls, was born in 1542, 
 and succeeded his father Hemaiun in 1556. He 
 was proclaimed emperor at Calanor, in the pro- 
 vince of I/ahor, and assumed the title of Jilal 
 D'din, q. d. the aggrandizer of religion. Having 
 overthrown the Patans and taken possession of 
 Delhi, he was inaugurated in the city, and as- 
 sumed the government which had at first been ad- 
 ministered by his tutor, Bey ram Khan. He then, 
 madehimself masterof the strong fortress of Chitor, 
 after a severe engagement with a rebel chief, and 
 quelled other insurrections ; and having obtained 
 an interval of tranquillity, he made a pilgrimage, 
 barefoot to Azrnir, at the distance of 200 miles ; 
 for the purpose of visiting the tomb of HajiMondi, 
 and of obtaining children by the intercession of 
 this saint. During his abode at Fettipur, on his 
 return, he was informed of a rebellion at Guzerat, 
 which hastened his march to this province ; and 
 having subdued the rebels, reduced the castle of 
 Surat, and secured the province by fortifying Ah- 
 med-abad, he returned to Hindostan. In this 
 year he finished the castle of Agra, at an expense 
 of two miHions, five hundred thousand rupees, 
 laid out a million and a half on the walls and 
 palace of .Fettipur, and began to erect sumptuous 
 sepulchres of his family at Schander, five miles 
 from Agra. At this time he directed his views 
 to the conquest of Bengal, and having, after a 
 long siege, taken possession of Patan, he became 
 master of the whole country. His next acquisi- 
 tions were Kabul, Kandahar, Kashmir and Sindi. 
 Having united these countries to his empire, he 
 employed a powerful army in the invasion of 
 Dekan, which, notwithstanding vigorous re- 
 sistance on the part of the queen of this country, 
 subdued several provinces and annexed them to 
 the Mogul empire. Whilst Akbar was engaged 
 in the prosecution of the Dekan war, his pros- 
 perity was interrupted by a concurrence of do- 
 mestic misfortunes. He was deprived of two of 
 iis sons, viz. Sultan Morad, in 1598, and Sultan 
 Danul, in 1604, by intemperance; and his son 
 
 Selim took the advantage of his absence, for 
 seizing his treasures and marching a numerous 
 army towards Agra, in order to take possession 
 of his father's throne. Akbar, as soon as he re- 
 ceived intelligence of his son's rebellion, hastened 
 back to Agra, and having made ineffectual over- 
 tures of accommodation, in enforcing which, his 
 vizir Abul Fazl lost his life, he resolved to turn 
 his arms against Selim. But as he had lost his 
 other sons, he once more attempted to persuade 
 his son into submission. With this view he em- 
 ployed the tutor of Selim to convey letters to him, 
 in which he reproached him for his rebellion : 
 but at the same time declared, that, as he was 
 his only son and heir, he was ready to receive 
 him to favour. The father's letters and the tutor's 
 arguments produced effect; Selim returned to 
 Agra and submitted. Akbar at first treated him 
 with austerity, but at length pardoned him, 
 though he still retained suspicions of his son's 
 fidelity. The emperor did not long survive this 
 reconciliation. Being incensed against a mirza, 
 who governed one of his provinces, he resolved 
 to remove him by poison ; and for this purpose 
 ordered two pills of opium, in one of which 
 there was poison. Having held these in his 
 hand for some time, he gave one to Mirza, and 
 by mistake took the poisoned one himself. The 
 consequence, notwithstanding the use of reme- 
 dies as soon as the mistake was discovered, was 
 fatal. When Selim paid his dying father a visit, 
 he put his own turban on this prince's head, 
 and girt him with his father Hemaiun's sword ; 
 but on the twelfth day after he had taken the 
 poison, Akbar died, A. D. 1605, at the age of 
 sixty-three years, and was buried in the family 
 sepulchre near Agra. Akbar was distinguished 
 by his conquests, and by his success in reducing 
 almost the whole of India to obedience. He was 
 also one of the few sovereigns entitled to the 
 appellation both of great and good, and the 
 only one of the Mahommedan race, whose mind 
 was so far divested of the illiberal prejudices of 
 the fanatical religion in which he was educated, 
 as to be capable of forming a plan worthy of a 
 monarch who loved his people, and was solici- 
 tous to render them happy. Although he was not 
 attached by profession to any form of religion 
 himself, he was not a persecutor of any. In 
 1582 he wrote a letter to the king of Portugal, 
 preserved by Fraser, and containing an avowal 
 of sentiments, liberal and enlightened ; in which 
 he desires that a translation of the Christian 
 scriptures into Arabic or Persian might be sent 
 to him, and at the same time a learned person 
 to explain the Christian religion. One Gerom'mo 
 Xavier was deputed, and with this view learned 
 the Persian language ; but the Gospels, which 
 were translated into this language, and presented 
 to the mogul, 1602, were so intermixed with 
 popish legends, that they were not likely to be 
 very intelligible, or to produce any very good 
 effect. As in every province of his extensive 
 dominions, the Hindoos formed the great body 
 of his subjects, Akbar endeavoured to acquire u 
 perfect knowledge of their religion, their sciences 
 their laws and (heir institutions ; in order that 
 he might conduct every part of his goverment, 
 particularly the administration of justice, in a
 
 A K E N b 1 D . 
 
 421 
 
 manner as much accommodated as possible to 
 their own ideas. In these generous views he 
 was seconded by Abul Fazl, a minister whose 
 understanding was not less enlightened than that 
 of his master By their assiduous researches, 
 and the consultations of learned men, such infor- 
 mation was obtained as enabled this vizir to 
 publish a brief compendium of Hindoo juris- 
 prudence in the Ayeen Akbery, which may be 
 considered as the first genuine communication 
 of its principles to persons of a different religion. 
 In what estimation the mild government of Ak- 
 bar was held by the Hindoos we may learn 
 from a beautiful letter of Jesswant Sing, Rajah 
 of Joudpore, to Aurengzebe, his fanatical and 
 persecuting successor. ' Your royal ancestor, 
 Akbar, whose throne is now in heaven, con- 
 ducted the affairs of this empire in equity and 
 firm security for the space of fifty-two years, 
 preserving every tribe of men in ease and 
 happiness. Whether they were followers of 
 Jesus, or of Moses, of David, or of Mahomet ; 
 were they Brahmins, were they of the sect of 
 Dharians, which denies the eternity of matter, 
 or of that which ascribes the existence of the 
 world to chance ; they all equally enjoyed his 
 countenance and favour; insomuch that his 
 people, in gratitude for the indiscriminate pro- 
 tection which he afforded them, distinguished him 
 by the appellation of Juggot Grow, guardian of 
 mankind. If your majesty places any faith in 
 those books, by distinction called divine, you 
 will there be instructed, that God is the God of 
 all mankind, not the God of Mahommedans 
 alone. The Pagan and the Mussulman are 
 equally in his presence. Distinctions of colours 
 are of his ordination. It is he who gives existence. 
 In your temples, to His name the voice is raised 
 in prayer; in. a house of images, where the bell 
 is shaken, still He is the object of adoration. 
 To vilify the religion and customs of other men, 
 is to set at naught the pleasure of the Almighty. 
 When we deface a picture, we naturally incur the 
 resentment of the painter ; and justly has the poet 
 said, ' presume not to arraign or to scrutinize 
 the various works of Power divine.' For this 
 valuable communication, we are indebted to Mr. 
 Orme. Fragment, notes, p. 97. Fraser's Hist. 
 JNWir Shah. p. 1112. Mod. Un. Hist. vol. 
 v. p. 365 375. Robertson's Hist. Disquisition 
 concerning India, p. 424. 
 
 AKENSIDE, (Dr. Mark,) was born 9th of 
 November, 1721, at Newcastle. His father, a 
 butcher, of the same name, belonging to the Pres- 
 byterian denomination, had his son Mark taught 
 the rudiments of education in his native town ; 
 after which he was sent to the university of Edin- 
 burgh, preparatory to his filling the office of dis- 
 senting minister, assisted by a fund generally 
 provided to encourage young men of that de- 
 scription. While at the university he altered 
 his views and applied himself to the study of 
 medicine, replacing the money which he had 
 received from the fund. In 1741, he went 
 to the university of Leyden, and three years 
 afterwards took his degree. Here he pro- 
 duced his treatise on the growth of the human 
 icjttus. in which he is said to have departed with 
 
 great judgment from the opinion then entertained, 
 and to have adopted that which has been since 
 established. 
 
 As a poet, he was one of those who displayed 
 great precocity of invention, and felt very early 
 the motions of genius; he, therefore, had his 
 memory well stored with sentiments and images. 
 His chief work, The Pleasures of Imagination, 
 appeared in 1774 ; on which occasion, Dodsley, 
 by whom it was published, relates, that when 
 the copy was offered him for 120, he felt re- 
 luctant to make the purchase ; but resolved to 
 take the opinion of Pope, who very much ad- 
 mired the composition, and advised him to give 
 the money, assuring him that this was no ordinary 
 writer. Akenside having in this poem adopted the 
 sentiment of Shaftsbury, that ridicule is effica- 
 cious for the discovery of truth, Warburton made 
 an attack upon it. The poet nevertheless 
 rose into popularity, and the objectionable 
 passage was expunged. In 1745, he published a 
 collection of odes, which displayed considerable 
 poetic genius, though not equal to his former 
 publication. As a physician, he practised first 
 at Northampton, then at Hampstead, and aftei- 
 wards in London. 
 
 He was enchanted to enthusiasm with the 
 sound of liberty, a great lover of contradiction, 
 and no friend to any thing established. This 
 disposition proved very detrimental to his suc- 
 cess. Mr. Dyson, his fellow student, with 
 whom he had contracted a friendship at Leyden, 
 bought a house at North End, near Hampstead, 
 where he supported him, introduced him to the 
 long-room, and to all the clubs and assemblies 
 of the inhabitants. Here, however, his litigious 
 disposition engaged him in so many disputes, 
 that little could be done at Hampstead. Mr. 
 Dyson afterwards thought of introducing him to 
 London ; and parting with his villa at North 
 End, took a house in Bloomsbury-square, and 
 allowed Akenside 300 per annum. Here, 
 as at Hampstead, he manifested a very high 
 opinion of himself, and haughtiness towards men 
 of inferior endowments. He engaged in political 
 controversy, censured the public councils, and 
 professed the most bigotted notions respecting 
 government. 
 
 In the winter evenings he frequented Tom's 
 coffee-house, in Devereux-court, the resort of 
 the most eminent scholars of the day. With 
 many of these he shortly became entangled in 
 disputes, and altercations, that fixed on his cha- 
 racter the stamp of haughtiness and self-conceit ; 
 so that persons who admired him for his genius 
 and parts preserved a respectful distance. His 
 abilities at last began to recommend him : he 
 became fellow of the Royal Society, obtained a 
 degree at Cambridge, entered the college of phy- 
 sicians, became physician to St. Thomas's hos- 
 pital, and afterwards physician to the queen. 
 He published several medical treatises, which 
 were highly approved, especially one on dysen- 
 teries ; read the Gultonian lectures on anatomy ; 
 and might have reached a greater elevation than he 
 ever anticipated, had not death put an end to all 
 his designs and hopes, on the 23d of June, 1770, 
 in the 49th year of his age. He was buried with
 
 AKI 
 
 422 
 
 AKO 
 
 preat solemnity, in the church of St. James's, 
 Westminster. 
 
 With respect to the character of Akenside, he 
 was a man of religion and virtue; a philosopher, 
 a scholar, and a poet. His conversation was of 
 the most delightful kind, learned, instructive, 
 cheerful, and entertaining. He possessed grea* 
 powers of mind, and his work on the imagi- 
 nation was published before he was 23 years 
 old. He afterwards attempted its revision and 
 correction ; but despairing of being able to effect 
 it to his own satisfaction, he resolved to write it 
 anew ; finished two books, and part of the two 
 succeeding ones. The original was nevertheless 
 thought so excellent, that it has generally been 
 retained with the corrections. His odes have 
 their dark and light parts; and abound with 
 flights of thought, almost superhuman. His 
 Latin discourse on dysenteries, entitles him to 
 the same place among scholars, as his imaginary 
 works among poets. 
 
 AKERMAN, an ancient town of Turkey, in 
 Europe, situated at the mouth of the Dneister, 
 where it falls into the Black Sea. 
 
 AKERSTAFF, an instrument for cleansing the 
 plough-coulter. 
 
 AKHISAR, or WHITE CASTLE, a town of 
 Asiatic Turkey ; so called from its quarries of 
 white marble. It stands on, or very near to, the 
 site of the ancient Thyatira. It is about 40 
 miles S. E. of Pergamos, in a plain, about 18 
 miles in extent, on the banks of the Hennas, and 
 abounding in grain and cotton. The inhabitants, 
 who are about 5000 in number, carry on some 
 trade in opium and Turkey carpets. Lon. 27. 
 49'. E. Lat. 38. 15. N. 
 
 AKIBA, a famous rabbi, flourished a little 
 after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. He 
 kept the flocks of a rich citizen of Jerusalem till 
 the fortieth year of his age, then applied himself 
 to study in the academies for twenty-four years ; 
 and was afterwards one of the greatest masters in 
 Israel, having 24,000 scholars. He declared for 
 the impostor Barcochebas, whom he owned for 
 the Messiah ; and not only anointed him king, 
 but took upon himself the office of his master of 
 the horse. The troops which the emperor Adrian 
 sent against the Jews, who under the conduct of 
 this false Messiah had committed horrid massa- 
 cres, exterminated this faction. Akiba was 
 taken, and put to death with great cruelty. <He 
 .iad lived 120 years; and was buried with his 
 wife in a cave upon a mountain not far from 
 Tiberias : his 24,000 scholars being said to be 
 buried round about him upon the same moun- 
 tain. It is imagined he invented the, sup- 
 posititious work under the name of the patriarch 
 Abraham. 
 
 AKI LA, or ST. COLM'S one of the Hebrides, 
 and lying in W. Lon. 6. 19'. N. Lat. 57. 53'. 
 
 AKIN'. Of kin. SeeKix. 
 
 I do not envy thcc, Pamela ; only I wish, that 
 being thy sister in nature, I were not so far off akin in 
 fortune. Sidney. 
 
 The cankered passion of envy is nothing akin to 
 the silly envy of the ass. L' Estrange' s Falles. 
 
 Some limbs a^ain, in bulk or stature 
 Unlike, and not akin by nature, 
 
 In concert act, like modern friends ; 
 Because onp serves the other's ends. Prior. 
 
 He separates it from questions, with which it may 
 have been complicated ; and distinguishes it from 
 questions which may be akin to it. 
 
 Watis's Improvement of the Mind. 
 
 Their idle sport, 
 
 Who pant with application misapplied 
 To trivial toys, and pushing iv'ry balls 
 Across a velvet level, fee) a joy 
 Akin to rapture, when the bauble finds 
 Its destined goal. Camper's Tank. 
 
 AKISKA, GHALZIG, or TAIK, a fertile and 
 populous province of Asiatic Turkey, is bound- 
 ed by Georgia on the north-east. It contains 
 in the mountainous parts the richest mineral ores ; 
 and the decayed towns scattered throughout the 
 province, indicate that under a more propitious 
 government it has flourished still more than at 
 present. The aborigines are distinguished by 
 uncommonly fine and thick beards. They prac- 
 tise a rude husbandry, and rear bees and the 
 silk-worm. Its capital is 
 
 AKISKA, or AGHALZIGHE, a town on the banks 
 of the Kur, or Cyrus, containing about 400 houses, 
 and defended by a strong and lofty castle. It is 
 a considerable trading place, especially with 
 Battum, a port on the Black sea. The inhabi- 
 tants are of all countries and religions. It is 
 distant 90 miles N.N.W. of Erivan; 100 miles 
 S.W. of Teflis. 
 
 AKKA, a station of Lower Suse, on the fron- 
 tier of the Great Sahara, south of Morocco. It 
 forms the rendezvous of the caravans from all 
 parts of Morocco, whence they proceed across 
 the desert of Tombuctoo. Mr. Jackson estima- 
 ted it to contain, with the neighbourhood, 10,000 
 inhabitants. 
 
 AKLOOSS, a town of the Maharatta territory, 
 in the province of Bejapoor, near Assodnagur. 
 It has a fort and well-supplied bazaar ; is nearly 
 a mile in length, and contains several handsome 
 wells and buildings. The Nera river is a little 
 to the north of the town, and is 100 yards broad 
 in the wet season. 
 
 AKKER, a city of Syria, upon mount Bargy- 
 lus, about twenty-seven miles from Tortosa. 
 Shaw supposes that this is the Kir of the Scrip- 
 tures, (Amos, chap. i. 5, and chap. ix. 7,) and 
 intimates that it must formerly have been as 
 celebrated for its strength and beauty, as it is 
 now for its various kinds of fruits, as apricots, 
 peaches, nectarines, &c. 
 
 AKOND, in Persian polity, a judge of the 
 civil courts, whose especial duty it is to preside 
 over the causes of widows and orphans. He 
 possesses deputies in all parts of the Persian em- 
 pire, and gives directions, or as some say, lectures 
 to all inferior officers. 
 
 AKO USC HY, in zoology, and cavia acuschy, 
 the olive cavy of Pennant, has a short tail ; the 
 upper parts of the body of an olive colour, and 
 the under part whitish. It differs from the agouti 
 in having a tail, which theother wants, or rather in 
 having a longer tail than that of the other ; in being 
 smaller, and in having its hair of an olive, and 
 not a red colour; differences, says Buffon, 
 sufficient to constitute two distinct species. It 
 is about the size of a half-grown rabbit ; is hunted 
 with dogs, easily tamed, and reckoned the
 
 ALA 
 
 423 
 
 ALA 
 
 finest game in South America. It inhabits the 
 woods, and lives on fruits ; has such a dread of 
 water, that it will submit to be seized by the dogs 
 rather than go into it; and it will sometimes, 
 though rarely, cry like the restless cavy. Bujfon, 
 by Smellie, vol. v. p. 61, &c. 
 
 AKSCHINSK, a fortress and village of Rus- 
 sian Tartary, in Dauria, on the right bank of the 
 Onon. It was built by the Russians in the year 
 1756, and forms one of a series, or chain of 
 military posts, on this portion of the Russian 
 frontier. E. Lon. 132. N. Lat. 50. 
 
 AKSIIEHR, a town of Natolia, in Asiatic 
 Turkey, at the foot of a mountain of the same 
 name, from whence copious streams of water 
 constantly descend, forming a rivulet through 
 most of the streets. The neighbourhood abounds 
 in beautiful gardens, rich in almost all the fruits 
 of Europe and Asia. Fine carpets, wool, wax, 
 gum, galls, and tragacanth, are exported hence, 
 particularly to Smyrna. This place was taken 
 by Tamerlane in 1402, and is distant 60 miles 
 S. S. E. from Karahissar. 
 
 AKTUBA, a river of Asiatic Russia, branch- 
 ing from the Volga, about twelve miles above 
 Tzaritzin, and rejoining it again before it falls 
 into the Caspian. The abundance of mulberry 
 trees on its banks has induced the Russian 
 government to establish colonies here, to promote 
 the culture of silk. 
 
 AL, an Arabian particle, answering to the 
 English the, and employed in the same manner 
 to mark any thing distinctly, as Alcoran, from 
 coran, to read; the reading, or book, in distinc- 
 tion from all others. Second, Al, or aid, from 
 the Saxon Ael, old, is affixed to the name of 
 old towns, as Aldborough, Aldford, &c. 
 
 ALA, or AL*, in ancient military affairs, the 
 wings of an army, or the horse on each side 
 flanking the foot; and so called because they 
 stood on the right and left, as the wings on the 
 body of a bird.- They were also according to 
 Vegetius called vexilationes. AuL Gell. 1. 16, 
 c. 4 ; Veget. de Re Mil. 1. 2. c. 1. 
 
 ALA, AUE, or AXILLA, in botany, a wing or 
 membrane on the sides of a petiole or footstalk, 
 or attached to a seed or seed-vessel ; which last 
 is distinguished by the names of monopterygia 
 or alata?, dipterygia or bialatse, tripterygia or 
 trialatse, Sec. according as there is one, two, three, 
 or more wings. Second, the two side petals of 
 a papilionaceous flower. Linn. Phil. Botan. 
 
 ALA, or AL^E, in anatomy, /iaerxXij the arm- 
 pit. Hippocrat. de Art. ; Gorr. Defin. Med. 
 Alae aurium, Trrfpwyw^ara TWV w ra>v, the supe- 
 rior parts of the external ear. Gal. Introd. c. 
 10, &c. Ala, or Alae Nasi, Trrepvyia pivof, the 
 cartilages which are joined to the extremities of 
 the bones of the nose, and form the moveable 
 part. Gal. de Usu. Part. 1. 11. Alae ossis Sphe- 
 noides, the two apophyses of the os sphenoides. 
 Ala, or Alae Pudendi, the same as Nymphse. 
 
 ALABA, a small district of Biscay, in Spain, 
 fertile in rye, barley, and fruits. There are in 
 it very good mines of iron, and it had formerly 
 the title of a kingdom. 
 
 ALABAIIA, a river of East Florida, North 
 America, also the name of a branch of St. Mary's 
 river. 
 
 ALABAMA, an Indian village of North 
 America, on the banks of the Mississippi, where 
 reside the remains of the Alabama nation, W!ID, 
 before they were conquered by the Creeks, in- 
 habited the east side of the great Mobile river. 
 
 ALABAMA, a river of North America, formed 
 by the junction of the two rivers of Georgia, the 
 Coosa, and Tallapoosse. It is a beautiful stream 
 abounding with fish, and having a current run- 
 ning about two miles an hour. It takes a south- 
 westerly direction, until it meets the Tombighee 
 from the north-west. The Alabama forms a 
 quick and pleasant conveyance by boats from 
 Little Tallasee to Mobile bay, a distance of 
 about 350 miles, and finally empties itself into 
 the Gulf of Mexico : its banks abound with trees 
 and vegetables. It is eighty roods wide at its 
 head, and from fifteen to eighteen feet deep at 
 the driest season. An American writer says, 
 that ' to go from Mobile to Fort Jackson, a dis- 
 tance of about 420 miles, will take from a month 
 to six weeks, according to the state of the river.' 
 ' A barge, with five hands, and carrying 125, 
 barrels,' has gone this distance in thirty days ; 
 ' but it was reckoned a remarkably good trip.' 
 Settlements on the banks of this river are rapidly 
 increasing, especially in the country lying be- 
 tween it and the Tombighee. 
 
 ALABAMA TERRITORY, or STATE, a newly set- 
 tled state or territory of the great northern re- 
 public of America the United States, is situated 
 between thirty and thirty-five degrees of north 
 latitude. Its boundaries, as established by law 
 on the 3d of March, 1817, are as follows : be- 
 ginning at the point where the line of the thirty- 
 first degree of north latitude intersects the 
 Perdido river, thence east to the western 
 boundary line ,of the state of Georgia, thence 
 along the said line to the southern boundary line 
 to the state of Tennessee, thence west along the 
 said boundary line to the Tennessee river, thence 
 up the same to the mouth of Bear creek, thence by 
 a direct line to the north-west corner of Wash- 
 ington county, thence due south to the Gulf of 
 Mexico, thence eastwardly, including all the is- 
 lands within six leagues of the shore, to the 
 Perdido river, thence up the same to the begin- 
 ning/ It has the new state, formed from the 
 western part of the Mississippi territory, on the 
 west ; Tennessee north ; Georgia and the rem- 
 nant of West Florida east, and the Gulf of 
 Mexico and West Florida south. These 
 boundaries comprise about one half of the late 
 Mississippi territory, which contained about 
 93,480 square miles", or 59,827,200 acres. 
 
 The main rivers of this territory run south, and 
 fall into the Gulf of Mexico. The Alabama de- 
 scribed above, is the most considerable. 
 
 The Coosa, under the names of Connesangah, 
 Estenaury, Hightour, &c. runs probably above 150 
 miles, estimating the distance by land, through 
 the Cherokee territory, in the north-west corner 
 of the state of Georgia. 
 
 The country between the Mobile and the Ca- 
 tahouchy, is about 180 miles wide, and watered 
 by the Perdido river, which forms the boundary 
 between the Alabama territory and the remnant 
 of West Florida; it runs parallel to the Mobile, 
 and falls into Perdido Bay. The streams are the
 
 424 
 
 ALABAMA. 
 
 Conecah and Escambia, whose waters unite and 
 flow into Pensacola Bay ; the Conecah is navi- 
 gable upwards of 100 miles, and is lined by 
 forests of valuable timber. Beyond the Escam- 
 bia is Yellow-water river, which falls into the 
 Bay of Pensacola. Choctaw and Pea rivers, 
 still further east, fall into the Bay of St. Roses. 
 These streams are all navigable from fifty to 
 100 miles; the country which they drain is 
 mostly of a sandy soil, and pine timber. 
 
 The Catahouchee is a noble river, affording a 
 navigation of 400 miles ; heads in the south- 
 east corner of Georgia, pursues a south-west 
 course 300 miles until it strikes the boundary 
 line between Georgia and the Alabama territory, 
 when itself becomes the division line to the limits 
 of West Florida, a distance of 120 miles. 
 
 The northern parts of this territory are broken ; 
 near the Tennessee line, towards the south-east 
 corner, it may be said to be mountainous. 
 The middle is hilly, with here and there tracts of 
 level prairie land. Along the Florida line is a 
 strip of country fifty or sixty miles wide, covered 
 with the short and long leaved pine, cypress, 
 and loblolly, so closely resembling the country 
 between Pearl river and the Mobile, as to 
 render a description of the one applicable to the 
 other. Such are its general aspects. The soil 
 between the Mobile and the Catahouchee, bor- 
 dering West Florida, is better than that on the 
 east side of Flint river; between the Conecah and 
 the Catahouchee the land is broken and waving ; 
 the ridge dividing their waters has high flats of 
 light sandy land, well set with willow-leafed 
 hickory, and iron ore in places ; all the streams 
 have cane on their margins, and are frequently 
 ornamented with the sour orange tree; the 
 country healthy, and affording a fine range for 
 cattle, hogs, and horses. The pine flats have the 
 wire grass and saw palmetto : the soil of the 
 waving land, stiff and red loam, with stone on 
 the ridges ; the pine land pretty good for corn. 
 Between the Mobile and the Perdido, the soil is 
 thin, timber pine, loblolly bay, cypress. The 
 head waters of Escambia and Conecah embrace 
 large quantities of fine cotton and sugar lands, and 
 orange groves. Along the Tensaw, pine and cy- 
 press forests, of a heavy growth; canebrakes, 
 along the river ; and sometimes cypress swamps. 
 The Alabama is margined with cane swamps ; 
 these at intervals, with pine flats of good soil, 
 suitable for sugar, cotton, and corn. The swamps 
 at the confluence with the Tombighee, and for 
 some distance below, are subject to periodical 
 inundations, for which reason the inhabitants 
 never fence their improvements. Above they 
 are very wide, intersected with slashes and 
 crooked drains, and much infested with mus- 
 quitoes. The land bordering on the swamps is 
 a poor stiff clay, for one mile back; the growth 
 pine and underbrush ; back of this, broken pine 
 barren ; cypress ponds and canebrakes on the 
 branches. Fifty miles from the union of the 
 Alabama with Tombigbee, the high broken lands 
 commence, extending for sixty miles upwards ; 
 timber, oak, hickory, poplar, and very large 
 cedars. 
 
 The best part of the territory is to be found 
 between the Alabama and Tombigbee ; the Black 
 
 Warrior, and Bear creek, have some fine bottoms ', 
 and those of the Tallapoosa from Tookabatchee 
 to its confluence with the Coosa, about thirty 
 miles, are excellent ; the broken land terminates 
 on its right bank, the good land spreads out on 
 the left. Proceeding towards the dividing ridge, 
 between the Alabama waters and those of the 
 Conecah, we pass over an extensive tract of rich 
 land, the timber large, and cane abundant, 
 liberally watered by creeks ; this tract is thirty 
 miles long including the plains, and twenty wide. 
 The plains are waving, hill and dale, and ap- 
 pear divided into fields, interspersed or bounded 
 with clumps of woodland ; soil lead-coloured or 
 dark clay, very rich and covered with weeds and 
 tall grass. Below the plains, soil stiff, very red 
 in some places, and gravelly ; surface broken for 
 thirty miles, then pine barren. At the sources of 
 Limestone creek, there is an excellent body of 
 land called the Dog wood ; the growth oak, 
 chesnut, poplar, pine, and dogwood. This vein 
 of land is twenty miles in length, and eight broad ; 
 the dogwood is very thick set, and tall, the whole 
 finely watered. Sixty miles above the confluence 
 of Coosa and Tallapoosa, there is a high waving 
 country, settled by the Creek Indians, who live 
 generally on rich flats of oak, hickory, poplar, 
 walnut, and mulberry : the springs are fine ; 
 cane on the creeks, and reed on the branches ; the 
 surrounding country broken and gravelly. Most 
 kinds of game are scarce throughout the territory. 
 Stone coal abounds on the Cahaba, Black War- 
 rior, &c. The late colonel Hawkins, long resi- 
 dent in the Creek nation, pourtrays the surface 
 and soil of this country in these words : 
 
 The country between Coosa, Tallapoosa, and 
 Chatahouchee, above their falls, is broken ; the 
 soil stiff, with coarse gravel, and in some places 
 stone. The trees post oak, white and black 
 oak, pine, hickory, and chesnut; all of them 
 small ; the whole well watered, and the rivers 
 and creeks have rocky beds, clad in many places 
 with moss, greatly relished by cattle, horses, 
 and deer, and are margined with cane and reeds, 
 and narrow strips or coves of rich flats. On 
 the Coosa, sixty miles above its junction with 
 Tallapoosa, there is limestone, and it is to be 
 found in several places from thence to E-tow- 
 woh, and its western branches. 
 
 Above the falls of Ocmulgee and Flint rivers, 
 the country is low and broken, as that of the 
 other rivers. These have their sources above 
 each other ; on the left side of Chatahouchee, in 
 open flat land, the soils stiff, the trees post and 
 black oak, and small. The land is generally rich, 
 well watered, and lies well, as a waving coun- 
 try, for cultivation; the growth of timber, oak, 
 hickory, and the short leaf pine, pea vine on the 
 hill sides and in the bottoms, and a late (or 
 autumnal) broad leaf grass on the richest land. 
 Below the falls of these two rivers, the land is 
 broken or waving, the streams are some of them 
 margined with oak woods ; and all of them with 
 cane or reed. The uplands of Ocmulgee are 
 pine forests ; the swamp wide and rich ; the 
 whole fine for stock. On its right bank, below 
 the old Uchee path, there is some light pine 
 barren, with some light palmetto grass. 
 
 Flint river has also, below it;: falls, some rich
 
 ALABAMA 
 
 425 
 
 swamp for not more than twenty miles ; its left 
 bank is then poor, with pine flats and ponds, 
 down within fifteen miles of its confluence with 
 Chatahouchee. These fifteen miles are waving, 
 with some good oak land in small veins. On 
 its right bank there are several large creeks which 
 rise out of the ridge, dividing the waters of Flint 
 and Chatahouchee. Some of them margined 
 with oak woods, and cane ; and all the branches 
 for seventy miles below the falls have reeds : 
 from thence down, there are bay-galls, dwarf 
 evergreens, and cypress ponds, with some live 
 oak. Bet%veen these rivers there is a good post, 
 and black oak land, strewed over with iron ore, 
 and the ridge dividing their waters has a vein ex- 
 tending itself in the direction of the ridge. Within 
 twenty-five miles of the confluence of the rivers, 
 the live oak is to be seen near all the ponds ; 
 here are limestone sinks ; the land is good in 
 veins, in the flats, and on the margins of the 
 rivers. The trees of every description small ; 
 the range a fine one for cattle. 
 
 The extensive body of land between Flint 
 river and Oke-fau-no-cau, Altamaha and the 
 eastern boundary of the Creek claims, is pine 
 land, with cypress ponds and bay-galls. The 
 small streams are margined with dwarf ever- 
 greens; the uplands have yellow pine, with 
 dwarf, saw palmetto and wire grass ; the bluffs 
 on SL Illas are some part of them sandy pine 
 barren ; the remainder a compact, stiff, yellowish 
 sand or clay, with large swamps ; the growth 
 loblolly, bay, gum, and small evergreens ; the 
 whole of these swamps are bogs. In the rainy 
 season, which commences after midsummer, the 
 ponds fill, and then the country is, a greater part 
 of it, covered with water ; and in the dry season 
 it is difficult to obtain water in any direction for 
 many miles. 
 
 Bees abound in the Okefaunocau and other 
 swamps eastward of Flint river ; the whortle- 
 berry is to be found in swamps and on the 
 poorest land bordering on the cypress ponds, 
 when the woods are not burnt for a year or 
 more; the latter are on dwarf bushes, grow 
 large, and in great abundance. The dwarf saw-- 
 palmetto, when the woods are not burnt, in like 
 manner, bears a cluster of berries on a single 
 stone, which are eaten by bears, deer, turkies, and 
 Indians. The berries, half an inch thick, are 
 covered with a black skin, and have a hard seed : 
 they are agreeable to the taste, sweet accom- 
 panied with bitter, and when fully ripe they 
 burst, and the bees extract much honey from 
 them. The China briar is in the flat, rich, sandy 
 margin of streams. The Indians dig the roots, 
 pound them in a mortar, and suspend them in 
 coarse cloth, pour water on them, and wash 
 them ; the sediment which passes through with 
 the water is left to subside ; the water is then 
 poured off, and the sediment is baked into cakes, 
 or made into gruel sweetened with honey. This 
 briar is called Coonte, and the bread of it Coon- 
 tetucaliga, and is an important article of food 
 amon? the hunters. In the old beaver ponds, 
 ana in thick boggy places, they have the bog 
 potatoe, a small root used as food in years of 
 scarcity. 
 
 The" Okefaunocau is the source of St. Mary's 
 
 and Little St. Johns, called by the Indians Sau- 
 wau-he. It is sometimes pronounced Ecunfino- 
 cau, from Ecunau earth, and finocau quivering ; 
 the first is the most common among the Creeks 
 it is from Ocka, a Choctaw word for fire and 
 water; Ocau, quivering. This is a very ex- 
 tensive swamp, and much of it a bog ; so much 
 so, that a little motion will make the mud and 
 water quiver to a great distance ; hence the name 
 is given. 
 
 The settlements already made extend from 
 Mobile point to Fort Jackson on the Coosa. 
 On the Alabama the country is pretty well settled 
 near the river, twenty-five miles above Fort 
 Jackson. There are also settlements on the 
 Conecah, Cahaba, and Black Warrior, Below 
 St. Stephens the country is very thinly settled ; 
 but it is now rapidly settling between the Al- 
 abama and Tombigbee. 
 
 There are several new towns ; the village of 
 Blakely is situated at the mouth of Tensaw, on 
 the east side of the Mobile bay. Its site is high, 
 commanding, and pleasant. Its fountains of fresh 
 spring water, are pure, cool, numerous and copious. 
 A good road can be found along the dividing 
 ridge separating the branches of Conecah and 
 Escambia from those of the Alabama ; and the 
 distance from Mobile to Fort Claiborne, by this 
 route, is thirty miles shorter than by that of St. 
 Stevens. The main road from Georgia to New 
 Orleans will probably strike Mobile bay at this 
 point. The borders of the Conecah are fast 
 settling, especially by the poorer class of people, 
 and Stock owners ; it being better calculated for 
 men of small capital than the Alabama The 
 rapidity of the settlement of Madison county is 
 probably without a parallel in the history of the 
 union. We subjoin the census of 1816. 
 Counties. Whites. Slaves. Total. 
 
 Wayne, , . 1,566 . . 517 . . 2,083 
 Baldwin, . . 411 . . 752 . . 1,163 
 Clarke, . . 2,763 . .1,338 . . 4,196 
 Greene, . . 992 . 729 . . 1,721 
 Monroe, . . 3,593 . .1,603 . . 5,296 
 Jackson, . . 714 . . 255 . . 969 
 Washington, 1,888 . . 671 . . 2,559 
 Madison, . 10,000 . . 4,200 . . 14,200 
 Mobile, . 867 .. 433 . . 1,300 
 
 Total, 22,794 10,493 33,287 
 
 This territory is rapidly augmenting its in- 
 habitants, by emigrants from Georgia, the Caro- 
 linas, Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 
 The Creeks or Muscogees, are the only Indians 
 inhabiting the territory, and reside chiefly on the 
 waters of Alabama and Catahouchy, in about 
 thirty towns ; they are brave, raise stock, and 
 cultivate the soil ; and although greatly reduced 
 by war and famine, in 1813 and 1814, their 
 number at this moment exceeds 20,000 souls. 
 
 In 1819 the population of this territory rising 
 above 60,000 souls, it was admitted 14th of 
 December of that year, into the confederacy or 
 general Union, as a distinct State : in 1821 its 
 population, according to the census, was 85,451 
 whites; 41,879 slaves; and 415 free blacks. 
 
 ALABANDA, in ancient geography, a town 
 of Caria, near the Meander, situated between 
 Amyzo to the west, and Stratomce to the east
 
 426 
 
 ALABASTER. 
 
 The place abounded in scorpions, and the in- 
 habitants were remarkable for their voluptuous- 
 ness. Under the Romans it was the head of a 
 jurisdiction, and it still retains some relics of 
 its former splendour. 
 
 ALABANDI, ALABANDENI, or ALABANPEN- 
 SES, the inhabitants of Alabanda. Under the Ro- 
 mans they had assizes, or a convention of juris- 
 diction. 
 
 ALABANDUS, the founder of Alabanda, and 
 worshipped as a god by the natives. 
 
 ALABARCHA, in antiquity, a kind of magis- 
 trate among the Jews of Alexandria, whom the 
 emperors allowed them to elect, for the super- 
 intendency of their police, and to decide dif- 
 ferences and disputes which arose among them. 
 
 ALABARDA, the name of a spear anciently 
 used by the Helvetians and Germans. 
 
 AL'ABASTER, n. A\a/3a<rrpov, a kind of 
 soft marble, generally white. Used by the 
 ancients to make boxes for perfumes. 
 
 A womman cam that hadde a boxe of aldbastre of 
 preciouse oynement spikenard, and whanne the boxe 
 of alabastre was brokun sche helde it on his heed. 
 
 Wiclif. Mark xiv. 
 
 Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, 
 Sit like his grandsire cut in alabatter ? 
 Sleep when he wakes ? and creep into the laundies 
 With being pceuish. Shaksp. Merchant of Venice. 
 
 Yet I'll not shed her blood ; 
 Nor scar that whiter skin of hers, than snow ; 
 And smooth as monumental alabaster* 
 
 S/iakspeare.- 
 It was a rock 
 
 Of alabaster piled up to the clouds 
 Conspicuous far. Milton's Par. Lost, b. iv. 
 
 ALABASTER, albatre, Fr. alabastrites of Pliny, 
 in mineralogy a species of that genus of stones 
 whose base is calcareous earth. It differs from 
 marble in being combined, not with the aerial, 
 but with the sulphuric acid. Hence no efferves- 
 cence appears when it is mixed with any acid. 
 Some derive tne word from albus, on account of 
 the whiteness of this stone. Others from oXa- 
 /SaTpov 'formed of the privat. a and Xa/i/3avw, 
 capio, to take, this stone being too smooth and 
 slippery for the hand to take fast hold of it. 
 Under this name are confounded two minerals 
 wholly distinct from each other when pure, but 
 occasionally mixed in some of the varieties. 
 
 The compact gypsum of Kirwan, (Alabastrite, 
 La Meth, albatre gypseux de Lisle Dichter 
 Gypstein, Werner) when of a white yellowish 
 or greenish colour, semi-transparent, and capable 
 of receiving a polish, is called among statuaries 
 alabaster, and is characterized by Pliny under 
 the word alabastrites, as a stone resemblino- 
 gypsum. When its colours are disposed in 
 bands or clouds, it is called in the first case onyx 
 alabaster, and in the second agate alabaster. 
 Considerable confusion, however, often arises 
 between the distinctions of statuaries, and those 
 of chemists, amongst the stones known by the 
 name of marble, and distinguished by a variety 
 of denominations. Alabasters, according to sta- 
 tuaries, are those which have a degree of imper- 
 fect transparency, a granular texture, are softer, 
 take a duller polish than marble, and are usually 
 of a whiter colour. Some stones of a veined 
 ;uid coloured appearance have nevertheless been 
 
 called alabasters from their possessing a slight 
 transparency; and other yellow sparry stones 
 have been thus denominated for the same reason. 
 Alabasters among chemists, are only such opaque, 
 consistent, and semi-transparent stones as are 
 composed of lime, united with the sulphuric acid, 
 and hence are often confounded with the selenites 
 and gypsums, or plaster of Paris. The semi- 
 opaque appearance and granular texture, are the 
 effects either of a disturbed or a successive crys- 
 tallization, which would else have formed trans- 
 parent spars. The calcareous stalactites, or 
 drop stones, formed by the transition of water 
 through the roofs of caverns, differ nothing in 
 appearance from alabaster, most of which is 
 formed after the same manner. It is, however, 
 necessary to observe, that the calcareous stalac- 
 tites consist of calcareous earth and carbonic 
 acid ; while the alabaster of the chemists is com- 
 posed of the same earth and sulphuric acid. 
 
 What some writers have distinguished as the 
 gypseous alabaster is very easily worked, and 
 susceptible of considerable polish. It is made 
 into vases, columns, tables, &c. Some thin 
 slabs of it have been used in one of the churches 
 of Florence, instead of window-glass. That 
 most esteemed among the ancients came from 
 Caramania, Syria and Upper Egypt. The boxes 
 for holding perfumes, mentioned both in sacred 
 and profane history, were formed of the variety, 
 called onyx, hence in Horace, ' Nardi parvus 
 onyx.' The calcareous alabaster exhibits con- 
 siderable variety of colours, such as white*, 
 yellowish, greenish, reddish, and bluish-grey. 
 Its hardness is inferior to marble, its polish 
 considerable, and its fracture striated or fibrous, 
 the striae sometimes parallel, and at others di- 
 vergent. Its transparency is nearly equal to 
 that of white wax, and its gravity from 2.4 to 
 2.8. Two sorts of alabaster have been distin- 
 guished by statuaries, the common and oriental, 
 the latter including the hardest, finest, and best 
 coloured pieces ; numerous sub-varieties are 
 produced by the colours being in veins, or 
 dendritic, or in concentric undulating zones. 
 The most beautiful specimens are brought from 
 Italy and Spain ; others of an inferior description 
 are found in Germany and France. That of 
 Montaiout near Rome, is remarkable for its 
 whiteness and the bigness of its blocks, some of 
 which are so large, that statues as big as the life 
 may be easily cut out of them. F. Labit, in his 
 journey to Italy, observes, that there are quarries 
 of alabaster in the neighbourhood of the village 
 called de la Tossa, near Civita Vecchia : there 
 is also alabaster to be found in some places of 
 Lorrain ; but it is not much esteemed. The most 
 common species of alabaster are, 
 
 1. ALABASTER, the snow white shining, or 
 lygdinum of the ancients, it is found in Taurus, 
 in pieces large enough to make dishes, or the 
 like. It cuts freely, and is capable of a fine polish. 
 
 2. ALABASTER, the variegated, yellow and 
 reddish. This species is the common alabaster 
 of the ancients, and is so soft that it may be cut 
 with a knife : It is remarkably bright, and almost 
 transparent ; admits of a fine polish, and con- 
 sists of large angular sparry concretions. It is 
 not proof against water ; it ferments violently
 
 ALABASTER. 
 
 427 
 
 with aquafortis, and burns to a pale yellow. The 
 colour of this species is a clear pale yellow, re- 
 sembling amber, and variegated with undulated 
 veins; some of which are pale red, others whit- 
 ish, and others of a pale brown. It was for- 
 merly brought from Egypt, but is now to be met 
 with in several parts of England. 
 
 3. ALABASTER, the yellowish, or phengites of 
 Pliny, is found in Greece ; and is of a soft, 
 loose, open texture, pretty heavy, and nearly of 
 the colour of honey. This species has likewise 
 been found in Germany, France, and in Derby- 
 shire in England. The alabasters are frequently 
 used by statuaries for small statues, vases, and 
 columns. After being calcined and mixed with 
 water, they may be cast in any mould like plas- 
 ter of Paris. See GYPSUM. 
 
 In many places hot sulphureous waters rise 
 out of the ground, of a turbid wheyish colour, 
 occasioned by a quantity of gypsum or chalk, 
 which they held suspended in a state of half 
 solution. In proportion as these grow cool and 
 lose their carbonic acid, the earthy particles are 
 deposited,leaving the channels through which they 
 flow covered with a compact alabaster, or a thick 
 crust of stalactite of a dazzling white, especially 
 when the sun shines upon it. The most remark- 
 able spring of this description in Europe, is 
 situated on a mountain near Radicofani. It 
 supplies the baths of St. Philip in Tuscany, and 
 forms the source of the little river Paglia. Ad- 
 vantage has been occasionally taken of this cir- 
 cumstance, to obtain very beautiful impressions 
 of bas reliefs, by exposing the moulds to a 
 current of such water, till they have become 
 filled 'with the earthy deposit. The hardness of 
 the alabaster depends upon the degree of ob- 
 liquity at which the mould is placed to receive 
 the dashing of the water. The more vertical the 
 position, the harder the alabaster. The hardest 
 models not being so white as the softer, the water 
 is frequently caused to make a circuitous course 
 before it reaches the mould, that all the grosser 
 particles may be previously deposited. Even 
 the softer ones, however, are as hard as Carrara 
 marble, and surpass it in whiteness. The time 
 required for these productions varies, according 
 to the thickness, from one month to four. When 
 the mould is sufficiently filled, and the ground 
 of the model has acquired a thickness capable of 
 supporting the figures, the whole is removed 
 from the water ; the wooden supports are broken 
 by gentle strokes of the hammer, and the in- 
 crustation on the outside of the mould is chipped 
 off by repeated strokes. Then the tub is struck 
 with a smart blow of a hammer, which separates 
 the model from the mould ; generally, however, 
 cracking the latter. The brilliancy of the models 
 is completed by brushing them with a stiff hair- 
 brush, and rubbing with the palm of the hand, 
 when they become semi-transparent and very 
 beautiful. 
 
 The composition of this alabaster is gypsum, 
 mixed with a small proportion of carbonated 
 lime. Dr. de Vegni has, after many attempts, 
 succeeded in giving a fine black, or flesh colour 
 to the figures thus formed, by putting a vessel 
 half lull of colouring matter into the water, be- 
 
 fore it arrives at the mould. The colouring may 
 also be varied by protecting particular parts of the 
 mould, while the water continues charged with 
 colouring matter. 
 
 Mr. Boyle observes, that alabaster being finely 
 powdered, and thus set in a basin over the fire, 
 will, when hot, assume the appearance of a fluid, 
 by rolling in waves, yielding to the smalles. 
 touch, and emitting vapour ; all which proper- 
 ties it loses again on the departure of the heat, 
 and discovers itself a mere incoherent powder. 
 
 ALABASTER, in antiquity, from the frequent 
 use of the stone so called for that purpose, 
 frequently denotes a vase or vessel wherein odo- 
 riferous liquors were preserved. Pliny says 
 expressly (Nat. Hist. lib. 33. c. 8.) that of the 
 alabaster stone (albastritem) they make vessels 
 to hold ointments, which it is said to preserve 
 free from corruption. It is found about Thebes 
 in Egypt, and Damascus in Syria. The latter 
 is the whiter of the two. Kypke, in Matt. xiv. 
 3. cites from Plutarch, in Alexandra, p. 676, a 
 variety of vessels, icai aXafiaffrpovg, vavra xpvan 
 i)ffKT)[uva TTfptTTug, and alabasters, all curiously 
 wrought with gold. In Theocritus we read of 
 Slipup Ss pvpwi. \pvati aXa/3airrpo, golden ala- 
 basters, full of Syrian ointments. Herodotus has 
 a similar expression, lib. iii. c. 20, respecting the 
 presents of Cambyses to the king of Ethiopia. 
 
 The expression, avvrpi^/aaa TO oXajSa-rpov, 
 Mark, xiv. 3. which our translators have ren- 
 dered ' she brake the box,' has occasioned some 
 difficulty to critic* : bishop Pearce referring the 
 awrpnlaaa to the ointment, and not to the box ; 
 renders the words, 'breaking she poured the 
 box ; ' i. e. breaking the parts of the ointment, 
 and liquifying them by shaking it, she poured 
 some of the ointment out of the box upon 
 his head; others with Mr. Wakefield, write; 
 ' after shaking the box together, she poured 
 it out upon his head,' and to justify this 
 translation, it has been observed, that Luke, 
 ix. 39, uses ffvvrpifov for bruising. Black- 
 wall, Sacred Classics, vol. ii. p. 166. has remark- 
 ed that the shaking of liquids of this nature 
 breaks and separates their parts, and thereby 
 makes them more liquid and fragrant ; and that 
 the word owrpi^affa is an excellent one for that 
 purpose; quoting Plato in Phaedone, AiarpnJ/ac TO 
 fapuojcov: Martial's Epigrams, iii. 45. ed. Del- 
 phin. ' Et fluere excusso cinnama fusa vitro/ 
 and Lucretius, iv. 700. 
 
 ' Fracta magis redolere videntur 
 
 Omnia quod contrita.' 
 
 See Pearce'* Com. vol. 1. p.276. Wakefield'* 
 Silva Critica. Pars. 1, ma. p. 156. 
 
 Sir Edward Knatchbull and Dr. Hammond 
 have suggested the same interpretation of this 
 passage. But Dr. Campbell insists from tne 
 syntax of the passage that the avvrpityaaa. must 
 refer to the vessel, and seems best to meet all 
 objections by translating the phrase 'she broke 
 open the box,' &c. We apply such a phrase as 
 this, constantly to the opening of a letter, and it 
 is not improbable that the ointment might be 
 sealed up in the vessel in the manner that otto 
 of roses is still imported from the east. ALABAS- 
 TER is also said to have been used for an ancier t
 
 ALA 
 
 428 
 
 ALA 
 
 liquid measure, containing ten ounces of wine, 
 or nine of oil, and in this Sense was equal to half 
 the sextary. 
 
 ALABASTER, or ELEUTHERA Island, in geo- 
 graphy, one of the Bahama or Lucayo islands, on 
 the great Bahama bank. Its climate is said to 
 be healthy, and th-a soil, which is chiefly at the 
 north end, better than that of Providence Island. 
 Pine-apples are exported from Alabaster Island 
 in considerable quantities. There is a small fort 
 and garrison on the island. Lon. 76. 22'. to 
 76. 56'. W. Lat. 24. 40'. to 26. 30'. N. 
 
 ALABASTERJ (William,) an English divine, was 
 born at Hadley in the county of Suffolk ; and at- 
 tended the earl of Essex, as chaplain in the ex- 
 pedition to Cadiz, in the reign of queen Elizabeth. 
 He was one of the controversial writers of the 
 period ; but, with other warm disputants, of little 
 personal steadiness : not having been long on the 
 continent before he joined himself to the Romish 
 communion, and publicly abjured protestantism. 
 He, however, could not reconcile himself to the 
 discipline of that church, which paid no regard 
 to his previous degrees, or heretical ecclesiastical 
 character. He soon returned to England, and 
 resumed his former religion, when he obtained 
 a prebend in the cathedral of St. Paul, and the 
 rectory of Therfield in Hertfordshire. He was well 
 skilled in the Hebrew tongue ; but studied the 
 Cabala, until he well merited Festus's reproach of 
 St. Paul : he preached a mystical sermon, upon 
 taking his degree of D. D. at Cambridge, from 
 1 Chron. i. ch. 1. v. Adam, Seth, Enos! His 
 verses were greatly esteemed. He wrote a Latin 
 tragedy, entitled Roxana, which, when acted in 
 a college at Cambridge, was attended with a 
 very remarkable accident ; a lady being so ter- 
 rified at the last word, Sequar, Sequar, pro- 
 nounced with a vehement tone, that she lost her 
 senses for life : he also wrote, Apparatus in 
 Revelationem Jesu Christi, printed at Antwerp 
 in 1607. But the only work of his worth notice, 
 is a Lexicon Pentaglotton, which he published 
 in folio. He died m 1640. 
 
 ALABASTRA, in plants, are those little her- 
 baceous leaves which encompass the bottoms of 
 flowers, particularly the rose. See CALYX, &c. 
 Some, with Jungius, explain alabastra, by the 
 globe or roundish bud of the rose just peeping 
 out. 
 
 ALACANANDA RIVER, a river of Hindostan, 
 which springing from the Himalaya mountains, 
 in Serinagur, joins the Bhagirathi, at Deva- 
 prayaga, the junction of the two forming the 
 celebrated river Ganges. The superstitions con- 
 nected with this stream, will justify our giving a 
 few particulars of its rise. A short distance north 
 of Bhadrinath, the breadth of the Alacananda 
 does not exceed twenty feet, the stream being 
 shallow, and moderately rapid. Further up it 
 is concealed under immense heaps of snow, 
 which have not been disturbed for ages, although 
 the shastras mention a city nearer its source, 
 called Alacapura, the fabulous abode of Cuvera, 
 the plutus of Hindoo mythology. At their junc- 
 ture, the Alacananda is larger than the Bhagirathi, 
 being 142 feet in breadth, and in the rainy season 
 forty-six and forty-seven feet above the low water 
 
 level. At Ranibaugh, the breadth of the Alaca- 
 nanda is from seventy to eighty yards, with a 
 current of seven to eight miles an hour. Many 
 fish of the roher species, cyprinus denticuhitus, 
 four or five feet in length, haunt this stream, and 
 are fed daily by the Brahmins, from whose 
 hands they will take bread. There is also a 
 beautiful, and remarkably delicate, species six or 
 seven feet long. 
 
 ALACHUA, an ancient town on the borders 
 of the Savannah of that name in East Florida, 
 and about seventy-five miles west of St. Augus- 
 tine. The Indians removed to Cuscowilla, two 
 miles distant, on account of the unhealthiness of 
 this spot : but the soil around is very fertile, and 
 the Savannah, surrounded with high sloping 
 hills, covered with waving forests, and fragrant 
 orange groves, is about fifteen miles over, and 
 fifty in circumference. 
 
 ALACRANES, an extensive range of hidden 
 rocks, shoals, and banks, opposite the coast of 
 Yucatan. They lie east from Stone Bank, and 
 west from Cape St. Antonio, on the south side 
 of the gulf of Mexico, within the twenty-third 
 degree of north latitude, and between the eighty- 
 ninth and ninty-first degree of west longitude. 
 Those who navigate these parts pass round, in 
 place of venturing among them, although there 
 are some good channels and soundings. 
 
 ALAC'RITY, n. ^ Lat. Alacris; merry, 
 ALAC'RIOUSLY, / cheerful, brisk, cheerful 
 ALAC'RIOUSNESS. j activity ; the effect of a 
 willing mind. 
 
 For as the holy doctor saint Chrisostome saithe, 
 thoughe pain be grieuous for the nature of ye afflic- 
 cion, yet it is pleasaunte by the alacritie and quick 
 mind of them that willyngly suffer it. 
 
 Sir Tliomas More's Works, p. 75. col. 1. 
 These orders were, on all sides, yielded unto with 
 no less alacrity of mind ; than cities, unable to hold 
 out any longer, are wont to shew ; when they take 
 conditions, such as it liketh him to offer them, which 
 hath them in the narrow straits of advantage. Hooker. 
 
 Give me a bowl of wine : 
 I have not that alacrity of spirit, 
 Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 He glad, that now his sea should find a shore, 
 With fresh alacrity and force renew'd, 
 Springs upward. Milton's Par. Lost. 
 
 Never did men more joyfully obey, 
 Or sooner understood the sign to fly : 
 With such alacrity they bore away, 
 As if, to praise them, all the states stood by. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Epaminondas alacriomly expired, in confidence that 
 he left behind him a perpetual memory of the victories 
 he bad achieved for his country. 
 
 Government of the Tongue. 
 
 ALACUOTH, among Arabian physicians, an 
 infirmity of the nerves, attended with diarrhoea 
 in some peculiar circumstances. 
 
 ALADINE ISLANDS, are a cluster of small 
 islands in the bay of Bengal, near the coast of 
 Siam, and in the south of what is sometimes 
 called the Mergui Archipelago. They run from 
 9. 5'. to 9. 40'. N. Lat. and are in 97. 52'. E. 
 Lon. The chief islands are Alexander's Peak, 
 Auriol's, Bruer's, Christie's, Davis's Dankiu'E, 
 Graham's and Watson's.
 
 ALA 
 
 429 
 
 ALA 
 
 ALADINISTS, a sect among the Arabs, an- 
 swering to freethinkers among us. They multi- 
 plied greatly under the kings Almonsor and 
 Miramolinus. 
 
 ALADULIA, a province of Turkey, in Asia, 
 in Natolia, between the mountains of Antitaurus, 
 which separate it from Amasia on the north, and 
 from Caramania on the west. It has the Medi- 
 terranean sea on the south, and the Euphrates on 
 the east, which divides it from Diarbeker. It 
 comprehends the Lesser Armenia of the ancients, 
 and the east part of Cilicia. Formerly it had 
 kings of its own ; but the last king was behead- 
 ed by Selim I. emperor of the Turks, who had 
 conquered the country. It is now divided into 
 two parts : the north, comprehended between 
 Taurus, Antitaurus, and the Euphrates, is abeg- 
 lerbeglic, which bears the name of Marasch, the 
 capital town ; and the south, seated between 
 mount Taurus and the Mediterranean, is united to 
 the beglerbeglic of Aleppo. The country is rough, 
 ragged, and mountainous; yet there are good pas- 
 tures, and plenty of horses and camels. The people 
 are hardy and thievish. The capital is Malatigah; 
 Adana and Marisch are also considerable 
 places. 
 
 AL7E, in botany, the plural of ALA, which see. 
 
 ALAGNON, a principal river of Auvergne,in 
 France, which rises at Cantal, through the de- 
 partment of which it has part of its course, is 
 very rapid, and runs into the Allier, between 
 Issoire and Brioude. 
 
 ALAGOA, a town in the island of St. Michael, 
 one of the Azores, which has two parish churches. 
 It is eight miles east of Point Delgada. 
 
 ALAGON, a town of Spain, in the kingdom 
 of Arragon, seated on a peninsula, formed by 
 the rivers Ebro and Xiloca, twelve miles north- 
 west of Saragossa. 
 
 ALAIA, PHTHISIS, in Med. aXaia (j>0i<ns, 
 from aXatoe, blind ; a consumption caused by 
 a fluxion of humours in the head. 
 
 ALAID, a volcanic peak in the Okhotsk sea, 
 near the first of the Kurile islands. It began to 
 emit volumes of smoke in the year 1790; and 
 about three years afterwards flamed with great 
 fury ; but no mischief appears to have been 
 done by this eruption. 
 
 ALAIN, a river, in the province of Quito, 
 South America, which, after running in a north- 
 east direction, enters the Pucure. 
 
 ALAIN, (Chartier,) secretary to Charles VII. 
 king of France, was born in the year 1386. He 
 was the author of various pieces ; but his Chro- 
 nicle of King Charles VII. is his only work of 
 importance. Giles Coroxet states, that Mar- 
 garet, daughter to the king of Scotland, and wife 
 to the dauphin, passing once through a hall 
 where Alain lay asleep, she stooped and saluted 
 him in the presence of her retinue : some of 
 whom telling her, that it was strange she should 
 kiss a man who had so few charms in his person, 
 she replied, 'I did not kiss the man, but the 
 mouth from whence proceeds such excellent 
 sayings, and so many wise discourses.' Fonte- 
 nelle has constructed one of his Dialogues of the 
 Dead, upon this Incident. Pasquier compares 
 Alain to Seneca, on account of the elegance of 
 his writings. 
 
 ALAINS, a babarous northern race, who, in 
 
 the fourth and fifth centuries, joined the Goths 
 and Vandals, and overspread a great part of the 
 south of Europe, and the north of France, carry- 
 ing terror and desolation wherever they went. 
 
 ALAIS, ALETS, or ALAS, a town of Fiance, 
 in the department of Card, seated on the Garden, 
 near a beautiful plain, at the foot of the Cevi- 
 nes. It is the head of an arrondissornent, and 
 contains 9000 inhabitants. The annual export of 
 raw silk from it is considerable, and the town 
 carries on a good trade in grain, olives, oil, wine, 
 and several manufactures of the district. A hot 
 medicinal spring issues from the adjacent moun- 
 tains, and many openings in the rocks show that 
 mines have formerly been wrought in them. A 
 fort was built in it, in 1689. It is situated four- 
 teen leagues north of Montpelier, and 140 south 
 by east from Paris. 
 
 ALAISEE, in heraldry, the same with hu- 
 metty or raccourcy. 
 
 ALAKTUGAL LAKE, a lake of Chinese 
 Tartary, in Mongolia, a short distance east 
 from the Balkash lake. It has a large island in 
 its centre, and has on its east, Kiurgha Lake. N. 
 Lat. 45. E. Lon. 74. 15'. 
 
 ALALCOMEN^E, in ancient geography, a city 
 of Boeotia, where Minerva is said to have been 
 born. Hence Homer applies the epithet aXaX- 
 Koptvi]i A0JJVJJ to the goddess. She had a famous 
 temple here. 
 
 ALALCOMENIUS, in ancient chronology, 
 the Boeotian name for the Athenian month Mae- 
 macterion, which was the fourth of their year, 
 and answers to the latter part of our September 
 and beginning of October. 
 
 ALALIA, in ancient geography, aXaXfy, a 
 town of Corsica built by the Phocaeans, and de- 
 stroyed by Scipio 526 A. C. but rebuilt by Sylla. 
 Herod. 1. i. c. 165 
 
 ALAM, EB AL ALAM, in biography, a great 
 mathematician, who lived in the reign of the 
 sultan Adhdaedoulat. 
 
 ALAMAGAN, or Conception Island, one of 
 the Ladrones, about eighteen miles in circuit. 
 It lies between the Guguan and Pagon, eleven 
 miles from the former, and thirty from the latter. 
 Lat. 18. 10'. N. 
 
 ALAMANDUS, (Lewis,) Fr. ALEMAN, arch- 
 bishop of Aries, and cardinal of St. Cecilia, was 
 one of the greatest men of the fifteenth century. 
 He presided in the council of Basil, which de- 
 posed Eugenius IV. and elected the antipope, 
 Felix V. and is much commended by ./Eneas 
 Sylvius, for his firm and vigorous conduct on 
 that occasion. One day he so eloquently ha- 
 rangued against the superiority of the pope over 
 the council, that several persons pressed to kiss 
 him; and even to embrace his robe. Though 
 deprived of his dignities by pope Eugenius, Ala- 
 mandus died in the odour of sanctity, and per- 
 formed so many miracles after his death that, at 
 the request of the canons and Celestine monks 
 of Avignon, he was beatified by Clement VII. 
 
 ALAMANNI, (Lewis,) was born at Florence, 
 of a noble family, on the 28th of October, 1495. 
 He was obliged to fly his country for a conspiracy 
 against Julius de Medicis, who was soon after 
 chosen pope under the name of Clement VII. 
 During this voluntary banishment, he went into 
 France; where Francis I. from a regard to his
 
 ALA 
 
 430 
 
 ALA 
 
 genius and merit, became his patron. This 
 prince employed him in several important affairs 
 and honoured him with the collar of the order of 
 St. Michael. About the year 1540, he was ad- 
 mitted a member of the Inflammati, an academy 
 newly erected at Padua, chiefly by Daniel Bar- 
 bara and Ugolin Martelli. After the death of 
 Francis, Henry duke of Orleans, who succeeded 
 him in 1537, shewed no less favour to Alamanni; 
 and in the year 1551, sent him as his ambassador 
 to Genoa: this was his last journey to Italy; and 
 being returned to France, he died at Amboise, 
 A. D. 1556, in the sixty-first year of his age. 
 He left many beautiful poems, and other valuable 
 performances, in the Italian language ; as well 
 as some notes upon Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. 
 Those upon the Iliad were printed in the Cam- 
 bridge edition of Homer in 1689, and Joshua 
 Barnes also inserted them in his fine edition of 
 Homer in 1711. 
 
 ALAMANNICUM, in antiquity, a tribute 
 imposed on the people by the emperor Alexius 
 Angelius, for raising the sum of sixteen talents of 
 gold, to be paid the Alamanni, on the condition 
 of a peace stipulated with them. The eccle- 
 siastics themselves were not exempted from this 
 tax. 
 
 A LA MESURE, in Italian & tempo, in 
 music, in strict time. 
 
 A LA MI RE, in music, an Italian method 
 to determine the key of A, by its dominant, and 
 subdominant, A E D. In the Guidonian scale 
 
 of music a-la-mi-re is the octave Y~TZ O 
 
 above a-re, or A in the first space .*> Z 
 in the base. 
 
 ALAMMELECH, in Scripture geography, 
 a city in the tribe of Asher. 
 
 ALAMODALITY OF WRITING, alamodalitas 
 scribendi, are modern Gallicisms by which some 
 writers would express the endeavours of learned 
 men to adapt the productions of their minds, 
 to the genius or taste of the times, in order to 
 render them more acceptable to the readers. A 
 German writer, Geamoenus, has a dissertation 
 on alamodality in writing, 
 
 ALAMODE, in commerce, a thin glossy black 
 silk, chiefly used for women's hoods and men's 
 mourning scarfs. 
 
 ALAMOS, (Balthasar,) a Spanish writer, born 
 at Medina del Campo-in Castile. After having 
 studied the law at Salamanca, he entered into 
 the service of Anthony Perez, secretary of state 
 under Philip II. He was in high esteem and 
 confidence with his master, upon which account 
 he was imprisoned after the disgrace of this 
 minister and kept in confinement eleven years, 
 until Philip HI. coming to the throne, set him 
 at liberty. Alamos continued in a private ca- 
 pacity, till the duke of Olivarez, the favourite 
 of Philip IV. called him to public employments. 
 He was a man of wit as well as -judgment ; and 
 his Spanish translation of Tacitus gained him 
 great reputation. This work was published at 
 Madrid in 1614 ; and was to have been followed 
 with a Commentary, which, however, never 
 appeared. The author composed the whole during 
 his imprisonment. He died in the eighty-eighth 
 year of his age. 
 
 ALAMOTH, in ancient Hebrew music, a word 
 
 used in the superscription to the forty-sixth 
 Psalm, and supposed to have been the name of 
 some Hebrew melody, according to which the 
 Psalm was intended to be sung. As it partly 
 signifies a sheaf of corn, the air might be one used 
 in harvest. 
 
 ALAN, a river of Cornwall, sometimes called 
 Camel and Camlan, a corruption of Camb-alan, 
 ' the crooked river.' Leland calls it Dunmere, 
 i. e. the water of the Hills. It rises about two 
 miles north of the borough of Camelford, where 
 its banks are famous for two battles ; in one of 
 which king Arthur, it is said, was slain, having 
 slain his antagonist ; the other in which many 
 thousands fell, was fought between the Cornish 
 Britons and the west Saxons of Devonshire, in 
 824. After a course of about twelve miles in a 
 winding southern direction, the Alan at Par- 
 brook becomes navigable for barges, and receives 
 the river Lane, or Lynder. It afterwards be- 
 comes increased by several smaller rivers; and 
 pursuing its course, empties its united streams 
 into Padstow harbour, in the Bristol channel. 
 At Padstow it is nearly a mile broad. This river 
 produces some very fine trout. 
 
 ALAN, or ALLEN, (Cardinal William,) was 
 born at Rassal in Lancashire, in the year 1532, 
 and went to Oxford at the age of fifteen. In 
 1550, he was elected fellow of Oriel college. 
 In 1556, being then only twenty-three years old, 
 he was chosen principal of St. Mary's-hall, and 
 one of the proctors of the university. In 1548, 
 he was made canon of York ; but upon queen 
 Elizabeth's accession to the throne, he left 
 England, and settled at Louvain in an Eng- 
 lish college, of which he became the chief support 
 and ornament. He visited his native country in 
 1565 ; but on account of his extreme activity 
 in the propagation of the Roman Catholic reli- 
 gion, was obliged to quit it finally in 1568. 
 He went first to Mechlin, and then to Douay, 
 where he received his diploma. Soon after he 
 was appointed canon of Cambray and then 
 canon of Rheims. He was created cardinal in 
 July 1587, and obtained from the king of Spain 
 a rich abbey in the kingdom of Naples, and 
 afterwards the bishopric of Mechlin. It is 
 supposed to have been by the advice and insti- 
 gation of cardinal Alan that Philip II. attempted 
 to invade England. The cardinal furnished him, 
 we are told, with numerous copies of a polemi- 
 cal treatise, (A declaration of the sentence of 
 Sextus V. &c.) to prove queen Elizabeth a here- 
 tic and schismatic, whom her subjects were bound 
 to depose. He died on the 20th of October, 
 1594, aged sixty-three: and was buried in the 
 English college at Rome. Allan was a man of 
 considerable learning, and an elegant writer. 
 His works, in defence of the Romish religion, 
 were perhaps the most powerful of the Romish 
 treatises in his day. The most remarkable are, 1. 
 A Defence of the Twelve Martyrs in one year, 
 (which Thomas Alfield was hanged for bringing 
 into England, in the year 1584.) 2. Of the 
 Worship due to Saints and their Relics, 1583. 
 3. A True and Modest Defence of Christian 
 Catholics. The learned Edmund Bolton calls it ' a 
 princely, grave, and flourishing piece of natural 
 and exquisite English ' This treatise was answered
 
 ALA 
 
 431 
 
 ALA 
 
 by lord Burleigh, who esteemed it the most elegant 
 of the cardinal's writings. Dr. Southey says, that 
 cardinal Alan* was the person of all others whom 
 the English Catholics,' at the period of the threat- 
 ened Spanish invasion, 'regarded with most 
 respect : ' that he solicited Philip of Spain to 
 employ an English Catholic regiment, as well as 
 to confide the management of his fleet to English 
 sailors, on that memorable occasion ; and that 
 when ' he spoke of this in after years he used to 
 weep with bitterness, remembering how fatally 
 for the Romish cause his advice had been re- 
 jected.' Book of the Church, vol. ii. 293-4. Mr. 
 Butler, in his defence of the Catholics of this 
 period, does not attempt to repel this statement. 
 It appears certain that Alan was amongst the 
 sincerest and most bitter, as well as one of the 
 most learned bigots, that ever lived ; but much 
 of his conduct is to be attributed to the unhappy 
 and illiberal spirit of his age. It is said that in 
 later life he expressed regret at having taken 
 so active a part against his country ; and that 
 letters of his are extant, advising a reconciliation 
 of catholics with the protestant government, on 
 the ground of a simple toleration. 
 
 ALANA-GIEBA, in botany, the yellowish 
 white tripoli- 
 
 ALANA-TERRA, English oker-: it is esteemed 
 drying and astringent ; its principal use is to 
 mix with salts in distillation, in order to keep 
 them from melting. It is thought that this stone 
 is what the ancients called the Samian stone, 
 ' Samius lapis.' 
 
 ALANBY, an agreeable watering place in 
 Cumberland, situated about twenty miles north 
 of Whitehaven, as far south of Carlisle, and 308 
 from London. There is a good anchorage in the 
 bay, and an extensive herring fishery is carried 
 on here. 
 
 ALANCHE, or ALLANCHES,a town of France, 
 in Auvergne, formerly in the intendancy of 
 Riom, and election of St. Flour, now the head 
 of a canton, in the department of the Cantal, 
 arrondissement of Murat. It contains 2500 in- 
 habitants. Fine lace is manufactured here, and 
 there are good tanneries. It is four leagues 
 W, S. W. of Mercoeur. 
 
 ALAND'. On Land. See LAND. 
 Her ost was cypher in ys sydeo/ofufebyleued bypoute. 
 R. Gloucester, p. 307. 
 Thei sailen, till thei come a londe 
 At Tharse nygb. to the citee. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. b. viii. 
 Dep seith he wol for do. and a down brynge 
 All patlyvep opr lokep, a londe and a watere. 
 
 The Vision of Piers Plcnihman, p. 340. 
 
 He only, with the prince his cousin, were cast 
 a land, far ofi from the place whither their desires 
 would have guided them. Sidney. 
 
 ALAND, or AELAND, a considerable island of 
 the Baltic, in N. lat. 60. 18'. E. Ion. 19. 40'. 
 It is about forty miles in length, and thirty in 
 breadth, and being deeply indented by the sea, 
 is composed of several peninsulas. It contains 
 eight parishes, and a population of 11,300 
 persons. The soil is very fertile, producing corn, 
 and abundance of forest woods, from which the 
 natives manufacture excellent wooden utensils. 
 There are nearly 4000 acres of land, in a high 
 state of cultivation here ; and 2500 barrels of 
 
 wheat are said to be produced annually. It is 
 an island remarkable for the longevity of the 
 inhabitants, and yielded the king of Sweden, 
 some years since, a revenue of 1 9,980 rix dol- 
 lars. The chief town is Castleholm : and the 
 island itself gives name to a cluster of inferior 
 islets. The inhabitants generally speak the 
 Swedish language. In 1634 it was included m 
 the government of Finland; but has recently 
 been ceded to Russia. The channel between 
 Aland and the Swedish coast, is that which is 
 reckoned most safe in making for the gulf of 
 Bothnia. 
 
 ALAND'S BAY, on the south coast of Ireland, 
 between Waterford harbour and Tramore bay. 
 N. lat. 52. 8'. W. Ion. 7. 5'. 
 
 ALAND, (Sir John Fortescue,) lord Fortescue 
 of Ireland, was the son of Edmund Fortescue, 
 esquire, of London, by Sarah, daughter of Henry 
 Aland, esquire, of Waterford, whose name he 
 assumed. He was born in 1670, and received 
 his education at Oxford, from whence he re- 
 moved to the Inner Temple, where he was chosen 
 reader, and called to the bar. In 1714, he 
 became solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales, 
 and next year to the king. In the following year 
 he was made one of the barons of the exchequer. 
 In 1717, he removed to the court of king's bench, 
 and in 1728, to the common pleas, which situa- 
 tion he resigned in 1746, on being created a 
 peer, shortly after which he died. He published, 
 in 1714, 8vo., Sir John Fortescue's Treatise on 
 Absolute and Limited Monarchy; and was 
 himself a sound lawyer, and a proficient in the 
 Saxon literature. After his death, his Reports 
 were printed in folio. This judge was remarka- 
 ble for a flat nose ; and a serjeant who had lost 
 an arm, one day arguing a case in an awkward 
 manner, the judge told him, that ',he appeared 
 to handle the matter rather lamely ; ' to which 
 the other replied, ' with submission, I trust 
 to be able to make the case as plain as the nose 
 in your lordship's face.' Lord Fortescue was 
 very intimate with Pope, and furnished him with 
 the legal burlesque of Stradling versus Styles. 
 
 ALANGI, SANTIAGO DE, a small but rich 
 city of South America, in the province of Terra 
 Firma. It supplies Panama with cattle and fruit. 
 
 ALANGUERA, a town of Portugal, in Es- 
 tremadura, near the Tagus, and between Lisbon 
 and Leiria. It is supposed to have been built 
 by the Alani ; its present name intends, (Alen- 
 kir-kana) the temple of the Alans. 
 
 ALANI, in ancient geography, a mountain of 
 Scythia, on one side of Irraus, and east of the 
 Hyperborean mountains. 
 
 ALANI, or ALANS, a people of Tartar origin, 
 who first settled on the banks of the Jaick, near 
 the districts of Solemskoi and Cufa. They after- 
 wards migrated into the plains northward of 
 Circassia, but in A. D. 130, advanced to the 
 Danube, and in A. D. 406, to the Rhine. Here 
 they united themselves with the Vandals, and 
 traversing Gaul, attacked the Goths and Franks 
 in Spain, but were repulsed, and settled among 
 the Pyrenees. Ammianus says, they had no other 
 houses than their military waggons, though th :y 
 were followed by large flocks and herds, and 
 derived their principal subsistence from their
 
 ALA 4, 
 
 produce. A natural death was thought disgrace- 
 ful to their men ; their horses were caparisoned 
 with the scalps of their enemies ; and they 
 worshipped a naked scimeter placed upright in 
 the ground. 
 
 On the banks of the Tanais, says Mr. Gibbon, 
 the military power of the Huns and the Alani 
 encountered each other with equal valour, but 
 with unequal success. The Iluns prevailed; 
 the king of the Alani was killed ; and the re- 
 mains of the vanquished nation were dispersed 
 by the ordinary alternative of flight or submis- 
 sion. A colony of exiles found a secure refuge 
 in the mountains of Caucasus, 'between the 
 Euxine and the Caspian, where they long pre- 
 served their name and independence. Another 
 colony advanced with intrepid courage, towards 
 the shores of the Baltic ; associated themselves 
 with the northern tribes of Germany, and shared 
 the spoil of the Roman provinces of Gaul and 
 Spain. But the greatest part of the nation of 
 the Alani embraced the offers of an honourable 
 and advantageous union; and the Huns, who 
 esteemed the valour of their less fortunate ene- 
 mies, proceeded with an increase of numbers 
 and confidence, to invade the limits of the 
 Gothic empire. The name of the Alani was 
 finally lost in that of the Goths and Huns. 
 Ammianus, xxxi. 2. De Guignes Hist, des Huns, 
 torn. ii. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Ro- 
 man Empire, vol. iv. p. 373. 
 
 ALANIEH, a town of Asiatic Turkey, occu- 
 pying the site of the ancient Coracesium, a city 
 of Cilicia, near the mouth of a river flowing into 
 the Mediterranean. In this port pirates were 
 shut up by Pompey and compelled to surren- 
 der. It is 110 miles S. S. W. of Konieh. Lon. 
 21. 29'. E. lat. 36. 34'. N. 
 
 ALANORAVIUS, from the Gothic, dan, a 
 greyhound, in our ancient customs, a keeper of 
 or manager of spaniels, or selling dogs, for 
 hunting, hawking, &c. 
 
 ALAPI, in ornithology, a species of the 
 turdus, and the white-backed thrush of Latham. 
 Its specific characters are, the colour above olive- 
 brown, the throat and breast black, the ab- 
 domen cinerous, and the tail wedge-shaped 
 and blackish Its legs are yellowish, the wings 
 above cinerous brown, and superior coverts 
 spotted with white ; the male has a white spot 
 on the middle of the back ; the female none, but 
 its chin is white, the rest of the under-part of the 
 body and the points of the coverts of the wings 
 rusty. Its length is six inches ; it feeds on ants ; 
 seldom flies for any time, though very agile, and 
 is found in the thick woods of Guiana. 
 
 ALAPOULI, in natural history, the name of 
 an East Indian tree, a species of the bilimbi, 
 which is used in medicine, as a purge and vomit, 
 mixed with the seeds of mustard. 
 
 ALAQUECA, in mineralogy, a medicinal 
 stone brought from the Indies, in small glossy 
 fragments ; much praised by some for its efficacy 
 in haemorrhages. 
 
 ALARAF, in the Mahommedan theology, the 
 partition wall that separates heaven from hell. 
 The word is plural, and properly written al araf; 
 in the singular it is al arf, derived from theArabic 
 verb arafa, to distinguish. Al araf gives the 
 
 5-J ALA 
 
 denomination to the seventh chapter of the Alco- 
 ran, wherein mention is made of this wall, 
 Mahomet seems to have copied his al araf, either 
 from the great gulf of separation mentioned in 
 the New Testament, or from those Jewish writers, 
 who speak of a thin wall dividing heaven from 
 hell. Mahommedan writers differ extremely as to 
 the persons who are to be found on al araf. Some 
 take it for a sort of limbus for the patriarchs, 
 prophets, &c. others place here sucli whose good 
 and evil works so exactly balance each other, 
 that they deserve neither reward nor punish- 
 ment ; while a third opinion is, that this inter- 
 mediate space is possessed by those who, going 
 to war without their parents' leave, and suffering 
 martyrdom, are excluded paradise for their diso- 
 bedience, yet escape hell because they are 
 martyrs. See Sale's Koran, preface, &c. 
 
 ALARBES, an Arabian name for those who 
 live in tents, as distinguished from others who 
 live in towns. 
 
 ALARCON, a small town of Spain, in New 
 Castile, near the Xucar, founded in 1178, and 
 afterwards entirely destroyed by the Moors, but 
 rebuilt by Alphonso IX. 
 
 ALARES, in antiquity are supposed by some 
 authors to have been a kind of militia, or soldiers 
 among the Romans ; so called from ala, a wing, 
 because of their lightness and swiftness in the 
 combat. Others make them a people of Pan- 
 nonia; but others with more probability, take 
 alares for an adjective or epithet, and apply it 
 to the Roman cavalry ; because placed in two 
 wings, or alee, of the army ; for which reason, a 
 body of horse was called ala. 
 
 ALARES MUSCULI, in anatomy. See PTERY- 
 
 GOIDEUS. 
 
 ALARGED'. See ENLARGE. 
 
 A ghe corynthis, oure mouth is open to ghou cure 
 herte is alargid ghe ben not angwischid in us, but 
 ghe ben angwischid in ghoure ynwardness and I seie 
 as to sones, ghe that ban the same reward, be ghe 
 alargid. Widif. 2 Corinth, vi. 
 
 ALARIC, a famous general of the Goths, was 
 descended from a noble family, and for some 
 years served in the Roman armies ; but being 
 refused preferment, he revolted, and committed 
 great ravages in the Grecian provinces. He 
 entered Thrace at the head of 200,000 men, and 
 laid waste all the country through which he 
 passed. He marched next into Macedonia and 
 Thessaly, A. D. 396 ; where the Thessalians 
 met him near the mouth of the river Peneas, 
 and killed about 3000 of his army ; nevertheless 
 he advanced into Greece, and having ravaged 
 the whole country, returned to Epirus, loaded 
 with immense spoils. After staying here five 
 years, he resolved to turn his arms to the west. 
 He marched through Pannonia; and finding 
 little resistance, entered Italy, under the consul- 
 ship of Stillicho and Aurelinus, A. D. 400. 
 After various battles and treaties, he at last took 
 Rome by treachery, and permitted his soldiers 
 to plunder it, A. D. 409. Alaric having laid 
 waste a great part of Italy, intended to pass into 
 Sicily; but a storm obliging him to land again, 
 he besieged the city of Consentia ; and having 
 taken it, died there in 411, eleven years after he 
 first entered Italy. lie was buried in the bed of
 
 433 
 
 ALA 
 
 tbe small river Busentinus, which washed the 
 wails of Consentia, and which for this purpose 
 was diverted from its course and then restored ; 
 the place of his interment was further concealed 
 by the massacre of the prisoners who had been 
 employed in the work. Alaric, whatever may 
 be alleged respecting the conduct of his followers, 
 was himself not devoid of humanity, and exhi- 
 bited more moderation and fidelity to his en- 
 gagements than many of the modern class of con- 
 querors. ' He was,' says Dr Lardner, 'a Goth, and 
 therefore was called a barbarian ; but he was a 
 man of a great and generous mind, and a Chris- 
 tian of the Arian denomination. When Rome 
 was sacked and plundered, the calamity was 
 attended with some favourable circumstances, 
 resulting from the generosity of Alaric, and his 
 profession as a Christian. By ordering the lives of 
 men to be spared as much as possible, and the 
 churches to be respected, many Christians and 
 Pagans were preserved. Although, 'adds this 
 candid writer,' the taking of Rome by Alaric was 
 the occasion of many reflections upon the 
 Christians, from which they have been vindi- 
 cated both by Augustine and Orosius, the event 
 was very prejudicial to the interests of Gentilism, 
 and consequently conducive to the progress of 
 the Christian religion.' See Lardner '$ Works, 
 vol. ix. 180. 
 
 ALARIS VEXA, in anatomy, the inmost of the 
 three veins in the bend of the arm. 
 
 L ALARM', v. 4- n.^\ From the Italian, alF 
 ALARM'IKG, I arrnc. To the arms; to 
 ALARM'INGLY, ^arms; to sound to arms ; 
 ALARM'IST, i to announce danger ; to 
 ALAR'UM, v.&cn.J disquiet. Alarum, a cor- 
 ption of alarm. 
 
 Turnus sluggish sloth doth stay, but force with speed 
 
 he bends, 
 Gainst Troians all his power, and on the shore a- 
 
 front them tends. 
 
 They blow alarme, ffineidos, b. x. by Thns. Phaer. 
 When the congregation is to be gathered together, 
 you shall blow; but you shall not sound an alarm. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 God himself is with us, for our captain ; and his 
 priests with sounding trumpets, to cry alarm against 
 you. Chron. xiii. 12. 
 
 Withered murder 
 
 (_ Alarum' d by his sentinel the wolf, 
 Whose howl's his watch) thus, with his stealthy pace, 
 Moves like a ghost. Shakspeare. 
 
 That Almatro might better hear, 
 She sets a drum at either ear ; 
 And loud and gentle, harsh or sweet, 
 Are but th' alarums, which they beat. Prior. 
 Crowds of rivals, for thy mother's charms, 
 Thy palace fill with insults and alarms. 
 
 Pope's Odyssey. 
 The trumpet's loud clangour, 
 
 Excites us to arms, 
 With shrill notes of anger, 
 
 And mortal alarmt, Dryden. 
 
 Taught by this stroke, renounce the war's alarms, 
 And learn to tremble, at the name of arms. 
 
 Pope's Iliad. 
 
 When rage misguides me, or when fearn/arnw, 
 When pain distresses, or when pleasure charms. 
 
 Tichell, 
 
 Man sleeps, and man alone, and man whose fate, 
 Vate irreversible, entire, extreme, 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Endless, hair hung, breeze shaken, o'er the gulf 
 A moment trembles ; drops ! and man for whom 
 All else is in alarm; man, the sole cause' 
 Of this surrounding storm ! and yet he sleeps 
 As the storm rocked to rest. Young . 
 
 It is not without reason that the Apostle represents 
 our passage through this stage of our existence, by 
 images drawn from the alarms and solicitude of a mili- 
 tary life ; for we are placed in such a state that almost 
 every thing about us conspires against our chief in- 
 terests. Ramblu. 
 ALARM, in fencing, denotes a step, or stamp, 
 made on the ground with the advancing foot. 
 It is otherwise called an appel, or challenge. 
 
 ALARM, or rather ALARUM, is also used for an 
 instrument to awaken persons at a certain hour ; 
 one very simple contrivance of this kind, is that 
 used by weavers. See WEAVER'S ALARM. 
 
 ALARM, in military affairs, any notice given 
 either by the beat of the drum or the firing of 
 cannon, &c. which shall cause the men to run to 
 their arms. ALARM POST, in the field, is the 
 spot fixed upon by the quarter-master-general 
 for each regiment to march to in case of an 
 alarm : in the garrison, a similar place is marked 
 out by the governor. ALA-RM-BELL, a bell which 
 is used for the purpose of ringing an alarm, as in 
 case of fire, mutiny, &c. ; called by the French 
 a tocsin. FALSE ALARMS, are stratagems of 
 war, which are employed either by an enemy 
 for the purpose of harassing, or by commanders 
 for the purpose of trying the vigilance of the 
 men. 
 
 ALAS', infer.-j Fr( , nchj hdus Ita , ^ ifajM . 
 ALLACE^. f an exc i amat j on expressing sor- 
 ALLAKE , 4 lamentation, woe. 
 ALACK. J 
 
 He loked on her vgly leper's face, 
 The whiche before was white as lely flour. 
 Wringing his hands, oft times saied alace 
 That he had hued to see that wofull hour. 
 
 Chaucer. Complaint of Creseide, fol. 196. 
 
 Allace, allace! 
 
 I leis my fader, al comfort and solace 
 And al supple of our trauel and pane, 
 Thare, thare allake. Douglas, b. iii. p 93. 
 
 Alas, my father there, my only ioy in care and wo, 
 Anchises I do lose (a/a*) he there departs me fro. 
 
 JEneidos, b. iii. by Thos. Phaet, 
 
 Alacke, the olds prouerbes bee to true : an ape 
 
 although she be clothed in purple, will be but an ape, 
 
 Hall, p, 119. 
 
 But yet, alas ! O but yet, alas ! our haps be but 
 hard haps. Sidney. 
 
 A las, how little from the grave we claim ! 
 Thou but preserv'st a form, and I a name. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 ISAB. Alas, alas ! 
 
 Why all the souls that were, were forfeit once, 
 And he that might the vantage best have took, 
 Found out the remedy. 
 
 Shakspeare'* Measure for Measure. 
 YORK. Yet looks he like a king : behold his eye, 
 As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth 
 Controlling majesty, alack, for woe, 
 That any harm should stain so fair a show. 
 
 Shakspeare s K. Richard II. 
 Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, 
 Nothing goes right ; we would, and we would not. 
 
 Shahsp. Measure for Measure. 
 At thunder now no more I start. 
 Than at the rumbling of a cart : 
 2 F
 
 ALA 
 
 434 
 
 ALA 
 
 Nay (what's incredible) alack, 
 I bardly hear a woman's clack. Swift. 
 
 Alas ! for pity of this bloody field ; 
 Piteous indeed must be : when I, a spirit, 
 Can have so soft a sense of human woes. 
 
 Dry den. 
 
 ALASCANI, in church history, a name that 
 as been sometimes given to the friends of John 
 Alasco. See next Article. 
 
 ALASCO, (John,) a Polish prince of the six- 
 teenth century, who, imbibing the reformed 
 opinions, was expelled his country. He was 
 the uncle of king Sigismund of Poland; was 
 born in 1499, and having received an education 
 suited to hu birth, travelled into foreign coun- 
 tries ; when being at Basil in 1525, he contracted 
 a friendship with Erasmus, which lasted to the 
 death of that great man. In Switzerland, he 
 also formed an acquaintance with Zuinglius, 
 which occasioned his conversion to the protes- 
 tant faith. In 1526, he returned to Poland, and 
 was nominated to the bishopric of Vesprim in 
 Hungary, but his new principles obliged him to 
 decline that station. In 1540, he quitted that 
 country, and two years afterwards undertook the 
 pastoral office at Embden ; but foreseeing perse- 
 cution there, came to England about the year 1 551 , 
 while the reformation was carrying on under 
 Edward VI. The publication of the Interim 
 driving the protestants to such places as afforded 
 them toleration, a considerable congregation 
 arrived at the same time with Alasco, who 
 through the liberal patronage of Archbishop Cran- 
 mer, were naturalized here, and obtained a char- 
 ter of incorporation, independent of the church 
 of England. The Augustine friars church was 
 granted them, with revenues for the maintenance 
 of Alasco as superintendant, and four assistant 
 ministers, who were to be approved by the king. 
 This congregation lived undisturbed until the 
 accession of Queen Mary, when they were all 
 sent away. They were kindly received and 
 permitted to settle at Embden; and Alasco at 
 last, after an absence of twenty years, by the 
 favour of Sigismund, returned to his own coun- 
 try, where he died in 1560. He was much 
 esteemed by Erasmus, who says of him, * that 
 which the young ought to learn of the aged, I, 
 an old man, have learned of this youth ;' he was 
 also the intimate friend of Melancthon. The 
 historians of his time speak greatly in his praise : 
 we have of hii writings, De Ccena Domini 
 Liber; Epistola continens summam Controversise 
 de Coena Domini, &c. He had some particular 
 tenets respecting the presence of Christ in the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 ALASTROB, among alchemists, denotes lead ; 
 though some suppose it to signify calx, 
 
 ALATAMAH A., a noble river of Georgia, North 
 America, which rises in the Cherokee moun- 
 tains, and in its descent receives several auxi- 
 liary streams. After winding with considerable 
 rapidity through a hilly country 250 miles, it 
 throws itself upon the open plains, by the name 
 ofOakmulgee, for 150 miles, and is joined by 
 the Oconee, which likewise has its source in 
 these mountains. After this junction, it assumes 
 the name of Alatamaha, a.nd becomes a majes- 
 tic river, flowing with a gentle current through 
 forests and plains 100 miles, until it discharges 
 
 itself into the Atlantic by several mouths. A 
 northern channel glides by the heights of Darien, 
 about ten miles above the bar, and after several 
 turnings enters the ocean between Sapelo and 
 Wolf islands. The south channel, which is the 
 largest and deepest, after its separation from the 
 north, descends gently between M'Intosh and 
 Broughton islands ; and at last, by the west coast 
 of St. Simon's Sound, between the south end 
 of the island of that name and the north end of 
 Jekyl island, accomplishes its confluence with 
 the Atlantic, where it is 500 yards across. 
 
 ALATE'. See LATE. 
 
 I saw standying the goodly portress, 
 Whyche axed me from whence I came alate. 
 
 Hawet. Tower of Doctrine, c. 4. 
 Where chilling frost alate did nip, 
 
 There flasheth now afire ; 
 Where deep disdain bred noisome hate, 
 There kindleth now desire. 
 
 Greene, Dittie of Doralicia. 
 
 ALATED LEAVES, among botanists, those 
 made up of several pinnated ones, as the orobus. 
 See LEAF. 
 
 ALATERNOIDES, a name given by bo- 
 tanists to the cassine. 
 
 ALATERNUS, in botany, the trivial name of 
 a species of the rhamnus. See RHAMNUS. 
 
 ALATRI, an old town of Italy, seated on a 
 hill, in the Campagna di Roma, forty miles south- 
 east of Rome, and six miles north-west of Veroli. 
 It has a bishop's see. Lon. 13. 9'. Lat. 41. 
 32' N. 
 
 ALATUNGA,in ichthyology, a species of the 
 scomber, having the first pectoral fins very long, 
 and seven small fins on each side of the tail. 
 It is found periodically gregarious in the Me- 
 diterranean. 
 
 ALAT YR, a provincial town and district of Asia- 
 tic Russia, seated on the river Suru, in the circle 
 of Alatyrskoi, and nine miles west of Simbursk, 
 from the capital of which it is distant about 100 
 miles. The houses of the town are all of wood ; 
 but here are five churches, besides a convent. 
 
 ALAVA, a district of Spain, twenty miles in 
 length and seventeen in breadth, called also 
 ALABA, which see: Victoria is the capital. 
 
 ALAUDA, in entomology, a species of Cur- 
 culio ; cinereous, sub-globose thorax, back marked 
 with a transverse band and black spots, and 
 brown legs : found in Pomerania. 
 
 ALAUDA, in ichthyology. See BLENNIUS. 
 
 ALAUDA, or LARK, in ornithology, a genus 
 of birds of the order of passeres ; the characters 
 of which are these : the beak is cylindrical, su- 
 bulated, straight ; and the two mandibles or chaps 
 are of equal size. The tongue is bifid, and the 
 hinder claw is straight, and longer than the toe. 
 There are twenty-eight species of the alauda, of 
 which the following are the most remarkable. 
 
 1. ALAUDA ALPESTRIS, the chief wing-feathers 
 are half white, the throat yellow, and it has a 
 black streak under the eyes and on the breast. 
 It inhabits North America, where it is migra- 
 tory. It visits Albany the beginning of May, 
 but goes farther north to breed. In winter it 
 comes in vast flocks into Virginia and Carolina. 
 It feeds during its stay in the more southern 
 parts on oats and other grain ; and while at 
 Albany, on the grass and sprig-birch. It runs
 
 ALA 
 
 435 
 
 ALA 
 
 into holes; whence the natives of these last 
 parts have given it the name of chi-chup-pi-sue. 
 The English call it the ortolan, and reckon it 
 delicious eating. By some it is called snow- 
 bird, as being very plentiful in that season. It is 
 always seen on the ground and has little or no 
 song. This bird we hear of in Germany also ; 
 and it abounds throughout Russia and Siberia. 
 
 2. ALAUDA ARBOREA, or wood-lark, a native 
 of Europe, and distinguished by an annular 
 white fillet about the head. It is inferior in 
 size to the sky-lark, and is of a shorter, thicker 
 form ; the colours are paler, and its notes less 
 sonorous and varied, though not less sweet. It 
 perches on trees, and whistles like the black- 
 bird. It will sing in the night ; and, like the 
 common lark, sings as it flies.. It builds on the 
 ground, and makes its nest on the outside with 
 moss, within of dried bents lined with a few 
 hairs. The males of this and of the pratensis 
 are known from the females by their superior 
 size. But this species is not numerous. 
 
 3. ALAUDA ARVENSIS, or common sky-lark. 
 This and the wood-lark are the only birds that 
 are known to sing as they fly ; this raising its 
 note as it soars, and lowering it till it quite dies 
 away as it descends. It will often soar to such 
 a height, that we are charmed with the music 
 when we lose sight of the songster ; it also be- 
 gins its song before the earliest dawn. Milton, 
 in his Allegro, most beautifully calls upon, us 
 
 ' To hear the lark begin his flight, 
 And singing startle the dull night, 
 From his watch-tower ia the skies, 
 Till the dapple dawn doth rise.' 
 And bishop Newton observes, that the scene of 
 rural cheerfulness thus exhibited, not only gives 
 us a fine picture of the poet's regularity of 
 life, but of the innocency of his mind. It conti- 
 nues its harmony several months, beginning early 
 in the spring, on pairing. In the winter they as- 
 semble in vast flocks, grow very fat, and are 
 taken in great numbers. They build their nest 
 on the ground, beneath some clod, forming it of 
 hay, dry fibres, &c. and lay four or five eggs. 
 They are taken in great quantity, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Dunstable ; the season begins about 
 the twelfth of September, and ends the twenty- 
 fifth of February. Vastly greater numbers, how- 
 ever, are at times caught in different parts of 
 Germany, where there is an excise upon them. 
 Keyster says, that the excise in his time pro- 
 duced 6000 dollars (about 1400 sterling) every 
 year to the city of Leipsic. They are also taken 
 in great numbers in the country about Naum- 
 burg, Merseburg, and Halle. 
 
 4. ALAUDA CAMPESTRIS, has one half of its 
 chief feathers of the wing brown, except two in 
 the middle which are white, and the throat and 
 breast are yellowish. 
 
 5. ALAUDA CRISTATA, the chief tail-feathers are 
 black, but the two outermost are edged with white, 
 and the head is crested. It is a native of Europe. 
 It sings well, like the sky-lark : lays four or five 
 eggs ; and is said to hatch twice in a year. 
 
 6. ALAUDA MAGNA, the great lark, is yellow 
 on the belly, with a crooked black streak on the 
 breast, and the three side-feathers of the tail white. 
 It is a native of Africa and America. 
 
 7. ALAUDA PRATEMSIS, or tit-lark, has the two 
 outward feathers of the wing edged with white, 
 and frequents the meadows. It is found fre- 
 quently in low marshy grounds : like other larks, 
 it builds its nest among the grass, and lays five 
 or six eggs. Like the wood-lark, it sits on trees; 
 and has a most remarkably fine note, singing in 
 all situations, on trees, on the ground, while it 
 is sporting in the air, and particularly in its de- 
 scent. This bird, with many others, such as the 
 thrush, black-bird, willow-wren, &c. become 
 silent about midsummer, and resume their notes 
 in September : hence the interval is the most 
 mute of the year's three vocal seasons, spring, 
 summer, and autumn. Perhaps the birds are 
 induced to sing again as the autumnal tempera- 
 ment resembles the vernal. 
 
 8. ALAUDA SPINOLETTA, the chief tail-fea- 
 thers are black, only the outermost two are ob- 
 liquely half white. It is a native of Italy. 
 
 9. ALAUDA TRIVIALIS, whose chief feathers 
 on the tail are brown, only half of the outermost 
 is white at the end, in the shape of a wedge ; 
 there is likewise a double whitish line on the 
 wings. It is a native of Sweden, and perches 
 on the tops of trees. 
 
 10. ALAUDA ZEELANDIS:, the New Zealand 
 lark, is seven and a half inches in length : the 
 bill is half an inch, of a pale ash-colour, with 
 the upper part black : the upper parts of the 
 body are dusky, edged with pale ash-colour : 
 the breast and belly are white ; the legs reddish 
 ash-colour, and the claws black. It inhabits 
 Charlotte Sound, and is called kogoo aroure. 
 
 ALAUNA, the ancient name of Alnwick in 
 Northumberland. See ALNWICK. 
 
 ALAUSI, a district of the kingdom of Quito, 
 South America, bounded on the north by the 
 province of Riobamba, north-west by Chimbo, 
 south by Cuenca, west by the district of Yagu- 
 ache, and east by that of Macas. It is moun- 
 tainous, but the country is pleasant, and yields 
 every kind of American fruit and grain. The 
 capital has flourishing manufactures of cloths, 
 baizes, and cotton garments, a good parish church, 
 and a convent of the order of St. Francis. It 
 stands in Lon. 78. 39'. W. Lat. 2. 12'. N. 
 
 ALAUSI, a river of South America, which has 
 its rise in the desert of Assuay, in the kingdom 
 of Quito, and flowing down the western side of 
 the Cordilleras, discharges itself into the bay of 
 Guayaquil. 
 
 ALAY, in Turkish customs, a kind of military 
 triumph at the opening of a war. It is an ex- 
 hibition of the most insipid buffoonery, and bar- 
 barity. That which took place tfpon occasion 
 of a late war between the Porte and Russia is 
 described by Baron Tott in his Memoirs as 
 follows : ' It consists in a kind of masquerade, 
 in which each trade successively presents to the 
 spectators the mechanical exercise of its respec- 
 tive art. The labourer draws his plough, the 
 weaver handles his shuttle, the joiner his plane ; 
 and these different characters, seated in cars 
 richly ornamented, commence the procession 
 and precede the standard of Mahomet, when ft 
 is brought out of the seraglio to be carried to 
 the army, in order to ensure victory to the Otto- 
 man troops. This banner of the Turks, which 
 
 2 F3
 
 LB 
 
 436 
 
 ALB 
 
 they name Sandjack Cheriff, or the Standard of 
 the Prophet, is so revered among them, that, 
 notwithstanding its reputation has been so often 
 tarnished, it still retains their implicit confidence, 
 and is the sacred signal to which they rally. 
 Every thing proclaims its sanctity. None but 
 the emirs are allowed to touch it ; they are its 
 guards, and it is carried by their chief. The 
 Mussulmen alone are permitted to look upon 
 it. If touched by other bands, it would be de- 
 filed ; if seen by other eyes, profaned. In short, 
 it is encompassed by the most barbarous fana- 
 ticism. A long peace had unfortunately caused 
 the ridiculousness, and especially the danger, 
 of this ceremony to be forgotten. The Chris- 
 tians imprudently crowded to see it ; and the 
 Turks, who, by the situation of the houses, could 
 make money of their windows, began to profit 
 bv the advantage; when an emir, who preceded 
 the banner, proclaimed with a loud voice, ' Let 
 no infidel dare to profane with his presence 
 the holy standard of the prophet ; and let every 
 Mussulman who perceives an unbeliever make 
 it known under pain of reprobation. From that 
 moment no asylum was to be found ; even those 
 became informers, who, by letting out their 
 houses, had rendered themselves accomplices in 
 the crime. A religious fury seized on every 
 mind and put arms in every hand ; the more 
 atrocious the cruelty, the more was it meiito- 
 rious. No regard was paid to sex or age ; preg- 
 nant women, dragged by the hair, and trodden 
 under feet by the multitude, perished in the 
 most deplorable manner. Nothing was respected 
 by these monsters ; and under such auspices the. 
 Turks commenced the war.' 
 
 ALAY, among sportsmen, a term borrowed 
 
 perhaps from the above ceremony, to express 
 
 fresh dogs sent into the cry. 
 
 ALB, or > Lat. albus, white. The priest's 
 
 ALBE, n. ) vestment in the Catholic church, 
 
 answering to the surplice of the English church, 
 
 excepting that the alb is made close at the wrists. 
 
 Of preste pow has no mcrke, albe ne now amite 
 
 Bot laced in a hauberke, pai is no clerk is abits. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 319. 
 
 And Moses brought Aaron and hys sonnes, and 
 wasshed them with water, and put upon him an ulbe, 
 and girded him wt a girdle. Bible, 1539. ieo.viii. 
 
 Each priest adorned was in a surplice white ; 
 
 The bishops donn'd their albs and copes of state. 
 
 Fairfax. Tauo. ii. 4. 
 
 ALB, from albus, white, in ecclesiastical his- 
 tory, a white vestment usually worn for eight 
 days, in the ancient churches, by the newly bap- 
 tized. The Sunday after Easter was called Do- 
 minica in albis, on account of the albs worn by 
 the Neophites, who were baptized on Easter- 
 day. It is also a name for the surplice of the 
 Romish priests. 
 
 ALB is also a name of a Turkish coin, other- 
 wise called asper. See ASPER. 
 
 ALBA, an ancient town of the Marsi in Italy, 
 on the north side of the Lacus Fucinus, which 
 still retains its original name. It stands upon 
 an eminence, and is noted in Roman history for 
 being the state prison to which captive princes 
 were committed, after being dragged through 
 the streets of Rome at the chariot wheels of a 
 
 triumphant consul. Perses king of Macedon ter- 
 minated his wretched career in this confinement, 
 with his son, the last hope of an illustrious Lne 
 of kings. Syphax the Numidian, and Bituinus 
 king of the Averni were also condemned to this 
 gaol by the particular clemency of the senate ; 
 which sometimes indulged its savage disposition 
 by putting its captives to death. Alba being 
 situated in the centre of Italy, amidst difficult 
 mountainous passes, and far from all means of 
 escape, was considered a proper place for the 
 custody of prisoners of importance. Artificial 
 strength was added to its natural security, and 
 traces of its solid fortifications remain to this 
 day. For the entertainment of the garrison, an 
 amphitheatre was erected, and Lucius Vitellius, 
 brother to the emperor of that name, had a villa 
 in the neighbourhood, famous for the variety and 
 excellence of its fruit-trees. His gardens were 
 the nurseries where several of the most delicious 
 stone-fruits, that are now so common in Europe, 
 were first cultivated and multiplied. 
 
 AI.BA, a fortified town of Upper Italy,, in 
 Piedmont, situated on the river Tanaro, nine- 
 teen miles south-east of Turin. Anciently it 
 was a principal city of Old Liguria. It is now 
 the see of a bishop, and contains, besides the 
 cathedral, three parish churches, and seven con- 
 vents. Population about 9000. 
 
 ALBA LONGA, in ancient geography, a city 
 of Latium, in Italy, built by Ascanius, after La- 
 vinium had stood thirty years, on the Mons 
 Albanus (afterwards so called from the city) ; 
 and on the spot where a white sow was found, 
 as foretold to ./Eneas. Virg. JEn. 1. viii. v. 43, 
 and 83. Aurel. Viet. c. 19. Livy, 1. i. c. 3. only 
 says, that the population of Lavinium becoming 
 too great for it, Ascanius founded Alba Longa, 
 and removed the people thither. The city con- 
 tinued to be the capital of the kingdom for three 
 centuries, but Rome eclipsed its glory, and Tul- 
 lus Hostilius destroyed it entirely, B. C. 666, 
 and transferred its inhabitants to Rome. Livy 
 1. i. c. 29. But the temple, which was in a 
 grove on the mountain, and in which Jupiter 
 was worshipped, was spared. Strabo, \. v. 
 Cicero, Orat. pro MUone, c. 31. The Mons Al- 
 banus, in later ages, became celebrated for the 
 palaces and villas erected on it ; among which 
 was a very magnificent one belonging to Pom- 
 pey. Cicero,Ibid. See ALBANUS. 
 
 ALBA POMPEIA, in ancient geography, a town 
 of Liguria, on a small river called the Ceba. 
 From the evidence of some inscriptions, it is 
 supposed to have been a colony planted by 
 Pompey, or to have been settled by Scipio, 
 and restored by him. The Roman emperor, 
 Pertinax, is said to have been born there ; but 
 Julius Capitolinus (in vita) assigns him a dif- 
 ferent birth-place. The town is now called 
 ALBA, as above. Plin. 1. iii. c. 7. Ptolemy, 1. 
 iii. c. 1. 
 
 ALBA JULIA, now WEISSENBURG, a town of 
 Transylvania, on the river Marisius, or Merisch, 
 to the west of Hermanstat, supposed to have 
 been named after Julia Domna, the mother of 
 Caracalla. There are, however, several inscrip- 
 tions found at or near Weissenburg, which bear 
 Col. Apul. that is, Colonia Apulensis, without
 
 ALB 
 
 437 
 
 ALB 
 
 the rfast mention of Alba Julia, though inscribed 
 after Caracalla's time. And Ulpian, reciting the 
 colonies of Dacia. calls this colony Apulensis 
 but neither Alba nor Julia. From all which 
 there is a suspicion that Alba Julia is a cor- 
 ruption of Apulum. It was also called Apu- 
 lum Augustum. Long. 25. 0'. E. Lat 46 
 46'. N. 
 
 ALBACETE, anciently called Cetide, a small 
 but busy town of Spain, in the province of 
 Murcia, about eighty miles from Valencia. There 
 is a good trade here in wine, saffron, corn, and 
 oil. Its fair, or market, held in September, has 
 long been famous for cattle. 
 
 ALBAN, ST. a celebrated saint and martyr of 
 the third century, who is said to have been the first 
 person who suffered martyrdom for Christianity 
 in Britain ; and is therefore usually styled the 
 proto-martyr of this island. He was born at 
 Yerulam, and in his youth took a journey to 
 Home, in company with Amphibalus a monk 
 of Caerleon, and served seven years as a soldier 
 undei the emperor Dioclesian. At his return he 
 settled in Verulam ; and, through the example 
 and instructions of Amphibalus, renounced the 
 errors of paganism, .in which he had been edu- 
 cated, and became a convert to the Christian re- 
 ligion. It is generally agreed that Alban suffered 
 martyrdom during the great persecution under 
 Dioclesian, ; but authors differ as to the year when 
 it happened : Bede and others fix it in 286 ; some 
 refer it to the year 296 ; but Usher places it in 
 303. His martyrdom, according to Bede, hap- 
 pened thus : Being as yet not known to be a 
 Christian, he entertained Amphibalus in his 
 house ; of which the Roman governor being in- 
 ibrmed, sent a party to apprehend Amphibalus ; 
 but Alban, putting on the habit of his guest, 
 presented himself in his stead, and was carried 
 before that magistrate. The governor having 
 asked him of what family he was ? Alban re- 
 plied, ' To what purpose do you enquire of my 
 family ? if you would know my religion, I am a 
 Christian.' Then being asked his name, he 
 answered, ' My name is Alban ; and I worship 
 the only true and living God, who created all 
 things.' The magistrate replied, ' If you would 
 enjoy the happiness of eternal life, delay not to 
 sacrifice to the great gods.' Alban answered, 
 ' The sacrifices you offer are made to devils ; 
 neither can they help the needy, or grant the 
 petitions of their votaries.' His behaviour so 
 enraged the governor, that he ordered him im- 
 mediately to be beheaded. In his way to exe- 
 cution, he was stopped by a river, over which 
 was a bridge so thronged with spectators that it 
 was impossible to cross it ; the saint, as we are 
 told, lifted up his eyes to heaven, when the 
 stream was miraculously divided, and afforded a 
 passage for himself and 1000 more persons. 
 Bede does not indeed give us the name of this 
 river ; but the omission, we suppose, will not 
 cause the miracle to be less believed. This won- 
 derful event converted the executioner upon the 
 spot, who threw awa^" his drawn sword, and, 
 falling at St. Alban's feet, desired he might 
 nave the honour to die with him ; which circum- 
 stance occasioned a delay in the execution till 
 another person could be got to perform the office ; 
 
 St. Alban therefore walked up to a neighbourin 
 hill, where he prayed for water to quench his 
 thirst, and a fountain sprang up under his feet ! 
 Here he was beheaded on the twenty-third of 
 June. The executioner is said to have been a 
 signal example of divine vengeance ; for as soon 
 as he gave the fatal stroke his eyes dropt out of 
 his head. We conclude with the words and 
 feelings of Milton in regard to this narrative ; 
 who, speaking of St. Alban, says, 'The story of 
 whose martyrdom, foiled and worse martyred 
 with the fabling zeal of some idle fancies, more 
 fond of miracles than apprehensive of the truth, 
 deserves no longer digression.' See ST. ALBAN'S. 
 
 Dr. Southey says, ' Monkish writers have dis- 
 figured this story with many fictions in their 
 wonted manner ; but there is no room to ques- 
 tion that the main facts are historical truths/ 
 Book of the Church, vol. i. p. 13. 
 
 ALBAN, ST. a considerable town of France, in 
 the district of Gevaudan, in Languedoc, arron- 
 dissement of Marvejols. The inhabitants, who 
 amount to 2100, are chiefly employed in the 
 manufacture of woollen stuffs. It is twenty-one 
 miles west of Mende. 
 
 ALBANA, in ancient geography, a sea-port 
 town of Albania, on the Caspian Sea, between 
 the rivers Cfesius and Albanus; now called 
 Bachu, or Bachy, giving name to the Caspian 
 Sea, viz. Mar de Bahu. 
 
 ALBAN ENSES, in church history, another 
 name for the Albigenses, according to some 
 writers. Those, who would distinguish them, 
 attribute the same opinions to both ; only mak- 
 ing the Albanenses to have been prior in respect 
 of time, being known to exist towards the close of 
 the eighth century; whereas the Albigenses did 
 not appear till the twelfth. See ALBIGENSES. 
 
 ALBANI, or ALBANO, (Francis) a celebrated 
 painter, born at Bologna, in 1578. His father 
 was a silk-mercer, and intended to bring up -his 
 son to that business ; but Albani having a strong 
 inclination to painting, when his father died, de- 
 voted himself entirely to that art, though then 
 but twelve years of age. He first studied under 
 Denys Calvert; and Guido Rheni being at the 
 same time under this master, the pupils con- 
 tracted a warm friendship. Calvert drew but 
 one profile for Albani, and afterwards left him 
 entirely to the care of Rheni ; whom he followed 
 to the school of the Caraches : but envy poisoned 
 the intercourse of the young artists ; when Rheni 
 had set up a beautiful altar-piece, Albani would 
 oppose to it some fine picture of his : and yet 
 they spake of each other with the highest re- 
 spect. Albani having greatly improved himself 
 under the Caraches, went to Rome, where he 
 continued many years, and married ; but his 
 wife dying, he returned, at the request of his re- 
 lations, to Bologna. His second wife, Doralice, 
 was well descended, though possessed of little 
 fortune ; and so beautiful, that Albani sought no 
 other model for his finest representations of the 
 sex. She brought him several fine children, who 
 were also the originals of some of his best corn- 
 positions. From them too, the famous sculptors, 
 Flamand and Argaldi, modelled their Cupids. 
 Alban's painl ings, says Malvasia, breathe nothing 
 but content and joy." He died in 1660. King
 
 438 
 
 ALBANIA. 
 
 Charles I. invited him to England by a letter 
 signed with his own hand . 
 
 ALBANI, in antiquity, a college of Salii, or 
 priests of Mars, instituted by Tarquin, and de- 
 nominated from mount Albanus, the place of 
 their residence. 
 
 ALBANI, in writers of the middle age, denotes 
 strangers or foreigners ; answering to what we 
 call aliens. 
 
 ALBANI, (Alexander,) a cardinal and virtuoso, 
 was born at Urbino in 1692, being raised to the 
 rank of cardinal by Innocent XIII. He died 
 much esteemed in 1779. The villa Albani was 
 famous for beautiful statues, paintings, &c. His 
 late majesty in 1762, purchased for 14,000 
 crowns the collection of drawings, amounting to 
 three hundred volumes, one-third of which were 
 originals of the first masters, and the remainder 
 most excellent engravings. This prelate was 
 librarian to the Vatican, and author of some ce- 
 lebrated literary and political works. 
 
 ALBANI, (John Francis,) cardinal, nephew, 
 and heir of the above, was also a patron of the 
 fine arts. He increased the library of his uncle 
 from twenty-five to thirty thousand volumes. In 
 the year 1793 it was computed that the villa 
 Albani contained nearly two hundred thousand 
 works of art and specimens of antiquity, all of 
 which were dispersed or carried away when the 
 French entered Rome. They are accused of a 
 great want of generosity in this instance. On 
 
 the election of Pius VII. cardinal Albani re- 
 turned to Rome, but could never muster sufficien* 
 fortitude to visit his dilapidated villa. He died 
 in 1803, with the character of being one of the 
 most affable, and accomplished persons of the 
 age. Athenaeum, vol. iii. 
 
 ALBANI, (Aloisia de Stolberg, countess of), 
 wife of prince Charles Edward Lewis Stuart, 
 commonly known by the name of the Pretender, 
 is celebrated as the ' mia donna' of the Italian 
 poet Alfieri. The life of this lady was throughout 
 an unhappy one : in the possession of great 
 beauty and accomplishments, she was united to 
 a coarse, licentious, and intemperate husband 
 early in life. His disgusting habits are con- 
 firmed by the accounts of his most devoted 
 friends, and were in fact, the final cause of the 
 extinction of his party in England. She was 
 compelled at length to take refuge from his bru- 
 tality in a convent, where she remained till his 
 death in 1788. Her own took place at Florence, 
 January 29, 1824, in her seventy-second year. 
 Gent, Mag. 
 
 ALBANO, or ALBANI, (Giovanni Battista,) the 
 brother and disciple of Francesco, was princi- 
 pally devoted to landscape painting, which he 
 designed in exquisite taste ; touching the trees 
 with spirit, and giving them a great sweetness 
 of colour. His general style, both in manner 
 and colouring, resembled that of his brother. He 
 died in 1668. 
 
 ALBANIA. 
 
 ALBANIA, in ancient geography, a province 
 of Asia, bounded by the Caucasian mountains 
 on the north, the Caspian sea on the east, Ar- 
 menia on the south, and Iberia on the west. 
 According to several ancient writers, its chief 
 cities were Teleba, Thalbis, Geld a, Thiauna, 
 Thabilaca, Albana, Chadaca, Misia, Boziata, and 
 Cabalica, which last Pliny calls the metropolis. 
 Its rivers were Cyrus or Cyrnus, now Kur, 
 Albanus, Caesius, Gerrhus, Soana, Cambyses, 
 and Alazon; which discharge themselves into the 
 Caspian sea. This country is that now known 
 by the names of Shirwan and East Georgia, 
 and is extremely fertile and pleasant. The in- 
 habitants have been represented as tall, robust, 
 graceful, and comely in their persons ; and simple 
 in their manners. Strabo, torn. 2. p. 767. 
 Pliny says, they were of a white complexion, 
 and could see as well by night as by day. H. N. 
 torn. i. p. 371. They worshipped as gods the 
 sun, Jupiter, and the moon. Tacitus, lib. 5, and 
 Pliny, torn. i. p. 311. trace their origin to the 
 Thessalians, who attended Jason in his expedi- 
 tion to Colchis, and settled in this part of the 
 isthmus, between the Euxine and Caspian seas. 
 Justin, lib. xiii. describes them as being de- 
 scended from the inhabitants of Alba in Italy. 
 
 Ammianus Marcellinus derives them from the 
 Massagetae. Strabo says, this country included 
 no tewer than twenty-six kingdoms or principali- 
 ties, speaking as many languages ; but the Albani 
 overcoming the other tribes, became masters of 
 the whole, and established a regular succession 
 of kings, of whom we read occasionally in history, 
 
 from the time of Alexander the Great. At the 
 invasion of Pompey, they brought into the field 
 60,000 foot and 12,000 horse; and though 
 Pompey was victorious, he was obliged to retire. 
 
 We have no account of any of their kings till 
 the time of Alexander the Great, when the king 
 of Albania is said to have presented that monarch 
 with a dog of extraordinary size and swiftness. 
 Pliny, torn. i. p. 465. Oroeses the next king, 
 was defeated by Pompey, and obliged to retire 
 to Mount Caucasus. Pharasmenes, another king 
 of Albania, committed great devastations in 
 Armenia, Media, and Cappadocia, and was sum- 
 moned by the emperor Adrian. This sum- 
 mons he refused to obey, but in lieu thereof 
 sent a number of such great coats as were 
 then worn, made of cloth of gold, in which the 
 emperor, as an insult to the king, ordered 300 
 criminals to be clothed, and in that attire to fight 
 the wild beasts in the public theatre. After the 
 death of Adrian, he attended the summons of 
 Antoninus Pius, on which occasion he was re- 
 ceived with respect and courtesy. Two other 
 kings of Albania are mentioned in history, one 
 of whom was cotemporary with Valerian, and 
 the other with Constantius, the son of Constan- 
 tine the Great. The race of Albanian kings 
 were continued down to the time of Justinian II. 
 who is said by Zonaras and other writers, Anc. 
 Univ. Hist. vol. ix. p. 122 126, to have sub- 
 dued the country by his general Leontius. 
 
 ALBANIA, a city of Asia, in Assyria, occupying 
 a site east of the river Titana. 
 
 ALBAS IA, in modern geography, called by
 
 ALBANIA. 
 
 439 
 
 tLe Turks, Arnaut, is a province which, though 
 in fact nearly independent, nominally forms one 
 of the provinces of the Turkish empire. It ex- 
 tends from the thirty-ninth to the forty-third de- 
 gree of latitude, for the space of about 250 miles 
 along the east of the Adriatic and Ionian seas. 
 The breadth inland nowhere exceeds one hundred 
 miles, and in the southern part not more than 
 thirty. It is bounded on the north by Dalmatia 
 and Servia, and on the south by Livadia. Its 
 eastern boundaries are not distinctly ascer- 
 tained. The chain of Pindus,now the mountains 
 of Sagori, Metzovo, and of Suli, separate it by 
 an ill-defined line, from Macedonia and Thes- 
 saly. To use the language of a late publication, 
 f Were a line drawn in the Suli mountains, from 
 about the narrowest breadth from the sea above 
 cited, and extended to the country of the Montene- 
 grins, a distance of about 250 miles, where this 
 province has its greatest breadth, it would com- 
 plete as correct an outline of Albania, as in the 
 present imperfect state of its geography our 
 latest travellers will enable us to describe.' 
 loannina, the capital of a district of that name, 
 eastward, would be about twenty miles to the 
 south-east of this line, and here resided the enter- 
 prizing Albanian chief, Ali Pasha, who lately 
 commanded the entire resources of this interesting 
 country.' Albania thus comprehends in its widest 
 sense the ancient Illyricum and Epirus, and is 
 included by the Turks in the government of 
 Romania. 
 
 The natural features and beauties of this 
 country, together with its most striking topogra- 
 
 Ehy are exhibited in the following beautiful 
 nes from Lord Byron's Childe Harold: 
 Land of Albania ! where Iskander rose, 
 Theme of the young, and beacon of the wise, 
 And he his name-sake* whose oft baffled foes 
 Shrunk from his deeds of chivalrous empriza : 
 Land of Albania ! let me bend mine eyes 
 On thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men ! 
 The cross descends, thy minarets arise, 
 And the pale crescent sparkles in the glen, 
 
 Through many a cypress grove within each city's ken. 
 Morn dawns, and with it stern Albania's hills, 
 Dark Sulis' rocks, and Pindus' inland peak, 
 Rob'd half in mist, bedewed with snowy rills, 
 Arrayed in many a dun and purple streak, 
 Arise ; and, as the clouds along them break, 
 Disclose the dwelling of the mountaineer ; 
 Here roams the wolf, the eagle wets his beak, 
 Birds, beasts of prey, and wilder men appear, 
 
 And gathering storms around convulse the closing 
 
 year. 
 
 Ambracia's gulf behold, where once was lost ! 
 A world for woman, lovely, harmless thing 
 In yonder ripling bay, their naval host 
 Did many a Roman chief and Asian king 
 Look where the second Caesar's trophies rose ! 
 To doubtful conflict, certain slaughter bring : 
 Now like the hands that rear'd them withering : 
 Imperial anarchs doubling human woes ! [lose ? 
 
 God ! was thy globe ordained for such to win and 
 From the dark barriers of that rugged clime, 
 Ev'n to the centre of Illyria's vales, 
 Childe Harold passed o'er many a mount sublime, 
 
 * Iskander is the Turkish word for Alexander, 
 the Christian name for Scanderberg ; whose coun- 
 tryman Mr. Gibbon makes Alexander the Great. 
 
 Through lands scarce noticed in historic tales ; 
 Yet famed in Attica, such lovely dales 
 Are rarely seen ; nor can fair Tempe boast, 
 A charm they know not ; loved Parnassus fails, : 
 Though classic ground, and consecrated most 
 To match some spots that lurk within this lowering 
 coast. 
 
 The capital of Albania was formerly Albano- 
 poli ; but it is now Durazzo. The other prin- 
 cipal towns are Scutari, Dulcigno, Antivari, 
 Croya, Alesso, Velona, Dataro, Dibra, &c. 
 Amongst the lakes we may reckon Scutari. The 
 most remarkable river is the Delichi, formerly 
 called Acheron ; and, to the class of mountains, 
 we may refer the Acroceraunian, or mountains of 
 Chimaera. The soil of this province is extremely 
 fertile, producing excellent wine. Its manufac- 
 tures are chiefly carpets. 
 
 The climate of Albania is mild and healthy. 
 In the spring there is seldom much rain, or a 
 long continued drought. The autumnal rains 
 last about a month. In the close of the season, 
 the country is truly delightful ; the sky presents 
 the most perfect clearness, and the middle of the 
 day is as warm as our June. The winter lasts 
 but two months in the year, and in summer the 
 heat is oppressive. 
 
 Though Albania has frequently changed its 
 name, its masters, and its boundaries, a people 
 have been embosomed in its mountains from 
 time immemorial. The Greek Illyricum, and 
 the Roman Epirus, of which Albania nearly 
 occupies the site, were, however, described as 
 barbarous, because unexplored and unconquered 
 regions. The natives called by the Turks Ar- 
 nauts, are descended from the ancient Illyrians, 
 whose language and habits are still preserved 
 amongst the mountaineers, and have been called, ; 
 from their simple and primitive mode of life, the 
 Scythians of the Turkish empire. 
 
 Thucydides denominated the Albanians by the 
 general term barbarous, and applies it to a people 
 on the coast of Epirus, opposite the island of Sy- 
 bota ; and Strabo expressly states, that the Epirotic 
 tribes were mixed with the Illyrian, and spoke 
 two languages, probably their own vernacular 
 tongue, and the Greek language, as the Albanians 
 do to this day. The people have been commonly 
 represented as extremely uncivilized. Polybius 
 calls the Illyrians the enemies of all nations ; and 
 Livy attributes the ferocity of one of the four 
 Roman divisions of Macedonia, to the fact of 
 its lying contiguous to these people. Epirus, 
 and that part of Illyricum, subsequently dis- 
 tinguished by the term New Epirus, neither the 
 Greeks nor the Romans were able properly to 
 civilize. Ptolemy, the earliest geographer, who 
 mentions the Albani of this district, represents 
 them as a small tribe cf Illyrians, possessing the 
 small town of Albanopolis, of which we hear no 
 more for several centuries. It is then described 
 as Albanon, Arbanon, and Elbanon, a town com- 
 manding the passes ' leading from the country 
 about Lychnidus, to the maritime plains.' Anna 
 Comment. 1. xiii. Accropolita, c. 14, 25. A 
 tradition exists in the country, that the name of 
 this town was derived from some obscure con* 
 nexion with Alba in Italy. The situation of the 
 country induced the Greeks of the lower empire;
 
 440 
 
 ALBANIA. 
 
 to apply the name of Albanoi, to all the nations 
 of these, and the contiguous mountains ; and to the 
 country itself, that of A\f3avia, AX/Savjjria, and 
 Ap[3avi)Tia. But the inhabitants call the coun- 
 try Skiperi, and an Albanian, they call Skipetar. 
 
 The great divisions of modern Albania, accord- 
 ing to Major Leake, who is allowed to be the 
 best informed traveller on this head, are those 
 formed by the varieties of the native tribes. 
 Those which are principally recognized, are the 
 Ngege, the Toske, the Liape, and the Tzami. 
 The Ngege, or Ghegides, possess the northern 
 district, as far as the ancient Genusus, and 
 Kavaia. Their principal towns are Dulcigno, 
 Scutari, and Durazzo. The Toske inhabit the 
 great plains of Mizakie and Malakastra, extend- 
 ing from the hills of Dyrrhachium to Berat and 
 Avlowa, also the mountains bordering on the south 
 side of these plains as far as Lopesi, Tepelini, 
 and Klisara, which are situated on the ancient 
 Aous, the modern Viosa, and the mountains 
 which stretch into Macedonia as far as the dis- 
 trict of Koretza. Their chief towns are Berat 
 and Elbasan, the latter of which is the ancient 
 Albanopolis ; and the former, next to Skodre, the 
 most important place in the Albanian terri- 
 tory. The Liape, a poor predatory race, inhabit 
 the wild mountains and the sea coast, extending 
 from Toskeri, south as far as the plain of Del- 
 vino. The Tzami inhabit all the regions south 
 of the river Kalama, anciently called Thyamis, of 
 which the present name of the tribe is supposed 
 to be a corruption. It extends inland towards 
 loannina, and is called Dai by the Albanians, 
 Tzamouria by the Greeks. The chief places are 
 Suli (the Selli of Strabo), Paramithia, Parga, 
 Liuarati, Aghia, and Margarita. The inferior 
 districts, which, it is presumed, have been de- 
 tached from the above by the different masters 
 of Albania, comprehend the maritime region 
 opposite Corfu, called Parakalamo, the plain of 
 Delvino, near the ancient Phoenice, Deropul, 
 Zagonia, and the mountains east of Deropul, 
 Reze, Kara-Murata, Kolonia, Premedi, and 
 Khimara. The districts of Konitza, Paleo-Po- 
 goniana and loannina, are considered rather as 
 conquests of the Albanians than proper divisions 
 of the country. 
 
 Although Albania from time immemorial has 
 been distinguished by the rude valour of its in- 
 habitants, its remote situation, and want of union 
 among its tribes, generally prevented it from 
 acting any conspicuous part in Grecian politics. 
 The only remarkable exception occurs in the 
 reign of Pyrrhus II. who has been justly cele- 
 brated as one of the greatest captains of antiquity. 
 After the death of this illustrious commander, 
 the country was again divided into a number of 
 petty states, which fell under the power of the 
 kingdom of Macedon. 
 
 The Romans gladly availed themselves of the 
 xrany fine harbours of the coast ; and the traces 
 of the Ignatian road which communicated from 
 Apollonia to Thessalonica, a distance of 262 
 Roman miles, are still visible. After the decay 
 of the Roman puwer, Alaric and the Goths took 
 possession of the country. Some of their de- 
 scendants are afterwards mentioned as having 
 retained possession of the northern district 
 
 Sidismund is particularized for his alliance with 
 Theodoric the Great. It was afterwards the prey 
 of the Sclavonian tribes during the eighth, ninth, 
 and tenth centuries. Of these, the Bulgarians 
 were the most prominent. In 870, Achris, or 
 Ocreda, the ancient Lychnidus, was the residence 
 of the Bulgarian kings,and the see of an archbishop; 
 the ancient Nicopolis, and ultimately the whole 
 region, fell under the power of the same race, as 
 is evident from the united testimony of many 
 celebrated historians. ' It was in these ages of 
 the Bulgarian prowess,' says Major Leake, in his 
 Researches in Greece, 4to. p. 240, 241, ' that 
 the remains of the Illyrian and Epirotic nations 
 became finally included within the boundaries 
 which they have ever since held. 
 
 It was during the decline of the Greek empire 
 that the Albanians gradually rose to distinction ; 
 and at last, to independence. Such was their 
 valour, that they were able to maintain their 
 ground against the Bulgarians, who had occupied 
 all the neighbouring districts of Greece. In the 
 year 1079, historians particularly distinguish 
 them. They formed one of the four divisions of 
 the army of Nicephorus Basilaces, and were 
 found to be very important auxiliaries. The 
 Roman kings of Sicily obtained settlements on 
 this coast, as did the Franks and other nations, 
 in their alliance, during the period of the cru- 
 sades. On the dismemberment of the Oriental 
 empire, by the conquest of Constantinople in 
 1204, Michael Angelus, illegitimately related to 
 the imperial family, established a despotate in 
 this district, embracing Acarnania, j^Etolia, and 
 Epirus, together with the towns of loannina, 
 Arta, and Naupactus. This, with some trifling 
 interruption, continued an independent kingdom 
 until 1431, when it fell under the Turkish yoke. 
 The despots of Epirus during this period were 
 counted as allies, not only by the surrounding 
 states, but even the imperial family ; and exer- 
 cised a powerful influence on the neighbouring 
 politics. In 1383 they -were defeated by the 
 Turks ; but under the command of their cele- 
 brated leader, George Castriot, commonly called 
 Scanderberg, they survived and baffled all the 
 efforts of Mahomet II. the conqueror of Con- 
 stantinople, who, after his entrance into Albania, 
 experienced a succession of defeats and mortifi- 
 cations, till he was ultimately obliged to acknow- 
 ledge its independence by a formal treaty. The 
 porte had undisputed dominion over the rest of 
 northern Greece. On the death of Scanderberg 
 the Turks redoubled their efforts, and at length 
 reduced Albania to nominal subjection. The 
 siege of Scutari, or Scodra, in 1478, which is 
 perpetuated by Marinus Barletius, a contempo- 
 rary biographer and eye-witness, formed the 
 termination of this memorable struggle. The 
 subjection, however, was always imperfect ; re- 
 volts were frequent ; and the Venetians who, after 
 aidiag them in the siege, obtained some towns, 
 and established themselves in the contiguous 
 Ionian islands, co-operated in preserving their 
 independence, and preventing their complete 
 subjection to the Ottoman faith. Islamism has 
 therefore been far from common ; and the Porte 
 has rarely been able to enforce a more absolute 
 submission to its orders than of late years, when
 
 ALBANIA. 
 
 441 
 
 every provincial governor first establishes his 
 influence over the country ; and afterwards ap- 
 plies to the Constantinopohtan government for 
 a sanction to his authority. Motives of pay and 
 plunder appear to have had more weight in 
 Albania than any other species of influence ; and 
 this was the ruling motive which prevailed upon 
 the Albanian soldiers to unite themselves with 
 the Turkish army. In proportion, however, as 
 the Ottoman empire declined in vigour, its hold 
 of this celebrated kingdom became less firm, till 
 at length the enterprizing genius of Ali Pasha, 
 again converted this dependency into what may 
 almost be called a separate kingdom. From the 
 vigorous influence of the above-mentioned chief 
 upon the history and politics of Albania, we 
 shall here present the reader with a brief narra- 
 tion of his history, referring the detail of his 
 memoirs to a separate article. 
 
 Until the middle of the last century the king- 
 dom of Albania was divided into several inde- 
 pendent pashaliks ; of which those of loannina, 
 Delvino, and Berat, possessed considerable mili- 
 tary force. In 1751, the chief in question was born 
 at Tepelini, a small town in the interior, where 
 his father, a pasha of two tails, exercised a limi- 
 ted jurisdiction. When he was of the age of 
 fifteen years his father deceased, and left the 
 young chief in a very critical situation. He used 
 to boast that he began his fortunate career with 
 sixty paras and a musket ; and an Albanian who 
 attended Mr. Hobhouse said, he remembered to 
 have seen the pasha with his jacket out at elbows. 
 Ali shortly after his inauguration was driven from 
 Tepelini, and abandoned by almost all his 
 followers. The inhabitants of Gardiki, a neigh- 
 bouring town, next formed a plan for his de- 
 struction ; and for this purpose, surrounded him 
 in a village in the night time, where, although 
 he effected his escape, they seized his mother and 
 his sister, and treated them with every indignity, 
 injuries for which he took a dreadful ven- 
 geance. After his escape, he first entered into the 
 service of Coul, the neighbouring pasha at Berat, 
 and the most important of the chiefs of Albania ; 
 where, by his address and activity, he so far in- 
 sinuated himself as to marry the pasha's daugh- 
 ter. Shortly afterwards he overthrew the pashalik 
 of loannina, which (under the sanction of the 
 Porte) he made the centre of his future fortunes ; 
 and whence, by money, artifice, force, and treach- 
 ery, he extended his authority. The pashalik of 
 Arta now submitted to his arms ; and the Porte 
 appointed him derveni-pasha of Romelia, guar- 
 dian of all the passes of the country. In 1798 
 he was appointed vizier, or a pasha of three tails 
 (a title of honour derived from the number of 
 horses' tails carried before great officers in pro- 
 cession.) His father-in-law being dead, he 
 attacked and defeated the pashas of Berat and 
 Delvino in 1811 and 1812 ; by which means, he 
 gained the finest parts of Albania, and a popula- 
 tion of between 200,000 and 300,000 souls. He 
 was induced for some time to preserve pasha 
 Ibrahim in authority at Berat, and contracted 
 with the family, marriages for his sons. The 
 reduction of Prevesa, Vonitza, and Karlili, or 
 A carnania, conferred new lustre onhisenterprizes; 
 ana Tepelini (with its inhabitants) now fell into 
 
 his power. His series of good fortune had not 
 obliterated the remembrance of the wrongs he 
 formerly received from these people, and he re- 
 solved upon taking a signal revenge : he pre- 
 tended, with his usual duplicity, an oblivion of 
 all grounds of resentment, until he had completely 
 enclosed the city with his troops, when he ordered 
 all the inhabitants who were supposed to have 
 been involved in the guilt, to the number of 700, 
 to be dragged into a large khan near the city, 
 where they were bound together with cords, and 
 on a signal given by Ali, the soldiery stationed 
 on the walls with their musquetry, commenced 
 a most unmerciful fire, which they continued till 
 they were all destroyed. The Suliotes, a people 
 inhabiting the Suli, an almost inaccessible range 
 of mountains, proved the most formidable adver- 
 saries with whom Ali had to contend. The Suli 
 are placed in the southern extremity of the Al- 
 banian territory ; and beneath them winds a river, 
 conjectured by Dr. Holland and others, to be 
 the Acheron of the ancients ; the strength of these 
 native bulwarks, the warlike habits of the people, 
 and their contempt of death, rendered them the 
 terror of the Albanians, whom they frequently 
 invaded, while no foreign power ventured to scale 
 the tremendous barriers by which they were 
 guarded. Ali, however, accomplished the diffi- 
 cult project, and entered their retreat ; where, after 
 a furious resistance; till the natives were partly 
 extirpated, he acquired permanent possession. 
 
 The extent of this chief's dominions are dif- 
 ficult to define, or the degree of authority which 
 he possessed. Even within Albania, Scutari was 
 independent. They are supposed to have been 
 bounded on the north by an irregular line, from 
 Durazzo to the Gulf of Salonica,and to have includ- 
 ed the mountainous district of Macedonia, nearly 
 the whole of Thessaly, and part of Livadia. On 
 the east they were bounded by those of Ismael 
 Bey, who rules over the plains of Macedonia. 
 The power of this great man was almost abso- 
 lute ; and while little attention was paid to the 
 imperial firman, a letter with the signature com- 
 manded implicit obedience. The Albanians are 
 said to have been enthusiastically attached to 
 him, and to have admired the energy of his 
 character ; .so that when they heard of any other 
 chief, they used to cry, ' he has not a head like 
 Ali.' It was this, in all probability, which, if 
 it did not invite, at least accelerated, the hand of 
 rivalry 
 
 The terms on which the Albanian vizier held 
 his government, in relation to Constantinople, 
 may be understood from the preceding account 
 of his character and progress. The Porte ac- 
 knowleged his titles as conferred by the sultan, 
 and the vizier -made -a formal acknowledgment 
 of the imperial authority by the respectful re- 
 ception of an annual finnan from Constantino- 
 ple, to which he remitted considerable sums in 
 the shape of a karach or capitation-tax, rents, 
 impost, &c. But in the internal government of 
 Albania the Turks had no interference whatever; 
 nor in Ali Pasha's alliances with foreign states, 
 from which he received and sent agents regularly 
 in his own name. England, France, and Russia, 
 generally kept a consul here ; and the political 
 information of the court of loannina was said to
 
 442 
 
 ALBANIA. 
 
 be superior to that of Constantinople. The pro- with prompt and decisive action, which indicates 
 cress of this enterprizing chief was long viewed a mind equally formed for politics and for war. 
 with jealousy and alarm, but a mutual fear pre- He is remarkable for his address, both in gaining 
 vented hostilities between him and the Porte ; friends, and in lulling asleep the suspicions of 
 the latter not being in a condition to hazard his bitterest enemies. But if his abilities are of 
 driving him into an open rebellion. Prudential a superior order, his dispositions are of a kind 
 reasons therefore suggested the propriety of their which render him an object of fear and detesta- 
 investing him, by means of their firman, with tion. His cruelty rather resembles that of an 
 the sovereignty of all the provinces he won by Indian savage, than of even the least civilized Eu- 
 his sword. Similar motives, perhaps, induced ropean. Impaling and roasting alive are among 
 him to pay an outward deference to the Porte, the common punishments reserved for those who 
 and aid them against foreign enemies. He have unhappily offended him. The fierceness of 
 marched against Paswan Oglou, and was pre-- his cruelty is only exceeded by the depth of his 
 sent at the siege of Widden. His son Mouctar dissimulation. It is impossible for the most skil- 
 Pasha, also distinguished himself greatly in the ful observer to conjecture, from his outward de- 
 late war against the Russians. The Porte most portment, the real sentiments with which he 
 ardently wished him to repair to Constantinople; regards any individual. The only observable 
 and even offered him, in that case, the dignity difference consists in a peculiar kindness of 
 of grand vizier ; but AH uniformly refused their manner towards those unfortunates, whose cruel 
 kindness, knowing that his arrival at that metro- doom he has silently and unrelentingly sealed, 
 polis would be the immediate signal for striking ' It is nevertheless pleasant,' says Dr. Holland, 
 off his head. The lale emperor, Napoleon, < to be able to allege, as one proof of his supe- 
 courted his favour, and is said to have offered him rior understanding, a degree of freedom from 
 the dignity of king of Albania; but Ali viewed the national and religious prejudices rarely to be 
 designs of that ambitious despot with too much found among Turkish rulers. He has studiously 
 alarm to admit him as an auxiliary. To England, adopted into his territory several of the improve- 
 therefore, he invariably attached himself, with ments of the more cultivated nations ; he has 
 whose interests and politics Dr. Holland thought destroyed the numerous bands of robbers who 
 him well acquainted. infested the peaceful inhabitants of the country ; 
 
 The military force of Ali was calculated at by his direction roads have been made, bridges 
 100,000 men ; his disposable force in the field, constructed, and agricultural improvements at- 
 however, seldom exceeded 15,000, or his stand- tempted. This laudable spirit has added respect 
 ing army 10,000, of which 5000 were generally to the terror inspired by his government ; and 
 stationed round his capital. His treasures even those who, out of the immediate reach of 
 arose, first, from a land-tax, amounting to his power, can venture to express hatred of his 
 about ten per cent, of the produce ; secondly, a tyranny, are obliged to allow, that Albania is 
 tax levied on cities and towns in the shape of a more happy and prosperous under his single 
 requisition ; thirdly, customs which he raised, and stern dominion, than when divided among 
 to about six per cent. ; and fourthly, the inhe- numerous chieftains, and harassed by incessant 
 ritance of all who die without male heirs, W ars. From this opinion, no deference to the 
 together with other sources too numerous to par- principles of despotism can be inferred. The 
 ticularize. His residence was in an immense experience of history has proved that a single 
 building near loannina, the outer courts of which tyrant is less injurious to the happiness of a peo- 
 were crowded with soldiers, and persons of all pl e , than tyranny divided among several ; and 
 descriptions who might have petitions to present the vizier of Albania has himself become a des- 
 to him. The mysterious awe which he com- potj on i y b y th e annihilation of the many despots 
 manded, was, to Dr. Holland, astonishing. He w ho preyed on that heretofore distracted and 
 exercised in person the whole judicial capacity, divided country.' 
 
 in which his decisions were equitable; and all Lord Byron describe* his visit to the Pasha's 
 petitioners, on their approach, used to kneel and court mtfte following beautiful lines: 
 kiss his garments. He rose at six in the morn- 
 ing, and, with the exception of an hour at dinner 
 and an hour at supper, spent the whole day in 
 business. He is said to have been extremely 
 temperate at table ; and in his haram, seldom 
 retaining more than 300 females. According 
 to the most accurate information we have been 
 able to obtain, the following description of his 
 character, from a late publication, is just and 
 impartial; and although written in Ali's life- 
 time, we transcribe entire. 'Ali is now (1815) 
 sixty or sixty-one years of age ; his figure is cor- 
 pulent and unwieldy, his neck short, his stature 
 about five feet nine inches. The expression of 
 his countenance is striking and majestic ; and 
 
 his features give no indications of those terrible The deeds that lurk benealh > and stain him WIth dls - 
 qualitics by which he is characterized. His abi- lt is not that h lengthening beard, 
 lilies are certainly of no mean order. He djs- m suits the pass i on s which belong to youth; 
 plays that union of deep thought and contrivance Love conquers age so Hafiz hath averred, 
 
 To greet Albania's chief, whose dread command 
 Is lawless law ; for with a bloody hand 
 He sways a nation, turbulent and bold : 
 Yet here and there some daring mountain-band 
 Disdain his power, and from their rocky hold 
 Hurl their defiance far, nor yield, unless to gold. 
 
 In marble-paved pavilion, where a spring 
 Of living water from the centre rose, 
 Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling, 
 And soft voluptuous couches breathed repose, 
 ALI reclined, a man of war and woes ; 
 Yet in his lineaments we cannot trace, 
 While gentleness her milder radiance throws 
 Along that aged venerable face, [grace.
 
 ALBANIA. 
 
 443 
 
 So sings the Teian, and he sings in sooth 
 But crimes that scorn the tender voice of truth, 
 Beseeming all men ill, but most the man 
 In years, have marked him with a tyger's tooth ; 
 Blood follows blood, and, through their mortal 
 
 span, 
 
 In bloodier acts conclude those who with blood be- 
 gan. 
 
 This despot was finally defeated by the Turks, 
 and died in a manner suited to his desperate life, 
 being cut down by Turkish officers in 1822. See 
 ALI PASHA. 
 
 The physicians of Albania, in the consider- 
 able towns, are Greeks, and are for the most 
 part well informed men. The surgeons are 
 Albanians, and very ignorant. Some of their 
 methods are very curious. Mr. Hobhouse de- 
 scribes the practice of kneading the shoulders, 
 and pulling the limbs for a cold ; and another 
 practice in case of ferers, equally curious. The 
 patient stretches out his arm, and the doctor 
 rubs his thumb along the principal artery, from 
 the wrist up to the shoulder : having by a repeti- 
 tion of this operation thrown the man into a 
 perspiration, he covers him up warm, and leaves 
 him in a fair way of recovery. 
 
 The Albanians 'are of a middle stature; small 
 round the loins, the chests full and broad, the 
 eyes quick and lively. They wear a tight girdle 
 round the waist, and puncture and stain their 
 skin. The women bear many marks of misery, 
 and are rather masculine in their appearance. 
 Their common dress is a coarse cotton, with the 
 head covered by a shawl, clasped under the ears. 
 Some of them have a white woollen dress; and 
 the young women have frequently a scull-cap, 
 under which the hair is braided, and flows down, 
 strung with all their smaller pieces of money. The 
 women in general have a fantastic taste in their 
 dress, and are not very cleanly in their habits. 
 The common attire of the men is a shirt of cot- 
 ton, drawers of the same materials, a white 
 woollen mantle, and a large great coat or capote 
 with loose open sleeves, and a white woollen or 
 horse-hair band, which often hangs in a small 
 piece behind, but when used upon the head, is 
 pinned into form by a long needle or a pistol 
 ramrod. Their girdle is a coarse shawl, drawn 
 very tight by a belt, containing their pistols; 
 when they rest, they loosen them, and draw their 
 capote about them, and seldom have any other 
 covering. In the summer they throw off the 
 capote and mantle. The poorest Albanian has 
 his pistols in his belt, and also a case knife 
 ornamented, and the handle strung with amulets, 
 and the calamaro, a sort of portable ink-stand 
 and pen, of which they are very proud. Their 
 dress is the most elegant of any used in the 
 Turkish empire, and the agas who can afford it, 
 have it made of rich velvet, embroidered and 
 worked with gold and silver; superadding 
 another, which is a kind of jacket without 
 sleeves. Lord Byron says, the resemblance be- 
 tween the Albanians and the Highlanders struck 
 him forcibly. The inhabitants are very dextrous 
 at the long gun, one of which is to be found in 
 every cottage. 
 
 The cottages are neat, consisting for the most 
 nurt of one floor, divided into two rooms, in one 
 
 of which they keep their maize in the stalk or 
 their grapes, which they spnnkle with salt to 
 preserve them. Each person has a small garden, 
 and each village a green for holiday sports, and 
 a circular piece of paved ground attached to it, 
 on which their corn is trodden out by eight or 
 nine horses driven abreast from a stake fixed in 
 the centre. Their food is chiefly vegetables ; all 
 classes drink wine, and also an ardent spirit 
 called rackee, extracted from grapes, husks, and 
 barley ; they also drink water in large draughts 
 during the most violent exercise without incon- 
 venience. The inhabitants are generally tem- 
 perate and avaricious, but withal are idle and 
 ignorant. They think it honourable to rob, but 
 disgraceful to steal. 
 
 Their forms of salutation are curious : from the 
 rising of the sun to three hours afterwards, they 
 say, ' mire nestrascia, 1 or ' nestrascia emire,' good 
 morning. From the third hour to noon, ' mire 
 minghiessi,' a good cheese-making to you, this 
 being cheese-making time. Good day, good 
 evening, and good night, are much the same as 
 with us. To a man in his own house, they say, 
 ' mire mbe sctepij,' well at home. To a person 
 at work, they say, ' mire mbe pune,' well at your 
 work ; and to those who are reclining in the sun, 
 ' mire mbe dieli,' well in the sun. They are fond 
 of music and dancing; but their execution in 
 both these exercises is extremely imperfect. 
 Notwithstanding these deficiencies, as soon as 
 the daily occupation is over, they begin to sing 
 and play ; and each Albanian is his own composer 
 and poet. In their dances there is only one va- 
 riety : either the hands of the party are locked in 
 each other behind their backs ; or every man has 
 a handkerchief in his hand, which is held by the 
 next to him, and so on through a long string of 
 them. The first is a slow dance ; the party stand 
 in a semicircle, and their musicians in the middle, 
 continually walking from side to side, accom- 
 panying the movements with their music, which 
 are nothing but the bending and unbending the 
 two ends of the semicircle, with some slow foot- 
 ing, and now and then a hop. In the handker- 
 chief dance, which is accompanied with a song 
 from themselves, they are often violent. It is 
 upon the leader of the string that all the princi- 
 pal movements devolve ; and all the party take 
 this place by turns. He begins with the song, 
 footing quietly from side to side ; then he hops 
 forward, dragging the whole string after him in 
 a circle ; and then twirls about, dropping fre- 
 quently on his knee; and rebounding from the 
 ground with a shout, continues hopping, twirling, 
 rebounding, &c., and then gives his place to the 
 next man, and so on all round the company, 
 each endeavouring to exceed his predecessor in 
 the quickness of his evolutions and movements. 
 Two or three old men often sit in the middle to 
 set the songs, &c. The same dance can be exe- 
 cuted by one performer. Mr. Hobhouse saw 
 a boy of about fifteen, who, by the ease with 
 which he performed the pirenette, and other dif- 
 ficult movements, made a very agreeable specta- 
 cle. Their chief instruments are the lute, three- 
 stringed guitar, with a very long neck, and a 
 small round base, played with a plectrum forme/1 
 of a pie'ce of quill half an inch in length.
 
 444 
 
 ALBANIA 
 
 Their trade is considerable. The exports con- 
 ducted through the gulf of Arta, are grain, 
 timber, oil, tobacco, cotton, wool, &c. Fifty 
 cargoes of grain are annually sent to the Ionian, 
 isles, Italy, and Malta. The timber is grown 
 almost on the shores ; and during the revolu- 
 tionary war, a French agent resided at Arta for 
 the purpose of contracting for supplies of it. 
 Tobacco is cultivated in Upper Albania ; cotton 
 is received through Thessaly, and exported to the 
 German and Italian ports of the Adriatic. The 
 only manufactured article exported is the capote, 
 which produces 150,000 piastres annually. The 
 imports are sugar, coffee, cloths, linen, fire-arms, 
 ironmongery, gunpowder, &c. The Albanians 
 are connected with the Greek houses at Trieste, 
 and Maltese houses, through which they receive 
 the manufactures of Great Britain. The people 
 have, from remote antiquity, been distinguished 
 for their contempt of death ; and can endure, 
 beyond most men, the extremes of heat and cold. 
 A soldier being condemned to death, was on his 
 way to the place of execution, which was situated 
 without the walls of Prevesa, <md being arrived 
 about halfway, he said to his conductors, ' why do 
 you wish me to travel half a league farther, in the 
 hottest part of the day, can't you hang me here?' 
 The favour was granted, and he put the rope round 
 his own neck. The same contempt of death is 
 common. They delight in the title of Palikari, 
 which signifies brave. Their discipline is very im- 
 perfect ; they have so little knowledge of rank and 
 file, that 6000 men would straggle over five or 
 six leagues in marching. They begin their 
 battles with loud shrieks and reproaches, which 
 they renew at every pause. Their fire commences 
 nt their own will ; and, in battle, each troop col- 
 lects round its chief, and fights separately from 
 the neighbouring one. Their usual arms are, 
 two pistols in the girdle, an atagar, or cutlass, 
 slightly bent forward, somewhat resembling the 
 harpion of the- Greeks, a sabre bent backward, 
 hung horizontally to a belt, and a musket. In 
 fight, they are impatient to come to close quar- 
 ters with their side arms, with which they mostly 
 succeed. The professions of the Albanians, are 
 shepherd, warrior, and agriculturist; and although 
 they have a university in loanniana, superintended 
 by eminent Greek professors, the fine arts are 
 
 unknown, and the mechanical arts are chiefly, 
 practised by foreign residents. 
 
 AH Pasha established a complete system of 
 religious toleration. The Mussulman and the 
 Greek church are, however, the two most promi- 
 nent religions. The Mahommedan makes no diffi- 
 culty in observing Easter, and the Greeks often 
 assist at Mussulman ceremonies. Rhamazan re- 
 minds us of the old fable of beauty and the beast ; 
 and after an obsequious courting, who knows but 
 the nuptials may be completed, and they may both 
 be identified in one despotism of moral empire. 
 The general morals are indifferent. The remains 
 of a feudal independence keep, the clans in a 
 constant anarchy ; and though under the general 
 jurisdiction of a rigid government, the bones 
 and tombs, scattered every where, evince the fre- 
 quency of desperate quarrels and seditions. The 
 gypsies, called by the Turks Tchinguenes, are 
 numerous in this country. The rights of hospi- 
 tality are as much respected here, as in Greece 
 during the early ages. Should a mountain traveller 
 enter the house of even a robber chief, he may 
 rely on protection and kindness. Homer's 
 descriptions are still realized here. When a 
 stranger arrives at a village, he is surrounded by 
 the chiefs, invited to the public square, when the 
 old men interrogate him respecting his travels, 
 his country, &c., and relate their chief affairs. 
 He is presented with wine and fruits. At the 
 time of repast, he is invited to one of their 
 houses, a sheep roasted whole is placed before 
 him, and he is admitted to eat with the principal 
 inhabitants. 
 
 The Albanian, or Skipetaric, is not a written 
 language. Sometimes the Greek characters have 
 been used to represent Albanian words; but the 
 Greek being familiar to the higher classes of 
 society, is commonly the language used in 
 writing. Major Leake has formed a vocabulary 
 and a grammar of the vernacular tongue ; and 
 Mr. Hobhouse, in the appendix to his travels in 
 this country, gives an abridgment of an Albanian 
 grammar, formed in 1716, by an Italian mis- 
 sionary. The chief peculiarity of utterance is 
 the predominance of the nasal sounds. Leake's 
 Researches in Greece. Hollands Travels. Vuu- 
 doncourfs Memoirs of the Ionian Islands. Hob- 
 house's Albania. 
 
 ALBANO, a lake of Italy, in the Campagno 
 di Roma, of an oval figure, and about seven miles 
 in circumference, surrounded on every side with 
 hills. It abounds with excellent fish, and in one 
 place is said to be unfathomable. An aqueduct, 
 constructed by the Romans, B. C. 398, is still 
 in good preservation here. - 
 
 ALBANO, a town of Italy, seated on the lake 
 of that name. See last article. Some suppose 
 this to have been the ancient Albanum Pompeii, 
 built out of the ruins of Alba Longa. It stands 
 twelve miles south-east of Rome, and for the 
 pleasantness of its situation is the summer re- 
 tirement of a great many Roman families. It is 
 likewise the see of a bishop, who is one of the 
 six senior cardinals. The town is famous for its 
 excellent wine, and the ruins of a mausoleum, 
 
 which, according to the tradition of the inhabi- 
 tants, was made for Ascanius. The prospect 
 from the garden of the Capuchins is extremely 
 pleasant, taking in the Campania of Rome, and 
 terminating in a full view of the Tuscan sea. 
 Close by the town lies the Albano, which, by 
 reason of the high mountains round it, looks like 
 the area of a great amphitheatre. The mountain 
 of Albano is called Monte Cavo, on the top of 
 which was a celebrated temple, dedicated to 
 Jupiter and Juno. Near the Capuchins there is 
 another convent of Franciscans ; and not far 
 from thence the palace of cardinal Barberini, 
 remarkable for very pleasant gardens, with the 
 ruins of ancient baths, and several old fragments 
 of Mosaic work. Lon. 12. 50'. E. Lat. 41 
 43'. N.
 
 ALB 
 
 445 
 
 ALB 
 
 fc 
 
 : 
 
 ALBANO, a town of Naples, remarkable for the 
 fertility of the surrounding territory. 
 ALBANOIS. See ALBANENSES, and ALBI- 
 
 ENSES. 
 
 ALBAN'S HEAD, or HIGHLAND, ST. a cape, 
 r point of land lying in the county of Dorset, 
 a little east of the town of Weymouth. W. Lon. 
 2. 10. N. Lat. 50. 4'. 
 
 ALBAN'S, St. a town of Hertfordshire, in the 
 hundred of Cashio, a very great thoroughfare, 
 accompanied with good inns, 21 miles N. by W. 
 from London, and 12 miles S. E. of Dunstable. 
 This town sends two members to parliament, 
 elected by all the inhabitants who pay scot and 
 lot ; and has one of the best markets for wheat 
 in England ; considerable quantities of straw- 
 plait are also brought here. St. Alban's is seated 
 near the ruins of an ancient Roman city, by 
 Tacitus called Verulam ; and by the Saxons 
 Watlingcester, because it is seated on the road 
 called Watling-street. The site is said to have 
 been in more ancient times that of the metropolis 
 of Britain. Here queen Boadicea, at the head 
 of a powerful army, made a vigorous assault 
 upon the rising Roman colony ; and the elegant 
 pen of Tacitus has recorded the failure of her 
 enterprize, after an immense slaughter. Nothing 
 now remains of Verulam but the ruins of old 
 walls, in the fields adjacent to which Roman 
 coins are still found occasionally, as they for- 
 merly found tesselated pavements. In memory 
 of St. Alban, Offa, king of the Mercians, anno 
 795, erected an abbey, calling it St. Alban's ; 
 and near it the town of the same name was after- 
 wards built. Edward VI. granted it a charter, 
 incorporated it under a mayor and burgesses. 
 Charles II. afterwards vested the government in 
 a mayor and twelve aldermen, twenty-four assis- 
 tant burgesses, a high steward, recorder, coroner, 
 &c. The jurisdiction of this town extends to 
 Rickmansworth, Watford, Barnet, Langley-Ab- 
 bots, Estree, Bushby, &c. It has a gaol delivery 
 the first Thursday after the quarter-sessions at 
 Hertford. The market-house and the town-hall, 
 in which all the public business of the town is 
 transacted, and under which is the borough gaol, 
 stand in St. Peter's street. The churches are 
 St. Alban's, St. Michael's, St. Peter's, and St. Ste- 
 phen's. The celebrated duchess of Marlborough 
 endowed nine alms-houses, for thirty-six decayed 
 men and women, with a pension of 12 annually. 
 The church of the abbey still remains; time and 
 weather have made it look like stone although 
 built of brick. When the monasteries were dis- 
 solved, the revenues of St. Alban's were esti- 
 mated at 2510 6s. \d. according to Speed ; and 
 the townsmen paid 400 to prevent the church 
 being levelled with the ground. They have since 
 converted it into a parish church,which for large- 
 ness, beauty, and antiquity, has claims not often 
 rivalled. It formerly had a fine font of solid 
 brass, in which the children of the kings of Scot- 
 land were in ancient times baptized; and which 
 was brought from Edinburgh by Sir Philip Lea, 
 when the city was in flames ; but in the civil 
 Wars it was taken away. Not many years since 
 a leaden coffin was discovered in the church, 
 said to be that of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, 
 youngest son of Henry IV. The body was almost 
 
 entire, being preserved in a sort of pickle. There 
 was also once a stately cross in the middle of the 
 town, as there were in many other places where 
 queen Eleanor's body rested, when it was brought 
 out of the north for interment at Westminster ; 
 but it has been demolished. The market is on 
 Saturday. The inhabitants, about 5000 ; and 
 those who pay scot and lot about 600. This 
 town gave the title lord Verulam to Bacon, who 
 was buried in St. Michael's church. In 1451, 
 and 1461, two celebrated battles between the 
 houses of York and Lancaster, were fought near 
 this spot. 
 
 ALBANUM, among chemists, denotes salt or 
 urine. 
 
 ALBANUM MONS, in ancient geography, now 
 called Mont Albano, sixteen miles from Rome, 
 near where Alba Longa stood. 
 
 ALBANUS MONS, in ancient geography, to the 
 north of Istria, called Albius by Strabo ; the 
 extremity of the Alps, which, together with the 
 mountains to the east joining it, called Monies 
 Bebii, separated the farther Liburnia and Dal- 
 matia from Pannonia. 
 
 ALBANY, a county of the state of New York, 
 on Hudson's river, between Ulster and Saratoga; 
 by which, with Schenectady county, it is 
 bounded on the north, having the county of 
 Hudson or Rensselaer on the east ; Green county 
 on the south ; and Schoharie county on the west. 
 It comprehends an extent of about 462 square 
 miles, and is of early origin. The state of which 
 it forms a part became a regular settlement, 
 under the Dutch, about the year 1614; and in. 
 1691, Albany county sent two representatives, 
 or delegates, to its first legislative assembly. It 
 has a great variety of soil and produce, is 
 agreeably diversified with hills and dales; and 
 watered by numerous navigable creeks, lakes 
 and rivers. In some places, particularly near 
 its northern boundary, the land is nearly barren 
 indeed, though this county is deemed one of no 
 small importance in North American statistics, 
 the progress of cultivation does not appear to 
 have been very rapid. The population in 1810 
 amounted to 34,600. 
 
 ALBANY, the capital of the above county, and 
 of the state of New York, is situated on the 
 western banks of the Hudson, about 160 miles 
 north of New York city, and 394 miles south of 
 Quebec. In a statistical point of view this is 
 one of the most important cities in the United 
 States. It derives considerable advantages from 
 its situation, as a point of communication on the 
 great roads between the eastern states and western 
 country. In 1797, it is said to have contained 
 about 6000 inhabitants ; and in 1810, to have 
 doubled that number. Here are several good 
 places of worship for the episcopalians, presby- 
 terians, the baptists, the methodists, &c. ; and 
 several noble public buildings connected with 
 the municipal government of the city, the com- 
 merce, amusements, &c. of the inhabitants. 
 Near the capitol or state-house, a reservoir of 
 hewn stone, constructed on a rising ground, re- 
 ceives the water from a spring a few miles distant, 
 and the inhabitants are thus plentifully supplied 
 witli water through numerous small aqueducts. 
 There are works here and in the neighbourhood
 
 446 
 
 ALBANY. 
 
 for the manufacture of mustard, chocolate, to- 
 bacco, snuff, starch, &c. equal in extent of busi- 
 ness to any on this continent. The climate is 
 healthy ; and the inhabitants a mixture of almost 
 every nation. The communication between this 
 place and the city of New York, has, within 
 these few years past, been greatly facilitated by 
 the construction of steam boats, which perform 
 their passages in about thirty-five hours, notwith- 
 standing some rapids and shoals which are found 
 in the passage; and also against the tides, 
 which often are strong in the current of the river. 
 
 ALBANY RIVER, in North America, after run- 
 ning in a north-east direction, falls into St. 
 James's bay. It communicates with several 
 small lakes southward of Winnipeg Lake. 
 
 ALBANY, the modern district of the colony 
 of the Cape of Good Hope, toward which the 
 emigration of our countrymen has been recently 
 encouraged by government. Its Dutch name is 
 Zuurveldt ; and it forms a sub-division of the 
 Drosdy of Uitenhagen. The interest which 
 must now be attached to this spot by many 
 British families, will warrant our noticing it in a 
 distinct article. For more general views of the 
 colony, see CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
 
 The district of Albany was the ancient pos- 
 session of the Gonaquas Hottentots, a race that 
 is now lost among the Caffres or other native 
 tribes. It is bounded on the north and north- 
 east by Caifraria from which it is separated by 
 the Great Fish River, east and south by the 
 Indian Ocean, and west by other parts of the 
 district of Uitenhagen, from which it is divided 
 by the Sunday River. Its average breadth in- 
 land is about thirty miles, and its length seventy 
 miles, containing 2000 square miles, or 1,280,000 
 acres of land, of which about 1,000,000 acres 
 are unsettled, and destined to be those which 
 shall be first cleared and occupied by the British 
 emigrants. 
 
 The Fish River is the principal stream of this 
 part of the colony, and attracted the attention of 
 the Portuguese so far back as the year 1498, 
 when the admiral of their India fleet called it 
 after his own name Rio d'Infante, and induced 
 his government, on his return, to attempt a set- 
 tlement on its banks. It is generally understood, 
 on the faith of the Dutch authorities, (for it is 
 remarkable, that no accurate survey of the colony 
 of the Cape is in the hands of government,)* 
 
 * Truth compels us to state,' says an able article 
 on ' the Cape of Good Hope' in the Quarterly 
 Review, No. XLIII. < that, during the last twenty 
 years we have held possession of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, not a single survey has been made : 
 that it is not known what extent of land is 
 cultivable ; what rivers are navigable ; to sum 
 up all in one word, there exists no detailed in- 
 formation on which the government at home can 
 venture to make a single grant.' We certainly 
 have not imbibed Mr. Hobhouse's fears, either of 
 a ' burning sun' which is never felt, or of ' the 
 iackals and tigers,' which are easily subdued 
 here ; but \ve do submit that it would have been 
 for more in keeping with the general intelligence 
 of the colonial measures of adminstration to have 
 met the enquiries of emigrants, with a better ac- 
 
 thattlus nver, in common with all the streams of 
 the coast, has a bar of sand across the mouth, 
 which would prevent the entrance of ships of 
 burden : on the other hand, it has been remarked, 
 that it is not probable the Portuguese would 
 have built a fort, as they did, at its entrance, and 
 attempted to have established here a permanent 
 place of refreshment, had they found any such* 
 obstacle. It will be curious to be informed 
 from our emigrant friends, whether any modern 
 accretion of this, kind has really been formed ; 
 or whether, from whatever motives, this is a 
 misrepresentation of the Dutch. The authors 
 of the Universal History make their quarrels 
 with the natives to be the reason of the Portu- 
 guese for their abandonment of this coast. Within 
 the bar the Fish River is said to be of sufficient 
 capacity to receive the largest vessels of war. 
 Graham's Town is a new settlement of this dis- 
 trict on the banks of the river, and the resi- 
 dence of the deputy landrost, or chief magistrate 
 of Albany. 
 
 The Sondag or Sunday River, the second in 
 importance, rises in the Nieuwveldt or Snow 
 mountains, and, after watering a considerable 
 portion of the Graff Reynet district, enters the 
 ocean in a south-east direction in Zwartkops or 
 Algoa Bay. It is with difficulty crossed by the 
 waggons of the colony, no such erection as' a 
 bridge having entered into the thoughts of the 
 Dutch farmers of the neighbourhood. Mr. 
 Campbell's Travels in South Africa, 1815, re- 
 
 resents the five waggons with him as being 
 ragged over in an hour with ten, and twelve, 
 and one of them, with two and twenty horses; 
 two waggons having been overturned a few days 
 before, by the rapidity of the current. 
 
 The other rivers in this district are the Bos- 
 jesman's, the Kareeka, the Kasowka, and the 
 Kowie, or Buffalo River, which, though small, 
 are highly acceptable. The road near the banks 
 of the Kareeka, Mr. Campbell represents, as 
 ' strewed with the dung of elephants,' and the 
 trees and shrubbery of the neighbourhood as 
 bearing frequent marks of their passage amongst 
 them. The writer in the Quarterly Review to 
 whom we have referred in a note, and of whose 
 information we are inclined to think highly, says, 
 that ' In the whole range of the colony there are 
 not fifty of these creatures remaining.' This 
 must, however, be speaking a little by anticipation. 
 Zwartkops, or Algoa Bay, (which see) is the 
 nearest inlet to the proposed new settlements. 
 On its banks stand the town or drosdy of Uiten- 
 hagen, which contains the residence of the land- 
 rost, the under sheriff, and the principal local 
 authorities of the eastern part of the Cape. 
 Here is a church, a public school, the matri- 
 monial court, [See the article CAPE OF GOOD 
 HOPE for its useful functions ) and a post office ; 
 the latter communicating once a week with Cape 
 Town, which is about 500 miles to the west. 
 ' For the present, therefore,' says the writer just 
 named, ' this place will be the general market 
 for the new settlers ; but as population multiplies, 
 
 couni of this district, than could be obtained at 
 Downing-street, or at least to have furnished 
 them with a decent map of the colony.
 
 ALBANY 
 
 447 
 
 and the surplus increases, some of the rivers will 
 no doubt be made accessible, and fishing towns, 
 and villages be established along the shore of 
 Albany.' 
 
 In this neighbourhood there is a peculiar faci- 
 lity of procuring salt for any purpose ; one of 
 the largest salt pans of Uitenhagen, being si- 
 tuated near the Sunday River on the borders of 
 the district. It is an object of annual resort to the 
 inhabitants of various neighbouring and remote 
 regions in time of peace. The salt is taken out 
 of the lake in masses of from four to six inches 
 thick, which are broken down by stones or ham- 
 mers ; but that which accumulates on the banks 
 after a dry wind, is preferred, and is equal to 
 any of the British islands. The bays and inlets 
 here abound with excellent fish, which are said 
 to have been never considerably disturbed, the 
 Dutch boors being too lazy to look after them, 
 even for personal gratification, and the native 
 tribes so singularly indifferent to this advantage 
 as not to ply a single canoe on the shore. 
 
 Travellers speak of the genera! aspect of this 
 district, in the highest terms, and of the agreeable 
 diversity of hill and dale which every where 
 meets the eye and varies the soil. 'Though 
 completely in a state of nature,' says Campbell 
 (and this gentleman made a close survey of Al- 
 bany, with a permission from the landrost of 
 Uitenhagen to fix upon the most eligible sta- 
 tions for two missionary establishments), ' the 
 country through which we passed was beautiful 
 in the extreme, much resembling a nobleman's 
 park in England. The ground was covered with 
 the finest green, interspersed with single trees 
 and clumps of trees.' ' There is plenty of stone 
 for building in various parts, and timber in every 
 direction.' 
 
 Thickets of aloes, euphorbias, and other suc- 
 culents, sometimes extending to a depth of thirty 
 or forty miles, are uncleared ; and although the 
 plains do not, as heretofore, swarm with game, 
 flocks of hart-bucks and spring-boks are occa- 
 sionally seen. Here also are the holds of various 
 beasts of prey that infest the colony. In the vales 
 are numerous rills and springs that have been ac- 
 cidentally discovered by travellers : many others 
 are supposed to remain unopened. Graham's Town 
 is never without a sufficient supply of water. 
 
 The soil is fit for any species of culture. The 
 coarse sour grass of the plains, which gave its 
 original name of Zuurveldt to the district, has 
 been long suffered to grow and wither annually 
 in unchecked rankness, except when the Caffres 
 have set it on fire. But even this, as well as 
 the heavy brushwood, which is every where found 
 in clumps, argues ' the vigour of the soil. The 
 vines of the colony are recommended to be cul- 
 tivated on the sloping lands, and are said rarely 
 to experience an unproductive season. Grain , 
 pulse, artificial grain, and culinary vegetables, 
 would do well in the plains. Tobacco has also 
 been recommended as a staple article of culti- 
 vation. The climate is highly salubrious, and 
 neither subject to such sudden changes as that 
 of the Cape Peninsula, nor to equal heat and 
 cold with that of England. 
 
 The plan of colonizing this district is as fol- 
 lows : That the application of the 50.000 
 
 voted by the House of Commons, be confined 
 to persons, who, possessing the means, will en- 
 gage to carry out at least ten able-bodied in- 
 dividuals, above eighteen years of age, with or 
 without families. 
 
 That every person so engaging, shall deposit 
 at the rate of lO for every family taken out; in 
 consideration of which, a passage will be pro- 
 vided at the public expense, and also their vic- 
 tualling, from the time of embarkation, until the 
 time of landing at the colony. 
 
 That a grant of land will be made to each 
 person carrying out the aforesaid number, at the 
 rate of 100 acres for every such person or fa- 
 mily whom he takes out : one-third of the money 
 advanced by him at the onset, to be repaid to 
 him on landing, when the victualling at the 
 public expense shall cease ; a farther propor- 
 tion of one-third to be repaid when it is certi- 
 fied to the governor that the settlers are actually 
 placed on the lands assigned to them ; and the 
 remaining third at the expiration of three months 
 from the date of their location. 
 
 That the lands will be granted at a perpetual 
 quit-rent, to be fixed, but which will be remitted 
 for the first ten years ; this rent not to exceed in 
 any case 2 sterling for every 100 acres ; sub- 
 ject, however, to a clause, that the lands shall 
 become forfeited to Government in case the party 
 shall abandon the estate, or not bring it into 
 cultivation within a given number of years. 
 
 That in the allotment of lands, the interests and 
 the wishes of the parties will be consulted and 
 attended to, as far as it may be consistent with 
 the public and private interests of the colony, the 
 several landrosts having instructions to that 
 effect ; with a caution, however, in the distri- 
 bution of ground, to preserve the waters, so 
 that the most extensive accommodation may be 
 afforded with regard to future settlers. 
 
 That in case 100 families shall proceed to- 
 gether, and apply for leave to carry out with 
 them a minister of their own persuasion, the 
 Governor will, on their being actually fixed, 
 assign a salary to the minister whom they may 
 have selected to accompany them. 
 
 The lion, elephant, buffalo, wolf, Cape leopard, 
 and a formidable list of the insect tribe (see our 
 article on the Cape,) are the principal annoy- 
 ances of the animal world. But the beasts of 
 prey exist in no formidable numbers ; and will 
 necessarily retreat before the march of civiliza- 
 tion. The lion of the colony is said to be a 
 remarkably sluggish, and almost timid animal. 
 The elephants have constantly diminished within 
 these few years ; and the buffalo, though fierce 
 when provoked, never attacks unless hunted. 
 The leopard is the most ferocious of all the re- 
 maining tribes. Mr. Latrobe speaks of him in 
 common with other travellers, as the tiger of 
 the Cape, but in fact the striped tiger is un- 
 known here. This gentleman gives us the fol- 
 lowing picture of the ferocity of this compara- 
 tively small animal : One of the wolves that 
 a hunting party of his friends had lamed with a 
 shot, having retreated into the brushwood, a con- 
 siderable number of the Hottentots followed 
 him there ; when the dogs started an anima'., 
 which those among the bushes coxild not see.
 
 448 
 
 ALBANY. 
 
 The Hottentots remaining on the outside, 
 perceiving it to be a tiger, called aloud to the 
 missionary to return. He, therefore, with Philip, 
 began to retreat backwards, pointing his gun, 
 and ready to fire, in case the animal made his 
 appearance. Suddenly a tiger sprang forward, 
 but from a quarter not expected ; and by a fly- 
 ing leap over bushes, fastened upon the Hotten- 
 tot, seizing his nose and face with his claws and 
 teeth. ' I measured the distance of the place 
 from whence the tiger made his spring, to that 
 on which the Hottentot stood, and found it 
 full twenty feet, over bushes from six to eight 
 feet high.' 
 
 Brother Schmitt observed, that if it had not been 
 for the horror of the scene, it would have been a 
 most amusing sight to behold the enraged crea- 
 ture fly, like a bird, over the length of ground 
 and bushes, with open jaw and lashing tail, 
 screaming with the greatest violence. Poor 
 Philip was thrown down in the conflict, and 
 lay now upon, and then under, the tiger. The 
 missionary might easily have made his escape, 
 but his own safety never entered his thoughts. 
 Duty and pity made him instantly rush forward 
 to the assistance of the sufferer. He pointed his 
 gun ; but the motion both of the Hottentot and 
 the tiger, in rolling about and struggling, were 
 so swift, that he durst not venture to pull the 
 trigger, le&t he should injure Philip. The tiger 
 perceiving him take aim, instantly quitted his 
 hold, worked himself from under the Hottentot, 
 and flew like lightning upon brother Schmitt. 
 As the gun was of no use in such close quarters, 
 he let it fall, and presented his left arm to shield 
 his face. The tiger instantly seized it with his 
 jaw : brother Schmitt with the same arm catch- 
 ing one of his paws, to prevent the out-stretching 
 claws from reaching his body. With the other 
 
 Eaw, however, the tiger continued striking towards 
 is breast, and tearing his clothes. Both fell in 
 the scuffle, and providentially in such a position, 
 that the missionary's knee, without design, came 
 to rest on the pit of the tiger's stomach. At the 
 same time he grasped the animal's throat with 
 his right hand'keeping him down with all his 
 might. The seizure of his throat made the tiger 
 let go his hold ; but not before brother Schmitt 
 had received another bite nearer the elbow. 
 His face lay right over that of the tiger, whose 
 open mouth from the pressure of his wind-pipe, 
 sent forth the most hideous, hoarse, and convul- 
 sive groans ; whilst his starting eyes, like live 
 coals, seemed to flash with fire. In this situa- 
 tion brother Schmitt called aloud to the Hotten- 
 tots to come to his rescue, for his strength was 
 failing, rage and agony supplying to the animal 
 extraordinary force, in his attempts to disengage 
 himself. The Hottentots at length ventured to 
 enter the thicket, and one of them snatching 
 the loaded gun which lay on the ground, pre- 
 sented it, and shot the tiger, under the mission- 
 ary's hand, right through the heart His death 
 wis instantaneous ; his eyes shut, his jaw fell, 
 and he lay motionless. Had any life been left' 
 his dying struggles might yet have proved fatal 
 10 some of his assailants.' Lattole's Journal of 
 a Visit to South Africa in 1815 and 1816, p. 306, 
 
 OrtQ ' * ' 
 
 The state of the native tribes in this neighbour 
 hood has also been considered as a source of 
 alarm to the new settlers. This can only relate 
 to the present hostility of the Caffres, proceed- 
 ing, as there is good reason to suppose, irom a 
 temporary cause. The Hottentots within the 
 limits of the colony have been but too entirely 
 and unfeelingly subjugated by its former posses- 
 sors, the Dutch ; and the Bosjesmans, and other 
 wild tribes, are far to the north of this settle- 
 ment. But in a long-standing quarrel between 
 the chiefs of the Caffre frontier, the British 
 authorities felt it proper to interfere, and even 
 to suffer our forces to assist in carrying off the 
 cattle of one party. For awhile, the line of 
 military forts on iish lliver kept the subdued 
 party in check ; but on the withdrawment of 
 the cavalry, they were determined on revenge. 
 They crossed the boundary of the colony in 
 great numbers, and penetrating to the settle- 
 ment of the Moravians, on the White River, 
 drove away every head of oxen they met with, 
 and killed many of their Hottentot keepers. 
 
 The Caffres have been often, of late, com- 
 pletely repulsed ; but the boors are generally or- 
 dered to be under arms, to resist any new 
 incursion a sort of summons which they very 
 readily obey. The fact is, that the Caffre has 
 sound reason to complain of the conduct of 
 Europeans towards his country. During the 
 Dutch sovereignty here, perpetual encroach- 
 ments on the territories and possessions of these 
 tribes were encouraged, on the title, we may 
 suppose, which Kolbern, the historian, urged on 
 the behalf of the States, to all the land from 
 Mosell Bay to Mozambique, a territory of 
 300,000 square miles, which he says was ori- 
 ginally purchased for 30,000 guilders ! When, 
 or of whom, however, he does not condescend to 
 state. The boors a few years since had not so 
 much regard for the life of a Caffre as for that of 
 one of their own oxen ; and no plausible or pro- 
 mising opportunity of seizing their herds was 
 ever overlooked. At the period of our first con- 
 quest of the colony, the whole of this district 
 was desolated by the quarrels thus fermented. 
 The general policy of our government here has 
 certainly been conciliatory; and the late dis- 
 turbance is the only serious one that have since 
 taken place. 
 
 In conclusion we would say, let not emigrants 
 or their friends overlook the disadvantages of the 
 proposed point of emigration. The glowing 
 pictures of vegetable beauty, which all travellers 
 who have seen the country in the beginning of 
 summer, concur in giving us, must not drive from 
 our recollection the sober truth that summer 
 ends. Of the forests of this coast there are por- 
 tions, of course, that frown ' in green or russet 
 o'er the land ' throughout the year ; and the best 
 trees of the colony are certainly found in the 
 district of Albany and its neighbourhood. But 
 there is a stuntness of growth about them, and 
 the grain is generally too twisted ever to render 
 the timber important as an article of commerce. 
 And no country shews a greater contrast between 
 the beginning and the end of summer. The 
 predominant soil of the colony being a stift 
 clay, into which no plough will enter until it is
 
 ALB 
 
 thoroughly soaked with rain, the uncultivated 
 parts when the wet season has terminated, (and 
 plains of many square miles together are and 
 must for ever remain of this description in the 
 interior,) appear wholly naked and smooth, ex- 
 cept where a few quartz pebbles, or gravel may 
 glitter to the eye. Now this is the season at 
 which the emigrants who have embarked lately 
 for the Cape, will arrive at that colony. Some ob- 
 jection has been taken on this head to the choice 
 of government with regard to the season of em- 
 barkation. To this it has been replied, that the 
 rains beginning to fall partially towards the end 
 of March, and rarely, if ever, later than April, 
 the moment they begin the labours of the field 
 should commence ; that a ship leaving England 
 in December, will reach Algoa Bay in March ; 
 and there will not then be more than sufficient 
 time for the emigrants to distribute and settle 
 themselves before the rains will have again begun. 
 * The new settler will immediately take care to 
 get his potatoes into the ground,' says the Quar- 
 terly Revieic, ' in order that he may dig up the 
 first produce of his labour by the end of Sep- 
 tember, or the beginning of October ; with these 
 potatoes, a crop of maize or Indian corn, and a 
 few culinary vegetables, he should lay his ac- 
 count for his first year's supply ; and, in truth, 
 this, with the cattle he may purchase from the 
 neighbouring boors at fifty shillings a head, and 
 sheep at six or seven, together with the fish that 
 abound on every part of the coast, especially near 
 the mouths of the rivers, will more than suffice 
 to remove every apprehension of suffering from 
 an actual want of food.' 
 
 On the rains of the wet season the principal 
 hopes of the farmer depend. If these fail, the 
 crop fails. But this has been rarely known to 
 occur more than once in seven years. The 
 south-east winds are also occasionally injurious, 
 and the descent of locusts has been sometimes 
 as truly terrific in this neighbourhood as in any 
 part of the world. We cannot but hope that 
 some competent engineers will be found among 
 the new settlers to direct the floods of the rainy 
 season into the most profitable channels ; no 
 country would so quickly repay an improved 
 system of irrigation. * We are anxious, above all 
 things,' says the intelligent writer just quoted, 
 ' to warn the emigrant against the fallacious idea, 
 that he will there reap without sowing ; on the 
 contrary, he may lay his account with a few of 
 the first years of his residence being years of 
 toil and anxiety.' 
 
 The comparative stupidity and filthiness of the 
 Hottentots the lazy tyranny of the Dutch 
 boors, who will become his neighbours, and 
 who, in the accumulated filth of some of 
 their establishments, are surpassed by no class of 
 human beings the want of markets for surplus 
 produce, which will at first be found the Dutch 
 laws, which at present prevail here, and to which 
 the trial by jury, and the confronting witnesses 
 with the accused, or with each other, are alike 
 unknown the monopoly of all India and China 
 goods enjoyed by the East India Company and 
 the depreciated paper currency, especially the 
 two latter, are further annoyances and disadvan- 
 tages which emigrants and their friends must 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 ALB 
 
 add to this account : and thus have we placed 
 before them, according to the most recent and 
 authentic documents, a fair view of their pros- 
 pects in this part of the world. To this ought 
 also to be now added,! 826, that the first settlers 
 have been greatly disappointed in their views; 
 and that the probable general prospects of this 
 settlement are far from promising. 
 
 ALBARA, or ALBORA, among physicians, a 
 name sometimes given to a mixed species of ma- 
 lignant itch, compounded of the morphew, ser- 
 pigo, and lepra. The albara partakes most of 
 the nature of the leprosy : some make it the same 
 with the leuce, vitiligo, or morphew. See Ai.- 
 PHOS. 
 
 ALBARA, in botany, the white poplar. 
 
 ALBARDEOLA, in ornithology, a name 
 given by many authors to the platea, or spoon- 
 bill ; a bird approaching to the nature of the 
 heron. 
 
 ALBARII, in antiquity, properly denoted 
 those who gave the whitening to earthen vessels, 
 &c. in which sense they stood contradistinguished 
 from dealbatores, those who whitened walls. 
 
 ALBARIUM OPUS, in the ancient building, 
 the incrustation or covering of the roofs of 
 houses with white plaster made of lime. This 
 is otherwise called opus album. It differs from 
 tectorium, which is the common name given to 
 all roofing or ceiling, including even that formed 
 of lime and sand, or lime and marble ; whereas 
 albarium was restrained to that made of lime 
 alone. The baths of Agrippa, Vitruvius says, 
 were covered with the albarium, which was 
 also used for its ornaments, and would take the 
 polish of marble. The white chunam of Indian 
 architecture, and the white patent stucco of M r. 
 Chambers, the banker, are also of this description. 
 
 ALBARRAZIN, an ancient and strong town 
 of Arragon in Spain, seated on an eminence, near 
 the river Guadalaviar, a little below its source, 
 and on the frontiers of Valencia, and New Cas- 
 tile. It is the seat of a bishop, and produces 
 the best wool in all Arragon. Population about 
 1800; it is about 100 miles east of Madrid. 
 Long. 1. 16'. W. lat. 40. 34' N. 
 
 ALBARREGAS, a considerable river of South 
 America, in the kingdom of Granada ; which 
 descending from the mountains of Bogotia, emp- 
 ties itself into the lake Maracaibo. 
 
 ALBA TERRA, one of the numerous names 
 for the philosopher's stone. 
 
 ALBATEGNI, a celebrated astronomer, who 
 lived at the close of the ninth century, and de- 
 rived his name from the town of Batan, between 
 the Tigris and Euphrates, where he was born. 
 In the year 882, he observed that the autumnal 
 equinox was, on the 19th September, at 13h. 
 15'. at Aracta, or Ruca, a town of Chaldea. In 
 883, he found the longitude of the first star of 
 Aries to be 18. 2'. ; the obliquity of the ecliptic 
 to be 23. 35'.; and the motion of the earth's 
 aphelion, and that of the stars, one degree in 
 seventy years. He also ascertained the eccen- 
 tricity of the earth's orbit. The imperfections of 
 the astronomical tables of Ptolemy, induced Al- 
 batecmi to compute new ones, which he adapted 
 to the meridian of Aracta. His work, entitle^ 
 The Science of the Stars, founded on his own 
 
 2 G
 
 ALB 
 
 450 
 
 ALB 
 
 observations, as well as those of Ptolemy, was 
 translated into Latin from the original Arabic, 
 which lies unpublished in the Vatican, by Plato 
 of Tibur. It was published at Nuremberg, in 
 1537, with some additions by Regiomontanus, 
 and republished at Bologna in 1695, with an- 
 notations by the same author. Albategni died 
 in 888. See Phil. Trans. 1693, No. CCIV. and 
 D'Herbelot's Biblioth. Orient. 
 
 ALBATI EQUI, in antiquity, a name given to 
 those horses, in the games of the circus, which 
 were distinguished by white cloths or furniture. 
 
 ALBATROSS ISLAND, a small island on the 
 north of Van Diemen's land, frequented by in- 
 numerable albatrosses and seals. Long. 144. 4'. 
 E. lat. 40. 25'. S. 
 
 ALBATROSS POINT, a cape of New Zealand. 
 Long. 184. 42'. W. lat. 38. 4 S. 
 
 ALBATROSSE, in ornithology, a species of 
 the diomedea. See DIOMEDEA. 
 
 ALBAY, a volcano, and mountain of the is- 
 land of Lucon, subject to frequent eruptions. 
 It broke forth in the year 1814 with uncommon 
 violence, and laid waste the whole neighbouring 
 province, destroying thousands of the inhabitants. 
 ALBAZIN, a town of Great Tartary, upon the 
 river Amour, once fortified with a strong castle : 
 it lies on the road from Moscow to Pekin. 
 Long. 104. 10'. E. lat. 54. 0*. N. 
 ALBE', } Formed of the three words al 
 ALBE'IT. J be it. Now obsolete. 
 
 Saturne anon, to stenten strif and drede 
 
 Al be it that it is again his kind, 
 
 Of all this strif he gan a remedy find. 
 
 Chaucer. The Knightes Tale. b. i. 
 Ne wou'd he suffer sleep once thitherward. 
 Approach, albe his drowsy den was next. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 This very thing is cause sufficient ; -why duties, 
 belonging to each kind of virtue (albeit the law of 
 eason teach them) should notwithstanding be pre- 
 cribed, even by human law. Hooker. 
 
 One whose eyes 
 
 (Albeit unused to the melting mood) 
 Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 
 Their medicinal gum. Shaktp. 
 
 LE BEU. Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you 
 To leave this place, albeit you have deserv'd 
 High commendation, true applause, and love, 
 Yet such is now the duke's condition, 
 That he mis-construes all that you have done. 
 
 Shaktp. As you Like it. 
 
 He, who has a probable belief, that he shall meet 
 with thieves in such a road, thinks himself to have 
 reason enough to decline it ; albeit he is sure to sus- 
 tain some less (though yet considerable) inconve- 
 nience, by his so doing. South's Sermons. 
 \. flashing pang ! of which the -weary breast 
 Would still, albeit in vain, the heavy heart divest. 
 
 Lord Byron's Childe Harold. 
 AIBE, in commerce, a small coin, current in 
 Germany, worth only a French sol and seven 
 derniers. 
 
 ALBE, a river of France, in Lorraine, which 
 runs into the Sarre, at Sarre-alb, in the depart- 
 ment of the Moselle. Also a river of Hanover, 
 in the principality of Luneburg, which falls into 
 the Aller, near Ilethem. 
 
 ALBELEN, in ichthyology, the name of a 
 fish of the truttuieous kind, called the Albulla 
 and much resembling the ferra. It is caught in 
 
 the German and other lakes, and is found from 
 five to twelve Ibs. weight : its colour is a fine 
 silvery white. 
 
 ALBELLUS, in the Linnsean system, a species 
 of anseres, belonging to the genus mergus. 
 
 ALBEMARLE, or AUMARLE, a town of 
 France, iu Upper Normandy, from whence the 
 noble family of Keppel takes the title of earl. 
 The serges of this town are esteemed. It is seated 
 on the declivity of a hill, on the confines of 
 Picardy, 35 miles north-east by north of Rouen, 
 and seventy N.N.W. of Paris. It is the head of 
 a canton in the department of the Lower Seine, 
 arrondissement of Neufchatel, with 170 houses, 
 and about 1720 inhabitants. Long. 1. 48'. E. 
 lat. 49. 46'. N. 
 
 ALBEMARLE, a county of Virginia, North Ame- 
 rica. In extent it is thirty-five miles square, and 
 contains 20,000 inhabitants; the chief town is 
 Charlottesville. 
 
 ALBEMARLE SOUND, on the coast of North 
 Carolina, is a kind of inland sea, sixty miles in 
 length, and from eight to twelve in breadth. It 
 lies north of Pamplico Sound, and communicates 
 with it ; as it likewise does with the Currituck, 
 Roanoke, and Meherrin rivers. The neck leading 
 into the sea is called Roanoke Inlet. 
 
 ALBEN, a market-town and mountain of 
 Carniola, in Germany, where there are mines 
 of quicksilver. It is two miles north-west of 
 Ozirthnitz. 
 
 ALBENGA, or ALBENGUA, a town of Italy, 
 in Genoa, anciently called Albingaunum, and 
 Albium Ingaunum. It is the see of a bishop ; and 
 was once a handsome town, but is not well peo- 
 pled on account of the insalubrity of the air. It 
 is situated on a beautiful and well cultivated 
 plain: is a sea-port, about thirty miles south- 
 west of Genoa, and twelve north-east of Oneglia. 
 Long. 8. 3'. E. lat. 44. 4'. N. 
 
 ALBEOLA, a species of anas. 
 
 ALBERNUO, in commerce, a kind of cam- 
 blet, brought From the Levant by the way of 
 Marseilles. 
 
 ALBERONI, (Julius, Cardinal,) was the son 
 of a poor gardener of Placentia ; and born in 
 1664. At the age of fourteen he obtained a post 
 in the cathedral of Placentia, and in due time 
 became priest and canon. Having had the good 
 fortune to relieve M. Campistron, secretary to the 
 duke of Vendome, when he was robbed near 
 Placentia, he was recommended by him to his 
 general, who took him into Spain ; where he rose 
 by several gradations, to the dignity of cardinal, 
 and archbishop of Valentia, and to the office of 
 prime minister, in the court of Spain. He was 
 indebted for both these honours to the patronage 
 of the princess of Parma, whose marriage with 
 Philip V. he had projected and accomplished. 
 Alberoni's disposition was intriguing and enter- 
 prising. Not content with effecting some do- 
 mestic reforms and arrangements, in which were 
 included many regulations favourable to the arts 
 and to commerce ; he formed the design of an 
 expedition against Sardinia and Sicily, and in 
 order to prevent the interference of other powers, 
 made an alliance with czar Peter, Charles XII. of 
 Sweden, and the Ottoman Porte. He also proposed 
 exciting the Turks to make war on the emperor,
 
 ALB 
 
 451 
 
 ALB 
 
 to advance the pretender to the throne of Eng- 
 land, by means of Peter and Charles, to divest 
 the duke of Orleans of the regency of France ; and 
 to annihilate the German power in Italy. But 
 an union between England and France, was the 
 result of the discovery of this plan ; and these 
 powers concurred in declaring war against Spain, 
 in 1719: making, as the condition of peace, the 
 removal of Alberoni, and his banishment from 
 the kingdom. Having, therefore, in December 
 1720, received an order to quit Madrid in twenty- 
 four hours, he retired with great wealth; nor 
 was it discovered before he had been two days 
 on his journey, that he had abstracted the im- 
 portant will of Charles II. of Spain, which ap- 
 pointed Philip universal heir of the monarchy. 
 Being followed, this document could only be 
 wrested from him by force ; when pursuing his 
 journey, he was arrested at Genoa, by order of 
 the pope, on the charge of negociating with the 
 Turks. On his liberation from the convent of 
 the Jesuits, to which he was confined for a year, 
 he engaged in new intrigues, and particularly in 
 an unsuccessful enterprise against the small re- 
 public of St. Marino. A bon mot of Benedict 
 XIV. on this occasion has been very geflerally 
 circulated : ' Alberoni is like a glutton, who, 
 after having eaten a large salmon, cannot help 
 casting a wishful eye at a minnow.' His views 
 were more laudably directed to the establishment 
 and endowment of a seminary of education for 
 poor scholars in his native city. Aiberoni pre- 
 served his health and vivacity to old age ; when 
 his conversation usually turned on the recital of 
 his own exploits, and was instructive and amus- 
 ing ; though in his temper he was irascible and 
 impatient. He died in 1752, at the advanced 
 age of eighty-seven, leaving behind him the cha- 
 racter of a great politician, daring as Richelieu, 
 and supple as Mazarin, and with as little principle 
 as either. His life, to the year 1719, has been 
 published by John Rousset, translated from the 
 Spanish. A Testament Politique, published 
 under the name of Alberoni, in 1753, is con- 
 sidered spurious. Nouv. Diet. Hist. fyc. 
 
 ALBERT, of Aix, or ALBEHTUS AQUENSIS, 
 was a canon of Aix-la-Chapelle, in the twelfth 
 century, who travelled in the Holy Land, and 
 wrote a History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 
 under Godfrey of Bouillon, and other leaders. It is 
 esteemed an accurate narrative, and comprehends 
 a period of twenty-four years. It was printed 
 by Reineccius in 1662. Voss. de Hist. Lot. lib. 
 iii. c. 6. 
 
 ALBERT I. surnamed the Triumphant, son 
 of Rudolphus I. was elected emperor of Ger- 
 many on the deposition and death of Adolphus, 
 of Nassau, whom he himself killed in battle in 
 1298. He was assassinated in 1308, by his 
 nephew, John, duke of Suabia, and other con- 
 spirators. During the reign of this emperor the 
 Swiss regained their independence, and laid the 
 foundation of the Helvetic League. Bon. Fin. 1. 
 3, dec. 4. 
 
 ALBERT II. surnamed the Grave and the Mag- 
 nanimous, the son of Albert IV. duke of Austria, 
 was elected emperor in 1438, as also king of 
 Hungary and Bohemia, and died after a short 
 but honourable reign of a year and seven months. 
 
 Aventin. Ann. Boior. 1.7; JEn. Silv. Hist. Bo- 
 hem, c. 56 ; Spondan. Annul, ann. 1437, &c. 
 
 ALBERT the Great, in biography, ALBERTUS 
 MAGNUS, so called, on account of his great eru- 
 dition, was born at Lawingen, in Suabia, about 
 the year 1193, or, as some say, 1205. He was 
 educated at Pavia, and hi 1236, made doctor in 
 medicine at Paris ; where, having heard father 
 Jourdain, the Dominican, preach, he was in- 
 duced to take the habit ; and on the death of 
 Joindain, was made vicar-general, then provin- 
 cial of that order. He taught philosophy, me- 
 dicine, and theology, at Cologne, and at Paris, 
 to numerous auditories. St. Thomas Aquinas 
 was his pupil, at Cologne. In 1260, he was 
 made bishop of Ratisbon ; but at the end of 
 three years resigned that dignity, and retired to 
 Cologne. From hence he travelled through 
 Germany and Bohemia, to preach the crusade ; 
 and in 1274 attended the council of Lyons. He 
 continued to instruct the religious of his order 
 at Cologne till the time of his death, November 
 1280. His very voluminous works were col- 
 lected by father Jammi, a Dominican of Greno- 
 ble, and published at Lyons in 1615, in twenty- 
 one volumes in folio ; many of them are 
 supposed to be spurious ; but he was undoubt- 
 edly the author of numerous works on arithmetic, 
 geometry, perspective or optics, music, astrology, 
 and astronomy; under the titles De Sphaera, 
 de Astris, de Astronomia, item speculum Astro- 
 nomicum, &c. Being a man of genius and 
 knowledge superior to his contemporaries, he 
 was charged, according to the spirit of the times, 
 with being a magician. He is said to have con- 
 trived a kind of androides, or machine in the 
 human form, which he had brought to such per- 
 fection, that it could speak : and of which many 
 idle tales are related. Some have, without 
 foundation, ascribed to Albert the invention of 
 fire-arms. The chief object of his investigation 
 was, probably, the philosopher's stone, as this 
 was the ignis fatuus of the age. Gen. Did. Du- 
 pin cent. xiii. Snicker's Hist. Philos. by En- 
 fold, vol. ii. p. 371, 372. 
 
 ALBERT, margrave of Brandenburgh, and 
 the last grand master of the Teutonic order, laid 
 aside the habit of his order, embraced Lutheran- 
 ism, and concluded a peace at Cracow in 1525, 
 by which he was acknowledged duke of the east 
 part of Prussia, (formerly called for that reason 
 Ducal Prussia,) but to be held as a fief of Po- 
 land, and to descend to his male heirs. See 
 PRUSSIA. 
 
 ALBERT, (Jane d') daughter of Margaret, 
 queen of Navarre, was betrothed at the age of 
 eleven to the duke of Cleves, but the marriage 
 was annulled. In 1548, she espoused Antony 
 de Bourbon, duke of Vendome ; and in 1553 
 was delivered of a son, afterwards Henry IV. of 
 France. In anticipation of this event, the king, 
 her father, promised to put into her hands his 
 will, on condition that during her labour she 
 should sing a Bearnoise song ; accordingly, it is 
 said, when her father entered the chamber, she 
 sang a popular song in the language of her na- 
 tive country. The king, on her delivery, gave 
 her a gold box containing his will, and at the 
 same time threw round her neck a chain of gold, 
 2 G 2
 
 ALB 
 
 452 
 
 ALB 
 
 saying, ' These are for you, but this is mine !" 
 taking the infant in his arms, which he carried 
 to his chamber. On the death of her father, in 
 1555, she became queen of Navarre, and estab- 
 lished the protestant religion. Being invited to 
 the French court, to assist at the nuptials of her 
 son with Margaret of Valois, she expired sud- 
 denly, not without suspicion of poison, in 1572, 
 in the forty-fourth year of her age. She left 
 several compositions in prose and verse. Bayle. 
 
 ALBERT, (Louis Joseph d') son of Louis 
 Charles duke de Luynes, was bom in 1672. 
 After serving gallantly in the armies of France, 
 he entered into that of the elector of Bavaria, 
 who, on becoming emperor under the title of 
 Charles VII., created him a prince of the Holy 
 Roman Empire, by the title of Prince of Grim- 
 berghen. His political and military engagements 
 did not wholly divert him from literature : his 
 works are, Le Songe d' Alcibiade, Paris, 1735, 
 12mo. ; Timandre instmit par son Genie, and 
 other pieces, published under the title of Recueil 
 de Differences Pieces de Litterature, Amsterdam, 
 12mo., 1759. He died in 1758, aged eighty- 
 seven. Biog. Universelle. 
 
 ALBERT, (Erasmus) a German divine, educated 
 under Luther, known only as the author of a 
 book entitled the Koran of the Cordeliers, ridi- 
 culing the Franciscans. It was printed in Ger-, 
 man, with a preface by Luther, in 1531, and in 
 Latin, in 1542. The best edition is that of Am- 
 sterdam, in 2 vols. 12mo., 1734. This author 
 died in 1553. 
 
 ALBERTET, an Italian mathematician and 
 poet of the thirteenth century, was a native of 
 Provence. He wrote several poems in honour 
 of his Platonic mistress, the marchioness of 
 Malespine, which he left to a friend in order to 
 be presented to the lady, instead of which he 
 sold them to Faber d'Uzes, who published them 
 as his own. The plagiarism being discovered, 
 D'Uzes was whipped for the appropriation, 
 agreeably, it is said, to a then existing law upon 
 the subject. Vossius Moreri. 
 
 ALBERTI, (Leone Baptista,) was descended 
 from a noble family in Florence ; and was a pro- 
 ficient in painting, sculpture, and architecture. 
 He wrote on each of these subjects; but his 
 studies did not permit him to leave any thing 
 considerable behind him in painting. He was 
 much employed by Pope Nicholas V., and Lo- 
 renzo Medici. His principal erections are at 
 Florence, Mantua, and Rimini. His works are, 
 first, Momus de Principe, Rome, 1520; second, 
 Trivia sive de Causis Senatoriis, 1588, 4to. ; 
 third, Fables or Apologues ; fourth, Treatise on 
 Scripture; fifth, De Pictura, Basil, 4to., 1540, 
 and Leyden, (Elzevir) 1649; sixth, De Re 
 -tfxhficatoria, 1485. The last has been translated 
 mto Italian by Lauro, and was handsomely pub- 
 lished in Italian and English in 3 vols. folio, 
 London, 1726. The invention of the Camera 
 Obscura has been ascribed to this artist, who 
 died in 1475. 
 
 ALBERTI, (di Vjllanova Francis) an able lexi- 
 cographer, was born at Nice in 1737. His prin- 
 cipal work is entitled, Dizionario Universale 
 Cntico Enciclopedeco della Lingua Italiana, a 
 new edition of which, in six volumes, was pub- 
 
 lished in the year in which he died at Lucca, 
 1803. Un. Biog. Diet. 
 
 ALBERTISCHER BASS, in music, a German 
 expression, denoting a species of bqcs consisting 
 of arpeggios, invented by Dominico Alberti, an 
 amateur, in the year 1730. See' Ex. 5. 
 
 ALBERTISTS, a sect of scholastics, so named 
 from their leader >lbertus Magnus, a man of 
 superior erudition, who was honoured with the 
 title of a magician, and regarded by the alchy- 
 mists as one of the most successful of their 
 brethren. 
 
 ALBERTUS, in commerce, a gold coin, 
 worth about fourteen French livres ; and first 
 coined during the administration of Albertus 
 archduke of Austria. 
 
 ALBESIA, a kind of shield used by the 
 ancient Albenses, a nation of the Marsi. See 
 DECUMANA. 
 
 ALBESZTI, a market town in Wallachia, be- 
 tween the rivers Proava and Chiricon ; not far 
 from the Syul. It is 70 miles N. E. of Bucharest. 
 
 ALBI, or ALBY, an ancient city of France, 
 the capital of the department of Tarn, seated on 
 the river of that name, which washes its walls, 
 and serves both for defence and ornament. It is 
 situated 335 miles south from Paris, 30 south 
 by west of Rhodes, and 42 north-east of Tou- 
 louse. It was the chief city of the Albigeois, 
 and the ci-devant see of an archbishop. The 
 cathedral is dedicated to St. Cecilia, and was 
 once ornamented with a valuable silver shrine, 
 of the Mosaic kind, of exquisite workmanship. 
 It still possesses what is accounted the finest 
 organ in France. The chapel of this pretended 
 saint is magnificent, and adorned with paintings. 
 The Lice is a fine large walk without the city ; 
 distinguished by a terras above a deep mall, 
 which serves instead of a fosse ; and two rows 
 of fine trees, which are kept in excellent order. 
 Here are some inconsiderable manufactories of 
 coarse linen and woolen stuffs. Population 
 9860. 
 
 ALBI, anciently called Alba fucentes, a small 
 town of Naples, in Abruzzo. 
 
 ALBICI, the inhabitants of Albioece, men- 
 tioned by Caesar. They were also called Reii 
 Apollinares from their superstitious worship of 
 Apollo. See ALBIOECE. 
 
 ALBICILLA, in ornithology, a species of 
 Falco, in the Linnsean system, the aquila albi- 
 cilla of Brisson, pygargus, albicilla hirund'inaria 
 of Bellon, Gesner, and Ray, grand pygargue or 
 great eagle of Buffon, braun fabler adler of 
 Frisch, white-tailed eagle of Willughby, and 
 cinereous eagle of Pennant and Latham. Its 
 specific characters are, that its cere and feet are 
 yellow, the tail-feathers white, and the inter- 
 mediate ones black at their vertex. It is of the 
 size of a peacock, and inhabits Europe, particu- 
 larly Scotland and the neighbouring isles. Aris- 
 totle Hist. Anim. lib. ix. b. 32, torn. i. p. 798, 
 gives this species the epithet of Hinnularia, de- 
 noting that it preys upon fawn, that is, young 
 stags, deer, and roe-bucks 
 
 ALBICILLA, in conchology, is a species of the 
 Nerita, with a striated shell, subdentated lips, 
 the interior tuberculated. It is found at the 
 Cape of Good Hope and in the Indian sea.
 
 ALB 
 
 453 
 
 ALB 
 
 ALBIFICATION, albumfacere, to make white. 
 Our lampes brenning bothe night and day 
 To bring about our craft, if that we may 
 Our fourneis eke of calcination 
 And of wateres albification. 
 
 Chaucer, The Chanones Yemanne's Tale. 
 
 ALBIGENS.ES, in ecclesiastical history, the 
 name of a religious sect of the twelfth century, 
 eminently distinguished by their zealous opposi- 
 tion to the church of Rome, as well as for the 
 importance of many of the sentiments for which 
 they contended. Too often ' their ashes flew, 
 no marble tells us whither,' and the difficulty 
 attending the detection of facts, amidst imperfect 
 and often contradictory documents, renders it 
 almost impossible to give any very minute and 
 accurate detail, either of their history or opinions. 
 They have been frequently considered as the 
 same people with the Waldenses, but little evi- 
 dence of this identity can be deduced except their 
 being confounded with them, and condemned 
 under their name, by the decrees of their ene- 
 mies. 
 
 The Albigenses first made their appearance in 
 the vicinity of Toulouse, and the Albigeois in 
 Languedoc, and may, with probability, be con- 
 sidered as a sect of the Paulicians, who, having 
 withdrawn from Bulgaria and Thrace, either to 
 escape persecution, or from motives of zeal to 
 extend their doctrines, settled in various parts of 
 Europe. They acquired different names in dif- 
 ferent countries, as in Italy, whither they origi- 
 nally migrated, they were called Paterini and 
 Cathari, and in France Albigenses, from the cir- 
 cumstance, as Mosheim affirms, of their opinions 
 being condemned in a council held at Alby, Lat. 
 Albigia, in the year 1176. Others, however, 
 maintain that this appellation was derived from 
 the district itself which was their chief residence. 
 Besides these epithets, they were called in dif- 
 ferent times and places, and by various authors, 
 Bulgarians, Publicans, Boni Homines, or good 
 men, Petro-Brussians, Henricians, Albelardists, 
 Arnoldists, and Passagers. In fact, the term 
 was frequently employed to denote any descrip- 
 tion of heretic or dissentient from the Romish 
 church. Hence it becomes extremely difficult 
 to ascertain their peculiar sentiments with pre- 
 cision. Upon the authority of several writers, 
 they are charged with holding Manicheism, in 
 which is said to have consisted their chief dis- 
 agreement from the Waldenses, who are allowed 
 to have held a purer faith. The book of the 
 Sentences of the Inquisition at Toulouse, charges 
 them with believing that there are two Gods and 
 Lords, good and evil ; that all things visible and 
 corporeal were created by the devil, or the evil 
 god ; that the sacraments of the Romish church 
 are vain and unprofitable ; and that, in short, 
 its whole constitution is to be condemned. They 
 are stated to have maintained the unlawfulness 
 
 of marriage ; to have denied the incarnation of 
 Christ, and the resurrection of bodies ; and to 
 have believed that the souls of men were spirits 
 banished from heaven on account of their trans- 
 gressions. 
 
 There were likewise said to be two classes of 
 them ; the perfect and the believers. The per- 
 fect boasted of their living in continence, of eating 
 'neither flesh, eggs, nor cheese. The believers 
 lived like other men, and were even loose in their 
 morals ; but they were persuaded they should 
 be saved by the faith of the perfect, and that none 
 could perish who received imposition of hands 
 from them. 
 
 The Albigenses became so formidable to the 
 Romish priesthood at the beginning of the thir- 
 teenth century, that a crusade was formed for 
 their extirpation ; and Innocent III. admonished 
 all princes to oppose and expel them from their 
 dominions. Raymond, earl of Toulouse, who 
 was their chief protector, drew upon his head the 
 thunders of excommunication ; and the legate 
 who bore the papal decree, promised a plenary 
 remission of sins to all who engaged in the holy 
 league against them. Dominic, the inventor of 
 the inquisition, joined in this service ; and Ray- 
 mond, after much resistance, at length yielded to 
 terror and self-interest. In the year 1209 the 
 dreadful war began, and Simon, the celebrated 
 earl of Montfort, became generalissimo of the 
 army. Notwithstanding the intrepidity displayed 
 by the objects of this military persecution, town 
 after town was captured, and the poor people, 
 who were stigmatised with the name of heretics, 
 but whom Hume Hist. vol. ii. has characterised 
 as ' the most innocent and the most inoffensive 
 of mankind,' were hanged, slaughtered, and 
 burnt, without mercy. The earl of Toulouse 
 was assisted by the kings of England and Arra- 
 gon, but he lost his dominions, and in vain ap- 
 pealed to the council of Lateran. Raising some 
 forces in Spain, while his son Raymond exerted 
 himself in Provence, he regained the city of 
 Toulouse, and part of his possessions. The earl 
 died in 1221, and his son succeeded to the do- 
 minions he had recovered ; but pope Honorius 
 III. stimulated Lewis of France to engage in the 
 contest, and, though he encountered numerous 
 difficulties, Raymond was necessitated at length 
 to obtain peace upon very degrading conditions, 
 and finally relinquished his protestantism ; the 
 Albigenses became dispersed, and excited no 
 further attention till they united with the Vaudois, 
 and the Genevan reformed church. 
 
 ALBIGNY, a village and lordship of France, 
 in the Lyonnois. Also a small town on the river 
 Nerre, in the province of Berry. 
 
 ALBIN, or AUBIN, a small town of France, 
 in the department of the Aveyron, and arrondis- 
 sement of Ville Franche. It contains about 
 3200 inhabitants, and is eight leagues north-west 
 of Rhodes. E. Lon. 2. 20'. N. Lat. 44. 31'.
 
 454 
 
 ALBINO. 
 
 ALBINO, LEUCJETHIOP. or WHITE NEGROES, 
 a variety of the human species, that frequently 
 occurs in Africa. Ptolemy and Pliny apply the 
 term Leucaethiopes to a tribe of people in Ni- 
 gritia. The Portuguese first gave the name of 
 Albino to the white negro. Instances are met 
 with in different parts of Europe ; but races, the 
 hue of whose skin approaches most nearly to 
 black, are in general most liable to deviations in 
 colour. Albinos have been seen in the Indies, 
 in Borneo, in New Guinea, in Java, and in Cey- 
 lon. 
 
 The peculiarities of the Albino appertain to 
 the eye, the skin, and the hair. The iris of the 
 eye is of a bright red, or of a blue colour ; and 
 the whole organ is peculiarly sensible to the im- 
 pression of light. The skin is either uncommonly 
 fair, or of a dull white colour, similar to that of 
 a recently dead body. The hair is either white 
 and silky,, or of a very flaxen colour; and, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Pritchard, when this variety 
 springs up among the negroes, the woolly excres- 
 cence which covers the heads of that race is 
 white. 
 
 These characters have been met with in ani- 
 mals, both wild and domesticated. In the buffalo, 
 the common roe, sometimes, though rarely, in 
 the elephant ; in the bear, the dromedary, apes, 
 oquirrels, rabbits, rats, mice, hogs, moles, opos- 
 sums, martins, goats, and foxes. Several species 
 of birds, as crows, blackbirds, canary-birds, part- 
 ridges, fowls, and peacocks, exhibit similar phe- 
 nomena, having their feathers of a pure white 
 colour, and their eyes red. 
 
 Buffon does not consider the Albinos as a 
 particular race, but as individuals who have 
 accidentally degenerated from the original stock ; 
 and considers the production of whites by negro 
 parents as supporting his opinion. According 
 to this author, they are among the negroes what 
 Wafer tells us the white Indians are among the 
 yellow or copper-coloured Indians of Darien. 
 1 It is singular,' he remarks, < that this variation 
 of nature takes place from black to white only, 
 and not from white to black. It is no less sin- 
 gular, that all the people in the East Indies, in 
 Africa, and in America, where these white men 
 appear, lie under the same latitude : the Isthmus 
 of Danen, the negro country, and the island of 
 Ceylon, are under the very same parallel. White 
 then,' he continues, ' appears to be the primitive 
 colour of nature, which may be varied by climate, 
 by food, and by manners, to yellow, brown, and 
 black; and which, in certain circumstances, 
 returns, but so greatly altered that it has no re- 
 semblance to the primitive whiteness.' 
 
 The following is Wafer's account of the 
 Albinos, which are found among the Indians of 
 the Isthmus of Darien : ' They are white, and 
 there are of them of both sexes ; yet there 
 are but few of them in comparison of the copper- 
 coloured possibly but one to two or three hun- 
 dred. They differ from the other Indians chiefly 
 in respect of colour, though not in that only. 
 Their skins are not of such a white as those of 
 
 fair people among Europeans, with some tincture 
 of a blush or sanguine complexion ; neither yet 
 is their complexion like that of our paler people, 
 but it is rather a milk-white, lighter than the 
 colour of any Europeans, and much like that of 
 a white horse. For there is this further remarka- 
 ble in them that their bodies are beset all over, 
 more or less, with a fine, short, milk-white down, 
 which adds to the whiteness of their skins ; for 
 they are not so thick -set with this down, espe- 
 cially on the cheeks and forehead, but that their 
 skin appears distinct from it. The men would 
 probably have white bristles for beards, did they 
 ndt prevent them by their custom of plucking 
 the young beard up by the roots continually.' 
 Their eye-brows are milk-white also, and so is 
 the hair of their heads, and very fine withal, 
 about the length of six or eight inches, and in- 
 clining to a curl. They are not so big as the 
 other Indians, and what is yet more strange, 
 their eye-lids bend, and open in an oblong figure, 
 pointing downwards at the corners, and forming 
 an arch, or figure of a crescent, with the points 
 downwards. From hence, and from their seeing so 
 clear as they do in a moon-shiny night, we used 
 to call them moon-eyed. For they see not very 
 well in the sun, poring in the clearest day, their 
 eyes being but weak, and running with water 
 if the sun shines towards them ; so that in the 
 day time they care not to go abroad, unless it be 
 a cloudy dark day. Besides, they are but a weak 
 people, in comparison of the others, and not very 
 fit for hunting or other laborious exercise, nor do 
 they delight in any such. But notwithstanding 
 their being thus sluggish and dull in the day- 
 time, yet when moon-shiny nights come, they 
 are all life and activity, running abroad and into 
 the woods, and skipping about like wild bucks, 
 and running as fast by moon-light, even in the 
 gloom and shade of the woods, as the other 
 Indians do by day ; being as nimble as they, 
 though not so strong and lusty. The copper- 
 coloured Indians seem not to respect them so 
 much as those of their own complexion, looking 
 on them as something monstrous. They are not 
 a distinct race by themselves, but now and then 
 one is bred of a copper-coloured father and 
 mother ; and I have seen of less than a year old 
 of this sort. Some would be apt to suspect they 
 might be the offspring of some European father ; 
 but, besides that the Europeans come little here, 
 and have but little commerce with the Indian 
 women when they do come, these white people 
 are as different from the Europeans in some re- 
 spects, as from the copper-coloured Indians in 
 others. But neither is the child of a man and 
 woman of these white Indians, white like the 
 parents, but copper-coloured as their parents 
 were. For so Lacenta, the chief of one of the 
 Indian tribes, told me, and gave me this as his 
 conjecture, how these came to be white, that it 
 was through the force of the mother's imagina- 
 tion, looking on the moon at the time of the 
 conception ; but this I leave others .to judge 
 of. He told me withal, that they were but
 
 ALBINO. 
 
 455 
 
 short-lived.' This author accompanied Dampier 
 in his voyage round the world. 
 
 Dapper, in his Description de 1'Afrique, speaks 
 of Albinos as a variety seen in Lower Ethiopia, 
 and remarks, that they have flaxen hair, blue 
 eyes, the countenance and body so white, that at 
 a distance they may be mistaken for Europeans; 
 but when approached the difference is readily 
 perceived. He observes also, that the colour of 
 the skin is not that of a bright or natural white, 
 but pale and livid, like that of a dead body, or 
 of one affected with the leprosy ; that their eyes 
 are weak by day, but that by the light of the moon 
 they are brilliant, and their sense of sight strong. 
 They generally sleep during the day, and go 
 abroad in the night. They are mostly males ; 
 are not so robust and vigorous as other men, but 
 are exceedingly active during the night ; and 
 when the moon shines they run through the 
 forests with as much alacrity as other men do in 
 the brightest day-light. Dapper further remarks, 
 that they are put to labour in the mines of Brazil, 
 but that they prefer death to a life of slavery. 
 The negroes regard them as monsters, and there- 
 fore endeavour to prevent them from multiplying 
 their species. As the sight of Albinos is so 
 feeble during the day that they are almost in- 
 capable of discerning any object ; the negroes, 
 their enemies, attack them during that time, and 
 readily secure them. 
 
 In Saussure's Voyages dans les Alpes, is the 
 following account of two boys, at Chamouni, 
 who have been called Albinos. ' The elder, 
 who was at the end of the year 1 785 about twenty, 
 or one and twenty years of age, had a dull look, 
 with lips somewhat thick, but nothing else in his 
 features to distinguish him from other people. 
 The other, who is two years younger, is rather a 
 more agreeable figure ; he is gay and sprightly, 
 and seems not to want wit. But their eyes are 
 not blue ; the iris is of a very distinct rose- 
 colour ; the pupil too, when viewed in the light, 
 seems decidedly red ; which seems to demon- 
 strate, that the interior membranes are deprived 
 of the uvea, and of that black mucous matter that 
 should line them. Their hair, their eye-brows, 
 and eye-lashes, the down upon their- skin, were 
 all, in their infancy, of the most perfect milk- 
 white colour, and very fine ; but their hair is 
 now of a reddish cast, and has grown pretty 
 strong. Their sight too is somewhat strengthened ; 
 though they exaggerate to strangers their aver- 
 sion for die light, and half shut the eye-lids to 
 give themselves a more extraordinary appearance. 
 But those who, like me, have seen them in their 
 infancy, before they were tutored to this deceit, 
 ami when too few people came to Chamouni to 
 make their affection profitable to them, can attest 
 that they then were not much offended with the 
 light of day. At that time, they were so little desi- 
 rous of exciting the curiosity of strangers, that they 
 hid themselves to avoid such ; and it was neces- 
 sary to do a sort of violence to them before they 
 could be prevailed on to allow themselves to be 
 inspected. It is also well known at Chamouni, 
 that when they were of a proper age they were 
 unable to tend the cattle like the other children 
 at the same age ; and that one of their uncles 
 maintained them out of charity, at a time of life 
 
 when others were capable of gaining a subsistence 
 by their labour. I am therefore of opinion that 
 we may consider these two lads as true Albinos ; 
 for if they have not the thick lips and flat noses 
 of the white negroes, it is because they are 
 Albinos of Europe, not of Africa. This affinity 
 affects the eyes, the complexion, and the colour 
 of the hair ; it even diminishes the strength, but 
 does not alter the conformation of the features. 
 Besides, there are certainly in this malady 
 various degrees : some may have less strength, 
 and be less able to endure the light ; but these 
 circumstances in those of Chamouni are marked 
 with characters sufficiently strong to entitle them 
 to the unhappy advantage of being classed with 
 that variety of the human species denominated 
 Albinos.' 
 
 * When nature,' continues this author, 'presents 
 the same appearance often, and with circum- 
 stances varied, we may at last discover some 
 general law, or some relation which that appear- 
 ance has with known causes : but when a fact is 
 so singular and so rare, as that of those Albinos, 
 it gives but little scope to conjectures: and it is 
 very difficult to verify those by which we attempt 
 to explain it. I at first imagined that this dis- 
 ease might be referred to a particular sort of 
 organic debility ; that a relaxation of the lym- 
 phatic vessels within the eye might suffer the 
 globules of the blood to enter too abundantly 
 into the iris, the uvea, and even into the retina, 
 which might occasion the redness of the iris and 
 of the pupil. The same debility seemed also to 
 account for the intolerance of the light, and for 
 the whiteness of the hair/ 
 
 But professor Blumenbach, who has made 
 many profound observations on the organs of 
 sight, and has considered with great attention 
 the Albinos of Chamouni, attributes their infir- 
 mity to a different cause. He says, it is generally 
 to be seem in the warm blood animals ; but 
 that he has never met with it in those of cold 
 blood ; and is of opinion, that the redness 
 of the iris, and of the other internal parts of the 
 eye, as well as the extreme sensibility that 
 accompanies this redness, is owing to the total 
 privation of that brown or blackish mucus, that, 
 about the fifth week after conception, covers 
 all the interior parts of the eye in its sound 
 state. He observes that Simon Pontius, in his 
 treatise de Coloribus Oculorum, long ago 
 remarked, that in blue eyes the interior mem- 
 branes were less abundantly provided with this 
 black mucus, and were therefore more sensible 
 to the action of light. This sensibility of blue 
 eyes agrees very well, says M Blumenbach, 
 with northern people, during their long twilight ; 
 while, on the contrary, the deep black in the eyes 
 of negroes enables them to support the splen- 
 dour of the sun beams in the torrid zone. As 
 to the connection between this red colour of the 
 eyes, and the whiteness of the skin and hair, the 
 same learned physiologist says, that it is owing to 
 a similarity of structure, consensus ex similiru- 
 dine fabrics. He asserts, that this black mucus 
 is formed only in the delicate cellular substance, 
 which has numerous blood-vessels contiguous to 
 it, but contains no fat; like the inside of the eye, 
 the skin of negroes, the spotted palate of several
 
 ALB 
 
 456 
 
 ALB 
 
 domestic animals, &c.' And, lastly, he says, 'that 
 the colour of the hair, generally corresponds 
 with that of the iris.' See Gazette Lett, de 
 Gottengen, Oct. 1787. 
 
 At the time M. Blumenbach was reading this 
 memoir to the Royal Society of Gottingen, M. 
 Buzzi, surgeon to the hospital at Milan, an eleve 
 of the celebrated anatomist Moscati, published 
 in the Opusculi Scelti de Milan, 1784.t. vii.p. 11, 
 a very interesting memoir, in which he demon- 
 strates by dissection what Blumenbach had only 
 supposed. A peasant of about forty years of 
 age, died at the hospital of Milan of a pulmonary 
 disorder. His body was exceedingly remarkable 
 for the uncommon whiteness of the skin, of the 
 hair, of the' beard, and of all the other covered parts. 
 M. Buzzi, who had long desired an opportunity 
 of dissecting such a subject, immediately seized 
 upon this. He found the iris of the eyes per- 
 fectly white, and the pupil of a rose-colour. The 
 eyes were dissected with the greatest possible 
 care, and were found entirely destitute of that 
 black membrane which anatomists call the uvea ; 
 it was not to be seen either behind the iris, or 
 under the retina. Within the eye there was only 
 found the choroid coat extremely thin, and 
 tinged of a pale red colour, by vessels filled with 
 discoloured blood. What was more extraordinary, 
 the skin, when detached from different parts of 
 the body, seemed also entirely divested of the 
 rete mucosum : maceration did not discover the 
 least vestige of this, not even in the wrinkles of 
 the abdomen, where it is most abundant and 
 most visible. M. Buzzi also accounts for the 
 whiteness of the skin and of the hair, from the 
 absence of the rete mucosum, which, according 
 to him, gives the colour to the cuticle. Among 
 other proofs of this opinion, he alleges a known 
 fact, that if the skin of the blackest horse be ac- 
 cidentally destroyed in any part of the body, 
 the hairs that afterwards grow on that part are 
 always white, because the rete mucosum, which 
 tinges those hairs, is never regenerated with the 
 skin. What is it then that destroys the rete 
 
 mucosum in such persons ? M. Buzzi relates a 
 singular fact which seems to throw some light 
 on this subject. A woman of Milan, named 
 Calcagni, had seven sons. The two eldest had 
 brown hair and black eyes ; the three next had 
 white skins, white hair, and red eyes : the two 
 last resembled the two eldest. It was said that 
 this woman, during the three pregnancies that 
 produced the Albinos, had a continual and im- 
 moderate appetite for milk, which she took in 
 great quantities : but that when she was with 
 child of the other four children, she had no such 
 desire. It is not, however, ascertained, that this 
 preternatural appetite was not itself the effect of 
 heat or internal disease, which destroyed the rele 
 mucosum in the children before they were bom. 
 According to Bichat, the internal portion of the 
 hair, consists apparently of two systems of minute 
 vessels. One of these has the functions of the 
 vascular system in general, and affords a passage 
 to excreted fluids ; the other contains the colour- 
 ing matter in the form of a stagnant fluid, the 
 absence of which in the Albino occasions the 
 whiteness, or flaxen colour, of the hair. There 
 appears to be a constant relation preserved be- 
 tween the complexion of the skin, the colour of 
 the hair, and the hue of the pigment of the eye. 
 This is clearly shown in the Albino, and in all 
 kinds of animals liable to a similar variety. The 
 Albino cannot correctly be regarded as afflicted 
 with disease ; there is defective organization, but 
 not morbid action, and the phenomena which 
 result from the absence of the black pigment, 
 &c. in" this variety of the human species, serve to 
 point out, in the clearest manner, the uses to which 
 these parts are subservient. See Philos. Trans. 
 1706-7. Nicholson's Journal, ix. Soemmering, 
 Jcones Oculi Humani. Wafer's Account of the 
 Isthmus of Amercia, 1704. Saussure's Voyages 
 dans les Alpes, &c. 
 
 ALBINO, a well-built but small town of Italy, 
 in the Lombardo-Venetian. kingdom, district of 
 Bergamasco. 
 
 ALBINOVANUS, a Latin poet whom Ovid 
 styled divine. No part of his works is extant, 
 except two elegies on Drusus and Mecsenas. 
 
 ALBINTEMELIUM, Albintimelium, or at 
 full length, albium intemelium, in ancient geo- 
 graphy, now Vintimiglia, situated on the south- 
 west of the territory of Genoa, near the borders 
 'of the country of Nice, with a port on the 
 Mediterranean, at the mouth of the Rivulet 
 Rotta, about half way between Monaco and 
 South Remo. Lon. 7. 40'. E. lat. 43, 17'. N. 
 
 ALBINUS, in ancient history, an African 
 who, having entered into the Roman armies, was 
 made governor of Britain by Commodus ; after 
 the murder of Pertinax he was elected emperor 
 by the soldiers in Britain, amounting to about 
 50,000 men ; but Severus having been elected 
 by his own army, met him in Gaul with the 
 same number, attacked and conquered him. His 
 head was cut off by the order of Severus, and 
 his body thrown into the Rhone. He was al- 
 ways attached to a military life, and when at 
 school used to repeat with ardour, die following 
 liue from \ 7 irgil, 
 
 'Arma amcns capio, nee sat rationis in armis. 
 
 JEneid. ii. 314. 
 
 A writer of the name of Codrus gives an ex- 
 aggerated account of his appetite, according to 
 whom he devoured for breakfast no less than 
 500 figs, 100 peaches, 20 pounds of dry raisins, 
 ten melons, and 400 oysters. 
 
 ALBINUS, (Bernard Siegfred) a celebrated phy- 
 sician and anatomist, was born of an illustrious 
 family, at Frankfort on the Oder, in 1697. His 
 father was then professor of medicine in the uni- 
 versity of Frankfort; but in the year 1702, was 
 appointed professor of anatomy and surgery in 
 the university of Leyden. Here the son studied 
 under Boerhaave, the most eminent master in 
 Europe, who, from the abilities which he dis- 
 played, had no difficulty in prognosticating his 
 future eminence. On the death of his father, he 
 was appointed to succeed him as professor of 
 anatomy ; and Delivered an oration, De vera via 
 ad fabrics humani corporis cognitionem ducente ; 
 which was heard with universal approbation. 
 He wrote, 1. Index Supellectilis Anatomicae 
 Raviana', 4to. Ludg. Bat. 1725. 2. De Ossibus-
 
 ALB 
 
 457 
 
 ALB 
 
 Corporis Ilumani, 8vo. Lugd. Bat. 1726 ; an 
 improved edition with plates in 1762. 3. His- 
 toria Musculorum Hominis, 4to. Lugd. Bat. 
 1734. 4. Annotationes Academicae, 4 vols. 4to. : 
 besides treatises on the Vascular System of the 
 Intestines, &c. and revised editions of Harvey, 
 Vasalius, Fabricius, and Eustachius ; and, after 
 most ably filling the professor's chair for nearly 
 half a century, died at Leyden in 1770. 
 
 ALBINUS, (Christian Bernard) brother of 
 the foregoing, was professor of anatomy at 
 Utrecht, where he died in 1752. He is author 
 of 1. Specimen anatomicum exhibens novam 
 tennium Hominis Intestinorum descriptionem, 
 Leyden, 4to. 1722, 8vo. 1724; 2. De Anatome 
 errores detegente in Medicina, Utrecht, 1723. 
 Biog. Univ. 
 
 ALBIOECE, or ALEBECE, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, otherwise called civitatis reiensium ; now 
 llei/, in Provence, about eighteen leagues to the 
 north-east of Toulon, on the north side of the 
 rivulet Verdon, was originally a Roman colony, 
 and celebrated for the devotion of its inhabitants 
 to Apollo. See ALBICA. 
 
 ALBION, in ancient geography, album, white, 
 Lat. the island of Great Britain, so called by 
 Caesar, on account of the chalky cliffs on the 
 English coast. It distinguished this island from 
 Hibernia and the other British islands. Aga- 
 themerus, lib. xi. c. 4, speaking of the British 
 islands, says, they are many in number ; but the 
 most considerable are Hibernia and Albion ; and 
 Ptolemy, lib. ii. c. 3, calls Albion a British 
 island. Pliny, H. N. lib. iv. c.16. tom,i. p. 222, 
 observes, that the island of Britain, so much ce- 
 lebrated by the Greek and Latin writers, was 
 formerly called Albion ; the name of Britain 
 being common to all the islands round it. 
 
 ALBION, NEW, a name given by Sir Francis Drake 
 to the extensive district of California and part 
 of the north-west Coast of America, of which he 
 took possession in 1578. Humboldt, and recent 
 geographers, limit the denomination of New 
 Albion to that part of the coast which extends 
 from the 43rd to the 48th degree of north lati- 
 tude, which was visited, and all its coasts minutely 
 explored, by Vancouver, in May, 1792. Re- 
 garded in an agricultural point of view, says this 
 navigator, I should conceive it capable of high 
 improvement, notwithstanding the soil in general 
 may be considered to be light and sandy. Its 
 spontaneous productions in the vicinity of the 
 woods are nearly the same, and grow in equal 
 luxuriance with those under a similar parallel in 
 Europe ; favouring the hope, that if nutritious 
 exotics were introduced, and carefully attended 
 to, they would succeed in the highest degree. 
 The mildness of the climate, and the forward- 
 ness of every species of plants, afforded strong 
 grounds in support of this opinion. The in- 
 terruptions we experienced in the general se- 
 renity of the weather were probably no more 
 than were absolutely requisite in the spring of 
 the year to bring forward the annual productions. 
 These were attended with no violence of wind, 
 and the rain which fell, although disagreeable to 
 travellers, was not so heavy as to beat down and 
 destroy the first efforts of vegetation. Under all 
 these favourable circumstances, the country yet 
 
 labours under one material disadvantage, in the 
 scarcity of fresh water. The streams, however, 
 that we met with appeared sufficient to answer 
 all purposes, in the domestic economy of life, to 
 a very numerous body of inhabitants ; and, were 
 the country cleared and searched, there can be 
 little doubt that a variety of eligible situations 
 might be found for establishments, where, with 
 proper exertions, wholesome water might be pro- 
 cured. 
 
 The mountains were covered with pines even 
 to their summits. Insulated peaks, however, 
 were observed towering above the general height 
 of the ridges to which they belonged, and rising 
 far above the line of perpetual snow. Near the 
 coast the country offered the finest prospects. 
 Extensive lawns were seen covered with luxuriant 
 grass,, or diversified with woods and flowers, so 
 that no pleasure grounds could have been more 
 skilfully or more agreeably arranged. The soil 
 for the most part was found to be a light sandy 
 loam, in several places of very considerable 
 depth, and abundantly mixed with decayed ve- 
 getables. The forests with which the country 
 was covered consisted of poplar, arbor-vita, 
 common yew, black and common dwarf oak, 
 American ash, common hazel, sycamore, maple, 
 oriental astintus, American alder, common willow, 
 the Canadian alder, small fruited crab and Penn- 
 sylvanian cherry trees. Aquatic birds are nu- 
 merous along the shore, and at the outskirts of 
 the woods near the coast were found, in great 
 numbers, the white-headed and brown eagle, ra- 
 vens, carrion crows, American king'sfisher, a 
 very handsome species of wood-pecker, and, on 
 some of the low projecting points and open 
 places in the woods, a bird which seemed to be 
 of the heron species, with a remarkably long 
 neck and legs, and its body equal to the size of 
 the largest turkey. Its plumage is of a light 
 brown, and when erect its height could not be 
 less than four feet. Partridges and humming 
 birds are also found in abundance in the woods. 
 The only living quadrupeds seen by Vancouver 
 or his crew were a black bear, several wild dogs, 
 rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, and another small 
 animal, whose effluvia was the most intolerable 
 that they had ever experienced. From the skins 
 shewn them by the inhabitants, all the animals 
 common to the western coasts of America seemed 
 to abound in this district. 
 
 The country is but thinly inhabited, and the 
 manners of the natives are exactly similar to 
 those of Nootka, described by captain Cook. 
 The only difference is, that they are not so stout, 
 and are less filthy in their habits; not covering 
 their bodies with such a profusion of paint, nor 
 loading their hair with that immense quantity of oil 
 and colouring matter which is customary among 
 the people of Nootka. Their hair in general is 
 neatly combed and tied behind. Their dress is 
 a woollen garment, or the skins of deer, bears, &c. 
 Some wear dresses manufactured of bark, which 
 like their woollen dresses are very neatly manu- 
 factured. Their spears, arrows, and other wea- 
 pons, are generally barbed ; some are pointed 
 with common flint, agate, and bone ; but most 
 of them with thin flat iron. Their bows, which, 
 are made of yew, are of a superior construction.
 
 ALB 
 
 458 
 
 ALB 
 
 in general from two and a half to three feet in 
 length, and about three quarters of an inch thick, 
 neatly made, tapering to each end, which ter- 
 minates in a shoulder and a hook for the security 
 of the bow-string. Their habitations are rude 
 in the extreme, being composed of cross sticks, 
 with a few mats laid upon them. They are a 
 wandering race, living almost entirely by hunting 
 and fishing. But some deserted villages were 
 found. 
 
 ALBIREO, a star of the third or fourth mag- 
 nitude, in the constellation Cygnus. 
 
 ALBIS, in ancient geography, now the Elbe, 
 which divided ancient Germany in the middle, 
 and was the boundary of that country, so far as 
 it was known to the Romans : all beyond they 
 reckoned uncertain, no Roman except Drusus, 
 and Tiberius having penetrated so far as the 
 Elbe. A. U. C. 744, or about six years before 
 Christ, Domitius jEnobarbus, crossing the river 
 with a few, merited a triumph ; so glorious was 
 it reckoned at Rome to have the passage accom- 
 plished. In the following age, however, the river 
 that before occupied the middle of ancient Ger- 
 many, became its boundary to the north, from the 
 irruptions of the Sarmatae, who possessed them- 
 selves of the Transalbin Germany. See ELBE. 
 
 ALBIUM INGANNUM. See ALBENGA. 
 
 ALBOGALERUS, in Roman antiquity, a sa- 
 cerdotal cap, or ornament, worn by the priests, 
 styled flamen dialis, otherwise called galerus. 
 
 ALBOIN, a king of the Lombards, in the 
 sixth century, who, having slain the son of Turi- 
 sund, king of the Gepidae, when fighting under 
 the banners of his father Audoin, the Lombards 
 requested that he should be permitted to sit 
 at the royal feast, by which the victory was to 
 be commemorated. But as this was contrary to 
 the custom of the country, till the young prince 
 should be invested with arms by a foreign king, 
 Alboin set out with forty of his companions to 
 visit the court of Turisund. At the entertain- 
 ment prepared for the occasion, Alboin occupied 
 the seat of the prince whom he had slain in 
 battle. This circumstance awakened the feel- 
 ings of the father : and his surviving son Cunis- 
 mund, with the other Gepidae, who perceived his 
 agitation, determined to be revenged upon the 
 Lombard prince. They addressed their visitors 
 in the language of reproach and contumely. 
 The Gepidce sprung from their seats at the ap- 
 pointed signal. The young hero and his brave 
 associates grasped their swords ; but the rising 
 tumult was instantly assuaged by the interference 
 of Turisund, who generously dismissed Alboin 
 with the blood-stained arms of the prince whom 
 he had slain. When Alboin succeeded to the 
 throne, he asked in marriage the fair Rosamond, 
 the daughter of Cunismund, who now swayed 
 the sceptre of the Gepidae. This request being 
 refused, the Lombard king, with the assistance 
 of the Avars, overturned the kingdom of the 
 Gepidae in 566 ; and Cunismund having fallen 
 in battle, his fair daughter became the prize, and 
 afterwards the wife, of her victorious lover. Hav- 
 ing relinquished these territories to the Avars, 
 who promised to restore them in the event of 
 misfortunes, the Lombards attacked Italy, and 
 made themselves masters of the whole country, 
 
 from the mountains of Trent to the gates of Ra- 
 venna and Rome, which henceforth became the 
 kingdom of the conquerors. In a feast at Vienna, 
 given by Alboin to his fellow-soldiers, a cup, 
 formed of the skull of Cunismund, was intro- 
 duced upon the table. The brutal and unfeeling 
 Lombard placed it in the hands of Rosamond. 
 She touched the sacred cup with trembling lips, 
 which at the same instant muttered vengeance 
 against her savage lord. After some fruitless 
 attempts to procure an accomplice, she selected 
 Peredeus, one of the Lombard chiefs ; but found 
 it necessary to employ art to secure his assistance. 
 Rosamond secretly supplied the place of one of 
 Peredeus's mistresses, and then assured her de- 
 ceived companion, that either his death, or that 
 of Alboin, must be the consequence of their 
 criminal indulgence. Peredeus did not hesitate 
 about the alternative which he was to choose. 
 He introduced the assassin into the chamber of 
 his master : Alboin starting from his sleep, at- 
 tempted to draw his sword, but Rosamond had 
 secured it in the scabbard ; and the Lombard 
 king, with only a stool to defend him, fell by the 
 spears of his murderers, A. D- 573. See Uni- 
 vers. Hist. vol. p. 337. Gibbon, vol. viii. p. 207. 
 chap. 44. Giannome, Hist, de Naples, liv. iii. 
 cap. 4. 
 
 ALBON, (James D',) in biography, marquis 
 of Fronsac, was one of the greatest generals of 
 the sixteenth century, and rose to high military 
 eminence, in the reigns of Henry II. and Charles 
 IX. of France. By the former he was made 
 marshal of France in 1547, and was chosen to 
 carry the collar of his order to Henry VIII. of 
 England, who decorated him in return with that 
 of the garter. He acquired great reputation in 
 the wars of 1552, and 1554; and in 1557, was 
 made prisoner at the battle of St. Quintin. After 
 the death of Henry II. he was one of the trium- 
 virate who governed the kingdom four or five 
 years in spite of Catharine of Medicis. He was 
 killed in 1562, at the battle of Dreux, by a per- 
 son whose confiscated estate he possessed. The 
 Huguenots, who did not love him, used to call 
 him the Harquebuseer of the west. 'He had the 
 qualities of a soldier and a courtier; was ad- 
 dicted to every kind of luxury, excelled in polite- 
 ness and the amiable accomplishments, and on 
 the day of battle was distinguished by his pru- 
 dence and his courage. His daughter and heiress 
 is said to have been poisoned by her own mother 
 for her property. Gen. Biog. 
 
 ALBORAK, amongst the Mahommedan 
 writers, the beast on which Mahomet rode in his 
 journeys to heaven. The Arab commentators 
 give many fables concerning this extraordinary 
 animal. It is represented as of an intermediate 
 shape and size between an ass and a mule. A 
 place, it seems, was secured for it in paradise at 
 the intercession of Mahomet; which, however, 
 was in some measure extorted from the prophet, 
 by Alborak's refusing to let him mount him, upon 
 any other condition, when the angel Gabriel was 
 come to conduct him to heaven. 
 
 ALBORAN, an island lying between the coast 
 of Spain and Africa. 
 
 ALBORG, or AI.BOURG. See AALBORG. 
 
 ALBORO, in ichthyology, a name by which
 
 ALB 
 
 459 
 
 ALB 
 
 the orythrinus, a small red fish, caught in the Me- 
 diterranean, is commonly known in the markets 
 of Rome and Venice. 
 
 ALBRICIUS, born at London in the eleventh 
 century, was a great philosopher, an able physi- 
 cian, and well versed in polite literature. He 
 wrote first, De Origine Deorum; second, De 
 Ratione Veneni ; third, Virtutes Antiquorum ; 
 fourth, Canones Speculativi. Other works have 
 been attributed to him, which belong, as is sup- 
 posed, to a bishop of Utrecht, of his name, who 
 died in 784. 
 
 ALBUCA, BASTARD STAR OF BETHLEHEM : 
 a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the 
 hexandria class of plants ; and in the natural 
 method, ranking under the tenth order, coro- 
 narise. The characters are : CAL. wanting : COR. 
 six oval oblong petals, which are persistent : 
 STAM. six three-sided filaments the length of the 
 corolla; of these, three are fertile, with versatile 
 antherse; three are barren, without an thera : FIST. 
 an oblong three-sided germeri ; the stylus three- 
 sided : the pericarpium, an oblong obtuse tri- 
 angular capsule, having three cells, and three 
 valves : the seeds are numerous, flat, and incum- 
 bent. Of this genus Linnaeus reckons only two 
 species ; viz. first, Albuca major, or star flower, 
 with spear-shaped leaves, a native of Canada, 
 and some other parts of North America : Second, 
 Albuca minor, or African star flower, a native 
 of the Cape of Good Hope. , 
 
 ALBUCUS, in botany, a name used by some 
 for the white asphodel. 
 
 ALBUGINEA, in anatomy, the outermost 
 coat, or tegument of the eye ; otherwise called 
 adnata, and conjunctiva. It takes its name al- 
 buginea from its whiteness ; as it is this that 
 forms what we call the album, or white of the 
 eye. Albuginea is also applied to the third coat 
 of the testicles ; so called from its colour which 
 is white. It is a strong thick membrane, very 
 smooth on the outer surface ; the inner, which 
 adheres to the substance of the testicle, being 
 rough and uneven. In its upper part are inserted 
 blood vessels, nerves, and lymphatics, which 
 from thence, send divers branches into the sub- 
 stance of the testicles. 
 
 ALBUGIN'EOUS, albus, albumen, albugo, 
 applied to a white speck in the eye ; or, par- 
 taking of the nature of albumen, one of the con- 
 stituent properties of animal substances. 
 Ejrgs will freeze in the albvgineoia part thereof. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 ALBUGINEUS, in anatomy, a term some- 
 times applied to the aqueous humour of the eye. 
 ALBUGO, or LEUCOMA, is defined by phy- 
 sicians, to be a distemper occasioned by a white 
 opaque spot, growing on the cornea of the eye, 
 and obstructing vision. See MEDICINE, INDEX. 
 ALBULA, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes of 
 the truttaceous kind, having no teeth. The prin- 
 cipal species are ; first, Albula indica, a small 
 rtsh, resembling a herring, caught about the shores 
 of the East Indies, and called by the Dutch the 
 wit-fish. Second, albula nobilis, a truttaceous 
 fish, found in great plenty in the lakes of Ger- 
 many, and other places. 
 
 ALBITLA, ?n natural history, mineial waters 
 
 of an aluminous kind ; hence endowed with an 
 astringent quality, and of use in wounds. 
 
 AL'BUM, a white table book on which the 
 Praetors recorded their edicts. The names of 
 the senators were written in the Album Senato- 
 rum. Also a white paper book which foreigners 
 have long been accustomed to provide, with the 
 design of inviting strangers of distinction, or 
 literary eminence to insert their names, together 
 with any observation in prose or verse, as a me- 
 morial of their visit. The practice has been of 
 late years extensively adopted in this country. 
 
 The composer of this work, in his begging scraps 
 all about, I know not by what means, seems to have 
 lighted on a merry definition of an ambassador, which 
 above eight years before, passing by that way, I had 
 chanced to set down, at my friend's Mr. Christopher 
 Hickamon, in his album of friends, after the German 
 custom, which was worded thus : Legatus est vir 
 bonus peregre missus, ad mentiendum respublic& 
 causa. Sir H. Wootton's Lett, to M. Valenu. 
 
 ALBUM, in antiquity, a kind of white table, 
 or register, wherein the names of certain magis- 
 trates, public transactions, &c. were entered. 
 Of these there were various sorts, such as the 
 
 ALBUM DECURIONUM, JUDICUM, &C. which See. 
 
 ALBUM, in alchemy, a tincture pretended to 
 transmute metals. 
 
 ALBUM, in chemistry, white lead, or ceruse. 
 
 ALBUM, in natural history, is used for the 
 white of an egg ; more properly called albumen. 
 
 ALBUM, in pharmacy, is applied to divers 
 compound medicines, of a white colour, as un- 
 guentum album, white ointment, &c. 
 
 ALBUM AMICORUM, has been used in modern 
 times, to denote a kind of memorandum-book, 
 or literary repository, wherein the men of letters, 
 with whom a person has conversed, inscribe 
 their names with some sentence or motto. The 
 famous Algernon Sidney, being in Denmark, 
 was by the university of Copenhagen, presented 
 with their album, whereupon he wrote these 
 words : 
 
 Maims hsec inimica tyrannis 
 
 Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem. 
 
 ALBUM DECURIONUM, in Roman antiquity, the 
 register wherein the names of the decuriones were 
 entered. It is otherwise called matriculatio de- 
 curionum. 
 
 ALBUM JUDICUM, in Roman antiquity, was a 
 table wherein the names of judges were entered. 
 
 ALBUM NIGRUM, is used by some medical 
 writers, for muscerda. 
 
 ALBUM OCULI, among anatomists, the tunica 
 adnata ; also called albugo ; or the white of the 
 eye. 
 
 ALBUM PR^ETORIS, in Roman antiquity, was 
 a book wherein the formula; of all actions, and 
 the names of such judges as the praetor had chosen 
 to decide causes, were written. 
 
 ALBUM RHASIS, in pharmacy, an ointment so 
 called from Rhasis, the inventor. 
 
 ALBUM SEN ATORUM, the list of senators' names, 
 which was first introduced by Augustus, and re- 
 newed yearly. 
 
 ALBUMAZAR, a learned Arabian astronomer, 
 in the tenth century, who wrote a treatise of toe 
 Revolutions of the Years. 
 
 ALBUMEN, ALBUMENA, in physiology, al-
 
 ALB 
 
 460 
 
 ALB 
 
 bu9> white, has been considered as one of the 
 radical parts of animal substances, which received 
 its name from being first noticed in the eggs of 
 birds, where it forms the white. Fourcroy dis- 
 covered a similar substance in vegetables. Ani- 
 mal albumen exists, in its most perfect state, in 
 the white of eggs, and in the serum of the blood. 
 It is a viscous fluid, soluble in water at the com- 
 mon temperature, and coagulating when exposed 
 to a heat of 134, Fahr. then it is no longer 
 soluble in water. The vitreous and crystalline 
 humours of the eye, and the liquor that fills the 
 abdomen in dropsy, contain large portions of 
 albumen. As contained in milk, it conduces 
 largely to the nutriment of man. 
 
 In the vegetable kingdom it is found prin- 
 cipally amongst the narcotic and antiscorbutic 
 punts, where it generally resides in the leaves. 
 Fourcroy first obtained it from the juice of young 
 cresses. Solid albumen, says Dr. Ure, may be 
 obtained by agitating white of eggs with ten or 
 twelve times its weight of alcohol. This seizes 
 the water which held the albumen in solution ; 
 and this substance is precipitated under the form 
 of white flocks or filaments, which cohesive at- 
 traction renders insoluble, and which conse- 
 quently may be freely washed with water. Al- 
 bumen thus attained is like fibrine, solid, white, 
 insipid, inodorous, denser than water, and with- 
 out action on vegetable colours. It dissolves in 
 potash and soda more easily than fibrine ; but in 
 acetic acid and ammonia with more difficulty. 
 When these two animal principles are separately 
 dissolved in potash, muriatic acid added to the 
 albuminous does not disturb the solution, but it 
 produces a cloud in the other. Fourcroy, and se- 
 veral other chemists, have ascribed the charac- 
 teristic coagulation of albumen by heat to its 
 oxygenation ; but cohesive attraction is the real 
 cause of the phenomenon. In proportion as the 
 temperature rises, the particles of water and al- 
 bumen recede from each other, their affinity 
 diminishes, and then the albumen precipitates. 
 However, by uniting albumen with a large 
 quantity of water, we diminish its coagulating 
 property to such a degree, that heat renders the 
 solution merely opalescent. A new laid egg 
 yields a v soft coagulum by boiling ; but when, by 
 keeping, a portion of the water has transuded so 
 as to leave avoid space within the shell, the con- 
 centrated albumen affords a firm coagulum. An 
 analogous phenomenon is exhibited by acetate of 
 alumina, a solution of which, being heated, gives 
 a precipitate in flakes, which redissolves as the 
 caloric which separated the particles of acid and 
 base escapes, or as the temperature falls. A so- 
 lution Containing one-tenth of dry albumen forms 
 by heat a solid coagulum; but when it contains 
 only one-fifteenth, it gives a glairy liquid. One 
 thousandth part, however, on applying heat, oc- 
 casions opalescence. Putnd white of egg, and 
 the pus of ulcers, have a similar smell. Ac- 
 cording to Dr. Bostock, a saturated solution of 
 corrosive sublimate let fall into water containing 
 one-two-thousandth of albumen, occasions a 
 milkiness and curdy precipitate. On adding a 
 light excess of the mercurial solution to the 
 albuminous liquid, and applying heat, the pre- 
 
 cipitate which falls, being dried, contains in 
 every seven parts, five of albumen. Hence that 
 salt is the most delicate test of this animal pro- 
 duct. The yellow pitchy precipitate occasioned 
 by tannin, is brittle when dried, and not liable to 
 putrefaction. But tannin, or infusion of galls, is 
 a much nicer test of gelatine than of albumen. 
 
 The cohesive attraction of coagulated albumen, 
 makes it resist putrefaction. In this state it may 
 be kept for weeks under water without suffering 
 change. By long digestion in weak nitric acid, 
 albumen seems convertible into gelatine. By 
 the analysis of Gay Lussac and Thenard, 100 
 parts of albumen are formed of 52.883 carbon, 
 23.872 oxygen, 7.540 hydrogen, 15.705 nitrogen; 
 or in other terms, of 52.883 carbon, 27.127 oxy- 
 gen and hydrogen, in the proportions for con- 
 stituting water, 15.705 nitrogen, and 4.815 
 hydrogen in excess. The negative pole of a 
 voltaic pile in high activity coagula-tes albumen ; 
 but if the piVe be feeble coagulation goes on only 
 at the positive surface. Albumen, in such a state 
 of concentration as it exists in serum of blood, 
 can dissolve some metallic oxides, particularly 
 the protoxide of iron. Orfila has found white 
 of egg to be the best antidote to the poisonous 
 effects of corrosive sublimate on the human 
 stomach. As albumen occasions precipitates 
 with the solutions of almost every metallic salt, 
 probably it may act beneficially against other 
 species of mineral poison. For much interesting 
 information respecting this substance, see FOUR- 
 CROY, Systeme des Con. Chemique, and Phil. 
 Trans, vol. xc. See also CHEMISTRY. 
 
 The white of an egg, according to Boerhaave, 
 makes an ' extraordinary menstruum. Boiled 
 hard in the shell, and afterwards suspended in 
 the air by a thread, it resolves and drops down 
 into an insipid scentless liquor, which appears 
 to be the anomalous unaccountable menstruum 
 of Paracelsus ; and will, though it contains no- 
 thing sharp, oleaginous, or saponaceous, make 
 a thorough solution of myrrh ; which is more 
 than either water, oil, spirits, or even fire itself, 
 can effect. A little putrid white of egg, taken 
 into the stomach, occasions a nausea, horror, 
 fainting, vomiting, diarrhoea, and gripes ; it in- 
 flames the bile, excites heat, thirst, fever ; and 
 dissolves the humours like the plague. On the 
 contrary, the white of fresh-laid eggs, if taken 
 while warm from the hen, is extremely nourish- 
 ing to the infirm : it may be taken in luke-warm 
 milk; but if any other heat is applied to it, the 
 nutritious quality will be diminished. The 
 fresh white of egg prevents burns from rising in 
 blisters, if it is used immediately after the ac- 
 cident : it mitigates inflammations of the eyes, 
 and preserves the face from sun-burning. In 
 pharmacy, it is used as a medium to render 
 balsams and turpentines, &c. miscible with the 
 aqueous fluids ; but as it disagrees with many 
 stomachs when thus taken, a mucilage of gum- 
 arabic may supply its place ; it being as good a 
 medium in similar circumstances, and not apt to 
 offend the tenderest stomach. Whites of eggs 
 are also useful for clarifying liquors ; for which 
 purpose, being mixed and incorporated with th 
 liquors to be clarified, and the whole afterwanU
 
 ALB 
 
 461 
 
 ALC 
 
 boiled, they carry off the gross parts of the liquor. 
 A solution of that has also been used in cases of 
 contraction and rigidity of the joints. Whites 
 of eggs, beaten in a basin till they coagulate, form 
 the alum curd of Riverius, and alum cataplasm 
 of the London Pharmacopaeia. See EGG. 
 
 ALBUNA, the tenth Sybil, worshipped as a 
 goddess by the ancient Romans. 
 
 ALBUNEA, in ancient geography, a wood on 
 the river Anio, near Tibur, sacred to the Muses, 
 and deriving its name from the sibyl Albunea, to 
 whom a temple was erected at Tibur, the ruins 
 of which yet remain. The albunea fons was a 
 name given to some sulphureous waters that 
 were found near this spot, and which were re- 
 sorted to for medical purposes. 
 
 ALBUQUERQUE, (Alphonso, d',) surnamed 
 the great, was born at Lisbon, 1452, and raised 
 the power of the Portuguese to its utmost height 
 in India. He and his brother Francis went to 
 India in 1503 on a voyage of discovery ; but 
 Francis arrived first, and having restored the 
 king of Cochin to his capital, was joined by his 
 brother. Here they built a fort, and compelled 
 the Zamorin to sue for peace. The two brothers 
 soon after sailed for Portugal, where Alphonso 
 arrived in safety, but the other was lost. In 1508, 
 Alphonso being appointed governor of the Por- 
 tuguese settlements in India, subdued Ormuz ; 
 but he was soon obliged to quit that place and 
 return to India. Here in an attack on Calicut 
 he was wounded, and compelled to retreat. In 
 1510 he took Goa, and afterwards the strong 
 city of Malacca ; but while about to engage in 
 other enterprises, he was taken ill, and died in 
 1515. His son Blaise, on his father's death, 
 took the name of Alphonso, pursuant to the com- 
 mand of the king of Portugal, who also conferred 
 on him the rank of nobility. He wrote memoirs 
 of his father's transactions, and died in 1580. 
 Moreri. 
 
 ALBUQUERQUE, a small city of Spain, in 
 the province of Estremadura, seated on an emi- 
 nence nine miles from the frontiers of Portugal, 
 and twenty north of Badajos. It is defended by 
 an almost impregnable fortress, built on a high 
 mountain ; and carries on a considerable woollen 
 trade. It was founded in the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, and taken in 1735, by the 
 Portuguese, who kept it till the peace of Utrecht. 
 Inhabitants, about 5500. 
 
 ALBURN, or AUBURN, from albus, white, 
 Lat. and bruno, brown, Ital. a compound colour, 
 a mixture of white and red, or reddish brown. 
 
 ALBURNUM, the soft white substance, which 
 in trees is found between the liber, or inner bark, 
 and the wood, and in progress of time acquiring 
 solidity, becomes itself the wood- From its co- 
 lour and comparative softness, it has been styled 
 by some writers adeps arborum, the fat of trees. 
 The alburnum is found in largest quantities in 
 trees that are vigorous ; though in such as lan- 
 guish, or are sickly, there is a great number of 
 beds. In an oak, six inches in diameter, this 
 substance is nearly equal in bulk to the wood. 
 In a trunk of one foot diameter, it is as one 
 to three and a half; of two and a half feet 
 diameter, as one to four and a half, &c. but 
 these proportions vary according to the health 
 
 and constitution of the trees. The alburnum is 
 frequently gnawed in pieces by insects, which 
 lodge in this substance, and are nourished from it. 
 
 ALBURNUS, in ichthyology, a fresh water 
 fish, commonly called, in English, the bleak. Iu 
 is common in our rivers, and in those of Ger- 
 many and elsewhere; and is esteemed a well 
 tasted fish. It is most in season in September, 
 and is a species of the cyprinus of Linnaeus. 
 
 ALBUS, in commerce, a small French coin 
 current at Cologne, and worth about a half- 
 penny, English. 
 
 ALBUS PISCIS, the white fish, in ichthyology, 
 a name by which Silvian has called capito-iacus- 
 tris, and the same with the blue chub, or, as it 
 is more commonly called, the jentling. It is the 
 cyprinus jeses of Linnaeus. 
 
 ALBURY, or ALDERSBURY, a town in the 
 county of Surry, five miles from Guildford, 
 seated on the Wye, which runs through it. 
 
 ALBURY, a town in Hertfordshire, near Put- 
 more heath. 
 
 ALBY, a town in the county of Norfolk, four 
 miles from Aylsham. 
 
 ALBY, in France. See ALBI. 
 
 ALCA, or AUK, in ornithology, a genus of 
 the order of anseres. The beak of the genus is 
 without teeth, short, convex, compressed and 
 frequently furrowed transversely : the inferior 
 mandible is gibbous near the base ; the feet have 
 generally three toes. There are twelve species 
 of the alca, of which the most remarkable are : 
 
 1. ALCA ALLE, the little auk, or black and 
 white diver, with a smooth conical bill, a white 
 streak on the belly and wings, and black feet. 
 The size of this species exceeds not that of a 
 blackbird. It is npt very common in Britain, 
 but met with in various parts of Spitzbergen, 
 and Greenland, in company with the black-billed 
 species. In Greenland it is called the ice-bird, 
 being the harbinger of ice. This species is some- 
 times seen of a pure white. 
 
 2. ALCA ARCTICA, or the puffin, with a com- 
 pressed bill and four furrows ; the orbit of the 
 eyes and temples are white. The legs of this spe- 
 cies are very small ; and placed so far behind 
 as to disqualify it from standing except quite 
 erect, resting not only on the foot, but the whole 
 length of the leg. This circumstance, which like*- 
 wise attends every one of the genus, makes the 
 rise of the puffin from the ground very difficult, 
 and it meets with many falls before it gets on 
 wing ; but when that is effected, few birds fly 
 longer or stronger. These birds frequent the 
 coasts of several parts of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land ; but no place in greater numbers than 
 Priestholm isle, where their flocks may be com- 
 pared to swarms of bees for multitude. They 
 are birds of passage ; and resort there annually 
 about the fifth or tenth of April, quit the place, 
 almost to a bird, and return twice or thrice, be- 
 fore^hey settle to burrow and prepare for ova- 
 tion and incubation. They begin to burrow 
 the first week in May ; but some few save them- 
 selves that trouble, and dislodge the xabbits 
 from their holes, taking possession of them till 
 their departure from the isle. Those which 
 form their own burrows, are at that time so in- 
 tent on the work as to suffer themselves to be
 
 ALC 
 
 462 
 
 ALC 
 
 taken by the hand. This task falls chiefly to 
 the share of the males ; who also assist in incu- 
 bation. The first young are hatched the begin- 
 ning of July. If a parent is taken at breeding 
 time, and suspended by the wings, it will in a 
 sort of despair treat itself most cruelly, by biting 
 every part it can reach ; and the moment it is 
 loosed, will never offer to escape, but instantly 
 resort to its unfledged young: this affection 
 ceases at the stated time of migration, which is 
 most punctually about the eleventh of August, 
 when they leave such young as cannot fly to 
 the mercy of the peregrine falcon, who watches 
 the mouths of the nests for the appearance of 
 the little deserted puffins, which, forced by hun- 
 ger, are compelled to leave their burrows. Their 
 flesh is extremely rank, as they feed on sea- 
 weeds and fish, especially sprats: but when pick- 
 led and preserved with spices is admired by 
 those who love high eating. Their noise, when 
 taken, is very disagreeable ; being like the efforts 
 of a dumb person to speak. These birds are 
 also common in Ireland; on the island Skerries, 
 three leagues north-north-west of Holyhead ; and 
 in the south Stack, near Holyhead, they breed 
 in plenty. This species is also found in the 
 Ferroe Isles, where it is called lunda ; and in 
 the Farn Isles, where it is called coulterneb, from 
 the shape of the bill. It goes also by various 
 names; such as gulden-head, bottle-nose, and 
 helegug, in Wales; at Scarborough, mullet; 
 and in Cornwall, pope. In America they are 
 said to frequent Carolina in winter ; and have 
 been met with in Sandwich Sound : the natives 
 ornament the fore parts and collar of their seal- 
 skin jackets with the beaks of them ; and those 
 of Aoonalashka wear gowns of their skins, along 
 with those of other birds. On the coasts of 
 Kamtschatka and the Kurulschi islands they are 
 also common, even as far as Ochotka : the nations 
 -of the two first wear the bills about their necks 
 fastened to straps ; and according to the super- 
 stition of these people, their shaman or priest 
 must put them on with a proper ceremony in 
 order to procure good fortune. 
 
 3. ALCA CIRRHATA, so called by Pallas, or 
 tufted auk, is somewhat bigger than the common 
 puffin, and the colours much the same; the bill 
 is an inqh and three quarters in length, the same 
 in depth at the base, and crossed with three fur- 
 rows : over each eye arises a tuft of feathers four 
 inches in length, which falls elegantly on each 
 side of the neck, reaching almost to the back ; 
 and are white as far as they are attached to the 
 head, but are afterwards of a fine buff yellow ; 
 the legs are of a bright red ; the claws black. 
 The female is principally distinguished by hav- 
 ing the bill crossed only with two furrows in- 
 stead of three. This species inhabits the shores 
 of Kamtschatka, the Kurile islands, and those in- 
 tervening between Kamtschatka and America. 
 In manners it greatly resembles the puffin ; liv- 
 ing all day at sea, but at no great distance from 
 the rocks ; it comes on shore at night ; burrows 
 a yard deep under ground, and makes a nest 
 with feathers and sea plants; is monogamous 
 and lodges there the whole night with its mate! 
 It lays one white egg in the end of May, or be- 
 
 ginning of June, which alone is thought fit to 
 be eaten, the flesh of the bird itself being in- 
 sipid and hard. It feeds on crabs, shrimps*, and 
 shell-fish, which last it forces from the rocks 
 with its strong bill. Pallas remarks, that the 
 Kamtschatkan girls imitate the tufts of these birds, 
 which nature has supplied them with, by plac- 
 ing a similar strip of the white skin of the glut- 
 ton behind each ear, hanging down by way of 
 ornament ; and such a present is well received 
 from a lover to his mistress. The bills both of 
 this and the common puffin were formerly held 
 by the natives as a charm, and worn by the 
 priests as amulets ; indeed at present these have 
 been fixed round their head dresses, but supposed 
 now to be only esteemed as mere ornaments : the 
 skins are, however, made use of for clothing. It 
 is called in Kamtschatka muechagatka ; and in 
 Oschotsta, igilma. 
 
 4. ALCA IMPENNIS, the northern penguin, or, 
 great auk, with a compressed bill furrowed on. 
 each side, and an oval spot OH each side of the 
 eyes. According to Mr. Martin, this bird breeds 
 on the isle of St. Kilda ; appearing there the be- 
 ginning of May, and retiring the middle of June. 
 It lays one egg, six inches long, of a white 
 colour ; some are irregularly marked with pur- 
 plish lines crossing each other : others blotched 
 with black and ferruginous about the thicker 
 end : if the egg is taken away, it will not lay 
 another that season. Mr. Macauley says, that 
 it does not visit that island annually, but some- 
 times keeps away for several years together; 
 and adds, that it lays its eggs close to the sea 
 mark, being incapable, by reason of the short- 
 ness of its wings, to mount higher. The length 
 of this bird, to the end of its toes, is three feet ; 
 but its wings are so small, as to be useless for 
 flight; the length from the tip of the longest quill 
 feathers to the first joint, being only four inches 
 and a quarter. This bird is observed by sea- 
 men never to wander beyond soundings ; and 
 according to its appearance they direct their 
 measures, being then assured, that land is not 
 very remote. It sometimes frequents the coasts 
 of Norway, the Ferroe Isles, Iceland, Greenland, 
 and Newfoundland; and feeds much on the 
 lump fish, father-lasher, and other fish of that 
 size. The young birds eat rose roots, and other 
 plants. The old ones are very rarely seen on 
 irhore, though the young ones are not unfre- 
 quently met with. It is a very shy bird. It 
 walks ill; but dives well, and is taken in the 
 manner used for the razor-bill and puffin. The 
 skin between the jaws is blown into a bladder, 
 and used for the darts of the Greenlanders, as 
 is also that of some other birds. The skin of the 
 
 . body is supposed to be used by the Esquimaux 
 Indians for garments. 
 
 5. ALCA PICA, or black-billed auk, has the 
 bill of the same form with the torda, but is en- 
 tirely black. The cheeks, chin, and throat are 
 white : in all other respects it agrees with the 
 torda. Mr. Latham is of opinion that it is no 
 other than the young of that species. Mr. Pen- 
 nant observes, that it is sometimes found on our 
 coasts; but, according to Mr. Latham, it is in 
 the winter season only, when the common sort
 
 ALC 
 
 463 
 
 ALC 
 
 Has quitted them. They are said to he met with 
 on the coasts of Candia, and other parts of the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 6. ALCA PSITTACULA, or perroquet auk, of 
 Dr. Pallas, is about the size of the little auk. 
 The bill is much compressed on the sides, in 
 shape convex both above and below, and of a 
 bright red colour : from the remote corner of 
 each eye is a very tender tuft of fine white fea- 
 thers, hanging down the neck ; the head and 
 upper part of the body are dusky ; the lower 
 whitish, varied with black edges ; the legs are a 
 dirty yellow ; and the webs dusky. The species 
 is found at Kamtschatka, in the isles towards 
 Japan, and on the western shores of America. 
 They are sometimes seen in flocks, but seldom 
 far from land, except when driven by storms. 
 During night they harbour in the crevices of 
 rocks. They lay an egg almost the size of a hen's, 
 of a dirty white or yellowish colour spotted with 
 brown; which they do about the middle of June, 
 upon the bare rock, or sand, for they make no 
 nest. Like most of the tribe, they are stupid 
 birds, as is evinced by the method of catching 
 them. One of the natives places himself under 
 a loose garment of fur, of a particular make, with 
 large open sleeves, among the rocks at evening ; 
 when the birds, returning to their lodging places 
 at dusk, run under the skirts, and up the arm 
 holes for shelter, during the night, and thus be- 
 come an easy prey. Their stupidity likewise ap- 
 pears from flying aboard ships, mistaking them 
 for roosting places, whereby navigators have 
 been taught to avoid the danger of falling in too 
 near the land, either in the evenings, or on ap- 
 proaching storms. The eggs are esteemed good. 
 
 7. ALCA TORDA, or the razor-bill, with four 
 furrows on the bill, and a white line on each side 
 running from the bill to the eyes. These birds, 
 in company with the gullimot, appear in our seas 
 the beginning of February ; but do not settle on 
 their breeding places till they begin to lay, about 
 the beginning of May. They inhabit the edges 
 of the highest rocks that impend over the sea, 
 where they form a grotesque appearance, sitting 
 close together, and in rows, one above another. 
 They properly lay but one egg apiece, of an ex- 
 traordinary size for the bulk of the bird, being 
 three inches long : it is either white, or of a pale 
 sea green, irregularly spotted with black : if this 
 egg is destroyed, both the auk and the gullimot 
 will lay another ; if that is taken, then a third : 
 they make no nest, depositing their egg on the 
 bare rock : and though such multitudes lie con- 
 tiguous, by a wonderful instinct each distinguishes 
 its own. What is also a matter of great amaze- 
 ment, they fix their eggs on the smooth rock with 
 so exact a balance, as to secure it from rolling 
 off ; yet should it be removed, and attempted to 
 be replaced by the human hand, it is extremely 
 difficult, if not impossible, to find its former 
 equilibrium. According to Mr. Latham, it is by 
 means of a cement that the bird fixes its egg. 
 The eggs are food to the inhabitants of the coast 
 they frequent, which they get with great hazard, 
 being lowered from above by ropes, trusting to 
 the strength of their companions, whose footing 
 is often so unstable that they are forced down 
 the precipice, and perish together. These birds 
 
 are found in the north of Europe, also in Iceland, 
 Greenland, and on the coast of Labrador. I?i 
 Europe they extend along the White Sea, into 
 the Arctic Asiatic shores, and from, thence to 
 Kamtschatka and the gulph of Ochotka. The.y 
 are the only species which reach the inland Bal- 
 tic ; being found there on the Carls-Ozar isles, 
 near Gothland, and the isle of Bondon off An- 
 germania. 
 
 ALCACER-DO-SAL, or ALCAZAII-DO-SAL, 
 a town of Portugal, in Estremadura, seated on 
 the river Caldao, thirty-eight miles south-east 
 of Lisbon. It was called Salagia by the ancient 
 Romans, on account of the salt it produces. 
 
 ALGOUS, a famous ancient lyric poet, born 
 at Mitylene in the island of Lesbos, esteemed 
 by Horace the inventor of this kind of poetry. 
 He flourished in the forty-fourth Olympiad, at 
 the same time with Sappho, who was likewise 
 of Mitylene. Alcaeus professed himself a great 
 enemy to tyrants, but was not a very brave 
 soldier. He was present at an engagement, 
 wherein the Athenians gained a victory over the 
 Lesbians ; and here, as he himself confessed, he 
 threw down his arms and saved himself by 
 flight. The taste and talents of Alcaeus are 
 undisputed : and though his poems were chiefly 
 in the lyric strain, yet his muse was capable of 
 treating the sublimest subjects with suitable 
 dignity 
 
 ALC^EUS, an Athenian tragic poet, and, as 
 some think, the first composer of tragedies. He 
 renounced his native country Mitylene, and 
 passed for an Athenian. He left ten pieces, one 
 of which was Pasphae, that which he produced 
 when he disputed with Aristophanes, in the fourth 
 year of the ninety-seventh Olympiad. 
 
 ALC.SUS, another poet, mentioned by Plutarch 
 perhaps the same whom Porphyrius mentions as 
 a composer of satirical iambics and epigrams, 
 and who wrote a poem concerning the plagia- 
 rism of Euphorus the historian. He lived about 
 the 145th Olympiad. 
 
 ALCJEUS, the.Messenian, lived in the reign of 
 Vespasian and Titus, and is said to have suffered, 
 for his lewdness, a very singular kind of death ; 
 which gave occasion to the following epitaph : 
 
 'AXKOiS T000f 8TOC, &C. 
 
 ' This is Alcseus's tomb, who died by a radish ; 
 the daughter of the earth, and punisher of adul- 
 terers/ 
 
 ALCAHEST, n. s. an Arabic word, to ex- 
 press an universal dissolvent, pretended to by 
 Paracelsus and Helmont. 
 
 ALCAIC, in ancient poetry, a denomination 
 given to several kinds of verse, from Alcaeus, 
 the inventor. The first kind consists of five 
 feet, viz. a spondee or iambic ; a caesura, and 
 two dactyls; such is the following verse of 
 Horace ; 
 
 Eheu ! ] fugajces, | Postume, | Postume, 
 Labunjtur anpi ! | nee piejtas moram. 
 
 The second kind of two dactyls and two 
 troches; as 
 
 Afferet, | indomijtaeque | morti. 
 
 Besides these two, which are called dactylic 
 alcaics, there is another styled simply alcaic;
 
 ALC 
 
 464 
 
 ALC 
 
 consisting of an epitrite, two choriambi, and a 
 baccbius : the following is of this species. 
 Cur timet flajvum Tibcrim | tangere, cuijolivum ? 
 
 ALCAIC ODE, an elegant kind of ode composed 
 of several strophies, each consisting of four 
 verses ; the two first of which are always Al- 
 caics of the first kind : the third verse is a 
 diameter hypericatalectic, consisting of four feet 
 and a caesura ; and the fourth verse is an alcaic 
 of the second kind. The following strophe is of 
 this species, which Horace calls minaces Alcaii 
 camenae. 
 
 Ojmajtre pul|chra I filia | pulchrior, 
 Quern cri minojsis [ cunque vojles modum 
 Pones | iamjbis ; sijve flam|ma 
 Sive majri libet | Adri|ana. 
 
 ALCAID, ALCAYDE, or ALCALDE, in the 
 polity of the Moors, Spaniards, and Portuguese, 
 a magistrate, or officer of justice, answering 
 nearly to the British justice of peace. The 
 al'caid among the Moors is vested with the su- 
 preme jurisdiction, both in civil and criminal 
 cases. 
 
 ALCALA DE GAUDERIRRA, a small town of 
 Spain, in Andalusia, upon the river Guadalquiver, 
 six miles S. of Seville. Here are abundance 
 of springs, from whence they convey water to 
 Seville by an aqueduct. Lon. 6. 16'. W. Lat. 
 37. 20'. N. 
 
 ALCALA DE HENAREZ, a beautiful and exten- 
 sive city of Spain, in New Castile, seated upon 
 the river Henarez, which washes its~walls, eleven 
 miles south-west of Guadalaxara, and fifteen 
 E. N. E. of Madrid. The ancient name was 
 Complutum, when it was a Roman colony ; and 
 at this place was printed the celebrated Biblia 
 Complutensia, or Complutensian Polyglot, at a 
 cost of 250,000 ducats to cardinal Ximenes. It 
 was the first polyglot Bible ever printed, and we 
 must gratify our bibliographical readers with one 
 anecdote respecting it. The impression was 
 limited to six hundred copies, three of which 
 were struck off on vellum ; one of these being 
 deposited in the Royal library at Madrid; a 
 second in the Royal library at Turin ; and the 
 third, supposed to have belonged to the cardinal 
 himself, after passing through various hands, 
 was purchased at the sale of Signer Pinelli's 
 library in 1739, for the late Count McCarthy of 
 Toulouse, for four hundred and eighty-three 
 pounds. On the sale of this nobleman's library, 
 at Paris in 1817, it was bought by George Hib- 
 bert, Esq. of Portland Place, London for 16,100 
 francs, or 676. 3s. 4d. sterling, 
 
 Alcala is built upon a fertile plain and was once 
 a most flourishing place, containing an university, 
 endowed by Ximenes, that rivalled Salamanca, but 
 which has now fallen wholly into decay. Here 
 are still, however, three parish churches, twenty- 
 eight monastic institutions for both sexes, four 
 hospitals, and twenty-four colleges. Cardinal 
 Ximenes lies buried in the university church. 
 Inhabitants about 5000. Lon. 4. 20 W Lat 
 4. 35.' N. 
 
 ALCALA LA REAL, a small city of Spain, in 
 Andalusia, with a fine abbey. Population 9000. 
 It is built on the top of a high mountain, near 
 the river Salado, nine leagues from Jaen. Seve- 
 ral kinds of exquisite fruits and wines are found 
 
 in the vicinity. Lon. 4. 12. W. Lat 37. 
 38'. N. 
 
 ALCALI, or ALKALI. See CHEMISTRY. 
 
 ALCAMER, or ALCAMERE. See ALCKMAEE. 
 
 ALCAMO, a town and district of Sicily in 
 the valley of Mazaro, at the foot of Mount Boni- 
 fati, on the road to Palermo, twenty-five miles S. 
 of Palermo. Lon. 13. 52'. E. Lat. 38. 2' N. 
 
 ALCANITZ, a town of Arragon in Spain, seat- 
 ed on the river Guadaloupe, forty-six miles from 
 Saragossa. It was formerly the capital of the 
 kingdom of the Moors ; but being taken from 
 them, it was made a commandery of the order 
 of Calatrava. Lon. 0. 9'. W. Lat. 41. 0'. N. 
 
 ALCANNA, in commerce, a cosmetic powder, 
 prepared from the leaves of the Egyptian privet, 
 in which the people of Cairo drive a consider- 
 able trade. It is much used by the Turkish 
 women to give a golden colour to their nails 
 and hair. There is also an oil extracted from 
 the berries of alcanna, and used in medicine as 
 a quiescent. 
 
 ALCANTARA, or ALCANTARILLA, a town of 
 Spain, in the province of Andalusia. It stands 
 on an eminence near a morass, where the Romans 
 built a bridge, with a tower at each end. 
 
 ALCANTARA, or VALENZA DE ALCANTARA, a 
 small, but strong city of Spanish Estremadura, 
 seated on the banks of the Tajo, or Tagus. It 
 lies in a very fruitful soil, and is celebrated for its 
 bridge over that river, which was built, in the 
 time of the emperor Trajan, as appears by an in- 
 scription over one of the arches, by the people 
 of Lusitania, who were assessed to supply the 
 expense. At the entrance of the bridge, there 
 was a small antique chapel hewn in a rock by 
 the ancient pagans, who dedicated it to Trajan, 
 as the Christians did to St. Julian. The city is 
 said to have been built by the Moors on account 
 of the convenience of the bridge, which is at a 
 place where the Tajo is very deep, running be- 
 tween two high steep rocks : and for this reason, 
 they called it Al-Cantara, signifying the bridge. 
 It was taken from them in 1214, and given to 
 the knights of Calatrava. The principal occu- 
 pation, of the inhabitants is the trade in wool 
 and cloth. Population 3000. It is 115 miles 
 S.S.W. of Salamanca, 130 W.S. W. of Madrid. 
 Lon. 6. 43'. W. Lat. 39 40'. N. 
 
 ALCANTARA, or ALCANTARILLA, another town 
 of Spain, in the province of Seville, not far 
 from the Guadalquiver. The Romans built 
 here a bridge, to pass the marshes formed by the 
 river, which is still remaining. It was shut in 
 at each side with a gate, over which was a tower. 
 It is situated fourteen miles south of Seville. 
 
 ALCANTARA, a town of Portugal, near Lisbon, 
 in the province of Estremadura, seated on 
 the Tagus; there is a royal palace here with 
 beautiful gardens, grottos, and artificial fountains. 
 
 ALCANTARA, a town in the province of Maren- 
 ham, Brazil ; in the bay of St. Marcos, opposite 
 to the island of Marenham. It is built on a 
 semicircular hill, and consists of stone houses 
 one story high. It is a thriving place, as the 
 lands in the neighbourhood are in request for 
 cotton plantations. A handsome stone quay 
 has been built for small craft, upon the inside of 
 a neck of land, round which the harbour extends
 
 ALC 
 
 ALCANTARA, THE KNIGHTS OF, a military 
 order of Spain, which took its name from the 
 above-mentioned city. They make a very con- 
 siderable figure in the history of the expeditions 
 against the Moors ; and took the same vows as 
 .hose of Calatrava, being only distinguished 
 from them by this, that the cross, fleur de lis, 
 which they bear over a large white cloak, is of 
 a green colour. They possess thirty-seven com- 
 manderies. By the terms of surrender of Alcan- 
 tara to this order, it was stipulated, that there 
 should be a confraternity between the two orders, 
 with the same practices and observances in both ; 
 and that the order of Alcantara should be sub- 
 ject to be visited by the grand-master of Cala- 
 'rava. But the former soon released themselves 
 from this engagement, on pretence that their 
 grand-master had not been called to the election 
 of that of Calatrava, as had been likewise stipu- 
 lated. After the expulsion of the Moors and 
 taking of Granada, the sovereignty of these two 
 orders was settled in the crown of Castile by 
 Ferdinand and Isabella. In 1540, the knights 
 of Alcantara sued for leave to marry, which was 
 granted them. 
 
 ALCARAQUE, a river in Spain that falls 
 into the Guadiana, about twenty miles from the 
 city of Badajos, in the province of Estremadura. 
 
 ALCARAZ, a small city of Spain, in the pro- 
 vince of La Mancha, situated on a mountain of 
 the same name, in a fertile tract, called the 
 Campo di Montiel, near the source of the Gua- 
 darmena. It has 3300 inhabitants, and is 105 
 miles S. S. E. of Madrid. 
 
 ALCARRAZAS, in pottery, vessels used in 
 Spain for cooling water. They are distinguished 
 principally by their porosity, from other kinds of 
 earthenware, which is so considerable as to allow 
 the liquor to ooze slowly through and stand in 
 small drops on the outside, hence there is a con- 
 stant evaporation from the surface (though sur- 
 rounded by a current of warm air) and the water 
 in the jar continues at a much lower temperature 
 than the surrounding atmosphere. In Portugal 
 these vessels are used for moistening snuff or to- 
 bacco, the jar for this purpose being filled with 
 snuff and placed in water, which, by filtering 
 slowly through its sides, gives the powder the re- 
 quisite humidity. The following is an analysis 
 of the clay used for these vessels, according to 
 M. Darcets : sixty parts of calcareous earths, 
 mixed with alumina and a little peroxide of iron, 
 and thirty-six of silicious earths mixed with a 
 little alumina, worked up with water and salt, 
 which are dried in it. The pieces are only half 
 baked. 
 
 ALCASSAR, a fortified town of Barbary, 
 about two leagues from Larache, in Afgar, a 
 province of the kindom of Fez. It was of great 
 note, the seat of the governor of this part of the 
 kingdom, and built by Jacob Almanzor, king of 
 Fez. about the year 1180. He designed it for a 
 magazine and place of rendezvous, for the great 
 preparations he was making for the invasion of 
 Spain. The place is now fallen greatly into de- 
 cay. Not far from hence the famous battle was 
 fought between Don Sebastian, king of Portugal, 
 and the Moors ; in which the Portuguese were 
 defeated, and their king slain. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 ALC 
 
 ALCASSAR-DO-SAL. See ALCACAR-DO-SAL. 
 
 ALCAVALA, in the Spanish finances, was at 
 first a tax of ten per cent, afterwards of fourteen 
 per cent, then of six per cent, levied upon the 
 sale of every sort of property, whether moveabie 
 or immoveable ; and repeated every time the 
 property is sold. It is at this time about five 
 per cent. The levying of this tax requires a 
 multitude of officers sufficient to guard the trans- 
 portation of goods, not only from one province, 
 but from one shop to another ; and it subjects 
 the dealer in all sorts of goods, to the continual 
 visits and examinations of the tax-gatherer. It 
 is to the alcavala, that Ustaritz imputes the ruin 
 of the manufactures of Spain. 
 
 ALCAZAR, a city of Spain in New Castile, 
 seated on the river Guardamena, which lies in a 
 very fruitful country, 100 miles north-west of 
 Carthagena. 
 
 ALCAZAR LEGUER, a town of Africa, in the 
 kingdom of Fez, which was taken by Alphonzo, 
 king of Portugal, in 1468 ; but, soon after, 
 abandoned to the Moors. It is seated on the 
 coast of the straits of Gibraltar. 
 
 ALCE, ALCES, or ELK, in zoology, the trivial 
 name of a species of the cervus, belonging to the 
 order of mammalia pecora. See CERVUS. 
 
 ALCEA, the HOLLYHOCK, a genus of the 
 polyandria order, belonging to the monadelphia 
 class of plants ; and in the natural method rank- 
 ing under the thirty-seventh order, columniferse. 
 The characters are ; CAL. a double perianthium, 
 monophyllous and persistent; the exterior one 
 six-cleft, the interior five-cleft : COR. five petals, 
 coalesced at the base, heart-shaped inversely, 
 and expanding : STAM. numerous filaments, co- 
 alesced below in a five-coloured cylinder, loose 
 above, and inserted into the corolla : the antherae 
 are kidney shaped : PIST. a roundish germen ; a 
 short cylindric stylus; and numerous bristly 
 stigmata the length of the stylus. The pericar- 
 pium consists of many arilli, jointed into a ver- 
 ticillum about a columnar depressed receptacle. 
 The seeds are solitary, reniform, and depressed. 
 Though Linnaeus mentions two distinct species 
 of this genus, he thinks that the one perhaps is 
 only a variety of the other; but Mr. Miller affirms 
 them to be a distinct species, whose difference in 
 the form of their leaves always continues. First, 
 Alcea Ficifolia, a native of Istria. Second, Alcea 
 Rosea, a native of China. Its leaves are 
 roundish, and cut at. their extremities into angles. 
 Though both species are natives of warm coun- 
 tries, they are hardy enough to thrive in the open 
 air in Britain, and have for many years been 
 some of the greatest ornaments in our gardens, 
 towards the end of summer. 
 
 ALCEDO, or KINGSFISHER, in ornithology, 
 a genus of the order of picae. The alcedo has 
 a long, strait, thick, triangular bill ; with a fleshy, 
 plain, short, flat tongue. Of this genus there 
 are a great many species, with one or other of 
 which almost every part of the world is furnished. 
 Most of them frequent rivers, and live on fish, 
 the mode of their catching which, is admirable 
 sometimes hovering over the water, where small 
 fishes are seen playing, at other times waiting 
 with attention, on some low branch hanging. 
 over the water, for the approach of a single on 
 
 2 H
 
 466 
 
 A L C E D O. 
 
 who is so unlucky as to swim that way ; in either 
 case dropping like a stone, or rather darting with 
 rapidity on its prey , when, seizing it crosswise 
 in its bill, it retires to a resting-place to feast on it ; 
 which it does piecemeal, bones and all, without 
 reserve,- afterwards bringing up the indigestible 
 parts in pellets like birds of prey. The wings 
 of most of the genus are very short ; yet the 
 birds fly rapidly and with great strength. It 
 maybe remarked, that throughout this genus, 
 blue, in different shades, is the most predomi- 
 nant colour. This species, found in the South- 
 Sea Islands, are held in a kind of superstitious 
 veneration by the natives ; perhaps, on account 
 of their being frequently seen flying about the 
 morals or burial places. That which inhabits 
 Otaheite, where it is called Erooro, is accounted 
 particularly sacred, and not allowed to be taken 
 or killed. The jacamars are much allied to this 
 genu3,and have been ranked under it by Linnaeus. 
 There are above thirty species of this genus, of 
 which the following are the most remarkable, 
 viz. 
 
 1. ALCEDO GALBULA, or green jacamar, is 
 about the size of a lark. The bill is black, of a 
 square form, a little incurvated and sharp at the 
 point : the plumage, in general, in the upper 
 part of the body, is of a most brilliant green, 
 glossed with copper and gold in different lights : 
 the belly, throat, and vent, are rufous ; the tail 
 is composed of ten feathers, and shaped like a 
 wedge ; the legs are of a greenish yellow, very 
 short and weak ; the claws are black. This spe- 
 cies is found, both in Guiana and Brasil, in the 
 moist woods, which it prefers to the more dry 
 spots for the sake of insects, on which it feeds. 
 It is seldom seen except single, as it is a very 
 solitary bird, keeping generally in the thick- 
 est parts; its flight quick, but short; it perches 
 on branches of a middling height, where it sits 
 all night, and frequently part of the day with- 
 out stirring. Though these birds are solitary, 
 yet they are far from scarce, as many may be 
 met with. They are said to have a short and 
 agreeable note. The natives of Guiana call this 
 bird Venetore; and the Creoles, Colibri des 
 grands bois. At Brasil their flesh is eaten by 
 some. 
 
 2. ALCEDO ISPIDA, or common kingsfisher, is 
 not much larger than a swallow ; its shape is 
 clumsy; the bill disproportionably long; it is 
 two inches from the base to the tip ; the upper 
 chap black, and the lower yellow. But the 
 colours of this bird atone for its inelegant form : 
 the crown of the head and the coverts of the 
 wings are of a deep blackish green, spotted with 
 bright azure ; the back and tail are of the most 
 -esplendent azure ; the whole under side of the 
 oody is orange coloured ; a broad mark of the 
 same passes from the bill beyond the eyes ; be- 
 yond that is a large white spot ; the tail is short, 
 and consists of twelve feathers of a rich deep 
 blue ; the feet are of a reddish yellow, arid the 
 three joints of the outermost toe adhere to the 
 middle toe, while the inner toe adheres only by 
 one. From the diminutive size, the slender 
 short legs, and the beautiful colours of this bird, 
 no person would be led to suppose it one 
 of the most rapacious little animals that skims 
 
 the deep. Yet it is for ever on the winp, and feeds 
 on fish ; which it takes in surprising quantities, 
 when we consider its size and figure. It takes 
 its prey after the manner of the osprey, balancing 
 itself at a certain distance above the water for a 
 considerable space, then darting into the deep, 
 and seizing the fish with inevitable certainty. 
 While it remains suspended in the air, in a bright 
 day, the plumage exhibits a beautiful variety of 
 the most dazzling and brilliant colours. This 
 striking attitude did not escape the notice of the 
 ancients ; for Ibycus, as quoted by Athenaeus, 
 styles these birds aXicvovte Tavvaiirrfpoi, the hal- 
 cyons with expanded wings. It makes its nest 
 in holes in the sides of the cliffs, which it 
 scoops to the depth of three feet; and lays from 
 five to nine eggs, of a most beautiful semi-trans- 
 parent white. The female begins to lay early in 
 the season, and excludes her first brood about 
 the beginning of April. The male, whose fidelity 
 exceeds even that of the turtle, brings her large 
 provisions of fish while she is thus employed ; 
 and she, contrary to most other birds, is found 
 plump and fat at that season. The male, that 
 used to twitter before this, now enters the nest 
 as quietly and as privately as possible. The 
 young ones are hatched at the expiration of 
 twenty days ; but are seen to differ as well in 
 their size as in their beauty. This bird is found 
 not only in Britain, but throughout Europe, 
 Asia, and Africa ; as specimens have been 
 received from China, Bengal, and Egypt. Belon 
 also remarks his having met with it in Romana 
 and Greece ; and Scopoli notices it as a bird of 
 Camiola, where, he says, it remains the whole 
 year as in England. Indeed it bears the rigours 
 of the colder climates so well, that among the 
 Germans it has gained the name of Eiszvogal, or 
 Ice bird : Olnia speaks also of its not regarding 
 the ice and cold ; and Gmelin assures us, that it 
 is found even in Tartary and Siberia. But, 
 however this may be, there are few winters in 
 which many of these birds do not perish, appa- 
 rently from cold alone; as several have been 
 found frozen stiff by the sides of even running 
 water, without the least mark of violence about 
 them. M. D'Aubenton has kept these birds for 
 several months, by means of small fish put into 
 basins of water, on which they have fed ; for on 
 experiment they have refused all other kinds of 
 nourishment. 
 
 This species is the aXKvova^wvos, or mute 
 halcyon of Aristotle, which he describes with more 
 precision than is usual with that great philoso- 
 pher. After this description of the bird follows 
 that of its nest ; than which the most inventive 
 of the ancients have delivered nothing that 
 appears at first more fabulous and extravagant. 
 He relates, that it resembled those concretions 
 that are formed by the sea-water ; that it re- 
 sembled the long-necked gourd ; that it was 
 hollow within ; that the entrance was very 
 narrow, so that, should it overset, the Water could 
 not enter ; that it resisted any violence from 
 iron, but could be broken with a blow from the 
 hand ; and that it was composed of the bones of 
 the BtXovj, or sea-needle. The nest had medical 
 virtues ascribed to it ; and from the bird was 
 called Halcyoneum. In a fabulous age, every
 
 ALC 
 
 467 
 
 ALC 
 
 odd substance that was flung ashore received 
 that name ; a species of tubular coral, a sponge, 
 a zoophite, and a miscellaneous concrete, Ifcr.ving 
 by the ancients been dignified with that title 
 from their imaginary origin. Yet much of this 
 is founded on truth. The form of the nest is 
 justly described ; and the materials which Aris- 
 totle says it was composed of, are not entirely of 
 his own invention. Whoever has seen the nest 
 of the "kingsfisher, will observe it strewed with 
 the bones and scales of fish ; the fragments of 
 the food of the owner and its young. On the 
 foundation laid by this philosopher, succeeding 
 writers formed other tales ; and the poets, in- 
 dulging the powers of imagination, dressed the 
 story in all the colours of romance. Its nest 
 they represented as a floating one, placed in a 
 tranquil sea, and the bird was supplied with 
 charms, to allay the fury of the turbulent ele- 
 ment. The Halcyons were therefore said to be 
 the peculiar favourites of Thetis, the Nereids, 
 and the other sea-goddesses ; as to their influence 
 these deities were supposed to owe a repose in 
 the midst of the storms of winter. Aristotle and 
 Pliny tells us, that this bird was most common 
 in the seas of Sicily ; that it sat only a few days, 
 in the depth of winter ; and that during that 
 period the mariner might sail in full security; 
 for which reason they were styled halcyon days ; 
 and the expression became at last proverbial for 
 prosperity in general. The modern fables, that 
 the flesh of the kingsfisher will not corrupt, that 
 it banishes all vermin, and that when hung up 
 dead, its breast always points to the north, are 
 perhaps remains of the old traditions. 
 
 3. ALCEDO PARADISEA, or paradise jacamar, 
 is of the same size with the former, and has a 
 similar bill : the -throat, fore part of the neck, and 
 under wing coverts, are white : the rest of the 
 plumage is of a deep dull green, in some lights 
 appearing almost black, in others with a slight 
 gloss of violet and copper bronze ; the tail is 
 composed of twelve feathers of unequal lengths; 
 the two middle ones longest ; the legs are black : 
 the toes are placed two before and two behind, 
 and pretty much united. It inhabits Surinam ; 
 and like the galbula, it feeds on insects ; and 
 sometimes, contrary to it, frequents open places. 
 It flies farther at a time, and perches on the tops 
 of trees : it is frequently found with a compa- 
 nion, not being quite so solitary a bird as the 
 other. It also differs in the note, having a kind 
 of soft whistle, often repeated, but not heard a 
 a great way off. 
 
 4. ALCEDO RUDIS, or Egyptian kingsfisher, as 
 described by Hasselquist, is the size of the 
 Royston crow. The bill is blackish, more than 
 half an inch broad at the base, and two inches in 
 length : the head, shoulders, and back, are 
 brown, marked with oblong ferruginous spots : 
 the throat is of a ferruginous white: the 
 belly and thighs are whitish, marked with lon- 
 gitudinal, broadish, cinereous, spots : the upper 
 tail coverts quite white : the quills spotted with 
 white on the inner webs, chiefly at the tips : the 
 tail is ash-coloured : the legs are of a pale green ; 
 and the claws blackish. It inhabits lower Egypt, 
 about Cairo ; builds in sycamore and date trees ; 
 and feeds on frogs, insects, and small fish ; whirfc 
 
 last it meets with in the fields when they are 
 overflowed. Its cry is not unlike that of the 
 common crow. 
 
 5. ALCEDO TAPARARA of Buffon, is about the 
 size of a starling. The upper mandible of the 
 bill is black, the lower red : the hind part of the 
 neck, the back, and scapulars, are of an elegant 
 blue; the rump and upper tail coverts bright 
 beryl-blue : the under parts of the body are 
 white'; the wing coverts blue, and the legs red. It 
 inhabits Cayenne and Guiana, at which last place 
 the natives call all the kingsfisher tribe by the 
 name of Taparara. In this part of South Ame- 
 rica, which contains many rivers full of fishes, 
 kingsfishers, as might be expected, abound in 
 vast numbers : but what is remarkable, they 
 never herd together, always being found single, 
 except in breeding time, which is about the 
 month of September. They lay their eggs in the 
 holes of banks, like the kingsfisher of Europe. 
 The cry of this bird imitates the word Carac. 
 
 6. ALCEDO TORQUATA, or cinereous kinsgfisher, 
 is about the size of a magpie, and fifteen inches 
 and a half in length. The bill is three inches 
 and a half long, and brown; the base of the 
 
 lower mandible reddish: the head is crested: 
 the upper parts of the head and body are bluish 
 ash; the under parts chesnut; the throat is 
 whitish, descending down the neck, and passing 
 behind like a collar, ending towards the back in 
 a point : the under tail coverts are of a pale ful- 
 vous, transversely striated with black : lessr 
 wing coverts varied with bluish, ash, black, and 
 yellowish : the legs are red ; and the claws 
 blackish. It inhabits Martinico and Mexico : 
 at which last place it is called Achalalactli. This 
 bird migrates into the northern parts of Mexico, 
 at certain seasons only, and is supposed to come 
 there from some hotter parts. 
 
 ALCHATA, in ornithology, a species of the 
 tetrao. 
 
 ALCHEMILIA, or LADIES-MANTLE : a ge- 
 nus of the monogynia order, belonging to the 
 tetrandria class of plants; and in the natural 
 method ranking under the thirty-fifth order, 
 senticosse : CAL. a single-leaved perianthium, 
 tubular, and persistent; the mouth flat, and 
 eight-parted ; there is no corolla : STAM. four 
 small erect subulated filaments placed in the 
 mouth of the calyx; the antherae are roundish: 
 PIST. an egg-shaped germen : the stylus is 
 filiform, the length of the stamina, and inserted 
 at the base of the germ : the stigma is globular. 
 There is no pericarpium, but the neck of the 
 calyx closed. The seed solitary, elliptical and 
 compressed. Of this genus there are three 
 species, viz. ; 
 
 \. ALCHEMILLA ALPiNA,or cmquetoil ladies- 
 mantle, with finger-shaped sawed leaves, and 
 greenish blossoms. It is a native of the moun- 
 tainous parts of Europe. 
 
 2. ALCHEMILLA MINOR, or least ladies-mantle, 
 with five smooth leaves growing at a joint and 
 cut into many segments. It grows naturally 
 in Sweden, Lapland, and other cold countries. 
 This and the alpina are eaten by cows and 
 goats ; but refused by horses, sheep, and swine, 
 
 3. ALCHEMILLA VULGARIS, or common la- 
 dies-mantle, with leaves plaited like a fan and 
 
 2 H 2
 
 ALC 
 
 468 
 
 ALC 
 
 yellowish green blossoms. It grows naturally 
 in pasture lands in this as in most other countries 
 in Europe. 
 
 ALCHEMIST, a practitioner in alchemy. 
 
 ALCHEMY, from al, the, Arab, and Xij/a, 
 chemistry, that obsolete or rather pretended 
 branch of chemistry which had for its objects, 
 the transmutation of metals into gold ; the pana- 
 cea, or universal remedy ; an alkahest, or uni- 
 versal menstruum; an universal ferment; and 
 many other things equally ridiculous. The 
 origin and antiquity of alchemy are much con- 
 troverted. If regard may be had to legend and 
 tradition, :t must be as old as the flood. But 
 in fact few of the ancient poets, philosophers, or 
 physicians, from Homer till 400 years after 
 Christ, mention any such thing. The first author 
 who writes of making gold, is Zosimus the 
 Panapolitc, who lived towards the beginning of 
 the fifth century, and who has an express treatise, 
 
 np TJ/C kpc Tnx v ns rj c TS X9 vffs KM rii pyp8 
 
 iroiij<To>e, of the divine art of making gold and 
 silver, extant, in manuscript, in the late French 
 king's library. Kircher, instructed in all the secrets 
 of chemistry, fully exposed the artifices and im- 
 postures of alchemists. Mr. Harris very properly 
 distinguishes between alchemy and chemistry; 
 and defines the former to be,Ars sine arte, cujus 
 principium est mentiri, medium laborare, et 
 finis mendicare ; and the Italians have a proverb, 
 non ti fidiare ol alchemista povero o modico 
 amalato. The ruin which has attended this de- 
 lusion has occasioned several states to make 
 severe laws against pretences to alchemy. The 
 Romans formerly banished all such as professed 
 it ; and the sacred canons likewise directed the 
 thunder of their censure against them. Diocle- 
 sian and Caesar ordered all books which treated 
 of this subject to be burnt. Rymer furnishes us 
 with a licence for practising alchemy, with all 
 kinds of metals and minerals, granted to one 
 Richard Carter in the year 1476; Rym. Faed. 
 torn. xii. Nevertheless, we have had severe laws 
 against alchemy, and multiplying of metals, as 
 much so as against coining itself. Mr. Thomas 
 Taylor, the ingenious defender of the system 
 of Plato, and translator of' the principal part of 
 his works, examines the opinion of Suidas, that 
 alchemy could not be satisfactorily proved more 
 ancient than the time of Dioclesian. He in- 
 stances, from the Greek Dictionary of the empress 
 Eudocia, p. 108 of Villoison's edition, the fol- 
 lowing observations concerning the famous golden 
 fleece. 'Dionysius, the Mitylenean, says, a 
 man whose name was Krius, this name means 
 also a ram, was the pedagogue of Phiyxus, and 
 that the sheep skin had a golden fleece, not 
 agreeably to poetic assertion, but that it was a 
 book written m skins, containing the manner in 
 which gold ought to be made, according to the 
 chemical art. Justly therefore, says he, did 
 those of that period denominate the skin golden 
 through the energy proceeding from it.' This 
 Dionysius, as Fabricius shews, lived somewhat 
 
 C>r to Cicero. Again Manetho, in the fourth 
 k of his Apotelesmatica, p. 66, says, ' Venus 
 alone, in conjunction with the beautiful Phaeton, 
 the sun, points out makers of gold and workers 
 of Indian ivory.' This Manetho lived in the 
 
 time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, to whom he 
 dedicates his work. Alchemical knowledge was 
 anciently kept secret, but the invention of print- 
 ing, and a more extended spirit of enquiry, ha v e 
 caused all its nostrums and mysteries to disap- 
 pear. 
 
 ALCHIMELLA. See ALCHEMILLA. 
 
 ALCHOLEA, a kind of food in use among 
 the western Moors, being fleshy meat, pickled, 
 dried and potted. 
 
 ALCHORNEA, in botany, a genus of the 
 dioecia monadelphia class and order of professor 
 Martyn, and monadelphia octandria of Scwartz 
 and Gmelin, the characters of which are: CAL-. 
 of the male, a three or five-leaved perianthium; 
 leaflets ovate, concave, equal, coloured, and 
 deciduous : no corolla . STAM. eight filaments, 
 equal, scarcely longer than the calyx, slightly 
 connate at the base ; antherae ovate and upright : 
 FIST, a rudiment ; the calyx of the female is a 
 one-leafed, four or five-toothed perianthium, 
 the teeth equal and small ; no corolla ; the pis- 
 tillum has a germ twin, superior ; styles two, 
 very long and filiform; stigmas simple and acute ; 
 the pericarpium, a capsule berried, two-seeded, 
 two-celled, two-valved ; the seeds solitary, large 
 and oblong : there is one species, viz. Alchornea 
 latifolia. 
 
 AL'CHYMIZE ,v. ^ 
 
 AL'CHYMY, 
 
 ALKYM'ISTRIE, 
 
 ALCHYM'ICAL, 
 
 ALCHYM'ICALLY, 
 
 AL'CHYMIST, 
 
 ALCHYMIST'ICAL, 
 
 Deduced by some 
 from the Arabic al, the, 
 and %EVW, to melt. Per- 
 haps it may be defined 
 the pouring and mixing 
 of mineral substances, 
 in a state of fusion, in 
 
 ALCHYMIST'ICALLY,J order to obtain the pre- 
 cious metals supposed to be contained therein. 
 
 And whan this alkymisfre saw his time, 
 
 Risethup, sire preest, quod he, and stondeth by me ; 
 
 And for I wote wel, ingot had ye non, 
 
 Goth, walketh forth, and bringeth a chalk ston. 
 
 Chaucer. T/ie Chanone* Yemannes Tale, b. ii. 
 White alchymy is made of pan brass one pound, 
 and arsenicum three ounces ; or alchemy is made of 
 copper and auripigneantum. 
 
 Brown'i Vulgar Errours. 
 Raymond Lully would prove it alchymically. 
 
 Camden. 
 
 To solemnize this day, the glorious sun 
 Stays in his course, and plays the alchymist ; 
 Turning, with splendour of his precious eye, 
 The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold. 
 
 Shaktp. King John. 
 
 Every alchymist knows, that gold -will endure a 
 vehement fire for a long time without any change ; 
 and after it has been divided by corrosive liquors into 
 invisible parts, yet may presently be precipitated, so 
 as to appear in its own form. Grew. 
 
 Compared to this, 
 All honour's roimick ; all wealth, alchymy. 
 
 Donne. 
 
 They bid cry, 
 
 With trumpets regal sound, the great result ; 
 Tow'rds the four winds, four speedy cherubim 
 Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy, 
 By herald's voice explained. ' Mitt. Par, Lost. 
 It was by the means of fantastical ideas and notions, 
 that chemistry was turned into alchymy ; astronomy 
 into judicial astrology. 
 
 Bulingbroke's Efsay on Human Know.
 
 ALC 
 
 469 
 
 ALC 
 
 Time was, when I know not what mystical mean- 
 ings were drawn, by a certain cabalistic alchymy, from 
 the simplest expressions of holy writ. 
 
 Hartley's Sermons. 
 
 ALCIATI, (Andrew,) a celebrated lawyer, 
 who flourished in the sixteenth century, born 
 at Milan. Thuanus highly commends him for 
 mingling much of polite learning in the explica- 
 tion of the laws, and divesting it of barbarous 
 technicalities. He published a great many law 
 books, and some notes upon Tacitus. 
 
 ALCIBIADES, a famous Athenian general, 
 was the son of Clinias, who fell at the battle of 
 Coronaea, by Dionomache, the daughter of Xan- 
 tippus, who overthrew the Persians at Mycale ; 
 and the sister of Pericles, the celebrated orator. 
 He was born B. C. 405, and lived at a time 
 when his country was a scene of confusion. The 
 Greeks, grown insolent from their conquests in 
 Persia, turned their arms against each other, 
 under the conduct of the two most opulent 
 states, Athens and Lacedaemon. Alcibiades, in 
 the midst of an expedition he had planned 
 against the enemy, was recalled home to answer 
 some charge of a private nature ; but fearing 
 the malice of his enemies, instead of going to 
 Athens, he offered his services to Sparta, where 
 they were readily accepted. By his advice the 
 Lacedaemonians made a league with Persia, 
 which gave a favourable turn to their affairs. 
 But his credit in the republic giving rise to 
 jealousies against him, he privately reconciled 
 himself to his country, and took again the com- 
 mand of an Athenian army. Here victory attend- 
 ed all his motions. The loss of seven battles 
 obliged the Spartans to sue for peace. He enjoyed 
 his triumphs, however, only a short time at 
 Athens ; one unsuccessful event making it ex- 
 pedient for him to retire. In his absence the 
 Spartans again took the lead, and at the fatal 
 battle of ^gos entirely subdued the Athenian 
 power. Alcibiades, though an exile, endeavour- 
 ed to restore the power of his country ; of which 
 the Spartans having intelligence, procured him 
 to be assassinated. He was a man of admirable 
 accomplishments, but indifferent principles ; of 
 great parts, and of an amazing versatility of 
 genius. 
 
 ALCIBIADUM, or ALCIBIUM, in botany, a 
 word used by the ancients as an epithet for a 
 kind of echium, or vipers bugloss, and sometimes 
 as the name of a peculiar plant. 
 
 ALCIDES, in mythology, an epithet of Her- 
 cules. 
 
 ALCINOUS, in fabulous history, a king of 
 the Phoenicians, in the island now called Corfu, 
 son of Nausithous, and grand-son of Neptune 
 and Periboea. His gardens have immortalized 
 his memory. He , received Ulysses with great 
 hospitality, when a storm had cast him on his 
 coast. 
 
 ALCM^EON, the thirteenth and last per- 
 petual archon of Athens, died, after reigning 
 only two years, in the third year of the sixth 
 Olympiad, A. A. C. 754. 
 
 ALCMAER, a city of North Holland, about 
 four miles from the sea, and twenty-four N.N.W. 
 from Amsterdam. It is one of the cleanest 
 towns in Holland; and the town-house, and ar- 
 
 senal have been much admired. It had formerly 
 two parish churches situated near each other, 
 dedicated to St. Matthew and St. Lawrence. 
 The latter had so high a tower that it served for 
 a sea mark, but it fell down in 1464, and so 
 much damaged the other, that they were both 
 demolished in 1470, and one church was built 
 in their stead, dedicated to the same saints. The 
 Spaniards, under the command of Frederic 
 of Toledo, son of the duke d'Alva, came to be- 
 siege it, after they had taken Haerlem in 1573; 
 but were forced to raise the siege, after lying 
 before it three months, as well on account of the 
 infection of the air as the brave resistance of the 
 inhabitants and soldiers ; even the women sig- 
 nalizing themselves boldly in its defence. In this 
 city, in the year 1637, 120 tulips, with the off- 
 sets, sold for 90,000 florins ; and one of them, 
 called the viceroy, for 4203 guilders ! The states 
 at last put a stop to this extravagant passion for 
 flowers, which had ruined so many, or rather 
 to the speculative passion of gambling in them 
 as an article of commerce, by severe penalties. 
 The town has a very good trade in butter, and 
 cheese,which are esteemed the best in Holland ; as 
 well as in grain, seeds, and flower roots. It is 
 well fortified, and contains, besides the Catholic 
 churches, two Calvinist, one Lutheran, and one 
 Baptist church, as well as a Jewish synagogue. 
 Inhabitants from 9000 to 10,000. Alcmaerwas 
 taken and held for a short time by the British in 
 1799; here is a canal which leads from Hoorn 
 through Alcmaer to Petten, and serves to unite 
 the Zuyderzee with the North sea. Lon. 4. 21'. 
 E. Lat. 52. 38'.N. 
 
 ALC MAN, a lyric poet, was born at Sparta, 
 and flourished in the twenty-seventh Olympiad. 
 He composed several poems, of which only some 
 fragments remain, quoted by Athenaeus and some 
 other ancient writers. He was very amorous : 
 accounted the father of gallant poesy ; and is 
 said to have been the first that introduced the 
 custom of singing love songs in company. He is 
 reported to have been one of the greatest eaters 
 of his age. He died, of a strange disease ; for 
 he was eaten up with lice. 
 
 ALCMANIAN, from Alcman, see last article, 
 in ancient lyric poetry, a kind of verse consisting 
 of two dactyls and two trochees, as, 
 Post equi|tem sedejta tra | cura. 
 Some authors mention other Alcmanian verses, 
 composed of three dactyls, and a caesura ; as, 
 Munera | loetitijamque Defe. 
 
 ALCMENA, in mythology, the daughter 
 of Electryon, king of Mycenae, and wife of 
 Amphitryon. Jupiter, assuming the form of her 
 betrothed husband, while he was abroad in the 
 wars, made her the mother of Hercules ; Am- 
 phitryon is said to have been proud of the cir- 
 cumstance. , 
 
 ALCO, in zoology, the canis Amencanus 
 Linnaeus, about the size of a squirrel, with 
 small head, pendulous ears, curved body, and 
 short tail. There are two varieties, viz. the lat 
 alco, ytzcuinte-porzotli, canis Mexicanus of Her- 
 nandez, which is extremely fat, head very small, 
 ears pendulous, with the fore part of the head 
 very white, and yellowish ears, short neck, 
 arched back, vellow hair, white short pendulous
 
 470 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 tail, large belly, spotted with black, white legs 
 and feet, and the female with six conspicuous 
 
 Japs ; and the techichi of Fernandes, which is 
 ke the small dogs of Europe, except that it has 
 a wild and melancholy air. The first of these 
 approaches the Iceland dog, and the second is 
 perhaps the same animal with the koupara, or 
 crab-dog of Guiana, which in figure resembles 
 the fox, and in its hair the jackal. It has been 
 called the crab-dog, because it lives chiefly upon 
 crabs and other testaceous animals. 
 
 ALCOCK, (John,) LL.D. and bishop of 
 Ely, in the reign of Henry VII. was born at 
 Beverly in Yorkshire, and educated at Cam- 
 bridge. He was first made dean of Westminster, 
 and in 1471, was consecrated bishop of Roches- 
 ter; in 1476, he was translated to the see of 
 Worcester ; and in 1486, to that of Ely. He 
 was a man of great learning and piety ; and so 
 highly esteemed by king Henry, that he ap- 
 pointed him lord president of Wales, and 
 afterwards lord high Chancellor of England. 
 
 Alcock founded a school at Kingston upon Hull, 
 and built the spacious hall belonging to the 
 episcopal palace at Ely. He was also the foun- 
 der of Jesus College at Cambridge, and the 
 house which was formerly a nunnery, dedicated 
 to St. Radigund, had become so notorious for 
 the incontinence of its inmates, that king Henry 
 VII. and Pope Julius II. consented to its disso- 
 lution; and Alcock obtained a grant of it. Bayle 
 calls it spiritualium meretricum CBenobium. 
 Bishop Alcock, wrote, 1. Mons Perfectionis, 
 Lond. 1501. 2. In Psalmos Penitentiales. 3. 
 HomilifflVulgares. 4. Meditationes Piae. 5. Galli 
 Cantus ad Confratres suos Curatos in Synodo 
 apud Barnwell, 1498, 4to, which bears out the 
 pun on the bishop's name by a print of his 
 preaching with a cock on each side of him. He 
 died in 1500. 
 
 Also, a philosopher of the second century, who 
 wrote a treatise De Doctrina Platines, which has 
 been edited by various learned men : the best 
 edition is the 12mo. Oxford, 1667. 
 
 A L C O H O L. 
 
 ALCOHOL, in chemistry, ardent spirit, spirit 
 of wine : alcool esprit de vin, Fr. ; weingeist, 
 Ger. ; spirito ardente, spirito de vino, acquar- 
 zente, Italian ; in the nomenclature of modern 
 chemistry, the purely spirituous part of all 
 liquors that have undergone the vinous fermen- 
 tation, and derived from none but such as are 
 susceptible of it. As a chemical agent, it is of 
 the highest importance, and in its various com- 
 binations, involving all the grand principles of 
 the science. All fermented liquors agree in two 
 points : a saccharine juice is necessary to the pro- 
 duction ; and they are all capable of furnishing 
 an ardent spirit by distillation. The term, how- 
 ever, is commonly used to signify this spirit 
 more or less imperfectly freed from water, in the 
 state in which it is usually met with in the shops, 
 and in which, as it was first obtained from the 
 juice of the grape, it was long distinguished by 
 the name of spirit of wine. At present it is ex- 
 tracted chiefly from grain or melasses in Europe, 
 ' and from the juice of the sugar-cane in the West- 
 Indies ; and, in the diluted state in which it 
 commonly occurs in trade, constitutes the basis 
 of the several spirituous liquors, such as brandy, 
 rum, arrack, malt-spirits, &c. : differing from 
 each other in colour, smell, taste, and strength ; 
 but the spirituous part, to which they owe their 
 inflammability, their hot fiery taste, and their 
 intoxicating quality, being the same in each, may 
 be procured in its purest state by a second dis- 
 tillation, which is termed, in technical language, 
 rectification. As we are not able to compound 
 alcohol immediately from its ultimate consti- 
 tuents, we have recourse to the process of fer- 
 mentation, by which its principles are first extri- 
 cated from the substances in which they were com- 
 bined, and then united into a new compound ; 
 to distillation, by which this new compound, 
 the alcohol, is separated in a state of dilution 
 will) water, and contaminated with essential oil ; 
 
 and to rectification, by which it is ultimately 
 freed from these. In this country, alcohol, as 
 well as ardent spirits of different kinds, is pro- 
 cured most largely from fermented grain liquor, 
 prepared, for the purpose of distillation, from 
 wheat, barley, melasses, &c. ; but in the wine 
 countries, the spirit is obtained by the distillation 
 of wine, whence the synonymous term, spirit of 
 wine. 
 
 It appears to be essential to the fermentation 
 of alcohol, that the fermenting fluid should con- 
 tain saccharine matter, which is indispensable to 
 that species of fermentation called vinous. In 
 France, where a great deal of wine is made, 
 particularly at the commencement of the vintage, 
 which is too weak to be a saleable commodity, it 
 is a common practice to subject this wine to dis- 
 tillation, in order to draw off the spirit; and, as 
 the essential oil that rises in this process is of a 
 more pleasant flavour than that of malt or me- 
 lasses, the French brandies are preferred to any 
 other^ though even in the flavour of these there 
 is a difference, according to the wine from which 
 they are produced. In the West Indies a spirit 
 is obtained from the juice of the sugar-cane, 
 which is highly impregnated with its essential 
 oil, and well known by the name of rum. The distil- 
 lers in this country use grain or melasses, whence 
 they distinguish the products by the name of malt 
 spirits, and melasses spirits. It is said that a 
 very good spirit may be extracted from the husks 
 of gooseberries or currants, after wine has been 
 made from them. 
 
 As the process of malting develops the saccha 
 rine principle of grain, it would appear to render 
 it fitter for the purpose : though it is the common 
 practice to use about three parts of raw grain 
 with one of malt. For this two reabons may be 
 assigned; by using raw grain the expense of 
 malting is saved, as well as the duty on malt ; 
 and the process of malting requires some nicety
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 471 
 
 f attention since, if it be carried too far, part watery part is left behind. This second product, 
 
 f trm cnpr-nnnnf* moTi-op -10 inat n^A If It. 1 i ...... . 
 
 the saccharine matter is lost, and if it be 
 topped too soon, this matter will soon be 
 
 termed raw spirit, being distilled again, is called 
 rectified spirit. It is calculated, that a hundred 
 
 wholly developed Besides, if the malt be dried gallons of malt or corn wash will not produce 
 
 too quickly or by an unequal heat, the spirit above twenty of spirits, containing sixty parts of 
 
 it yields will be less in quantity, and more un- alcohol to fifty of water : the same of cyder wash 
 
 -leasant in flavour. Barley appears to produce fifteen gallons; and of melasses wash, twentv- 
 
 s spirit than wheat ; and if three parts of raw *- " in.-- '- 
 
 two gallons. The most spirituous wines of France, 
 
 heat be mixed with one of malted barley, the those of Languedoc,Guienne,and Rousillon, yield, 
 
 according to Chaptal, from twenty to twenty-five 
 gallons of excellent brandy from 100 ; but those 
 of Burgundy and Champagne much less. Brisk 
 wines, containing much carbonic acid, from the 
 
 produce is said to be particularly fine. This is the 
 
 practice of the distillers in Holland for producing 
 
 a spirit of the finest quality ; but in England 
 
 they are expressly prohibited from using more 
 
 than one part of wheat to two of other grain, fermentation having been stopped at an early 
 
 Itye affords still more spirit than wheat. : - J ----" -<-- ' 
 
 The practice with the distillers in Scotland, is 
 to use one part of malted with from four to nine 
 parts of un malted grain ; which yields an equal 
 quantity of spirit, and at a much cheaper rate 
 than the former proportions. The grain em- 
 ployed must be coarsely ground, and then mixed 
 
 with a little cold water, so as to prevent its run- 
 
 period, yield the least spirit. 
 
 The spirit thus obtained ought to be colourless, 
 and free from any disagreeable flavour ; and in 
 this state it is fittest for pharmaceutical purposes, 
 or the extraction of tinctures. 
 
 We shall take the example of brandy, which 
 is the product of the first distillation of wine, 
 and exhibit the methods by which alcohol is 
 
 ning into lumps; water about ninety degrees of procured from it by rectification, to illustrate one 
 
 Fahrenheit may then be added, till it is suffi- 
 ciently diluted ; and, lastly, a sufficient quantity 
 of yeast. The whole may then be allowed to 
 ferment in a covered vessel, to which the air can 
 have access. If the temperature exceeds seventy- 
 seven degrees of Fahrenheit, the fermentation 
 will be too rapid ; if it be below sixty degrees, 
 the fermentation will cease : hence the mean 
 between these will be found most favourable. 
 In this country the common practice is to mash 
 the grain as for brewing malt liquors, and to boil 
 the wort. But if the wash or liquor intended for 
 distillation be made from melasses and water, 
 the fermentation must be continued till the liquor 
 grows fine, and pungent to the taste, which will 
 generally be about the third day, but not so long as 
 to permit the acetous fermentation to commence. 
 
 In this state the wash is to be committed to 
 the still, of which, including the head, it should 
 occupy at least three-fourths ; and be distilled with 
 a gentle heat as long as any spirit comes over, 
 which will be till about half the wash is con- 
 sumed. The more slowly the distillation is con- 
 ducted, the less will the spirit be contaminated 
 with essential oil, snd the less danger will there 
 be of empyreuma. A great saving of time and 
 fuel may be obtained by making the still very 
 broad and shallow, and contriving a free exit 
 for the steam. This has been carried to such a 
 pitch in Scotland, that a still, measuring forty- 
 three gallons, and containing sixteen gallons 
 of wash, has been charged and worked no less 
 than four hundred and eighty times in the space 
 of twenty-four hours; which, if it were not esta- 
 blished by unquestionable evidence, would ap- 
 pear incredible. 
 
 This wonderful rapidity of distillation has 
 ceased since the excise duties have been levied 
 on the quantity of spirit produced, and riot, as 
 formerly, by the size of the still. Hence, too, 
 the spirit is probably improved in flavour 
 
 of the most useful modes of preparing alcohol. 
 
 This spirit is a compound of alcohol, water, a 
 colouring extractive matter, and a small quantity 
 of oil. It is to the two last that it owes its pe- 
 culiar flavour, smell, and appearance, whereby 
 it is distinguished from other distilled spirits. 
 The object of the process of rectification is to 
 separate the first from the other ingredients, and 
 this separation is effected upon the principle that 
 alcohol is the most easily volatilized when a gentle 
 heat is applied, and therefore appears, in the first 
 product of distillation, whilst the extractive mat- 
 ter and much of the water remain behind. It is 
 more difficult, however, to get rid of 1-he small 
 portion of oil which brandy contains, as this is 
 soluble in alcohol, and will rise with it in dis- 
 tillation, unless prevented by the means which 
 will be presently mentioned. The observations 
 of M. Baume, and his directions for the prepara- 
 tions of alcohol, are so judicious and accurate, 
 that we shall here mention them. 
 
 ' To procure rectified alcohol,' says this able 
 chemist, 'put a quantity of brandy in the water 
 bath of an alembic, and proceed to distillation. 
 Set apart the first product of the distillation 
 when it amounts to about a fourth part of the 
 liquor put into the alembic. Then continue the 
 process till about as much more is obtained, or 
 till the liquor comes over white and milky. 
 Then re-distil the latter product, and mix the 
 first half which comes over with the first 
 part of the former distillation, and continue to 
 distil as long as any spirit comes over. This 
 latter portion may be again distilled, and the 
 first product mixed with the former first pro- 
 ducts, as before After each distillation, there 
 remains in the alembic a watery liquor which 
 retains the smell of brandy, but is entirely de- 
 prived of inflammable spirit, and is thrown 
 away as useless. Having thus procured all the 
 spirit from the brandy, return all the reserved 
 
 The first product, "technically termed low wine, first products to the alembic, and distil with a 
 is again to be subjected to distillation, the latter gentle fire. When about half the liquor has 
 
 come over, it should be kept apart as pure recti- 
 fied alcohol ; the remainder is to be distilled as 
 
 portions of what comes over, called faints, being 
 set apart to be put into the wash still at some 
 future operation. Thus a large portion of the 
 
 long as it is inflammable, and may either be
 
 472 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 again rectified, or reserved for those purposes 
 where a spirit of inferior strength is required. 
 This judicious chemist gives this reason for the 
 above process : the spirit which first passes over 
 in distillation is the purest, and contains the least 
 portion of gross essential oil ; the latter portion, 
 on the other hand, is almost saturated with this 
 oil, and the difference between the two is easily 
 distinguishable when rubbed on the hands ; the 
 first product leaves no smell of brandy, but the 
 last gives an odour like the breath of drunkards, 
 who digest their food imperfectly. The quantity 
 of oil, however, varies according to the nature of 
 the brandy ; that which is made from wine alone 
 containing the least oil, but that which is pro- 
 cured from wine lees being so full of it as to 
 leave a stratum of the oil swimming on the wa- 
 tery extractive liquor left in the alembic, after all 
 the spirit has been distilled off. 
 
 Dubuisson remarks, concerning this oil, that 
 the Languedoc brandies contain much more of 
 it that the Cogniac ; and that after distilling a 
 large quantity of the former, the head of the 
 alembic was covered with expanded drops of the 
 oil, which adhered to the vessel. When collected 
 together, and quite cold, they became as stiff as 
 suet, had a chesnut colour, a strong disagreeable 
 taste, and a smell like turpentine. Various addi- 
 tions have been made to the impure sprit, in 
 order to assist in the separation of the oil. The 
 simplest and one of the most efficacious is water. 
 This, when added to the oily spirit, turns it milky 
 (as is the case with any other solution of essen- 
 tial oil in alcohol), and, by weakening the adhe- 
 sion between the oil and the spirit, it enables the 
 latter to rise in distillation, unmixed with the 
 former. The chief inconvenience is, that this 
 addition weakens the strength of the spirit so 
 much, as to require successive rectifications be- 
 fore it can be sufficiently deprived of its water. 
 Bran, chalk, crumbs of bread, and other sub- 
 stances, are also added, before distillation, to the 
 spirit, when oily and ill-flavoured ; and they all 
 have a good effect in keeping down the matters 
 which contaminate the alcohol, and render the 
 distillation more effectual in purifying it. Quick- 
 lime is still more efficacious, but much lessens 
 the product of alcohol, alters its nature in some 
 degree, and makes it more penetrating. It 
 would appear, however, that there are some 
 kinds of wine in which the odorant particles are 
 so intimately mixed with the spirituous, that it 
 is scarcely possible to separate them by simple 
 distillation, however cautiously and skilfully 
 conducted. The common still, with the worm- 
 tube and refrigeratory, is well calculated for the 
 rectification of spirits, only allowance must be 
 made for the readiness with which ardent spirit, 
 when heated, assumes the state of vapour, and 
 the very great expansion which it then under- 
 goes. 
 
 Alcohol, freed from all foreign ingredients but 
 water, and already of considerable strength, may 
 be brought to the specific gravity of 0.825, at 
 the temperature of 60, by a single distillation, 
 where the heat is moderate and applied gra- 
 dually, and the condensation slow. When 
 about a third or half of the spirit is distilled 
 over, the strength of the succeeding portion is di- 
 
 minished, the specific gravity increases, and it 
 becomes more watery, ''and therefore the first 
 product should be kept apart. This cannot be 
 rendered stronger by any simple distillation, but 
 it may be still further dephlegmated by means 
 which will be mentioned hereafter. 
 
 But for ordinary sale something more is re- 
 quired. The brandy of France, which is most 
 in esteem here, though perfectly colourless when 
 first made, and often preserved so for use in that 
 country by being kept in glass or stone bottles, 
 is put into new oak casks for exportation, whence 
 it soon acquires an amber colour, a peculiar 
 flavour, and something like an unctuosity of con- 
 sistence. As it is not only prized for these quali- 
 ties, but they are commonly deemed essential to 
 it, the English distiller imitates by design these 
 accidental qualities. The most obvious and 
 natural method of doing this would be by im- 
 pregnating a pure spirit with the extractive, re- 
 sinous, and colouring matter of oak shavings ; 
 but other modes have been contrived. The 
 dulcified spirit of nitre, as it is called, is com- 
 monly used to give the flavour ; and catechu, or 
 burnt sugar, to impart the desired colour. A 
 French writer has recommended three ounces 
 and a half of finely powdered charcoal, and 
 four ounces and a half of ground rice, to be 
 digested for a fortnight in a quart of malt spirit. 
 
 The finest gin is said to be made in Holland 
 from a spirit drawn from wheat, mixed with a 
 third or fourth part of malted barley, and twice 
 rectified over juniper berries ; but in general rye 
 meal is used instead of wheat. They pay so 
 much regard to the water employed, that many 
 send vessels on purpose to fetch it from the 
 Meuse; but all use the softest and clearest river 
 water they can get. In England it is the com- 
 mon practice to add oil of turpentine, in the pro- 
 portion of two ounces to ten gallons of raw spirit?, 
 with three handfuls of bay salt, and drawn off 
 till the faints begin to rise. 
 
 But corn, or melasses spirit, is flavoured like- 
 wise by a variety of aromatics, with or without 
 sugar, to please different palates ; all of which 
 are included under the general technical term of 
 compounds or cordials. 
 
 Other articles have been employed, though not 
 generally, for the fabrication of spirit, as carrots 
 and potatoes ; and we are lately informed by 
 professor Proust, that from the fruit of the carob 
 tree he has obtained good brandy in the propor- 
 tion of a pint from five pounds of the dried fruit. 
 
 To obtain pure alcohol, different processes 
 have been recommended ; but the purest rectified 
 spirit, obtained as above described, being that 
 which is least contaminated with foreign matter, 
 should be employed. Rouelle recommends to 
 draw oft' the spirit in a water bath ; to rectify 
 this twice more, drawing off two-thirds each time ; 
 to add water to this alcohol, which will turn it 
 milky by separating- the essential oil remaining 
 in it ; to distil the spirit from this water ; and 
 finally, rectify it by another distillation. 
 
 Alcohol is often dephlegmated, or still further 
 freed from water, by means of some alkaline salt. 
 Boerhaave recommended, for this purpose, the 
 muriate of soda, deprived of its water of crystal- 
 lization by heat, and added hot to the spirit. But
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 473 
 
 the sul)carbonate of potash is preferable. About 
 a third of the weight of the alcohol should be 
 added to it in a glass vessel, well shaken, and 
 then suffered to subside. The salt will be mois- 
 tened by the water absorbed from the alcohol ; 
 which being decanted, more of the salt is to be 
 added, and this is to be continued till the salt 
 falls dry to the bottom of the vessel. The alcohol 
 in this state will be reddened by a portion of the 
 pure potash, which it will hold in solution, from 
 which it must be freed by distillation in a water 
 bath. Dry muriate of lime may be substituted 
 advantageously for the alkali. 
 
 Alcohol, as we have already intimated, is a 
 colourless transparent liquor, appearing to the 
 eye like pure water. It possesses a peculiar pe- 
 netrating smell, diirinct from the proper odour 
 of the distilled spirit from which it had been 
 procured. To the taste it is excessively hot and 
 burning, but without any peculiar flavour. 
 From it great lightness and mobility, the bub- 
 bles, which are formed on shaking it, subside al- 
 most instantaneously, and this 'is one method of 
 judging of its purity. Alcohol is very easily vo- 
 latilized by the heat of the hand, it even begins 
 to be converted into a very expansible vapour 
 at the temperature of 55 Fahr. and the quick- 
 ness of evaporation always produces a consider- 
 able cold. It boils at about 165, and the 
 vapours when condensed return unaltered to 
 their former state. It has never been frozen by 
 any cold, natural or artificial, and hence its use 
 in thermometers to measure very low tempera- 
 tures. 
 
 Alcohol takes fire very readily on the applica- 
 tion of any lighted body, the speedier in propor- 
 tion to its purity. It burns with a pale flame, 
 white in the centre and blue at the edges ; this 
 gives but a small degree of heat, and is so faint as 
 to be scarcely visible in bright day-light. It 
 burns without any smoke or vapour, and if 
 strong, leaves no residuum ; but if weak, it is 
 extinguished spontaneously, and the watery part 
 remains behind. 
 
 As alcohol is much lighter than water, its 
 specific gravity is adopted as the test of its 
 purity. Fourcroy considers it as rectified to the 
 highest point when its specific gravity is 829, that 
 of water being 1000 ; and perhaps this is nearly 
 as far as it can be carried by the process of 
 Rouelle or Baume simply. M. Bories found 
 the first measure that came over from twenty of 
 spirit at 836 to be 820, at the temperature of 
 71 of Fahrenheit. Sir Charles Blagden, by 
 the addition of alkali, brought it to 813, at 
 CO of Fahrenheit. 'Chaussier professes to 
 nave reduced it to 798 ; but he gives 998.35 as 
 the specific gravity of water. Lowitz asserts 
 Jiat he has obtained it at 791, by adding as much 
 alkali as nearly to absorb the spirit; but the 
 temperature is not indicated. In the shops it is 
 about 835 or 840 : according to the London 
 College it should be 815. 
 
 It is by no means an easy undertaking to de- 
 termine the strength or relative value of spirits, 
 even with sufficient accuracy for commercial pur- 
 poses. The following requisites must be ob- 
 tained before this can be well done : the specific 
 gravity of a certain number of mixtures of al- 
 
 cohol and water must be taken so near each 
 other, as that the intermediate specific gravities 
 may not perceptibly differ from those deduced 
 from the supposition of a mere mixture of the 
 fluids ; the expansions or variations of specific 
 gravity in these mixtures must be determined at 
 different temperatures ; some easy method must 
 be contrived of determining the presence and 
 quantity of saccharine or oleaginous matter which 
 the spirit may hold in solution, and the effect of 
 such solution on the specific gravity ; and lastly, 
 the specific gravity of the fluid must be ascer- 
 tained by a proper floating instrument with a 
 graduated stem, or set of weights ; or, which 
 may be more convenient, with both. 
 
 The strength of brandies in commerce is judged 
 by the phial, or by burning. The phial proof 
 consists in agitating the spirit in a bottle, and ob- 
 serving the form and magnitude of the bubbles 
 that collect round the edge of the liquor, techni- 
 cally termed the bead, which are larger the 
 stronger the spirit. These probably depend on the 
 solution of resinous matter from the cask, which 
 is taken up in greater quantities, the stronger 
 the spirit. It is not difficult, however, to pro- 
 duce this appearance by various simple additions 
 to weak spirits. The proof by burning is also 
 fallacious; because the magnitude of the flame, 
 and quantity of residue, in the same spirit, vary 
 greatly with the form of the vessel it is burned 
 in. If the vessel be kept cool, or suffered to 
 become hot, if it be deeper or shallower, the 
 results will not be the same in each case. It 
 does not follow, however, but that manufacturers 
 and others, may, in many instances, receive con- 
 siderable information from these signs, in circum- 
 stances exactly alike, and in the course of opera- 
 tions wherein it would be inconvenient to recur 
 continually to experiments of specific gravity. 
 
 The importance of this object induced the 
 British government to employ Dr. Blagden, now 
 Sir Charles, to institute a very minute and accu- 
 rate series of experiments. Of these we shall give 
 a summary in this place, from the Philosophical 
 Transactions for 1790. 
 
 The first object to which the experiments 
 were directed, was to ascertain the quantity and 
 laws resulting from the mutual penetration of 
 water and spirit. 
 
 All bodies in general expand by heat; but the 
 quantity of this expansion, as well as the law of 
 its progression, is probably not the same in any 
 two substances. In water and spirit they are 
 remarkably different. The whole expansion of 
 pure spirit from 30 to 100 of Fahrenheit's 
 thermometer is not less than l-25th of its whole 
 bulk at 30 ; whereas that of water, in the same 
 interval, is only l-145lh of its bulk. The laws 
 of their expansion are still more different than 
 the quantities. If the expansion of quicksilver 
 be, as usual, taken for the standard, (our ther- 
 mometers being constructed with that fluid,) the 
 expansion of spirit is, indeed, progressively in- 
 creasing with respect to that standard, but no*, 
 much so within the above-mentioned interval , 
 while water kept from freezing to 30, winch 
 may easily be done, will absolutely contract < 
 it is heated for ten or more degrees, that is to 40 
 or 42 of the thermometer, and will then begia
 
 474 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 to expand as its heat is augmented, at first 
 slowly, and afterward gradually more rapidly, 
 so as to observe upon the whole a very increas- 
 ing progression. Now, mixtures of these two 
 substances will, as may be supposed, approach 
 to the less or the greater of these progressions, 
 according as they are compounded of more spirit 
 or more water, while their total expansion will 
 be greater, according as more spirit enters into 
 their composition ; but the exact quantity of the 
 expansion, as well as the law of progression, in 
 all of them, can be determined only by trials. 
 These were, therefore, the two other principal 
 objects to be ascertained by experiment. 
 
 The person engaged to make these experi- 
 ments was Dr. Dollfuss, an ingenious Swiss 
 gentleman then in London, who had distinguished 
 himself by several publications on chemical sub- 
 jects. As he could not conveniently get the 
 quantity of spirit he wanted lighter than 825, at 
 60 Fahrenheit, he fixed upon this strength as 
 the standard for alcohol. 
 
 These experiments of Dr. Dollfuss were re- 
 peated by Mr. Gilpin, clerk of the Royal Society ; 
 and as the deductions in this account will be 
 taken chiefly from that last set of experiments, 
 it is proper here to describe minutely the method 
 observed by Mr. Gilpin in his operation. This 
 naturally resolves itself into two parts : the way 
 of making the mixtures, and the way of ascer- 
 taining their specific gravity. 
 
 1. The mixtures are made by weight, as the 
 only accurate method of fixing the proportions. 
 In fluids of such very unequal expansions by 
 heat as water and alcohol, if measures had been 
 employed, increasing or decreasing in regular 
 proportions to each other, the proportions of the 
 masses would have been sensibly irregular : now 
 the latter was the object in view, namely to de- 
 termine the real quantity of spirit in any given 
 mixture, abstracting the consideration of its tem- 
 perature. Besides, if the proportions had been 
 taken by measure, a different mixture should 
 have been made at every different degree of 
 heat. But the principal consideration was, that 
 with a very nice balance, such as was employed 
 on this occasion, quantities can be determined 
 to much greater exactness by weight than by any 
 practicable way of measurement. The propor- 
 tions were therefore always taken by weight. A 
 phial being provided of such a size as that it 
 should be nearly full with the mixture, was made 
 perfectly clean and dry, and being counterpoised, 
 as much of the pure spirit as appeared necessary 
 was poured into it. The weight of this spirit 
 was then ascertained, and the weight of distilled 
 water required to make a mixture of the intended 
 proportions was calculated. This quantity of 
 water was then added, with all the necessary 
 care, the last portions being put in by means of a 
 well-known instrument, which is composed of a 
 small dish terminating in a tube drawn to a fine 
 point : the top of the dish being covered with the 
 thumb, the liquor in it is prevented from running 
 out through the tube by the pressure of the at- 
 mosphere, but instantly begins to issue by drops, 
 or a very small stream, upon raising the thumb. 
 Water being thus introduced into the phial, till 
 
 it exactly counterpoised the weight, which having 
 been previously computed, was put into the op- 
 posite scale, the phial was shaken, and then well 
 stopped with its glass stopple, over which leather 
 was tied very tight to prevent evaporation. No 
 mixture was used till it had remained in the 
 phial at least a month, for the full penetration 
 to have taken place ; and it was always well 
 shaken before it was poured out to have its 
 specific gravity tried. 
 
 2. There are two common methods of taking 
 the specific gravity of fluids ; one by finding the 
 weight which a solid body loses by being im- 
 mersed in them ; the other, by filling a convenient 
 vessel with them, and ascertaining the increase 
 of weight it acquires. In both cases a standard 
 must have been previously taken, which is usually 
 distilled water ; namely, in the first method, by 
 finding the weight lost by the solid body in the 
 water ; and in the second method, the weight of 
 the vessel filled with water. The latter was pre- 
 ferred, for the following reasons : 
 
 When a ball of glass, which is the properest 
 kind of solid body, is weighed in any spirituous 
 or watery fluid, the adhesion of the fluid occa- 
 sions some inaccuracy, and renders the balance 
 comparatively sluggish. To what degree this 
 effect proceeds is uncertain ; but from some ex- 
 periments made by Mr. Gilpin with that view, 
 it appears to be very sensible. Moreover, in 
 this method, a large surface must be exposed to 
 the air during the operation of weighing, which, 
 especially in the higher temperatures, would 
 give occasion to such an evaporation as to alter 
 essentially the strength of the mixture. It seemed 
 also as if the temperature of the fluid under 
 trial could be determined more exactly in the 
 method of filling a vessel, than in the other : for 
 the fluid cannot well be stirred while the ball to 
 be weighed remains immersed in it ; and, as some 
 time must necessarily be spent in the weighing, 
 the change of heat which takes place during that 
 period will be unequal through the mass, and 
 may occasion a sensible error. It is true, on the 
 other hand, that in the method of filling a vessel, 
 the temperature could not be ascertained with 
 the utmost precision, because the neck of the 
 vessel employed, containing about ten grains, 
 was filled up to the mark with spirit not exactly 
 of the same temperature, as will be explained 
 presently : but this error, it is supposed, would 
 by no means equal the other, and the utmost 
 quantity of it may be estimated very nearly. 
 Finally, it was much easier to bring the fluid to 
 any given temperature when it was in a vessel 
 to be weighed, than when it was to have a solid 
 body weighed in it ; because in the former case 
 the quantity was smaller, and the vessel contain- 
 ing it more manageable, being readily heated 
 with the hand or warm water, and cooled with 
 cold water : and the very circumstance, that so 
 much of the fluid was not required, proved a 
 material convenience. The particular disadvan- 
 tage in the method of weighing in a vessel, is 
 the difficulty of filling it with extreme accuracy ; 
 but when the vessel is judiciously and neatly 
 marked, the error of filling, will, with due care, 
 be exceedingly minute. By several repetitions
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 475 
 
 of the same experiments, Mr. Gilpin seemed to 
 bring it within the l-15000th part of the whole 
 weight. 
 
 The above-mentioned considerations induced 
 Dr. Blagden, as well as the gentlemen employed 
 in the experiments, to give the preference to 
 weighing the fluid itself; and that was ac- 
 cordingly the method practised both by Dr. 
 Dollfuss and Mr. Gilpin in their operations. 
 
 The vessel chosen as most convenient for the 
 purpose was a hollow glass ball, terminating in a 
 neck of small bore. That which Dr. Dollfuss 
 used held 5800 grains of distilled water ; but as 
 the balance was so extremely accurate, it was 
 thought expedient, upon Mr. Gilpin's repetition 
 of the experiments, to use one of only 2965 
 grains capacity, as admitting the heat of any 
 fluid contained in it to be more nicely deter- 
 mined. The ball of this vessel, which may be 
 called the weighing bottle, measured about 2.8 
 inches in diameter, and was spherical, except a 
 slight flattening on the part opposite to the neck, 
 which served as a bottom for it to stand upon. 
 Its neck was formed of a portion of a barometer 
 tube, .25 of an inch in bore, and about 1J inch 
 long; it was perfectly cylindrical, and, on its 
 outside, very near the middle of its length, a fine 
 circle or ring was cut round it with a diamond, 
 as the mark to which it was to be filled with the 
 liquor. This mark was made by fixing the bot- 
 tle in a lathe, and turning it round with great 
 care, in contact with the diamond. The glass of 
 this bottle was not very thick ; it weighed 916 
 grains, and with its silver cap 936. 
 
 When the specific gravity of any liquor was 
 to be taken by means of this bottle, the liquor 
 was first brought nearly to the required tempe- 
 rature, and the bottle was filled with it up to the 
 beginning of the neck only, that there might be 
 room for shaking it. A very fine and sensible 
 thermometer was then passed through the neck 
 of the bottle into the contained liquor, which 
 showed whether it was above or below the in- 
 tended temperature. In the former case the 
 bottle was brought into colder air, or even 
 plunged for a moment into cold water ; the ther- 
 mometer in the mean time being frequently put 
 into the contained liquor, till it was found to 
 sink to the right point. In like manner, when 
 the liquor was too cold, the bottle was brought 
 into warmer air, immersed in warm water, or 
 more commonly held between the hands, till 
 upon repeated trials with the thermometer the 
 just temperature was found. It will be under- 
 stood, that during the course of this heating or 
 cooling, the bottle was very frequently shaken 
 between each immersion of the thermometer ; 
 and the top of the neck was kept covered, either 
 with the finger, or a silver cap made on purpose, 
 as constantly as possible. Hot water was used 
 to raise the temperature only in heats of 80 
 and upwards, inferior heats being obtained 
 by applying the hands to the bottle : when 
 the hot water was employed, the ball of the bottle 
 was plunged into it, and again quickly lifted 
 out, with the necessary shaking interposed, as 
 often as was necessary for communicating the 
 required heat to the liquor ; but care was taken 
 to wipe the bottle dry after each immersion, be- 
 
 fore it was shaken, lest any adhering moisture 
 might by accident get into it. The liquor hav- 
 ing by these means been brought to the desired 
 temperature, the next operation was to fill up 
 the bottle exactly to the mark upon the neck, 
 which was done by some of the same liquor, by 
 means of a glass funnel with a very small bore. 
 Mr. Gilpin endeavoured to get that portion of 
 the liquor which was employed for this purpose, 
 pretty nearly to the temperature of the liquor 
 contained in the bottle ; but, as the whole quan- 
 tity to be added never exceeded ten grains, a 
 difference of ten degrees in the heat of that small 
 quantity, which is more than it ever amounted 
 to, would have occasioned an error of only 
 l-30th of a degree in the temperature of the 
 mass. Enough of the liquor was put in to fill 
 the neck rather above the mark, and the su- 
 perfluous quantity was then absorbed to great 
 nicety, by bringing into contact with it the 
 fine point of a small roll of blotting paper. As 
 the surface of the liquor in the neck would be 
 always concave, the bottom or centre of this con- 
 cavity was the part made to coincide with the 
 mark round the glass ; and in viewing it, care 
 was taken that the near and opposite sides of the 
 mark should appear exactly in the same line, by 
 which means all parallax was avoided. A silver 
 cap, which fitted tight, was then put upon the 
 neck to prevent evaporation ; and the whole 
 apparatus was in that state laid in the scale of 
 the balance, to be weighed with all the exact- 
 ness possible. 
 
 The spirit employed by Mr. Gilpin was fur- 
 nished to him by Dr. Dollfuss, under whose in- 
 spection it had been rectified from rum supplied 
 by government. Its specific gravity, at 60 de- 
 grees of heat, was .82514. It was first weighed 
 pure, in the above-mentioned bottle, at every 
 five degrees of heat from 30 to 100 inclusively. 
 Then mixtures were formed of it and distilled 
 water, in every proportion, from t-20th of the 
 water to equal parts of water and spirit; the 
 quantity of water added being successively aug- 
 mented, in the proportion of five grains to one 
 hundred of the spirit ; and these mixtures were 
 also weighed in the bottle, like the pure spirit, at 
 every five degrees of heat. The numbers hence 
 resulting are delivered in the following table ; 
 where the first column shows the degrees of heat ; 
 the second gives the weight of the <pure spirit 
 contained in the bottle at those different degrees; 
 the third gives the weight of a mixture in the 
 proportions of 100 parts by weight of that spirit to 
 5 of water, and so on successively till the water 
 is to the spirit as 100 to 5. They are the mean 
 of three several experiments at least, as Mr. Gil- 
 pin always filled and weighed the bottle over again 
 that number of times, if not oftener. The heat 
 was taken at the even degree, as shewn by the 
 thermometer, without any allowance in the first 
 instance, because the coincidence of the mercury 
 with a division can be perceived more accurately 
 than any fraction can be estimated ; and the 
 errors of the thermometers, if any, it was sup- 
 posed would be less upon the grand divisions of 
 5 degrees than in any others It must be ob- 
 served, that Mr. Gilpin used the same mixture 
 throughout all the different temperatures, heating
 
 476 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 it up from 30 to 100 ; hence some small error in 
 its strength may have been occasioned in the 
 higher degrees, by more spirit evaporating than 
 water : but this, it is believed, must have been 
 trifling, and greater inconvenience would pro- 
 bably have resulted from interposing a fresh 
 mixture. 
 
 The precise specific gravity of the pure spirit 
 employed was .82514 ; but to avoid an incon- 
 
 venient fraction, it is taken, in constructing the 
 table of specific gravities, as .825 only, a pro- 
 portional deduction being made from all the 
 other numbers. Thus the following table gives 
 the true specific gravity, at the different degrees 
 of heat, of a pure rectified spirit, the specific 
 gravity of which at 60 is .825, together with 
 the specific gravities of different mixtures of it 
 with water, at those different temperatures. 
 
 REAL SPECIFIC GRAVITY AT THE DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES. 
 
 Heat. 
 
 The 
 pure 
 spirit. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 jjraius of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 
 spirit to 
 5 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 lOgr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 15 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 20 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 25 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 30 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 35 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 40 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 45 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 50 gr. of 
 
 30 U 
 
 .83896 
 
 .84995 
 
 .85957 
 
 .86825 
 
 .87585 
 
 .88282 
 
 .88921 
 
 .89511 
 
 .90054 
 
 .90558 
 
 .91023 
 
 3.5 
 
 83672 
 
 84769 
 
 85729 
 
 86587 
 
 87357 
 
 88059 
 
 88701 
 
 89294 
 
 89839 
 
 90345 
 
 90811 
 
 40 
 
 83445 
 
 84539 
 
 85507 
 
 86361 
 
 87184 
 
 87838 
 
 88481 
 
 89073 
 
 89617 
 
 90127 
 
 90596 
 
 45 
 
 83214 
 
 84310 
 
 85277 
 
 86131 
 
 86905 
 
 87613 
 
 88255 
 
 88849 
 
 89396 
 
 89909 
 
 90380 
 
 50 
 
 82977 
 
 84076 
 
 85042 
 
 85902 
 
 86676 
 
 87384 
 
 88030 
 
 88626 
 
 89174 
 
 89684 
 
 90160 
 
 55 
 
 82736 
 
 83834 
 
 84802 
 
 85664 
 
 86441 
 
 87150 
 
 87796 
 
 88393 
 
 88945 
 
 89458 
 
 89933 
 
 60 
 
 82500 
 
 83599 
 
 84568 
 
 85430 
 
 86208 
 
 86918 
 
 87569 
 
 88169 
 
 88720 
 
 89232 
 
 89707 
 
 65 
 
 82262 
 
 83362 
 
 84334 
 
 85193 
 
 85976 
 
 86686 
 
 87337 
 
 87938 
 
 88490 
 
 89006 
 
 89479 
 
 70 
 
 82023 
 
 83124 
 
 84092 
 
 84951 
 
 85736 
 
 86451 
 
 87105 
 
 87705 
 
 88254 
 
 88773 
 
 89252 
 
 75 
 
 81780 
 
 82878 
 
 83851 
 
 84710 
 
 85496 
 
 86212 
 
 86864 
 
 87466 
 
 88018 
 
 88538 
 
 89018 
 
 80 
 
 81530 
 
 82631 
 
 83603 
 
 84467 
 
 85248 
 
 85966 
 
 86622 
 
 87228 
 
 87776 
 
 88301 
 
 88781 
 
 85 
 
 81291 
 
 82396 
 
 83371 
 
 84243 
 
 85036 
 
 85757 
 
 86411 
 
 87021 
 
 87590 
 
 88120 
 
 88009 
 
 90 
 
 81044 
 
 82150 
 
 83126 
 
 84001 
 
 84797 
 
 85518 
 
 86172 
 
 86787 
 
 87360 
 
 87889 
 
 88376 
 
 95 
 
 80794 
 
 81900 
 
 82877 
 
 83753 
 
 84550 
 
 85272 
 
 85928 
 
 86542 
 
 87114 
 
 87654 
 
 88146 
 
 100 
 
 80548 
 
 81657 
 
 82639 
 
 83513 
 
 84038 
 
 85031 
 
 85688 
 
 86302 
 
 86879 
 
 87421 
 
 87915 
 
 Heat. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 55 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 60 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 65 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 70 gr. of 
 water. . 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 75 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 80 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 85 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 90 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 95 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 100 
 grains of 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 water. 
 
 30. 
 
 .91449 
 
 .91847 
 
 .92217 
 
 .92563 
 
 .92889 
 
 .93911 
 
 .93474 
 
 .93741 
 
 .93991 
 
 .94222 
 
 35 
 
 91241 
 
 91640 
 
 92009 
 
 92355 
 
 92680 
 
 92986 
 
 93274 
 
 93541 
 
 93790 
 
 94025 
 
 40 
 
 91026 
 
 91428 
 
 91799 
 
 92151 
 
 92476 
 
 92783 
 
 93072 
 
 93341 
 
 93592 
 
 93827 
 
 45 
 
 90812 
 
 91211 
 
 91584 
 
 91937 
 
 92264 
 
 92570 
 
 92859 
 
 93131 
 
 93382 
 
 93621 
 
 50 
 
 90596 
 
 90997 
 
 91370 
 
 91723 
 
 92051 
 
 92358 
 
 92647 
 
 92919 
 
 93177 
 
 93419 
 
 55 
 
 90367 
 
 90768 
 
 91144 
 
 91502 
 
 91837 
 
 92145 
 
 92436 
 
 92707 
 
 92963 
 
 93208 
 
 60 
 
 90144 
 
 90549 
 
 90927 
 
 91287 
 
 91622 
 
 91933 
 
 92225 
 
 92499 
 
 92758 
 
 93002 
 
 65 
 
 89920 
 
 90328 
 
 90707 
 
 91066 
 
 91400 
 
 91715 
 
 92010 
 
 92283 
 
 92546 
 
 92794 
 
 70 
 
 89695 
 
 90104 
 
 90484 
 
 90847 
 
 91181 
 
 91493 
 
 91793 
 
 92069 
 
 92333 
 
 92580 
 
 75 
 
 89464 
 
 89872 
 
 90252 
 
 90617 
 
 90952 
 
 91270 
 
 91569 
 
 91849 
 
 92111 
 
 92364 
 
 80 
 
 89225 
 
 89639 
 
 90021 
 
 90385 
 
 90723 
 
 91046 
 
 91340 
 
 91622 
 
 91891 
 
 92142 
 
 85 
 
 89043 
 
 89460 
 
 89843 
 
 90209 
 
 90558 
 
 90882 
 
 91186 
 
 91465 
 
 91729 
 
 91969 
 
 90 
 
 88817 
 
 89230 
 
 89617 
 
 89988 
 
 90342 
 
 90668 
 
 90967 
 
 91248 
 
 91511 
 
 91751 
 
 95 
 
 88588 
 
 89003 
 
 89390 
 
 89763 
 
 90119 
 
 90443 
 
 90747 
 
 91029 
 
 91290 
 
 91531 
 
 100 
 
 88357 
 
 88769 
 
 89158 
 
 89536 
 
 89889 
 
 90215 
 
 90522 
 
 90805 
 
 91066 
 
 91310 
 
 
 95 
 
 90 
 
 85 
 
 80 
 
 75 
 
 70 
 
 65 
 
 60 
 
 55 
 
 50 
 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 Heat. 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr, of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 v ater. 
 
 water. 
 
 30 
 
 .94447 
 
 .94675 
 
 .94920 
 
 .95173 
 
 .95429 
 
 .95681 
 
 .95944 
 
 .96209 
 
 .96470 
 
 .9671-9 
 
 35 
 
 94249 
 
 94484 
 
 94734 
 
 94988 
 
 95246 
 
 95502 
 
 95772 
 
 96048 
 
 96315 
 
 96579 
 
 40 
 
 94058 
 
 94295 
 
 94547 
 
 94802 
 
 95060 
 
 95328 
 
 95602 
 
 95879 
 
 96159 
 
 96434 
 
 45 
 
 93860 
 
 94096 
 
 94348 
 
 94605 
 
 94871 
 
 95143 
 
 95423 
 
 95705 
 
 95993 
 
 96280 
 
 50 
 
 93658 
 
 93897 
 
 94149 
 
 94414 
 
 94683 
 
 94958 
 
 95243 
 
 95534 
 
 95831 
 
 96126 
 
 55 
 
 93452 
 
 93696 
 
 93948 
 
 94213 
 
 94486 
 
 94767 
 
 95057 
 
 95357 
 
 95662 
 
 95966 
 
 60 
 
 93247 
 
 93493 
 
 93749 
 
 94018 
 
 94296 
 
 94579 
 
 94876 
 
 95181 
 
 95493 
 
 95804 
 
 65 
 
 93040 
 
 93285 
 
 93546 
 
 93822 
 
 94099 
 
 94388 
 
 94689 
 
 95000 
 
 95318 
 
 95635 
 
 70 
 
 92828 
 
 93076 
 
 93337 
 
 93616 
 
 93898 
 
 94193 
 
 94500 
 
 94813 
 
 95139 
 
 95469 
 
 75 
 
 92613 
 
 92865 
 
 93132 
 
 93413 
 
 93695 
 
 93989 
 
 94301 
 
 94623 
 
 94957 
 
 95292 
 
 80 
 
 92393 
 
 92646 
 
 92917 
 
 93201 
 
 93488 
 
 93785 
 
 94102 
 
 94431 
 
 94768 
 
 95111 1
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 477 
 
 
 45 
 
 40 
 
 35 
 
 30 
 
 25 
 
 20 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 grains of 
 
 Heat. 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 100 gr. of 
 
 spirit to 
 lOOgr.of 
 
 spirit to 
 lOOgr.of 
 
 spirit to 
 lOOgr.of 
 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 water. 
 
 30 
 
 .96967 
 
 .97200 
 
 .97418 
 
 .97635 
 
 .97860 
 
 .98108 
 
 .98412 
 
 .98804 
 
 .99334 
 
 35 
 
 96840 
 
 97086 
 
 97319 
 
 97556 
 
 97801 
 
 98076 
 
 98397 
 
 98804 
 
 99344 
 
 40 
 
 96706 
 
 96967 
 
 97220 
 
 97472 
 
 97737 
 
 98033 
 
 98373 
 
 98795 
 
 99345 
 
 45 
 
 96563 
 
 96840 
 
 97110 
 
 97384 
 
 97666 
 
 97980 
 
 98338 
 
 98774 
 
 99338 
 
 50 
 
 96420 
 
 96708 
 
 96995 
 
 97284 
 
 97589 
 
 97920 
 
 98293 
 
 98745 
 
 99316 
 
 55 
 
 96272 
 
 96575 
 
 96877 
 
 97181 
 
 97500 
 
 97847 
 
 98239 
 
 98702 
 
 99284 
 
 60 
 
 96122 
 
 96437 
 
 96752 
 
 97074 
 
 97410 
 
 97771 
 
 98176 
 
 98654 
 
 99244 
 
 65 
 
 95962 
 
 96288 
 
 96620 
 
 96959 
 
 97309 
 
 97688 
 
 98106 
 
 98594 
 
 99194 
 
 70 
 
 95802 
 
 96143 
 
 96484 
 
 96836 
 
 97203 
 
 97596 
 
 98028 
 
 98527 
 
 99134 
 
 75 
 
 95638 
 
 95987 
 
 96344 
 
 96708 
 
 97086 
 
 97495 
 
 97943 
 
 98454 
 
 99066 
 
 80 
 
 95467 
 
 95826 
 
 96192 
 
 96568 
 
 96963 
 
 97385 
 
 97845 
 
 98367 
 
 98991 
 
 From this table, when the specific gravity of 
 any spirituous liquor is ascertained, it will be 
 easy to find the quantity of rectified spirit of 
 the above-mentioned standard, contained in any 
 given quantity of it, either by weight or measure. 
 
 Dr. Blagden concludes this part of the report 
 with observing, that as the experiments were 
 made with pure spirit and water, if any extra- 
 neous substances are contained in the liquor to 
 be tried, the specific gravity in the tables will 
 not give exactly the proportions of water and 
 spirit in it. The substances likely to be found 
 in spirituous liquors, where no fraud is sus- 
 pected, are essential oils, sometimes empyreu- 
 matic, mucilaginous, or extractive matter, and 
 perhaps some saccharine matter. The effect of 
 these, in the course of trade, seems to be hardly 
 such as would be worth the cognizance of the 
 excise, nor could it easily be reduced to cer- 
 tain rules. Essential and empyreumatic oils 
 are nearly of the same specific gravity as spirit, 
 in general rather lighter, and therefore, not- 
 withstanding the actual penetration, will proba- 
 bly make little change in the specific gravity of 
 any spirituous liquor in which they are dis- 
 solved. The other substances are all heavier 
 than spirit ; the specific gravity of common gum 
 being 1.482, and of sugar 1.063, according to 
 the tables of M. Brisson. The effect of them 
 therefore will be to make spirituous liquors ap- 
 pear less strong than they really are. An idea was 
 once entertained of endeavouring to determine 
 this matter with some precision; and accord- 
 ingly Dr. Dollfuss evaporated 1000 grains of 
 brandy, and the same quantity of rum, to dry- 
 ness ; the former left a residuum of 40 grains, 
 the latter only of 8^ grains. The 40 grains of 
 residuum from the brandy, dissolved again in a 
 mixture of 100 of spirit, with 50 of water, in- 
 creased its specific gravity .00041 ; hence the 
 effect of this extraneous matter upon the specific 
 gravity of the brandy containing it, would be to 
 increase the fifth decimal by six nearly, equal 
 to what would indicate, in the above-mentioned 
 mixture, about one seventh of a grain of water 
 more than the truth, to 100 of spirit; a quan- 
 tity much too minute for the consideration of 
 government. 
 
 The strength of spirit is determined, accord- 
 ing to law, by Sykes's hydrometer ; but as many 
 
 dealers use Dicas's,we shall describe it here, and 
 .the former under DISTILLATION. 
 
 It consists of a light copper ball, terminating 
 below with a ballast bottom, and above with a 
 thin stem, divided into ten parts. The upper 
 extremity of the stem is pointed, to receive the 
 little brass poises, or discs, having each a hole 
 in its centre. These poises are numbered 0, 10, 
 20, 30, &c. up to 350, which is the lightest o. 
 the series. The intermediate units are given by 
 the subdivisions on the stem. A graduated ivory 
 scale, with a sliding rule and thermometer, ac- 
 companies the hydrometer, to make the correc- 
 tion of temperature. The first thing in using 
 this instrument is to plunge the thermometer into 
 a glass cylinder containing the spirits to be tried. 
 The sliding rule has then the degree of tempera- 
 ture indicated, moved opposite to zero. The 
 hydrometer is now placed in the liquid, and 
 such a poise is put on as to submerge a portion 
 of the stem. The weight, added to the number 
 on the stem, gives a sum, opposite to which on 
 the scale we find a quantity by which the par- 
 ticular spirit may exceed or fall short of proof. 
 Thus, if it mark 20 under proof, it signifies that 
 every 100 gallons of that spirit would require 
 to have 20 gallons of water abstracted from it 
 to bring it up to proof. If it mark 10 over 
 proof, we learn that every 100 gallons contain 
 too little water by 10 gallons. When the ther- 
 mometric degree of 60 is put opposite to zero, 
 then the weights and value of the spirits have 
 the following relations on the scale. 
 
 102.5 denotes 20 under proof 
 
 122.0 10 
 
 143.5 Proof 
 
 167. 10 over proof 
 
 193. 20 
 
 221. 30 over proof 
 
 251. 40 
 
 284.5 50 
 
 322.5 60 
 
 350.5 Alcohol. 
 
 There is, besides, an upper line on the scale 
 which exhibits the relation of spirit to water 
 reckoned unity. Thus, above 10 per cent over 
 proof in the second line, we find in the uppe. 
 line 8. From which we learn, that 8 of that 
 spirit by bulk, will take 1 of water to bring it 
 down to proof. At 60 Fah. wefind that 10 over
 
 478 
 
 ALCOHOL 
 
 proof, on Dicas, corresponds to specific gravity 
 0.9085. 
 
 3 over proof to 0.9169 
 
 Proof, 0.9218. 
 
 Now, by Gilpin's tables, this indicates a com- 
 pound of 100 grains of alcohol 0.825, and 85 
 grains of water. But by Lowitz's table in Crell's 
 Annals, the above specific gravity corresponds 
 to 48 alcohol of 0.791 at the temperature of 68, 
 united to 52 of water, and cooled down to 60. 
 
 Equal weights of that strong alcohol and water, 
 give at 60, a specific gravity of 0.9175. By the 
 Act of Parliament of 1762, the specific gravity 
 of proof was fixed at 0.916. It is at present to 
 water as 12 to 13, orn:0.923. See DISTIL- 
 LATION. 
 
 For the following table of the quantity of ab- 
 solute alcohol, in spirits of different densities, 
 we are indebted to Lowitz. 
 
 100 parts. 
 
 Sp. gravity. 
 
 100 parts. 
 
 Sp. gravity. 
 
 100 parts. 
 
 Sp. gravity. 
 
 Ale. 
 
 Wat. 
 
 At 68. 
 
 At 60 
 
 Ale. 
 
 Wat. 
 
 At 68. 
 
 At 60. 
 
 Ale. 
 
 Wat. 
 
 At 68. 
 
 At 60. 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 0.791 
 
 0.796 
 
 66 
 
 34 
 
 0.877 
 
 0.881 
 
 32 
 
 68 
 
 0.952 
 
 0.955 
 
 99 
 
 1 
 
 0.794 
 
 0.798 
 
 65 
 
 35 
 
 0.880 
 
 0.883 
 
 31 
 
 69 
 
 0.954 
 
 0.957 
 
 98 
 
 2 
 
 0.797 
 
 0.801 
 
 64 
 
 36 
 
 0.882 
 
 0.886 
 
 30 
 
 70 
 
 0.956 
 
 0.958 
 
 97 
 
 3 
 
 0.800 
 
 0.804 
 
 63 
 
 37 
 
 0.885 
 
 0.889 
 
 29 
 
 71 
 
 0.957 
 
 0.960 
 
 96 
 
 4 
 
 0.803 
 
 0.807 
 
 62 
 
 38 
 
 0.887 
 
 0.891 
 
 28 
 
 72 
 
 0.959 
 
 0.962 
 
 95 
 
 5 
 
 0.805 
 
 0.809 
 
 61 
 
 39 
 
 0.889 
 
 0.893 
 
 27 
 
 73 
 
 0.961 
 
 0.963 
 
 94 
 
 6 
 
 0.808 
 
 0.812 
 
 60 
 
 40 
 
 0.892 
 
 0.896 
 
 26 
 
 74 
 
 0.963 
 
 0.965 
 
 93 
 
 7 
 
 0.811 
 
 0.815 
 
 59 
 
 41 
 
 0.894 
 
 0-898 
 
 25 
 
 75 
 
 0.965 
 
 0.967 
 
 92 
 
 8 
 
 0.813 
 
 0.817 
 
 58 
 
 42 
 
 0.896 
 
 0.900 
 
 24 
 
 76 
 
 0.966 
 
 0.968 
 
 91 
 
 9 
 
 0.816 
 
 0.820 
 
 57 
 
 43 
 
 0.899 
 
 2.902 
 
 23 
 
 77 
 
 0.968 
 
 0.970 
 
 90 
 
 10 
 
 0.818 
 
 0.822 
 
 56 
 
 44 
 
 0.901 
 
 0.904 
 
 22 
 
 78 
 
 0.970 
 
 0.972 
 
 89 
 
 11 
 
 0.821 
 
 0.825 
 
 55 
 
 45 
 
 0.903 
 
 0.906 
 
 21 
 
 79 
 
 0.971 
 
 0.973 
 
 88 
 
 12 
 
 0.823 
 
 0.827 
 
 54 
 
 46 
 
 0.905 
 
 0.908 
 
 20 
 
 80 
 
 0.973 
 
 0.974 
 
 87 
 
 13 
 
 0.826 
 
 0.830 
 
 53 
 
 47 
 
 0.907 
 
 0.910 
 
 19 
 
 81 
 
 0.974 
 
 0.975 
 
 86 
 
 14 
 
 0.828 
 
 0.832 
 
 52 
 
 48 
 
 0.909 
 
 0.912 
 
 18 
 
 82 
 
 0.976 
 
 0.977 
 
 85 
 
 15 
 
 0.831 
 
 0.835 
 
 51 
 
 49 
 
 0.912 
 
 0.915 
 
 17 
 
 83 
 
 0.977 
 
 0.978 
 
 84 
 
 16 
 
 0.834 
 
 0.838 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 0.914 
 
 0.917 
 
 .16 
 
 84 
 
 0.978 
 
 0.979 
 
 83 
 
 17 
 
 0.836 
 
 0.840 
 
 49 
 
 51 
 
 0.917 
 
 0.920 
 
 15 
 
 85 
 
 0.980 
 
 0.981 
 
 82 
 
 18 
 
 0.839 
 
 0.843 
 
 48 
 
 52 
 
 0.919 
 
 0.922 
 
 14 
 
 86 
 
 0.981 
 
 0.982 
 
 81 
 
 19 
 
 0.842 
 
 0.846 
 
 47 
 
 53 
 
 0.921 
 
 0.924 
 
 13 
 
 87 
 
 0.983 
 
 0.984 
 
 80 
 
 20 
 
 0.844 
 
 0.848 
 
 46 
 
 54 
 
 0.923 
 
 0.926 
 
 12 
 
 88 
 
 0.985 
 
 0.986 
 
 79 
 
 21 
 
 0.847 
 
 0.851 
 
 45 
 
 55 
 
 0.925 
 
 0.928 
 
 11 
 
 89 
 
 0.986 
 
 0.987 
 
 78 
 
 22 
 
 0.849 
 
 0.853 
 
 44 
 
 56 
 
 0.927 
 
 0.930 
 
 10 
 
 90 
 
 0.987 
 
 0.988 
 
 77 
 
 23 
 
 0.851 
 
 0.855 
 
 43 
 
 57 
 
 0.930 
 
 0.933 
 
 9 
 
 91 
 
 0.288 
 
 0.989 
 
 76 
 
 24 
 
 0.853 
 
 0.857 
 
 42 
 
 58 
 
 0.932 
 
 0.935 
 
 8 
 
 92 
 
 0.989 
 
 0.990 
 
 75 
 
 25 
 
 0.856 
 
 0.860 
 
 41 
 
 59 
 
 0.934 
 
 0.937 
 
 7 
 
 93 
 
 0.991 
 
 0.991 
 
 74 
 
 26 
 
 0.859 
 
 0.863 
 
 40' 
 
 60 
 
 0.936 
 
 0.939 
 
 6 
 
 94 
 
 0.992 
 
 0.992 
 
 73 
 
 27 
 
 0.861 
 
 0.865 
 
 39 
 
 61 
 
 0.938 
 
 0.941 
 
 5 
 
 95 
 
 0.994 
 
 
 72 
 
 28 
 
 0.863 
 
 0.867 
 
 38 
 
 62 
 
 0.940 
 
 0.943 
 
 4 
 
 96 
 
 0.995 
 
 
 71 
 
 29 
 
 0.866 
 
 0.870 
 
 37 
 
 63 
 
 0.942 
 
 0.945 
 
 3 
 
 97 
 
 0.997 
 
 
 70 
 
 30 
 
 .0.868 
 
 0.872 
 
 36 
 
 64 
 
 0.944 
 
 0.947 
 
 2 
 
 98 
 
 0.998 
 
 
 69 
 
 31 
 
 0.870 
 
 0.874 
 
 35 
 
 65 
 
 0.946 
 
 0.949 
 
 1 
 
 99 
 
 0.999 
 
 
 68 
 
 32 
 
 0.872 
 
 0.878 
 
 34 
 
 66 
 
 0.948 
 
 0,951 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 1.000 
 
 
 67 
 
 33 
 
 0.875 
 
 0.879 
 
 33 
 
 67 
 
 0.950 
 
 0.953 
 
 
 
 
 
 The most remarkable characteristic property 
 of alcohol, is its solubility or combination in all 
 proportions with water, a property possessed 
 by no other combustible substance, except the 
 acetic spirit obtained by distilling the dry acetates. 
 When it is burned in a chimney which commu- 
 nicates with the worm-pipe of a distilling appa- 
 ratus, the product, which is condensed, is found 
 to consist of water, which exceeds the spirit in 
 weight about one-eighth part; or more accu- 
 rately, 100 parts of alcohol, by combustion, 
 yield 136 of water. If alcohol be burned in 
 close vessels with vital air, the product is found 
 
 to be water and carbonic acid. Whence it is 
 inferred that alcohol consists of hydrogen, united 
 either to carbonic acid, or its acidifiable base ; 
 and that the oxygen uniting on the one part with 
 the hydrogen, forms water ; and on the other 
 with the base of the carbonic acid forms that 
 acid. 
 
 The most exact experiments on this subject 
 are those recently made by M.de Saussure. The 
 alcohol he used had, at 62.8, a specific gravity 
 of 0.8302 ; and by Richter's proportions, con- 
 sists of 13.8 wate-, and 86.2 of absolute alcohol. 
 The vapour of alcohol was made to traverse a
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 479 
 
 narrow porcelain tube ignited, from which the 
 products passed along a glass tube about six 
 feet in length, refrigerated by ice. A little char- 
 coal was deposited in the porcelain, and a trace 
 of oil in the glass tube. The resulting gas 
 being analyzed in an exploding eudiometer, with 
 oxygen, was found to resolve itself into carbonic 
 acid and water. Three volumes of oxygen dis- 
 appeared for every two volumes of carbonic acid 
 produced : a proportion which obtains in the 
 analysis by oxygenation of olefiant gas. Now, 
 as nothing resulted but a combustible gas of this 
 peculiar constitution, and condensed water equal 
 to ^ of the original weight of the alcohol, we 
 may conclude that vapour of water and olefiant 
 gas are the sole constituents of alcohol. Sub- 
 tracting the 13.8 per cent of water in the alcohol 
 at the beginning of the experiment, the absolute 
 alcohol of Richter will consist of 13.7 hydrogen, 
 51.98 carbon, and 34.32 oxygen. M. Gay Lussac 
 infers, that alcohol, in vapour, is composed of one 
 volume of olefiant gas, and one volume of the 
 vapour of water, condensed by chemical affinity 
 into one volume. 
 
 The sp. gr. of olefiant gas is 0.97804 
 
 Of aqueous vapour is 0.62500 
 
 Sum = 1.60304 
 And alcoholic vapour is ~ 1.6133 
 
 These numbers approach nearly to those which 
 would result from two prime equivalents of ole- 
 fiant gas, combined with one of water ; or ulti- 
 mately, three of- hydrogen, two of carbon, and 
 one of oxygen. 
 
 A considerable number of the uses of this fluid, 
 as a menstruum, will pass under our observation 
 in the various articles of this work. The mutual 
 action between alcohol and acids produces a 
 light, volatile, and inflammable substance, called 
 aether. Pure alkalis unite with spirit of wine, 
 
 Quantity Salts soluble in 
 
 of grains. 200 grains of spirit. 
 
 4 "Nitrate of potash 
 
 Muriate of potash 
 Sulphate of soda 
 Nitrate of soda 
 Muriate of soda 
 Sulphate of ammonia 
 Nitrate of ammonia 
 Muriate of ammonia 
 Nitrate of lime 
 Muriate of lime 
 Nitrate of silver 
 Muriate of mercury 
 Nitrate of iron 
 Muriate of iron 
 
 48 Nitrate of copper 
 
 48 Muriate of copper 
 
 and form alkaline tinctures. Few of the neutral 
 salts unite with this fluid, except such as contain 
 ammonia. The carbonated fixed alkalis are not 
 soluble in it. 
 
 From the strong attraction which exists be- 
 tween alcohol and water, it unites with this last 
 in saline solutions, and in most cases precipitates 
 the salt. This is a pleasing experiment, which 
 never fails to surprise those who are unacquainted 
 with chemical effects. If, for example, a satu- 
 rated solution of nitre in water be taken, and an 
 equal quantity of strong spirit of wine be poured 
 upon it, the mixture will constitute a weaker 
 spirit, which is incapable of holding the nitre in 
 solution ; it therefore falls to the bottom instantly, 
 in the form of minute crystals. 
 
 The degrees of solubility of many neutral salts 
 in alcohol have been ascertained by experiments 
 made by Macquer, of which an account is pub- 
 lished in the memoirs of the Turin Academy. 
 The alcohol he employed was carefully freed from 
 superabundant water by repeated rectifications, 
 without addition of any intermediate substance. 
 The salts employed in his experiments were pre- 
 viously deprived of their water of crystallization 
 by a careful drying. He poured into a matrass, 
 upon each of the salts thus prepared, half an 
 ounce of his alcohol, and set the matrass in a sand 
 bath. When the spirit began to boil, he filtrated 
 it while it was hot, and left it to cool, that he 
 might observe the crystallizations which took 
 place. He then evaporated the spirit, and 
 weighed the saline residuums. He repeated 
 these experiments a second time, with this differ- 
 ence, that instead of evaporating the spirit in 
 which the salt had been digested, he set fire to it 
 in order to examine the phenomena wmch its 
 flame might exhibit. The principal results of 
 his experiments are subjoined. 
 
 Peculiar phenomena of the flame. 
 
 Flame larger, higher, more ardent, yellow, and 
 
 luminous. 
 
 Large, ardent, yellow, and luminous. 
 Considerably red. 
 Yellow, luminous, detonating. 
 Larger, more ardent, and reddish. 
 None. 
 
 Whiter, more luminous. 
 None. 
 
 Larger, more luminous, red, and decrepitating. 
 Like that of the calcareous nitre. 
 None. 
 
 Large, yellow, luminous, and decrepitating. 
 Red and decrepitating. 
 More white, luminous, and sparkling. 
 More white, luminous, and green; much smoke. 
 
 The saline residuum became black and burnt. 
 Fine green, white, and red figurations. 
 
 He also accompanies the relation of his expe- 
 riments with many judicious reflections. 
 
 The alcohol he employed in these above men- 
 tioned, had a specific gravity of 0.840. Alcohol 
 affords frequently a valuable agent for separating 
 salts from each other. We shall therefore intro- 
 duce the following additional table, derived 
 fr^m the experiments of Wenzel : 
 
 100 parts of alcohol dissolve of 
 Temp. 
 
 Nitrate of Cobalt, 
 Copper, 
 Alumina, 
 Lime, 
 Magnesia, 
 
 Muriate of Zinc, 
 
 at 
 
 54.5 
 54.5 
 54.5 
 
 180.5 
 54.5 
 
 100 parts 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 125 
 
 290 
 
 100
 
 430 
 
 Muriate of Alumina, 
 Magnesia, 
 Iron, 
 Copper, 
 
 Acetate of Lead, 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 54.5 temp. 100 parts 
 180.5 547 
 
 180.5 100 
 
 180.5 100 
 
 154.5 100 
 
 At tne boiling point, 100 parts of alcohol dis- 
 solve of muriate of lime 100 parts 
 Nitrate of ammonia, . 89 
 Corrosive sublimate, . 88.8 
 Succinic acid, . . 74.0 
 Acetate of soda, . . 46.5 
 Nitrate of silver, . . 41.7 
 Refined sugar, . . 94.6 
 Boracic- acid, . . 20.0 
 Nitrate of soda, . . 9.6 
 Acetate of copper, . . 7.5 
 Muriate of ammonia, . 7.1 
 Superarseniate of potash, . 3.75 
 Oxalate of potash, . 2.92 
 Nitrate of potash, . 2.08 
 Muriate of potash, . 2.08 
 Arseniate of soda, . 1-58 
 Arsenious acid, . . 1.25 
 Tartrate of potash, . 0.42 
 
 It appears from the experiments of Kirwan, 
 that dried muriate of magnesia dissolves more 
 abundantly in strong than in weak alcohol. 100 
 parts of specific gravity 0.900 dissolve 21 .25 ; of 
 0.848,23.75; of 0.834, 36,25; and of 0.817, 
 50 parts. The same holds to a more limited 
 extent with acetate of lime, 2.4 grains being so- 
 luble in 100 pf the first alcohol, and 4.88 in 100 
 of the last. The other salts which he tried dis- 
 solved more sparingly in the stronger than in 
 the weaker alcohol. The temperature of the 
 spirit was generally 60. 
 
 All deliquescent salts are soluble in alcohol. 
 Alcohol holding the strontitic salts in solution, 
 gives a flame of a rich purple. The cupreous 
 salts and boracic acid give a green ; the soluble 
 calcareous, a reddish ; the barytic, a yellowish. 
 For the effect of other salts on the colour of 
 flame, see a preceding table. 
 
 Kirwan also, with that accuracy which has 
 distinguished him, has given a table of the solu- 
 bility of certain salts, by means of alcohol of 
 different densities. In these the temperature is 
 properly noticed 
 
 Salts employed, all de- 
 
 Soluble in 100 grains of Alcohol 
 
 prived of their water 
 
 of different specific gravity. 
 
 of crystallization. 
 
 Heat, from 50. to 70. 
 
 
 Sp. Gr. 
 
 Sp. Gr. 
 
 Sp. Gr. 
 
 Sp. Gr. 
 
 Sp. Gr. 
 
 
 0.9 
 
 0.872 
 
 0.848 
 
 0.834 
 
 0.817 
 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Nitrated Potash 
 
 2.76 
 
 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Muriated Potash 
 
 4.62 
 
 1.66 
 
 
 
 0.38 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 21.25 
 
 
 23.75 
 
 
 
 
 
 (dried at 120. by 
 
 
 
 
 36.25 
 
 50. 
 
 Kirwan) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Barytes 
 
 1. 
 
 
 
 0.29 
 
 0.185 
 
 0.09 
 
 Ditto, ditto, crystallized 
 Acetated Lime 
 
 1.56 
 2.4 
 
 
 
 0.43 
 4.12 
 
 0.32 
 4.75 
 
 0.06 
 4.88 
 
 The alcohol of 0.825 has been subjected to a 
 cold of 91 without congealing. But Mr. 
 Hutton has given, in the Edinburgh Encyclo- 
 pedia, article Cold, an account of his having 
 succeeded in solidifying it by a cold of 110. 
 The alcohol he employed had a density of 0.798 
 at 60. His process has been kept secret. The 
 boiling point of alcohol of 0.825 is 176. Alco- 
 hol of 0.810 boils at 173.5. For the force of 
 its vapour at different temperatures, and its 
 specific heat, see CALORIC, and the Tables of 
 VAPOUR. 
 
 When potassium and sodium are put in con- 
 tact with the strongest alcohol, hydrogen is 
 evolved. When chlorine is made to pass through 
 alcohol in a Woolfe's apparatus, there is a mutual 
 action. Water, an oily looking substance, mu- 
 riatic acid, a little carbonic acid, and carbona- 
 
 ceous matter, are the products. This oily 
 substance does not redden turnsole, though 
 its analysis by heat shews it to contain muriatic 
 acid. It is white, denser than water, has a 
 cooling taste analogous to mint, and a peculiar, 
 but not an ethereous odour. It is very soluble 
 in alcohol, but scarcely in water. The strongest 
 alkalis hardly operate on it 
 
 It was at one time maintained, that alcoho 
 did not exist in wines, but was generated anc 
 evolved by the heat of distillation. On thi 
 subject M. Gay Lussac made some decisive ex 
 periments. He agitated wine with litharge in 
 fine powder, till the liquid became as limpid a 
 water, and then saturated it with subcarbonate o 
 potash. The alcohol immediately separated anc 
 floated on the top. He distilled another portion 
 of wine in vacuo, at 59 Fahr. a temperature
 
 A L C O El O L. 
 
 481 
 
 considerably below that of fermentation. Alco- 
 hol came over. Mr. Brande proved the game 
 position by saturating vine with subacetate of 
 lead, and adding potash. 
 
 MM. Adam and Duportal have substituted 
 for the redistillations used in converting w ne or 
 beer into alcohol, a single process of great ele- 
 gance. From the capital of the still a tube is 
 led into a large copper recipient. This is joined 
 by a second tube to a second recipient, and so 
 on through a series of four vessels, arranged like 
 a Woolfe's apparatus. The last vessel communi- 
 cates with the worm of the first refrigeratory. 
 This, the body of the still, and the two recipients 
 nearest it, are charged with the wine or fermented 
 liquor. When ebullition takes place in the still, 
 the vapour issuing from it soon communicates 
 the boiling temperature to the liquor in the two 
 recipients. From these the volatilized alcohol 
 will rise and pass into the third vessel, which is 
 empty. After communicating a certain heat to 
 it, a portion of the finer or less condensable spirit 
 will pass into the fourth, and thence, in a little, 
 into the worm of the first refrigeratory. The 
 wine round the worm will likewise acquire heat, 
 but more slowly. The vapour that in that event 
 may pass uncondensed through the first worm, is 
 conducted into a second, surrounded with cold 
 water. Whenever the still is worked off, it is 
 replenished by a stop-cock from the nearest re- 
 cipient, which, in its turn, is filled from the 
 second, and the second from the first worm-tub. 
 It is evident, from this arrangement, that by 
 keeping the third and fourth recipients at a cer- 
 tain temperature, we may -cause alcohol, of any 
 degree of lightness, to form directly at the re- 
 mote extremity of the apparatus. The utmost 
 economy of fuel and time is also secured, and a 
 better flavoured spirit is obtained. The arriere 
 gout of bad spirit can scarcely be destroyed by 
 infusion with charcoal and redistillation. In this 
 mode of operating, the taste and smell are excel- 
 lent from the first. Several stills on the above 
 principle have been constructed at Glasgow, for 
 the West India distillers, and have been found 
 extremely advantageous. The excise laws do 
 not permit their employment in the home trade. 
 
 If sulphur in sublimation meet with the va- 
 pour of alcohol, a very small portion combines 
 with it, which communicates a hydro-sulphur- 
 ous smell to the fluid. The increased surface of 
 the two substances appears to favour the combi- 
 nation. It had been supposed, that this was the 
 only way in which they could be united ; but 
 M. Favre has lately asserted, that having digested 
 two drams of flower of sulphur in an ounce of 
 alcohol, over a gentle fire not sufficient to make 
 it boil, for twelve hours, he obtained a solution 
 that gave twenty-three grains of precipitate. A 
 similar mixture left to stand for a month in a 
 place exposed to the solar rays, afforded sixteen 
 grains of precipitate ; and another, from which 
 rfie light was excluded, gave thirteen grains. It 
 alcohol be boiled with ouc-foi.ith of its weight 
 of sulphur for an hour, and filtered hot, a small 
 quantity of minute crystals will be deposited on 
 tooling ; and the clear fluid will assume an opa- 
 line hue on being diluted with an equal quantity 
 tf water, in which state it will pass the filter, nor 
 
 VOL I. 
 
 will any sediment be deposited for several hours. 
 The alcohol used in the last-mentioned experi- 
 ment did not exceed .840. 
 
 Phosphorus is sparingly soluble in alcohol, but 
 in greater quantity by heat than in cold. The 
 addition of water to this solution affords an 
 opaque milky fluid, which gradually becomes 
 clear by the subsidence of the phosphorus. 
 
 Earths seem to have scarcely any action upon 
 alcohol. Quicklime, however, produces some 
 alteration in this fluid, by changing its flavour, 
 and rendering it of a yellow colour. A small 
 portion is probably taken up. 
 
 Soaps art dissolved with great facility in al- 
 cohol, with which they combine more readily 
 than with water. None of the metals, or their 
 oxides, are acted upon by this fluid. Resins, 
 essential oils, camphor, bitumen, and various 
 other substances, are dissolved with great facility 
 in alcohol, from which they may be precipitated 
 by the addition of water From its property of 
 dissolving resins, it becomes the menstruum of 
 one class of varnishes. See VARNISH. 
 
 Camphor is not only extremely soluble in alco- 
 hol, but assists the solution of resins in it. Fixed 
 oils, when rendered drying by metallic oxides, 
 are soluble in it, as well as when combined with 
 alkalis. 
 
 Wax, spermaceti, biliary cal<?uli, urea, and all 
 the animal substances of a resinous nature, are 
 soluble in alcohol ; but it curdles milk, coagu- 
 lates albumen, and hardens the muscular fibre 
 and coagulum of the blood. 
 
 The uses of alcohol are various. As a solvent 
 of resinous substances and essential oils, it is 
 employed both in pharmacy and by the perfumer. 
 When diluted with an equal quantity of water, 
 constituting what is called proof spirit, it is 
 used for extracting tinctures from vegetable and 
 other substances, the alcohol dissolving the re- 
 sinous parts, and the water the gummy. From. 
 giving a steady heat without smoke when burnt 
 in a lamp, it was formerly much employed to 
 keep water boiling on the tea-table. In thermo- 
 meters for measuring great degrees of cold, it is 
 preferable to mercury, as we cannot bring it to 
 freeze. It is in common use for preserving many 
 anatomical prepartions, and certain subjects in 
 natural hL-tjry ; but to some it is injurious, the 
 molluscas for instance, the calcareous covering 
 of which it in time corrodes. It is of consider- 
 able use too in chemical analysis, as appears 
 under the different articles to which it is appli- 
 cable. 
 
 From the great expansive power of alcohol, it 
 has been made a question, whether it might not 
 be applied with advantage in the working of 
 steam-engines. From a series of experiments 
 made by Betancourt, it appears, that the steam 
 of alcohol has, in all cases of equal temperature, 
 more than double the force of that of water; and 
 that the steam of alcohol at 174 Fahr. is equal 
 to that of water at 212 : thus there is a consi- 
 derable diminution of the consumption of fuel, 
 and where this is so expensive as to be an ob- 
 ject of great importance, by contriving the ma- 
 chinery so as to prevent the alcohol from being 
 lost, it may possibly at some future time be used 
 with advantage, if some other fluid of great ex- 
 
 2 I
 
 482 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 pansive power, and inferior price, be not found 
 more economical. 
 
 It remains for us to mention the chemical 
 nature of alcohol, and the appearances which 
 attend its decomposition. The remarkable cir- 
 cumstance of a vegetable product burning away, 
 without the smallest trace of smoke or fuliginous 
 vappur of any kind, had long engaged the at- 
 tention of chemists. Junker and Boerhaave 
 threw much light on the subject by remarking, 
 that the product of the combustion of alcohol 
 was always a quantity of pure water ; and. this 
 fact was more fully illustrated by the experiments 
 of the illustrious Lavoisier. The ready evapora- 
 tion of alcohol, and the ease with which its 
 vapour will fill a large vessel, renders it a dan- 
 gerous experiment to submit a considerable 
 quantity at once to combustion, in oxygen gas 
 confined in any vessel ; but this difficulty was sur- 
 mounted in an ingenious manner. His first 
 experiment was simply to ascertain the quantity 
 of water yielded by the combustion of a given 
 weight of alcohol. This was performed in the 
 following apparatus, contrived by M. Meusmier. 
 See CHEMISTRY, plate I. fig. 1. 
 
 E F is a worm, contained in the cooler A B C D. 
 To the upper part of the worm E, the chimney 
 G H is fixed, which is composed of two tubes, 
 one within the other, the inner of which is a 
 continuation of the worm, the outer one is a 
 case of tin plate, which surrounds it at about 
 an inch distance, and the interval is filled with 
 sand. At the inferior extremity K of the inner 
 tube, a glass tube is fixed, to which is adapted 
 the Argand lamp L M, for burning alcohol. 
 
 Things being thus disposed, and the lamp being 
 filled with a determined quantity of alcohol, it 
 is set on fire ; the water which is formed during 
 combustion rises in the chimney K E, and, being 
 condensed in the worm, runs out at its extremity, 
 F, into the bottle P. The use of the outer tube 
 G H, and of the sand between it and the inner 
 tube, is to prevent the latter, which proceeds from 
 the worm, from being cooled during combustion, 
 which would occasion the water, formed by the 
 burning, to fall back on the lamp, instead of 
 passing on into the worm. 
 
 This apparatus, though not perfect, has the 
 advantage of enabling the chemist to operate 
 with larger quantities than can be admitted in 
 the more accurate experiments on combustion, 
 and by it, the above mentioned chemists were 
 able to establish the important fact, that the 
 quantity of water collected by the combustion of 
 alcohol very sensibly exceeds the quantity of 
 the alcohol which is consumed. The product of 
 water must vary according to the strength of the 
 alcohol, and the care of conducting the experi- 
 ment ; but it is so considerable, that from six- 
 teen ounces of ardent spirit, Lavoisier obtained 
 
 eighteen ounces and a half of pure water. . 
 
 There is besides, however, a large quantity of 
 carbonic acid produced in this experiment which 
 escapes, and cannot be estimated by this appara- 
 tus. Some of this gas unites with the water 
 which is collected, and causes it to precipitate 
 lime-water. 
 
 Having thus ascertained in a general way the 
 products of the combustion of alcohol, Lavoisier 
 
 proceeded to repeat the experiment, in vessels 
 which might determine the result with accuracy. 
 He employed, for this purpose, a large bell glass, 
 holding from 700 to 800 cubic inches, and in- 
 verted over a mercurial trough. A small lamp, 
 filled with a known weight of alcohol, was in- 
 troduced under the glass, swimming on the sur- 
 face of the mercury, and the wick was armed 
 with a very minute portion of phosphorus. The 
 atmospherical air within the glass was sucked out 
 by a syphon, till the mercury rose to a certain 
 height which was noted ; and the phosphorus on 
 the wick being then kindled by a hot iron, the 
 spirit soon took fire. As the air within the glass 
 would be soon consumed, and the inflammation of 
 the spirit stopped, a constant supply of oxygen 
 gas was sent into the glass through a syphon tube, 
 connected with a reservoir of this gas, and which 
 passed under the mercury into the glass where 
 the combustion was going on. Great precaution 
 was required not to let in more oxygen than was 
 barely necessary to keep up the combustion; 
 otherwise the heat, volatilizing part of the spirit, 
 would have filled the glass with vapour of al- 
 cohol, and this mixing with the oxygen, would 
 have suddenly exploded by the combustion. In 
 this, as in other respects, the combustion of al- 
 cohol strikingly resembles that of pure hydrogen 
 gas. The experiment was at last stopped by the 
 quantity of carbonic acid generated ; and on ex- 
 amining the results, (proper corrections being 
 made for pressure and temperature) it was found, 
 that 93.5 grains of alcohol and 110.32 grains of 
 oxygen had been consumed. The products of 
 these were 93.8 grains of carbonic acid and 
 106.2 grains of water, which last, therefore, ex- 
 ceeded by 12.7 grains the quantity of alcohol 
 employed. From these data, and from previous 
 experiments (wherein Lavoisier estimated, that 
 100 grains of oxygen take up 38.88 grains of 
 carbon, for the production of carbonic acid gas ; 
 and that the same quantity of oxygen takes up 
 17.64 grains of hydrogen for the production of 
 water,) he concluded the composition of alcohol 
 to be the following : 
 
 Carbon 28. 5 3 
 
 Hydrogen 7. 8 7 
 
 Water already existing in the alcohol 63. 6 
 
 100 
 
 We may observe, however, that the result of 
 this experiment can only be considered as an 
 approximation towards the truth, since the esti- 
 mation of the component parts of alcohol here 
 given, does not agree with that which is deduced 
 by the same chemist, from the result of vinous 
 fermentation. Neither is there any light thrown 
 on the mode of union between the component 
 parts, and their degree of oxygenation as they 
 exist in the spirit before combustion. 
 
 Alcohol has likewise been more directly de- 
 composed without the accession of oxygen gas. 
 Dr. Priestley procured inflammable air by pass- 
 ing the electric spark through spirit of wine. 
 But the most striking experiments on this sub- 
 ject, performed by this excellent philosopher, 
 were the decomposition of spirit by passing it 
 through red-hot tubes, both of earth and metal. 
 He first transmitted two ounce measures of al-
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 
 483 
 
 cc hoi. reduced to vapour by boiling, through 
 an ignited porcelain tube, and procured 1900 
 ounce measures of air, ' which was all inflam- 
 mable without any mixture of fixed air in it, and 
 which burned with a blue lambent flame.' (We 
 here quote the very words of the author, which 
 the writer of the article ALCOOL, in the Encyclo- 
 pedic Methodique, has made to correspond with 
 the experiments of Lavoisier, by adopting the 
 following singular translation : 1VI. Priestley, 
 en faisant passer de 1'alcoo dans un tube d'argile 
 rougi au feu, en a retire du gas hydrogene mele 
 de gaz acide carbonique.) Dr. Priestley's next 
 experiments are still more curious, as they de- 
 termine the existence of carbonaceous matter 
 in spirit of wine. Having found interesting re- 
 sults from the transmission of the vapour of 
 water through a heated copper tube, he repeated 
 the experiments, only substituting the vapour of 
 spirit of wine for that of water. ' In this case/ 
 he observes, ' the vapour of the spirit had no 
 sooner entered the hot copper tube, than I was 
 perfectly astonished at the rapid production of 
 air. It resembled the blowing of bellows. But 
 I had not used four ounces of the spirit of wine 
 before I very unexpectedly found that the tube 
 was perforated in several places, and presently 
 afterwards it was so far destroyed, that in at- 
 tempting to remove it from the fire, k actually 
 fell in pieces. The inside was full of a black 
 sooty matter, resembling lamp-black.' He then 
 varied the experiment by using earthen tubes, 
 placing within them copper filings, and trans- 
 mitting the vapour of alcohol. The copper was, 
 as before, converted into a black friable sub- 
 stance, obviously produced by the addition of 
 carbonaceous matter furnished by one part of 
 the spirit, whilst the other part appeared in the 
 form of a copious stream of inflammable air. It 
 is, however, by no means the whole of the char- 
 coal of the alcohol which is detained by the 
 copper, for much of it escapes mixed with the 
 inflammable air in the form of fine soot, giving 
 the gas the appearance of a dense black cloud ; 
 and when the tube is strongly heated, this vola- 
 tilized charcoal will give an uniform black coat- 
 ing to any balloon or large vessel in which the 
 gas is received. Dr. Priestley found some other 
 metals to undergo a similar change by the vapour 
 of alcohol, but none in so striking a manner as 
 copper. On heating some of this charcoal of 
 copper, as he calls it, in oxygen gas, he found it 
 to burn very readily to a certain point, after 
 which the remainder could not be again kindled. 
 The gas produced by the combustion was pure 
 fixed air or carbonic acid. 
 
 The excellent Dutch chemists, of the Teyle- 
 rian institution, Van Marum and colleagues, re- 
 peated Dr. Priestley's experiments with great 
 accuracy, and found the same results in every 
 essential particular. They employed, as well as 
 Dr. Priestley, Wedgwood's porcelain tubes, 
 which they inclosed in iron tubes to prevent the 
 sudden action of the fire which is apt to crack 
 them. One extremity of the earthen tube re- 
 ceived a small retort in which was put the alco- 
 nol, and the other entered a metallic serpentine 
 tube, immersed in a refrigeratory, and provided 
 at the further end with a bottle to receive the 
 
 gaseous products. In the first experiment which 
 was performed, an ounce and a half of alcohol 
 in vapour had been transmitted through the 
 heated copper, and had produced about six cubic 
 feet of inflammable air. 
 
 In the second experiment the heat was greater, 
 and the productions of the gas more rapid. In 
 all, the copper was reduced to a black and very 
 friable substance, which fell to pieces between the 
 fingers. The proportion of charcoal added to 
 the copper by the experiments, varied at diffe- 
 rent times, apparently owing to the greater or less 
 rapidity with which the process was conducted. 
 Dr. Priestley had united 446 grains of charcoal to 
 twenty-eight of copper, in one instance; and 
 508 to nineteen, in another; but the Dutch 
 chemists found a much less proportion of char- 
 coal, being only an addition of 292 grains to 748 
 of copper in one case, and in another, 180 of 
 charcoal to 612 of the metal. The great difference 
 in the result is, however, of little consequence in 
 attempting to ascertain by these experiments the 
 exact proportion of the component parts of alcohol, 
 since a large part of the carbonaceous ingredient 
 escapes the copper, and passes over into the ves- 
 sels which receive the inflammable air, where it 
 either appears in the form of a fine black 
 soot, or remains permanently united with the 
 hydrogen gas. M. Van Marum likewise collected, 
 in the bottle connected with the serpentine, a 
 quantity of nearly pure water, about equal to 
 half the weight of the alcohol evaporated by 
 boiling, and of the specific gravity of .996. He 
 does not inform us of the strength of the spirit 
 which he used. He confirmed the other part of 
 Dr. Priesley's experiment by burning the char- 
 coal of copper in oxygen gas, and procuring 
 pure carbonic acid, whilst the remaining copper 
 still retained a small portion of carbon which 
 could not be consumed. It is worthy of re- 
 mark, that the inflammable air, produced in the 
 experiments of both these eminent chemists, was 
 found to be not more than twice as light as 
 common air, and it probably bears a considera- 
 ble resemblance to that species of gas, termed, 
 with great propriety, by Mr. Cruikshank, gase- 
 ous oxyd of carbon. 
 
 The vapour of alcohol transmitted through 
 earthen tubes, forms, in particular circumstances, 
 that singular air which has been named olefiant 
 gas. It possesses in the highest degree the cordial, 
 stimulating, and intoxicating qualities, of all 
 distilled spirits, and although the less powerful 
 and more grateful of the spirituous liquors, such 
 as rum, brandy, &c. are more peculiarly devoted 
 to the use of the table, the purer ardent spirit, 
 again sufficiently diluted with water, is employed 
 as the basis of many of the artificial cordial spirits 
 and liquors, to which a flavour and additional 
 taste are given by particular admixtures. Its use 
 in medicine as a solvent for the more active parts 
 of vegetables, under the form of tinctures, has 
 already been mentioned ; it is also employed as 
 an external application, often with considerable 
 success. 
 
 The highly antiseptic power of alcohol which 
 renders it so valuable in preserving particular 
 parts of the body, as anatomical preparations, is 
 of ffreat importance : as also the gentle, steaay, 
 
 2 I 2
 
 484 
 
 A L C O R A N. 
 
 and uniform heat which it gives during combus- 
 tion, and the absence of smoke or fuliginous 
 vapour, which make it often a most eligible ma- 
 terial for burning in lamps. Its uses in these 
 respects have already been mentioned ; but as a 
 luid for thermometers, though it has the advan- 
 tage over mercury in not freezing in any known 
 degree of cold, yet from its ready volatility in a 
 moderate heat it cannot be depended on with 
 any accuracy, above ninety or 100 degrees. 
 
 We refer the reader to the articles FERMENTA- 
 TION, (vinous and otherwise,) DISTILLATION, 
 and the several species of distilled spirits ; in 
 which the formation of alcohol in its progressive 
 stages will be more fully developed. 
 
 ALCOHOL, is also a fine, impalpable powder, 
 used by the ladies of the East as a kind of fucus. 
 Kohol is the generic name for a substance applied 
 to the eye-ball, on the inside of the eye-lids, in 
 the form of a finely levigated powder. That 
 which is employed for ornament is called al kohol 
 orisphahany; when other ingredients, as flowers 
 of olibanum, amber, and the like, are added, on 
 account of some particular disorders, the kohol is 
 distinguished by some, appropriate epithet. Dr. 
 Shaw says, that none of the women in Barbary 
 think themselves completely dressed, until they 
 have tinged their hair and edges of their eye-lids 
 with al-ka-hol, the powder of lead-ore. Lady 
 Montague also takes notice of this custom 
 among the Eastern women, Letters, vol. ii. p. 32. 
 This ore used at Aleppo, is the stibium of the 
 ancients, but very different from antimony, is 
 brought from Persia, and prepared by roast- 
 ing it in a quince, an apple or a truffle, then 
 add ing a few drops of oil of almonds, it is ground 
 to a subtile powder on a marble. The quantity 
 of kohol consumed in the East is incredibly 
 great. It has been said by one of their poets, 
 in allusion to the probe used for applying the 
 
 powder, and the mountains where the mineral is 
 found, ' that the mountains have been worn away 
 by a bodkin.' This probe or bodkin, called 
 meel, is made of ivory, silver, or wood ; it is 
 dipped in water, and when a little of the powder 
 has been sprinkled on it, it is applied horizontally 
 to the eye, and the eye-lids being shut upon it, 
 the probe is drawn between them, leaving the 
 inside tinged, and a black rim all round the edge. 
 The Roman .satirist alludes to this custom, as 
 well as to blackening the eye-brows ; 
 
 ' Ilia supercilium madida fuligine tactum 
 Oblique producit acu, pingitque trementes 
 Attollens oculos.' 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. ii. v. 67. and Casaubon's note. 
 
 Kohol is used also by men for strengthening 
 the sight, and preventing various disorders of the 
 eye. It is applied also to the eyes of children, 
 as soon as they are born, and renewed at intervals 
 of a few days through the several periods of their 
 adolescence. The use of the kohol is of very 
 ancient date. Passages relative to it, in sacred 
 history, may be seen in Shaw, Travels, p. 229. 
 Harmer, Observations, vol. ii. p. 405. and 
 Lowth's Notes on Isaiah, c. iii. v. 16. Harmer 
 conceives that the redness of the eyes, as it is in 
 our version, which the dying patriarch mentions 
 in blessing Judah, Gen. xlix. 12, is to be ex- 
 plained by this usage. Dr. Russel observes, on 
 a passage in Xenophon, referred to by Shaw, 
 that blackening the eyes, though a custom among 
 the Medes, was not at that time in use among 
 the Persians; for Cyrus, among othe* 1 things, 
 seems to have been surprised at the painted eyes 
 of his grand-father Astyages. Cyropaed. lib. i, 
 p. 8. See Russell's Aleppo, vol. i, p. Ill, p. 
 367. ed. 1794. Perhaps from this impalpable 
 powder the name was transferred to other subtile 
 powders, and afterwards to spirits of wine. 
 
 ALCORAN. 
 
 ALCORAN, or AL-KORAN, from the Arabic 
 particle al, and coran or koran, derived from the 
 verb caroa or karoa, to read; signifying the 
 reading ; or rather, that which ought to be read : 
 amongst the Mahommedans, the name of .the 
 book which contains the revelations and doc- 
 trines of their pretended prophet, Mahomet. 
 By this name they entitle not only the entire 
 book or volume of the Koran, but also any par- 
 ticular chapter or section of it; just as the Jews 
 call either the whole scripture, or any part of it, ' 
 by the name of Karah, or Mikra, words of the 
 same origin and import. Besides this peculiar 
 name, the Koran is also honoured with several 
 appellations common to other books of scripture ; 
 as, al Farkan, from the verb foraka, to divide, or 
 distinguish; not, as the Mahommedan doctors 
 say, because these books are divided into chapters 
 or sections, or distinguish between good and 
 evil ; but in the same notion as the Jews use the 
 word perek, or pirka, from the same root, to 
 denote a section or portion of scripture. It is 
 also called al Moshaf, the volume, and al Kitha, 
 the book, by way o.f eminence, which answers 
 to the Biblia of the Greeks; and al Dhikr, the 
 
 admonition, which name is also given to the 
 Pentateuch and Gospel. 
 
 The Alcoran is divided into 114 larger por- 
 tions of very unequal length, which we call 
 chapters, but the Arabians sowar, in the singular 
 sura; a word rarely used on any other occasion, 
 and properly signifying a row, or a regular 
 series ; as a course of bricks in building, or a 
 rank of soldiers in an army, and is the same in 
 use and import with the sura, or tora, of the 
 Jews ; who also called the fifty-three sections of 
 the Pentateuch, Sedarim, a word of the same 
 signification. These chapters are not in the 
 manuscript copies distinguished by their nume- 
 rical order, but by particular titles, which are 
 taken sometimes from a peculiar subject treated 
 of, or person mentioned therein ; usually from 
 the first word of note, exactly in the same man- 
 ner as the Jews have named their Sedarim ; 
 though the word from which some chapters are 
 denominated be very distant, towards the middle, 
 or perhaps the end of the chapter, which seems 
 ridiculous. But the occasion of this appears to 
 have been, that the verse or passage wnerem 
 such word occurs, was, in pome 01 time, re-
 
 ALCORAN. 
 
 485 
 
 .realed and committed to writing before the 
 lither verses of the same chapter which precede 
 it in order ; and the title being given to the 
 chapter before it was completed, or the passages 
 reduced to their present order, the verse from 
 whence such title was taken did not always 
 Happen to begin the chapter. Some chapters 
 have two or more titles, occasioned by the dif- 
 ference of the copies. Some of them being pre- 
 tended to have been revealed at Mecca, and 
 others at Medina, the noting this difference 
 makes a part of the title. Every chapter is 
 divided into smaller portions, of very unequal 
 length also, which we customarily call verse : 
 but the Arabic word is ayat, the same with the 
 Hebrew ototh, and signifies signs or wonders ; 
 such as the secrets of God, his attributes, works, 
 judgments, and ordinances, delivered in those 
 verses ; many of which have their particular 
 titles also imposed in the same manner as those 
 of the chapters. Besides these unequal divi- 
 sions, the Mahommedans have also divided 
 their Koran into sixty equal portions, which they 
 call Ahzab, in the singular, Hizb, each subdivided 
 into four equal parts ; \vhich is likewise an 
 imitation of the Jews, who have an ancient 
 division of their Mishna into sixty portions 
 called Massictoth. But the Koran is more usually 
 divided into thirty sections only, named Ajza, 
 from the singular, Joi,, each of twice the length 
 of the former, and in like manner subdivided 
 into four parts. These divisions are for the use 
 of the readers of the Koran in the royal temples, 
 or in the adjoining chapels where the emperors 
 and great men are interred ; of whom there are 
 thirty belonging to every chapel, and each reads 
 his section every day ; so that the whole Koran 
 is read over once a day. Next after the title, at 
 the name of every chapter, except only the ninth, 
 is prefixed the following solemn form, by the 
 Mahommedans, called the Bismallah, ' in the 
 name of the most merciful God ; ' which form 
 they constantly place at the beginning of all 
 their books and writings in general, as a peculiar 
 mark or distinguishing characteristic of their 
 religion, it being counted a sort of impiety to 
 omit it. The Jews, and eastern Christians, for 
 the same purpose, make use of similar forms. 
 But Mahomet probably took this form from 
 the Persian Magi, who began their books in these 
 words, ' Benam yezdam bakshaishgher dadar ; ' 
 that is, In the name of the most merciful just 
 God. There are twenty-nine chapters ot the 
 Koran, which have this peculiarity, that they 
 begin with certain letters of the alphabet, some 
 with a single one, others with more. These 
 letters the Mahommedans believe to be the 
 peculiar mark of the Koran, and to conceal 
 several profound mysteries ; the certain under- 
 standing of which, the more intelligent confess, 
 has not been communicated to any mortal, their 
 prophet only excepted : notwithstanding which, 
 some take the liberty of guessing at their mean- 
 ing, by that species of cabala, called by the 
 Jews Notarikon. There are also abrogated 
 passages classed under three divisions ; the first, 
 where both the letter and the sense are abro- 
 gated ; the second, where this is the case with 
 the letter only ; the third, where the sense, and 
 fiot the letter s abrogated. 
 
 The Koran is universally allowed to be written 
 with the utmost elegance and purity of language, 
 in the dialect of the tribe of Koreish, the. most 
 noble and polite of all the Arabians, but with 
 some mixture, though very rarely, of other dia- 
 lects. It is confessedly the standard of the 
 Arabic tongue, and, as the more orthodox be- 
 lieve, and are taught by the book itself, inimitable 
 by any human pen, (though some sectaries have 
 been of another opinion,) and therefore insisted 
 on as a permanent miracle, greater than that of 
 raising the dead, and alone sufficient to convince 
 the world of its divine original. And to this 
 miracle did Mahomet himself chiefly appeal 
 for the confirmation of his mission, publicly 
 challenging the most eloquent men in all Arabia, 
 which was at that time stocked with thousands, 
 whose sole study and ambition it was to excel io 
 elegance of style and composition, to produce 
 even a single chapter that might be compared 
 with it. As the composition and arrangement oi 
 words, however, admit of infinite varieties, it 
 can never be absolutely said, that any one is the 
 best possible. In fact, Hamzah Benahmed wrote 
 a book against the Alcoran, with at least equal 
 elegance; and Moselema another, which even 
 surpassed it, and occasioned a defection of a 
 great part of the Mussulmans. To this pomp 
 and harmony of expression, some ascribe all the 
 force and effect of the Alcoran, which they con- 
 sider as a sort of music, equally fitted with other 
 species of that art to ravish and amaze. In this 
 Mahomet succeeded so well, and so strangely 
 captivated the minds of his audience, that several 
 of his opponents thought it the effect of witch- 
 craft and enchantment, as he himself complains. 
 Others have attributed the effect of the Alcoran 
 to the frequent mention of rewards and punish- 
 ments ; heaven and hell occurring almost in every 
 page. Some suppose, that the sensual pleasures 
 of paradise, so frequently set before the imagina- 
 tions of the readers of the Alcoran, were what 
 chiefly bewitched them. 
 
 The general design of the Koran was to unite 
 the professors of the three different religions, 
 then followed in the populous country of Arabia, 
 (who, for the most part, wandered without guides, 
 the far greater number being idolaters, and the 
 rest Jews and Christians, mostly of erroneous 
 opinions,) in the knowledge and worship of one 
 God; under the sanction of certain laws and 
 ceremonies, partly of ancient, and partly of novel 
 institution, enforced by the consideration of re- 
 wards and punishments both temporal and eter- 
 nal ; and to bring them all to the obedience of 
 Mahomet, as the prophet and ambassador of 
 God ; who, after the repeated admonitions, pro- 
 mises, and threats of former ages, was sent at 
 last to establish and propagate Goti's religion on 
 earth ; and to be acknowledged chief pontiff in 
 spiritual matters, as well as supreme prince in 
 temporal. The great doctrine then of the Koran 
 is the unity of God, to restore which, Mahomet 
 pretended, was the chief end of his mission ; it 
 being laid down by him as a fundamental truth, 
 That there never was, nor ever can be, more than 
 one true orthodox religion: That, though the 
 particular laws or ceremonies are only temporary 
 andsuojectto alteration, according to the divine 
 direction, yet the substance of it being eternal
 
 486 
 
 ALCORAN. 
 
 truth, is not liable to change, but continues im- 
 mutably the same : And that, whenever this re- 
 ligion became neglected, or corrupted in essentials, 
 God had the goodness to re-inform and re-ad- 
 monish mankind thereof, by several prophets, of 
 whom Moses and Jesus were the most distin- 
 guished, till the appearance of Mahomet, who is 
 their seal, and no other to be expected after 
 him. The more effectually to engage people to 
 hearken to him, great part of the Koran is em- 
 ployed in relating examples of dreadful punish- 
 ments formerly inflicted by God on those who 
 rejected and abused his messengers ; several of 
 which stories, or some circumstances of them, 
 are taken from the Old and New Testaments, 
 but many more from the apocryphal books and 
 traditions of the Jews and Christians of those 
 ages, set up in the Koran as truths, in opposition 
 to the Scriptures, which the Jews and Chris- 
 tians are charged with having altered ; and in- 
 deed, few or none of the relations or circum- 
 stances in the Koran were invented by Mahomet, 
 as is generally supposed, it being easy to trace 
 the greatest part of them much higher, as the 
 rest might be, were more of those books extant, 
 and were it worth while to make the enquiry. 
 The rest of the Alcoran is taken up in prescribing 
 necessary laws and directions, frequent admoni- 
 tions to moral and divine virtues, the worship 
 and reverence of the Supreme Being, and resig- 
 nation to his will. One of their most learned 
 commentators distinguishes the contents of the 
 Alcoran into allegorical and literal ; under the 
 former are comprehended all the obscure, para- 
 bolical, and enigmatical passages, with such laws 
 as are repealed, or abrogated ; the latter such as 
 are clear and in full force. The most excellent 
 moral in the whole Alcoran, interpreters say, is 
 that in the chapter Al Alraf, viz. ' Shew mercy, 
 do good to all, and dispute not with the ignorant;' 
 or, as Mr. Sale renders it, ' Use indulgence, 
 command that which is just, and withdraw far 
 from the ignorant.' Mahomet, according to the 
 authors of the Keschaf, having begged of the 
 angel Gabriel a more ample explication of this 
 passage, received it in the following terms : < Seek 
 him who turns thee out, give to him who takes 
 from thee, pardon him who injures thee ; for 
 God will have you plant in your souls the roots 
 of his chief perfections.' It is easy to see that 
 this commentary is borrowed from the gospel. 
 In reality, the necessity of forgiving enemies, 
 though frequently inculcated in the Alcoran, is 
 of a later date among the Mahommedans, than 
 among the Christians ; among those later than 
 among the heathens ; and to be traced originally 
 among the Jews. See Exodus xxxiii. 4, 5. But 
 it matters not so much who had it first, as who 
 observes it best. The caliph Hassan, son of 
 Hali, being at table, a slave let fall a dish of 
 meat reeking hot, which scalded him severely. 
 The slave fell on his knees, rehearsing these 
 words of the Alcoran, < Paradise is for those who 
 restrain their anger.' 'I am not angry with 
 thee,' answered the caliph. 'And for those 
 who forgive offences against them,' continues the 
 slave. I forgive thee thine,' replies the caliph. 
 ' But above all, for those who return good for 
 evil,' adds the slave. ' I set thee at liberty,' re- 
 joined the cal'mh, ' and I give thee ten dinars.' 
 
 There are also a great number of occasional pas- 
 sages in the Alcoran, relating only to particular 
 emergencies. For this advantage Mahomet had 
 by his piecemeal method of receiving and de- 
 livering his revelations, that whenever he hap- 
 pened to be perplexed with any thing, he had a 
 certain resource in some new morsel of revela- 
 tion. It was an admirable contrivance to bring 
 down the whole Alcoran only to the lowest 
 heaven, not to earth ; since, had the whole been 
 published at once, innumerable objections would 
 have been made, which it would have been im- 
 possible for him to have solved ; but as he re- 
 ceived it by parcels, as God saw fit they should 
 be published for the conversion and instruction 
 of the people, he had a sure way to answer all 
 emergencies, and to extricate himself with honour 
 from any difficulty which might occur. 
 
 It is the common opinion, that Mahomet, 
 assisted by one Sergius, a monk, composed this 
 book; but the Mussulmans believe, as an ar- 
 ticle of their faith, that the prophet, who, they 
 say, was an illiterate man, had no concern in 
 inditing it ; but that it was given him by God, 
 who, to that end, made use of the ministry of the 
 angel Gabriel : that, however, it was communi- 
 cated to him by little and little, a verse at a time, 
 and in different places, during the course of 
 twenty-three years. ' And hence, say they, pro- 
 ceed that disorder and confusion visible in the 
 work ; ' which in truth, are so great, that all their 
 doctors have never been able to adjust them. 
 For Mahomet, or rather his copyist, having put 
 all the loose verses promiscuously in a book 
 together, it was impossible ever to retrieve the 
 order wherein they were delivered. Those 
 twenty-three years, which the angel employed 
 in conveying the Alcoran to Mahomet, are of 
 wonderful service to his followers : inasmuch as 
 they furnish them with an answer, to such as 
 tax them with those glaring contradictions .of 
 which the book is full, and which they piously 
 father upon God himself; alleging that in the 
 course of so long a time, he repealed and altered 
 several doctrines and precepts which the prophet 
 had before received of him. M. D'Herbelot 
 thinks it probable, that when the heresies of the 
 Nestorians, Eutychians, &c. had been condemned 
 by oecumenical councils, many bishops, priests, 
 monks, &c. being driven into the deserts of 
 Arabia and Egypt, furnished the impostor with 
 passages, and crude, ill-conceived doctrines, out 
 of the Scriptures ; and that it was hence that the 
 Alcoran became so full of the wild and erroneous 
 opinions of those heretics. The Jews also, who 
 were very numerous in Arabia, furnished ma- 
 terials for the Alcoran ; nor is it without some 
 reason, that they boast twelve of their chief doc- 
 tors to have been the authors of this work. The 
 Alcoran, while Mahomet lived, was only kept in 
 loose sheets -, his successor, Abubeker, first col- 
 lected them into a volume, and committed the 
 keeping of it to Haphsa, the widow of Mahomet, 
 in order to be consulted as an original ; and 
 there being a good deal of diversity between the 
 several copies already dispersed throughout the 
 provinces, Ottoman, successor of Abubeker, pro- 
 cured a great number of copies to be taken from 
 that of Haphsa; at the same time suppressing 
 all the others not conformable to the original.
 
 ALCORAN. 
 
 487 
 
 The chief differences, in the present copies of the first transcript has been from everlasting by 
 this hook, consist in the points, which were not God's throne, written on a table of vast bigness 
 m use in the time of Mahomet, and his imme- called the preserved table, in which are also re- 
 diate successors ; but were added since, to ascer- corded the divine decrees past and future : that 
 tain the reading ; after the example of the Mas- acopy from this table, in one volume on paper, 
 soretes, who added the like points to the Hebrew was by the ministry of the angel Gabriel sent 
 texts of Scripture. There are seven principal down to the lowest heaven, in the month of 
 editions of the Alcoran ; two at Medina, one at Ramadan, on the night of power ; from whence 
 Mecca, one at Cusa, one at Bassora, one in Gabriel revealed it to Mahomet by parcels, some 
 Syria, and the common, or vulgate edition. The at Mecca, and some at Medina, at different times 
 first contains 6000 verses, the others surpassing during the space of twenty-three years, as the 
 this number by 200 or 236 verses ; but the exigency of affairs required ; giving him, how 
 number of words and letters is the same in all, ever, the consolation to show him the whole, 
 viz. 77.639 words, and 323,015 letters. The which they tell us was bound in silk, and adorned 
 following are the most beautiful manuscript with gold and precious stones of paradise, once 
 copies found in Europe. One, supposed to have a year; but in the last year of his life he had the 
 been used by Solyman the Great, in the Museum favour to see it twice. They say, that only ten 
 Kircherianum, at Rome ; one in the library of chapters were delivered entire, the rest being 
 Christiana of Sweden ; one in the Imperial revealed piecemeal, and written down from time 
 library at Vienna ; one, with a commentary, by to time by the prophet's amanuensis, in such 
 Abi Saidi Rades, obtained among the spoils at a part of such and such a chapter, till they were 
 the defeat of the Turks, in 1683, by George, completed, according to the directions of the 
 elector of Saxony. The first edition of the whole angel. The first parcel that was revealed, is 
 in Arabic, was published at Venice, in 1530, by generally agreed to have been the first five verses 
 Paganinus of Brescia, which was burnt by of the ninety-sixth chapter. In fine, the book 
 order of the pope. Afterwards, in 1684, it was of the Alcoran is held in the highest esteem and 
 printed at Hamburgh. In 1698, the original, reverence among the Mussulmans. They dare 
 with A Latin version, and a partial confutation, not so much as touch it, without being 
 was published at Padua, by Father Lewis Ma- 
 racci, by desire of pope Innocent XI. An edition 
 of the Arabic, with Scholia, was printed in folio, 
 at Petersburg!!, by the empress Catharine, 'with 
 a studious imitation of a manuscript character, 
 in order to meet the prejudices of her Mahom- 
 medan subjects. The first Latin version by a 
 Christian was in 1143, when an Englishman, 
 with the aid of Hermannus Dalmata, performed 
 the task. In 1550, it was published by Bib- 
 liande, and, about the close of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, was translated into the Arragonian language 
 by Johannes Andreas, a convert from the Ma- 
 hommedan faith. Reineccius published an edition 
 of Maracci's translation, with notes, at Leipsic 
 
 not so much as touch it, without 
 first washed, or legally purified; to prevent 
 which, an inscription is put on the cover or label, 
 ' Let none touch but they who are clean.' Some 
 Mahommedan sects, however, do not admit the 
 Koran to be uncreated, and accuse the main- 
 tainers of this doctrine of infidelity, as asserting 
 two eternal beings. This was particularly the 
 case with the sect called the Motazalites, and 
 the followers of Isa Ebn Sobeh Abu Musa, sur- 
 named Al Mozdar. It is nevertheless read with 
 great care and respect ; being never held below 
 the girdle. They swear by it ; take omens from 
 it on all weighty occasions ; cany it with them 
 to war : write sentences of it in their banners ; 
 adorn it with gold and precious stones; and, 
 
 in 1721. Sale's well-known translation was knowingly, suffer it not to be in the possession of 
 published in London, in 1734 ; a German trans- any of a different religion. Some say that it is 
 lation, by Boysen, at Halle, in 1773, and a punishable even with death, in a Christian, to 
 French one, by Savary, at Paris, 1782. The touch it; others, that the veneration of the Mus- 
 number of commentaries on the Alcoran is so sulmans leads them to condemn the translating 
 large, that the bare titles would make a huge it into any other language, as a profanation : but 
 volume. Ben Oschair has written the history of these seem to be exaggerations. The Mahom- 
 them, entitled, Tarikh B<jn Oschair. The prin- medans have taken care to have their scripture 
 cipal among them are, Reidhaori, Thaalebi, Za- translated into the Persian, the Javan, the Ma- 
 malchschari, and Bacai. The Mahommedans layan, and other languages ; though, out of res- 
 have a positive theology, built on the Alcoran pect to the original, these versions are generally, 
 and tradition ; as well as a scholastical one, built if not always, interlineated. 
 on reason. They have likewise their casuists, With regard to that most prominent feature o 
 and a kind of canon law ; wherein they distin- the Koran, and which its admirers have ever re- 
 guish between what is of divine, and what of presented as its grand excellence, the inculcation 
 positive right. They have also their beneficiaries, of the worship of the one God, as a being ot 
 chaplains, almoners, and canons, who read a infinite perfection and glory, it might easily b< 
 chapter every day out of the Alcoran, in the shewn, that whatever accurate descriptions an 
 mosques ; and have prebends annexed to their given of his attributes, they were borrowed Iron 
 office. The hatib of the mosque is what we call the Christian Scriptures : nor can it 
 the parson of the parish ; and the scheics are the that they should be primarily communica 
 preachers, who take their texts out of the Al- the pretended prophet of Arabia, amidst su 
 coran. a mass of contradiction and absurdity. As 1 
 
 It is the general belief among the Mahomme- other representations, such especially as relate 
 
 dans, that the Koran is of divine original ; nay, to paradise, nothing can be more cor 
 
 that it is eternal and uncreated ; remaining as contrast than the Holy Scriptures and m 
 
 some express it, the very essence of God; that hommedan Bible. The former exhibits to the
 
 488 
 
 ALCORAN. 
 
 view of mortals a scene replenished with felicity, 
 but felicity of the purest kind, such as sanctified 
 spirits may be expected to relish, and such as a 
 holy God might be believed to communicate ; 
 whereas the paradise of the Koran is neither 
 moral nor rational. It is neither more nor less 
 than an abode of selfishness and sensuality 
 degrading, instead of elevating to the pure and 
 Infinite Spirit, and mean and sordid in all its 
 arrangements. 
 
 The Koran, thus ill sustaining its own claims 
 to inspiration, studiously acknowledges the mis- 
 sions both of Moses and Christ, though it 
 charges their disciples with corrupting the Scrip- 
 tures of each dispensation. Jesus is allowed to 
 be the true Messias, and a worker of miracles, 
 but his crucifixion is denied, the traitor Judas, 
 it is asserted, being changed into his likeness, 
 and put to death in his stead. Every circum- 
 stance, indeed, connected with the histories of 
 the Holy Scriptures, is either distort'.;: or blended 
 with the fictions of Rabbinical tradition, or with 
 spurious gospels. Its doctrinal principles are 
 borrowed frequently from the Arianism of the 
 Arabian Christians, and the notions of the Per- 
 sian magi. 
 
 The author of the 'View of Christianity anctMa- 
 hommedanism,' observes, that by the advocates 
 of Mahommedanism, the Koran has always been 
 held forth as the greatest of miracles, and equally 
 stupendous with the act of raising the dead. The 
 miracles of Moses and Jesus, they say, were 
 transient and temporary ; but that of the Koran 
 is permanent and perpetual ; and, therefore, far 
 surpasses all the miraculous events of preceding 
 ages. We will not detract from the real merit 
 of the Koran : we allow it to be generally elegant 
 and often sublime : but at the same time WP re- 
 ject with disdain its arrogant pretence to any 
 thing supernatural ; all the real excellence of the 
 work being easily referrible to natural and visi- 
 ble causes. In the language of Arabia, a lan- 
 guage extremely loved and diligently cultivated 
 by the people to whom it was vernacular, Ma- 
 homet found advantages which were never en- 
 joyed by any former or succeeding impostor. It 
 requires not the eye t>f a philosopher to discover in 
 every soil and country a principle of national 
 pride : and if we look back for many ages on 
 the history of the Arabians, we shall easily per- 
 ceive that pride, among them, invariably to have 
 consisted in the knowledge and improvement of 
 their native language. The Arabic, which has 
 been justly esteemed the most copious of the 
 Eastern tongues ; which had existed from the re- 
 motest antiquity ; which had been embellished 
 by numberless poets, and refined by the con- 
 stant exercise of the natives ; was the most suc- 
 cessful instrument which Mahomet employed in 
 planting his new religion among them. Admi- 
 rably adapted by its unrivalled harmony, and by 
 its endless variety to add painting to expression, 
 and to pursue the imagination in its unbounded 
 flight, it became in the hands of Mahomet an 
 irresistible charm to blind the judgment, and to 
 captivate the fancy of his followers. Of that 
 description of men, who first composed the ad- 
 nerents of Mahomet, and to whom the Koran 
 was addressed, few, probably, were able to. pass 
 
 a very accurate judgment on the propriety of the 
 sentiments, or on the beauty of the diction : but 
 all could judge of the military abilities of their 
 leader ; and in the midst of their admiration it 
 is not difficult to conceive, that they would 
 ascribe to his compositions every imaginary 
 beauty of inspired language. The shepherd and 
 the soldier, though awake to the charms of those 
 wild 'but beautiful compositions, in which were 
 celebrated their favourite occupations of love or 
 war, yet were little able to criticise any other 
 works than those which were addressed to their 
 imagination or their heart. To abstract reason- 
 ings on the attributes and the dispensations of 
 the Deity, to the comparative excellencies of 
 rival religions, to the consistency of any one re- 
 ligious system in all its parts, and to the force of 
 its various proofs, they were quite inattentive. 
 In such a situation, the appearance of a work, 
 which possessed something like wisdom and con- 
 sistency ; which prescribed the rules, and illus- 
 trated the duties of life ; and which contained 
 the principles of a new and comparatively sub- 
 lime theology, independently of its real and 
 permanent merit, was likely to excite their asto- 
 nishment, and to become the standard of future 
 composition. In the first periods of the literature 
 of every country, something of this kind has hap- 
 pened. The father of Grecian poetry very obvi- 
 ously influenced the taste and imitation of his 
 country. The modern nations of Europe all pos- 
 sess some original author, who, rising from the 
 darkness of former ages, has begun the career of 
 composition, and tinctured with the character 
 of his own imagination the stream which has 
 flowed through his posterity. But the prophet 
 of Arabia had, in this respect, advantages pecu- 
 liar to himself. His compositions were not to 
 his followers the works of man, but the genuine 
 language of Heaven, which had sent him. They 
 were not confined therefore to that admiration, 
 which is so liberally bestowed on the earliest 
 productions of genius, or to that fond attachment, 
 with which men every where regard the original 
 compositions of their country ; but with their 
 admiration they blended their piety. To know 
 and to feel the beauties of the Koran, was in 
 some respect to share in the temper of heaven ; 
 and he who was most affected with admiration 
 in the perusal of its beauties, seemed fitly the 
 object of that mercy which had given it to igno- 
 rant man. The Koran, therefore, became na- 
 turally and necessarily the standard of taste. 
 With a language thus hallowed in their imagi- 
 nations, they were too well satisfied, either to 
 dispute its elegance or improve its structure. lu 
 succeeding ages, the additional sanction of an- 
 tiquity, or prescription, was given to these com- 
 positions which their fathers had admired ; and, 
 while the belief of its divine original continues, 
 that admiration, which has thus become the test 
 and the duty of the faithful, can neither be al- 
 tered nor diminished. When, therefore, we con- 
 sider these peculiar advantages of the Koran, 
 we have no reason to be surprised at the admi- 
 ration in which it is held. But if, descending to 
 a more minute investigation of it, we consider 
 its perpetual inconsistence and absurdity, we 
 shall indeed have cause for astonishment at that
 
 A L C O R A N. 
 
 489 
 
 weakness of humanity, which could ever have 
 icceived such compositions as the work of the 
 Deity. 
 
 'The first praise of all the productions of 
 genius, (continues this author) is invention : that 
 quality of the mind, which, by the extent and 
 quickness of its views, is capable of the largest 
 conceptions, and of forming new combinations 
 of objects the most distant and unusual. But the 
 Koran bears little impression of this transcendent 
 character. Its materials are wholly borrowed 
 from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, from 
 the Talmudical legends and apocryphal gospels 
 then current in the east, and from the traditions 
 and fables which abounded in Arabia. The ma- 
 terials collected from these several sources are 
 here heaped together, with perpetual and need- 
 less repetitions, without any- settled principle or 
 visible connection. When a great part of the life 
 of Mahomet Jiad been spent in preparatory me- 
 ditation on the system he was about to. establish, 
 its chapters were dealt out slowly and separately 
 during the long period of twenty-three years. 
 Yet thus defective in its structure, and no less 
 exceptionable in its doctrines, was the work 
 which Mahomet delivered to his followers as the 
 oracles of God. The most prominent feature of 
 the Koran, that point of excellence in which the 
 partiality of its admirers has ever delighted to 
 view it, is the sublime notion it generally im- 
 presses of the nature and attributes of God. If 
 its author had really derived these just concep- 
 tions from the inspiration of that Being whom 
 they attempt to describe, they would not have 
 been surrounded, as they now are on every side, 
 with error and absurdity. But it might easily 
 be proved, that whatever it justly defines of the 
 divine attributes, was borrowed from our holy 
 I Scripture ; which even from its first promulga- 
 ( tion, but especially from the completion of the 
 ; New Testament, has extended the views, and 
 enlightened the understandings of mankind ; and 
 thus furnished them with arms, which have too 
 often been ineffectually turned against itself by 
 its ungenerous enemies. In this instance particu- 
 . larly, the copy is far below the great original, 
 . botli in the propriety of its images, and the force 
 
 I of its descriptions.' 
 
 As a specimen of the Alcoran, we may take the 
 opening passages, which are solemn and imposing: 
 ' In the name of the most merciful God ! Praise 
 be to God, the Lord of all creatures : the most 
 merciful : the King of the day of judgment. 
 Thee do we worship, and of thee do we beg as- 
 sistance. Direct us in the right way ; in the way 
 of those to whom thou hast been gracious ; not 
 of those against whom thou art incensed, nor of 
 those who go astray.' This is the first chapter, 
 
 I I and is entitled the preface, or introduction, re- 
 | vealed at Mecca. In Arabic it is called Al 
 I Ffetibat, and is esteemed the quintessence of the 
 J whole Koran, the Mahommedans often repeating 
 | it in their devotions, both public and private, as 
 I Christians do the Lord's prayer. One or two 
 I other specimens will serve to convey to the reader 
 
 - some general idea of this volume. ' Now hath 
 
 God in truth verified unto his apostle the vision 
 
 '\ (or dream which Mahomet had at Medina,) 
 
 H wherein he said ye shall surely enter the holy 
 
 temple of Mecca, if God please, in full security ; 
 having your heads shaved and your hair cut ; ye 
 shall not fear ; for God knoweth that which ye 
 know not ; and he hath appointed you, besides 
 this, a speedy victory. It is he who hath sent 
 his apostle with the direction, and the religion of 
 truth ; that he may exalt the same above every 
 religion ; and God is a sufficient witness hereof. 
 Mahomet is the apostle of God, and those who 
 are with him are fierce against the unbelievers, 
 but compassionate towards one another. Thou 
 mayest see them bowing down prostrate, seeking 
 a recompence from God and his good will. 
 Their signs are in their faces, being marks of 
 frequent prostration. This is their description 
 in the Pentateuch, and their description in the 
 gospel : they are as seed which putteth forth its 
 stalk and strengtheneth it, and swelleth in the 
 ear and riseth upon its stem, giving delight unto 
 the sower. Such are the Moslems described to 
 be, that the infidels may swell with indignation 
 at them. God hath promised unto such of them 
 as believe, and do good works, pardon and a 
 great reward.' Ch. xlviii. 
 
 The following is one of the smaller sections 
 (ch. Ixxii) entire, 
 
 ' Entitled, the Genii ; revealed at Mecca. 
 * In the name of the Most Merciful God, 
 
 ' Say, it hath been revealed unto me, that a 
 company of genii attentively heard me reading 
 the Koran, and said, verily we have heard an 
 admirable discourse, which directeth unto the 
 right institution ; wherefore we believe therein, 
 and we will by no means associate any other 
 with our Lord. He (may the majesty of our 
 Lord be exalted !) hath taken no wife, nor hath 
 he begotten any issue ; yet the foolish among us 
 have spoken that which is extremely false of 
 God : but we verily thought that neither man 
 nor genius would by any means have uttered a 
 lie concerning God And there are certain men 
 who fly for refuge unto certain of the genii ; but 
 they increase their folly and transgression ; and 
 they also thought as ye thought, that God would 
 not" raise any one to life. And we formerly at- 
 tempted to pry into what was transacting in 
 heaven; but we found the same filled with a 
 strong guard of angels, and with flaming darts ; 
 and we sat on some of the seats thereof, to hear 
 the discourse of its inhabitants: but whoever 
 listeneth now, findeth a flame laid in ambush for 
 him, to guard the celestial confines. And we 
 know not whether evil be hereby intended against 
 those who are on the earth, or whether their 
 Lord intendeth to direct them aright. There are 
 some among us who are upright; and there are 
 some among us who are otherwise. We are of 
 different ways. And we verily thought that we 
 could by no means frustrate God in the earth ; 
 neither could we escape him by flight : where- 
 fore, when we had heard the direction contained 
 in the Koran, we believed therein. And whoever 
 believeth in his Lord, ne"ed not fear any diminu 
 tion of his reward, nor any injustice. There are 
 some Moslems among us ; and there are others of 
 us who swerve from righteousness. And whoso 
 embraced! Islam, they earnestly seek true dircc-
 
 A L C O H A 
 
 tion : but those who swerve from righteousness 
 shall be fuel for hell. If they tread in the way 
 of truth, we will surely water them with abun- 
 dant rain, that we may prove them thereby ; but 
 whoso turneth aside from the admonition of his 
 Lord, him will he send into a severe torment. 
 Verily the places of worship are set apart unto 
 God ; wherefore invoke not any other therein 
 together with God. When the servant of God 
 stood up to invoke him, it wanted little but that 
 the genii had pressed on him in crowds, to hear 
 him rehearse the Koran. Say, verily I call upon 
 my Lord only, and I associate no other God with 
 him. Say, verily I am not able, of myself, to 
 procure you either hurt or a right institution. 
 Say, verily none can protect me against God ; 
 neither shall I find any refuge besides him. I can 
 do no more than publish what hath been revealed 
 unto me from God, and his messages. And 
 whosoever shall be disobedient unto God and 
 his apostle, for him is the fire of hell prepared; 
 they shall remain therein for ever. Until they 
 see the vengeance with which they are threatened, 
 they will not cease their opposition ; but then 
 shall they know who were the weaker in a pro- 
 tector and the fewer in number. Say, I know 
 not whether the punishment with which ye are 
 threatened be nigh, or whether my Lord will 
 appoint for it a distant term. He knoweth the 
 secrets of futurity ; and he doth not communi- 
 cate his secrets unto any, except an apostle in 
 whom he is well pleased : and he causeth a guard 
 of angels to march before him and behind him, 
 that he may know that they have executed the 
 commission of their Lord : he comprehendeth 
 whatever is with them, and counteth all things 
 by number.' 
 
 * Our holy Scriptures, continues our author, are 
 the only compositions that can enable the dim sight 
 of mortality to penetrate into the invisible world, 
 and to behold a glimpse of the divine perfections. 
 Accordingly, when they would represent to us the 
 happiness of heaven, they describe it, not by any 
 thing minute and particular, but by something 
 general and great ; something, that, without de- 
 scending to any determinate object, may at once 
 by its beauty and immensity, excite our wishes 
 and elevate our affections. Though in the pro- 
 phetical and evangelical writings, the joys that 
 shall attend us in a future state, are often men- 
 tioned with ardent admiration, they are expressed 
 rather by allusion than by similitude, rather by 
 indefinite and figurative terms, than by any thing 
 fixed and determinate. Eye hath not seen, nor 
 ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
 man, the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him.' 1 Cor. ii. 9. What a re- 
 verence and astonishment does this passage ex- 
 cite in every hearer of taste and piety ! What 
 energy, and at the same time what simplicity, 
 in the expression ! How sublime, and at the 
 same time how obscure, is the imagery ! Dif- 
 ferent was the conduct of Mahomet in his des- 
 criptions of heaven and paradise. Unassisted by 
 the necessary influence of virtuous intentions 
 and Divine inspiration, he was neither desirous, 
 nor indeed able, to exalt the minds of men to 
 sublime conceptions, or to rational expectations. 
 By attempting to explain what is inconceivable, 
 
 to describe what is ineffable, and to materialize j 
 what in itself is spiritual, he absurdly and im- | 
 piously aimed to sensualize the purity of the j 
 Divine essence. Thus he fabricated a system of I 
 incoherence, a religion of depravity, totally re- ] 
 pugnant to the nature of that Being, who, as he : 
 pretended, was its object ; but therefore more 
 likely to accord with the appetites and concep- j 
 tions of a corrupt and sensual age. That we | 
 may not appear to exalt our Scriptures thus far i 
 above the Koran by an unreasonable preference, 
 we shall produce a part of the second chapter 1 
 of the latter, which is deservedly admired by the 
 Mahommedans, who wear it engraved on their 
 ornaments, and recite it in their prayers. 'God! 
 there is no God but he ; the living, the self-sub- 
 sisting : neither slumber nor sleep seizeth him : 
 to him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven, and 
 on earth. Who is he that can intercede with him 
 but through his good pleasure He knoweth 
 that which is past, and that which is to come. 
 His throne is extended over heaven and earth, 
 and the preservation of both is to him no burden. 
 He is the high, the mighty.' Sale's Koran, ii. 
 p. 30. To this description who can refuse the 
 praise of magnificence. Part of that magnifi- 
 cence, however, is to be referred to that verse of 
 the Psalmist, whence it was borrowed, ' He that 
 keepeth Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep.' 
 Psal. cxxi. 4. But if we compare it with that 
 other passage of the inspired Psalmist, cii. 
 24 27, all its boasted grandeur is at once ob- 
 scured, and lost in the blaze of a greater light. 
 * O my God, take me not away in the midst of 
 my days ; thy years are throughout all genera- 
 tions. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of 
 the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy 
 hands. They shall perish, but thou shall en- 
 dure ; yea all of them shall wax old, like a gar- 
 ment ; as a vesture shall thou change them, and 
 they shall be changed. But thou art the same, 
 and thy years shall have no end.' The Koran, 
 therefore, upon a fair examination, far from sup- 
 porting its arrogant claim to a supernatural work, 
 sinks below the level of many compositions 
 confessedly of human original ; and still lower 
 does it fall in our estimation, when compared 
 with that pure and perfect pattern, which we 
 justly admire in the Scriptures of truth. It is 
 therefore abundantly apparent, that no miracle 
 either was externally performed for the support, 
 or is internally involved in the composition of 
 the Mahommedan revelation.' 
 
 ALCORAN, used figuratively, is applied to cer- 
 tain other books full of impieties and impos- 
 tures. In this sense we meet with the Alcoran 
 of the Cordeliers, which has made a great noise ; 
 wherein St. Francis is extravagantly magnified 
 and put on a level with Jesus Christ. The Al-l 
 coran of the Cordeliers is properly an extract of 
 a very scarce book, entitled, The Conformity of 
 the Life of the Seraphic Father Francis, with the 
 Life of Christ, published in 1510, 4to; since, at 
 Bologna, in folio. Erasmus Albertus, being, by j 
 the elector of Brandenburg, appointed to visit 
 a monastery of Franciscans, found this book ; 
 and, being struck with the extreme absurdity of 
 it, collected a number of curiosities out of it, 
 and published them under the title of the Al-
 
 Moravites, a sort of priests, repeat prayers from 
 the Koran thrice a day, with a very loud voice; 
 making the tour of the gallery all the while, that 
 they may be the better heard around. Like the 
 minarets of the Turks, these are the principal 
 ornaments of the Mosques. 
 
 ALCORANISTS, among Mahommedans,those 
 who adhere strictly to the letter or text of the 
 Alcoran, from an opinion of its ultimate sufficiency 
 and perfection. The Persians are generally 
 Alcoranists. The Turks, Tartars, Arabs, &c. 
 besides the Alcoran, admit a multitude of tra- 
 ditions. 
 
 AL'COVE, Spanish, alcoba; Danish, alkove; 
 from the Arabic, alkobba : an arched or vaulted 
 apartment, containing a bed of state, or seats for 
 company : also a shady recess in gardens or 
 pleasure grounds. 
 
 The weary 'd champion lull'd in soft alcoves, 
 
 The noblest boast of thy romantic groves : 
 
 Oft, if the muse presage, shall he be seen 
 
 By Rosamonda fleeting o'er the green ; 
 
 In dreams be hail'd by heroes' mighty shades, 
 
 And hear old Chaucer warble through the glades. 
 
 Tichell. 
 
 Deep in a rich alcove the prince was laid, 
 And slept beneath the pompous colonnade. 
 
 Pope's Odyssey 
 
 On mossy banks, beneath the citron grove, 
 The youthful wand'rers found a wild alcove. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 This gloomy alcove darkling to the sight, 
 Where meeting trees create eternal night; 
 Save when from yonder stream the sunny ray, 
 Reflected gives a dubious gleam of day. 
 
 Kirhe White's Poems. 
 
 ALCOVE, in architecture, the recess or part of 
 a chamber which is generally appropriated in 
 magnificent houses to the state-bed. See the 
 above lines of Pope. The word was adopted by 
 the Spanish architects from the Arabic el-kauf, 
 which bears the same meaning. But more an- 
 cient architects often made alcoves in the form 
 of a niche, as in the ruins of Hadrian's villa, 
 those of Trajan's villa, at Pompeii, atTrivoli, &c. 
 The alcove of modern times is susceptible of 
 great magnificence and elegance. It may be 
 raised above the other part of the chamber and 
 approached by steps, separated by columns, antae 
 and balusters, agreeing with the architecture of 
 the apartments, and with dwarf doors in the 
 balustrade for entrance. The interior may be 
 embellished with basso-relievo,panelling,pictures, 
 and tapestry, with a magnificent state bed, or 
 throne, to complete the arrangement. If for a 
 bed-chamber, at the sides of the alcove should be 
 warm and cold baths, dressing and water-closets, 
 &c. according to the magnificence of the man- 
 sion, and the rank and opulence of the owner ; 
 such are found .in the palaces of Italy, and the 
 mansions of the nobility in France and Spain. 
 The alcove, of course, should correspond in every 
 respect with the style of architecture and decora- 
 tion used in the apartment. 
 
 ALCOVENDAS, a small town of Old Cas- 
 tile. 
 
 ALCOVES, from elcauf, Arab, a sleeping 
 
 place, or elcoba, a tent, are frequent in Spain ; 
 and the bed is raised two or three ascents, with a 
 rail at the foot. The word is often used for in- 
 closed garden seats. 
 
 ALCOY, a town of Spain, in the province of 
 Valencia, with flourishing manufactures of cloth, 
 soap, and paper ; fruitful environs, and nearly 
 10,000 inhabitants. Twenty miles north of Ali- 
 cante. 
 
 ALCUDIA, a decayed city of the island of 
 Majorca, situated between Port Major and Port 
 Minor, and containing about 1000 inhabitants. 
 Lon. 3. 0'. E. Lat. 30. 50'. N. 
 
 ALCUDIA DE CARLET, a town of Valencia, 
 Spain, with about 2000 inhabitants, a parochial 
 church, and a convent of Franciscans. It is five 
 leagues south of the capital of the province. 
 
 ALCUINUS, (Flaccus,) or ALBINUS, an eccle- 
 siastic of the eighth century, who is said to have 
 been born in Yorkshire, and who certainly was 
 educated there, under archbishop Egbert; as we 
 learn from his own letters, in which he frequently 
 calls that prelate his beloved master. He sur- 
 vived Bede about seventy years, and speaks of 
 him with the highest veneration. It is said, that 
 before he left England he was .abbot of Canter- 
 bury. In 790 he was sent on an embassy, by 
 Offa, king of Mercia, to the emperor Charle- 
 magne : who contracted so great an esteem for 
 him, that he prevailed upon him to settle in his 
 court, and become his preceptor in the sciences. 
 The courtiers called him, by way of eminence, 
 the emperor's delight. Mr. Turner, in his ex- 
 cellent history of the Anglo-Saxons, speaks of 
 him at this period, as in the enjoyment of im- 
 perial affection and confidence, to a degree 
 which literature has never experienced in any 
 other instance. Charlemagne employed him to 
 write several books against the heretical opinions 
 of Felix, bishop of Urgel, in Catalonia, and to 
 defend the orthodox faith against him in the 
 council of Frankfort, A. D. 794 ; which he per- 
 formed, it is said, not only to the satisfaction of 
 the emperor, but to the conviction of Felix and 
 his followers. An academy was established in 
 the imperial palace, over which Alcuinus pre- 
 sided, and in which the princes and nobility were 
 educated ; other academies were established in 
 the chief towns of Italy and France, at his insti- 
 gation, and under his inspection ; and the whole 
 of that kingdom became indebted to Alcuinus 
 for its polite learning. The universities of Paris, 
 Tours, Fulden, Soissons, &c. owe to him their 
 origin or their increase ; those of which he was 
 not the superior and founder, being enlightened 
 by his doctrine and example, and enriched by 
 the substantial benefits he procured for them from 
 Charlemagne. Camden cites a German poet 
 who thus speaks of these philanthropic services 
 of Alcuiiius :
 
 ' Quid non Alcuino, facunda Lutetia, debes ! 
 Instaurare bonas ibi qui feliciter artes, 
 Barba-riemque procul solus depellere, cspit.' 
 Let Gallia's sons, nurtur'd in ancient lore, 
 To Alcuin's name a grateful tribute pay ; 
 'Twas his, the light of science to restore, 
 And bid Barbaric darkness flee away.' 
 We cannot forbear to subjoin an extract from 
 this excellent prelate's letters to Charlemagne, 
 exhibiting a picture of his mind and .occupations, 
 as creditable to himself as it is interesting and 
 surprising, in so dark an age. They are dated 
 from his beloved retreat. ' The employments 
 of your Alcuinus in his retreat are suited to his 
 humble sphere ; but they are neither inglorious 
 nor unprofitable. I spend my time in the halls 
 of St. Martin, in teaching some of the noble 
 youths under my care the intricacies of grammar, 
 and inspiring them with a taste for the learning 
 of the ancients ; in describing to others the order 
 and revolutions of those shining orbs, which 
 adorn the azure vault of heaven ; and in ex- 
 plaining to others the mysteries of divine wis- 
 dom, which are contained in the holy scriptures ; 
 suiting my instructions to the views and capacities 
 of my scholars, that I may train up many to be 
 ornaments to the church of God, and to the court 
 of your imperial majesty.' 
 
 To the honour of old England he continues, 
 ' In doing this, I find a great want of several 
 things, particularly of those excellent books in 
 all arts and sciences, which I enjoyed in my na- 
 tive country, through the expense and care of my 
 great master Egbert. May it therefore please 
 your majesty, animated with the most ardent love 
 of learning, to permit me to send some of our 
 young gentlemen into England, to procure for us 
 those books which we want, and transplant the 
 flowers of Britain into France, that their fragrance 
 may no longer be confined to York, but may per- 
 fume the palaces of Tours. I need not put your 
 majesty in mind, how earnestly we are exhorted 
 in the holy scriptures to the pursuit of wisdom. 
 Learning and wisdom exalt the low, and give 
 additional lustre to the honours of the great. 
 ' By wisdom kings reign, and princes decree 
 justice.' Cease not, then, O most gracious king! 
 to press the young nobility of your court to the 
 eager pursuit of wisdom and learning in their 
 youth, that they may attain to an honourable old 
 age, and a blessed immortality. For my own 
 part, I will never cease, according to my abilities, 
 to sow the seeds of learning in the minds of your 
 subjects in these parts ; mindful of the saying of 
 the wisest man, ' In the morning sow thy seed, 
 and in the evening withhold not thine hand ; for 
 thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either 
 this or that.' To do this hath been the most 
 delightful employment of my whole life. In my 
 youthful years I sowed the seeds of learning in 
 the flourishing seminaries of my native soil of 
 Britain ; and in my old age, I am doing the same 
 in France, praying to God, that they may spring 
 up and flourish in both countries.' ' How few 
 princes,' says Henry, 'enjoy the happiness of 
 such a correspondence, or have the wisdom and 
 virtue to encourage it !' 
 
 At length he wholly retired from court to his ab- 
 tey of St. Martin's at Tours, where he maintained 
 
 ALC 
 
 a regular correspondence with the emperor ; from 
 which it weuld seem that both were animated 
 with the most ardent love to learning and reli- 
 gion. He wrote in a style much superior in 
 elegance to that of his contemporaries. Charle- 
 magne often solicited Alcuin to return to court, 
 but, 'he excused himself; and died A. D. 804, in 
 his retirement. His works were collected and 
 published, by Andrew DuChesne, in one volume 
 folio, Paris 1617. They consist of, 1. Tracts upon 
 Scripture doctrine, discipline, and morality. 2. 
 Historical treatises, letters, poems, &c. 
 
 ALCYON, in ornithology, the trivial name of 
 a species of alcedo. See AI.CEDO. 
 
 ALCYONE, in entomology, a species of the 
 papilio nymphalis, with dentated brown wings 
 and yellow bands, the interior having two oscilli 
 on both sides, and the posterior marbled below ; 
 it is found in the mountains of the southern parts 
 of Russia. 
 
 ALCYONE, a town in Thessaly. 
 
 ALCYONE, in mythology, the daughter of Nep- 
 tune, and wife of Ceyx, king of Thrace, who 
 hearing of her husband's death at sea, cast herself 
 into it, whereupon they were both metamor- 
 phosed into kingsfishers. 
 
 ALCYONIUM, in natural history, a peculiar 
 kind of fossil coral of the astroites kind, found in 
 Wales, where it is very plentiful, and has the 
 appearance of a sort of marble. 
 
 ALCYONIUM, in the Linnsean system of 
 zoology, a genus of zoophytes ; the characters of 
 which are, that the animal grows in the form 
 of a plant : the stem or root being fixed, fleshy, 
 gelatinous, spongy, or coriaceous; with a cellular 
 epidermis, penetrated with stellated pores, and 
 shooting out tentaculated oviparous hydrae. The 
 number of species, mentioned and characterized 
 byGmelin, is twenty-eight ; viz. 1 . A. arboreum, 
 with woody stem, obtuse branches, and pores in 
 the form of pimples, found in Norway, White, 
 and Indian seas, sometimes of the human height. 
 2. A. exos, with stem arborescent, coriaceous, 
 crimson-coloured, above ramous, and with stel- 
 lated papillae; called by several authors the sea- 
 hand, and found at the bottom of the Mediter- 
 ranean sea. 3. A. epipatrum, with stem cavated, 
 fleshy, and reddish : the finger-shaped sea-pen 
 of Ellis, and sea mad-apple of Rondeletius, 
 found in the Mediterranean, about four inches 
 long, and of the thickness of the finger. 4. A. 
 agaricum, with stem filiform, and reniform ; 
 pileus kidney-shaped, purple, sea-pen of Ellis, 
 found in the sea, washing the coast of Carolina. 
 
 5. A. digitatum, stemless, oblong, coriaceous, 
 and rugose ; dead-man's hand, or dead-man's 
 toes of Ellis ; the tethya of Rumphius, and fucus 
 palma marinus of C. Bauhin, found in the Eu- 
 ropean sea, encrusting testaceous fish and stones. 
 
 6. A. schlosseri, roundish and stupose, pene- 
 trated with ray-like stars ; the alcyonium ramosum 
 lividum, &c. of Solander and Ellis, the uva 
 marina of Gesner, the botryllus stellatus of 
 Gartner, found on the coast of Cornwall, brown 
 or ashy, and covering other bodies. 7. A. lyn- 
 curium, globose, fibrous, yellow and warty ; the 
 tethya sphamca of Donat, found in the Mediter- 
 ranean, and at the Cape of Good Hope, about 
 the size of an orange, and cartilaginous. 8. A.
 
 493 
 
 ALD 
 
 bursa, sub-globose, pulpous and green ; the sea- 
 orange of Marsilli, found in the English and 
 Mediterranean seas, about the size of a middling 
 apple, and coriaceous. 9. A. cydonium, round- 
 ish, spongy, yellow and smooth ; found in the 
 African, Mediterranean, and Northern seas, af- 
 fixed to rocks and corals, and sometimes loosened 
 by the agitation of the waves. 10. A. ficus, 
 obovated, pulpous and livid ; the sea-fig of Ellis, 
 and sea-lungs of Ray, the alcyonhun tuberosunv 
 of J. Bauhin, found in the Mediterranean and 
 English seas, very rarely among fossils, of an 
 olive colour, and within granulose. 11. A ge- 
 latinosum, polymorphous and gelatinous ; the 
 alcyonium luteum gelatinosum polymorphum of 
 Solander and Ellis, spongia ramosa, &c. of Par- 
 kinson, fucus gelatinosus of Hudson, and fucus 
 nodosus and spongiosus of Ray, found in the 
 European ocean and the Icy sea, adhering to the 
 algae, stones, shell-fish, &c. 12. A. manus 
 diaboli, polymorphous, perforated with obtuse 
 protuberances, found in Iceland. 13. A. massa, 
 yellow, spongy, patulous, with five radiated 
 small stars, and black centre, found in the sea of 
 Norway. 14. A. cranium, tuberiform, white 
 and bristly, found in the Norway sea. 15. A. 
 rubrum, crustaceous, soft, sprinkled with reddish 
 scattered spots, found in the Norway sea. 16. 
 A. mammillosum, whitish, coriaceous, with con- 
 vex mammillae, and the centre hollowed and 
 substellated, found in the American sea. 17. 
 A. ocellatum, ferruginous, coriaceous, with 
 rugose subcylindric cellules, and radiated ocel- 
 lated apices, found adhering to rocks, with 
 twelve rays of stars, in the island of St. Dominica. 
 18. A. tuberosum, yellowish and tuberous, with 
 the apices frequently subdivided, and tubulous 
 pores, found adhering to rocks in the island of 
 Mauritius. 19. A. gorgonoides T cinereous, 
 sandy-fleshy, with radiated watery cellules, 
 found, with twelve rays of cellules, adhering to 
 corals and rocks, in the island of Curassoa. 
 
 20. A. asbestinum, with a roundish stem, and 
 oblong pores scattered over every part of it, 
 found in the sea washing the American coast, 
 very porous, whitish, and within rose-coloured. 
 
 21. A. alburnum, white, very ramous, attenuated 
 and subdivided, with tubulous terminal pores, 
 found in the Indian sea. 22. A. papillosum, 
 crustaceous, with large papillae thickly set, and 
 convex, the boletus marinus of Marsigli. 23. 
 A. conglomoratum, gelatinous, convex, with con- 
 glomerated fingers, and terminal mouths without 
 teeth, found in the Cornish seas. 24. A. as- 
 cidioides, crustaceous, coriaceous, with dispersed 
 papilla?, and two subdentated mouths, found in 
 the Cornish seas. 25. A. synoicum, with many 
 
 | cylindric fleshy stems, and an orifice stellated at 
 
 | the apex, found on the northern shore of Spitz- 
 
 : bergen. 26. A. vermiculare, green, ramous, 
 
 with cylindric, obtuse, pyramidal branches, found 
 
 on the' rocks of the island of Nisita, opposite to 
 
 Neapolis. 27. A. stellatum, with two stellated 
 
 terminal mouths. 28. A. corniculatum, with 
 
 : four stellated mouths, encompassing a papilla, 
 
 - and four small erect terminal horns, found in the 
 
 sea of Holland. From experiments made by 
 
 i Mr. Hatchett, on a few species of alcyonium, viz. 
 
 atbcstiuum, sicus, and arboreum, he was led to 
 
 conclude that they were all composed of a soft, 
 flexible, membranaceous substance, slightly 
 hardened by carbonate, mixed with a small por- 
 tion of phosphate of lime. Phil. Trans for 
 1800. P. ii. p. 364. 
 
 ALCYONIUM MARE, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, a name given to that part of the gulph of 
 Corinth, which stretched itself between the 
 western coast of Bceotia, the northern coast of 
 Megaris, and a small part of Corinth, as far as 
 the promontory of Olmia. 
 
 ALCYONIUM STAGNUM, in ancient geography, 
 a lake in the territory of Corinth, whose depth 
 was unfathomable, and in vain attempted to 
 be discovered by Nero. Through this lake 
 Bacchus is said to have descended to hell, to 
 bring back Semele ; and near it was a temple to 
 the honour of Amphiarus, a sorcerer 
 
 ALCYONIUS, (Peter,) a learned Italian 
 printer, who flourished in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. He was well verged in Greek and Latin, 
 and wrote some pieces which met with great ap- 
 probation. He was corrector of the press a 
 considerable time for Aldus Manutius, and is 
 entitled to a share in the praises given to the 
 editions of that learned printer. Paulus Manu- 
 tius charges Alcyonius with the plagiarism of 
 several fragments of a treatise of Cicero de Gloria ; 
 and that afterwards, m order to save himself 
 from being detected, he had burnt the manu- 
 script of Cicero, the only one extant. Be that 
 as it may, Alcyonius was certainly capable of 
 writing well : for the two orations he made 
 after the taking of Rome, wherein he represented 
 very strongly the injustice of Charles V. and the 
 barbarity of his soldiers, were excellent pieces. 
 
 ALD, from Eald, Sax. or alt, Teut. prefixed 
 to the names of places, signifies antiquity, as 
 Aldborough, Aldgate, &c. 
 
 ALDABARAM, in osteology, a name given 
 by some writers to the sesamoide bones in the 
 great toe. 
 
 ALDAN, a river of Siberia, which, rising 
 on the confines of China, in long. 125. E. lat. 
 55. 50'. N. ; and taking a north-east course to 
 lat. 63. N. changes its direction to west north- 
 west, and joins the Lena in long. 128. 20'. E. 
 lat. 63. 25'. N. On the banks of this river, 
 in the province of Yakutzk, the finest sables 
 are obtained. When the fiwt breaks up, about 
 the month of May, an inundation takes place, 
 and the stream drifts down vast masses of ice 
 with extraordinary impetuosity. 
 
 ALDARU, in botany, a name given by Avi- 
 cenna, Serapion, and other authors, to the 
 Lentisk tree. 
 
 AL'DAY. All day. 
 
 Withinne fyf-zer aftur pis kyng so prout bi com, 
 For pe grete tresour nameliehe pat healdaynom, 
 Dat he nas not ene y paid to habbe pis kyndom. 
 R. of Gloucester, p. 93. 
 
 ALDBOROUGH, or ALDEBURGH, a sea-port, 
 borough, and market-town of Suffolk, in the 
 hundred of Plomsgate, ninety-four miles from 
 London, and three miles north of Orford. Being 
 a commodious harbour, it is chiefly inhabited by 
 seamen and fishermen ; and, although meanly 
 built, is clean, and pleasantly situated in the 
 valley of Slaughton. The Aid, from which this
 
 ALD 
 
 town derives its name, runs on the south, and 
 forms an excellent quay. The harbour is well 
 defended by cannon, and the regular declivity of 
 the shore affords every convenience for bathing. 
 From the healthiness and convenience of the 
 situation, connected with the patronage of several 
 families of distinction, this place has of late 
 become one of considerable resort. The en- 
 croachments of the sea having swept away one 
 of the principal streets, Aldborough was until 
 lately, fast falling to decay, but is- now considera- 
 bly improved. The church on the west of the 
 town is ,a neat ancient edifice, although much 
 intermixed with modern work. The manor of 
 this name was originally the property of the 
 monastery of Snape, and was afterwards granted 
 to Cardinal Woolsey. It is governed by two 
 bailiffs, ten burgesses, and twenty-four petty 
 officers, and sends two members to parliament. 
 Sprats are caught here in great quantities, and 
 pickled for the Dutch market ; as are also soles, 
 lobsters, &c. The church is a rectory. Market- 
 days, Wednesday and Saturday. 
 
 ALDBOROUGII, a town in the West Riding of 
 Yorkshire, seated on the river Ouse, fifteen miles 
 north-west of York, and 207 north by west of Lon- 
 don. It sends two members to parliament. It 
 was anciently a Roman city, called Isurium Bri- 
 gantium ; and several coins and monuments of 
 the Saxons and Romans have been discovered 
 there. Few places have afforded such numerous 
 relics of the Roman dominion in Britain. Here 
 have been discovered the fragments of aqueducts 
 cut in great stones, and covered with tiles ; a 
 vault, which it is thought led to the river Ouse, 
 near whose banks the present town is seated, and 
 supposed to have been a dormitory; vast quan- 
 tities of Roman coins, mostly of brass, from the 
 reign of Augustus to Constantine - } together with 
 several signets, urns, and other utensils of red 
 earth, wrought with a variety of figures, knots, 
 and flowers. Some beautiful Mosaic pavement, 
 consisting of small stones, of about a quarter of 
 an inch square, with a border nearly four times 
 that size, were discovered in 1770 ; and in the 
 year 1808, a great number of urns, containing 
 calcined bones, with a lachrymatory, a fibula 
 vestaria, and eighteen human skeletons. These 
 remains, which, there is little doubt, had been in 
 the ground upwards of 1400 years, were all in a 
 high degree of preservation ; and a thin stratum 
 of black earth, which surrounded them, affords 
 a strong presumption that the bodies of those 
 whose ashes-were contained in the urns, had 
 been burned on the place where they were de- 
 posited. On the south side of the town arc the 
 reliques of a Roman encampment, containing 
 about two acres of ground. The Roman Isurium 
 was, in all probability, built about the year 80 ; 
 after Julius Agricola had completed the reduc- 
 tion of the Brigantines, one of the most powerful 
 of all the British tribes, and possessing the 
 entire districts, now forming the counties of 
 York, Lancaster, Westmoreland, Cumberland, 
 and Durham. Before the foundation of Ebo- 
 racum, now the city of York, it appears to have 
 been the principal city of the district. Some 
 have supposed that it was burnt by the Danes ; 
 others, that it was more gradually destroyed, 
 
 ALD 
 
 and afterwards rebuilt by the Saxons, who gave 
 it the name of Aldburgh, or the Old Town. 
 The market is on Wednesday. 
 
 ALDEBAC, in the materia medica of the an- 
 cient Arabian physicians, the name by which 
 they have called bird-lime, which they place 
 among the vegetable poisons. 
 
 ALDEBARAN, or the bull's eye, in astrono- 
 my, a star of the first magnitude in the southern 
 eye of the constellation Taurus. Ptolemy calls 
 it 6 Xa/iTTjooc T&V vaSwv, i. e. the bright star of 
 the Hyades. The right ascension for 1812 was 
 66. 17'. 4" : Declination, 16. 7'. 31" N. : An- 
 nual variation in right ascension 51" 31 : in 
 declination 8" 16. Ptolem. Almagest. I. 7, c. 5, 
 &c. 
 
 ALDENHOVEN, a bailiwick and town of the 
 grand duchy of the Lower Rhine, in the ancient 
 duchy of Juliers, with 1050 inhabitants. It is 
 three miles west south-west of Juliers. Long. 
 7. 12'. E. lat. 50. 53'. N. 
 
 AL'DER, or ) Aller, or allder, alle, all. 
 
 ALLER. $ The ancient genitive case plu- 
 
 ral of all. It was used much in composition, 
 in connection with adjectives in the superlative 
 degree ; as aller best, best of all ; aller worst, 
 worst of all; alder lieve, most beloved, most 
 dear. 
 
 Grete townes in Engelond he amcndede y nowe, 
 And London aller most for per to hys herte drowe. 
 
 R. of Gloucester, p. 44. 
 
 Sex and twenty baners of Inglond alder best, 
 Of armes pat knewe pe maners, to vrerre were alle 
 
 prest. R. Brunne, v. ii. p. 271. 
 
 Wei coude he rede a lesson or a storie, 
 But alderbest he sang an ofiertorie. 
 
 Chaucer. The Prologue, v. i. p. 29. 
 
 QUEEN. Great king of England, and my gracious 
 
 lord, < 
 
 The mutuall conference that my minde hath had, 
 By day, by night ; waking, and in my dreaines, 
 In courtly company, or at my beads, 
 With you mine alder liefest soueraigne, 
 Makes me the bolder to salute my king. 
 
 Shakspeare's 2d. part of King Henry IV. act i. 
 
 ALDER, in botany, the betula alnus of Lin- 
 naeus, a well-known tree which thrives in moist 
 places. It is the Greek K\rjQpa, in Lat. alnus, 
 German eller, Danish ell, and Swedish all, ahl, 
 &c. The principal sorts of alder are, the round- 
 leaved, or common alder, the long-leaved, and 
 the dwarf. The wood is valuable for fences,piles, 
 pumps, and all other works which remain under 
 water ; it , is also much used by turners. The 
 bark is employed in tanning. The black alder 
 is the ramnus frangula of Linnaeus. 
 
 ALDERAIMIN in astronomy, a star of the 
 third magnitude, on the right shoulder of the 
 constellation Cepheus, marked a by Bayer. 
 
 ALDERHOLM,u pleasant island of Sweden, 
 formed by three arms of the river Gefle. It 
 has a wharf, and a repository for planks and 
 deals, in which a considerable traffic is carried 
 on. It is eighty miles norm of Stockholm. 
 N. lat. 6. 40'. 
 
 ALD'ERMAN,n.-v A. S. EaVaonman, from 
 
 ALD'ERMANITY, / ./Eh>, 7Eh>ori, old, older, 
 
 ALD'ERMANLIKE, \andman. Corresponding 
 
 ALD'ERMANLY, i in origin and signification 
 
 ALD'ERMANSHIP. J with the word senator, in
 
 ALD 
 
 495 
 
 ALD 
 
 Latin ; and a title of high distinction in Anglo- 
 Saxon times. It is now well known as the 
 official title of a superior member of a municipal 
 corporation, chosen for his supposed age and 
 experience. 
 
 The -which Symode be haued hym so -well after, 
 that he was admytted for an alderman ; but in short 
 proccsse after, he demeanyed hym so ille, and so 
 cotraryouslye vnto the weale and good ordre of the 
 citie, that he was dyscharged of his aldermanshyp , and 
 dyscharged from all rule and counceyll of the citie. 
 
 Fabian, p. 331. 
 
 By the lawes of king Ina, 100 yeares before Alfred, 
 as they are extant in the Saxon tongue, and by the 
 lawes of Rennethus, king of Scots, there is mention 
 made of shyres and of the shyreman or elderman, 
 whom we nowe call shireeue or sheriffe. 
 
 Tell him, ' Myself, the mayor, and alderman, 
 Are come to have some conf'rence with his grace.' 
 
 Shaktpeare. 
 
 Though my own aldermen conferr'd my bays, 
 
 To me committing their eternal praise ; 
 
 Their full-fed heroes, their pacinck may'rs, 
 
 Their annual trophies, and their monthly wars. 
 
 Pope's Dunciad. 
 
 These, and many more, suffered death, in envy to 
 their virtues and superior genius ; which emboldened 
 them, in exigencies wanting an aldermanly discretion, 
 to attempt service out of the common forms. 
 
 Swift's Miscellanies. 
 
 ALDERMAN, among our Saxon ancestors, 
 was a degree of nobility answering to earl or 
 count at present. Alderman, in process of time 
 was also used for a justice of the peace, or judge 
 of various degrees of authority. Thus we meet 
 with the titles of Aldermannus totius Anglias ; 
 Aldermannus regis, comitatis, civitatis, burgi, 
 castelli, hundred! sive wapensachii, et novem 
 decimorum. According to Spelman, the Alder- 
 mannus totius Anglian seems to have been the 
 same officer who was afterwards styled capitalis 
 justiciarius Angliae, or chief justice of England ; 
 the aldermannus regis seems to have been an 
 occasional magistrate, answering to our justice 
 of assize ; and the aldermannus comitatis, a ma- 
 gistrate who held a middle rank, between what 
 was afterwards called the earl and the sheriff. 
 He sat at the trial of causes with the bishop ; 
 the latter proceeding according to the ecclesiasti- 
 cal law, and the former declaring and expound- 
 ing the common law of the land. - ' The alder- 
 man of the county,' says Spelman of the ancient 
 government of England, 'whom confusedly 
 they call an earl, was in parallel equal with the 
 bishop, and therefore both their estimations 
 valued alike in the laws of Ethelstane at eight 
 thousand thrymses, (worth about three shillings 
 each.) He was a man learned in the laws, and had 
 the government of the whole shire, and cognizance 
 over all the inferior courts and persons, both in 
 civil matters and criminal ; for which purpose he 
 held his ordinary court by the shreve once every 
 month, and there resorted as suitors, and bound 
 by duty, all the lords of manors, and principal 
 men of the county, with the rest of the freeholders, 
 who were not only assistants, but judges with 
 him of all matters there depending, whether en- 
 tered there originally, or coming thither by 
 appeal or provocation from the inferior courts. 
 
 ' The Ealdorman,' says Mr. Turner, was the 
 highest officer in the kingdom. In rank, he was 
 inferior to an etheling ; for when an ethelings 
 were-geld was fifteen thousand thrymses, an 
 ealdorman's was but eight thousand. He was 
 the chief of a shire, and he lost this dignity if he 
 connived at the escape of a robber, unless the 
 king pardoned him. He was one of the witans, 
 who attended the witena-gemot. He presided 
 with the bishop at the scire-gemot, which he was 
 ordered to attend, and the fole-gemot. He ranked 
 with a bishop, but was superior to the thane. 
 He had great civil powers in administering jus- 
 tice, and also enjoyed high military authority ; 
 he is mentioned as leading the shire to battle 
 against the enemy. To draw weapons before 
 him, incurred a penalty of one hundred shillings ; 
 and to fight before him in a gemot, incurred a 
 fine to him of one hundred and twenty shillings, 
 besides other punishments. The ealdorman is a 
 title which occurs perpetually in the Saxon 
 Chronicle.' 
 
 ALDERMAN, in modern British policy, is a 
 magistrate, subordinate to the lord mayor of a 
 city or town corporate. The number of these 
 magistrates is not limited, but is greater or less 
 according to the magnitude of the place. In Lon- 
 don they are twenty-six; each having one of the 
 wards of the city committed to his care, except the 
 twenty-sixth, erected in 1550, according to Mait- 
 land, which serves only to dignify the senior 
 Alderman, as father of the city. This office is for 
 life. When one dies, or resigns, a wardmote is 
 called, who elect another and return him to the 
 court of aldermen, who are obliged to admit him 
 to supply the vacancy. All the aldermen are 
 justices of the peace, by a charter of 15 Geo. II. 
 They are exempted from serving in inferior 
 offices ; nor can they be put upon assizes, or 
 serve on juries, so long as they continue in office. 
 They may be called the peers of the city, which 
 much resembles in its government the three 
 estates of the kingdom. In the wardmote the 
 alderman presides over the election of the com- 
 mon councilmen; and from the court of alder- 
 men, of which the lord mayor is the official 
 chairman, the latter officer is annually chosen. 
 The livery nominate, in common-hall, two alder- 
 men to this dignity, one of whom, generally the 
 senior, is finally elected by the court of aldermen. 
 Those aldermen who have passed the civic chair 
 are justices of the quorum ; and the lord mayor, 
 recorder, common serjeant, and aldermen, are 
 judges of oyer and terminer for the city of Lon- 
 don and county of Middlesex. The aldermen 
 attend, or should attend, daily at the public 
 offices, to dispose of all charges and breaches of 
 the public peace within the city. 
 
 ALDERNEY, an island on the coast of Nor- 
 mandy, about eight miles in circumference, and. 
 though much nearer the French than the British 
 coast, being within seven miles of Cape La 
 Hogue, it is subject to the crown of Great 
 Britain. With Guernsey, Jersey, and Sark, it 
 forms the only part of the possessions of Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror that now remain in our pos- 
 session. Alderney is about thirty miles from the 
 nearest part of the English coast, and about eigh- 
 teen from Guernsey. The Race of Alderney is a
 
 ALD 
 
 49t> 
 
 ALD 
 
 name given to the strait running between the 
 coast of France and this island. The town of 
 this name, about two miles from the harbour, is 
 but poorly built ; though it has a handsome 
 church, and contains about 1000 inhabitants. 
 In stormy weather the whole coast is dangerous, 
 more particularly from a ridge of rocks, called 
 the Caskets, which, from the numerous eddies, 
 have often proved fatal to mariners. The air is 
 salubrious, and the soil fertile, and in the highest 
 state of cultivation ; but the custom of parting 
 their lands into small parts by gavel-kind, keeps 
 the people in a state of poverty. They send a 
 considerable quantity of corn to England, but 
 their trade is small, and they receive their goods 
 from Guernsey. In 1119, Henry, duke of Nor- 
 mandy, son of king Henry I., with many of the 
 nobility, were overtaken by a dreadful storm, 
 and lost, near this island ; and off the same 
 rocks, in 1744, the Victory of 116 guns, admiral 
 Sir John Balchen, with 1100 marines and sailors, 
 foundered, and all on board perished. 
 
 ALDHAFERA, in the Arabian astronomy, de- 
 notes a fixed star of the third magnitude, in the 
 Lion's mane, marked y. 
 ALDHELM. (St.) See ADELME. 
 ALDHUN, ALFHUNUS, or ALDWINUS, was 
 presented to the see of Lindisfarne, or Holy 
 Island, in the year 990, the twelfth of the reign 
 of king Ethelred. He was admonished, in a 
 dream, as the legends of the times say, to quit the 
 island with his brethren, and take with him the 
 body of saint Cuthbert, which had been buried 
 there 113 years : he obeyed, it is added, and 
 founded the city and bishopric of Durham. 
 Alfred and Edward, the sons of king Ethelred, 
 were educated by this bishop, and were con- 
 ducted by him, together with queen Emma, to 
 her brother Richard, after the defeat of their fa- 
 ther by Swain, king of Denmark, in 1017. He 
 died in 1719. 
 
 ALDII, in antiquity, servants who attended 
 their masters in expeditions to the wars. These 
 were otherwise called aldiones, aldionri, and al- 
 dionarii. 
 
 ALDRED, abbot of Tavistock, was made 
 bishop of Worcester in 1046. He was so much 
 in favour with king Edward the Confessor, that 
 he induced that monarch to be reconciled with 
 the worst of his enemies, particularly with 
 Swaine, son of earl Godwin, who had revolted 
 against him, and came with an army to invade 
 the kingdom. Aldred also restored the union 
 between king Edward and Griffin, king of Wales. 
 He afterwards went to Rome, and in 1054, was 
 sent ambassador to the emperor Henry II. He 
 staid a whole year in Germany, and was very 
 honourably entertained by Herman, archbishop 
 of Cologne, from whom he adopted much of the 
 ecclesiastical discipline, which, on his return, he 
 established in his own diocese. In 1058, he 
 went to Jerusalem, which no English prelate had 
 ever done before him. Two years after he re- 
 turned to England ; and Kinsius, archbishop of 
 York, dying in 1060, he was elected to that see, 
 which he thought fit to hold with his bishopric 
 of Worcester, as some of his predecessors had 
 done. Aldred went soon after to Rome, to re- 
 ceive the pallium from the pope, attended by the 
 
 earl of Northumberland, and two other bishops, 
 who were well received ; but Aldred, it is said, 
 being found ignorant, and guilty of simony, the 
 pope refused to confirm his new appointment. 
 On his way home, he and his fellow-travellers 
 being attacked by robbers, they were compelled 
 to return to Rome ; and the pope, either out of 
 compassion, or from tne threatenings of the earl 
 of Northumberland, gave Aldred the pallium; 
 but obliged him to resign his bishopric of Wor- 
 cester. However, as the archbishopric of York 
 had been almost ruined by the many invasions of 
 foreigners, king Edward gave the new arch- 
 bishop leave to keep twelve villages, which be- 
 longed to the disputed see. Edward dying in 
 1066, Aldred, according to the Saxon Chronicle, 
 crowned Harold his successor. He is also said 
 to have crowned William the Conqueror, after 
 he had made him swear to protect the holy 
 churches of God and their leaders ; to establish 
 and observe righteous laws ; and that he would 
 entirely prohibit and suppress all rapine and 
 unjust judgments. Some writers, however, dis- 
 pute the fact of his having crowned the Norman 
 monarch. It was certainly the right of the see 
 of Canterbury. With William, Aldred soon be- 
 came a favourite; and, though imperious to every 
 body else, he submitted implicitly to this pre- 
 late ; of which Brompton gives a remarkable 
 instance. It happened, when Aldred was at 
 York, that the deputy-governor, or lord-lieute- 
 nant, going out of the city with his attendants, 
 met the archbishop's servants, who came to town 
 with several carts and horses loaded with pro- 
 visions. The governor asked them to whom 
 they belonged ; and they having answered they 
 were Aldred's servants, he ordered that all the 
 provisions should be carried to the king's store- 
 house. On this the archbishop sent some of his 
 clergy to the governor, commanding him to de- 
 liver the property back, and to make satisfaction 
 to St. Peter, and to him his vicar, for the injury he 
 had done them. But the governor returned an 
 answer as haughty as the message. Aldred there- 
 upon went to London, to make his complaint to 
 the king ; and, meeting him in the church of 
 St. Peter, at Westminster, addressed him thus : 
 ' Hearken, O William ! when thou wert a foreigner, 
 and God, to punish the sins of this nation, per- 
 mitted thee to become master of it, (after having 
 shed a great deal of blood,) I consecrated thee, 
 and put the crown upon thy head with blessings ; 
 but now because thou hast deserved it, I pro- 
 nounce a curse on thee, instead of a blessing; 
 since thou art become the persecutor of God's 
 church, and of his ministers, and hast broken the 
 promises and oaths which thou madest to me 
 before St. Peter's altar.' Terrified at this dis- 
 course, the king fell upon his knees, it is said, 
 and humbly begged the prelate to tell him, by 
 what crime he had deserved so severe a sentence. 
 While the noblemen present, enraged against the 
 archbishop, cried out, that he deserved death, or 
 at least banishment, for having offered such an 
 insult to his sovereign ; and pressed him with 
 threatenings, to raise the king from the ground. 
 But the prelate, unmoved, answered calmly, 
 ' Good men, let him lie there; he is not at 
 Aldred's, but at St. Peter's feet; and must feel
 
 ALD 
 
 497 
 
 ALD 
 
 St. Peter's power, since he has dared to injure 
 his vice-gerent.' He now vouchsafed to take the 
 king by the hand, and to tell him the ground of 
 his complaint. The king, in reply, pleaded igno- 
 rance of the whole matter ; but it was not with- 
 out much entreaty, aided by promises and pre- 
 sents, that the archiepiscopal wrath was appeased. 
 The Danes having invaded the north of England, 
 in the year 1068, under the conduct of Harold 
 and Canute, the sons of Swane ; Aldred is said 
 (o have died of the afflictions it caused him, on 
 the llth of September, in that year. 
 
 ALDRICH, (Dr. Henry,) an eminent English 
 divine, born at London in 1647, was educated 
 at Westminster school, under the famous Dr. 
 Busby, and admitted of Christ-church college, 
 Oxford. He had a great share in the con- 
 troversy with the papists, in the reign of James 
 II. ; and bishop Burnet ranks him among those 
 who had examined all the points in dispute, with 
 a solidity of judgment, clearness of argument, 
 and depth of learning, far beyond any who had 
 preceded him. He rendered himself so con- 
 spicuous, that at the revolution, when Massey, 
 the popish dean of Christ-church fled, his deanry 
 was conferred on him. In this station he be- 
 liaved in an exemplary manner, and that fabric 
 owes to him much of its beauty. He published 
 a System of Logic, with some other pieces ; and 
 ihe revising Clarendon's History of the Re- 
 bellion is said to have been entrusted to him and 
 bishop Spratt. Dr. Aldrich was also rector of 
 Wem in Shropshire, and prolocutor of the con- 
 vocation in 1702. He died at Christ-church, 
 on the 14th of December 1710. Dr. Aldrich 
 had considerable taste as a musician, and com- 
 posed many services, and about twenty anthems 
 for the church ; he also produced some compo- 
 sitions of a lighter kind. Two catches of his are 
 still esteemed; viz. the bonny Christ-church 
 bells, and a smoking catch, to be sung by four. 
 His ovm love of smoking it seems was excessive. 
 He is of some note as a Latin poet. In the 
 Musae Anglicanae, we find two elegant copies of 
 his verses, one on the accession of king William 
 III. and the other on the death of the duke of 
 Gloucester. Sir John Hawkins has preserved a 
 humorous translation by him of the well-known 
 English ballad, a soldier and a sailor, &c. ; and 
 an epigram, entitled Causae Bibendi. 
 
 ' Si bene quid memini, causse sunt quinque bibendi ; 
 
 Hospitis adventus, presens sitis, atque futura, 
 
 Aut vini bonitas, aut quaelibet altera causa.' 
 ' If on thy theme I rightly think, ' 
 There are five reasons why men drink : 
 Good wine, a friend, because I'm dry, 
 Or lost I shall be by and bye ; 
 Or any other reason why.' 
 
 ALDROVANDA, in botany, a genus of the 
 pentandria order, belonging to the pentagynia 
 class of plants ; of which there is but one species : 
 CAL. divided into five parts; the petals five; 
 and the capsule having five valves, with ten 
 seeds. It is a native of Italy, and the Indies ; 
 and has no English name. 
 
 ALDROVANDUS, (Ulysses,) professor of 
 philosophy and physic at Bologna, the place of 
 his nativity. He was a most curious enquirer 
 into natural history and travelled into the most 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 distant countries on purpose to inform himself 
 of their productions. Minerals, metals, plants, 
 and animals, were alike the objects of his inde- 
 fatigable researches; but he applied himself 
 chiefly to birds, and was at great expense to 
 have figures of them drawn from the life. Aubert 
 le Mire says, that he gave a painter a yearly 
 salary of 200 crowns, for thirty years and up- 
 wards; and employed, at his own expense, 
 Lorenzo Bennini and Cornelius Swintus, as well 
 as the famous engraver Christopher Coriolanus. 
 These expenses ruined his fortune, and at length 
 reduced him to the utmost necessity ; so that 
 he died blind, it is said, in an hospital at Bologna, 
 at a great age, in 1605. Bayle observes, that 
 antiquity does not furnish us with an instance of 
 a design so extensive and laborious as that of 
 Aldrovandus, with regard to natural history ; 
 that Pliny has treated of more kinds of subjects, 
 but only touches lightly on any thing; whereas 
 Aldrovandus has collected all he could meet 
 with. The compilation, upon his plan, consists 
 of seventeen volumes in folio, several of which 
 were printed after his death. He himself pub- 
 lished his History of Birds, in three folio volumes, 
 in 1599 ; and seven books of insects, which 
 make another volume of the same size. 
 
 ALDRUDE, countess of Bertinoro, in Ro- 
 magna, in the twelfth century. She was cele- 
 brated for her magnanimity. In conjunction with 
 William degli Adelardi of Ferrara, she compelled 
 the Venetians and Imperialists to raise the siege 
 of Ancona. The citizens made a brave resistance, 
 but being driven to extreme exigency for want 
 of provisions,' they applied to William degli 
 Adelardi and the countess of Bertinoro. who 
 assembled troops, and marched to their relief. 
 Aldrude, by her presence and exhortations, in- 
 spired the troops with courage ; and on their 
 arrival, the besiegers fled in confusion. On her 
 return she encountered several parties of the 
 enemy, and came off victorious in every action. 
 William, having disbanded his troops, went to 
 Constantinople, where he was received by the 
 emperor with great honour. 
 
 ALDSTON-MOOR, a market town and 
 parish of Cumberland, in the ward of Leath, 302 
 miles from London, and eleven from Hexham. 
 The town is beautifully situated on- the side of 
 the hill, at the bottom of which runs the river 
 Tyne, over which is a fine stone bridge. The 
 neighbourhood abounds with lead mines, and is 
 one of the most romantic parts of the border 
 towards Northumberland. The church is a 
 curacy. Market on Saturday. 
 
 ALDUABIS, or ALDUASDUBIS, in ancient 
 geography, a river of Celtic Gaul, which, rising 
 from Mount Jura, separated the Sequani from the 
 Helvetii, and running through the county of Bur 
 gundy, or Franche Cotnte, environed almost on 
 every side the city of Besancon ; and falls into 
 the Scare. It was also called Dubis : now le 
 Doux. 
 
 ALDULPH, from eald, old, and ulph, help, 
 Sax. an archbishop of Litchfield, in the end of 
 the eighth century. 
 
 ALDUS, (Manutius,) a learned printer of 
 the fifteenth century, to whom the world is in- 
 debted for numerous accurate and elegant im- 
 
 2 K
 
 498 
 
 ALE. 
 
 pressions of the classics. He was born at Bas- 
 saro, and by his indefatigable and judicious pur- 
 suit of his profession, became the restorer of the 
 Greek and Latin languages to Europe : he invented 
 what is called, after his country, the Italic letter, 
 tnd published an excellent Greek Grammar, 
 "besides abundant notes and commentaries on 
 the principal ancient authors. He died at Venice 
 in 1516. See MARUTIUS. 
 
 ALDWINKLE, ALL SAINTS, a small town of 
 Northamptonshire, in the hundred of Iluxloe, 
 eighty miles from London, and the birth-place of 
 the poet Dryden. 
 
 ALDWINKLE, ST. PETER, a town of Nor- 
 thamptonshire, in the Huxloe hundred, seventy- 
 two miles from London, where the antiquary 
 Fuller was born. 
 
 ALE. 
 
 ALE. Eale, from aelaw, to kindle and en- 
 flame. A liquor made by infusing malt and hops 
 in hot water, and then fermenting the liquor. 
 Wcl coude he knowe a draught of London ale. 
 
 Chaucer. The Prologue, v. i. p. 16. 
 For as siue kcepeth ale, 
 Right so can Cheste kepe a tale, 
 All that he wote, he woll disclose, 
 And speke er any man oppose. 
 
 Gower, Con. A. book iii. 
 
 You must be seeing christenings. Do you look for 
 ale and cakes here, you rude rascals ? 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VIII. 
 
 The fertility of the soil in grain, and its being not 
 proper for vines, put the Egyptians upon drinking ale, 
 of which they were the inventors. Arbuth. 
 
 Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound, 
 And news much older than their ale went round. 
 
 Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 
 
 ALE, ol, Swedish : both, perhaps, being de- 
 rived from the A. S. verb, as above, aelaw, to 
 inflame, that well known fermented liquor, which 
 in this country is obtained by fermentation from 
 the malt of barley, a due mixture of hops, &c. 
 
 Countries to which nature has denied the richer 
 juice of the grape, as a natural production, have 
 in all ages cultivated some kind of substitute 
 f this description. Hence from Egypt is said 
 originally to have been derived barley-wine, and 
 Herodotus attributes the first discovery of the 
 art of brewing it to Isis, the wife of Osiris. 
 Pelusium, situated on one of the mouths of the 
 Nile, was particularly celebrated for its manu- 
 facture of malt liquors, of which there were two 
 kinds, answerable very remarkably to our own 
 popular liquors of ale and porter ; the one called 
 carmi, being sweet and glutinous, the other, 
 named zythum, seems to have been analogous to 
 modern beer. Dioscorides, the friend of Mark 
 Antony and Galen, who flourished in the reign 
 of Antonius Pius, were both well acquainted 
 with ale : and from the testimony of Tacitus, it 
 appears that the Germans were capable of pre- 
 paring a liquor similar to wine, (quandam vini 
 speciem), from barley, by fermentation. Julian, 
 Strabo, and Polybius, show, that the same art 
 was known to the Spaniards, the Gauls, the in- 
 habitants of the British Islands, and the north 
 of Europe. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors placed 
 one of their chief future felicities, in quaffing no- 
 ble draughts of fermented malt liquors in the hall 
 of Odin. But all the ancient malt liquors seem 
 to have been made entirely of barley, or some 
 other farinaceous grain, and therefore were not 
 
 generally calculated for long keeping, as this 
 quality depends considerably, though not en- 
 tirely, on the bitter extract of hops, or other 
 vegetables, with which the liquor is mingled. 
 
 A beverage of this kind is well known to En- 
 lish law, and is to be traced in every record of 
 ancient customs and festivities from the earliest 
 periods. Lands were held on a rental in the 
 ninth century, which included two tuns full of 
 clear ale a hundred loaves ten mittan of 
 Welch ale, &c. A cumb full of a third sort of 
 ale, called lithes, or mild ale, is mentioned in 
 Dugdale's Monasticon, as reserved in a grant of 
 Oflfa ; and a Saxon youth in jEfric's Colloquies, 
 when asked what he drank, expresses a choice, 
 not yet obsolete ' Ale if I have it, and water 
 if I have it not.' (M.S. Tab. 3, in the Cotton 
 Library.) Ale is mentioned by Buchan as drank 
 in Scotland at a very early period, and called 
 vinum ex frugibus corruptis. For modern laws 
 respecting it, see the close of this article, ALE- 
 HOUSES, EXCISE, &c. 
 
 The brewing of ale and beer of all kinds, is con- 
 ducted by the same general process : the difference 
 between them arising solely, in the first in- 
 stance, from the different colour of the malt 
 employed. 
 
 Good ale is commonly expected to be a light 
 amber colour, brisk, and sweetish, or at least, 
 not bitter to the taste ; beer, in which we may 
 include porter, is dark-coloured, much less brisk, 
 and having a bitter taste, of a very peculiar na- 
 ture. This last peculiarity, in fact, seems to 
 render porter at once more agreeable to the 
 palate, and more nutritive to persons who take 
 strong exercise : it also renders it capable of 
 being longer and better kept. Under the arti- 
 ticle BREWING, we shall enter more at large into 
 the commercial and scientific relations of this 
 subject ; and the history of the astonishing increase 
 of brewing-concerns in this country, especially 
 in London : our present object is to treat it 
 more familiarly; and, while exhibiting the real 
 principles of the process, to assist their appli- 
 cation to private and small concerns, rather 
 than to those of the public and opulent brewers. 
 
 Ale is a wine of grain, distinguished, how- 
 ever, by containing a larger portion of mucilage 
 and saccharine matter, and by the absence of su- 
 per-tartrate of potash, a salt found in all wines 
 expressed from the grape. As distinct from por- 
 ter, ale contains also its farinaceous matter 
 and saccharine mucilage in a more undecom- 
 posed state, which gives that clammy consis-
 
 ALE. 
 
 499 
 
 tency to the one, which we do not find in the 
 other: and hence strong new ale becomes muddy 
 by a mixture of alcohol which effects no percep- 
 tible change in porter. 
 
 As produced by a common process, all malt 
 liquors contain a common chemical alcohol, or 
 spirit. Professor Brande (Phil. Trans. 1811. 
 p. 345.) found in the best Burton ale, 8.88 
 per cent of alcohol ; in good home-brewed ale, 
 8.30 ; in three samples of Burton ale, 6.25 ; in 
 Edinburgh ale, 6.70 ; in six samples of London 
 ale, 5.82 ; in three of Scotch, 5.75 ; in Dorches- 
 ter ale, 5.50. The best brown-stout, or London 
 porter, yielded only 6.80, according to this cele- 
 brated chemist. 
 
 A fermented liquor of the ale kind is com- 
 monly made in America from Indian corn. In 
 the interior of Africa, according to Mungo Park, 
 from the seed of the holcus spicatus, (which 
 yielded beer, says this traveller, equal to the 
 best and strongest of our malt liquors), we have 
 seen wheat and oat malts, and they have been 
 occasionally tried in considerable breweries ; in 
 some countries in the north of Europe, a mix- 
 ture of rye and barley is said to be used. But 
 the grain which is unquestionably best adapted 
 for malting and brewing purposes, is barley; 
 (hordeum vulgare) and its Scottish variety big, 
 or bear, (hordeum hexasticton) its germination be- 
 ing more easily effected, and its farinaceous matter 
 more abundant and more readily convertible into 
 saccharine than that of any other seed. The only 
 ingredients of all good malt liquor, then, are 
 malted corn, water, and hops. For MALTING, 
 see that article. 
 
 We suppose a brewer, whether for public or 
 domestic purposes, to possess himself of good 
 malt and hops. Of the former, there are three 
 different kinds in general use, namely, pale, 
 brown, and amber, names derived from the colour, 
 which depend on the mode of drying the malt. 
 Pale malt differs little in colour from barley, it 
 being dried by a very gentle heat, just so far as 
 to put a stop to the vegetation of the grain. 
 
 Amber-coloured malt is, in all its properties, 
 intermediate between pale and brown, and is so 
 rendered by being dried with a greater heat. 
 Brown malt differs from both in having been ex- 
 posed to a still greater temperature ; so that the 
 outside of the flower is in a measure charred. 
 Pale, and amber-coloured malt, not only affect 
 the colour of the liquor brewed ; but, in conse- 
 quence of the chemical operations of the heat, 
 applied on the principles that are developed in 
 the grain, during the process of malting, ma- 
 terially alter the quality of the beer, especially 
 with regard to the properties of becoming fit for 
 drinking, and growing fine. The quality of 
 malt differs according as it is more or less soaked, 
 drained, germinated, dried, or baked, and the 
 quality of the barley from which it is obtained. 
 High dried malt contains a less quantity of mat- 
 ter capable of producing a vinous fluid, than 
 the. same quantity of pale malt. Hence the great 
 breweries, even for porter, prefer the pale malt 
 of Hertfordshire, and use a patent burnt malt in 
 small quantities for colouring. If colour be wanted 
 in domestic brewing, it may be more economi- 
 cally given by burnt sugar. 
 
 Hops", it is well known, are the seed, or flower- 
 pods of the humulus lupulus, or hop-plant, which 
 is cultivated in considerable quantities in the 
 south of England, especially in Kent and Hamp- 
 shire. They are collected when ripe, and dried 
 on a kiln ; then packed up in bags, and sold to 
 the public. The peculiar bitter taste of hops, 
 and a weak aromatic odour, possessing sedative 
 qualities to a considerable extent, are their recom- 
 mendations for brewing. A pillow, filled with 
 hops, has often been found to induce sleep, wlien 
 every thing else has failed. If they are distilled 
 with alcohol, in a retort, there remains behind 
 a solid green-coloured oil, of a sharp taste, and 
 scarcely bitter, but putting one in mind of the 
 peculiar flavour of good ale. This oil is the 
 part of the hops which gives them their charac- 
 teristic smell, and beer its distinguishing flavour. 
 It is apt to be dissipated by long boiling. It does 
 not appear, according to the opinion of some 
 brewers, that the intoxicating qualities of ale are to 
 be ascribed to the oil of the hop. The bitter prin- 
 ciple of hops is easily extracted by water, and in 
 no part of nature does it exist in greater perfection. 
 ' No re-agent,' says Dr. Thompson, ' is capable of 
 throwing it down excepting acetate of lead.' This 
 taste, in all its peculiarities, is communicated to the 
 wort of beer and ale, and the stronger the liquor, 
 the more, of course, it will bear of this valuable 
 addition. In brewing the best mild Edinburgh 
 ale with sixty bushels of malt, yielding 11 J bar- 
 rels of wort (measured when boiled completely) 
 40 Ibs. of hops have been used; with 47J 
 bushels, yielding 10.83 barrels of wort, 36 Ibs. 
 of hops; with 60 bushels of malt from big. 14.7 
 barrels of wort, 40 Ibs. of hops. A common 
 rule is to employ a pound of hops with every 
 bushel of malt. 
 
 Let our brewer be now further provided with 
 either a mait-mill, (the best of which is that 
 in which the malt is bruised between iron rollers), 
 or ground malt, and consider the whole of that 
 valuable domestic and public art to be comprised 
 under an attentive observation of this five-fold 
 process, viz. : 1. Mashing. 2. Boiling. 3. Cool- 
 ing. 4. Fermenting. 5. Cleansing. 
 
 I. OF MASHING. He grinds his malt, say 
 fifty bushels, and uses a copper boiler, whose solid 
 contents amount to 382 ale gallons, being rather 
 more than 107,521 cubic inches or, 62i cubic feet. 
 This boiler must be placed over brick work upon 
 a furnace, and there must be conveniences for 
 filling it with water and for letting the water off, 
 when sufficiently heated, into the mash-tun. 
 
 He must be provided also with a mash-tun, or 
 wooden vessel composed of staves properly fixed 
 by means of iron hoops, and generally placed in 
 the middle of the brew-house. It usually has 
 a false bottom full of holes at some little height 
 above the true bottom, and to be capable of 
 mashing fifty bushels of malt, must be at least 
 one-third larger than the bulk of the malt, or 
 capable of containing seventy-five bushels. 
 
 Into the boiler is to be put a quantity of water 
 equal, at least, in bulk to that of the malt, and 
 heated up to 190, or 180, according to the 
 judgment of the brewer and the quality ot the 
 malt. But the best brewers employ the lower 
 temperature. This water is then to be let into 
 
 2 K 2
 
 500 
 
 ALE 
 
 the mash-tun, and the malt, previously ground, 
 to be let down into it immediately after. All 
 the clots are now carefully broken, and mixed 
 with the water by narrow wooden shovels, or, 
 when the capacity of the mash-tun is great, by 
 machinery. Great care must be taken to break 
 all the clots, because the whole of the malt within 
 them would otherwise escape the action of the 
 water, and be lost to the brewer. When the 
 water and malt are sufficiently mixed, the mash- 
 tun is covered and left in this state about three 
 hours. But the time varies according to circum- 
 stances. To what degree the temperature of the 
 water is lowered when thus mixed with the malt, 
 it is difficult to ascertain,' from the impossibility 
 of inserting a thermometer into the centre of the 
 mash-tun. But fifty-one bushels of water at the 
 temperature of 192, mixed with 47 bushels of 
 malt, have afterwards given the temperature at 
 the surface of the mash 140. When the wort 
 began to run off, two hours and a half after, its 
 temperature was 156 ; and at that time the sur- 
 face of the mash was at 136. -Thus, perhaps, 
 tne whole mash lost four degrees as well as the 
 surface, and the mean between the bottom and 
 top, will give for the mean heat of the whole 
 after the mashing, 150 : so that the water has 
 lost thirty-two degrees of heat, while the malt 
 (its temperature before mixture was 48) gained 
 102; which makes the specific heat of the malt, 
 0.69, rather above, probably, than under the 
 truth. The mash having continued for about 
 three hours, longer or shorter according to cir- 
 cumstances, a stop-cock, placed below the false 
 bottom in the mash-tun, is opened, and the wort 
 allowed to run out into a vessel prepared to re- 
 ceive it, known by the name of the underbeck. 
 At the same time the cover is taken off the mash- 
 tun, and quantities of water, of the temperature of 
 180, are occasionally sprinkled over it from the 
 boiler, which had been again filled with water to be 
 heated, as soon as the water for mashing was drawn 
 off. No specific directions can be given respect- 
 ing the quantity of hot-water added in this man- 
 ner by sprinkling, because that must depend 
 upon the views of the brewer. If he wishes to 
 have ale of great strength, he will of course add 
 less water; if the ale is to be weak he will add 
 more. The best way is to determine the strength 
 of the liquor as it flows into the underbeck by 
 means of a saccharometer, or by taking its 
 specific gravity. When the specific gravity (at 
 sixty degrees) sinks to 1.04 or 1.05, or when it 
 contains only 36 or 46? Ibs. per barrel of solid 
 matter in solution, it would be useless or in- 
 jurious to draw any more off for making strong 
 ale. But an additional portion may still be 
 drawn off and converted into small beer. 
 
 No general rule can be laid down for the 
 specific gravity or strength of the wort, when it 
 begins to flow from the mash. It will depend 
 upon the goodness of the malt, and upon the 
 quantity of mashing water employed, when 
 compared with the quantity of malt. The fol- 
 lowing gravities have been taken at this period 
 of the process: 1.084, 1.0305, 1.0815, 1.0835, 
 1.091, 1.094 ; or containing respectively 78, 74, 
 75$, 78, 85, and 87| Ibs. per barrel. When it first 
 flows from the mash-tun, the wort is a trans- 
 
 parent liquid of a fine amber colour, a peculiar 
 smell, and a rich, luscious, sweet taste. If it is 
 cloudy, it is a proof that the water used for 
 mashing was of too high a temperature. We 
 have seen the wort run cloudy from the mash- 
 tun, when the temperature of the water had 
 been as high as 200, or 191, but never whei 
 it was no higher than 180. This affords an 
 additional reason with the brewers for keeping 
 the temperature of the. mashing-water low. 
 But we have doubts about the accuracy of the 
 reason ; and it must be acknowledged, that some 
 obscurity hangs upon this part of the process of 
 brewing. For worts will sometimes continue 
 opaque during the whole process of boiling, 
 cooling, and fermenting, and require ultimately 
 to be clarified, or fined, as the brewers term it, 
 by means of isinglass. The substance which 
 renders ale in this case turbid, seemed to be a 
 variety of starch, or some particular form of 
 that substance ; for it has been completely pre- 
 cipitated by infusion of nutgalls, and the pre- 
 cipitate redissolved by the application of a mo- 
 derate heat. A quantity 6f wort like that of 
 which we have been treating, takes from six to 
 eight hours in flowing from the mash-tun. As it 
 flows on its colour diminishes to a light yellow, 
 the smell is less pleasing, and the taste not so 
 sweet. The wort which first comes off, evaporated 
 to dryness, leaves a yellow-coloured residuum, 
 of a sweet taste, which dissolves readily in water, 
 absorbs water from the atmosphere, and becomes 
 clammy, and similar in appearance to treacle. 
 Its specific gravity is 1.552. There can be no 
 doubt that this residue contains a good deal of 
 sugar, to which it nearly approximates in gravity, 
 and is precisely the same in its properties with 
 the sugar into which starch is converted by a 
 very dilute acid. But it is mixed likewise with 
 a considerable portion of starch. The chemical 
 constitution of wort is in fact threefold : 1 . Sac- 
 charine matter, which is perhaps the base or 
 essential constituent. 2. Starch, which is in- 
 stantly detected by dropping in a solution of 
 iodine, that produces a blue precipitate. 3. 
 Mucilage, which is precipitated in flakes when 
 the wort is poured into alcohol. This abounds 
 more in the last drawn off wort than the first ; 
 and readily passes into the acetous fermenta- 
 tion ; consequently the flavour of our malt- 
 liquor is improved, if we take only for the 
 best ale, the wort that runs off first. 
 
 II. We now arrive at another important step 
 in our process, BOILIKG the wort. Being raised 
 by means of pumps from the underbeck into 
 the copper boiler, the wort is boiled for several 
 hours, till it has acquired a strength of which 
 the brewer judges according to his views, and 
 by scientific instruments. Thus from fifty 
 bushels of malt 13.444 barrels of wort are to 
 be obtained, of the specific gravity 1.068, or of 
 63.125 Ibs. of saccharine matter per barrel: and 
 it may be boiled down to 11.083 barrels of the 
 specific gravity 1.1015, or of 94J Ibs. per barrel. 
 From 60 bushels of rrialt, 23.465 barrels of 
 wort, of the strength of 64.37 Ibs. per barrel, or 
 of the specific gravity 1 .0683 : and it may be 
 boiled down to 19.736 barrels of the strength of 
 82.7 Ibs. per barrel, or of the specific gravity
 
 A L E.* 
 
 iOl 
 
 1.089. From sixty bushels of big malt 23.8193 
 barrels of the specific gravity 1.0648, or of 
 58.75 Ibs. per barrel of saccharine matter ; boil- 
 ing down to 19.736 barrels of the specific gravity 
 1.078, or of 72 Ibs. per barrel of saccharine 
 matter. 
 
 The hops are added while the wort is in the 
 Boiler, according to the strength of the wort, 
 ad the time it is designed to keep the beer, 
 which is sometimes called hopping the wort. The 
 cop coagulates the excess of mucilage and glu- 
 tinous matter which is extracted from the malt 
 in mashing, for if this were suffered to remain 
 in solution in the beer, it would never become 
 fine, but would always be cloudy : the boiling 
 hardens this substance in the same manner as 
 the white of an egg acquires solidity by boil- 
 ing. This coagulation is called the breaking 
 or curdling of the wort. The boiling must 
 therefore always continue till the breaking ap- 
 pears. Another object is attained by the hops in 
 the operation of boiling, namely, the concentra- 
 tion of the wort. Its bulk becoming reduced 
 by evaporation, which merely carries off a por- 
 tion of water, the original quantity of ferment- 
 able matter remains concentrated in a smaller 
 space. 
 
 III. The wort having been boiled down to the 
 requisite strength, it is let down into the COOLERS, 
 or shallow floors of wood, surrounded with a 
 wooden ledge, and water-tight, placed in the 
 most airy and exposed situation in the brewery ; 
 to hold the whole of the wort at a depth not ex- 
 ceeding three or four inches. The object is to 
 cool down the wort, as rapidly as possible, to 
 the temperature of the atmosphere ; because, if 
 it were allowed to remain long hot, it would run 
 the risk of becoming sour, and spoil the whole 
 process. The superiority of many breweries 
 consists in the construction of the coolers, or, 
 upon Iheir being as well adapted as possible for 
 speedily reducing the temperature of the wort. 
 They must be kept perfectly clean, and a free 
 current of air should pass over them. 
 
 Rather more than one-fourth of the whole 
 wort is dissipated by evaporation during the 
 cooling. When the wort is let out of the boiler 
 into the cooler, the hops still remain, and, as 
 they are soaked with wort, a considerable loss 
 would be sustained if they were thrown away. 
 Thus 45 Ibs. of hops have retained half a barrel 
 of wort after they were drained so completely 
 tiiat no more wort would drop out. In another 
 case, 35 Ibs. of hops, retained in the same way, 
 0.3666 of a barrel, which is rather more than 
 one-third of a barrel. To recover this wort it is 
 proper to subject the hops to pressure. By some 
 brewers this circumstance is too much neglected. 
 
 Where the brewery is small, and, from the 
 weather or otherwise, the apartment in which the 
 fermenting vessels are placed is cold, it is proper 
 not to reduce the temperature of the wort lower 
 than 56. When the apartment in which fer- 
 mentation is carried on is warm, 51 or 52 is a 
 very good temperature. If a brewer is obliged 
 to make ale in warm summer weather, it is ma- 
 terial to reduce the temperature as low as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 IV. The wort being now sufficiently cooled 
 
 down by exposure, it is let down into the FER 
 MENTINC TUNS, or, as the brewers call them, the 
 gyle-tuns, in order to be fermented ; by whic* 
 process, it is converted from the luscious sweet, 
 tasted liquor called wort, to the brisk intoxicating 
 liquor which constitutes ale. The gyle-tuns are 
 cylindrical wooden vessels, varying in size, ac- 
 cording to the extent of the brewery. In London 
 breweries and distilleries, they are of prodigious 
 size ; but in private houses they often do not ex- 
 ceed the size of a wine hogshead, or even of a 
 beer barrel. The fermentation is perhaps con- 
 ducted with the greatest economy in larger ves- 
 sels ; but good ale may be made in comparatively 
 small quantities. Good porter has scarcely ever 
 been made, except by those who manufacture it 
 upon a large scale. The fermenting tuns are 
 never filled by the wort ; because a considerable 
 increase in bulk takes place during the fermen- 
 tation, in consequence of which the liquor would 
 run over, unless allowance were made for it: 
 and the fermentation of ale or beer is never car- 
 ried to any great length. The object is, to re- 
 tain the flavour and good qualities of the ale or 
 beer, not to develope the greatest quantity of 
 spirit, which can hardly be done without allow- 
 ing the wort to run into acidity. 
 
 The strength of the fermentation depends upon 
 the quantity of yeast nsed. This is a frothy sub - 
 stance, of a brownish-grey colour, and bitte 1 
 taste, formed on the surface of ale or wine while 
 fermenting. If it be put into sacks, the moisture 
 gradually drops out, and the yeast remains be- 
 hind in a solid form, of the flavour and taste of 
 cheese, but darker in its colour. 
 
 Mr. Westrumb is the only chemist who has 
 subjected yeast to an analysis ; and this is so far 
 back as the year 1796. He obtained from 15,360 
 parts of fresh beer, 
 
 Of Potash . . . , . . 13 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 Acetic acid . 
 Malic acid . 
 Lime . . . 
 Alcohol 
 Extractive 
 
 . . . -. 15 
 
 .... 10 
 
 .... 45 
 
 .... 69 
 
 .... 240 
 
 .... 120 
 
 Mucilage .^ 240 
 
 Saccharine matter .... 315 
 
 Gluten 480 
 
 Water 13,595 
 
 Loss 
 
 15,142 
 218 
 
 Total 15,360 
 
 A gallon of yeast is generally allowed to 
 about three barrels of wort : ' one gallon to every 
 sixteen barrels of ale or porter,' says a London 
 brewer. In about five or six hours after the 
 yeast has been added, the fermentation begins. 
 Its first appearance is a white line or border on 
 the surface of the liquor, commencing at the 
 sides of the tun, and gradually covering the sur- 
 face of the liquor with a white scum. 
 
 Air bubbles separate from it, and a froth, of a 
 yellowish-grey colour, collects slowly. In a few 
 days, especially if the weather be warm, it col- 
 lects in considerable quantities. At the same 
 time, the temperature of the wort increases, and.
 
 502 
 
 ALE. 
 
 it yields a very considerable quantity of carbonic 
 acid gas. The increase of temperature which 
 takes place during the fermentation of ale may be 
 stated, at an average, to amount to twelve or 
 fifteen degrees. Sometimes it amounts to twenty, 
 and sometimes does not exceed five degrees; 
 though in such cases, there is generally some 
 deficiency in the skill of the brewer. 
 
 Fermentation, indeed, is the great secret of the 
 brewer's art, and the true theory of it, has occu- 
 pied the attention of chemists ever since the ma- 
 nufacture of ale began to be attended to by men 
 of science. Lavoisier was the first person who 
 attempted to offer any thing like a theory of this 
 intricate process. He endeavoured to determine 
 the composition of common sugar, a substance 
 which may be fermented just as well as the 
 soluble part of malt, and which yields similar 
 products, and ascertained the constituents of 
 alcohol, the substance formed by fermentation. 
 On the whole, he formed a plausible theory, but 
 valuable chiefly as a first approximation, though 
 there can be little doubt that it was erroneous 
 in every particular. Since that time, several 
 expreiments on the subject have been made by 
 Thenard, Gay Lussac, and Berzelius, which have 
 more accurately determined the constituents of 
 sugar ; and Theodore de Saussure has made very 
 elaborate, and, we believe, accurate, experiments 
 on the composition of alcohol. The general 
 theory, as resulting from experiments on common 
 sugar, and on the saccharine matter of malt, may 
 be thus stated. 
 
 A weak solution of sugar in water kept in a 
 warm place will ferment of itself. The solution 
 of sugar of grapes in water ferments still more 
 speedily ; as also does sugar of starch ; and the 
 saccharine matter of malt. In a general view of 
 fermentation, therefore, we may leave out the 
 small quantity of yeast ; because it is not abso- 
 lutely necessary, but seems merely to render the 
 effect more rapid, and thul to prevent the change 
 of the liquid into acidity 
 
 In complete fermentation the sugar disappears 
 altogether, and two new substances are found in 
 its place, carbonic acid and alcohol. Accord- 
 ing to Lavoisier's experiments, 100 parts of 
 sugar yielded, when fermented, 
 
 Alcohol 57.70 
 
 Carbonic acid 35.34 
 
 The specific gravity of his alcohol could 
 scarcely be less than 6.825 such alcohol con- 
 tains ait least eleven per cent, of water ; for that 
 quantity has been actually extracted from it. 
 From Saussure's experiments, it is probable that 
 the real quantity of water contained in alcohol 
 of the specific gravity 0.825, is 18.387 per cent, 
 or almost a fifth. On this supposition, sugar, 
 according to Lavoisier's experiments, yields 
 
 Alcohol 47.1 
 
 Carbonic acid 35.34 
 
 82.44 
 or per cent. 
 
 Alcohol 57.1 
 
 Carbonic acid 42.9 
 
 100.0 
 
 Thenard mixed sixty parts of yeast with 300 
 of sugar, and fermented the mixture at the tem- 
 perature of fifty-nine degrees. He informs us 
 that in four or five days all the saccharine mat- 
 ter had disappeared The quantity of carbonic 
 acid evolved amounted by weight to 94.6 parts. 
 It was perfectly pure, being completely absorbed 
 by water. The fermented liquid being distilled, 
 yielded 171.5 parts of alcohol, of the specific 
 gravity 0.822. When the residue of the distilla- 
 tion was evaporated, twelve parts of a nauseous 
 acid substance remained, and forty parts of the 
 yeast still continued unaltered in appearance, 
 though Thenard assures us that it had lost the 
 whole of its azote. Thus the products of the 
 fermentations were 
 
 Alcohol of 0.822 171.5 
 
 Carbonic acid 94.6 
 
 Nauseous residue 12.0 
 
 Residual yeast 40.0 
 
 Loss 
 
 318.1 
 41.9 
 
 Total 360.0 
 
 But the nauseous residue and residual yeast, 
 making up nearly the quantity of yeast employed, 
 we need only consider the products of decom- 
 posed sugar, supposing the loss to be propor- 
 tionally .divided between the carbonic acid and 
 alcohol. Now alcohol, of the specific gravity 
 0.822, contains one-tenth of its weight of water, 
 which can be separated from it ; and if we sup- 
 pose with Saussure, that absolute alcohol con- 
 tains 8.3 per cent, of water, then the products 
 of sugar decomposed by fermentation, according 
 to this philosopher's experiments, are 
 
 Alcohol 47.70 
 
 Carbonic acid . . 35.34 
 
 83.04 
 or, in 100 parts 
 
 Alcohol ....'.... 57.44 
 Carbonic acid . . 42.56 
 
 100.00 
 
 A result approaching so near to that of Lavoi- 
 sier, as decidedly to confirm the general truth o 
 both calculations. Dr. Thompson, of Edin- 
 burgh, from comparing the foregoing experi- 
 ments, with additional ones of his own, on the 
 saccharine of malt, concludes that the alcohol, or 
 pure spirit, yielded therefrom, when fermentation 
 is properly conducted, is almost exactly one half. 
 
 Languid fermentation is to be accelerated by 
 rousing, as it is called, or beating in the yeast, 
 which is formed on the top of the liquor, by rais- 
 ing the temperature, &c. If the fermentation is 
 suddenly checked, the beer becomes what is 
 called grey, or never fine. Worts made with 
 water too highly heated, are particularly liable 
 to this malady. 
 
 At the completion of the fermentation, which 
 may be taken at about forty or forty-five hours in 
 general cases, (but it depends greatly on the tem- 
 perature of the atmosphere and the strength of 
 the liquor,) the saccharometer swims deeper on the 
 wort, from the decomposition of the saccharine 
 matter and the production of alcohol being carried
 
 ALE. 
 
 503 
 
 <o their height. In the brewing of porter, the fer- matter remaining in it. They are prepared as 
 
 mentation is suffered to proceed until the head follows, and will be seen to be perfectly inno- 
 
 of yeast that floats on the surface of the liquor cuous: The pickings of book, or leaf-isinglass are 
 
 assumes an uniform and compact appearance, thrown into a wooden tub, and when the tub is 
 
 and does not float any higher. In the brewing about one-third full, it is filled up with good 
 
 of ale, it is seldom suffered to advance to quite -*~'~ " *- * ' ' 
 
 such a degree. In ale, of which the specific 
 
 gravity amounts to 17.25, or eighteen pounds 
 
 stale small beer, which soon dissolves the isin- 
 glass. It is then rubbed through a sieve, and 
 all the hard lumps picked out, the mass is re- 
 
 per barrel, it is stopped by most brewers when duced to a proper consistence for use by the 
 
 the gravity is reduced from seven to nine pounds addition of a further quantity of good sharp 
 
 per barrel. If the beer is meant to be full beer. When used for fining, it must be well 
 
 bodied or hard, the fermentation must be con- stirred, and in the course of a few hours the 
 
 ducted slowly, that is so far as consistent with liquor may be drawn off clear and bright ' one 
 
 the richness of the wort ; if it is intended to be pint is the usual proportion to a barrel of beer 
 
 brisk, the fermentation is stopped the earlier. 
 
 If now the wort were allowed to remain in 
 the gyle-tun, the yeast would again mix with it; 
 and the consequence would first be, a disagree- 
 
 but sometimes two and even three, are neces- 
 sary. 
 
 The age at which ale is drank, will depend 
 ilpon a private person's stock ; the size of his 
 
 able bitter taste, known among brewers by the cellar, &c. but more frequently upon his family 
 
 . k., f .: u habits, and the pecuniary means he chooses to 
 
 devote to this beverage. Good mellow ale, soft 
 and fine, may be had at a year old ; and it is, 
 perhaps, never better than from one year old to 
 two. Some persons never reckon ale to be old, 
 
 name of yeast bitter; the fermentation would 
 proceed, though in a languid manner, and the 
 ale would soon run into acidity. These accidents 
 are prevented by drawing off the ale into small 
 casks. This is called 
 
 V. CLEANSING. The casks are to be filled unless it drinks a little hard, or with some, ap- 
 
 . _ r n IIP. _^t- ^1 __ i mi i 
 
 quite full, and left with their bungs open. The 
 drawing off of the ale from the gyle-tun lowers 
 its temperature, and, of course, checks the fer- 
 mentation. Sometimes, therefore, the cleansing 
 
 preaches to sharpness, or acidity ; But this is a 
 false taste : old ale ia this sense, it has been well 
 said, is old ale spoiled. 
 
 After all, a hogshead or pipe of ale, that has . 
 
 is practised in summer, when the elevation of been properly brewed and carefully managed, 
 temperature in the wort is at its height. The will not always be fine when tapped. Suppose 
 
 ' ' it be a year old, or what is more common, sup- 
 pose it to be brewed in October (the best month 
 in which to brew ^jood ale for keeping), and 
 tapped at the Christmas twelve-month following; 
 duced brewers to distinguish it by the name of if when tapped it be not fine, it may be corked 
 
 ale continuing to ferment after it is put into 
 casks, the yeast, as it comes to the surface, flows 
 out at the bung, and thus separates altogether 
 from the beer. It is this separation that has in- 
 
 cleansing. In these casks, then, the yeast divides 
 itself into two portions. The greatest part rises 
 up with the carbonic acid evolved, and flows 
 out at the bung-hole ; while another portion 
 subsides to the bottom, and constitutes what is 
 called the dregs of the beer. It is essential to 
 the cleansing, that the casks should be always 
 full, otherwise the yeast will not run off, and the 
 beer will not become transparent. This object is 
 accomplished in small breweries by a man con- 
 stantly going round, and filling up the casks as 
 they work down ; but in large breweries, by me- 
 
 up again, and stand another twelve-month, when 
 it will probably be found not only fine, but 
 greatly improved in flavour ; but if it be wanted, 
 it may be fined as follows : draw off a gallon or 
 two, if the cask be a pipe, and take a quarter of 
 a pound of isinglass, and some fresh hops, and 
 scald them in a clean copper pan, dissolving the 
 isinglass therewith ; pour the quantity into a 
 dry pail, and when cool put it into the barrel, 
 and stir the whole together well with a long 
 stick, or such an one as you have head-way to 
 introduce ; bung down the cask a few hours 
 
 chanical contrivances, according to their scale of afterwards, and in a fortnight the ale will be- 
 
 business. When the fermentation has subsided, 
 the ber will in general be found transparent : is 
 bunged up in the cask, and preserved for sale 
 or use. 
 
 The filling up of the casks, if the beer works 
 briskly, should be attended to every two or three 
 hours at least, for the first fourteen or fifteen 
 
 come fine. If the ale drink thin, and incline to 
 be hard, let a pound or two, or more if required, 
 of sugar-candy, bruised, be put into the pan 
 with the hops, &c. 
 
 The method called marrying ale, we have 
 often seen tried upon a private person's stock 
 with success. It seems to increase its strength, 
 
 hours, after which the fermentation will subside, but especially its mellowness and the fulness of 
 
 in a great degree, and therefore less attention its flavour, and consists in tapping a pipe or 
 
 becomes requisite ; but, until the fermentation hogshead of ale in the middle, and when it is 
 
 appears wholly to have ceased, yeast should be drawn as low as the tap, to fill up the cask with 
 
 added according to the strength of the beer, another brewing of wort. The particulars to be 
 
 the state of the weather, &c. This will generally observed are : to begin upon a sound stock, such 
 
 be in about forty or sixty hours. Well-fermented as is approved as to colour and flavour ; for if 
 
 beer, especially that designed for private use, there be any approach to acidity it will not do. 
 
 generally becomes fine of itself; but the various The next point is to tun the newly-fermented 
 
 changes of place, &c. that attend beer brewed wort upon the old stock, when it has fermented 
 
 for the public, have induced the general use about twelve hours. The third particular, of 
 
 of isinglass as a fining or assistance to the de- great importance, seems to be, not to marry 
 
 positing of the portions of flocculent glutinous your ale in winter, but in autumn (October), for
 
 604 
 
 ALE. 
 
 if your cellar be not a vault, the old stock is too 
 cliill, and the fermentation may suddenly stop : 
 if this should happen, as in cellars that are not 
 vaults, the heat may increase considerably in 
 spring, the fermentation may be renewed, and 
 the ale may spoil, or mischief happen to the 
 cask by bursting. Ale that is brewed in the 
 usual way will sometimes ferment in summer, 
 and throw up the bungs of the barrels ; especi- 
 ally if the fermentation have been hastily con- 
 ducted, and little or no cleansing have taken 
 place in the barrels after tunning (which is likely 
 to be the case when brewing is performed in 
 frosty weather) ; where this happens, the danger 
 is that acidity will follow, and therefore the beer 
 should be speedily used. When ale is married, 
 the fermentation will bring away all the old hops, 
 and it is not to be overlooked that the cork will 
 rise that had been driven in with the tap. It is, 
 therefore, requisite to work it out at the bung- 
 hole, skimming away the hops, &c. till they and 
 the cork are discharged ; then fill up the cask, 
 and take out the top cork for cleansing, as be- 
 fore. It may be filled up several times with 
 fresh wort, as in other cases, until the fermenta- 
 tion stops, and then the cork and bung put in 
 (the latter very lightly) and left so until it is ne- 
 necessary to hop it down. The writer has refilled 
 a cask in this manner five years successively, 
 and had the ale always superior, anil always 
 alike in colour and flavour ; in continuing this 
 practice for a long period it is necessary to 
 remove the casks for fear of accidents. The 
 excellence of this ale is, that you can never 
 guess at its age ; it drinks always soft and mild, 
 without any resemblance to ale recently brewed, 
 and is equally remote from hardness or acidity. 
 
 Although we have pursued a train of reason- 
 ing and observations in this article which will 
 apply to brewing on any scale, we cannot close 
 it without particularly urging on the small farmer 
 and cottager, even the labouring cottager, to en- 
 deavour to furnish himself with the beverage of 
 his ancestors, home-brewed beer. 'In former 
 times,' says Mr. Cobbett, in the most useful of 
 his works we have seen, ' to set about to show 
 to Englishmen that it was good for them to brew 
 beer in their own houses, would have been as im- 
 pertinent as gravely to insist that they ought to 
 endeavour not to lose their breatty ; for, in those 
 times, only forty years ago, to have a house and 
 not to brew was a rare thing indeed. Mr. Ell- 
 man, an old man and a large farmer, in Sussex, 
 has recently given in evidence before a committee 
 of the House of Commons this fact, that forty 
 years ago, there was not a labourer in his parish 
 that did not brew his own beer; and that now, 
 there is not one that does it, except by chance the 
 malt be given him. The cause of this change has 
 been the lowering of the wages of labour, com- 
 pared with the present price of provisions, by the 
 means of the paper money, the enormous tax 
 upon the barley when made into malt, and the 
 increased tax upon hops. These have quite 
 changed the customs of the English people as to 
 their drink. They still drink beer, but, in 
 general, it is of the brewing of common brewers, 
 and in public houses, of which the common 
 brewers have become the owners, and have thus, 
 
 by tne aid of paper-money, obtained a monopoly 
 in the supplying of the great body of the peoplj 
 with one of those things, which to the hard-work* 
 ing man, is almost a necessary of life. 
 
 'At present prices of malt and hops,' continues 
 this powerful writer, ' home brewed beer is the 
 cheapest drink that a family can use, except 
 milk, and that can be applied only in certain 
 cases. The drink, which has come to supply 
 the place of beer has, in general, been tea. It 
 is notorious, that tea has no useful strength in 
 it ; that it contains nothing nutritious ; that it, 
 besides being good for nothing, has badness in 
 it, because it is well known to produce want of 
 sleep in many cases, and, in all cases, to shake 
 and weaken the nerves. It is, in fact, a weaker 
 kind of laudanum, which enlivens for the mo- 
 ment and deadens afterwards. At any rate it 
 communicates no strength to the body ; it does 
 not, in any degree, assist in affording what la- 
 bour demands. It is, then, of no use. And, 
 now. as to its cost, compared with that of beer, 
 I shall make my comparison applicable to a 
 year, or three hundred and sixty five days. I 
 shall suppose the tea to be only five shillings the 
 pound; the sugar only seven-pence; the milk, 
 only two-pence a quart. The prices are at the 
 very lowest. I shall suppose a tea-pot to cos* 
 a shilling, six cups and saucers two shillings ana 
 six-pence, and six pewter spoons eighteen-pence 
 How to estimate the firing I hardly know ; but 
 certainly there must, in the course of the year, 
 be two hundred fires made that would not be 
 made, were it not for tea drinking. Then comes 
 the great article of all, the time employed in this 
 tea-making affair. It is impossible to make a 
 fire, boil water, make the tea, drink it, wash up 
 the things, sweep up the fire place, and put all 
 to rights again in a less space of time, upon an 
 average, than two hours. However, let us allow 
 one hour ; and here we have a woman occupied 
 no less than three hundred and sixty-five hours 
 in the year, or, thirty whole days, at twelve 
 hours in the day ; that is to say, one month out 
 of the twelve in the year, besides the waste of the 
 man's time in hanging about waiting for the tea ! 
 Needs there any thing more to make us cease to 
 wonder at seeing labourers' children with dirty 
 linen and holes in the heels of their stockings ? 
 Observe, too, that the time thus spent, is one 
 half of it the best time of the day. It is the 
 top of the morning, which, in every calling of 
 life, contains an hour worth two or three hours 
 of die afternoon. By the time that the clattering 
 tea tackle is out of the way, the morning is 
 spoiled ; its prime is gone ; and any work that 
 is to be done afterward lags heavily along. If 
 the mother has to go out to work, the tea affair 
 must all first be over. She comes into the field, 
 in summer time, when the sun has gone a third 
 part of his course. She has the heat of the day 
 to encounter, instead of having her work done, 
 and being ready to return home at an early hour. 
 Yet early she must go, too ; for, there is the fire 
 again to be made, the clattering tea tackle again 
 to come forward ; and even in the longest day 
 she must have candle light, which never ought 
 to be seen in a cottage (except in cases of ill- 
 ness) from March to September,
 
 ALE. 
 
 605 
 
 Now, then, let us take the bare cost of the use 
 of tea. I suppose a pound of tea to last twenty 
 days, which is not nearly half an ounce every 
 morning and evening. I allow for each mess 
 half a pint of milk. And I allow three pounds 
 of the red dirty sugar to each pound of tea. The 
 account of expenditure would then stand very 
 high ; but to these must be added the amount of 
 _he tea tackle, one set of which, will, upon an 
 average, be demolished every year. To these 
 out-goings must be added the cost of beer at the 
 public house ; for some the man will have after 
 all, and the woman, too, unless they be upon 
 the point of actual starvation. Two pots a week 
 is as little as will serve in this way; and here is 
 a lead loss of ninepence a week, seeing that two 
 pots of beer, full as strong, and a great deal 
 better, can be brewed at home for three pence. 
 The account of the year's tea drinking will then 
 stand thus : 
 
 18lbs. of Tea . . . . 4 10 
 54lbs. of Sugar .... 1 11 6 
 365 Pints of Milk ... 1106 
 
 Tea tackle 050 
 
 200 Fires 16 
 
 30 Day's works .... 16 
 Loss by going to public-house 1 18 
 
 11 7 2 
 
 I have here estimated every thing at its very 
 lowest. The entertainment which I have here 
 provided is as poor, as mean, as miserable, as 
 any thing short of starvation can set forth ; and 
 yet the wretched thing amounts to a good third 
 part of a good and able labourer's wages. For 
 this money, he and his family may drink good 
 and wholesome beer ; and, in a short time, out of 
 the mere savings from this waste, may drink it 
 out of silver cups and tankards. In a labourer's 
 family, wholesome beer, that has a little life in it, 
 is all that is wanted in general. Little children, 
 that do not work, should not have beer. Broth, 
 porridge, or something in that way^ is the thing 
 for them. However, I shall suppose, in order to 
 make my comparison as little complicated as 
 possible, that he brews nothing but beer as 
 strong as the generality of beer to be had at the 
 public house, and divested of the poisonous 
 drugs which that beer but too often contains ; 
 and I shall further suppose that he uses in his 
 family two quarts of this beer every day from 
 the first of October to the last day of March in- 
 clusive ; three quarts a day during the months of 
 April and May ; four quarts a day during the 
 months of June and September ; and five quarts 
 a day during the months of July and August ; 
 and if this be not enough it must be a family of 
 drunkards. Here are 1097 quarts, or 274 gal- 
 lons. Now, a bushel of malt will make eighteen 
 gallons of better beer than that which is sold at 
 the public houses. And this is precisely a gal- 
 lon for the price of a quar f . People should 
 bear in mind, that the beer bought at the public 
 house is loaded with a beer tax, with the tax on 
 the public house keeper, in the shape of license, 
 with all the taxes and expenses of the brewer, 
 v/i\h all the taxes, rent, and other expenses of 
 tiie publican, and with all the profits of both 
 brewer and publican ; so that when a man sw<il- 
 
 lows a pot of beer at the public house, he has 
 all these expenses to help to defray, besides the 
 mere tax on the malt and on the hops. 
 
 Well, then, to brew this ample supply of good 
 beer for a labourer's family ; these 274 gallons 
 require fifteen bushels of malt, and, (for let us 
 do the thing well) fifteen pounds of hops. The 
 malt is now eight shillings a bushel, and very 
 good hops may be bought for less than a shilling 
 a pound. The grains and yeast will amply pay 
 for the labour and fuel employed in the brewing; 
 seeing that there will be pigs to eat the grains, 
 and bread to be baked with the yeast. The ac- 
 count will then stand thus : 
 
 15 bushels of Malt .... 6 
 15 pounds of Hops .... 15 
 Wear of Utensils 10 
 
 750 
 
 Here, then, is four pounds, two shillings and 
 two pence, saved every year. The utensils for 
 brewing are, a brass kettle, a mashing tub, 
 coolers, (for which washing tubs may serve), 
 a half hogshead, with one end taken out for a 
 tun tub, about four nine gallon casks, and a 
 couple of eighteen gallon casks. This is an 
 ample supply of utensils, each of which will last, 
 with proper care, a good long life time or two, 
 and the whole of which, even if purchased new 
 from the shop, will only exceed by a few shillings, 
 if they exceed at all, the amount of the saving 
 arising the very first year, from quitting the 
 troublesome and pernicious practice of drinking 
 tea. The saving of each succeeding year would, 
 if you choose it, purchase a silver mug to hold 
 half a pint at least. However, the saving would 
 naturally be applied to purposes more conducive 
 to the well being and happiness of a family. 
 
 ' Jt is not, however, the mere saving to which 
 I look,' adds Mr. Cobbet, ' this is, indeed, a 
 matter of great importance, whether we look at 
 the amount itself, or at the ultimate consequences 
 of a judicious application of it ; for, four pounds 
 makes a great hole in a man's wages for the year ; 
 and when we consider all the advantages that 
 would arise to a family of children from having 
 these four pounds, now so miserably wasted, 
 laid out upon their backs in the shape of decent 
 dress, it is impossible to look at this waste with- 
 out feelings of sorrow, not wholly unmixed with 
 those of a harsher description. But, I look upon 
 the thing in a still more serious light. I view 
 the tea drinking as a destroyer of health, an en- 
 feebler of the frame, an engenderer of effeminacy 
 and laziness, a debaucher of youth, and a maker 
 of misery for old age. In the fifteen bushels of 
 malt, there are 570 pounds weight of sweet; 
 that is to say of nutritious matter, unmixed with 
 any thing injurious to health. In the 730 tea 
 messes of the year, there are fifty-four pounds of 
 sweet in the sugar, and about thirty pounds of 
 matter equal to sugar in the milk. Here are 
 eighty-four pounds, instead of 570, and even the 
 good effect of these eighty-four pounds is more 
 than over balanced by the corrosive, gnawing, 
 and poisonous powers, of the tea. 
 
 It is impossible for any one to deny the truth 
 of this statement. Put it to the test with a lean 
 HOG : give him the fifteen bushels of malt, and
 
 '506 
 
 ALE. 
 
 he will repay you in ten score of bacon or 
 thereabouts. But give him the 730 tea messes, 
 or rather begin to give them to him, and give 
 him nothing else, and he is dead with hunger, 
 and bequeaths you his skeleton at the end of 
 about seven days. It is impossible to doubt in 
 such a case.' COBBETT'S Cottage Economy, con- 
 taining Information relative to the brewing of 
 beer, making of bread, keeping of cows, pigs, bees, 
 ewes, goats, poultry, and rabbits ; and relative to 
 other matters deemed useful in the conducting of 
 the affairs of a labourer's family.'' We have cited 
 the whole of his title, for this little work is 
 really described by it, and cannot be too widely 
 circulated among the classes for whom it is de- 
 signed. Of course it must be read with due al- 
 lowance for Mr. Cobbett's occasionally wild and 
 ever-varying political doctrines. 
 
 The following method for preserving ale 
 from turning sour in long voyages, was first 
 published by Dr. Stubbs in his Phil. Trans. 
 No. 27. To every runlet of five gallons, after 
 being placed in a cask on ship-board not to be 
 stirred any more, put in two new-laid eggs 
 whole, and let them He in it. In a fortnight, or 
 a little more, the egg shells will be entirely dis- 
 solved, and the eggs become like wind-eggs en- 
 closed only in a thin skin ; after this the white 
 is preyed on, but the yolks are not touched or 
 corrupted ; and by these means the ale has been 
 so well preserved, that it was found better in 
 Jamaica than at Deal. 
 
 To give the reader an opportunity of com- 
 paring the quantity of ale and porter drank in 
 London, we subjoin 
 
 A table exhibiting the quantity of strong ale and porter brewed by the seven principal houses in 
 London, in the year ending the 5th of July, 1815. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 ALE. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 
 337,621 
 282,104 
 272,162 
 219,333 
 261,018 
 223,100 
 105,081 
 
 Wyatt 
 
 27,094 
 22,146 
 20,444 
 14,491 
 10,134 
 7,985 
 5,433n 
 
 Meux, Reid, and Co 
 Trueman, Ilanbury, and Co. . . 
 F Calvert and Co .... 
 
 Charrington and Co 
 
 Coding and Co 
 
 Stretton and Co 
 
 Whitbread, and Co 
 
 Hale and Co 
 
 Ball and Co 
 
 
 
 Giving the great difference of 1592, 
 malt liquor in and about the metropo 
 
 
 1700,419 
 
 592 barrel. 
 Us. 
 
 i in the consumption of these two descr 
 
 107,727 
 ptions of 
 
 THE FOLLOWING ARE THE LAST YEARS* RETURNS. 
 
 A table exhibiting the quantity of strong ale and porter brewed by the six principal houses in 
 London, in the year ending the 5th of July, 1825. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 ALE. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 Barclay and Perkins 
 
 357,446 
 223,766 
 203,842 
 190,252 
 146,743 
 108,948 
 
 Coding and Co . . 
 
 28,292 
 20,193 
 16,795 
 15,422 
 12,245 
 8,006 
 
 Trueman, Ilanbury, and Co. . . 
 Whitbread and Co. . . . . . 
 
 Wvatt .and Co 
 
 
 Meux, Reid, and Co 
 Combe 
 
 Coding Thomas 
 
 Ball and Co 
 
 H. Meux and Co. ...... 
 
 Hale and Co . . 
 
 Giving the difference of 1130,04 
 of malt liquor in and about the metre 
 
 in the consumption of these two des 
 
 1230,997 
 
 4 barrels 
 >polis. 
 
 100,953 
 criptions
 
 ALE. 
 
 507 
 
 ALES, in cnurch history and ancient customs, 
 were variously denominated. From the pre- 
 dominance of this old English beverage in the 
 feasts of the people, the entertainments given 
 passed by the names of the bridal-ale, leet-ale, 
 lamb-ale, Whitsun-ale, &c. denoting respectively 
 a wedding feast, an entertainment at the court- 
 leet of a manor, at lamb-shearing, &c. 
 
 CHURCH-ALES were feasts established by cus- 
 tom or authority in the neighbourhood of a 
 church, for the double purpose of regaling the 
 people, and gathering from them contributions 
 to its repair, the honour of the patron-saint, &c. 
 They are described by Pierce, bishop of Bath 
 and Wells, in his answer to the enquiries of 
 archbishop Laud, as celebrated when the people 
 go from after-noon prayers on Sundays to their 
 lawful sports and pastimes in the church-yard, 
 or in the neighbourhood, or in some public-house 
 where they drink and make merry. By the bene- 
 volence of the people at these pastimes, many 
 poor parishes are said to have cast their bells and 
 beautified their churches, and raised stock for the 
 poor. See Warton's English Poetry, vol. iii. &c. 
 
 CLERK-ALES, or lesser church-ales, were so 
 called because they were for the better mainte- 
 nance of the parish-clerk ; ' and there is great 
 reason for them,' says his lordship, ' for in poor 
 country parishes, where the wages of the clerk 
 are but small, the people thinking it unfit that 
 the clerk should duly attend at church, and not 
 gain by his office, send him in provision, and 
 then come on Sundays and feast with him, by 
 which means he sells more ale, and tastes more 
 of the liberality of tho people,- than, their quarterly 
 payment would amount to in many years ; and 
 since these have been put down, many ministers 
 have complained to me,' he adds, ' that they are 
 afraid they shall have no parish-clerks!' 
 
 A BID-ALE was held on behalf of poor men, 
 decayed in substance, and set up again by the 
 liberal benevolence and contribution of friends at 
 a Sunday's feast. The people were fond of 
 these recreations, and the above-mentioned pre- 
 late recommended them, as bringing the peo- 
 ple more willingly to church, tending to civilize 
 them, to compose differences among them, &c. 
 But the justices of the peace were of a different 
 opinion, and signed a petition to the king, in 
 which they declare that these revels had not only 
 introduced a great profanation of the Lord's day, 
 but riotous tippling, contempt of authority, 
 quarrels, murders, &c., and were very prejudicial 
 to the peace, plenty, and good government of the 
 country, and therefore they pray that they might 
 be suppressed. Two judges in the western cir- 
 cuit, in 1653, made an order for suppressing 
 them ; but archbishop Laud complained to king 
 Charles I. of their invading the episcopal juris- 
 diction, and they were summoned before the 
 council, reprimanded, and enjoined to revoke 
 this order at the next assizes. 
 
 ALE-CONNER, an officer of the city of London, 
 appointed by common-hall, whose duty it is to 
 taste and judge of the quality of the ale sold 
 within the jurisdiction of the city, and to regulate 
 the ale-measures of the public-houses. There are 
 Icur of these officers chosen every Midsummer day. 
 
 ALE AND BEER DUTIES make a considerable 
 
 branch of the revenue in England. They were 
 imposed in 1643, at the first establishment of 
 the excise, again by Car. II. and have been con- 
 tinued by several subsequent acts of parliament. 
 By 43 Geo. III. c. 69, for every barrel of beer or 
 ale brewed for sale, above sixteen shillings a 
 barrel, exclusive of the duty hereby imposed, 
 and not being two- penny ale, nor table-beer, the 
 brewer shall pay ten-shillings; and for every 
 barrel of table-beer, or beer or ale of sixteen 
 shillings the barrel, or under (exclusive of the 
 duty), two-shillings; and for every barrel of two- 
 penny ale, (described in the seventh article of the 
 Union with Scotland) four shillings and two- 
 pence. The allowance for waste shall be three 
 gallons out of thirty-six gallons, which shall be 
 reckoned a barrel of beer or ale made by com- 
 mon brewers. These duties the private brewer 
 for his own consumption, entirely escapes. 
 
 ALE-HOUSES are licensed yearly by the jus- 
 tices of peace of a county, or supreme ma- 
 gistrates of a city, for the sale of ale or beer. 
 The occupiers of such houses are bound in re- 
 cognizances that no riot or disorderly conduct 
 shall take place in them; and their licences, 
 upon misconduct, or the forfeiture of such re- 
 cognizances, may be taken away at the pleasure 
 of the magistrates granting them. By 26 Geo. 
 II. c. 41, justices on granting licences, are to 
 take recognizances in 10, with sureties in the 
 like amount, for the maintaining good order. 
 Certificates of good character are to be given 
 before any new licence is granted ; and the pe- 
 nalty for selling ale, &c. without licence is, by 
 this and subsequent acts, fixed at forty shillings 
 for the first offence ; for the second, four pounds ; 
 and the third, six pounds. For suffering tippling 
 in such houses, they are to be fined ten shillings. 
 At wakes or fairs, however, ale may still be sold 
 indiscriminately, and without a licence. No 
 persons, otherwise than as above mentioned, 
 are to sell wine to be drank in their own houses 
 without an ale licence as well as a wine licence. 
 But persons who sell ale or beer in casks not 
 less than five gallons, and in bottles (reputed 
 quarts) not less than two dozen, and not to be 
 drank in their own houses, are exempted from 
 the penalties of retailing without a licence. By 
 48 Geo. III. c. 143, the stamp duties on ale 
 licences are repealed, and excise duties, to be 
 paid annually, granted on them in lieu thereof. 
 
 ALE MEASURES are to be regulated by the 
 standard quart and pint preserved in his ma- 
 jesty's exchequer; sub-commissioners and col- 
 lectors of excise are to provide full and substantial 
 ale quarts and pints in every town of their 
 division, and the mayors or chief magistrates to 
 mark the measures from the standard, or forfeit 
 five pounds by stat. 1 Jac. I. c. 9. Ale-house 
 keepers selling in short measures are exposed to 
 a penalty of not less than ten shillings, and not 
 more than forty shillings. 
 
 ALE-SILVER, a rent, or tribute, yearly paid to 
 the lord mayor of London, by those who sell ale 
 within the city. 
 
 ALE-TASTER, is an officer appointed and sworn, 
 in certain court-leets, to take heed that there be 
 a due size, and goodness of bread, ale, and beev, 
 sold within the jurisdiction of the leet.
 
 ALE 
 
 508 
 
 ALF 
 
 ALE MEDICATED, in pharmacy, ale wherein 
 medicinal herbs have been infused, or added 
 during the fermentation. 
 
 ALEA, in antiquity, denotes in general all 
 kinds of games of chance ; but, in a more re- 
 stricted sense, was used for a particular game 
 played with dice and tables, not unlike our back- 
 gammon, and wherein black and white stones 
 were used instead of wooden men. The Greeks 
 called these games pettia and chivia, and the 
 Romans, tabula, tessera, duodecim scripta, &c. 
 Some writers on Roman Antiquity observe, that, 
 in games of hazard,, two sorts of dice were used ; the 
 tessera, or cube, having its six sides marked from 
 one to six; and the talus of an oblong form, of 
 which the four long sides only were marked ; one 
 side having one point on it, the opposite six points, 
 and the other two sides four and three. In play- 
 ing, three tesserae, or four tali were used, which, 
 after being shaken in the dice-box, called fritillus, 
 were, to guard the better against fraud, thrown 
 through another box, the pyrgus or turricula, in 
 the form of a tower,placed on the middle of the 
 board. The fritillus and the pyrgus have been 
 considered, however, as the same box The 
 highest cast of the tesserae was three sixes, and 
 of the tali, when all four came up different. It 
 was named Venus, or Venereus Jactus. The 
 Cornelian, Publician, and Titian laws were 
 passed to prohibit all games of chance (which 
 in them seem to be comprehended under the 
 general title of alea), except in the month of De- 
 cember, when the Saturnalia were celebrated. 
 But it is supposed, by some authors, that they 
 were designed only to restrain the cupidity of 
 professed gamesters, who were held in infa- 
 my ; or these laws do not seem to have been 
 generally regarded ; and the Roman emperors 
 countenanced dice-playing by their own ex- 
 ample. All gaming was expressly forbidden 
 in the army. Cicero de Sencct. cap. 16 ; de 
 Divinat. 1. i. c. 13; Suet. Vit. Aug. cap. 17; 
 Dion. Cass. 1. lix. c. 22 ; Mart. lib. xiv. ep. 14; 
 and lib. v. ep. 85 ; Hor. I- iii. od. 24 ; Juv. 
 Sat. xiv. v. 4. 
 
 ALEA, in mythology, an epithet of Minerva. 
 Also a town of Arcadia, on the east border, 
 named after its founder Aleus, whose inhabitants 
 were always members of the councils of Argolis. 
 Both Bacchus and Minerva, surnamed ALEA, 
 see above, had temples here ; where the women, 
 it is said, were scourged at the public festivals 
 by command of the Delphic oracle. Augustus 
 conveyed the ivory statue of the goddess from 
 this place to Rome. 
 
 ALEANDER, (Jerome,) cardinal and arch- 
 bishop of Brindisi, was born in 1480 : and dis- 
 tinguished at the beginning of the reformation 
 by his opposition to Luther. Being sent into 
 Germany as the pope's nuncio in 1.519, he de- 
 claimed for three hours against the reformed 
 doctrine before the diet of Worms, but could not 
 prevent Luther from being heard. He published 
 several works, and died at Rome in 1541. 
 
 ALEANDER, (Jerome,) a learned divine of the 
 seventeenth century, of the same family with the 
 preceding, was born in Priuli. He was em- 
 ployed at Rome as secretary under cardinal Ban-. 
 dini, and discharged this office with great honour 
 
 for almost twenty years. He afterwards, at the 
 particular wish of Urban VIII. became secretary 
 to cardinal F. Barberim, whom he accompanied 
 to France in the character of legate a latere, and 
 in whose service he died in 1631. .He was one 
 of the first members of the academy of Humorists, 
 see ACADEMY; and wrote, 1. Psalmi Poeni- 
 tentiales, Versibus Elegiacis expressi, 4to. 1593. 
 2. Caii, Veteris Jurisconsulti, Institutio- 
 num Fragmenta cum Commentario, 4to. 1600. 
 Venet. 3. Explicatio Antiquae Tabulae Mar- 
 moreae, &c. 4to. Venet. 1627. 4. Carmina 
 Varia. 5. Le Lagrime di Penitenza, ad Imi- 
 tazione di sette Salmi Penitenziali, 8vo. Rom. 
 1623. 6. Difesa deil'Adone, Poema del Cava- 
 lier Marino, pt. i. 12mo. Venet. 1629; pt. ii. 
 1630; besides other smaller works mentioned by 
 Mazzuchelli. 
 
 ALEATORIUM, in Roman antiquity, was 
 the place where they played at alea. The alea- 
 torium was near the sphaeristerium ; that the 
 sportsmen, when tired with the pila, or more 
 robust exercises, might refresh themselves in the 
 aleatprium. 
 
 ALEC, in ichthyology, a name given by 
 Gaza, in his commentaries on Aristotle, to the 
 fish called mainis, and by Ovid menerela. It is 
 of the spams kind. 
 
 ALECTO, in mythology, from a priv. and 
 Xjj-yw, to rest, one of the three furies ; the daughter 
 of Acheron and Night, or, as others have it, of 
 Pluto and Proserpine. Virgil, lEn. lib. vii. v. 32, 
 introduces Alecto exciting the flames of war, at 
 the instigation of the implacable Juno, between 
 the Latins and the Trojans. He describes her 
 as having her hair and her dark wings covered 
 with wreathing snakes, whose poison she infuses 
 into her victims, till she infects them with un- 
 governable rage. So malignant was this divinity, 
 that she was the abhorrence of Pluto, her father, 
 and of her sister furies. From Cocytus, a river 
 of hell, she is called Cocyfcia Virgo. Claud, in 
 Ruf. 1.1. v. 25. speaks of her as atrox, black, 
 Invidias quondam stimulis incanduit atrex 
 Alecto, plac'das late cum cerneret urbes. 
 
 ALECTORlA, from aXttcrwp, a cock, a stone 
 said to be formed in the gall-bladders of old 
 cocks, to which the ancients ascribed many 
 fabulous virtues. It was called alectorius lapis 
 and alectorolithos. Modern naturalists hold the 
 alectorius lapis to be swallowed, and not gene- 
 rated in the stomach or gizzard of cocks and 
 capons. 
 
 ALECTORTCARDITES, from oXticrwp, an.l 
 KapSia, the heart, in natural history, a name 
 given by Plot, to a figured stone resembling a 
 pullet's heart, with the fat near the basis of it, 
 and the coronary vessels descending from it. 
 ALECTOROLITHOS. See ALECTORIA. 
 
 ALECTOROMANTIA. See PENDICULARIS. 
 
 ALECTOROMANTIA. in antiquity, a kind of 
 divination performed by means of a cock ; and 
 thus effected : a circle being described on the 
 ground, and divided into twenty-four equal 
 portions, in each of these spaces was written one 
 of the letters of the alphabet, and on each of 
 the letters was laid a grain of wheat ; after which 
 a cock being turned loose in the circle, particular 
 notice was taken of the giains which he picked
 
 ALE 
 
 509 
 
 ALE 
 
 up, because the letters under them, being 
 formed into a word, made the answer desired. 
 It was thus, according to Zonaras, that Libanius 
 and Jamblicus sought who should succeed the 
 emperor Valens ; and the cock, eating the grains 
 answering to the spaces 0EOA, several whose 
 names began with these letters, as Theodotus, 
 Theodistes, Theodolus, &c. were put to death; 
 which did not hinder, but promote, the succes- 
 sion of TheodosiuS. This story, however, has 
 been called in question, from the silence of Mar- 
 cellinus, Socrates, and other historians of the 
 time. Another species of augury was taken 
 from the crowing of the cock, wherein regard 
 was had to the time of day, whether before noon 
 or after; to which some added the consideration 
 of the sign the sun was in, and the motion of the 
 moon. 
 
 ALECTRA, in botany, a genus of the didy- 
 namia angio-spermia class and order ; its cha- 
 racters are : CAL. a one-leafed, two-lipped, peri- 
 anthium, upper lip two-cleft, lower three-cleft; 
 the clefts ovate, obtuse, shorter than the tube : 
 COR. one-petalled, tubular, the tube gradually 
 widened ; the border expanding, five-parted ; 
 the parts broad, lanceolate, obtuse : STAM. four 
 filaments, inserted into the tube, filiform, bearded, 
 of the length of the tube, two of them a little 
 shorter ; antherae twin : FIST, a germ ovate ; style 
 filiform, of the length of the filaments ; stigma 
 incurved, a little thicker than the style,, and of 
 the same length, striated on both sides : PERI- 
 CARP, a capsule, ovate, obtuse, twin, smooth, 
 two-celled, and two^valved; the seeds solitary 
 and ovate. There is one species, viz. A. Capen- 
 sis, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, growing 
 in grassy places near rivers, and flowering in 
 November and December, and growing black in 
 drying. Martyn. 
 
 ALECTKUONURUS. See FESTUCA. 
 
 ALECTRYOMANCY, from oXrwp, a cock, 
 and fiaxn, a fight, cock-fighting. 
 
 ALECTRYON, a youth whom Mars, in an 
 amour with Venus, stationed at the door to 
 watch the approach of the sun. He however 
 fell asleep, and Apollo came and discovered the 
 lovers, who were exposed in each other's arms 
 before all the gods. The incensed Mars changed 
 Alectryon into a cock, which, mindful of his 
 neglect, was said ever after to announce early 
 the approach of the sun. 
 
 A-LEE, in the sea-language, a term only used 
 when the wind, crossing or flanking the line of 
 a ship's course, presses upon the masts and 
 sails so as to make her incline to one side, which 
 is called the lee-side : hence, when the helm is 
 moved over to this side, it is said to be a-lee, or 
 hard a-lee. 
 
 ALEGAMBE, (Philip,) a celebrated Jesuit, 
 born at Brussels, 1592, distinguished himself by 
 publishing, 1 . Bibliotheca Scriptorum Societatis 
 Jesu, folio, Antw. 1643. 2. Vita P. Joannis 
 Cardin Lusitani ex Societate Jesu, 12mo. Rom, 
 1649. 3. Heroes et Victims: Charitatis Socie- 
 tatis Jesu, quarto, Rom. 1658. 4. Mortes 
 Illustres et Gesta eorum de Societate Jesu, qui in 
 Odium Fidei ab Haereticis vel aliis occisi sunt, 
 fol. Rom. 1657. He died at Rome in 1652. 
 
 ALE'GER, or ) Ale, aigre, Fr. sour. Sour 
 ALE'GAR. $' ale, a kind of acid liquor 
 
 made with ale or malt. Power has given a de- 
 scription of the eels in aleger. 
 
 ALE'GER. Allegro, Ital. Gay, cheerful. 
 Obsolete. 
 
 Coffee, the root and leaf-beetle, and leaf-tobacco, of 
 which the Turks are great takers, do all condense the 
 spirits, and make them strong and aleger. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. Hist. 
 
 ALEGGE', -* A. S. Alecjan, Lecjan, to 
 
 ALEGE'ANCE, >lay, to lay down whence, or 
 
 ALEGE'MENT. j from a sirailiar origin, the old 
 Fr. alleger, aleger. 
 
 The modern word is allay. To lay, to put 
 down, to ease, sooth, or alleviate, 
 po he was ycrouned kyng at Westmynstre y wys, 
 He byhet God and pat folc an byheste, pat was pys 
 To alegge alle luper lawes, pat yholde were bynore, 
 And betere mak pan were supp he was ybore. 
 
 R. Gloucester, p. 422. 
 It would have brought my life againe 
 For certes euenly, I dare well saine 
 The sight only and the sauour 
 A legged much of my langour. 
 
 Chaucer. The Remount of the Rose 
 His feeling wordes her feeble sence much pleased, 
 And softly sunck into her molten hart ; 
 Hart, that is inly hurt, is greatly eased 
 With hope of thing that may allegge his smart. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, b.'iii. c. ii, 
 
 ALEGRE, a town of France, in Auvergne, 
 intendancy of Riom, with the title of a marqui- 
 sate ; now in the department of the Upper Loire, 
 arrondissement of Le Puy. The number of 
 houses is about 200, that of inhabitants 900. 
 Eighteen leagues south-south-east of Clermont 
 Ferrand. 
 
 ALEGRETTE, a fortified town of Portugal, 
 in the province of Alentejo, on the Spanish 
 frontier, seven miles and a half south-east of 
 Portalegre, on the river Caja, a branch of the 
 Guadiana. 
 
 ALEIPHA, from a\0G>, I anoint, in the ma- 
 teria medica of the ancients, a word used for all 
 fatty bodies whatever ; as the oils of vegetables, 
 the fat of animals, any sort of medicated oil im- 
 pregnated with aromatic vegetables, &c. Its ge- 
 neral meaning was such compositions as were in- 
 tended to anoint the body, or fats impregnated 
 with the lighter parts of plants, and not clogged 
 with an addition of powders, wax, or any thing 
 jvhich might have given them the consistence of 
 ointments. The ancient physicians were very 
 fond of these compositions, which they applied 
 both to a diseased part, and to the whole body, 
 after they had made the patient use the warm 
 bath to relax and open the p*ores. 
 
 ALEIUS CAMPUS, in ancient geography, a 
 plain in Cilicia, on this side the river Pyramus, 
 near the mountain Chimera, famous for Bellero- 
 phon's wandering and perishing there, after 
 being thrown off Pegasus ; from which it cbtaine* 
 the appellation. 
 
 ALEMANNI, or ALEMANS, in ancient his. 
 tory, a body of Suevi, who appeared on the 
 banks of the Mein, and in the neighbourhood o 
 the Roman provinces, in quest either of food 
 or plunder, early in the third century of the
 
 510 
 
 ALEMANNI. 
 
 Christian era. Asinius Quadratus, an original 
 Roman historian, cited by Agathias, lib. i. c. 5, 
 informs us, that their hasty army, which co- 
 alesced into a great and permanent nation, was 
 composed of many different tribes, and on this 
 account assumed the name of Allemanni, or 
 All-men, i. e. men of all nations, and perhaps to 
 denote thoir common bravery. They were chiefly 
 Suevi, however, who were joined by several 
 other German nations and some Gauls. . Aure- 
 lius Victor, St. Jerome, and other writers, place 
 them between the Danube, the Upper Rhine, 
 and the Mein, in the present duchy of Wirtem- 
 berg. They were numerous and warlike, and 
 were chiefly celebrated for fighting with great 
 dexterity and bravery on horseback. Their ab- 
 horrence of slavery was so great, that those 
 taken prisoners chose rather to die than to endure 
 captivity ; and when they were actually sold, 
 they not only destroyed themselves, but some of 
 them dispatched also their children. The go- 
 vernment of their tribes was monarchical ; and 
 the objects of their worship were the same with 
 those of the other German nations. Caracalla, 
 in consequence of a victory which he gained 
 over them in the year 214, was distinguished by 
 the surname of Alemannicus. In the thirteenth 
 year of Alexander Severus, the Alemanni, accom- 
 panied with other German nations, passed the 
 Rhine, took possession of the forts on the banks 
 of that river, and ravaged Gaul. The emperor 
 returning from Persia, hastened to the banks of 
 the Rhine, and as the Alemanni had re-passed 
 the river upon the news of his approach, he 
 ordered a bridge to be thrown over, proposing 
 to attack them in their own country : but being 
 assassinated at this juncture by his soldiery, this 
 business devolved upon his successor. Accord- 
 ingly Maximinus pursued them with great 
 slaughter, took many of them prisoners, and 
 great spoil of corn and cattle ; in commemoration 
 of which, the .senate conferred upon him and his 
 son the title of Germanicus. In the year 256, 
 the fourth of Valerian's reign, the Alemanni made 
 an unexpected irruption into Gaul, and laid 
 waste' the country ; whilst those who dwelt on 
 the banks of the Danube, penetrated the Rhaetian 
 Alps into the plains of Lombardy, advanced as 
 far as Ravenna, and displayed their victorious 
 banners almost in sight of Rome. A large army 
 being suddenly convened, the Alemanni were 
 intimidated, and retired into Germany. On 
 another occasion 300,000 of this warlike people 
 are said to have been vanquished in a battle near 
 Milan, by Gallienus, at the head of only 10,000 
 Romans ; after which Gallienus seems to have 
 formed an alliance -with the Alemanni, and to 
 have protected Italy from their fury, by marrying 
 Pipa, the daughter of a king of the Marcomanni. 
 A party of them was defeated by Claudius in 
 268, and compelled to save themselves by a 
 precipitate flight into their own country. As 
 soon, however, as they heard of the death of 
 Claudius, they prepared for again invading Italy ; 
 40,000 horse appeared in the tield, and the 
 number of the infantry doubled that of the ca- 
 valry. Their first objects were a few cities on 
 the Rhaetian frontier ; but as they proceeded they 
 
 enlarged their views, and traced a line of da 
 vastation from the Danube to the Po. 
 
 Aurelian, A.D. 270, having collected an active 
 body of troops, marched with silence and ce- 
 lerity along the skirts of the Hercynian forest ; 
 and when the Alemanni, laden with the spoils of 
 Italy, arrived at the Danube, the Roman army, 
 which lay concealed, intercepted their return. 
 The dismayed barbarians, enclosed by the Ro- 
 man legions, and reduced to a condition abject 
 and distressed, now sued for peace. Their am- 
 bassadors were received by Aurelian with every 
 appendage of dignity ; and when they were or- 
 dered to rise and allowed to speak, they 
 attempted to extenuate their conduct, and de- 
 manded a large subsidy, as the price of the 
 alliance which they offered to the Romans. The 
 emperor's reply was stem and imperious. He 
 treated their offer with contempt, and their de- 
 mand with indignation ; and dismissed them 
 with the choice only of submitting to his uncon- 
 ditional mercy, or awaiting the utmost severity 
 of his resentment. Aurelian, being suddenly 
 called away into Pannonia, committed the 
 destruction of the Alemanui, either by sword or 
 by famine, to his lieutenants. But the barbarians 
 once more made their escape, and returned 
 towards the mountains of Italy. As soon as the 
 emperor heard of this, and that they were ravag- 
 ing the territory of Milan, he hastened to march 
 to its relief. The Alemanni, in the mean while, 
 had spread themselves from the Alps to the Apen- 
 nines ; and, by a desultory war, the force of the 
 enemy remained unsubdued. Three considerable 
 battles are mentioned, in which the principal 
 force of both armies was obstinately engaged. 
 In the first battle, fought near Placentia, the 
 Romans received so severe a blow, that the im- 
 mediate dissolution of the empire was appre- 
 hended. But the firmness of the emperor restored 
 in some degree the honour of his arms. The 
 second battle was fought near Fano, in Umbria ; 
 and here the Alemanni were totally and irre- 
 trievably defeated. The flying remnant of their 
 host was exterminated in a third and last battle 
 near Pavia; and Italy was rescued from the 
 inroads of these barbarians. During the alarm 
 which preceded the decisive battle of Fano, the 
 Sibylline books were consulted, A.D. 271 ; and 
 the ceremonies which were enjoined were punc- 
 tiliously observed. ' These superstitious arts,' 
 says Mr. Gibbon, ' however peurile in them- 
 selves, were subservient to the success of the 
 war ; and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the 
 Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres 
 combating on the side of Aurelian, he received a 
 real and effectual aid from this imaginary rein 
 forcement.' 
 
 They are still to be traced as the assailants of 
 Rome, for nearly two centuries onward. The 
 emperor Probus, A.D. 277, delivered Gaul from 
 the invasion of these tribes, and recovered seventy 
 flourishing cities, which had been oppressed by 
 them. He passed the Rhine, compelled nine of 
 the most considerable princes of Germany to re- 
 pair to his camp, to fall prostrate at his feet, and 
 to accept such conditions as he thought proper 
 to dictate : and, in order to raise a bulwark
 
 ALE 
 
 511 
 
 ALE 
 
 against their future inroads, he constructed a 
 stone wall of considerable height, and strength- 
 ened it by towers at convenient distances. It 
 stretched from the neighbourhood of Newstadt 
 and Ratisbon, on the Danube, across hills, valleys, 
 rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpsen, on the 
 Necker, and at length terminated on the banks 
 of the Rhine, after a winding course of near 200 
 miles. Within a few years after the death of 
 Probus, this wall was overthrown by the Ale- 
 manni. In 287, they made another incursion 
 into Gaul, but were defeated by Maximian, who, 
 in the following year, laid their country waste 
 wherever he came, with fire and sword. Dio- 
 clesian also, at the same time, entered Germany 
 through Rhaetia ; and is said to have extended 
 the confines of the empire to the source of the 
 Danube. In the year 291 the Burgundians 
 seized on part of the country belonging to the 
 Alemanni ; and in 301 Constantius Chlorus, the 
 father of Constantine, gained a signal victory 
 over them, on which occasion the Alemanni are 
 said to have lost 60,000 men. Notwithstanding 
 this loss, they did not long remain quiet ; for in 
 310, they crossed the Rhine and ravaged the 
 neighbouring provinces : but the emperor himself 
 marching against them, defeated them in a battle, 
 and obliged them to quit their booty and repass 
 the Rhine. Some say he was called Maximus 
 on account of this victory. In the 18th year of 
 Constantius's reign, the Alemanni again at- 
 tempted to make an incursion into Italy; and 
 having advanced as far as the lake of Constance, 
 that prince marched against them, and put them 
 to flight. In the course of the same year, 
 another body breaking into Gaul, with the Franks 
 and Saxons, took and plundered above 40 towns 
 on the banks of the Rhine, among which was 
 the city of Cologne, which they almost entirely 
 ruined. They were at length driven out of Gaul 
 by Julian ; but assembling near Strasburg, A.D. 
 357 , a battle ensued ; and after victory had remain- 
 ed for some time in suspense, the Alemanni were 
 defeated, and driven completely out of Gaul. 
 Julian now granted them a truce for ten months. 
 When the truce expired, he passed the Rhine on 
 a bridge of boats, entered their country, and 
 compelled them to sue for peace. Upon his 
 death they again ravaged Gaul ; defeated the 
 Romans in a pitched battle, but were afterwards 
 defeated by Jovinus in three battles, A. D. 366. 
 In the close of the following year they again 
 rally, and pass the Rhine ; but Valentinian gains 
 a signal victory over them : invades their country ; 
 and in 374 concludes a peace with their king 
 Macrianus. In 387 they are again in arms, and 
 waste the neighbouring provinces, but are de- 
 feated with great slaughter by Gratian ; in 
 388 submit to Maximus, who usurped the 
 empire in Gaul, and agree to pay him a yearly 
 tribute. 
 
 In the reign of Honorius a colony of the 
 Alemanni was allowed to settle in that part of 
 the present Switzerland, which is separated by 
 mount Jura from the Franche Comte, and by 
 the lake of Geneva and the Rhine from the 
 present Savoy and province of Vienne. In 477 
 Audoacrius, king of the Saxons, and Childeric, 
 
 king of the Franks, marched against those who 
 had settled among the Alps, and put many of 
 them to death. Upon the destruction of the 
 western empire, the Alemanni subdued that part 
 of Gaul which is now known by the name of 
 Alsace, where they settled. \ These were joined 
 by their countrymen in Germany, and those who 
 dwelt between mount Jura and the lake of 
 Geneva ; and in 496 entered Germania Secunda, 
 and wasted the country ; but they were over- 
 come by Clovis, king of the Salian Franks, and 
 dispersed. Those who settled in Alsace, and 
 near the lake of Geneva, acknowledged him for 
 their king. Others took refuge in Rhietia and 
 Noricum, where they were allowed by Theodo- 
 ric, king of Italy, to reside. Many of them 
 were transplanted by the same prince into Italy, 
 and the rest were permitted to settle between the 
 Alps and the Danube. From this time the 
 Alemanni had no king of their own ; but con- 
 tinued, as they were dispersed in several 
 countries, subject partly to the Ostrogoths, who 
 were masters of Italy, and partly to the Franks, 
 who had dominion in Gaul. When the Ostro- 
 goths ceded their territories oul of Italy to the 
 children of Clovis, the Alemanni, those excepted 
 whom Theodoric had transplanted into that 
 country, submitted to the Franks. Gibbon's 
 History, &c. vol. i. p. 417, &c. Vol. ii. p. 21, 
 &c. Un. Hist. vol. xvii. p. 288 299. 
 
 ALEMANNIA, or ALEMANIA, in ancient 
 geography, a name given to Germany, which 
 was not known before the time of the Antonines, 
 and then applied only to part of it. The appel- 
 lation is derived from the Alemanni. 
 
 ALEMBDAR, or ALEMDAR, an officer in the 
 court of the grand seignior, who bears the green 
 standard of Mahomet, when the sultan appears 
 in public upon any solemn occasion. 
 
 ALEMBERT, (John le Rond d'), an eminent 
 French philosopher, born at Paris in 1717. He 
 derived the name of John le Rond, from that of 
 the church, near which, after his birth, he was ex- 
 posed as a foundling. His father, Destouches 
 Canon, informed of this circumstance, and listen- 
 ing to the voice of nature and duty, took measures 
 for the proper education of his child, and for his 
 future subsistence in a state of ease and indepen- 
 dence. He received his first education among 
 the Jansenists, where he gave early marks of 
 capacity and genius. In the first year of his 
 philosophical studies, he composed a Commen- 
 tary on the Epistle to the Romans. The Jan- 
 senists considered this production as an omen 
 that portended to the party of Port Royal, a re- 
 storation of some part of their ancient splendour ; 
 and hoped to find, one day, in M. d'Alembert, a 
 second Pascal. They now, therefore, engaged 
 their rising pupil in theology and mathematics ; 
 but soon perceived, that his enthusiastic attach- 
 ment to science, was likely to disappoint the 
 hopes they had formed with respect to his future 
 destination. On his leaving college, he found 
 himself alone and unconnected in the world: 
 and sought an asylum in the house of his nurse, 
 the wife of a glazier, comforting himself with the 
 hope, that his fortune, though not ample, would 
 better the condition and subsistence of a family,
 
 512 
 
 A L E M B E R T. 
 
 which was the only one he could consider as his 
 own. Here he lived, during the space of 30 
 years, with the greatest simplicity, discovering 
 the augmentation of his means only by increasing 
 displays of his beneficence. His growing reputa- 
 tion and celebrity, were entirely unknown to these 
 honest people, and their plain and uncouth man- 
 ners, were the daily subject of his good-natured 
 pleasantry, and philosophical observation. His 
 nurse perceived his ardent activity; and heard 
 him mentioned as the writer of many books ; 
 but never supposed him the great man he was, 
 and beheld his conduct with regret and compas- 
 sion. ' You will never,' said she to him one 
 day, ' be any thing but a philosopher and what 
 is a philosopher ? A fool, who toils and plagues 
 limself during his life, that people may talk of 
 nim when he is no more.' M. d'Alembert's 
 fortune not much exceeding the demands of ne- 
 cessity, his friends advised him to think of a pro- 
 fession that might enable him to augment it. He 
 accordingly turned his views to the law, and 
 took his degrees, but soon abandoned this for the 
 study of medicine. His passion for mathema- 
 tical studies, however, was always drawing him 
 back to his former pursuits, and after many inef- 
 fectual efforts to overcome it, he renounced all 
 views of a lucrative profession, and gave him- 
 self over entirely to the pursuit of science and 
 to poverty. In 1741, he was admitted member 
 of the Academy of Sciences; having attracted 
 universal attention and admiration, by correcting 
 the errors of a celebrated work, the Analyse de- 
 montree of F. Beinau, which was deemed clas- 
 sical in France, as a treatise on geometry. He, 
 after this, set himself to examine, with great as- 
 siduity, the motion of a body which passes from 
 one fluid into another more dense, in a direction 
 not perpendicular to the surface separating the 
 two fluids. Every one knows the phenomenon 
 which happens in this case ; but M. d'Alembert 
 was the first who explained it in a satisfactory 
 and philosophical manner. Two years after his 
 election to a place in the academy, he published 
 his Treatise on Dynamics, and established the 
 principle of the equality, at each instant, be- 
 tween the changes that the motion of a body has 
 undergone, and the powers which have been 
 employed to produce them. So early as 1744, 
 M. d'Alembert had applied this principle to the 
 theory of the equilibrium, and the motion of 
 fluids; and all the problems before solved by 
 geometricians, became, in some measure, its co- 
 rollaries. The discovery of this new principle, 
 was followed by that of a new calculus, the first 
 trials of which were published in a Discourse on 
 the general theory of the Winds ; to which the 
 prize medal was adjudged, by the academy of 
 Berlin, in 1746 ; and which was a brilliant ad- 
 dition to the fame of d'Alembert. This new 
 calculus 04 partial differences, he applied to 
 the problem of vibrating chords, whose solution, 
 as well as the theory of the oscillations of the 
 air and the propagation of sound, had been given 
 but incompletely by the geometricians who pre- 
 ceded him. In 1749, he applied his principle to 
 the motion of any body of a given figure ; and 
 solved the problem of the procession of the 
 equinoxes; determined its quantity; and ex- 
 
 plained the nutation of the terrestrial axis disco- 
 vered by Dr. Bradley. In 1752, he published a 
 treatise on the Resistance of Fluids, to which 
 he gave the modest title of an Essay ; but which 
 contains a multitude of original ideas, and new 
 observations. He also published, in the Memoirs 
 of the Academy of Berlin, Researches concern- 
 ing the integral calculus, which is indebted to 
 him for the progress it has made in the present 
 century. 
 
 While the studies of M. d'Alembert were con- 
 fined to geometry, he was little known or cele- 
 brated in his native country. His connections 
 were limited to a small society of select friends : 
 and he had made no acquaintance with men in 
 power. Satisfied with an income which fur- 
 nished him with the necessaries of life, he did 
 not aspire after opulence or honours ; nor had 
 they been hitherto bestowed upon him, as it is 
 easier to confer them on the forward, than to look 
 out for the deserving. But his cheerful conver- 
 sation, and a singular mixture of delicate wit 
 with simplicity of manners, rendered him a plea- 
 sant companion, and he was now much sought 
 after in the fashionable circles. His reputation, 
 at length, reached the throne. He received a 
 pension from the French government of 1200 
 livres, which he owed to the friendship of 
 Count d'Argenson. This accession to his pe- 
 cuniary resources, is said, however, to have but 
 little increased his happiness. His eulogist, the 
 celebrated Condorcet, ascribes to envy, detrac- 
 tion, and other ungenerous motives, all the op- 
 position and censure that M. d'Alembert met 
 with on account of the famous Encyclopedical 
 Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. None can 
 fairly refuse the tribute of applause to the emi- 
 nent genius, judgment, and literary taste, dis- 
 played by our author in his contributions to this 
 great work. The preliminary discourse which 
 he affixed to it, on the rise, progress, and con- 
 nection of all the branches of human knowledge, 
 is perhaps one of the most capital productions of 
 which the philosophy of the present age can 
 boast. Nor will it be disputed, that the master 
 builders of this new and stupendous temple of 
 science, for the worship of Nature, had also 
 really in view the advancement of human know- 
 ledge, and the improvement of the arts and 
 sciences. This, no candid philosopher will call 
 in question. But that in the inner court of this 
 temple, there was a confederacy formed against 
 all who looked higher than Nature, for the object 
 of their veneration and confidence, is a fact too 
 palpable, nay, too boldly avowed, to stand in 
 need of any proof. Some time after, d'Alembert 
 published his Philosophical, Historical, and Phi- 
 lological Miscellanies ; and his memoirs of Chris- 
 tina, queen of Sweden ; in which last work he 
 proved that he was well acquainted with the 
 natural rights of mankind, and was bold enough 
 to assert them. His Essay on the Intercourse of 
 Men of Letters with Persons high in Rank and 
 Office, wounded the former to the quick, as it 
 exposed to the eyes of the public the ignominy 
 of those servile chains, which they feared to 
 shake off, or were proud to wear. This work 
 was dedicated to the king of Prussia, who was 
 at this time terminating a glorious campaign by
 
 ALEMBICS. 
 
 513 
 
 an honourable peace, in the three following 
 
 Latin verses : 
 
 * H;EC ego de vends, dum ventorum ocyor alis 
 Palantes agit Austriacos Fredericus, et orbi, 
 Insignis lauro, ramum praetendit olivae.' 
 Swifter than wind, while of the winds I write, 
 The foes of conquering Frederic speed their flight ; 
 While laurel o'er the hero's temple bends, 
 To the tir'd world the olive branch he sends/ 
 
 M. d'Alembert also gave decided proofs of his 
 classical taste, in his translations of some select 
 pieces of Tacitus. About the same time he en- 
 riched the Encyclopedia with a multitude of 
 excellent mathematical articles, and composed 
 his Researches on several important Points of the 
 System of the World, in which he carried to a 
 higher degree of perfection, the solution of the 
 problem of the perturbation of the planets. 
 
 M. d' Alembert, in 1759, published his Ele- 
 ments of Philosophy ; a work remarkable for its 
 precision and perspicuity ; but containing many 
 questionable tenets, in metaphysics and moral 
 science. The resentment that was kindled, and 
 the disputes that followed upon the publication of 
 the article Geneva, inserted in the Encyclopedia, 
 are well known. M. d'Alembert did not leave 
 the field of controversy with triumph. His at- 
 tacks upon the religious orders and the priesthood, 
 if in many respects just, were often indiscriminat- 
 ing and violent. Voltaire was an auxiliary in 
 the contest : but as, in the point of candour, he 
 had no reputation to lose, and as he weakened 
 the blows of his enemies, only by throwing both 
 them and the spectators into laughter, the issue 
 of the war gave him little uneasiness. It fell 
 more heavily on d'Alembert ; and exposed him, 
 even at home, to much contradiction and oppo- 
 sition. It was on this occasion that the king of 
 Prussia offered him an honourable asylum at 
 Berlin, and the presidency of the academy ; and 
 was not offended at his refusal, but cultivated an 
 intimate friendship with him during the rest of 
 his life. He had, some time before this, refused 
 a proposal made by the empress of Russia to in- 
 trust him with the education of the Grand Duke: 
 a proposal accompanied with all the flattering 
 offers that could tempt a man ambitious of titles, 
 or desirous of making a fortune ; but tranquillity 
 and study, not ambition or avarice, were the ob- 
 jects of our philosopher's affection. In 1765, 
 he published his Dissertation on the Destruction 
 of the Jesuits. This piece drew upon him a 
 host of adversaries, who confirmed the credit of 
 his work, by their manner of attacking it. Be- 
 sides the .works already mentioned, he published 
 Opuscules, 9 vols. ; in which he has solved a 
 multitude of problems relative to astronomy, 
 mathematics, and natural philosophy ; and Ele- 
 ments of Music ; rendering at length, the system 
 of Reaumeur intelligible ; but he did not think 
 the mathematical theory of the sonorous body 
 sufficient to account for the rules of that art. 
 He was always fond of music ; which he felt to 
 be connected with the most subtile researches of 
 mechanics ; while, on the other hand, its power 
 over the soul exhibited to him phenomena, perhaps 
 still more inexplicable. In 1772, he was chosen 
 secretary to the French academy, and soon after 
 tbrmed the design of writing the lives of all the 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 deceased academicians from 1700 to 1 772 ; which 
 he executed in the space of three years, compos- 
 ing seventy eulogies. M. d'Alembert died in 
 1783. There were many amiable lines of can- 
 dour, modesty, disinterestedness, and beneficence, 
 in his moral character; which are described, 
 with diffusive detail, in his eulogium, by M. 
 Condorcet. 
 
 Many young persons, who discovered talents 
 for science and learning, found in him a patron 
 and a guide. To worthy men, in adversity or 
 under persecution, he was a firm and courageous 
 friend : and to those who had shewn him kind- 
 ness, he never ceased to be grateful. Two of 
 his works were dedicated to ministers in disgrace, 
 the Count d'Argenson, to whom he owed his 
 pension, and the Marquis d'Argenson, who had 
 given him many proofs of respect and esteem. 
 When in early life, Mad. de Tencin, informed 
 of his singular talents, came to him, and fondly 
 caressing him, discovered to him the secret of 
 his birth : ' What do you tell me '.' he cried out : 
 ' Ah ! you are but a step-mother ; it is the glazier's 
 wife who is my mother ;' and through life he re- 
 tained for his nurse the affectionate sensibility of 
 a grateful son. 
 
 Much of pernicious influence on the morals 
 and politics of France, has been attributed to the 
 writings of d'Alembert: and to him and his 
 friends has been assigned the odium of bringing 
 on the disasters of the Revolution. We are not 
 indifferent to the dangerous spirit of infidelity 
 that breathes throughout his works ; nor to the 
 unphilosophical manner, so common in modern 
 times, of insinuating sceptical principles in works 
 of science. But that France needed a revolution, 
 both in church and state, it is too late to deny ; 
 and if she effected it without the moderation of 
 our own happy change in 1688, the immediate 
 actors in the scene are perhaps more justly 
 blameable, than an individual writer, so remotely 
 connected with it as our philosopher. 
 
 ALEMBICS, from the Arabic particle al, and 
 a/*/3t?, Gr. an earthen vessel, were made of glass or 
 of copper, and used for distillation. The bottom 
 which contained the subject for distillation, was 
 called, from its shape, the cucurbit; the upper 
 part, which received and condensed the steam, 
 was called the head, the beak being fitted into 
 the neck of a receiver. Retorts, and the common 
 worm still, are now more generally employed. 
 
 Dioscorides and Pliny mention the a/i/?i, 
 (ambix) which is described by the latter of these 
 writers, as a hemispherical iron cover, luted upon 
 the earthen pots in which mercury was procured 
 by the distillation of cinnabar : it is probable 
 however, that the ambix was in the time of Pliny 
 a mere plain still, without any beak or gutter, 
 since he mentions the mercury being wiped off 
 in small drops from the inside of the vessel, the 
 necessity of which would be superseded by the 
 invention of a beak. When the alchemists 
 adopted the alembic, their object being to sepa- 
 rate, as much as possible, the most volatile pro- 
 ducts from those that are less so, they imagined 
 that the greater distance which the vapour had 
 to pass through, in its passage from the boiler to 
 the condenser, the more perfectly would the spirit 
 or quintessence be dephlegmated ; for this pur- 
 
 2 JU
 
 ALE 
 
 514 
 
 ALE 
 
 pose the body of the alembic was made of a 
 globular form, terminating above in a long narrow 
 neck, to the end of which was luted the capital ; 
 sometimes for the purpose of more effectually 
 keeping down the impure particle's, the neck 
 was bent in a zig-zag or spiral direction. The 
 characteristic difference between an alembic and 
 a still seems to be in the construction of the head 
 or capital, which in the alembic, is contrived not 
 merely to collect, but to condense the vapour ; 
 whereas, the corresponding part of a still serves 
 merely to collect the vapour, which is transmitted 
 in an elastic state through the beak, and condensed 
 in the worm. In the figure already referred to, 
 the distance between the body and the capital is 
 so great, that much of the heat must be given off 
 from the vapour before it arrives in this part ; 
 the mere refrigerating power, therefore, of the 
 atmosphere is amply sufficient to condense the 
 vapour into drops on the inner surface of the ca- 
 pital, which, trickling down into the channel or 
 gutter at the bottom, are delivered by the beak 
 into any vessel placed to receive them. The 
 length and narrowness, and convolution of the 
 neck r were, however, found to condense so much 
 of the vapour before it reached the capital, as to 
 render all processes, in which it was employed, 
 insufferably tedious ; besides requiring so high 
 a heat as to alter and injure the products very 
 considerably; the neck was therefore shortened 
 and made wider, and as, in consequence of this, 
 the vapour came into the capital more heated 
 than before, it was necessary to substitute a more 
 powerful refrigerating cause to the casual and 
 varying action of the external air ; with this in- 
 tention, the capital of the metallic alembics was 
 inserted into a vessel of water, called a refrigera- 
 tory, and thus the alembic, as far as concerned 
 the number and general disposition of its parts, 
 was completed. 
 
 The glass and earthen-ware alembics soon re- 
 ceived all the perfection of form which their 
 materials would allow : the body, instead of 
 being a globe with a long neck, was altered into 
 a cucurbit ; and the capital assumed a more co- 
 nical shape, the two parts of the apparatus were 
 aiso fitted closely into each other, by grinding 
 with emery. The irregular expansion and con- 
 traction of glass by heat, rendered the use of a 
 refrigeratory impossible, so that when distilling 
 briskly, it is necessary to cover the capital with 
 cloth, soaked in cold water and frequently re- 
 newed : thus requiring a constant attention, be- 
 sides running the risk of cracking the cucurbit, 
 by a drop of cold water falling upon it from 
 the head. On this account the glass alembic 
 is but little employed, although capable, when 
 skilfully managed, of distilling a much larger 
 quantity in a given time, than a retort of equal 
 capacity. 
 
 The metallic alembics being formed of more 
 Jnanageable substances, and being appropriated 
 to large processes, in which economy of time 
 tod fuel was of great importance, invited and 
 obtained a number of valuable improvements. 
 The most considerable of these are due to M. 
 Beaume". The French brandies are generally 
 prepared in alembi:s, whereas all British spirits 
 
 are manufactured in stills ; the advantage of the 
 alembic is that less fuel is required, and the spirit 
 is but little exposed to the risk of becoming em- 
 pyreumatic. Its disadvantage consists in being 
 less expeditious, and in requiring greater accu- 
 racy in the temperature of the refrigeratory ; if 
 too cold, the vapour is in part condensed before 
 it touches the inside of the capital, and falls back 
 into the boiler ; if too hot, a portion of vapour, 
 escapes into the air ; a greater proportion also of 
 water is required for the condensation of a given 
 quantity of vapour, than where a worm and still 
 is made use of. Encycloped. Method. Art. Alem- 
 bic. Beaume. Element de Pharmacie, $c. 
 
 ALEMETH, or ALMON, a city of Judea, in 
 the tribe of Benjamin, situated near Anathoth. 
 
 ALEMBROTH, from a Chaldean word sig- 
 nifying the key of art, in the writings of the al- 
 chemists, a word used for a sort of fixed alkaline 
 salt, which had the power of the famous alcahest, 
 in dissolving bodies, opening the pores of most or 
 all known substances, and thence, as well as by 
 destroying sulphurs, promoting the separation of 
 metals from their ores. It is also used for a com- 
 pound of sal ammoniac and corrosive sublimate. 
 Some use the term alembroth desiccatum, for salt 
 of tartar. ' Corrosive muriate of mercury,' says 
 Dr. Ure, ' is rendered much more soluble in 
 water by the addition of muriate of ammonia. 
 From this solution crystals are separated by cool- 
 ing, called sal-alembroth by the earlier che- 
 mists, consisting of ammonia, muriatic acid, and 
 mercury.' 
 
 ALEMPARVE, or ALLAMPARVA, a fortress 
 of Hindostan, on the sea-coast of the Carnatic, 
 which was transferred, by the native powers, to 
 the French in 1750, and taken from them by the 
 British in 1 760. Distant sixty-seven miles south- 
 west of Madras. Long. 80. T. E. Lat. 12. 10'. N. 
 
 ALENCON, or ALENZON, a large and popu- 
 lous town of France, the capital of the depart- 
 ment of Orne, seated on the Sarte, in an open 
 fertile country, abounding in corn and fruits. It 
 is situated twenty miles north of Mons, sixty- 
 three south by west of Rouen, and eighty-seven 
 south-west of Paris. It was formerly surrounded 
 with good, walls, and flanked with towers ; and 
 the castle was a place of great consequence, 
 having sustained several long sieges. A square 
 tower 150 feet high still remains. Near it there 
 are quarries of stone of the Bristol kind, &c 
 Lon.0.10'. E. Lat.48.25'.N.Inhabitantsl3,000. 
 Alencon has a linen trade of some extent, but is 
 particularly famous for its point-lace, a manu- 
 factory of which was established under JM. Col- 
 bert's administration in 1665, by letters patent; 
 and a grant from government to the proprietors 
 of 26,000 livres as a capital. Here are also 
 glass-houses, smelting-houses, and tanneries, in 
 a nourishing state. 
 
 ALENIO, (Julius) a Jesuit, born at Brescia, 
 in the republic of Venice. He travelled into the 
 eastern countries; and arrived at Macao in 1610, 
 where he taught the mathematics. From thence 
 he went to the empire of China, where he conti- 
 nued to propagate the Christian religion for 
 thirty-six years. He was the first who planted 
 the faith in the province of Xanfi, and built
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 515 
 
 several churches in that of Fokien. He died in 
 1649, leaving behind him several works in the 
 Chinese language. 
 
 ALENON, a word used by old medical wri- 
 ters, for the oil of sweet almonds. 
 
 ALENTEJO, one of the largest provinces of 
 Portugal, seated between the Tagus and the 
 Guadiana, and watered by both. It is bounded 
 on the north by Estremadura and Beira; on the 
 east by Spain; on the south by Algarve ; and on 
 the west by the sea; extending from north to 
 south about forty miles, and from east to west 
 between thirty and thirty-four. The soil is very 
 
 fertile. It takes its name from its situation, ly- 
 ing, with regard to the other provinces, on the 
 farther side of the Tajo, or Tajus. Its superficial 
 extent is 883 French leagues, and the popula- 
 tion, in 1800, was 380,480. Evora is the ca- 
 pital. Alentejo contains four cities, 105 towns, 
 and 358 parishes. It is divided into the eight 
 jurisdictions of Evora, Beja, Elvas, Portalegre, 
 Ourique, Villa Viciosa, Crato, and Aviz. 
 
 ALENZON. See ALENCON. 
 
 ALEORE, oXtwpij, a word used by the old 
 medical writers, for the intermission of ease from 
 the raging pains of any violent acute distemper. 
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 ALEPPO, OLD, the Kinnasreen of the Ara- 
 bians, an ancient town of Syria, supposed to 
 have been Calchis, the capital of the district 
 Chalcidone. It gives its Arabian name to the 
 northern part of Syria, and is fifteen miles south 
 of the modern Aleppo. The ruins, (for the 
 whole place is scarcely any thing beside,) are 
 surrounded by the foundations of walls, about a 
 mile in compass, ten feet thick, and fortified by 
 equidistant square towers. On the top of a 
 high hill, west of the city, on which the castle 
 stood, surrounded by a double wall, are three 
 or four very fine large cisterns excavated from 
 the rock. The district around the city was 
 reckoned one of the most fruitful provinces of 
 Syria, and was seized by Ptolemy, the son of 
 Mennaeus, during the troubles of Syria, and by 
 him made a separate kingdom. Ptolemy him- 
 self is styled by Josephus and Hegesippus, prince 
 of Chalchis, and his son Lysanias is honoured 
 both by Josephus and Dio with the title of king. 
 The place is 'frequently mentioned by authors of 
 the middle ages, or even later. It capitulated 
 to the Saracens in the year 630. 
 
 ALEPPO, BASHALICK or PACHALIC of, one of 
 the five pachalics of Syria, was a province ex- 
 tending eastward from the bay of Scanderoon 
 to the banks of the Euphrates, and from forty 
 miles north of the city, extending about fifty 
 miles to the south-east. But it is not now nearly 
 so extensive. Khillis, formerly dependent on 
 Aleppo, is erected into a separate district on 
 account of the frequent depredations of the Kur- 
 deens, who inhabit the neighbouring mountains ; 
 and since the year 1752, an alteration has taken 
 place with respect to Bylan, which, together 
 with Caramoot, Scanderoon, Byas, and the ad- 
 jacent mountains, has been also placed under 
 a distinct government. At present the pacha- 
 lie on the north is bounded by the village of 
 Bailik, situated in the road to Aintab, eastward 
 by the Desert, Bab at the distance of ten hours 
 east-north-east, and Haglah, about the same 
 distance to the south-south-east, being among 
 the last inhabited villages : on the south it is 
 bounded by the Great Desert, between the skirts 
 of which and the west, or west-north-west, are 
 situated the most fertile and populous parts of 
 the forest. Sirmeen is the last town southward ; 
 and Antioch, with its dependencies, may be 
 leckoned the western boundary, which, till a 
 
 late period, reached to the sea : Scanderoon and 
 Byas being then the two frontier maritime towns. 
 About one half of the villages formerly on the 
 borders of the province, are said to be totally 
 deserted. Many of the inhabitants of this moun- 
 tainous tract acknowledge scarcely any autho- 
 rity but that of their own chieftains ; and the 
 champaign, in many places, is either desert, or 
 only occupied transiently by the wandering 
 tribes of Turkmans, Begdelees, and Rushwans, 
 from the north, or by the Bedowens and Chin- 
 gana ; who, though they pay an annual tribute, 
 can in other respects, scarcely be considered 
 subjects of the province. The oppression of the 
 agas, the destructive marches of the grandees 
 through the province, and the roving of the 
 ruffian troops of Levands out of pay, oblige 
 the peasant tenants to remove ; so that vast 
 tracks of the beautiful plains in the bashalick 
 are shamefully overrun with thistles, whilst the 
 mountainous parts, better secured from oppres- 
 sion, are finely cultivated, full of people, and 
 present on every side thriving hamlets. 
 
 Such is the account given of this pachalic by 
 Dr. Russel. Volney describes it, as extending 
 from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, be- 
 tween two lines, one drawn from Scanderoon 
 to Beer, along the mountains, the other from 
 Beleo to the sea by Mare and the bridge of 
 Shogar, and as consisting of two plains, that of 
 Antioch to the west, and that of Aleppo to the 
 east ; the north and sea coast being occupied 
 by lofty mountains, known to the ancients by 
 the names of Amanus and Rhosus. The soil of 
 this pachalic is generally fat and loamy ; the 
 greatest part of the land lies waste, and the 
 traces of cultivation are scarcely discernible in 
 the environs of the town and villages. 
 
 The traveller sees nothing in this and other 
 pachalics of Syria, but houses in ruins, cisterns 
 rendered useless, and fields abandoned. Its 
 principal produce consists in wheat, barley, and 
 cotton, which are found in the flat country : in 
 the mountains, the vine, mulberry, olive, and 
 fig-trees are cultivated. The sides of the hills, 
 towards the sea-coast, are appropriated to tobacco, 
 and the territory of Aleppo to pistachios. The 
 pasturage is abandoned to the wandering Turk- 
 mans and Curds. See ALEPPO. Russel's Hist. vol. i. 
 p. 314. 339. Volney's Travels vol. ii. p. 130, &c. 
 
 ALEPPO, the capital of the above pachalic, 
 2 L 2
 
 516 
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 is situated on eight small hills, and is watered by 
 the river Kowick, which in winter sometimes 
 swells into a formidable stream, overflowing its 
 bridges and the neighbouring gardens, wherewith 
 the banks are covered. The wall, supposed to 
 have been built by the Mameluke princes, is 
 flanked by frequent towers, but the fosse is 
 partly filled up with rubbish, or occupied by 
 kitchen gardens, and the city being commanded 
 by heights, is not defensible as a military post. 
 It is inferior to Constantinople, Cairo, and Da- 
 mascus, with regard to situation, magnitude, 
 population, opulence, and courtly splendour, 
 but may be reckoned superior to these cities in 
 the salubrity of its air, the solidity and elegance 
 of its private buildings, and also the neatness and 
 convenience of its streets. In Arabic, Aleppo 
 is called Haleb, to which is usually added the 
 epithet Al Shahba. The Arabian writers, some 
 of them, trace the origin of this city to the mi- 
 gration of the patriarch Abraham into the land 
 of Canaan, who rested for some time on the hill, 
 where the castle of Aleppo is now situated, the 
 appellation Haleb is derived from the circum- 
 stance of distributing milk to the poor of a 
 neighbouring village. Their frequent repetition 
 of the words ' Ibrahecm haleb,' or ' Abraham 
 has milked,' gave occasion, as it is said, to the 
 name Haleb, which was conferred on the town 
 that was afterwards built on this spot. The 
 epithet Al Shahba is referred to a pied cow, dis- 
 tinguished by its lowing in the herd of the above 
 patriarch. Golius and others, however, with much 
 greater probability, deduce this term, which de- 
 notes a variegated grey and white colour, from the 
 colour of the soil, and of the buildings. Some 
 have supposed that Aleppo was the Zobah of 
 Scripture ; but it was, more probably, the Bercea 
 of the Greeks. Aleppo is situated, according to 
 celestial observations, (see Conn, des Temps, 
 1792,) in N. lat. 36. 11'. 25". and E. long. 37. 
 9'. at a considerable height above the level of 
 the sea. Its distance from Scanderoon or Alex- 
 andretta, the nearest sea-port, is in a straight 
 line, between sixty and seventy miles ; but in 
 the caravan road, between ninety and one hun- 
 dred miles. It is encompassed at the distance of 
 a few miles, by a circle of hills, which are in 
 general rocky, scantily provided with springs, 
 and totally destitute of trees, but affording good 
 pasture for sheep and goats. Within this circle, 
 there are hills and hillocks, which are intersected 
 by plants and little valleys ; the soil of which is 
 in some parts of a reddish or black colour, rich 
 and fertile, but in general whitish, shallow, and 
 mixed with many small stones. This city, in- 
 cluding its extensive suburbs, occupies eight 
 small hills, the intermediate valleys, and a consi- 
 derable extent of flat ground, comprehending in 
 the whole a circuit of about seven miles. It has 
 nine gates, two to the east, three to the west, two 
 to the north, and two to the south. One of the 
 northern gates, formerly called the Jews' gate, 
 which the son of Saladin changed into Bab al 
 Naser, or Gate of Victory, was once, according 
 to the missionaries, the residence of the prophet 
 Elisha, and it has lamps which are kept con- 
 stantly burning in commemoration of him. The 
 
 castle, which stands on a hill near the north-east 
 corner of the city, and which is encompassed by 
 a broad deep ditch, about half a mile in circum- 
 ference, partly wet, and partly planted with trees, 
 may be distinguished at a considerable distance ; 
 it is deemed impregnable, and is entered from 
 the south by a bridge of seven lofty narrow 
 arches thrown over the ditch, on which are two 
 gates fortified by turrets, and two more still 
 higher on the hill. Near the summit is a reser- 
 voir of immense depth, from which the water, 
 supposed to be derived from a spring five miles 
 distant, is raised by a wheel. A numerous 
 garrison is kept here, but the privates are 
 allowed to follow their trade in the city, and 
 return before sun-set. The castle, in reality, is 
 of no use but as a great magazine for military 
 stores, and in serving to overawe the citizens ; 
 but a traveller, approaching from the west, 
 can see scarcely any other part of the city, 
 till he gains the brow of one of the hills with- 
 in two or three miles of the gates ; and thus 
 it becomes an extensive and striking object. 
 The mosques, the minarets, and the numerous 
 cupolas, form a splendid spectacle, and the flat 
 roofs of the houses which are situated on the 
 hills, rising one behind another, present a suc- 
 cession of hanging terraces, interspersed with 
 cypress and poplar trees. Although at a distance 
 this city, like many others in the east, assumes 
 a fine appearance, and from the very great 
 splendour of the buildings, already enumerated, 
 excites an unparalleled interest in the eye o* 
 the spectator, nevertheless the traveller is disap- 
 pointed on his entrance, for the streets art 
 gloomy, and appear narrower than they are in 
 reality, in consequence of the disproportionate 
 height of the stone walls on both sides, which 
 exhibit but a few windows, and these guarded 
 with lattices. Some of the streets are spacious,, 
 and well paved with bricks in the middle, the 
 ends being placed uppermost for the conveni- 
 ence of the horses. There are two raised foot- 
 paths on the sides, and sometimes a beautiful 
 vista is opened, by looking through several arches 
 in succession. They are defended from the 
 sun by mats spread on wooden rafters, project- 
 ing from each side. The bazar gates are regularly 
 shut at sun-set, and watchmen, provided with a 
 pole and lamp, are stationed for the night within 
 them. There are also gates and watchmen in 
 the principal streets. The natives, who are for 
 the most part sober and regular, retire to their 
 habitations early. The houses are spacious, and 
 clothed with terraces and sky-lights, those that 
 have domes excepted. During the summer, the 
 inhabitants sleep on these terraces, which are 
 separated by parapet walls. From their equal 
 elevation, and doors of communication, which 
 the Franks have made, a considerable circuit 
 may be made without descending into the streets , 
 The natives, however, have no intercourse by 
 the terrace, and guard, by high walls, against 
 being overlooked. 
 
 The mosques in Aleppo are numerous ; and 
 are built of free-stone, with domes in the centre 
 covered with lead. Of these, seven or eight are 
 considered magnificent, though none have more
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 517 
 
 jhan a single minaret, or steeple, whence the 
 people are summoned to prayers. These mi- 
 narets are said to have been first annexed to 
 the mosques by Al Waleed, who succeeded to 
 the caliphate, in the eighty-sixth year of the 
 Hegira. Into these mosques none but Moslems 
 are permitted to enter ; and at Aleppo, it is only 
 one of them into the court-yard of which Jews 
 and Christians are allowed admission. . The 
 Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, and Maronites, 
 have each a church. The public edifices, next 
 in importance to the mosques, are the khans 
 or caravansaries, intended principally for the 
 accommodation of strangers, and goods. These 
 are of a quadrangular form, one story in height, 
 having rooms, which serve as chambers, ware- 
 houses, and stables. The bazars, or markets, 
 are lofty stone edifices, arranged in the form of 
 a long gallery arched above, or roofed with 
 wood, where small shops are replenished with 
 goods, each different kind of business having a 
 distinct bazar, which is always locked at sun- 
 set. The public baths, or hummums, do not 
 contribute much to the embellishment of the 
 city, as their fronts to the street are very simple ; 
 but the coffee-houses, which are spacious and 
 handsome, and dispersed through all quarters of 
 the town, attract the notice of strangers. They 
 are gaudily painted, and furnished with matted 
 platforms and benches ; and those of the belter 
 sort have a fountain in the middle, with a gallery 
 for musicians. At certain hours of the day the 
 coffee-houses are full of company, though they 
 are not frequented by persons of the first rank. 
 The dwelling-houses of Aleppo comprehend the 
 seraglios, or palaces, the houses of the opulent 
 merchants, and the habitations of the middling 
 and ordinary people. The seraglio, in which the 
 bashaw of Aleppo usually resides, is situated 
 noar the castle, and is a very ancient and exten- 
 sive building, surrounded by a strong and lofty 
 wall. The gates of this edifice lead to several 
 interior courts, which are destined for barracks, 
 stables, an hippodrome, and various other offices. 
 The principal building contains apartments 
 for the bashaw, his harem, household officers, 
 and pages. It consists of three courts, one of 
 which is the divan, where the bashaw gives pub- 
 lic audience. The whole of this building is much 
 neglected , and if it had not been originally a very 
 substantial edifice, it would long ago have been 
 in ruins. There are five or six other seraglios of 
 more modern date, that are much smaller, well 
 built, and gaudily decorated ; they were erected at 
 different periods by former bashaws, and belong 
 to their heirs. They are now occasionally let to 
 such governors as do not choose to reside in the 
 old seraglio, and to other officers of the Porte, 
 who visit Aleppo on public business. Other 
 buildings, constructed on the same plan with 
 these, though not denominated seraglios, are 
 occupied by the principal agas and effendees. 
 
 To the lower class of strangers, as Arabs, Kurds, 
 and other Turks of foreign extraction, and Ar- 
 menian Christians, there is appropriated a kind 
 of accommodation, called Keisaria, which is a 
 large area, surrounded by a number of mean, 
 low houses, each consisting of two or three 
 rooms. Other buildings, in the form of a close 
 
 or court, allotted to weaving and other manu- 
 factures, are called by the same name. 
 
 The castle of Aleppo is in a bad state, and 
 were it not for its importance as a magazine for 
 military stores in times of war with Persia, for 
 the awe of the city, and an asylum to the magis- 
 trates in case of insurrection ; as a prison for 
 state criminals, and a place of execution for the 
 Janissaries, when condemned to die, it would 
 scarcely be preserved. The Aga of the castle is 
 immediately dependent upon the Porte, and sub- 
 ject, only in certain cases, to the bashaw, he 
 commands a numerous garrison ; and the private 
 men, with their families, lodge in the castle. 
 
 The fuel used at Aleppo is wood and char- 
 coal, the former of which is brought on camels 
 from the mountains. Little fuel is made use of, 
 except in the kitchens. The mode of heating 
 the bagnios renders them an absolute nuisance ; 
 the dung of animals, the parings of fruit, the refuse 
 of stables, and offals of every description being 
 employed for the purpose Camels,and sheep's 
 dung, with brushwood, or the stalks of different 
 kinds of plants which grow in the desert, are 
 more commonly used for fuel. Cow-dung is 
 resorted to by the peasants, not only for fuel, but 
 for forming a sort of pan, in which they and the 
 Arabs frequently fry their eggs. At Aleppo, in one 
 of the suburbs called Mashirka, they have a glass 
 manufactory, and a tannery to the south-west of 
 the town near the river. Their slaughter-houses 
 are situated in an airy field, in the skirts of the 
 suburbs, towards Bankusa, and their principal 
 flesh market is in the suburb called lideida. 
 They have several lime-kilns near the walls, on 
 the south-west of the city, and a manufactory of 
 catgut half a mile to the south, which occasionally 
 emits a very offensive stench. Within the walls, 
 they have only one public burial ground, besides 
 several private cemeteries ; but without the walls 
 the burial grounds are of wide extent round the 
 town, whose white tombs and grave-stones, 
 viewed at a distance, forcibly strike the attention. 
 
 The city is supplied with water by means of 
 an aqueduct from two springs, near a village 
 called Heylan, at the distance of about eight 
 miles to the north. This aqueduct, which is said 
 to be coeval with the city, was repaired by the 
 empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, and 
 again repaired and enlarged by the son of Sala- 
 din, in 1218. It is mostly open, but partly sub- 
 terraneous, and distributes the water by earthen 
 or leaden pipes to the gardens of.Babullah, to the 
 fountains, baths, and private houses. The 
 gardens of Babullah extend about twelve miles, 
 and generally belong to some effendee or aga, 
 possessing sufficient authority for the protection 
 of his tenants, or forms a part of some religious 
 estate. Those also on the banks of the river 
 Kowick, are numerous and fine. They are sub- 
 divided into fields, of different shapes and 
 dimensions, bordered with dwarf trees, flowering 
 shrubs, and taller trees, such as the plane, weep- 
 ing-willow, ash, and white poplar. Within these 
 enclosures are cultivated mad-apples, melons, 
 and cucumbers, with a variety of esculent roots, 
 cabbages, and greens for the kitchen ; in others, 
 cotton, tobacco, sesamum, palma christi, and 
 lucern ; anO some are sown with barley, whicU
 
 518 
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 is used in the spring as green fodder for the 
 horses. Among these enclosures are large plan- 
 tations of pomegranate, plum and cherry trees, 
 and sometimes groves, composed of the various 
 fruit trees which the country produces. The 
 gardens, those of Babullah excepted, are supplied 
 from the river by means of Persian wheels. In 
 most of the gardens there are summer-houses, 
 furnished with fountains, and with kiosks, or a 
 kind of balconies, projecting over the river. The 
 Aleppo gardens are spoken of with rapture by 
 the natives. They supply the city with greens 
 and fruits, and contribute both to the health and 
 amusement of the inhabitants. 
 
 In the vicinity of the city are many extensive 
 quarries, which afford a gritty stone, when first 
 dug easily cut, and indurated by exposure to the 
 air ; and the more ancient of these quarries have 
 subterraneous excavations of great length, which 
 serve the Bedowen Arabs for winter habitations, 
 as stables for the camels, and as dens of debau- 
 chery to the Janissaries. The marble of Aleppo 
 is of a yellowish colour, but by rubbing it with 
 oil, and exposing it to the moderate heat of an 
 oven, it is made to resemble the red marble of 
 Damascus. An extensive plain, called the 
 valley of salt, or salt lake, eighteen miles from 
 the city, supplies the inhabitants with that 
 article. 
 
 The climate of Aleppo may be characterized 
 as, upon the whole, mild. The heat, indeed, is 
 great during the summer months of July and 
 August, though it is generally moderated by 
 westerly breezes. But it is intense when the 
 wind proceeds from the north-north-west, east, 
 north-east, or south-east, and all the inhabitants, 
 both native and foreign, are then oppressed with 
 an excessive lassitude, an oppression of the 
 breast, and a parched sensation of the eyes, lips, 
 and nostrils. These winds do not occur every 
 year, nor do they produce such fatal effects as 
 the desert wind. In general, the air of Aleppo 
 is dry, piercing, and salubrious,. The spring 
 commences in the early part of the month of 
 February, about the middle of which the al- 
 mond-tree blossoms, and the fields become 
 clothed with verdure. In May the corn ripens 
 rapidly into harvest. Refreshing showers fall 
 in the beginning of June, after which drought 
 prevails till the middle of September. From 
 about the close of May to this "time the inhabi- 
 tants usually sleep on their terraces, without 
 sustaining any injury. The severest part of the 
 year is from the middle of December to the latter 
 end of January, when frost is common, though 
 snow is comparatively rare. At the end of 
 August the Nile-clouds, as they are called, make 
 their appearance, and are often attended with 
 dew. About the autumnal equinox the air is 
 refreshed by showers, which are termed the first 
 rains, and are usually preceded by irregular gusts 
 of wind that raise the dust in vortices. These 
 we succeeded in twenty or thirty days by the 
 second rains, which are more plentiful than the 
 first, and after them the weather becomes vari- 
 able and much cooler. The transition from the 
 Autumn to the Winter is slower than that from 
 Spring to Summer. The trees retain their leaves 
 till the beginning of December, and the most 
 
 delicate persons nave no fires till the middle of 
 this month. The rigour of winter commences 
 about the middle of December, and lasts forty 
 days ; but though there is almost always some frost 
 in winter, many years pass without snow. The 
 narcissus is in flower during the greatest part of 
 the winter, and violets and hyacinths are plen- 
 tiful in January. Although violent storms of 
 wind are rare at Aleppo, squalls, accompanied 
 with heavy showers, and sometimes with thun- 
 der, are frequent in the Spring and Autumn. 
 Lightning, unaccompanied with thunder, is fre- 
 quently seen in the night during the months of 
 September and October ; and it is sometimes 
 seen in Summer ; but the nocturnal sky, in the 
 hot months, is almost always serene, exhibiting 
 a glorious scene to the astronomer, who may in- 
 dulge his study, and at the same time enjoy the 
 cool air on the terrace. 
 
 The soil near Aleppo, in the more distant 
 plains, consists of a reddish, sometimes of a 
 blackish, light mould, and produces the fruits of 
 the earth in great abundance. The fields near 
 the city yield, in consequence of much manure, 
 two or three crops of different kinds every year ; 
 but without manure, they are only sown once a 
 year with different sorts of grain alternately, but 
 are seldom suffered to remain fallow. They be- 
 gin to plough in September ; and the plough is 
 drawn, by one or two small cows, or by a sin- 
 gle ass, in furrows so straight, that one would 
 imagine a line must have been used in tracing 
 them. They sow wheat, barley, lentiles, chiches, 
 beans, chichling, small vetch, a small green kid- 
 ney bean, and Indian millet. The earliest wheat 
 is sown about the middle of October, and bar- 
 ley so late as the end of February. They sel- 
 dom use the harrow, the grain being covered 
 by repassing the plough along the edge of the 
 furrow ; in sandy soil, they sow first, and then 
 plough. The barley harvest commences in May, 
 about ten or fourteen days before that of the 
 wheat, and early in June corn of every kind is 
 taken off the ground. Among the reapers in 
 Syria, a custom prevails of accosting a passing 
 traveller and presenting to him a handful of 
 corn, with a general shout ; and a small pre- 
 sent is expected in return. The corn, when 
 reaped, is carried on asses to the summit of 
 the nearest hill, and, being laid on hard even 
 ground, is separated from the chaff, not by 
 threshing, but by means of a sledge fixed on 
 two or three rollers, and armed with several iron 
 rings, witii serrated edges, so sharp as to cut the 
 straw. This machine is drawn by oxen, mules, 
 or asses, and driven by a man seated on the 
 sledge, and as it passes circularly over the corn 
 spread beneath, the grain, by repeated opera- 
 tions, is trodden out, while the straw is chopped 
 by the iron rings. The chaff and bruised spikes 
 are then separated from the grain, by throwing 
 up the whole into the air with wooden shovels, 
 when the wind blows moderately. The spikes 
 that have been imperfectly trodden are again 
 submitted to the sledge. When the grain has 
 been afterwards more perfectly winnowed and 
 separated from the straw, it is thrown together 
 in a large heap, and is then divided in a stipu- 
 lated proportion between the husbandman and
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 519 
 
 tho landlord. The cattle employed in the har- 
 vest are left unmuzzled at the heap, as the Scrip- 
 ture mentions. See Lowth's Com. on Isaiah, 
 ch. xxviii. v. 27, 28. Notes, p. 130. The grain 
 is then removed to granaries, which are subter- 
 raneous grottoes, with one round opening at the 
 top, which, when the magazine is full, is shut 
 close and covered with earth, and thus com- 
 pletely concealed from the enemy. The corn 
 is chiefly ground in mills wrought by mules, 
 though there are some water-mills upon the 
 river Kowick, and among the lower people by 
 hand-mills. Wind-mills are unknown. 
 
 The olives produced at Aleppo resemble the 
 Spanish olives, but are not so large, and the 
 annual produce of them is inconsiderable. The 
 city is supplied with oil from other parts, and 
 particularly from Edlib and adjacent villages, 
 where the olive plantations are more extensive. 
 Large quantities are employed in making soap, 
 and the ashes employed in this manufacture are 
 brought from the Desert by the Arabs. The 
 gardens afford several varieties of grapes ; those 
 that are ripe appear iu the market in Septem- 
 ber, but the vintage is not at its height till the 
 middle of November. The dried fruit of the 
 vine affords part of the food of the inhabitants ; 
 it is eaten with bread and used in sherbets ; a 
 larsre quantity of raisins is also used in the dis- 
 tillery, carried on both by Turks and Christians. 
 Anniseed is added in the distillation, and the 
 spirit, which is very strong, is called araki. The 
 inspissated juice of the grape is much used by 
 the natives ; it is called dibs, and much resem- 
 bles coarse honey in appearance. It is brought 
 to town in goat skins, and serves for the com- 
 mon people instead of honey. The pistachio tree 
 is diligently cultivated, and the nuts reckoned 
 superior to those of any other part of the world. 
 Pliny, lib. xiii. c. v. lib. xv. c. 24, says, that 
 pistachios were first brought from Syria into 
 Italy, by Lucius Vitellius, in the reign of Tibe- 
 rius ; and Galen, De Alim. Facult. lib. ii. c. 30, 
 mentions Bercea as famous for that fruit in his 
 time. Large quantities are exported from hence 
 to Europe. The nuts of the wild pistachio are 
 brought to town from the mountains; the tree 
 not growing near Aleppo. The white mulberry 
 is common in the gardens, and brought to mar- 
 let in May, and the fruit of the red mulberry, 
 vhich is not ripe till two months later, is 
 delicious. Very little silk is made at Aleppo ; 
 that which is exported from hence to Europe, 
 by way of Scanderoon, is chiefly the produce of 
 \ntioch and the adjacent mountains, or it is 
 Brought to Aleppo from places more distant. . 
 "he pomegranate is common, and ripens towards 
 tie end of August. The markets are supplied 
 will several varieties of figs ; but the middle 
 siz>d yellow fig is the most esteemed. The gar- 
 deis also produce other fruits, as cherries, apri- 
 cot, peaches, plums, apples, pears, quinces, 
 corielian cherry, almonds, walnuts, hazel-nuts, 
 juju.es, and sumach ; the former of these two 
 last leing much valued as a medicine, and the 
 latter as an ingredient in cookery. Oranges, 
 lemon, and citrons, were formerly produced in 
 the orhards of Aleppo; but as they are not 
 now ciltivated, it has been inferred from this 
 
 circumstance, that the winters in Syria are now 
 more rigorous than they were in former times, 
 and this is the opinion entertained by the na- 
 tives. Among the vegetables which form part 
 of the diet of the inhabitants, the mad-apple 
 (Solanum Melongena of Linnaeus,) of which 
 there are three varieties, claims a principal 
 place. Of the vegetables produced in the fields 
 without culture there are capers, borage, common 
 mallow, sorrel, dandelion, water-cress and truffles. 
 Savory is used to give a relish to their bread. 
 
 The inhabitants of Aleppo consist chiefly of 
 Turks and Arabs; many among them, to the 
 amount, perhaps, of four thousand, claim de- 
 scent from Mahomet, and wear their dress inter- 
 mixed with green, as a token of this distinction. 
 They are not at present held in very high esteem, 
 owing to their superciliousness and conten- 
 tious spirit, although, formerly, they were greatly 
 reverenced, and any injury done to them was 
 severely punished. The extent of the popula- 
 tion is variously estimated. Dr. Russel, whose 
 calculations ought probably to be most relied 
 upon, states it at 250,000, of which 30,000 are 
 Christians, and 5000 Jews. The population of 
 this place and neighbourhood is thought to be on 
 the decline, in consequence of exactions prac- 
 tised on the inhabitants by a despotic and op- 
 pressive government. The domestic servants are 
 nearly all Armenians. 
 
 The men dress in the long eastern habit, and 
 during six months in the year wear furs. Under 
 the furs their garments consist of a silk or linen 
 shirt, and drawers, wide trowsers of red cloth, to 
 which are sewed socks of yellow leather, serving 
 for breeches, stockings, and, within doors, for 
 shoes ; but in walking, they use slippers without 
 heels. They also wear a waistcoat, called a kun- 
 baz, that comes lower than the knee, and a long 
 vest reaching down to the heels, which covers all, 
 is named a dulaman. Above the dulaman, 
 they have a long Persian shawl, and a belt under 
 the waistcoat, and to this cincture they attach a 
 small dagger or knife, and men of business a sil- 
 ver inkhorn. The turban is commonly worn. 
 The Abai is a silk or camblet gown, with large 
 sleeves, laced down the seams with a narrow gold 
 lace, which is worn in summer instead of the 
 kurk, or loose gown trimmed with furs. Abai is 
 the name of the ordinary vestment of the Arabs. 
 The dress of the ladies in many respects resembles 
 that of the men. But their dulaman and kunbaz 
 sit closer to the shape, and, not folding over the 
 breast, lea/e the neck uncovered. Instead of the 
 costly, long-haired furs of the men, they use sable 
 or ermine, and they are formed in a different 
 fashion. The ladies are fond of thick long hair ; 
 and their head-dress, consisting of a warm cloth 
 cap, under cotton and muslin, which compose 
 the rest of the attire, is much warmer than that 
 of the men. They wear ear-rings, a necklace, or 
 collar, of goM, large clumsy gold bracelets on 
 the wrist and ancles, a string of zechins close to 
 the hair on the forehead, and another, very long, 
 across the body like a sash. Both sexes wear 
 rings on their fingers, and some women wear 
 them on their toes. The use of rouge is not 
 much known, but the women tinge their fingers 
 and hands, also their toes and feet, of a dusky red
 
 520 
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 or yellow, with a paste formed of the powdered 
 leaves of henna and water. These parts are 
 afterwards covered with another paste composed 
 of flour and water, with crude sal ammoniac and 
 quicklime, which changes them to a very dark 
 green. The inside of the eyelids are tinged with 
 a powder called kohol. The women apply ano- 
 ther composition called khatat to the eye brows, 
 which tinges them of a fine black, and makes the 
 hair smooth and glossy. The men, after a cer- 
 tain age, or after performing the pilgrimage to 
 Mecca, let the beard grow, and bestow much 
 pains upon it. The Turks wear whiskers, and 
 persons of both sexes use a variety of perfumes, 
 of which sandal wood, musk, and spikenard are 
 the most common. The women never appear in 
 the streets without their veils, which in general 
 are a linen sheet covering the whole habit from 
 head to foot, and concealing the whole face ex- 
 cept one eye. Those of the Christian and Jewish 
 women are of plain white calico, which the Turk- 
 ish women chequer with blue and red. The 
 Jewish women have one arm free. Women of 
 every class, when they go abroad, wear thin yel- 
 low boots, reaching half way up the leg, over 
 these yellow babooge or slippers ; and in wet 
 weather wooden clogs, called kabkal. Women 
 are never seen in the streets after dusk. They are 
 always particularly anxious to keep the crown of 
 the head covered, which scarcely any considera- 
 tion can induce them to bare. Though society 
 is deemed the most polished here of any part in 
 the Turkish dominions, the females are said to 
 be addicted to intrigue, whenever it can be se- 
 cretly conducted, 
 
 Trade is carried on in Aleppo to a very con- 
 siderable extent, both by Christians and Ma- 
 hommedans. Four caravans proceed annually 
 through Natolia to Constantinople, and others 
 arrive from Bagdad and Bassora, with coffee and 
 India muslins and shawls. The Turks carry on 
 the trade of India, Asia Minor, Constantinople, 
 and Egypt. The exports are cloth, from An- 
 tioch, Merdin, and other places; osnaburghs, 
 from Aleppo and Damascus ; and printed cot- 
 tons, from Diarbekir ; galls, drugs, and various 
 other articles. The imports are considerable ; 
 cloths, Lyonnese stuffs, and bonnets, from Eu- 
 rope ; merceries, indigo, tea, sugar, paper, soap, 
 and numerous coral ornaments. Commerce 
 with Europe has of late years much declined, 
 and the European establishments in the city con- 
 sequently reduced. 
 
 Generally speaking, the inhabitants of Aleppo 
 are sedentary in theirmodeof life and habits, and 
 are somewhat addicted to amusements, though not 
 at all disposed to exercise. The men frequent 
 the coffee-houses, where they are entertained 
 with music and dramatic representations. The 
 women often attend the baths, where persons of 
 every class in society are admitted, in an indis- 
 criminate manner, till they are full. At these 
 places music and refreshments are provided, 
 parties of pleasure formed, and all the splendour 
 of attire that can be mustered, is brought into 
 view. Dancing is not reckoned a genteel ac- 
 complishment for people of condition, and even 
 among the vulgar it is seldom practised, unless 
 by such as make it their trade. The coffee- 
 
 houses are entertained by a band of music, a 
 puppet-show, and a story-teller. The Aleppeens 
 have, in general, a correct ear, and are fond of 
 music. The instrumental music is of two kinds; 
 one martial and loud, intended for the field, and the 
 other less sonorous, adapted to the chamber. A 
 band of music, belongingto the castle, smaller than, 
 that of the bashaw, performs regularly twice a day 
 from the battlement, and the bashaw's band also- 
 performs twice a day in the court of the seraglio. 
 With regard to nuptial contracts and cere- 
 monies at Aleppo, they are similar to those 
 generally observed among the Turks. -When a 
 matrimonial engagement is projected, the pro- 
 posal is intimated to the mother of the intended 
 bride, and the relations on both sides proceed to 
 make the necessary enquiries. If the result prove 
 satisfactory, the young woman is formally de- 
 manded of her parents by the father of the 
 young man. Substitutes are then appointed to 
 stipulate the necessary conditions; and these 
 proxies adjust the sum to be paid to the bride's 
 father, with other articles of the marriage con- 
 tract. When the money is paid, the contract is 
 regularly signed and sealed, and then the Cadi 
 grants his licence for the marriage. About ten 
 days before the wedding, the bride is invited by 
 her female relations to the bagnio, and there she 
 is entertained till the day preceding the marriage, 
 when they proceed to apply the henna. At 
 Aleppo it is customary for the father of the bride 
 to make some addition to what is paid by the 
 bridegroom, and to lay it out for the benefit of 
 his daughter ; but among the Bedowen inhabit- 
 ants, and in the villages, the father usually retains 
 a part of what he receives for his daughter; and 
 in this respect they may be said to sell their 
 daughters. This custom of purchasing wives is 
 practised by all the oriental Christians, as well 
 as the Turks, and appears from the sacred 
 writings, to have been the ancient practice. Ac- 
 cordingly, among the Arabs, daughters constitute 
 the riches of a family. On the nuptial day, the 
 women go in procession from the bridegroom's 
 house to fetch the bride, who is brought home 
 amidst the acclamations of the women, accom- 
 panied by her mother, and several other female 
 relations. The procession is in the day time, 
 and at Aleppo they do not carry tapers, as some 
 travellers have reported. On their arrival in the 
 house, the remainder of the day is spent in feast- 
 ing and music. When the bride, covered with 
 a veil of red gauze, and dressed in her wedding 
 garment, has been introduced to her husband,, 
 the relations withdraw, and continue singin; 
 and feasting till morning; and the nuptial ic- 
 joicings last several days. The mother for th< 
 most part suckles her child, unless prevented b/ 
 incapacity, and the child is seldom kept at tie 
 breast less than two years, sometimes thee 
 or four ; and the mother often suckles durhg 
 the whole time of pregnancy. During die 
 first week the child is swaddled, and nen 
 dressed in clothes which are more loose and 
 easy ; and as soon as they are able, they ac left 
 at liberty to crawl about on the carpet. Vhen 
 children can support themselves, they are isually 
 carried astride on the shoulders; and tie ex- 
 pression used by Isaiah, ch. Ix. v. 4, upor which 

 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 521 
 
 bishop Lowth comments, Notes on Isaiah, p. 
 258, viz. fyobj; is literally that which is now 
 used by the Arab women. The difference of 
 carrying a child in the bosom or on the shoulder, 
 referred to, Isaiah xlix. 22, and noticed by 
 Harmer, Obs. ou Scripture, vol. ii. p. 366, 
 may be owing to their different age, without re- 
 gard to sex. 
 
 In the funeral ceremonies practised at Aleppo, 
 the women perform a conspicuous part. 
 When a person is dangerously ill, one or two 
 sheiks are employed to read portions of the 
 Koran, and to pray by the bed-side. At 
 the approach of death, the attendants turn the 
 face of the dying person towards the keblah, 
 that is, towards Mecca. When he expires, the 
 women in the chamber give the alarm, by 
 shrieking, as if they were distracted, and are 
 soon joined by all the other females in the ha- 
 rem. This conclamation is termed the Wulwaly, 
 and is so shrill as to be heard, especially in the 
 night, at a prodigious distance. Schultens in his 
 commentaiy on Job, x. 15, torn. i. p. 978, con- 
 siders the Arabic Wulwal, as corresponding to 
 the Hebrew y?*, and to the Greek oXoXw^w and 
 aXaXaw, and he supposes that the former Greek 
 word was applied in a joyful sense. However, 
 the Arabic wulwaly is applicable only to distress 
 and affliction, and seems to have a greater 
 affinity to the latter term than to the former, 
 which was commonly used by the Greeks on 
 sacred or joyful occasions. See Mark, v. 38. 
 Plutarch refers to this practice in his account of 
 Portia's fainting on the day of Caesar's death, 
 when her maids, apprehending that she was 
 dead, wailed over her. Brutus, Oper. torn. i. 
 991. We also learn from Cicero DC Legibus, 
 lib. ii. Oper. torn. iii. p. 221, ed. Olivet, that 
 the extravagant exclamations of women at fune- 
 rals was prohibited by the twelve tables. See 
 PRJEFIC.C. In a few hours the corpse is pre- 
 pared for interment by ablution, and by stopping 
 all the natural passages with cotton, sprinkling 
 parts of it with a powder composed of spikenard 
 and other aromatic herbs, and wrapping it up 
 in a cotton winding-sheet. Over the bier, at the 
 head of which is fixed a batoon, on which the 
 man's turban, or the attire of the female head, 
 is placed, is thrown a black pall, and over this 
 the best wearing apparel of the deceased. The 
 funeral procession is attended by the acquaint- 
 ance and kindred of the deceased : a number of 
 the sheiks, some of whom incessantly repeat 
 Ullah, Ullah, and others chant verses of the 
 Koran : and one person is the chief mourner, 
 and manifests her grief, real or fictitious, by the 
 most extravagant and frantic cries and gestures. 
 Other mourners are sometimes hired, who, at 
 intervals, join the general wulwaly. A funeral 
 service is performed by the imam in some neigh- 
 bouring mosque, and the corpse is then deposited 
 in the grave, in a reclining posture, with the 
 head to the west, and the face turned towards 
 Mecca. A handful of earth is then thrown by 
 the imam, or sheik, after a funeral service, into 
 the grave, which is also done by others who 
 stand near, and who at the same time pronounce 
 a short benediction ; after which the grave is 
 nlled up. The funeral service in use among the 
 
 Kurdeens is very laconic, and is as follows : 
 
 ' If thou hast taken away, thou shalt restore ; 
 if thou hast given, it shall be restored to thee ; 
 and if thou doubtest this, thou shalt now be con- 
 vinced.' The funeral service, recited by the 
 imam at the grave, is as follows : ' O man ! from ' 
 earth thou wast at first created, and to the earth 
 thou dost now return : this transitory abode 
 being the first step of thy progress to the man- 
 sions of eternity. ' If, in thy actions in life, thou 
 hast been beneficent, God will pardon thy trans- 
 gressions ; and if thou hast not, still the mercy 
 of God has no bounds. But remember what 
 thou didst profess in this world, that God is thy 
 Lord, and Mahomet thy prophet and thy 
 belief in all the prophets and apostles, and that 
 God's forgiveness is amply extended.' The 
 sepulchre is visited by the near relations on the 
 third, seventh, and fortieth day after the inter- 
 ment ; they also celebrate the anniversary : so- 
 lemn prayers are offered at the tomb for the 
 repose of the deceased, and victuals and money 
 are distributed to the poor. The tomb is be- 
 strewed by the women, in their visits, with 
 flowers and aromatic herbs ; and the wulwaly is 
 repeated. The men make no alteration in their 
 dress as a mode of mourning; but the women 
 lay aside their jewels, dress in their plainest 
 garments, and wear on the head an embroidered 
 handkerchief of a dusky brick-dust colour. 
 They commonly mourn twelve months for a hus- 
 band, and six for a father. 
 
 Crimes of a capital kind are very rare at 
 Aleppo. The usual capital punishments are 
 hanging, beheading, strangling, and impaling. 
 Janissaries are strangled, not with a bow-string, 
 but by a cord put round the neck, and then 
 twisted with a stick in the manner of a tourni- 
 quet. The bodies of all who are executed remain 
 for some days exposed to public view. Theft is 
 uncommon ; when it occurs, it is sometimes 
 punished by amputation of the hand, but more 
 commonly with the bastinado, which is performed 
 with rods about the size of a small walking-stick; 
 and this is the usual punishment for offences of 
 an inferior kind. Banishment to the island of 
 Cyprus, and the maritime towns of Syria, is 
 chiefly employed for removing turbulent mem- 
 bers from the city or the divan. 
 
 The state of literature at Aleppo is much de- 
 generated from that of ancient times, when it 
 was more respectable. There are indeed public 
 day-schools adjoining to some of the principal 
 mosques, but their colleges for students in ad- 
 vanced life are few in number, and poorly en- 
 couraged. They are more properly seminaries 
 of pedantry and superstition than of science; 
 and they are chiefly frequented by the studious 
 of the poorer class, who dedicate themselves to 
 the service of the mosque. Grammar and school- 
 divinity are the subjects chiefly taught at college. 
 The effendees, who assume an appearance of re- 
 spect for learning; have no liberal notion of sci- 
 ence. Astronomy, which was once a favourite 
 study among the Arabs, is at present wholly 
 neglected. Although they have books on the 
 subject in their libraries, and some instruments, 
 yet so little is known of the science at Aleppo, 
 that a person who is found capable of calculating
 
 ALE 
 
 522 
 
 ALE 
 
 eclipses, has, on this account, the reputation of 
 a most profound astronomer. Almanacks are 
 seldom constructed at Aleppo, but are brought 
 thither from Constantinople or Cairo. As to 
 mathematical studies, they are little attended to 
 by the modern Arabs ; nor have natural history 
 and the experimental parts of philosophy made 
 .any progress amongst them for several centuries. 
 History is little regarded by the literati at Aleppo. 
 Their knowledge of distant states, and of the 
 revolutions of empire in the western world is 
 very partial and imperfect ; and even their own 
 history, before the appearance of their prophet, 
 remains in great obscurity. Their geographical 
 knowledge also lies within very narrow bounds ; 
 nor have they any good maps, except such as 
 have been imported from Europe. Superstition 
 has banished painting from Syria ; and music, 
 degraded by fashion to a mercenary profession, 
 is rather tolerated than encouraged ; poetry, 
 which was formerly much cultivated among the 
 Arabs, has very perceptibly declined and lan- 
 guished ; so that the modern Aleppo bards never 
 attempt any performance beyond a dirge, a bal- 
 lad, or an epigram. Although the medical prac- 
 titioners at Aleppo are numerous, their knowledge 
 of medicine is superficial, perverted by preju- 
 dice, and accompanied with pedantic affectation, 
 arrogance, and obstinacy. A very competent 
 judge affirms their general practice to consist in 
 specious trifling. Their knowledge of anatomy 
 is acquired by reading, not by dissection ; and 
 their ignorance of the circulation of the blood, 
 leaves them quietly in possession of the ancient 
 doctrines. The most calamitous disease to which 
 they are subject is the plague. 
 
 The epidemical diseases most prevalent in 
 Aleppo are, continual fevers, intermittent and 
 remittent fevers, regular and anomalous, erratic 
 fevers, commonly attended with diarrhoea ; the 
 dysentery, quinsy, pleurisy, peripneumony, rheu- 
 matism, and ophthalmia. The sporadic and 
 chronic diseases are, with few exceptions, nearly 
 the same as in Britain. Those which are most 
 common at Aleppo, are pulmonary complaints, 
 spitting of blood, and consumptions, obstructions 
 of the abdominal viscera, cachexy, jaundice, 
 dropsy, inguinal ruptures, the haemorrhoids and 
 worms. The tinea is common, and various other 
 cutaneous eruptions ; but the true or confirmed 
 leprosy is now become obsolete in Syria. The 
 
 venereal disease is also very common in this 
 country. The Europeans soon after their arrival 
 at Aleppo are subject to a fever, which has been 
 distinguished by the name of 1'oca, or goose. 
 The disease attacks but once ; and the English 
 are rather more liable to it than the Provencals 
 and Italians. The natives of Aleppo and Euro- 
 pean strangers, after some residence here, are 
 subject to a singular kind of eruption ; which 
 from the supposed time of its duration, is de- 
 nominated the botch of a year, or the ring-worm 
 or pimple of Aleppo ; but by the Europeans and 
 Turks, il mal d'Aleppo, the Aleppo evil, and the 
 Aleppo ulcer. No part of the body or limbs is 
 exempt from this eruption; but it most com- 
 monly fixes on the face, and leaves a scar, with 
 which almost all the inhabitants are disfigured. 
 Volney suspects that it proceeds from the quality 
 of the water. Dr. Russell has particularly de- 
 scribed it : and he observes, that the mercurial 
 plaster was the most efficacious remedy. 
 
 The animals, birds, &c. of Aleppo, will be 
 treated of in the geography of the district. One 
 species of pigeon, however, claims a slight de- 
 gree of attention. 
 
 Speedy intelligence was of such importance 
 in Aleppo, that the carrier-pigeon was employed 
 to convey notice from Scanderoon or Alexan- 
 dretta, and Bagdad, to Aleppo. It is the pecu- 
 liar quality of this bird to find its way through 
 the air from incredible distances, to which it has 
 been conveyed hood-winked, or in a covered 
 basket, and with a velocity no less surprising. 
 But this practice can only be adopted during 
 the period of incubation, or while its young are 
 unfledged ; and a kind of training is required. 
 Damiri, an Arabian author, affirms, that it can 
 traverse 450 miles in a day ; and, according to 
 Maillet, a French writer, its flight is at the rate 
 of sixty miles an hour. Thus it may easily be 
 believed, that intelligence was conveyed in two- 
 hours and a half throxtgh the distance of seventy 
 miles, from Alexandretta to Aleppo. The prac- 
 tice has been discontinued in Syria for some 
 time ; but during its existence, it is said that a 
 merchant of Aleppo having accidentally killed a 
 carrier-pigeon, discovered from the billet under 
 its wing that a scarcity of galls prevailed in En- 
 gland; and, availing himself of the information r 
 made such arrangements as enabled him to 
 realize a fortune. 
 
 ALEPYRUM, in botany, a, without, Xeirvpov, 
 a bark, shell, or covering, i. e. of corollaceous 
 glumes, by which this genus is distinguished from 
 Devauxia ; class and order, monandriapolygynia. 
 Nat. Ord. Restiaceae, 
 
 Gen. Ch. CAL. sheath of two concave, keeled, 
 permanent valves, clasping each other at the 
 base, containing one or more flowers : COR. none : 
 STAM. filament one, capillary, drooping, about 
 as long as the calyx; anther simple, oval: PIST. 
 germens several, six to eighteen, ovate-oblong, 
 superior, inserted into one side of a central ob- 
 long receptacle, and all turned one way ; styles 
 as many, thread-shaped, combined at the bottom, 
 spreading or deflexed at the upper part : STIGM. 
 
 linear, downy : PERICARP, capsules as many as 
 the germens, membranous, oval, of one valve, 
 and one cell, bursting longitudinally at one side : 
 SEED, solitary, obovate, pendulous. Essential 
 characteristics, sheath of two valves ; COR. none , 
 ANTH. simple; GERM, unilateral : CAPS, bursting 
 longitudinally at one side : seed solitary. 
 
 Also a geniis of small herbaceous plants, nearly 
 allied to the more numerous one of Devauxia, 
 and scarcely to be separated therefrom, the want 
 of petals in Alepyrum being the only difference. 
 The three species are all natives of the south 
 coast of New Holland, nor do they appear to 
 have been met with by any botanist or collector, 
 excepting Mr. Brown: ROOTS fibrous: leaves
 
 ALE 
 
 523 
 
 ALE 
 
 /adical, simple, linear-lanceolate, or setaceous : 
 flower-stalks radical, unbranched, single-flowered. 
 1. A. polygonum: many-jointed Alepyrum, 
 sheath single-flowered ; the outer valve with a 
 leafy point : GERM, from fifteen to eighteen ; 
 stalk twice the length of the leaves. 2. 
 A. Pumilio, dwarf Alepyrum; sheath single- 
 flowered ; the outer valve with a leafy point : 
 EERM. from six to nine ; stalk the length of the 
 eaves. 3. A. muticum, pointless Alepyrum; 
 sheath with a few flowers ; the outer valve 
 pointed. 
 
 ALERIA ALALIA, or ALARIA, in ancient 
 geography, a town of Corsica, mentioned by 
 Ptolemy, situated near the middle of the east 
 side of the island, on an eminence, near the 
 mouth of the river Botanus, built by the Pho- 
 caeans. Afterwards Sylla planted a colony here. 
 It is now in ruins, and called Alleria Distrutta. 
 ALERION, in heraldry. See ALLERION. 
 ALERT', 1 Ital. All' erte, aT erta, par- 
 ALERT'NESS. } ticipial adjective from the verb 
 ergere ; Lat. erigere ; estre a 1'erte, to observe, 
 or watch from a high place a military phrase 
 formed by a combination of French and Italian. 
 See Cotgrave. ' Stare a 1'erta, to be watchful.' 
 Florio's Italian Dictionary. Watchful, brisk, 
 lively. 
 
 Thir nobill nymphis maid reverence, 
 With gestour lively and allairt ; ' 
 And eftir their obedience, 
 Hir grace passit to ane udder pairt. 
 
 Bitrel in Sibbald's Chronicles, v. iii. p. 470. 
 That alertness and unconcern for matters of com- 
 mon life, a campaign or two would infallibly have 
 given him. Addison, Spectator. 
 
 Not such the alert and active ; measure life 
 By its true worth, the comfort it affords, 
 And their's alone seem worthy of the name. 
 
 Cowper's Task. 
 
 ALES, (Alexander) a divine of the confession 
 of Augsburg, born at Edinburgh in 1500. He 
 entered the lists very early against Luther, but 
 became at length a perfect convert to the Protes- 
 tant religion. The change of religion which hap- 
 pened in England after the marriage of Henry 
 VIII. with Anna Bullen, induced Ales to go to 
 London in 1535. He was highly esteemed by 
 Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Latimer, 
 and Thomas Cromwell, who were at that time in 
 high favour with the king. Upon the fall of 
 these favourites, he was obliged to return to 
 Germany : and the elector of Brandenburgh 
 appointed him professor of divinity at Frank- 
 fort upon the Oder, in 1540 ; but leaving this 
 place upon some disgust he returned to Leipsic, 
 and died in March 1565. He wrote a Commen- 
 tary on the writings of St. John, on the epistle to 
 Timothy, and on the Psalms. 
 
 ALES, a name given to a compound salt ; it 
 also signifies contracted, when used by physi- 
 cians as an adjective. 
 
 ALES, a river of Roxburghshire, which rises in 
 Selkirk, and falls into the Tiviot, a little below 
 Ancrum. 
 
 ALESA, ALJESA, or HALSEA, in ancient geo- 
 graphy, a town of Sicily, on the Tuscan sea, 
 built, according to Diodorus Siculus, by Archo- 
 nides of Herbita, in the second year of the 94th 
 Olympiad, or A. A. C. 403 ; situated on an emi- 
 
 nence about a mile from the sea ; now in ruins. 
 It enjoyed immunity from taxes under the Ro- 
 mans. 
 
 ALESANI, a town and jurisdiction of Corsica, 
 consisting of nine villages, in the district of Ale- 
 ria, which see. 
 
 ALESHAM. See AYLESHAM. 
 
 ALESIA, in ancient geography, a town of the 
 Mandubii; called also Alexia,byLivyand others, 
 situated on a very high hill, whose base was 
 washed by two rivers. The town was of such 
 antiquity, that Diodorus Siculus relates it was 
 built by Hercules. It is now called the city of 
 Alise, in the duchy of Burgundy, near Dijon. 
 
 ALESSANDRIA, in Egypt. See ALEXAN- 
 DRIA. 
 
 ALESSANDRIA, or ALEXANDRIA, is a strong 
 town, with a citadel, lying. in a marshy country 
 on the east bank of the Tanaro, in Upper Italy. 
 It is the see of a bishop, the suffragan of the arch- 
 bishop of Turin. It contains, besides the ca- 
 thedral church, twelve parish churches, two 
 collegiate churches, seventeen monasteries and 
 nunneries, together with several fine private build- 
 ings, and had in the year 1806, 35,216 inha- 
 bitants. The yearly fairs held here at the end 
 of April and beginning of October, are attended 
 by merchants from all parts of Italy, and even 
 from France and Switzerland, being inferior to 
 none in Italy, except those of Sintegaglia. This 
 town and fortress were founded in the latter half 
 of the twelfth century by the Lombard league, 
 formed to oppose the emperor Frederic I. The 
 French made themselves masters of the town and 
 citadel in the war of the Spanish succession, but 
 were dispossessed by prince Eugene in 1706. 
 In the invasion of Italy by Buonaparte in 1796, 
 the fortress of Alessandria was given up to the 
 French conditionally, by the armistice of 28th 
 April, and definitively by the treaty of 15th May. 
 It remained in their hands above three years ; 
 but after the defeat which the French sustained 
 at San Guiliano, on the 25th June 1799, it fell 
 into the power of the allied Austrian and Rus- 
 sian armies. It had been furiously bombarded 
 during six days, and was about to be stormed 
 when it surrendered by capitulation ; and so ob- 
 stinate had been the resistance, that of 103 can- 
 non found by the allies, only six were fit for use. 
 After the decisive battle of Marengo, in 1800, 
 Alessandria fell into the hands of the' French, in 
 whose possession it remained till 1814, when it 
 once more changed masters, on the restoration of 
 the king of Sardinia to his Italian states. Dur- 
 ing this interval it was the capital of the depart- 
 ment of Marengo, and was greatly strengthened 
 in its fortifications. Thirty-eight miles south- 
 west of Milan, and forty-four miles east of Tu- 
 rin. Long. 8. 40'. E. Lat. 44. 57'. N. 
 
 ALESSIA, or ALESSIO Lissus, a town of 
 European Turkey, in the province of Albania, 
 seated near the mouth of the Drino, forty miles 
 west of Albanopolis. It is famous for the castle, 
 where Scanderberg died, and was buried in 1467, 
 for whom the Turks have such a veneration, that 
 they carry away pieces of his tomb as relics, and 
 esteem them effectual charms to animate their 
 courage in battle. Lon. 19. 36'. Lat. 42. 8'N. 
 ALESSIO, a town of Turkish Dalmatia. in
 
 524 
 
 ALEUTIAN ISLES. 
 
 Hungary, seated on a mountain, twenty-five miles 
 from Spalatio. It is a bishop's see. 
 
 A L'ETENDARD, in music, to the standard ! 
 a military signal sounded by the trumpet, for the 
 troops to gather round the standard, on the at- 
 tack of an enemy. 
 
 ALETHA, a town of France, seated on the 
 river, and in the department of Aude, arrondis- 
 sement of Limouse, thirty-five miles south of Car- 
 
 cassone, and thirty-seven miles south-west of 
 Narbonne. It is remarkable for its baths, and 
 for the grains of gold and silver found in a stream 
 which runs from the Pyrenean mountains, at the 
 foot of which it stands. 
 
 ALEUROMANCY, from aXivpov, meal, and 
 Havrtia, divination, otherwise called alphitoman- 
 tia, and crithomantia, an ancient kind of divina- 
 tion performed by meal or flour. 
 
 ALEUTIAN ISLES. 
 
 ALEUTIAN, ALETJTSKIE, or ALEUTIC IS- 
 LANDS, of aleut, a bold rock, a name given, 
 principally by Russian navigators, to a chain of 
 islands, extending from the promontory of 
 Alaschka, in North America, to Kamtschatka, in 
 Asiatic Russia. They are between forty and 
 fifty in number, and include what were generally 
 known in our English geographical works by the 
 name of the Fox islands, Behring's and Copper 
 islands, and the group formerly divided into the 
 Aleutian and Andrenovian Isles. Behring's and 
 Copper islands are still excluded from this de- 
 nomination by some writers, but as the entire 
 chain is evidently connected, and as they appear 
 to be but a continuation of the immense moun- 
 tains of the neighbouring continents, we shall 
 find it most convenient, in common with the 
 most recent Russian geographers, to consider them 
 under this one appellation. In this extended 
 view of them, these islands are scattered over 
 that portion of the Northern Pacific, nearly 
 1500 leagues in circuit, communicating with 
 the Northern ocean by Behring's straits. All the 
 settlements hitherto formed upon them belong 
 to Russia, and to that nation must be attributed 
 the honour of their first discovery. 
 
 In the year 1725, Peter the Great, whose 
 mind was strongly excited by the question then 
 agitated, relative to the distance between the 
 American and Asiatic continents, drew up in- 
 structions with his own hand, for the conduct of 
 an expedition of discovery to this region, which 
 was to be entrusted to the command of an officer 
 named Behring. In 1728, the deputation sailed 
 from the mouth of the Kamtschatka river, and 
 coasted the eastern shore of Siberia as far as 67. 
 18'. north latitude; but making no discovery of 
 the opposite continent, in 1729 he again reiterated 
 his attempt, but with no better success. The 
 same illustrious officer, deputed in 1741 by the 
 empress Anna, and attended by another vessel 
 under the command of Tschirikoff, not only ac 
 complished the primary object of his mission, 
 but led the way to all the subsequent important 
 discoveries of the Russians in these seas. His 
 discoveries in the course of the voyage, aided by 
 the recent conquest of Kamtschatka, have facili- 
 tated the solution of some of the most interesting 
 problems of modern geography. Tschirikoff is 
 said to have discovered the coast of America in 
 the 56th degree of latitude ; and Behring, who 
 was separated from his companion in a storm, 
 saw it in latitude 58. 28'. ; and in his return 
 was driven upon the island which now bears his 
 name, and where he died. 
 
 The two uninhabitated islands, Behring's and 
 Copper island, appear to have been first visited 
 in 1745 ; and becoming known to the natives of 
 Kamtschatka, were largely resorted to for the 
 sake of the valuable furs which they afforded. 
 The Eudokia, in the year above alluded to, was 
 fitted out by private adventurers, and the com- 
 mand given to Michael Nevodtsikof, a native of 
 Tobolsk. Other adventurers penetrated as far 
 east as the Fox Islands. One of the most re- 
 markable of these voyages was that of St. An- 
 drean and Natalia, fitted out by the merchant 
 Andrean Tolstyk, which sailed from the Kamt- 
 schatka river on the 27th September, 1760, and 
 reached Behring's Island on the 29th. Driven 
 ashore by a violent autumnal storm, they were 
 obliged to pass the winter ; but putting to sea on 
 the 24th of June the following year, they passed 
 by Copper Island, 150 versts from the former, 
 and steered south-east to the Aleutian Isles. 
 These they reached on the 6th of August, and 
 thence proceeded on the 19th, in quest of more 
 distant islands, for the purpose, if possible, of 
 exacting tribute. Steering away to the north- 
 east, and north-east by east, they were driven by 
 a gale of wind upon an island indented by a 
 safe bay, where they anchored in safety. This 
 they called Ayagh, or Kayaka, and another, 
 about twenty versts distant, Kanaga. Four other 
 islands were afterwards discovered. This group, 
 north-west of the Fox Islands, were, in honour 
 of the vessel which made the discovery, called 
 the Andreanofskie, or Andrenovian Isles. From 
 the year 1758 to 1760, though several vessels 
 visited the Fox Islands, and obtained valuable 
 cargoes of sea-otter and fox skins, little informa- 
 tion was obtained. In 1762, four vessels sailed 
 from the Fox Islands, of which only one returned, 
 and the natives seemed exceedingly hostile. 
 
 For the better discovery of this archipelago, 
 Captain Krenitzin and lieutenant Levashef 
 sailed from the mouth of the Kamtschatka river, 
 by order of the empress Catharine, to examine 
 the chain of Aleutian Islands. Having care- 
 fully surveyed the whole of this archipelago 
 from Behring's island to the promontory of 
 Alaska, and after spending the winter in the 
 Fox Islands, this expedition, in the autumn of 
 1769, returned to Kamtschatka. But our im- 
 mortal Captain Cook communicated more sci- 
 entific information respecting these islands, and 
 also of the coasts of the two continents, than all 
 the previous voyages of the Russians put to- 
 gether. During his third and last voyage in 
 1778, he surveyed the eastern portion of this
 
 ALEUTIAN ISLES. 
 
 525 
 
 archipelago with his usual energy and perse- 
 verance, and enriched the science of geography 
 with many new discoveries. 
 
 In the year 1785, the Russians instituted a 
 fresh expedition, under the command of Captain 
 Billings, an English naval officer, in the Russian 
 service, who had accompanied Captain Cook in 
 his last voyage to the Pacific Ocean. This at- 
 tempt is ascribed to the suggestion of Mr. Coxe, 
 then at St. Petersburgh, and whose account of 
 the Russian discoveries between Asia and Ame- 
 rica, had attracted the attention of the Russian 
 government. During this voyage, which was 
 not completed till 1796, the whole chain of the 
 Aleutian Isles was explored; and some parts of 
 the western coast of America. The details are 
 published in the narratives of Martin Sauer, secre- 
 tary to Captain Billings, and Admiral Sary- 
 tochef. A few years after the return of this 
 expedition, the Russian American Company 
 turned their attention towards the best means of 
 supplying the north-west American settlements 
 with provisions, &c. It was resolved to try 
 whether the conveyance by sea would not an- 
 swer a better purpose, than the tedious journey 
 by land to Ochotsk. To ascertain the prac- 
 ticability of this hypothesis, Captain Krusenstern, 
 who had long served in the British Navy, sug- 
 gested the plan of an expedition from Cronstadt, 
 round Cape Horn, to the Aleutian Islands, and 
 the north-west coast of America. This plan 
 meeting the approbation of count Romanzof, the 
 minister of commerce, and Admiral Mordwinof, 
 minister of the marine, obtained the sanction of 
 his imperial majesty ; and two vessels called the 
 Nadeshda and the Neva, were accordingly pur- 
 chased in London for the voyage. The command 
 of the expedition devolved on Captain Kru- 
 senstern, the original author of the plan, subor- 
 dinate to whom, C ap tain Lisiansky was appointed 
 to the Neva. These two vessels sailed in com- 
 pany from Cronstadt in the month of August, 
 1803, and proceeded to the Brazils, whence they 
 sailed round Cape Horn to the Sandwich Islands 
 where they separated ; the Nadeshda proceeded 
 to Japan and China, while Captain Lisiansky, in 
 the Neva, proceeded to Kadyak and the Ame- 
 rican settlements. Upon the details of this 
 voyage our limits do not allow us to enter, but 
 full and interesting accounts have been published 
 by the two captains, and also by Dr. Langsdorff, 
 who went out in the expedition in the quality of 
 a physician. 
 
 The westerly part of the Aleutian chain con- 
 sists of those islands which lie nearest to Kamt- 
 schatka. The first is Commodore's, or Bearing's 
 Island, situate, according to Captain Cook, in 
 fifty-five degrees of latitude, and sixty of lon- 
 gitude from the harbour of Petropaulowska, in 
 the bay of Awatska. It is from seventy to eighty 
 versts long, and stretches from north-west to 
 south-east. Ten leagues from the south-east 
 point of this island, in the direction of east by 
 south or east-south-east lies Mednoi Ostroff, or 
 Copper island, so called for the large masses of 
 native copper found upon the beach. Still 
 further to the east lie three small islands, Attak 
 or Attoo, Semitshi, and Agattoo, the Plishnie 
 Ostrova, or nearest [Aleutian Isles of the Rus- 
 
 sians. These islands are situated between the fifty- 
 fourth and fifty-fifth degrees of north latitude. 
 Attak is the largest ; nearly of the same shape 
 as Behring's Island, but more extensive, stretch- 
 ing from east to west, to the length of eighteen 
 leagues. It has two harbours, one of which lies 
 on the southern coast. From the eastern ex- 
 tremity of the Aleutian Islands, properly so 
 called, another group runs south-eastward, con- 
 tinuing the chain as far as the western extremity 
 ot the Fox Islands. These are called the An- 
 dreanofskie Islands ; but we have less accurate 
 information respecting the central part of the 
 chain, than of the eastern and western groups. 
 They are said to -lie within the fifty-second and 
 fifty-fourth degrees of north latitude, but being 
 of inconsiderable extent and importance, are sel- 
 dom visited by navigators. The most remarkable 
 are, Takavangha, which has in its centre, near 
 the northern coast, a burning mountain ; Kanaghi 
 or Kanaga, which has likewise a high smoking 
 mountain; Ayag, which has a number of good 
 bays and anchoring-places ; and Tshetchina, on 
 which a high white mountain overtops the rest, 
 apparently an extinct volcano, especially as there 
 are still hot springs on the island. Atshak, or 
 Atchka, and Amlac, are also usually reckoned 
 among the number of the Andrenovian isles, of 
 which the former greatly resembles Copper 
 Island, and is prgvided with a commodious har- 
 bour. 
 
 The most important and best explored portion 
 of this archipelago is the easterly group, called 
 by the Russians Lyssie Ostrova, or the Fox 
 Islands. Of these the most considerable are, 
 Umnak, Unalashka, or Oonalashka, and Uni- 
 mak ; the last of which is separated by a narrow 
 strait from the promontory of Alaska. Beyond 
 these, to the north-east, lies the large island of 
 Kadyak, or Kodiak, generally included in the 
 group called Schumagin's Islands. 
 
 The whole of these islands are bare and moun- 
 tainous; their coasts are rocky and surrounded 
 by breakers, which render their circumnaviga- 
 tion exceedingly dangerous. The land rises im- 
 mediately from the coasts to steep bald moun- 
 tains, towering above each other higher and 
 higher, and assuming the appearance of chains 
 of mountains, with a lengthwise direction of the 
 island. Springs take their rise at the bottom of 
 the mountains, and either flow in broad and 
 rapid streams into the neighbouring sea, or, col- 
 lecting in the rocky vales and glens, form ample 
 lakes, sending off their superfluous waters, by 
 natural canals, into the adjacent bays. They 
 bear evident marks of volcanic formation ; and 
 several of them have still active volcanoes, which 
 continually emit smoke, and sometimes flames. 
 No traces of metals have been discovered, on 
 these islands ; but carneoles and sardonyxes are 
 common. Their soil is similar to that of Kamt- 
 schatka; and affords the same kinds of edible 
 berries and roots ; some few vegetables, howevei , 
 seem to be of foreign origin. No wood of any 
 considerable growth has been perceived upon 
 any of these islands, except a small quantity on 
 Unalashka. The land animals are bears, wolves, 
 river-otters, river-beavers, and ermines. The 
 sea-otter, so valuable on account of its skin, is
 
 526 
 
 ALEUTIAN ISLES. 
 
 frequently caught; but the number of these 
 animals, is much diminished. The Fox Islands 
 furnish a great variety of foxes, of various colours, 
 black, grey, red, and brown. The sea abounds 
 with all sorts of seals, dolphins, and whales, and 
 occasionally sea-lions and porpoises are seen. 
 Salmon are caught in great abundance and 
 variety ; and halibut of an immense size are fre- 
 quently taken. The winter upon these islands 
 is mild, but the summer is equally short and 
 unpleasant. The inhabitants are numerous, and 
 tributary to Russia, from whence vessels are sent 
 out, and establishments formed upon these islands 
 on account of the very profitable chase of sea- 
 otters and foxes for the supply of trade, 
 
 Unalashka, one of the largest of the Fox Islands, 
 as visited by Captain Cook during his last voyage, 
 merits more particular attention. This island 
 stretches from north-east to south-west, and is 
 from seventy to eighty versts in length, but of 
 very unequal breadth. On the north and north- 
 east side there are many bays and creeks, in some 
 of which are convenient harbours. A part of 
 the south-west shore consists of very high, steep, 
 inaccessible cliffs ; and another part has remain- 
 ed hitherto wholly unexplored. The whole island 
 consists of a mass of rocks, covered with a thin 
 coat of earth ; the hills are of very unequal height, 
 and are intersected by irregular valleys, the soil 
 of which is commonly argillaceous, or an earth 
 washed down from the hills. In the lower val- 
 leys there is abundance of grass, and Captain. 
 Cook was of opinion that cattle might subsist at 
 Unalashka all the year round, without being 
 housed. The soil, in many places, appeared ca- 
 pable of producing grain, esculent roots, and 
 vegetables . Wood is unknown on this and the 
 neighbouring islands, but low bushes and shrubs 
 of dwarf-birch, willow, and alder, are common. 
 For all the timber used for the purposes of build- 
 ing, &c. they are indebted to the sea, which 
 wafts it to their shores from the continent of 
 America. The inhabitants are rather low of 
 stature, but plump and well shaped ; with short 
 necks, swarthy chubby faces, black eyes, small 
 beards, and long, straight, black hair, which the 
 men wear loose behind, and cut before, but the 
 women tie up in a large fold. With regard to 
 their character, Captain Cook describes them as 
 the most inoffensive people he ever met with, 
 and perfect patterns of honesty. But, according 
 to the accounts of the first discoverers, this does 
 not seem to have been their original disposition ; 
 and recent travellers have observed, that although 
 generally kind-hearted and peaceable, yet, when 
 roused to anger, they become exceedingly male- 
 volent, indifferent to all danger, and even to 
 death itself. The clothing of the men and wo- 
 men is nearly the same, and consists of a sort of 
 frock or shirt, called parka, fastened round the 
 neck with a broad stiff collar, and descending 
 below the knee. These garments are made of 
 the skins of seals, prepared in a manner peculiar 
 to themselves, and sewed together very inge- 
 niously. Though simple in their form, they are 
 ornamented in a variety of ways with glass beads, 
 beaks of sea parrots, long white goats' hair, 
 brought from Siberia, or small red feathers. 
 Over the frock, the men sometimes wear a kam- 
 
 leika, or rain-garment. This is made of gut, 
 which is water-proof; and has a hood to it, which 
 draws over the head, and is tied under the chin. 
 When on shore, the men wear boots, made of 
 seal's skin ; and they all have a kind of oval 
 snouted cap, made of wood, with a rim to admit 
 the head. These caps are dyed with green and 
 other colours, and are fancifully ornamented 
 with ivory figures, carved from the teeth of the 
 sea-cow, with glass or amber beads, and with 
 the bristles from the beard of the sea-lion. 
 They make use of no paint ; tattooing was 
 formerly very much in use among them, par- 
 ticularly among the women ; but their inter- 
 course with the Russians has rather brought 
 this practice into disrepute. Both men and 
 women, particularly the latter, bore the under 
 lip, and insert pieces of bone or other orna- 
 ments ; but this practice has also decreased of 
 late. The women generally go barefooted; wear 
 bracelets of glass beads just above the wrist and 
 ancle-joints, and are fond of rings upon their 
 fingers. The principal food of these islanders 
 consist of fish, sea-animals, birds, roots, and ber- 
 ries. They dry large quantities of fish in sum- 
 mer, which they lay up in small huts for the 
 winter. Roots and berries are also preserved 
 for the same season. Of fish, the most common 
 and abundant are several sorts of salmon, cod, 
 herrings, and halibut. The last is the most es- 
 teemed, and is sometimes caught of an enormous 
 size. The fat of the whale is also a favourite 
 species of food ; and when it grows old and ran- 
 cid, serves to light and warm their houses. They 
 eat almost every thing raw ; but of late, have 
 learnt from the Russians some simple modes of 
 cookery. Vegetable food is not held in much 
 esteem by the Unalashkans. That sweet plant, 
 the Siberian parsnip, (heracleum Sibericum,) is 
 but little eaten, any more than the bulb of the 
 saranna, or Kamtschadale lily. Edible berries 
 abound ; as bramble-berries, cran-berries, hurtle- 
 berries, heath-berries, and others. The Russians 
 have begun to plant potatoes, which succeed 
 extremely well, and are much liked by the peo- 
 ple. The habitations of the Unalashkans are 
 holes dug in the earth, covered with a wooden 
 roof, over which they throw grass and earth ; so 
 that a village has the appearance of an European 
 church-yard full of graves. The entrance into 
 these huts is from the roof; but some of the 
 largest which are inhabited by the Russians, 
 have a door in the side. Light is also admitted 
 by the roof, through an opening or window, 
 covered with seal's entrails, or dried fish-skin. 
 Several divisions are made within, by means of 
 seal-skins or straw-mats, which separate the 
 apartments of the different families. Their house- 
 hold furniture consists of bowls, spoons, buckets, 
 piggins or cans, matted baskets, and perhaps a 
 Russian kettle. The knife and the hatchet, (o 
 rather a small flat piece of iron, made like ar 
 adze, by fitting it into a crooked wooden handle, 
 are the only iron tools found amongst them. 
 Their instruments and utensils are, however 
 made with the greatest neatness, and the most 
 exact symmetry. The needles, with which they 
 sew their clothes and embroider, are made of the 
 wing-bone of the gull, with a very nice cut, round
 
 ALEUTIAN ISLES. 
 
 627 
 
 the thicker end, instead of an eye, to which they 
 tie the thread so skilfully, that it follows the nee- 
 dle without any obstruction. Their thread is 
 made of the sinews of the seal, the fibres of which 
 they split, to the thickness which each sort of 
 work requires. The women are the tailors, shoe- 
 makers, and boat-builders, or boat-coverers. At 
 their leisure hours, particularly in long winter 
 evenings, they make fine mats, little baskets, and 
 pocket-books of straw, that are both beautiful 
 and strong. Captain Cook observes, there is a 
 neatness and perfection in most of their work, 
 that shows they neither want ingenuity nor per- 
 severance. Their houses have no fire-place, but 
 are both heated and lighted by lamps. These 
 are made of a flat stone, hollowed on one side 
 like a plate ; in the hollow part they put the oil, 
 mixed with a little dry grass, which serves the 
 purpose of a wick. They produce fire both by 
 collision and attrition ; the former by striking 
 two stones one against another, one of them 
 being previously rubbed with brimstone. The 
 latter with two pieces of wood, one of which is a 
 pointed stick, and the other a flat piece. The 
 pointed end of the stick they press upon the 
 other, and whirling it nimbly round as a drill, 
 in a few minutes it produces fire. 
 
 The principal occupations of the Aleutians, 
 are fishing, hunting, and preparing the necessary 
 implements for both, Their baidars, baidarkas, 
 or boats, resemble the canoes of other savages, 
 and consist of a skeleton of wood, over which is 
 stretched a leather covering of seal's skins. The 
 boats of the Unalashkans are superior in point 
 of beauty to those of any of the other islands; 
 some of them appear so transparent, that one 
 might trace the formation of the inside, and the 
 position of the rower. In their form, they are 
 long and narrow, and commonly hold only one 
 person ; sometimes they are made to hold two, 
 and occasionally three ; each person sitting in 
 a round hole just fitted to the size of the 
 body. The whole canoe is so light, that, even 
 when sodden with water, it may be carried in 
 one hand, and is impelled by means of double 
 paddles, seven or eight feet long, which are 
 managed with great dexterity. Experienced 
 navigators sometimes venture out, in these boats, 
 a considerable way to sea, even in stormy weather. 
 The darts, or javelins, with which they kill their 
 game, are adapted with the greatest judgment to 
 the different objects of the chase. For land animals 
 a single barbed point ; for birds, three points of 
 light bone, spread, and barbed ; for seals, &c. a 
 false point, inserted in a socket at the end of the 
 dart, which parts, on the least effort of the animal 
 to dive, remaining in its body. To this barbed 
 point, a string of considerable length is fastened, 
 and twisted round the wooden part of the javelin. 
 This serves as a float to direct them to the seal, 
 which, having the stick to drag after it, tires, and 
 soon becomes an easy prey. These darts are 
 not shot from a bow, but slung from a small 
 plank, about eighteen inches long and two inches 
 broad. In order that the weapon may be held 
 the faster, they have a sort of handle at the lower 
 end, and an opening through which the fore-finger 
 is thrust. At the other end is a small channel, 
 into which the javelin fits with a little knob, which 
 
 serves to retain it. When the javelin is to be 
 thrown, the plank is held horizontally, and the 
 aim being taken, the'weapon is directed by the 
 middle finger and thumb. This is done with so 
 much dexterity, and the motion given to it is so 
 powerful, that the object aimed at is rarely 
 missed, and even whales are thus killed without 
 any other weapon. 
 
 Their favourite amusement is dancing, in 
 which, however, they do not excel. Their music 
 is exceedingly rude, consisting of a small drum 
 or tambour, and a rattle made of the bladder of 
 a sea-dog, filled with peas or small pebbles. 
 These little drums, however, are frequently or- 
 namented with ingenuity and elegance. They 
 also cut out from the teeth of the sea-cow, small 
 figures of men, fish, sea-otters, and other objects, 
 in a manner that appears very extraordinary, 
 considering that the sea-cow's teeth are much 
 harder than ivory, and that they have no proper 
 tools to work with. 
 
 The religion of these Islanders, consists in su- 
 perstitious observances, and a belief in charms. 
 Many of them have been baptized, and are no- 
 minally professors of the Greek faith ; of which, 
 however, they understand nothing more than 
 making the sign of the cross. They have no 
 marriage ceremony ; every man may have as 
 many wives as he can conveniently maintain ; 
 if his means decrease, he sends first 'one, then 
 another, back to their parents ; and the women 
 thus dismissed, look out for other husbands. 
 Sometimes the same woman lives with two hus- 
 bands ; and it is not uncommon for men to sell 
 or exchange wives. Boys, if they happen to be 
 very handsome, are often brought up entirely in 
 the manner of girls ; instructed in the arts of 
 female blandishment ; and used as concubines. 
 This shocking, unnatural, and immoral practice, 
 has prevailed here even from the remotest times. 
 Such men are known under the name of schc- 
 pans. The bodies of the dead, especially of the 
 men, were formerly interred in places set apart 
 for the 'purpose, and with particular ceremonies. 
 Their best javelins and clothes, with a portion of 
 train-oil and other articles of food, were laid 
 with them in the grave; and sometimes even 
 slaves of both sexes were slaughtered upon the 
 occasion. These customs are now, however, 
 entirely laid aside. 
 
 The population of Unalashka, and the neigh- 
 bouring islands, appears to have been formerly 
 considerable, amounting to several thousands. 
 In 1790, Sarytcheff reckoned it at 1300. Ac- 
 cording to the most recent accounts, it does not 
 appear to amount to more than 300. This rapid 
 depopulation is ascribed partly to the practice 
 of sending the best hunters from hence to a dis- 
 tance, to chace the large sea-otters, few of whom 
 ever return again to. their families ; and partly 
 to the state of oppression under which the natives 
 live, and the change which has taken place in 
 their modes of living. Captain Cook seems to 
 consider the natives of these Islands as originally 
 of the same extraction with the Greenlanders 
 and Esquimaux. When first discovered by the 
 Russians, they were under the government of 
 Toigans, or chiefs, who, however, possessed little 
 distinction or dignity, and had no revenue. A
 
 ALE 
 
 528 
 
 ALE 
 
 present they are subject to the Russian settlers. 
 Throughout the whole of the Aleutian Islands, 
 on the island of Kadyak, and the western coast 
 of America, the Russians have formed settlements 
 for the purpose of hunting, and collecting furs ; 
 with which they carry on a lucrative commerce, 
 particularly with the Chinese. The most valua- 
 ble fur is that of the sea-otter. Besides the sea- 
 otter, there are a number of foxes, especially on 
 the Fox Islands. The black foxes are not so. 
 valuable as those of Siberia. The arctic, or ice-fox, 
 also called the rock fox, and the blue fox, from 
 the natural colour of the fur, which is of a bluish- 
 grey, is very common. From the first discovery 
 of these islands by Behring and Tscherikoff, in 
 1741, the fur- trade was carried on for a long pe- 
 riod by private adventurers; and appears to have 
 been productive of great abuses. The natives were 
 frequently treated in the most barbarous manner; 
 and the keenness displayed by these rapacious 
 hunters, threatened to extirpate the race of ani- 
 mals upon which the trade depended. Convinced 
 of the extreme necessity of putting a stop to this 
 destructive plan of proceeding, Schelikoff, an in- 
 telligent Russian merchant, took considerable 
 pains to unite the different partakers of this trade 
 into a company, in order that it might be con- 
 ducted upon some plan that might prove advan- 
 tageous to all parties. In 1785, he succeeded in 
 joining company with the Golikoffs. They in- 
 creased their capital, and fitted out several ships 
 which the enterprising Schelikoff commanded in 
 person. Factories, protected by forts, were es- 
 tablished in almost all the islands, as far east- 
 ward as Kadyak ; and for several years they con- 
 tinued a lucrative trade, and acquired consider- 
 able wealth. The success of this connexion in- 
 duced several merchants to unite like Schelikoff 
 and the Golikoffs ; and, in this manner, was laid 
 the foundation of the present Russian American 
 Company. The irregular manner in which the 
 trade was still carried on, and the cruelty which 
 was frequently exercised towards the natives of the 
 islands, drew upon them great censure : inso- 
 
 much, that the Emperor Paul determined to put 
 an end both to the company apd the trade. This 
 determination would have been infallibly carried 
 into effect, but for the interference of M. Von Re- 
 sanoff, who had married Schelikoff 's daughter, 
 and was personally interested in the continuance 
 of the American company. By means of his ac- 
 tive interposition, the new established company 
 was, in 1799, confirmed, with considerable pri- 
 vileges. The late Emperor, on his accession, 
 interested himself very much in behalf of the 
 company, of which he became a member, and in- 
 duced many of the nobility to follow his example. 
 By means of the active superintendence of the 
 minister, count Romanzoff, and the commer- 
 cial counsellor Benedict Cramer, this branch of 
 Russian commerce has undergone several advan- 
 tageous changes ; but, according to recent ac- 
 counts, many abuses still remain. The miser- 
 able situation of the Promiischleniks, or fur col- 
 lectors, themselves the slaves of the company's 
 agents, and exercising, in their turn, the most op- 
 pressive tyranny over the wretched Aleutians, has 
 been represented by several eye-witnesses in the 
 most deplorable colours. It is to be hoped, that 
 their situation may attract the attention of the 
 Russian government. Notwithstanding the cruel- 
 ties inflicted on them, these people are said to be 
 very hospitable in their dispositions, and to re- 
 ceive their friends with some peculiar marks of 
 respect. Attired in their best apparel, they go 
 out beating drums to the shore, and the host 
 and hostess rush out into the sea as high as 
 their breasts, and draw the canoe towards the 
 land. They then assist the guests to disembark, 
 and bear them on their backs to the place of re- 
 ception. The host tastes every thing before he 
 presents it to the company ; and after the feast 
 they retire to their favourite amusement. Miil- 
 ler's Samlung Russischer Geschichte. v. iii. Coxe's 
 Account of the Russian Discoveries. Tooke's 
 View of the Russian Empire. Voyages and Travels 
 of Billings; Sarytcheff; Cooke, Langsdorff, &c. 
 
 ALETRIS, from aXtrpvw or aXtw, to grind, 
 in botany, a genus of the hexandria monogynia 
 class and order, of the natural order of lilia or 
 liliaceae, the coronariae of Linnaeus and aspho- 
 deli of Jussieu. Its characters are, no calyx ; 
 COR. one-petalled, ovate-oblong, hexangular, fun- 
 nel-shaped, semisexfid very much wrinkled, divi- 
 sions lanceolate, acuminate, spreading, erect, 
 and permanent ; STAM. awl-shaped filaments of 
 the length of the corolla, inserted into the base of 
 the divisions, antherae oblong and erect; PIST. an 
 ovate germ : STYLE subulate, of the length of the 
 stamens, STIG. trifid ; PERICARP, an ovate, three- 
 cornered, acuminate, three-celled capsule; and 
 the seeds are very many. Professor Martyn 
 enumerates eight, and Gmelin nine species, viz. 
 1. A. farinosa, American aletris, stemless, leaves 
 lanceolate, membranaceous, flowers alternate, 
 growing in North America, was cultivated here in 
 1768, by Mr. Miller. The natives frequently use it 
 a bechic and incisive in coughs and in the pleu- 
 .sy. 2. A. Capensis, waved-leaved aletris vel- 
 tlieimia of Gleditsch, stemless, leaves lanceolate, 
 
 waved, spike ovate, flowers nodding; natives 
 of the Cape of Good Hope, flowering here from 
 November to April, and brought over in 1768, 
 by Mr. W. Malcolm. 3. A. glauca, stemless, 
 leaves lanceolate glaucous, flowers, nodding with 
 a spreading border; a native of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, flowering in January, and intro- 
 duced in 1781, by Mr. J. Wynch. 4. A. uvaria, 
 aloe uvaria of others, great orange-flowered A. 
 stemless, scape longer than the sword-shaped 
 keeled leaves; a native of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, cultivated at Chelsea in 1707, and flow- 
 ering in August and September in large spikes. 
 There is a variety with narrower leaves, and 
 longer spikes of flowers. 5. A. pumila, small 
 orange-flowered A. stemless, scape shorter than 
 the linear, sharply-heeled leaves ; a native of the 
 Cape, introduced in 1774, and flowering from 
 September to November. 6. A. hyacmthoides, 
 stemless, leaves lanceolate, fleshy, flowers ger- 
 minate ; having two varieties. 7. A. fragrans, 
 sweet scented aletris, caulescent, leaves lanceolate, 
 loose; found in Africa, and cultivated in 1768
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 529 
 
 by Mr. Miller. 8. A. cocbincliensis, caulescent, 
 leaves lanceolate-linear, reflex, flowers panicled ; 
 a native of Cochin china, the juice of the leaves is 
 used to dye green, and the flowers are eaten. The 
 eighth species of Gmelin is A. japonica, stem- 
 less, with leaves petiolated, ovate, lanceolated, 
 seven-nerved, and spiked flowers. The ninth 
 species is A. aurea. 
 
 ALEURITES, AXsrpirjjff, farinaceous, of 
 oXtvpof, meal, parts of the tree having a meal 
 scattered over them ; in botany, a genus of the 
 moncecia monadelphia class and order, of the 
 natural order of tricoccae and euphorbiae of 
 Jussieu, the characters of which are, that the 
 flowers are male and female ; CAL. of the male 
 is a PERIANTH, three cleft, very short, clefts 
 oval, and obtuse, COR. has five petals, oblong, 
 spreading, obtuse : much longer than the calyx ; 
 the nectary has five scales somewhat cornered, 
 very short at the bases of the petals : STAM. nu- 
 merous filaments, connate into a conic colum- 
 nar receptacle; antherae, roundish. The female 
 flowers are few, in the same corymb ; the calyx, 
 corolla, and nectarium, as in the male, but larger ; 
 the pistillum has a germ conic superior ; the style 
 none, the stigmas two, very short ; the pericar- 
 pium a large, globose, two-seeded berry ; the 
 seeds are two, globose, coated with a double 
 bark. There is one species, viz. A. triloba, 
 which is a tree of the islands of the South Sea. 
 
 ALEWIFE FISH, clupea tyrannus. Among 
 the different species of fish that resort to York 
 River, in Virginia, about the month of March, 
 the alewife or oldwife, called the bay alewife 
 (clupea non descripta) arrives in very consider- 
 able shoals, and in some seasons their number is 
 almost incredible : they are of the size of a large 
 herring, and are principally distinguished from 
 that fish by a bay or red spot above the gill-fin. 
 When caught, from March to May, full roed and 
 fat, they are as good for the table as the herring. 
 In this season, each of the fish has in its mouth 
 
 an insect, fixed with its back downwards, and 
 firmly holding itself by its sixteen legs to the pa- 
 late of the fish : it is two inches long, and called 
 by the fishermen the louse : it is with difficulty 
 that it can be separated, and perhaps never with- 
 out injury to the jaws of the fish, though that 
 may be from the hasty aukwardness of the fisher- 
 men ; from which circumstance, it is, among the 
 many superstitions current with that class of men, 
 considered essential to the life of the fish : for when 
 it is taken out, the fish, though returned to the 
 river, is incapable of swimming, and soon dies. 
 But as this is the case with every fish on whose 
 mouth or gills any force has been used by heed- 
 less fishermen, such as the extracting a hook or 
 drawing out an insect, we must attribute its death 
 more to the injury received than to the loss 
 of its companion. It is as yet uncertain whe- 
 ther the latter obtains its post by force or favour ; 
 wJhether it is a mere traveller or a constant resi- 
 dent, or what may be its business where it is 
 found. There are some other particulars with 
 regard to the natural history of this fish and its 
 insect, which it may not be uninteresting to men- 
 tion. The alewife comes from the ocean into the 
 rivers of Virginia about the same time with the 
 chad, and travels upwards from the beginning of 
 March to the middle of May. As long as they 
 are caught on their passage up the river they are 
 full of roe ; and every fish has the insect clasped 
 to its mouth. A respectable gentleman who 
 amused himself with fishing forty years, has de- 
 clared, that in all that time he never saw a bay 
 alewife without the louse. The chad returns 
 from the fresh water lean, and out of season, 
 about the end of May or beginning of June, and 
 continues descending during the remaining sum- 
 mer months : no one then values it, being -un- 
 fit for use. Whether the bay alewife returns 
 with the chad is not known, for after June the 
 fishing for them is discontinued. 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 ALEXANDER, (king of Macedon,) surnamed 
 the GREAT, was the son of Philip of Macedon, by 
 his wife Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus king 
 of Epirus. lie was born, according to the most 
 authentic accounts, in the 106th Olympiad, B. C. 
 356, in the month Boedromion, and the night the 
 temple at Ephesus was burnt. Alexander was 
 contemporary, in his youth, with some of the 
 greatest men in Greece, and had the happiness 
 to be placed under the care of Aristotle as his 
 tutor, who became deservedly his friend. ' I am 
 indebted,' he once observed, ' to Philip, my 
 father, for living; to Aristotle for living well.' 
 It is presumed that the poems of Homer con- 
 tributed much to produce his passion for military 
 glory, especially as the character of Achilles 
 seems to have been selected by him for a model. 
 While very young, he gave several proofs of 
 manly skill and courage ; one of which, the 
 breaking in of his fiery courser, Bucephalus, 
 which had mastered every other rider, is men- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 tioned by all his biographers as an incident 
 which convinced his father Philip of his uncon- 
 querable spirit. His progress in every kind of 
 science was rapid, and corresponded to the 
 natural talents which he possessed, and the dis- 
 tinguished attention and abilities of his tutor. 
 He devoted himself with the greatest assiduity 
 to the study of metaphysics, mathematics, and 
 morals ; and was no less solicitous to be a master 
 of rhetoric both in the theory and practice of it. 
 To his solicitude in this respect we owe Aris- 
 totle's treatise on rhetoric, which, with a jealousy 
 unworthy a great mind, he requested the author 
 not to communicate to any but himself. He 
 had also a taste for the arts in general ; he knew 
 their importance and utility ; and music, painting, 
 sculpture, and architecture, flourished in his 
 reign, because they found in him a competent 
 iudge, and, as some say, a munificent protector. 
 In early life he manifested a genius formed for 
 great and splendid actions. When he conversed 
 
 2 M
 
 530 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 with the Persian ambassadors at his father's 
 court, at the age of no more than seven years, 
 the subjects of his enquiry were, not the palaces 
 and retinue of their king, but the character and 
 manners of their sovereign, the number and dis- 
 cipline of his army, the road that led into upper 
 Asia, and 'the number of days' march from 
 Macedonia to Susa.' When he was requested 
 to enter his name among the Olympic competi- 
 tors, he replied, ' So I would, if I were to have 
 kings for antagonists.' On the occasion before 
 mentioned, of his taming the famous horse Bu- 
 cephalus, which none of his father's grooms 
 would venture to mount, Philip was so delighted 
 that he said to him, ' My son, seek a kingdom 
 more worthy of thee, for Macedon is below thy 
 merit.' His youth is said to have been distin- 
 guished by temperance, chastity, and self-conv 
 roand. 
 
 His dutiful respect for his mother, whom 
 Philip divorced, produced a disagreement be- 
 tween him and his father ; and was increased by 
 a suspicion, which was entertained, that he 
 would be disinherited, in favour of one of Philip's 
 children by another wife. When only sixteen 
 years of age, he was appointed regent of Mace- 
 donia during his father's absence ; on which oc- 
 casion he manifested such prudence and bravery, 
 that he was afterwards employed in several 
 military enterprises, and is said to have once 
 preserved the life of his father by his resolute 
 and seasonable interposition. In the battle of 
 Chaeronea, at the age of eighteen, he signalized 
 himself by his valour, and greatly contributed to 
 the victory. Before Philip undertook his pro- 
 jected expedition into Asia, he recalled his son 
 from Epirus, whither he and his mother had re- 
 tired, and was apparently reconciled to him : but 
 when his father was assassinated by Pausanias, 
 Alexander and his mother were suspected of 
 being privy to the conspiracy. The first act of 
 his reign, however, was the just punishment of 
 the murderers. In the twentieth year of his age, 
 B. C. 336, he succeeded to the throne of Mace- 
 don ; and commenced his military career by 
 marching into Thessaly to overawe the Greeks, 
 who were disposed to emancipate themselves 
 from the Macedonian yoke, and by causing At- 
 talus, who encouraged their revolt, to be put to 
 death. Having succeeded in this enterprize, he 
 marched into Thrace, defeated the Triballi, who 
 inhabited the modern Bulgaria, and drove them 
 beyond the Danube ; he also made the Gete to 
 fly at his approach ; subdued several barbarous 
 nations, and established a treaty of peace, in 
 which the Celtes, a fierce and high-spirited peo- 
 ple, and others, were comprehended. During 
 his absence in these expeditions, the cities of 
 Greece, instigated by the eloquence and influence 
 of Demosthenes, formed a powerful alliance 
 against him. The report of his death had induced 
 the Thebans to revolt; and, having murdered 
 two officers of the Macedonian garrison, they 
 were preparing to besiege the citadel. Alexander, 
 receiving intelligence of this event, hastened to 
 Greece, B.C. 335, passed the straits of Thermo- 
 pylae, and entered Boeotia before the Thebans 
 were undeceived as to his death. To those who 
 accompanied him, he spoke in the following 
 
 manner : ' Demosthenes, in his orations, called 
 me a child when I was in Illyria and among the 
 Triballi ; he called me a young man when I was 
 in Thessaly ; and I must now shew him, before 
 the walls of Athens, that I am a man grown.' 
 The city of Thebes, though bravely defended by 
 the inhabitants, was at length taken by storm, 
 the buildings were rased, the house of Pindar 
 the poet excepted, from a respect to its owner ; 
 the inhabitants were sold for slaves, and the 
 lands distributed among the soldiers ; this con- 
 duct struck the Greek states with terror. Athens 
 sent a deputation to Alexander, imploring his 
 clemency ; but he demanded the surrender of ten 
 orators, whom he supposed to have been the 
 chief instruments in forming the league which 
 Philip his father had defeated at Chajronea. 
 This was the occasion on which Demosthenes 
 recited to the people the celebrated fable of the 
 Wolves and the Dogs. 
 
 Alexander having relented, by the interference 
 of Demades, and waved the enforcement of his 
 demand, re-established the tranquillity of Greece, 
 and went to Corinth, where his office of generalis- 
 simo was recognized and settled. At yEgea he 
 held a grand council of state and war, in order 
 to deliberate upon his expedition into Asia. An- 
 tipater and Parmenio recommended delay, but 
 Alexander had formed his purpose ; and having 
 offered sacrifices, entertained his friends with 
 feasts, and distributed among them the crown- 
 lands, Perdiccas asked him what he had reserved 
 for himself? ' Hope,' replied Alexander. Ac- 
 cordingly he assembled his army, and prepared 
 for his march into Asia. When one of his at- 
 tendants asked him why he succeeded so well in 
 quieting the dangerous tumults in Asia? he 
 answered, ' It was by delaying nothing.' In 
 the twenty-second year of his age, B. C. 334, 
 Alexander crossed the Hellespont into Asia, with 
 an army of about 30,000 foot, and 4000 or 5000 
 horse. Parmenio, who commanded the infantry, 
 passed over with the greatest part of the army 
 from Sestos to Abydos; and Alexander crossed 
 first the Strymon, afterwards the Hebrus, and 
 after twenty days march arrived at Sestos. Hav- 
 ing prepared for his expedition by a variety of 
 superstitious ceremonies, to which he was at- 
 tached, he proceeded to Ilium, where he sacrificed 
 to the heroes buried in the neighbourhood, and 
 particularly to Achilles, to Minerva, and to the 
 ghost of Priam. In his march he preserved 
 Lampsacus, which he had determined to destroy, 
 on account of its adherence to the Persians ; and 
 this he did in consequence of the interposition 
 of Anaximenes. ' I swear solemnly,' says Alex- 
 ander to Anaximenes, who met him on the road, 
 and the object of whose interview he suspected, 
 ' that I will not do what you desire me.' ' My 
 request, then,' said the old man, smiling, ' is, 
 that you would burn Lampsacus.' The Persians 
 collected a large force to meet him on the banks 
 of the river Granicus, May 22, B.C. 334; but 
 after an obstinate resistance, they were routed 
 with great slaughter. The consequence of this 
 victory was the surrender of Sardis, the chief 
 town of Lydia, and the possession of the whole 
 country as far as the river Hermus. Our con- 
 queror then proceeded to Ephesus, and restored
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 531 
 
 tne democracy ; and by an edict established the 
 popular government in all the Greek cities. At 
 Miletus, which he besieged and took, he dis- 
 missed his fleet, and advanced to the siege of 
 Halicarnassus, which was abandoned by the Per- 
 sians, and then to Tralles, which he took and le- 
 velled with the ground. Having demolished 
 Halicarnassus, he appointed Ada, who claimed 
 the title of queen of Caria, and who delivered 
 up to him Alinda, governess-general of all Caria ; 
 which induced many of the princes of the Lesser 
 Asia to revolt from the Persians, and to put 
 themselves under his protection. Alexander in- 
 gratiated himself with the army, by permitting 
 the soldiers who were married to spend the win- 
 ter with their wives in Macedonia; a practice 
 conformable to the law of Moses, Deut. xxiv. 5., 
 and which Aristotle probably learnt of some Jew, 
 and recommended to his pupil. Whilst the king 
 was busily preparing for the next campaign, an 
 unsuccessful attempt was made upon his life by 
 the corruption and treachery of an officer of his 
 army. 
 
 The campaign, howevef, was opened early in 
 the spring; and Alexander, taking possession, in 
 his march, of the cities of Lycia and Pamphylia, 
 proceeded to Phrygia ; and at Gordium, the ca- 
 pital, he was desirous of seeing the famous cha- 
 riot to which the Gordian knot was tied. The 
 oracle had foretold, according to an ancient tra- 
 dition of the country, that the man who could 
 untie it should possess the empire of Asia: Alex- 
 ander, persuaded that this prediction related to 
 himself, after many fruitless trials, exclaimed, 
 
 * It is no matter which way it be untied,' and 
 cut it with his sword. Having subdued Paphla- 
 gonia and Cappadocia, he advanced by hasty 
 marches into Cilicia, and arrived in the country 
 called Cyrus's Camp. Through a narrow strait 
 called the Pass of Cilicia, he marched with his 
 army to Tarsus, where Parmenio arrived just in 
 time to prevent its being set on fire by the Per- 
 sians. Heated and fatigued by so rapid a march, 
 he plunged into the river Cydnus, which ran 
 through this city, and was instantly seized with 
 a shivering, which his attendants thought would 
 prove fatal. The whole army were alarmed, and 
 they expressed their apprehensions with lamen- 
 tations and tears ; and as the speedy arrival of 
 Darius was expected, Alexander intimated to his 
 friends and physicians, that the condition of his 
 affairs would not admit either of slow remedies 
 or timid physicians. ' A speedy death,' says he, 
 
 * is more eligible than a slow cure.' Philip, an 
 Acarnanian, one of his physicians, who tenderly 
 loved him, offered to give him a dose, which 
 would be speedy in its effects, and desired three 
 days to prepare it. In the mean time Alexander 
 received a letter from Parmenio, in Cappadocia, 
 which bid him beware of Philip, Darius having 
 bribed him by the promise of a thousand talents, 
 and his sister in marriage. Hisconfidence how- 
 ever, prevailed over his fears. He did not di- 
 vulge the contents of the letter, but when Philip 
 came to administer his medicine, he took it from 
 under his bolster, and gave it Philip to read ; 
 and fixing his eyes on the physician, swallowed 
 the draught without hesitation. The effects of 
 the medicine were very violent, but the skill of 
 
 the physician prevailed, and Alexander in three 
 days presented himself to the congratulations of 
 the army. 
 
 During this interval Darius was on his march, 
 and Alexander advanced to meet him near Issus, 
 in the month of October, B. C. 333. The army of 
 Darius consisted of 600,000 men ; but by infa- 
 tuated councils, and a vain confidence in the num- 
 ber of his forces, he had quitted an open and level 
 country, and prepared to engage in a close and 
 mountainous situation, where his multitude could 
 only embarrass him in action. Victory was for 
 some time obstinately disputed ; and Alexander 
 received a wound in his thigh ; but at length the 
 Persian emperor fled. A dreadful carnage suc- 
 ceeded, and the tent of Darius, with his mother, 
 wife, and daughters, came into the possession of 
 the conqueror. When Alexander had performed 
 the offices of duty and compassion to the dead 
 and wounded, he entered the tent where the 
 queens were lodged, accompanied only by his 
 favourite Hephsestion. The queens mistaking 
 Hephaestion for the king, paid their respects to 
 him as such ; but as soon as Sysigambis, the 
 mother of Darius, had discovered the mistake, 
 she fell prostrate at the feet of Alexander, and 
 begged his pardon. The king raised her from 
 the ground, and said to her, ' Dear mother, you 
 are not mistaken ; he also is an Alexander.' 
 Alexander, after this respectful visit, declined 
 exposing himself to the danger of human frailty, 
 and solemnly resolved never to see the queen of 
 Darius any more. 
 
 After this victory, he pursued his march to 
 Syria. Parmenio went to Damascus, and pos- 
 sessed himself of the treasures of Darius. The 
 king proposed to visit Tyre, that he might have 
 an opportunity of sacrificing to the Tyrian Her- 
 cules ; but the Tyrians resolved not to admit a 
 Macedonian within their gates. Alexander 
 therefore determined to besiege the city; and 
 this siege, one of the most famous in history, 
 lasted for seven months, when the place was 
 stormed and utterly destroyed. Thousands were 
 put to the sword, two thousand were crucified, 
 and the rest sold for slaves. After having de- 
 populated the city, he colonized it anew, and 
 boasted of being its founder. This event took 
 place, August 20th, B. C. 332. 
 
 From Tyre Alexander proceeded to Jerusalem, 
 with the intention of punishing the Jews for af- 
 fording relief to the Tyrians during the siege. ; 
 but on his approach he met Jaddua, the high 
 priest, in his pontifical habit, accompanied by 
 the priests in their sacred vestments, and the 
 people clothed in white. When the procession 
 drew near, Alexander bowed before the priest, 
 and paid him religious adoration; alleging to 
 Parmenio, as the reason of this conduct, that the 
 figure of a person in such habit had appeared 
 to him at Dium, in Macedonia, and assured him 
 of the divine guidance, and of ultimate success 
 m his expedition. After this interview, he is 
 said to have accompanied Jaddua to Jerusalem, 
 sacrificed in the temple, and conferred great 
 favours on the Jewish nation. From Jerusalem 
 he proceeded to Gaza, which he besieged, and 
 took by storm : from Gaza he marched to Pelu- 
 sium.left a garrison in it. and sailed up the Nilu. 
 2 M 2
 
 532 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 lie afterwards marched through the deserts to 
 Heliopolis, and, crossing the river, he arrived at 
 Memphis, where he offered pompous sacrifices 
 not only to the Grecian gods, but to the Egyp- 
 tian Apis. From Memphis he sailed down the 
 river to the sea, and fixed on the place where he 
 proposed to build a new city, which has since 
 become so famous under the name of Alexandria. 
 Here he formed the design of visiting the tem- 
 ple of Jupiter Ammon, situate on an oasis in 
 the midst of the Lybian deserts. The senior 
 priest of this temple flattered him with the 
 title of the son of Jupiter, which Alexander 
 joyfully accepted ; and he was farther as- 
 sured that he should be the monarch of the 
 world. From this journey, which had proved so 
 successful, he returned as from a triumph; and 
 afterwards in all his letters and decrees, used the 
 following style : 'Alexander, king, son of Jupiter 
 Ammon.' 
 
 Having, during his abode at Memphis, settled 
 the affairs of Egypt, he marched in the spring 
 towards the east against Darius. In his way 
 to Tyre, which was the place appointed for the 
 general rendezvous of his forces, he heard that 
 Andromachus, whom he had appointed governor 
 of Syria and Palestine, had been massacred at 
 Samaria : and, in order to avenge this audacious 
 act, he put those that were concerned in it to 
 death, banished the rest from Samaria, supplied 
 their place with a colony of Macedonians, and 
 divided part of their territories among the Jews. 
 
 From Tyre he directed his march to Thap- 
 sacus, and having passed the Euphrates, was 
 informed of the death of Statira, the captive 
 queen of Darius ; which detained him, till he 
 had visited Sysigambis, administered suitable 
 consolation, and performed the funeral obsequies 
 of departed royalty in the most magnificent 
 manner. Darius was much gratified by the 
 tokens of respect which Alexander had rendered 
 to his queen and family, and renewed propo- 
 sitions of peace. On a former occasion, during 
 the siege of Tyre, he had made very advan- 
 tageous proposals, which Parmenio wished him 
 to accept; declaring, that he would agree to them 
 if he were Alexander. ' And so would I,' re- 
 plied Alexander, 'were I Parmenio.' Darius 
 now offered him all the provinces between the 
 Euphrates and the IMlespont : but Alexander 
 had more extensive news, and Darius prepared 
 for battle, pitching his camp near a village called 
 Guagamela, in a plain at some distance from 
 Arbela. Alexander, at the sight of his formida- 
 ble army, consulted soothsayers, offered up 
 victims to fear, joined in prayers addressed to 
 Jupiter, Minerva, and Victory, and afterwards 
 went to Led, and slept soundly the whole night. 
 Parmenio expressed his surprize in the morning, 
 that the king should be able to sleep so calmly, just 
 as he was going to fight a battle in which his whole 
 fortune was at stake : ' How could it be pos- 
 sible,' replied Alexander, ' for us not to be calm, 
 since the enemy is coming to deliver himself into 
 our hands ?' The army of Darius consisted of 
 600,000 foot, and 40,000 horse ; and, according 
 to some historians, of upwards of a million of 
 men, and that of Alexander of no more than 
 40,000 foot, and 7000 or 8000 horse. The Persians 
 
 were, however, totally routed : Parmenio, who 
 was in great danger, was rescued by Alexander 
 in person ; and they both joined in the pursuit 
 of Darius ; and, passing the river Lycus, marched 
 to Babylon, which Mazaeus, the governor, instant- 
 ly surrendered. This battle of Arbela, fought in 
 October, B. C. 331, decided the fate of Asia. 
 
 From Babylon Alexander marched towards 
 Susa, where he found treasures of various kinds, 
 and of great value. Here he left Darius's 
 mother and children ; and having reduced the 
 Uxii, whose country lay near Susa, and extended 
 to the frontiers of Persia, he forced his way 
 through the Persian straits, and arrived at Per 
 sepolis. Having destroyed the royal palace, to 
 which he and his companions, in a season of de- 
 bauch, at the request of Thais (the courtezan, and 
 Ptolemy's mistress,) set fire, and plundered the 
 city, he pursued Darius first to Ecbatana, the 
 capital of Media, and then as far as Rhages, a 
 city one day's journey from the Caspian straits 
 His progress was however interrupted by the 
 news of the death of this monarch, who was 
 murdered by a conspiracy of his own subjects. 
 Having settled the government of Parthia, he 
 reduced Hyrcania, dispersed the Mardi, took 
 possession of Zadracarta, the capital of Hyrcania, 
 where for fifteen days he celebrated solemn 
 games, and offered magnificent sacrifices to the 
 gods of Greece, and then entered and proceeded 
 to the reduction of Asia. 
 
 The luxury of the Persians produced in his 
 army, not only faction and discontent, but even 
 a conspiracy against the life of the king ; 
 Philotas, the son of Parmenio, was forced, by 
 torture, on this occasion, to confess his guilt, and 
 his condemnation was followed by the assas- 
 sination of his father, at the age of seventy 
 years. This alienated the affections of his army, 
 and produced such a degree of dissatisfaction 
 and disgust, that he separated those who were 
 disposed to sedition from others, and proceeded 
 without further delay to action. Having passed 
 through Drangania, Arachosia, and the country 
 of the Arimaspi, all which submitted to his arms, 
 he arrived at a part of Mount Caucasus, called 
 Paropamisus, where his army endured much 
 toil and hardship ; and where Bessus, who had 
 been a principal agent in procuring the death of 
 Darius, and had assumed the imperial purple, 
 under the title of Artaxerxes, had laid waste 
 the country, in order to deprive him of pro- 
 visions and forage. Alexander having found au 
 opening that led into Media, directed a city to 
 be built there, which he called Alexandria ; and 
 also founded several towns in its vicinity. From 
 hence he penetrated into Bactria, and took 
 Aornos and Bactra, the two strongest cities of 
 the country : he then passed the river Oxus in 
 pursuit of Bessus, who had withdrawn with a 
 few adherents over this river to Nauticus, a city 
 of Sogdiana. When Alexander arrived at a 
 small city inhabited by the Branchidae, he com- 
 mitted an act of cruelty, which though omitted 
 by Arrian, is related by Curtius, lib. vii. c. 5. 
 torn. ii. p. 520. ed. Snakenb, and referred to by 
 Strabo, lib. xiv. torn. ii. p. 787. Bessus, des- 
 poiled of all the ensigns of royalty, and strippel 
 even of his garments, was brought in chain
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 533 
 
 before him, when he ordered his ears and nose to 
 be cut off, and delivered him up to Oxyaites, 
 the brother of Darius, by whom he was sent to 
 Ecbatana, and, according to some, crucified. 
 Plutarch relates, that being fastened by his limbs 
 to trees which were bent together, he was torn 
 asunder by their elastic force, when they were 
 allowed to return to their natural position. 
 
 Our hero then pursued his march to Mara- 
 cnnda, the capital of Sogdiana, known by the 
 name of Samarcand, and by long and dangerous 
 stasres advanced to the river laxartes, erroneously 
 called by Arrian, Curtius, and others, Tanais. 
 On the side of this river he was surprised by 
 the barbarians, who, rushing suddenly from their 
 lurking holes in the mountains, and fighting with 
 bows and slings, killed many of the Macedo- 
 nians, and took others prisoners. The king 
 Limself was wounded in the conflict; but the 
 Barbarians were at length defeated with great 
 slaughter. Soon after this transaction he formed 
 a treaty with the Abian Scythians, who, from 
 the time of Cyrus, had lived in freedom and 
 independence, and were distinguished by equa- 
 lity and liberty, love of poverty and justice. 
 \Vhilst he was forming a plan for building a city 
 on the river laxartes, in order to curb the nations 
 he had. already conquered, and those he intended 
 to subdue, he was diverted from the execution 
 of his design by the revolt of the Sogdians and 
 Bactrians : and, directing his arms against their 
 combined forces, he took and destroyed in a few 
 days seven of their cities. The capture of Cyro- 
 polis, the most populous of the whole country, was 
 vigorously resisted by the inhabitants ; but it 
 was razed to the very foundations. In these dif- 
 ferent sieges, Alexander, Craterus, and many of 
 his principal officers were wounded. He then 
 returned to the laxartes, marked a space of about 
 three leagues in circumference, and built a city, 
 called Alexandria. In less than twenty days the 
 ramparts were raised, and the houses built ; and, 
 in order to people it, he ransomed all the pri- 
 soners he could find, settled in it several Mace- 
 donians, who were worn out in the service, and 
 permitted many natives of the country, at their 
 own request, to inhabit it. His conflict with 
 the Scythians, was difficult, and he granted them 
 a peace on their own terms. The Sacae, a pow- 
 erful nation, submitted to him, and, by an em- 
 bassy, courted his favour. 
 
 Alexander was now gradually throwing off 
 both the habit and manners of a Macedonian 
 prince, and assuming those of an eastern despot, 
 lie was surrounded by a number of sycophants, 
 the bane of princes, and the curse of nations, 
 who, by indulging his humour and soothing 
 his passions, precipitated him into extravagances, 
 and deprived him of his former equanimity. 
 One faithful friend, whose value was unknown, 
 declined concurring in the general adulation. At 
 a banquet which succeeded the sacrifices per- 
 formed at a festival of Bacchus, the honour of 
 which Alexander had transferred to the Dioscuri, 
 i. e. to Castor and Pollux, some of the attendants 
 extolled the actions of the Macedonian prince 
 above those of Castor and Pollux, and even of 
 Hercules. Clytus remonstrated, alleging, that 
 *he could not bear to hear such indignities 
 
 offered to the gods, or the credit of ancient he- 
 roes undervalued, to tickle the ears of a living 
 prince.' As to Alexander's actions, he allowed 
 they were great and glorious, but he maintained 
 that they were not supernatural ; that the army 
 had shared in them, and that they had a right to 
 participate in the praise belonging to them. 
 Alexander was indignant; and, as Clytus af- 
 firmed that he had preserved the life of the king 
 at the battle of the Granicus, stretching out his 
 arm and saying, ' this hand, O Alexander, saved 
 thee ;' the king rushed upon him, and endea- 
 voured to kill him, but was prevented by the 
 interposition of friends. At length, however, 
 when his friends retired, he seized a lance, or 
 long Macedonian pike, and laid Clytus dead on 
 the spot. His passion soon subsided, and, re- 
 flecting on the deed he had perpetrated, he in- 
 dulged excessive grief, refused food for three 
 days, neglected his apparel, and, as some say, 
 would have slain himself with the same pike 
 that killed Clytus. Flattered, however, by the 
 army, and perverted by the doctrine of Anax- 
 archus, of Abdera, the sophist, who taught him, 
 ' that let a sovereign prince do what he will, all 
 his actions are just and lawful/ he soon became 
 more tranquil. His servile attendants attempted 
 to persuade him that he was more than man, and 
 that it was unjust and disloyal in his subjects 
 not to own his divinity ; and some of them, 
 amongst whom Anaxarchus was the chief, even 
 endeavoured to engage the Greeks, as well as 
 the Asiatics to pay him adoration. Alexander 
 was pleased ; and was highly provoked by a 
 speech of Callisthenes, the disciple and relation 
 of Aristotle, who attempted to awaken in his 
 mind more sober thoughts ; and it was deter- 
 mined that when the king drank to any guest, 
 he should immediately arise, adore him, and 
 having received a kiss from the king, depart from 
 his divine presence. 
 
 These produced a new conspiracy against the 
 king, but the conspirators being discovered, were 
 stoned to death. Callisthenes was apprehended, 
 and, as some say, carried about in chains, till he 
 died a natural death; but according to others, he 
 was first racked and then crucified. The death 
 of Callisthenes, says Seneca, Nat. Quaest. lib. vi. 
 c. 23, is an eternal reproach to Alexander, and 
 a crime of so horrid a nature, that no quality, 
 however excellent, nor military exploit, however 
 illustrious, can ever efface its infamy. 
 
 After having surmounted his domestic dangers, 
 he pushed his conquests into the countries north- 
 east of Persia, and waged war with the Sogdian 
 prince, Oxyartes. The only strong hold which 
 the enemy could retain, was the Sogdian rock, 
 or the rock of Oxus, into which Oxyartes had 
 conveyed his wife and family. It was defended 
 by Arimazes, with 30,000 soldiers under his 
 command, and furnished with provisions for two 
 years, and was deemed impregnable. Alexander, 
 before he commenced the siege, summoned the 
 garrison to submit, when the commander asked in 
 return ' whether Alexander, who was able to do all 
 things, could also fly ; and whether nature, on a 
 sudden, had given him wings ?' Alexander was 
 highly exasperated, and directing 300 mountain- 
 eers in his army to seek a pain to the top of the
 
 534 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 rock; sent a message to the commander, sum- 
 moning him to surrender, and informing him 
 ' that he had now a corps of winged soldiers.' 
 The Macedonian camp resounded with the shout 
 of ' victory,' and the barbarians instantly sur- 
 rendered. Implacable in his resentment, Alex- 
 ander ordered Arimazes and the principal nobility 
 of the country to be scourged with rods, and 
 afterwards to be fixed to crosses at the foot of 
 the rock. After the reduction of this place, he 
 marched into the country of the Paratacae, where 
 was another fortress, called the rock of Chorianes, 
 also deemed impregnable. Chorianes, the com- 
 mander, was, however, induced by Oxyartes, to 
 surrender it ; and, having been enrolled in the 
 number of Alexander's friends, was entrusted 
 with the charge of it, in return for which he sup- 
 plied the Macedonians with provisions. On 
 one of these occasions, Roxana, the daughter 
 of Oxyartes, who, after the death of the wife of 
 Darius, was esteemed the most beautiful woman 
 in Asia, fell into the hands of the conqueror ; and 
 such was the influence of her charms, that he 
 espoused her publicly. 
 
 India next attracted Alexander's attention ; 
 and accordingly he dispatched a herald to Tax- 
 iles, and the other princes on this side the river 
 Indus, enjoining their submission; and He- 
 phaestion, with part of the army, was dispatched 
 to join Taxiles and the rest of the Indian princes, 
 who were come out to meet them, and to reduce 
 the country as far as this river. This was 
 speedily executed. Alexander bent his march 
 towards the river Choaspes, and reduced several 
 places in his progress, among which Andaca was 
 one of the most considerable. He proceeded 
 against the Aspii and Assaceni, whom he suc- 
 cessively defeated ; but having invested Magaza, 
 the capital of the latter people, he was wounded 
 in the siege, and repeatedly repulsed. The In- 
 dians were however compelled to submit ; and 
 by an act of perfidy, which Diodorus Siculus 
 and Plutarch severely condemn, were all put to 
 the sword. Ora, Bazira, and the rock of Aornus, 
 to which the inhabitants of the latter place re- 
 tired, were next reduced ; and Alexander pro- 
 'ceeded to the river Indus, where Hephaestion 
 and Perdiccas had already provided a bridge of 
 boars for the passage of the army. Having re- 
 freshed his troops in the territory of his ally, 
 Taxiles, Alexander passed the Indus, B. C. 327, 
 and advanced forward to the Hydaspes, known 
 in modern times by the name of the Betah or 
 Chelum, or, according to the orthography of 
 Major Itennell, Behut, and Ihylum, where Porus, 
 with a large army, lay encamped to dispute his 
 passage. On approaching the banks of this 
 river, he found that the people with whom he 
 had to contend were not to be subdued so easilv 
 as the Persians. The Indians were a very tall, 
 robust, hardy, and well disciplined people; 
 and their king, Porus, a prince of high spirit 
 and invincible courage. Alexander, however, 
 after encountering great difficulties, on account 
 of the inundations of the Indian rivers, at the 
 time of his march, which was about the height 
 of the rainy season, passed the Ilydaspes ; and, 
 having vanquished a detachment under the com- 
 mand of the sot of Porus, who was slain in the 
 
 action, encountered Porus himself at the head 
 of 4000 horse, 30,000 foot, 300 chariots, and 
 200 (or as Q. Curtius says, lib. viii. 18.) 85 ele- 
 phants. The dispute was short and bloody. The 
 Indians were completely routed, and Porus 
 compelled to submit. Alexander received the 
 king with respect. This prince being 1 asked 
 ' how he wished to be treated ?' replied, ' as 
 a king.' ' That, for my own sake,' said Alex- 
 ander, ' I shall do.' ' And therein,' rejoined 
 Porus, ' is comprehended all that I can ask.' 
 Alexander gave him his liberty, and restored his 
 kingdom, with additional provinces; whilst 
 Porus, in return, became his friend and aliy. 
 Two cities were built ; one called Nicaea, and 
 the other Bucephala, for perpetuating the re- 
 membrance of this victory. Passing the river 
 Acesines, he entered the territories of another 
 Porus, and in pursuit of him crossed the Hy- 
 draotes ; and having conquered the kingdom, he 
 gave it to his late ally. In the midst of this 
 success, Alexander received advice, that the 
 Cathei, Oxydracee, and Malli, the most warlike 
 nations in India, were confederated against him, 
 and had assembled a great army. He imme- 
 diately proceeded to attack them ; and, though 
 they made a vigorous defence, they were put to 
 flight ; and their city of Sangala taken by storm 
 and razed. He then prepared to pass the Hy- 
 phasis, as Arrian says, to seek new enemies. Here 
 he was told, that after passing this river, he must 
 travel eleven days through deserts, that he 
 would then arrive at the Ganges, the largest river 
 in India ; and that farther in the country were 
 the Gangaridae and Prasii, who were collecting 
 a great force, in order to oppose his entering 
 into their dominions. Rumours of this kind 
 spreading through the army, produced discontent, 
 which unable to allay, he was constrained to 
 terminate his progress. When his purpose was 
 made known to the army, he was saluted with 
 loud acclamations, 'because,' they said, 'he who 
 was invincible had suffered himself to be overcome 
 by their prayers.' On the banks of the Hy- 
 phasis, the modern Beyah, which were the limits 
 of his conquests, he caused to be erected twelve 
 altars, on which sacrifices were offered. These 
 altars, if we may believe the biographer of Apol- 
 lonius Tyanaeus, were still remaining, with legible 
 inscriptions, when that fantastic sophist visited 
 India, 373 years after Alexander's expedition. 
 Philostrat. vita Apollon. lib. ii. c. 43. ed. 
 Olearii. 
 
 Having exhibited public shews in the Grecian 
 manner, he added all the conquered country to 
 the dominions of Porus, and began a retrograde 
 march towards the river Hydraotes. From thence 
 he proceeded to the Acesines, and marched on 
 to the Hydaspes, proposing to embark on the 
 river Indus, and to pass by this river to the 
 ocean. Observing in these rivers many croco- 
 diles, and seeing that the country produced beans 
 like those of Egypt, he inferred, that he had 
 discovered the source of the Nile, and prepared 
 a fleet to sail down the Hydaspes to Egypt, 
 Strabo. Geog. lib. xv. p. 1020. This circumstance 
 shews, that the knowledge of the Greeks, in his 
 age, did not extend beyond the limits of the Me- 
 diter'-anean. The breadth of the Panjab, as it
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 535 
 
 ts now called, through which Alexander passed, 
 from Ludhana, on the Setlege, to Attock, on the 
 Indus, is computed to be 259 geographical miles, 
 in a straight line ; and his march, computed 
 in the same manner, did not exceed 200 
 miles. But in his advance and return, his troops 
 were so spread over the country, and all his 
 movements were so exactly measured and de- 
 lineated, by men of science, whom he kept for 
 the purpose, that he acquired a very extensive 
 knowledge of that part of India. 
 
 Having prepared a fleet, consisting of eighty 
 .vessels of three banks of oars, and about 2000 
 smaller ships and transports, and having offered 
 sacrifices to the gods, he embarked, and at the 
 sound of a trumpet the fleet began to move; 
 but arriving at the confluence of the Acesines 
 with the Hydaspes, where these united streams 
 roll with great rapidity into the Indus, many of 
 his vessels were lost, and he himself was in great 
 danger. When the danger was past, and the 
 fleet and army were joined, he began his march, 
 through a desert country, in order to reduce the 
 Malli and Oxydracae, whom he surprised before 
 they could prepare for a contest. In storming 
 their principal city, Alexander, in person, scaled 
 the walls, and leaped down into the city, accom- 
 panied by only three of his guards. Here being 
 wounded, he fainted through loss of blood ; two 
 of his guards, who were themselves wounded, 
 however, covered him with their shields; till the 
 soldiers from without, ascending the walls, threw 
 themselve's into the city, and by an act of the 
 most undaunted resolution rescued their sovereign. 
 As soon as he was able he rejoined his forces. 
 His first thoughts were now directed to the in- 
 crease of his fleet; and, having accomplished 
 this object, having given orders for erecting a 
 city in the commodious situation afforded by the 
 confluence of. two great rivers, and having con- 
 ferred upon Oxyartes, the father of his wife 
 Roxana, the government of Paropamisus, with 
 some additional territories, he embarked, and 
 continued his voyage ; occasionally employing 
 himself, as he proceeded, in reducing some In- 
 dian princes, who were either negligent in at- 
 tention, or took up arms against him. Of this 
 number, were Musicanus, the sovereign of one 
 of the richest and most populous kingdoms in 
 India; Oxycanus, another Indian prince, who 
 was takea prisoner; and Sambus, whose ca- 
 pital, Sindomana, opened its gates to receive 
 him. Musicanus afterwards revolted; and 
 Alexander directed him to be carried back into 
 his own dominions, to be there crucified, toge- 
 ther with all the brahmuns, who had instigated 
 him to revolt. The king next sailed to Patala, 
 the modern Tatta, an island formed by two 
 branches of the river Indus, where he ordered an 
 haven and convenient docks to be constructed 
 for his ships ; and when he had careened his 
 fleet, he sailed down the right hand branch of 
 the river towards the ocean. As they approached 
 the sea, they were exposed to great danger for 
 want of skilful pilots ; and, therefore, after hav- 
 ing gratified his vanity by entering the ocean 
 beyond the Indus, performing religious rites in 
 honour of Neptune, and surveying two small 
 islands, he returned to Patala. Having sur- 
 
 veyed the other branch of the Indus, and found 
 a place of safety for his fleet, he gave directions 
 to Nearchus, to conduct the fleet, by the ocean, 
 through the Persian gulf, up the river Tigris, to 
 meet him and his army in Mesopotamia ; and 
 departed, with the army, to march back by land 
 to Babylon. The distance of that place on the 
 Hydaspes, where Alexander fitted out his fleet, 
 from the ocean, according to the researches of 
 Major Rennell, cannot be less than a thousand 
 British miles, whence, considering the slow na- 
 vigation of such a fleet as he conducted, it is no 
 wonder that he was above nine months before he 
 reached the ocean. 
 
 Having left Patala, Alexander crossed the 
 Arabis, and marched through the country of the 
 Oritae, whose capital he seized, and converted 
 into a new and noble city, which he committed 
 to the government of Hephaestion. He then pro- 
 ceeded through Gedrosia ; and, in the whole of 
 his progress, suffered much from sickness, exces- 
 sive heat, and fatigue, and also from famine and 
 thirst; so that he brought back from India 
 scarcely one fourth of his army, which had con- 
 sisted of 120,000 foot, and 15,000 horse. In 
 these circumstances, he maintained an invincible 
 resolution ; and, by his example, encouraged 
 the perseverance of his troops. Having rested 
 and refreshed his army at the capital of Gedrosia, 
 he prepared his march into Caramania, a very 
 plentiful country, where his attendants were 
 amply recompensed for the hardships and fa- 
 tigues they had endured. Here he punished 
 those governors who were charged with mal-ad- 
 ministration, some of whom were put to death ; 
 and redressed the various grievances which the 
 people had suffered in his absence. He then 
 continued his march through Caramania, and 
 was joined by Nearchus, his admiral ; and, 
 turning aside to Persia, he visited the tomb of 
 Cyrus, at Pasargadae ; ordered Orsines, the go- 
 vernor of Persia, who was charged with many 
 atrocious crimes, to be crucified; placed Peu- 
 cestas, who had saved his life in a city of the 
 Malli, in his room ; and commanded Baryaxes, 
 a Mede, who had usurped the title and tiara of 
 king, to be put to death. In these marches, Ca- 
 lanus, an Indian brahmun, who had accompanied 
 Alexander, finding his health declining, requested 
 to have a funeral pile prepared ; on the top of 
 which he stretched himself at full length, and re- 
 mained without voice or motion in the midst of 
 the flames. 
 
 At Susa, to which Alexander next marched, 
 he put to death Abulites, and his son Ozathres, 
 who were charged with enormous crimes in the 
 administration of public affairs ; and, to unite 
 the Macedonians and Persians, he encouraged 
 the forming alliances between the noblest fami- 
 lies of Persia and the principal persons of his 
 own court; and by taking himself two wives of 
 the royal blood of Persia, viz. Statira, the 
 daughter of Darius, and Parysatis, the daughter 
 of Ochus, set the example. He also bestowed 
 fortunes on those Persian ladies of high rank, 
 who were married to his own principal officers. 
 Here, also, he paid the debts of his army, and 
 conferred rewards ana promotions on those who 
 had signalized themselves in his service.
 
 536 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 Having still a curiosity to see the ocean, and 
 to explore the maritime parts of his empire, he 
 went down from Susa, upon the river Eulaeus; 
 and having crossed the Persian gulf to the 
 mouth of the Tigris, went up that river to the 
 army, which was previously encamped, under 
 the command of Hephtestion, on its banks, near 
 the city of Opis. Here he issued an edict, that 
 those Macedonians, who were either unable, or 
 unwilling, to make any more campaigns, might 
 have their discharge, and return home ; and that 
 those who chose to remain with him, should 
 be duly encouraged. This edict, which was in- 
 tended to please the army, excited a mutiny, 
 which was quelled by extraordinary resolution 
 and intrepidity. Whilst the soldiers surrounded 
 the tribunal on which he was seated, all cla- 
 mouring for their discharge, reproaching him 
 with the favours which he had conferred on the 
 Barbarians, and insolently telling him, that his 
 father Ammon and he might go and subdue the 
 world by themselves, he leaped into the midst of 
 them, ordered his guards to seize thirteen of the 
 ringleaders, whom he pointed out, and com- 
 manded their immediate execution. This ter- 
 rified them into silence ; immediately upon 
 which, remounting his tribunal, he pointed out 
 to them, in an eloquent speech, the justice of his 
 own conduct and the folly of theirs. He after- 
 wards promoted the Persian nobility to the prin- 
 cipal commands in his army; and by thus seeming 
 to transfer his confidence, humbled the Mace- 
 donians, who delivered up the authors of the sedi- 
 tion on condition of reconciliation and favour. 
 
 At Ecbatana, whither he next went, he of- 
 fered sacrifices, and exhibited sports and games ; 
 which were followed by a royal banquet; but 
 his joy on this occasion was unexpectedly inter- 
 rupted by the sudden illness and death of He- 
 phaestion. From Ecbatana, he marched against 
 the Cossseans, and subdued them; and he then 
 pursued his course towards Babylon, where he 
 formed a variety of new projects ; but befoite 
 any of his plans could be fully carried into 
 effect, he was seized with a fever, occasioned, 
 as some say, by excess of drinking, which, in a 
 few days, terminated his life. He died on the 
 21st of April, in the second year of the 114th 
 Olympiad, B. C. 323, after he had lived thirty- 
 two years and eight months, and reigned twelve 
 years and eight months. When his prin- 
 cipal courtiers, perceiving his death to be in- 
 evitable, asked him to whom he left the empire, 
 he answered, ' to the most worthy ;' and when 
 Perdiccas enquired at what time they should pay 
 him divine honours, he replied, < when you are 
 nappy;' and having pronounced these words, 
 he expired. Alexander's corpse was embalmed, 
 after the manner of the Egyptians and Chal- 
 deans; and Aridseusjhis bastard brother, who had 
 been declared king, was appointed to convey it 
 to the temple of Jupiter Ammon. Two whole 
 years, see Lilian, lib. xiii. c. 30. torn. ii. p. 898, 
 were employed in preparing for this magnificent 
 funeral, during which, Olympias bewailed the 
 fate of her son. The funeral procession, 
 conducted by Aridseus, was singularly splendid. 
 Ptolemy advanced with a guard of his best 
 troops, as far as Syria, to meet the procession. 
 
 He prevented their depositing the corpse in 
 the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and conveyed it 
 first to the city of Memphis, and thence to 
 Alexandria. Here he reared a magnificent 
 temple to the memory of Alexander, and re i- 
 dered him all the honours which were usually 
 paid to demi-gods and heroes by Pagan an- 
 tiquity. Freinshemius, in his Supplement to 
 Livy, lib. cxxxiii. c. 65. torn. vi. p. 910, ei 
 Drakenb., relates, after Leo Africanus, who lived 
 in the fifteenth century, that the tomb of Alex- 
 ander was to be seen in his time, and that it was 
 reverenced by the Mahommedans, as the monu- 
 ment, not only of an illustrious king, but of a 
 great prophet. 
 
 Alexander, as to his person, was of a middle 
 size, with his neck somewhat awry; having 
 full eyes, and a fierce majestic countenance. 
 His talents, and general character, have been 
 differently appreciated by his biographers. It 
 is certain that he rendered essential service 
 to science by the presents which he conferred 
 on his preceptor, and employed men of talents 
 of every description, and liberally rewarded 
 them. But when we consider the greater part 
 of his life, well might the Gentoo annals call him 
 ' a mighty robber and murderer ;' and justly 
 does the author of the first book of Maccabees 
 characterize him, by saying, 'he butchered kings,' 
 topaKf /3a<riXc TJJC yijc- ' What have we to do 
 with thee,'said the Scythian ambassador, ' we never 
 once set our foot in thy country. Are not those 
 who live in woods allowed to be ignorant of thee, 
 and the place from whence thou comest ? Thou 
 boastest, that the only design of thy marching is 
 to extirpate robbers ; and thou thyself art the 
 greatest robber in the world ! ' To the same 
 effect was the answer of the pirate, when Alex- 
 ander questioned him, what right he had to 
 infest the seas? Alexander has been praised 
 for his continency, yet his life was by no means 
 regular in this respect. In his early youth in- 
 deed, he appeared so indifferent to the sex, that 
 his mother suspected him to be impotent ; and 
 his behaviour to the Persian captives shows him 
 to have had a great command over himself in this 
 particular. The wife of Darius was a finished 
 beauty ; her daughters were likewise considered 
 handsome ; yet this young prince, when he had 
 them in his power, not only bestowed on them 
 all the honours due to their high rank, but ma- 
 naged their reputation with the utmost delicacy. 
 The Amazon Thalestris could not obtain from him 
 a compliance with her gallant request till after a 
 delay of thirteen days. But in opposition to all 
 this, what are we to conclude from his causing his 
 favourite mistress Pancaste to be drawn naked 
 by Apelles, and whom he indeed gave to the 
 painter, who fell in love with her ? What of 
 that immoderate love of boys, which Athenaeus 
 relates of him ? What of that prodigious number 
 of wives and concubines, which he kept ? No- 
 thing surely, but that the continence of his early 
 years was a piece of affectation proceeding from 
 his ruling passion, vanity. His excesses with 
 regard to wine were notorious, and almost beyond 
 imagination; and he committed, when ine- 
 briated, a thousand extravagancies. Diodorui 
 s;, lib. xvii. torn. ii. p. 160. 253. ed. We*-
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 637 
 
 seii/ig. Plutarch, Oper. torn. i. p. 664. 707. 
 ed. Xyl'd&d. Q. Curti/tsde Rebus gestis Alex. 
 Mag. passim, ed. Snakenb. Arriani Exped. 
 Altxandri. passim, ed. Gronov. Strabo, Geog. 
 torn. i. & ii. ed. Amst. 1707. Rollin'sAnc. 
 Hist, book xv. vol. iv. & v. 
 
 ALEXANDER SEVERUS, the Roman emperor, 
 was born at Acra, in Phoenicia, according to one 
 account, in the year 208, and according to ano- 
 ther, Dec. 12, 205. His father, Genesius Mar- 
 cianus, was a Syrian, and became a consul. His 
 mother, Mamaea, was the daughter of Julia Maesa, 
 the sister of Julia, wife to the emperor Severus; 
 and as another daughter of Maesa was married 
 to Heliogabalus, Alexander, (or Alexianus, which 
 was his family name), was first cousin to that 
 emperor. She was a woman of talents, and 
 having imbibed Christian principles, is said to 
 have paid particular attention to his education 
 and moral improvement. His application and 
 improvement corresponded with his advantages. 
 With a robust and graceful form, and consider- 
 able mental accomplishments, he combined a 
 mild, humane, and generous temper, and made 
 it his chief study to please and oblige. When 
 Maesa, his grandmother, perceived the approach- 
 ing termination of Heliogabalus's career of 
 profligacy, she embraced a favourable oppor- 
 tunity of persuading him to adopt Alexander. 
 Accordingly he assumed this name instead of 
 that of Alexianus, with the addition of Severus, 
 and was invested with the t'.tle of Caesar, A.D. 
 221 . The young prince soon gained the affec- 
 tions of the people to a degree which excited 
 the jealousy of the emperor, who, therefore, re- 
 solved to destroy the dangerous competition, 
 either by corrupting the manners, or by taking 
 away the life of his aspiring rival. Mamaea and 
 her mother defeated his design, and, by means of 
 the Praetorian guards, the very attempt of He- 
 liogabalus, against the honour and life of the 
 young Caesar, terminated in his own ignominious 
 death. By the same auxiliaries, Alexander in 
 the year A.D. 222, was advanced to the throne; 
 and the senate invested him with the various 
 titles and powers annexed to the imperial dignity; 
 offering him at the same time the name of An- 
 toninus, and the surname of Great ; which, how- 
 ever, he modestly declined. With the consent of 
 his mother Mamsea, he married the daughter of a 
 patrician, who afterwards became the object of her 
 jealousy and cruelty, and was by her instigation 
 banished into Africa. Under her direction, and 
 with the approbation of the senate, a council of 
 state was appointed, consisting of sixteen of the 
 wisest and most virtuous senators. At the head 
 of which, as praetorian praefect, was Ulpian, 
 distinguished by his knowledge and respect for 
 the laws of Rome. The prudent firmness of 
 this aristocracy restored order and authority to 
 the government; and, by their influence, the city 
 was purged from the superstition and luxury, 
 which Heliogabalus had introduced, and every 
 department of public administration was dignified 
 by diplomatic probity. But the most important 
 objects of Mamaea's solicitude was that of form- 
 ing the character of the young emperor. His 
 excellent understanding encouraged cultivation. 
 The natural mildness and moderation of his 
 
 temper preserved him from the precipitation of 
 passion, whilst his affection for his mother, and 
 his respect for the wise Ulpian, guarded him 
 from the poison of flattery. . He was very in- 
 dulgent to the Christians ; and seems to have 
 been himself well acquainted with the Christian 
 morals ; for he frequently repeated the gospel 
 golden rule, ' Do as you would be done by ;' 
 caused it to be.,.inscribed over the gates of his 
 palace, and on several public edifices ; adopting 
 it as the motto of his own private conduct. 
 
 'His ordinary occupations,' says a popular 
 historian, ' exhibit a pleasing picture of an ac- 
 complished emperor; and, with some allowance 
 for the difference of manners, might well de- 
 serve the imitation of modern princes. Alexan- 
 der rose early : the first moments of the day 
 were consecrated to private devotion, and his 
 domestic chapel was filled with the images of 
 those heroes, who, by improving or reforming 
 human life, had deserved the grateful reverence 
 of posterity. But, as he deemed the service of 
 mankind the most acceptable worship of the 
 gods, the greatest part of his morning hours was 
 employed in his council, where he discussed 
 public affairs, and determined private causes, 
 with a patience and discretion above his years. 
 The dryness of business was relieved by the 
 charms of literature ; and a portion of time 
 was always set apart for his favourite studies of 
 poetry, history, and philosophy. The works of 
 Virgil and Horace, the republics of Plato and 
 Cicero, formed his taste, enlarged his under- 
 standing, and gave him the noblest ideas of man 
 and government.' 
 
 Although he was very religious, his offerings 
 in the temples were not magnificent. He often 
 repeated the words of Persius, Satii. v. 69. 'In 
 sancto quid facit aurum T ' What has gold to 
 do with sacred tilings ?' His respect for virtue 
 extended to the dead as well as the living. Ac- 
 cordingly he collected in Trajan's square the 
 statutes of the deified emperors of Rome, and 
 of the famous Roman commanders, and adorned 
 them with inscriptions, setting forth their great 
 exploits and eminent virtues. In his palace he 
 had two chapels, in which the principal objects 
 of his veneration were ranged in two classes, the 
 one destined to virtue, and the other to talents. 
 In the first were placed the good emperors, 
 among whom he very erroneously ranked Alex- 
 ander the Great ; and next to them the wise men, 
 by whose useful lessons mankind had been be- 
 nefitted;and here were blended Abraham, Or- 
 pheus, Apollonius Tyanasus, and Jesus Christ. 
 The second chapel was destined to military 
 heroes, and men conspicuous in the republic of 
 letters, Achilles, Cicero, Virgil, whom he called 
 the Plato of the poets, and some others. In 
 order to encourage the progress of letters and of 
 science in general, he allotted pensions to rhe- 
 toricians, grammarians, physicians, architects, 
 men skilled in mechanics, and even to aruspices 
 and astrologers. He established schools foi all 
 these arts, and provided for the instruction of the 
 poor without expense to them. His life, how- 
 ever, has not been free from blemishes. His 
 deference for his mother was considered as car- 
 ried to a culpable excess. He gave her name w
 
 38 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 kfveral buildings, which, (as we learn from Am- 
 mianus Marcellmus, lib. xxviii. p. 372.) they 
 , retained in the fourth century, and caused her to 
 be honoured with the titles of Augusta, mother 
 of her country, of the armies, and of the senate. 
 He was also charged with being of a suspicious 
 and inquisitive temper, and with being inclined 
 to vanity. His timidity likewise betrayed him 
 into imbecility of conduct; particularly with 
 reference to the praetorian guards, who by their 
 mutiny produced a civil war in Rome, that 
 lasted three days, and terminated in the massacre 
 of Ulpian. Although this wise man sheltered 
 himself in the emperor's palace, and was even 
 murdered in his presence, he had not resolution 
 sufficient to avenge this atrocious crime in the 
 manner it deserved. Such indeed was the weak- 
 ness of government, that the tyranny of the army 
 threatened with instant death his * &ithful 
 ministers, and it is said to have IKM,*^ jd his 
 own person The historian Dion Cassius, who 
 had commanded the Pannonian legions with a 
 spirit of ancient discipline, and whom the em- 
 peror recompensed by appointing him his col- 
 league in the consulship, was compelled to 
 retire from the city, and to spend the greatest 
 part of his consulship at his villas in Campania, 
 and the remainder of his days in Bithynia, his 
 native country. Dion. Cass. Hist. lib. Ixxx. p. 
 1371. 
 
 This imbecility, however, was not uninter- 
 rupted. In one of these apyrexia, when some 
 of the soldiers at Antioch had excited a sedition 
 in the legion to which they belonged, and inter- 
 rupted his mild expostulations by their clamours, 
 he addressed them in the following dignified and 
 spirited language : ' reserve your shouts till you 
 take the field against the Persians, the Germans, 
 and the Sarmatians. Be silent in the presence 
 of your sovereign and benefactor, who bestows 
 upon you the corn, the clothing, and the money 
 of the provinces. Be silent, or I shall no longer 
 style you soldiers, but citizens ; if those indeed, 
 who disclaim the laws of Rome deserve to be 
 ranked amongst the meanest of the people.' 
 When their brandished anns threatened even his 
 person; 'your courage,' resumed the emperor, 
 ' would be more nobly displayed in the field of 
 battle ; me, you may destroy you cannot in- 
 timidate ; and the severe justice of the republic 
 would punish your crime, and revenge my 
 death.' The clamour continuing, the emperor, 
 with a loud voice, pronounced the decisive sen- 
 tence : ' citizens, lay down your arms, and depart 
 in peace to your respective habitations.' The 
 clamour was instantly silenced, and the soldiers 
 supplicated forgiveness ; nor were they restored 
 to their rank in the army, till he had punished 
 with death those tribunes, whose connivance 
 had occasioned the mutiny. When he became 
 capable of taking the government into his own 
 hands, and of exerting his genius and courage, 
 he more effectually commanded the awe of his 
 soldiers. 
 
 While Artaxerxes, the restorer of the Persian 
 monarchy, was preparing to invade the Roman 
 dominions, Alexander sent ambassadors in order 
 io dissuade him from engaging the two empires 
 ifl a long and dangerous war. The message was 
 
 received with contempt ; nor did any of Alex- 
 ander's remonstrances avail to prevent the Per- 
 sian monarch from ravaging Mesopotamia and 
 entering Cappadocia. The emperor, therefore, 
 resolved to march against him in person. In the 
 spring of the year 233, Alexander, with an army 
 of the praetorian guards and part of the hardy 
 legions of Europe, advanced towards the frontiers 
 of the Roman dominions to meet the great king 
 which was the haughty style assumed by Artax- 
 erxes in his embassies ; whose force consisted, 
 as history reports, of 120,000 horse, clothed in 
 complete armour of steel ; 700 elephants, with 
 towers, filled with archers, on their backs ; and 
 1800 chariots armed with scythes. Of the event 
 of the battle which ensued, historians have given 
 very contradictory accounts. Herodian asserts, 
 and Mr. Gibbon acquiesces in his account, that 
 the plan of Alexander for the conduct of the war, 
 however judiciously concerted, totally failed. 
 The emperor himself, influenced by his mother's 
 counsels, and perhaps by his own fears, deserted 
 the bravest troops and the fairest prospect of 
 victory ; and, after consuming in Mesopotamia 
 an inactive and inglorious summer, led back to 
 Antioch an army diminished by sickness, and 
 provoked by disappointment. But the Persian 
 monarch, in several obstinate engagements 
 against the veteran legions of Rome, lost the 
 flower of his troops ; and, instead of expelling the 
 Romans from the continent of Asia, found him- 
 self unable to wrest from their hands the little 
 province of Mesopotamia. Crevier and many 
 other modern writers choose rather to follow 
 Lampridius, whose account is entirely different 
 from that of Herodian. The Persians, says the 
 last author, were totally defeated, and Alexan- 
 der approved himself an intrepid soldier and a 
 skilful general. The great king fled before his 
 valour; an immense booty and the conquest of 
 Mesopotamia were the immediate fruits of this 
 signal victory, Alexander, it is said, having 
 taken care to guard Mesopotamia with several 
 well garrisoned forts, returned to Rome, A. D. 
 234, to give the senate an account of his exploits, 
 and was received by persons of all ranks with 
 the greatest demonstrations of joy; and obtained 
 a signal triumph. His triumphal car was drawn 
 by four elephants ; the air resounded with ac- 
 clamations and the shouting attendants unceas- 
 ingly exclaimed, 'Rome is happy, whilst she 
 sees Alexander alive and victorious.' 
 
 Soon after his triumph, Alexander, accom- 
 panied by his mother, marched against the Ger- 
 mans, who had passed the Rhine, and who 
 were making incursions into every part of Gaul. 
 Upon his arrival in Gaul, he sent ambassadors 
 to the barbarians in order to treat with them ; 
 and if Herodian may be credited, to purchase 
 peace, which he preferred to the precarious issue 
 of a war. Having passed the winter in the 
 neighbourhood of the Rhine, he employed him- 
 self in introducing discipline among the licentious 
 legions of Gaul. His attempts for this purpose 
 produced discontents in the army, which were 
 aggravated by a person, originally a barbarian of 
 mean origin, whose father was a Goth, and 
 mother an Alan, and who had been raised from 
 the lowest station to the rank of a general officer.
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 539 
 
 This person was proclaimed emperor by the 
 seditious soldiers : and made his way to the 
 throne by the massacre both of Alexander and 
 his mother. This event happened on the 19th 
 of March, A.D. 235, when Alexander was in his 
 twenty-seventh year, after a reign of thirteen years. 
 The untimely death of this prince was universally 
 regretted ; and the soldiers, who were not con- 
 cerned in the plot, manifested their resentment 
 by a speedy vengeance in immediately killing his 
 murderers. The senate decreed both to him and 
 his mother divine honours ; appointed for them 
 altars, priests, and sacrifices ; and instituted, in 
 honour of the deceased emperor, an annual 
 feast, which was celebrated on the first of Octo- 
 ber, the day of his nativity. Creviers Rom. 
 Emp. vol. viii. book xxiv. p. 279 350. Anc. 
 Un. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 432 449. Gibbon's Hist. 
 vol. i. p. 238. 240. 337, vol. ii. p. 450. 
 
 ALEXANDER (Jannseus,) king of the Jews, 
 was the third son of Hyrcanus, and succeeded 
 his brother Aristobulus in the year before Christ, 
 106. Queen Salome, the widow of Aristobulus, 
 took him and his two brothers out of prison, and 
 placed Alexander on the throne. His fourth 
 brother endeavoured to deprive him of the crown, 
 and was put to death ; but the youngest, whose 
 name was Absalom, was favoured with his pro- 
 tection as long as he lived. Alexander, being 
 a subtle and warlike prince, began his reign with 
 leading an army against Ptolemais; but his own 
 dominions being invaded during his absence, by 
 Ptolemy Lathyrus, he was obliged to raise the 
 siege and return to defend them. On the banks 
 of the Jordan he was defeated, with the loss of 
 30,000 men, besides those that were taken pri- 
 soners ; and, if he had not been succoured by 
 Cleopatra, Lathyrus would have forced his way 
 into Judea. Alexander, after an interview with 
 Cleopatra at Ptolemais, returned to Jerusalem; 
 and having recruited his broken army, marched 
 against Cadara and took it. He next proceeded 
 against Amathus, and reduced it after a very 
 short siege; but he was soon obliged to relin- 
 quish it in consequence of a defeat by Theodotus, 
 the son of Zeno, tyrant of Philadelphia, in which 
 he lost many men, his baggage, and the whole 
 of the treasure which he had taken at Amathus. 
 The next place against which he directed his 
 arms was Gaza, which had afforded protection 
 and assistance to Lathryus ; and on this account, 
 as soon as the town was betrayed to him, he re- 
 venged himself on the inhabitants, after leading 
 them to expect clemency and moderation, by 
 abandoning them to the fury of the soldiers. 
 After which, he reduced the city to a heap of 
 ruins. On his return to Jerusalem, the people, 
 exasperated by the Pharisees, who were con- 
 stantly caballing against him, insulted him with 
 the most opprobrious language, exclaiming that 
 such a slave as he, was unworthy of either the 
 pontifical or regal dignity, and proceeded even 
 to violence against his person. He was wearied 
 with their clamours, and marched out of Jeru- 
 salem, in order to gratify his inclination for war. 
 Having taken and destroyed the city of Amathus, 
 he proceeded against the Arabians, whom he 
 subdued, and then laid the Moabites and Moun- 
 taineers of Gilead under tribute. Near Gadara 
 
 he fell into an ambush, and it was with great 
 difficulty that he regained his capital. During 
 his absence, the Pharisees had caused a rebellion, 
 which terminated in a civil war of six years' 
 continuance. Demetrius, surnamed Euchaerus, 
 assisted the rebels; and, after some previous 
 skirmishes, Alexander was defeated, and retired 
 to the mountains. This defeat, however, in- 
 duced the Jews, who had joined Demetrius, to 
 desert him, and join Alexander ; and Demetrius, 
 alarmed by this defection, left Judea. Alexander 
 then marched against the rebellious Jews ; but 
 the fury of their resentment continued, till a de- 
 cisive battle put an end to the war. In this 
 last action he cut off the greatest part of their 
 army, and drove the rest into Bethome, which he 
 besieged and captured. Josephus, who, being a 
 zealous Pharisee, may possibly have exaggerated, 
 informs us, that he caused 800 of the principal 
 captives to be carried to Jerusalem, where they 
 were all crucified at the same time and place ; 
 and that, whilst they were hanging on the cross, 
 he ordered their wives and children to be butch- 
 ered before their faces. It is added by the his- 
 torian, that a banquet was prepared for himself 
 and his concubines, near to this horrible scene, 
 that they might behold and enjoy the torture and 
 distress of the sufferers. After this event, the 
 rebels dispersed ; nor were the Pharisees able to 
 make any effort against him as long as he lived. 
 The succeeding years of his live were employed 
 in extending his conquests through Syria, Idu- 
 msea, Arabia, and Phoenicia ; and his return to 
 Jerusalem, after an expedition of three years' 
 continuance, was the occasion of loud acclama- 
 tions on the part of his subjects. From this time, 
 however, he devoted himself to drinking, and 
 other debaucheries ; which at length brought on 
 a quartan ague, that prevailed till the day of his 
 death, which happened about three years after 
 his return. He died in his camp before Regaba, 
 a fortress in the Gerasene territory beyond Jor- 
 dan, which he was besieging, in the twei>y- 
 seventh year of his reign, in the year before 
 Christ 79. He left two sons, Hyrcanus and 
 Aristobulus; but decreed by his will, that his 
 wife Alexandra should govern the kingdom du- 
 ring her life, and appoint for her successor either 
 of them, according to her own pleasure. Alex- 
 andra, by conciliating the Pharisees, according 
 to the advice of her husband, secured their in- 
 fluence with the people ; so that they celebrated 
 the funeral of the deceased king with great pomp, 
 and confirmed her as sovereign administratrix of 
 the nation . Her eldest son Hy rcanus was appointed 
 high-priest, and the direction of all affairs of im- 
 portance was committed to the Pharisees. Their 
 resentment against those who had opposed diem 
 in the late reign still continued ; and they con- 
 trived every method that was practicable for 
 destroying them. This conduct induced the 
 miserable subjects to assemble, and, with Aris- 
 tobulus at their head, to wait on the queen, and 
 implore her protection ; but, the queen having 
 surrendered herself and the government to the 
 Pharisees, could devise no means for their re- 
 dress. At length, however, she complied; and 
 consented that they should disperse themselves 
 into places where she had garrisons. In the year
 
 540 
 
 ALE 
 
 before Christ 70, Alexandra was seized with a 
 disorder which threatened her life; and when 
 Aristobulus perceived her danger, he repaired to 
 his friends, in the garrisoned towns, and they 
 arranged themselves in great numbers under his 
 standard; hoping that he would exert himself 
 for abolishing the oppressive tyranny of the Pha- 
 risees, well knowing that no service of this kind 
 could be expected from his brother Hyrcanus. 
 The Pharisees were alarmed, and accompanied 
 Hyrcanus to the queen, in order to represent 
 what had occurred, and to demand her assistance. 
 The impaired state of her health would not admit 
 of her interference, and having left the care of 
 the government to them, she appointed Hyrcanus 
 her heir general, and soon after expired. Accord- 
 ingly he took possession of the throne, and raised 
 an army to oppose his brother. A battle near 
 Jericho decided the quarrel. Hyrcanus, aban- 
 doned by the greatest part of his troops, was 
 obliged to fly to Jerusalem, and afterwards to 
 seek an asylum in the castle of Baris, whilst his 
 partisans, who were chiefly of the sect of the 
 Pharisees, took refuge in the temple. In a little 
 while, they both submitted to Aristobulus ; and 
 in the year before Christ 69, he obtained both 
 the high-priesthood and the crown. Josephus 
 Ant. lib. xiii. c. 12. 15. torn. i. p. 666 675. 
 Bell. Jud. lib. i. c. 4, torn. ii. p. 59 62. Anc. 
 Un. Hist. vol. iii. p. 114 123. Rollings Anc. 
 Hist. vol. viii. p. 4 11. 
 
 ALEXANDER, (Padas,) king of Syria, was, as 
 some say, the natural son of Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes ; but, according to others, a young man 
 of mean extraction at Rhodes, named Balas, 
 suborned by Heraclides at the instigation of 
 Ptolemy, Attains, and Ariarthes, to personate 
 the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and under that 
 title, to lay claim to the crown of Syria, in op- 
 position to Demetrius. After he had been ac- 
 knowledged by the three kings above-mentioned, 
 Heraclides, who conducted the imposture, took 
 him to Rome, in the year before Christ 153, 
 and together with him Laodicea, the real daugh- 
 ter of Antiochus Epiphanes, and presented them 
 to the senate, who received them graciously, 
 and passed a decree in their favour ; though, as 
 Polybius asserts, Legat. cxlii. p. 966, the whole 
 city was convinced of the imposture. The se- 
 nate not only acknowledged Balas under the 
 assumed name of Alexander, but decreed that 
 their allies should assist him in his endea- 
 vours for recovering the rights of his father. 
 Thus countenanced by the Roman senate, he 
 landed in Syria, and found no difficulty in 
 raising troops, which, together with the succours 
 afforded him by Ptolemy, Attains and Ariarthes, 
 enabled him to make himself master of Ptole- 
 mais, the reduction of which induced a great 
 number of persons to join him. Demetrius and 
 Alexander were competitors for the favour and 
 support of Jonathan, who had succeeded Judas 
 Maccabaeus in the command of the Jewish 
 forces, and strove to outvie each other in their 
 alluring offers. Alexander, however, prevailed ; 
 and with him Jonathan formed an alliance. 
 These two competitors took the field at the head 
 of their respective armies ; and though Alexan- 
 der was defeated, he maintained his ground; 
 
 NDE R. 
 
 and, being supplied by his powerful allies with 
 fresh succours, succeeded in a second battle, in 
 which Demetrius was killed, before Christ 150. 
 Alexander having gained possession of the whole 
 Syrian empire, sent an embassy to Egypt, de- 
 manding Cleopatra, the daughter of Ptolemy, 
 in marriage ; and the king not only complied 
 with his request, but attended her in person, 
 and the nuptials were solemnized at Ptolemais 
 in a very splendid and magnificent manner. 
 Alexander could not bear his elevation and 
 prosperity, but became insolent and debauched, 
 and committed .the management of his affairs 
 to a profligate and tyrannical favourite, whose 
 name was Ammonius, who conducted himself 
 with a degree of despotism, which exposed him 
 and his master to the hatred of the nation. De- 
 metrius, the eldest of the deceased king's sons, 
 availed himself of this opportunity for recover- 
 ing his right ; and was acknowledged by Ap- 
 pollonius, governor of Ccelosyria and Phoenice. 
 
 When Alexander was roused out of his lethar- 
 gy, and perceived the danger of his situation, he 
 applied to hfs father-in-law, Ptolemy, for assist- 
 ance ; who, with an army, which the author of 
 the second book of Maccabees compares to the 
 sand of the sea-shore, marched to his relief. 
 Upon his arrival at Ptolemais he was informed 
 that Alexander was plotting against his life, and 
 that Ammonius had charged himself with the ex- 
 ecution of this detestable scheme of treachery. 
 Ptolemy complained to the king of Syria of this 
 plot, and demanded the criminal to be delivered 
 up to him ; but Alexander refusing to comply, 
 Ptolemy concluded that he was privy to the de- 
 sign, and determined to turn his arms against 
 his son-in-law. He therefore sent ambassadors 
 to young Demetrius, offering him his daughter 
 Cleopatra, the wife of Alexander, and promising 
 to settle him on the throne of his ancestors. De- 
 metrius accepted the offer ; and when the news 
 of this event reached Antioch, Ammoniug was 
 put to death by the populace ; but the inhabi- 
 tants of this city refused to declare in favour of 
 Demetrius. However, such was the hatred they 
 had conceived against Alexander, that they en- 
 tered into a confederacy against him, and opened 
 their gates to Ptolemy, offering to put the crown 
 on his head. This prince, says Josephus, know- 
 ing how to set bounds to his ambition, rejected 
 the proposal, and with singular self-denial and 
 generosity, declared, that he could not, without 
 the most flagrant injustice, place himself on the 
 throne of Syria, by excluding the lawful heir. 
 He proceeded to recommend Demetrius by an 
 eulogy on his character, and by pledging him- 
 self as guarantee for his future conduct, at the 
 same time undertaking to assist him and to teach 
 him the art of governing. These disinterested 
 representations of Ptolemy had the desired effect 
 Demetrius was proclaimed king of Syria, and 
 placed on the throne of his ancestors. Alexan- 
 der, who was then in Cilicia, assembled a nu- 
 merous army and advanced to Antioch. Pto- 
 lemy met him, and a bloody engagement ensued, 
 in which Alexander was defeated; and his ad- 
 herents abandoning him, espoused the cause of 
 Demetrius. Upon this Alexander fled to Arabia, 
 and seeking refuge in the house of Zabdiel or
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 541 
 
 Zabel, or as Diodorus Siculus, in Excerpta Pho- 
 tii cod. 244, calls him, Diodes, was murdered 
 by his treacherous host. Ptolemy was wounded 
 mortally by Alexander's friends ; and when the 
 head of the murdered prince was brought to him 
 as a present from the Arabian, the joy he felt on 
 the occasion put an end to his life. Demetrius, 
 without any further opposition, took possession 
 of his father's dominions, and styled himself from 
 this victory Nicator, or the conqueror. Alex- 
 ander Balas had reigned according to Josephus, 
 five, but according to the history of the Macca- 
 bees, six years, (reckoning from the 160th year 
 of the a?ra of the Seleucidae to the 167th, which 
 was the first year of the reign of Demetrius Nica- 
 tor.) This happened in the year before Christ 
 145. Such is the account which Josephus gives 
 of the troubles of Syria, and the death of Alex- 
 ander Balas. But the author of the history of the 
 Maccabees varies much from him, especially in ' 
 what relates to the character of Ptolemy Philo- 
 metor, whom Joseph us highly commends ; where- 
 as the author of the first book of the Maccabees 
 represents him as an ambitious and perfidious 
 prince, who trampled under foot the most sacred 
 laws of nature and justice, to raise himself on the 
 ruins of his son-in-law. Josephus Ant. lib. xiii. 
 c. 2. 4. torn. i. p. 634 643. Diodorus Sic. torn, 
 ii. p. 592. 1 Maccabees, xi. 4 12. Anc. Un. 
 Hist. vol. viii. p. 224 233. 
 
 ALEXANDER, bishop of Lincoln, in the 12th 
 century, was by birth a Norman, educated under 
 his uncle, bishop of Salisbury, and by his interest 
 promoted to the episcopal see in 1123. Having 
 been accustomed in early life to a splendid mode 
 of living, he affected a degree of state, and in- 
 dulged in unnecessary expenses. Henry of Hun- 
 tingdon, in the dedication of his history to him, 
 which is penned in the language of servile adu- 
 lation, calls him ' the flower and top of the king- 
 dom and nation ; and he informs us that at the 
 court of Rome he was styled ' the Magnificent.' 
 St. Bernard, in a letter addressed to him about a 
 year before his death, acts the part of a more 
 honest friend, and cautions him ' not to be daz- 
 zled with the lustre of secular grandeur, nor to 
 look upon any worldly advantage as permanent ; 
 nor value his fortune more than himself ; to guard 
 against the flattery of prosperity, for fear of a 
 turn of misfortune, which will last longer : not 
 to be charmed by the transient satisfactions of 
 life ; for that scene will quickly be shut up, and 
 make way for another both lasting and uncom- 
 fortable.' He also advises him ' not to deceive 
 himself with any distant prospect of death ; for 
 such delusive hopes lead directly to danger and 
 surprise, and are the likeliest way to hurry a man 
 into the other world without preparation.' These 
 prudent and salutary lessons, however, did not 
 seem to have been regarded. In imitation of 
 the barons and some of the bishops, he built three 
 castles ; one at Banbury, another at Sleaford,and 
 a third at Newark. He likewise founded two 
 monasteries King Stephen was offended by 
 these stately edifices and strong fortresses ; and 
 when he determined to take the castles from the 
 barons, he seized that at Newark ; in consequence 
 of which the bishop was imprisoned for seven 
 months, and with difficulty obtained his liberty. 
 
 From this time he employed his thoughts and 
 time in ornamenting his church, which he had 
 rebuilt with a stone roof the year after its conse- 
 cration : increasing the number of its prebends, 
 and augmenting its revenue With several manors 
 and estates ; and at length he rendered it the 
 most stately and flourishing of any in the king- 
 dom. He went twice to Rome, viz. in 1142 and 
 1144 ; and after his first visit, he returned as the 
 pope's legate, and called a synod, in which he 
 published many useful canons. In 1147 he visit- 
 ed the pope in France, and there fell sick through 
 the heat of the weather. He returned to England 
 and soon after died, in the twenty-fourth year of 
 his prelacy. Biog. Brit. 
 
 ALEXANDER I. (pope, and a martyr,) suc- 
 ceeded Eoaristus in the see of Rome, in the tenth 
 year of Trajan, while the persecution was rag 
 ing, in which Ignatius perished. He himself 
 suffered martyrdom in 119, during the fourth 
 persecution under Hadrian. The epistles ex- 
 tant under his name, are the forgeries of a later 
 age ; but the tradition, that he first introduced 
 the use of holy water into the Romish church, 
 seems to rest on a better foundation. 
 
 ALEXANDER II. (pope,) was a native of Mi- 
 lan, of the name of Anselm, and removed from 
 the see of Lucca to that of Rome, in the year 
 1061. He was elected pope by the instance of 
 Hildebrand, who was at the head of the ecclesi- 
 astical faction at Rome, in opposition to the em- 
 press Agnes, widow of Henry III. who was 
 regent during the minority of her son Henry IV. 
 and who supported the lay faction, in the in- 
 terest that subsisted between the clergy and the 
 laity. By her influence, Cadalus, bishop of 
 Parmas, was elected pope, under the name of 
 Honorius II. The dispute was terminated by a 
 council at Mantua in 1064, and Alexander, by a 
 signal triumph of the church over the civil 
 power, was declared lawful pope. The disci- 
 pline and privileges of the clergy were the prin- 
 cipal objects of this pontiff's attention; and the 
 subordinate instrument of conducting his mea- 
 sures was Peter Damien, a monk. Alexander 
 laid hold of every opportunity that occurred for 
 interposing in the secular concerns of kingdoms 
 and princes. He sanctioned the project of Wil- 
 liam, duke of Normandy, for the conquest of 
 England ; denounced excommunication against 
 Harold as a perjured usurper; and sent William 
 a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St. 
 Peter's hairs in it ; thus, as Hume says, Hist, 
 vol. i. p. 186, 'covering over safely all 'the am- 
 bition and violence of that invasion with the 
 broad mantle of religion.' 
 
 Alexander extended his authority in all direc- 
 tions. He not only prohibited the young em- 
 peror from divorcing his wife Bertha, but, in 
 1073, summoned him to appear at Rome, and 
 to account for his conduct in the disposal of 
 church benefices for providing his army with 
 supplies. The dispute was, however, closed by 
 the death of the pope in 1073. The increase of 
 papal tyranny, under the direction of Hilde- 
 brand, to whom this pope was subservient, dis- 
 criminates his pontificate. Many of his lettevs 
 on public affairs are extant; and one of them 
 addressed to the bishops of Spain for the purpose
 
 542 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 of restraining the cruelties which they exercised 
 towards the Jews, does honour to his humanity. 
 For an account of these letters, see Dupin's Ec- 
 clesiastkal History, vol. iv. p. 29 : also, Bower's 
 History of Popes, vol. v. p. 224. 
 
 ALEXANDER III. a pontiff of great ability, was 
 born at Sienna, where he was bishop under the 
 name of Roland, and succeeded Adrian IV. in 
 1159. At the time of his accession to the papal 
 chair, Frederic I. was making vigorous attempts 
 for reducing the power of the Roman see, and 
 cardinal Octavian was elected pope under the 
 name of Victor IV. in opposition to Alexander. 
 After the death of Victor, in 1164, cardinal Guy 
 was chosen by the influence of the emperor, and 
 denominated Paschal III. but the whole interest 
 of the Roman clergy was exerted in favour of 
 Alexander, who, in the former pontificate, had 
 been compelled to retire into France, and he now 
 returned to 'Rome, and was restored to his see. 
 Councils were summoned to settle the dispute. 
 The council of Wurtzburg, convened by the em- 
 peror in 1166, produced an union of the nobility 
 and clergy in support of the rights of Paschal ; 
 and the council of Lateran, called by Alexander 
 in 1167, deposed the emperor, and abrogated 
 the oath of allegiance by which his subjects were 
 bound to him as their lawful sovereign. At 
 length an appeal was made to the sword ; and 
 though Frederic was at first successful, and upon 
 the death of Paschal procured the election of 
 John, abbot of Strum, as his successor, under 
 the name of Calixtus III., he was in the issue 
 obliged to give up the contest, and in a treaty of 
 peace, made with Alexander at Venice in 1 1 77, 
 to acknowledge him as lawful pontiff. The 
 pride of Alexander knew no bounds on the oc- 
 casion of this triumph. When Frederic was 
 prostrate at his feet, he addressed him with the 
 words of the Psalmist, ' Thou shalt tread upon 
 the lion and adder ; the young lion and the 
 dragon thou shalt trample under foot :' and 
 when the emperor replied, ' Not to you, but to 
 Peter;' the pope answered, 'To me and to Peter.' 
 This story is discredited by some writers, but 
 believed by others, and the truth of it is con- 
 firmed by concurring circumstances, for which 
 we refer to Dupin. After the establishment of 
 Alexander he treated his rival Calixtus III. with 
 condescension and kindness, and appointed him 
 to the see of Benevento. The pope, securely 
 seated in the papal chair, directed his atten- 
 tion towards securing the independence, and 
 maintaing the prerogative and privileges of the 
 triple crown ; and in order to prevent the dis- 
 orders likely to arise in future from equal fac- 
 tions, he obtained a canon in the third council 
 of Lateran, held at Rome in 1 1 79, which enacted, 
 that the right of election to the pontifical dignity 
 should not only be vested in the cardinals alone, 
 but that two-thirds of the votes of the electors 
 should be necessary for rendering it legal. Thus 
 ; the people, and e*en the Roman clergy, were 
 t ntirely excluded from all participation in the 
 h onour of conferring this important dignity. 
 
 At this council, the right of recommending 
 an; i nominating to the saintly order was taken 
 aw, iy from councils and bishops, and canoniza- 
 tion was ranked among the greater and more im- 
 
 portant causes, the cognizance of which belonged 
 to the pontiff alone. In this year he exercised 
 that tyranny over princes, which had been 
 usurped by the popes from the time of Gregory 
 VII. in conferring the title of king, with the en- 
 signs of royalty, upon Alphonso I. duke of Por- 
 tugal, by an arrogant bull, in which he treats 
 him as a vassal. Whilst he was in France, he 
 had supported the cause of Thomas a 1 Becket 
 against his sovereign Henry II., and in 1164, 
 when the constitutions of Clarendon, which as- 
 serted the king's jurisdiction over the clergy, 
 were sent to him for confirmation, he rejected 
 and annulled them. When Becket was banished, 
 he received him kindly ; obtained for him a pen- 
 sion from the French king, abrogated the sen- 
 tence that had been passed upon him ; re-invested 
 him with his dignity, and appointed him his le- 
 gate in England. After the murder of this ar- 
 rogant prelate, Alexander, who had kept the 
 king in awe during the whole of the contest, 
 by the terror of excommunication, compelled 
 him to undergo a very severe penance ; and 
 having forgiven him, issued bulls at his desire, 
 against his son, and canonized the archbishop. 
 With a view of restoring order and tranquillity 
 in the church, he convoked a solemn and nu- 
 merous assembly of the clergy in 1164, in which 
 the licentious rage of disputing about religious 
 matters was condemned ; and in the council of 
 Lateran, of 1179, a spiritual war was declared 
 against heretics, and more particularly against 
 the Albigenses. 
 
 Having enjoyed the undisturbed possession of 
 the pontifical chair scarcely four years, Alexander 
 
 III. died in the year 1.181, with the character of 
 having exhibited more ambition to obtain, than 
 moderation in exercising, the supreme authority. 
 Dupin. Eccl. Hist. vol. iv. p. 116. Bower's 
 Popes, vol. vi. p. 11. Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 481. 
 vol. iii. p. 53, &c. Hume's Hist. vol. i. p. 381. 
 396, &c. 
 
 ALEXANDER IV. (pope,) was Raynald or Ro- 
 land, bishop of Ostia, and succeeded Innocent 
 
 IV. in 1254, at the time of the contest between 
 the Guelphs and Gibellines. The right of the 
 Roman see to the disposal of the crown of Sicily 
 was supported by a war, in the pontificate of 
 Innocent IV., against Mainfroy or Manfred, 
 regent for Conradine, the son of the emperor 
 Conrad ; and this pope, in order to engage the 
 assistance of a powerful ally, had conferred the 
 crown on Edmund the second son of Henry III. 
 of England. Alexander IV. pursued the plan 
 of his predecessor, and published a crusade 
 against Sicily, and, for defraying the expenses of 
 it, induced Henry to levy a tenth on all eccle- 
 siastical benefices in England for three years. 
 A demand for farther supplies was however re- 
 sisted, and the nominal possession of the crown 
 reverted to Alexander ; but Mainfroy, having de- 
 feated the crusaders, became the real possessor 
 of it, A.D. 1258. The pontiff was equally un- 
 successful in his attempts to oppose the progress 
 of Ezzelin or Ecelin, who, at the head of the 
 Gibellines, and on the part of the heirs of Fre- 
 deric II., had made himself master of Lombardy, 
 In defiance of the banner of die cro.ss, and 
 anathemas fulminated by the apostolic see,
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 543 
 
 Ezzelin pursued his victories; and Mainfroy 
 kept possession of the throne. 
 
 Alexander maintained the cause of the mendi- 
 cant dominican friars, against the members of 
 the university of Paris, who refused to admit 
 them to a participation of the rights and privi- 
 leges of their society ; and condemned a book 
 written by William de Saint Amour, one of the 
 doctors of the Sorbonne, entitled, The Perils of 
 the Last Times, in which the character of the 
 dominicans was described, and their pride, hy- 
 pocrisy, and licentiousness, cruelly censured. 
 In the council of Aries, held in 1260, he con- 
 demned another book, written by the abbot 
 Joachim, under the title of The Everlasting 
 Gospel ; and at the same time proscribed those 
 who, under the denomination of Joachimites, 
 had adopted the doctrine which this book pro- 
 mulgated. Differences of another kind having 
 arisen between the states of Venice and Genoa, 
 a council for settling them was summoned to 
 meet at Viterbo ; but in the mean time Alexander, 
 oppressed by the dissensions of the church, and 
 by the vexations which his ineffectual attempts 
 for composing them produced, closed his life in 
 the year 1261. ' He appears,' upon the whole, 
 ' to have been a narrow-minded bigot, more con- 
 cerned to preserve and enlarge the privileges of 
 a monastic order, than to correct abuses and en- 
 courage improvements.' Dupin. Eccl. Hist. vol. 
 v. p. 50, 118, 138, &c. Bower's Popes, vol. vi. 
 p. 225. Cave H. L. torn. ii. p. 303. Hume's 
 Hist. vol. ii. p. 173, &c. 
 
 ALEXANDER V. (pope), was born in the isle of 
 Candia, about the year 1339. His original name 
 was Philargo, and his parents were so poor, that 
 in his childhood he was a beggar. An Italian 
 monk took him under his protection and instruc- 
 tion, and procured his admission into his order 
 of friars minors. By his recommendation he 
 became a student at Oxford, and afterwards took 
 his degree of doctor in divinity at Paris. Hav- 
 ing passed through several gradations of prefer- 
 ment, (being first bishop of Vicenza, then of 
 Novara, and at length archbishop of Milan, car- 
 dinal, and legate of pope Innocent VII. in Lom- 
 bardy,) he was unanimously elected pope by the. 
 cardinals, at a council in Pisa, in the year 1409. 
 This pontiff was mild and liberal, and extended 
 his generosity particularly to the mendicant or- 
 ders of monks. Such was his munificence, that 
 he used to say, ' When I became a bishop, I was 
 rich ; when a cardinal, poor ; and when pope, a 
 beggar.' He seems, however, to have counter- 
 acted his good qualities by the orders transmitted 
 to the archbishop of Prague, enjoining him to 
 proceed with rigour against Huss and his fol- 
 lowers. This zealous reformer, confiding in the 
 known candour of the pontiff, instead of person- 
 ally appearing at Rome, in compliance with the 
 summons that had been sent him, commissioned 
 two friends to plead his cause, saying, on his own 
 part, ' I appeal from Alexander ill-informed, to 
 Alexander well-informed.' When Alexander 
 
 Eroposed to visit Rome, he was persuaded by 
 althasar Cossa to accompany him to Bologna. 
 Whilst he was at this city he died, in the year 
 1410, having possessed the papal see little more 
 than ten months ; and Cossa, who was suspected 
 
 of hastening his death, by his influence with the 
 cardinals, and a recommendation from Louis of 
 Anjou, king of Sicily, was chosen to succeed 
 him. Dupin Eccl. Hist. vol. v. p. 8, &c. Bower's 
 Popes, vol. vii. p. 123. 
 
 ALEXANDER VI. (pope), was born in 1431, at 
 Valencia in Spain, and by the interest of his un- 
 cle, pope Calixtus III., was appointed cardinal 
 in 1455 ; and afterwards archbishop of Valencia, 
 and vice-chancellor of Rome. The emoluments 
 of this last office enabled him to maintain the 
 state of a prince, and supplied him with the 
 means of licentiousness and extravagance. Un- 
 der pope Siztus IV. he was legate in Spain ; and 
 at last by assuming a sanctity, and by bribing 
 the cardinals, he was elected, at the age of 61, to 
 succeed pope Innocent VIII. in 1492. He then 
 changed his original name of Roderic Borgia for 
 that of Alexander VI. By Vanozza, a Roman 
 lady, with whom he had continued an illicit con- 
 nection for many years, he had five children. 
 His second son was Caesar Borgia, who was a 
 monster of debauchery and cruelty, and who is 
 said to have quarrelled with his elder brother for 
 the favour of his sister Lucretia, and to have 
 killed him, and thrown his body into the Tiber. 
 Notwithstanding his infamous character he was 
 the favourite of his father, who trampled with 
 contempt on every obstacle which the demands 
 of justice, and the remonstrances of religion laid 
 in his way, in order to aggrandize himself and 
 his children. In his political connections he was 
 faithless and treacherous ; and formed alliances 
 with the purpose of violating them. Having en- 
 gaged Charles VIII. in an enterprise for the con- 
 quest of the kingdom of Naples, he entered into 
 a league with the Venetians and with Maximi- 
 lian, to rob him of the fruits of his victory ; and 
 after having obtained a large remittance from the 
 sultan Bajazet, in order to enable him to carry on 
 war against this king of France, he delivered up 
 to him Zizom, the brother of Bajazet. Notwith- 
 standing his notorious vices, he proposed to the 
 Christian princes to march at the head of an 
 army against the Turks ; and under this pretext 
 he issued a bull for a jubilee in 1500, by which 
 he contrived to enrich his treasury. Of his pre- 
 sumption, as well as of his hypocrisy, we have a 
 curious specimen in his division of America be- 
 tween the Spaniards and the Portuguese. For 
 this purpose, he appointed that a line, supposed 
 to be drawn from pole to pole, a hundred leagues 
 to the westward of the Azores, should serve as a 
 limit between them ; and in the plenitude of his 
 power, bestowed all to the east of this imaginary 
 line upon the Portuguese, and all to the west of 
 it upon the Spaniards professing that zeal for 
 propagating the Christian faith was his motive. 
 
 The profligate career of this execrable hypo 
 crite and tyrant was continued till the year 
 1503, when the poison, which he and his son 
 Caesar had prepared for others, and particularly 
 for Adrian, a wealthy cardinal, who stood in 
 the way of their avarice and ambition, by a 
 happy mistake terminated his own days. Some 
 writers, amongst whom is Voltaire, have dis- 
 puted this account of Alexander's death; but 
 Guicciardini and other reputable historians attest 
 it. The life and actions of this pontiff shew
 
 544 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 says Mosheim, that there was a Nero among the 
 popes as well as among the emperors. Besides 
 other instances of infamous licentiousness with 
 which he is chargeable, he is accused of incest 
 
 they were condemned. At the instigation of 
 their enemies, however, Alexander VII. the 
 successor of Innocent, issued a bull in 165G, 
 declaring, that the five propositions which had 
 
 with his own daughter. And though it may be been condemned were the tenets of Jansenius, 
 possible that the malignity of his enemies may actually contained in lus book, and proceeded, 
 nave forged false accusations against him, and in in 1666, to send into France the form of a 
 some instances exaggerated the hoiror of his real declaration to this purpose, which was to be 
 crimes vet there is upon record an authentic list subscribed by all those who aspired to any pre- 
 of undoubted facts, which, by both their number ferment in the church This declaration pro- 
 and atrocity, render the name of Alexander VI. duced the most deplorable divisions and tumults. 
 
 -- " .-ii- = -- -- It was vigorously opposed by the Jansemsts, 
 
 who maintained, that in matters of fact the pope 
 was fallible, especially when his decisions were 
 personal, and not confirmed by a general coun- 
 cil; and, consequently, that they were under 
 no obligation to subscribe this papal declara- 
 tion, which had merely for its object a matter 
 of fact. Notwithstanding this intolerant bull, 
 Alexander is said to have been liberal in his 
 sentiments ; to have disapproved the severities 
 exercised towards the Vaudois in Piedmont, and 
 
 odious and'detestable. His insatiable avarice is 
 
 expressed in the following lines : 
 
 Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum, 
 Vendere jure potest ; emerat ille prius. 
 
 Christ's altars, keys, and Christ himself, 
 Were bartered by this Pope for pelf : 
 But who shall say he did not well ? 
 That which he bought, he sure might sell. 
 
 Dupin's Eccl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 14. Bower's Popes, 
 vol. vii. p. 328. Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. 
 p. 431. Robertson's America, vol. i. p. 162, 
 8vo. 
 
 to have treated the Protestants who visited 
 Rome with condescension. It is further related, 
 
 ALEXANDER VII. (pope,) was born of the illus- that when some English gentlemen presented 
 
 trious family of Chighi, at Sienna, in 1599, and 
 recommended by the marquis Fallavicini to 
 pope Urban VIII. Having been inquisitor at 
 Malta, and legate at Ferrara, he was nuncio in 
 Germany, and employed at Munster in con- 
 ducting the conferences that were intended to 
 restore the peace of Europe. Some writers re- 
 late, that at this time he had formed the design 
 of abjuring Popery, and embracing the Protes- 
 tant religion, but was deterred from executing his 
 purpose. Upon his return from this embassy, he 
 was appointed bishop of Imola, in Romagna, 
 and afterwards cardinal and secretary to the pope. 
 His next advancement was to the papal chair, 
 to which he was introduced by the unanimous 
 suffrage of the sixty-four cardinals, which he 
 contrived to obtain by that dissimulation and 
 address of which he is said to have been com- 
 plete master. After his election in 1655, he 
 ordered his coffin to be placed under his bed in 
 his apartments in the Vatican, that it might 
 serve to him as a memento of mortality ; when 
 he was robed in the pontifical habit, he appeared 
 to have a hair-cloth under his shirt ; and when 
 a wealthy female, signora Olympia waited upon 
 him with congratulation, he dismissed her with 
 a cold repulse, saying, ' It is not decent for a 
 woman to enter the dwelling of the father of the 
 church.' That the whole of this appearance of 
 humility and self-denial was a farce, was suffi- 
 ciently verified in his future conduct. His zeal 
 r or religion, and his concern for terminating the 
 wars which distracted the Christian world, seem 
 o have subsided after his elevation to the pon- 
 tificate ; nor did he take any pains to conci- 
 liate the crowns of France and Spain. The five 
 propositions of Jansenius, which contained the 
 sum of his doctrine, had been condemned by 
 Innocent X.; but the Jansenists had contrived 
 to evade this sentence by a subtle distinction, 
 which allowed them to acknowledge that these 
 propositions were justly condemned by the pope ; 
 
 themselves at his feet to pay him the customary 
 homage, upon finding that they were Protes- 
 tants, he courteously said . < Rise, you shall not 
 commit what you think an idolatry ; I will not 
 give you my blessing, but I pray God you may 
 be worthy to receive it.' To the Jesuits this 
 pontiff manifested a peculiar partiality ; for 
 though Innocent X. had, in 1645, condemned 
 the indulgence which these artful missionaries 
 had shewn to the Chinese superstititions, Alex- 
 ander virtually disannulled, in 1656, the sen- 
 tence of his predecessors, and allowed the Chinese 
 converts the liberty of performing several of the 
 rites to which they had been accustomed, and 
 to which they were principally attached. 
 
 This pontiff was a friend to literature and the 
 fine arts, and expended considerable sums in 
 promoting them. He embellished the city of 
 Rome and erected the magnificent college, Delia 
 Sapienza, which he furnished with a fine library 
 and botanical garden. He appointed six new 
 professorships, and increased the salaries of the 
 former professors As an author, he has been 
 highly extolled by his panegyrists ; a volume of 
 Latin poems, entitled Philomathi Musae Juve- 
 niles, consisting of heroic, elegiac, and lyric 
 verses, and a tragedy under the title of Pompey, 
 after the model of Seneca, written in his youth, 
 whilst he was a student at Sienna, was published 
 in folio, at the Louvre, in 1656. He died in the 
 year 1667, with a higher reputation for talents 
 than for honesty : and, as Bayle says, more 
 lamented by the Jesuits than the Jensenists, 
 Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. v. p. 2699214. 
 Bower's Popes, vol. vii. p. 483. Gen. Diet. 
 
 ALEXANDER VIII. (pope,) originally called 
 Peter Ottoboni, was born at Venice in 1610: 
 and having studied at Venice and Padua, was 
 made a bishop and cardinal by Innocent X ; and 
 at the age of seventy-nine succeeded Innocent 
 XI. in the papal see. Instead of devoting the 
 powers which he had acquired at this late period 
 
 but to maintain that they were not contained in of life to the service of religion, his thoughts were 
 the book of Jansenius in the sense in which chiefly employed in providing for his relation
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 and accumulating upon them honour and wealth. 
 Accordingly one of his domestics being asked by 
 this pontiff what the people said of him, replied, 
 that they said, ' he lost no time in the advance- 
 ment of his family.' ' Right,' says the pope, ' for I 
 nave only half an hour left of the four and twenty.' 
 His indifference with regard to compromising 
 the dispute that subsisted between France and the 
 court of Koine, was considered by the French 
 court as an evidence of his disposition to yield 
 to the claims of the clergy of France ; but at the 
 close of his life, he issued a bull of execration 
 against every thing that had been done to the 
 prejudice of the pope's authority in the assembly 
 of the clergy of France in 1682. Having enjoyed 
 the honour and emoluments of his station fifteen 
 or sixteen months, he died in 1691, with a cha- 
 racter stained with the reproach of avarice and 
 duplicity. Gen. Diet. Bower's Popes, vol. vii. 
 p. 490. 
 
 ALEXANDER AB ALEXANDRO, so called, be- 
 cause his Christian and family names were Alex- 
 ander, was born at Naples in 1461. He relin- 
 quished the practice of the law, to which he was 
 at first devoted, because this profession endan- 
 gered his integrity ; and preferred a small for- 
 tune, in the tranquillity of retirement Against 
 the power and favour of the great, he says, an 
 advocate would find it impossible to support his 
 clients ; and the issue of suits depended not so 
 much on the justice of the cause, as on the will 
 and favour of an indolent or corrupt judge ; so 
 that it was fruitless to study, with diligence and 
 labour, controverted points of law, with the va- 
 rieties of its cases ; and adds, that the provisions 
 of law, though wisely contrived, were often ini- 
 quitously perverted. From the works of the 
 ancients, to which he had been accustomed to 
 direct his attention, he made a collection of pas- 
 sages relating to the history and customs of the 
 Greeks and Romans, which he arranged in six 
 books, under the title of Dies Geniales ; a work 
 which manifests more learning than judgment or 
 taste. An edition of this work, with notes by 
 various writers, was published in two volumes 
 8vo. at Leyden, in 1673. The author appears 
 to have been credulous and superstitious, and 
 gives a strange account of dreams, spectres, 
 haunted apartments in his house at Rome, &c. ; 
 he died in this city about the year 1523. Gen. 
 Diet. 
 
 ALEXANDER AB ALEXANDRO, proto-medicus 
 of Sicily, in which island he was born early in 
 the fifteenth century ; left a work on the duties 
 and privileges of the office he held, which was 
 afterwards published: Constitutiones et regu- 
 lata Jurisdictionis Regii protomedicatus Sicilise 
 elucidata, scripta. Haller says, circa A. 1429, 
 edita Panormi, 1564, 4to. a I. Philippo Ingrassia. 
 
 ALEXANDER NOEL, OR NATALIS, a Dominican 
 friar, and one of the most laborious writers of the 
 seventeenth century, was born at Rouen, in Nor- 
 mandy, in 1639, admitted into the order of Do- 
 minican friars, in 1655, and went to pursue his 
 Studies in philosophy and divinity, at the great 
 convent in Paris. He afterwards taught philo- 
 sophy in the same convent in which office he 
 wntinued for twelve years; and declining that 
 of a preacher, he devoted himself entirely to the 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 646 
 
 study of the scriptures and ecclesiastical history 
 He was created a doctor of the Sorbonne in 1675. 
 By Colbert, the minister, with whose esteem he 
 was honoured, he was introduced to his son 
 who was afterwards archbishop of Roan ; and 
 m this connection he enjoyed the conferences of 
 persons of distinguished learning. These con- 
 ferences led him to conceive the design of writ- 
 ing an ecclesiastical history. The first volume 
 of this work, which he executed with great assi- 
 duity, and which was entitled, Selecta Historiae 
 Ecclesiastics capita, et in loca ejusdem insignia 
 Dissertationes Histories Chronologies Dogmati- 
 cs was published in 1676. This work consists of 
 twenty-six volumes in 8vo. the last four of which 
 were not published till 1086. In the first vo- 
 lume he gives a history of the first age of the 
 church, with an account of the persecutions 
 which it suffered, the succession of popes, the 
 heresies which arose, and the councils whicn 
 condemned them, the writers in favour of Chris- 
 tianity, and the kings and emperors who reigned 
 during the first century. To this volume are an- 
 nexed twenty-eight valuable and much esteemed 
 dissertations, upon such points as have been the 
 subjects of dispute in history, chronology, cri- 
 ticism, or doctrine. The history of the second 
 century was published in 1677 in two volumes, 
 and to it are subjoined three dissertations against 
 M. Daille with regard to fasting in lent,confirma- 
 tion, and the use of the fathers ; and another 
 dissertation concerning the time of celebrating 
 Easter ; and he also treats of the version of the 
 Septuagint, &c. &c. The third century was 
 published in 1678; and in three dissertations he 
 has collected what relates to the life, manners, 
 ordination, fall, errors, and defenders of St. Cy- 
 prian. The history of the fourth century, com- 
 piled in three volumes, and containing forty-five 
 dissertations, was printed at Paris in 1679. In 
 the three following years he published his history 
 of the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth 
 centuries ; and that of the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries in 1683; and in these volumes therft 
 are several excellent dissertations. His senti- 
 ments on the subjects of some of these disserta- 
 tions exposed him to the resentment of the court 
 of Rome, which issued out a decree against his 
 writings in 1684. Nevertheless, he published in 
 the same year, in three volumes, the history of 
 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in which 
 he continued to defend the rights of kings against 
 the pretensions of that court, though he vindi- 
 cates those princes who employed fire and sword 
 against the Albigenses. He at last completed 
 this work in 1686, by publishing four volumes, 
 containing the history of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. The history of the CouncH of 
 Trent occupies the greatest part of the last vo- 
 lume. Of this voluminous work, containing 
 many curious particulars, there have been many 
 editions. In 1689 he published a work of the 
 same kind upon the Old Testament, in six vo- 
 lumes in 8vo. which .extends from the creation 
 of the world to the birth of Christ, and which 
 period he has divided into six ages. From 1678 
 to 1680 he also published several other dis- 
 sertations. In 1689 our author published hia 
 Theologia Dogmatica et Moralis secunduiu 
 
 2 N
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 
 Ordinem Catechismi Concilii Tridentini, in quin- 
 que libros tributa, i. e. Positive and moral 
 Divinity, according to the order of the Cate- 
 chism of the Council of Trent, in five books ; 
 printed at Paris in ten volumes in 8vo. and at 
 Venice 1698. Another volume having been 
 added in 1701, this work was printed at Paris, 
 in two volumes in folio, in 1703, with a col- 
 lection of Latin letters. He also published, in 
 1704, Commentaries on the four Gospels; in 
 1710, upon St. Paul's, and the seven Canoni- 
 cal Epistles ; and he also wrote a Commentary 
 on the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Baruch, 
 which was never printed : and he likewise pub- 
 lished several other treatises, which we shall 
 not recite. Towards the latter part of his life he 
 was afflicted with the loss of his sight, which he 
 bore with great calmness and resignation. He 
 died in 1724, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. 
 His piety, humility, and disinterestedness ren- 
 dered him an object of general esteem. Gen. Diet. 
 
 ALEXANDER I. (king of Scotland,) was the son 
 of Malcolm III. and succeeded his brother 
 Edgar in 1107. His character was distinguished 
 by vigour and impetuosity, which gave him the 
 appellation of ' the fierce : ' and which, though 
 previously concealed by his piety and devotion, 
 discovered themselves on his accession to the 
 throne. His conduct both in the northern and 
 southern parts of the kingdom was so severe, 
 that he awed the insurgents into submission; 
 but a conspiracy was at length formed against 
 his life, and the traitors, who were engaged in 
 the execution of it, obtained admission into his 
 bed-chamber at night, whilst he lodged at a castle 
 in the Carse of Cowrie. Alexander, after having 
 killed six of them, made his escape. Having 
 reduced his own kingdom to order, he visited 
 his brother-in-law, Henry I. of England, and 
 assisted him in terminating a difference between 
 him and the Welsh. He closed his reign in en- 
 acting and enforcing civil and ecclesiastical 
 regulations, died a bachelor in the seventeenth 
 year of it, and was succeeded by his younger 
 brother, David. Mod. Un. Hist. vol. xli. p. 45. 
 
 ALEXANDER II. (king of Scotland,) succeeded 
 his father William the Lion, in 1214, in his six- 
 teenth year. His attempt to recover the possession 
 of Northumberland was retaliated by a destruc- 
 tive expedition into Scotland, conducted by 
 John, king of England. Whilst John was thus 
 employed, Alexander reduced Northumberland ; 
 and, being forced to discontinue his pursuit of 
 the English king, who was burning the towns, 
 ravaging the country, and advancing towards the 
 capital, he entered England by way of Carlisle, 
 which he took and fortified, and proceeded as 
 far as Richmond, in Yorkshire, retaliating, upon 
 the adherents of John, severities similar to those 
 which his own subjects had suffered. But his 
 progress was impeded, and he was compelled 
 to return. 
 
 In 1221,- he married the princess Joan, eldest 
 sister of Henry III. of England, which contri- 
 buted to preserve the peace of the two kingdoms. 
 After her death in 1239, they were again em- 
 broiled ; but by the mediation of the earl of Corn- 
 wall, Henry's brother, and the archbishop of York, 
 they were again reconciled. Alexander, in his 
 
 voyage to quell some commotions that were ex- 
 cited in Argyleshire, fell sick, and being put on 
 shore on an island called Kernery, on that coast, 
 died in the fifty-first year of his age, and 
 thirty-fifth of his reign. He was succeeded by 
 Alexander III. his son by his second queen, the 
 daughter of Egelrand de Coucy, one of the most 
 powerful of the French nobility. Mod. Un. 
 Hist. vol. xli. p. 77. 
 
 ALEXANDER III. (king of Scotland,) son of the 
 preceding, succeeded his father at the age of 
 nine years, in 1249. His marriage with Marga- 
 ret, the daughter of Henry III. of England, was 
 soon after solemnized in the presence of the two 
 courts at York. 'On this occasion, Alexander 
 paid homage to Henry for his English posses- 
 sions; and, on being pressed to perform his 
 homage for the crown of Scotland, he declined 
 it. Alexander, .upon his return to Scotland, 
 found that the Cummins, a family of very great in- 
 fluence, had formed a strong party against his 
 English connections, under the plea that Scot- 
 land was never any better than a province of 
 England ; and both the king and queen were 
 committed to close custody in the castle of Edin- 
 burgh, where they were debarred from seeing 
 any company, or associating with each other, and 
 prohibited from all concern in the government. 
 When Henry heard of their situation, he deter- 
 mined to relieve them, and for this purpose 
 assembled his military tenants at York, and 
 marched to the borders ; and by his emissaries, 
 whom he dispatched to the castle of Edinburgh, 
 released the royal pair, and afterwards dispos- 
 sessed the usurpers. The king then assumed the 
 exercise of the regal power ; and, as soon as he 
 was of age, pardoned the Cummins and their 
 adherents, upon their submitting to his authority. 
 However, in 1263, Haquin, king of Norway, ap- 
 peared on the coast, with a fleet of 160 ships, to 
 make good his pretensions to the Western 
 Islands ; and, disembarking his troops, made 
 himself master of the castle of Ayr, and advanced 
 into the country. Alexander, having assembled 
 an army, met him at a place called Largs ; and, 
 after a long and doubtful contest, the Scots army- 
 was victorious. Of the Norwegians, 10,000 are 
 said to have perished in the field, and the Scots 
 lost 5000. The ships of Haquin were so much 
 wrecked the day after the battle, that he could 
 scarcely procure a vessel to carry him and a few 
 friends to the Orkneys, where he died of grief. 
 His son and successor, Magnus, concluded a 
 treaty with Alexander ; and in consideration of 
 his receiving 1000 marks of silver in two years, 
 and an annual payment of 100 marks for ever 
 after, renounced all claim to those islands. As 
 a further cement of friendship, Margaret, Alex- 
 ander's daughter, was betrothed to Eric, the son 
 and heir of Magnus. In 1256, Alexander and 
 his queen repaired to the English court, where 
 they were sumptuously entertained ; and when 
 the queen was delivered, they both returned to 
 their own kingdom. During the war between 
 Henry and his barons, Alexander assisted him 
 with 5000 men, and preserved the northern for- 
 tresses against all their attempts. Upon the 
 accession of Edward I. to the throne of England, 
 Alexander, with his family was present at hi*
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 coronation, and soon after paid him homage for 
 his English estates. In the parliament, held at 
 Westminster in .1282, Alexander attended as the 
 first peer of England. In 1283 he lost his son 
 Alexander, in the twentieth year of his age ; and 
 his death was soon followed by that of his sister 
 the queen of Norway, who left an only daughter. 
 Having no surviving issue besides this infant 
 princess, Alexander was urged by the nobility 
 and the states of the kingdom to marry ; and, 
 in compliance with this request, he married 
 loletta, daughter to the Count of Dreux in 
 France. This excellent prince was soon after 
 killed, whilst he was hunting, by his horse's 
 rushing down a high precipice, A. D. 1285,in the 
 forty-fifth year of his age, and the thirty-seventh 
 of his reign. He was succeeded by Margaret, 
 his grand daughter, and heir of his crown, who 
 did not long survive him. Scotland was now 
 in a very critical state, Edward I. was acquir- 
 ing an influence in the kingdom, which no other 
 English monarch ever possessed, and revived the 
 claim of sovereignty, to which his father Henry 
 had never pretended. The death of Alexander 
 was much regretted ; and the services he had 
 performed to the kingdom demanded a tribute 
 
 of respect to his memory. He had introduced 
 many excellent regulations of government; he 
 had divided the kingdom into two parts, in each 
 of which he occasionally resided, with a view 
 of preserving the public peace, and for the pur- 
 pose of more easily administering justice to all 
 ranks of people ; and he had greatly contributed 
 to diminish the burdens of the feudal system, 
 and to restrain the licence and oppressions of 
 the nobility. The death of Alexander III. forms 
 a remarkable aera in the Scottish historv. Mod. 
 Un. Hist. vol. xli. p. 79, &c. 
 
 ALEXANDER, prince of Parma and Placentia, 
 the son of Octavius Farnese, and great grand- 
 son of pope Paul III. succeeded his father in 
 1580 ; previous to which he had acquired the 
 character of the greatest hero of his age ; having 
 given early proofs of uncommon courage, and 
 military skill, in the wars of the Netherlands, 
 under Don John of Austria : on which account, 
 Philip k"mg of Spain appointed him governor 
 of the Netherlands, and prefect of Burgundy, 
 upon the death of Don John. In 1566, he 
 married the princess Mary of Portugal, and died 
 in 1592, aged 48. 
 
 ALEXANDER OF RUSSIA. 
 
 ALEXANDER I. (Emperor of Russia and 
 King of Poland), was the eldest son of Paul I. 
 by his second wife, Sophia Dorothea, princess 
 of Wirtemberg Stuttguard. He was born 22d 
 December 1777, and the care of providing for his 
 education being assumed by his grandmother, 
 the Empress Catherine, she placed him under 
 the tuition of the celebrated M. de la Harpe. 
 In the year 1793 he married Elizabeth Aleviowna, 
 princess of Baden ; and on the sudden demise of 
 his father (it was officially announced that he was 
 , found dead in his bed), in March 1801, he suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. The general amnesty pub- 
 lished on his accession was allowed, it is said, to 
 include all persons connected with his father's 
 death, except one nobleman, who was sent into 
 Siberia. The young emperor declared his inten- 
 tion of supporting the institutions, and abiding 
 by the policy of his august grandmother. Rus- 
 sia having been precipitated by his predecessor 
 into a maritime confederacy with the other nor- 
 thern powers against England, he very promptly 
 manifested his desire to enter into amicable re- 
 lations with this country ; and on the 17th June 
 a convention was signed at St. Petersburg!! be- 
 tween the Russian ministers and Lord St. He- 
 lens, conceding the great British question, of the 
 right to search neutral ships in time of war, and 
 adjusting all matters in dispute. To this com- 
 pact Denmark and Sweden immediately acceded. 
 Few events in the history of the maritime strug- 
 gles of Great Britain have been more important 
 than was the dissolution of the northern confe- 
 deracy at this juncture. Alexander was crowned 
 at Moscow in September, and published on this 
 occasion an ukase to discontinue the recruiting of 
 the army, for diminishing taxes, liberating deb- 
 
 tors, and prohibiting all prosecutions for fines, 
 together with a full pardon to deserters. In 
 June 1802, he appeared, for the first time, per. 
 sonally among the potentates of Europe, and had 
 an interview with the king of Prussia at Memel. 
 France, under the guidance of Napoleon, was at 
 this period making rapid conquests in the south 
 of Europe ; Buonaparte having been, in the 
 preceding month, crowned king of Italy at Milan; 
 shortly after which he annexed Genoa to France. 
 But the cabinet of St. Petersburgh seems wisely 
 to have thought that its distance from the scene 
 of action, might well excuse the emperor from 
 any active interference with the belligerent states. 
 He contented himself, therefore, in 1803, with 
 offering to interpose his good offices in restoring 
 the newly ruptured peace between England and 
 France. Thearrest andmurder of theDucD'Eng- 
 hein, however, aroused him to make a strong re- 
 mojistrance the following year against this shame- 
 ful violation of the neutral territory of Baden ; 
 and he appealed from the frivolous excuses of 
 the French government on that subject, to the 
 diet of Ratisbon. But the influence of France 
 was at this time paramount in Germany. 
 
 On the llth April, 1805, Russia came forth 
 decidedly into the first of her great struggles with 
 France, and signed a treaty with England, Swe- 
 den, and Austria, to use the most efficacious 
 means for the purpose of putting a stop to the 
 encroachments of the French government, and 
 securing the independence of the different states. 
 A large Russian force now, therefore, advanced 
 into Germany, but not in time to rescue the ca- 
 pital of the emperor of Austria from the more 
 rapid advances of Napoleon. On the second of 
 December was fought the memorable battle of 
 2 N 2
 
 548 
 
 A L E X A N D E 11. 
 
 Austerlitz, in which the emperor Alexander ap- 
 peared at the head of 50,000 Russians, and the 
 emperor Francis with an Austrian force of about 
 half that amount : the result is well known. 
 Buonaparte spoke always of the sun of Auster- 
 litz as shining upon one of his most glorious 
 days. His force was about equal, perhaps, to 
 that of the allies ; whom, after a sanguinary and 
 often doubtful contest, he compelled to quit the 
 field. Alexander, in consequence, commenced 
 his retreat on the sixth, and in the following July 
 appears to have concurred very cordially in the 
 negociations for a general peace, which were 
 conducted by the ministers of the different powers 
 at Paris. But the Russian minister, M.d'Ou- 
 bril, having precipitately signed a separate treaty 
 with France, the emperor refused to ratify it. 
 The negociations were broken off, and the rela- 
 tions of England and Russia remained undis- 
 turbed. 
 
 The French, at the close of this year, having 
 completely humbled Prussia, advanced into Po- 
 land ; and on the 26th of November was fought 
 between the French and Russians the equivocal 
 battle of Pultusk. In that of Eylau, which was 
 fought on the 7th and 8th of February, 1807, both 
 parties again claimed the victory. On the morn- 
 ing, however, of the 9th, the Russian army found 
 it necessary to retreat ; and on the 14th of June 
 was completely beaten by the French in the me- 
 morable battle of Friedland. Lord Hutchinson, 
 who was present, declared, in the British senate, 
 (hat the Russians recrossed the Niemen with the 
 loss of 40,000 men, 1848 officers killed or wound- 
 ed, and 27 generals. The result was an inter- 
 view between Alexander and the French emperor 
 at the instance, it is said, of the latter; and the 
 celebrated treaty of Tilsit followed. Russia, by 
 this compact, acknowledged the brothers of 
 Buonaparte as kings respectively, of Naples, 
 Holland, and Westphalia ; she formally recog- 
 nised also the confederation of the Rhine, and 
 promised to acknowledge all the sovereigns who 
 might hereafter become members of that confe- 
 deration. She engaged also that hostilities should, 
 on her part, instantly cease with the Ottoman 
 Porte, and that she would use her mediation to 
 negotiate and conclude a peace between Great 
 Britain and France. Secret articles are said to 
 have been added, that Dantzic and the ports of 
 Prussia and Russia should be shut against the 
 commerce of Great Britain. By another secret 
 article, Alexander also consented to concede Cor- 
 fu and the seven islands to France. Such was 
 the humiliating commencement of this prince's 
 celebrated friendship with Napoleon. 
 
 In the autumn of 1806, the British cabinet was 
 induced, from secret and pretty correct informa- 
 tion of the designs of the French government 
 upon them, to seize the eighteen Danish ships of 
 the line then lying at Copenhagen, a measure 
 which Russia thought proper to resent by de- 
 claring war against England. All British ships 
 and property were detained, and the fortofCron- 
 stadt put into a state of defence. Hostilities be- 
 tween England and Russia, however, were never 
 carried much further than a cessation of commer- 
 cial intercourse. A sewmd meeting between 
 
 Alexander and the emperor of France took place 
 at Erfurt on the 27th of September 1808, with 
 the obvious design, on the part of the latter, of en- 
 abling himself, with safety, to withdraw his troops 
 from Germany. For that noble resistance of 
 his usurpations was now commencing in the 
 Peninsula, which ultimately issued in the eman- 
 cipation of enslaved Europe. 
 
 While in this year his good brother of France 
 was thus well engaged, the troops of Alexander 
 advanced upon Finland, took possession of Abo, 
 the capital, in the month of March ; and on the 
 27th of September, 1809, procured the formal 
 annexation of the greatest part of that province 
 to Russia. The interruption of all commerce 
 with England, began now to be severely felt by 
 Russia ; and the restraints of Napoleon's con- 
 tinental system, were ill-brooked by the pride of 
 Alexander. From the commencement of 1812, 
 a storm seemed to be gathering, which threatened 
 the destruction of French influence in the north 
 of Europe. Alexander put his armies in motion ; 
 and, by an imperial ukase of the 23rd of March, 
 ordered a levy of two men in five hundred 
 throughout his dominions. He concluded a 
 treaty also with the Ottoman Porte, and settled 
 all matters in dispute with Great Britain. Buo- 
 naparte, in the mean while, was pouring French 
 troops, and those of the confederation of the 
 Rhine, into Germany ; and occupied all the 
 principal towns and fortresses of Prussia. On 
 the 6th of June, Napoleon passed the Vistula, 
 and shortly after, the Niemer. ' Russia,' said 
 he, in one of his favourite harangues, ' is dragged 
 along by a fatality ! Her destinies must be ac- 
 complished. Are we no longer to be regarded 
 as the soldiers of Austerlitz ? Let us carry the 
 war into her territory : a second war in Poland 
 will be as glorious to the French arms as the 
 first.' We cannot pursue the details of the me- 
 morable campaign that followed. Suffice it to 
 say, that he who entered Russia at the head of 
 from 300,000 to 400,000 men, after having de- 
 feated the Russians in almost every pitched bat- 
 tle that they fought ; after having taken Moscow, 
 the capital of the empire, returned ulojie ! and of 
 his immense army but 50,000 ever re-passed the 
 Russian frontier. Alexander, who had hitherto 
 only fought for independence, now resolved in 
 his turn to become the aggressor; and, joining 
 his army in Poland, published in February 1813, 
 the celebrated manifesto, which served as a basis 
 for the coalition of the other powers of Europe, 
 against the rapacity of the French. The battle 
 of Leipsic, in which the allies compelled the 
 French to retire, seems to have been almost the 
 last struggle of Napoleon, to preserve his domi- 
 nion over the other potentates of Europe. The 
 Russian monarch marched with the rest of the 
 allies into France ; and it was principally to the 
 efforts of Alexander, that, after about two months 
 of constant fighting, with various success, one 
 bold and great push was made to seize on Paris 
 which the allies reached on the 30th of April 
 1814, at six in the morning, and which they oc- 
 cupied by capitulation, at three in the afternoon 
 At the peace, Alexander visited England, and 
 amongst a succession of fetes given upon the
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 549 
 
 occasion, dined with the prince regent, the em- 
 peror of Austria, and king of Prussia, at the 
 Guildhall of London. 
 
 On his return he seems to have occupied him- 
 self in sincerely endeavouring to improve the 
 internal condition of his empire. Early in his 
 reign, he had given it, in a manner, a new con- 
 stitution ; re-organizing the senate and limiting 
 the power of governors. When he was crowned 
 kintj of Poland in 1815, he limited his own au- 
 thority, granted legislative powers, and the pri- 
 vilege of self-taxation to the Polish senate, and 
 a representative body to the people. One of his 
 ukases forbad the confiscation of hereditary pro- 
 perty in Russia, in any criminal case whatever, 
 an advantage, until his reign, enjoyed only by 
 the nobility. Nor should we omit to state, that 
 he was decidedly the friend of literature, the arts, 
 and every moral and benevolent institution of 
 the age. The noble support he afforded to the 
 Russian Bible Society, may be instanced as a 
 proof of our last remark. 
 
 In the flower of his age this distinguished 
 prince was seized with a fatal illness, and died 
 at Taganrok, a fortress of the sea of Agof, in 
 November, 1825. 
 
 The French papers, in conveying the intelli- 
 gence of his death, coupled it with a curious ex- 
 tract from the Royal Prussian Calendar, in which 
 the second brother, the grand duke Nicholas, 
 was declared heir to the throne, in omission of 
 his elder brother Constantine. Such intimation 
 could scarcely originate in error in that quarter ; 
 and in consequence, it was at first inferred that 
 Constantiue was set aside. This inference was 
 the more rational, as an ex post facto law had 
 really passed to supersede any issue which he 
 might have by his second marriage with the 
 countess Gradinska, an accomplished Polish 
 lady, on the ground that children to succeed must 
 be royal on both sides. Reports also attributed 
 sinister attempts to Constantine four or five years 
 ago, whicli it was insinuated, led to his virtual 
 renunciation of the right of succession ; and one 
 English paper boldly asserted that Alexander 
 met a violent death. These rumours, however, 
 appear to have rested on no adequate foundation ; 
 and in spite of the authority of the Berlin Alma- 
 uack, the emperor Constantine set out on the 
 8th of December from Warsaw, for St. Peters- 
 burgh, where he was proclaimed on the 15th. 
 The Court of Berlin had been previously ap- 
 prised of the illness of Alexander; the proximate 
 cause of whose decease originated in the break- 
 ing out of erysipelas in his leg, that he was 
 aware of his own danger, and died as became 
 him. The Russian authorities in London took 
 an oath of allegiance to the new emperor Con- 
 stantine, on Sunday the 25th of December. 
 
 On the whole, this monarch cannot be denied 
 the meed of considerable commendation with re- 
 spect to the internal management of his great 
 empire. If he has not all the glory of a Peter I. 
 in originating improvements, he has the great 
 credit of continuing and enlarging them with ex- 
 emplary patience and industry ; and if he never 
 pursued the ambitious projects of a Catherine 
 with regard to other nations, he nobly defended 
 aud rescued his country from the grasp of an 
 
 unprincipled usurper, and was foremost in a 
 series of conflicts, essential to the liberty of half 
 the civilized world. To hold the balance even 
 in respect to his character, there seems to have 
 been, of late years, a more decided leaning in 
 this prince to arbitrary measures, both at home 
 and abroad ; and he is one of those potentates 
 who has been busily engaged in the so-named 
 Holy Alliance. 
 
 ALEXANDER'S TOMB, an elegant and very an- 
 cient sarcophagus, supposed once to have con- 
 tained the body of Alexander the Great ; and 
 now, through the zeal and enterprize of Dr. E. D. 
 CLARKE, deposited in the British Museum. It 
 is an entire block of green Egyptian breccia, 
 a beautiful variegated marble, of which few 
 specimens remain, measuring ten feet three 
 inches and a half in length, three feet ten inches 
 in height ; at the circular end, five feet three 
 inches, and at the other end, four feet two inches 
 in breadth ; covered with hieroglyphics. 
 
 This valuable relic of antiquity had been re- 
 moved by the French from the mosque of St. 
 Athanasius, at Alexandria, when the British 
 troops entered that place ; and Dr. Clarke found 
 it concealed in the hold of a hospital-ship, in the 
 inner harbour, half filled with filth, and covered 
 with the rags of the sick. AH descriptions of 
 the inhabitants and visitants, with whom the 
 learned traveller conversed, concurred in the 
 tradition of 'its being the tomb of ISCANDER 
 (Alexander), the founder of the Alexandrian 
 city. On its shipment for England, in the Ma- 
 dras, the Capitano bey, with many Turks of dis- 
 tinction, came on board to pay a last testimony 
 of devotion to this proud trophy of British va- 
 lour ; and, according to General Turner, ' all 
 solemnly touched the tomb with their tongues.' 
 The privilege to render this act of adoration be- 
 ing a contribution of six paras or medins to the 
 iman of the mosque. On taking leave, the 
 Capitano bey expressed his belief that provi- 
 dence would never suffer the tomb to go safe to 
 England. 
 
 The chain of evidence by which Dr. Clarke 
 supports his confident opinion of the identity of 
 this sarcophagus with the real tomb of Alexan- 
 der, is as follows: The body of Alexander, 
 according to Plutarch, being embalmed at Ba- 
 bylon by certain Egyptians and Chaldeans, his 
 funeral was delayed for two years, by the dis- 
 putes amongst his successors, and, still more, by 
 the immense preparations which were made for 
 that solemnity. A notion prevailed, that the 
 final possession of it would be most propitious 
 to the state with whom it might rest ; whence 
 Perdiccas, who afterwards conducted the funeral 
 procession, would have deposited it in the se- 
 pulchre of the kings of Macedon; but Alex- 
 ander had ordered it to be taken to the temple 
 of Jupiter Ammon, in Lybia. Diodorus Sicu- 
 lus, lib. xviii. c. 26., gives an elegant and 
 most interesting account of its movement thither. 
 The car, ou which it was conveyed, was the most 
 magnificent the world had then seen ; a prodi- 
 gious concourse of people attended it from all 
 the cities? vear which it passed ; and Ptolemy 
 Sotcr, receiving intelligence of its approach, 
 went out with au army as far as Syria to
 
 ALE 
 
 550 
 
 ALE 
 
 it. Pretending to render the highest honours to 
 the imperial corse, he conducted it to Memphis, 
 and there it was detained until the shrine, in 
 which he now determined to deposit it at Alex- 
 andria, was finished. This is described by the 
 above historian as being constructed with all pos- 
 sible magnificence, and as standing within the 
 city of Alxandria. Pausanias mentions the re- 
 moval of the body from Memphis ; Quintus Cur- 
 tius, its being ultimately carried to Alexandria with 
 great pomp ; and Strabo, ' that there it still lies, 
 though not in its original coffin, a case of glass 
 having been substituted for the gold covering, 
 which a later Ptolemy had removed.' 
 
 Augustus visited the tomb B. C. 30 ; and Dion 
 Cassius mentions the singular circumstance of 
 the emperor's mutilating the nose, in touching 
 
 the body : he placed a golden crown upon 'A, on 
 departing, and scattered flowers over it. Cali- 
 gula is said to have taken away the breast-plate 
 from the armour in which Alexander was buried, 
 and occasionally to have worn it himself. A. D. 
 202, it was visited by Septimus Severus, who 
 causing a strict search to be made through Egypt 
 for all the monuments of its ancient literature, 
 deposited them in the tomb of Alexander, and 
 ordered the shrine to be closed from all future 
 access. Caracalla, however, in 213, presumed 
 to violate this injunction, placing a purple vest, 
 splendid rings, &c. on the tomb ; and here closes 
 all the direct history of its existence. For 
 further particulars respecting this interdlting 
 monument See ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 ALEXANDREA, ia ancient geography, a 
 mountain of Mysia, on the sea coast, forming a 
 part of mount Ida, where Paris is fabled to have 
 given judgment on the three goddesses. 
 
 ALEXANDRETTA, called by the Turks 
 Scanderoon ; a town in Syria, at the extremity of 
 the Mediterranean sea. It is the port of Aleppo, 
 from which it is distant twenty-eight or thirty 
 leagues, but is now, properly speaking, nothing 
 else but a village, without walls, in which the 
 tombs are more numerous than the houses, and 
 which entirely owes its existence to the road which 
 it commands. This is the only road, in all Sy- 
 ria, where vessels anchor on a solid bottom, with- 
 out their cables being liable to chafe ; but in 
 other respects it has many inconveniences. It is 
 infested, during winter, by a wind, called by the 
 French sailors le Raguier, which, rushing from 
 the snowy summits of the mountains, frequently 
 forces ships to drag their anchors several leagues. 
 And when the snow begins to cover the moun- 
 tains which surround the Gulph, tempestuous 
 winds arise which prevent vessels from entering 
 for three or four months together. The road also 
 to Aleppo by the plain is infested by Curd rob- 
 bers, who conceal themselves in the neighbour- 
 ing rocks, and frequently attack and plunder the 
 strongest caravans. But the worst circumstance 
 is the extreme unwholesomeness of the air, oc- 
 casioned here by stagnant waters and mephitic 
 exhalations. It may be affirmed, that this every 
 year carries off one third of the crews of the ves- 
 sels which remain here during the summer ; nay, 
 ships frequently lose all their men in two months. 
 The season for this epidemic disorder is princi- 
 pally from May to the end of September ; it is 
 an intermitting fever of the most malignant kind ; 
 and is accompanied with obstructions of the li- 
 ver, which terminate in a dropsy. To this bane- 
 ful epidemic, Alexandretta, from its situation, 
 seems to be irremediably condemned ; for the 
 plain on which the town is built is so low and 
 flat, that the rivulets, finding no declivity, can 
 never reach the sea. When they are swelled by 
 the winter rains, the sea, swelled likewise by tem- 
 pests, hinders their discharging themselves into 
 it : hence their waters, forced to spread them- 
 selves, form lakes in the plain. On the approach 
 of the summer, the waters becoming corrupted 
 
 by the heat, exhale vapours equally corrupt, and 
 which cannot disperse, being confined by the 
 mountains that encircle the gulf. The entrance 
 of the bay besides lies to the west, which in those 
 countries is the most unhealthy exposure, when 
 it corresponds with the sea. The labour neces- 
 sary to remedy this would be immense, and after 
 all insufficient ; and, indeed, such an undertak- 
 ing would be absolutely impossible, under a go- 
 vernment like that of the Turks. Several years 
 ago, Mr. Volney informs us, the merchants of 
 Aleppo, disgusted with the numerous inconve- 
 niences of Alexandretta, wished to abandon that 
 port and carry the trade to Latakia. They pro- 
 posed to the Pacha of Tripoli, to repair the har- 
 bour at their own expense, provided he would 
 grant them an exemption from all duties for ten 
 years. To induce him to comply with their re- 
 quest, the agent they employed talked much of 
 the advantage which would, in time, result to 
 the whole country : ' But what signifies it to me 
 what may happen in time ?' replied the Pacha ; 
 ' I was yesterday at Marach ; to-morrow, per- 
 haps, I shall be at Djedda : Why should I de- 
 prive myself of present advantages, which are 
 certain, for future benefits I cannot hope to par- 
 take of?' The European factors were obliged 
 therefore to remain at Scanderoon. There are 
 three of these factors, two for the French, and one 
 for the Eng'ish and Venetians. The only curio- 
 sity which they have to amuse strangers with, 
 consists in six or seven marble monuments, 
 sent from England, on which you read : ' Here 
 lies such an one, carried off in the flower of his 
 age, by the fatal effects of a contagious air.' The 
 sight of these is the more distressing, as the lan- 
 guid air, yellow complexion, livid eyes, and drop- 
 sical bellies of those who show them, make it but 
 too probable they cannot long escape the same 
 fate. It is true, they have some resource in the 
 village of Ballan, the pure air and excellent wa- 
 ters of which surprisingly restore the sick. The 
 Aga, for some years past, has applied the duties 
 of the custom-house of Alexandretta to his own 
 use, and rendered himself almost independent of 
 the Pacha of Aleppo. The Turkish empire is 
 full of rich rebels, who frequently die in peace- 
 able possession of their usurpations.
 
 561 
 
 ALEXANDRIA, 
 
 ALEXANDRIA, now called Scanderia, the 
 ancient capital of Lower Egypt, was built by 
 Alexander the Great, B. C. 335. It was situated 
 on the Mediterranean, between the lake Mareotis 
 and the beautiful harbour formed by the Isle of 
 Pharos, about twelve miles west of the Canopic 
 branch of the Nile, in N. lat. 31. 10'. and E. 
 long. 30. 19'. It is probable, says a popular 
 historian, that the opposition and efforts of the 
 republic of Tyre, which gave Alexander so long 
 and so severe a check in the career of his vic- 
 tories, led him to perceive the vast resources of 
 a maritime power, and suggested to him an idea 
 of the immense wealth which the Tyrians derived 
 from their commerce, especially that with the 
 East Indies. As soon, therefore, as he had ac- 
 complished the destruction of Tyre, and reduced 
 Egypt to subjection, he formed the plan of ren- 
 dering the empire, which he designed to establish, 
 the centre of commerce as well as the seat of 
 dominion. With this view he founded a great 
 city, which he honoured with his own name, 
 near one of the mouths of the river Nile, that, by 
 the Mediterranean sea and the vicinity of the 
 Arabian gulf, it might command the trade of both 
 the east and west. He had no sooner conceived 
 the design than he hastened to execute it. And 
 so sudden was, his resolution, that after he had 
 directed where every public structure was to be 
 placed, fixed the number of temples, and the 
 deities to whom they should be dedicated, &c. 
 there were no instruments at hand proper for 
 marking out the walls, according to the custom 
 of those times. Upon this, a workman advised 
 the king to collect what meal was among the 
 soldiers, and to sift it in lines upon the ground, 
 whereby the circuit of the walls would be suffi- 
 ciently marked out. The advice was followed ; 
 Dinccrates, the most celebrated architect of the 
 age, was employed to draw up the plan, and 
 every resource of power and art was employed 
 to render it worthy of the name of its founder ; 
 which now became the chief commercial city in 
 the world. During the subsistence of the Grecian 
 empire in Egypt and in the east, and amidst all 
 the successive revolutions in those countries, 
 through a period of about 1800 years, commerce, 
 particularly that of the East Indies, continued 
 to flow in the channel, which the sagacity and 
 foresight of Alexander had prescribed. 
 
 The breaking up of the empire of Alexander 
 did not retard the progress of Alexandria to 
 opulence and greatness. It became the capital of 
 the Ptolemies, a race of enlightened princes, who 
 placed their glory in commerce and the sciences. 
 They erected, on an island opposite to the mouth 
 of the harbour, a pharos, or light-house, which 
 was considered one of the wonders of the ancient 
 world. Alexandria then engrossed the commerce 
 of India, the grand object of ancient ambition. 
 The goods being brought up the Red Sea, were 
 landed at Berenice, and being carried across to 
 the river, were there embarked, and conveyed 
 down to the city 
 
 This city, says a modern traveller, was a league 
 
 and a half long by one-third in breadth, which 
 made the circumference of its walls about four 
 leagues. Quintus Curtius, lib. iv. c. 8. torn. i. p. 
 221, makes them eighty stadia, or a little more 
 than nine miles. According to Pliny, H. N. lib. 
 v. c. 10. torn. i. p. 258, they were fifteen miles. 
 Strabo,lib. xvii. torn. ii. p. 1143, makes the length 
 of the city thirty stadia, and the breadth between 
 seven and eight stadia ; and Diodorus Siculus, 
 lib. xvii. torn. ii. p. 590. ed. Wessel, makes the 
 circuit ninety stadia, or somewhat more than 
 eleven miles; and he says, that the city was 
 peopled by 300,000 free inhabitants, besides, at 
 least, an equal number of slaves. The lake 
 Mareotis bathed its walls on the south, and the 
 Mediterranean on the north. It was intersected 
 lengthwise by straight parallel streets. This di- 
 rection left a free passage to the northerly wind, 
 which alone conveys coolness and salubrity into 
 Egypt. A street, two thousand feet wide, began 
 at the gate of the sea, and terminated at the gate 
 of Canopus. It was decorated by magnificent 
 houses, by temples, and by public buildings. 
 In this extensive range the eye was never tired 
 with admiring the marble, the porphyry, and the 
 obelisks, which were destined at some future 
 day to embellish Rome and Constantinople. 
 This street, the handsomest in the universe, was 
 intersected by another of the same breadth, 
 which formed a square, at their junction, half a 
 league in circumference. From the middle of 
 this great place the two gates were to be seen at 
 once, and vessels arriving under full sail from 
 the north and from the south. A mole, of a mile 
 in length, called Hepta Stadium, stretched from 
 the continent to the Isle of Pharos, and divided 
 the great harbour into two. That which is to the 
 northward preserved the name of the founder, 
 and was called the Great Port. A dyke, drawn 
 from the island to the rock on which the Pharos 
 was built, secured it from the westerly winds. The 
 other was called Eunostos, or the Safe Return. 
 The former is called at present the New, and is 
 the port to which the vessels of Europe resort ; 
 the latter is the Old harbour, and is that to which 
 those only from Turkey are admitted : a bridge 
 that joins the mole to the city served for a com- 
 munication between them. It was raised on 
 lofty pillars sunk into the sea, and left a free 
 passage for the ships. The palace, which ad- 
 vanced beyond the promontory of Lochias, ex- 
 tended as far as the dyke, and occupied more 
 than a quarter (a third or fourth, says Strabo) of 
 the city. Each of the Ptolemies added to its 
 magnificence. It contained within its enclosure 
 the museum, an asylum for learned men, groves 
 and buildings worthy of royal majesty, and a 
 temple where the body of Alexander was de- 
 posited in a golden coffin. Perdiccas, it is said, 
 undertook to convey the body of Alexander to 
 the temple of Jupiter Ammon, agreeably to the 
 will of that prince ; but Ptolemy, son of Lagus, 
 carried it off, and placed it in the palace ot 
 Alexandria. The infamous Seleucus Cibyosactes 
 violated this monument, carried off the golden
 
 552 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 coffin, and put a glass one in its place. In the 
 great harbour was the little island of Anti- 
 Rhodes, where stood a theatre and a royal place 
 of residence. Within the harbour of Eunostos 
 was a smaller one, called Kibotos, or Cibotus, 
 q. d. the harbour of the arch, dug by the hand 
 of man, which communicated with the Lake 
 Mareotis by a canal. Between this canal and 
 the palace was the admirable temple of Serapis, 
 and that of Neptune, near the great place where 
 the market was held. Alexandria extended like- 
 wise along the southern banks of the lake. Its 
 eastern part presented to view the Gymnasium, 
 with its porticoes more than 600 feet long, sup- 
 ported by several rows of marble pillars. With- 
 out the gate of Canopus was a spacious circus 
 for the chariot races. Beyond that the suburb of 
 Nicopolis ran along the sea shore, and seemed a 
 second Alexandria. A superb amphitheatre was 
 built there, with a race-ground, for the celebra- 
 tion of the Quinquennalia, or feasts that were 
 celebrated every fifth year. Such is the descrip- 
 tion, says Savary, Letters on Egypt, vol. i. p. 
 29, left us of Alexandria by the ancients, and 
 above all by Strabo. The original architect of 
 this city is said to have acquired great reputation 
 by rebuilding the temple of Diana at Ephesus, 
 which Herostratus had burnt. 
 
 Ptolemy Soter, one of Alexander's captains, 
 who, after the death of this monarch, was first 
 governor of Egypt, and afterwards assumed the 
 title of king, made this city the place of his resi- 
 dence, about 304 years before Chiist. This 
 prince founded an academy, called the Museum, 
 in which a society of learned men devoted them- 
 selves to philosophical studies, and the im- 
 provement of the sciences ; he also gave them a 
 library, which was prodigiously increased by his 
 successors ; and induced the merchants of Syria 
 and Greece to make this city a principal mart of 
 their commerce. His son and successor, Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus, pursued the designs of his father, 
 and completed the tower of Pharos; brought 
 hither the image of the god Serapis, from Pon- 
 tus ; erected the famous temple of Serapion ; 
 improved the Alexandrian Library, and finished 
 the canal, begun by Necos and carried on by 
 Darius Hystaspes, which was intended for join- 
 ing the Nile to the Red Sea. Ptolemy Euer- 
 getes, imitating the example of his predecessors, 
 contributed to the wealth and prosperity of 
 Alexandria. But the voluptuousness of Alexan- 
 dria became proverbial : hence, ' Ne Alexandrinis 
 quidem permittenda deliciis.' Quinctilian. For 
 about 300 years, from the commencement of the 
 reign of Ptolemy Soter to the death of Cleopatra, 
 Alexandria continued in subjection to the Ptole- 
 mies ; but mcvt of them Jevoted themselves to 
 indulgence and pleasure, and, by their example, 
 contributed to that corruption which ultimately 
 terminated in the ruin of this famous city. 
 Ptolemy Physcon, in particular, was a monster 
 of vice and cruelty. About the year B. C. 136, 
 he put to death or banished most of those per- 
 sons who had been in favour with his brother 
 Philometor, and who had been employed during 
 his reign ; and permitted his foreign troops to 
 plunder and massacre at discretion. Many of 
 <Ue inhabitants of Alexandria, terrified by his 
 
 savage conduct, and in order to avoid his cruelty, 
 retired into foreign countries, and left the city 
 almost a desert. Of these there were gram- 
 marians, philosophers, geometricians, physicians, 
 musicians, and other masters in the liberal 
 sciences, who disseminated the polite arts and 
 general science through Greece, Asia Minor, ana 
 the islands, and indeed to every place whither 
 they fled. To supply the places of these fugi- 
 tives, Ptolemy caused proclamation to be made 
 in all the neighbouring countries, that persons of 
 any nation, who were desirous of settling at 
 Alexandria, should receive suitable encourage- 
 ment. The proposal was accepted by many, 
 and the houses and privileges which belonged to 
 the former inhabitants were assigned to these 
 new settlers, and thus the city was repeopled : 
 but they soon found reason to dislike their situa- 
 tion, and to hate their new sovereign. Cruel 
 and timid as he was, he determined to massacre 
 all the young men of the city; and for this pur- 
 pose he caused the Gymnasium, or place of 
 exercise, in which they were assembled, to be in- 
 vested by his foreign troops, and put them all to 
 the sword. 
 
 When Julius Caesar, B. C. 48, in his pursuit 
 of Pompey, landed at Alexandria, he found the 
 city in great commotion, without law and with- 
 out government. Having arbitrated between 
 Ptolemy XII. and Cleopatra, and decreed that 
 they should reign jointly in Egypt, Pothinus in- 
 stigated the Alexandrians to resist the decree, 
 and to concur in driving Caesar out of the city. 
 Accordingly he brought 20,000 troops to effect 
 his purpose, but Caesar supported the attack ; and 
 in order to prevent any injury from their fleet, 
 to which they next had recourse, he caused it to 
 be set on fire, and possessed himself of the tower 
 of Pharos, which he garrisoned. Some of the 
 vessels that were on fire came so near, that the 
 flames caught the houses adjoining to the quay, 
 and spread through that quarter of the city which 
 was called Bruchion, and consumed the library 
 that was placed there, consisting of 400,000 
 volumes. In a decisive battle with the whole 
 army of Ptolemy, Caesar, assisted by a consider- 
 able body of Jews, obtained a complete victory. 
 Ptolemy, in endeavouring to make his escape in 
 a boat, was drowned in the Nile ; and Caesa. 
 returned to Alexandria. Before he left this city 
 he confirmed all the privileges which the Jews 
 enjoyed, in gratitude to them for their assistance, 
 and ordered a column to be erected, in which 
 these privileges were engraven, with the decree 
 that confirmed them. The emperor Caligula 
 was inclined to favour (he Alexandrians, because 
 they manifested a readiness to confer divine 
 honours on him ; and conceived the horrid de- 
 sign of massacring the chief senators and knights 
 of Rome, A. D. 40, and then of abandoning the 
 city, and of settling at Alexandria. At this time 
 the Jews who inhabited this city, and who had 
 continued to enjoy the privileges of citizens 
 granted to them by Alexander, under the Ptole- 
 mies, and who had obtained a confirmation ot 
 them from Julius Caesar, Became obnoxious to the 
 Alexandrians. Their number amounted in the 
 whole of Egypt to a million. The prerogatives that 
 distinguished them, excited etivy and jealousy,
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 553 
 
 and their fellow-citizens wanted only a pretence 
 for destroying them. They had been for some 
 time restrained from doing them injury ; but 
 under the government of Flaccus, A. D. 40, who 
 permitted the statues of Caesar to be set up in the 
 oratories of the Jews, they were grieviously op- 
 pressed. He took occasion, in consequence of 
 some dissentions and seditions that occurred, to 
 publish a decree, by which, without offering them 
 a hearing, they were declared strangers in Alex- 
 andria ; he also restricted them to one of the 
 five districts into which the city was divided ; 
 and their houses, which they were compelled to 
 abandon, were plundered : whilst, destitute of 
 any settled abode, they were obliged to wander 
 about the fields and the sea-shore, without shel- 
 ter, property, or even the means of subsistence. 
 Those who fell into the hands of their enemies 
 were destroyed by a lingering and painful death. 
 The streets, market-places, and theatres were 
 deluged with blood ; neither sex nor age was 
 distinguished ; and none, says Philo, Leg. ad 
 Caium, were spared. This writer assigns no 
 other cause for these barbarities than the rage 
 and fury of the Alexandrians. When Flaccus 
 was recalled, the Jews obtained some respite ; 
 but they were soon alarmed by the order of 
 Caius to have his own statue set up in the temple 
 of Jerusalem. In the mean while they sent a de- 
 putation to the emperor, at the head of which 
 was Philo, to petition the restoration of their 
 citizenship and of their oratories. Before the 
 object of their embassy was settled, Caius died; 
 and Claudius declared in favour of the Jews, 
 whom he re-established in the possession of all 
 the privileges they had enjoyed in Alexandria 
 from the time of the foundation of that city. 
 When Adrian visited Egypt, A. D. 130, he ex- 
 pressed a great dislike of the manners and dis- 
 positions of the Egyptians in general, and of those 
 of the inhabitants of Alexandria in particular. 
 In a letter written from thence, and addressed to 
 the consul Servian, he says, ' the city of Alexan- 
 dria is rich and powerful, with great trade, which 
 produces plenty. Nobody is idle there ; some 
 blow glass, others make paper ; many are em- 
 ployed about linen and making of clothes ; all 
 have some trade. All, whether Jews or Chris- 
 tians, acknowledge but one God. I wish that 
 this city, by its grandeur and riches the first of 
 all Egypt, was furnished with better inhabitants. 
 For Nero the Alexandrians built baths in the 
 city, when they expected a visit from him in his 
 way to Egypt ; and because Caecina Tuscus, the 
 son of his nurse, whom he had made prefect of 
 Egypt, presumed to make use of them, he was 
 condemned to banishment. To Alexandria be- 
 longed the honour of being the first place where 
 Vespasian was acknowledged and proclaimed, 
 A. D. 69, and the emperor remained here whilst 
 his generals and armies were fighting against 
 Vitellius : and though he came hither for the 
 purpose of starving Italy, by preventing its sup- 
 plies of foreign com, yet as soon as he heard of 
 ihe death of Vitellius, and that Rome had sub- 
 mitted, the best ships of Alexandria were imme- 
 diately laden with corn, and ordered to sail for 
 their suoply. While Vespasian continued in this 
 nty, he received ambassadors from the Volo- 
 
 geses, who offered him 40,000 Parthian horse ; 
 but peace was then restored to the Roman em- 
 pire. The emperor Severus, in his visit to 
 Egypt, A. D. 202, granted the Alexandrians a 
 council, the members of which had the title and 
 privileges of senators, and assisted in the admi- 
 nistration of public affairs, and thus mitigated 
 the rigour of the despotic government of the 
 prsefect instituted by Augustus. He also changed 
 several laws in their favour ; and they erected 
 a column as a monument of their gratitude, 
 called by Abulfeda the Pillar of Severus. Cara- 
 calla, whose vanity they ridiculed, because, 
 though of small stature, deformed, and destitute 
 of military merit, he had compared himself to 
 Achilles and to Alexander, is said to have con- 
 ceived an irreconcileable dislike to the Alexan- 
 drians. Whilst they were preparing to receive 
 him with joy and magnificence, when he visited 
 the temple of Serapis, and the tomb of Alexan- 
 der, he was meditating cruel retaliation. In the 
 midst of peace, and on the slightest provocation, 
 he issued his commands for a general massacre, 
 A. D. 215. From a secure part of the temple 
 of Serapis, he viewed and directed the slaughter 
 of many thousand citizens, as well as strangers, 
 without distinguishing either the number or the 
 crime of the sufferers ; since, as he coolly in- 
 formed the senate, all the Alexandrians, those 
 who had perished and those who had escaped, 
 were alike guilty. Dion., lib. Ixxvii. p. 1307, 
 represents it as a cruel massacre ; Herodian, lib. 
 iv. p. 155, says, that it was also perfidious. The 
 massacre was accompanied with the plunder 
 both of temples and houses ; and all strangers, 
 except merchants, were driven from the city. 
 The societies of learned men, who were main- 
 tained in the Museum, were abolished ; and the 
 different quarters of the city were separated from 
 each other, by walls and towers to prevent all 
 communication between them. Caracalla, how- 
 ever, being soon after killed, Alexandria reccn 
 vered its splendour, and became again the 
 second city of the empire. Under the reign of 
 Gallienus, ./Emilian, who had been prefect of 
 Egypt for some years, assumed the imperial 
 purple, on occasion of a violent sedition, which 
 terminated in a ruinous war. All communica- 
 tion between the different quarters of Alexandria 
 was cut off, and it was easier, says St. Dionysius, 
 to go from one end of the world to the other 
 than from Alexandria to Alexandria. The streets 
 were filled with blood, the dead bodies putrefied, 
 and by their infection brought on the plague. 
 TEmilian, in vain, endeavoured to appease the 
 people. They were exasperated against him, 
 and attacked him with stones and darts ; upon 
 which, in order to avert the imminent danger that 
 threatened him, he declared himself emperor. 
 The soldiers and the people, happy in the pros- 
 pect of being rescued from the yoke of Gallie- 
 nus, acknowledged his sovereign authority. At 
 length he was attacked and defeated by Theo- 
 dotus, the minister of Gallienus's vengeance. 
 Upon this he retired to the Bruchium, a quarter 
 of Alexandria, and sustained a siege, in which 
 Anatolius and St. Eusebius, intimate friends, 
 and afterwards bishops of Laodicea, were ad- 
 mired for their ingenious charity in comforting
 
 554 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 and relieving the unhappy besieged, who 
 perished with hunger. Anatolius was shut up 
 in Bruchium, and Eusebins remained with the 
 llomans. The former, moved with compassion 
 to the wants and misery of the besieged, applied 
 to the latter in order to obtain amnesty for those 
 who should leave the garrison and surrender 
 themselves. Having succeeded in his applica- 
 cation, he immediately proposed surrendering 
 the place, and making peace with the besiegers. 
 The answer was, that no peace should be 
 made. Anatolius then proposed, that all who 
 were of no service should leave the place in dis- 
 guise, and they were kindly received and 
 seasonably supplied by Eusebius. ./Emilius 
 was afterwards taken by Theodotus and sent to 
 Gallienus, who ordered him to be strangled in 
 prison. The various misfortunes that befel Alex- 
 andria so depopulated this great city, that, after 
 these calamities, the number of its inhabitants, 
 from four to fou?score years of age, was not equal 
 to that which had been usually reckoned before 
 of those who were between forty and seventy. 
 This difference was known by the registers that 
 were kept for the gratuitous distribution of corn. 
 Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. vii. 21. Dioclesian, A. D. 
 296, marched against Achilleus, who had 
 usurped the government of Egypt ; and, having 
 driven him to Alexandria, besieged the city, cut 
 off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters of 
 the Nile into every quarter of that immense city, 
 and rendering his camp impregnable to the 
 sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed his 
 reiterated attacks with caution and vigour. After 
 a siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by 
 the sword and by fire, implored the clemency of 
 the conqueror, but it experienced the full extent 
 of his severity. Many thousands of the citizens 
 perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there 
 were few obnoxious persons in Egypt, who es- 
 caped a sentence either of death, or at least 
 of exile. Eutropius, ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25, 
 says, that he gave up the city to be plundered. 
 As an apology for the severity of this emperor, 
 it has been alleged that the seditions of Alexan- 
 dria had often affected the tranquillity and sub- 
 sistence of Rome kself, and that his severity 
 was counterbalanced by salutary regulations. 
 In 302, he established, for the benefit of this 
 city, a perpetual distribution of corn . Constan- 
 tine, with a view of establishing his new city of 
 Constantinople, distributed every day 80,000 
 bushels of corn brought from Alexandria ; and 
 he employed the Alexandrian fleet in victualling 
 New Rome, as it was called, leaving to Old 
 Rome only that of Africa. Socrat. ii. 13. 
 Alexandria suffered in common with other places 
 by the violent and destructive earthquake which 
 shook the greatest part of the Roman empire, 
 July 21st, A. D. 365; and this city annually 
 commemorated this fatal day, when 50,000 per- 
 sons had lost their lives in the inundation. 
 
 It was in Alexandria chiefly that the Grecian 
 philosophy was engrafted upon the stock of an- 
 cient oriental wisdom. The Egyptian method 
 of teaching by allegory was peculiarly favourable 
 to such an union. This influence of the Grecian 
 upon the oriental philosophy continued long 
 after the time of Alexander, and was one principal 
 
 occasion of the confusion of opinions which 
 occurs in the history of the Alexandrian and 
 Christian schools. Alexander, when he built 
 the city with a determination to make it the 
 seat of his empire, opened a new mart of philoso- 
 phy, which emulated the fame of Athens itself. 
 A general indulgence was granted to the promis- 
 cuous crowd assembled in this rising city 
 whether Egyptians, Grecians, Jews, or others, 
 to profess their respective systems of philosophy 
 without molestation. The consequence was, that 
 Egypt was soon filled with religious and philo- 
 sophical sectaries of every kind; and particularly, 
 that almost every Grecian sect found an advo- 
 cate and professor in Alexandria. The family of 
 the Ptolemies, as we have seen, who obtained 
 the government of Egypt after Alexander, from 
 motives of policy, encouraged this new establish- 
 ment. Ptolemy Lagus, who had obtained the 
 crown of Egypt by usurpation, invited people 
 from every part of Greece to settle in Egypt, 
 and removed the schools of Athens to Alexan- 
 dria. This enlightened prince spared no pains 
 to raise the literary, as well as the civil, military, 
 and commercial credit of his country. Under 
 the patronage first of the Egyptian princes, and 
 afterwards of the Roman emperors, Alexandria 
 long continued to enjoy great celebrity as the 
 seat of learning, and to send forth eminent phi- 
 losophers of every sect to distant countries. It 
 remained a school of learning, as well as a com- 
 mercial emporium, till it was taken, as we shall 
 see in the sequel of this article, and plundered of 
 its literary treasures by the Saracens. Philosophy, 
 during this period, suffered a grievous corruption 
 from the attempt which was made by philoso- 
 phers of different sects and countries, Grecian, 
 Egyptian, and oriental, who were assembled in 
 Alexandria, to frame, from their different tenets, 
 one general system of opinions. The respect 
 which had long been universally paid to the 
 schools of Greece, and the honours with which 
 they were now adorned by the Egyptian princes, 
 induced other wise men, and even the Egyptian 
 priests and philosophers themselves, to submit 
 to this innovation. Hence arose an heterogeneous 
 mass of opinions, under the name of Eclectic- 
 philosophy, and which has been the foundation 
 of endless confusion, error, and absurdity, not 
 only in the Alexandrian school, but among Jews 
 and Christians ; producing among the former 
 that specious kind of philosophy, which they 
 called their Cabbala, and among the latter innu- 
 merable corruptions of the Christian faith. The 
 Alexandrian school is celebrated by Strabo, lib. 
 xvii. ; and by Ammianus, xxii. 6. trucker's His- 
 tory of Philosophy, by Enfield, vol. i. p. 500. 
 
 At Alexandria there was, in a very early pe- 
 riod of the Christian sera, a Christian school of 
 considerable eminence. St. Jerome says, the 
 school at Alexandria had been in being from the 
 time of St. Mark. Pantsenus, placed by Lard- 
 ner at the year 192, presided in it. St. Clement 
 of Alexandria succeeded Pantsenus in this school 
 about the year 190; and he was succeeded by 
 Origen. Lardner's Works, vol. ii. p. 203. The 
 theological system of Plato was introduced into 
 both the philosophical and Christian schools of 
 Alexandria ; and many of his sentiments and ex-
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 555 
 
 piessions blended with the opinions and lan- 
 guage of the professors. 
 
 In the year 638, Amrou, the general of Omar, 
 invaded Egypt; and in the following year he 
 commenced the siege of Alexandria. This siege 
 5 perhaps the most arduous and important en- 
 terprise in the annals of Saracen conquests. The 
 first trading city in the world was abundantly 
 replenished with the means of subsistence and 
 defence. Her numerous inhabitants fought for 
 the dearest of human rights, religion and pro- 
 perty. The sea was continually open; and if 
 Heraclius had been awake to the public distress, 
 fresh armies of Romans and barbarians might 
 have been poured into the harbour, to save the 
 second capital of the empire. A circumference 
 of ten miles would have scattered the forces of 
 the Greeks, and favoured the stratagems of an 
 active enemy; but the two sides of an oblong 
 square were covered by the sea and the lake 
 Mareotis, and each of the narrow ends exposed 
 a front of no more than ten furlongs. The ef- 
 forts of the Arabs, however, were not inadequate 
 to the difficulty of the attempt. The faithful na- 
 tives devoted their labours to the services of 
 Amrou ; and in every attack his sword and ban- 
 ner glittered in the van of the Moslems. The 
 general, having been released from a temporary 
 captivity, into which his imprudent valour had 
 betrayed him, advanced towards the city doomed 
 to destruction. At length, after a siege of four- 
 teen months, and the loss of 23,000 men, the 
 Saracens prevailed ; the Greeks embarked their 
 dispirited and diminished numbers; and the 
 standard of Mahomet was planted on the walls of 
 the capital of Egypt, December 22, A. D. 640. 
 ' I have taken,' said Amrou to the caliph, ' the 
 great city of the west. It is impossible for me 
 to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty ; 
 I shall content myself with observing, that it 
 contains 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 400 theatres, 
 or places of amusement, 12,000 shops for the 
 sale of vegetable foods, and 40,000 tributary 
 Jews. The town has been subdued by force of 
 arms, without treaty or capitulation, and the 
 Moslems are impatient to see the fruits of their 
 victory.' According to the Arabian historians, 
 Alexandria, at this time, consisted of three cities, 
 viz. Menna, or the port, which included Pharos 
 and the adjacent parts ; Alexandria, properly so 
 called, where the modern Scanderia stands ; and 
 Nekita, or the Necropolis of Josephus and 
 Strabo. 
 
 The intelligence of this disgraceful and cala- 
 mitous event afflicted the declining health of the 
 emperor, and Heraclius died of a dropsy about 
 seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. Under 
 the minority of his grandson, the clamours of a 
 people deprived of their daily sustenance, com- 
 pelled the Byzantine court to undertake the re- 
 covery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of 
 four years the harbour and fortifications of Alex- 
 andria were twice occupied by a fleet and army 
 of Romans ; who were twice expelled by the 
 valour of Amrou. But the facility of the at- 
 tempt, the repetition of the insult, and the ob- 
 stinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, 
 that if a third time he drove the infidels into the 
 sea, he would render Alexandria as accessible on 
 
 all sides as the house of a prostitute. Faithful 
 to his promise, he dismantled several parts of the 
 walls and towers, but the people were spared ; 
 and the mosch of mercy was erected on the spot 
 where the victorious general stopped the fury of 
 his troops. For the fate of the library, see ALEX- 
 AXDRIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 Under the domination of the Arabs, Alex- 
 andria gradually lost its splendour. In the year 
 924 it was taken by the Magrebians, two years 
 after the destruction by fire of its great church, 
 called by the Arabs, Al Kaisaria, or Caesarea, 
 which had been formerly a Pagan temple, 
 erected by queen Cleopatra, in honour of Saturn. 
 The city was soon abandoned by the Magrebians. 
 and in 928 the possession of it was again re- 
 sumed. But when their fleet was afterwards 
 defeated by that of the Caliph, the Magrebian 
 general, Abul Kasem, retired from Alexandria, 
 leaving in it a garrison of 300 men, who, with 
 the remaining inhabitants, were removed by the 
 Caliph's admiral, Thmaal, to an island in the 
 Nile, called Aboukir. According to Eutychius, 
 more than 200,000 of the wretched inhabitants 
 perished this year. 
 
 In the year 875 the old walls had been demo- 
 lished ; its extent contracted to half its ancient 
 dimensions, and those walls were built which 
 exist at the present day. This second Alexan- 
 dria, which may be called, says Savary, that of 
 the Arabs, presented, by the disposition of its 
 streets, the form of a chequer. It had preserved 
 a part of its public places and of its monu- 
 ments. The pharos still existed ; and Alex- 
 andria, in its decline, still presented an air 
 of grandeur and magnificence that excited admi- 
 ration. 
 
 The dominion of the Turks, and the discovery 
 of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1499, however, 
 completed its ruin, and from that time it has 
 fallen into decay. Its large buildings fell into 
 ruins ; and, under a government which discou- 
 raged even the appearance of wealth, no person 
 could venture to repair them. 
 
 The present state of Alexandria affords a 
 scene of magnificent ruin and desolation. It is 
 divided into the new and old town ; the latter of 
 which is incomparably the most extensive. It is 
 partly enclosed within walls, which are evidently 
 of Saracenic structure, of great thickness and 
 solidity, arid flanked by a hundred towers. 
 They are supposed, by Dr. Pocock, to have been 
 built in 1212, by one of the successors of Saladin, 
 who employed in them the wreck of the ancient 
 city. Part of them is composed, in a singular 
 manner, of a species of shelly concretions, so 
 cemented together as to appear a simple compo- 
 sition. These walls are two French leagues, or 
 nearly six miles in circumference ; but the space 
 which they enclose, forms only a small part of 
 the ancient city of the Ptolemies, whose ruins 
 can be distinctly traced over more than three 
 times that circuit. Even of the enclosure within 
 the walls, by much the greater part is composed 
 of ruins. No traveller has described, in so lively 
 a manner as Volney, the aspect of ancient 
 Alexandria. ' In our country,' says he, ' ruins 
 are an object of curiosity. Scarcely can we dis- 
 cover, in unfrequented places, some undent
 
 666 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 castle, whosft decay announces rather the deser- 
 tion of its master, than the wretchedness of the 
 neighbourhood. In Alexandria, on the contrary, 
 we no sooner leave the new town, than we are 
 astonished at the sight of an immense extent of 
 ground overspread with ruins. The earth is 
 covered with the remains of lofty buildings 
 destroyed ; whole fronts crumbled down, roofs 
 fallen in, battlements decayed, and the stones 
 disfigured and corroded by saltpetre. The tra- 
 veller passes over a vast plain, furrowed with 
 trenches, pierced with wells, divided by walls in 
 ruins, covered over with ancient columns and 
 modern tombs, amid palm trees and nopals, and 
 where no living creature is to be met with, but 
 owls, bats, and jackals. The inhabitants, ac- 
 customed to this scene, behold it without emo- 
 tion ; but the stranger, in whom the recollection 
 of ancient ages is revived oy the novelty of the 
 objects around him, feels a sensation, which not 
 unfrequently dissolves him into tears, inspiring 
 reflections which fill his heart with sadness, 
 while his soul is elevated by their sublimity.* 
 
 Amid this total wreck of ancient grandeur, a 
 few objects only rise distinguishable through the 
 surrounding desolation. Of these, the most re- 
 markable by far is that called ' Pompey's Pillar.' 
 All travellers have been struck with the loftiness 
 and grandeur of this monument. Norden con- 
 siders it as the finest column that the Corinthian 
 order has ever produced, and Sonnini reckons 
 it superior to any in the world. The height has 
 been estimated at 117 feet, but appears, by more 
 careful measurements, not to exceed ninety-four 
 or ninety-five. It is composed of three pieces 
 of the finest granite, one of which serves for the 
 pedestal, the other for the shaft, and the third for 
 the capital. The mean diameter is seven feet 
 nine inches, so that the entire contents of. the 
 column may be estimated at 6000 feet. It is 
 uninjured, unless in the pedestal and some part 
 of the bottom of the shaft. Denon conceives 
 the body of the column to be much the finest 
 part of it ; the capital, and still more the pedes- 
 tal, he represents as of inferior workmanship. 
 The name expresses the general belief, that it 
 was erected by Caesar, to commemorate his vic- 
 tory over Pompey ; but this derivation seems very 
 uncertain ; and the opinions respecting its origin 
 and date are exceedingly various. Denon ima- 
 gines, that it formed only part of a more exten- 
 sive building, the traces of which, in its vicinity, 
 appeared to him distinctly risible. 
 
 In the space of two leagues enclosed by walls, 
 nothing is to be seen but the remains of pilas- 
 ters, of capitals, and of obelisks, and of whole 
 mountains of shattered columns and monuments 
 of ancient art, heaped one upon another, and ac- 
 cumulated to a greater height than that of the 
 houses. The famous tower of Pharos has been 
 long since demolished, aud a square castle, with- 
 out taste, ornament, or strength, called Farillon, 
 erected in its place. The mole which joined the 
 continent to the isle of Pharos is enlarged, and is 
 now become a part of the main land. The 
 island of Anti-Rhodes is in the middle of the 
 present town, and is discoverable only by an 
 eminence covered with ruins. The harbour Ki- 
 botos is choked up. The canal which conveyed 
 
 the waters of Mareotis has disappeared. This 
 lake itself, through the negligence of the Turks 
 in preserving the canals which conveyed the 
 waters of the Nile, is no longer in existence, but 
 is entirely occupied by the sands of Lybia. The 
 canal of Faoue", the only one which at present 
 communicates with Alexandria, and without 
 which that town could not subsist, since it has 
 not a drop of fresh water, is half filled with mud 
 and sand. Under the Roman empire, and even 
 under the domination of the Arabs, it was navi- 
 gable all the year, and served for the conveyance 
 of merchandize. Its banks were shaded with 
 date trees, covered witli vineyards, and adorned 
 with country houses. At present it has no water 
 till about the end of August, and its supply is 
 hardly sufficient to fill the cisterns of the town. 
 The fields adjoining to it are deserted ; the 
 groves and gardens which surrounded the ancient 
 city have disappeared, and without the walls there 
 are only a few scattered trees, some sycamores 
 and fig trees, some date and caper trees, and kali, 
 that hide the burning sands, which would be 
 otherwise insupportable to the sight. Neverthe- 
 less, every trace of ancient magnificence is not 
 obliterated. Some parts of the old walls are yet 
 standing ; and they are flanked with large towers, 
 at the distance of about 200 paces from each 
 other, and with smaller intermediate ones. Be- 
 low are magnificent casemates, which may serve 
 for galleries in which to walk. In the lower 
 part of the towers is a large square hall, whose 
 roof is supported by thick columns of Thebaic 
 stone ; and above this are several rooms, over 
 which are platforms more than twenty paces 
 square. The reservoirs, vaulted with much art, 
 and extending under the whole town, are almost 
 entire at the end of 2000 years. Of Caesar's 
 palace there remain only a few porphyry pillars, 
 and the front, which is almost entire, and appears 
 very beautiful. The palace of Cleopatra was 
 built upon the walls facing the port, having a 
 gallery on the outside, supported by several fine 
 columns. Towards the eastern part of the pa- 
 lace are two obelisks, vulgarly called Cleopatra's 
 Needles. They are of Thebaic stone, and covered 
 with hieroglyphics ; one is overturned, broken, 
 and lying under the sand ; the other is on its 
 pedestal. These two obelisks, each of them of 
 a single stone, are about sixty feet high, by 
 seven feet square at the base. Towards the 
 gate of Rosetta are five columns of marble, on 
 the place formerly occupied by the porticoes of 
 the Gymnasium. The rest of the colonade, the 
 design of which was discoverable 100 years ago 
 by Maillet, has been since destroyed by the bar- 
 barism of the Turks. The canal of the Nile, 
 already mentioned, is about seventy paces from 
 Pompey's pillar; and on the top of the hill is a 
 tower, in which a centinel is placed, who gives 
 notice by a flag, of the ships that are coming 
 into port. On the sea-coast there is a large 
 basin, cut out of the rock that forms the shore 
 having on its sides two beautiful saloons that are 
 hewn out by the chissel, with benches across them. 
 A canal of a ziz-zag form, for the purpose of stop- 
 ping the progress of the sand by its different 
 windings, conveys into them the water of the sea, 
 pure and transparent as crystal. The water
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 557 
 
 rises a little above the waist, when a person is 
 seated on the stone bench, and the feet rest on 
 a fine sand The waves of the sea dash against 
 the rock, and foam in the canal. The swell en- 
 ters, raises you up, and leaves you ; and thus 
 alternately entering and retiring, furnishes a 
 constant supply of fresh water, and a coolness, 
 which is grateful and delicious under a burning 
 sky. This place is vulgarly called the Bath of 
 Cleopatra ; and some ruins indicate its having 
 been formerly ornamented. 
 
 A more useful, and even more magnificent la- 
 bour, consisted in the reservoirs with which an- 
 cient Alexandria was supplied with water. The 
 construction of these excavated the whole ground 
 upon which that city stood. A conduit, commu- 
 nicating with the canal of Cleopatra, extended 
 the whole length of the city. When this was 
 judged to be filled with the overflowings of the 
 Nile, the chiefs of the city went in great ceremony 
 to open it, and admit the water into the cisterns. 
 These reservoirs, which were formerly very nu- 
 merous, are now reduced to half a dozen, which 
 however are sufficient for the reduced consump- 
 tion of the city. 
 
 The catacombs are a still more extraordinary 
 monument; they begin at the extremity of the old 
 city, and extend some distance along the coast, 
 forming what was called the Necropolis, or city of 
 the dead. They consist of small sepulchral grottoes, 
 cut in the rock. The interior of the galleries 
 is plastered by mortar. Most of these cavi- 
 ties have been the subject of discovery, and each 
 has been found to contain three coffins piled over 
 each other. The Arabs report, that there is a 
 subterraneous communication between this quar- 
 ter and the ancient city of Memphis ; but this 
 statement seems to require confirmation. 
 
 The modern Alexandria is built near the 
 brink of the sea, on a kind of peninsula, situate 
 between the two ports above mentioned. The 
 new port assigned to Europeans, is clogged up 
 with sand, which renders the entrance into it 
 both difficult and dangerous, and, in the stormy 
 weather, endangers the bulging of the ships ; and 
 the bottom is rocky, so that the cables soon 
 chafe and part ; and thus vessels are frequently 
 driven against one another, and are sometimes 
 lost. An instance of this happened in March, 
 1773, when more than forty vessels were 
 dashed to pieces on the mole by a north- 
 west gale. Similar accidents have also happened 
 at different fimes; and under the Turkish go- 
 vernment, which, as it is said, ruins the labours 
 of past ages, and destroys the hopes of future 
 time, no provision is likely to be made for pre- 
 venting their occurring again. The other port, or 
 fie Eunostus of the ancients, to the westward of 
 the Pharos, is called the port of Africa ; it is much 
 larger than the former, and lies immediately 
 under part of the town of Alexandria. The 
 new Alexandria, even in its state of decay, is 
 still to Europeans the most interesting of the cities 
 of Egypt. It is built chiefly along the coast, and 
 occupies only a small portion of the space en- 
 closed within the Saracenic walls. Alexandria, 
 says a modern traveller, now exhibits very few 
 marks by which it could be recognised as one of 
 the principal monuments of the magnificence of 
 
 the conqueror of Asia. Its houses, like all those 
 of the Levant, have flat terraced roofs ; the place 
 of windows is supplied by apertures which them- 
 selves are almost entirely obstructed by a pro- 
 jecting wooden lattice, through which the light 
 can scarcely penetrate. The streets, narrow and 
 aukwardly disposed, have neither pavement nor 
 police; the eye of the traveller is arrested by no 
 public nor private edifice ; and but for the ruins 
 of the old city, there would be nothing to attract 
 a moment's attention. 
 
 The population of modern Alexandria has 
 been variously estimated. Some have carried 
 it so high as 20,000, while others assert that 
 the stationary numbers cannot exceed 5000 ; in 
 addition to which, howevei, there is a continual 
 resort of strangers from all, quarters of the 
 world. The basis of the population consists of 
 Turks, Copts, and Jews. The Turks compose 
 the officers of government and the garrison ; 
 the rest are chiefly artizans and shopkeepers, 
 in easy circumstances, but few of whom carry on 
 any extensive trade. The Copts are numerous, 
 but held in contempt ; a few of them only have 
 acquired some wealth by commerce. But the 
 mercantile transactions of Alexandria are al- 
 most entirely in the hands of the Jews. Although 
 they pay a higher per centage to the custom- 
 house than the European merchants, they yet 
 find means to sell their goods cheaper. The 
 customs being let in farm every two years, they 
 agree with the farmer for a composition, which 
 he is obliged to make favourable, otherwise the 
 Jews would delay the greater part of their impor- 
 tations, till the end of his period. There are 
 about twelve great Jew-merchanls in Alexan- 
 dria, who exercise a species of sovereignty over 
 their countrymen, both by the extent of their 
 capital and commercial transactions, and by be- 
 coming umpires in their disputes. 
 
 The commerce of Alexandria is still not in- 
 considerable ; since it includes all which the 
 European states carry on with Egypt. It was 
 at first nearly monopolized by the Venetians 
 and Genoese ; but after the discovery of the 
 Cape of Good Hope, their establishments ra- 
 pidly declined, and fell at last into a state of 
 total bankruptcy. The whole trade then fell 
 into the hands of the French and the English. 
 The former, previous to the revolution and the 
 late war, carried it on to the greatest extent, 
 and had a considerable number of merchants 
 residing there. The approach to Alexandria 
 from the west is attended with considerable dif- 
 ficulty, the Lybian shore being completely a 
 dead flat, presenting no object that is percepti- 
 ble at the smallest distance. A vessel, which 
 has this shore to leeward, must keep a strict 
 watch, as there is neither port nor road to afford 
 any shelter. ^The first land-mark consists in 
 two eminences, with a tower on each, called 
 Aboukir, or by Europeans the Tower of the 
 Arabs. The immediate approach to Alexandria 
 is announced by the appearance of Pompey's 
 pillar. There are two harbours, the old and the 
 new. The former, though somewhat difficult 
 of entrance, is safe, and affords sufficient depth 
 of water. Unfortunately, it is considered too 
 sacred to be entered by any but the disciples of
 
 558 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 Mahomet. Christians are obliged to content 
 themselves with the new harbour, which is shal- 
 low, has a rocky bottom, and is exposed to 
 the north wind, which often blows with great 
 violence. 
 
 Volney describes Alexandria as wholly un- 
 able to resist any attack ; and, accordingly, on 
 the landing of the French, it surrendered with- 
 out striking a blow. They seem, however, to 
 'iave been industrious in placing it in a state of 
 .'.efence, and so far succeeded, that the English, 
 in 1801, after gaining two victories in front of 
 it, did not venture to attack the city, but turned 
 .heir arms against Cairo, the reduction of which 
 ed 10 the general evacuation of Egypt. Alex- 
 andria, however, was taken by the English in 
 1806, without difficulty, though it did not re- 
 main long in their possession. Long. 30. 5'. E. 
 Lat. 31. 16'. N. 
 
 The language spoken at Alexandria is the 
 Arabic ; but most of the Alexandrians, and those 
 in particular whom commerce leads into an in- 
 tercourse with the merchants of Europe, speak 
 likewise the Italian. The moresco or lingua 
 franca, which is a compound of bad Italian, 
 Spanish, and Arabic, is likewise spoken in this 
 place. The government of Alexandria is like 
 that of other places in Egypt ; and is conducted 
 by an aga, who has under him a kadi and sub- 
 basha, all nominated by the chief basha. It has 
 a small garrison of soldiers, part of which are Ja- 
 nissaries and Assafls ; who are haughty and inso- 
 lent, not only to strangers, but to the mercantile 
 and industrious part of the people. These are 
 lodged in the farillons or castles that guard the 
 port, where the aga or governoV that commands 
 them also resides. But though the Pharos, ac- 
 cording to established regulations, ought to be 
 garrisoned by 500 janissaries, it has never half 
 that number ; and not more than four canons for 
 its defence. The whole of the fortifications might 
 easily be beaten down by a single frigate ; but a 
 foreign army would experience great difficulty in 
 maintaning possession, of Alexandria for want of 
 water. Alexandria was taken by assault on the 
 fourth of July, 1798, by the French army under 
 the command of Buonaparte, at that time prime 
 consul of France ; after putting to flight the 
 Arabs and Mamalukes who defended it, and 
 killing about 300 of them. The troops that were 
 left in possession of the town, when the army be- 
 gan its march across the desert, having been for- 
 bidden, under penalty of death, from entering the 
 houses or mosques of the Turks, or committing 
 any violence on their persons, or those of their 
 families, built huts of palm-branches without the 
 city, to shelter themselves from the sun. The 
 men of science, who accompanied the army, were 
 lodged in the houses of the few Europeans resi- 
 dent at Alexandria; but a dozen 'of them were 
 crowded together in one chamber, under the heat 
 of a torrid climate. Miserably supplied both 
 with food and water, molested with the stings of 
 insects, and surrounded with filth and wretched- 
 ness, they at the same time contemplated, in a 
 city once renowned for industry, commerce, and 
 activity, nothing but ruins, barbarism, and po- 
 verty ; stupid-looking citizens, with long pipes, 
 ndolsutly sitting in the public places ; half starved 
 
 and naked children, and the forms of bare- 
 footed women, in blue serge gowns, and black 
 stuff veils, flying the approach, or turning away 
 with precipitation, whenever they met a French- 
 man. The French beheld every where monu- 
 ments of antiquity, but every where misplaced ; 
 pilkrs of granite, inscribed with Egyptian hiero- 
 glyphics, strewed the streets, or divided by the 
 saw, served for their holds and benches ; marble 
 and porphyry bases and capitals, baths and cata- 
 combs, were found in ruins, with nothing entire 
 but a bath of black granite, destined for the mu- 
 seum of Paris ; the pillar of Pompey, and the 
 obelisk of Cleopatra, which were yet in good 
 preservation. 
 
 The Christian zeal against all the idols of the 
 heathen world was exercised so unsparingly at 
 Alexandria, at the close of the fourth century, as 
 to produce the greatest public disorders. The 
 temple of Serapis was converted into a church 
 to the honour of the martyrs ; and over the tomb 
 of Alexander, a Christian church is said to have 
 been erected to the memory of St. Athanasius, 
 that distinguished relic itself being converted 
 into a cistern. On the conquest of Alexandria, 
 by the Saracens, happily, as Dr. Clarke thinks, 
 for the identity of this monument, the church 
 only changed its name for the mosque of St. 
 Athanasius: and the fame of the founder of this 
 city, throughout the eastern world, was naturally 
 transferred to his tomb. Celebrated in many 
 eastern writings, as ' the lord of the two ends o 
 the world,' ' the king of kings,' &c. ; for ages 
 reverenced as a god by the Egyptians, and 
 spoken of with distinction in the Koran, the ve- 
 neration now paid to this relic of Alexander, 
 seems to have been uninterrupted for centuries 
 Benjamin, of Toleda, a Spanish Jew, who visited 
 Alexandria in the thirteenth century, speaks of 
 ' a marble sepulchre, on which were sculptured 
 all sorts of birds, and other animals, with an in- 
 scription of the ancients which no one can 
 read :' but ' they have a conjecture,' he adds, 
 ' that some king, before the deluge, was buried 
 there ; the length of which sepulchre was fifteen 
 spans, the breadth six.' Johannes Leo, in 1491, 
 expressly mentions ' a small edifice, built like a 
 chapel, worthy of notice, on account of a re- 
 markable tomb, held in high honour by the Ma- 
 hommedans ; in which sepulchre, they assert, is 
 interred the body of Alexander the Great, an 
 eminent prophet and king, as they read in the 
 Koran.' We now trace it through the testimony 
 of Marmol, the Spaniard; Jahai Ben Abdal- 
 latiff (1270); Sir George Sandys, in 1611 ; the 
 reports and enquiries of Dr. Pococke, in 1743 
 Irwin, Sonnini, Brown, and Denon. Through 
 a period of upwards of 2000 years, it is thus 
 attempted to be shown, that the shrine of the 
 son of Ammon has survived himself. Several 
 objections are still taken by antiquaries, how- 
 ever, against the conclusions of our enterprising 
 traveller : that there should not be a single 
 Greek inscription on this alleged tomb of the 
 greatest of the Greeks: that Eutychius, who 
 composed, at Alexandria ' Annals of that City 
 in the Tenth Century,' should mention the 
 body of Alexander being brought here, without 
 stating, that his tomb remained : the silence of
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 559 
 
 Furer, Boucher, Vansleb, and Niehbuhr, are 
 circumstances that have been thought to weigh 
 Strongly against its claims; but, in conformity 
 with our general principle, of furnishing an im- 
 partial record of such opinions (and, because, 
 we are rather among the unbelievers, than the 
 converts, of Dr. C.'s arguments, we have given 
 them the more fully,) we have now placed the 
 whole of this interesting enquiry before the 
 reader; and must leave the decision upon the 
 claims of this monument to the further light that 
 may be thrown on its numerous hieroglyphics, 
 and himself. 
 
 When the blockade of the port, by the Eng- 
 lish fleet, after the famous battle of Aboukir, 
 cut off the communication with Rosetta, and the 
 supply of water was thus impeded, Buonaparte 
 caused the canal, which led from Rhamania to 
 Alexandria, across a desert of forty miles, to be 
 cleansed ; by which means, not only this city 
 received a larger supply of water and provisions, 
 but the artillery was conveyed expeditiously and 
 conveniently, by water, to the general deposit at 
 Gisa. Buonaparte also drew plans for the better 
 defence of the port of Alexandria, and the city of 
 Cairo ; formed a great establishment for the mecha- 
 nical arts; and, with the concurrence of the sci- 
 entific men who attended him, formed a national 
 academy, called the Institute. In the year 1801 
 Alexandria was taken by the English army, 
 under the command of general Hutchinson, the 
 news of which was announced soon after the 
 preliminaries of peace between England and 
 France were signed, by the respective agents of 
 the two countries; by one article of which, 
 Egypt is to be delivered up to the Sublime Otto- 
 man Porte. The symbols employed by the Alex- 
 andrians on their medals, were, the ibis, Hippo- 
 potamus, ears of com, the lion, and others, which 
 were common to the whole country, or to Africa. 
 
 A medal of Adrian represents 
 Alexandria in the form of a 
 woman, sitting on the ground, 
 having, on her right side, and at 
 her feet, ears of corn, and rest- 
 ing on a basket full of fruits. 
 Goltx. Nurnm. Imperat. 
 
 Alexandria is situated in N. lat. 31. 11'. 20*. 
 E. long. 30. 16'. 30". Nautical Almanac. Ac- 
 cording to Brace's Travels, vol. i, p. 16, N. lat. 
 31. 11'. 32". E. long. 30. 17'. 30". Anc. and 
 Mod. Un. Hist. Rollins Anc. Hist. Savory's 
 Jitters on Egypt, vol. i. letter 2. Sonnmi's 
 Travels through Upper and Lower Egypt. Gib- 
 bon's Decline, $c of the Rom. Emp. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA was also a name given to several 
 other cities, viz. a city of Arachosia, on the river 
 Arachotus, the Alexandropolis of Isidore, (Ste- 
 phanus) ; thought by some to be the modern 
 Cabul : another of Gedrosia, both built by order 
 of Alexander the Great, Pliny, H. N. lib. vi. 
 c. 23. A third of Aria, near the lake Arius, ac- 
 cording to Ptolemy; but, according to Pliny, 
 lib. vi. c. 23, on the river Arius, built by Alex- 
 ander, who settled a colony of Macedonians 
 there, Strabo, lib. xv.; Ammianus, lib. 22. A 
 fourth in Bactriana, so called, according to 
 Pliny, lib. vi. c. 23, from its builder. A fifth, 
 an inland town of Carmania, built by Alexander, 
 
 and mentioned by Ptolemy, Ammianus, and 
 Pliny. A sixth, in the country of the Dahac, in 
 Sogdiana, Isidorus Characenus. A seventh, in 
 India, at the confluence of the Acesines and 
 Indus, Arrian, lib. v, c. 15. An eighth, built 
 by Alexander the Great, between Issus and the 
 straits which lead from Cilicia into Syria, called 
 also Alexandretta, and now Scanderoon. A 
 ninth, in Margiana, built by Alexander, and re- 
 built (after it was demolished,) by Antiochus, 
 the son of Seleucus, and hence called Antiocha 
 of Syria; and also Seleucia, watered by the 
 river Mergus ; seventy- stadia in circuit, accord- 
 ing to Pliny, lib. vi. c. 16; who adds, that, 
 after the defeat of Crassus, Orodes conveyed the 
 captives to this place. A tenth, of the Oxiana, 
 in Sogdiana, built by Alexander, on the Oxus, 
 near the confines of Bactria, Pliny, lib. vi. c. 16. 
 An eleventh, built by Alexander, at the foot of 
 Mount Paropamisus, which was called Caucasus, 
 Pliny, lib. vi. c. 23. A twelfth, in Troas, called 
 also Troas and Antigonia, built by Alexander, 
 in commemoration of Troy ; Antigonus, one of 
 his lieutenants, laid the foundations of it, and 
 gave his name to the city ; but the name of 
 Alexander was restored by Lysimachus, who 
 afterwards embellished, and extended it. It 
 became, under Augustus, one of the handsomest 
 cities of the east. Under Adrian, Herodes At- 
 ticus constructed a superb aqueduct, some 
 traces of which are still visible. The walls of 
 the city, houses, temples, and other monuments, 
 are built of a hard shelly stone. The marble of 
 Pares, and that of Marmora, also several sorts 
 of granite, are common here. Near the rivulet, 
 to the south of the city, are two springs of 
 mineral water, resorted to by the Turks and 
 Greeks, recommended for disorders of the skin, 
 the leprosy, and syphilis. The harbour, of 
 narrow extent, is almost choked up with sand. 
 History does not mention the epoch in which 
 this city was destroyed ; but it was before the 
 Turks established themselves in this country. 
 The environs present a fruitful soil, forming a 
 plain, in which the velani oak grows without cul- 
 ture. The ruins of this city are six leagues to the 
 south of Cape Sigaeum. Olivier's Travels, &c. 
 vol. ii. p. 46. A thirteenth, Alexandria, built 
 by Alexander, on the Jaxartes, bounding his 
 victories towards Scythia. A fifteenth, in Adia- 
 bene, mentioned by Pliny ; and, as Hardouin 
 suggests, designed to perpetuate the remembrance 
 of the defeat of Darius. A sixteenth, on the 
 northern coast of the island of Cyprus, south of 
 the promontory of Callinusa. A seventeenth, in 
 Palestine, on the river Scham, and near the sea, 
 to the south of Tyre. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA, or ALESSANDRIA, surnamed 
 Delia Paglia, because the inhabitants use stubble 
 for fuel, instead of wood; or, because the Ger- 
 mans contemptuously called it Palearis, or a 
 fortress of straw, a city of Italy, in the district 
 of Alexandria, or Alessandrino, belonging to the 
 duchy of Milan. It has a castle, and is situated 
 in a marshy-country, on the river Tenaro. . 
 was built in honour of pope" Alexander III. m 
 1170, and is said tq have 12,000 inhabitants. 
 By this pope, it was made a bishopric, suffragan 
 of Milan, with several privileges annexed. The
 
 560 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN. 
 
 citadel ia strong, but the fortifications are indif- 
 ferent. It was ceded to the duke of Savoy, in 
 1703; taken by prince Eugene, after three days 
 siege, 1706; by the French, in 1745; and re- 
 taken by the king of Sardinia, in 1746, to whom 
 by the treaty of Utrecht it belongs. It is thirty- 
 eight miles east of Turin, and thirty-seven 
 south-south-west of Milan. N. lat. 44. 48'. 
 E. long. 8. 39'. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA, in modern geography, the prin- 
 cipal Russian settlement in the Aleutian islands, 
 and the residence of the governor on the island 
 of Kodiak. The harbour is excellent and capa- 
 cious, being sheltered by several small islands 
 lying to the south-west. Alexandria consists of. 
 about fifty houses built of logs, the rooms of 
 which are caulked with moss, and covered with 
 grass. This is the principal depot belonging to 
 the Russian African company, and where the 
 furs are collected. The town is called St. Paul 
 by captain Lisiansky. It contains a church, a 
 barrack for the Russian convicts, a school, and 
 several store-houses belonging to the North- West 
 Company. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA, in North America, a town of 
 Virginia, on the south bank of the river Potow- 
 mak. The situation is elevated and pleasant, 
 and the streets are laid out regularly upon the 
 
 plan of Philadelphia It is situated 100 miles 
 north from Richmond, and contains upwards of 
 300 houses, many of which are elegant. Its 
 population is rapidly increasing. Long. 77. . 
 W. Lat. 38. 30'. N. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA, (Patriarch of,) in ecclesiastical 
 history. See PATRIARCH. 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN, in a particular sense, is 
 applied to all those who professed or taught the 
 sciences in the school of Alexandria. 
 
 Thus, Clemens is called Alexandrinus, or the 
 Alexandrian, though some say he was born at 
 Athens: the same epithet is applied to Apion, 
 born at Oasis; and to Aristarchus, by birth a 
 Samothracian. The chief Alexandrian philoso- 
 phers were, Euclid, the famous geometer; the 
 two ancient astronomers, Aristillus and Timo- 
 charis; Eratosthenes, Apollonius Pergaus, Co- 
 non, Hipparchus, Ctesibius, Heron, Possidonius, 
 Pappus, Theon, Ilypathia, the daughter of Theon, 
 Ptolemy; and Philoponus and Didymus, the 
 last mathematicians of this school. To these, we 
 may add, Ammonius, Plotinus, Origen, Por- 
 phyry, Jamblichus, Sopater, Maximus, and 
 Dexippus. 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN is more particularly under- 
 stood of a college of priests, consecrated to the ser- 
 vice of Alexander Severus, after his deification. 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN COPY. 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN COPY, is a manuscript, 
 consisting of four volumes, in a large quarto, or 
 rather folio size, containing the whole Bible in 
 Greek, including the two Testaments and the Apo- 
 crypha. ' Of the few manuscripts known to be 
 extant,' says an intelligent author, ' which con- 
 tain the Greek scriptures, (that is the Old Testa- 
 ment according to the Septuagint version, and 
 the New Testament ;) there are two which pre- 
 eminently demand the attention of the biblical 
 student, for their antiquity and intrinsic value, 
 viz. : the Alexandrian manuscript which is pre- 
 served in the British Museum, and the Vatican 
 manuscript, deposited in the library of the Vati- 
 can palace at Rome.' 
 
 The Codex Alexandrinus, noted by the letter 
 A. in Wetstein's and Griesbach's critical editions 
 of the New Testament, includes within the three 
 first volumes the books of the old Testament and 
 the Apocrypha. In the fourth volume are found, 
 the New Testament, the first epistle of Clement 
 to the Corinthians, and the Apocryphal Psalms 
 ascribed to Solomon. In the New Testament are 
 wanting the beginning as far as Matthew xxv. 6, 
 o vvfiQiog fpxfrat ; likewise from John vi. 50, to 
 viii. 52 ; and from 2 Cor. iv. 13, to xii. 7. The 
 Psalms are preceded by the epistle of Athanasius 
 to Marcellinus, and followed by a catalogue 
 containing those which are to be used in a prayer 
 for each hour, both of the day and the night ; 
 also by fourteen hymns, partly apochryphal, 
 partly biblical, the eleventh of which is a hymn, 
 in praise of the Virgin Mary, entitled irpo<rtv x j 
 TJJQ SrioTOKe. The arguments of Eusebius 
 
 are annexed to the Psalms and his canons to the 
 gospels. 
 
 This manuscript is now preserved in the Bri- 
 tish Museum, where it was deposited in 1753. 
 It was sent as a present to king Charles I. from 
 Cyrillus Lucaris, a native of Crete, and patriarch 
 of Constantinople, by Sir Thomas Rowe, am- 
 bassador from England, to the grand seignior, 
 in the year 1628. Cyrillus brought it with 
 him from Alexandria, where, probably, it was 
 written. 
 
 In a schedule, annexed to it, he gives this ac- 
 count : that it was written, as tradition informed 
 him, by Thecla, a noble Egyptian lady, about 
 thirteen hundred years ago, a little after the 
 council of Nice. He adds, that the name of 
 Thecla, at the end of the book, was erased ; but 
 that this was the case with other books of the 
 Christians, after Christianity was extinguished 
 in Egypt by the Mahommedans : and that recent 
 tradition records the fact of the laceration and 
 erasure of Thecla's name. The proprietor of 
 this manuscript, before it came into the hands of 
 Cyrillus Lucaris, had written an Arabic sub- 
 scription, expressing that this book was said to 
 have been written with the pen of Thecla the 
 martyr. Various disputes have arisen with re- 
 gard to the place whence it was brought, and 
 where it was written, to its antiquity, and of 
 course, to its real value. Some critics have be- 
 stowed upon it the highest commendation, whilst 
 it has been equally depreciated by others. Of 
 its most strenuous adversaries, Wetstein seems 
 to have been the principal. The place from
 
 ALEXANDRIAN. 
 
 561 
 
 which it was sent to England was, without doubt, 
 Alexandria, and hence it has been called Codex 
 Alexandrinus. As to the place where it was 
 written, there is a considerable difference of 
 opinion. Matthaeus Muttis, who was a cotem-v 
 porary, friend, and deacon of Cyrillus, and who 
 afterwards instructed in the Greek language John 
 lludolph Wetstein, uncle to the celebrated editor 
 of the Greek Testament, bears testimony, in a 
 letter written to Martin Bogdan, a physician in 
 Bern, dated January 14, 1664, that it had been 
 brought from one of the twenty-two monasteries 
 in mount Athos, which the Turks never de- 
 stroyed, but allowed to continue upon the pay- 
 ment of tribute. Dr. Woide endeavours to weaken 
 the evidence of Muttis, and to render the tes- 
 timony of the elder Wetstein suspicious : but 
 Spohn, in his Notitia Codicis Alexandrini, p. 
 10 13, shews, that the objections of Woide are 
 ungrounded. Allowing their reality, we cannot 
 infer that Cyrillus found this manuscript in 
 Alexandria. Before he went to Alexandria, he 
 spent some time on Mount Athos, the repository 
 and manufactory of manuscripts of the New 
 Testament, whence a great number have been 
 brought into the west of Europe, and a still 
 greater number have been sent to Moscow. It is 
 therefore probable, independently of the evidence 
 of Muttis, that Cyrillus procured it there either 
 by purchase or by present, took it with him to 
 Alexandria, and brought it thence on his return to 
 Constantinople. But the question recurs, where 
 was this copy written ? The Arabic subscription 
 above cited clearly proves that it had been in 
 Egypt, at some period or other, before it fell 
 into the hands of Cyrillus. This subscription 
 shews that it once belonged to an Egyptian, 
 or that during some time it was preserved in 
 Egypt, where Arabic has been spoken since the 
 seventh century. Besides, it is well known 
 that a great number of manuscripts of the Greek 
 Bible have been written in Egypt. Woide has 
 also pointed out a remarkable coincidence be- 
 tween the Cod. Alex, and the writings of the 
 Copts. Michaelis alleges another circumstance 
 as a probable argument of its having been written 
 in Egypt. In Ezekiel xxvii. 18, both in the 
 Hebrew and Greek text, the Tyrians are said to 
 have fetched their wine from Chelbom, or, ac- 
 cording to Bochart, Chalybon. But as Chalybon, 
 though celebrated for its wine, was unknown to 
 the writer of this manuscript, he has altered it 
 by a fanciful conjecture to oivov B XtjSpwv, wine 
 from Hebron. This alteration was probably 
 made by an Egyptian copyist, because Egypt was 
 formerly supplied with wine from Hebron. The 
 subscription, before mentioned, ascribes the 
 writing of it to Thecla, an Egyptian lady of high 
 rank, who could not have been, as Michaelis 
 supposes, the martyress Thecla, placed in the 
 time of St. Paul : but Woide replies that a dis- 
 tinction must be made between Thecla martyr, 
 and Thecla proto-martyr. 
 
 With regard to these subscriptions we may 
 observe, with a learned writer (Bp. Marsh), that 
 the true state of the case appears to be as follows : 
 ' Some centuries after the Codex Alexandrinus 
 had been written, and the Greek subscriptions, 
 and perhaps those other parts where it is more 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 defective, already lost, it fell into the hands of a 
 Christian inhabitant of Egypt, who, not finding 
 the usual Greek subscription of the copyist, ad- 
 ded in Arabic, his native language, the tradition, 
 either true or false, which had been preserved in 
 the family or families to which the manuscript had 
 belonged, ' Memorant hunc codicem scripturn 
 esse calamo Theclse martyris.' In the 17th cen- 
 tury, when oral tradition respecting this manu- 
 script had probably ceased, it became the pro- 
 perty of Cyrillus Lucaris ; but whether in Alex- 
 dria, or Mount Athos, is of no importance to the 
 present enquiry. On examining the manuscript, 
 he finds that the Greek subscription is lost, bui 
 that there is a tradition recorded in Arabic by a 
 former proprietor, which simply related that it 
 was written by one Thecla a martyress, which is 
 what he means by ' memoria et traditio recens.' 
 Taking therefore upon trust, that one Thecla the 
 martyress was really the copyist, he consults the 
 annals of the church to discover in what age and 
 country a person of this name and character ex- 
 isted, finds that an Egyptian lady of rank, called 
 Thecla, suffered martyrdom between the time of 
 holding the council of Nice, and the close of the 
 fourth century ; and concludes, without further 
 ceremony, that she was the very identical copyist. 
 Not satisfied with this discovery, he attempts to 
 account for the loss of the Greek subscription, 
 and ascribes it to the malice of the Saracens ; 
 being weak enough to believe that the enemies of 
 Christianity would exert their vengeance on the 
 name of a poor transcriber, and leave the four 
 folio volumes themselves unhurt. Woide, who 
 transcribed and published this manuscript, and 
 must be better acquainted with it than any other 
 person, asserts, that it was written by two dif- 
 ferent copyists ; for he has observed a difference 
 in the ink, and, which is of greater moment, even 
 in the strokes of the letters. The conjecture of 
 Oudin, adopted by Wetstein, that the manuscript 
 was written by an Acoemet is, in the judgment of 
 Michaelis, worthy of attention, see ACOEMET.S, 
 and he adds, that this conjecture does not con- 
 tradict the account that Thecla was the copyist, 
 since there were not only monks but nuns of this 
 order. 
 
 The antiquity of this manuscript has been also 
 the subject of controversy. Grabe and Schalze 
 think that it might have been written before the 
 end of the fourth century, which, says Michae- 
 lis, is the. very utmost period that can be al- 
 lowed, because it contains the epistles of 
 Athanasius. Ouiiin places it in the tenth cen- 
 tury. Wetstein refers it to the fifth, and sup- 
 poses that it was one of the manuscripts col- 
 lected at Alexandria in 615, for the Syriac ver- 
 sion. Dr. Semler refers it to the seventh century. 
 Montfaucon is of opinion, that neither the Cod. 
 Alex, nor any Greek manuscript, can be said 
 with great probability to be much prior to the 
 sixth century. Palseog. Grace, i. p. 185. Mi- 
 chaelis apprehends, that this manuscript was 
 written after Arabic was become the native lan- 
 guage of the Egyptians, that is, one, or rather 
 two centuries after Alexandria was taken by the 
 Saracens, which happened in the year 640, be- 
 cause the transcriber frequently confounds M. 
 and B. which is often done in the Arabic : and 
 
 2 O
 
 563 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN. 
 
 he concludes, that it is not more ancient than the but Wetstein contents himself with asserting 
 eighth century. Woide, after a great display of that it could not have been written before the 
 learning (with which he examines the evidence fifth century, because Alexander, who founded 
 for the antiquity of the Cod. Alex.) concludes, this order, lived about the year 420. From this 
 that it was written between the middle and the statement, pursued more at large, Michaelis de- 
 end of the fourth century. It cannot be allowed duces a reason for paying less deference to the 
 a greater antiquity, because it has not only the Cod. Alex, than many eminent critics have done, 
 -rXw or KefiaXaia majora, but the KifaXaut mi- and for the preference that is due in many re- 
 uora, or Ammonian sections, accompanied with spects, to ancient versions, before any single ma- 
 the references to the canons of Eusebius. Woide's nuscript, because the antiquity of the former, 
 arguments have been objected to by Spohn, in which is in general g7 eater than that of the lat- 
 
 p 42 io9, of his edition of Woide's Notitia ter, can be determined with more precision. 
 
 Codicis Ale'xandrini. Some of the principal ar- The value of this manuscript has been dif- 
 guments advanced by those who refer this manu- ferently appreciated by different writers. Wet- 
 script to the fourth or rifth centuries are : that stein, though he denotes it by A, the first letter 
 the epistles of St. Paul are not divided into chap- of the alphabet, is no great admirer of it, nor 
 ters like the gospels, though this division took does Michaelis estimate it highly, either on ac- 
 place so early as 396, when to each chapter was count of its internal excellence or the value of 
 prefixed a superscription. The Cod. Alex, has its readings. The principal charge which has 
 the epistles of Clement of Rome ; but these were been produced against the Alexandrian manu- 
 forbidden to be read in the churches, by the script, and which has been strongly urged by 
 council of Laodicea, in 364, and that of Car- Wetstein, is its having been altered from the La- 
 thao-e in 419. Hence Schulze has inferred, that tin version. It is incredible, says Michaelis, who 
 it was written before the year 364 ; and he pro- once agreed in opinion with Wetstein, but found 
 duces a new argument for its antiquity, deduced occasion to alter his sentiments, that a transcriber 
 from the last of the fourteen hymns found in it who lived in Egypt, should have altered the 
 after the psalms, which is superscribed vpvoe Greek text from a Latin version, because Egypt 
 tu>6tvoc, and is called die grand doxology ; for this belonged to the Greek diocese, and Latin was 
 hymn has not the clause ayu>eo&oc,ayiocrxvpof, not understood there. On this subject Woide 
 aytog aOavarog, t\tri<rov rifiag, which was used has eminently displayed his critical abilities, and 
 between the years 434 and 446 ; and therefore the ably defended the Greek manuscripts in general, 
 manuscript must have been written before this and the Codex Alexandrinus in particular, from 
 time. Wetstein thinks that it must have been the charge of having been corrupted from the la- 
 written before the time of Jerome, because the tin. Griesbach, in his Symbolae Criticae, vol.i. 
 Greek text of this manuscript was altered from p. 110 117, concurs with Woide ; and both 
 the old Italic. He adds, that the transcriber was have contributed to confirm Michaelis in his new 
 ignorant that the Arabs were called Hagarenes, opinion. If this manuscript has been corrupted 
 because he has written, 1 Chron. v. 20. ayopeuot from a version, it is more reasonable to sus- 
 for Ayapatot. Others allege that ayopoioi is a pect the Coptic, the version of the country, in 
 nere erratum ; because Ayapatoij/ occurs in the which it was written. Griesbach has ob- 
 preceding verse, Ayopirqc in 1 Chron. xxvii. 31, served, that this manuscript follows three dif- 
 and Ayaprji/oi in Ps. Ixxxii. 7. These arguments, ferent editions : the Byzantine in the gospels, 
 says Michaelis, afford no certainty, because the where its readings are of the least value ; the 
 Cod. Alex, must have been copied from a still western edition in the Acts of the Apostles, and 
 more ancient manuscript; and, if this were faith- the Catholic Epistles, which form the middle di- 
 
 fully copied, the arguments apply rather to this 
 than to the Alexandrian manuscript itself. It is 
 the hand-writing alone, or the formation of the 
 letters, with the want of accents, which can lead 
 to any probable decision. The arguments al- 
 leged to prove that it is not so ancient as the 
 fourth century, are such as these. Dr. Semler 
 thinks that the epistle of Athanasius, on the va- 
 lue and excellency of the Psalms, would hardly 
 have been prefixed to them during his life. But 
 it ought to be recollected, that Athanasius had 
 many warm and strenuous advocates. From 
 this epistle Oudin has attempted to deduce an 
 argument, that the manuscript was written in the 
 tenth century. This epistle, he says, is spurious, 
 and could not have been forged during the life 
 of Athanasius, and the tenth century was fertile 
 in spurious productions. Again, the Virgin 
 Mary, in the superscription of the song of the 
 Blessed Virgin, is stiled QIOTOKTOC, a name which 
 Wetstein says betrays the fifth century. Fur- 
 ther, from the probable conjecture, that this ma- 
 nuscript was written by one of the order of the 
 Acremetae, Oudin concludes against its antiquity ; 
 
 vision of this manuscript; and the Alexandrian in 
 the Epistles of St. Paul. The transcriber, if this 
 assertion be true, must have copied the three 
 parts of the Greek Testament from three different 
 manuscripts, of three different editions. It is 
 observable, that the readings of the Cod. Alex, 
 coincide very frequently, not only with the Cop- 
 tic and the old Syriac, but with the new Syriac 
 and the Ethiopic ; and this circumstance favours 
 the hypothesis, that the manuscript was written 
 in Egypt, because the new Syriac version having 
 been collated with Egyptian manuscripts of the 
 Greek Testament, and the Ethiopic version be- 
 ing taken immediately from them, have neces- 
 sarily the readings of the Alexandrian edition. 
 
 This manuscript has neither accents nor marks 
 of aspirations ; it is written with capital, or as 
 they are called, uncial letters ; and there are no 
 intervals between the words, but the sense of a 
 passage is sometimes terminated by a point, and 
 sometimes by a vacant space. Although abbre- 
 viations are not very numerous, yet this manu 
 script abbreviates avQpw-n-og, dafiid, Stag, wjffsf, 
 t<rpaj)\, KVpioe, /ijT;p, Trarqp, spavoe, icvivpa, -raw
 
 ALEXANDRIAN. 
 
 563 
 
 poc,ff>rijp, woe, xpiToe ; and it has also other marks 
 of abbreviation. Dr. Semler supposes, that the 
 more ancient manuscripts from which the Cod. 
 Alex, was copied, had a much greater number ; 
 from a false method of decyphering which marks, 
 he explains many errors committed by the co- 
 pyist of the latter. (See note thirty-three to Wet- 
 stein's Prolegomena). Of these abbreviations, 
 and the points annexed to certain letters, which 
 before appeared unintelligible ; and of the large 
 initial letters, which are sometimes placed in a 
 very extraordinary manner ; and of other parti- 
 culars, an account may be seen in Woide's Pre- 
 face, who has given an accurate description of 
 the manuscript in general. No manuscript has 
 been more frequently and more accurately col- 
 lated; and it was supposed, that the last ex- 
 tracts, made by Wetstein, would have rendered 
 future labours of this kind superfluous ; but 
 Woide informs us, that Wetstein is chargeable 
 with several omissions and errors, and has ad- 
 mitted into his collection of readings the mis- 
 takes of Mill. We are now in possession of 
 a perfect impression of this manuscript, ac- 
 companied with so complete and so critical a 
 collection of various readings, as is hardly to be 
 expected fiom the edition of any other manu- 
 script. Dr Woide, principal librarian of the 
 British Museum, published it in 1786, with 
 types cast for the purpose, line for line, without 
 intervals between the words, as in the manuscript 
 itself: the copy, whose title is ' Novum Testa- 
 mentum Gracum e" Codice MS. Alexandrino 
 qui Londini in Bibliotheca Musei Britannici 
 asservatur descnptum. Alarolo Godofredo 
 
 Woide. Londini exprelo Joannis Nichols Typi* 
 Jacksonianis MDCCLXXXVI,' is so perfect a 
 resemblance of the original, that it may supply 
 its place. It is a very splendid folio. Twelve 
 copies were printed on vellum. The fac-simile 
 itself fills 260 pages, and the preface, comprising 
 twenty-two pages, contains an excellent descrip- 
 tion of the manuscript. It is illustrated by an 
 engraving which represents the style of writing in 
 various manuscripts ; to this is subjoined an ex- 
 act list of all its various readings, in eighty-nine 
 pages, and each reading is accompanied with a 
 remark, giving an account of what his predeces- 
 sors, Junius (i. e. Patrick Young), Bishop Wal- 
 ton, Doctors Mill, and Grabe, and Wetstein, had 
 performed or neglected. To complete this work, 
 however, the following should be added: 
 Appendix ad editionem Novi Testament! Grseci, 
 e Codice Alexandrino descripti a C. G. Woide, 
 in qua continentur Fragmenta Novi Testament! 
 juxta interpretationem dialecti superioris /Egypti 
 quse Thebaica vel Sahidica appellate, e Codd. 
 Oxoniens. maxima ex parte desumpta cum dis- 
 sertatione de Versione Bibliorum .ZEgyptiaca, 
 quibus subjicitur Codicis Vaticani collatio. ()x- 
 onii : E. Typographeo Clarendouiano, 1799, 
 folio. This work was edited by the Rev. Dr. 
 Ford. The following specimen of the first 
 seven verses of St. John's Gospel, will convey to 
 the reader an idea of this manuscript ; and we 
 have to acknowledge the politeness of the Rev. 
 T. H. Home, in favouring us with his types, 
 taken from those of the Rev. H. Baber, on this 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF THE ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT. 
 
 7 
 
 e_ 
 
 MXPXH H MOXOrOCKXIOXOroci-i 
 
 TTPOCTOMeM-KXieCHMOXOrOC 
 OYTOCHNeNXPXHTTPOCTOMeN 
 
 TT XNTX AJXYTO YereNeTO i < A i xtu 
 
 B 
 
 r 
 
 7 
 
 KXIHZCDH H MTO 
 
 KXITOCbcoCeMT 
 
 NieiKXIHCKOTIXXYTOOYKXTe 
 
 TCJDICDXMMHC OYTOCHXeeM 
 eiCMXPTYPIXM IMXMXPTYPH 
 CHTTePITOYCbcDTOC IMXTTA 
 
 ePITOY 
 
 AN 
 
 202
 
 '564 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN. 
 
 in 1812 the Rev. II. II. Baber, one of the 
 librarians of the British Museum, published, by 
 subscription, a fac- simile of the book of Psalms, 
 from the manuscript now under consideration 
 of which twelve copies are on vellum, to match 
 with the copies of the New Testament. To com- 
 plete the Old Testament in a similar manner, the 
 British Parliament, at the recommendation of 
 several church dignitaries, and the two universi- 
 ties, engaged to defray the expenses of complet- 
 ing this noble undertaking. The Pentateuch, 
 and the notes belonging, we understand, were 
 published at the price of seven guineas. The 
 work is executed in a splendid folio size, so as to 
 render every iota of the original manuscript in 
 the most faithful manner. The better to pre- 
 serve the identity of the original, instead of spin- 
 ning out the contracted various readings in the 
 margin by letters in the full, after the manner of 
 Dr. Woide, fac-similes of such various readings, 
 
 cut in wood, are inserted precisely in the places 
 where they occur, filling up only the same space 
 with the original. The tail pieces, or rude Ara- 
 oesque ornaments, at the end of each book, are 
 also represented by fac-similes in wood. The 
 edition is limited to 250 copies. For further in- 
 formation concerning the Alexandrian manu- 
 script, the reader is referred to Dr. Grabe's Pro- 
 legomena, in his edition of the Greek Septuagint, 
 and the Prolegomena of Dr. Woide ; also to those 
 of Dr. Mill and Wetstein, prefixed to their edi- 
 tions of the New Testament ; also Michaelis's In- 
 troduction to the New Testament, vol. ii. p. i. 
 pp. 186 209. Bishop Marsh's notes in part 
 ii. pp. 648 660. Dr. Lardner has given the 
 table of contents of this manuscript, in his credi- 
 bility of the Gospel History, part ii. chap. 147. 
 (Works, 8vo. vol. v. pp. 253 256. 4to. vol. iv. 
 pp. 44 46,) 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, called by Livy, 
 ' Elegantiae regum curseque egregium opus,' was 
 first founded by Ptolemy Soter, for the use of an 
 academy, or society of learned men, in A. D. 
 304. Beside the books which he procured, his 
 son Ptolemy Philadelphus added many more, 
 and left in this library at his death a hundred 
 thousand volumes; the succeeding princes of 
 this race enlarged it still more, till at length the 
 books lodged in it amounted to the number of 
 seven hundred thousand volumes. In the col- 
 lection of these books they are said to have 
 seized all books that were brought by the Greeks, 
 and other foreigners, into Egypt, and to. have 
 sent them to the Academy, or Museum, where 
 they were transcribed by persons employed for 
 that purpose. The transcripts were then de- 
 livered to the proprietors, and the originals laid 
 up in the library. Ptolemy Euergetes, having 
 borrowed of the Athenians the works of So- 
 phocles, Euripides, and ./Eschylus, only returned 
 *hem the copies, which he caused to be trans- 
 cribed in as beautiful a manner as possible ; re- 
 taining the originals for his own library, and 
 presenting the Athenians with fifteen talents, or 
 three thousand pounds sterling, for the exchange. 
 As the Museum was at first in the quarter of the 
 city called Bruchion, the library was placed 
 there ; but when the number of books amounted 
 to four hundred thousand volumes, another li- 
 brary was erected within the Serapeum, by way 
 of supplement, and therefore called the daugh- 
 ter library. The books lodged in this increased 
 to the number of 300,000 volumes, and the two, 
 making up 700,000, formed the royal libraries 
 of the Ptolemies. In the war which Julius Caesar 
 waged with Alexandria, the library of Bruchion 
 was accidentally burnt But the library in the 
 Serapeum still remained, and there Cleopatra de- 
 posited the two hundred thousand volumes of the 
 Pergamean library, with which she was presented 
 by Marc Antony. These, and others added to 
 them from time to time', rendered the library of 
 Alexandria more numerous and considerable 
 than at any former period, and though plundered 
 wore than once during the revolutions which 
 
 happened in the Roman empire, yet it was as 
 frequently supplied, and continued for many 
 ages to be of the highest utility, till it was burnl 
 by the Saracens in the 642nd year of the Chris- 
 tian sera. Abulpharagius, in his history of the 
 tenth dynasty, gives the following account of this 
 catastrophe. John Philoponus, surnamed the 
 Grammarian, a famous Peripatetic philosopher, 
 being at Alexandria when the city was taken by 
 the Saracens, was admitted to familiar inter- 
 course with Amrou, the Arabian general, and 
 presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his 
 opinion, but contemptible in that of the bar- 
 barians ; and this was the royal library. Amrou 
 was inclined to gratify his wish, but his rigid 
 integrity scrupled to alienate the least object 
 without the consent of the caliph. He accord- 
 ingly wrote to Omar, whose well known answer 
 was dictated by the ignorance of a fanatic. ' H 
 these writings of the Greeks agree with the 
 Koran, or book of God, they are useless, and 
 need not be preserved ; if they disagree, they 
 are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.' The 
 sentence of destruction "was executed with blind 
 obedience ; the volumes of paper or parchment 
 were distributed to the four thousand baths oi 
 the city; and such was their number, that six 
 months were barely sufficient for the consump- 
 tion of this precious fuel. Since the dynasties 
 of Abulpharagius have been given to the world 
 in a Latin version, this tale, as Mr. Gibbon, 
 Hist. vol. ix. p. 440., calls it, has been repeat- 
 edly transcribed ; and every scholar has deplored 
 this irreparable wreck of learning, arts, and 
 antiquities, ' For my own part,' says this his- 
 torian, adopting the scepticism of Renaudot, 
 Hist. Alex. Patriarch, p. 170, <I am strongly 
 tempted to deny both the fact and the con- 
 sequences; the fact is indeed marvellous.' 'Read 
 and wonder!' says the historian himself; 'and 
 the solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the 
 end of six hundred years in the confines of 
 Media, is overbalanced by the silence of two 
 annalists of a more early date, both Christians, 
 both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient or 
 whom, the patriarch Eutychius, has amply de-
 
 ALE 
 
 565 
 
 ALE 
 
 scribed tne conquest of Alexandria. But this 
 curious anecdote will be vainly sought in the 
 annals of Eutychius, and the Saracenic history 
 of Elmacin. The silence of Abulfeda, Murtadi, 
 and a crowd of Moslems, is less conclusive from 
 their ignorance of Christian literature. The 
 rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the 
 sound and orthodox precept of the Mahommedan 
 casuists : they expressly declare, ' that the re- 
 ligious books of the Jews and Christians, which 
 are acquired by the right of war, should never 
 be committed to the flames ; and that the works 
 of profane science, historians or poets, physi- 
 cians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied 
 to the use of the faithful.' Reland de Jure Mi- 
 litari Mohammedanorum, in the third volume of 
 Dissertations, p. 37. The reason for not burn- 
 ing the religious books of the Jews or Christians, 
 is derived from the respect that is due to the 
 name of God. However, the positive evidence 
 of an historian, of such unquestionable credit as 
 Abulpharagius, cannot be set aside by an argu- 
 ment merely negative. Mr. G. acknowledges, 
 ' that a more destructive zeal may perhaps be at- 
 tributed to the first successors of Mahomet.' 
 His reference to A. Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 1. 
 vi. c. 17, Ammian. Marcell., 1. xxii. c. 16. and 
 Orosius, 1. vi. c. 15, as speaking of th Alex- 
 andrian libraries in the past tense, are foreign 
 from the purpose ; these writers only referring 
 to the destruction of books at Alexandria in the 
 time of Julius Csesar; after which, large libraries 
 were continually accumulating, schools of phi- 
 losophy nourishing, and new institutions arising 
 from obscurity on almost every subject. Brucker's 
 Hist. Philos. by Enfield, vol. ii. p. 228. Ammian. 
 Marcellin. 1. xxii. c. 16. p. 266. ed. Gronov. 
 Dion. Cass. 1. xlii. 38. torn. i. p. 327. ed. Re.l- 
 tnari. Plutarch in Jul. Ctes. Oper. torn. i. p. 731. 
 Tcrtullian in Apolog. c. 18. p. 18. ed. Rigalt. 
 Euseb. in chron. Gellius, 1. vi. c. 17. Isidor. 
 Grig. 1. vi. c. 3. Orosii. Hist. 1. vi. c. 15. p. 421. 
 ed. Haverc. Plut. in Anton, op. vol. i. p. 943. 
 Newton's Diss. on the Prophecies. Works vol. 
 vii. p. 357. 8vo. Anc. Un. Hist. vol. viii. p. 166. 
 
 ALEXANDRIN, in geography, a small dis- 
 trict of Italy, in the duchy of Milan, in the 
 environs of Alexandria della Paglia, to which it 
 owes its name. 
 
 ALEXANDRIN, or ALEXANDRIAN, in poetry, 
 the name of a verse which consists of six feet or 
 six feet and a half, equal to twelve or thirteen 
 syllables ; the rest, or pause, being always on 
 the sixth syllable. 
 
 It is said to have taken its name from a poem 
 on the life of Alexander, entitled, the Alexan- 
 driad ; written, or at least translated into this 
 kind of verse, by some French poets ; though 
 others will have it so denominated from one of 
 the translators, Alexander Paris. 
 
 This verse is thought, by some, very proper in 
 the epopcaia, and the more sublime kinds of 
 poetry : for which reason it is also called heroic 
 verse. It answers in our language to the' hexame- 
 ters in the Greek and Latin ; though, according 
 to some, it rather answers to the senarii of the 
 ancient tragic poets. Chapman's translation of 
 Homer consists wholly of Alexandrians. 
 
 The advantages of the Alexandrian verse, are 
 
 its keeping the rhymes from coming so near, and 
 consequently hindering them from being so much 
 perceived. To this may be added, that coming 
 nearer to the nature of prose, it is fitter for tne- 
 atrical dialogues, and supplies the office of the 
 ancient iambics better than any other verse in 
 rhyme. This measure is used either to close a 
 verse, or distich, as by Spenser at the end ov" 
 each stanza of his Faerie Queene ; or else, but 
 more rarely, wholly to compose the poem, as by 
 Drayton, in his Poly Albion, and by Chapman, 
 in his Homer. The pause is always on the sixth 
 syllable. In the former instance it has the beau- 
 tiful effect of a chord at the close of an air in 
 music, and ends the verse with a full sweep ; 
 and in the latter it answers nearly to the hexa- 
 meter of the classic verse, and is a sort of re- 
 citative in poetry. The etymology of its name 
 is very uncertain ; we have given the best con- 
 jectures. Pope's satirical illustration of its 
 abuse is well known : 
 A needless Alexandrine ends the song, 
 Which, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length 
 along. 
 
 ALEXANDROVKA, a settlement of Asiatic 
 Russia, on the banks of the river Kuma, being 
 one of a long range of settlements which Catha- 
 rine II. directed to be established with a view 
 to the peopling that country, and thereby to 
 strengthen her Caucasian frontier. It contains 
 about 450 inhabitants. 
 
 ALEXANDROVSKAIA, a Russian fortress 
 in the government of of Ekaterinoslav, situated 
 on the Dnieper forty miles below Ekaterinoslav, 
 and 114 miles north-east of Cherson. 
 
 ALEXANDROW, the chief town of a circle 
 in Russia, in the government of Vladimir, where 
 the czar John Wassiljewitsch erected the first 
 printing-press in Russia. It lies forty-eight 
 miles east of Moscow. 
 
 ALEXICASON, or ALEXICACUS, from aXf5<i> 
 to drive away, and KO.KOV, or icaicoe, evil, an an- 
 tidote against evil. Constantine Khodocanaces 
 gave this name to the spirit of sea-salt, and pub- 
 lished a work on the subject under this title. 
 
 ALEXICACUS, in antiquity, an attribute ot 
 Neptune, whom the tunny fishers used to invoke, 
 that their nets might be preserved from the 
 &0iae, or sword-fish, which used to tear them ; 
 and that he might prevent the assistance which, 
 it was believed, the dolphins gave the tunnies on 
 such occasions. 
 
 ALEXIPHARMICS, from a\t|w, arceo, to 
 expel, and ^op/iaicoj/, poison, in medicine, are 
 properly remedies for expelling or preventing the 
 ill effects of poison. Some of the moderns having 
 imagined that the animal spirits, in acute dis- 
 tempers, were affected by a malignant poison, 
 the term has been understood to mean medicines 
 adapted to expel this poison, by the cutaneous 
 pores, m the form of sweat. In this sense alexi- 
 pharmics are the same as sudorifics. It has also 
 been occasionally used for amulets, and various 
 real or supposed remedies against disease. Alexi- 
 pharmic medicines are in general aromatic 
 and pungent, although some acid plants and 
 juices, from their use in malignant and colliqua- 
 tive fevers, have been classed under this title 
 The principal alexipharmics in the animal king-
 
 ALE 
 
 566 
 
 ALF 
 
 dom, arc hartshorn, bezoars, and the bones and 
 teeth of different animals. In the vegetable 
 kingdom, the leaves arid flowers of all the aro- 
 matic plants, especially such as are umbelliferous. 
 In the mineral kingdom, the different prepara- 
 tions of antimony, the dulcified spirit of vitriol, 
 together with alcohol in all its forms and combi- 
 nations. They chiefly act by exciting or increas- 
 ing a diaphoresis, or perspiration ; or by sup- 
 porting the vigorous motion of the heart and 
 arteries, which is always diminished in malignant 
 diseases unattended by inflammation. In this lat- 
 ter sense wine may be reckoned among the prin- 
 cipal alexipharmics. These medicines are also 
 esteemed preservatives against malignant and pes- 
 tilential fevers ; but they are to be used with caution. 
 
 ALEXIS, (Michaelovitch,) of Russia, born in 
 1630, and succeeded his father Michael as czar, 
 in 1646, was the father of Peter the Great r an 
 able monarch, and the first Russian ruler who 
 acted on the policy of a more intimate connexion 
 with the other states and nations of Europe. He 
 preceded his celebrated son in measures for the 
 civilization and political and commercial im- 
 provement of Russia, and by his diversion of the 
 Turkish arms, greatly contributed to the celebra- 
 ted victory over that nation, obtained by John 
 Sobeiski, king of Poland, near Choskni. He died 
 at the age of forty-six in the year 1677, was suc- 
 ceeded by Peter the Great, his son by his wife 
 Natalia. 
 
 ALEXIS, a native ot' Piedmont, and author of 
 a book of secrets, which was printed at Basle 
 1536, in 8vo. and translated from Italian into 
 Latin by Wecher. It has also been translated 
 into French, and printed several times with 
 additions. There is a preface to the piece, 
 wherein Alexis informs us, that he was born ot 
 a noble family ; t'.iat he had from his early years 
 applied himself to study ; that he had learned 
 the Greek, the Latin, the Hebrew, the Chaldean, 
 the Arabian, and several other languages : and 
 having an extreme curiosity to be acquainted 
 with the secrets of nature, he had collected as 
 much as he could during his travels for fifty- 
 seven years. That he had piqued himself upon 
 not communicating them to any person ; but 
 that when he was eighty-two years of age, having 
 seen a poor man who had died of a sickness, 
 which might have been cured, had he commu- 
 nicated the recipe to the surgeon who took care 
 of him, he was touched with such a remorse of 
 conscience, that he lived almost like a hermit ; 
 and it was in this solitude that he arranged his 
 secrets in order to be published 
 
 ALEXIS, grand duke of Russia, the unfortunate 
 son of Peter the Great, called also PETROVICH, 
 which see. 
 
 ALEYN, (Charles,) an English poet in the 
 reign of Charles I. In 1631, he published two 
 poems on the famous victories of Cressy and 
 Poictiers. He succeeded his father as clerk of 
 the ordnance, and was commissary general of 
 the artillery to the king at the battle of Edge-hill. 
 He also wrote a poem on that victory which 
 placed Henry VII. on the throne of England. 
 In 1639, the year before he died, he translated 
 the history of Eurialius and Lucretia, from the 
 Latin epistles of /Eneas Sylvius, 
 
 ALFADER, the Danish name for the univer- 
 sal father and creator of all things . See Southey's 
 Book of the Church, vol i. p. 67. 
 
 ALFAQUES, among the Moors, the names 
 generally used for their clergy, or those who 
 teach the Mahommedan religion ; in opposition to 
 the Moabites, who answer to monks among 
 Christians. 
 
 ALFARO Y GAMON, (Don Juan De,) a 
 Spanish painter, was born at Cordova, in 1640, 
 he studied successively under Castillo and Ve- 
 lasquez, to whose style he adhered, but in his 
 portraits he adopted the manner of Vandyck. 
 Two of his finest pieces, are a picture of the Na- 
 tivity, and the Guardian Angel. He attached 
 himself to the admiral of Castile, and lived in 
 his family on terms of friendship, till the time of 
 that grandee's exile in 1678, when he left Madrid, 
 and retired to his native city. Here he lived in 
 obscurity, until an edict was published, levying a 
 tax upon paintings, when Alfaro laid aside the 
 pencil. He suffered great distress, until infor- 
 mation reached him in 1680, that his patron was 
 released, when lie hastened to Madrid, and re- 
 pairing to the house of the admiral, was refused 
 admission, when he retired, and in a few days 
 died of a broken heart. ' Thus perished,' says 
 Pilkington, ' one of the most ingenious and ele- 
 gant artists that Spain ever produced ; and a 
 man described to have been of refined manners, 
 and of a most tender and susceptible spirit.' 
 
 ALFATERNA, in ancient geography, the last 
 town of Campania, beyond Vesuvius : the same 
 with NOCERA, which see. 
 
 ALFECCA, in astronomy, the star otherwise 
 called Alpheccar and Lucida corona. 
 
 ALFENUS, (Varus), a Roman lawyer, native 
 of Cremona, and a disciple of Servius Sulpitius, 
 who flourished about the year one of the Chris- 
 tian ?era. He is mentioned by Horace as having 
 formerly been a shoe?naker, and as having 
 quitted that trade for the profession in which he 
 obtained his reputation. Hor. Sat. iii. v. 130. 
 He wrote several works, of which Paulus the 
 civilian made an abridgment, and he is referred 
 to as an authority in matters of law by Ammiaims 
 Marcellinus ; and Aulus Gellius mentions him 
 as a diligent enquirer into antiquities. Some say 
 that he was consul, and was buried at the public 
 expense. 
 
 ALFET, in our ancient Anglo-Saxon laws, 
 from <flan to burn, and fat, a vessel, Sax. a cal- 
 dron full of boiling water, wherein an accused 
 person, by way of trial or purgation, plunged 
 his arm up to the elbow, and held it there some 
 time. If he was hurt he was held guilty ; if not, 
 he was acquitted . 
 
 ALFIDENA, an ancient town of Italy, in the 
 kingdom of Naples, and in the citerior Abruzzo, 
 fifteen miles south-south-west of Salmona. It 
 was famous in the wars of the Samnites, with 
 the Romans. It gives title to a marquis. Lon. 
 14. 10' E. Lat. 41. 48'. N. 
 
 ALFIERI, (Victorio,) the Italian Sophocles, 
 was born in Aste, a city of Piedmont, about 
 half way between Turin and Alepondria, on the 
 17th of January 1749, of a noble family. He 
 has favoured the world with an account of him- 
 self and his writings, carried nearly dow;i to
 
 A L F I E R I. 
 
 567 
 
 the period of his death; from which we shall 
 select a sketch of the principal incidents and 
 employments by which his remarkable life was 
 distinguished. When an author becomes his 
 own biographer, he can boast at least of pos- 
 sessing the most intimate knowledge of his sub- 
 ject, whatever be his other qualifications for the 
 task he undertakes, and whatever other claims 
 he may have upon the faith of his readers. In 
 the present instance, we have the testimony of 
 his contemporaries, in support of the veracity 
 and candour with which this extraordinary man 
 details his own history, in additition to the in- 
 ternal evidence of its own fearless frankness and 
 bold disclosures. Alfieri divides his own his- 
 tory into almost as many eras as Shakspeare's 
 seven ages ; but in the two first of these, which 
 he styles his infancy and adolescence, there is 
 nothing particularly worthy of notice, except 
 taken in connection with the talents he after- 
 wards displayed, and the celebrity he acquired. 
 His father, Anthony Alfieri, was a nobleman, 
 who was distinguished for no knowledge or in- 
 formation. He married the mother of our poet, 
 when above fifty years of age ; and the first fruit 
 of this marriage was a daughter, the second the 
 subject of this memoir. The father of Alfieri 
 survived this latter event only a year, when his 
 widow married again. Alfieri when very young 
 was committed to the care of a priest, called 
 father Ivaldi, for the purpose of being taught 
 Latin, from whom he learned but little. On 
 one occasion he had to submit to the dreadful 
 suffering of walking to the church with a silk 
 night-cap, for having told a lie ; and he philo- 
 sophically ascribes his candour and regard to 
 truth, in subsequent life, to this disgraceful 
 punishment. If this be correct, we owe the 
 confidence with which we may read his history 
 to a very trifling cause ; and whenever we can- 
 not lend implicit credit to his testimony, we 
 must suppose that he has forgotten the night- 
 cap. At the age of nearly ten years, he was 
 taken from under the tuition of his domestic 
 pedagogue, and sent to Turin, to be under the 
 care of his uncle, and to receive his education 
 at the academy. Here he speaks of learning as 
 little as under father Ivaldi. At his thirteenth 
 year, he was fitted for the university ; and there 
 he entered upon philosophy and geometry. In 
 the peripatetic philosophy, he made such pro- 
 gress, that he was able to answer almost all 
 the questions asked him by his teachers; and 
 he committed the whole six books of Euclid to 
 memory, without being able to comprehend the 
 fourth proposition. He had even at this age a 
 contempt for the useless and pedantic jargon of 
 logic, which he was forced to acquire. Though 
 he had at this time read none of the Italian 
 poets but a part of Ariosto and Metastasio, he 
 composed his first sonnet, which not being 
 approved of by his uncle, deterred him for 
 twelve years from the services of the muses. 
 His paternal uncle, who was governor of Sar- 
 dinia, died about this time ; and he was led to 
 meditate upon plans for spending with eclat 
 that more liberal portion of his fortune which 
 it was now permitted him to enjoy. He had 
 enrolled himself as an officer of the militia; but 
 
 he now only thought of those methods of employ- 
 ing his time, which would acquire him the greatest 
 distinction, or bring him the greatest pleasure. 
 
 Travelling was one of those pursuits which 
 obviously offered the greatest allurements to 
 his restless disposition; and he accordingly 
 determined to seize the earliest opportunity of 
 commencing his rambles. He had frequently 
 heard the students from England, Germany, 
 Poland, and Prussia, describe the wonders of 
 their various countries ; and he was inspired, 
 either with the curiosity of seeing them, or with 
 the ambition of being as far travelled as his com- 
 panions. But his first excursion from home 
 was confined to Italy. An opportunity oc- 
 curred of being able to traverse Italy to Rome 
 and Naples, under the care of an English catho- 
 lic, who had the charge of two Dutch pupils 
 his school-fellows in the academy ; and he pre- 
 vailed upon his brother-in-law to solicit per- 
 mission from the king for that purpose. His 
 Sardinian majesty, it would appear, allowed 
 none of his nobility to leave his dominions with- 
 out obtaining his consent. This permission be- 
 ing obtained, on the 4th of October 1766, our 
 young poet left Turin for Naples, but as he 
 had made no preparations for travelling with 
 advantage, he avows he neither understood nor 
 relished any works of the fine arts : and in a 
 country where nothing else is read but poetry, 
 he had not perused any of the poets but Ariosto 
 and Metastasio : he could not even speak Italian 
 with propriety, and although he spoke French 
 with facility, he had not studied its structure, 
 nor attempted to attain its elegance. When at 
 Florence he began to learn English a language 
 in which he never made any proficiency, and 
 which, together with the French, he afterwards 
 despised and disliked. Although his ignorance 
 rendered his travels of little importance to his 
 mental improvement, yet the circumstance of 
 his keeping a journal of his observations, and 
 the anxiety he felt from classical recollections 
 before he entered Rome, are indications of re- 
 flections and feelings which could not belong to 
 every idle youth of eighteen. At Naples- he got 
 quit of his tutor, the English catholic, and of 
 his two Dutch companions, and commenced 
 his rambling alone. He visited Venice; and, 
 without returning to Piedmont, passed by Genoa 
 and Marseilles to Paris, where he arrived in 
 August 1757. We find him soon afterwards in 
 London; and during the four months he re- 
 mained there, he had it in his power, by means 
 of the Spanish ambassador (who was originally 
 a Piedmontese) and his own fortune, to satisfy 
 his thirst for dissipation, and his propensity to 
 jockeyism. ' My amusement,' says he, ' dur- 
 ing the winter, consisted in being on horseback 
 five or six hours every morning, and being 
 seated in the coach-box for two or three hours 
 every evening, whatever might be the state of 
 the weather.' He felt the attractions of Eng- 
 land at one time so powerful, that he resolved 
 to fix his residence in it ; but his resolution was 
 abandoned almost as soon as formed. At the 
 Hague he made a friend of the Portuguese am- 
 bassador, and became enamoured of a Dutch 
 lady. The violence of his passion could scarcely
 
 A L F I E R I. 
 
 obtain credit, did we not take into account the 
 previous instances of his ardent temperament. 
 When the lady was obliged to leave the Hague to 
 join her husband in Switzerland, he committed 
 a thousand follies, called on death to his aid, 
 and, among other extravagancies, after causing 
 himself to be bled by a surgeon, he tore the 
 bandage from his arm ; and, if his servant had 
 not interposed, would have destroyed himself. 
 He was at this time importuned by his friends 
 to marry, but he felt a ' reluctance to have his 
 children born at Turin,' and did not pursue 
 his suit with the ardour necessary to ensure 
 success: he again, after settling his affairs, re- 
 solved to travel. Without following him in 
 his rambling career, it will be sufficient to 
 state, that in this second erratic sally he visited 
 successirely, Germany, Hungary, Denmark, 
 and Sweden ; Russia, Prussia, Holland, and 
 England ; Spain and Portugal. In Turin he 
 again took up his residence; and having fitted 
 up a splendid house, he began to entertain 
 his friends, and to live in a style of elegance and 
 luxury. These friends, who consisted principally 
 of young men who had been his college-fellows, 
 constituted themselves into a society, with some- 
 thing of the formalities of free-masonry, and 
 agreed to meet at one another's houses several 
 times in the week, for the purpose of conversa- 
 tion upon any subject that might occur, or for 
 reading small essays at composition, to which the 
 members should anonymously contribute. AJ- 
 fieri was here the greatest contributor to the so- 
 ciety's amusement, and gave in several papers, 
 which were read with eclat. He had by this time, 
 although his life was principally spent in dissi- 
 pation, acquired a considerable acquaintance with 
 French literature ; he had studied latterly some 
 of the best Italian authors ; had seen much of 
 mankind ; and he possessed a power of fancy and 
 invention that could render his acquirements use- 
 ful or entertaining. He even began at this time, 
 from the praises he received, to imbibe a greater 
 confidence in his own faculties, and to rise to the 
 hope of being able to execute some work for im- 
 mortality. The abbe Caluso, whom he met with 
 at Lisbon in the suite of the Piedmontese ambas- 
 sador, and who continued the friend of his subse- 
 quent life, almost convinced him that he was 
 a poet, and now was drawing near the time when 
 he was destined to prove his title to that charac- 
 ter. A sonnet was the first poetical offspring 
 of his genius. Having once accidentally com- 
 posed a dialogue on the subject of Cleopatra, 
 and hearing the work of an obscure author on 
 the same subject praised by one of his friends, 
 which he thought inferior to his own, the state of 
 his mind, and the circumstances in which he 
 was placed, recommended it to him as a theme 
 for his first dramatic effort : and, accordingly, 
 after much consultation with those in whose 
 opinions he confided, he produced, in the 
 twenty-seventh year of his age, the tragedy of 
 Cleopatra, which was represented at Turin on 
 the 16th of June 1775. Having now become a 
 candidate for literary and dramatic fame, he pro- 
 secuted the means of success with his character- 
 istic ardour ; and the laborious assiduity of the 
 latter pan of his life forms a perfect contrast to 
 
 the idleness and dissipation of the former. 
 The subsequent history of his life is little more 
 than an account of his labours and publications. 
 He transferred his property to his sister for an 
 equivalent, that he might have no more to do 
 with Piedmont. He studied the Latin classics 
 with the greatest ardour ; he composed upwards 
 of twenty tragedies, besides satires, odes, sonnets, 
 and prose works on government and literature ; 
 he studied afterwards G*eek, when upwards of 
 fifty, and wrote comedies; he finished various 
 translations of prose and poetical authors ; he 
 devoted a portion of his time to the reading of 
 Hebrew; and, after more than twenty years of 
 toil and glory, which our limits will not permit 
 us to dwell upon, he died one of the most ac- 
 complished characters of his age, on the 8th of 
 October, 1003. He was interred in the Fran- 
 ciscan church of St. Croce in Florence, a sanc- 
 tuary where repose the ashes of Galileo, Michael 
 Angelo, Arretino, and many other illustrious 
 men; and over him there is placed a monument, 
 representing Italia mourning for his loss, a work 
 of the great Conova. The majestic figure of 
 Italy is invested with flowing robes, and adorned 
 with a turreted crown ; which circumstances 
 gave rise to an epigram, repeated to the author 
 of this article by one of the monks, purporting, 
 that this clothed figure was by no means a true 
 representation, and that the statuary had forgot- 
 ten that she was stript by Buonaparte. The style 
 of his tragedies is peculiarly his own. He keeps 
 one subject in view, and pursues it from the 
 beginning to the end of the piece without di- 
 gression, without trifling or delay. The persons 
 he introduces are few, and all are necessary to the 
 development of the plot. He allows no under 
 plot, nor gossiping among servants. The lan- 
 guage is always vigorous and energetic, but desti- 
 tute of imagery or ornament ; seldom very smooth, 
 but always elegant and varied. The undei stand- 
 ing of Alfieri was as comprehensive and pene- 
 trating as his imagination was inventive, and 
 enabled him particularly to shine in disquisitions 
 concerning government, history, and criticism. 
 Though, during the latter period of his life, he 
 devoted his time chiefly to recluse study, he was 
 not an inattentive spectator of the events that 
 were passing around him. He had early im- 
 bibed a love of liberty, and he added to it af- 
 terwards a love of Italy. These two passions 
 constituted a fever which continually boiled in 
 his veins, and imparted much heat to his con- 
 versation, his poetry, and political sentiments. 
 Never had freedom a more ardent worshipper at 
 her shrine, nor had ever Italy a more fond ad- 
 mirer ; but these feelings were rather guided by 
 his imagination than his reason, and acted more 
 in sharpening his hatred of those whom he con- 
 sidered as oppressors, than in suggesting reme- 
 dies against oppression. The French domination 
 he cordially detested ; and, preparing in return 
 to expect persecution, he made his will, and 
 settled his affairs before thpy entered Florence 
 His passions, as will be seen, during the whole 
 of his life, were violent ; and, in the early part 
 of it, made his history Jmost the history of a hur- 
 ricane. He sometimes surrendered his mind to 
 the dominion of caprice, without capitulation or
 
 ALFRED. 
 
 569 
 
 condition, and obeyed her dictates without at- 
 tempting resistance ; but where his aftections were 
 engaged by a worthy object, he was steady and 
 unchangeable. He had a strong propensity to 
 satire and sarcasm ; but he never indulged it at 
 the expense of those whose attachment he en- 
 joyed and valued. Of his mother he always 
 spoke with affectionate regard ; and his friends 
 had reason to delight in his unreserved commu- 
 nication when living, and to cherish his memory 
 when dead. His works consist of twenty trage- 
 dies, six comedies, sonnets, odes on liberty, &c. 
 
 ALFORD, a town in Lincolnshire, with a 
 market on Tuesdays for provisions and corn ; 
 and two fairs, on Whit-Tuesday, and November 
 8th, for cattle and sheep. It is seated on a small 
 brook that runs through the town, and is a com- 
 pact well built place. A salt spring was dis- 
 covered here in 1670, from the pigeons which 
 flew thither in great numbers to drink the water; 
 these birds being known to be fond of salt. It 
 contains a purging salt, together with a portion 
 of sea-salt, and is recommended as cooling, 
 cleansing, and attenuating. Alford is 6 miles 
 from the sea, 20 north of Boston, and 140 north 
 of London. Long. 0. 15'. E. Lat. 53. 30.' N. 
 
 ALFORD, a district of Aberdeenshire, eleven 
 miles long from east to west, and between four 
 and six miles long from north to south, reckon- 
 ing from the tops of the mountains. It compre- 
 hends five parishes, viz. Forbes, Keig, Tillynessle, 
 Tough,and Alford ; and the easternmost part of it 
 is situated twenty miles west from Aberdeen. 
 The Don is the principal river in this district. 
 
 ALFRAGAN, AHMED EBN KOTHEIR At 
 FARGANI, or, as others call him, MOHAMMED 
 EBN KETIR At FORGANI, in biography, a cele- 
 brated Arabian astronomer, born at Fergan, in 
 Sogdiana, now Samarcand, and flourished in the 
 beginning of the ninth century, under the Cali- 
 phate of Al-Mamon. His principal work, in 
 Arabic, entitled, Rudimenta Astronomica, con- 
 sists of thirty chapters or sections, and is formed 
 upon the principles of Ptolemy, whom the au- 
 thor often cites. Of this work we have a Latin 
 translation by Johannes Hispaliensis. 
 
 ALFRED, commonly called THE GREAT, 
 an Anglo Saxon monarch, one of the mosril- 
 lustrious on record in the history of nations. 
 He was the youngest son of Ethelwolf, king of 
 the West Saxons, and born at Wantage, Berks. 
 A.D. 849. At the age of five years he was 
 sent by his father to Rome, when he was con- 
 firmed, and, as some writers assert, royally 
 anointed by pope Leo IV. Soon after his return, 
 he accompanied his father again to the same capital . 
 It was by this early travelling that his dawning 
 faculties received that favourable direction by 
 which they were, in future life, so admirably 
 distinguished. Alfred was in his tenth year 
 when Ethelwolf died, and was succeeded suc- 
 cessively by his elder sons Ethelbald, Ethelbert, 
 and Ethelred, by the last of whom Alfred was 
 employed as chief minister and general. In 871, 
 when a Danish force, which had successfully in- 
 vaded England in 866, under the command of 
 Hubba and Hinguar, marched to Reading, and 
 mastered both town and castle, Ethelred and 
 Alfred collected a force, and obtained a victory 
 
 over the invaders, but were soon however routed, 
 near Devizes ; when Ethelred, receiving a wound 
 which terminated his existence, left the crown 
 of England to Alfred, then in his twenty-second 
 year. The first conflict of this prince with the 
 Danes, at Wilton, was unsuccessful ; but they 
 were subsequently compelled to agree to a peace. 
 This they violated ; but, in consequence of a 
 great naval victory obtained by Alfred, were re- 
 duced, a second time, to the same terms. The 
 arrival of new hordes, however, so increased their 
 number in Wiltshire, that the Saxons could not 
 withstand them; and Alfred himself, laying aside 
 all marks of royalty, took shelter in the house of 
 one of his neatherds. While in this obscure re- 
 treat, a little adventure occurred, of which most 
 of our English historians take notice. The 
 woman of the house having placed some cakes 
 before the fire to toast, ordered Alfred to attend 
 them. Intent on trimming his bow, the king 
 suffered the cakes to burn without observation, 
 which so enraged the good woman, that she 
 rated him soundly, and doubted not that he 
 would be ready enough to eat them, though so 
 little inclined to attend to them. Soon after, 
 collecting a few faithful followers, he took pos- 
 session of the small isle of Athelney, formed by 
 the confluence of the Tone and the Parrot, in 
 Somersetshire,, whence he sallied out occasionally 
 upon the unguarded quartets of the Danes in 
 his neighbourhood. At length, understanding 
 that Odun, earl of Devonshire, had obtained a 
 signal victory over the Danish leader Hubba, 
 and taken the famous magical standard of the 
 raven, he left his retreat, and proceeding towards 
 the camp of Guthrum, the Danish prince, in the 
 disguise of a harper,, remained several days 
 making observations. He then summoned his 
 nobles, with their followers, to a general rendez- 
 vous on the borders of Selwood Forest, and de- 
 feating the enemy in battle, surrounded their 
 camp, and compelled them to surrender. It. was 
 the policy of Alfred, if possible, to transform 
 them into subjects, and for that purpose he gave 
 them settlements in East Anglia and Northum- 
 berland, on condition of allegiance and conver- 
 sion to Christianity. It is said the king himself 
 stood sponsor for Guthrum at the font. On this 
 happy re-establishment, Alfred exerted himself 
 for the defence of his kingdom. He erected 
 castles and fortresses, formed a militia, and got 
 together an armed fleet of 100 sail, which he 
 manned partly with his subjects, and partly with 
 Frisians. He also besieged and recovered the 
 city of London, which he found in a miserable 
 condition, but he repaired and maintained it as a 
 fortress. In 893, an interval of some years having 
 elapsed, a Danish fleet, after ravaging the coast 
 of France, disembarked a large force in Kent, 
 which was, however, checked by the vigilance 
 of Alfred. He had then turned his attention to 
 the rebellious operations of his new subjects in 
 East Anglia and Northumberland, who appeared 
 suddenly with a fleet off the western coast ; and 
 having put down all these annoyances, he closed 
 the whole warfare by the capture of some Nor- 
 thumbrian Danes, who were ravaging the west, 
 and whom, after a legal trial, he executed as- 
 pirates. The remainder of the life of Alfred waa-
 
 570 
 
 ALFRED. 
 
 peaceable ; for such was now his character, that 
 the Danish settlers, on the east and the north, 
 humbly submitted. The Welsh also acknow- 
 ledged his authority ; and after fifty-six battles, 
 in which he had been personally engaged by sea 
 and land, he found himself undisputed king of 
 the island as far as the frontiers of Scotland. 
 Great and active, however, as Alfred appears in 
 warlike exploits ; as a legislator, a reformer of 
 manners, and a promoter of learning and the 
 arts, his exertions were still more extraordinary. 
 He laid the foundation of the common law of 
 England. The institution of the trial by jury, 
 attributed to him, Sir William Blackstone con- 
 jectures he only adopted and improved : the 
 same observation is extended by Whitaker and 
 others to the division of the country into shires, 
 hundreds, and tithings, for purposes of judica- 
 ture and police. It is certain, however, that the 
 general survey of the kingdom, called the Win- 
 chester Book, the origin of that of Doomsday, was 
 compiled by the order of Alfred. Judicial adminis- 
 trationseems tohave engaged no small share of the 
 attention of this monarch ; for, in addition to 
 his regulations in favour of general and equal 
 justice, he severely punished delinquency in any 
 of its departments. The political constitution 
 of England is also presumed to be indebted to 
 Alfred for the settlement of one of its principal 
 regulations, viz. a regular convocation of the 
 states. His great council, consisting of bishops, 
 earls, aldermen, and thanes, was by an express 
 law called together twice a year in London, for 
 the better government of the realm. In other 
 circumstances he also showed a paternal regard 
 for the welfare of his people, dedicating a large 
 portion of his revenues to the rebuilding of cities 
 ruined by the Danes, the erecting of new ones, 
 and the restoring of monasteries and other reli- 
 gious foundations. His encouragement of learn- 
 ing was as distinguished as his own proficiency 
 therein; of the ecclesiastics, Alfred complained 
 that there were very few south of the Humber 
 who either understood the service of the church, 
 or could translate a single piece of Latin into 
 English. To remedy this defect, he invited men 
 of learning to his court, from all parts, and placed 
 them at the head of seminaries in various parts 
 of his kingdom. He has been called the founder 
 of the University of Oxford, or at all events is 
 said to have founded University College, Oxon ; 
 but there is reason to believe, from the recent 
 researches of Whitaker and Smith, that these 
 assertions are not absolutely correct; it is how- 
 ever admitted that he greatly improved the system 
 of education there. Alfred himself may be said 
 to stand at the head of the list of royal authors ; 
 so many works indeed are attributed to him, that, 
 in order to keep within the bounds of credibility, 
 it must be presumed that he only patronized 
 many of the voluminous translations which bear 
 his name. Versions of Orosius, of Bede, of Boe- 
 thius, of several pieces of St. Gregory, of A" sop's 
 Fables, of various religious works, including the 
 Psalter, together with several collections of legal 
 and historical matters are attributed to his pen. 
 In the translation of Orosius is also an account 
 of a voyage, made under his patronage, for the 
 discovery of a north-east passage ; and he even 
 
 fitted out an expedition to carry alms to the 
 Christians of St. Thomas in the East Indies 
 and received back the commodities of the coun- 
 try. To accomplish all these things, as the 
 nicest distribution of his time and his revenue 
 was essential, he entered into the strictest ar- 
 rangement for the employment of both. To 
 crown his great public character, Alfred is de- 
 scribed as one of the most mild and amiable of 
 men in private life ; of a serene temper, cheer- 
 ful, affable, kind, and merciful ; eminently pure 
 in his own conduct and manners, yet not averse 
 to society, or to innocent recreation. He was 
 personally well-favoured, possessing a handsome 
 and vigorous form, dignified by a commanding 
 and engaging aspect. After reigning twenty- 
 eight years and a half, this prince died, accord- 
 ing to some accounts, A. D. 900, although others 
 say 901 . By his queen j?Elswitha he had three 
 sons and three daughters; one of his sons died 
 in his father's life time ; the second, Edward the 
 Elder, succeeded him. One of his daughters, 
 named .ZEthelfleda, married to an earl of Mercia, 
 is said to have inherited the greatest portion of 
 his talents. In this age of critical reasearch, 
 some doubts have been thrown on the accuracy 
 of the unmixed panegyric of the monkish authors, 
 from whose writings this history of Alfred is 
 chiefly drawn. His benefactions to the church 
 and to religious and learned men may be sup- 
 posed to have influenced them borne away 
 by the strength of a character, it was scarcely in 
 their nature to conceive or to invent ; for the qua- 
 lities and actions ascribed to him are of a higher 
 class than those which usually form the themes 
 of monkish adulation. But since there is no 
 contradiction of their general testimony from 
 other quarters, it is not well to cavil away 
 the attributes of an exalted character, whose 
 name is associated with the origin of some of the 
 most important institutions in the country, in fa- 
 vour of hypercriticism on the one hand, or party 
 predilection on the other. At present, the his- 
 tory of Alfred presents an almost perfect union, 
 of monarch, patriot, and man one of those fine 
 examples of the admixture of the true elements 
 of greatness and of goodness, which are so seldom 
 witnessed among mankind, but which occasion- 
 ally exist as blessings in their own age, and as 
 models for all posterity. 
 
 ' The merit of this prince both in private and 
 public life,' says Hume, ' may be set in oppo- 
 sition to that of any monarch or citizen which 
 the annals of any age or any nation can present 
 to us. He seems indeed to be the model of 
 that perfect character, which, under the de- 
 nomination of sage or wise man, philosophers 
 have been fond of delineating rather as a fiction 
 of their imagination, than in hopes of ever see- 
 ing it really existing. So happily were all his 
 virtues tempered together; so justly were they 
 blended, and so powerfully did each prevent the 
 other from exceeding its proper boundaries ! He 
 knew how to reconcile the most enterprizing 
 spirit with the coolest moderation ; the most ob- 
 stinate perseverance with the easiest flexibility ; 
 the most sincere justice with the greatest. lenity ; 
 the greatest vigour in commanding, with the 
 most perfect affability of deportment ; the highest
 
 ALG 
 
 571 
 
 ALG 
 
 capacity and inclination for science, with the 
 most shining talents for action. His civil and 
 military virtues are almost equally the objects of 
 our admiration, excepting only that the former 
 being more rare amongst princes, as well as 
 more useful, seem chiefly to challenge our ap- 
 plause. Nature also, as if desirous that so 
 bright a production of her skill, should be set 
 in the fairest light, had bestowed on him every 
 bodily accomplishment, vigour of limbs, dignity 
 of shape and air, with a pleasing, engaging and 
 open countenance. Fortune alone, by throwing 
 him into that barbarous age, deprived him of 
 historians worthy to transmit his fame to pos- 
 terity ; and we wish to see him delineated in 
 more lively colours, and with more particular 
 strokes, that we may at least perceive some 
 of those small sparks and blemishes, from 
 which, as a man, it is impossible he could be 
 entirely exempted.' Hume's Hist. vol. 1, p. 
 100, 101. 
 
 ALFRETON, from TLlfredtun, Sax. i. e. Al- 
 fred's town, a town in Derbyshire, built by Al- 
 fred the Great, pleasantly situated on a small 
 hill, six miles from Chesterfield, thirteen north 
 of Derby, and 142 north-west of London. The 
 manufactures are stockings and brown earthen- 
 ware. It has a weekly market on Monday, and 
 an annual fair 20th July, for horses and horned 
 cattle. 
 
 ALG/E, FLAGS, one of the seven families, or 
 natural tribes, into which the whole vegetable 
 kingdom is divided by Linnaeus, in his Philoso- 
 phia Botanica. They are denned to be plants, 
 whose root, leaf, and stem are all one. Under 
 this description are comprehended all the sea 
 weeds, and some other aquatic plants. In the 
 sexual system, they constitute the third order of 
 the twenty-fourth class Cryptogamia ; inTourne- 
 fort, the second genus of the second section, 
 Marina, aut fluviatiles, of the twenty-seventh 
 class, Aspermae vulgo habitae ; and the fifty- 
 seventh order in Linnaeus's Fragments of a 
 Natural Method. The algae are distributed by 
 Lamarch into three divisions : the first of which 
 comprehends all those plants, whose fructifica- 
 tion seems doubtful. These commonly live in 
 water, or upon moist bodies, and are membra- 
 nous, gelatinous, or filamentous. To this division 
 are referred the byssi, conferva, ulva, tremella 
 and varec. The plants of the second division 
 arc distinguished by their apparent fructification, 
 although it be little known, and are formed of 
 parts which have no particular and sensible 
 opening or explosion at any determined period ; 
 their substance is ordinarily crustaceous or co- 
 riaceous. They include the tassella, ceratos- 
 perma and lichen. The third division comprises 
 plants, whose fructification is very apparent, and 
 which are distinguished by constituent parts 
 which open, at a certain period of maturity, for 
 the escape of the fecundating dust or seeds. 
 These plants are more herbaceous, both as to 
 their substance and colour, than those of the 
 other two divisions, and are more nearly related 
 to mosses from which they do not essentially 
 differ. Their flowers are often contained in 
 articulated and very elastic filaments. This di- 
 vision includes the riccia, blasia, anthoceros., 
 
 targiona, hepatica, and jungermanna. In the Lin- 
 naean system the algae are divided into two classes 
 the terrestres and aquatics?. The former include 
 the anthoceros, blasia, riccia, lichen, and byssus , 
 and the latter are the ulva, fucus and conferva. 
 The fructification of the algae, and particularly 
 of those called aquaticae, has been denominated 
 the opprobrium botanicorum. 
 
 ALGAGLIOLA, a small sea-port town in the 
 island of Corsica, fortified with walls and bas- 
 tions. It was almost destroyed by the malcon- 
 tents in 1731 but has since been repaired. Lon. 
 9. 45'. E. lat. 42. 10. N. 
 
 ALG AUDI, ALESSANDRO, in biography, an 
 eminent artist, as a sculptor and archtitect, born at 
 Bologna in 1598. He became a disciple o 
 Julius Caesar Conventi, and acquired a reputa- 
 tion in sculpture little inferior to that of Michael 
 Angelo Buonaroti. He also frequented the 
 school of the Caraccii, from whom he probably 
 learned the art of engraving, as his style re- 
 sembles that of Augustino Caracci, being slight 
 and free, and his execution with the graver is bold 
 and open. In 1625, when at Rome, he became 
 acquainted with Domenichino, who obtained for 
 him the statuary work of the chapel Bandini, 
 which he was painting. For some years before he 
 had been chiefly employed in repairing antiques 
 and modelling for goldsmiths ; but his talents and 
 reputation now procured him superior work. 
 The first display of his powers was a statue of 
 St Philip de Neri, in the sacristy of the oratory 
 at Rome. His group of the decollation of St. 
 Paul for the Barnabite church at Bologna, and 
 the tomb of Leo XI. at St. Peter's were among 
 the first efforts of his genius. One of his prin- 
 cipal performances was a bas-relief in this ca- 
 thedral, thirty-two feet by eighteen, representing 
 the story of Attila, the labour of four years, and 
 which, when finished, gained him universal ap- 
 plause, also the honour of knighthood and the 
 golden cross. His bronze figure of Innocent 
 XI. is reckoned the finest of all the statues of 
 the popes in Rome. A crucifix likewise, called 
 by way of distinction, Algardi's crucifix, has 
 been much admired, and often copied. He was 
 assiduous and quick in execution, but, becoming 
 infirm, he was compelled to avail himself of the 
 assistance of his pupils, of whom he formed an 
 eminent school. He died in 1654, at the age of 
 fifty-two years. He lived in celibacy, and left 
 his property to his sister. His works are held 
 in high estimation, though the air of his heads 
 are esteemed too studied. 
 
 ALGAROTH, powder of, is a white oxyd of 
 antimony, which may be obtained by precipita- 
 ting the oxymuriate of antimony in pure water. 
 The precipitate when dried is called algaroth. 
 Although the ease with which it may be obtained 
 might render it advantageous as an antimonial 
 medicine, the London practice has entirely re- 
 jected it, but it is used at Edinburgh and on 
 the continent as the basis of emetic tartar or 
 tartarized antimony. 
 
 ALGAROTTI, (Count,) a celebrated Italian 
 writer, a native of Padua. Led by curiosity and 
 a desire of improvement, he travelled early into 
 foreign countries ; and was very young when he 
 arrived in France in 1736. Here he composed
 
 572 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 his Newtonianismo pour des Dames. He was 
 noticed by Frederic, king of Prussia, who con- 
 ferred on him the honour of knighthood, a con- 
 sulship, and the post of chamberlain. He died 
 at Pisa in 1764 ; and ordered his own mausoleum 
 with this inscription to be fixed upon it : ' Hie 
 jacet Algarettus, sed non omnis.' i. e. ' Here lies 
 Algarotti ; but not the whole of him." He was 
 a great connoisseur in painting, sculpture, and 
 architecture, and contributed much to the re- 
 formation of the Italian opera. His works are 
 numerous, and upon a variety of subjects, 
 abounding with vivacity, elegance, and wit : 
 According to the last and most correct edition of 
 Venice, 1790 and 1794, they form seventeen vo- 
 lumes 8vo., and consist of Memoirs of his Life 
 and Writings ; An Analysis of the Newtonian 
 System ; Pieces on Architecture, &c. ; Tra- 
 vels in Russia; Letters on Painting, &c. &c. 
 
 ALGARVA, once an independent kingdom, 
 and now a southern province in the kingdom 
 of Portugal, sixty-seven miles in length and 
 twenty in breadth ; bounded on the south and 
 west by the sea, on the east by the Guadiana, 
 and on the north by Alentejo. It is very fertile 
 in figs, almonds, dates, olives, and excellent 
 wines; the fishery also is extensive. The capital 
 town is Pharo. It contains four cities, twelve 
 
 towns, sixty-seven parishes, and about 96,000 
 inhabitants. 
 
 ALGATES', } Sax. aljearer 1 , all-ways. Gate 
 ALGETE'.. J is the same as via, a way. 
 Todd's Johnson. . Tooke supposes it to mean 
 all-gett, and says, get is sometimes spelt by 
 Chaucer geate. Geate, pronounced as here writ- 
 ten, is used for gate in the rustic dialect of the 
 western counties. Does this favour Johnson's 
 etymology ? By all means, notwithstanding. 
 Alfreds was eldest, non mot his wille withhald 
 To London he wild allegate to speke with kyng 
 Harald. R. Brunne, p. 52. 
 
 He wolde, algate, his trouth holde, 
 As euery knight thereto is holde, 
 What hap soeuer him is befall. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. book i. 
 
 Bifore alle thingis haue ye charite ech to othire, 
 in yousilff algatis lastinge for charite keuerith the 
 multitude of synnes. Wicklif. 1 Peter, c. iv. 
 
 Nor had the boaster ever risen more, 
 But that Renaldo's horse ev'n then down fell j 
 And, with the fall, his leg oppress'd so sore ; 
 That, for a space, there must he algates dwell. 
 
 Fairfax, 
 
 ALGAVAREIA, the language anciently 
 spoken by the Moors, or Moriscoes in Spain. 
 It was a dialect of Arabic, and stood contradis- 
 tinguished from the ALGAMEIA. 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY, DEFINITION AND HISTORY OF 
 ALGEBRA, 
 
 We cannot introduce this science better, than 
 by the derivations and definition of the word, 
 and the account of the origin of the art, given 
 by Dr. Johnson. 
 
 ALGEBRA, n. s. an Arabic word of uncer- 
 tain etymology ; derived, by some, from Geber 
 the philosopher ; by some, from gefr, parchment ; 
 by others, from algehista, a bone-setter ; by Me- 
 nage, from algiabarat, the restitution of things 
 broken. This is a peculiar kind of arithmetic, 
 which considers the quantity sought, as if it were 
 known, and by means of its relation to one or 
 more quantities given, proceeds by consequence, 
 till the quantity at first only supposed to be 
 known, is found to be equal to some quantity or 
 quantities which are known, and consequently 
 itself is known. This art was in use among the 
 Arabs, long before it came into this part of the 
 world ; and they are supposed to have borrowed 
 it from the Persians, and the Persians from the 
 Indians. The first Greek author of algebra, was 
 Diaphantus, who, about the year 800, wrote thir- 
 teen books. In 1494, Lucas Pacciolus, or Lucas 
 de Burgos, a cordelier, printed a treatise on alge- 
 bra, in Italian, at Venice. He says, that algebra 
 came originally from the Arabs. After several 
 improvements, by Vieta, Oughtred, Harriot, and 
 Descartes, Sir Isaac Newton brought this art to 
 the height at which it still continues. Trevoux, 
 Chambers. 
 
 To be more particular, algebra is defined, by 
 authors who have written expressly upon the 
 
 subject, to be a general method of computation- 
 by means of signs and symbols, commonly the 
 letters of the alphabet, by which numbers or 
 any other quantities are represented, and hence 
 it is called universal arithmetic, literal arithmetic, 
 and the arithmetic of signs. 
 
 Besides the derivations above quoted, several 
 other fanciful etymologies have been given of 
 the word algebra. By the Arabians it is coupled 
 with the word macabelah, signifying opposition 
 and comparison. Thus, algebra almacabelah 
 is used by them to express what we properly 
 call algebra; and which is explained to be the 
 act of restitution and comparison, or opposi- 
 tion and comparison, or resolution and equa- 
 tion. Some, with great probability, derive it 
 from geber, by prefixing the article al, which 
 properly signifies the reduction of fractions to a 
 whole number. 
 
 ALGEBRA seems not to have been wholly un- 
 known to the ancient mathematicians. We see 
 the traces and the effects of it, in many places, 
 though it looks as if they had designedly con- 
 cealed it. Something of it there seems to be in 
 Euclid, or at least in Theon upon Euclid, who 
 observes that Plato had begun to teach it. 
 There are instances of it in Pappus, and more 
 in Archimedes and Apollonius. But the ana- 
 lysis used by those authors is rather geome- 
 trical than algebraical ; as appears by the 
 examples we find in their works : so that we 
 may safely say, that Diophantus is the first 
 and only author among the Greeks, who has 
 treated of algebra professedly. It was known, 
 however, among the Arabs, much earlier than
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 570 
 
 long the Greeks; and :he Arabs carried it into 
 Spain; whence, some are ofj>pinion, that it 
 
 Algebra, specious or literal, or the new aige- 
 bra, is tha. wherein both the known and un- 
 
 passed into England, before Diophantus was known quantities are represented by symbols 
 known among us. Only six of Diophantus's or by letters of the alphabet. This eases the 
 books are extant. They were translated into memory of that effort, otherwise required to 
 Latin, by Xylander, m 1575 ; and published in keep several matters necessary for the discovery 
 1621, in Greek and Latin by M. Bachet and of the object of research, present to the mind 
 This algebra of Diophantus only ex- hence, this art may be properly denominated 
 the solution of arithmetical indeter- metaphysical geometry. 
 
 Quantities which can be measured, are the 
 object of mathematics. They may be divided 
 into two kinds, number and extension. The 
 former is treated of in arithmetic : the latter in 
 geometry. Numbers are ranged in a scale by the 
 continued repetition of some one number, which 
 is called the root ; and, in consequence of this 
 
 Fermat. 
 tends to 
 
 minate problems. The first European writer on 
 algebra is Lucas Pacciolus, or Lucas de Burgos, 
 a Minorite friar, who, having previously given 
 small treatises, published at Venice, in the year 
 1494, his principal work in Italian on algebra. 
 He makes mention of Leonardus Pisanus, and 
 some others, of whom he had learned the art; 
 
 and adds, that algebra came originally from the order, they are conveniently expressed in words 
 Arabs; but, as he never mentions Diophan- J 
 tus, it is probable, that that author was not then 
 known in Europe. His algebra goes no farther 
 than simple and quadratic equations, and posi- 
 tive roots only are used. After him came Sti- 
 felius, cipio Ferreus, Cardan, Tartaglia, and 
 some others, who reached as far as the solution 
 of some cubic equations. Bombelli followed 
 these, and went a little farther. Nunnius, Ramus, 
 
 and denoted by characters. Investigations by 
 common arithmetic are greatly limited, from the 
 want of characters to express the quantities that 
 are unknown, and their relations to each other 
 and to such as are known. Hence letters and 
 other convenient symbols have been introduced 
 to supply this defect; and thus gradually has 
 arisen the science of algebra, or universal arith- 
 metic. In common arithmetic, too, the given 
 
 Schoner, Salignac, Clavius, &c. took different numbers disappear in the course of the opera- 
 
 ation, so that general rules can seldom be 
 derived from it; but, in algebra, the known 
 quantities, as well as the unknown, may be 
 expressed by letters, which, through the whole 
 operation, retain their original form ; and hence 
 every particular example furnishes a general rule 
 for all like cases, and the mutual dependence 
 of the several quantities concerned, is always 
 apparent. This general method of expressing 
 quantities, and the general reasonings concern- 
 ing their connections which may be founded 
 on it, have rendered this science not less useful 
 in the demonstration of theorems, than in the 
 resolution of problems. If geometrical quan- 
 tities be supposed to be divided into equal parts 
 their relations, or their proportions, may be ex- 
 pressed by numbers; one of these equal parts 
 being denoted by the unit. Arithmetic, however, 
 is used in expressing only the conclusions of 
 geometrical propositions ; and it is by algebra 
 that the bounds and application of geometry 
 have, of late, been so far extended. The proper 
 objects of mathematical science are number and 
 extension; but mathematical enquiries may be 
 instituted also concerning any physical quantities, 
 that are capable of being measured or expressed 
 by numbers and extended magnitudes : and as 
 the application of algebra may be equally univer- 
 sal, it has been called the Science of Quantity 
 in general. 
 
 courses, but none of them went farther than 
 quadratics. In 1590, Vieta introduced his Spe- 
 cious Arithmetic, denoting the quantities, both 
 known and unknown, by symbols or letters. 
 He also gave an ingenious method of extract- 
 ing the roots of equations, by approximations ; 
 since greatly improved and facilitated by Raph- 
 son, Halley, Maclaurin, Simpson, and others. 
 Oughtred, an Englishman, in his Clavis Ma- 
 thematica, printed in 1631, improved Vieta's 
 method, and invented several compendious cha- 
 racters, to show the sums, differences, rectangles, 
 squares, cubes, &c. Harriot, another English- 
 man, cotemporary with Oughtred, left at his 
 death, a work on Algebra, which was printed 
 in 1631. In it Vieta's method is put into a 
 form, which is still in estimation. In 1657, 
 Des Cartes published his geometry, in which 
 he applied Harriot's method to the higher geo- 
 metry, explaining the nature of curves by equa- 
 tions, and adding the constructions of cubic, 
 biquadratic, and other higher equations. From 
 the time of Des Cartes, continual improvements 
 have been made in the science, by Baker, Fer- 
 mat, Schooten, Slucius, Wallis, Newton, Mer- 
 cator, Demoivre, Maclaurin, Landen, Euler, 
 Waring, Lorgna, Bernouilli, Prestet, Ozanam, 
 Kersey, Roberval, Guisnee, Ghetaldus, Pell, 
 Ward, Hammond, Saunderson, Le Gendre, 
 Arbogast, Vince, Waring, Herschel, Babbage, 
 fcc. &c. 
 
 PART I. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ALGEBRA is of two kinds, numeral and literal. 
 Algebra, numeral or vulgar, is that of the 
 ancients, which only had place in tne resolution 
 of arithmetical questions. In this, the quantity 
 sought is represented by some letter or charac- 
 ter; but all the given quantities are expressed 
 by numbers. This is thought by some to have 
 proved an introduction to the art of keeping mer- 
 chants' accounts by double entry. 
 
 DEFINITIONS. 
 
 1 . Known quantities are generally represented 
 by the first letters of the alphabet, as a, b, c, &c. 
 Unknown by the last letters, as x, y, z, &c. 
 
 2. The sign + (plus) is a mark of addition. 
 Thus a + b denotes the sum of a and b ; 3 + 5 
 denotes the sum of 3 and 5; or 8. When no 
 sign is expressed, -J- is understood. 
 
 3. The sign (ir.mus) denotes subtraction 
 Thus a b denotes the excess of a above b ; 6 2 
 is the excess of 6 above 2. <r 4.
 
 574 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 4. Quantities with the sign + prefixed to them 
 are called positive or affirmative ; with the 
 sign prefixed to them are called negative. 
 
 5. The sign x denotes multiplication. Thus 
 5 k 4 means 5 multiplied into 4, or 20 ; a x b 
 means a multiplied by b ; and when two letters 
 are adjacent without any mark, multiplication is 
 understood. Thus a b means a x b. 
 
 6. -7- is the mark of division; thus a-=- b means 
 a divided by b : or the quotient of two quantities 
 is denoted by placing the dividend above a small 
 line and the divisor below it in the form of a 
 
 1 8 
 
 fraction. Thus is the quotient of 18 divided 
 3 
 
 by 3 ; or 6. 
 
 7. A number prefixed to a letter is called its 
 numeral co-efficient, and it expresses the product 
 of the quantity by that number. When no num- 
 ber is prefixed, unit is understood. 
 
 8. A simple quantity consists of one part or 
 term, as + a, abc; a compound quantity con- 
 sists of more than one term, connected by the 
 signs + or . Thus a + b, a b + c, are com- 
 pound quantities. If there are two terms, it is 
 called a binomial ; if three, a trinomial, &c. 
 
 9. Like quantities consist of the same letter 
 or letters, equally repeated. Thus + ab, Sab, 
 are like quantities; but + ab, and + aab are 
 unlike. 
 
 10. The sign z: is the mark of equality. Thus 
 x + a b c means, that the sum of x and a is 
 equal to the excess of b above c. 
 
 11. When several quantities are multiplied 
 together, any of them is called a factor of the 
 product. 
 
 12. The products arising from the con- 
 tinual multiplication of the same quantity are 
 called the powers of that quantity, which is the 
 root. Thus aa, aaa, aaaa, &c. are powers of the 
 root a ; and are expressed, by placing above the 
 root, to the right hand, a figure called the index 
 or exponent, denoting how often the root is re- 
 peated. Thus, 
 
 ^ -d C lst ~) Power of the r a> or a 
 aa f a) 1 2d f root a, and is 1 a 3 
 aaa f o~ J3d otherwise ex-)a c 
 aaaa * .2 v4th J pressed by v.a 4 
 
 The 2d and 3d powers are generally called the 
 square and the cube ; and the 4th, 5th, and 6th, 
 are sometimes respectively called the biquadrate, 
 sursolid, and cubocube. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 SECT. I. FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONS. 
 
 The fundamental operations in Algebra are 
 performed by addition, subtraction, multiplica- 
 tion, and division. 
 
 PROB. I. To add algebraic quantities. 
 
 Simple quantities, or the terms of compound 
 quantities, to be added together, may be like 
 with like signs, like with unlike signs, or they 
 may be unlike. 
 
 Case \ . To add terms that are like and have 
 like signs. 
 
 Rule. Add together the co-efficients, to their 
 sum prefix the common sign, and subjoin the 
 common letter or letters. 
 
 Examv. To 5ab 
 Add 4ab 
 
 Sum Qab 
 
 3aa ab 
 7aa lab 
 4aa 5ab 
 
 14o Qab 
 
 Case 2. To add terms that are like, but have 
 unlike signs. 
 
 Rule. Subtract the less co-efficient from the 
 greater, prefix the sign of the greater to the re- 
 mainder, and subjoin the common letter or 
 letters. 
 
 + 3a 
 
 + 7bc 
 < 3bc 
 + be 
 
 + 5bc 
 
 5ab 
 + 2ab 
 + 3ab 
 
 Case 3. To add terms that are unlike. 
 
 Rule. Set them down, one after another, with 
 their signs and co-efficients prefixed. 
 
 2a + 36 6c + 8 
 
 Compound quantities are added together, by 
 uniting the several terms of which they consist 
 by the preceding rules. 
 
 f5ab 3xy 
 Ex. The sum of < 7xy ab + 15 
 
 is 4ab 3cd +15 4wm 
 PROB. II. To subtract algebraic quantities. 
 
 General Rule. Change the signs of the quan- 
 tity to be subtracted into the contrary signs, and 
 then add it, so changed, to the quantity from 
 which it was to be subtracted ; the sum arising 
 by this addition is the remainder. 
 
 Ex. From + 5a 7ab I6bc 
 Subtract + 3a Sab + mb 
 Rem. + 2a 4a6 166c mb 
 
 When a positive quantity is to be subtracted, 
 the rule is obvious. In order to show it, when 
 the negative part of a quantity is to be subtracted, 
 let c d be subtracted from a, the remainder, 
 according to the rule, is a c + d. For if c is 
 subtracted from a, the remainder is a c ; but 
 this is too small, because c is subtracted instead 
 of c d, which is less than it by d; the remain- 
 der therefore is too small by d; and d being 
 added, it is a c + d, according to the rule. 
 
 PROB. III. To multiply algebraic quantities. 
 
 General Rule for the Signs. When the signs 
 of the two terms to be multiplied are like, the 
 sign of the product is + ; but when the signs 
 are unlike, the sign of the product is . 
 
 Case 1 . To multiply two terms. 
 
 Rule. Find the sign of the product by the 
 general rule ; after it place the product of the 
 numeral co-efficients, and set down the letters 
 one after another. 
 
 Mult. + a 
 By +6 
 
 + 5b 
 3c 
 
 5ax 
 
 lab 
 
 + ab 156c + 35aabx 
 
 The reason of this rule is derived from Def. 
 
 5. and from the nature of multiplication, which 
 
 is a repeated addition of one of the quantities 
 
 to be multiplied as often as there are units in
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 57; 
 
 the other. Hence also the letters in two terms 
 to be multiplied together may be placed in any 
 order, and therefore the order of the alphabet is 
 generally preferred. 
 Case 2. To multiply compound quantities. 
 
 Rule. Multiply every term of the multipli- 
 cand by all the terms of the multiplier, one after 
 another, according to the preceding rule, and 
 then collect all the products into one sum ; the 
 sum is the product required. 
 Ex. 1. Mult. 2a + 36 
 By 3a.r 4by 
 
 6aax 
 
 Qaby I2bby 
 
 Prod . 6aax + Vabx Qaby 1 2bby 
 
 Ex. 2. Mult, m + x 
 BY m x 
 
 Prod. mm 
 
 Ex. 3. Mult, a b 
 By c d 
 
 ac cb 
 ad + db 
 
 Prod. ac cb ad -\- db 
 Powers of the same root are multiplied by 
 adding their exponents. Thus, a 8 x a 3 a 5 , or 
 aa x aaa ~ aaaaa, b 3 x b rz fr 4 . 
 
 On the General Rule for the Signs. 
 
 The reason of the rule will appear from the 
 iast mentioned example of a b multiplied by 
 c d, in which every case of it occurs. 
 
 Since multiplication is a repeated addition of 
 the multiplicand, as often as there are units in the 
 multiplier, if a b is to multiplied by c, a b 
 must be added to itself as often as there are units 
 in c, and the product therefore must be ca cb. 
 
 But this product is too great ; for a b is to 
 be multiplied, not by c, but by c d only, which 
 is the excess of c above d; d times a b there- 
 fore, or da db, has been too much ; hence this 
 quantity must be subtracted from the former part 
 of the product, and the remainder, which is 
 ca cb da + db, will be the true product re- 
 quired. 
 
 Scholium. 
 
 Sometimes the multiplication of quantities is 
 expressed by setting them down with the sign 
 (X) between them, without performing the 
 operation according to the preceding rales ; thus 
 b x c d expresses the product of a b, 
 multiplied by c d ; and the line drawn over 
 any number of terms of a compound quantity, 
 is called a vinculum, the quantities under the 
 vinculum being collectively considered as one 
 quantity. 
 
 Thus also a + b} 2 expresses the second power 
 of a + b, or the product of that quantity multi- 
 plied by itself; whereas a + b 2 would express 
 only the sum of a and 6 2 . By some writers a 
 parenthesis () is used as a vinculum, and (a + b) 
 is the same thing as a -+- b\ 9 . 
 
 PROB. IV. To divide algebraic quantities. 
 
 General Rule for the Signs. If the signs of 
 the divisor and dividend are alike, the sign of the 
 quotient is + ; if they are unlike, the sign of the 
 quotient is . 
 
 This rule is easily deduced from that given in 
 Prob. III. for, from the nature of division, the 
 quotient must be such a quantity as, multiplied 
 by the divisor, should produce the dividend with 
 its proper sign. 
 
 Case 1. When the divisor is simple, and a 
 factor of all the terms of the dividend. 
 
 Rule. Expunge the letter or letters in the 
 divisor from each term of the dividend, divide 
 the co-efficient of each term by the co-efficient 
 of the divisor ; and the quantity resulting is the 
 quotient. 
 Ex. a)ab(b. 2a 2 6) 6a 3 bc 4a?bdm (Sac 2dm. 
 
 The reason of this is evident from the nature 
 of division, and from Def. 5. Note. It is ob- 
 vious that powers of the same root are divided 
 by subtracting their exponents. 
 
 Thus a 2 ) a 3 (a. a 3 ) a 7 (a 4 . Also a 2 6) a 3 6 6 (ab*. 
 
 Case 2. When the divisor is simple, but not a 
 factor of the dividend. 
 
 Rule. The quotient is expressed by placing 
 the dividend above a line, and the divisor below it. 
 
 Thus, the quotient of 3ab divided by 2mc iz 
 
 i. < 3a6 
 the traction- 
 
 2?nc 
 
 Cose 3. When the divisor is compound. 
 
 Rule 1. Arrange the terms of the dividend 
 according to the powers of some one of its letters ; 
 and those of the divisor, according to the powers 
 of the same letter. 
 
 Thus, if a 2 +2a6 + 6 2 is the dividend, and 
 a + b the divisor, they are ranged according to 
 the powers of a. 
 
 2. Divide the first term of the dividend by 
 the first term of the divisor ; and set this quotient 
 down as a part of the quotient wanted, multiply 
 the whole divisor by it, and subtract the product 
 from the dividend. If nothing remain, the di- 
 vision is finished: consider the remainder, if 
 there is any, as a new dividend. 
 
 3. Divide the first term of this new dividend 
 by the first term of the divisor as before, and join 
 the quotient, with its proper sign, to the part 
 already found : then multiply the divisor by this 
 part of the quotient, and subtract the product 
 from the new dividend ; and thus the operation 
 is to be continued till no remainder is left. 
 
 Thus, a 2 , divided by a, gives a, which is the 
 first part of the quotient wanted : and the pro- 
 duct of this part by the whole divisor a + b, is 
 a 2 + ab, which being subtracted from the given 
 dividend, there remains ab + b 3 for a new divi- 
 dend. 
 
 Then, + ab, the first term of the new divi- 
 dend, divided by a, gives b; the product of 
 which, by a + b, being subtracted from ab + b , 
 nothing remains, and a + b is therefore the true 
 quotient. 
 
 a 2 + 
 
 ab 
 ab
 
 576 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 1 a) 1 ( 1 + a'+ a' + 
 1 a 
 
 45)63(1 
 45 
 
 
 
 a 2 
 
 + a 3 , &c. 
 
 In this example there is a remainder, from 
 which the operation may be continued with- 
 out end ; the quotient is called an infinite series. 
 By comparing a few of the first terms, the law of 
 the series may be discovered, and it may be con- 
 tinued to any number of terms wanted. 
 
 SECT. II. ON ALGEBRAIC FRACTIONS. 
 Definition. 
 
 In a fraction, the quantity above the line is 
 called the numerator ; and that below it is called 
 the denominator. 
 
 If both the numerator and derwrninator of the 
 fraction be either multiplied or divided by the 
 same quantity, the value of that fraction is the 
 same. 
 
 Thus, let ~ c, then r c. For, from the 
 o mo 
 
 nature of division, if the quotient -r-(nc) be 
 multiplied by the divisor b, the product must 
 be the dividend a. Hence ( -j- X b ~ Jbc ~ a, 
 
 and likewise ma mbc, and dividing both by 
 
 , ma , ., ma 
 
 mo, r c - Conversely, it r c, then also 
 ' mb " mb 
 
 a _ 
 
 Cor. \. Hence a fraction may be reduced to 
 another of the same value, but of a more simple 
 form, by dividing both numerator and denomina- 
 tor by any common measure. 
 
 mS) 30 f -M y_5 f -v. 
 
 Cor. 2. A fraction is multiplied by any integer, 
 by multiplying the numerator, or dividing the 
 denominator by that integer ; and conversely, a 
 fraction is divided by any integer, by dividing 
 the numerator, or multiplying the denominator 
 by that integer. 
 
 PROB. I. To find the greatest common measure 
 of two quor.aties. 
 
 1. OF PURE NUMBERS. 
 
 Rule. Divide the greater by the less ; and, if 
 there is no remainder, the less is the greatest 
 common measure required. If there is a re- 
 mainder, divide the last divisor by it; and thus 
 proceed, continually dividing the last divisor by 
 its remainder, till no remainder is left, and the 
 last divisor is the greatest common measure re- 
 quired. The greatest common measure of 45 
 and 63 is 9 ; the greatest common measure of 
 187 and 391 is 17. Thus, 
 
 18)45(2 
 36 
 
 9)18(2 
 
 18 
 
 . - > _ 
 
 
 The rule depends on the two following principles : 
 
 1. A quantity which measures both divisor 
 and remainder must measure the dividend. 
 
 2. A quantity which measures both divisor 
 and dividend must also measure the remainder. 
 
 For a quantity which measures two other 
 quantities, must also measure both their sum and 
 difference ; and, from the nature of division, the 
 dividend consists of the divisor repeated a cer 
 tain number of times, together with the remain- 
 der. By the first it appears, that the number 
 found by this rule is a common measure ; and, 
 by the second, it is plain there can be no greater 
 common measure ; for, if there were, it must 
 necessarily measure the quantity already fount* 
 less than itself, which is absurd. 
 
 When the greatest common measure of alge- 
 braical quantities is required, if either of them be 
 simple, any common simple divisor is easily 
 found by inspection. If they are both compound, 
 any common simple divisor may also be found 
 by inspection. But when the greatest compound 
 divisor is wanted, the preceding rule is to be 
 applied ; only, 
 
 2. The simple divisors of each of the quantities 
 are to be taken out, the remainders in the several 
 operations are also to be divided by their simple 
 divisors, and the quantities are always to be ranged 
 according to the powers of the same letter. 
 
 The simple divisors in the given quantities, or 
 in the remainders, do not affect a compound di- 
 visor which is wanted ; and hence also, to make 
 the division succeed, any of the dividends may be 
 multiplied by a simple quantity. For the simple 
 divisors in the remainders, not being found in 
 the divisors from which they arise, can make no 
 part of the common measure sought ; and for the 
 same reason, if in such a remainder there be any 
 compound divisor, which does not measure the di- 
 visor from which it proceeds, it may be taken out. 
 Examples. 
 
 lab -f- 2& 2 Remainder winch 
 divided by 2& is a b ) a 2 b 2 (a + b 
 a 2 Z> 2 
 
 If the quantities given are 8a 2 6 2 10a 3 + 26 4 , 
 aud 9aW 9a 3 6 2 +3a'& 3 3a& 4 . The simple 
 divisors being expunged from each, viz. 26 2 from 
 the first, it becomes 4a 2 Sab -f b 1 , and Sab 
 from the second, it is 3a 3 b 3 3a 2 6 -f- ab 3 b 3 . As 
 the latter is to be divided by the former, it must 
 be multiplied by 4, to make the operation suc- 
 ceed, and then it is as follows:
 
 1 5ab + 
 
 12a 3 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 46 3 (3a 
 
 577 
 
 46 s 
 
 Divide this remainder by 6, and multiply the 
 new dividend by 3, to make the division proceed. 
 Thus, 
 
 a 2 \$ab + 36 2 (4 
 12a 3 + 4ab 16fc 2 
 
 Ex. Add together 2 1 J.the sum is ? 
 6 dj 
 
 bdf 
 
 From r- subt. - the difference is 
 6 d 
 
 ad be 
 
 pr . 
 
 bd 
 
 This remainder divided by 196, gives a 
 i, which, being made a divisor, divides 3a 2 -f- ab 
 4b 3 without a remainder, and therefore a 6 
 is the greatest compound divisor ; but there is a 
 simple divisor b, and therefore a b x b is the 
 greatest common measure required. 
 
 PROB. II. To reduce a fraction to its lowest 
 terms. 
 
 Rule. Divide both numerator and denominator 
 by their greatest common measure. 
 
 75abc 3a 
 
 Inus - , 25oc being the greatest com- 
 1 4>o0cjc OJT 
 
 * _ b* 2 + b* 
 mon measure ; - 5 . 
 a 5 fl j o* a 3 
 
 PROB. III. To reduce an integer to a fraction. 
 
 Rule. Multiply the given integer by any quan- 
 tity for a numerator, and set that quantity under 
 the product for a denominator. 
 
 _, _ ma a?b 3 
 
 Inus, a ~ , a -f- b - =-. 
 m a o 
 
 The denominoter of an integer is unity. 
 
 PROB. IV. To reduce fractions with different 
 denominators to fractions of equal value, that 
 shall have the same denominator. 
 
 Rule. Multiply each numerator, separately 
 taken, into all the denominators but its own, and 
 the products will be the new numerators ; and 
 multiply all the denominators for the common 
 denominator. 
 
 Example. Let the fractions be , , -- , r^ they are 
 
 adf bcf bde 
 ictively equal to j-j-., - j-^. 
 
 Cor. 1. Integers and fractions may be added 
 and subtracted by this rule, by considering unity 
 as the denominator of the integers. 
 
 ,p, , c bd + c a 2 6 2 
 
 Thus, b + - -~, and a -- = 
 ad 2a 
 
 2a 3 a 2 + b 2 _ a 2 + b 3 
 2a ~"~ 2a ' 
 
 Cor. 2. A fraction, whose numerator is a 
 compound quantity, may be distinguished into 
 parts, by dividing the numerator into several 
 parts, setting each over the original denomina- 
 tor, and uniting the new fractions by the signs 
 of their numerators. 
 
 _, o 2 2ai + b* a* lab 6 2 
 Thus, 
 
 2a 
 
 2a 
 
 2a 
 
 PROB. VI. To multiply fractions. 
 
 Rule. Multiply their numerators together for 
 the numerator of the product ; and the denomi- 
 tors, for the denominator of the product. 
 
 ^ a c ac a-\-b a b a* b 3 
 Wr *. v ~~ _ v _ ~~ 
 
 * ** . i A. , ^ . . /^ . ^^ ; . 
 
 b d bd c , d cd 
 
 Proof. Let t m, and -rn Then a~bm, and 
 
 The reason of the operation appears from the 
 preceding proposition ; for the numerator and 
 denominator of each fraction are multiplied by 
 the same quantities; and the value of the fractions 
 therefore is the same. 
 
 PROB. V. To add and subtract fractions. 
 
 Rule. Reduce them to a common denomina- 
 OT, then add or subtract the numerators ; and 
 toe sum or difference placed over the common 
 denominator is the sum or remainder required. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 c -=jdn, and acbdnm, and m( -Xj) = 
 
 PROB. VII. To divide fractions. 
 
 Rule. Multiply the- numerator of the dividend 
 by the denominator of the divisor, for the nume- 
 rator ; and the denominator of the dividend by 
 the numerator of the divisor, for the denomina- 
 tor of the quotient. 
 
 c a be c b 
 
 Thus, -7 -f- r ' 1 = < 7 X -. 
 
 ' d b ad d a 
 
 Proof. Let r =. m, and = n ; then a bm, 
 
 b d 
 
 and c dn ; also ad bdm and be r: bdn ; there 
 
 /bdn \ n be 
 
 tore, i 7-5 I -f 
 
 ' \bdrn / m ad 
 
 CHAP. It 
 
 SECT. I. OF EQUATIONS. 
 Definitions. 
 
 1. An equation is a proposition asserting the 
 equality of two quantities, and is expressed by 
 placing the sign =. between them. 
 
 2. Equations containing only one unknown 
 quantity and its powers, are divided into orders, 
 
 2 P
 
 578 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 un . 
 
 st-) 1st, f The ~\ Simple, 
 n- f , > equa- f Quadratic 
 in ( ) tion is ( 
 
 J 3d, &c. Vcalled ) Cubicle. 
 
 according to the highest power of the unknown 
 quantity to be found in any of its terms. 
 
 If \he highest- 1st, f The ~\ Simple, 
 pcwer of the un- 
 known quantity in 
 any term be the 
 
 It is here supposed that the exponents of the 
 unknown quantity are integers, and that the 
 equation is cleared of such fractions a? the un- 
 known quantity in the denominator. 
 
 3x - b 
 
 Thus, x + a = - is a simple equation ; 
 c 
 
 3# __ 12, when cleared of the fraction "by 
 
 AtX 
 
 multiplying both sides by 2*, becomes 6x* 
 5 = 24ns a quadratic,^ 2,r 4 = x 6 20 is an 
 equation of the sixth order, &c. 
 
 To resolve an equation is to find the value of 
 the unknown term. 
 
 of the equation, with the same sign, it may be 
 taken away from both. 
 
 Also, if all the terms in the equation are mul- 
 tiplied or divided by the same quantity, it maj 
 by taken out of them all. 
 
 Ex. If 3x + a a + b, then 3tf b. 
 
 If 2ax + 3ai -=.ma\- a?, then 2x + 36 = 
 m + a. 
 
 By these rules the unknown term may be 
 separated from the known, and the equation 
 resolved. 
 
 Examples of simple equations resolved by these 
 rules. 
 
 Ex. 1. If 3* + 5 = *+ 9 
 
 \. Of simple equations, and rules for their 
 resolution. 
 
 Rule 1. Any quantity may be transposed from 
 one side of an equation to the other, by changing 
 its sign. 
 
 Thus, if 3x 10=2* + 5 
 
 Then, ST 2x 10 + 5 or x =. 15 
 
 Thus also, 5x + b = a + 2* 
 
 By transp. 3r ~ a b. 
 
 For equal quantities are thus added to or sub- 
 tracted from both sides. 
 
 Cor. The signs of all the terms of an eq -ation 
 may be changed into the contrary signs, and it 
 will continue to be true. 
 
 Rule 2, Any quantity, by which the unknown 
 quantity is multiplied, may be taken away, by 
 dividing all the other quantities of the equation 
 by it. 
 
 Thus, if ax ~ b 
 
 b 
 
 x zz 
 a 
 
 Also, if mx -\- nb zz am 
 
 , nb 
 
 x H a 
 
 m 
 
 For if equal quantities are divided by the same 
 quantity, the quotients are equal. 
 
 Rule 3. If a term of an equation is fractional, 
 its denominator may be taken away by multi- 
 plying all the other terms by it. 
 
 Thus, if - b + c. 
 x zz ab -f- ac 
 
 Also, if a - zz c 
 
 x 
 
 ax b c.r 
 And by trans, ax ex b 
 
 And by div. x ~ . 
 
 a c 
 
 For if all the terms of the equation are multi- 
 plied by the same quantity, the quantities on each 
 side will be equal. 
 
 Cor. If any quantity be found on both sides 
 
 Ex. 2. If 5* 
 
 30-r 15.r Qx 84. 
 Or 7x = 84 
 
 Ex. 3. If + = 16 
 
 20 + 9* = 64x 
 
 20 = 64.r 9z =. 55x 
 20 4 
 
 2. Solution of questions producing simple 
 equations. 
 
 . General Rule. The unknown quantities in the 
 question proposed must be expressed by letters, 
 and the relations of the known and unknown 
 quantities contained in it, or the conditions of it, 
 as they are called, must be expressed by equa- 
 tions. These equations being resolved give the 
 answer to the question. 
 
 For example, if the question is concerning two 
 numbers, they may be called x and y, and the 
 conditions from which they are to be investigated 
 must be expressible by equations. 
 
 Thus, if it be required that the^\ 
 
 sum of two numbers sought ( . QQ 
 
 be 60, that condition is ex- f ~" 3' 
 pressed thus : J 
 
 If their difference must be 24, then x y~ 24 
 
 If their product is 1640, then <ryzzl640 
 
 If their quotient must be 6, then - zz 6 
 
 Case 1. When there is only one unknown 
 quantity to be found. 
 
 Rule. An equation involving the unknown 
 quantity must be deduced from the question ; and 
 it is obvious, that when there is only one un-
 
 ALGEBRA, 
 
 579 
 
 known quantity, there must be only one inde- 
 pendent equation contained in the question ; for 
 any other would be unnecessary, and might be 
 contradictory to the former. 
 
 Example 1 . To find a number, to which if 
 there be added a half, a third part, and a fourth 
 part of itself, the sum will be fifty. 
 
 Let it be z ; then half of it is -, a third of it 
 
 Therefore, z + 
 
 = 50 
 
 z 
 4 
 
 1200 
 )^ 1200 
 z 24 
 
 se 2. When there are two unknown quan- 
 tities. 
 
 Rule. Two independent equations involving 
 the two unknown quantities, must be derived 
 from the question. A value of one of the un- 
 known quantities must be derived from each of 
 the equations ; and these two values being put 
 equal to each other, a new equation will arise, 
 involving only one unknown quantity. 
 
 Example 2. Two persons, A and B, were talk- 
 ing of their ages : says A to B, seven years ago 
 I was just three times as old as you were, and 
 seven years hence I shall be just twice as old as 
 you will be. What are their present ages ? 
 
 Let A's age x, and B's age y ; 
 then by the condition of the question we have 
 
 x 7 = 3 . y 7 and x + 7 2 . y + 7. 
 Subtracting the first of these equations from the 
 second, we have 
 
 these a value of one of the unknown quantities 
 must be obtained. By comparing these three 
 values, two equations will arise, involving only 
 two unknown quantities ; and in like' manner 
 may the rule be extended to such questions as 
 contain four or more unknown quantities. Hence, 
 it may be inferred, that when just as many inde- 
 pendent equations may be derived from a ques- 
 tion as there are unknown quantities in it, these 
 quantities may be found by the resolution of 
 equations. 
 
 Example 4. To find three numbers, such, 
 that the first, with half the other two, the second 
 with one third of the other two, and the third 
 with one fourth of the other two, may each be 
 equal to thirty-four. 
 
 Let the numbers be x, y, z, and the equations 
 
 2 .y + 7 3.;y 7 = 14; 
 or 7 t/ = 14, ory = 21. 
 Whence x = 49. 
 
 y + i^ = 34, 
 and z + - - = 34. 
 
 y 
 
 We have, hence, 
 
 *= 34 
 
 % 
 
 x 102 3^ z 
 and x 136 4z y. 
 By equating the first two of these latter equations, 
 
 we find y 136 f ~ Z ; by equating the last two, 
 
 we find y = 
 Hence 
 
 The ages of A and B then are forty-nine and 
 twenty-one. 
 
 Example 3. A gentleman distributing money 
 among some poor people, found he wanted ten 
 shillings to be able to give five shillings to each ; 
 he therefore gave each four shillings only, and 
 found he had five shillings left. To find the num- 
 ber of shillings and poor people. 
 
 If any question such as this, in which there are 
 two quantities sought, can be resolved by means 
 of one letter, the solution is, in general, more 
 simple than when two are employed. There 
 must be, however, two independent conditions ; 
 one of which is used in the notation of one of the 
 unknown quantities, and the other gives an equa- 
 tion. 
 
 Let the number of poor = 2, then each of the 
 equations 5z 10 and 42 + 5 will represent 
 the number of shillings. 
 
 Hence 5z 10 = 4z + 5, whence * = 15, 
 and, consequently, the number of shillings is 
 sixty-five. 
 
 Case 3. When there are three or more un- 
 known quantities. 
 
 Rule. When there are threp unknown quan- 
 tities, there must be three independent equations 
 arising from the question; and from each 
 
 3a 34 
 2 
 
 3g 34 _ 136 z or 
 ~T~ 5 ' 
 
 15z 170=272 22, or 17z=442, or z = 26 ; 
 whence y = 22 and x. = 10. 
 
 Scholium. 
 
 On many occasions, by particular contrivances, 
 the operations by the preceding rules may be 
 much abridged. This, however, must be left to 
 the skill and practice of the learner. A few ex- 
 amples are the following. 
 
 1 It is often easy to employ fewer letters than 
 there are unknown quantities, by expressing som 
 of them from their relation to others, contained 
 in the conditions of the question. 
 
 2. Sometimes it is convenient to express by 
 letters, not the unknown quantities themselves, 
 but some other quantities connected with .them, 
 as their sum, difference, &c. from which they 
 mav be easily derived. 
 
 i In the operation, also, circumstances wiU 
 sometimes suggest a more easy method Jhan > that 
 pointed out by the general rules Two of the 
 original equations may be added together or 
 may be subtracted; sometimes they must b 
 previously multiplied by some quantity, to r en- 
 er some' addition or subtraction effectual, m 
 exterminating one of the unknown quac titles, ^or 
 otherwise facilitating the solution. J " 
 
 may be made of the values of q uantltie ^,"J 
 place of quantities themselves, and vanous othe.
 
 580 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 such contrivances may be used, to render the 
 solution less complicated. 
 
 SECT. II. GENERAL SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS. 
 
 In the solutions of the questions in the pre- 
 ceding part, the given quantities (being numbers) 
 disappear in the last conclusion, so that no ge- 
 neral rules for the like cases can be deduced 
 from them. But if letters be used to denote the 
 known, as well as the unknown, quantities, a 
 general solution will be obtained, because during 
 the whole course of the operation, they retain 
 their original form. Hence, also, the connection 
 of the quantities will appear, in such a manner 
 as to discover the necessary limitations of the 
 data, when there are any, which is necessary to 
 the perfect solution of a problem. 
 
 Example 5. To find two numbers, of which 
 the sum and difference are given. 
 
 Let s be the sum given, and d the given diffe- 
 rence. Also, let x and y be the two numbers 
 sought. 
 
 Then x -f- y :n s and x y ~ d, 
 whence x ~ s y and x d + y, conse- 
 quently d + y .* y, or 2y s d, 
 
 s d ., s + d 
 
 or y zr - ; and hence x - . 
 
 Thus, let the given sum be 100, and the dif- 
 arence 24. 
 
 124 
 
 Then * - 
 
 And y ~- 
 
 f=3, 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 OF INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION 
 
 Lemma. 
 
 The reciprocals of the powers of a quantity 
 lay be expressed by that quantity, with negative 
 xponents of the same denomination. That is, 
 
 111 1 
 lie senes a, 1, -, , , -, &c. may be expressed 
 
 jy a 1 , a", a l , a 2 , a 3 , a - , &c. 
 
 For the powers of the same root are divided 
 by subtracting their exponents ; if then the index 
 of the divisor be greater than that of the divi- 
 dend, the index of the quotient will be negative. 
 
 T , a' 2 3 1 
 
 Ihus, no =: a 
 
 Also, = , - a*-"* a. 
 a 3 a 1 a" 
 
 a"* 
 Also, 1, and so on of others 
 
 Cor. These negative powers, as they are called, 
 are multiplied by adding, and divided by sub- 
 tracting, the exponents. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 -?X -3 = B 6. 
 
 fl " 1 n 1 \ 1 /' 
 
 s =1 a. Or 5 1 - I a*. 
 
 a 3 V a \a ~ 
 
 1. Of Involution. 
 
 To find any power of a quantity is the busi- 
 ness of involution. 
 
 Case 1. When the quantity ?s simple. 
 
 Rule. Multiply the exponent of the letters by 
 the index of the power required, and raise the 
 co-efficient to the same power. 
 
 Thus, the second power of a is * x 2 a". 
 
 The third power of 2a 8 is 8a 2 x 3 = 8a 6 . 
 
 For the multiplication would be performed by 
 the continual addition of the exponents ; and this 
 multiplication of them is equivalent. 
 
 If the sign of the given quantity is +, all its 
 powers will be positive. If the sign is , then 
 the powers whose exponents are even numbers 
 are positive ; and those whose exponents are odd 
 numbers are negative. 
 
 This is obvious from the rule for the signs in 
 multiplication. 
 
 Case 2. When the quantity is compound. 
 
 Rule. The powers must be found by a con- 
 tinual multiplication of the quantity by itself. 
 
 Thus the square of x + - found by multiply- 
 
 gt 
 ing it into itself is x 2 + ax + - . The cube is 
 
 got by multiplying the square already found by 
 fiie root, &c. 
 
 The involution of compound quantities is ren- 
 dered much easier by the binomial theorem,; for 
 which see Chap. VII. 
 
 2. Of Evolution. 
 
 Evolution is the reverse of involution, and by 
 it powers are resolved into their roots. 
 
 Def. The root of any quantity is expressed by 
 placing before it A/ "(called a radical sign) with 
 a small figure above it, denoting the denomina- 
 tion of that root 
 
 Thus, the square root of a is / a or ^/a. 
 
 The cube root of be is 2J be. 
 The fourth root of a 2 J x 3 , is lja*b x 3 . 
 The with root of c* dx, is \/c* dx. 
 
 General rules for the signs. 
 
 1. The root of any positive power may be 
 either positive or negative, if it is denominated 
 by an even number ; if the root is denominated 
 by an odd number, it is positive only. 
 
 2. If the power is negative, the root also is 
 negative, when it is denominated by an odd 
 number. 
 
 3. If the power is negative, and the denomi- 
 nation of the root even, then no root can be 
 assigned. 
 
 This rule is derived from the change of signs 
 in multiplication. When the quantity, whose 
 root is to be found, is negative, it is convenient
 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 581 
 
 to set the radical sign before the negative quan- 
 tity, and then it is called an impossible or ima- 
 ginary root 
 
 Thus, the square root of a a is denoted ^ a 1 . 
 
 The root of a positive power, denominated by 
 an even number, has often the sign before it, 
 denoting that it may have either 4- or . 
 
 Case 1 . When the quantity is simple. 
 
 Rule. Divide the exponents of the letters by 
 the index of the required root, and prefix the root 
 of the numeral co-efficient. 
 
 1. The exponents of the letters may be multi- 
 ples of the index of the root, and the root of the 
 co-efficient may be extracted 
 
 Thus, the square root of a 4 ~ a* Hh a". 
 a 6 =. 3a^ =. 3a*. 
 
 2. The exponents of the letters may not be 
 multiples of the index of the root, and then they 
 become fractions; and when the root of the 
 co-efficient cannot be extracted, it may also be 
 expressed by a fractional exponent, its original 
 index being understood to be 1. 
 
 Thus, 
 
 Case 2. When the quantity is compound. 
 1. To extract the square root, 
 
 Rule. 1. Range the given quantity accord- 
 ing to the powers of some letter, as in division. 
 
 2. Extract the square root of the first term 
 from the first part of the root sought. Subtract 
 its square from the given quantity, and divide 
 the first term of the remainder by double the 
 part already found, and the quotient is the se- 
 cond term of the root. 
 
 3. Add this second part to double of the first, 
 and multiply the sum by the second part : sub- 
 tract the product from the last remainder, and if 
 nothing remain, the square root is obtained. But 
 if there is a remainder, it must be divided by 
 the double of the parts already found, and the 
 quotient will give the third part of the root ; 
 and so on. 
 
 The operation is as follows. 
 
 a 8 + 2ai + b* (a + b 
 
 la + b 
 X b 
 
 2<tf> + b 1 
 2ab + b* 
 
 X ~2 
 
 The reason of this rule appears from the com- 
 position of a square. 
 
 2. To extract any other root. 
 
 Rule. Range the quantity according to the di- 
 mensions of its letters, and extract the required 
 root of the first term, and it will be the first 
 member of the root required. Then raise this 
 root to a dimension lower by unity than th 
 number that denotes the required root, and mul- 
 tiply the power that arises by that number itself. 
 Divide the second term of the given quantity by 
 the product, and the quotient will be the second 
 member of the root required. In like manner 
 are the other parts to be found, by considering 
 those already got as making one term. 
 
 Thus, the fifth root of 
 
 o 5 + 5a<6 + 10a 3 & + Wa'b 3 + 5ab 4 + 6* (a + b 
 a 5 
 
 5a 4 ) 5u 4 b 
 
 And a + b raised to the fifth power is the 
 given quantity, and therefore it is the root 
 sought. 
 
 It often happens, that the operation vrill not 
 terminate, and the root will be expressed by a 
 series. 
 
 Thus, the square root of a* -f- x 3 becomes a 
 series. 
 
 la + 
 2a 
 
 = * + 
 
 X ~ 
 
 x^ 
 4 2 
 x 4 
 
 fl 
 Qa 4 
 
 x 
 64a 6 ' 
 
 J_ 
 Qa 4 
 
 
 
 3. Of Surds. 
 
 Def. Quantities with fractional exponents are 
 called surds, or imperfect powers. 
 
 Such quantities are also called irrational; in 
 opposition to others with integral exponents, 
 which are called rational. 
 
 The operations concerning surds depend on 
 the following principle : If the numerator and 
 denominator of a fractional exponent be both 
 multiplied or both divided by the same quantity, 
 the value of the power is the same. 
 
 Lemma. A rational quantity may be put into 
 the form of a surd, by reducing its index to the 
 form of a fraction of the same value 
 
 Thus, a J V" 3
 
 582 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 PROB. I. To reduce surds of different denomi- 
 nators to others of the same value, and of the 
 same denomination. 
 
 Rule. Reduce the fractional exponents to 
 others of the same value, and having the same 
 common denominator. 
 
 Example. >fi,ljl?OT a*,$ ; 
 but <z* r= $ and 6* = t*, 
 therefore *Ja, and S/ifr 2 are respectively equal to 
 
 PROB. II. To multiply and divide surds. 
 
 1. When they are surds of the same rational 
 quantity f they are multiplied by adding, and di- 
 vided by subtracting, their exponents. 
 
 Thus, o 1 X a 1 - a* + f = a = ^a*. 
 
 2. If they are surds of different rational quan- 
 tities, let them be brought to others of the same 
 denomination. Then, by multiplying or divi- 
 ding these rational quantities their product or 
 quotient may be set under the common radical 
 
 Thus, 
 
 x 6 a m b n 
 
 . 
 
 a + b a'+b " 
 
 If the surds have any rational co-efficients, 
 their product or quotient must be prefixed. 
 
 Thus, a>Jm X b^/n ab^/mn. 
 Cor. If a rational co-efficient be prefixed to a 
 radical sign, it may be reduced to the form of a 
 surd by the lemma; and conversely, if the quan- 
 tity under the radical sign be divisible by a per- 
 fect power of the same denomination, it may be 
 taken out, and its root prefixed as a co-efficient. 
 
 Converse 
 26. 
 
 ; 2 x l/ 
 ab^/b ; 
 
 8a 2 b = 
 
 Even when the quantity under the radical sign 
 is not divisible by a perfect power, it may be 
 useful sometimes to divide surds into their com- 
 ponent factors by reversing the operation of this 
 problem . 
 
 Thus, j'ab-=. ^/a 
 IJbabx x 
 
 -A 
 
 &** = 
 
 upon one side of the equation, and then taking 
 away the radical sign from it, and raising the 
 other side to the power denoted by the index of 
 that surd. 
 
 Example. If 
 Then 
 And 9 X x 2 a 2 
 
 2 -f- 2j/ a + y. 
 
 a 2 = a y. 
 
 = a? lay +y*. 
 
 If the unknown quantity be found only under 
 the radical sign, and only of the first dimension, 
 the equation becomes simple. 
 
 Thus, if ljx + 16 + 5=9 
 
 Then ?/4x + 16 4 
 
 And 4* -f 16 = 64 
 
 4x=. 48 
 
 And x r= 12 
 
 PROB. III. To involve or evolve surds. 
 
 This is performed by the same rules as in 
 other quantities, by multiplying or dividing their 
 exponents by the index of the power or root re- 
 quired. 
 
 Scholium. 
 
 If a member of an equation be a surd root, 
 then the equation may be freed from any surd, 
 by bringing that member first to stand" alone 
 
 Then a?x ti*x zz a m 
 
 a m 
 
 X ~ a* - b* 
 
 9 m 
 
 In general if j?' + x* a, by reducing the 
 
 jm. qm 
 
 surds to the same denomination x -j- x ' zz , 
 I 
 
 and making x qn z, the equation is 21* -f- 2" zr 
 a, in which the exponents of z are integers ; and 
 z being found, # is to be found from the equation- 
 i 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 OF QUADRATIC EQUATIONS. 
 
 Quadratic equations are either pure or ad- 
 fected. 
 
 Definitions. 
 
 1. A pur equation is that in which only one 
 power of the unknown quantity is found. 
 
 2. An adfected equation is that in which dif- 
 ferent powers of the unknown quantity are found 
 in the several terms. 
 
 Thus, a 2 -f a* 3 = b 9 , ax* b z = m* + .r 2 
 are pure equations. 
 
 x 1 ax b-, x 3 + x* 17. 
 are adfected equations. . 
 
 Solution of Pure Equations. 
 
 Rule. Make the power of the unknown quan- 
 tity to stand alone by the rules formerly given, 
 and then extract the root of the same denomina- 
 tion on both sides, and the value of the unknown 
 quantity will be obtained. 
 
 Examples. 
 
 If a 1 
 
 ax 3 ~ b 3 
 
 ax* ~ b 3 
 
 , b 3 
 
 X - 
 
 a 2 
 
 ax m b ~ x m c 
 ax m x m zz b c 
 
 b c 
 
 JT - 
 
 a 1
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 Solution of adjected quadratic equations. 
 
 583 
 
 An adfected quadratic equation (commonly 
 called a quadratic) involves the unknown quan- 
 tity itself and also its square. 
 
 Rule 1. Transpose all the terms involving the 
 unknown quantity to one side, and the known 
 terms to the other ; and so that the term contain- 
 ing the square of the unknown quantity may be 
 positive. 
 
 2. If the square of the unknown quantity is 
 
 ..I.*.* 1* 1 1 _ /T .. .. *. 
 
 roots will be positive. If he equal to b 3 , the 
 
 a 2 
 
 two roots become equal; but if is less than 
 
 4 
 
 6 2 , the quantity under the radical sign becomes 
 negative and the two roots are impossible. 
 
 4. If the equation express the relation of 
 magnitudes abstractedly considered, where a con- 
 trariety cannot be supposed to take place, the 
 negative roots cannot be of use, or rather there 
 
 multiplied by any co-efficient, divid'e all 'the are no such roots ; for then a negative quantity 
 terms of the equation by it, so that the co-efficient bv itself is unintelligible, and therefore the 
 of the square of the unknown quantity may be 1 . square root of a positive quantity must be posi- 
 
 3. Add to both sides the square of half the tive only, 
 co-efficient of the unknown quantity, and the 
 
 side of the equation involving the unknown 
 quantity will be a complete square. 
 
 4, Extract the square root from both sides of 
 the equation, and by transposing the above- 
 mentioned half co-efficient, the value of the un- 
 known quantity will be obtained. 
 
 The reason of this rule is manifest from the 
 composition of the square of a binomial, for it con- 
 
 Solution of questions producing quadratic 
 Equations. 
 
 sists of the squares of the two parts, and twice 
 the product of the two parts. 
 
 The different forms of quadratic equations, 
 expressed in general terms, being reduced by 
 the first and second parts of the rule, are these. 
 
 1. x* -f- ax rr b* 
 
 2. X s ax zz b 1 
 
 3. x 3 ax b 3 
 Case 1. x 2 + ax =. b* 
 
 * + ax + * = b 2 + 2 
 f +=^^+1 
 
 Example 1. One laid out a certain sum of 
 money in goods, which he sold again for twenty- 
 four pounds, and gained as much per cent, as 
 the goods cost him. What did they cost him ? 
 
 Let the money laid out y, then 24 y is 
 
 the gain; and 3, : 24-,,:: 100 ; 240 ~ 
 
 :^ the gain 
 equal to y. 
 
 per cen t. which by the question is 
 
 Hence y ~ 
 
 2400 IQOy 
 -> 
 
 Case 2. x' ax b* 
 
 
 -s* 
 
 Case 3. ,r 2 .r 
 
 1. Every quadratic equation will have two 
 roots, except those of the third form, whose roots 
 become impossible. 
 
 I. In the fkst two forms, one of the roots will 
 be positive, and the other negative. 
 
 a 2 
 3 In the third form, if , or the square of 
 
 half the co-efficient of the unknown quantity, 
 be greater than /> 2 , the known quantity, the two 
 
 or y 2400 lOOy, 
 or y4- 100yiz24ob; 
 whence, by adding to each side of the equation 
 
 100 
 2500, the square of , 
 
 we have y* + lOCy + 2500 = 4900; 
 and hence, by extracting the square root, we have 
 y + 50 = 70, ory 70 50=20, or 120. 
 The answer therefore is 20 y the negative result 
 from the nature of the problem being excluded. 
 The answer is twenty pounds, which succeeds. 
 The other root, 120, has no place in this ex- 
 ample, a negative number being here unintelli- 
 gible. 
 
 Example 2. To find two numbers whose sum 
 is 100, and whose product is 2059. 
 
 Let the given sum 100 ir a the product 2059 
 b, and let one of the numbers sought be x, 
 the other will be a .r, and their product 
 
 ax x 1 . 
 Hence ax x 3 =&, 
 
 or x* a r ft j 
 
 and, by completing the square, we have 
 
 , 2 * j. 
 x* ax -\ b. 
 
 4 4 
 
 Then, by extracting the square root, there results 
 
 Whence x 
 
 By substituting for a and b their numerical values 
 as given in the question, we find x =: 71 or 29,
 
 681 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 and a jr ~ 29 or 71, which are the two num- 
 bers required. 
 
 But in this example, by a different mode of sub- 
 stitution, an adfected equation may be avoided. 
 Let a half the sum, and x half the differ- 
 ence of the required numbers ; then the numbers 
 will be represented by a -f- x and a x. 
 
 Hence a-\- x . a .r ~ 6, or a 2 ,r 2 6 ; 
 
 whence x ~ ^u 6zz (with the given num- 
 bers) 21 ; whence the numbers are as before 71 
 and 29. 
 In the first solution it may be observed, that b 
 
 must not be greater than , for the roots of the 
 
 equation would then be impossible ; that is, the 
 given product must not be greater than the 
 square of half the given sum of the numbers 
 sought. This limitation can easily be shown 
 from other principles ; for the greatest product 
 of the two parts into which any number may be 
 divided, is, when each of them is a .half of it. If 
 
 ff 
 b be equal to , there is only one solution, riz. 
 
 a , a 
 
 *=-, also a * = -. 
 
 Ira r 2 
 
 , - a, which must alwavs be rational, 
 
 r -\- \ r* -f- 1 
 
 will be the sides of the two squares required. 
 
 Thus, if a 2 =. 100 ; then if r 2 3, the sides of 
 the two squares are 6 and 8, for 36 + 64 100. 
 
 Also, let a 2 64. Then if r 2, the sides of 
 
 32 , 24 , 1024 576 
 the squares are and - ; and - + 7,-?- 
 
 1600 
 
 The reason of the assumption of rx a as a 
 side of the square a 2 a; 2 , is, that being squared 
 and put equal to this last, the equation mani- 
 festly will be simple, and the root of such an 
 equation is always rational. 
 
 Example 2. To find two square numbers 
 whose difference is given. 
 
 Let a; 2 and t/ 2 be the square numbers, and a. 
 their difference. 
 
 z + v _ 
 
 Put 
 
 and 
 
 y. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 OF INDETERMINATE PROBLEMS. 
 
 It has already been observed, that if there are 
 more unknown quantities in a question than 
 equations, by which their relations are expressed, 
 the question is indetermined. The method of 
 solving such problems may be better learnt by ex- 
 amples than by any general rules ; and, indeed, 
 no general rules can be given for the purpose, each 
 individual example forming in itself an especial 
 and distinct case. 
 
 Example 1. To divide a given square num- 
 ber into two parts, each of which shall be a square 
 number. 
 
 There are two quantities sought in this ques- 
 tion, and there is only one equation expressing 
 their relation; but it is required also that they may 
 be rational, which circumstance cannot be ex- 
 pressed by an equation : another condition, 
 therefore, must be assumed, to obtain a solution 
 in rational numbers. 
 
 Let the given square be a 2 ; let one of the 
 squares sought be a; 2 , the other is a* x 3 . Let 
 rx a also be a side of the last square, 
 therefore r 2 * 2 2nra + a 2 a 2 x' 2 
 by transp. rV -f x 3 = 2r*a 
 
 divide by x r*x -f- x 2ra 
 
 Therefore x = Zra 
 
 And rx a 
 
 r 2 1 
 
 Let r therefore be assumed at pleasure, and 
 
 zv a. 
 If x and y are required only to be rational,. 
 
 then take v at pleasure, and z ~ , whence x and 
 
 v 
 
 y are known. 
 
 But if x &udy are required to be whole num- 
 bers, take for z and v any two factors that pro- 
 duce a, and are both even, or both odd numbers. 
 And this is possible only where a is either an odd 
 number greater than 1, or a number divisible 
 
 by 4. Then and are the numbers 
 
 sought. 
 
 For the product of two odd numbers is odd, 
 and that of two even numbers is divisible by 4. 
 
 Also if z and v are both odd, or both even, " 
 
 z v 
 and - . must be integers. 
 
 Example 1. If a r= 27, take v 1, then 
 2 27, and the squares are 196 and 169. Or 
 z may be 9 and v 3, and then the squares are 
 36 and 9. 
 
 2. If a r= 12, take v =. 2, and z = 6 ; and the 
 squares are 16 and 4. 
 
 Example 3. Find three integral affirmative 
 numbers, of which the sum of all three shall be 
 a cube, and the sum of every two a squara 
 number. 
 
 Let ar, y and z represent the numbers, and 
 let x + y ? 2 a 2 , 
 x -f- z nz 2 6 2 , 
 and y + z >n 2 c 2 , 
 then three of the required conditions are fulfilled,
 
 and there remains only to make 
 
 m* 
 x + y + z (d* + P + c?) a. cube, 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 Then we have - s p -,- -, 
 
 585 
 
 which it is when m (a 2 -f 6* + c 2 ), 
 in which case x m 2 (m c 2 ), 
 l y m-(m b 2 ), 
 
 and z m 2 (m c 2 ); 
 
 where a 2 , V, c 2 must be so taken that the sum of 
 every two of them may be greater than the third. 
 If a, 5, b 6, and c = 7, then m 55, a; m 
 18150, j/ 57475, and z 90750. 
 
 As an example of the various ways in which 
 questions of this kind may be considered, we 
 add another solution of this question. 
 Let the numbers be represented by 
 2 Or 2 + jf _ *), 
 4 ( + * -A 
 and 2 (2* + y x 2 ) ; 
 then 2 (,r 2 + y 2 + ~>) a 3 . 
 Put a 2/> s , 
 
 then a; 2 = 4p 6 y* z 3 = n- # (if n 2 be 
 put for 4p 6 y 2 .) Assume 
 
 n s .s 2 ~ OT.;; ?i 2 m*z z 2mnz -f- n 3 , 
 
 where p, q, r, &c. are called quotients, 
 and p -f -, q -{- -,&c. complete quotients. 
 
 And b being again divided by c, c by d, d by c, 
 &c. we shall, by successive substitution, have 
 . e ,1 1 
 
 and, by extending 
 have 
 
 , 
 r+ 5 ,&c. 
 
 the number of terms, we 
 
 then z 
 
 2m 
 
 As n a 4/> 6 j/ 2 
 Let this be assumed 
 
 + 1 
 
 y> 4p e n 2 
 
 then n 
 
 
 4p 3 c 
 y= en 
 
 r+-,&c. 
 
 A continued fraction may be converted into its 
 equivalent vulgar fraction by adding together a 
 few of its leading terms, and observing the law 
 of their formation. 
 
 Thus, if it w^ere required to find a series of 
 vulgar fractions successively approximating to 
 the continued fraction. 
 
 Imn 
 
 and *-=.mz n, z being found from the 
 previous expression. 
 
 On continued fractions. 
 
 A continued fraction is one which has for its 
 denominator a mixed number, or a whole num- 
 ber and a fraction, which fraction has, in like 
 manner, for its denominator, a whole number 
 and a fraction, &c. 
 
 One of the greatest practical advantages deriva- 
 ble from the properties of formula of this class, is, 
 in approximating to the values of ratios, which are 
 expressed by large numbers, which is effected by 
 dividing the greater number by the less, the last 
 divisor by the last remainder, &c. as in find- 
 ing the greatest common measure of two num- fiy -j- \ x S + 
 bers; the several quotients thus obtained being NQW ^ ^ of continuation o f these succes- 
 the denominators of the fractions, their numera- ^ fractio easil be discovered if the 
 tors being always units. quotients a, ft y, *, &c. be placed in a line over 
 
 Thus, to rep resent^ by a continued fraction, the results, as follows : 
 
 let b be contained, in a, p times with a remainder 
 r ; let c be contained in b, q times with a remain- 
 
 der d ; d in c, r times with a remainder e, &c. as 
 in the following operation. 
 b) a (p 
 
 py 
 
 a/3+1 
 
 ap + y + a 
 
 for it is evident that the product of each nu 
 merator, and the quotient above it, added to the 
 preceding numerator, gives the numerator next 
 following; and in like manner, the 'product ot 
 each denominator, and the quotient above it, 
 added to the preceding denominator, gives the 
 next succeeding denominator. 
 
 As an example of the application of continued 
 fractions, let it be required to exhibit a series of 
 tractions approximating to the ratio which the
 
 586' 
 
 A L G D R A 
 
 diameter of a circle bears to its circumference, 
 that ratio being expressed by the fraction 
 By successive division, we find 
 
 a = 3, ft = 7, y 1, 5 = : 1, &c. 
 3 a/3 + 1 _ 22 
 1* ' /3 " ~" 7' 
 
 Hence 
 
 qj3 + l.y-f- a _ 25 
 ~ 8 ' 
 
 15 ' 
 
 ft + 1 . S + ft 
 
 , . 3 22 25 47 72 
 the successive fractions being -, , - -jj>^> 
 
 191 
 
 , all fractions of small terms approximating 
 61 
 
 to the given one. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 I. OF ARITHMETICAL SERIES. 
 
 Def. When quantities increase or decrease 
 by the same common difference, they form an 
 arithmetical series. Thus, a, a + 6, a -f- 26, 
 a + 36, &c. x, x 6, x 26, &c. Also 1, 2, 3, 
 4, 5, 6, &c. and 8, 6, 4, 2, &c. 
 
 Prop. In an arithmetical series, the sum of the 
 first and last terms is equal to the sum of any two 
 intermediate terms, .equally distant from the ex- 
 tremes. 
 
 Let the first term be a, the last x, and 6 the 
 common difference ; then a + 6 will be the se- 
 cond, and x 6 the last but one, &c. 
 
 Thus, a, a + 6, a + 26, a + 36, a + 46, &c. 
 x, x 6, x 26, x 36, x 46, &c. 
 
 It is plain, that the terms in the same perpen- 
 dicular rank are equally distant from the ex- 
 tremes; and that the sum of any two in it is 
 a + x, the sum of the first and last. 
 
 Cor. 1. Hence the sum of an arithmetical 
 series is equal to the sum of the first and last 
 terms multiplied into half the number of terms. 
 
 If n be the number of terms, and s the sum of the 
 
 Prop. I. The product of the extremes in a 
 geometrical series is equal to the product of any 
 two terms, equally distant from the extremes. 
 
 Let a be the first term, y the last, r the com- 
 mon ratio : then the series is, 
 
 n, or, ar*, ar 3 , or 4 , &c. 
 
 Each term in the upper rank is equally distant 
 from the beginning as that below it from the end ; 
 and the product of any two such is equal to ay, 
 the product of the first and last. 
 
 Prop. K. The sum of a geometrical series, 
 wanting the first term, is equal to the sum of 
 all but the last term multiplied by the common 
 ratio. 
 
 For, 
 
 ?/ V V 
 
 ar -{- ar* -+ ar 3 , &c. . . . + -^ + + : h V 
 
 ^ ^ T 
 
 the series wanting the first term 
 
 r X a + ar 2 , &c. . . . + -^ + ^ 
 
 v i y 
 
 r 9 "*" r 
 
 the series without the last term multiplied by r. 
 
 Cor. \ . Let s be the sum of the series 
 
 yr a 
 
 s yxr s a. And s . 
 
 r 1 
 
 Cor. Since the exponent of r in any term is 
 equal to the number of terms preceding it; in 
 the last term its exponent will be n 1 ; the last 
 term, therefore, 
 
 ar* a r* 1 
 
 y := ar* ', and s~ =a x 7. 
 
 r 1 r 1 
 
 Hence of these four, s, a, r, n, any three being 
 given, the fourth may be found. If n is not a 
 small number, it will be most conveniently found 
 by logarithms. 
 
 Cor. 3. If the series decreases, and the num- 
 ber of terms is unlimited, then, according to this- 
 
 notation, s - t a finite sum is the limit of the 
 r 1 
 
 series: s = a + x x ' If a~ 0, then s=- 
 
 Examp. Required the limit of the series 1, 
 
 L i> i> & c - Hence y 1 , and r 2. Therefore 
 
 Cor. 2. x=. a + n 1 x 6, and s 2 a + . 1 X 2 __ 
 
 n \ x 6 x 
 
 _2 an + ra 2 6 nb 
 r, * _ , 
 
 Cor. 3. Of the first term, common difference, 
 sum, and' number of terms, any three being given, 
 the fourth may be found by resolving the prece- 
 ding equation ; a, 6, s, and n, being successively 
 considered as the unknown quantity. In the 
 first three cases the equation is simple, and in 
 the last it is quadratic. 
 
 II. OF GEOMETRICAL SERIES. 
 
 Def. When quantities increase by the same 
 multiplier, or decrease by the same divisor, they 
 form a geometrical series. This common mul- 
 tiplier or divisor is called the common ratio. 
 
 Thus, 
 
 a, ur, ar\ &c. a, ?-, , , & c . 1,2,4,8, &c. 
 
 2 1 ~ 
 
 Repeating and circulating decimals are geome - 
 trically decreasing series, and their limits ma> 
 be found by this rule. 
 
 Thus -333, &c. = l + r|r +, &c. y~ 1 and 
 
 10 
 
 
 yr 3 X 10 i 
 
 r 10 ; therefore s := - - 
 
 r 1 10x101 3 
 
 III. OF INFINITE SERIES. 
 
 In "many cases, if the division and evolution 
 of compound quantities be actually performed, 
 the quotients and roots can only be expressed 
 by a series of terms, to be continued ad infinitum. 
 By comparing a few of the first terms, the law 
 of the progression of such a series will frequently 
 be discovered. When this cannot be done, the 
 work is much facilitated by several methods ; the 
 " which is that by the binomial theorem.
 
 A L G E B R A. 
 
 587 
 
 Theorem. Any binomial (as a + b) may be raised 
 to any power (m) by the following rules. 
 
 1 . From inspecting a table of the powers of a 
 binomial obtained by multiplication, it appears 
 that the terms without their co-efficients are 
 a-, a~ '&, a 3 b 2 , a* 3 6 3 , &c. 
 
 2. The co-efficients of these terms will be 
 found by the following rule : 
 
 The co-efficient of any term multiplied into 
 the exponent of a in it, and divided by the ex- 
 ponent of 6 increased by 1, will give the co-effi- 
 cient of the next following term. 
 
 The co-efficient of the first term is always 1 ; 
 and the co-efficients of the terms in order are as 
 follows : 
 
 the expansion of a + x , 
 
 will be equal to each term in the expansion 
 
 _ _ 
 
 of a + x multiplied by a -\- x, and 
 
 m I 
 
 m \ 
 
 7712 
 X , &c. 
 
 1, m, m X 2 > 2 - 3 
 
 or more conveniently expressed thus: 1. Am, 
 
 m 1 m 2 m 3 
 
 B x , c x , D X : , &c. the 
 
 capitals denoting 
 Hence 
 
 3 4 
 
 the preceding co-efficient. 
 
 _ 
 
 consequently a . a + x = a + a a, 
 
 will be the first term in the expansion 
 
 _ m + l 
 
 of a + x , 
 
 and the literal point of its second term. Let the 
 yet unknown co-efficient of this second term be 
 
 m 
 
 represented by B, then BO x will be the second 
 term. 
 
 If again we put m + 2 for m in the original 
 expression, 
 
 / tn+ I m \ _ 
 
 we have \a + BO ayx a + x = 
 
 m + 2 _ m + l m 
 
 a +B + 1.0 x + a o*= 
 
 the first and second terms in the expansion 
 
 o+TT a m + A7?za m l b + B X 
 
 771 1 
 
 a 2 6 2 + c x 
 
 m 2 
 
 3 b 3 &c. 
 
 This theorem, perhaps the most useful in the 
 whole circle of mathematical science, may be 
 thus demonstrated : 
 
 First, it may be expedient to premise, that if 
 two series, as 
 
 A + -&x + ex 3 + ox 3 + &c. 
 and A' -f- B'X -j- c'x 3 + o'x 3 + &c. 
 be always equal, whatever be the value of x; 
 then the co-efficients of the corresponding series 
 are also equal, viz. 
 
 A iz A' ; B B' &c. 
 
 For since the series are equal, whatever value be 
 given to x, they are equal when x ; in which 
 case there results A ~ A' ; hence the remaining 
 parts BJ + ex" + &c. 
 
 and B'X + c'x" 2 + &c. 
 are equal ; or dividing each by x, 
 then B -j- ex -(- nx 2 -f- &c. 
 
 = B'+ c'a; + D'r* + &c. ; 
 and supposing again that x = 0, there results as 
 before, B = B' ; and in the same way it may be 
 shown, that c = c', D = D' &c. 
 Let us now endeavour to find the form of the 
 
 expansion of a + x , 
 
 m / x \ m 
 
 or of its equal a ( 1 -J J , 
 
 77i being any number whatever. Since every 
 power or root 'of 1 is 1, the first term in the ex- 
 pansion of ( 1 -) ) must be 1 ; 
 
 whence the first term in the expansion 
 
 ** / x \ m m 
 
 of a I 1 H ) must be a . 
 \ a / 
 
 If now m + 1, be put for m, then 
 asa-f-x xa + x =a + x , 
 
 of a + x with the literal part of its third 
 
 term. In like manner by substituting 
 
 m + 3, m + 4, &c. 
 
 successively for 777, we shall have the literal parts 
 in the expansion of 
 
 M I * 1 M L M O 
 
 tn *f n in ^ n i in -f- n & 
 
 a + a x + a x-+ 
 
 a x 3 , &c. continued to m + 1 terms. 
 
 With respect to the co-efficient, it appears 
 
 that if the co-efficient of the second term in the 
 
 OT+1 
 
 expansion of a + x will be B, 
 
 that in the second term of the expansion of 
 
 o + x will be B + 1. 
 
 But m+i .B=m + 2 B + l, 
 or the difference between the exponent and the 
 co-efficient of the second term, is constant in each 
 successive expansion. But when m = 0, the 
 co-efficient of the second term in the expansion 
 
 of a + x is 1 ; 
 
 the difference between which and the exponent 
 is : hence, with respect to the second term, the 
 difference between its co-efficient and the ex- 
 ponent of the expansion is always ; or the 
 co-efficient of the second term of the expansion 
 is equal to the exponent. 
 
 Let now a + x] r be represented as above, viz. 
 let a + x] r = a r + Ba r ~~ l x + ca r " 2 r + &c. 
 where, as has been just shown, B = r, and c, D, 
 &c. are to be determined. If each side of the 
 equation be squared, we have 
 
 and substituting (2or + x 2 ) for x in the expan- 
 sion of a + x r , we have (a + tax + x*y = 
 
 4co : 
 
 But (a r 
 
 &c.)'r:
 
 A 1 G E B R A. 
 
 4 . Q ~ * = 4 . o ~ 2 = _!_,, , . ?L=ll x 
 ' 
 
 m . - ,3 = 4 x _ t x 
 
 Now as these series are equal whatever be the 
 
 value of x, the co-efficients of the like powers of f 5 
 
 * are equal, as has been shewn above. 3 . 6 . 9 . 2 7 ' 
 
 Hence2B = " B!> - 
 
 - Sec. 
 
 3 . 6 . 9 . 2 7 
 
 This theorem may be applied to quantities 
 
 3 . r . which consist of more than two parts, by sup- 
 
 and the law of continuation^ posing them distinguish ed into two, and then 
 
 The expansion then of a + x\ m in a series is substituting for the powers of these compound 
 m 1 OT _ 2 , . parts their values. 
 
 - a m V+ ,, . ^ 
 
 Thus, a + & + c 1 = a + ft + c' . 
 m 2 OT _ 
 
 . 
 
 2 ON THE METHOD OF DIFFERENCES. 
 or A, B, c, &c. denoting the co-efficients of the 
 
 preceding terms This method consists in finding any term of a 
 
 _ _ m _ i series, or the sum of all the terms, the successive 
 
 <, + x\ m '=a m + Ama m ~~*x + B . - X differences of the terms being known. From 
 
 the limits to which we are confined, we must, on 
 
 m 2^2 _i_ c m 2 fl ffl3 ~j 3 &c. this, and several other points of analysis, be very 
 
 3 brief; but the following problems contain a full 
 
 where m may be any number, integral or frac- exposition of the principles of the method. 
 
 tional. 
 
 PROBLEM I. 
 
 Examples of the a^licatwn of the binomial To find the first term O f any order of difference*. 
 
 . r Let a, b, c, d, &c. represent the successive 
 
 Example 1. Required the 7th power of a+b, term of any necessary ser ies, then the first order 
 
 or the expansion of a 4. b 7 . of differences will be 
 
 Here m =7, and the literal parts of the term b a, c 6, d c, e d, &c. 
 
 of the expansion are The second, 
 
 a m = a 7 , a m ~ l b= ab, a"' ~ 2 6 8 = 5 i 2 , &c. to b '; c b T^-_a = c 2& + a, 
 
 and the co-efficients are d c c b d 2c + b, 
 
 m _ i 76 e d d c e 2rf + c> &c 
 A-l,A.m=7,B. 
 
 Whence 
 
 , 35, 
 
 rf_2c +6 c 26 + a = rf 3c + 3i a, 
 
 3 3 
 -3 35.4 
 
 &c. 
 
 Hence the co-efficients of the terms composing 
 the difference of any order, are the same as the 
 co-efficients of the expanded binomial. The 
 first difference of the n th order, is therefore 
 __,_ m j._i_ n - n 1 n.n-rl.n ^^_ l _ Jlrn 
 
 ' 4 4 
 m - 4 35 . 3 
 
 5 5 ' 
 m 5 21 . 2 
 
 6 6 
 m 6 7.1 
 
 + 2 + 2 .c 
 the upper signs being used when n is even, and 
 the lower ones when n is odd. 
 
 PROBLEM II. 
 
 7 7 
 
 35a 3 6 4 + 21o 2 6 5 + tab 6 + a 1 . 
 
 EV,,. 7-0 r- 4 To find the nth term of any series, a, b c, d, &c. 
 
 Enwple 2. Extract the cube root of 9 ; or from the difference*! 
 exhibit in a series the expansion of 8 + 1^. 
 
 Here m = , = 8, and x = I ; Let the first term in each order of differences 
 
 mi m _ j i _ , be represented by d', d", d'", d"", &c. 
 
 = 8 = 2, ma x = 8* " .1 ::= Then, by the last problem, we have,
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 589 
 
 or b a + d" ; 
 
 c 26 + <**. 
 or c zz a -j- 26 -f- d' ; 
 
 d . 3c + 36 a zz d"', 
 or d zz a 36 + 3c + d'" ; &c. 
 
 Or, by substitution, 
 
 6 zz a + d', 
 
 c zz c + 2d' -f- d", 
 
 Hence the co-efficients of a, d', d", &c. in the 
 n 1fll th term of the series, a, 6, c,d, &c. are the same 
 
 as the co-efficients of the expansion of a -j- b" ', 
 hence, the ?*th term is 
 
 n l.n 2 n l.n 2. a 3, 
 
 a+n 
 
 &c. 
 
 2 . 3 
 
 and the series will terminate when d, d" or d"', &c. 
 becomes 0, in which case the nth term will be 
 found accurately, otherwise it can only be ap- 
 proximated to. 
 
 PROBLEM III. 
 
 To find the sum of n terms of any series, from 
 the differences. 
 
 If hi the series assumed in the two preceding 
 problems, a zz 0, then the n + 1 th term of the 
 series will, by the last problem, be represented by 
 ,, n . n I n .n 1 . n 2 ,, 
 
 "*+ 2 d + 271 d +&C ' ; 
 
 and if 6 zz a, c zz a + /3, d zz a + /3 + y, fcc. 
 the n + 1 th term of a, 6, c, d, &c. or the nth term 
 of 6, c, d, &c. will be n terms of a + /3 + y+ &c. 
 and d" in the former series is the same as d' in 
 this. 
 
 Hence, the sum of n terms of a, /3, y, 5, &c.is 
 
 n . n lj/i 1 w 2 , 
 
 ~~2~~ 2.3 ' 
 
 Before quitting this subject, we deem it proper 
 to exhibit another method, by which an exten- 
 sive and useful class of series may be summed. 
 As 2 _ g gra + yp qn _ 
 
 and 
 
 pen n + p > w ' 
 representing two fractions having the 
 
 respective forms 
 
 Example. Required the sum of n terms of the 
 series 
 
 1 _!_ J_ &c 
 
 1.3 3.5 5.7 
 Here p zz 2, 9 zz 1, and ra zz 1, 3, 5, &c. 
 
 and 
 
 Hence-J* ^_ =i h__l 
 
 pfn +p < 2n-p-l 
 
 2ra 
 
 .: , the required sum. 
 
 2 . 2ra + 1 
 
 On the reversion of series. 
 
 To revert a series, is to express the value of 
 the unknown quantity in it, by means of another 
 series, involving the powers of some other quan- 
 tity. For example, if ax -j- ba? + ex 3 , &c. = y, 
 then it can be found equal to a series, involving 
 the powers of y and the given quantities, a, b, c, 
 &c. the series involving * is said to be reverted. 
 
 To accomplish the reversion, assume 
 
 x = &y + By* + cy 3 + &c. 
 A, B, c, &c. being indeterminate co-efficients. 
 Substitute this series and its powers for x, and 
 its powers in the given series, and subtract y 
 from each side of the resulting equation, and it 
 will then stand as under : 
 
 OA 
 
 Jicu auuiu <is uiiuei . 
 
 ^a . y+A.z+ 6A* . 3/ 2 -r 7 ac+26AB+CA 3 . y 3 , 
 
 Hfinne OA 1 zz 0, 
 OB + 6A 2 0, 
 
 AC + 2&AB + CA 2 ZZ 0, &C. 
 
 and consequently, 
 
 n+p n . n + p 
 
 ^g_ _ U? 9 
 
 n.n4-p tn n J 
 
 it follows that if any fraction of the for 
 
 n . n + p 
 
 is equal to the pth part of the difference of 
 if this difference is krtown, the value 
 
 n + p 
 
 of - r ? ^, then of and ^ are unknown. 
 n . n +p n n +P 
 
 Hence if there be a series of fractions of the form 
 -- , the sum of the series will be equal to 
 
 , &c. ; 
 
 If the series had consisted of the odd powers of 
 ar, its reverted form would have been 
 1 b , , 36 s ac . . 
 
 ^-a^ + -^-^ &C - 
 If the series are given equal to each other as 
 ax + bx* + ex 3 , Sue. ay + / + r/ &c - 
 the value of a- is obtained in terms of y in the 
 same manner, viz. by assuming 
 
 x =. Ay + By* + cy 3 , &c. 
 and substituting this value in place of t ,
 
 590 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 OF THE GENERAL PROPERTIES AND RE- 
 SOLUTION OF EQUATIONS OF ALL OR- 
 DERS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 OF THE ORIGIN AND COMPOSITION OF EQUA- 
 TIONS; AND OF THE SlGNS AND Co-EFFICIENTS 
 
 OF THEIR TERMS. 
 
 THE higher orders of equations, and their ge- 
 neral affections, are best investigated by con- 
 sidering their origin from the combination of 
 inferior equations. 
 
 In this general method, all the terms of any 
 equation are brought to one side, and the equa- 
 tion is expressed by making them equal to 0. 
 Therefore, if a root of the equation be inserted 
 instead of (x) the unknown quantity, the positive 
 terms will be equal to the negative, and the 
 whole must be equal to 0. 
 
 Def. When any equation is put into this form, 
 the term in which (x) the unknown quantity is 
 of the highest power is made the first ; that in 
 which the index of x is less by 1 is the second ; 
 and so on to the last, into which the unknown 
 quantity does not enter, and which is called the 
 Absolute term. 
 
 Prop. I. If any number of equations be mul- 
 tiplied together, an equation will be produced, 
 of which the dimension is equal to the sum of the 
 dimensions of the equations multiplied. The 
 term dimension, in this chapter, means either 
 the order of an equation, or the number denoting 
 that order, which was formerly denned to be the 
 highest exponent of the unknown quantity in any 
 terra of the equation. 
 
 If any number of simple equations be multiplied 
 together, as x a~0, x i~0, x c d Q, 
 &c. the product will be an equation of a dimen- 
 sion, containing as many units as there are simple 
 equations. In like manner, if higher equations 
 are multiplied together, as a cubic and a quadra- 
 tic, one of the fifth order is produced, and so on. 
 
 Conversely. An equation of any dimension is 
 considered as compounded either of simple equa- 
 tions or of others, such that the sum of their di- 
 mensions is equal to the dimension of the given 
 one. By the resolution of equations these in- 
 ferior equations are discovered, and by investi- 
 gating the component simple equations, the roots 
 of any higher equation are found. 
 
 Cor. 1 . An equation admits of as many solu- 
 tions, or has as many roots, as there are simple 
 equations which compose it. 
 
 Cor. 2. And conversely, no equation can have 
 more roots than it has dimensions. 
 
 Cor. 3. Imaginary or impossible roots enter 
 an equation by pairs; for they arise from qua- 
 dratics, in which both the roots are such. And 
 an equation of an even dimension may have all 
 its roots, or any even number of them impossible, 
 but an equation of an odd dimension must at 
 least have one possible root. 
 
 Cor. 4. The roots are either positive or 
 negative, according as the roots of the simple 
 equations, from which they are produced, are 
 positive or negative. 
 
 Cor. 5. When one root of an equation ; s dis 
 covered, one of the simple equations is found, 
 from which the given one is compounded. The 
 given equation, therefore, being divided by this 
 simple equation, will give an equation of a di- 
 mension lower by 1 . 
 
 Prop. II. To explain the general properties of 
 the signs and co-efficients of the terms of an 
 equation. 
 
 Let x a ~ 0, x 6 =: 0, x c 0, x 
 d 0, &c. be simple equations, of which the 
 roots are any positive quantities 4- a, + b, -f c , 
 -\- d, &c. and let x -\- m 0, x -f- n rz 0, &c. 
 be simple equations, of which the roots are any 
 negative quantities m, n, &c. and let any 
 number of these be multiplied together as in the 
 following table : 
 
 x a 
 X x b 
 
 ~ x' ax 
 
 Xx c < 
 
 b >X 
 
 in 0, a quadratic. 
 
 + ab 
 
 *+ ac 
 
 4- be 
 
 X x o6c~0, a cubic. 
 
 X q + i ' 
 
 
 + m 
 &c. 
 
 x* 
 
 ( + 
 J 
 
 ban 
 
 =0, abi- 
 
 quadratic. 
 H 
 
 bm 
 
 cmj 
 
 From this table it is plain, 
 
 1. That in a complete equation, the number 
 of terms is always greater by unit than the di- 
 mension of the equation. 
 
 2. The co-efficient of the first term is 1 . 
 
 The co-efficient of the second term is the sum 
 of all the roots (a, b } c, m, &c.) with their signs 
 changed. 
 
 The co-efficient of the third term is the sum of 
 all the products, that can be made by multiplying 
 any two of the roots together. 
 
 The co-efficient of the fourth term is the sum 
 of all the products, which can be made by mul- 
 tiplying together any three of the roots with their 
 signs changed; and so of others. 
 
 The last term is the product of all the roots, 
 with their signs changed. 
 
 3. It appears too, that in any equation, (the 
 terms being regularly arranged as in the prece- 
 ding example,) there are as many positive roots 
 as there are changes in the signs of the terms 
 from -f to , and from to + : and the re- 
 maining roots are negative. 
 
 Note. The impossible roots in this rule are 
 supposed to be either positive or negative. 
 
 Cor. If a term of an equation is wanting, the 
 positive and negative parts of its co-efficient must 
 then be equal. If there is no absolute term, some 
 of the roots ~ 0, and the equation may be de- 
 pressed, by dividing all the terms by the lowest 
 power of the unknown quantity in any of them. 
 In this case also, #+0 zr 0, x 0, &c. 
 may be considered as so many of the component 
 simple equations, by which the given equation
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 591 
 
 being divided, it will be depressed so many de- 
 grees. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 Or THE TRANSFORMATION OF EQUATIONS. 
 
 Prop. 1. The affirmative roots of an equation 
 become negative, and the negative become affir- 
 mative, by changing the signs of the alternate 
 terms, beginning with the second. 
 
 Thus the roots of the equation x 4 x 3 19.r a 
 + 49x 30 = are + 1, + 2, + 3, 5, 
 whereas the roots of the equation x 4 +x 3 19x 2 
 49or, 30 = 0, are 1, 2, 3, + 5. 
 
 The reason of this is derived from the compo- 
 sition of the co-efficients of these terms, which 
 consist of^combinations of odd numbers of the 
 roots, as explained in the preceding chapter. 
 
 Prop. 2. An equation may be transformed into 
 another, that shall have its roots greater or less 
 than the roots of the given equation, by some 
 given difference. 
 
 Let e be the given difference ; then^ e, 
 x y qi e ; and if for x and its powers in the 
 given equation, y + e and its power be inserted, 
 anew equation will arise, in which the unknown 
 quantity is y, and its value will be x e. 
 
 Let the equation prooosedbe x 3 px 2 -f qx 
 r 0, of which the roots must be diminished by 
 e. By inserting for a: and its powers, y + e and 
 its powers, the equation required is, 
 
 of the first term is any known quantity, as a may 
 thus be transformed into another, into which the 
 co-efficient of the first term shall be unit. Thus, 
 let the equation be aa?- px 3 -\-qx r ~ 0. Sup- 
 
 posey axoTx y - 9 and for x and its pow- 
 ers insert- and its powers, and the equation be- 
 
 Cor. 
 
 y 3 
 
 + e 3 
 
 + qy 
 
 __r. 1. The use of this transformation is to 
 take away the second or any other intermediate 
 term ; for, as the co-efficients of all the terms of 
 the transformed equation, except the first, involve 
 the powers of e, and known quantities only, by 
 putting the co-efficient of any term equal to 0, 
 and resolving that equation, a value of e may be 
 determined, which being substituted, will make 
 that term to vanish. 
 
 Thus, let the co-efficient 3e p 0, ande = 
 \ p, which being substituted for e, the new equa- 
 tion will want the second term. And universally, 
 the co-efficient of the first term of an equation of 
 n dimensions being 1, the second term may be 
 
 taken away by supposing a; zz y -Jr- p. 
 
 Cor. 2. The second term may be taken away 
 by the solution of a simple equation ; the third 
 by the solution of a quadratic and so on. 
 
 Prop. 3. An equation may be transformed into 
 another, of which the roots shall be equal to the 
 roots of the given equation, multiplied or divided 
 by a given quantity. 
 
 Let y xe, or y -. 
 
 & 
 
 Then substitute for .T and its powers, orj/e and 
 
 its powers ; and the new equation will have the 
 property required. 
 
 Cor. 1. An equation, in which the co-efficient 
 
 ^5 J- + r = 0, or y 3 py* + 
 
 2qy aV =: 0. 
 
 Cor. 2. If there are fractions in an equation, 
 they must be taken away, by multiplying the 
 equation by the denominators, and by this pro- 
 position the equation may then be transformed 
 into another, without fractions, in which the co- 
 efficient of the first term is 1. In like manner 
 may a surd co-efficient be taken away in certain 
 cases. 
 
 Cor. 3. Hence also, if the co-efficient of the se- 
 cond term of a cubic equation is not divisible by 
 3, the fractions thence arising in the transformed 
 equation, wanting the second term, may be taken 
 away by the preceding corollary. But the se- 
 cond term may also be taken away, so that there 
 shall be no such fractions in the transformed equa- 
 tion, by supposing x ~ - , p being the 
 3 
 
 co-efficient of the second term of the given equa- 
 tion. And if the equation ax 3 px* -f- qx r 
 ir be given, in which p is not divisible by 3, by 
 
 , the transformed equation 
 
 supposing x 
 
 reduced is 2 s 3/ + Qaq x z ty + 
 
 7o 7 r ~ ; wanting the second term, having 
 1 for the co-efficient of the first term, and the 
 co-efficients of the other terms being all integers, 
 the co-efficients of the given equation being all 
 supposed integers. 
 
 General Corollary to Prop. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 If the roots of any of these transformed equa- 
 tions be found by any method, the roots of the 
 original equation, from which they were derived, 
 will easily be found from the simple equations 
 expressing their relation. Thus, if 8 is found to 
 be a root of the transformed equation z 3 + 23z 
 
 696 = 0. Since x == ^-, the correspond- 
 
 
 ing root of the given equation 5 x 3 63? + 7x 
 
 30 = must be ^-^= 2. It is to be ob- 
 o 
 
 served also, that the reasoning in Prop. 2 and 3, 
 and the corollaries may be extended to any order 
 of equations, though in them it is applied chiefly 
 to cubics. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 OF THE RESOLUTION OF EQUATIONS. 
 
 From the preceding principles and operations, 
 rules may be derived for resolving equations o 
 all orders.
 
 592 
 
 ALGEBRA 
 
 
 I. Cardan's rule for Cubic Equations. 
 The second term of a cubic equation being 
 taken away, and the co-efficient of the first term 
 being made 1, it may be represented by x 3 + 
 3qx + 2r =r ; the sign + in all terms denoting 
 the addition of them, with their proper signs, 
 Let x m + n, and also mn q, by the 
 substitution of these values, an equation of the 
 6th order, but of the quadratic form, is deduced, 
 which gives the value of m and n ; and hence, 
 
 m+n= x=i 
 
 Cor. 1. In the given equation, if 3^ is negative 
 and if r a is less than g 3 , this expression of the root 
 involves impossible quantities ; while at the same 
 time, all the roots of that equation are possible. 
 The reason is, that in this method of solution, it 
 is necessary to suppose, that x the root may be 
 divided into two parts, of which the product is 
 q. But it is easy to show, that in this, which is 
 called the irreducible case, that cannot be done. 
 
 For example, the equation x 3 156* -+ 560 
 
 . belongs to the irreducible case, and the 
 
 three roots are + 4, + 10, 14 ; and it is 
 
 plain that none of the roots can be divided into 
 
 two parts, of which the product can be equal to 
 
 or 52 ; for the greatest product from the 
 3 
 
 division of the greatest root 14, is 7 x 
 7 49 less than 52. 
 
 If the cube root of the compound surd can be 
 extracted, the possible parts balance each other, 
 and the true root is obtained. 
 
 Cor. 2. Biquadratic equations may be reduced 
 to cubics, and may therefore be resolved by this 
 rule. 
 
 Some other classes of equations, too, may be 
 
 resolved by particular ruler ; out these and every 
 other order of equations, are commonly resolved 
 by the general rules, which may be equally ap- 
 plied to all. 
 
 II. Solutions of Equations whose Roots are 
 Commensurate. 
 
 Rule 1 . All the terms of the equation being 
 brought to one side, find all the divisors of the 
 absolute term, and substitute them successively 
 in the equation for the unknown quantity. That 
 divisor which, substituted in tins manner, gives 
 the result 0, will be a root of the equation. 
 
 Ex. 1. * s 3a** + 3a.r 3 2a s 6 1 _ ft 
 bx 2 + 3abx 5 " 
 
 The simple literal divisors of 2a* b are a, b, 
 y, 26, any of which may be inserted for x. Sup- 
 posing x = a, the equation becomes 
 
 a 3 3a? 4. 3a 3 2a 3 6 ) ,- , , . , 
 -la* + Mb \ winch is obv 10 usly=C 
 
 The reason of this rule appears from the pro- 
 perty of the absolute term being the product of 
 all the roots. 
 
 To avoid the inconvenience of trying many di- 
 visors, this method is shortened by the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 Rule 2. Substitute in place of the unknown 
 quantity successively three or more terms of the 
 progression, 1, 0, 1, &c. and find all the di- 
 visors of the sums that result; then take out all 
 the arithmetical progressions that can be found 
 among these divisors whose common difference 
 is 1, and the values of x will be among those 
 terms of the progressions, which are the divisors 
 of the result arising from the substitution of 
 * = 0. When the series increases, the roots 
 will be positive; and when it decreases, the 
 roots will be negative. 
 
 Supposit. 
 
 Result. 
 
 Divisors. 
 
 Ar. pro. 
 
 r + 1 ") 
 
 .... f 4 
 
 124 
 
 4 
 
 
 x +6= ) + 6 
 
 1, 2, 3, 6, 
 
 3 
 
 X 1 J 
 
 ( + 14 
 
 1, 2, 7, 14, 
 
 2 
 
 In this example there is only one progression, 
 4, 3, 2 ; and therefore 3 is a root, and it is 3, 
 since the series decreases. 
 
 It is evident from the rules for transforming 
 equations, that by inserting for *, + 1, the result 
 is the absolute term of an equation, of which the 
 roots are less than the roots of the given equation 
 by 1. When x = 0, the result is the absolute 
 term of the given equation. When for x h in- 
 serted 1, the result is the absolute term of 
 an equation, whose roots exceed the roots of 
 the given equation by 1. Hence, if the terms 
 of the series, 1, 0, 1, 2, &c. be inserted 
 successively for x, the results will be the absolute 
 terms of so many equations, of which the roots 
 form an increasing arithmetical series with the 
 difference 1 . But as the commensurate roots of 
 these equations must be among the divisors of 
 their absolute terms, they must alsT be among 
 the arithmetical progressions found by this rule. 
 The root? of the given equation therefore are to 
 be sought, for among the terms of these progres- 
 
 sions which are divisors of the result, upon the 
 supposition of x = 0, because that result is its 
 absolute term. 
 
 If from the substitution of three terms of the 
 progression,!, 0, 1, &c. there arise a number 
 of arithmetical series, by substituting more 
 terms of that progression, some of these series 
 will break off, and, of course, fewer trials will be 
 necessary. 
 
 III. Example of Questions producing the 
 Equations. 
 
 The sum of the squares of two numbers 208, 
 and the sum of their cubes 2240 being given, to 
 find them. 
 
 Let the greater be x -f- y, and the less x y. 
 Then x+ y\* +x y\* 2x* + 2y 2 = 208. 
 
 Hence y* rz 104 x*. 
 Also x + y\ 3 + x^y* 2x 3 + 6.ry a n 2240.
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 Substitute for y- its value aud 
 
 2.r 3 +624* + 6r = 2243. 
 is reduced gives x 3 156T + 560 0. 
 
 593 
 
 a positive, and the other a negative, result. Either 
 the number above the root, or that below it, may 
 be assumed as the first value ; only it will Le 
 
 ie roots of this equation are 10 + 4 n 14 raore convenien t to take that which appears to 
 
 be nearest to the root. 
 
 x ~ 10, then y 2; and the numbers 
 ight are 12 and 8, which give the only just 
 solution. 
 
 IV. Solution of equations by approximation. 
 
 By the former rules, the roots of equations, 
 when they are commensurate, may be obtained. 
 These, however, more rarely occur ; and when 
 they are incommensurate we can find only an 
 approximate value of them, but to any degree of 
 exactness required. Of the various rules that 
 have been given for this purpose, we select the 
 two following as the most general and easy of 
 application. The first is by Sir Isaac Newton, 
 and requires the equation to be previously pre- 
 pared and arranged. The second is by Dr. 
 Hutton, and may be applied to any equation, 
 however complicated, without any previous pre- 
 paration or arrangement 
 
 SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S METHOD. 
 
 To understand rightly the principles of this 
 method, we deem it proper to premise the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 Lemma. If any two numbers, being inserted 
 for the unknown quantity in an equation, give 
 results with opposite signs, an odd number of 
 roots must be between these numbers. 
 
 This appears from the property of the absolute 
 terms, and from this obvious maxim, that if a 
 number of quantities be multiplied together, and 
 if the signs of an odd number of them be changed, 
 the signs of the product are changed. For, when 
 a positive quantity is inserted for x, the result is 
 the absolute term of an equation, whose roots are 
 less than the roots of the given equation, by that 
 quantity. If the result has the same sign as the 
 given absolute term, then from the property of 
 the absolute term either none, or an even num- 
 ber only, of the positive roots have had their 
 signs changed by the transformation ; but if the 
 result has an opposite sign to that of the given 
 absolute term, the signs of an odd number of the 
 positive roots must have been changed. In the 
 first case, then, the quantity substituted must 
 have been either greater than each of an even 
 number of the positive roots of the given equa- 
 tion, or less than any of them ; in the second 
 case, it must have been greater than each of an 
 odd number of the positive roots. An odd num- 
 ber of the positive roots, therefore, must lie be- 
 tween them when they give results with opposite 
 signs. The same observation is to be extended 
 to the substitution of negative quantities and the 
 negative roots. 
 
 From this lemma, by means of trials, it will 
 not be difficult to find the nearest integer in a 
 root of a given numeral equation. 
 
 Let the equation be x 3 2* 5 =0. 
 
 1. In this case a root is between 2 and 3 ; for 
 these numbers being inserted for x, the one gives 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 2. Suppose * = 2 +/, and substitute the 
 value of * in the equation. 
 
 2jr =4 2/ 
 5 =4 
 
 x 3 -2x 5 \ + 10/+ 6/ 2 +/ 3 0. 
 
 If/ is less than unit, its powers/ 2 and/* may 
 be neglected in this first approximation, and 10/ 
 = l r or 0-1 nearly, therefore * = 2-1 nearly. 
 
 3. As/= 0-1 nearly, let/= -1 + g, and in- 
 sert this value of fin the preceding equation. 
 / 3 =z 0-001+0-03g+0-3g 2 +g 3 
 6/ 2 = 0-06 + 12g+ 6g 2 
 10/= 1 + lOg 
 
 /' + 6/ 2 + 10/- 1 = 0-061+1 1-23 g+ 6'3g* + 
 g 3 = 0, and neglecting g 2 and g 3 as very 
 
 small, 0-61 + ll'23g=0, or g ~ 
 
 0054, hence /= * + g = '0946 nearly, and 
 * = 2-0946 nearly. 
 
 4. This operation may be continued to any 
 length, as by supposing g = '0054 + h, and 
 so on, and the value of x 2-09455147 nearly. 
 
 By the first operation a nearer value of x may 
 be found thus : since / = ! nearly, and 1 + 
 
 1Q/-+ 6/' +/'=0,/ = . 2 , that 
 
 = -094 true the last 
 
 is f = 
 ' J ' ~ 10 + -6 + -01 
 
 figure, and x = 2-994. 
 
 In this manner may the root of any equation 
 be found, after it has been cleared of radical 
 quantities; but in the application of algebra to 
 practical purposes, the following method of trial 
 and error, which is applicable at once to any 
 equation, will generally be found preferable. 
 
 DR. HUTTON'S METHOD. 
 
 Rule. Find by trial two numbers nearly equal 
 to the root ; substitute each of them in the given 
 equation, and note the results arising from each 
 subtraction. 
 
 Then the difference of these results is to the 
 difference of the two assumed numbers, as the 
 difference between the true result, and either of 
 the former to the correction of the number which 
 produced that result ; and this result added to 
 the number when it is too little, or subtracted 
 from it when it is too great, will give the re- 
 quired root nearly. 
 
 Then this number, and any other numbei 
 nearly equal to it, being substituted as before, a 
 second correction will be obtained; and the 
 operation may be continued till the root is oo- 
 tained, to any degree of ac< uracy. 
 
 Example. If (~ 15^ + r ^ = 90 
 
 what is the value of x ? 
 
 2 Q
 
 594 
 
 ALGEBRA, 
 
 By a few trials it may be found that the value 
 of x lies between 10 and 11. Let these be as- 
 sumed as the values of x. Then 
 
 1st supposition. 2d supposition. 
 25 84.64 
 
 31.622 36.482 
 
 _ 
 
 x J * 
 
 Results 56.622 
 
 121.122 
 
 Hence 121-122 56'622 : 11 10 :: 
 121-122 90' : 482 nearly. Hence * = 11 
 482 = 10-518 nearly. Let then 10'5 and 10-6 
 be assumed for *, and we have, by proceeding 
 as above, 83-7264 and 90-341883 for the respec- 
 tive results. Hence 90-341883 83-7264 : 
 10-6 10-5 :: 90341883 : 90-0051679 nearly. 
 Whence x = 10-6 '0051679 very nearly. 
 
 This method also applies with great facility to 
 finding the roots of exponential equations of the 
 
 x 
 
 form x = a, the only case in that class of equa- 
 tions in which there is any trouble in finding the 
 root. 
 
 If * = a, then by the property of logarithms 
 * . log. x = log. a. Therefore find by the pre- 
 ceding method of trial and error, a number which 
 multiplied by logarithms, produces the logarithm 
 of the given quantity a, and it will be the root of 
 the equation. 
 
 Before we dismiss this part of our subject, we 
 shall give a concise view of the leading proper- 
 ties of recurring and binomial equations. 
 
 On recurring equations. 
 
 Recurring equations are those whose terms, 
 taken in a direct order, have the same co-effi- 
 cientsas theirrespective terms taken in an inverse 
 order. 
 
 In these equations one half of the roots are 
 the reciprocals of the other half ; 
 
 and put x = -; then 
 
 P Q Q P 
 
 ~y n y"^ v n - 2 '" + ? + 3/ + 1 ~ ; 
 
 ^ j 
 
 as it ought ; and in like manner when the cor- 
 responding co-efficients have different signs, if 
 + 1 be put for r, the terms will destroy each 
 other. 
 
 Hence, every binomial equation of an odd de- 
 gree is advisable, either by x 4. 1 or * 1 ; and 
 the equation may always, therefore, be depressed 
 to the next lower degree, or a binomial equation 
 of an odd degree may be transformed into one of 
 an even degree. 
 
 We shall, in the next place, shew that a recur- 
 ring equation of an even degree may always be 
 reduced to one of half that degree. 
 
 Let the equation be 
 
 or 1 + vy + oy* + . . V~+ p"- +/ = 0, 
 an equation the same as the given one, having 
 y ; instead of*; hence the value of x in an equa- 
 tion is equal to that of y in the other; and what- 
 ever be the value of x, the value of q is -from 
 
 the manner in which the second equation is 
 generated. 
 
 A recurring equation of an odd degree has al- 
 ways 1 for a root, when the equal co-efficients 
 have the same sign, and + 1 when the equal co- 
 efficients have different signs. 
 
 For, in the recurring equation. 
 
 Divide by x n , and we have x n + 
 -2 . - 
 
 Or 
 
 / \ 
 
 x n + n + P (*-! + _L ) 
 
 \ x n ~ l / 
 
 Take n successively 1, 2, 3, &c. and let x + - 
 
 2, then the tranformed equation become x + - 
 
 + P = 0, or 2 + p = 0, 
 
 + + (x + 
 
 - ) + Q + z s 2 + PZ + Q = 0, z 3 3z + 
 
 x J, 
 
 z" 2 + QJZ + R 0, 8cc. a recurring equation 
 of half the degree of the given one. 
 
 On binomial equations. 
 
 Binomial equations are of the form y" a~ 
 0, or if ax y, of the form a n x n a 0, or 
 xn 1 0. 
 
 The following are a few of the obvious pro- 
 perties of these equations. 
 
 1. If n be an even number, the roots of the 
 equation x" + 1 are all imaginary, for '</ 1 is 
 always imaginary when n is even. 
 
 2. If n be odd, x n + 1 = has only one root, 
 for \j 1 1 when n is odd 
 
 3. If n be even, xn 1 has only two real 
 roots, and therefore n 1 imaginary one; for 
 
 4. If n be odd x n 1 has only one real root. 
 and therefore n 1 imaginary one, for '</ 1 
 only. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 _ P _ Q3T Qx 2 pr;l 0, OF THE APPLICATION OF ALGEBRA TO GEOMETRY. 
 any co-efficient, as p of an odd power is also a 
 
 co -efficient of an even power; therefore, if the CHAP I 
 orrespondmg co-efficients have the same sign, 
 
 A ~ l s3* for *> ^ termswi11 destroy each A line, whether known or unknown, may be 
 
 aer, and the equation will become win al tn T. .- *~J *-.._ .:. . .- i .. by the
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 product of the two letters representing its sides : 
 and a rectangular parallelepiped by the product 
 of three letters : two of which represent the sides 
 on any of its rectangular bases, and the third the 
 altitude. 
 
 595 
 
 and parallelepipeds, are demonstrated algebrai- 
 cally with great ease. 
 
 This is particularly the case in those proposi- 
 tions, which may be geometrically deduced with- 
 out any construction of the squares, rectangles, 
 
 mi xi. j. i * T. **"*"') * <-v- 10.11 uica 
 
 These are the most simple expressions of geo- &c. to which they refer. From the first propo- 
 
 metncal magnitudes; and any other, which has sition of the second book of Euclid, the nine fol- 
 
 a known proportion to them, may in like man- lowing maybe easily derived in this manner and 
 
 ner be expressed algebraically. Conversely, the they may be considered as proper examples of 
 
 geometrical magnitudes, represented by such al- this most obvious application of algebra to geo- 
 
 gebraical quantities, may be found ; only the 
 algebraical dimensions above the third, not hav- 
 
 metry. 
 
 If certain positions are either supposed or to be 
 
 ing any corresponding geometrical dimensions, inserted in a theorem, we must find, according to 
 must be expressed by proportionals. Thus, if the preceding observations, the connection be- 
 the algebraical equation a 4 + 6 4 zr c 4 d*, is to tween these positions and such relations of mag- 
 be expressed geometrically, a, 6, c, and d, being nitude, as can be expressed and reasoned upon 
 supposed to represent straight lines ; let a. : b : e by algebra. The algebraical demonstration, of 
 
 the 12th and 13th propositions of the second 
 a -f g ; then let book of Euclid, require only the 47th of the I. 
 o : /, also, l.et c : El. The 53d and 36th of the third book require 
 only the 3. III. El. and 47 I. El, 
 
 From a few simple geometrical principles, a 
 number of conclusions, with regard to figures, 
 may be deduced by algebra ; and to this in a 
 great measure is owing the extensive use of 
 this science in geometry. If other more remote 
 geometrical principles are occasionally intro- 
 duced, the algebraical calculations may be much 
 abridged. The same is to be observed in the so- 
 lution of problems ; but such in general are less 
 obvious, and more properly belong to the strict 
 geometrical method. 
 
 if'.g, in continued proportion, then a 1 : 6 4 
 : g, and a 4 : a 4 + b* ; 
 a : c : h : k : I, and 4 : 
 
 d : m : n : p, and c 4 : d 4 ; : c : p or c* : c* 
 d 4 '.'. c : c p. By combining the two former 
 proportions, c 4 : a 4 + b 4 : I : a + g, and com- 
 bining the latter with this last found, c 4 d 4 : 
 
 c. p x i = c 
 
 c p x I : c x a -f g; therefore 
 X a + g, and c : c p '.'. I : 
 
 If any known line is assumed as 1, as its 
 powers do not appear, the terms of an equation, 
 including any of them, may be of very different 
 dimensions ; and before it can be properly ex- 
 pressed by geometrical magnitudes, the deficient 
 dimensions must be supplied by powers of the 
 1 . When an equation has been derived from 
 geometrical relations, the line denoting 1 is 
 known ; and when an assumed equation is to 
 be expressed by the relations of geometrical mag- 
 nitudes, the 1 is to be assumed. 
 
 In this manner may any single power be ex- 
 pressed by a line. If it is x 5 , then to 1, x find 
 four quantities in continued proportion : so that 
 1 : x : m : n : p : q, then 1 q '. '. 1 s , or q = x 5 
 and so of others. 
 
 The opposite position of straight lines may be 
 , expressed by the signs -j- and . 
 
 Thus, let a point A be given in the line AP, 
 
 P M A M P 
 
 any segment AP taken to the right hand being 
 considered as a positive, a segment Ap to the left 
 is properly represented by a negative quantity. 
 If a and b represent two lines, and if, upon the 
 line AB from the point A, AP be taken towards 
 the right equal to a, it may be expressed by a; 
 then PM taken to the left and equal to b, will be 
 properly represented by b, for AM is equal to 
 u b. If a = b, then M will fall upon A, and 
 a b =0. By the same notation, if b is greater 
 than* a, M will fall to the left of A ; and in 
 this case, if 2a = 6, and if pp be taken equal to 
 b, then a 6 = a will represent Ap, which 
 is equal to a, and situated to the left of A. 
 
 II. The Demonstration of Theorems. 
 All propositions in which the proportion of 
 
 III. Of the Solution of Problem. 
 
 Upon the same principles are geometrical pro- 
 blems to be resolved. The figure appropriate to 
 the solution of the problem is supposed to be 
 constructed, and the known and unknown quan- 
 tities are denoted by appropriate symbols. Thus 
 from the known geometrical relations between 
 the parts known, and the one unknown, the 
 necessary equations are formed ; and by their 
 respective revolution the problem is solved. It 
 may first be remarked, as was done in the case of 
 theorems, that in those problems which relate to 
 the division of the line and the proportions of 
 its parts, the expression of the quantities, and the 
 stating their relations by equations, are so easy 
 as not to require any particular directions. But 
 when various positions of geometrical figures and 
 their properties are introduced, the solution re- 
 quires more attention and skill. No general 
 rules can be given on this subject, but the fol- 
 lowing observations may be of use. 
 
 1 . The construction of the problem being sup- 
 posed, it is often farther necessary to produce 
 some of the lines till they meet ; to draw new 
 lines joining remarkable points ; to draw lines 
 from such points perpendicular or parallel to 
 other lines, and to perform such other operations 
 as seem conducive to the finding of equations ; 
 and for this purpose, those specially are to be 
 employed which divide the figure into triangles 
 that are given, right-angled or similar. 
 
 2. It is often convenient to denote by letters, 
 not the quantities particularly sought, but some 
 
 magnitudes only are employed, and all proposi- others from which they can easily be deduced 
 tions expressing the relations of the segments of The same may be observed of given quantities. 
 * straight line, of their squares, rectangles, cubes. :>. There must be as many independent equa-
 
 596 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 tions as there are unknown quantities assumed 
 in the investigation, and from these a final equa- 
 tion may be inferred by the rules of Part I. 
 
 If the final equation from the problem be re- 
 solved, the roots may often be exhibited geome- 
 trically ; but the geometrical construction of pro- 
 blems may be effected aho without resolving the 
 equation, and even without deducing a final 
 equation. 
 
 If the final equation is simple or quadratic, 
 the roots being obtained by the common rules 
 may be geometrically exhibited by the finding of 
 proportionals, and the addition or subtraction of 
 squares. 
 
 By inserting numbers for the known quanti- 
 ties, a numeral expression of the quantities sought 
 will be obtained by resolving the equation. But 
 in order to determine some particulars of the 
 problem, besides finding the unknown quantities 
 of the equation, it may be farther necessary to 
 make a simple construction ; or, if it is required 
 that every thing be expressed in numbers, to 
 substitute a new calculation in place of that 
 construction. 
 
 PROBLEM I. 
 
 To divide a given straight line AB into two parts, 
 so that the rectangle contained by the whole 
 line, and one of the parts may be equal to the 
 square of the other part . 
 
 c A c B 
 
 Let c be the point of division, and let AB 
 a, AC zz x, and then CB a x. From the 
 problem a 2 ax rr a? ; and this equation being 
 resolved, gives x ~ + 
 
 Let EC a, and 
 AD p, both of 
 which are given be- 
 cause the triangle 
 is given. Let AK 
 be assumed as the 
 unknown quantity, 
 because from it the 
 square can easily be 
 constructed ; and 
 let it be called x. 
 Then (KD Z3 EG ) EF p x. 
 
 On account of the parallels EF, BC, AD ; 
 AK ; EF ; that is p : a ' '. x : p x, and 
 px ax, which equation being resolved 
 _ p 2 
 
 * -* _ _ 
 
 BC ; * 
 
 p* _ 
 gives 
 
 / a* 
 
 The quantity V^ a *+T' s the hypotheneuse 
 
 of a right angled triangle, of which the two sides 
 
 Therefore x or AK is a third proportional to p 
 -f. a and p, and the point K being found, the con-' 
 struction of the square is sufficiently obvious. 
 
 PROBLEM III. 
 
 To describe a circle through two given points 
 A, B, that shall touch a line CD given inposition. 
 
 Join at B, and A, 
 
 through o, the as- 
 sumed centre of 
 the required circle, 
 draw FE perpendi- 
 cular to AB, which 
 it will bisect in E. 
 
 Join OB, and draw 
 
 EII,OG perpendicu- 
 lar to CD;OG will fall on the point of con tat a 
 
 Now, as A, E, B, H, and F are given points, put 
 EB a, EF ~ b, EH ~ c, and EO, the required 
 radius rz: x. 
 
 Then OF b x, and because OEB is a 
 right-angled triangle AB* EO 2 + EB 2 , or OB zz 
 */x s + a 3 ; and by similar triangles FE : EII : : 
 
 FO : EG ; or OB ; or b : c : : b x : OB zr / 
 
 are a and, and is therefore easily found being 
 
 At 2> 
 
 taken from this line, gives x ~ AC, which is the 
 proper solution. But if a line AC be taken on 
 the opposite side of .A, and equal to the above- 
 mentioned hypotheneuse, together with it will 
 
 m 
 
 represent the negative root-\/ a 2 + - -, and 
 
 4 At 
 
 will give another solution; for in this case also 
 AB x BC ~ AC". But c is without the line AB ; 
 and therefore, if it is not considered as making a 
 division of AB, this negative root is rejected. 
 
 PROBLEM II. 
 
 In a given triangle ABC to inscribe a square. 
 Suppose it be done, and let it be EFHG. From 
 
 X bx. Hence if these two values of OB be equated, 
 we have, >^x 2 + a* =. ^ . b x; or by 
 
 squaring each side of the equation 
 
 ja (.2 x t _(_ 26c 2 ,z zz b* (c 2 o s )> 
 
 ni- T" I f ^ 
 
 ur * -p TT 5-*- o o > 
 Ir c b fr 
 
 a quadratic equation, which, resolved the usual 
 way, gives 
 
 _ b^/c* + ^^a 
 
 T? be* 
 
 b' 2 c 2 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 OF THE DEFINITION OF LINES BY EQUATIONS. 
 
 1 . When curve lines are considered algebrai- 
 cally, they are supposed to be produced by the 
 extremity of one straight line, as PM moving in a 
 given position, which is called the base. 
 
 2. The straight line PM, moving alon the 
 
 A let AD be perpendicular on the base BC, meet- other, is called an inordinate, and is usually 
 
 mg EP 
 
 denoted by y.
 
 ALGEBRA, 
 
 597 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 In like manner is a punctum triplex, &c. to 
 be determined. 
 
 Let the equation be ay* ry* = x 3 4. bx* 
 
 Therefore, v* 
 
 * y 
 
 d y - + 
 
 " - - 
 
 = v s'JdL +it . 
 
 3. The segment of the base AP between a 
 given point in A, and an ordinate PM, is called 
 an absciss, with respect to that ordinate, and is 
 denoted by x. The ordinate and absciss to- 
 gether are called co-ordinates. 
 
 4. If the relation of the variable absciss and 
 ordinate AP and PM be expressed by an equation, 
 which besides x and y contains only known quan- 
 tities, the curve MO, described by the motion of 
 the ordinate, is called the locus of that equation. 
 
 5. If the equation is finite, the curve is called 
 algebraical. N. B. The terms geometrical and 
 algebraical, as applied to curve lines, are used in 
 different senses by different writers ; there are 
 several other classes of curves, besides what are 
 here called algebraical, which can be treated of 
 mathematically, and even by means of algebra. 
 
 6. The dimensions of such equations are es- 
 timated from the highest sum of the exponents 
 of x and?/ in any term. Thus the terms x*, x 3 y, 
 jfy 2 , ?y 3 , y 4 , are all of the same dimensions. 
 
 7. Curve lines are divided into orders, from 
 the dimensions of their equations, when freed 
 from fractions and surds. 
 
 I. The determination ofthefgure of a curve 
 from its equation. 
 
 The general figure of the curve may be found 
 by substituting successively particular values of 
 x the absciss, and finding, by the resolution of 
 these equations, the corresponding values of y 
 the ordinate, and of consequence to so many 
 points of the curve. 
 
 1. If in any case a value of y vanishes, then 
 the curve meets the base in a point determined 
 by the corresponding value of x. Hence by 
 putting y 0, the roots of the equation, which 
 in that situation are values of x, will give the 
 distances on the base from the point assumed as 
 the beginning of x, at which the curve meets it. 
 
 2. If at a particular value of x, y becomes in- 
 finite, the curve has an infinite arc, and the 
 ordinate at that point becomes an asymptote. 
 
 3. If when x becomes infinite, y vanishes, the 
 base is an asymptote. 
 
 4. If any values of y become impossible, then 
 so many intersections of the ordinate and curve 
 vanish. If at any value of x, all the values of y 
 become impossible, the ordinate does not there 
 meet the curve. 
 
 5. If two values of y become equal, and have 
 the same sign, the ordinate in that situation either 
 touches the curve, or passes through an intersec- 
 tion of two of its branches, which is called a 
 punctum duplex, or through an oval become in- 
 finitely little, called a punctum conjugatum. 
 
 Let AB be assumed as a base on which the ab- 
 scisses are to be taken from A, and the ordinates 
 perpendicular to it. 
 
 Since the two values of y are equal, but hav. 
 opposite signs; PM and PTO, which represent 
 them, must be taken equal to each other on op- 
 posite sides of AB; and it is plain that the parts 
 of the curve on the two sides of AB must be 
 every way similar and equal. 
 
 If * is made equal to a, y = x\r , 
 
 which is an algebraical expression for infinity , 
 therefore if AC is taken equal to a, the perpendi- 
 cular CD will become an asymptote to the curve, 
 which will have two infinite arcs. If x is greater 
 than a, the quantity under the radical sign be- 
 comes negative, and the values of y are impos- 
 sible ; that is, no part of the curve lies beyond 
 
 CD. 
 
 Both branches of the curve pass through A, 
 since y ~ 0, when * = o. Let x be negative, 
 
 and = + x\/ ; the values of y will be 
 
 a + a 
 
 possible, if* is not greater than b; but if x = b, 
 then y = 0, and if x is greater than b ; the values 
 of y become impossible ; that is, if the absciss 
 AP be taken to the left of A, and less than b, 
 there will be two real equal values of y, PM, pm 
 on the opposite sides as before ; if AE be taken 
 equal to b, the curve will pass through E, and 
 no part of it is beyond E. 
 
 The portion between A and E is called a 
 nodus. 
 
 If y be put = 0, then the values of x are 0, 
 0, b ; that is, the curve passes twice through 
 A, or A is a punctum duplex, and it passes 
 also through E as before. 
 
 By the same methods, the locus of any other 
 equation is to be traced : thus, by varying the 
 former equation, the figure of its locus will be 
 varied. If b = 0, then the points A and E coin- 
 cide, the nodus vanishes, and A is called a cuspis. 
 
 If b is negative, then E is to the right of A, 
 which will now be a punctum conjugatum. The 
 rest of the curve will be between E and c, and 
 CD becomes an asymptote.
 
 598 
 
 II. General properties of curves from their 
 equations. 
 
 A straight lino may meet a curve in as many 
 points as there are units in the dimensions of its 
 equation ; for so many roots may that equation 
 have. An asymptote may cut a curve line in as 
 many points, excepting two, as it has dimensions, 
 and no more. The same may be observed of the 
 tangent. 
 
 Impossibla roots enter an equation by pairs ; 
 therefore the intersection of the ordinate and 
 curve must vanish by pairs. 
 
 The curves, of which the number expressing 
 the order is odd, must have at least two infinite 
 arcs ; for the absciss may be so assumed, that 
 for every value of it, either positive or negative, 
 there must be at least one value of_y, &c. 
 
 Scholium. 
 
 If the relation between the ordinate and ab- 
 sciss be fixed, but not expressible by a finite 
 equation, the curve is called mechanical or 
 transcendental. This class is also sometimes 
 defined by equations, by supposing either x or y 
 in a finite equation to be a curve line, of which 
 the relation to a straight line cannot be expressed 
 in finite terms. 
 
 If the variable qualities x or y enter the ex- 
 ponents of any term of an equation, the locus of 
 that equation is called an exponential curve. 
 
 We shall now conclude this article with two 
 or three problems to show the application of al- 
 gebra to the different departments of science. 
 
 PROB. I. A pendulum vibrates as often in a 
 minute as it is inches long. What is its length ? 
 
 Let the required length be represented by x ; 
 then the length of the seconds pendulum being 
 39$, and the number of vibrations made in a 
 given time being inversely as the square roots 
 of the lengths, we have 
 
 */7 : \X39~J : : 60 : T, or x*/x = 60*^/39$, or 
 .1^140850; whence xlj 140850 zz52'02C82. 
 
 PROB. II. Sxippose a wheel A turns another 
 wheel B, on whose axis is another wheel c which 
 turns a wheel D. It is required to find the least 
 number of teeth in each of these four wheels, so 
 that the wheels A and D may make equal revolu- 
 tions ; the wheel D being supposed to roll round 
 the wheel c in 365 turns of the wheel A ? 
 
 Let a, b, c, d, represent the four wheels, the 
 letters denoting also the number of teeth in the 
 
 wheels. Then - are the turns b or c has for 
 c 
 
 one of a, and - the turns 
 c 
 
 d has for one cf c ; con- 
 
 . bd 
 sequently are the turns 
 
 J ac 
 
 d makes for one of , 
 viiich would be 1, if the 
 wlieel d were stationary, 
 Because a and d are to re- 
 volve in equal times. But 
 
 are the turns which d gains or loses in 365 
 turns of the wheel a, according as it is carried, 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 the contrary or the same way as the motion of 
 
 c c 
 
 the wheel c, and 365 : : : 1 : . . ., the par* 
 
 (t oOOu- 
 
 of a turn which d gains or loses in one turn of a 
 Hence we have this equation 
 
 +- zz 1 or--+- 
 
 Here 365 is divisible into two fractions, 73 and 5, 
 take c.'.zz73, and, and multiply the equation by 
 
 5, and it becomes -j- zz ^ . To find the 
 
 73 
 
 least value of d which will make 
 
 teger, multiply it by 29, 
 J65d 29 
 73 
 
 5d+ \ 
 73 
 it 
 
 and it becomes 
 which must also be a whole number, 
 
 . 146d 145d-l-29 d+29 
 and consequently! -^ ^p = -=- 
 
 must be a whole number. Let n be that number, 
 then d zz 73w 29. If d roll round c the same 
 way that c revolves, the lower sign is used ; but 
 if the contrary way, the upper sign. 
 
 It is evident that the least value of d will be 
 obtained by taking n=.c, when d 29, 5a-=-fczz2, 
 or a : b : : 2 : 5, the ratio of a to b ; whence 
 a =. 10, b 25, c 73, and d zz 29. If the 
 upper sign be used, the least value of d will be 
 obtained by taking a zz 1, in which case azzlS, 
 b 23, c zz 73, and d 46. 
 
 PROB. How high in a given latitude is it pos- 
 sible to erect a building? 
 
 When the centrifugal 
 force arising from the 
 earth's rotation exceeds 
 the force of gravity at the. 
 same point, a body situ- 
 ated in that place would 
 be thrown off from the 
 earth ; hence the height 
 of the point at which the focus of gravity and 
 centrifugal force are equal, will be the answer to 
 this question. Now the centrifugal force at the 
 surface of the earth at the equator is known to be 
 sJgth part of the force of gravity, and the force of 
 gravity is inversely as the square of the distance 
 from the centre, and the centrifugal force di- 
 rectly as the distance from the axis of rotation. 
 In the annexed figure let AB represent the 
 building, N the north, and s the south pole ; E 
 and Q the points where the meridian cuts the 
 equator, BF and AD perpendiculars on EQ and 
 s. Put AB zz x, CA zz r, and AD zz c ; 
 then BC zz r + x, and CA : AD :: CB : CF; or 
 r : c : r + x zz c . r + x -i- r zz CF. Now if s 
 be considered as the centrifugal force at Q, and 
 289 the force of gravity at Q or A, then CQ : CF 
 : : 1 : r~+lc .c -^r 7 , the centrifugal force at F or 
 B in the direction CF ; and CB : CF : : r + x . c -J- 
 r* : r~+~ar . c 2 r, the centrifugal force at B in 
 the direction CB.' And CB 2 : CA* : : 289 : 289 . 
 
 r z _:_ r -f a: 2 , the force of gravity at B. Hence 
 
 r~+~x . c 2 -7- r 289r 2 -=- r + x 3 , or r + *? = 
 289r> -f- c 2 , whence x zz /($/ 289 -r- c 2 1). 
 If the latitude be 55, and the radius of the earth 
 zz 3970 miles, then &c.
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 599 
 
 ALGEDO, in surgery, from aXyoc, the run- 
 ning of a gonorrhoea stopping suddenly after it 
 appears When it thus stops, a pain reaches to 
 the anus, or to the testes, without their being 
 swelled ; and sometimes to the bladder ; in which 
 case, there is an urging to discharge the urine, 
 which is with difficulty passed ; calomel re- 
 peated so as to purge, brings back the running, 
 and then all difficulty from this symptom ceases. 
 
 ALGEMA, aXyij/ia, in medicine, the disease 
 whence the pain proceeds, in which sense the 
 term is frequently used by Hippocrates. 
 
 ALGEMISI, or ALGEMESEN, a small town, of 
 Spain, six leagues south of Valencia, and five 
 leagues north-north-west of Gandia. It is si- 
 tuated not far from the river Xucar, near which, 
 grow great quantities of the pita, (as it is called). 
 or American aloes, Agave, of which the people 
 make cordage, and the Catalans spin it to a suffi- 
 cient fineness for making lace . 
 
 ALGENEB, or ALGENIB, in astronomy, the 
 name of two fixed stars of the second magnitude ; 
 one marked y in the wing of Pegasus, the other 
 a on the right side of Perseus. 
 
 ALGERINES, the inhabitants of Algiers. See 
 'ALGIERS. 
 
 ALGEZIRA, or ALGEZIRAS, an ancient mari- 
 time town of Andalusia, in Spain, which has a 
 sea-port, on the coast of the Straits of Gibraltar. 
 The harbour is formed by two islands, which 
 gave rise to the name Algezira, signifying in the 
 Arabic tongue, an island. It was formerly called 
 Old Gibraltar, and lies seven miles west from 
 the town of that name. By this city the Moors 
 entered Spain in 71 3 ; and it was not recovered 
 from them till 1344, after a very long siege, re- 
 markable for being the first in which cannon 
 
 were made use of. Algezira is agreeably situated 
 close by the sea side, on a gentle slope, not far 
 from Jarifa. It formerly consisted of two towns 
 of considerable importance, but is now falling 
 into decay. An aqueduct of hewn stone, three- 
 fourths of a mile in length, supplies the city with 
 fresh water. It was near this place that Sir 
 James Saumarez, obtained a victory over the 
 French and Spanish fleet, on the llth of July, 
 1801. 
 
 ALGEZUR, a small town of Portugal, in 
 Algarva, whose old castle makes a part in the 
 royal arms of Portugal. 
 
 ALGHER, or ALGERI, a town in Sardinia, 
 and a bishop's see, upon the north-west coast of 
 the island, between Sasseri and Bossa, seventy- 
 nine miles north-west of Cagliari. Though not 
 large, it is well peopled, and has a commodious 
 port. The coral obtained on this coast is in the 
 highest esteem of any in the Mediterranean. 
 
 ALGIABARII, a Mahommedan sect of predes- 
 tinarians, who attribute all the actions of men, 
 good or evil, to the agency or influence of God. 
 The Algiabarii stand opposed to the Alkadarii. 
 The justice of God in punishing the evil he has 
 caused, they resolve wholly into his absolute do- 
 minion over his creatures. 
 
 ALGIDUM, from gelidus, cold or freezing, in 
 ancient geography, a town of Latium, supposed 
 to be so called on account of the cold. It be- 
 longed to the ^.qui, and was situated between 
 Proeneste" and Alba. On the top of a high 
 mountain of the same name, was situated a cele- 
 brated temple of Diana. 
 
 ALGITEN, a small town of Lombardy, ten 
 miles north of Milan, and situated on the Lam- 
 bro. 
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 ALGIERS, a kingdom of Africa, now one of 
 the states of Barbary. According to the latest 
 and best computations, it extends 460 miles in 
 length, from east to west, along the Barbary 
 coast, but is very unequal in breadth, some 
 places being scarce forty miles broad, and others 
 upwards of one hundred. It lies between long. 
 . 16'. and 9. 16'. west, and extends from 
 lat. 36. 55'. to 44. 50'. north. It is bounded 
 on the north by the Mediterranean ; on the east 
 by the river Zaine, the ancient Tusca, which 
 divides it from Tunis ; on the west by the Mil- 
 wooia, and the mountains of Trava, which sepa- 
 rate it from Morocco and Tafilet ; and on the 
 south by mount Atlas, and the Zaara, or Numi- 
 dian desert. 
 
 DIVISIONS. This country comprehends the 
 greaterpart of the Numidia and Mauritania Caesa- 
 riensis of the ancients ; so called from the city of 
 Caesarea, built here by Juba the younger. The 
 present name is derived from the situation of the 
 metropolis, called by the Turks Algezair, Aljezier 
 in Arabic, Al-jezirah, the island, alluding to an 
 island which was anciently opposite the city, but 
 is now joined to it by a pier. The modem 
 divisions are Tlemsan or Tremecen, Mascara, 
 
 Titterie, Algiers Proper and Constantia ; although 
 Dr. Shaw makes a different arrangement, and 
 unites the provinces of Algiers Proper and Tit- 
 terie into one district. 
 
 Of the above divisions Constantia is the most 
 important, lying along the eastern confines, and 
 once in the possession of Tunis. Of the chief 
 towns of this district, Constantia contains a popu- 
 lation of at least 100,000 ; Bona is strongly for- 
 tified, and has an excellent harbour ; Bujeya has 
 a larger port than Algiers, though not so safe for 
 shipping; Gigeri, Zamoura, Tebef, Necanz, and 
 Stessa are all places of considerable eminence. 
 Cuco and Biscari are regions tributary to this 
 province ; but can scarcely be said to have any 
 settled administration of government ; and in 
 this respect correspond with Labez, a barren 
 rocky region, frequently described as a portion of 
 this province. Algiers Proper contains the 
 capital. Titterie, extending towards the south 
 presents a surface irregularly broken with moun- 
 tains, although some fertile plains are stretched 
 around in different directions ; and the towns of 
 Bieeda and Medea contribute much to its im- 
 provement. I i Mascara or Tlemsan, the western 
 district, are the towns of Tlemsan, Mascara,
 
 600 
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 O:-an, Tennis, Mustygannim, Sher-shell, and the 
 port of Mars-al-Quibber ; of which Oran, ori- 
 ginally fortified by the Spaniards, and Sher-shell, 
 containing monuments and antique remains, are 
 the most important 
 
 RIVERS. The chief rivers are the Milwooia, an- 
 ciently called Malva, the Yesser orZiz, which di- 
 vides the province of Mascara ; the Zelif or Shellif ; 
 the Mina, the Chylematis of Ptolemy ; the Belef, 
 the Carthena of the ancients ; the Hued-al-quiver 
 or Zinganir, supposed to be the ancient Nalabata 
 or Nasaba, and the Suf-Gemar, the Ampsaga of 
 Ptolemy; the Haregol, probably the Signa of 
 Ptolemy, flowing from the Great Atlas, through 
 the desert of Anguid, till it falls into the Medi- 
 terranean Sea near Oran. 
 
 MOUNTAINS. The chief mountains are the Atlas, 
 various branches of which stretch into these pro- 
 vinces from the southern regions, under the names 
 of Lowat and Arnnier ; the mountains of Trara 
 and Jurjura, extending from the interior toward 
 Algiers ; those of Felizia, Gibbell Auress, An- 
 well, the Mons Auracia of the ancients. Gene- 
 rally speaking, the Great Atlas bounds the states 
 from east to west, and the mountains of Trara 
 from the west towards the kingdom of Morocco. 
 CLIMATE, SOIL, &c. The climate of Algiers, 
 except when the hot and violent winds blow from 
 the Great Desert, is in most places so moderate, 
 that they enjoy a constant verdure ; the leaves of 
 the trees being neither parched up by heat in sum- 
 mer, nor nipped by the winter's cold. They begin 
 to bud in February ; in April the fruit appears in 
 its full bigness, and is commonly ripe in May. The 
 melons have an exquisite taste, and the stems of 
 the vines are so large, that a man can hardly 
 grasp them with his arms ; and the bunches of 
 grapes are 1 feet long. Scarcely a cloud blots 
 the sky in the summer months ; and in September 
 and October the rains begin to fall, wheat and 
 beans are then sown ; the latter rains fall in April, 
 to which succeeds the harvest in May or June. 
 I. ii dressing their corn the Algerines still retain 
 two remarkable customs of the east, viz. treading 
 out the corn by means of horses or cattle ; and 
 throwing it up with a shovel or fan against the 
 wind to winnow it. The soil of Algiers is ex- 
 cessively various ; some places being very fertile 
 in corn, fruits, Sec. and others extremely hot, dry, 
 and barren, on which account they are generally 
 suffered to lie uncultivated by the inhabitants, 
 who are very negligent. These barren places, es- 
 pecially such as lie on the southern side, and are 
 at a great distance from the sea, harbour vast 
 numbers of wild creatures, as lions, tigers, buf- 
 faloes, wild boars, stags, porcupines, monkies, 
 ostriches, &c. 
 
 ANIMALS. The horses of this country are very 
 superior, though the breeding of them isnotattend- 
 ed to as it is in Arabia. They are extremely active, 
 full of fire, command an interesting appearance, 
 and aie exercised to gallop with the reins thrown 
 upon the neck ; and so expert are the riders, 
 that they can stop them at full speed. African 
 horses are seldom seen in any other pace than a 
 gallop ; and are, from their impetuosity, admi- 
 rably adapted for cavalry charges. The kumrah, 
 a breed from the ass and the cow ; the ass ; the 
 snute ; the dromedary and camel, are the beasts of 
 
 burden. The tame cattle are black and slender < 
 but numerous herds run wild in the southern 
 and eastern parts of the country, distinguished by 
 the inflexion of their horns. Of sl>eep there are 
 two species : that near the desert has an excellent 
 appearance, and reaches almost to the height of 
 a Shetland pony; but is not remarkable for 
 either its flesh or its wool. A peculiar species 
 of the goat is found in the hilly regions, with 
 tufts of hair on the knee and neck joints. Of 
 wild animals, besides those already mentioned, 
 are leopards, hyaenas, panthers, wolves, and a 
 species of the jackal, which pours down into 
 the villages in terrific flocks, and is so furious as 
 to tear up the dead bodies out of the graves. . 
 
 BIRDS. Of birds they have a great variety. 
 Quails are seen at the fall of the year crossing 
 the Mediterranean in large flocks like clouds. 
 Starlings, storks, pigeons, and most of the 
 domestic fowls and common birds of Europe are 
 in great plenty. There is a red lark not seen in 
 Italy, which frequently excites the attention of 
 travellers. Of those birds which are less com- 
 mon, may be enumerated, the karabur, or ash- 
 coloured falcon ; the saheerag, a species of mag- 
 pie ; the graab, or large crow of the desert, with 
 legs and beak red like the falcon ; the houbarry, 
 whose gall is said to be medicinal; and the 
 capsa, a large sparrow with a shining breast and 
 ruddy coat like the lark, who, in melody, is said 
 far to surpass the European nightingale. Os- 
 triches mostly inhabit the desert of Anguid, 
 where they are seen in large flocks, and appear 
 at a distance like troops of robbers. They shed 
 their feathers in the winter, which are collected 
 by the natives to supply the European markets. 
 Assisted by the wind, this bird is capable of out- 
 running the fleetest horse ; but if driven against 
 the wind, is easily taken, the flapping of her 
 wings meeting with less resistance from the sur- 
 rounding air. 
 
 REPTILES AND INSECTS. The scorpion is, 
 amongst reptiles, the most formidable of those 
 that are common to this region. It is of different 
 colours, and inflicts a virulent wound, of which, 
 though not perhaps in itself dangerous, many 
 persons die annually. Vipers and numerous 
 other serpents are common, and the great boa 
 constrictor lies in the southern provinces. The 
 locusts are a most dreadful scourge to this, and 
 to contiguous kingdoms, from which neither fires,, 
 nor trenches, nor all the art and ingenuity of 
 man have, as yet, been able to deliver them. In 
 the months of April and May, these insect armies 
 appear from the south, and spreading themselves 
 over the valleys, begin to deposit their eggs. The 
 young ones appear in June, and ascend in such 
 vast multitudes, as to cover many acres of ground 
 to the depth of several inches. Moving slowly 
 on in quest of food, they destroy every vestige of 
 vegetation, and leave nothing behind them but 
 misery and distress, lor the curious natural 
 history of this insect, see the article. They have 
 also a terrible kind of fly, which is poisonous to 
 cattle, and particularly tormenting to the horse,. 
 A swarm of these insects settling upon a horse, 
 have been known to sting him till he falls through 
 loss of blood. 
 
 ANTIQUITIES. The antiquities of thi.
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 601 
 
 dom are considerable, enriched with ruins, which 
 have hitherto delighted and astonished the world. 
 The mountains of Auress, to the south of Con- 
 stantina, are a knot of eminences running over 
 one another, with several plains and valleys be- 
 
 top, and spend their evenings in each others so- 
 ciety. The common buildings are of brick and 
 stone, with four chimneys rising in the four cor- 
 ners of the terrace, and those of the more opu- 
 lent class are adorned with marble columns and 
 
 tween them. They are considered the garden of ceilings of superior workmanship. The baths 
 
 the kingdom, and present a circuit of 130 miles, and mosques are numerous, and of the former 
 
 covered with numerous rums, of which those of some are set apart for the use of females. With- 
 
 L'Erba, called by the ancients Lambese, are the out the city are numerous sepulchres and cha- 
 
 most remarkable. The magnificent remains of pels dedicated to marabouts or reputed saints, 
 
 several city gates break upon the sight of the 
 traveller on his approach to this interesting spot. 
 These were four in number, according to the 
 Arabs, from each of which, in case of emergency, 
 the city could rout 40,000 armed mtn. The 
 frontispiece of a beautiful temple of the Ionic 
 
 which the wcynen yet visit every Friday. The 
 barracks for the Turkish soldiery are spacious and 
 handsome. In the middle of the last century 
 this town was surrounded with a high wall, 
 twelve feet thick, flanked with square towers and 
 a ^ e P ditch. These works have, however, been 
 
 order, and the remains of an amphitheatre, in- suffered to decay, a naval rather than a military 
 
 eluding the seats and upper part almost entire. 
 An elegant mausoleum, erected in the form of a 
 dome, supported by Corinthian columns, with a 
 
 defence, being die chief dependence of the Al- 
 gerines. The mole of the harbour forms a 
 spacious semicircle, a basin 130 fathoms long 
 
 supposed triumval arch, and several other emi- and eighty wide, affording shelter and protection 
 
 nent antiquities, throw a light on the former mag- 
 nificence of this ancient city. At Mednascham 
 is a fabric supposed to be the tomb of Syphax 
 and the Numidian princes. Constantina, the 
 
 for ships of the largest burden. It is surrounded 
 by a light-house, and overlooked by a castle, 
 founded on the solid rock. Powerful batteries 
 protect the entrance of the harbour ; and along the 
 
 ancient Corta, capital of Numidia, forms one of coast are numerous other batteries, which, since 
 
 the most interesting parts of the kingdom ; and 
 though of inferior extent to the former city, is 
 perhaps second only to Algiers. For a detail, 
 see CONSTANTINA. Some remains of Sigma, at 
 Nedroma, in Constantina province, and of the 
 Pontus Divini of Strabo, are still standing ; and 
 at Shershel are the supposed remains of Julia 
 Casarea, consisting of wide cisterns, mosaics, 
 broken columns, and curious sites of buildings, 
 amongst which are found numerous medals and 
 other monuments of antiquity. 
 
 1'he city of Algiers, opposite Minorca, 
 and 300 miles west of Tunis, is supposed to be 
 the ancient Iconium, and forms the present 
 capital of the kingdom. It rises, from the ac 
 clivity of a hill, in the imposing form of an 
 amphitheatre, and is a mile and a half in circuit, 
 containing nearly 30,000 inhabitants. Its antiqui- 
 ties are not very important, and of modern build- 
 ings the dey's palace, and the seraglio of his 
 favourite wife are the largest, and are adorned 
 with marble pillars of curious workmanship. 
 There are ten large mosques and fifty of inferior 
 dimensions ; the finest of these erections is sixty 
 feet in length, by forty in width, three stories in 
 height, and supported by beautiful pillars. The 
 walls are composed of white stone from the ruins 
 of Ouran, the columns of white marble imported 
 from Genoa. From the scarcity of water in the 
 city, magnificent aqueducts have been erected, 
 which convey water from no fewer than 150 
 
 the British expedition, have been put in a better 
 posture of defence. The inhabitants are chiefly 
 Mahommedans, Jews, and Christians. The Turk- 
 ish soldiers are great tyrants; for they will go 
 to the farm houses in the country for twenty days 
 together, living at free quarters, and making use 
 of every thing, not excepting the women. The 
 Algerines eat, as in Turkey, sitting cross-legged 
 round a table about four inches high, and using 
 neither knives nor forks; before they begin, 
 every one says, ' Be isme Allah,' ' In the name 
 of God.' When they have done, a slave pours 
 water on all their hands as they sit, and then 
 they wash their mouths. Their drink is water, 
 sherbet, and coffee. Wine, though prohibited 
 by Mahomet, is drank immoderately by some. 
 Algiers, though for several ages it has braved 
 some of the greatest powers of Christendom, could 
 make but a faint defence against a regular siege ; 
 and it is said that three English fifty gun ships 
 might batter it about the ears of its inhabitants 
 from the harbour. The Spaniards attacked it in 
 the year 1775, both by land and sea, but were re- 
 pulsed with great loss, though they had near 
 20,000 foot, 2000 horse, and 47 royal ships of 
 different rates, and 346 transports. In 1783 
 and 1784, they also renewed their attacks by sea 
 to destroy the city and galleys ; but were at 
 length forced to retire without effecting its cap- 
 ture. 
 
 The manufactures, consisting chiefly of sashes, 
 
 fountains, communicating pipes branching out in handkerchiefs, and carpets, are inferior to those 
 
 ill directions towards the different houses. The of Turkey. The trade, till within the last twenty 
 
 town consists, for the most part, of one principal years, was entirely in the hands of the French, 
 
 street, in the direction of east and west, inter- who kept establishments at Bona, La Cala, and 
 
 II Col, partly with a view to the coral fisheries 
 in these quarters. In consequence of the 
 
 sected by a few others of inferior importance. The 
 
 streets generally are extremely irregular and in- . . ., 
 
 convenient. So narrow are they that two per- lution, however, France lost this branch of her 
 
 sons can scarcely pass abreast ; and when a camel commerce ; and Great Bntain, in 1806, stipulated 
 
 passes, one must stand up close to the wall to with the Dey of Algiers for the possession ot the 
 
 avoid being crushed by him. The houses which three ports above named. The sum ot 50,00j 
 
 communicate with each other ar flat roofed and dollars has been regularly paid for them, altl 
 
 lofty, forming a promenade from one end of the little advantage has been, at present, derived. 
 
 town to the other. The inhabitants visit on the From its situation, it affords an excellent medium
 
 602 
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 for conveying British goods into the interior of 
 Africa. It is said that the corsairs or pirates of 
 Algiers form a small republic, of which the rais 
 or captain is the supreme bashaw; who, with the 
 officers under him, form a kind of douwan, in 
 which every matter relating to the vessel is de- 
 cided. These corsairs are chiefly instrumental 
 in importing whatever commodities are brought 
 into the kingdom by way of merchandize or 
 prizes, as gold and silver stuffs, damasks, cloths, 
 spices, tin, iron, plated brass, lead, quicksilver, 
 cordage, sail-cloth, bullets, cochineal, linen, tar- 
 tar, alum, rice, sugar, soap, cotton, copperas, 
 aloes, Brazil wood, logwood, vermilion. Few 
 commodities, at present, are exported from Al- 
 giers. Ostrich feathers, copper, rugs, silk sashes, 
 embroidered handkerchiefs, dates, &c. are the 
 most remarkable. 
 
 The inland inhabitants, distinguished by the 
 name of Berebers, are the proper natives of the 
 country, supposed to have been descended from 
 the ancient Sabeans, who plundered the patriarch 
 Job ; and still retaining their original character 
 of robbers and pirates, removed from Arabia 
 Felix and settled at Algiers. 
 
 Others believe them to be descended from the 
 Canaanites, who were driven out of Palestine by 
 Joshua. They are dispersed all over Barbary, 
 and divided into a multitude of tribes under their 
 respective chiefs : most of them inhabit the moun- 
 tainous parts ; some range from place to place 
 and live in tents or portable huts ; others in 
 scattered villages : in which situation they have 
 generally kept from intermixing with other na- 
 tions. The Berebers are reckoned the richest of 
 all the Algerines, go better clothed, and carry on 
 a much larger traffic in cattle, hides, wax, honey, 
 iron, and other commodities. They have also 
 some artificers in iron, and some manufacturers 
 in the weaving branch. The name, Bereber, is 
 supposed to have been originally given them 
 on account of their being first settled in some 
 desert place. Upon their increasing in process 
 of time they divided themselves into five tribes, 
 probably on account of religious differences, 
 called Zinhagians, Muscamedins, Zeneti, Hoares, 
 and Gomeres ; and these having produced 600 
 families, subdivided themselves into a great num- 
 ber of petty tribes. To these we may add the 
 Zwowahs, by European authors called Azuagues, 
 or Assagues, who are likewise dispersed over the 
 greater part of Barbary and Numidia. Great num- 
 bers of these inhabit the mountainous parts of 
 Cuco, Labez, &c. leading a wandering pastoral life. 
 But the most numerous inhabitants have long 
 been Moors and Arabians. The former are very 
 stout and warlike, and skilful horsemen ; but so 
 addicted to robbing, that one cannot safely travel 
 along the country at a distance from the towns 
 without a guard, or at least a marabout or saint 
 for a safeguard. The inhabitants, in general, 
 have a pretty fair complexion ; they are robust 
 and well proportioned. People of distinction 
 wear their beards ; they have rich clothes made 
 of silk, embroidered with flowers of gold, and 
 turbans enriched with jewels. The Turks, who 
 compose the military force, have great privileges, 
 pay no taxes, are never publicly punished, and 
 rarely in private. The lowest soldier domineers 
 
 over the most distinguished Moors at pleasure. 
 If he finds them better mounted than himself, he 
 exchanges horses without ceremony The Turks 
 alone have the privilege of carrying fire-arms. 
 Some good qualities, however, distinguish them, 
 in spite of this excess of despotism. They never 
 game for money, nor even for trifles ; and they 
 never profane the name of the deity. They soon 
 forget their private quarrels ; and, after the first 
 paroxysm of resentment is over, it is infamy for 
 a Turk to keep in remembrance the injuries he 
 has received. In this respect certainly they are 
 less barbarous than some other nations that boast 
 of their civilization. 
 
 The government of Algiers, although it has 
 been styled a republic, is neither republican nor 
 despotic, but a sort of oligarchy, or at least 
 approximating to that model. According to 
 some writers it is difficult to ascertain what it 
 is, whether a vile oligarchy, an aristocratical com- 
 monwealth, or a lax, tumultuous, ill-regulated 
 despotism. Almost every dey that succeeds to 
 the throne, paves the way by the murder of both his 
 predecessor and rival competitors, and is himself 
 at last strangled or otherwise despatched at the 
 pleasure of a more powerful rival. To the imper- 
 fection of its government, may be in a great 
 measure attributed the many miseries of this un- 
 happy kingdom. 
 
 The population consists chiefly of Moors and 
 Turks, who though not more than 7000 in num- 
 ber, keep the government in their own hands 
 exclusively. The most enlightened of the peo- 
 ple are the Cologlis, or the children of the Turks 
 by the Moorish women. The Moors are divided 
 into two kinds, the Kabylas or mountain tribes, 
 and the Berebers, the mechanics of the country. 
 The Arabian tribes keep themselves totally distinct 
 and are employed in commerce. 
 
 The cadi is the ecclesiastical judge, besides 
 whom there is a superior religious officer, 
 called mufti or high-priest; and an inferior one 
 called the grand marabout. To these officers lies 
 the supreme appeal in all religious concerns. 
 The people are generally ignorant; yet so jealous 
 are the higher ranks of their authority, that print- 
 ing, according to M. Pantani, has been prohibited, 
 lest there should be too much knowledge in the 
 nation. The only instruction consists in teaching 
 boys to read and repeat fifty or sixty aphorisms 
 from the Koran. The Alfagni or learned men are 
 jugglers. 
 
 The Algerine kingdom made formerly a consi- 
 derable part of the Mauritania Tingitana, See 
 MAURITANIA, which was reduced to a Roman 
 province by Julius Caesar, and from him also 
 called Mauritania Cresariensis. After the Ro- 
 mans had been driven out of Africa by the Van- 
 dals, and the latter by the Saracens about the 
 middle of the seventh century, the Arabs conti- 
 nued masters of the country, divided into petty 
 kingdoms under chiefs of their own choosing, till 
 the year 1051, when Albubeker ben Omar, or, as 
 the Spanish authors call him, Abu Texefien, 
 provoked at the tyranny of those despots, gathered, 
 by the help of his marabouts, or sain's, a power- 
 ful army of malcontents, in Numidia and Libya, 
 His followers were named Morabites; by the 
 Spaniards, Almoravides, probably from their being
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 assembled principally by the Mahommedan saints 
 so called The khalif of Kayem's forces were 
 at this time taken up in quelling revolts in Syria, 
 Mesopotamia, &c. and the Arabs in Spain 
 engaged in the most bloody wars ; so that 
 Texefien, having nothing to fear from them, had 
 all the success he could wish against the Arabian 
 cheyks whom he repeatedly defeated, and at last 
 drove out of Numidia, Libya, and all the 
 western parts, reducing the whole province of 
 Tingitania under his dominion. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his son Yusef, or Joseph, who laid the 
 foundation of Morocco, which he designed for 
 the capital of his empire. While that city was 
 building, he sent ambassadors to Tremecen, at 
 that time inhabited by a powerful sect of Mahom- 
 medans called Zeneti, proposing to bring them 
 back to what he called the true faith ; but the 
 Zeneti, despising his offers, murdered his ambas- 
 sadors, and invaded his dominions with an army 
 of 50,000 men ; whereupon he immediately led 
 his army into their country, destroying all before 
 him with fire and sword ; while the Zeneti, instead 
 of opposing his progress, retired as fast as pos- 
 sible towards Fez, in hopes of assistance. But 
 in this they were miserably deceived, for the Fez- 
 zans coming up with the unhappy Zeneti, encum- 
 bered with their families and baggage, and ready 
 to expire with hunger and weariness, cut them 
 all to pieces, except a small number who were 
 either drowned in attempting to swim across a 
 river, or perished by falling from the adjacent 
 rocks. Meantime Joseph reduced their country 
 to a mere desert ; but it was soon repeopled by 
 a numerous colony of Fezzans, who settled there. 
 In this war it is computed that near a million of 
 the Zeneti, men, women, and children, lost their 
 lives. Notwithstanding the assistance Joseph 
 had thus received from the Fezzans-, he declared 
 war against them, reduced them to become his 
 tributaries, and extended his conquest all along 
 the Mediterranean. He next attacked those 
 Arabian cheyks who had not yet submitted, taking 
 many castles and fortresses, till then deemed 
 impregnable ; and at last completely subdued 
 them. Thus was founded the empire of the 
 Morabites, which, however, was of no long dura- 
 tion; that race being in the 12th century driven 
 out by Mohavedin, a marabout. This race of 
 priests was expelled by Abduiac governor of 
 Fez ; and he, in the 13th century, was stripped 
 of his conquests by the Sharifs of Hascen, the 
 descendants of those Arabian princes whom 
 Abu-Texefien had formerly expelled. The bet- 
 ter to secure their new dominions, the Sharifs 
 divided them into several little kingdoms or 
 provinces ; and among these the present king- 
 dom of Algiers was divided into four, viz. Treme- 
 cen, Tenez, Algiers Proper, and Bnjeyah. The 
 four first monarchs laid so good a foundation for 
 a lasting balance of power between their little 
 kingdoms, that they continued for some centuries 
 in mutual amity ; but at length the king of Tre- 
 mecen having ventured to violate some of their 
 articles, Abul Farez, king of Tenez, declared 
 war against him, and obliged him to become his 
 tributary. This king dying soon after, and hav- 
 ing divided his kingdom among his three sons, 
 new discords arose ; which Spain taking advan- 
 
 603 
 
 tage of, sent a powerful fleet and army against 
 Barbary, m 1505, under the count of Navarre, 
 who took Oran, Bujeyah, and some other im- 
 portant places ; which so alarmed the Algerines, 
 that they put themselves under the protection of 
 Sehm Eutemi, an Arabian prince. He came 
 to their assistance with a great number of his 
 bravest subjects, but was not able to prevent the 
 Spaniards from landing a number of forces near 
 Algiers, and making the Algerines tributary to 
 Spain; or from building a strong fort on a small 
 island opposite to the city, which terrified their 
 corsairs from sailing either in or out of the har- 
 bour. They continued under this yoke until 
 1516 ; when, hearing of the death of Ferdinand, 
 king of Spain, they sent to Aruch Barbarossa, 
 who was at this time no less dreaded for his va- 
 lour than for his surprising success, requesting 
 him to join his forces with those of Seltm 
 Eutemi, and free them from the Spanish yoke ; 
 offering him a gratuity answerable to so great a 
 service. Upon this Barbarossa immediately des- 
 patched eighteen galleys and thirty barks to the 
 assistance of the Algerines : while he himself 
 advanced towards the city with 800 Turks, 
 3000 Jigelites, and 2000 Moorish volunteers. In 
 his road to Algiers, he surprised Hassan, another 
 famed corsair, and obliged him to surrender ; 
 not without a previous promise of friendship : 
 but no sooner had Barbarossa got him in his 
 power, than he cut off his head ; and obliged 
 all Hassan's Turks to follow him in his new ex- 
 pedition. On Barbarossa's approach to Algiers, 
 he was met by prince Selim, attended by the 
 people, who looked for deliverance from this 
 abandoned villain,, whom they accounted invin- 
 cible. He was conducted into the city amidst 
 their acclamations, and lodged in one of the 
 noblest apartments of prince Eutemi's palace, 
 where he was treated with the greatest marks 
 of honour. Elated beyond measure with this 
 kind reception, Barbarossa formed a design of 
 becoming king of Algiers; and fearing op- 
 position from the inhabitants, on account of 
 the excesses he suffered his soldiers to commit, 
 caused prince Eutemi to be murdered at the 
 baths, and caused himself to be proclaimed 
 king ; his Turks and Moors crying out as he 
 rode along the streets, ' Long live King Aruch 
 Barbarossa, the invincible king of Algiers, the 
 chosen of God to deliver the people from the 
 oppression of the Christians ; and destruction 
 to all that shall oppose, or refuse to own him 
 as their lawful sovereign.' This last threaten- 
 ing so intimidated the inhabitants, already ap- 
 prehensive of a general massacre, that he was 
 immediately acknowledged king. The unhappy 
 princess Zaphira, Selim's queen, poisoned her- 
 self, to avoid the brutality of this tyrant, whom 
 she unsuccessfully endeavoured to stab with a 
 dagger. After this, Barbarossa treated his sub- 
 jects with such cruelty, that they used to shut 
 up their houses and hide themselves when he 
 appeared in public. A plot was formed against 
 him, but being discovered, he caused twenty 
 of the principal conspirators to be beheaded, 
 and their bodies to be buried in a duughill, and 
 laid a heavy fine on those who survived ; which so 
 terrified the Algerines that they never afterwards
 
 004 
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 attempted any thing against him. Meantime, the 
 son of prince Selim, having fled to Orar, and put 
 himself under the protection of the marquis of 
 Gomarez, laid before that nobleman a plan for 
 putting the city of Algiers into the hands of the 
 king of Spain. Upon this young Selim Eutemi 
 was sent into Spain, to lay his plan before car- 
 dinal Ximenes ; who, having approved of it, 
 sent a fleet with 10,000 land forces, under the 
 command of Don Diego de Vera, to drive out 
 the Turks, and restore the young prince. But 
 the fleet was no sooner come within sight of the 
 land, than it was dispersed by a storm, and the 
 greatest part of the ships dashed against the 
 rocks. Most of the Spaniards were drowned ; 
 and the few who escaped were either killed by 
 the Turks or made slaves. The king of Tenez made 
 an attack upon him, but as the rest of the history 
 of this bloody tyrant will be narrated under the 
 article BAKBAROSSA, it is only necessary to add 
 here, that, after taking and plundering Tenez, 
 and being chosen king of Tremecen, by the in- 
 habitants, who were displeased with their own 
 sovereign, he was at last killed by Abuchen- 
 men, king of Tremecen, assisted by the Spa- 
 niards, in the forty-fourth year of his age, and 
 second of his reign over Algiers. The circum- 
 stances of his defeat and death are related as 
 follows : The prince of Tremen fleeing to Charles 
 V. obtained an army of 10,000 under the com- 
 mand of the marquis Gomarez, who besieged 
 him closely. Taking with him 1500 Turks 
 and 5000 Moors, he sallied out upon his be- 
 siegers, but was obliged to retire and defend 
 himself within the citadel of Tremecen. Seeing 
 no other prospect of escape, he dug a subter- 
 raneous passage, by which means he left the 
 city, but was pursued by some Spaniards, who, 
 although he scattered plate and jewels in the 
 way, would not suffer themselves to be diverted, 
 and at last overtook him at Harxda, eight 
 leagues from Tremecen, and despatched him. 
 Abuchen-men was then declared king. 
 
 Although the news of Barbarossa's death 
 spread the utmost consternation among the 
 Turks at Algiers, they nevertheless proclaimed 
 his brother Hayradin king ; and the Spanish 
 commander, having sent back the emperor's 
 forces, without making any attempt upon Al- 
 giers, he lost the opportunity of driving the 
 Turks out of that country ; while Hayradin, 
 justly dreading the consequences of the ty- 
 ranny of his officers, sought the protection of 
 the grand seignior. This was readily granted, 
 and himself appointed bashaw or viceroy of 
 Algiers ; by which means he received such re- 
 inforcements, that the Algerines durst not make 
 the least complaint; and such numbers of Turks 
 resorted to him, that he became not only capa- 
 ble of keeping the Moors and Arabs in subjec- 
 tion at home, but of annoying the Christians 
 at sea. His first step was to take the Spanish 
 fort of Calan, which was -a great nuisance to 
 nis metropolis, and though the Spaniards held 
 out to the last extremity, he soon became mas- 
 ter of it. He next set about building a strong 
 mole for the safety of his ships. In this he 
 in ployed 30,000 Christian slaves, whom he 
 
 obliged to work without intermission for three 
 years, in which time the work was completed 
 He then caused the fort he had taken to be re- 
 paired, and placed a strong garrison in it, to 
 prevent any foreign vessels from entering the 
 harbour without giving an account of them- 
 selves. By these two important works, Hayra- 
 din soon became dreaded not only by the Arabs 
 and Moors, but also by the maritime Chris- 
 tian powers, especially the Spaniards. The 
 grand seignior having sent him a fresh supply 
 of money, he was enabled to erect batteries on 
 all places that might favour the landing of an 
 enemy. All these have since received greater 
 improvements from time to time, as often 
 as there was occasion. Meantime the Sultan, 
 either from a sense of the great services Hayra- 
 din had done, or out of jealousy lest he should 
 make himself independent, raised Hayradin 
 to the dignity of bashaw of the empire, and ap- 
 pointed Hassan Aga, a Sardinian renegade, and 
 an experienced officer, to succeed him as bashaw 
 of Algiers. Hassan had no sooner taken possession 
 of his new government, than he began to pursue 
 his ravages on the Spanish coast with greater fury 
 than ever; extending them to the ecclesiastical 
 state, and other parts of Italy ; whereupon Pope 
 Paul III. exhorted the emperor Charles V. to 
 send a powerful fleet to suppress those cruel pi- 
 racies ; and, that nothing might be wanting to 
 render the enterprise successful, a bull was pub- 
 lished, wherein a plenary absolution of sins, and 
 the crown of martyrdom, were promised to all 
 who should either fall in battle or be made slaves. 
 The emperor on his part needed no spur ; and 
 therefore set sail with a fleet of 120 ships and 
 20 galleys, having on board 30,000 chosen troops, 
 and an immense quantity of money, arms, am- 
 munition, &c. In this expedition many young 
 nobility and gentry attended as volunteers, and 
 many knights of Malta, so remarkable for their 
 valour against the enemies of Christianity. 
 Even ladies of birth and character attended 
 Charles in his expedition, and the wives and 
 daughters of the officers and soldiers followed 
 them, with a design to settle in Barbary after 
 the conquest was finished. The Algerines were 
 greatly alarmed by this prodigious armament. 
 The city was defended only by a wall, with scarce 
 any outworks. The whole garrison consisted of 
 800 Turks and 6000 Moors, without fire arms, 
 and poorly disciplined and accoutred ; the rest 
 of their forces being dispersed in the other pro- 
 vinces of the kingdom, to levy the usual tribute 
 on the Arabs and Moors. The Spaniards landed 
 without opposition, and immediately built a fort, 
 under the cannon of which they encamped, and 
 diverted the course of a spring which supplied 
 the city with water. Being now reduced to the 
 utmost distress, Hassan was on the point of sur- 
 rendering, when advice was brought him that the 
 forces belonging to the western government were 
 in full march towards the place ; upon which it 
 was resolved to defend it to the utmost. Charles, 
 in the mean time, resolving upon a general as- 
 sault, kept a constant firing upon the town ; 
 which, from the weak defence made by the gar- 
 rison, he looked upon as already his own. But
 
 A L G I E R S. 
 
 605 
 
 while the douwan or Algerine senate, were deli- 
 berating on the most proper means of obtaining 
 an honourable capitulation, a mad prophet, 
 named Yuself, attended by a multitude of people, 
 entered the assembly, and foretold the speedy 
 destruction of the Spaniards before the end of 
 the moon, exhorting the inhabitants to hold out 
 till that time. This prediction was soon accom- 
 plished in a veiy surprising and unexpected 
 manner: for, on the 28th of October, 1541, a 
 dreadful storm of wind, rain, and hail, arose from 
 the north, accompanied with violent shocks of 
 earthquakes, and an universal darkness, so that 
 the elements seemed to combine together for the 
 destruction of the Spaniards. In that night, some 
 say in less than half an hour, eighty-six ships and 
 fifteen galleys were destroyed, with all their crews 
 and military stores ; by which the army on shore 
 was deprived of all means of subsisting in these 
 parts. Their camp also, which spread itself along 
 the plain under the fort, was laid quite under 
 water by the torrents which descended from the 
 neighbouring hills. Many of the troops, trying 
 to remove into some better situation, were cut in 
 pieces by the Moors and Arabs ; while several 
 galleys, and other vessels, endeavouring to gain 
 some neighbouring creeks along the coasts, were 
 immediately plundered, and their crews massa- 
 cred by the inhabitants. Next morning Charles 
 beheld the sea covered with the fragments of so 
 many ships, and the bodies of men, horses, and 
 other creatures, swimming on the waves; at 
 which he was so disheartened, that abandoning 
 his tents, artillery, and all his heavy baggage, to 
 the enemy, he marched at the head of his army, 
 though in no small disorder, towards cape Mala- 
 bux, in order to re-imbark in those few vessels 
 which had outweathered the storm. But Hassan 
 who watched his motions, allowed him just time 
 to get to the shore, when he attacked the Spaniards 
 in the midst of their hurry to get into their ships, 
 killing great numbers, and bringing away a still 
 greater number of captives ; after which he re- 
 turned in triumph to Algiers, where he celebrat- 
 ed his happy deliverance with great rejoicings. 
 In this unfortunate expedition upwards of 120 
 fhips and galleys were lost, above 300 land and 
 sea officers, 8000 soldiers and marines, besides 
 those destroyed by the enemy on the re-imbarka- 
 tion, or drowned in the last storm. The num- 
 ber of prisoners was so great, that the Algerines 
 sold some of them, by way of contempt, for an 
 onion per head. Charles himself escaped with 
 difficulty to Tunis with his few remaining fol- 
 lowers. Hassan afterwards made his ally the 
 king of Tremecen tributary, and returning to Al- 
 giers laden with riches, soon after died of a fe- 
 ver, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. After this 
 Haji became king, and the Spaniards afterwards 
 were never able to annoy the Algerines in any 
 considerable degree. In 1555 they lost the city 
 of Bujeyah, which was taken by Selha-Rais, 
 Hassan's successor, who dying soon after of the 
 plague, the Algerine soldiers chose a Corsican 
 renegade, Hassan Corso, in his room, till they 
 should receive farther orders from the Porte. 
 He did not accept of the .bashawship without a 
 good deal of difficulty ; and he had hardly en- 
 joyed his dignity four months, before news came 
 
 that eight galleys were bringing a new bashaw to 
 succeed him ; one Tekelli, a principal Turk of 
 the grand seignior's court: upon which the Al- 
 gerines unanimously resolved not to admit him. 
 By the treachery of the Levantine soldiers, how- 
 ever, he was admitted at last, and the unfortunate 
 Corso thrown over a wall in which a number of 
 iron hooks were faxed ; one of which catching 
 the ribs of his right side, he hung three days in 
 the most exquisite torture before he expired. 
 Tekelli was no sooner entered upon his new go- 
 vernment, than he behaved with such cruelty and 
 rapacity, that he was assassinated even under the 
 dome of a saint, by Yusef Calabres, the favour- 
 ite renegade of Hassan Corso ; who, for this ser- 
 vice, was unanimously chosen bashaw, but died, 
 of the plague six days after his election. Yusef 
 was succeeded by Hassan, the son of Hayradin, 
 who had formerly been recalled from his bashaw- 
 ship, when he was succeeded by Selha-Rais : 
 and now had the good fortune to get himself re- 
 instated in his employment. Next year the 
 Spaniards undertook an expedition against Mo- 
 stagan, under the command of the Count d'Alcan- 
 dela ; but were defeated, their commander killed, 
 and 12,000 taken prisoners. Hassan having dis- 
 obliged his subjects by allowing the mountaineers 
 of Cuco to buy ammunition at Algiers, was sent 
 in irons to Constantinople, while the aga of the 
 Janisaries supplied his place. Hassan found 
 means to clear himself : but a new bashaw was 
 appointed, called Achmet ; who was no sooner 
 arrived, than he sent the two deputy bashaws to 
 Constantinople, where their heads were struck 
 off. Achmet was a man of insatiable avarice, 
 and had bought his dignity by the money he had 
 amassed while head gardener to the Sultan. He 
 enjoyed it, however, only four months ; and 
 after his death, the state was governed other four 
 months by his lieutenant ; when Hassan was a 
 third time sent viceroy to Algiers, where he was 
 received with the greatest demonstrations of joy. 
 The first enterprise in which Hassan engaged, 
 was the siege of Marsalquiver, near Oran. His 
 army consisted of 26,000 foot and 10,000 horse; 
 and his fleet of thirty-two galleys and galliots, to- 
 gether with three French vessels laden with pro- 
 visions. The city was defended by Don Martin 
 de Cordova, brother of the Count d'Alcandela, 
 who had been taken prisoner in the battle where 
 that nobleman was killed, but had obtained his 
 liberty from the Algerines with immense sums, 
 and now made a most gallant defence against the 
 Turks. The city was attacked with the utmost 
 fury by sea and land, so that several breaches 
 were made in the walls. The Turkish standards 
 were several times planted on the walls, and as 
 often dislodged ; but the place must have in ihe 
 end submitted, had not Hassan been obliged to 
 raise the siege, on hearing that the famed Geno- 
 ese admiral Doria was approaching with succours 
 trom Italy. The fleet accordingly arrived soon 
 after; but missing the Algerine galleys, bore 
 away for Pennon de Velez, where they were 
 shamefully repulsed by a few Turks who gar- 
 risoned that place ; which, however, was taken 
 the following year. In 1567 Hassan was again 
 recalled to Constantinople, where he died three 
 years after. He was succeeded by Mahomet,
 
 606 
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 who gained the love of the Algerines by several 
 public spirited actions. He 'incorporated the 
 Janissaries and Levantine Turks together, and by 
 that means put an end to their dissensions, 
 which laid the foundation of the Algerine inde- 
 pendency on the Porte. He likewise added 
 some considerable fortifications to the city and 
 castle, Which he designed to render impregnable. 
 But while he was thus studying the interest of 
 Algiers, one John Gascon, a bold Spanish adven- 
 turer, formed a design of burning the whole pi- 
 ratic navy in the bay ; but this plan, though pa- 
 tronised by king Philip II. proved abortive, 
 owing to the dampness or improper mixture of 
 the fire works ; and Gascon himself, being taken 
 prisoner, was barbarously slain by the Algerines. 
 Mahomet, being soon after recalled, was succeed- 
 ed by the famous renegade Ochali, who reduced 
 the kingdom of Tunis; which, however, remained 
 subject to the viceroy of Algiers only till the 
 year 1586, when a bashaw of Tunis was appoint- 
 ed by the Porte. In 1585, under Memi Arnaud 
 an Albanian, we first find the Algerines passing 
 the Straits of Gibraltar, and extending their de- 
 predations as far as the Canary Islands, where 
 they made a descent, carried off 300 persons (in- 
 cluding the governor's family), with great plun- 
 der, but admitted some of the principal ladies to 
 ransom. Early in the seventeenth century the 
 government of the Algerines underwent con- 
 siderable revolution. 
 
 Algiers, till the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century, continued to be governed by viceroys 
 appointed by the Porte; concerning whom we 
 find nothing very remarkable, further than that 
 their avarice and tyranny was intolerable both to 
 the Algerines and the Turks. At last the Turkish 
 Janissaries and militia becoming powerful enough 
 to suppress the tyrannic sway of these bashaws, 
 and the people being almost exhausted by the 
 heavy taxes laid upon them, the former resolved 
 to depose those petty tyrants, and set up some 
 officers of their own at the head of the realm. 
 The better to succeed in this attempt, the militia 
 sent a deputation of some of their chief members 
 to the Porte, to complain of the oppression of 
 these bashaws, who sunk both the revenue of the 
 state, and the money remitted to it from Con- 
 stantinople, into their own coffers, which should 
 have been employed in keeping up and paying 
 the soldiery ; by which means they were in con- 
 tinual danger of being overpowered by the Ara- 
 bians and Moors, who, if ever so little assisted 
 by any Christian power, would hardly fail of 
 driving all the Turks out of the kingdom. They 
 represented to the grand vizier how much more 
 honourable, as well as easier and cheaper, it 
 would be for the grand seignior to permit them 
 to choose their own dey, or governor, from 
 among themselves, whose interest it would then 
 be to see' that the revenue of the kingdom was 
 rightly applied in keeping up its forces -com- 
 plete, and in supplying all other exigencies of 
 the state, without any farther charge or trouble 
 to the Porte than that of allowing them its pro- 
 tection. On their part, they engaged always to 
 acknowledge the grand seigniors as their sove- 
 reigns, and to pay their usual allegiance and tri- 
 bute, to respect their bashaws, and even to lodge, 
 
 and maintain them and their retinue, in a man- 
 ner suitable to their dignity at their own charge 
 The bashaws, however, were, for the future, to 
 be excluded from assisting at any but general 
 douwans, unless invited; and from having the 
 liberty of voting in them, unless when their ad- 
 vice was asked, or the interest of the Porte was 
 likely to suffer by their silence. All other con- 
 cerns, which related to the government of Al- 
 giers, were to be wholly left under the direction of 
 the dey and his douwan. These proposals having 
 been accepted by the Porte, the deputies returned 
 highly satisfied; and having notified their new 
 privileges, the great douwan immediately pro- 
 ceeded to the election of a dey from among 
 themselves. They compiled a new set of laws, 
 and made several regulations for the better sup- 
 port and maintenance of this new form of go- 
 vernment, to the observation of which they obliged 
 all their subjects to swear ; and the militia, navy, 
 commerce, &c. were all settled pretty nearly on 
 the footing upon which they now are ; though 
 the altercations that happened between the ba- 
 shaws and deys, the one attempting to recover 
 their former power, and the other to curtail it, 
 caused such frequent complaints at the Ottoman 
 court, as made them often repent their compli- 
 ance. In 1601, the Spaniards, under Doria the 
 Genoese admiral, made another attempt upon 
 Algiers, in which they were more fortunate than 
 usual, their fleet being only driven back by con- 
 trary winds, so that they came off without loss. 
 In 1609, the Moors being expelled from Spain, 
 flocked in great numbers to Algiers; and as 
 many of them were very able sailors, they \m- 
 doubtedly contributed to make the Algerine fleet 
 so formidable as it became soon after. In 1616 
 it consisted of forty sail, of between 200 and 400 
 tons, their admiral 500 tons. It was divided 
 into swo squadrons, one of eighteen sail, before 
 the port of Malaga ; and the other at the Cape 
 of Santa Maria, between Lisbon and Seville ; 
 both of which fell foul on all Christian ships, 
 both English and French, with whom they pre- 
 tended to be in friendship, as well as Spaniards 
 and Portuguese, with whom they were at war. 
 The Algerines were now become very formidable 
 to the European powers. The Spaniards, who 
 were most in danger, and least able to cope with 
 them, solicited the assistance of England, Rome, 
 and other states. The French, however, were 
 the first who d"ared to show their resentment of 
 the perfidious behaviour of these miscreants; 
 and in 1617 M. Beaulieu was sent against them 
 with a fleet of fifty men of war, who defeated 
 their fleet, took two of their vessels, while their 
 admiral sunk his own ship and crew, rather than 
 fall into his hands. In 160 a squadron of Eng- 
 lish men of war was sent against Algiers, under 
 Sir Robert Mansel; but it returned without 
 doing any thing ; and the Algerines, becoming 
 more and more insolent, openly defied all the 
 European powers, the Dutch only excepted ; to 
 whom, in 1625, they sent a proposal, directed 
 to the prince of Orange, that in case they would 
 fit out twenty sail of ships the following year, 
 upon any good service against the Spaniards, they 
 would join them with sixty sail of their own. 
 Next year, the Coulolies, or Cologlies, the chil-
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 607 
 
 dren of such Turks as had been permitted to 
 marry at Algiers, who were enrolled in the mi- 
 litia, having seized on the citadel, had well nigh 
 made themselves masters of the city ; but were 
 attacked by the Turks and renegadoes, who de- 
 feated them with terrible slaughter. Many of 
 them were executed ; and their heads thrown in 
 heaps upon the city walls, without the eastern 
 gate. Part of the citadel was blown up ; and 
 the remaining Coulolies were dismissed from the 
 militia, to which they were not again admitted 
 till long after. 
 
 Amurath IV. in 1623, having made a truce 
 for twenty-five years, with the emperor Ferdi- 
 nand II. the Algerines and other states of Bar- 
 bary threw off their dependence on the Porte 
 altogether, and set up for themselves ; and re- 
 solved, that whoever desired to be at peace with 
 them must apply to their government. They 
 accordingly began to make prizes of several 
 merchant ships belonging to powers at peace 
 with the Porte ; and having seized a Dutch ship 
 and poleacre at Scanderoon they ventured on 
 shore, and finding the town abandoned by the 
 Turkish aga and inhabitants, they plundered 
 all the magazines and warehouses, and set them 
 on fire. About this time Louis XIII. under- 
 took to build a fort on their coast, instead of 
 one formerly built by the Marsilians, and which 
 they had demolished. This, after some dif- 
 ficulty, he accomplished ; and it was called 
 the Bastion of France : but the situation being 
 afterwards found inconvenient, the French 
 purchased the port of La Calle, and obtain- 
 ed liberty to trade with the Arabians and 
 Moors. The Ottoman court, in the mean time, 
 was so much embarrassed with the Persian war, 
 that there was no leisure to check the Algerine 
 pirates. This gave an opportunity to the vizier 
 and other courtiers to compound matters with 
 the Algerines, and to get a share of their prizes, 
 which were very considerable. However, for 
 form's sake, a severe reprimand, accompanied 
 with threats, was sent them; to which they replied, 
 that, * these depredations deserved to be in- 
 dulged to them, seeing they were the only bul- 
 wark against the Christian powers, especially 
 against the Spaniards, the sworn enemies of the 
 Moslem name : ' adding, that ' if they should 
 pay a punctilious regard to all that could purchase 
 peace, or liberty to trade with the Ottoman em- 
 pire, they would have nothing to do but set fire 
 to all their shipping, and turn camel-drivers for 
 a livelihood.' The Algerines continued to pro- 
 secute their piracies with impunity, to the te'rror 
 and disgrace of the Europeans, till the year 
 1652 ; when a French fleet being accidentally 
 driven to Algiers, the admiral took it into his 
 head to demand a release of all the captives of 
 his nation, without exception. This being re- 
 fused, the Frenchman without ceremony carried 
 off the Turkish viceroy, and his cadi or judge, 
 who were just arrived from the Porte, with all 
 their equipage and retinue. The Algerines, by 
 way of reprisal, surprised the bastion of France 
 already mentioned, and carried off the inhabitants 
 to the number of 600, with all their effects; 
 which so provoked the admiral, that he sent 
 them word, he would pay them another visit 
 
 next year with his whole fleet. The Algerines, 
 undismayed by his threats, fitted out a fleet of 
 sixteen galleys and galliots excellently manned 
 and equipped, under the command of admiral 
 Hali Pinchinin. The chief design of this arma- 
 ment was against the treasures of Loretto ; which, 
 however, they were prevented by contrary winds 
 from obtaining. Upon this they made a descent 
 on Naples, where they ravaged the whole terri- 
 tory of Nicotera, carrying off a vast number of 
 captives, and among them some nuns. From 
 thence steering towards Dalmatia, they scoured 
 the Adriatic ; and loading themselves with im- 
 mense plunder, left those coasts in the utmost 
 consternation. At last the Venetians, alarmed 
 at such terrible depredations, equipped a fleet of 
 twenty-eight sail, under the command of admiral 
 Capello, with express orders to burn, sink, or take, 
 all the Barbary corsairs he met with, either on 
 the open seas, or even in the grand seignior's 
 harbours, pursuant to a late treaty of peace with 
 the Porte. The captain bashaw, who had been 
 sent out with the Turkish fleet, to chase the Flo- 
 rentine and Maltese cruisers out of the Archipe- 
 lago, understanding that the Algerine squadron 
 was so near, sent orders to the admiral to come 
 to his assistance. Pinchinin readily agreed : but 
 having resolved on a descent upon the island of 
 Lissa, belonging to the Venetians, he was over- 
 taken by Capello, from whom he retired to Va- 
 lona, a sea port belonging to the grand seig- 
 nior, whither the Venetian admiral pursued him ; 
 but the Turkish governor refusing to eject the 
 pirates according to the articles of the peace be- 
 tween the Ottoman court and Venice, Capello 
 was obliged to content himself with watching 
 them for some time. Pinchinin at last ventured 
 out, when an engagement immediately ensued, 
 in which the Algerines were defeated, and five 
 of their vessels disabled, with the loss of 1500 
 men, Turks and Christian slaves; besides 1600 
 galley slaves who regained their liberty. Pin- 
 chinin, after this defeat, returned to Valona, 
 where he was again watched by Capello ; but 
 the latter had not lain long at his old anchorage, 
 before he received a letter from the senate, de- 
 siring him to make no farther attempt on the 
 pirates at that time, for fear of a rupture with 
 the Porte. This was followed by a letter from 
 the governor of Valona, desiring him to take care 
 lest he incurred the sultan's displeasure by such 
 insujts. The brave Venetian was forced to 
 comply ; but, resolving to take such a leave of 
 the Algerines as he thought they deserved, ob- 
 served how they had reared their tents, and 
 drawn their booty and equipage along the shore. 
 He then kept firing among their tents, while some 
 well manned galliots and brigantines were or- 
 dered among their shipping, who attacked them 
 with such bravery, that, without any great loss, 
 they towed out their sixteen galleys, with all 
 their cannon, stores, &c. In this last engage- 
 ment, a ball from one of the Venetian galleys 
 happening to strike a Turkish mosque, the whole 
 action was considered as an insult upon the 
 grand seignior. To conceal this, Capello was 
 ordered to sink all the Algerine ships he had 
 taken, except the Admiral; which was to oe 
 conducted to Venice, and laid up as a tropny.
 
 608 
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 Capello came off with a severe reprimand ; but 
 the Venetians were obliged to buy, with 500,000 
 ducats, a peace from the Porte. The grand seig- 
 nior offered to repair the loss of the Algerines by 
 building ten galleys for them, upon condition 
 that they should continue in his service till the 
 end of the ensuing summer ; but Pinchinin, who 
 knew how little the Algerines chose to lie under 
 obligations to him, civilly declined the offer. 
 Meantime, the news of this defeat filled Algiers 
 with the utmost confusion. The whole city was 
 on the point of a general insurrection, when the 
 bashaw and douwan issued a proclamation, not 
 only forbidding all complaints under the severest 
 penalties, but all persons whomsoever, to take 
 their thumbs fiom within their girdles, while they 
 were deliberating on this important point. In the 
 mean time they applied to the Porte for an order 
 that the Venetians, settled in the Levant, should 
 make up their loss. But with this the grand seig- 
 nior refused to comply, and left them to repair 
 their loss, as well as build new ships, the best 
 way they could. It was not long, however, be- 
 fore they had the satisfaction to see one of their 
 corsairs land with a fresh supply of 600 slaves, 
 whom he had brought from the coast of Iceland, 
 whither he had been directed by a miscreant 
 native taken on board a Danish ship. Our pirates 
 did not long continue in their weak and defence- 
 less state ; being able, at the end of two years, 
 to appear at sea with a fleet of sixty-five sail, 
 which soon cleared the seas, and brought home 
 vast numbers of slaves, and an immense quantity 
 of rich spoils ; insomuch that the English, French 
 and Dutch, were obliged to cringe to the mighty 
 Algerines, who sometimes vouchsafed to be at 
 peace with them, but swore eternal war against 
 Spain, Portugal, and Italy, whom they looked 
 upon as the greatest enemies to the Mahommedan 
 name. At last Louis XIV. provoked by the out- 
 rages committed by the Algerines on the coasts 
 of Provence and Languedoc, ordered, in 1681, a 
 considerable fleet to be fitted out against them, 
 under the Marquis Du Quesne, vice-admiral of 
 France. His first expedition was against a num- 
 ber of Tripolitan corsairs ; who took shelter in 
 the island of Scio, but pursuing them thither, he 
 quickly destroyed fourteen of their vessels, be- 
 sides battering the walls of the castle ; and find- 
 ing they still continued their outrages on the 
 French coast, he sailed to Algiers in August 
 1682, cannonading and bombarding it so furi- 
 ously, that the whole town was in flames in a 
 very little time. The great mosque was battered 
 down, and most of the houses laid in ruins, in- 
 somuch that the inhabitants were on the point of 
 abandoning the place ; when, on a sudden, the 
 wind changed, and obliged Du Quesne to return 
 to Toulon. The Algerines immediately made 
 reprisals, by sending a number of galleys to the 
 coast of Province, where they committed the 
 most dreadful ravages, and brought away a vast 
 number of captives ; upon which a new armament 
 was to be got ready at Toulon and Marseilles 
 against the next year ; and the Algerines, having 
 received timely notice, put themselves in as good 
 a state of defence as the time would allow. In 
 May 1683, Du Quesne with his squadron, cast 
 
 anchor before Algiers ; where, being joined by 
 the marquis D'Affranville, at the head of five 
 stout vessels, it was resolved to bombard the 
 town. Accordingly 100 bombs were thrown 
 into it the first day, vvh'ich did terrible execution ; 
 while the besieged made some hundred discharges 
 of their cannon against them, without doing any 
 considerable damage. The following nights the 
 bombs were again thrown into the city in such 
 numbers, that the dey's palace and other great 
 edifices were almost destroyed; some of their 
 batteries were dismounted, and several vessels 
 sunk in the port. The dey and Turkish bashaw 
 as well as the whole soldiery, alarmed at this 
 dreadful havock, immediately sued for peace. 
 As a preliminary, the immediate surrender was 
 insisted on of all Christian captives who had been 
 taken fighting under the French flag; which 
 being granted, 142 of them were immediately 
 delivered up, with a promise of sending him the 
 remainder as soon as they could be got from the 
 different parts of the country. Accordingly Du 
 Quesne sent his commissary-general and one of 
 his engineers into the town ; but with express 
 orders to insist upon the delivery of all the 
 French captives without exception, together with 
 the effects they had taken from the French ; and 
 that Mezomorto their then admiral, and Hali 
 Rais, one of their captains, should be given as 
 hostages. This last demand having embarrassed 
 the dey, he assembled the douwan, and ac- 
 quainted them with it ; upon which Mezoraorto 
 fell into a violent passion, and told the assembly, 
 that the cowardice of those who sat at the helm 
 had occasioned the ruin of Algiers ; but that for 
 his part he never would consent to deliver up 
 any thing that had been taken from the French. 
 He immediately acquainted the soldiery with 
 what had passed ; which so exasperated them, 
 that they murdered the dey that very night, and 
 on the morrow chose Mezomorto in his place. 
 This was no sooner done, than he cancelled all 
 the articles of peace which had been made, and 
 hostilities were renewed with greater fury than 
 ever. The French admiral now kept pouring in 
 such volleys of bombs, that in less than three 
 days, the greatest part of the city was reduced to 
 ashes, and the fire burned with such vehemence, 
 that the sea was enlightened with it for more 
 than two leagues round. Mezomorto, unmoved 
 at all these disasters, and the vast number 
 of the slain, whose blood ran in rivulets along 
 the streets ; or rather, grown furious and des- 
 perate, sought only how to wreak his revenge 
 on the enemy: and, not content with causing 
 all the French in the city to be cruelly mur- 
 dered, ordered their consul to be tied hand and 
 foot, and fastened alive to the mouth of a mor- 
 tar, from whence he was shot away against their 
 navy. By this piece of inhumanity Du Quesne 
 was so exasperated, that he did not lep Algiers 
 till he had utterly destroyed all their fortifica- 
 tions, shipping, almost all the lower part, and 
 above two-thirds of the upper part of the city ; 
 by which means it became little else than a heap 
 of ruins. The haughty Algerines were now tho- 
 roughly convinced that they were not invincible ; j 
 and, therefore, immediately sent an embassy into j
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 609 
 
 Trance, begging in the most abject terms for 
 peace; which Louis immediately granted, to 
 iheir inexpressible joy. 
 
 The following copy of the speech, made by 
 the Algerine envoy on this occasion, will give 
 the reader an idea how deeply they felt the con- 
 sequences of this defeat. 
 
 ' Most high, most excellent, most powerful, mag- 
 nanimous, and invincible Louis XIV. emperor of 
 the French, whom God preserve, and make happy, 
 I prostrate myself at the foot of thy sublime 
 imperial throne, as the messenger of the joy with 
 which our republic, and the dey, my master, have 
 concluded a peace with thy lieutenant ; and of 
 their impatient desire, that thy sublime majesty 
 will be pleased to put thy ratifying seal to it. 
 The force of thy ever-victorious arms, and the 
 strength of thy sword, have made them sensible 
 of the fault which Baba Hassan committed, in 
 declaring war against thy subjects. I am de- 
 puted hither to beg thy pardon for it, and to as- 
 sure thee, in the sincerest terms, that, henceforth, 
 our conduct shall be such as may deserve the 
 friendship of the greatest emperor of the disciples 
 of Jesus, and the only one we stand in dread of. 
 
 ' The atrocious violence committed against the 
 person of thy consul, is such as we should judge 
 would prove an invincible obstacle to a peace if 
 thy light, which, like that of the sun, penetrates 
 all things, did not easily conceive how far an en- 
 raged and ungovernable populace can carry their 
 furious resentment, in the midst of multitudes of 
 their fellow-citizens, crushed in pieces by thy 
 bombs; of which number they beheld their 
 parents, brethren, and children, deprived either 
 of life, effects, or liberty. 
 
 ' But whatever their motives were, the violence 
 we are far from excusing or extenuating. I 
 come to beg of thee to turn for ever away thy 
 sacred eyes from beholding a deed detested by all 
 good men amongst us, especially those in power; 
 who cannot therefore be justly charged with it. 
 
 * We hope, mighty emperor, great as Gemsehid, 
 opulent as Kraour, magnificent as Solyman, and 
 magnanimous as Akemptas, that thy clemency 
 will not reject these our earnest prayers ; and the 
 high opinion we have of thy unparalleled gene- 
 rosity, gives us a kind of assurance, that thou 
 wilt order all our brethren who wear thy chains 
 to be set at liberty, as we ourselves have done, 
 not only to thy subjects, but likewise to those 
 who were under the shadow of thy august name ; 
 that the joy for this peace may become equal 
 and universal ; and that a much greater number 
 of mouths may be thereby opened to celebrate 
 thy praise. That, when thy subjects return to 
 their country, they may thankfully come and 
 throw themselves at thy feet, while our's proclaim 
 thy praise throughout the vast countries of Africa, 
 and i- -rint in their children a veneration for thy 
 incoru. - v 'e virtues, and a due regard for the 
 French' nation. 
 
 ' This will prove the happy foundation of an 
 eternal peace ; of which we promise an exact 
 and religious observance on our part, in all its 
 articles ; not doubting but it will be equally ob- 
 served by thy subjects ; from whom thy authority 
 claims an unlimited obedience. 
 VOL. I 
 
 ' .May the almighty and gracious Creator give 
 a blessing upon this peace, and maintain a per- 
 petual union between the most high, most ex- 
 cellent, and most magnanimous emperor of the 
 French, and the most illustrious and magnificent 
 bashaw, dey, douwan, and the victorious armies 
 of the republic of Algiers.' 
 
 Fearful of his predecessor's fete, the ferocious 
 dey now abdicated the sovereignty ; and the dis- 
 putes which took place between the Turkish 
 viceroys and the Algerine deys, occupy the prin- 
 cipal part of their domestic history to the con- 
 clusion of this century, when the Porte united 
 the two dignities into one. They now began to 
 pay some regard to other nations, and to be a 
 little cautious how they wantonly incurred their 
 displeasure. The first bombardment by the 
 French had so far humbled the Algerines, that 
 they condescended to enter into a treaty with 
 England ; which was renewed, upon terms very 
 advantageous to the latter, in 1686. This was 
 renewed, at various periods, by James II., 
 William III., and Geo. II. It is not to be sup- 
 posed, howevei, that the habitual perfidy of the 
 Algerines would disappear on a sudden : notwith- 
 standing this treaty, they lost no opportunity of 
 making prizes of the English ships when they 
 could conveniently come at them. Upon some 
 infringement of this kind, captain Beach drove 
 ashore, and burnt seven of their frigates in 1695; 
 which produced a renewal of the treaty five years 
 after : but it was not till the taking of Gibraltar 
 and Port Mahon that Britain could have a suf- 
 ficient check upon them to enforce the observa- 
 tion of treaties ; and these have since proved 
 such restraints upon Algiers, that they still con- 
 tinue to pay a greater deference to the Englisn 
 than to any other European power. The last 
 century furnishes no very remarkable events in 
 the history of Algiers, except the taking of 
 the famous city of Oran from the Spaniards 
 in 1708, which they retook in 1737, and the 
 expulsion of the Turkish bashaw, and uniting 
 his office to that of dey in 1710. This intro- 
 duced the form of government which still con- 
 tinues in Algiers. 
 
 During the general peace of the European 
 continent in 1816, the British government felt 
 inclined to enter into some more permanent en- 
 gagements with this people. They were required 
 to treat the inhabitants of the Ionian isles as 
 British subjects; a peace was negociated by our 
 commander between the Barbary states and 
 Sardinia and Naples, and the abolition of all 
 Christian slavery. These proposals, the last ex- 
 cepted, met the dey's approbation; but, with 
 respect to the last, as he was a subject of the 
 Porte, he required a delay of six months to en- 
 able him to consult his government. Lord Ex- 
 mouth agreed to wait three months, but had 
 scarcely quitted the shores, when a most barba- 
 rous outrage on the coral fisheries at Bona, where 
 a number of Corsicans, Neapolitans, and Italians, 
 had long resorted for coral, under the protection 
 of the British flag, summoned him to return. 
 On the 23d of May, a body of Algerine infantry 
 and cavalry, to the number of 2000, attacked 
 their boats ; the fire of the forts opened upon
 
 610 
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 them at the same time, the British flags were 
 seized and trampled underfoot, and nearly the 
 whole of the crews barbarously butchered. Our 
 government immediately resolved to punish this 
 insulting barbarity ; and, accordingly, the Im- 
 pregnable of ninety-eight guns, three ships of 
 seventy-eight guns, four frigates, and several 
 smaller vessels, gun-boats, &c., were commanded 
 to rendezvous, at Gibraltar, where they were 
 joined by five Dutch frigates and a sloop, and 
 appeared before Algiers on the 18th of Arfgust. 
 Here they found that very considerable additions 
 had been made to the fortifications, that new 
 works had been thrown up on both flanks of the 
 town, that the ships were all in port, and between 
 forty and fifty mortar and gun boats, while an 
 army of 40,000 troops had been collected from 
 the interior. 
 
 After a fruitless message to the dey on the 
 morning of the 27th of August, lord Exmouth, 
 in the Queen Charlotte, personally commenced 
 the attack, which was seconded by the whole 
 fleet of English, and well supported by the 
 Dutch. After twelve hours incessant firing, the 
 whole Algerine fleet was destroyed, and at least 
 half of the town. The fleet then retired to 
 anchor beyond those of the enemy's batteries and 
 mortars] which were still undemolished, and the 
 following morning the British admiral had the 
 satisfaction to receive from the dey the full ac- 
 knowledgment of all the proposals made by the 
 British government, in the following treaty. 
 1. The abolition of Christian slavery. 2. The 
 delivery to the British flag of all slaves in the 
 dominions of the dey, to whatever nation they 
 may belong, at noon on the 31st of August. 3. 
 To deliver also to the British flag all money 
 received by the dey for the redemption of slaves 
 since the commencement of this year, at noon 
 also of the same day. 4. Reparation being made 
 to the British consul for all losses he may have 
 sustained in consequence of his confinement. 
 5. The dey to make a public apology, in pre- 
 sence of his ministers and officers, and begging 
 pardon of the consul in terms dictated by the 
 captain of the Queen Charlotte. Lord Exmouth 
 had the satisfaction of informing the British 
 Admiralty, on the 1st of September, that all the 
 slaves in Algiers were already embarked, with 
 357,000 dollars for Naples, and 25,000 for Sar- 
 dinia. 
 
 Upon the conclusion of the treaty of 1816, 
 and withdrawal of the British fleet from before 
 Algiers, the dey remained undisputed monarch 
 of this little kingdom, paying no other tribute to 
 the porte than a certain number of youths and 
 other presents annually to Constantinople. His 
 own income rose and fell according to the oppor- 
 tunities he met of spoliating both natives and 
 foreigners ; whence different estimates have been 
 formed of his wealth by different authors. Dr. 
 Shaw computed that the taxes of the whole 
 kingdom brought no more than 300,000 dollars 
 annually into the treasury, but imagined that the 
 eighth part of all prizes, the effects of those who 
 died childless, in conjunction with the yearly 
 contribution paid to the government, fines, and 
 extortions, constituted about as much more. The 
 dey and his officers enriched themselves by 
 
 plunder and fraud ; an example imitated to the 
 letter by his faithful subjects. It is very well 
 known that the first deys were elected by the 
 militia, who were at that period called the douwan 
 or common council. This elective body at first 
 consisted of 800 militia officers, without whose 
 concurrence the dey was not permitted to enact 
 any public measure. Upon emergencies, all the 
 resident officers in Algiers, sometimes amounting 
 to 1500, were invited to assist in council. But 
 in the changes that naturally take place in the 
 lapse of years, the dey, the stadholder of Algiers, 
 became more powerful, and his senate or 
 douwan was limited to only thirty chiah-bashaws 
 or colonels, with the mufti and cadi upon extra- 
 ordinary occasions. Upon the election of a dey, 
 the military character of the government was 
 fully developed ; for then every soldier was per- 
 mitted to vote. By this martial court, every re- 
 gulation should have been approved, previously 
 to its becoming a law, or before the dey had au- 
 thority to carry its provisions into effect: but 
 during the latter years of Turkish rule, the 
 douwan or Algerine parliament became, obso- 
 lete, and was only convened by the tyrant to 
 give a color of justice to his proceedings, or 
 sometimes possibly from an idea that the con- 
 sciousness of guilt would be alleviated by parti- 
 cipation. The mode in which these devoted 
 members gave in the expression of their assent 
 (for dissent there was little less than treason) was 
 this, the aga or general of the Janissaries, the 
 president pro tempore, first proposed the 
 question, which was immediately repeated with 
 a loud voice by the chiah-bashaws, and re-echoed 
 by four officers called bashaldalas ; from these 
 the question was sent round from one member 
 of the douwan to another, accompanied at each 
 repetition with savage growlings, and even con- 
 tortions of the body, according to the taste and 
 feeling of the members. From the peculiarity of 
 each person's tone the aga was left to conjecture 
 his intention, and to collect, as well as he could, 
 the wishes of the majority of this uncouth as- 
 sembly : and from the uncivilised beings who 
 composed this parliament, as well as from the 
 preposterous method of ascertaining their wishes, 
 it is not to be wondered at that their deliberations 
 were frequently attended with results the most 
 dissatisfactory and unhappy. At the election of 
 a dey, when the entire army were admitted to 
 the privilege of voting, endless trouble and dis- 
 order constantly arose, and the choice was gene- 
 rally accompanied by scenes of massacre and 
 bloodshed. The successful (fortunate he could 
 not be called) candidate, notwithstanding the 
 previous violence, was immediately greeted by 
 all parties with Alia barrick, "God bless" or 
 "God prosper you ;" words most inconsistently 
 applied to a monster who the next hour usually 
 caused every officer a member of the douwan to 
 be strangled, and filled their places with the very 
 assassins themselves. From this history of the 
 election of a chief governor, the natural conclu- 
 sion is, that the government could not have been 
 either secure or just, and that, as they ascended 
 the throne through disorder, tumult, and blood, so 
 in most cases they were compelled to abdicate it 
 by the hand of the assassin, or the poisoned bowl.
 
 ALGIERS. 
 
 611 
 
 The officer next in power to the dey was the 
 aga of the janissaries, who was one of the oldest 
 officers in the army, and held his post only for 
 two months. He was then succeeded by the chiah, 
 or next senior officer. During the two months 
 in which the aga enjoyed his dignity, the keys of 
 the metropolis were in his hands ; all military or- 
 ders were issued out in his name ; and the sentence 
 of the dey upon any offending soldier, whether 
 capital or not, could only be executed in the court 
 of his palace. As soon as he had gone through his 
 short office, he was considered as mazoul, or su- 
 perannuated ; received his pay regularly, like the 
 rest of the militia, every two moons ; was exempt 
 from all further duties, except when called by the 
 dey to assist at the grand council, to which he 
 had, however, a right to come at all times, but 
 had no longer a vote in it. Next to the aga in 
 dignity, was the secretary of state, who registered 
 all the public acts; and after him were the thirty 
 chiahs, or colonels, who sat next to the aga in 
 the douwan, and in the same gallery with him. 
 Out of this class were generally chosen those who 
 go ambassadors to foreign courts, or who dis- 
 persed the dey's orders throughout the realm. 
 Next to them were 800 bolluk-bashaws, or eldest 
 captains, who were promoted to that of chiah- 
 bashaws, according to their seniority. The oldah- 
 bashaws,or lieutenants, were next; who amounted 
 to 400, and were regularly raised to the rank of 
 captains in their turn, and to other employments 
 in the state, according to their abilities. These, 
 by way of distinction, wore a leather strap, hang- 
 ing down to the middle of their back. One 
 rule was strictly observed in the rotation of these 
 troops from one deputy to a higher ; viz. the 
 right of seniority ; one single infringement of 
 which would raise an insurrection, and probably 
 cost the dey his life. Other military officers of 
 note were the vakelards, or purveyors of the 
 army ; the peys, who are the four oldest soldiers, 
 and consequently the nearest to preferment ; the 
 soulacks, who were the next in seniority to them, 
 and were part of the dey's body-guard, always 
 marching before him when he took the field, 
 and distinguished by their carabines and gilt 
 scimitars, with a brass gun on their caps ; the 
 kayts, or Turkish soldiers, each band of whom 
 had the government of one or more adowars, 
 or itinerant villages, and collected their taxes for 
 the dey ; and the sagiards, or Turkish lance-men, 
 100 of whom always attended the army, and 
 watched over the water appointed for it. To 
 these we may add the beys, or governors of the 
 three great provinces of the realm. 
 
 Algiers with regard to its government was, as we 
 have already intimated, by some styled a repub- 
 lic ; but, if it was not a perfect despotism, it could 
 at best be only ranked as a vile oligarchy. It 
 did not eren merit the title of an aristo- 
 cratic commonwealth. The powerful party of 
 Turks, always to be found in this part, kept the 
 government in their own hands, and the na- 
 tives had no share. Algiers was formerly di- 
 vided into three provinces; viz. the eastern, 
 western, and southern. The eastern, or Levan- 
 tine government, which was by far the most con- 
 siderable of the three, and was also called Beylick, 
 contains the towns of Bona. Constantina, Gigeri, 
 
 Bujeyah, Stessa, Tebez, Zamoura, Biscara, and 
 Necanz, in all which the Turks had garrisons; 
 besides which, it included the two ancient king- 
 doms of Cuco and Labez, though independent of 
 the Algerine government, to whose forces their 
 country was inaccessible ; so that they still lived 
 under their own cheyks, chosen by each of their 
 adowars or hords. To these we may add a 
 French factory at Callo, under the direction of 
 the company of the French Bastion. The west- 
 ern government had the towns of Oran, Treme- 
 cen, Mostagan, Tenez, and Secrelly, with its 
 castle and garrison.; The southern government 
 had neither town, village, nor even a house, all 
 the inhabitants living in tents, which obliged the 
 dey and his forces to be always encamped. 
 
 In this country it was not to be expected that 
 justice would be administered with any degree of 
 impartiality. It was ordinarily administered by 
 the cadi, who attended a kind of police court 
 twice a day ; but principal causes were referred to 
 the dey. The Mahommedan soldiery were so much 
 favoured, that they were seldom put to death for 
 any crime, except rebellion ; in which case they 
 were either strangled with a bow-string, or hanged 
 to an iron hook. In lesser offences they were 
 fined, or their pay stopped ; and, if officers, they 
 were reduced to the station of common soldiers, 
 from whence they might gradually raise them- 
 selves to their former dignity. Women guilty of 
 adultery, had a halter tied about their necks, with 
 the other end fastened to a pole, by which they 
 were held under water till they were suffocated. 
 The bastinado was likewise inflicted for small of- 
 fences, and was given either upon the belly, back, 
 or soles of the feet, according to the pleasure of 
 the cadi, who also appointed the number of 
 strokes. These sometimes amounted to 200 or 
 300, according to the indulgence the offender 
 could obtain, either by bribery or friends ; and 
 hence many died under this punishment, for 
 want of advocates sufficiently powerful. But the 
 most terrible punishments were those inflicted 
 upon the Jews or Christians who spoke against 
 Mahomet or his religion ; in which case, they 
 were either to turn Mahommedan, or be impaled 
 alive. If they afterwards apostatized, they were 
 burned or roasted alive, or else thrown down 
 from the top of the city walls upon iron hooks, 
 where they were caught by different parts of 
 their body, according as they happened to fall, 
 and sometimes expired in the greatest torments ; 
 though by accident they might be put out of 
 pain at once. This terrible punishment, how- 
 ever, in latter years was disused. 
 
 The coin in circulation at Algiers is chiefly 
 that of the foreign commercial nations; the 
 Spanish doubloon and dollar are those most 
 commonly seen : the sultanas of gold pass for 
 two dollars. Besides these, there is a copper 
 barba, having the arms of the country on each 
 side, and a square silver asper, worth about 
 an English crown. The pata chica is an ideal 
 sum, like the pound English, equal to 232 
 aspers. 
 
 With respect to trade, we observed the corsairs, 
 or pirates, formed a small republic, of which the 
 rais or captain vFas the supreme bashaw; who, 
 with the officers under him, formed a kind ot
 
 G12 
 
 A L G O A. 
 
 douwan, in which every matter relating to the 
 vessel was decided in an arbitrary way. These 
 corsairs were chiefly instrumental in importing 
 whatever commodities were brought into the 
 kingdom either by way of merchandise or prizes ; 
 which consist chiefly of gold and silver, stuffs, 
 damasks, cloths, spices, tin, iron, plated brass, 
 lead, quicksilver, cordage, sail-cloth, bullets, 
 cochineal, linen, tartar, alum, rice, sugar, soap, 
 cotton, raw and spun, copperas, aloes, Bra- 
 zil and log-wood, vermilion, &c. Very few com- 
 modities, however, are exported from this part of 
 the world ; the oil, wax, hides, pulse, and corn 
 produced, being but barely sufficient to supply 
 the country ; though before the loss of Oran, the 
 merchants have been known to ship off from one 
 or other of the ports of Barbary, several thousand 
 tons of corn. The consumption of oil, though 
 here in great abundance, is likewise so consider- 
 able in this kingdom, that it is seldom permitted 
 to be shipped off for Europe. The other exports 
 consist chiefly in ostrich feathers, copper, rugs, 
 silk sashes, embroidered handkerchiefs, dates, 
 and Christian slaves. Some manufactures in 
 silk, cotton, wool, leather, &c. are carried on in 
 this country, but mostly by the Spaniards settled 
 here, especially about the metropolis. Carpets 
 are also a manufacture of the country, which, 
 though inferior to those of Turkey both in beauty 
 and fineness, are preferred by the people to lie 
 upon, on account of their being both cheaper and 
 softer. There are also, at Algiers, looms for 
 velvet, taffaties, and other wrought silks ; and a 
 coarse sort of linen is likewise made in most parts 
 of the kingdom. The country furnishes no ma- 
 terials for ship-building. They have neither 
 ropes, tar, sails, anchors, nor even iron. 
 
 The preceding account of Algiers as it was, is 
 extraordinary, as establishing the melancholy 
 truth of so much injustice, cruelty, and infamy 
 
 having been permitted to retain an uncontrolled 
 dominion for so many years, in the vicinity of 
 the most civilised nations of the world, and ac- 
 tually adjoining a commercial settlement of the 
 French nation. Until the present century all 
 nations trading to the Mediterranean were sub- 
 jected to an annual tribute to this nation of 
 pirates, in order to protect their commerce from 
 interruption, their property from spoliation, and 
 their subjects from slavery. Spain endeavoured 
 to release herself from the irksome impost, and 
 to prohibit the extortion, but without success. 
 England stormed the haughty robber in his 
 fortress, shook his capital around him, and, 
 having humbled him to the dust, struck off the 
 fetters from the Christian captives. America, a 
 land of freedom, also asserted the rights of man, 
 and united with her parent country, in 1816, in 
 giving liberty to the numerous victims of 
 Algerine cruelty. Any other nation, any oilier 
 governor, if not influenced by a feeling of actual 
 loss and injury sustained by repeated chastise- 
 ments, would have either calmly yielded to the 
 conditions which nations so superior in force 
 had imposed, or acknowledged the obligation of 
 a treaty. It was otherwise, however, with this 
 piratical people ; and the continuance of their 
 falsehood and infamy led to their extinction as 
 an independent state. The French ultimately 
 resolved upon ridding the world of this bar- 
 barous system of government, and, in the year 
 1830, despatched an army of 40,000 men for 
 that purpose to the shores of Barbary. This 
 body of troops, well disciplined and equipped, 
 landed on the coast in the autumn of that year, 
 and effected an easy conquest of the city of 
 Algiers. The dey was permitted to withdraw 
 into Europe, where he sunk into private life, 
 and the state of Algiers was converted into a de- 
 pendency of France. 
 
 ALGOA, or ZWARTKOPS BAY, an inlet of 
 the southern coast of Africa, east of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, from which it is distant about 500 
 English miles, being situated in south lat. 33. 
 56'. and east long. 26. 53'. 
 
 This bay, in the neighbourhood of which it 
 is projected by government to found a new and 
 important colony, is about twenty miles in 
 breadth from east to west, and the shore is a 
 level sandy beach, except from the usual landing 
 place to its western extremity. The bottom is 
 good holding ground. A heavy swell rolls in 
 from the eastward, and the bay is open to all 
 winds that blow from north-east to south-east; 
 so that it at present affords but a very imperfect 
 shelter against the most prevailing gales. On 
 the west, about a mile out, is good anchorage in 
 five fathoms ; in the bay the tide rises between 
 six and seven feet. It receives the Sunday, 
 Kowie, and Zwartkops rivers, and has some 
 fine springs of water near the landing place on 
 the western side. The bar of the Zwartkops is 
 sometimes open, and at other times closed ; but 
 within the bar the river is navigable for small 
 vessels several miles. 
 
 A slip of laud about 4000 feet in length, and 
 
 500 wide, is here sheltered on one side by a ridge 
 of sand hills, and on the other by a sudden rise 
 of the country. The soil is fruitful, and pre- 
 sents a fine situation for a fishing village. The 
 black whale abounds in the bay ; a large natural 
 salt pan is' found in the neighbourhood, and 
 solid advantages might be derived to the nation, 
 and to the East India Company in particular, it 
 would seem, by an establishment formed on this 
 spot for salted beef and fish. Superior cattle to 
 those of the Cape are found in this neigh- 
 bourhood, and Mr. Barrow conjectures that beef 
 could be yielded here at sixpence per pound, or 
 even under that price, to shipping. Hides and 
 skins might also be salted and become a valuable 
 export. Those of the wild animals here, (par- 
 ticularly of the antelope), even with the native 
 dressing, make excellent leather ; the surrounding 
 country is fertile in corn, and has several noble 
 woods within a short distance from the bay. 
 'The country about Zwartkops bay,' says the 
 enlightened traveller we have just named, seems 
 to be well adapted for the cultivation of grain. 
 The farmers here give themselves no trouble to 
 manure the land, yet reckon upon a return of 
 twenty-five, thirty, and even fortv. for one, es^-
 
 ALG 
 
 613 
 
 ALG 
 
 pecially if a stream of water can occasionally be 
 turned upon the ground. On stiff clayey land 
 a small quantity of sheep's dung is sometimes 
 employed to prevent the fragments from clogging 
 together, and so make the parts less tenacious. 
 The little value they attach to manure is obvious 
 from the heaps of dung that are piled about the 
 houses in those places where the cattle, in order 
 to preserve them from beasts of prey, are pent 
 up at night. These consist of circular or 
 square spaces, shut in by dead branches of the 
 thorny mimosa, which are called kraals, a name 
 they have also thought proper to transfer to the 
 collected huts of the Hottentots and Caffres. 
 The beds of some of these kraals were not less 
 than twelve feet deep of dung, unmixed with 
 any other material ; but this is neither the only 
 nor the least offensive nuisance with which the 
 hovel of a Dutch peasant is usually surrounded. 
 
 The great fertility of the land in this part of 
 the colony, is not, however, any inducement to 
 the farmer to extend the cultivation of grain be- 
 yond the present limited quantity, as he can 
 have no demand for his produce unless a regular 
 coasting trade were established. They would 
 be very glad to find a market for their grain at a 
 fixed contract price, even as low as two shillings 
 and eight pence for a Winchester bushel, de- 
 livered in Zwartkops bay. (This was in 1797.) 
 The wheat of the Cape is a large full grain, 
 weighing usually from sixty-one to sixty-six 
 pounds a bushel. Immediately after the capture 
 a small cargo was sent to Europe, which sold 
 at Mark-lane market at a higher price than the 
 best English wheat that appeared on the same 
 day.' 
 
 Zuurveldt is on the east side of this bay, and 
 the capital of the new district of Uitenhagen 
 stands to the north of it, and on the Zwartkops 
 river. Fort Frederick is a recent establishment 
 on the shores of the bay, surrounded by a few 
 houses. 
 
 ALGOIDES, in botany, a name given by 
 Vaillant to a species of plants, called by Micheli 
 and Linnaeus zannichellia. Also an aquatic 
 plant so called from its resemblance to the alga, 
 having imperfect hermaphrodite flowers. 
 
 ALGOL, or MEDUSA'S HEAD, a fixed star of 
 the third magnitude, in the constellation Per- 
 seus ; Ion. 21. 50'. 42. of Taurus ; lat. 23. 23'. 
 47." N. according to Flamstead. This star has 
 been subject to' singular variations, appearing 
 at different times of different magnitudes, from 
 the fourth to the second which is its usual size. 
 This is supposed to be owing either to the in- 
 terposition of a large body revolving round Al- 
 gol, or to some portion of its own; in conse- 
 quence of which, part of its body covered with 
 spots, or such like matter, is periodically turned 
 towards the earth. 
 
 ALGON, a small island of Sweden, on the 
 \ve-t coast of the gulf of Bothnia. Long. 18. 
 26'. E. lat. 63. 9'. N. 
 
 ALGONQUINS, the name of several tribes 
 of savage Indians, who inhabit different parts of 
 North America, but all supposed to proceed 
 from a common origin. The Algonquins of 
 Canada were formerly numerous; but their 
 
 present number, according to Mackenzie, does 
 not exceed 150 families. 
 
 The Algonquins of Rainy Lake inhabit a 
 country, the precise limits of which are not 
 accurately known. The country which they 
 possess has been much hunted, and its game is 
 now nearly exhausted ; in consequence of which 
 they roam about in detached parties in quest of 
 a precarious subsistence. They are immoderately 
 fond of spirits, of which large quantities are 
 furnished them by the north-west traders, in 
 return for their furs and other commodities. 
 
 The Algonquins who inhabit Portage de 
 Prairie, possess a low, flat, and marshy country, 
 mostly covered with timber, and filled with 
 game. They are emigrants from the lake of the 
 woods, and the country east of it, and were 
 settled in their present abodes by the north-west 
 traders, that they might hunt the country on the 
 lower parts of Red River. They are orderly, 
 well disposed, and immoderately addicted to 
 spirit drinking. 
 
 As hunters and warriors, the Algonquins had 
 no rivals, and were once closely connected with 
 the Iroquois Indians, and considered as their pro- 
 tectors ; but their allies and protegees began to 
 rival their former masters in the arts of hunting 
 and of war, and jealousies arose which almost 
 proved fatal to the existence of the Algonquins, 
 although they were assisted by the French. The 
 language of the Algonquins is considered as the 
 most ancient and copious of the three radical 
 tongues of the North American Indians, and is 
 preferred to either the Huron or the Sioux. 
 There is a church devoted to the Romish religion 
 in their territory ; but the exertions of the priest- 
 hood have hitherto had little effect on their 
 morals : they are in the general practice of po- 
 lygamy, and given to the use of intoxicating 
 liquors as much as ever. The country around 
 them is cultivated in miserable and detached 
 patches of ground, and this solely by their 
 women, the men being engrossed with fishing 
 and hunting. The residence of the first chief, 
 or Sachem, of all the Algonquin tribes, is at the 
 trading establishment, situate on a high bank on 
 the north side of the river la Pluie, in north 
 lat. 48. 37'. This chief is by way of dis- 
 tinction called Nectam, implying personal pre- 
 eminence. In this place the elders meet in 
 council to treat of peace, war, and other public 
 concerns. 
 
 ALGORAB, a fixed star, of the third mag- 
 nitude, in the right wing of the constellation 
 Cofvus, marked (S) by Bayer. 
 
 ALGORITHM, an Arabic term for the art 
 of numbering truly and readily, comprehending 
 the six common rules of arithmetic, and called 
 logistica numeralis. We say the algorithm of 
 integers, the algorithm of fractions, the algorithm 
 of surds, &c. 
 
 ALGOSAREL, in botany, a name used by 
 Avicenna, and some other authors, for the dau- 
 randa decus carotta of Linnaus. 
 
 ALGOZO, a small town of Portugal, in Traz- 
 oz-montes, twenty miles west-south-west of Mi- 
 randa de Duero. 
 
 ALGUAZIL, in the Spanish polity, an officer
 
 614 
 
 A L H A M B R A. 
 
 whose business it is to see the decrees of a judge 
 executed. 
 
 ALHABOR, the Arabian name for the star 
 called Sirius 
 
 ALHAGI, in botany, the trivial name of a 
 species of hedysarum. See HEDYSARUM iu;s. 
 
 ALHAMA, a populous and well built town 
 of Granada, in Spain, situated in the midst of 
 craggy mountains, about twenty-five miles south- 
 west of Granada, on the banks of the Motril, and 
 having the finest warm baths in all Spain. It 
 was taken from the Moors in 1481, when the 
 inhabitants, though surprised, and the town 
 without a garrison, made a gallant defence ; but 
 being at length forced ttf submit, the place was 
 abandoned to the pillage of the Christian sol- 
 diers, who, not satisfied with an immense quan- 
 tity of gold and jewels, made slaves of upwards 
 of 3000 of the inhabitants. Lon. 3. 24'. W. 
 lat. 36. 49'. N. 
 
 ALHAMBRA, an ancient fortress, and resi- 
 dence of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, It 
 derives its name from the red colour of the ma- 
 terials with which it was originally built, Al- 
 hambra signifying a red house. It appears to 
 a traveller a huge heap of ugly buildings as can 
 well be seen, all huddled together, seemingly 
 without the least intention of forming one ha- 
 bitation out of them. The walls are entirely 
 unornamented, all gravel and pebbles, daubed 
 over with plaister in a very coarse manner : yet 
 this is the palace of the Moorish kings of Gra- 
 nada, and it is indisputably the most curious 
 place that exists in Spain, perhaps in the world. 
 In many countries may be seen excellent mo- 
 dern, as well as ancient architecture, both en- 
 tire and in ruins ; but nothing to be met with 
 any where else can convey an idea of this edi- 
 fice, except the decorations of an opera, or the 
 tales of the genii. 
 
 Passing round the corner of the emperor's 
 palace, one is admitted at a plain unornamented 
 door in a corner. ' On my first visit,' says 
 Swinburne, in his Travels in Spain, * I confess 
 I was struck with amazement, as I slept over 
 'he threshold, to find myself on a sudden trans- 
 ported into a species of fairy land. The first 
 place you come to is the court called the com- 
 muna or del mesucar, that is, the common baths ; 
 an oblong square, with a deep basin of clear 
 water in the middle ; two flights of marble steps 
 leading down to the bottom; on each side a 
 parterre of flowers, and a row of orange trees. 
 Round the court runs a peristyle paved with 
 marble ; the arches bear upon very slight pillars, 
 in proportions and style different from all the 
 regular orders of architecture. The ceilings and 
 walls are encrusted with fret work in stucco, 
 so minute and intricate, that the most patient 
 draughtsman would find it difficult to follow it, 
 unless he made himself master of the general 
 plan. This would facilitate the operation ex- 
 ceedingly; for all this work is frequently and 
 regularly repeated at certain distances, and has 
 been executed by means of square moulds ap- 
 plied successively, and the parts joined together 
 with the utmost nicety. In every division are 
 Arabic sentences of different lengths, most of 
 them expressive of the following meanings : 
 
 ' There is no conqueror but God ;' or, ' Obedi- 
 ence and honour to our lord Abouabdoulah .' The 
 ceilings are gilt or painted, and time has caused no 
 diminution in the freshness of their colours, 
 though constantly exposed to the air. The lower 
 part of the wall is mosaic disposed in fantastic 
 knots and festoons. The porches at the end are 
 more like grotto work than any thing else to 
 which they can be compared. That on the 
 right hand opens into an octagon vault, under 
 the emperor's palace, and forms a perfect whis- 
 pering gallery, meant to be a communication 
 between the offices of both houses. Opposite 
 to the door of the communa through which you 
 enter, is another leading into the quarto de los 
 leones, or apartment of the lions, which is an 
 oblong court, 100 feet in length, and fifty in 
 breadth, environed with a colonnade seven feet 
 broad on the sides and ten at the end. Two 
 porticoes or cabinets about fifteen feet square, 
 project into the court at the two extremities, 
 The square is covered with coloured tiles ; the 
 colonnade with white marble. The walls are 
 covered five feet up from the ground with blue 
 and yellow tiles disposed chequerwise. Above 
 and below is a border of small escutcheons, 
 enamelled blue and gold, with an Arabic motto 
 on a bead ; signifying, 'No conqueror but God.' 
 The columns that support the roof and gallery 
 are of white marble, very slender and fantas- 
 tically adorned. They are nine feet high, in- 
 cluding base and capital, and eight inches and a 
 half diameter. They are very irregularly placed ; 
 sometimes singly, at others in groups of three, 
 but more frequently two together. The width 
 of the horse-shoe arches above them is four feet 
 two inches for the large ones, and three for the 
 smaller. The ceiling of the portico is finished 
 in a much finer and more complicated manner 
 than that of the communa, and the stucco laid 
 on the walls with inimitable delicacy ; in the 
 ceiling it is so artfully frosted and handled as to 
 exceed belief. The capitals are of various de- 
 signs, though each design is repeated several 
 times in the circumference of the court, but not 
 the least attention has been paid to placing them 
 regularly or opposite to each other. Not the 
 smallest representation of animal life can be 
 discovered amidst the varieties of foliages, gro- 
 tesques, and strange ornaments. About each 
 arch is a large square of arabesques, surrounded 
 with a rim of characters, that are generally 
 quotations from the Koran. Over the pillar is 
 another square of delightful filagree work. Higher 
 up is a wooden rim, or kind of cornice, as much 
 enriched with carving as the stucco that co- 
 vers the part underneath. Over this projects a 
 roof of red tiles, the only thing that disfigures 
 this beautiful square. This ugly covering is mo- 
 dern, put on by order of Mr. Wall, the late prime 
 minister. In the centre of the court are twelve 
 ill-made lions muzzled, their fore parts smooth, 
 their hind parts rough, which bear upon their 
 backs an enormous basin out of which a lesser 
 rises. While the pipes were kept in good order, 
 a great volume of water was thrown up : which, 
 falling down into the basins, passed through the 
 beasts, and issued out of their mouths into a large 
 reservoir, where it communicated by channels
 
 A L H A M B R A. 
 
 615 
 
 with the jets d'eaux in the apartments. This 
 .fountain is of white marble, embellished with 
 many festoons and Arabic distiches, compliment- 
 ing the monarch and his princes. Passing along 
 the colonnade, and keeping on the south side, 
 you come to a circular room used by the men as 
 a place for drinking coffee and sorbets in. A 
 fountain in the middle refreshed the apart- 
 ment in summer. The form of this hall, the 
 elegance of its copula, the cheerful distribution 
 of light from above, and the exquisite manner in 
 which the stucco is designed, painted, and finish- 
 ed, exceed all powers of description. Every 
 thing in it inspires the most pleasing, voluptuous 
 ideas ; yet in this sweet retreat, they say, that 
 Abouabdoulah assembled the Abencerrages, and 
 caused their heads to be struck off into the foun- 
 tain. Continuing your walk round, you are 
 next brought to a couple of rooms, at the head of 
 the court, which are supposed to have been tri- 
 bunals, or audience chambers. Opposite to the 
 Salas de las Abencerrages is the entrance into 
 the Torre de las dos hermanas, or the tower of 
 the two sisters ; so named from two very beauti- 
 ful pieces of marble laid as flags in the pave- 
 ment. This gate exceeds all the rest in profu- 
 sion of ornaments, and in the beauty of prospect 
 which it affords through a range of apartments, 
 where a multitude of arches terminate in a large 
 window open to the country. Tn a gleam of sun- 
 shine the variety of tints and lights thrown upon 
 this enfilade are uncommonly rich. The first 
 hall is the concert room, where the women sat ; 
 the musicians played above in four balconies. 
 In the middle is a jet d'eau. The marble pave- 
 ment is equal to the finest existing, for the size of 
 the flags and evenness of the colour. The two 
 sisters are slabs that measure fifteen feet by seven 
 and a half, without flaw or stain. The walls, up 
 to a certain height, are mosaic, and above are 
 divided into very neat compartments of stucco, 
 all of one design, which is also followed in many 
 of the adjacent halls and galleries. The ceiling 
 is a fretted cove. To preserve this vaulted roof, 
 as well as some of the other principal cupolas, 
 the outward walls of the towers are raised ten 
 feet above the top of the dome, and support 
 another roof over all, by which means no damage 
 can ever be caused by wet weather or excessive 
 heat and cold. From this hall you pass round 
 the little myrtle garden of Lindarax, into an ad- 
 ditional building made to the east end by Charles 
 V. The rooms are small and low. His favourite 
 motto, < Plus outre",' appears on every beam. 
 This leads to a little tower, projecting from the 
 line of the north wall, called El tocader, or the 
 dressing-room of the sultana. It is a small 
 square cabinet, in the middle of an open gallery, 
 from which it receives light by a door and three 
 windows. The view is charming. In one cor- 
 ner is a large marble flag, drilled full of holes, 
 through which the smoke of perfumes ascended 
 from furnaces below ; and here, it is presumed, 
 the Moorish queen was wont to sit to fumigate 
 and sweeten her person. The emperor caused 
 this room to be painted with representations ot 
 his wars, and a great variety of grotesques, which 
 appear to be copies, or at least imitations, ot 
 .hose in the lobby of the Vatican. From hence 
 vou go through' a long passage to the hall oi 
 
 ambassadors, which is magnificently decorated 
 with innumerable varieties of mosaics, and the 
 mottoes of all the kings of Granada. This long 
 narrow antichamber opens into the communa on 
 the left hand, and on the right into the great 
 audience hall in the tower of Comares, a noble 
 apartment, thirty-six feet square, thirty-six high 
 up to the cornice, and eighteen from thence to 
 the centre of the cupola. The walls on three 
 sides are fifteen feet thick, on the other, nine ; 
 the lower range of windows thirteen feet high. 
 The whole wall is inlaid with mosaic of many 
 colours, disposed in intricate knots, stars and 
 other figures. In every part various Arabic sen- 
 tences are repeated. Having completed the 
 tower of the upper apartments, which are upon 
 a level with the offices of the new palace, you 
 descend to the lower floor, which consists of 
 bed-chambers and summer rooms : the back stairs 
 and passages, that facilitated the intercourse be- 
 tween them, are without number. The most re- 
 markable room below is the king's bed-chamber, 
 which communicated, by means of a gallery, with 
 the upper story. The beds were placed in two 
 alcoves, upon a raised pavement of blue and 
 white tiles ; but as it was repaired by Philip V. 
 who passed gome time here, it cannot be said now 
 it may have been in former times. A fountain 
 played in the middle, to refresh the apartment in 
 hot weather. Behind the alcoves are small doors 
 that conduct you to the royal baths. These con- 
 sist of one small closet with marble cisterns for 
 washing children, two rooms for grown-up per- 
 sons, and vaults for boilers and furnaces that sup- 
 plied the baths with water and the stoves with 
 party coloured earthenware ; light is admitted 
 by holes in the ceiling. Hard by is a whispering 
 gallery, and a kind of labyrinth said to have 
 been made for the diversion of the women and 
 children. One of the passages of communication 
 is fenced off with a strong iron gate, and called 
 the prison of the sultana ; but it seems more pro- 
 bable that it was put up to prevent any body 
 from climbing up into the women's quarter. 
 Under the council room is along slip, called the 
 king's study : and adjoining to it are several vaults, 
 said to be the place of burial of the royal family. 
 In the year 1574, four sepulchres were opened; 
 but as they contained nothing but bones and 
 ashes, were immediately closed again.' This 
 noble palace, however, is hastening to decay, and 
 without repairs, to which the finances of Spam 
 are inadequate, it will in a few years be a pile of 
 ruins. Its beautiful apartments, its stately co- 
 lumns, and its lofty walls, will be mingled to- 
 gether, and no memorial be left in Spam of a 
 people who once governed the Peninsula. 
 
 ALHANDAL, from handal, Arab, colocynthos, 
 a term in the Arabian pharmacy, signifying colo- 
 cynth The trochisee alhandal, are a kind of 
 troches composed of colocynths, bdellium, and 
 gum tragacanth. They were esteemed good 
 purgatives, though not used at this time. 
 
 ALHAZEN, in biography, a learned Arabian, 
 who lived in Spain about the close of the eleventh, 
 or beginning of the twelfth century. His prin- 
 cipal works are a treatise on astrology, and ano- 
 ther on optics, printed in Latin in the Thesaurus 
 Optic* of Risner, in 1572. Alhazen suppose 
 vhat the refraction of the atmosphere did not de-
 
 616 
 
 A L I BEY. 
 
 pend upon its vapours, but upon its different 
 transparency. In examining the effects of re- 
 fraction, he endeavours to prove that it is so far 
 from being the cause of the heavenly bodies ap- 
 pearing larger near the horizon, that it would 
 make them appear less : two star?, he says, ap- 
 pearing nearer together in the horizon than near 
 the meridian. This phenomenon he ranks among 
 optical deceptions. 
 
 ALHEN, in natural history, a name by which 
 Dr. Shaw, and others, have called a genus of 
 plants, named by Linnaeus Lawsonia inermis. 
 
 ALHIDADA, or ALIDADE, Arab, a ruler, the 
 index or label of an astronomical, or geometrical 
 astrolabe for taking heights or distances. 
 
 ALHIRTO, in astronomy, a fixed star of the 
 third magnitude, in the constellation Capricorn, 
 otherwise called rostrum gallinse. Near this 
 star, in 1600, appeared a new star, which con- 
 tinued visible twenty-one years, and then disap- 
 peared. 
 
 AH, a sect among the Mahommedans, who ad- 
 here to the right of succession of Ali, and to the 
 reform of Mussulmanism introduced by him. 
 This sect is more particularly called Schiites ; 
 and stands opposed to the Sunnites, or sect of 
 Omar, who adhere to the law as left by Maho- 
 met, Abubeker, and Omar. After' Mahomet's 
 death, great disputes arose about the succession, 
 and though many voted for Ali, Abubeker was 
 preferred, and elected the first caliph. The Per- 
 sians are the chief adherents to the sect of Ali, 
 whom they hold to have been the legitimate suc- 
 cessor of Mahomet, and Abubeker an usurper. 
 On the contrary, the Turks are of the sect of 
 Omar ; and hold Ali in execration. The distin- 
 guishing badge of the followers of Ali is a red tur- 
 ban, which is worn by the Persians, who are 
 hence called in derision, by the Turks, Kilsibachi, 
 i. e. red heads. See next article. 
 
 ALI, or HALT, the son of Abu Taleb, cousin- 
 german and son-in-law of Mahomet, being mar- 
 ried to his daughter Fatimah. He was the 
 fourth caliph after him, as he did not succeed till 
 after the death of Othman, in 1655, though he 
 stood competitor with Abubeker, upon Maho- 
 met's death, A. D. 632, which occasioned a civil 
 war among the Mussulmans. He was murdered 
 in the fifth year of his reign, and sixty-third of 
 his age, A. D. 660, near . Cafa, in Arabia Felix, 
 by Muavias, the sixth caliph ; who, to obtain 
 that dignity, poisoned Ali's sou and successor, 
 Hacen, along with his brother Hassan, and eleven 
 of Ali's grandsons, within six months after his 
 death. It is worth remarking, that the four first 
 successors of Mahomet, Abubeker, Omar, Oth- 
 man, and Ali, whom he had employed during his 
 life as his chief agents in establishing his reli- 
 gion, by extirpating unbelievers, and whom on 
 that account he styled the ' cutting swords of 
 God,' like the successors of Alexander, all died 
 violent deaths ; and that this bloody impostor's 
 family j as well as that of the mad monarch of 
 Macedonia, was nearly, if not totally, extirpated 
 within thirty years after his death. When the 
 prophet assembled his kinsmen, and declared his 
 mission, he asked which among them would be 
 his vizier : ' I am the man,' exclaimed the youth- 
 ful Ali, then of the age of fourteen ; ' whoever 
 rises against thee, I vi\\ dash out his teeth, tear 
 
 out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly ; O 
 prophet, I will be thy vizier over them.' Ali 
 kept his word ; and famous both for his eloquence 
 and valour, became one of the main pillars of 
 the new faith, and obtained the name of the 
 ' Lion of God, always victorious.' He is said to 
 have been the author of several works, particu- 
 larly one entitled Centiloqulum, which is much 
 esteemed among the Arabs and Persians ; and 
 part of which has been translated into English by 
 M. Ockley. He also wrote an interpretation of 
 the Alcoran. 
 
 ALI BEY, an eastern adventurer, whose his- 
 tory and exploits have excited considerable 
 interest. He was probably born among the 
 Abazans, a people inhabiting Mount Caucasus, 
 and brought by the slave merchants to one of 
 the annual sales at Cairo, where he was purchased 
 bj the brothers Isaac and Yousef, Jews, em- 
 ployed in the custom-house, and presented by 
 them to Ibrahim, a kiaya, or veteran colonel of 
 janissaries, and one of the most considerable men 
 in Egypt. He is supposed to have been then 
 twelve or fourteen years of age. By the favour 
 of his patron, he was taught to read, write, and 
 perform the customary military exercises, in which 
 he displayed a fire and activity that obtained for 
 him the appellation of djendali, or madman. 
 At the age of eighteen or twenty his beard was 
 allowed to grow, or he was made free ; his patron 
 gave him a wife and revenues, promoted him to 
 the rank of kachef, or governor of a district, and 
 procured him to be elected one of the twenty- 
 four beys. His ambition was hereby excited ; and 
 the death of Ibrahim, in 1 757, opened a way for the 
 execution of his projects. After an absence of 
 a few years, during which he had been engaged 
 in various intrigues for raising and displacing 
 several chiefs, and two years of which he had 
 passed in a state of exile in Said, or Upper 
 Egypt, devising his plans of future domination, 
 he returned to Cairo in 1766 ; and in one night 
 killed four beys, who were his enemies, banished 
 four others, and from that time became chief of 
 a numerous party. Not contented with the office 
 of bey, he aspired to the sultanship of Egypt ; 
 determined to throw off the supremacy of the 
 Porte, and accordingly expelled the pacha, re- 
 fused the tribute, and in 1768 proceeded to coin 
 money in his own name. The Porte, occupied 
 by other concerns, was under a necessity of tem- 
 porising ; and Ali pushed forward his enterprises 
 with success. He began with dispossessing 
 Hammam, an Arab sheik, of a port of the Said, 
 which he had occupied, and where he had formed 
 a power capable of giving disturbance : and 
 towards the end of this year, 1769, fitted out 
 some vessels at Suez, which were ordered to seize 
 on Djedda, the port of Mecca, -whilst a body of 
 cavalry marched by land to take possession of 
 the city itself. The project which he had formed 
 was, to make Europe abandon the passage to the 
 East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 substitute the ancient route of the Mediterra- 
 nean sea, and the Arabian gulf. Flushed wiffi 
 success, in the enterprises he had accomplished 
 already, his ambition suggested to him more ex- 
 tensive conquests. Syria was the first object of 
 his contemplation; and the war with the Rus- 
 sians, which broke out in 1769, and which occu-
 
 A L I PACHA. 
 
 pied all the Turkish forces in the north, favoured 
 his design. Besides which, sheik Daher, in 
 actual rebellion against the Porte, would be a 
 powerful ally ; and the extortions of the pacha 
 of Damascus disposed those he had oppressed 
 for revolt, and made way for his obtaining the 
 title of the deliverer of nations. AH having laid 
 his plan, detached in 1 770 a corps of Mamalukes, 
 to take possession of Gaza, and thus to secure an 
 entrance into Palestine ; soon after he sent a 
 larger army to form a junction with Daher at 
 Acre, and to proceed thence to Damascus. 
 Osman, the pacha of this place, was diligent in 
 nis preparations, and collected a numerous army. 
 On the 6th of June 1771, a decisive action took 
 place, in which Mahomet, the friend of AH, and 
 Daher his ally, proved victorious, and took pos- 
 session of Damascus ; but the castle resisted. 
 At the moment when the signal of surrender was 
 expected, Mahomet suddenly commanded a re- 
 treat, and all his cavalry turned towards Egypt. 
 This singular revolution was at first attributed to 
 a pretended report of the death of AH Bey ; but 
 it was owing to a conference which had passed the 
 preceding night between a crafty agent of Osman 
 and Mahomet Bey, Ali's commander. AH, 
 though disappointed and chagrined, did not re- 
 nounce his projects; he prepared, in conjunction 
 with Daher, a second army for the campaign of 
 1772, but the event was unpropitious. The 
 escape of Mahomet roused his jealousy and his 
 fears ; he beheld in him a dangerous rival, and re- 
 solved on his ruin. Having ordered the gates of 
 Cairo to be shut, and no Mamaluke to be allowed 
 to pass, he sentenced Mahomet into immediate 
 exile in the Said. Mahomet, however, contrived 
 to make his escape ; and from this moment all 
 was lost; for the Mamalukes, wearied with the 
 insolence of AH Bey, repaired in crowds to his 
 rival, so that in about six weeks he left the Said 
 with a strong force, and marched towards Cairo. 
 Ali, however, prepared to meet him ; and in the 
 month of April 1772 the two armies had a ren- 
 contre in the plains of El-Masateb, at the gates 
 of Cairo ; the issue of. which was, that Mahomet 
 and his party entered the city, sabre in hand ; 
 and Ali Bey had barely time to escape with 800 
 of his Mamalukes. With this inconsiderable 
 force he repaired to Gaza, and attempted to join 
 his ally, Daher, at Acre, who, after some danger 
 from which he was rescued, conducted him to the 
 city. Both Ali and Daher marched to the suc- 
 cour of Said, (Sidon,) which was then besieged 
 by the troops of Osman, in conjunction with the 
 Druzes. At their approach the Turks raised the 
 siege, and retired to a place about a league north 
 of the city, on the river Aoula. There, in July 
 1772, an engagement took place; and the 
 Turkish army, three times more numerous than 
 that of the two allies, was entirely defeated. 
 The seven pachas, who commanded it, fled; and 
 Said remained in the possession of Daher. AH Bey 
 and Daher, on their return to Acre, proceeded 
 to chastise the inhabitants of Yafa, or Jaffa, who 
 had revolted ; and, after a siege of eight months, 
 the town v capitulated in February 1773. Ali 
 now determined to return to Cairo ; and he was 
 encouraged in his purpose by the promised suc- 
 ours of Daher, and of the Russians. This 
 
 assistance was delayed,. and Ali became impatient. 
 In April 1773, quickened in the execution of 
 his purpose by fabricated letters which he re- 
 ceived from Cairo, he began his march at the 
 head of his Mamalukes, and some troops fur- 
 nished by Daher ; ' but when he advanced into 
 the desert, which separates Gaza from Egypt, he 
 fell into an ambush of 1000 Mamalukes, com- 
 manded by Mourad, a young bey, who, being 
 enamoured of the wife of AH Bey, had obtained 
 a promise of her from Mahomet, in case he 
 should bring him the head of AH. The attack 
 was impetuous ; Mourad met with AH in the 
 crowd, wounded him in the forehead, made 
 him prisoner, and conducted him to Mahomet. 
 By his former master, Ali was received with 
 perfidious respect; but on the third day this 
 parade of civility and politeness terminated by 
 the death of AH Bey, who, according to some, 
 died of his wounds; or, as others report, by 
 poison. 
 
 Ali Bey was a character of original vigour and 
 capacity ; and was superior in his views to what 
 could have been expected, from one who was 
 bred in barbarism and ignorance he governed 
 Egypt with a steady hand, and was particularly 
 favourable to the Franks. But he undertook 
 more than he had power or talents to perform; 
 and by this means exhausted his revenues in 
 fruitless enteiprises. He is also blamed for re 
 signing active labours to his lieutenants, fo- 
 placing unlimited confidence in his favourites, 
 and winking at the exactions of his officers. His 
 morals were those of his country, where perfidy 
 and murder are the only means of pursuing the 
 objects of ambition ; yet he was not devoid of 
 generosity. During his administration, several 
 nests of robbers in Egypt were annihilated; vil- 
 lages which had been inhabited by the pirates 
 of the Nile were razed; the communication 
 between different parts of the country was free ; 
 the roads were no longer infested with robbers, 
 nor was navigation interrupted by that spirit of 
 pillage, which, since his death, has resumed its 
 fatal activity. It was his wish that every man 
 might be able to carry his purse in his hand, and 
 leave his door open, without running any risk. 
 
 ALI PACHA, of Janina and vizier of Epi- 
 rus. He rose, as we have seen already, (arti- 
 cle ALBANIA,) from a comparatively obscure 
 birth ; but the genius and enesgy of his mother 
 gave a very remarkable and successful impulse to 
 his early life. In the strength, as well as impla- 
 cability, of her character, she appeared worthy to 
 be the parent of such a son. ' To my mother,' 
 said he one day to the consul general of France, 
 M. Pouqueville, ' I owe all ; for my father, on 
 his death bed, left me but a mere hole, and a few 
 fields. My imagination, fixed by the counsels 
 of her who has twice given me existence, for 
 she has made me a man and a vizier, revealed to 
 me the secret of my destiny. From that mo- 
 ment I only considered Tepelini as the natal 
 aerie from which I was to dart upon the prey 
 already mine in idea. From that moment I 
 thought but of power, treasure, and palaces in 
 fact, of all which time itself has realized, and 
 which it still promises.' Khamco, in fact, ^er- 
 self the daughter of the Bey of Konitza, and
 
 618 
 
 A L I PACHA. 
 
 favourite wife of Ali's falher, believed our hero 
 to be destined to restore the honours of his fa- 
 mily. ' My son,' she would frequently say to 
 him, 'he who does not defend his inheritance 
 deserves to be deprived of it. Recollect that 
 the property of others only belongs to them by 
 the right of the stronger. Why then should it 
 not be yours ?' and All was, through life, but 
 too obedient to this advice. The indignity 
 she endured from the Gardikiotes, was, it must 
 be admitted, cruel to the last degree ; being car- 
 ried off by surprise from Tepelini, the family 
 inheritance, with her daughter Chainitza, then in 
 the flower of youth. She was imprisoned in a 
 dungeon, and brought out daily to endure the 
 brutal embraces of the principal inhabitants ; an 
 injury remembered for forty years by Ali and 
 his sister. The vizier himself declared, that 
 after being reduced, some time after this circum- 
 stance, to the necessity of selling his sabre to 
 procure bread, his fortunes were suddenly al- 
 tered by the circumstance of discovering a chest 
 full of gold, in the ruins of an old monastery ; 
 with which money he raised two thousand men, 
 and entered Tepelini in triumph. He now took 
 one of his characteristic methods of making 
 himself absolute master of his native town. 
 Having personal enemies whom he wished to 
 cut off, he secretly fermented amongst them a 
 conspiracy against himself; and left on a certain 
 day his riding cloak in a wood, where he oc- 
 casionally hunted and slept, covering a goat. 
 The conspirators, as previously arranged, came 
 and fired through his mantle, exclaiming in tri- 
 umph as they returned, 'Veli bey, is no more.' 
 In the evening he attacked their houses, crying 
 out in return, ' Mine is the cause of justice,' 
 and put the whole party to the sword. 
 
 We have noticed his attack and overthrow of 
 the neighbouring pachas of Berat and Delvino ; 
 the latter was, according to his own acknowledg- 
 ment, a distinguished benefactor of Ali's. He 
 possessed a territory which had long been a mat- 
 ter of dispute between the Porte and the Vene- 
 tians ; and having sold to the latter a forest near 
 the lake Pelode, Ali caused it to be secretly re- 
 presented at Constantinople, that the Pacha of 
 Delvino had alienated a portion of the Sultan's 
 territory. On this, the Divan, as he had cal- 
 culated, despatched a firman to Ali, for that 
 chieftain's death. He went to Delvino, was re- 
 ceived by the old Pacha with his accustomed 
 kindness, and lodged in the seraglio. Every 
 morning he waited upon his host to pay him the 
 customary compliments. One day feigning in- 
 disposition, Ali requested Selim would come 
 into his apartment for the purpose of receiving 
 an important communication. The invitation 
 being accepted, scarcely had the unfortunate old 
 man entered the room, than the assassins, who 
 had been concealed in a closet, upon a signal 
 being given, rushed out, and stabbed him to the 
 heart; he fell, pierced with wounds, uttering 
 almost the same words as Caesar, ' Is it thou, my 
 son, who deprivest me of life?' At the noise of 
 the tumult, his guard hastened to the spot, and 
 found Ali in the midst of the assassins, with the 
 firman in his hand, exclaiming in threatening 
 accents, ' I have killed the traitor by order of our 
 
 glorious sultan ! here is his imperial mandate 
 Ali's contests with the Suliotes, developed IT. 
 the latter many of the noblest qualities of the 
 ancient Greeks. At the commencement of theit 
 first war with him, they possessed sixty-six in- 
 dependent villages, and an army of 1400 expe- 
 rienced soldiers. The whole of this valiant 
 Christian republic he managed, after several years 
 of cruelty and treachery, to disperse or destroy. 
 Their ill-deserved fate found commiseration with 
 in the walls of his own seraglio. Emineh, his 
 favourite wife, and mother of his two sons, 
 Mouctar and Veli, fell at his feet to implore his 
 clemency for them, asserting that the tutelar 
 genius of his fortunes had warned her in a dream 
 to spare the Suliotes. ' The Suliotes, the most 
 inveterate the most implacable of my enemies,' 
 exclaimed the vizier in a voice of thunder, and 
 drawing a pistol from his girdle, discharged it at 
 the suppliant, who, though not wounded, it is 
 said, died with fright. His cruelties to the 
 weaker sex ' stain him' indeed ' with disgrace.' 
 His son, Mouctar, having become enamoured of 
 the wife of a principal citizen of Janina, Ali 
 did not disdain to take up the quarrel of his 
 daughter-in-law, who detected a jewel in the 
 possession of the beautiful Phrosina, which she 
 had given to her husband. He swore by the 
 beard of Mahomet, that he would obtain for 
 her ample vengeance ; and repaired himself by 
 night to the residence of the frail fair one. With 
 *he lamp in his hand, he entered her bed-room, 
 awoke her, exhibited the ring, and commanded 
 her to rise and follow him. Having arrived in 
 the court-yard, he directed his guards to conduct 
 her into a Greek church, on the borders of the 
 lake, and afterwards sent thither twenty of the vilest 
 women of the place as her companions. The next 
 evening the whole were taken out upon the water 
 in a boat, and each being in succession sown up 
 in a sack, was precipitated into the waves. 
 
 After the reduction of the Suliotes, Ali found 
 himself in the midst of new enemies, having re- 
 fused, on the destruction of that republic, to 
 withdraw his troops from the district of Tra- 
 mouria ; the beys in authority there resented his 
 conduct, and refused to pay into his hands those 
 maritime duties of the coast which he had 
 farmed from the Porte. They solicited, and re- 
 ceived, considerable aid from the Russians, who 
 further augmented Ali's jealousy against them, 
 in 1805, by becoming masters of Montenegro, on 
 the north of Albania. In this war with the 
 beys, Ali subdued and pillaged above forty 
 towns and villages. The progress of the French 
 arms in Dalmatia was by no means pleasing to 
 him, and first induced him to open that active 
 correspondence with the court of St. James, 
 which, through Lord Nelson, Lord Collingwood, 
 and Major Leake successively, was kept up for 
 many years. All the events of the French revo- 
 lution were familiar to this Napoleon of the east; 
 rior did Buonaparte overlook the importance of 
 Ali's political situation. In the latter end of 
 1805, M. Pouqueville, to whom we are indebted 
 for many anecdotes of this despot, was nomi- 
 nated consul-general of France at Janina. He 
 thus describes his first audience with the vizier : 
 
 ' After the usual compliments, the privatv. 1
 
 A L I PACHA. 
 
 619 
 
 dragoman of the vizier was called, in order to 
 commence the conversation, which the Pacha 
 began by asking questions with a volubility very 
 uncommon among the Turks. Through the shade 
 (for the hall of audience was only illuminated by 
 the flitting and uncertain light of a yellow 
 bougie), I perceived the coruscations of his pe- 
 netrating eyes, and observed the convulsive 
 motions of his features ; I listened to his con- 
 versation, apparently vague and unconnected, 
 yet full of cunning and duplicity. Swinging 
 himself about, continually laughing and talking, 
 not a word escaped him but had its import, not- 
 withstanding the rapidity of his utterance ; he 
 at times threw scrutinizing glances on me, and 
 at length ordered his Greek secretary, and his 
 minister, who was dressed in black and wore a 
 long white beard, to retire. We remained with 
 the interpreter, who continued to stammer out 
 the questions and answers, till after a conversa- 
 tion of about two hours, we withdrew, leaving 
 the vizier struggling between hopes and fears. 
 This interview sufficed to dissipate some of the 
 illusions which I had been under : AH Pacha 
 was neither a new Theseus, nor the modern 
 Pyrrhus of Epirus. I was disgusted with his 
 manners, and secretly deplored my fate in being 
 compelled to reside near and be in communi- 
 cation with a man of such a character.' 
 
 After the battle of Austerlitz, our wily Greek 
 found his account in flattering the French 
 usurper ; and, is said, through the interest of 
 the latter at Constantinople to have obtained the 
 pachaship of Lepanta for his son Mouctar ; and 
 that of the Morea for his second son Veli. The 
 French government, in 1 807, gratified him highly 
 by supplying him with a detachment of artillery 
 men, and ordering colonel Vaudoncourt to re- 
 main in his dominions, for the purpose of im- 
 proving the military tactics of his army. Ali, 
 during the war that now ensued between France 
 and Russia, was keeping a watchful eye on the 
 Ionian isles, with the hope of adding them to 
 his other conquests. He sent envoys to London, 
 to Malta, Sicily, and, it is said, even to Tilsit, 
 in the hope of accomplishing, by negociation, 
 this favourite object ; but the islands were 
 seized by France, and Ali now again returned 
 to his friendly relation with England. He is 
 said to have considerably influenced the signing 
 of a peace at this time between England and 
 Turkey. It was at this period, 1809, that he 
 finally subdued his rival, Ibrahim, the pacha of 
 Herat, and cajoled the divan to bestow the vacant 
 pachaship on his son Mouctar. He finally im- 
 prisoned the feeble vizier, Ibrahim, and con- 
 structed for him a dungeon under the great 
 stair-case of his palace, that he might have the 
 satisfaction of walking daily, as he said, ' over the 
 head of his enemy.' A stratagem of Ali's, with 
 regard to this fallen foe, marks the character of 
 his mind and actions very strikingly. Being in- 
 formed that reports of his various cruelties were 
 becoming rather too serious at Constantinople, 
 he suddenly withdrew Ibrahim from his prison, 
 and concealed the place of his residence from 
 his daughters, who had followed him into cap- 
 tivity. They now therefore naturally concluded 
 that "he had been put to death. Janina resounded 
 
 with their insinuations and complaints, and the 
 French consul despatched the tidings to Con- 
 stantinople. On this, a capidgi-baschi was or- 
 dered to proceed to Janina, and make a report 
 respecting the conduct of Ali to Ibrahim. The 
 former received him in the presence of all his 
 ministers, and on the firman of the grand 
 seignior and the nature of his mission being an- 
 nounced, Ali, with a tone of indignant surprize, 
 exclaimed, ' Dead ! my father Ibrahim dead !' 
 Then turning to his ministers, Mahomet and 
 Sechri-efiendi, ' Go,' said he, ' and accompany 
 this officer into Ibrahim's apartment, that he may 
 be convinced of the vile calumnies which are 
 propagated against me.' These officers found 
 Ibrahim in the handsomest apartment of the se- 
 raglio, and well instructed for their reception. 
 He prayed the capidgi-baschi to assure the sultan, 
 his master, that he kissed the earth on which he 
 placed his sacred feet, and while he felt with the 
 deepest gratitude the interest which his highness 
 took in his welfare, being now too old to support 
 the cares of government, he could not be happier 
 than for himself and his possessions to be in the 
 hands of his dearest friend, the vizier of Janina. 
 Our limits will not allow us to add many other 
 characteristic anecdotes of this most accomplished 
 and most ferocious tyrant of modern times ; but 
 they abound in the writings or allusions of Lord 
 Byron, Mr. Hobhouse, Dr. Holland, and Mr. 
 Hughes. 
 
 From his alliance with England, Ali obtained 
 one object of his ambition, little to the credit, 
 as we humbly opine, of British diplomacy the 
 possession of Parga. Ali had strenuously en- 
 deavoured in 1814, to seize upon this devoted 
 rock, the only spot along the whole extent of his 
 coast which could now boast of any indepen- 
 dence ; but though 5000 of his bravest and most 
 experienced troops surrounded the place, and 
 succeeded at one time in entering the lower town 
 they were repulsed by the Parganiotes ; and the 
 place well provisioned, but garrisoned principally 
 by seventy French grenadiers, frowned defiance 
 upon him. When Ali first received the news of 
 this repulse of his troops, he was returning into 
 his capital from Preveza, accompanied with the 
 English resident, and is described as becoming in 
 a moment frantic with rage. ' What !' cried he, 
 ' Parga defended only by sixty Frenchmen, and 
 victorious !' then would he roll himself on his 
 sofa, alternately ' crying like a child, and roaring 
 like a wild beast.' The brave Parganiotes ulti- 
 mately prevailed upon the British authorities in 
 the neighbourhood to seize Parga by a coup de 
 main. Ali, in the cession of this island, reigned 
 with terrible and undisputed sway over a larger 
 country than Pyrrhus, or even than Alexander 
 himself had done before his conquests in Asia 
 Minor. He was master in fact of all continental 
 Greece, from the frontiers of Attica to the 
 mountains of Illyria. 
 
 But he himself, on one occasion, ably denned 
 his station: 'A vizier,' he said, ' is a man co- 
 vered with honours, and seated on a barrel of 
 onnpowder, which may be blown up with a 
 spark.' The Porte became well acquainted with 
 the great extent of his treasures, and anticipated 
 their possible division amongst his children, iu
 
 620 
 
 A L I PACHA. 
 
 case he died a natural death. Pacha Bey, an 
 ejected minister, or selictar of his son Veli, had 
 incurred the implacable hatred of AH ; who, 
 fleeing from All's frequent attempts -to procure 
 his assassination in Greece, had met at Constan- 
 tinople with Demetrius Paleopulo, an ^Etolian, 
 and these two chieftains together drew up a me- 
 morial to the divan, on the subject of Ali's ex- 
 tensive possessions and barbarous tyranny. Pa- 
 cha Bey, after a long attendance upon the sultan, 
 became one of his capidgi-bachi or chamberlains, 
 and in this situation Ali Bey had the hardihood 
 to attempt taking him off, by means of two as- 
 sassins. They procured admission to the resi- 
 dence of this enemy, but having only slightly 
 wounded him, endeavoured to escape. Being 
 pursued and put to torture, they confessed that 
 they were hired by Ali Pacha to assassinate Pa- 
 cha Bey. The assassin was hung in front of the 
 imperial seraglio, and the sentence, firmanly or 
 imperial proscription, was shortly after pro- 
 nounced against the pacha of Janina. Its tenor 
 was, that Ali Pacha, accused of high treason, and 
 having at different periods received pardon of 
 his delinquencies and felonies, should be placed 
 under the ban of the empire, as a relapse, if he 
 did not present himself within forty days at the 
 ' golden threshold of the gate of felicity,' to plead 
 in justification ; and the grand seignior, having 
 put all his agents and couriers into irons, de- 
 clared that whosoever should dare to speak to 
 him in favour of Ali should lose his head. 
 
 New governors were at first placed in all the 
 military positions bordering upon Albania; then 
 the neighbouring pachalics of Scodra, Thrace, 
 &c. were ordered to assemble their forces, and 
 the command of the entire expedition against the 
 rebel vizier was committed to Pacha Bey, now 
 denominated Pacha of Janina and Del vino, by 
 the right of arpalich or conquest. The old lion, 
 as Ali was frequently called, aroused himself 
 with an energy worthy his warlike character. 
 He first .applied for the interposition of the 
 English with the Porte, but failing in this, he 
 purchased largely of them arms and military 
 stores. He re-organized the armatolis, and paid 
 great court to the Greeks ; but on the first ap- 
 pearance of his rival in the neighbourhood, a con- 
 siderable body of the former revolted, and before 
 a blow was struck,Ali lostCisaxian, Macedonia^ 
 and Thessaly, to the defile of Gomphy . His son 
 Veli, on the appearance of the enemy in that 
 direction, abandoned Lepanto, removed by sea 
 all his valuable property to Preveza, and retired 
 himself to Janina, whither his brother Mouctar 
 repaired about the same time. Though Ali was, 
 on his appearance in public, every where re- 
 ceived with acclamations, he now began to find 
 that no reliance could be placed on the greater 
 part of his troops. The whole of higher Albania fell 
 away from him ; and though for a time his enemies 
 were dilatory, and a Turkish fleet, which appeared 
 upon the coasts, at first retired without effecting 
 any object, Pacha Bey gradually advanced in 
 sight of Janina, without fighting a single battle. 
 Ali's long meditated plan of final defence was this, 
 to destroy the tov.'n of Janina, and shut himself 
 up within his vast fortress, situated on the isle of 
 a neighbouring lake. There were remaining to 
 
 him about 8000 faithful troops. With these ht 
 garrisoned his three well-constructed castles or 
 the isle, whose walls were protected by 250 pieces 
 of cannon. When the inhabitants of Janina saw 
 the despot retiring with all his treasure into the 
 fortress, they began to embark their property 
 and families upon the lake with a view to escape 
 the coming conflict. Ali, on the other hand, 
 made no scruple of giving up his capital to be 
 pillaged by the soldiery ; and Pacha Bey, on the 
 19th of August, marched into its still smoking 
 ruins, through the gate of Paralepti. Ali's gar- 
 rison was provisioned for more than four years, 
 and had ample supplies of ammunition and war- 
 like stores ; neither could water ever be wanting 
 as the castle was situated in the midst of a 
 lake. As the crisis of his fate approached, Ali 
 appeared to summon all his energies to over- 
 come it : even his physical strength seemed to 
 be renewed, and to triumph over the weight ot 
 his years. He was seen at all hours, and in all 
 places now on horseback, now in his palan- 
 quin ; and sometimes seated on a bastion, in 
 conversation with the workmen and common 
 soldiers, whom he daily inspected. In the au- 
 tumn, supposing that some of his troops might 
 be discontented with the confined and arduous 
 service in which they were engaged, he selected 
 1500 for a sortie-': and, giving them their full 
 pay, opened his gates and sent them forth. As 
 he expected, when they arrived in sight of the 
 Turkish camp, they saluted his enemy, as ' Vali ' 
 and 'Gazi.' In September, the besiegers began 
 to murmur at their new chief, who, finding no 
 present hope of reducing Ali to submission by 
 military manoeuvres, had recourse to a negocia- 
 tion with his sons. These terminated in the 
 surrender of both Previsa and Berat, of which, 
 when Ali was informed, he only observed, ' that 
 he had long considered his sons unworthy of their 
 race; and that henceforward his now depend- 
 ent soldiers are his only children.' Gradually 
 his magnificent palace became only a well-de- 
 fended camp : his harem was attacked almost 
 universally with scurvy and fever ; and a gra- 
 dual waste of his own fine form and complexion 
 evidently appeared. He slept little, and could 
 not trust his person but to the watchfulness of 
 two individuals, Athanasi Vai, on whose knees 
 he slept ; while Ibrahim Saretih, his former post- 
 master, kept watch at the door of his apartment. 
 The siege proceeded slowly, and more than 
 5000 bombs had been thrown against the castle 
 of Ali without effect. The sultan was at last 
 weary of these ineffectual efforts to subdue a 
 single rebel, and Ismael Pacha was superseded ; 
 in command by Churchid Mahomet Pacha, who 
 after various minor intrigues, induced our Pacha : 
 to open a communication with him in December, ! 
 on the terms of receiving a pardon and his life, for ! 
 relinquishing his fortress and his treasures. One ; 
 characteristic fact Ali had taken care to commu- 
 nicate to the new commander, viz. that he kept ; 
 in his magazine, night and day, a Turk named 
 Selim, at all times willing to sacrifice his life ! 
 and who was always 1 provided with a lighted I 
 match, for the purpose of blowing up 200,000 ! 
 barrels of gun-powder. Churchid at last en i 
 trapped the wily Ali, by an artifice similar tc j
 
 ALJ 
 
 621 
 
 ALI 
 
 what this despot had often practised. He sent 
 word by a flag of truce that at length the sultan 
 had listened to his frequent representations, and 
 granted AH a pardon ; but it was necessary 
 that he should repair to the Turkish camp, and 
 confer with Churchid in person, Ali was duped 
 into compliance with this; and with about a 
 dozen officers repaired to the camp of Churchid. 
 Here a magnificent tent was prepared for his 
 reception, and all things appeared fair and pro- 
 mising. On the morning of the 5th of February, 
 Churchid sent a message to Ali Pacha, that the 
 pardon had at length arrived, and proposed that 
 as a token of gratitude, Ali should direct his 
 faithful Selim to give up his lighted match. He 
 was doubtful, but, cajoled ; drew forth the half of 
 a ring ; on sight of which Selim prostrated him- 
 self, extinguished his match, and was instantly 
 poniarded. 
 
 It was now five o'clock, P. M. and Ali being 
 seated at the door which led to the conference 
 chamber, the apartment was suddenly entered by 
 Hassan Pacha, Omer Bey Brioni, the selictar 
 of Churchid Pacha, and several other officers of 
 the Turkish army. Ali arose with all the energy 
 of his youth, and grasping one of his pistols, ex- 
 claimed, ' Stop ! What is it you bring me ? ' 
 ' The firman of his highness : know you not his 
 sacred characters ?' (shewing him the signature). 
 ' Yes, and I rerere them.' ' If so,' said Has- 
 san, ' submit to your fate, perform your ablutions, 
 and make your prayer to God and to the pro- 
 phet : your head is demanded.' Ali would not 
 permit him to conclude : ' My head,' replied he 
 furiously, ' is not to be delivered up so easily :' 
 and fired his pistol, by which Hassan's thigh was 
 broken. With the rapidity of lightning Ali 
 drew forth his other pistols, and shot two more 
 of his adversaries dead upon the spot. Already 
 had he levelled his blunderbuss loaded with slugs, 
 when the Selictar, in the midst of the affray, (for 
 Ali's adherents defended their master with the 
 utmost fury,) shot him in the abdomen. Another 
 ball struck him in the breast, and he fell, crying 
 out in the struggle of death to one of his si- 
 caires, ' Go, my friend, despatch poor Vasiliki, 
 that these dogs may not profane her beauteous 
 form.' Thus died as he lived this extraordinary 
 and bloody despot : deceived to his undoing, and 
 desperate when he found himself in the toils, 
 because, in fact, he was without principles to 
 teach him either patience or courage. 
 
 ALIA, in antiquity, solemn games, celebrated 
 by the Rhodians on the twenty-fourth day of the 
 month Gorpitea, answering to the month Baedro- 
 mion, or the third of the Athenian year, in ho- 
 nour of the sun, aXtoj- or ijXtoc, said to have been 
 born in Rhodes, the inhabitants of which were re- 
 puted his posterity, and therefore called Heli- 
 ades. Boys as well as men engaged at these 
 games, and the victor received a crown of 
 poplar. 
 
 ALIACMON, or HALIACMON, a river of Ma- 
 cedonia flowing into the ./Egean sea, to which 
 Claudian gives the epithet of rapidus. It is now 
 called Polecas. 
 
 ALJAMEIA, the name which theMoriscoes in 
 Spain gave to the language of the Spaniards. 
 
 Among other articles agreed upon by the Junto, 
 which was appointed by the emperor Charles V. 
 in 1526, in favour of the Moriscoes, this was one, 
 that the Moriscoes should no longer speak Al- 
 gavaria, i. e. Moorish or Arabic ; but should all 
 speak Spanish or Aljameia, as it was called by 
 the Moors, and all their writing and contracts 
 should be in that language. 
 
 ALIAMET, (J.) a celebrated French engraver, 
 and a member of the academy of Painting, was 
 born at Abbeville in 1728. His best works are 
 representations of battles between the Chinese 
 and Tartars. He died in 1788, at Paris. 
 
 ALIAS. Lat. otherwise. Often used in the 
 trial of criminals after one name and before 
 another, to signify that they have more than one 
 appellation ; as, John alias Thomas. 
 
 What nation formerly knew not the acts of English- 
 men better than themselves? otherwise, Polydore 
 Virgil had not undertook, to our shame and prejudice, 
 the English chronology : nor Verstegan, alias Rowly, 
 the confidence to render well nigh all the conside- 
 rable gentry of this land, from the etymology of their 
 names, Teutonicks. 
 
 Sir T. Herbert's Travels, p. 396. 
 
 If the sheriff cannot find the defendant upon the 
 first writ of capias, there issues out an alias writ. 
 
 Blackstone. 
 
 ALIAS, in law, a second writ issued from the 
 king's courts at Westminster a latitat, capias, 
 or quo minus, having been issued without effect. 
 
 ALIAS DICTUS, in law, the manner of describ- 
 ing a defendant when sued on a bond or other 
 speciality. After the name, &c. comes the 
 alias dictus, which describes him by the exact 
 name and addition whereby he is bound in the 
 bond or speciality in question. 
 
 ALIBANTES, from dXifiavrtc, a Greek name 
 for those who, on account of poverty, could not 
 procure burial. 
 
 ALIBI, in law, denotes the absence of the 
 accused from the place where he is charged with 
 having committed a crime ; or his being else- 
 where, as the word imports, at the time spe- 
 cified. 
 
 AL1CA, a sort of frumenty, a nourishing 
 farinaceous food. It is also used for a kind of 
 wheat, %ovSpo, which was used as a medicine. 
 
 ALICANT, a rich and strong sea-port town of 
 Spain, in the prqyince of Valencia, and territory 
 of Segura. It is seated between the mountains 
 and the sea, and has a castle that was long 
 reckoned impregnable. The port is defended by 
 three bastions, furnished with artillery, and has 
 watch-towers to give notice of an enemy's ship. 
 It was taken from the Moors in 1264. The 
 castle was taken by the English in 1706, and 
 held out a siege of two years before it was re- 
 taken by the French and Spaniards ; but at last 
 surrendered upon honourable terms, after part of 
 the rock was blown up on which the castle stood, 
 and the governor killed. The houses are high, 
 and well built; and a very great trade is carried 
 on in it, particularly in wine and fruit. The 
 English, Italians, &c. have consuls in it. It is 
 seated on the Mediterranean, on a bay of the 
 same name, thirty-seven miles north-east of Mur- 
 cia, and seventy-five miles south of Valencia. 
 Lon. 9. 36'. W. lat. 38. 35'. N.
 
 ALI 
 
 6-22 
 
 ALl 
 
 ALICANT WINE, in pharmacy, a cordial which 
 has the agreeable colour of red wine added to 
 the mildness of a wine made of must ; and it 
 is generally allowed that it is prepared in that 
 manner. It is evident that the must which pro- 
 duces it has been coloured before fermentation. 
 
 ALICATA, a mountain of Sicily, near the 
 valleys Mazara and Noto, upon which was 
 situated, as is generally thought, the famous 
 Daedalion, where the tyrant Phalaris kept his 
 brazen bull. 
 
 ALICATA, anciently called Leocata, a town of 
 Sicily, remarkable for corn and good wine, seated 
 on a sort of peninsula near the sea, eighteen miles 
 east-south-east of Girgenti. It was plundered 
 by the Turks in 1543. Alicata contains 10,000 
 inhabitants. The populace pay uncommon re- 
 verence to the sacerdotal character ; the women 
 and children falling on their knees in the streets 
 before a clergyman, touching his garments with 
 a finger, and then kissing their hands with great 
 veneration. Alicata is said to possess some an- 
 cient Greek manuscripts relating to the an- 
 cient city of Galae : the most remarkable is a 
 psephisma, or decree of the senate for crowning 
 Heraclides, director of the public academy. 
 Lon. 13. 50'. E. Lat. 37. 11'. N. 
 
 ALICATA CHLAMYS, was a sort of vest with 
 sleeves worn by the Roman boys till the age of 
 thirteen, when they put on the praetexta. 
 
 ALICATICA, an Arabian weight. 
 
 ALICES, in medicine, spots preceding the 
 pustules of small pox. 
 
 ALICONDA, in botany, an African tree, grow- 
 ing naturally in the kingdom of Congo, of such 
 bulk that ten men cannot fathom it round. The 
 natives call it bondo ; and they do not build 
 their huts near it, lest its fall should crush them 
 to death, as the wood easily rots, or its fruit, 
 which is of the size of a large gourd and easily 
 broken from the tree, should knock them down. 
 The bark of this tree well beaten and macerated, 
 yields a coarse thread, of which they make their 
 ropes ; and which, when macerated and dried, 
 and beaten with bars of iron or wood, becomes 
 like a large piece of cloth, with which the natives 
 cover their middle from the girdle to the knees. 
 The shell or rind of the fruit, which is hard like 
 that of a gourd or calabash, being freed from 
 its pulp, which may be made inlo a nourishing 
 pap, serves for vessels of various kinds, and 
 gives an aromatic taste to water preserved in 
 it. The small leaves are eaten in time of scar- 
 city, and the large ones serve to cover houses, 
 or being burned make good soap. 
 
 ALICUDA, or ALICUR, one of the Lipari 
 islands, near the coast of Sicily. This island is 
 about six miles in circumference ; but its po- 
 pulation is not so great as that of Felicunda, 
 which consists of about 650 inhabitants; the 
 houses are built about half way up on the de- 
 clivities of the mountains, in order that their 
 inhabitants may guard themselves against the 
 nightly attacks of the Tunisian Corsairs. In 
 these two islands a considerable quantity of 
 good wine is made ; besides which they have 
 Indian figs and olive-trees. The corn grown 
 here is wheit and barley ; which, together with 
 the grapes, amount in value of produce to about 
 
 3000 Neapolitan crowns. The inhabitants of this 
 island are extremely industrious, aud cultivate the 
 ground to the utmost extent ; though the soil 
 is greatly interrupted by points of rocks, masses 
 of lava, clefts and crags. Three or four fishing- 
 boats belong to this island, which are nearly 
 all the property of the parish priests, and are 
 used for the purpose of increasing their small 
 revenues, amounting to little more than twelve 
 sequins. There is not a spring of fresh water 
 on either this or the neighbouring island, and 
 therefore when there is a long continance of dry 
 weather, the distress of the inhabitants is ex- 
 treme. Their food consists of black barley-bread 
 and wild fruits, and sometimes by way of dainty, 
 salt fish ; and their houses, or rather huts, which 
 appear like the nests of birds hung to the cliffs, 
 are formed of pieces of lava, and scarcely admit 
 a ray of light ; yet they are uncommonly con- 
 tented and happy, owing to the salubrity of the 
 air and the temperature of the climate they en- 
 joy. By the vestiges of fire which are discern- 
 able in every part of this island, it has beeu 
 supposed that Felicunda and Alicuda had once 
 formed a single conical mountain ; and yet, 
 though these islands shew so indubitably that 
 they have been the seats of volcanic eruptions, 
 there is at present no appearance of fire ; nor 
 do the most ancient writers mention any con- 
 flagrations in either of these islands. The an- 
 cient name of Alicuda was Ericusa ; and the 
 author of the epitome of Stephanus says that it 
 was so named from the erica, or heath, which 
 grows there in such abundance. Lon. 14. 3'. E. 
 Lat. 38. 31'. N. 
 
 ALICULA, in antiquity, a kind of puerile 
 habit worn by the Roman children. It was a 
 sort of chlamys or tunica manicata. 
 
 ALICUN, a town of Spain, in the province of 
 Granada, celebrated for its medicinal waters. It 
 is twelve miles from the city of Granada. 
 
 AJLJEMBUT, or, as some write it, gembut, a 
 name given by Avicenna, and others, to a species 
 of acacia, also called the Nabathaean pod, and 
 ceration, or siliqua, and which some have sup- 
 posed to be the same with the common carab ; 
 but they expressly distinguish it, by saying that 
 it is an astringent, whereas the other is gently 
 purgative, and that the fruit of it was given in 
 haemorrhages. Isidore says, that the acacia juice 
 of the shops was made of its fruit, while unripe. 
 
 A'LIEN, v. n. & adj. ~\ Lat. uliemis, alias : 
 
 A'LIENABLE, I to make any thing the 
 
 A'LIEN ATE, v. n. & adj. V property of another ; 
 
 ALIENA'TION, I to transfer good-will, 
 
 AXIENA'TOR. J friendship, or affec- 
 
 tion. An alien, formerly alyaunt, is one from 
 another country, a foreigner. 
 
 Gyf that thou sekis ane alienare vnknaw, 
 To be hy maich or thy gud sone in lawe. 
 
 Daugltu, b. vii. p. 219. 
 
 Symound, -what seemith to thee ? kyngis of crthe 
 of Vhom taken thei tribute, of her sones either of 
 aliens? And he seide, of aliens. 
 
 Wiclif. Matthew, chap. xvii. 
 
 An alien is one, born in a strange country, aud 
 never enfranchised. A man, born out of the land, 
 so it be within the limits beyond tbe seas, or of 
 English parents out of the king's obedience, so the 
 parents (at the time of the birth) be of the king'*
 
 ALIEN. 
 
 obedience, is not alien: if one, born out of the king's 
 allegiance, come and dwell in England, his children 
 (if lie beget any here) are not aliens, but denisons. 
 
 Cowell. 
 
 The countries of the Turks were once Christian, 
 and members of the church, and where the golden 
 candlesticks did stand ; though now they be utterly 
 alienated, and no Christians left. Bacon. 
 
 If the son alien lands, and then repurchase them 
 again m fee ; the rules of descents are to be observed, 
 as if he were the original purchaser. 
 
 Hole's History of Common Law. 
 Land is alienable, and treasure is transitory ; and 
 both must pass from him, by his own voluntary act 
 or by the violence of others, or at least by fate. 
 
 Dennis's Letters. 
 
 In whomsoever these things are, the church doth 
 acknowledge them for her children : them only she 
 holdeth for aliens and strangers, in whom these things 
 are not found. Hooker. 
 
 If it be proved against an alien, 
 He seeks the life of any citizen ; 
 The party, 'gainst the which he doth contrive, 
 Shall seize on half his goods. 
 
 Shak. Merch. of Ven. 
 
 The mere Irish were not only accounted aliens, but 
 
 enemies ; so as it was no capital offence, to kill them. 
 
 Sir John Dailies on Ireland. 
 
 Be it never so true, which we teach the world to 
 
 believe ; yet, if once their affections begin to be 
 
 alienated, a small thing persuadeth them to change 
 
 their opinions. Hooker. 
 
 His eyes survey'd the dark idolatries 
 
 Of alienated Judah. Milton's Par. Lost. 
 
 The mother plant admires the leaves unknown 
 Of alien trees, and apples not her own. Dryden. 
 
 From native soil 
 
 Exil'd by fate, torn from the tender embrace 
 Of his young guiltless progeny, he seeks 
 Inglorious'shelter in an alien land. Philips. 
 
 God put it into the heart of one of our princes, to 
 give check to sacrilege. Her successour passed a 
 law, which prevented all future alienations of the 
 church revenues. Atterbury. 
 
 Great changes and alienations of property have 
 created new and great dependencies. 
 
 Swift on Athens and Rome. 
 ALIEN, in law, from the Latin alius, 
 ' another,' q. d. a person born out of the king's 
 dominions. Thus there are alien friends, viz. 
 persons born in countries in alliance with the 
 state, and alien enemies ; by which name are de- 
 signated those born in countries considered by 
 the state as hostile; children born of English 
 parents, though under temporary subjection, or 
 allegiance to a foreign power, are not considered 
 as aliens in the eye of the law ; nor children 
 born of English parents on the high seas ; nor 
 children of English ambassadors at foreign 
 courts. But British parents who have been 
 guilty of felony or high treason, make their 
 children aliens, who are born abroad. See the 
 25 Edward III. 7 Anne, c.'5. 10 Anne, c. 5, 
 &c. The last two mentioned acts, however, with 
 4 Geo. II. c. 21, and 13 Geo. III. c. 21, render 
 all children bor ( n out of the king's allegiance, 
 whose grandfathers, by the father's side, or whose 
 fathers were natural-born subjects, entitled to 
 the civil rights of natural-born subjects. Such 
 grandchildren, however, must, to claim the 
 privilege of exemption from the alien duty, 
 be protestants, and resident within the realm; and 
 the claim to any estate or interest must be made 
 
 within five years. The issue of an English 
 woman by an alien, born abroad, is an alien. 
 
 Having thus described what, according to the 
 law of England, is termed an alien, we shall 
 briefly enumerate the most common civil and 
 political disadvantages to which he is subject, 
 with an account of the most recent statutes, ex- 
 pressly bearing upon this particular. 
 
 An alien cannot vote at the election of mem- 
 oers of parliament, nor can he enjoy any office, 
 or be returned on any jury, unless where an 
 alien is party in a cause when the inquest is 
 composed of an equal number of denizens and 
 aliens. An alien cannot purchase lands for his 
 own use : nor can an alien female be endowed 
 with lands, although she become the wife of a 
 natural-born subject ; nor a Jewess the wife of a 
 naturalized Jew. However, an alien may ac- 
 quire any kind of personal property ; and he may 
 bring or defend any action or process at law, 
 for the protection of it, and may dispose of such 
 property, by deed, will, or otherwise ; his children 
 born in the realm are generally to be held 
 natural-born subjects. Aliens also may take 
 leases of lands, and estates in trust ; but these 
 rights of aliens must be understood as of alien 
 friends only ; alien enemies having no rights at 
 all, and no privileges, unless by the king's es- 
 pecial favour. 
 
 An alien may, by letters patent, ex donatione 
 regis, be made an English subject, and is then 
 called a denizen, being in a middle state between 
 a natural-born subject and an alien. He may 
 now purchase lands, or possess them by devise, 
 but cannot inherit them, although his heirs may 
 inherit from him; the parent of the denizen 
 being held to have had no inheritable blood, 
 which the denizen possesses after becoming so. 
 See DENIZEN. He is still, however, subject to 
 the alien duty, and there is no method of giving 
 him the full personal rights of a natural-born 
 subject, but by act of parliament. Even after 
 naturalization, an alien cannot become a member 
 of the House of Commons, or Privy Council, 
 or hold offices or grants under the crown ; and 
 by stat. 12 William III. c. 2, and 1 Geo. I. c. 4, 
 eveiy bill for the naturalization of particular 
 persons shall contain the proper disqualifying 
 clauses. See NATURALIZATION. 
 
 After the commencement of the French revo- 
 lution, our legislature judged it necessary to 
 make the laws respecting aliens still more strict. 
 Accordingly an act was passed in the 33 Geo. 
 III. entituled, ' an act for establishing regula- 
 tions respecting aliens arriving in this kingdom, or 
 resident therein, in certain cases ;' of which the 
 following are the principle heads: 1. Masters 
 of vessels must give in to the officer of customs at 
 the port of arrival a written declaration spe- 
 cifying the names, &c. of the foreigners on 
 board. 2. Aliens, arriving after the 10th of 
 January, 1793, must give to the port officer of 
 customs a written declaration of their names, 
 rank, &c. Upon neglecting this, to be adjudged 
 to depart out of the realm, and upon non-com- 
 pliance to be transported for life. 3. They are 
 to receive from the officer a certificate of their 
 declarations. 4. Arms, attempted to be import- 
 ed by aliens except as merchandise, are to be
 
 624 
 
 ALIEN. 
 
 seized. 5. If bis majesty in council shall direct 
 that aliens of any description shall not be landed, 
 or only at prescribed places, masters offending 
 are not only liable to a penalty but to forfeit 
 their vessels. 6. No aliens are allowed to depart 
 from the place of their arrival, (except for pur- 
 poses specified) without a passport. 7. Aliens, 
 (except domestic servants of natural-born sub- 
 jects, &c.) arrived since the 1st of January, 
 1792, or arriving during the continuance of the 
 act, desirous to remove ; must obtain a passport 
 from a magistrate. 8. Magistrates are authorized 
 to grant passports to all parts of the kingdom, 
 and also to require of an alien an exhibition of his 
 passport, and in certain cases to detain him, till 
 nis majesty's commands may be received ; and 
 to commit him to prison, if his majesty shall not 
 direct him to be discharged or to depart the 
 realm. 9. Aliens who do not depart the realm, 
 when ordered by his majesty's proclamation, are 
 also to be imprisoned. 10. The secretary of 
 state may grant warrants to conduct out of the 
 kingdom, aliens, who will not obey proclama- 
 tions, &c. The king may order any alien, arrived 
 since the 1st of January, 1792, or arriving during 
 the continuance of the act, to reside in such 
 districts as he ?hall think proper. 11. Aliens in 
 the kingdom on the 10th of January, 1793, or who 
 arrived since the 1st of January, 1792, or arriving 
 after the 10th of January, 1793, must deliver an 
 account of their names, &c. and magistrates may 
 require such accounts, and commit to jail those 
 who neglect or refuse them. 12. They may also 
 summon aliens suspected of not having delivered 
 such accounts, and may arrest them for non- 
 compliance. 13. They may require from house- 
 keepers an account of the names, &c. of aliens, 
 residing with them. 14. Justices of the court 
 at Westminster, &c. may admit aliens to bail ; 
 as well as any other justices by authority of the 
 secretary of state. 15. Aliens, within the times 
 specified, must give an account of all weapons, 
 &c. in their possession, and deliver them up to 
 a magistrate, who may require them to do so. 
 
 16. The secretary of state may grant warrants 
 to search the houses of aliens, for weapons, &c. 
 and may require an account of such weapons 
 from the house-keepers where aliens lodge. 
 
 17. His majesty may send out of the realm any 
 alien, committed to jail, and if afterwards found 
 in the kingdom he shall be transported for life. 
 
 18. Aliens thus adjudged to be transported, to 
 be sent to such places as the king in council 
 shall appoint : 19. and to suffer death if after- 
 wards found within the realm. 20. Certificates 
 are to be given gratis, and fresh passports may 
 be granted for lost ones ; but heavy penalties 
 are awarded on those who forge them. 21. In 
 questions respecting offences against this act, the 
 proof lies on the party accused; and parties 
 appealing must give six days notice. 22. The 
 act does not extend to foreign ambassadors, 
 aliens under fourteen years of age, or mariners 
 certified by ship-masters to the officers of cus- 
 toms. Trespasses against this act, subjected the 
 offenders to a variety of heavy penalties, spe- 
 cified in the act. 
 
 The acts 33 Geo. III. and 34 Geo. III. arose 
 out of the influx of strangers to this country, 
 
 from the continent, and have been from time to 
 time amended, and continued as in 43 Geo. III. 
 c. 155, &c. They have generally been supposed I 
 to be applicable only to a state of warfare, or i 
 decisive political danger from the influx of fo- 
 reigners ; the spirit of our constitution, and the 
 nature of our protestant principles, having 
 always inclined our governors to make England 
 a place of refuge for the persecuted, and of 
 succour to the distressed of all countries. On 
 the principles of these laws every man is pre- 
 sumed to bear faith and love to that prince 
 and country where he received protection during 
 his infancy ; and that one prince might not settle 
 spies in another's country ; but chiefly, that the 
 rents and revenues of the country might not be 
 drawn to the subjects of another. Some aver 
 that the laws against aliens were introduced in 
 the time of Henry II. when a law was made at 
 the parliament of Wallingford, for the expulsion 
 of strangers, in order to drive away the Flem- 
 ings and Picards, who had been introduced 
 into the kingdom by the wars of king Stephen. 
 Others reckon the origin of this law more an- 
 cient ; and that it is an original branch of the 
 feudal law : for, by that law, no man can pur- 
 chase any lands, unless he do fealty to the lords 
 of whom the lands are holden ; so that an alien, 
 who owed a previous faith to another prince, 
 could not take an oath of fidelity in another 
 sovereign's dominions. Among the Romans, 
 only the Gives Romani were esteemed freemen ; 
 but when their territories increased, all the 
 Italians were made free, under the name of 
 Latin, though they had not the privilege of 
 wearing gold rings till the time of Justinian. 
 Afterwards all born within the pale of the 
 empire were considered as citizens. Upon the 
 same principle, an individual born in the 
 British colonies is considered as a natural-born 
 subject. 
 
 ALIENATION, in law, from alienare, to pass 
 away, a transfer of property from one person to 
 another, and chiefly relating to lands and tene- 
 ments. Alienation in mortmain is to pass or 
 transfer lands or tenements to a religious body po- 
 litic, or house. 
 
 ALIENATION, in fee, is the sale of lands, &c. 
 in fee simple. All persons possessing lands, &c. 
 may alien them to others, with particular ex- 
 ceptions; for no person can be supposed to 
 transfer what he never possessed. In feoffments 
 conditions that the feoffee shall not alien are 
 void ; but the grant of an estate in fee, on con- 
 dition that the person who receives the grant 
 shall not alien to any one particular person, is 
 valid ; and where a reversion stands in possession 
 of the donor of an estate, he may restrain an 
 alienation by condition. Co. Lit. 361, 118, 206. 
 Wood's Inst. 141. Hob. 261, &c. 
 
 ALIENATIONS, by tenants for life, &c. incur 
 a forfeiture of the estate. By the statute of Ed- 
 ward I. a bar was put to alienations, by what we 
 call entails, which is an expedient (not founded 
 on the strictest principles of justice) for procuring 
 perpetuities in families ; but counter expedients 
 wtre devised to defeat this intent, and a practice 
 was introduced of cutting off entails by fines; 
 and of barring remainders and reversins by re-
 
 ALI 
 
 625 
 
 ALI 
 
 coveries. The statute for alienations in Henry 
 VII. 's time had a great effect on the constitution 
 of this kingdom ; as, among other regulations of 
 that reign, it tended to throw the balance of 
 power more into the hands of the people. By 
 the stat. 12 Car. II. cap. 24, fines for alienations 
 are taken away. Crown lands are only alienable 
 under a faculty of perpetual redemption. The 
 council of Lateran, held in 1123, forbids any 
 clerk to alienate his benefice, prebend, or the 
 like. By the laws of the ancient Jews, lands 
 could only be alienated for the space of fifty 
 years. At each return of the jubilee all re- 
 turned again to the primitive owners, or their 
 descendants. 
 
 ALIENATION, in mortmain, is making over 
 lands, tenements, &c. to a body politic, or to a 
 religious house, for which the king's license must 
 first be obtained, otherwise the lands, &c. alien- 
 ated will be forfeited. 
 
 ALIEN DUTY, an impost laid on all goods im- 
 ported by aliens, ovei and above the customs 
 paid for such goods imported by British subjects, 
 and on British bottoms. It is otherwise called 
 
 The luminous inferior orbs, enclos'd 
 From chaos, and th' inroad of darkness old, 
 Satan alighted walks. Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 Should a spirit of superior rank, a stranger to human 
 nature, alight upon the earth, what would his notions 
 of us be 1. Addison, Spectator. 
 
 ALIGHT'. On light ; to light, or enlighten ; 
 to set on fire; to enkindle. 
 
 The next morow, with Phoebus laump, the earth 
 
 Alighted clere ; and eke the dawning day 
 
 The shadowes dark gan from the poale remoue. 
 
 Surrey. sEneis. 
 And for to speaken ouer this, 
 In this parte of the aire it is, 
 That men ful ofte sene by night 
 The fire in sondrie form alight. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. b. vii. 
 
 The officer having by this time alighted his lamp, 
 entered into the room to see him whom he accounted 
 to be dead. 
 
 Sheltan's Trans. Don Quixote, Ed. 1652. 
 ALIGNA, one of the Philippines, lying to the 
 north of Mindanoa. It is low and flat, and co- 
 vered with thick forests. 
 
 ALIGNMENT, in maritime affairs, a supposed 
 
 . line drawn to preserve any part of a fleet in its 
 petty custom, and navigation duty.-Fish dried jugt and 1J direction / 
 
 ALII DE REGXO, and ALII MULTI, are phrases 
 which often occur in our ancient records and 
 historians. Their meaning has occasioned much 
 dispute. Dr. Brady will have them to signify 
 only tenants in capite; which Mr. Tyrrel en- 
 deavours to refute, and shew that they denote the 
 whole commons of the kingdom. 
 
 ALIKE'. See LIKE. With resemblance; 
 without difference ; in the same manner ; in the 
 same form. 
 
 pe bisshop of Canterbire, in common alle o liche, 
 Schewed it in ilk schire, alle his bisshop riche. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 301. 
 
 And efter thaym elike furth in euin space 
 Pristis and Cenature straif for the first place. 
 
 Douglas, book v. p. 132. 
 
 Prudence is goodly wisedome in knowinge of thynges: 
 Strength voydeth al aduersitees aliche euen. 
 
 Chaucer. Test of Love, book iii. fol. 308. c. 4. 
 The darkness hideth not from thee ; but the night 
 shineth, as the day : the darkness and the light are 
 both alike to thee. P*alm cxxxix.. 12. 
 
 With thee conversing, I forget all time -, 
 All seasons, and their change, all please alike. 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 Riches cannot rescue from the grave, 
 Which claims alike the monarch and the slave. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Let us unite, at least in an equal zeal, for those 
 Faerie Queene. capital doctrines; which we all equally embrace, and 
 are alike concerned to maintain. Atterbvry. 
 
 Two handmaids wait the throne ; alike, in place ; 
 But diff'ring far, in figure and in face. Pope. 
 
 The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 Await alike the inevitable hour, 
 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 
 
 Gray's Elegy. 
 
 ALIL7EI, in ancient geography, a nation of 
 
 or salted, and cod fish or herring not caught in 
 _British vessels, and cured British, pay a double 
 alien duty. On what footing aliens are per- 
 mitted to import foreign commodities into Great 
 Britain, see DUTY. 
 
 ALIEN PRIORIES, a kind of inferior monas- 
 teries, formerly very numerous in England, 
 and so called from their belonging to foreign 
 abbeys. 
 
 ALIFORMES MUSCULI, from ala, awing, 
 and forma, shape, in anatomy, a pair of muscles, 
 arising from the pterygoid bone, and ending in 
 the neck of the lower jaw, towards the internal 
 seat of the head. 
 
 ALIFORMES PROCESSUS, the prominences of the 
 os cuneiforme. 
 
 ALIGHT'. Active alihtan, Sax. to alight, 
 lighten, to light. Hence by inference, to descend 
 from a carriage; to dismount; discontinue a jour- 
 ney temporarily or altogether; to come down; 
 to stop ; to fall upon. 
 
 Kyng Henry in pe senepe jer of hys crounyng, 
 And enlene hondered jer and senene of our Lorde 
 aly^tyn. R. Gloucester, p. 430. 
 
 Bot at the last softlie he gan alicht 
 Of Calcidonis apoun the castell hicht. 
 
 Douglas, b. vi. p. 162. 
 There ancient night arriving, did alight 
 From her high weary waine. 
 
 There is alighted, at your gate, 
 A young Venetian. Sluiksp. Merck, of Venice. 
 
 Slackness breeds worms ; but the sure traveller, 
 Though he alights sometimes, still goeth on. Herbert. 
 When marching with his foot, he walks till night ; 
 When with his horse, he never will alight. Denham. 
 
 When Dedalus, to fly the Cretan shore, 
 His heavy limbs on jointed pinions bore ; 
 To the Cumcan coast, at length he came ; 
 And, here alighting, built this costly frame. 
 
 Dryden's JEneid. 
 
 Arabia Felix, of whom l)iodorus speaks. He 
 mentions that their country, although burnt up 
 enjoyed frequent and copious 
 
 , , , , i i u Wltn tne sun, enioyeu irajwu* 
 
 But storms of stones, from the proud temple s height, ^^, which rendered it fertile and productive, 
 
 Pour down ; and, on our batter *d helms, alight 
 
 Dryden 
 
 Upon the firm opacous globe 
 Of this round world, whose first convex divides 
 Vor, I. 
 
 , 
 
 and also states that their mines produce excellent 
 gold, in large pieces, the size of a nut, which 
 need no refinement. Iron and copper were 
 
 2 S
 
 626 
 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 proportionally scarce, and were therefore es- 
 teemed more valuable. 
 
 ALIMA, among mineralists, a kind of sand 
 found in gold mines, out of which lead is ex- 
 tracted. 
 
 ALIMENA, in entomology, a species of Pa- 
 pilio Nymphalis, with dentated black wings, 
 an interrupted cserulean fascia, and seven white 
 marginal points, found in South America and 
 India. 
 
 ATIMENT, "1 Alo, alitum, to find one 
 ALIMENTAL, h n f ood . Alimentum ; nou- 
 ALIMENTALLY, V rishment food . That which 
 ALIMENTARY, f cherishes ' t com _ 
 
 ALIMENTATION, forts< 
 
 ALIMON lous. J 
 
 The sun that light imparts to all, receives 
 
 From all his alimental recompence 
 
 In humid exhalations, and at even 
 
 Sups with the ocean. Milton's Par. Lost, book v. 
 
 Plants do nourish ; inanimate bodies do not : they 
 have an accretion, but no alimentation. 
 
 Bacon's Natural Hiitory. 
 
 Wise men are of opinion, the bodies of animals 
 cannot receive a proper aliment from ayr. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 New parts are added to our substance ; and, as vre 
 die, we are born, daily ; nor can we give an account 
 how the aliment is prepared for nutrition -, or by what 
 mechanism it is distributed. 
 
 Glanville'i Scepsis Scientifica. 
 
 I do not think that water supplies animals, or even 
 plants, with nourishment ; but serves, for a vehicle to 
 the alimentary particles, to convey and distribute 
 them to the several parts of the body. 
 
 Ray on ilte Creation. 
 
 Of alimentary roots, some are pulpy and very nu- 
 tritious, as, turnips and carrots. These have a fatten- 
 ing quality. Arbuthnot on Aliments. 
 
 All bodies, which (by the animal faculties) can be 
 changed into the fluids and solids of our bodies, are 
 called aliments. In the largest sense, by aliment, I 
 understand every thing which a human creature takes 
 in common diet ; as, meat, drink j and seasoning, as 
 salt, spice, vinegar. Arbuthnot. 
 
 Th' industrious, when the sun in Leo rides, 
 
 Forget not, at the foot of every plant, 
 
 To sink a circling trench, and daily pour 
 
 A just supply of alimental streams, 
 
 Exhausted sap recruiting. Philips. 
 
 The plethora renders us lean, by suppressing our 
 spirits, whereby they are incapacitated of digesting 
 the alimonious humours into flesh. 
 
 Harvey on Consumptions. 
 
 ALIMENT, in a physical sense, is whatever 
 may be dissolved and turned into chyle, so as 
 afterwards to become blood. The subject of 
 aliments has been very diffusely and compre- 
 hensively discussed by Dr. Cullen and others. 
 We select a few practical and plain observations 
 and directions upon this subject, from his Materia 
 Medica, compared with other sources of in- 
 formation. 
 
 Our food, by the process of digestion, be- 
 comes in part, a very mild, sweet, and whitish 
 liquor, resembling milk, and distinguished by 
 the name of chyle. This being absorbed by the 
 lacteal veins, is by them conveyed into circu- 
 lation, and assimilated into the nature of blood, 
 affording that supply of nutrition which the con- 
 tinual waste of the body is found to require. 
 See DIGESTION. Next to air, food is the most 
 
 necessary thing for our preservation; on the 
 choice of it, therefore, health greatly depends. 
 The blood and juices naturally incline to become 
 putrid and acrimonious : fresh chyle, duly re- 
 ceived, prevents this destructive tendency, and 
 preserves them in that mild state which alone 
 consists with health. Generally, animal diet 
 affords the most of this bland nutritious mucilage; 
 while watery fluids dilute the too gross parts, 
 and carry off what is become unfit for use. Of 
 vegetables only the small portion of jelly which 
 is separated from the farinaceous parts, after 
 being much elaborated,- is converted into the 
 animal nature ; yet the use of vegetables prevents 
 both repletion and a too great tendency to a pu- 
 trescent acrimony of the blood. In hot climates, 
 as well as from the constitutional heat of parti- 
 cular persons, vegetables are required in the 
 largest proportion. Animal substances afford 
 the highest relish while our appetite continues ; 
 but sate the appetite before the stomach is duly 
 filled. Vegetables may therefore be eaten after 
 either flesh or fish ; few herbs or fruits satiate so 
 much as that the stomach may not be filled with 
 them, when it is already satisfied with flesh or 
 fish ; for no diet, which is very nourishing, can 
 be eaten to fulness, because its nutritious parts 
 are oily and satiating. Loathing is soon the 
 consequence of animal food alone : hot acid 
 habits, too, receive from milk and vegetables 
 what is needful for correcting their excesses ; but 
 cold, pituitous, and nervous habits, which require 
 much nourishment from little digestion, and from 
 the smallest quantity of food, may use animal 
 diet more freely. 
 
 In the animal and vegetable, as well as in the 
 human system, we behold the procession of de- 
 composition and reproduction, and analyse the 
 substances that administer to the growth and 
 repair of each system most distinctly ; but in 
 their application to the wants and enjoyments of 
 man, these phenomena become far more in- 
 teresting. As ' lord of all below,' the whole 
 circle of organic being moves around him for 
 his benefit, and the student cannot be more 
 gratified, than the common people may be ad- 
 vantaged, by an intelligent consideration of the 
 admirable provisions in nature for its various 
 movements. 
 
 From the structure of his teeth and alimentary 
 canal, man would appear to be at present formed 
 to subsist both on animal and on vegetable food, 
 and these great organs of his frame are thus 
 suited to all climates and their produce. Rice 
 is said to be the chief food of the larger portion 
 of mankind ; and it is well known that the 
 Brahmins and other eastern tribes, subsist wholly 
 on vegetables. Northward, and in the colder 
 regions of the earth, the stronger stimulus of 
 animal food is resorted to, and few vegetables 
 comparatively are eaten. Many savage nations, 
 again, live almost wholly on fish, whilst others 
 never taste them. 
 
 Mr. Moore, in his Essay on the Materia Me- 
 dica, has some valuable observations on the 
 power of habit over the animal economy, with 
 regard to diet. 
 
 If any one suddenly changes his food, and 
 feeds upon substances to which he has been un-
 
 ALIMENT 
 
 627 
 
 accustomed, he will xmdoubtedly become disor- 
 dered. If a person, accustomed to vegetable 
 farinacea, tries to eat a large portion of animal 
 food, he will become feverish and plethoric ; and 
 if any one accustomed to meat suddenly adopts 
 a vegetable diet, he will be in danger of losing 
 strength, and being seized with indigestion. 
 This is one reason why too great a variety of 
 food is unwholesome ; for the stomach cannot 
 acquire the habit of digesting a variety of ali- 
 ments with equal facility. Those persons, there- 
 fore, who use one or -two kinds of aliments 
 constantly and regularly, have their stomachs in 
 far better order than those who indulge themselves 
 in variety. But it would appear that even the habit 
 of digesting a variety of aliments is in some degree 
 to be acquired ; for persons accustomed to va- 
 riety are less disordered by it than others, although 
 their digestive faculty is probably not in such 
 perfect order as it is in those who live in a more 
 simple manner. \Ve need not, then, be sur- 
 prised at the frequency of stomach complaints 
 among the rich, for the luxurious superfluity of 
 whose tables the earth, air, and sea are ransacked. 
 This variety, especially when prepared with 
 eastern spiceries, and all the refinements of mo- 
 dern cookery, has another bad effect ; it produces 
 a false appetite, and forms a temptation to in- 
 dulge the palate after the natural appetite is 
 gone, by which the stomach is gorged and over- 
 loaded ; whereas, those who live upon a few 
 plain and simply dressed aliments, have no ex- 
 citement to eat more than their natural appetite 
 prompts. From these, and many other causes, 
 disorders in the stomach are frequent ; and as 
 some aliments are more easily digested than 
 others, directions respecting diet are necessary 
 for weak and disordered stomachs, which are un- 
 able to digest aliments that are easily overcome 
 by stomachs of greater health and power. Ani- 
 mals discover their proper food by the senses of 
 taste and smelling. Mr. Moore conceives that 
 men, in a great degree, do the same ; and, there- 
 
 tore, that a strong presumption may be formed 
 respecting the wholesomeness of alimentary sub- 
 stances, by attending to the natural inclination 
 of men. But the greatest care must be taken 
 not to confound natural tastes with those ac- 
 quired by habit and prejudice, or brought on by 
 diseases. It is inconsistent with the admirable 
 order and constitution of the universe, to con- 
 ceive that men will naturally have a desire for 
 such aliments as are improper for them, and 
 loathe such as are wholesome. But we know 
 that, in consequence of necessity, example, or 
 prejudice, men may be induced to use, as food, 
 substances at first disagreeable, but which, by 
 degrees, they may be brought to prefer to more 
 wholesome diet. It is owing to this, that many, 
 the rich in particular, instead of plain and salu- 
 tary food, prefer what is highly seasoned with 
 hot pungent spices. These acrid and stimu- 
 lating substances are detested by every person at 
 first ; but even children may be induced to eat 
 them in imitation of their friends and relations ; 
 and, having acquired a taste for them, the sti- 
 mulus given to the stomach becomes at last 
 necessary. 
 
 But that those stimulants, though they seem to 
 assist, yet, in reality, and in the course of time, 
 impair the appetite and digestion, is evident 
 from this, that the stomach which could with 
 ease digest plain food, before it was accustomed 
 to spiceries, cannot afterwards digest it without 
 their assistance. A stomach in this situation, 
 therefore, may justly be said to be in a diseased 
 state. And it is not without foundation, that 
 diseases, and premature old age, have been im- 
 puted to the habit of using stimulating and acrid 
 condiments. See Essay on the Materia Medico, 
 by James Moore. 
 
 We annex a list of vegetables and animals 
 according to the Linnaean system from which the 
 aliments of man are principally derived ; begin- 
 ning with his simplest and perhaps his primitive 
 food. 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES yielding Human Food. 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnzan Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where eaten. 
 
 Character as Food-. 
 
 ! 
 
 i< 
 i 
 
 g 
 
 6 
 i i 
 
 ! 1 
 
 Apium petroselinum . 
 
 Parsley . . . j 
 Celery 
 Asparagus .... 
 
 Colewort and cabbage 
 Brocoli ..... 
 
 Europe ge- | 
 nerally . } 
 
 Aromatic .seeds diuretic. 
 
 Mucilag. and aromatic. 
 Mucilag.stimulant,quick 
 of digestion. 
 Watery and flatulent, 
 Cauliflower best. 
 Delicious but flatulent. 
 Bitter and wholesome. 
 Quick of digestion and 
 stimulant. 
 Sweet, mucilaginous. 
 Diuretic, narco'.ic, most 
 digestible boiled. 
 Pungent,bitter,&aromat. 
 Laxative. 
 2 S 2 
 
 
 
 Asparagus officinalis . 
 
 Brassica oleracea . . 
 italica . . 
 
 * 
 
 > 
 
 5 
 
 
 Cichorium endivia . . 
 Crambe maritima . . 
 Cynara, scolymus . . 
 Lactua sativa . . 
 
 Lepidum sativum . . 
 . 1'ortulaca oleracea . 
 
 Endive 
 Sea kale 
 Artichoke .... 
 Garden lettuce . . . 
 
 . cress . 
 _ purslane 
 
 S 
 
 \ 
 
 S 
 
 \
 
 628 
 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnxan Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where eaten. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 j 
 
 Ilerbae Herbs 
 
 A 
 
 Rumex acetosa . . . 
 Sisymbrium nasturtium 
 
 ( 
 
 Common sorrel . < 
 
 Water cress . . . 
 Spinage . . 
 
 Europe gen.~\ 
 and much { 
 esteemed ( 
 in France j 
 
 Wholesome, contains 
 oxalic and tartaric 
 acid. 
 
 Wholesome, bitter and 
 pungent. 
 Flatulent. 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Radices Roots. 
 
 Allium ascalonicum . 
 
 Shallot i? 
 
 
 Acrid, fit for sauce. 
 Stimulant. 
 Idem. 
 Acrid, good for sauce. 
 Idem. 
 Very saccharine, should 
 be well boiled. 
 Idem. 
 Wholesome. 
 Light and nutritious. 
 
 Bitter and wholesome. 
 Nutritive, 
 Idem, mealy. 
 
 Mucilag. saccharine. 
 Idem. 
 Nutritious. Of the roots 
 is made tapioca. 
 Mucilaginous. 
 Sweet, mucilaginous. 
 Nutritious. 
 Warm, acrid, watery. 
 
 Mucilaginous. 
 
 Sweet,quick of digestion . 
 Anylaceous and readily 
 digested. 
 Sweet. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Garlic 
 
 
 
 Rocambole . . . 
 Red beet .... 
 
 White beet .... 
 Manger wurzel . 
 
 
 Beta vulgaris . . . 
 
 f 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 Brassica rapa . . . 
 Cichorium intybus 
 
 Convolvus batatas . . 
 Dioscorea alata . . ~) 
 
 
 Succory . . . . < 
 Spanish potatoe . . 
 
 Id. in Ger-^ 
 many as > 
 coffee . ) 
 
 
 
 Carrot . 
 
 
 Daucus carota . . . 
 Helianthus tuberosus . 
 Jatropha manihot . 1 
 janipha . J 
 Maranta arundinacea . 
 Orchis mascula . . 
 Pastinaca sativa . . 
 Raphanus sativus . . 
 
 Scorzonera hispanica . 
 Siun sisarum . . . 
 Solanum tuberosum . 
 Tragopogon porrifolium 
 
 Jerusalem artichoke . 
 Bitter and sweet cassava 
 Indian arrow root . . 
 
 
 $ 
 
 
 
 Parsnip 
 
 Radish 
 
 
 Viper's grass . . < 
 Skirret 
 
 Spain and ) 
 S. Europe J 
 Europe gen. 
 
 | 
 
 Potatoe 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Fructus Fruits. 
 
 r ' ' ' -\ 
 
 Artocarpus incisa . . 
 Amygdalus persica 
 Annona rauricata . . 
 Berberis vulgaris . . 
 Bromelia ananas . . 
 Brosimum alicastrum . 
 Cactus opuntia . . . 
 Citrus aurantium sinense 
 
 Bread fruit . . . 
 Peach and nectarine 
 Custard apple . . 
 Barberry . . . 
 Pine apple . . . 
 Bread nut . . . 
 Indian fig,or prickly pear 
 China orange . . . 
 
 Seville orange . . . 
 Lemon 
 
 Warm climates 
 Europe gen. 
 
 Wholesome. 
 Delicious. 
 Cooling and wholesome. 
 Wholesome. 
 Acid and agreeable. 
 Wholesome. 
 Idem. 
 Grateful. 
 Rough, sour, bitter, peel 
 aromatic. 
 Acid, grateful. 
 Juicy and cooling. 
 Watery, mucilag. diffi- 
 cult of digestion. 
 Watery, unwholesome 
 Mucilaginous. 
 Pleasant, cooling. 
 Well flavoured. 
 Wholesome. 
 Rough, astringent. 
 Cooling. 
 Wholesome. 
 Sweet, mucilaginous. 
 Wholesome, more nu- 
 tritious than peach or 
 nectarine. 
 
 
 
 
 
 East . . . 
 Spain . . j 
 
 palense . . . . J 
 Citrus medica . . . 
 Cucurbita citrullus 
 
 Cucumis sativus . . 
 melo 
 
 Water lemon . . . 
 Cucumber . . . 
 Melon 
 
 Europe gen. 
 S 
 
 ' I 
 
 Ficus carica .... 
 Fragaria vesica . . . 
 3arcinia mangostana . 
 Mangifera indica . . 
 Mespilus germanica . 
 Morus nigra . . . 
 Vlusa paradisaica . . 
 Phoenix dactylifera 
 
 Prunus armeniaca . . 
 
 Fig 
 
 East & Europe 
 Europe gen. 
 
 Strawberry .... 
 Mangosteen .... 
 Mango .... 
 
 East . . 
 Europe gen. 
 
 Medlar 
 
 Mulberry .... 
 Plantain tree . . . 
 Date . . . 
 
 East, &c. 
 
 Apricot . ... 
 
 Europe gen. <
 
 ALIMENT 
 
 629 
 
 Order. 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 Linnacan Name. 
 ' Prunus domestica 
 
 . 
 Common Name. 
 
 " ' 
 Plum 
 Cherry . '. '. '. | 
 Pomegranate 
 Pea . . 
 
 ~_ 
 Where eaten. 
 
 
 Europe gen. 
 
 East . . . 
 Europe gen. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 Apt to disorder bowels. 
 Unwholesome. 
 2ooling,disorder bowels. 
 Refreshing, flatulent. 
 Forms marmalade. 
 Wholesome. 
 
 ^ooling,disorder bowels. 
 Cooling, sub-acid. 
 More acid, but very 
 wholesome. 
 D leasant. 
 Cooling, wholesome. 
 Agreeable. 
 Astringent, acid. 
 Saccharine, cooling, and 
 wholesome. 
 
 Punica granatum . 
 Pyrus communis 
 
 cydonia . . 
 
 Quince 
 Apple . . . 
 
 Ribes grossularia . 
 
 Gooseberry .... 
 Black currant . . . 
 
 Red currant .... 
 Hip . . 
 
 
 Rosa canina .... 
 Elubus idasus . . 
 Vaccinium myrtillus . 
 oxycoccus . 
 Vitis vinifera . . . 
 
 Raspberry . . . , 
 Bilberry .... 
 
 Cranberry .... 
 Grape 
 
 i 
 
 
 Semina Seeds. 
 
 Amygdalus communis 
 Anacardium occidentale 
 Avena sativa . . . 
 Cocus nucifera . . . 
 Corylus avellana . . 
 Fagus castanea . . . 
 
 Hordeum vulgare . . 
 Holcus sorghum . . 
 Juglans regia . . . 
 Oryza sativa . . . 
 
 Almond . . 
 
 Europe, Asia 
 
 Indigestible, husk acid. 
 Indigestible. 
 Demulcent, laxative. 
 Indigest. milk agreeable. 
 Indigestible, husk acid. 
 Indigest. best roasted. 
 Viscid, indigestible, ex- 
 cept pearl barley. 
 Indigestible. 
 Husk astringent and 
 acrid, nut nutritious. 
 Wholesome. 
 Nutritive. 
 Farinaceous. 
 Wholesome, 
 idem, 
 'dem. 
 'dem. 
 'dem. 
 3est grain causing starch, 
 glutinous and mucila- 
 ginous matter. 
 \stringent, flatulent. 
 
 ^axative & wholesome. 
 
 Cashew nut 
 Oat .... 
 
 
 Cocoa nut .... 
 Hazel nut and filbert . 
 Chesnut 
 
 Warm climate 
 Europe . . 
 
 West Indies 
 Europe . j 
 
 East ... 
 3en. growth 
 Europe . . 
 East ... 
 Surope gen. 
 
 Barley 
 
 3uinea corn . . . 
 Walnut 
 
 Rice ..-'-, 
 
 Panicum miliaceum . 
 Phaseolus vulgaris . . 
 'istacia vera . . . 
 Pisum sativum . . . 
 
 Millet 
 
 vidney bean . . . 
 J istachio nut . . . 
 Pea ... . . 
 
 5 olygonum fagopyrum 
 
 3uck wheat . . . 
 
 Secale cereale . . 
 
 
 Theobroma cacao . . 
 Mticum aestivum . . 
 ficia faba .... 
 Zea mays .... 
 
 Chocolate nut . . . 
 Wheat 
 
 East . . . 
 Europe . < 
 
 Broad bean .... 
 ndian corn . . . < 
 
 iVestlndies, } 
 America,& 
 S.Europe j 
 
 Algae- >v 
 Lichens f 
 & Sea- / 
 weeds. J 
 
 Lichen islandicus . . ] 
 Fucus esculentus . . '. 
 
 celand liverwort . . I 
 datable fucus . . . 
 
 forth . . ] 
 
 Bitter, mucilaginous. 
 Mucilaginous. 
 
 
 M 
 
 bo 2 C 7 
 
 A.garicus campestris . ( 
 
 Common mushroom . (Europe . . S 
 
 >timul. but indigestible. 
 
 A great number of Fungi are edible, others are not. See Sowerby's Coloured 
 Figures of English Fungi, 3 vols. and suppl. fol. 
 
 Chemical analysis has satisfactorily determined 
 that the nutritive qualities of vegetables depend 
 upon the nature of their compost, and are in pro- 
 portion to the relative quantities of mucilage, 
 oil, starch, gluten, and sugar which they contain. 
 This species of aliment, less stimulating indeed, 
 than that which is derived from the animal king- 
 dom, nevertheless yields its nutriment more 
 readily to the process of digestion. The quality 
 of chyle derived from vegetables, is inferior to 
 that which is derived from animals ; and hence, 
 a much greater proportion of aliment is necessary 
 
 for those whose support is derived from these 
 substances. On a review of the above table, we 
 shall only add by way of appendage, that the 
 seeds of certain plants belonging to the natural 
 order of gramina, and the leguminous family of 
 plants, yield the greatest proportion of nutritive 
 matter; potatoes, yams, grains, &c., claim the 
 next rank ; to these, succeed beets, carrots, 
 acids, dulcescent fruits, as grapes, dates, plums, 
 apricots, &c. and lastly, the oily seeds, as al- 
 monds, filberts, chesnuts, &c.
 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 ANIMAL SUBSTANCE^ yielding Human Food. (MAMMALIA, Class of Lin.naeu?.) 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnieau Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 I. Pri- > 
 
 mates. J 
 
 Vespertilio vampyrus . 
 
 Rougette .... 
 
 India . . 
 
 Very good. 
 
 a 
 
 1- 
 
 >-4 
 M 
 
 iMynnecophaga tetra- ) 
 dactyla ... 5 
 Manis pentadactyla . 
 
 Middle ant-eater . . 
 
 Pangolin .... 
 Armadillo .... 
 
 Guinea . . 
 
 India . . 
 S. America 
 
 Good. 
 
 Fat, delicunis. 
 Delicious, when young. 
 Idem. 
 
 Like coarse pork. 
 
 
 
 
 ., ,_ septemcinc- i 
 
 - 8 banded J 
 
 
 tus ) 
 
 of Mr. Pennant . ) 
 One-homed rhinoceros 
 Two-horned rhinoceros 
 Great elephant . . . 
 
 
 Rhinoceros unicornis . 
 
 Warm climates 
 
 Elephas maximus . . 
 
 
 ' g 
 
 CD 
 
 s< 
 
 
 hH 
 
 1 1 
 
 Phoca vitulina . . . 
 
 Common seal . . . 
 Bottle-nosed seal . . 
 Coasse ... 
 
 North & South 
 
 Delicate. 
 Delicate, paw exquisite 
 Indigestible. 
 Like mutton. 
 Highly esteemed. 
 Like sucking pig. 
 Delicate. 
 Equal to hare. 
 
 Flabby, insipid. 
 
 Viverra vulpecula . . 
 
 Universally . 
 
 Fossane weasel . . . 
 Brazilian otter . . . 
 Brown bear .... 
 Black bear .... 
 Polar bear .... 
 Common badger . . 
 Virginian opossum 
 Molucca opossum 
 Cayenne opossum 
 Great kangaroo . . 
 
 Striped hedgehog . . 
 
 Lutra Braziliana . * 
 Ursus arctos fuscus 
 
 S. America . 
 Warm climates 
 Europe, &c. 
 North . . 
 Universally . 
 America . . 
 
 Ursus maritimus 
 
 Didelphis woapink 
 
 
 
 Macropus major . . 
 Erinaceus madagas- 1 
 cariensis . . . S 
 
 N. Holland . 
 India . . . 
 
 | 
 
 o< 
 > 
 
 t ( 
 
 Hystrix cristata . . 
 
 Crested porcupine . . 
 Brazilian porcupine 
 Variegated cavy, or > 
 Guinea pig . . $ 
 Spotted cavy . . . 
 Capybara .... 
 Agouti . . . . ~\ 
 Olive cavy . . . J 
 Rock cavy ... 3 
 Castor beaver . . . 
 Perchal rat .... 
 Water rat .... 
 Lemming rat ... 
 African rat .... 
 Common marmot . . 
 Maryland marmot . . 
 Bobak 
 
 Rome . ' S 
 Brazil .' . 
 
 Union ; '." 
 
 Very delicate. 
 Oily and fishy taste. 
 
 Excellent flavour. 
 
 Good. 
 Moderate. 
 Idem. 
 Resembles squirrel. 
 Good. 
 Disagreeable. 
 3ood. 
 Resembles hare 
 Resembles barn-door fowl. 
 Delicate, 
 [dem. 
 Idem. 
 Stimul. well-flavoured. 
 Easy of digestion. 
 Tender. 
 White and good. 
 Delicate. 
 Good. 
 Idem. 
 Idem. 
 
 Cavia cobaya . . . 
 
 
 
 S. America . 
 
 N. America . 
 India . , .^ ( 
 France . . 
 Lapland . . 
 Africa . . . 
 S. Europe . 
 M. America . 
 
 
 
 Castor fiber . . . 
 Mus perchal . . . 
 : amphibius . . 
 lemmus 
 maritimus 
 Arctomys marmota 
 
 bobac . . 
 Sciurus vulgaris . . 
 
 Common squirrel . . 
 Grey squirrel . . . 
 Fat dormouse . . . 
 Common jerboa . . 
 
 N. Europe . 
 
 Myoxus glis . . . 
 Dipusjaculus . . . 
 Lepus timidus . . . 
 
 Europe gen. 
 East . . . 
 Europe gen. 
 
 Rabbit . . . . 
 Peruvian hare . . 
 Cape hare . , - . 
 Minute hare .... 
 Brazilian hare . . . 
 Cape hyrax .... 
 
 viscaccia . . 
 
 S. America . 
 S. Africa . . 
 
 P. ' 
 
 
 Brazil . . 
 S. Africa . . 
 Asia 
 
 Hyrax capensis . .
 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 TABLE II. Continued. 
 
 631 
 
 Order. 
 
 ] 
 
 o 
 
 <u 
 
 *: 
 > 
 
 Linnsean Name. 
 Camelus glama . . 
 
 Common Name. 
 . 
 Glama . . . , 
 Viccunna . . . . j 
 Guanaco .... 5 
 Chilihucque 
 Tibetian musk , 
 Brazilian musk . 
 Elk . . 
 
 Where eaten. 
 East . . . 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 Like mutton. 
 Excellent. 
 
 Idem. 
 Moderate. 
 Delicate. 
 Light and delicate. 
 Good tongues valued. 
 
 Easy of digestion. 
 
 Delicate. 
 Idem. 
 Excellent. 
 
 Dry, but delicate. 
 Disagreeable. 
 Fair grained and juicy. 
 
 Coarse and tough. 
 
 Highly esteemed. 
 Strong, nutritious. 
 
 Digest, and wholesome. 
 
 Lump in the shoulders a 
 great delicacy. 
 3ood. 
 [dem. 
 Disagreeable. 
 Coarse, marrow delicate 
 
 
 
 S. America 
 Asia . . . 
 America . . 
 N. Europe . 
 
 Universally . 
 East . . . 
 
 N. Asia . . 
 Africa . . 
 
 Switzerland . 
 
 Asia . . . 
 Universally . 
 
 jenerally 
 
 East | 
 
 America 
 Africa . 
 Warm climates 
 Africa . . 
 
 Moschus moschiferus . 
 americanus 
 Cervus alces . . . 
 
 tarandus . . 
 
 Rein deer .... 
 Fallow deer . , i 
 
 stag ; 
 
 Rib-faced deer . . } 
 Roe buck . . . . $ 
 Indian antelope . . 
 Ourebi antelope . . > 
 Klipspringer antelope $ 
 Cervine antelope 
 Scythian antelope . . 
 
 
 
 
 Antilope orcas . . . 
 
 
 
 
 gnu 
 
 
 Chamois ... .1 
 Wild goat . . . I 
 Caucasan goat . . . 
 Domestic goat . . . 
 Common sheep . . } 
 Common ox . . . \ 
 
 Greater Indian ox . . 
 
 American bison . . 
 Buffalo 
 
 Capra ibex .... 
 
 
 Dvis aries . . . 
 Bos taurus .... 
 
 taurus indicus major 
 
 americanus . . 
 bubulus . . . 
 moschatus . . . 
 caffer .... 
 
 Musk bull .... 
 Cape ox . 
 
 
 e 
 
 j2 
 
 "a! . 
 
 W* 
 
 14 
 > 
 
 Equus caballus . . 
 
 Generous horse . . 
 Wild mule . . 
 
 Ass 
 
 Tartary . . 
 Asia . . . 
 Arabia . . 
 
 Africa . . 
 
 America . . 
 Generally . 
 America .- . 
 
 5ast . . . 
 
 Moderate. 
 Esteemed. 
 Excellent. 
 
 idem. 
 
 Vholesome. 
 Strong and nourishing. 
 Coarse. 
 
 Wholesome. 
 
 
 Hippopotamus am- 1 
 phibius . . . . J 
 Tapir americanus . . 
 Sus scrofa .... 
 tajassu .... 
 
 babyrussa . . | 
 
 Amphibious hippopo- ^ 
 tamus . . . . J 
 Long-nosed tapir . . 
 Common hog . . . 
 Mexican, or Peccary hog 
 [ndian, or Babyrous- } 
 sa hog .... J 
 
 22 C 
 
 "S \ 
 
 \ 
 
 H? J 
 
 i i f 
 
 > V 
 
 Balaena mysticetus 
 Delphinus -phocaena 
 delphis . . 
 
 Common whale . . 
 Porpoise . . . . ) 
 Dolphin . . . . J 
 
 North & South 
 Generally 
 
 Dry and insipid. 
 Tough and tasteless. 
 
 TABLE III. 
 
 BIRDS yielding Human Food. Linnsean Class, AYES. 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnasan Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character, 
 
 as Food. 
 
 m ^- 
 
 s C 
 
 
 
 
 Delicate. 
 Good. 
 
 'S.J 
 3 S 
 
 CJ A 
 
 <5 / 
 
 i-J 
 
 Strix wapacuthu . . 
 Lanius ruficollis . . 
 
 Wapacuthu owl . . 
 Wood-chat shrike . . 
 
 America . . 
 Africa . .
 
 '632 
 
 ALIMENT 
 
 TABLE III. Continued. 
 
 Order. | Linnaean Name. 
 ) 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character, as Food. 
 
 < 
 
 " ] 
 *< 
 
 *i 
 
 "-i l 
 
 , Corvus ccrax . . . 
 
 frutrilegus 
 
 Raven . . . 
 
 North . . 
 Generally 
 
 Indifferent. 
 Digest. & well flavoured. 
 Resembles land-rail, 
 [ndigestible. 
 3ood. 
 Idem. 
 
 Rook 
 
 ' Cuculus canorus . . 
 i Picus viridis . . . 
 
 Common cuckoo . . 
 Woodpecker, green 
 
 Europe . . 
 
 " Sitta Europaea . . . 
 
 European nut-hatch . 
 
 
 
 o> 
 
 M 
 
 V 
 
 2 < 
 
 <r 
 
 I-H 
 1 1 
 h- 1 
 
 Anas cygnus .... 
 
 Wild swan .... 
 Goose . . . . 
 
 Europe . . 
 
 Esteemed. 
 Strong stimulant. 
 Fishy, indigestible. 
 Resembles lark. 
 
 Resembles wild duck. 
 
 Delicate and stimulant. 
 Idem. 
 Fishy. 
 
 Admired. 
 Fishy. 
 
 
 Bernacle, or Brent goose 
 Muscovy duck . . . 
 Widgeon . . . . "1 
 
 
 
 
 penelope . . . 
 
 
 crecca .... 
 - boschas . . . 
 
 Common teal . . 3 
 Duck, wild .... 
 
 
 
 Alca arctica . 
 
 Puffin -. 
 
 North . . 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Tufted hawk . . . 
 Jannet . . . . 1 
 Black-backed gull . J 
 
 J 
 
 Pelecanus bassanus 
 Larus marinus . . . 
 
 ~ J 
 Generally 
 
 si 
 1 
 
 o< 
 
 >* 
 
 H 
 
 Phaenicopteros ruber . 
 Ardeagrus .... 
 
 Eled flamingo . . . 
 Common crane . . . 
 
 Europe . . 
 & Africa 
 
 Esteemed. 
 Tough, bad. 
 Valued. 
 Resembles haie. 
 
 Light, savoury, and di- 
 gestive. 
 
 Savoury. 
 
 Digest, and stira. 
 tdetn. 
 
 
 Bittern .... 
 Woodcock . . . ~ 
 Snipe . 
 
 Generally 
 Europe . < 
 
 Europe . . 
 
 Scolopax rusticola 
 
 
 Gid, or jack snipe . 
 Jreat plover . . . > 
 Spotted snipe . . 
 Stone plover . . . 
 
 totanus . . 
 limosa . . 
 
 Tringa puguax . . . 
 
 luff and reeve . . "* 
 ^apwing .... 
 
 
 
 5rey plover . . . 
 Totterell . . . . " 
 5reen plover . . 
 *fo-kneed bustard . 
 ^ong-legged plover 
 irown gallinule . ~\ 
 
 Charadrius morinellus 
 
 . sedicnemus . 
 
 Fulica fusca . . . 
 
 
 *urple gallinule . j 
 Water rail .... 
 
 
 lliillus aquaticus . . 
 
 
 i 
 
 ^< 
 
 o 
 s> 
 
 ?avo cristatus . 
 Meleagris gallopavo . 
 Penelope cristata 
 I!rax alector . . . 
 Phasianus gallus . . 
 
 Peacock 
 
 Europe & Asia 
 
 Elarely eaten. 
 Light. 
 idem, 
 idem, 
 delicate, 
 idem, 
 dem. 
 Disagreeable. 
 
 Digestible. 
 
 Light, 
 nferior to the above. 
 
 Turkey " . , . . 
 
 juiana Guan . . . 
 Crested curassour . . 
 Dunghill cock and hen 
 Common pheasant 
 3uinea hen . . : . 
 Mountain cock . . . 
 Slack cock . . . ") 
 ited game . . . > 
 White game . .. j 
 Common partridge 
 3uail . . . 
 
 America . . 
 
 2urope .-. . : 
 
 ^Jurnida meleagris 
 Tatrao urogallus . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 TABLE III. Continued. 
 
 633 
 
 der. 
 
 Linnxan Name. 
 
 I 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character, as Foo 1. 
 
 VI. Pas seres. 
 
 " Columba domestica . 
 
 Common pigeon . 1 
 Ring dove ... 5 
 Lark . 
 
 Europe . . 
 
 America . 
 Europe . . 
 
 Savoury and stim. 
 Delicate. 
 
 Highly esteemed. 
 Delicate. 
 Tender. 
 
 Savoury 
 
 Delicate in the extreme 
 Esteemed. 
 
 Bitter taste. 
 
 Savoury and Digest. 
 Digestible. 
 
 Alauda 
 
 Turdus viscivorus 
 
 Missel thrush . . ^ 
 Fieldfare . . . . ' 
 Blackbird ... 3 
 Mimic thrush . . . 
 Cross bill . . . . -\ 
 Hawfinch , . . J 
 Greenfinch ... 3 
 Snow bunting . . } 
 Bunting . . . . j 
 Ortolan . . . . } 
 Yellow hammer . J 
 Rice bird* .... 
 Chaffinch . . . -\ 
 Brambling . . . / 
 House sparrow . . 
 Tree sparrow . . j 
 Hedge sparrow . . ^ 
 Epicurean warbler . 
 Wheatear . . . 
 Whin chat . . . V 
 Stone chatter . . 
 Red start .... 
 Red tail .... _, 
 Esculent swallow 
 
 
 
 Loxia curvirostra . . 
 
 
 Emberiza nival is . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 India & Amer. 
 Europe . . 
 
 Generally . 
 
 Fringilla ccelebs . . 
 
 
 
 ' Motacilla modularis . 
 
 
 
 
 phoenicurus 
 
 tlirundo esculenta 
 
 * The nests of these birds are thought a delicacy by the Indians. 
 
 TABLE IV. 
 
 AMPHIBIA yielding Human Food. 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnaean Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character, as Food. 
 
 1 
 
 P; 
 
 1- 
 
 i i 
 
 Testudo mydas . . 
 
 Green turtle . . . 
 Loggerheaded turtle . 
 
 Land turtle .... 
 Pipa 
 
 South Seas . 
 
 Greece . . 
 Surinam 
 France . , 
 
 Indigestible. 
 Coarse. 
 Finely flavoured. 
 Esteemed. 
 Moderate. 
 Idem. 
 Not very nutritious. 
 Idem. 
 White, delicious. 
 Delicate. 
 
 
 
 1 gncca . 
 Rana pipa .... 
 temporaria . . 
 
 Common frog . . . 
 Edible 
 
 
 Bull frog .... 
 Alligator .... 
 Common guana . . 
 
 
 Lacerta alligata . . 
 
 America . 
 Bahamas 
 
 
 i c 
 1) 
 
 < 
 
 <i> i 
 
 .( 
 
 t * v 
 
 ^rotalus horridus . . 
 Uoluber vivipera . 
 
 Banded Rattlesnake . 
 
 America 
 Italy . . 
 
 White and delicate. 
 Nourishing. 
 
 Adder . . . . 5 

 
 634 
 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 TABLE V. 
 
 PISCES. Fishes yielding Human Food. 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnaean Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 no 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 ^ 
 
 I-H 
 
 Mursena anguilla . . 
 
 Common eel ... 
 Conger eel .... 
 Roman muraena . . 
 Southern muraena . i 
 Javan monoptere . J 
 Carapo gymnote . . 
 Bearded ophidium 
 
 Mastacembalus . . 
 
 Aculeated odontognathus 
 Sand lance .... 
 Silver trichiure . . . 
 Common wolf fish 
 Broad-finned sword -v 
 fish f 
 Short snouted sword ( 
 fish J 
 Paru stromat . . ~\ 
 Ash-coloured stromat f 
 Silver stromat . . i 
 Black stromat . . J 
 
 Generally 
 
 Indigestible. 
 
 
 Europe . . 
 Javan . . 
 America 
 
 Excellent. 
 Idem. 
 
 Wholesome 
 Coarse. 
 
 Like eel. 
 
 Moderate. 
 Esteemed. 
 Tolerable. 
 Idem. 
 
 Coarse. 
 Esteemed. 
 
 
 Monopterus javanicus 
 3ymnotus carapo . . 
 Ophidium barbatum . 
 
 Asia . . . 
 
 East . . . 
 Isle of Wight 
 America . . 
 N. Europe . 
 
 Generally 
 
 America & ") 
 other places ) 
 
 balus .... 5 
 Odontognathus aculeatus 
 Ammodytes tobianus 
 Trichiarus argenteus . 
 Anarhicas lupus . . 
 Xiphias platypterus 
 
 Stromateus paru . . 
 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 1 
 
 |< 
 *-i 
 
 M 
 
 t-H 
 
 ^allionymus lyra . . 
 
 Generous dragonet . ) 
 Sordid dragonet . . J 
 Bearded star-gazer 
 
 North . .-: 
 
 Generally 
 Europe . . 
 Newfoundland 
 
 European & ) 
 other seas . J 
 
 Palatable. 
 
 Coarse. 
 Esteemed. 
 Idem. 
 
 Excellent. 
 
 Indifferent. 
 Esteemed. 
 
 Coarse. 
 
 LJranoscopus scaber . 
 Trachinus draco . . 
 jadus morrhua . . 
 
 Cod . . 
 
 Haddock . . . "" 
 
 
 
 Pout . . 
 
 
 Bib 
 
 
 Poor > 
 Saida 
 
 
 
 Whiting .... 
 Coal fish .... 
 Pollack . . . . ., 
 Hake 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lota .... 
 
 Burbot . . . . > 
 Torsk J 
 
 
 Blennius occellaris . . 
 
 Ocellated blenny . 1 
 Gunnel .... 5 
 
 gunellus . . 
 
 
 '3 
 
 1- 
 P 
 
 M 
 
 1 I 
 t I 
 
 j 
 Echeneis remora . . 
 
 Coryphaena hippurus 
 
 Sucking fish . . < 
 
 Common coryphene 
 Brazilian corypheue j 
 Razor coryphene . f 
 Five-spotted cory- ^ f 
 phene . . . J j 
 Gilt tailed coryphene 
 Common goby . . 
 Blue-finned goby . . 
 Plumiers goby . . . 
 River bullhead . . ^ 
 Grunting . . . . > 
 Lasher . . . . j 
 Didactyle scorpaena . 
 
 European & ^ 
 other seas J 
 
 Moluccas & ) 
 Europe . J 
 
 Generally 
 
 Like fried artichoke. 
 
 Excellent. 
 
 Esteemed. 
 Poor. 
 Esteemed. 
 
 Liver injurious. 
 Excellent. 
 
 
 
 . maculata . . . $ 
 
 Gobius niger 
 
 
 
 Cottus gobio 
 
 N. Europe . 
 Generally 
 
 
 Scorpaena didactyla
 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 TABLE V. Continued 
 
 635 
 
 Order. 
 
 Liumean Name. 
 
 Common Name. Where Eaten. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 ( 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 "a 
 o 
 CJ 
 
 j- 
 
 2 
 o 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 "H 
 
 Zeus vomer .... 
 
 Brazilian dory . . 
 Ciliated dory .' . 
 Common dory . . . 
 
 lalibut ... .5 
 ^esser halibut . . . 
 
 generally . 1 
 
 fot much esteemed, 
 hoarse. 
 Esteemed. 
 
 ndigestible. 
 
 uperior. 
 ATiolesome. 
 
 Excellent. 
 
 isteemed. 
 dem. 
 
 excellent. 
 
 ;dem. 
 Idem. 
 
 Idem. 
 
 Delicate, 
 [dem. 
 Indigestible. 
 Coarse. 
 
 Digestible. 
 Indigestible. 
 
 
 ] 
 
 3 leuronectes hippo- ^ 
 glossus . . . . $ 
 
 . Europe . '. 
 
 
 
 
 Dab . . ~\ 
 
 ndian seas . 
 lolland, &c. 
 
 East & other { 
 >laces . . j 
 
 'ndia, Ame-^ 
 rica, & Ara- > 
 )ia . . j 
 Dhina . . 
 
 Europe . . 
 
 laevis .... 
 liniandoides 
 flesus .... 
 solea .... 
 zebra .... 
 marmoratus . . 
 tuberculatus . . 
 Chatodon imperator . 
 catesbeii 
 
 >mear dab ... I 
 ..ong dab .... V 
 founder .... V 
 Sole . . J 
 
 Zebra sole . ) 
 Marbled sole . . J 
 
 imperial chaetodon "^ 
 \ngel chaetodon 
 Wandering chaetodon 
 Jaculator ... > 
 Bifasciated chaetodon 
 jlaucous chsetodon . 
 Sordid choetodon 
 
 Blackish acanthuras < 
 
 joramy trichopus 
 3ilt head sparus . ^ 
 Spined sparus . ( 
 
 
 
 glaucus 
 sordidus 
 
 Acanthurus nigricans . 
 
 Trichopus goramy . . 
 Sparus aurata . . . 
 
 
 Labrus scams . . . 
 Ophicephalus punctatus 
 
 Scarce labrus . . . * 
 Punctated ophicephalus 
 Striated 
 Mackarel .... 
 Tunny 
 Red surmullet . i 
 Striped .... 1 
 Piper 
 
 Scomber scomber . . 
 
 
 
 
 Mullus barbatus . . 
 
 Trigla lyra .... 
 
 
 IV. Abdominales. 
 
 A ,, _, , 
 
 " 3obitis barbatula 
 Salmo salar . . 
 
 tmttn 
 
 !/>ach, or ground ling 
 Salmon . . . 
 Sea-trout .... 
 
 iurope . 
 
 Savoury. 
 Digest. Nutritious. 
 
 leady of digestion, 
 indigestible. 
 
 [dem. 
 
 Coarse. 
 Ready of digestion. 
 
 "Moderate. 
 (Coarse. 
 Good. 
 
 Wholesome. 
 
 
 
 Dharr 
 Salmon trout . . 
 Smelt 
 Whiting .... 
 Grayling 
 
 
 
 
 
 Esox lucius .... 
 Mugil cephalus . . . 
 Clupea harengus . . 
 
 Miillpt 
 
 
 Herring . "] 
 Sprat ' 
 
 
 Shad .... \ 
 Anchovy . . . . * 
 
 Europe . 
 
 
 Cyprinus barbus . . 
 
 Carp 
 Gudgeon . - 
 Tench 
 Chub 
 Dace 
 Roach 
 Bleak 
 Bream 
 
 
 tinea . 
 cephalus 
 
 leuciscus 
 rutilus . 
 . alburnus 
 
 .. . bi ama . 
 
 
 .. 

 
 63(5 
 
 ALIMENT. 
 
 TABLE V '.Continued. 
 
 Order. 1 Linnaean Name. 
 
 1 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 V. ChondropterygL". 
 
 A 
 
 iAccipenser sturio . . 
 ruthenus 
 
 Sturgeon .... 
 Starlet ~\ 
 
 Europe. 
 
 Nutritive. 
 Tender. 
 
 Coarse. 
 Idem. 
 
 Indigestible 
 
 
 Isinglass fish . . . f 
 White shark . . . ( 
 Skate J 
 
 
 Squalus carcharias 
 Raia batis ... . 
 Petromyzon marinus 
 
 
 Lamprey . . . ~) 
 Lesser lamprey . > 
 Lampern . . . . J 
 
 
 
 
 TABLE VI. 
 
 INSECT A. Insects yielding Human Food. 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnaean Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 !! 
 
 Gryllus migratorius 
 Cicada septendecim . 
 
 Migratory locust . . 
 American .... 
 
 Africa . . 
 India . . 
 
 Moderate. 
 Idem. 
 
 Hymen- f 
 optera. ? 
 
 Apis melhfica . . . 
 
 Honey bee .... 
 
 Generally 
 
 Yields honey. 
 
 f 
 
 Cancer msenas . . . 
 
 Common crab . . ) 
 
 Generally 
 
 Coarse. 
 
 ei 
 
 
 
 
 Indigestible 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 04 
 
 serratus . . 
 
 Prawn . . . . f 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 Similar to lobster. 
 
 
 
 Whifp 3 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 TABLE VII. 
 
 VERMES. Worms sometimes Eaten. 
 
 Order. 
 
 Linnaean Name. 
 
 Common Name. 
 
 Where Eaten. 
 
 Character as Food. 
 
 Mollusca. 
 
 Limax rufus . . . 
 Sepia sepiola . . . 
 Ecninus esculentus 
 Pholas dactylus . . 
 
 Red slug .... 
 Cuttle fish .... 
 Edible sea urchin . . 
 Dactyle pholas . . . 
 
 Generally 
 Italy . . . 
 
 Nutritious. 
 
 Indigestible. 
 Delicate. 
 
 A % 
 <a 1 
 o J 
 
 Cardium edule . . 
 Ostrea edulis . . . 
 
 Common cockle . . 
 Common oyster . . ) 
 
 Generally 
 
 Nutritious. 
 Quick of digestion. 
 
 & \ 
 u 1 
 
 maxima . . 
 
 Scallop . . . . J 
 
 
 Rir>Vi 
 
 H (_ 
 
 Helix pomatia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 With respect to animal food generally, it may 
 be observed that venison seems to unite the 
 qualities of being lighter and most nutritious of 
 any; the flesh of young animals yields more 
 gelatine than that of the same animal in the 
 adult state ; that of wild animals is also sooner 
 digested than that of domesticated ones. Salt 
 meat is not so strengthening as fresh ; and meat 
 which has been kept for a short time, is consi- 
 dered to be more nourishing than that recently 
 
 killed. Even meat in a state of incipient putre- 
 faction is more easily digested than that which is 
 quite fresh: it does not follow, however, that 
 jt is more wholesome ; and children universally 
 reject it. Roast meat is considered to be more 
 nutritious than boiled ; for, by the process of 
 boiling, much of the nutritious matter is eva- 
 porated.
 
 ALI 
 
 637 
 
 ALI 
 
 ALIMENTARII PUERI, Sec. in Roman anti- 
 quity, weie certain children maintained and edu- 
 cated by the munificence of the emperors, in 
 public places, not unlike our hospitals. Trajan 
 was the first that brought up any of these alimen- 
 tary boys. He was imitated by Adrian. An- 
 toninus Pius did the same for a number of maids, 
 at the solicitation of Faustina, and hence, in some 
 medals of that empress, we read Pvellae Favsti- 
 nianae. Alexander Severus followed his example, 
 at the request of Mammjea ; and the maids thus 
 educated were called Mammaeanae. 
 
 ALIMENTARY DUCT, or CANAL, ductus ali- 
 mentalis, is that part of the body through which 
 the food passes, from its reception into the mouth, 
 to its exit at the anus ; including the gula, sto- 
 mach, and intestines. The whole ductus alimen- 
 talis may be divided into four parts. 1. That 
 which conveys the food, called the sesophagus. 
 2. That which digests, or corrodes it, called the 
 stomach. 3. That which distributes the chyle, 
 called the intestines. 4. That which discharges 
 the fasces, called the rectum. This duct is said 
 to be the true characteristic of an animal, there 
 being no animal without it, and whatever has it, 
 being properly ranged under the class of ani- 
 mals. Plants receive their nourishment by the 
 numerous fibres of their roots, but have no com- 
 mon receptacle for digesting the food received, or 
 for carrying off the recrements. But in all, even 
 the lowest degree of animal life, we may observe 
 a stomacn and intestines, even where we cannot 
 perceive the least formation of any organs of the 
 senses, except the common one of feeling, as in 
 oysters. 
 
 ALIMENTARY LAW, was an old lawamongthe 
 Romans, whereby children were obliged to find 
 sustenance for their parents. 
 
 ALIMONY, ALIMONIA, in law, denotes that 
 portion, or allowance, which a married woman 
 sues for, upon any occasional separation from 
 her hasband, wherein she is not charged with 
 elopement or adultery. It was anciently called 
 rationabile estoverium, reasonable maintenance, 
 and recoverable only in the spiritual court ; but 
 now it is recoverable also in chancery. When a 
 woman is divorced a mensa et thoro, she may sue 
 her husband in her own name for alimony, or 
 maintenance, out of her husband's estate, during 
 the separation, either in chancery, or in the spi- 
 ritual court. 
 
 ALIMOS, in botany, a name given by Greek 
 writers to liquorice, from its quality of making 
 the appetite insensible either to hunger or thirst. 
 
 ALINDA, AXivSa, in ancient geography, a 
 town of Caria, whose queen, Ada, adopted Alex- 
 ander the Great as her son. A medal of this 
 town represents a club, with a lion's skin, and 
 within which, a crown of laurel, emblematical 
 of Hercules ; the inscription is AAINAEQN. 
 
 ALINDESIS, or ALINDES, in the ancient 
 gymnastic medicine, a kind of exercise, wherein 
 persons being besmeared with oil, roll themselves 
 naked in the dust. 
 
 ALINGSAS, or ALINGSAHS, an inland town of 
 Sweden, in the province of Elsborg, where there 
 are silk,, woollen, tobacco, and pipe manufac- 
 tunes. Lon. 12. 20'. E. lat. 50. 30'. N. 
 
 ALIO DIE, in mythology, the formula used by 
 
 the Augur when on religious grounds she dis- 
 solved the comitia or assemblies of the people, 
 ' Quid gravius quarn rem susceptam dirimi, s ! 
 unus augur alio die dixerit.' Cic. de Leg. 
 
 ALIP/ENOS, or ALIPANTOS, from aXnraivoy, 
 a negative, and \urcuvtv, to fatten, in the ancient 
 physic, an appellation given to dry topical me- 
 dicines, or such as have no fat mixed with them. 
 It stands opposed to lipara, or plasters, which 
 have fat in their composition ; called also by 
 Celsus, lenia. Galen gives the name oXtTri; to 
 the remedies which are applied to fresh wounds, 
 in order to check the inflammation, and hasten 
 their healing. 
 
 ALIPASMA, in ancient' medicine, an oinu 
 ment applied to the body to prevent perspira- 
 tion. 
 
 ALIPEDE, from ala, a wing, and pes, the 
 foot: nimble; swift-footed. 
 
 ALIPEE, a town of Cochin, in Hindostan, 
 belonging to the rajah of Travancore. It is 
 situated on a river communicating with that of 
 Quilon, and is very populous, many merchants 
 residing here who act as agents for houses at 
 Bombay. Pepper, grain, and timber, are the 
 chief exports. Lat. 9. 42'. N, 
 
 ALIPILARIUS, or ALIPILUS, in antiquity,an 
 officer belonging to the baths, who, by means of 
 waxen plasters, took off the hairs from the dlae, 
 or arm-pits. The alipilus answered to what the 
 Greeks called flpawaws-jjc. The ancient Romans 
 made it a point of cleanliness to keep the arm- 
 pits clear and smooth ; and in after times went 
 farther, and took off the hair from their arms, 
 legs, and other parts, with pitch, rosin, and the 
 volsella, an instrument for that purpose. 
 
 ALIPI US, bishop of Tagaste, in Africa, the 
 countryman ' and intimate friend of St. Augus- 
 tine, and, like him, at one time, a zealous Mani- 
 chee. He accompanied him to Rome, where he 
 studied law, and had some considerable employ- 
 ments. He embraced the Christian religion, and 
 was baptized by St. Ambrose the same day with 
 his friend Augustine. He afterwards went to 
 Palestine, where he became intimate with St. Je- 
 rome. On his return to Africa, in 394, he was 
 chosen bishop of Tagaste. He assisted at se- 
 veral councils, particularly that of Carthage, 
 where he shewed his zeal against the Donatists, 
 and died in 430. 
 
 ALIPIUS, in ancient history, a geographer of 
 Antioch, and made governor of Britain, by the 
 emperor Julian, to whom he dedicated a work 
 on geography. He was afterwards exiled for 
 following magical divinations. 
 
 ALIPOW, Montis Ceti, a kind of white tur- 
 bith. It is found in several parts of Languedoc, 
 particularly near Cete, whence its name of Mon 
 tis Ceti. It is sometimes used instead of senna 
 but is a much stronger cathartic. 
 
 ALIPTA, from a\tf>w, J anoint, in the an- 
 cient gymnastics, a slave appointed to anoint 
 the athletae. The aliptae amount to the same 
 with what are otherwise called unctores or jatra- 
 liptae. The word is sometimes used for the 
 director, or superintendant of the exercises of the 
 athletes ; in which sense, it is synonymous with 
 gymnastes, or psedotriba. 
 
 ALIPTER1UM, aXi7rr>jp>v, in antiquity, the
 
 ALT 
 
 638 
 
 ALT 
 
 place where the athleta? were anointed before anthium : COR. three roundish, large, flat, ex- 
 their exercises, otherwise called elaeothesion, panding petals : STAM. six awl-shaped filaments, 
 unctuarium, and sometimes also ceroma. shorter than the corolla: ANTH. roundish: PIST. 
 ALIQUANT PAKT, in arithmetic, that part more than five germina: STYLI, simple: STIG. 
 of a given quantity which will not divide it ex- blunt; the seeds, small and solitary. Of this 
 actly, or without remainder. It is opposed to genus there are nine species, viz.: l.Alisma 
 the aliquot part of a quantity ; thus four is an Cordifolia, a native of America, found in stag- 
 aliquant part of ten. The following are the ali- nating waters, 2. Alisma Damasonium, or star 
 quant parts of a pound English : headed water plantain, a native of Britain. 3. 
 
 3s. is an aliquant part = -fcth and ^th of \L A , H A sma Flava > or y ellow water P^ntain a native 
 
 6s _ ujj an( j njj of America, grows in swamps. 4. Alisma na- 
 
 7s ' ' _ T t h an d xth.' tans ' or cree P in g water plantain, a native of 
 
 o ' ' gths Britain. 5. Alisma Parnassifolia, a native of 
 
 =. ith and 4th America, found in boggy ground. 6. Alisma 
 
 lls ' | _ I and 1 4. ' plantago, or great water plantain, grows in all 
 
 12g ' 'nland^th' the marshy parts of Scotland. 7. Alisma ranun- 
 
 .' .' = 4, -rijth, and 4th. culoides, or lesser water plantain, also a native of 
 
 14!J __ i and 4th country. 8. Alisma subulata, a native of 
 
 America. 9. Alisma repens, a native of Spain, 
 
 i nv, or,^ i*v. growing on the banks of the Manzanares. 
 
 IDS 5, *Ui iuu fnlii. " T -,5-^. . . , _, 
 
 17s i i and , ALISO, in ancient geography, a river of Ger- 
 
 18s ' * __ |' an( j 2 t hg many, which flows into the Lippe, not far from 
 
 I 9s ' __ I i an( j ijjj Paderbon. It is now called Alme. Pliny also 
 
 mentions a place near the Rhine by the name 
 
 ALIQUOT PART, in arithmetic, that part of AXiurov. 
 
 a given quantity which will equally and exactly ALISONTIA, or ALISUNTIA, in ancient geo- 
 
 divide it. It is opposed to the aliquant part ; graphy, a river of Belgic Gaul, now Alsetz; which, 
 
 thus, four is an aliquot part of twenty. The fol- rising on the borders of Lorrain, and running 
 
 lowing are the aliquot parts of a pound English : through the duchy, waters the city of Luxem- 
 
 4 n . , c i j burg, and falls into the Sur. 
 
 10S ~ i OI It. ATTIT1TS/ A 1-^1 
 
 5 \ , ALITE . A little. 
 
 He rested bot a lite, a sonde pe Inglis him sendes. 
 
 4s ~ h. D 
 
 * , n. Brunne, p. 81. 
 
 ^ s 1o tn - For leueth well and sooth is this 
 
 " 5o'-"' That whan I knowe all howe it is, 
 
 6s. 8d Jd. I WO H but fortliren hem alite. 
 
 3s. 4d ^th. Gower. Con. A. book ii. 
 
 2s - 6d , = I th - ALITES, in ancient mythology, birds which 
 
 ls - r j li 1 "- afforded auguries by their flight, in distinction 
 
 " -^th. f rom osc i nes> or those which gave auguries by 
 
 " ^d ^ -fetn. singing or croaking, &c. To the class of alites 
 
 "^ ^i 1 ^- belonged the buzzard, osprey, &c. To that of 
 
 "^ tn - oscines, the crane, raven, owl, &c. 
 
 ALIRROTHIUS, a son of Neptune, killed by ALJUBARROTA, a market town in the dis- 
 
 Mars for an attempt upon the chastity of Alcippe tr ict of Leira, Portuguese Estremadura, contain- 
 
 his daughter. Neptune cited Mars before him ing about 1600 inhabitants. It is ten miles north 
 
 on the hill Areopagus, which derived its name f Leira. 
 
 from this circumstance. ALJUSTREL, a town of Portugal, in the 
 ALISANDERS, or ALEXANDERS, in botany, province of Alentejo, 16 miles from Beja, con- 
 See SMYRNIUM. taining 1,500 inhabitants. There is another town 
 ALISANUS, in botany, the Rhexia virginica f this name in Estremadura, four miles from 
 of Linnaeus. See RHEXIA. Thomar. 
 
 ALISE, a small town of France, in the depart- ALIVE'. On live. In life. See LIFE. 
 
 ment of the Cote d'Or, or the Auxois, Burgundy, Our queue pat was pen dame Helianore his wife 
 
 about twenty miles W. N. W. of Dijon. It stands P e S ode > erle of Wa renne, Sir Hugh was pan o life. 
 
 on the site of the ancient ALESIA, which see. R ' Brunne > P- 213 - 
 
 ALISHUNG, or ALISHUN, a district of Af- * or as th f f fishe ' * ll b f e d , rie ' 
 
 ghaun.tan in India, situated between the thirty- ^t^^S 
 
 hfth and thirty-sixth degrees of north latitude, No b man ne beast m j ht thriue . 
 
 and sixty-eighth and sixty-ninth of east longi- Gower. Cm. A. bookvii. 
 
 tude, and surrounded by lofty mountains, gene- Nor well ^ nor wholl dead> th were 
 
 rally covered with snow, whence the river Ali- B ut some faint signs of feeble life appear. VryJen. 
 
 shung has its rise. The chief town is Penjshehr. Not youthful kings, in battle seiz'd alive; 
 
 ALISMA, or WATER PLANTAIN, so called Not scornful virgins, who their charms survive. Pope. 
 
 from its supposed virtue in curine the bite of a 
 
 And to those brethren said. rise, rise by-live ; 
 
 sea-hare It was also supposed to have the And unto battle do yourselves address : 
 
 power of breaking the stone in the kidneys. F or yonder comes the prowest knight alive, 
 
 GENUS, polygynia: CLASS hexandria : NATURAL Prince Arthur, flower of grace and nobiless. 
 
 ORDER, Tetrapetaloidese : CAL. a three leaved peri- Faerie Qneene
 
 ALKALI. 
 
 639 
 
 The earl of Northumberland, who was the proudest 
 man alive, could not look upon the destruction of 
 monarchy with any pleasure. Clarendon. 
 
 John was quick, and understood business ; but no 
 man alive was more careless, in looking into his ac- 
 counts. Arbuthnot. 
 
 Contemn thou while thou art alive, that, which 
 thou canst not enjoy, when thou art dead. 
 
 Bp. Hall's Remedy of Discontentment. 
 
 His soul, where moral truth spontaneous grew, 
 
 No guilty wish, no cruel passion knew; 
 
 Though tremblingly alive to nature's laws, 
 
 Yet ever firm to honour's sacred cause. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 
 ALKA, the auk. See ALCA. 
 
 ALKADARII, from Akladar, Arab, a decree, 
 a sect of the Mahommedans, who deny any 
 eternal, fixed, divine decrees ; being asserters of 
 free will. They are a branch of Moatazalites, and 
 stand opposed to the Algiabarii. 
 
 ALKAHEST, in alchemy, compounded of al 
 and geest, Germ. i. e. all spirit, according to 
 Paracelsus and Van Helmont, is a certain fluid 
 in nature, capable of reducing all sublunary 
 bodies, into their ens primum, or original mat- 
 ter or into an uniform portable liquor, that will 
 unite with water, and the juices of our bodies. 
 Van Helmont, declaring that he himself possessed 
 the secret, excited succeeding chemists and al- 
 chemists to the pursuit of so wonderful a men- 
 struum ; and Mr . Boyle is said to have declared that 
 he had rather have been master of it than of the 
 philosopher's stone. The different conjectures 
 of chemists, with regard to the matter of the 
 alKahest, are innumerabJp ; some expected to 
 obtain it from sea-salt and mercury ; others 
 wrought on equinoctial dew ; others on rain- 
 water, others on talc, on zinc, on antimony, &c. 
 &c. But Kunkel very properly asks, If the al- 
 kahest dissolves all substances, in what vessel 
 can it be contained ? Alkahest is used in a more 
 extensive sense for all fixed salts volatilized, and 
 reduced into a quintessence. 
 
 ALKAKENGI, or winter cherry, the fruit of 
 a species of nightshade. 
 
 ALKAKENGI, in medicine, is used as an ab- 
 stergent, dissolvent, and diuretic, and is cele- 
 brated for its lithontriptic quality ; it is also pre- 
 scribed to cleanse the urinary passages in the 
 gravel, and other obstructions. Its detersive 
 quality also recommends it against the jaun- 
 dice, and other disorders of the viscera. 
 
 ALKALI, in botany. See KALI and SALI- 
 
 CORNIA. 
 
 ALKALI, a term in chemistry applied to an 
 order of salts of considerable importance. It 
 has been traced by some to the Arabic word, 
 alkhalet, burnt; but it is more generally derived 
 from the word kali, the name of a plant, from 
 the ashes of which one species of alkali can be 
 extracted. The substances that are met with 
 tinder the denomination of alkaline, are pos- 
 sessed of certain properties of a peculiar kind ; 
 they are mainly characterized, however, by a 
 power of combining with acids in such a manner 
 as to impair the activity of the latter, so that 
 alkalis, as chemical agents, are distinguished by 
 properties the reverse of acids; acids and alkalies 
 being thus generally considered as antagonist 
 principles. 
 
 But besides the power of neutralizing acids, 
 and thereby forming certain saline substances, 
 the alkalies are further distinguished by the fol- 
 lowing properties : 
 
 First, they have an acrid taste, and corrosive 
 power when applied to some substances ; thus 
 proving caustic to the skin and tongue. 
 
 Secondly, They change the blue colour of 
 vegetables to a green, the red to purple, and 
 the yellow to a reddish brown. If the purple 
 have been reddened by acid, alkali will restore 
 the original colour. 
 
 Thirdly, They are almost unlimitedly solu- 
 ble in water ; that is, they combine with it in 
 every proportion. 
 
 Fourthly, They unite with oils and fats, and 
 form by this union the well-known compound 
 called soap. 
 
 There is another class of substances which 
 have a strong analogy with alkalies, especially in 
 reference to their opposition to acids, viz. the 
 earths ; these indeed by Fourcroy were arranged 
 among the alkalies, but they have been kept apart 
 by other systematic writers, on the ground of the 
 analogy between the one and the other being 
 far from amounting to an identity of essence and 
 peculiar property. 
 
 The true alkalies have been arranged by a 
 modern chemist into three classes. 
 
 First, Those which consist of a metallic 
 oasis, combined with oxygen. These are three 
 in number, potash, soda, and lithia. Secondly, 
 That which contains no oxygen, viz. ammonia. 
 Thirdly, Those containing oxygen, hydrogen, 
 and carbon. In this class are placed aconita, 
 atropia, brucia, cicuta, datura, delphia, hyo- 
 scyamia, morphia, strychina. And it is supposed 
 that the order of vegetable alkalies, may by sub- 
 sequent discoveries, be proved as numerous as 
 the vegetable acids. The original distribution 
 of alkaline substances was into volatile and 
 fixed the volatile alkali being known under 
 the name of ammonia, while one of the fixed 
 was called potash or vegetable, because pro- 
 cured from the ashes of vegetables generallj 
 the other soda, or mineral, on account of its 
 having been principally obtained from the in- 
 cineration of marine plants. 
 
 In respect to the principle of alkalescence ge- 
 nerally, this, like that of acidity, has recently 
 been the subject of an investigation, which has 
 led to very important inferences. Alkalies and 
 earths, it has already been said, display in their 
 relations to acids, considerable analogy ; and the 
 substances that are known under the denomina- 
 tion of metallic oxydes, have nearly the same 
 connexions. Now the constitution of these last 
 having been ascertained, it might have been fair 
 to suppose that the former are of a similar nature; 
 but their real composition was not at all un- 
 derstood, until the splendid discoveries of Sir 
 H. Davy, who, having submitted potash and 
 soda to the action of a powerful galvanic battery, 
 observed that at the negative pole globules were 
 collected, having metallic lustre, while at the 
 positive side, a gas was disengaged, which 
 proved to be oxygen. These results, Sir H. 
 D. fairly inferred, arose from the decomposition 
 of the alkalies, which he thence considered as com-
 
 ALK 
 
 640 
 
 ALK 
 
 pounds of metallic substances with oxygen ; and 
 thus has for ever been banished the hypothetical 
 principle of Morveau, who conceived hydrogen 
 to be the principle of alkalescence as Lavoisier 
 had judged oxygen to be the essence of acidity. 
 But although, so far, both the analytic and syn- 
 thetic experiments are complete and satisfactory 
 in relation to the components of alkalies, we 
 must not push the inference to too great an ex- 
 tec !; for ammonia seems to shew that the alkaline 
 principle may exist independent of oxygen; nor 
 is there at present any proof that metallic matter 
 constitutes the base of this last-mentioned 
 substance. 
 
 Analysis and synthesis have, however, gone 
 far enough to prove, that in the composition of 
 the acids and alkalies, there is some sort of ana- 
 logy, or rather to show that it is the mode in 
 which the constituents of each are united, rather 
 than the nature of the constituents themselves, 
 which gives rise to the acid or alkaline condi- 
 tion. According to Dr. Murray, indeed, ' the 
 class of alkalies will exhibit the same relations as 
 the class of acids.' ' Some,' he says, ' are com- 
 pounds of abase with oxygen, such are the greater 
 numbers of the metallic oxides, and probably of 
 the earths. Ammonia is a compound of a base 
 with hydrogen. Potash, soda, barytes, stroutites, 
 and probably lime, are compounds of bases with 
 oxygen and hydrogen ; and these last, like the 
 analogous order among the acids, possess the 
 highest powers. Acidity, he says, is produced 
 in a higher degree by the joint action of oxygen 
 and hydrogen, than by the operation of hydrogen 
 alone. A similar result, there is reason to con- 
 clude, exists in their relations to alkalinity. The 
 most powerful alkalies, potash and soda, and the 
 earths which have the highest degree of alkaline 
 energy have been supposed to contain water in 
 considerable proportion, in intimate combination, 
 in their insulated form. There is every reason to 
 draw the same conclusion with regard to this ; 
 as with regard to the supposed pressure of com- 
 bined water in the stronger acids. It is probable 
 that the elements rather exist in the combination ; 
 and thus the alkalies, applying the term in its 
 most extensive signification, to denote those sub- 
 stances which neutralize acids, display the same 
 relations as acids.' But against this elementary 
 hypothesis of Murray, Dr. Ure starts objections 
 somewhat similar to those he had urged in refer- 
 ence to the principle of acidity ; and we shall 
 conclude the present article, by extracting the 
 observations made by Dr. Ure on this head. 
 ' Surely,' says he, ' perfectly dry and caustic 
 barytes, lime, and strontites, as well as the dry 
 potash and soda, obtained by Gay Lussac and 
 Thenard, are not inferior in alkaline power to 
 the same bodies after they are slacked or com- 
 bined with water: 100 parts of lime destitute of 
 hydrogen, that is pure oxide of calcium, neutra- 
 lize seventy-eight parts of carbonic acid. But 
 132 parts of Dr. Murray's strongest lime, that is 
 the hydrate, are required to produce the same 
 alkaline effect. If we ignite nitrate of barytes, 
 we obtain, as is well known, a perfectly dry 
 barytes or protoxide of barium ; but if we ignite 
 crystallized barytes, we obtain the same alkaline 
 earth combined with a nrime equivalent of 
 
 water.' These two different states of barytes 
 were demonstrated by M. Berth ollet, in an ex- 
 cellent paper published in the second volume of 
 the Memoires D'Arcueil, so far back as 1809 : 
 ' The first barytes,' says he, ' presents all the 
 characters of a combination; it is engaged with a 
 substance which diminishes its action on other 
 bodies, which renders it more fusible, and which 
 gives it by fusion the appearance of glass. This 
 substance is nothing else but water ; but in fact, 
 by adding a little water to the second barytes, 
 (that from ignited nitrate, as opposed to that 
 from crystallized barytes,) and by urging it at the 
 fire, we give it the properties of the other.' 100 
 parts of barytes void of hydrogen, or dry barytes, 
 neutralize 28^ of dry carbonic acid. Whereas 
 1 1 1 parts of the hydrate, or what Dr. Murray has 
 styled the most energetic, are required to pro- 
 duce the same effect. In fact, it is not hydrogen 
 which combines with the pure barytic earth, 
 but hydrogen and oxygen in the state of water. 
 The proof of this is, that when carbonic acid 
 and that hydrate unite, the exact quantity of 
 water is disengaged. The protoxide of barium 
 or pure barytes, has never been combined with 
 hydrogen by any chemist. For an account of the 
 different alkalies, see under their respective names, 
 and also the article CHEMISTRY. 
 
 ALKALIMETER, in chemistry, a scientific 
 instrument invented by Descroizelles to mea- 
 sure the purity of different alkalies ; it acts by 
 ascertaining how many times their own weight 
 they require in sulphuric acid to complete their 
 saturization. 
 
 ALKANET, in botany. See ANCHUSA. 
 
 ALKENDI, (Jacobus,) a celebrated Arabian 
 philosopher, born at Balsora, in the begin- 
 ning of the ninth century. Alkendi appears to 
 have studied philosophy with attention and suc- 
 cess. He explained the writings of Aristotle to 
 the schools, and obtained so much celebrity that 
 Cardan ranks him as one of the first twelve 
 sublime spirits of the world. His moderation 
 is greatly exemplified by the following anec- 
 dote related of him by Abulfaragius. Alkendi 
 having endeavoured to explain the doctrines of 
 the Alcoran, as consistent with the principles of 
 philosophy, was accused by one Abu-Maasher, an 
 advocate for the vulgar interpretation, of impiety. 
 Instead of using his influence with the caliph 
 to silence this bigot, he procured a person to teach 
 him philosophy, and by his kindness won him 
 to become one of his most zealous disciples. 
 Alkendi's principal works are a treatise entitled 
 DeTemporibus et Mutationibus. 2. De Gradibus 
 Medicinarum compositarum investigandis. 3. 
 De Ratione sex Quantitatum. 4. De Quinque 
 Essentiis. 5. De Motu Diurno. 6. De Vegetali- 
 bus. 7. De Theoria Magicarum Artium. 
 
 ALKERMES, in medicine, a term borrowed 
 from the Arabs, denoting a celebrated remedy, 
 of the consistence of a confection ; whereof the 
 kermes berries are the basis. The other ingre- 
 dients are pippin-cyder, rose-water, sugar, am- 
 ber-grease, musk, cinnamon, aloes-wood, pearls, 
 and leaf-gold ; but the sweets are usually omitted. 
 The confectio alkermes is chiefly made at Mont- 
 pelier. The grain which gives it the denomi- 
 nation, is no where found so plentifully as there.
 
 ALL 
 
 ALKIBRIC, in chemistry, sulphur vivum. 
 ALKIN, in chemistry, pot-ash. 
 
 641 
 
 ALL 
 
 ALL-GOOD, in botany, the chenopodium 
 or bonus henri of ^ Jd. 
 
 y tominon to heai 
 
 ALKUSSA, in ichthyology, a name given by 
 the Swedes to the fish which they also call lake. 
 It is a species of the silurus, distinguished by 
 Arredi as the silurus with one cirrus, or beard 
 under the chin ; the common silurus, the glanus 
 of the ancients, having four cirri. 
 
 ALL, n. adj. & adv. Gothic, alle ; SL\\. alle, 
 Sax. Old Welsh ; al, Dutch ; alle, German ; 
 o\u>c, Gr. The whole number; everyone, taken 
 together; quite; completely. In our old writers 
 it may be often considered expletive, or em- 
 phatic. It is found, in composition, without 
 hanging the sense of the word, to which it gives 
 additional force. 
 
 He sent for alle pe kynges fro Berwik vnto Kent, 
 And pei with fulle gode wille alle vuto him went. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 19. 
 
 And who ever wole be the firste among you schal be 
 servaunt of alle. Wicldif. Mark, x. 
 
 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work. 
 
 Deut. v. 13. 
 
 All the fitter, Lentulus ; our coming 
 Is not for salutation ; we have bus'ness. 
 
 Ben Jonson. 
 When I shall wed ; 
 That lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall 
 
 carry 
 
 Half my love with him, half my care and duty : 
 Sure, I shall never marry, like my sister, 
 To love my father all, Shaksp. King Lear. 
 
 Then shall we be news-cramm'd. All the better ; 
 we shall be the more remarkable. Shakspeare. 
 
 Up, with my tent ; here will I lie to-night : 
 But where, to morrow ? Well, all's one for that. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Brutus is an honourable man : 
 So are they all} all, honourable men. 
 
 Shaksp. Julius Caesar . 
 To graze the herb all leaving, 
 Devour'd each other. Milton's Parad. Lost. 
 
 Sceptre and pow'r, thy giving, I assume : 
 And glad, her shall resign ; when, in the end, 
 Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee, 
 For ever ; and in me, all whom thou lov'st. Milton. 
 I am of the temper of most kings ; who love, to be 
 in debt , are all for present money, ao matter how 
 they pay it afterward. Dryden. 
 
 No more with fruitless care, and cheated strife, 
 Chase fleeting pleasure through the maze of life ; 
 Finding, the wretched all they here can have, 
 But present food, and but a future grave. Prior. 
 Ye sons of men, with just regard attend, 
 Observe the preacher, and believe the friend, 
 Whose serious muse inspires him to explain, 
 That all we act, and all we think, is vain. 
 
 Prior's Solomon. Knowledge. 
 
 Our all is at stake, and irretrievably lost, if we fail 
 of success. Addison. 
 
 Thus let me hold thee to my heart, 
 
 And ev'ry care resign ; 
 And shall we never, never part, 
 My life my all that's mine. 
 
 Goldsmith's Hermit. 
 
 ALL-FOURS, a game of cards played by 
 two persons ; so called from the four sorts of 
 cards, called high and low, jack of trumps, and 
 the game, which, joined in the hand of either 
 oarty, constitute him the winner. 
 
 ALL-HALLCW FAIR, an annual fair held in 
 Edinburgh, beginning the second Monday ot 
 November, and lasting a week, chiefly for black 
 cattle and horses. 
 
 ALL HANDS Ho AY, in sea language, the order 
 by which the ship's company is summoned on 
 deck by the boatswain. All hands to quarters 
 hoay, is the order to the crew for preparation for 
 battle. This command is more generally given 
 by the boatswain piping down the hatchway. 
 
 ALL IN THE WIND, the state of a ship's sails 
 when parallel to the direction of the wind, so as 
 to shake and shiver, by turning the ship's head 
 to windward, either by design, or neglect of the 
 helmsman. 
 
 ALL-HEAL, in botany, the stachys of Lin- 
 naeus. See STACHYS. 
 
 ALL-SAINTS, a festival, called also All-Hal- 
 lows, celebrated on the first of November, in 
 commemoration of all saints in general. The 
 number of saints being excessively multiplied, it 
 was found too burdensome to dedicate a feast 
 day to each ; there being, in fact, scarce hours 
 enough in the year for this purpose. It was 
 therefore resolved to commemorate, on one day, 
 all who had no particular days. Boniface IV. in 
 the ninth century, introduced the feast of All- 
 Saints in Italy, which was soon after adopted 
 into the other churches. 
 
 ALL-SAINTS ISLANDS, a small group of islands 
 lying near Guadaloupe, in the West Indies. 
 
 ALL-SAINTS, a large convenient bay on the 
 coast of Brazil, province of Bahia. It is thirty- 
 seven miles from north to south, and twenty- 
 seven from east to west. Its entrance is about 
 eight miles from point Tagapipe to that of San 
 Antonio. In this bay vessels are sheltered from 
 every wind in clear ground, and there is ample 
 space for an immense number of ships to harbour 
 here without confusion. There are many smaller 
 bays in it, convenient for careening vessels, and 
 also many fertile islands. On the west side are 
 two shoals, which, however, are not dangerous, 
 sufficient space being left for the passage of ves- 
 sels, without approaching them. Several rivers 
 fall info this bay, the principal are Paraguasu, 
 Sergippe, Jaguaripe, Matuim, Paranamerin, and 
 Piraja. This capacious lake or inland sea, as 
 it might be called, is surrounded by a rich and 
 fertile country, the neighbouring shores being 
 covered with sugar plantations, the productions of 
 which are conveyed in large barges by the rivers 
 ' The trade has greatly increased since the com- 
 mercial treaty concluded with great Britain, after 
 the royal family of Portugal quitted Europe. 
 The surrounding coast abounds with whales ; a 
 few large boats are employed in this fishery ; but 
 the oil procured is hardly equal to the consump- 
 tion. The eastern part of the bay lies in long 
 38. 42'. W. lat. 12. 42'. S. 
 
 AI.L-SAINTS (bay of), a deep bay on the coast 
 of New California, or New Albion. Point Gra- 
 jero, its northern promontory, is situated in long, 
 243. 34'. E. lat. 31. 43'. N. 
 
 ALL-SEED, in botany, a name given to tbp 
 2 T
 
 ALL 
 
 Chenopodium polyspermum, or linum radiola 
 of tlie Linnaean system. 
 
 ALL-SOULS DAY is a festival held in 
 commemoration of all the faithful deceased ; 
 first introduced in the eleventh century, by Odi- 
 lon, abbot of Cluny, who enjoined it on his own 
 order ; and soon after adopted by the neighbour- 
 ing churches. 
 
 ALL-SPICE. See MYRTUS PIMENTO. 
 
 ALLA, or ELLI, the first king of Sussex, who 
 landed in England with a Saxon army, in 477, 
 and having made himself master of that part of 
 the country, erected it into a kingdom, and died 
 in 514, after a reign of twenty-three years. Polyd. 
 I'irg. 
 
 ALLA, OB ALLAH, the name by which theprofes- 
 sors of Mahommedanism call the Supreme Being. 
 The word is Arabic, derived from the verb alah, 
 to adore. It is synonymous with the Hebrew 
 Eloah, which signifies the Adorable Being. 
 
 ALLAGITE, in mineralogy, a carbo-silicate of 
 manganese. 
 
 ALLAHABAD, a province of Hindostan, 
 lying between the twenty-third and twenty-sixth 
 degrees of north lat., and the seventy-ninth and 
 eighty-third of east long. It is bounded on the 
 north and north-west by the provinces of Oud? 
 and Agra ; on the east by Bahar and Gundwa- 
 na ; on the south by Gundwana and Berar ; and 
 on the west by Agra and Mahvah. Its greatest 
 length is about 250 miles, and its breadth about 
 120 miles, comprehending, according to the ar- 
 rangement of the Ayeen Akberry, ten circars, or 
 counties, and 177 pergunnahs, or hundreds; and 
 capable, at the time of the completion of that 
 celebrated volume, of yielding 11,375 cavalry, 
 237,870 infantry, and 323 elephants. The chief 
 towns are Allahabad (' the House of God,' or 
 ' King of Adorable Places,' as it signifies) ; Be- 
 nares, the ancient seat of Brahminical learning, 
 Callingur, Chunar, Chatterpore, Ghazypore, 
 Joanpour, and Mirzapour ; and it is well watered 
 by the Ganges, the Jumna, and their various 
 tributary streams. A large portion of the inha- 
 bitants are native Hindoos, and the rest, perhaps 
 one-eighth, Mahommedans. 
 
 On the dismemberment of the Mogul empire, 
 in 1749, this province was seized by Mahomet 
 Kooli, an ally of the Zemindar of Benares, with 
 whom he entered the Bengal provinces, in 1760, 
 at the head of 60,000 men. The British, then 
 acting as allies of the nabob of Bengal, con- 
 ducted an inferior force to meet him, to which he 
 was ultimately obliged to surrender himself; and 
 this district, with that of Corah, was again ceded 
 to the mogul, the emperor having the fort of 
 Allahabad for his residence. In return, he con- 
 firmed the rights of the British to their territorial 
 acquisitions on the coast of Bengal, the great 
 foundation of the British power in India. Of 
 the Benares part of this province, the British, 
 obtained possession on the death of Sujah Dow- 
 lah, in 1775 ; of the capital and central districts 
 in 1801 ; and of Bundelcund, and the southern 
 parts of the province, by treaty with the Paishwa 
 of the Poonah Mahrattasin 1803. 
 
 The diamond mine at Pannah, in this pro- 
 vince, was formerly considered the most remark- 
 able mine in India, and seems to have been 
 
 known to Ptolemy. It was a source of conside- 
 rable revenue to the emperor Acber, as well as 
 to the native chiefs of liundelcund, where it is 
 situated. To the former, it yielded eight lacks 
 of rupees annually. In 1756 it. was conside- 
 rably exhausted, and only yielded four lacks of 
 rupees to the rajah. Latterly it has excited 
 little attention, and, we therefore conclude, af- 
 fords but little profit. Muslins, cotton, opium, 
 indigo, salt-petre, sugar, grain, and a great va- 
 riety of fruits, form the other produce of Alla- 
 habad. The population is said to exceed seven 
 millions. 
 
 Allahabad is, on the whole, one of the most 
 productive provinces of Hindostan. In the 
 neighbourhood of the river, particularly, wheat 
 flourishes exceedingly well, and will yield seven 
 quarters per acre. Land is rented here at about 
 a pound an acre. Ploughing is begun at the 
 commencement of the rainy season, in June; but 
 the land is only turned up once until the rains 
 cease. It is then ploughed fourteen or fifteen 
 times before it is thought fit for the seed. But a 
 still more laborious occupation of the agricultu- 
 rist is to keep it watered in the dry season, a task 
 which will employ four bullocks and three wa- 
 terers, for nine days, on a single acre. They 
 sow in September and October, after rains, 
 peas, barley, and oil crops with the wheat. 
 
 In the province of Allahabad are two famous 
 resorts of Hindoo superstition, Benares and Pra- 
 gaya (Allahabad), which have for ages attracted 
 their thousands from all parts of India. 
 
 The Bundelcund portion of this province rises 
 to the south-west in elevated table lands, which 
 abound with fortresses, but are very ill cultivated. 
 Here the climate is as delightfully temperate, as 
 in the flatter and more fruitful districts ; it is in- 
 supportably sultry to Europeans. This part of 
 the province has no considerable streams, and 
 principally depends for irrigation on the periodi- 
 cal rains. There is a small .breed of sheep cul- 
 tivated in this district, the fleece of which is 
 used as a rug for the shepherds, it being wholly 
 unfit for weaving. 
 
 ALLAHABAD, the capital of the province of that 
 name, is situated near the junction of the Jumna 
 and the Ganges. It is divided into two parts, 
 the Old Town and the New. The former stands 
 on the site of the ancient town of Praeg, or Bhat 
 Prayag, held in the highest veneration through- 
 out Hindostan; so that notwithstanding all its 
 changes of masters and of appearances, Allaha- 
 bad is still the resort of numerous pilgrims, who 
 come hither to offer their devotions to the Ganges 
 and perform their ablutions in its waters. The 
 surrounding country, to the extent of forty miles, 
 is esteemed by these devotees as a sort of holy 
 ground. This ancient part is mainly distin- 
 guished by the magnificent ruins of a fortress of 
 stone, erected here by the emperor Acber. The 
 walls are said to have been forty feet high 
 throughout, including a number of elegant courts 
 and domes. In the centre, a column of one 
 stone, nearly forty feet high, is still standing, 
 which records the honours of the emperor, in 
 Sanscrit and Persian, the date of the building, 
 1583, &c. There is an extensive subterraneous 
 cave in the middle of this fort, supported by
 
 ALL 
 
 643 
 
 pillars, in which some of the most importznt 
 rites of the Hindoo devotees are performed. It 
 is said to extend under ground to Delhi. We 
 should not omit to notice, that Dr. Robertson re- 
 gards this place as occupying the situation of the 
 palihothra of Strabo and Arrian, the celebrated 
 capital of the Prasii. 
 
 On the sides that are presented to the two 
 rivers, the fort retains its old walls, which are 
 mounted with some pieces of cannon. The 
 other side has three regular modern ravelins, two 
 bastions, and a half bastion, whose foundations 
 are much higher than the surrounding country. 
 There is a spacious government house within the 
 walls, containing some elegant rooms that over- 
 hang the river, and an extensive barrack. 
 
 The modern town is the residence of a British 
 judge, and of the collector of the province. Po- 
 pulation about 20,000. The fort stands in north 
 lat. 25. 27'. and east long. 81. 50'. at about 
 fifty-three miles from Benares, and 550 from 
 Calcutta. 
 
 ALLAHABAD, is also the name of a district 
 surrounding the above city, and contains some 
 of the most fertile lands of the province. 
 
 ALLAH-SHEHR, i. e. CITY OF GOD; a 
 town of Natolia, in Turkish Asia, the Phila- 
 delphia of the ancients. It contains some few 
 remains of its ancient strength and importance ; 
 particularly portions of the strong walls and 
 towers with which it was once encompassed. 
 The inhabitants, however, are not very numerous : 
 they are a mixture of Turks and Greeks ; but 
 during the passage of the caravans to and from 
 Smyrna, (distant about five days' journey,) the 
 town is much frequented. The Greeks are said 
 to amount to about three hundred and ten fa- 
 milies, living on friendly terms with the Mahom- 
 medans. Here is a lofty and beautiful cathedral 
 for the use of the Greeks. Besides which, they 
 have upwards of twenty inferior churches, though 
 few in a state fit for public worship. This town 
 is about five leagues from Sardis, or Sart. 
 
 ALLAMANDA, in botany; a genus of the 
 monogynia order, and pentandria class of plants. 
 Characters : CAL. one-leaved perianth. COR. 
 one funnel-shaped petal : TUBE, cylindric : BOR- 
 DER semiquinquefied and verticose; divisions 
 expanding and obtuse : STAM. filaments scarce 
 any : ANTH. five arrow-shaped, converging in 
 the throat of the tube : PIST. oval germen, girt 
 at the base with an annular margin; stylus 
 uniform, the length of the tube: STIGM. headed 
 and contracted in the middle: PER. is an or- 
 bicular, compressed, bristly capsule, containing 
 one cell with two valves : the seeds are imbri- 
 cated, orbicular, flat, with a membraneous wing 
 on the margin, and are very numerous. There 
 is but one species, viz. allamanda cathartica, a 
 native of Surinam. 
 
 ALLAMPARVA, a fort on the coast of the 
 Carnatic, Hindostan, originally presented by the 
 native powers to the French, by whom it was 
 ceded to the British in 1760. It is sixty-seven 
 miles south by west from Madras. North lat. 
 12. 10'. eastSng. 80. 7'. 
 
 ALLAN, a river of Perthshire, which rises 
 near Gleneagles, in the parish of Blackford, runs 
 west through Strathallan, and, after passing Dum- 
 
 ALL 
 
 blane, falls into the Forth, a mile above Stirling 
 bridge. 
 
 ALLAW, (David,) a Scottish portrait and his- 
 torical painter of the eighteenth century, was 
 born at Edinburgh. After a long course of 
 study at Rome, he was, in 1780, appointed 
 master of the academy established in Edinburgh 
 for diffusing the knowledge of the fine arts 
 Ihere are several engravings from his pictures, 
 one of which, entitled the Origin of Painting, 
 or the Corinthian Maid, drawing the shadow of 
 her lover, is well known and justly appreciated 
 He died in 1796. 
 
 ALLAN, (George,) an attorney and antiquary 
 of Darlington, in Yorkshire, who died ia 1800. 
 lie had a printing-press in his own house, and 
 issued many curious tracts, as, The Letter of 
 Cromwell to William Lenthall, Esq. speaker of 
 the House of Commons, for erecting a College 
 and University at Durham, &c. 4to. Mr. 
 Allan liberally communicated MSS. to the com- 
 pletion of a civil and ecclesiastical history of the 
 county palatine of Durham, having presented to 
 the Society of Antiquaries of London twenty- 
 six quarto volumes of MSS. chiefly gathered by 
 the Rev. William Smith, of University College, 
 Cambridge, and formerly rector of Melsonby, 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 ALLANITE is a mineral first recognised by 
 Mr. Allan of Edinburgh. Its analysis and de- 
 scription, by Dr. Thomson, were published in 
 the sixth volume of the Edinburgh Philosophical 
 Transactions. M. Giesecke found it in a granite 
 rock in West Greenland. It is massive and of 
 a brownish-black colour. External lustre, dull ; 
 internal, shining and resinous fracture small 
 conchoidal opaque greenish-grey s treak 
 scratches glass and hornblende brittle spec, 
 grav. 3.5 to 4.0. Froths and melts imperfectly 
 before the blow-pipe, into a black scoria. It 
 consists in 100 parts, of silica 35.4, oxide of ce- 
 rium 33.9, oxide of iron 25.4, lime 9.2, alumina 
 4. l.and moisture 4.0. It has been also found 
 crystallized in four, six, or eight sided prisms. 
 It closely resembles gadolinite, but may be dis- 
 tinguished from the thin fragments of the latter, 
 being translucent on the edges, and of a fine 
 green colour, whereas those of the former are 
 commonly opaque and of a yellowish brown. 
 The ores of cerium analyzed by Berzelius, under 
 the name of cerin, approach very closely to it in 
 their composition. 
 
 ALLANTODIA, in botany, from aXAac, aX- 
 Xavros, a sausage, so called from the tumid 
 oblong figure of the son or lines of capsules, 
 wrapped within their membraneous covering. 
 Class and order, cryptogamia, filices. NAT. 
 ORD filices. Ess. CHAR, fructification in scat- 
 tered oblique lines accompanying a vein, invo- 
 lucrum vaulted, originating laterally from the 
 vein, and inserted into it by both margins ; at 
 length separating at the inner one. The habit 
 of this genus, says Mr. Brown, is between ne- 
 phrodium and diplazium. Polypodium umbrp- 
 sum Hort. Kew. ed. 1, affords an example of it, 
 and there are some unpublished species. We are 
 acquainted with. 
 
 A. umbrosa. Madeira wood sausage-fern. 
 Frond triply pinnate: ultimate segments lan- 
 2 T 2
 
 ALL 
 
 644 
 
 ALL 
 
 eeolate, decurrent, deeply serrated ; the lower 
 serratures cloven. Lines contiguous; finally 
 confluent. Gathered in shady woods in Madeira, 
 by the late Mr. Masson, who sent roots to Kew, 
 in 1779, and gave specimens to the younger 
 Linnaeus. A. australis. Southern sausage-fern. 
 Br. n. 1. Frond doubly pinnate, deltoid, mem- 
 braneous, flaccid. Leaflets pinnatifid,' tapering 
 at the point ; lobes oblong, obtuse, deeply ser- 
 rated, many-flowered. Involucrum oblong. 
 Native of Van Diemen's island. A. tenera. 
 Tender sausage-fern. Br. n. 2. Frond doubly 
 pinnate, membraneous, flaccid. Leaflets pinna- 
 tifid ; lobes oblong, obtuse, serrated, flowering 
 at the base. Spots linear. Gathered by Mr. 
 Brown, in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, 
 New South Wales. The Aspidium axillare, 
 Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. 278. Ait. ed. 2. v. 5. 512, 
 should seem, if the specific character of Will- 
 denow were right, to belong to the present 
 genus. 
 
 ALLANTOIS, in anatomy, a urinary mem- 
 brane so called from its resemblance to a pud- 
 ding. It makes a part of the secundine, ap- 
 pearing differently in different animals, and most 
 conspicuously in the cow and sheep kind. Its 
 length in the former extends to about twelve feet. 
 It is very dilatable, and may be blown up to 
 above a foot diameter. The inhabitants of 
 Iceland make use of it, instead of glass, for 
 windows. 
 
 ALLASIA, from oX.ae, & sausage, or black- 
 pudding, in reference to the shape and colour of 
 the fruit. Class and order, tetrandria, monogy- 
 nia. General Character : CAL. one leaf, inferior; 
 TUBE, short : LIMB, in five, rather acute, hairy seg- 
 ments : COR. superior, of four small, concave and 
 very hairy petals: STAM. Filaments four, awl- 
 shaped, thick, the length of the calyx : ANTHERS, 
 inverted, two-lobed, each lobe two cells : PIST. 
 Germen roundish, between the calyx and the co- 
 rolla : STYLE, awl-shaped, length of the stamens : 
 STIGM. acute : PERIC. berry large, oblong, ob- 
 tuse, smooth, fleshy, pendulous, one cell. Seeds 
 numerous, ovate, tumid, somewhat compressed 
 and imbedded in pulp. Ess. Char. Berry with 
 numerous seeds : GERM, between the five-cleft 
 calyx : COR. four petals. Its common name is the 
 biack-pudding tree, or muringuiringue of the 
 Africans. It was first observed by Loureiro, at 
 Mozambique, near the eastern coast of Africa. 
 It is a large tree, with spreading branches, desti- 
 tute of thorns. 
 
 ALLAT, from Allah, God, Arab, the name of 
 an idol among the Arabians and idolatrous Jews. 
 
 ALLATIUS, (Leo,) a native of Scio, keeper of 
 the V 7 atican library, and a celebrated writer of the 
 seventeenth century. He assisted the gentlemen 
 of Port Royal in their controversy with M. 
 Claude, respecting the belief of the Greeks as 
 to the Eucharist. He was devoted to the see of 
 Rome, and inveterate against the Greek church, 
 in which he had been educated. He never en- 
 gaged in matrimony, nor entered into orders. 
 Pope Alexander VII. having aiked him one day, 
 why he did not enter into orders ; he answered, 
 ' Because I would be free to marry.' The Pope 
 rejoined, ' If so, why do you not marry ? ' be- 
 cause,' replied he, ' 1 would be at liberty to take 
 
 orders.' Patricius says, that Allatius had a very 
 extraordinary pen, with which he wrote Greek for 
 forty years ; and when he lost it, he lamented it 
 with tears. He published several translations of 
 Greek authors, and some pieces of his own, the 
 principal of which are, De Ecclesiae Occiden- 
 talis et Orientalis perpetua Consensione, On 
 Purgatory, De Patria Homeri, De septem orbis 
 Spectaculis, Confutatio Fabulee de Joanna pa- 
 pissa, De Georgiis, De Simeonibus. He died at 
 Rome in 1669, aged 83. 
 
 ALLAY', v. &ra.~\ Supposed to be derived 
 
 ALLAY'ER, f from allegge, with the g 
 
 ALLAY'MENT, softened intoy fromAlecjan, 
 
 ALLOY'. J to lay : to put down ; to 
 
 ease ; to soothe ; alleviate ; lessen ; reduce. To 
 
 abate the force or strength of the predominant 
 
 material with which something is made ; as in 
 
 alloy, immediately from the French alloyer. 
 
 If he no lusty thought assaye, 
 Whiche inaye his sory thurst allaye, 
 As for the tyme yet it lesseth 
 To hym, whiche other ioye misseth. 
 
 Gower. Con. A . book vi 
 For if that they were put to swiche assayes, 
 The gold of hem hath now so bad alayes, 
 With bras, that though the coine be faive at eye, 
 It wolde rather brast atwo than plie. 
 
 Chaucer. The Clerkes Tale, v. i. p. 368. 
 When flowing cups run swiftly round 
 
 With no allaying Thames, 
 Our careless heads with roses bound, 
 
 Our hearts with loyal flames : 
 When thirsty grief in wine we steep, 
 
 When healths and draughts go free, 
 Fishes, that tipple in the deep, 
 Know no such liberty. 
 
 Rd. Lovelace in Ellis, v. iii. p. 277. 
 
 But thou'lt say 
 
 There were some pieces of as base allay 
 And as false stamp there, parcels of a play, 
 Fitter to see the tire-light than the day : 
 Adultrate monies, such as would not go. 
 
 Ben Jonson. Underwood's. On Vulcan. 
 Gold incorporates with lead in any proportion ; 
 so it does with copper, which is its common alloy ; it 
 likewise incorporates with brass and tin, which was 
 the ancient alloy. Bacon's Nat. awl Exper. Hist. 
 
 Phlegm and pure blood are reputed allayers of acri- 
 mony. Harvey on Consumptions, 
 I will purge in the furnace thy dross ; 
 And I will remove all thine alloy. 
 
 Lowth's Isaiah. Preliminary Di*. 
 Yet leave me not ! I would allay that grief, 
 Which else might thy young virtue overpower, 
 And in thy converse I shall find relief 
 When the dark shades of melancholy lower. 
 
 Beattie's Minstrel, b. ii. 
 
 ALLAZ^EZIS, among chemists, denotes a 
 philosophical brass or copper, called also ss 
 album, aqua mercurii. 
 
 ALLE, a river of Prussia, which falls into the 
 Pregel, near Wehlaw. 
 
 ALLE, a species of auk. See ALCA. 
 ALLECT', -\ Ad : lacio, lectum, to 
 
 ALLECT'IVE, .&$. (draw to; to attract, al- 
 ALLI'CIENT, lure, entice, seduce ; to 
 
 ALLI'CIEKCY. J gain over by stratagem. 
 
 Consider what is root and ground 
 
 Of thy mischief, which is plainly found
 
 ALLEGANY. 
 
 645 
 
 Woman farced with fraud and disceipt 
 To thy confusion most allectiue baite. 
 Chaucer. The Remedie of Love, foil. 323. c. i. 
 
 They made so cruell and deadly warre, that not 
 lyke men, whose nature is to be satisfied with the 
 slaughter of men, and to be merciful to the impotent 
 and sycke persons, brent tounes, spoyled houses, and 
 killed me aud children, and allected with the sweet- 
 , nes of spoyle and prayes, wasted all the countrey of 
 Northumberlad. 
 
 Hall. Hen. VII. fol. 50. 
 
 But among all thinges, the very deadly pestilece 
 is this : to be couersaut dale and night among them, 
 whose life is not only on euery side an allective to 
 synne : but ouer that all set in the expugnacion of 
 vertue; Sir Thomas More's Workes, p. 12. c. i. 
 
 ALLECTOR, a species of CRAX, which see. 
 
 ALLECTUS, in ancient history, a praetorian 
 prefect, who, having killed Carausius in Eng- 
 land, took possession of his throne, which he held 
 from 294 to 297 ; when Constantius Caesar 
 landing in Britain with an army, Allectus was 
 killed in an engagement which ensued. Medals 
 are still extant bearing his effigy. 
 
 ALLEGANY COUNTY, a county of the 
 state of New York, in North America. It was 
 erected from Genesee county in 1806, is about 
 forty miles north and south, and twenty-eight 
 east and west. It is bounded on the north by 
 Genesee county, east by Steuben county, south 
 by Pennsylvania, west by Cataraugus county. 
 The area is 1120 square miles. The first settle- 
 ment of this county commenced in 1804, whence 
 it is at present in its infant state. It is watered 
 by the Genesee river, which follows a devious 
 course nearly through its centre from south to 
 north, receiving many small streams from every 
 part. In the south-west corner some small 
 streams are collected, which form the eastern 
 sources of Allegany river, and in the south-west 
 corner rise the eastern sources of Cataraugus 
 Creek. The soil is rich, though a considerable 
 part of the land is broken. The Merino sheep 
 nave been introduced along with other agricul- 
 tural improvements, which are common through- 
 out the state. 
 
 ALLEGANY COUNTY, in Pennsylvania, extends 
 from the junction of the river of that name with 
 the Ohio, where its chief town Pittsburg is si- 
 tuated, to the New York line. 
 
 ALLEGANY, or AHALACHIAN MOUNTAINS, a 
 range of mountains in North America, which 
 extend in a direction west of south from the forty- 
 second to the thirty-fourth degree of north lati- 
 tude. They approach the sea, in the state of 
 New York, whence, in their course towards the 
 south, they recede from the sea-shore. Their 
 breadth may be estimated at 110 miles, and they 
 consist in a succession of parallel ridges, follow- 
 ing nearly the direction of the sea-coast, irregu- 
 larly intersected by rivers, and divided by valleys. 
 The ridge which separates the Atlantic rivers 
 from the western waters, generally known by 
 the name of Allegany, preserves throughout a 
 nearly equal distance of 250 miles from the 
 Atlantic ocean, and a nearly uniform elevation 
 of 3000 feet above the level of the sea. Those 
 mountains may, however, be perhaps considered 
 as consisting of two principal chains ; between 
 these lies the fertile Limestone valley, which, 
 although occasionally interrupted by transversal 
 
 ridges, and, "in one place, by the dividing of Al- 
 legany ridge, may be traced from Newburgh and 
 Esopus, on the Hudson river, to Knoxville on 
 the Tennessee. The eastern and narrowest 
 chain is the blue ridge of Virginia, which, in its 
 north-east course, under various names, traverses 
 the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New 
 Jersey, forms the high lands broken at West- 
 point by the tide of the Hudson, and then uniting 
 with the Green mountains, assumes a northerly 
 direction, and divides the waters of the Hudson, 
 and of lake Champlain, from those of Connec- 
 ticut river. On the borders of Virginia and North 
 Carolina the blue ridge is united, by an inferior 
 mountain, with the great western chain, and 
 thence to its southern extremity becomes the 
 principal or dividing mountain, discharging east- 
 wardly the rivers Roanoke, Pedee, Santee, and 
 Savannah, into the Atlantic ocean ; southwardly 
 the Chatahouchee, and the Alabama into the gulf 
 of Mexico, and westwardly the New River and 
 the Tennessee. The New River, taking a north- 
 wardly course, breaks through all the ridges of 
 the great western chain, and, at a short distance 
 beyond it, unites under the name of Kanhaway 
 with the Ohio. The Tennessee pursues at first a 
 south-west direction between the two chains, 
 until having reached, and in a westwardly 
 course turned, the southern extremity of the great 
 western chain, it assumes a northwardly direction, 
 and joins its waters with those of the Ohio, a few 
 miles above the confluence of that river with the 
 Mississippi. The western chain, much broader, 
 and more elevated, is known by the names of 
 Cumberland and Gauley mountains, from its 
 southern extremity, near the great bend of the 
 Tennessee river, until it becomes in Virginia the 
 principal or dividing mountain. Thence, in its 
 northerly course, towards the state of New York, 
 it discharges westwardly the Green Briar river, 
 which, by its junction with the New River, forms 
 the Kanhaway, and the rivers Monongahela and 
 Allegany, which, from their confluence at Pitts- 
 burgh, assume the name of Ohio. Eastwardly 
 it pours into the Atlantic ocean, James river, the 
 Potomac, and the Susquehannah. From the 
 northernmost and less elevated spurs of the chain, 
 the Genesee flows into the lake Ontario ; and in 
 that quarter the northerly branches of the Sus- 
 quehannah seem to take their source, from 
 amongst the inferior ridges, and in their course 
 to the Chesapeake to break through all. the 
 mountains. From the Susquehannah the prin- 
 cipal chain assumes a more eastwardly direction, 
 and is washed on the north by the lateral valley 
 of the river Mohawk. Whilst it gives rise 
 southwardly to the Delaware, it terminates under 
 the name of Catskill mountain, near the tide- 
 water of the Hudson. In the back parts of 
 Pennsylvania, scarce one acre in ten of this vast 
 range is capable of cultivation; but in other 
 parts, extensive tracts of fine arable and pasture 
 land intervene between the ridges, having a fine 
 rich black soil ; and some of the mountains admit 
 of cultivation almost to their tops. 
 
 ALLEGANY RIVER, a river of North America, 
 which rises on the western side of the Allegany 
 mountains, about twenty miles from Lake Erie ; 
 aud after a course of 200 miles in a south-wes 
 direction, meets the Monongahela at Pittsburg,
 
 ALL 
 
 646 
 
 ALL 
 
 when these rivers both unite from the Ohio. In 
 its course it is increased by French Creek and 
 other smaller rivers, and begins to be navigated 
 abovit 200 miles from Pittsburg. Its banks are 
 fertile, and the planters settled upon it, as well 
 as upon the Monongahela, export the products 
 of tneir grounds by way of the Ohio and the 
 Mississippi. For about 150 miles above Pitts- 
 burg the lands consist of white oak and chesnut 
 ridges, and in many places of poor pitch pines, 
 interspersed with tracts of good land and low 
 meadow. The waters of the Allegany are clear 
 and limpid in all weathers. 
 
 ALLEGATA, Lat. from allegatus, appoint- 
 ment ; a word anciently subscribed at the bottom 
 of rescripts and constitutions of the emperors, as 
 signata, ortestata, was under other instruments ; 
 &nd synonymous with verificata, verified. It 
 was, however, less used than data, propositum, 
 accepta, &c. 
 
 ALLEGE',- -\ Ad . . allegatio _ To 
 ALLEGATION, f ^ . J* o f excuse or 
 ALLEGE ABLE, V f ^ ^ affi 
 
 ALLE P EMENT 'S maintain; urge. 
 
 /Vl, I,]' GER. J 
 
 I wene be kyng allegid, bei were of his tresour, 
 Nobeles he wild haf briggid, be fals loue and erroure. 
 R. Brunne, p. 247. 
 And eke this noble duke aleyde 
 Full many an other skill, and seide, 
 She had well deserued wreche. 
 
 Gower. Con. A, book iii. 
 Thy son Enee, mysknawing this deray, 
 As thou allege!*, is absent now away. 
 
 Douglas, book x. p. 316. 
 Thei wollen a leggen al so, and by pe godspel preoven 
 
 hit 
 Nolite judicare quenquam. 
 
 Vision of Pier's Plouhman, p. 202. 
 Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here 
 With ignominious words, though darkly coucht ? 
 As if she had suborned some to swear 
 False allegations, to o'erthrow his state. 
 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI. 
 
 If we forsake the ways of grace or goodness, we 
 cannot allege any colour of ignorance, or want of in- 
 struction ; we cannot say, we have not learned them, 
 or we could not. Sprat. 
 
 He hath a clear and full view ; and there is no 
 more to be alleged, for his better information. Locke. 
 The narrative, if we believe it as confidently, as 
 the famous alleger of it (Phamphilio) appears to do, 
 would argue ; that there is no other principle requi- 
 site, than what may result from the lucky mixture of 
 several bodies. Boyle. 
 
 ALLEGEAS, or ALLEGIAS, a stuff manufac- 
 tured in the East Indies ; of which there are two 
 sorts ; the one of cotton, and the other of several 
 kinds of herbs, spun like flax. They are eight 
 ells by five, six, or seven eighths, and twelve ells 
 by three fourths or five eighths. 
 
 ALLE'GIANCE,n. 1 Ad: ligare, to bind 
 ALLE'GIANT. $ to. Old Fr. allegiance. 
 
 The tie or bond of fidelity which binds the go- 
 verned to the governor. Applied also to any tie 
 , or bond of duty, or good faith. 
 
 In this passe tyme, Robert duke of Normandy, 
 moued in concyence to vysyte the holy sepulture of 
 our Lorde, called before hym his lordes of his lande, 
 wyllynge and comaundynge theym to owe theyr 
 trewe aUegeawice vnto his yonge gone, Wyllyam -, and 
 
 to take hym for theyr lorde and duke, if he retourne 
 nat agayne. Fabyan, p. 220. 
 
 I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, 
 Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, 
 Even in the presence of the crowned king. 
 
 S/iaktp. 
 
 For your great graces 
 Heap'd upon me, poor undeserver, I 
 Can nothing render, but allegiant thanks, 
 My pray'rs to heaven for you. 
 
 Shaksp. Henry VIII. 
 We charge you, on allegiance to ourselves, 
 To hold your slaughtering hands, and keep the peace. 
 
 Shaksp. 
 
 The house of commons, to whom every day peti- 
 tions are directed by the several counties of England, 
 professing all allegiance to them, govern absolutely; 
 the lords concurring, or rather submitting, to whatso- 
 ever is proposed. Clarendon. 
 Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light, 
 Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right ; 
 To virtue in the paths of pleasure trod, 
 And own'd a father when he own'd a God. 
 Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then, 
 For nature knew no right divine in men. 
 
 Pope's Essay on Man, Epist. iii. 
 
 ALLEGIANCE, in English law, Lat. from 
 alligare, to bind, is the ligamen, or tie, which 
 binds the subject to the king, in return for that 
 protection which the king affords the subject. 
 The thing itself, substantially, is founded in the 
 nature of government ; the name and form are 
 derived to us from our Gothic ancestors. Under 
 the feudal system, every owner of lands held 
 them in subjection to some superior, from whom, 
 or from his ancestors, the tenant, or vassal, had 
 received them ; and there was a mutual trust 
 subsisting between the lord and vassal, that the 
 lord should protect the vassal in the enjoyment 
 of the territory he had granted him, and that 
 the vassal should be faithful to the lord, and de- 
 fend him against all his enemies. This obliga- 
 tion on the part of the. vassal was called his 
 fidelitas or fealty ; and an oath of fealty was 
 required by the feudal law to be taken by all 
 tenants to their landlord, which is expressed in 
 almost the same terms as our ancient oath of 
 allegiance ; except that, in the usual oath of 
 fealty, there was frequently an. exception of the 
 faith due to a superior lord, under whom the 
 landlord himself was perhaps only a tenant or 
 vassal. But when the acknowledgment was 
 made to the superior himself, who was vassal 
 to no man, it was no longer called the oath of 
 fealty, but the oath of allegiance ; and therein 
 the tenant swore to bear faith to his sovereign 
 lord, in opposition to all men, without any ex- 
 ception. Land held by this species of fealty, 
 was called feudum legium, a liege fee ; the vas- 
 sals, homines ligii, or liege-men ; and the sove- 
 reign, their dominus ligius, or liege lord. And 
 when sovereign princes did homage to each 
 other, for lands held under their respective sove- 
 reignties, a distinction was always made between 
 simple homage, which was only an acknow- 
 ledgment of tenure, and liege homage, which 
 included the fealty before-mentioned, and the 
 services consequent upon it. In Britain, as it 
 became a settled principle of tenure, that all 
 lands in the kingdom are holden of the king 3d 
 their sovereign and lord paramount, no oath but
 
 ALL 
 
 647 
 
 ALL 
 
 that of fealty could be taken to inferior lords ; 
 and the oath of allegiance was necessarily con- 
 fined to the person of the king alone. By an 
 easy analogy, the term of allegiance was soon 
 brouglu to signify all other engagements due 
 from subjects to their prince, as well as duties 
 merely territorial. And the oath of allegiance, 
 as administered in England for upwards of 600 
 years, contained a promise ' to be true and faith- 
 ful to the king and his heirs, and truth and faith 
 to bear of life and limb and terrene honour, and 
 not to know or hear of any ill or damage intended 
 him, without defending him therefrom.' But, 
 at the revolution, the terms of .this oath being 
 thought to favour non-resistance, the present 
 form was introduced by the Convention Parlia- 
 ment, which is more general and intermediate 
 than the former ; the subject only promising 
 ' that he will be faithful and bear true allegiance 
 to the king,' without mentioning ' his heirs,' or 
 specifying in the least wherein that allegiance 
 consists. The oath of supremacy is principally 
 calculated as a renunciation of the pope's pre- 
 tended authority : and the oath of abjuration, 
 introduced in the reign of King William III. 
 very amply supplies the loose and general texture 
 of the oath of allegiance; as it recognises the 
 right of his majesty, derived under the act of 
 settlement; engaging to support him to the 
 utmost of the juror's power ; promising to dis- 
 close all traitorous conspiracies against him ; and 
 expressly renouncing any claim of the descend- 
 ants of the late pretender, in explicit terms. 
 This oath must be taken by all persons in any 
 office or employment ; and may be tendered by 
 justices of the peace to any person whom they 
 suspect of disaffection. It may also be tendered 
 to all persons above the age of twelve years, 
 whether natives, denizens, or aliens. Besides 
 these express engagements, the law also holds 
 that there is an implied, original, and virtual al- 
 legiance, due from every subject to his sovereign, 
 antecedent to any express promise, and although 
 the subject never swore any allegiance in form. 
 Thus Sir Edward Coke observes, that 'all sub- 
 jects are equally bounden to their allegiance as 
 if they had taken the oath ; because it is written 
 by the finger of the law in their hearts, and the 
 taking of the corporeal oath is but an outward de- 
 coration of the same.' Allegiance, both expressed 
 and implied, is however distinguished by the 
 law iuto two species, the one natural, the other 
 local. 
 
 In natural-born subjects, and also in subjects 
 naturalized by law, allegiance is perpetual, and 
 cannot be dissolved. The former, immediately 
 upon their birth, are under the king's protection ; 
 and the latter are so, immediately upon their 
 naturalization. This species of allegiance there- 
 fore becomes a debt of gratitude, which cannot 
 be forfeited or altered by any change of time, 
 place, or circumstance ; nor by any thing except 
 the united concurrence of the legislature. Thus, 
 a Briton, who removes to France or to China, 
 owes the same allegiance to the British sovereign, 
 as when at home ; and the same twenty years 
 hence as now. 
 
 The oath of allegiance, or rather the allegiance 
 sworn to in it, is held to be applicable, not only 
 
 to the political capacity of the king, or regal 
 office, but to his natural person and blood-royal ; 
 and for the misapplication of their allegiance, 
 viz. to the regal capacity, exclusive of the person 
 of the king, were the Spencers banished in the 
 reign of Edward II. 
 
 It is to be observed, however, in explanation 
 of this allegiance, that it does not preclude re- 
 sistance to the king, when his misconduct or 
 weakness is such as to make resistance beneficial 
 to the community. Allegiance is obedience to 
 lawful commands. If the king should issue a 
 proclamation, levying money, or imposing any 
 service or restraint upon the subject, beyond 
 what the law authorized, there would exist no 
 sort of obligation to obey such a proclamation. 
 Neither can allegiance extend to the king after 
 he is actually deposed, driven into exile, or 
 otherwise rendered incapable of exercising the 
 regal office. The promise of allegiance implies, 
 that the person to whom it is made continues to 
 exercise the power, and afford the protection, 
 which belong to the office of king. 
 
 Local allegiance is that which is due from an 
 alien or stranger boni, so long as he continues 
 within the king's protection ; and it ceases the 
 instant such stranger transfers himself from this 
 kingdom to another. It is founded on the prin- 
 ciples of civil policy, ' that the government which 
 gives protection requires obedience.' The com- 
 mon law prescribes the taking the oath of 
 allegiance by all persons above twelve years of 
 age, at courts leet ; and there are various statutes 
 requiring the oaths of allegiance and supremacy 
 to be taken under penalties. Persons above the 
 age of eighteen may be summoned by any justice 
 of peace to take these oaths ; and if any natural- 
 born subject be withdrawn from his allegiance, 
 and be reconciled to the pope or see of Rome, 
 or shall promise obedience to any other state, he 
 and his advisers incur the guilt of treason. 1 Eliz. 
 c. i. 1 William and Mary, c. i. 8. 1 Anne, stat. 
 i. c. 22, &c. &c. 
 
 AL'LEGORYE, or-> AAXoe, another; ayo- 
 AL'LEGORY, n. pw, to make a speech; 
 
 ALLEGOR'ICAL, i oXXijyopta,anothermean- 
 ALLEGOR'ICALLY, [ing. A figurative dis- 
 AL'LEGORIST, course in which some- 
 
 AL'LEGORIZER. J thing is intended besides 
 what the words literally signify. 
 
 For it is -wrytten, that Abraham had two sonnes, 
 the one by a bonde mayde the other by a fre woma. 
 Yee and he whych was borne of the bonde woman, 
 was born after the flesshe : but he which was of the 
 fre woma, was borne by promes. Which thynge9 
 are spoken by an Allegorye. For these are two te*- 
 tametes. Bible, 1539. Galatiani, iv. 
 
 Wyth hys alkgoricall cxposicion of spirituall eating 
 of Christes godhead and of his bodi by beliefe of hys 
 passion, he goeth about to take away from vs the 
 very lytterall truth, of the very eating and bodely 
 receiulng of Christes own veri flesh and blood. 
 
 Sir Thomai More'* Worket, p. 1041, c. i. 
 
 When our Saviour said, in an allegorical and mys- 
 tical sense, ' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 Man, and drink hi blood, ye have no life in you ;' 
 the hearers understood him literally and grossly. 
 
 Bentley. 
 
 The epithet of Apollo for shooting, is capable of 
 two applications ; one literal, in respect of the darU
 
 ALL 
 
 048 
 
 ALL 
 
 and bow the designs of that god; the other allegorical, in correct allegory it is real. The history of 
 
 in regard to the rays of the sun.. V*pe- Abraham's family, particularly Sarah s miracu- 
 
 Fable may be divided into the Probable, the Alle- jous and Hagar's natural conception, w,th the 
 
 * TJ Kn-th oTiil ctnto rit thpir nnc arp> pvnrpsiQlv nallan 
 
 gorical, and" the Marvellous. Pope 
 
 The stoic philosophers, as we learn from Cicero, 
 
 were great allegorisers. Coventry. Phil. Con. 
 
 Neither must we draw out our allegory too long ; 
 
 lest either we make ourselves obscure ; or fall into 
 
 affectation, which is childish. Ben Jonson. 
 
 birth and strife of their sons, are expressly called 
 an allegory, Gal. iv. 24. representing the two 
 covenants. But although this distinction applies, 
 in general, to scriptural allegories and parables, 
 in other writings allegory is universally under- 
 stood to be a work of imagination. Thus Spen- 
 ser's Faerie Queene, Butler's Iludibras, Swift's 
 
 , . , v . ,-r her s raune vvuccue. jjunci a uuuiuioa. uvnua 
 
 This word nympha meant nothing else, but (by Gulliver's Travels, &c. are 
 
 nJIffinnA the vegetative humour or moisture, that ' . 
 
 SLhandgivethlifetotreesand flowers, whereby allegories, wherein the figures, personages, and 
 
 quicKenetn a] p eac ham. scenes represented, are entirely imaginary, though 
 
 ey grov 
 
 On the broad stern, a pencil warm and bold, 
 That never servile rules of art controll'd, 
 An allegwic tale on high pourtray'd 
 There a young hero, here a royal maid. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck, can. ii. 
 
 the moral and satire contained in them apply to 
 real life and historical facts. Nothing gives 
 greater pleasure than an allegory, when the re- 
 presentative subject bears a strong analogy, in all 
 its circumstances, to that which is represented. 
 No author ancient or modern has drawn a 
 
 ,. 
 
 ALLEGORY, in composition, a figure of speech more c lete or fect a ii eg ory than John 
 which conceals, under the literal meaning B his p^m's Progress; a work 
 
 of our words, another and a different sense. w] ' we believ6j hag afforded p i easure to many 
 
 seems to be derived from aXXoe, another, and read even am those who do not entirely 
 ayopa, an harangue ; and is a species of compo- e of e doc trines it inculcates. An emi- 
 
 sition with which the eastern writings abound. ^ London bookseller, lately deceased, who 
 An allegory differs from a metaphor or simile, as had made an estimate of the quant i ty O f copies 
 it consists of a continued story, told in a chain gold Qf the bookg most universa ii y read> says> 
 of metaphors. Thus, likening a ship to a state that ards of 430,000 copies of Bunyan's Pil- 
 is a simile ; but to steer the ship through storms Krim ' s r PrOKress have bee a printed ; which exceeds 
 without, to rule it in spite of mutiny within and ^ e gale Qf ^ the Qther books in the English 
 to reach the destined port in safety, signifying i e> exce t> the Bible and p rayer books, 
 
 the outward warfare and the internal rebellions &c b aboye 100;000 copies ; This affords an 
 of that state, overcome by the wisdom of its go- indubitable proof how universally a well written 
 vernor, is an allegory, and one of the most usual, al w O ry is relished. See FABLE, METAPHOR, 
 and the most obvious kind. Thus Horace, 1. i. p A ABLE TYPE, &c. 
 
 ode xiv. ALLEGORICAL SYMBOLS. The following ex- 
 
 O navis, referent in mare te novi ira.ct from one of Plutarch's moral essays, is a 
 
 Fluctus. O quid agis ? fortiter occupa curious specimen of the symbolical language, in 
 
 Portum. which the ancients sometimes concealed their 
 
 The principal subject is kept out of view, but precepts. These allegorical symbols were em- 
 all its circumstances and properties will be re- ployed by Pythagoras ; and the Chaldean ora- 
 presented ' in common with all other metaphorical cles, given by Mr. Taylor, could they be at this 
 language.' Says a late author, ' an allegory is day as ingeniously elucidated, might appear 
 exactly similar to an hieroglyphical painting, only more significant, and less mysterious. We must 
 substituting words for colours.' not feed on fish with black tails ; that is, we 
 
 Numberless instances of allegory, in the highest must avoid all connexions with men of a malig- 
 style of excellence, might be given from writers uant character.- Tread not on the scales ; that is, 
 in our own language, as it has been a favourite respect justice, and be careful not to infringe the 
 figure of composition with us. The Bible abounds laws. Sit not on the bushel; that is, fly all in- 
 in the finest instances, of which Blair gives dolence, and labour for the necessaries of life. 
 Psalm Ixxx. ver. 8 16 as a specimen. Spen- Wear not a tight ring; that is, preserve your li 
 ser's Faerie Queene is an allegory throughout, berty, and be the slave of no person. Stir not 
 and Addison, in his Spectator, abounds with al- the fire with a sword ; that is, irritate not a inaa 
 legories, any of which maybe taken as a prototype in a passion, but strive to calm him. Gnaw na 
 for this kind of figure. The resemblance of an your heart ; that is, give not yourself up to de 
 allegory to its real and intrinsic meaning may vouring griefs. Abstain from eating beans ; tha 
 be too obvious ; but equal care must be taken is, do not meddle with the affairs of government . 
 that it may not be broken or obscure ; for in for anciently the votes for the election of magis- 
 the one case the pleasure is destroyed, and in trates were made with beans. It is in this man- 
 the other the instruction intended to be conveyed ner that the commencement of all knowledge ha 
 is overwrought, hidden, and finally lost. Most been made in enigmas ; and these have appeared 
 writers are unlucky in their choice, the analogy to remote posterity more absurd and barbarous 
 being generally so faint and obscure, as rather than they really were, by metaphors which are 
 to puzzle than to please. unintelligible, and customs which are forgotten, 
 
 The distinctive characters of allegory and pa- ALLEGRANZA, a very small island, o. 
 rable have not in general been accurately defined, rather rock, the most northerly of the Canaries. 
 The beautiful parable 01 the Egyptian vine, It is barren and destitute of inhabitants, and is 
 Psalm Ixxx. is by no means a correct allegory, only resorted to by those of the neighbouring 
 The figure in parable is altogether imaginary; islands at certain times to gather orchilla.
 
 ALL 
 
 649 
 
 ALL 
 
 ALLEGRAMENTE, in music, rather quick. 
 
 ALLEGRESSIMO, in music, very quick. 
 
 ALLEGRETTO, in music, a diminutive of alle- 
 gro, which is more quick and lively. 
 
 ALLEGRI (Alexander,) an Italian satirical 
 poet, of the latter end of the sixteenth century, 
 who was born at Florence. He served in the 
 army, but afterwards became an ecclesiastic. 
 His principal works are Rime piaceovoli, 
 Lettere di ser poi Pedante, and Fantastica 
 Vizioni di Parri da Pozzolatico. These were 
 published together in one volume, which is now 
 very scarce. Allegri left other poetry in the 
 hands of his family, which never was published, 
 together with a tragedy entitled Idomeneus, and 
 several Latin poems of considerable excellence. 
 
 ALLEGRI (Gregorio,) was an eminent mu- 
 sical composer of the seventeenth century, a na- 
 tive of Rome, and by profession an ecclesiastic. 
 He was a disciple of Nanini, who was contempo- 
 rary with Palestrina, and his. intimate friend. His 
 abilities as a singer were inconsiderable, and yet 
 be was accounted an admirable master of har- 
 mony ; and the pope appointed him to be one 
 of the singers at the Vatican in 1629. To his 
 extraordinary merit as a composer of church 
 music, he is said to have -joined a devout and 
 benevolent disposition, and an excellent moral 
 character. He died February 18th, 1672, and 
 was buried in the Chiesa Nuova, before the chapel 
 of St. Filippo Neri. 
 
 ALLEGRI (Antonio.) See CORREGIO. 
 
 ALLEGRO, in music, a word denoting one 
 of the six distinctions of time. It expresses a 
 sprightly motion, the quickest of all, except 
 Presto, and originally means gay, as in Milton. 
 
 ALLEGRO, Piu, in the Italian music, intimates 
 to play or sing a little quicker. 
 
 ALLEGRO Poco Piu, that the part it is joined 
 to must be played, or sung, a little more brisk 
 and lively than allegro alone requires. The 
 usual distinctions succeed each other in the fol- 
 lowing order : grave, adagio, largo, vivace, alle- 
 gro, and presto. The movements of the same 
 name, as adagio, or allegro, are swifter in triple 
 than in common time. 
 
 ALLEIN (Joseph,) the son of Tobias Allein, 
 was born in Devizes in 1633, and educated at 
 Oxford. In 1655 he became assistant to Mr. 
 Newton, of Taunton Magdalen, in Somerset- 
 shire ; but was deprived for non-conformity. He 
 died in 1668, aged 35. He was a man of great 
 learning, and greater charity ; preserving, though 
 a non-conformist, and a severe sufferer on that 
 account, great respect for the church, and loyalty 
 to his sovereign. He wrote several books of 
 piety, which are highly esteemed ; but the most 
 celebrated is his Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, 
 of which the sale has always been considerable. 
 
 ALLEIN (Richard,) a nonconformist divine, 
 born in 1611 , at Ditchet, in Somersetshire. He 
 was educated at Oxford, and in 1641 obtained 
 the living of Batcomb, in Somersetshire, from 
 which he was ejected for nonconformity, and 
 preached privately till his death in 1681. His 
 writings on practical divinity have been useful. 
 
 ALLELENGYON, in antiquity, a kind of tax 
 or tribute, which the rich paid for tli poor, when 
 absent in the armies. 
 
 ALLELOPHAGI,frorn aXX n \ c , one another, 
 and <f>aju, I eat, in natural history, a term used 
 by Mouffet, and other writers on insects, to ex- 
 press a peculiar genus of flies, which devour one 
 another ; thus called in distinction from the he- 
 terophagi, which feed on different substances, and 
 not on one another. 
 
 ALLELUL\, ALLELUJAH, or HALLELUJAH, 
 my?n, Praise ye the Lord. 
 
 He will set his tongue to those pious divine 
 strains, which may be a proper przludium to those 
 allelitjuhs he hopes eternally to sing. . 
 
 Government of the Tongue. 
 Then shall thy saints 
 Unfeigned hallelujahs to Thee sing ; 
 Hymns of high praise. Milton. 
 
 ALLELUJA, in botany, a name used by many 
 for the common wood sorrel. 
 
 ALLELUJAH, in sacred music, an expression 
 formerly used in religious assemblies, as a call 
 for each other to praise the Lord. 
 
 ALLEMAND, a sort of grave solemn music, 
 invented by the Germans, with good measure, 
 and a slow movement. Also a brisk kind of 
 dance, very common in Germany and Switzer- 
 land. 
 
 ALLEMANDA, in music books, a certain air 
 in common time, and in two parts, each part 
 being played twice over. 
 
 ALLEMANNIC, ALAMANNIC, or ALEMANIC, 
 from Alemanni, Allemanni, or Alamanni ; the 
 name whereby the German nation was anciently 
 known ; any thing relating to the ancient Ger- 
 mans. Goldastus published collections of writers 
 on Allemannic affairs. The Allemannic lan- 
 guage was spoken throughout the southern parts 
 of Germany, which was divided into several dis- 
 tricts ; the principal of which are the Suevic and 
 Helvetic. It differed from the Francic, which 
 was the language in use through the northern 
 parts of Germany. The chief dialects of this are 
 the Palatine, Franconian, and Saxon. 
 
 ALLEMANNIC LAW, otherwise called the Sue- 
 vic law, that which obtained in the more southern 
 parts of the country, as the Saxon law did through- 
 out the northern. Schiller has published the feu- 
 dal Allemannic law. 
 
 ALLEN, a county town of Kentucky, in the 
 United States, North America, population 5327; 
 Scotsville, 160 miles south-west by south of 
 Frankfort, is the chief town : also the name of a 
 newly formed county in the state of Ohio. 
 
 ALLEN, BOG OF, an immense tract of moss, 
 the largest in Ireland, which runs through part 
 of the counties of Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Kil- 
 kenny, and Meath. Part of it has been recovered 
 and cultivated, by burning and sowing it with 
 rape-seed. 
 
 ALLEN, ISLE OF, corrupted from Hy-al-lam, 
 Irish, i. e. the district of the great plain, a dis- 
 trict of Ireland, in the county of Kildare. 
 
 ALLEN, (John,) archbishop of Dublin, under 
 Henry the VIII. was educated in the university 
 of Oxford, but took his degree of A. B. at Cam- 
 bridge. Being sent by Dr. Warham, archbishop 
 of Canterbury, to the pope, he continued at Rome 
 nine years, and was there created LL. D. After 
 his return he was appointed chaplain to cardinal 
 Wolsey, and jvdge of his court as legate a latere.
 
 ALL 
 
 650 
 
 ALL 
 
 He assisted the cardinal in suppressing forty 
 small monasteries, for the erection of his colleges 
 at Oxford and Ipswich ; and Wolsey procured 
 him the living of Dalby in Leicestershire. In 
 1528 he was consecrated archbishop of Dublin, 
 and about the same time made chancellor of Ire- 
 land. His principal works are, 1. Epistolae de 
 Pallii significatione activa et passiva. 2. De 
 Consuetudinibus ac statutis in tuitoriis causis 
 observandis ; with several other pieces on eccle- 
 siastical affairs. He was barbarously murdered 
 in an insurrection set on foot by Thomas Fitzge- 
 rald, eldest son of the earl of Kildare, in 1534. 
 
 ALLEN, (Thomas,) a famous mathematician 
 of the sixteenth century, born at Utoxeter in 
 Staffordshire, the 21st of December, 1542. He 
 went to Oxford in 1561 ; and in 1567 took his 
 decree of A. M. In 1570 he retired to Gloucester- 
 hall ; and when Robert earl of Leicester would 
 have conferred a bishopric upon him, his love of 
 solitude made him decline the offer. The author 
 of a book, entitled Leicester's Commonwealth, 
 accused him of using the black art, to promote the 
 arl of Leicester's unlawful designs, and to bring 
 about a match between him and queen Elizabeth. 
 He published in Latin the second and third 
 books of Chuidius Ptolemy of Pelusium, con- 
 cerning the Judgment of the Stars ; or, Quadri- 
 l>ariite Construction, with an exposition. He 
 vroto also a Commentary on Lilly's books, and 
 on Joliri I {ale's work, De Scriptoribus M. Bri- 
 tanniae. Having lived to a great age, he died in 
 Gloucester-hall in 16:52. 
 
 ALLENBUKG, a town of East Prussia, in 
 the circle of Tapiau, \viili 1350 inhabitants. It 
 stands on the Alle, aboi "Jiirty miles south-east 
 of Konigsberg. 
 
 ALLENCE, in mineralogy, another name for 
 stannum. 
 
 ALLENDALE, E.andW. townships inTindal 
 ward, Northumberland, nine miles and a half 
 south-west from Hexham, and 291 miles from 
 London ; containing 790 houses and 4629 inha- 
 bitants. They are chiefly inhabited by miners, and 
 stand, as the name implies, in a dale at the foot of 
 Tinney-hill, on the river Allen, which flows into 
 the South Tyne. 
 
 ALLENDORF, a bailiwick and small town of 
 Hesse Darmstadt, between Marburg and Giessen, 
 with 1030 inhabitants : six miles north-east of 
 Giessen. Long. 6. 51'. E. lat. 50. 40'. N. Also 
 a small town of Germany, in the duchy of West- 
 phalia. 
 
 ALLENDORF, a town in the electorate of 
 Hesse-Cassel, remarkable for its salt-works and 
 three stone bridges. It is seated on the Weser, 
 fifteen miles east of Cassel, and contains 2500 
 inhabitants. 
 
 ALLENSTEIN, in Polish Olsztan, a baili- 
 wick and town, with a castle, in East Prussia. 
 Population 2000. Sixty miles south of Konigs- 
 berg. Long. 20. 25'. E. lat. 53. 40'. N. 
 
 ALLENSTOWN, a town of New Jersey, 
 North America, fifteen miles north-east from 
 Burlington, and thirteen south by east from 
 Princeton. Also a township of North America, 
 in New Hampshire, situated on the east side of 
 Merrimack river, twenty-five miles north-west of 
 Exeter, and forty from Portsmouth. 
 
 ALLEN-TOWN, Northampton county, in Penn- 
 
 sylvania, is situated on the point of land formed 
 by Jordan's creek, and the Little Leheigh, and 
 contains about ninety houses, and an academy. 
 Long. 75. 30'. W. lat. 40. 35'. N. 
 
 ALLER, a river of Germany, which rises in 
 Magdeburg, runs north-west through the duchy 
 of Lunenburgh, and, passing by Zell, falls into 
 the Weser a little below Verdun. 
 
 ALLERBERG, a market-town of Bavaria, 
 sixteen miles from Nuremberg. Inhabitants, 
 1570. 
 
 ALLER SANS JOUR, in law, Fr. to go without 
 day : to be finally dismissed the court, no farther 
 day being appointed. 
 
 ALLERIA, a decayed town of Corsica, where 
 king Theodore first landed, in 1739. Long. 8. 
 50'. E. lat. 42. 5'. N. 
 
 ALLERION, or ALERION ; from aquilario, a 
 diminutive of aquila, an eagle : in heraldry, a sort 
 of eagle without beak or feet, having nothing 
 perfect but the wings. They differ from martlets 
 by having their wings expanded, whereas those 
 of the martlet are close and denote imperialists 
 vanquished and disarmed ; for which reason 
 they are more common in French, than in Ger- 
 man coats of arms. 
 
 ALLERTON, NORTH, or NORTH-ALLERTON, 
 (anciently ALVERTON), a borough and market- 
 town in Allertonshire wap. N. It. of York, 222 
 miles from London ; containing 557 houses and 
 2626 inhabitants. The manor has been subject 
 to the bishop of Durham from the time of Wil- 
 liam Rufus. He appoints a bailiff for life, who 
 presides at the election for members of parlia- 
 ment, the choice of whom is in the whole of the 
 housekeepers who pay scot and lot. The town 
 chiefly consists of one street about half a mile 
 long, on a small stream called the Wiske, a branch 
 of the Swale. The church is a Gothic structure, 
 built in the form of a cross, and contains several 
 handsome monuments. Here is a new prison, 
 erected on Mr. Howard's plan, as a relief to the 
 county gaol at York ; it consists of thirty cells, 
 with four strong ones for capital offenders, and a 
 place for correction and labour. Formerly there 
 was an ancient castle at North Allerton, which 
 was enlarged by bishop Pudsey ; but seized and 
 destroyed by Henry II. A small convent for 
 monks of the Cistercian order was founded here 
 by Edward I. but no remains are extant. Near 
 this place was fought the celebrated battle be- 
 tween the English and Scots, called the battle of 
 the Standard, in 1138. The spot retains the 
 name of Standard Hill, and some caverns near 
 are supposed to be the places where the Scots 
 were buried. When the invaders under the 
 command of David, king of Scotland, had ad- 
 vanced as far as this town, committing the most 
 horrid murders and desolations, they were met by 
 the English army under the command of the earls 
 of Albemarle and Ferrers. In order to animate 
 them, the archbishop of York brought forth a 
 consecrated standard from the convent of Bever- 
 ley, which was drawn on a four-wheeled carriage ; 
 from this circumstance it derived its name. The 
 battle was fought with great obstinacy on both 
 sides ; until the Scots, through a mistake, ima- 
 gined their king was slain, when the flight be- 
 came general, and a great slaughter ensued The 
 town has a good weekly market on Wednesday
 
 651 
 
 ALL 
 
 for corn, catfr.e, and provisions. The living is a 
 vicarage, value l7. 10s., of exempt jurisdiction. 
 Patron, the dean and chapter of Durham. 
 
 ALLERTON, a township in the parish of Brad- 
 ford, North Riding of York, 199 miles from Lon- 
 don, and three north-east of Bradford. Popu- 
 lation 1488. 
 
 ALLERTON-CHAPEL, a township and curacy of 
 Leeds parish, 1 93 miles from London, and three 
 north of Leeds, with 1678 inhabitants. It has a 
 hospital for ten widows, with an endowment of 
 fifty pounds annually, given by Robert Parker. 
 
 ALLERSHEIM, a market-town of Bavaria, 
 six miles south of Wurtzburgh. 
 
 ALLESTRY, (Richard, D. D.) born at Up- 
 pington in 1619, was educated at Coventry, 
 and afterwards at Oxford. He took up arms for 
 king Charles I. and was sometimes seen with his 
 musket in one hand, and his book in the other. 
 Being very active in the service of Charles II. 
 before his restoration, he was seized at Dover by 
 a party of soldiers, as an emissary of the royalists, 
 and confined six or eight weeks. On the resto- 
 ration, he was made canon of Christ-Church, 
 chaplain to the king, and regius professor of 
 divinity. In 1665 he was appointed provost of 
 Eton college, and raised the school, which he 
 found in a low condition, to great reputation. 
 The west side of the outer quadrangle of the 
 college was built from the ground at his expense. 
 He died in 1680, and lies buried in Eton chapel. 
 
 ALLESTRY, (Jacob,) of the same family as the 
 above, entered at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1 671; 
 was elected student in 1672 ; took his degree in 
 arts in 1679 ; and died in 1686. He published 
 Examen Poeticum, containing verses and pasto- 
 rals, spoken in the theatre at Oxford in 1681, 
 before James, duke of York, his duchess, and 
 the lady Anne. 
 
 ALLEVEURE,the smallest copper coin that 
 is struck in Sweden, not worth quite two deniers 
 Tournois, of France, or above a British half- 
 penny. 
 
 ALLEVIARE, in old records, to levy or pay 
 an accustomed fine or composition. 
 
 ALLE'VIATE,z;.-) Ad: leva, levis, light. 
 
 ALLEVIA'TION, > To make light ; to lift up 
 
 ALLE'VIATIVE. j a weight or burden so as 
 to relieve the person carrying it. To lessen ; to 
 comfort ; to ease ; to soften. 
 
 These are, my son, special compositions of whole- 
 some recipes for the several maladies of thy soul ; 
 wherein it shall be my happiness to have suggested 
 unto thee such thoughts as may any whit avail to the 
 alleviation of thy sorrows. 
 
 Bp. Hall'i Balm of Gilead. 
 
 The pains, taken in the speculative, will much al- 
 leviate me in describing the practical part. Harvey. 
 
 Most of the distempers are the effects of abused 
 plenty and luxury, and must not be charged upon our 
 Maker ; who, notwithstanding, hath provided excel- 
 lent medicines, to alleviate those evils which we 
 bring upon ourselves. Beiuley. 
 
 Some cheering alleviative to lads kept in pure 
 slavery to a few Greek and Latin words. 
 
 Corah's Doom. 
 
 All apologies for, and alleviations of, faults, though 
 they are the heights of humanity ; yet they are not 
 the favours, but the duties, of friendship. South. 
 
 This loss of one-fifth of their income will sit heavy 
 
 on them, who shall feel it, without the alleviation of 
 aay P>nt. 
 
 He [David] sought in piety that peace which he 
 could not find in empire, and alleviated the disquie- 
 tudes of state with the exercises of devotion. Home. 
 
 AL'LEY, n. Fr. aller, to go. Skinner de- 
 fines it a way through which it is possible to go 
 or pass. Applied to walks in a garden, to 
 paths, or passages, from streets and roads. 
 
 So long about the aUeyes is he gan, 
 Till he was comen again to thilke pery, 
 Wher as this Damian sitteth ful mery 
 On high among the freshe leves grene. 
 
 Chaucer. The Merchantes Tale, vi. p. 414. 
 And all within were walks and alleys wide, 
 With footing worn, and leading inward far. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 Where alleys are close gravelled, the earth putteth 
 forth the first year knotgrass, and after spiregrass. 
 
 Bacon's Natural History. 
 Yonder alleys green, 
 Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Come, my fair love ! Our morning's task we lose : 
 Some labour, ev'n the easiest life would choose : 
 Ours is not great ; the dangling bows to crop, 
 Whose too luxuriant growth our alleys stop. 
 
 Dry den. 
 
 The thriving plants, ignoble broomsticks made. 
 Now sweep those alleys they were born to shade. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Here oft the peasant, with enquiring face, f 
 
 Bewilder'd trudges on from place to place ; 
 He dwells on every sign with stupid gaze, 
 Enters the narrow alleys doubtful maze. 
 
 Gay's Trivia, book ii. 
 
 ALLEY, in horticulture, a straight parallel 
 walk, bounded on both sides with trees, shrubs 
 &c. and usually covered with gravel or turf. 
 
 ALLEY, in husbandry, the vacant spaces be- 
 tween the uttermost row of corn on one bed and 
 the nearest row to it on the next parallel bed ; 
 usually about four feet in breadth, exclusive of 
 the partitions between the rows of corn in the 
 beds. See HOEING. 
 
 ALLEY, in perspective, that which, ia order to 
 have a greater appearance of length, is made 
 wider at the entrance than the termination. 
 
 ALLEY, (William,) a bishop of Exeter in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, was born at Great 
 Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. From Eton, in 
 1528, he removed to Cambridge, where he took 
 the degree of A. B. He also studied some time 
 at Oxford ; was presented to a living, and be- 
 came a zealous reformer. Upon queen Mary s 
 accession he left his cure, and retired into the 
 north of England, where he maintained his wife 
 and himself by teaching, and practising physic. 
 On queen Elizabeth's accession he went to 
 London, where he acquired great reputation by 
 reading the divinity lecture at St. Paul's, and 11 
 1760 he was made bishop of Exeter. He died 
 in 1570 ; and was author of, 1. The poor man s 
 library, two vols. fol. Lond. 1571, which contains 
 twelve lectures on the first epistle of St. F< ter, 
 read at St. Paul's. 2. A Hebrew grammar. He 
 also translated the Pentateuch, in the version 
 the Bible which was undertaken by queer 
 Elizabeth's command.
 
 ALL 
 
 652 
 
 ALL 
 
 ALLEYN, (Edward,) an English actor in the 
 reigns of Elizabeth and James I. but principally 
 known as the founder of Dulwich college, Surrey. 
 He was born at London, in 1566, and in high 
 favour with the town, in 1592. lie usually 
 played the capital parts, and was one of the ori- 
 ginal actors in Shakspeare's and Ben Jonson's 
 plays, the latter highly Applauded him. He 
 was keeper of the royal bear-garden, which 
 was frequented by vast crowds of spectators; 
 and was thrice married. Aubrey mentions a 
 tradition, that Alleyn playing as a demon, with 
 six others, in one of Shakspeare's plays, was, in 
 the midst of the scene, surprised by the appear- 
 ance of the devil himself; and that this so worked 
 upon his imagination, that he made a vow of 
 charity, which he performed by building DUL- 
 WICH COLLEGE, which see. He met with some 
 difficulty in obtaining a charter for settling his 
 lands on the college, having proposed to endow 
 it with 8000, per annum, for the maintenance of 
 a master, warden, and four fellows, whereof three 
 were to be clergymen, and the fourth a skilful 
 organist ; also six poor men and as many women, 
 besides twelve poor boys to be educated till the 
 age of fourteen or sixteen, and then put out to 
 some trade. Lord Chancellor Bacon wished 
 a part of them to be settled for the support of 
 two academical lectures. He was himself the 
 first master of this college, which he called the 
 College of God's gift ; and died, Nov. 25th, 1626, 
 aged 61. In the chapel of his college, where he 
 was buried, there is a tomb-stone over his grave, 
 with an inscription. His original diary is also 
 preserved. 
 
 ALLEZER, Fr. in military affairs, to cleanse 
 the mouth of a cannon or other piece of ord- 
 nance, and to increase the bore, so as to produce 
 its determined calibre. 
 
 ALLEZOIR, Fr. in military affairs, is a frame 
 of timber suspended in the air with strong cord- 
 age, on which is placed a piece of ordnance 
 with the muzzle downwards. In this situation 
 the bore is rounded and enlarged by means of 
 an instrument which has a very sharp and strong 
 edge, made to traverse the bore by men or horses, 
 in a horizontal direction. 
 
 ALLIA, in ancient geography, a river of Italy, 
 now the Aja, which, running down a very steep 
 channel from the mountains of Crustuminum, 
 mixed with the Tiber at forty miles from Rome. 
 It is famous for the great slaughter of the Ro- 
 mans by the Gauls, under Brennus; hence Al- 
 liensis dies, an unlucky day. ' Our ancestors,' 
 says Cicero, ' deemed the day of the fight of 
 Allia more fatal than that of taking the city.' 
 Virgil alludes to this battle, JEn. vii. v. 717. 
 
 Quosque secans infaustum interluit Allia nomen. 
 
 ALLIAGE, in military affairs, a term used by 
 the French, to denote the composition of metals 
 used for the fabrication of cannon and mortars, 
 &c. 
 
 ALLIANCE, with the ancient Romans, though 
 a sort of servitude, was much coveted. Ari- 
 arathes, we are told by Polybius, offered a sa- 
 crifice to the gods by way of thanksgiving for 
 having obtained this alliance. The Romans had 
 different sorts of allies ; some only united to 
 them by a participation of privileges, as the 
 
 Latini and Hemici ; others uy their foundation, 
 as the colonies; others by the benefactions they 
 received from them, as Massinissa, Eumenes, 
 and Attains, who owed their kingdoms to Rome ; 
 others again by free treaties, which last became 
 finally subjects, as the kings of Bithynia, Cap- 
 padocia, Egypt, and most of the cities of Greece: 
 lastly, others by compulsive treaties, and sub- 
 jection, as Philip and Antiochus. For they 
 never granted peace to an enemy, without mak- 
 ing an alliance with him : that is, they never 
 subdued any people without using that conquest 
 as a means of subduing others. The forms or 
 ceremonies of alliance have been various in dif- 
 ferent ages and countries. Anciently eating and 
 drinking and offering sacrifices together were 
 customary rites of ratifying alliance. Among the 
 ancient Arabs, alliances were confirmed by draw- 
 ing blood out of the palms of the hands of the 
 two contracting princes with a sharp stone, dip- 
 ping in it a piece of their garments, and there- 
 with smearing other stones. Among the people 
 of Colchis, the confirmation of alliances was 
 said to be effected by one of the princes offer- 
 ing his wife's breasts to the other to suck, which 
 he was obliged to do till blood issued. 
 
 ALLIANCE, in a figurative sense, is applied to 
 any kind of union or connection ; thus we say, 
 there is an alliance between the church and 
 state. 
 
 ALLIARIA, in botany, dame's violet. . 
 
 ALLICA, in entomolgy, a species of papilio. 
 
 ALLICAR, in chemistry, the same as acetum. 
 
 ALLIER, a department of France, so named 
 from the river of the next article, composed of 
 the old provinces of the Bourbonnois, &c. part 
 of the generalite of Moulins : having the 
 department of the Creuse and Cher west ; the 
 Cher and Nievre, north ; the Saone and Loire 
 east, and the Pay de Dome, south, for its boun- 
 daries. It contains the four arrondissements of 
 Mont Lucon, Moulins, Gannat, and Palessi ; and 
 254,555 inhabitants. 
 
 ALLIER, a river of France, which rises in the 
 mountains of Lozere, near Coudray, and run- 
 ning through the ci-devant provinces of Niver- 
 nois, Bourbonnois and Auvergne, becomes na- 
 vigable near Viale, and falls into the Loire above 
 Orleans. 
 
 ALLIGATI, in Roman antiquity, the basest 
 kind of slaves, who were usually kept fettered. 
 The Romans had three orders of slaves or ser- 
 vants ; the first employed in the management of 
 their estates ; the second in the menial or lower 
 functions of the family ; the third, called alligati, 
 above mentioned. 
 
 ALLIGATION, in arithmetic. See ARITH- 
 METIC. 
 
 ALLIGATOR, in botany, a species of pear. 
 See LAURUS. 
 
 ALLIGATOR, in zoology, a synonyme of thela- 
 certa crocodilus. See LACERTA. 
 
 ALLIGHAR, or AYGHAR, a town and for- 
 tress of Hindostan, formerly called Kole, and 
 the residence, in the twelfth century, of Cattub, 
 the first Mahommedan sovereign of Delhi. It 
 stands in the province of Delhi, between the 
 Ganges and the Jumna, and was taken - from. 
 Scindiah, by the British, in the war of 1803.
 
 ALLITERATION. 
 
 British judge and collector are now stationed 
 
 re, subordinate to the Bareily division. 
 
 ALL1NGIIEY, a town in the province of 
 Dindigul, Hindostan, thirty miles south-west of 
 Dindigul. 
 
 ALLINEGHUR, a town of Hindostan, in the 
 Oude, twenty miles north of Ghazypore. 
 
 ALLIONI, (Charles,) a physician and botanist 
 of Piedmont, born in 1725, and died in 1804; 
 leaving many works on botany and medicine, of 
 
 653 
 
 montanae Specimen, 8vo. Pans, 1757. 3. Enu- 
 - 
 
 Taurin. 1762. 5. Flora Pedemontana, 3 vols. 
 folio, Taurin. 1785. 6. Auctarium ad Flora 
 Pedemontana, Taurin. 1789. 
 
 ALLIONIA, in botany, a genus of plants of 
 the monogynia order, belonging to the tetan- 
 dria class ; in the natural method ranking under 
 the forty-eighth order, Aggregate. The characters 
 are; the common CAL. oblong, simple, three- 
 flowered, five-parted, and persistent ; the proper 
 one, obscure, above : the proper COR. rnonopeta- 
 lous and funnel-shaped ; the mouth quinqucfid 
 and erect: STAM. four bristly filaments, longer 
 than the corolla, and bending to one side ; the 
 antherae roundish : PIST. an oblong germen be- 
 neath ; the stylus bristly, and longer than the 
 stamina ; the stigmata are multifid and linear : 
 no pericarpium : the seeds are solitary, oblong, 
 and naked : the receptaculum is naked. There 
 are two species, viz. 1. Allionia incaranata, 
 2. Allionia violacea, both natives of Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 ALLIOTH, Arab, a horse : in astronomy, a 
 star in the tail of the Great Bear, marked (t) by 
 Boyer, whose observation is much used at sea, 
 for finding the latitude. The Arabs give this 
 name to each of the three stars in the tail of the 
 Greater Bear, on account of their appearing like 
 three horses, ranged for drawing a waggon. See 
 URSA MAJOR. 
 
 ALLIOTICA, ALLIOTICS, from oXXww, to 
 vary, Galenic medicines for purifying the blood, 
 consisting chiefly of the roots of dandelion, suc- 
 cory, fennel, and raisins; with the herbs endive 
 common ox-eye, lettuce, sorrel, &c. 
 
 ALLISTAR, or ALLESTAR, a mean looking 
 town in the peninsula of Malacca, and kingdom 
 of Quedah, two or three leagues from the mouth 
 of a river. The inhabitants are a mixed race of 
 Indians and Chinese, and the natives of the latter 
 have a large temple here. The sovereign of Que- 
 dah resides in a fortress built at Allistar, but his 
 palace hardly equals a respectable English farm- 
 house and yard. 
 
 ALLITERATION, } Ad : litera, to a letter. 
 
 ALLITERA'TIVE, >The placing words in 
 
 ALLITERA'TOR, J succession, or at short 
 intervals from each other, commencing with the 
 same letter. 
 
 The prosody of the Welsh bards depended much on 
 alliteration. Hence they seem to have paid an atten- 
 tion to the scaldic versincation. The Island 
 
 are said to have carried alliteration to the highest 
 pitch of exactness in their earliest period. 
 
 T. Warton's Hist, of the Eng. Poetry. 
 
 Thus the fields must be flowery, beauty must be 
 
 beaming, ladies must be lovely; and in the same 
 
 manner must the ' waves wind their wat'ry way,' the 
 
 ' blust'ring blasts blow,' and ' locks all loosely lay,' 
 
 not for the sake of the poetry, but the elegance of the 
 
 alliteration. Cfomoisseur, No. 83. 
 
 ALLITERATION has been used by the most 
 
 celebrated poets, both ancient and modem ; Vir- 
 
 difficult to appropriate this figure to any parti- 
 cular passion, since rage and grief, pity and de- 
 spair, have been alike expressed by it ; also the 
 roughness, strength, smoothness, airiness, and 
 gaiety of the muse. No satisfactory account of 
 alliteration has been given in the writings of the 
 
 silence, either as a false refinement, or as a mere 
 trifle. Many chapters have been composed on 
 quantity, on the beauties resulting from different 
 arrangements of long and short syllables, and on 
 the powers of pauses variously placed ; but not a 
 word on alliteration. This is the more extraor- 
 dinary, as one should think it impossible for any 
 man to examine minutely, and dissect a number 
 of verses, widiout perceiving the vast abundance 
 of this ornament. It is as if an anatomist should 
 publish a complete table of the arteries in the 
 human body, and affect never to have seen a vein 
 nor a nerve : for we may safely affirm, that upon 
 examining any number of verses, remarkable 
 either for sweetness or for energy, many of them 
 will be found in some degree alliterative. We 
 do not say that the sweetness and energy of ver- 
 sification depend chiefly on this circumstance, 
 yet we cannot help believing that it may claim a 
 considerable share: for the poets whose fame 
 is highest for versification, are most extensive 
 dealers in alliteration. The trifling appearance, 
 and the frequent abuse, of the ornament itself, 
 are circumstances which have induced a degree 
 of neglect. How common is it for writers, who 
 affect to be comic, when in want of other means 
 for raising a smile, to use affected alliteration 
 with success ! But, in the fine arts, no beauty or 
 grace is beyond the power of ridicule. The no- 
 blest attitudes in painting have been rendered 
 laughable by caricature. So fares it with allite- 
 ration. Nor is it to be wondered at, that much of 
 the delight afforded by versification arises from 
 so trifling a cause as the occasional repetition of 
 the same letter or sound on the accented parts of 
 a verse ; since there are many other causes of 
 pleasure which, when dissected, seem equally 
 contemptible. The fact is, that the principal 
 operation of this ornament is no doubt mechani- 
 cal. It is easier for the organs of speech to re- 
 sume, at short intervals, one certain conforma- 
 tion, than to assume a number of different ones, 
 unconnected : 
 succession of 
 
 of all to ft^e Souuds of hich the
 
 654 
 
 ALLITERATION. 
 
 articulation is easiest, are most completely in 
 the power of the speaker. Not to add the plea- 
 sure that results to the ear from the repetition of 
 the same letter, and which has been compared to 
 the frequent returns of the key-note in music. 
 The ear is pleased with alliteration, as it contri- 
 butes to the superior ease of recitation ; for what 
 is recited with ease must be heard with pleasure. 
 These remarks might be illustrated by num- 
 berless passages from the best poets. Pope's 
 works are full of alliterations; and Grey, who 
 learned his versification from Dryden, as Dryden 
 did from Spenser, seems to have paid particular 
 attention to this grace : indeed these three abound 
 in alliterations. This ornament is almost always 
 founded upon a repetition of one or more conso- 
 nants ; and generally on those in the beginning 
 of the emphatic words ; but a verse is held to be 
 alliterative, which has a letter repeated on its ac- 
 cented parts, although those parts do not begin 
 words ; the repeated letter bearing a strong ana- 
 logy to the bars in a musical phrase. The fol- 
 'owing lines, selected from Pope's Essay on Man, 
 afford instances of both kinds of alliteration. 
 
 Reason is here no guide but still a guard. 
 In spite of pride, in erring reason's spite. 
 Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn 
 For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn. 
 The bounding steed, you pompously bestride, 
 Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. 
 Man cares for all ; to birds he gives his woods 'j 
 To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods : 
 For some his int'rest prompts him to provide ; 
 For more his pleasure ; yet for more his pride. 
 
 'That very life, his learned hunger craves, 
 He saves from famine, from the savage saves : 
 Nay feasts the animal he dooms his feast, 
 And, till he ends the being, makes it blest. 
 That Virtue's ends from vanity can raise : 
 And not a vanity is giv'n iu vain. 
 Most strength the moving principle requires j 
 Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires. 
 
 In lazy apathy let Stoics boast 
 Their virtue fix'd ; 'tis fix'd as in a frost. 
 
 The young disease that must subdue at leneth, 
 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his 
 strength. 
 
 Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. 
 Great standing miracle ! that heav'n assign'd 
 Its only thinking thing this turn of mindj 
 
 Alliterations contribute more to the beauties 
 of poetry, than is generally supposed, and can- 
 not, therefore, be deemed unworthy of a poet's 
 regard in composition. If two words offer of 
 equal propriety, the one alliterative, the other 
 not, the first ought to be chosen if it suit the pur- 
 pose in every other respect; but the beauty of 
 alliteration, when happy, is not greater than its 
 deformity when affected, or forced. Alliterations 
 are evidently improper, where the sense is sacri- 
 ficed to the sound ; as in the following unnatural 
 metaphor of Grey ; " Eyes that glow and fangs 
 that grin ;" where the poet ascribes a property to 
 the fangs, that can only belong to the face of an 
 animal ; and in the following couplet of Pope's, 
 in the first line of which, however, the alliteration 
 is unexceptionable, viz. j 
 
 The arts of building from the bee receive ; 
 Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave." 
 The idea of a worm weaving, which seems to be 
 introduced as much for the sake of alliteration, 
 as of the rhyme, scarce even poetical licence can 
 justify ; for though the silk-worm is an excellent 
 spinster, we believe none of the insect tribe merits 
 the epithet of a weaver except the spider, which 
 does not belong to the class of vermes, or worms. 
 Alliteration was much affected by the Saxons, 
 as appears from many instances of this kind 
 which occur in their laws. It is oftentimes 
 so frequently introduced as to make the work in 
 which it appears completely ridiculous, an in- 
 stance of which occurs in the Nugsevenales, attri- 
 buted erroneously to one Lates, from Germany, 
 music master in the university at Oxford, which 
 begins thus : 
 
 Plaudite, porcelli, porcorum pigra propago 
 Progreditur. 
 
 And it consisted of nearly 350 lines ! the real 
 author's name, however, was Petrus Placentius, 
 and he assumed the name of Petrus Porcius, from 
 the subject he so laboriously discussed. Aldhelm, 
 one of the three great luminaries of the Anglo 
 Saxons, also appears to have carried this orna- 
 ment to the extreme. His letter to Eahfred con- 
 tains a most elaborate specimen of Latin allitera- 
 tion. Fifteen words begin with the same letter 
 in the first paragraph : ' Primitus (pantorum pro- 
 cerum pretorumque pio potissimum paternoque 
 prasertim prrivilegio) panegyricuin poemata que 
 passim prosatori sub polo promulgantes stridula 
 vocum symphonia ac melodise cantilenjeque car- 
 mine modulaturi hymnizenus.' In the same let- 
 ter we have afterwards ' torrenda tetrse tortionis 
 in tartara trusit.' We are told of one Theo- 
 baldus, a Monk of the order of St. Benedict, who 
 flourished in the time of Charles the Bald, to 
 whom he presented a panegyric on baldness, 
 every word beginning with the letter C. The 
 plays and romances of Lilly, which consist 
 wholly of affectation and conceit, contributed to 
 spoil the state of the age in which he lived. 
 Those who are fond of the figure would perhaps 
 equally enjoy a poem composed by the lipogram- 
 matists or letter-droppers of antiquity, who would 
 take an exception against some particular letter 
 in the alphabet so as not to admit it once into a 
 whole book. One Tryphidorus, a great master 
 in this kind of writing, is said to have composed 
 an Odyssey consisting of 24 books, excluding from 
 the first book the letter A, from the second B, 
 and so on : thus shewing the whole 24 letters, 
 one after another, that he could do his business 
 without them. It must have been very pleasant 
 to have seen this poet making his escape through 
 the several Greek dialects, when he was pressed 
 with it in any particular syllable, with the same 
 earnestness as another would avoid a false quan- 
 tity ; for the most apt and elegant word in the 
 whole language was rejected, like a diamond with 
 a flaw in it, if it appeared blemished with a wrong 
 letter. In allusion to this, Mr. Addison says he 
 saw in a dream the phantom of Triphidorus the 
 Lipogrammatist engaged in a ball with 24 per- 
 sons, who pursued him by turns through all the 
 intricacies and labyrinths of a country dance, 
 without being able to overtake him
 
 ALL 
 
 655 
 
 ALL 
 
 ALLIUM, from a\ w , to avoid, because many this plant appears above the snow, they seem t* 
 shun the smell of it: garlic; a genus of the put this dreadful d.sorder at defiance, and find a 
 monogyma order, belonging to the hexandria cure almost in its worst stages 
 class of plants ; and m the natural method rank- ALLIX, (Peter, D. D.) a learned French Pro- 
 ing in the ninth order, Spathaceae. The charac- testant born at Alencon in 1641, and minister of 
 ters are: CAL. a common spatha, roundish, and the reformed church at Rouen, where his repu- 
 multiflorous: COR. six oblong petals : STAM. six tation as an author induced the reformed to call 
 subulated filaments, often the length of the him to Chanenton, about a league from Paris 
 corolla ; the anthene are oblong and erect : PIST. being the principal church they had in France* 
 a germen above, shorter, nearly three-cornered, On the revocation of the edict of Nantz, he 
 with angles engraved with a line; the styli are retired to England; and studied the language 
 simple; the stigmata acute: PERICARP, a very with much success, leaving behind him many 
 short, broad, three-lobed capsule, with three cells testimonies of his literary abilities, and theologi- 
 <nd three valves: the seeds are many and roundish, cal zeal. Among the number of his writings are 
 Of this genus forty different species are enume- 1. Dissertatio de Sanguine D. N. I. Christi. 
 rated by Linnaeus, among which he includes the 2. Dissertatio de Tertulliani Vita et Scriptis' 
 cepa and porrum, or onions and leeks. 3. Les Maximes du Vrai Chretien, joined with 
 
 1. ALLIUM ASCALONIUM, or eschalot, was Bonnes et Saintes Pense"es pour tous les Jours 
 
 found wild in Palestine by Dr. Hasselquist. duMois, Amsterdam, 1687. 4. Reflections upon 
 
 The root of this species is very pungent, has a the Books of the Holy Scriptures, to establish the 
 
 strong, but not unpleasant smell, and therefore Truth of the Christian Religion, republished by 
 
 is generally preferred to the onion for making Bishop Watson in his Tracts. 5. Some Remarks 
 
 high-flavoured soups and gravies. It is also put upon the Ecclesiastical History of the ancient 
 
 into pickles, and in the East Indies they use a Churches of Piedmont, 4to. London, 1690. 
 
 great deal of it for this purpose. 
 
 2. ALLIUM CEPA, or common onion, differs 
 from the garlic only in the swelling pipy stalk, 
 which is much larger in the middle than at either 
 
 6. Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of 
 the ancient Churches of the Albigenses. 4to. 
 Lond. 1692. 7. The Judgment of the ancient 
 Jewish Church against die Unitarians, &c. 
 
 end. From whence this was- first brought into Of this last work bishop Horsley speaks highly 
 Europe is not known ; but that it is natural to in his controversy with Dr. Priestley. He was 
 Africa is beyond a doubt, it being evident that complimented with the degree of D. D. and in 
 
 onions were eaten by the Egyptians about 200 
 years before Christ; and they make a great 
 pa:t of their constant food to this day. 
 
 3. ALLIUM PORRUM, or leek, has been so 
 long cultivated, that its native place of growth 
 cannot be traced. It is the same as that men- 
 tioned in the eleventh chapter of Numbers, 
 where it is said that the Israelites longed for 
 leeks and onions. Their general use as a pot- 
 herb is well known. Their culture is the same 
 with that of the onion. 
 
 1690 was made treasurer of the church of Salis- 
 bury. He died in 1717. 
 
 ALLOA, a town and parish of Scotland, in 
 the county of Clackmannan, extending about 
 four miles from east to west and about two from 
 north to south, containing about 3900 acres. The 
 Forth is its southern boundary, and the course 
 of the river is so circuitous, that its banks on the 
 border of the parish measure five miles and a 
 half. Upon the west it is watered by the Divon, 
 which joins the Forth about a mile from Tulli- 
 
 4. ALLIUM SATITUM, or garlic, has a bulbous body, and has a pier built at its mouth, where 
 
 root, of an irregularly roundish shape, with vessels of tolerable burden can load. The climate 
 
 several fibres at the bottom; each root is com- is good, and the soil various. The rivers produce 
 
 -posed of a number of lesser bulbs, called cloves salmon, trout, &c. and the coast is frequented by 
 
 of garlic, enclosed in one common membraneous sturgeons, soles, turbots, skate, haddocks, Congo 
 
 coat, and easily separable from one another, eels, &c.; and a peculiar species of herrings, 
 
 All the parts of this plant, but more especially called GANDANOOKS, which see. Upon the eastern 
 
 the roots, have an acrimonious, and almost extremity of the parish there is an artificial lake, 
 
 caustic taste, with a strong offensive smell, turning various mills, cleansing the harbour, &c. 
 
 which last has induced those who preserved On the north-east extremity is the elegant seat 
 
 some of the species in gardens, on account of of Shaw Park. The colliery affords employment 
 
 . __ _.r ii *i !_;*.,. _* , . ., .1 Ai*.if>ViA o c r\f\f\ 
 
 their yellow flowers, to eradicate them. 
 
 to many of the inhabitants, and furnishes 35,000 
 
 5. ALLIUM SCHOENOPRASUM, or cives, is an tons of coal annually for export. Themachmery 
 inhabitant of Siberia, and a very small plant used is excellent. There were formerly 1 
 compared with the former. Us taste, smell, looms employed in the manufacture of camblets, 
 
 but these are now almost wholly discontinued ; 
 as well as the manufacture of serges and inferior 
 woollen stuffs. Here are two xtensive distilleries, 
 two celebrated breweries, tanneries of repute, 
 
 and virtues, are much the same as those of the 
 common onion. 
 
 6. ALLIDM SCORODOPRASUM, or rokambole, 
 grows naturally in Denmark and Sweden. 
 
 7. ALLIUM URISNUM, or wild garlic, is very and a glass manufactory of great extent, 
 common and useful in Kamschatka for medicine The town of Alloa was the Alauna of 
 
 as well as food. Both Russians and natives ancient Romans, and is seated on the north 
 
 gather it in great quantities for winter service, of the Forth, seven miles east from Stirling by 
 
 ,teep it in water, then mix it with cabbage, land, but above se venteen by wate r about thir y- 
 
 , and other ingredients, and form out of two north-west from Edinburgh by land an 
 
 . ragout which they eat cold. It is also twenty-seven andahal higher up the ^thth 
 
 As soon as Leith. It is pleasantly situated and contains 
 
 They steep it in water, then mix it with cabbage 
 
 onions 
 
 them a ragout which they 
 
 the principal remedy for the scurvy
 
 ALL 
 
 656 
 
 ALL 
 
 from 5000 to 6000 inhabitants. Tt has two 
 market days in the week, and four annual fairs. 
 Alloa is remarkable for its fine castle, the seat of 
 the ancient earls of Mar, and for the coal mines 
 near it. The harbour is extremely commodious, 
 with great depth of water; enabling vessels to load 
 expeditiously. An excellent dry dock has been 
 erected, capable of receiving ships of the .reatest 
 burden : and above the dock there is a ferry, with 
 two very complete piers, one on each side of the 
 river. The tower and lands of Alloa were exchanged 
 by David II. king of Scots, in 1365, with Thomas 
 Erskine, for the lands and estate of Strathgartney 
 in Perthshire ; and since that period the castle 
 of Alloa has been the favourite residence of the 
 family of Mar. The turret of the tower is 
 eighty-nine feet in height ; and the walls are 
 eleven feet in thickness. It was built in the 
 end of the thirteenth century. Its situation is 
 uncommonly beautiful. The gardens were the 
 first that were laid out on a great scale in Scot- 
 land ; they contain about forty acres. In this re- 
 sidence of the family of Erskine, many of the 
 Scottish princes received their education, having 
 been for more than two centuries the wards of the 
 lords Erskine and earls of Mar. The last heir of 
 the Scottish monarchy who was nurtured in it, 
 was Henry, prince of Cumberland, son of king 
 James VI. The streets of Alloa are, in general, 
 narrow and irregular; but there is one, called 
 John's street, built by the late earl upon a regu- 
 lar plan, which runs in a line parallel to the 
 gardens, and leads to the harbour, between 
 seventy-six and eighty feet broad, and termina- 
 ting in a beautiful gravel walk. A row of lime- 
 trees on each side adds to its beauty, and affords 
 an agreeable shade in summer. The church of 
 Alloa is rather small for its population. It has a 
 post-office and custom-house; a subscription 
 library, on a respectable footing; and contains 
 a burgher, antiburgher, and relief meeting houses. 
 Alloa is governed by a baron-bailie. Market on 
 Saturday. 
 
 ALLOBROGES, from Allobrox : a people of 
 Gallia Narbonensis, situated between the Isara 
 and the Rhone, and the lake Lemanus : com- 
 mended by Cicero for their fidelity ; but censured 
 by Horace on account of their fondness for no- 
 velty. Epod. 16, v. 6. 
 
 Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox. 
 
 ALLOBROX, in ancient history, a name 
 given by Berosus to the fifteenth king of the 
 Gauls ; whence some have derived the name of 
 the Allobroges. Dupleix, Mem. des Gaules, 1. 2. 
 c. 16. 
 
 ALLOCATION, in law, an allowance made 
 on account in the Exchequer. 
 
 ALLOCATIONS FACIENDA, a writ for an ac- 
 countant to receive such sums from the treasurer 
 as he has expended. Reg. Orig. 206. 
 
 ALLOCATO COMITATU, in law, a new writ 
 of exigent allowed before any county court holden, 
 on the former not being fully served or complied 
 with. 
 
 ALLOCATOR, in law, i. e. it is allowed ; a 
 term applied to the certificate of allowance by 
 the master on taxation of costs. 
 
 ALLOCHROITE, in mineralogy, an opaque 
 
 garnet, of a greyish, yellowish, or reddish colour. 
 Quartz scratches it, but it strikes fire with steel 
 It has externally a glistening, and internally a 
 glimmering lustre. Its fracture is uneven, and 
 its fragments are translucent on the edges : sp. 
 gr. 3.5 to 3.6. It melts before the blowpipe into 
 a black opaque enamel. Vauquelin's analysis is 
 the following : Silica 35, lime 30.5, oxide of 
 iron 17, alumina 8, carbonate of lime 6, oxide of 
 manganese 3.5. M. Brogniart says it is abso- 
 lutely infusible without addition, and that it re- 
 quires a flux, as phospate of soda or ammoniu. 
 With these it passes through a beautiful grada- 
 tion of colours. It is covered at first with a 
 species of enamel, which becomes on cooling 
 reddish-yellow, then greenish, and lastly of a 
 dirty yellowish-white. He represents it as rather 
 difficult to break. It was found by M. Dan- 
 drada in the iron mine of V'irums, near Dram- 
 men in Norway, and is accompanied by car- 
 bonate of lime, protoxide of iron, and brown 
 garnets. 
 
 ALLOCUTIO, in Roman antiquity, the ora- 
 tion of a general addressed to his soldiers to ani- 
 mate them to fight, to appease sedition, &c. A 
 mount of earth was frequently raised on the oc- 
 casion, and from this the general pronounced his 
 harangue to the several squadrons around him. 
 
 ALLOCU'TION, n. or > Ad : loquor, loaitus, 
 ADLOCU'TION, J to speak to. Addres- 
 
 sing the speech to. 
 
 Upon such a high tribunal or scaffold [the $>|u, or 
 pulpit] we often see the emperor standing, and some- 
 times sitting in medals and ancient bass-relievos ; both 
 in adlocutions to the annv, and in distributing their 
 bounty to the people. 
 
 Sir G. Weeler, on the Churches of the Prim. Chris. 
 
 ALLODIARIUS, in feudal customs, the pro- 
 prietor of allodial lands ; also a lord paramount 
 of a manor. See next article; also FEE and 
 FEODAL. 
 
 ALLODIUM, most probably of German ori- 
 ginal : a possession held in absolute indepen- 
 dence, without any acknowledgment of a lord 
 paramount. It is opposed to fee, or feudum, 
 which intimates some kind of dependence. There 
 are no allodial lands in England, all being held 
 either mediately or immediately of the king. 
 
 ALLOEOTHETA, in rhetoric, a\\oioQira; 
 from aXAotof various, Otroc disposed : a figure 
 of grammar varying from the ordinary rules of 
 syntax, as a noun in the singular with a verb 
 plural, Pars abiere. 
 
 ALLOGIA, in antiquity, of locus, Lat. a place: 
 winter quarters appointed for the soldiery. 
 
 ALIXJGNE, in military affairs, the cordage 
 used with floating bridges, by which they are 
 guided from one side of a river to the other. 
 
 ALLOISI, BALUASSARE, a celebrated painter 
 of Bologna, who obtained the name of Galanino. 
 He was born in 1578, and studied under the 
 Caracci, whose style he retained in all his com- 
 positions. The Italians have considered him a 
 second Vandyck. He died in 1638. 
 
 ALLONBY. See ALANBY. 
 
 ALLONGE, n. s. allonge, Fr. 1. A pass of 
 thrust with a rapier, so called from the lengthen- 
 ing of the space, taken by tlis fencer. 2. It is
 
 ALLOY. 
 
 rein, when the horse is 
 
 likewise taken for a Ion 
 trotted in the hand. 
 ALLOO', inter). ^ Loo, aloo, halloo, lo, im- & 
 
 Operative of the verb look me 
 HALLOO . J Alew is found in Spenser. 
 
 Awhile she walkt and chauft ; awhile she threw ' 
 Herself apon her bed and did lament : 
 Yet did she not lament with loude alew. 
 As women wont, but with depe sighes and singulfes 
 few. Spenser's Faerie Queene,book v. c. vi. 
 
 List, list ; I hear 
 Some far off halloo break the silent air. 
 
 Milton's Com-tu. 
 
 Alloo thy furious mastiff, bid him vex 
 The noxious herd, and print upon their ears 
 A sad memorial of their past offence. Philips. 
 ALLOOR, a town of Hindostan, in the 
 Northern Carnatic, 114 miles north of Madras 
 N.lat. 14. 40'. E. long. 80. 3'. 
 
 ALLOPHANE, in mineralogy, a stone of a 
 
 657 
 
 qualities ; the spirit of my father grows strong m me, 
 and^I will no longer endure it : therefore allow me 
 -.erciseg as may become a gentleman, or give 
 poor allottery my father left me by testament, 
 with that I will go and buy my fortunes. 
 
 Shaktpeare's As you lilts it. 
 Five days we do allot thee for provision, 
 To shield thee from disasters of the world 
 And on the sixth to turn thy hated back 
 Upon our kingdom, Shalup. King Lear. 
 
 I shall deserve my fate if I refuse 
 That happy hour, which heaven allots to peace. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 rhere can be no thought of security or quiet in 
 this world, but in a resignation to the allotments of 
 God and nature. L'Estrange. 
 
 Though it is our duty to submit with patience 
 to more scanty allotments ; yet thus much, we may 
 reasonably and lawfully ask of God. 
 
 Rogers's Sermons. 
 It is laid-out into a grove, for fruits and shade ; a 
 
 11 i *-* ' ** "*;> *u* nuiLa aliu SUaUC 
 
 blue, and sometimes a green or brown colour, vineyard ; and an allotment, for olives and herbs 
 which occurs massive, or in imitative shapes. 
 Lustre vitreous ; fracture imperfectly conchoidal ; 
 transparent or translucent on the edges. Mode- 
 rately hard, but very brittle. Specific gravity 
 1 .89. Composition,silica 2 1 .92, alumina 32.2, lime 
 0.73, sulphate of lime 0.52, carbonate of copper, 
 3.06, hydrate of iron 0.27, water 41.3. Stro- 
 meyer. It gelatinizes in acids : it is found in a 
 bed of iron-shot limestone in greywacke slate, in 
 the forest of Thuringia. 
 
 ALLOPHESES, aXXo^curif, in medicine, is 
 speaking of things differently from what they are, 
 delirium. 
 
 Broome. 
 
 Since fame was the only end of all their studies, 
 a man cannot be too scrupulous in allotting them their 
 due portion of it. Toiler. 
 
 Of memory, which makes so large a part of the 
 excellence of the human soul, and which has so 
 much influence upon all its powers, but a small por- 
 tion has been allotted to the animal world. Rambler. 
 
 ALLOY. See ALLAY. 
 
 ALLOY, or ALLAY, alliage, Fr. Legiren 
 metallversetsung, Germ, lega, Jtal. This word 
 is supposed to be derived through the French 
 language, from the Latin, ad-ligatio; which sig- 
 
 ALLOPHYLLUS, in botany ; a genus of the nifies the act oft y ein S> binding, or connecting 
 
 monogynia order, belonging to the octandria 
 class of plants. The characters are : CAL. a four 
 leaved perianthium, with orbicular leaflets, the 
 opposite ones less: COR. four orbicular equal 
 petals, less than the calyx ; the claws broader, 
 
 together. The term formerly was almost wholly 
 confined in England to the goldsmiths, and the 
 mint, where it was appropriated to the lowering of 
 the purity of gold or silver, previous to its being 
 coined, and hence seems gradually to have 
 
 the length of the smaller leaves of the calyx! Burned the meaning of the English verb, to 
 
 STAM. eight slender filaments, the length of the 
 corolla : the ANTH. are roundish : FIST, a round 
 didymus germen above; the stylus filiform, 
 longer than the stamina ; and the stigma bifid, 
 with revolute divisions. There is but one spe- 
 cies, viz. allophyllus zeylanicus, a native of 
 Ceylon. 
 
 ALLORI, Alexander, or Bronzino, a painter 
 of Florence, who successfully followed Michael 
 
 allay, i. e. to abate, to lower. All the other 
 known combinations of metal with each other, 
 were simply called ' mixed metals,' but the term 
 alloy, has at length been made to comprehend 
 all the binary and more complicated metallic 
 compounds. Those of which mercury makes a 
 part, are generally known by the name amalgam. 
 An alloy, therefore, amongst philosophical 
 chemists, may be defined a combination of any 
 
 Angelo, and died in 1607, after having gained a two or more metals into one homogeneous mass 
 
 *rt *hn tivrAiicin-n f\f mf\m mo/*hom.-'al TnirtlllVQ 
 
 great reputation 
 ALLORI, Christophano, son and disciple of the 
 
 to the exclusion of more mechanical mixtures. 
 
 The most valuable and useful of these have ac- 
 
 preceding, was bom 1577, and died at the age of <l uired Particular names, as brassy which is an 
 42, leaving many small pictures, executed with 
 remarkable correctness and delicacy. 
 ALLOT', v. } According to Tooke, the 
 
 ALLOT'MENT, S- Aug. Sax. lot or hlot is the 
 
 alloy of copper and tin, &c. When any pre- 
 cious metal is mixed with another of less value, 
 the assayers call the latter the alloy. 
 
 Every alloy is distinguished by the metal 
 
 ALLOT'TERY. j regular past tense of hli&an, -- -. 
 
 - i .1* , T T which predominates in its composition, or wnicn 
 
 gives it its value. Hence, English jewellery 
 
 to cover, and means something covered. Hence, 
 probably, the verb allot . To put to lot ; to dis- 
 tribute by lot ; parcel out ; to give ; grant ; ap- 
 portion. 
 
 Thy self content with that is the assinde 
 And vse it well that is to the (dotted. Wyatt. 
 
 Oil. Let me go, I say. 
 
 ORLA. I will not till I please : you shall hear me. 
 M father charged you in his will, to give me good 
 
 trinkets are ranked under alloys of gold, though 
 most of them deserve to be placed under the 
 head of copper. Since there are about 30 diffe- 
 rent permanent metals, independent of those 
 evanescent ones that constitute the bases of the 
 alkalies and earths, there ought to be about 870 
 different species of binary alloy. Only 132 
 
 jr lamer ciiargeu you in ins win, 10 give uiu guuu - ~r - -j i 
 
 education : you have trained me up like a peasant, species, however, have hitherto been made an 
 
 " _ " *_i r* .rt.li**lrtott-itntv 
 
 obscuring and hiding me from all gentleman-like 
 VOL. I. 
 
 examined. 
 
 Some metals have so little affinity 
 2 U
 
 658 
 
 ALLOY 
 
 to others, that no compound of them has yet 
 been effected. The mast common obstacles to 
 alloying, arise from the difference in fusibility 
 and volatility. Yet some metals are known 
 whose melting point is nearly the same, which 
 refuse to unite. No two bodies will combine, 
 unless their affinity or reciprocal attraction be 
 stronger than the cohesive attraction of their in- 
 dividual particles. It is in order to overcome 
 this cohesion of the solid bodies, and to render 
 affinity predominant, that they are penetrated by 
 caloric. If one be very difficult of fusion, and 
 the other very volatile, they will not unite unless 
 the reciprocal attraction be exceedingly strong. 
 But if their degree of fusibility be almost the 
 same, it is otherwise. Alloys in their physical 
 properties have the closest relations with the 
 metals. They are a solid at the temperature of 
 the atmosphere, except some few amalgams : 
 they possess metallic lustre, are opaque, and 
 dense in a greater or less degree according to 
 the metals which compose them. They are ex- 
 cellent conductors of electricity, and crystallize 
 more or less perfectly. Some alloys are brittle, 
 others ductile and malleable : some have a pe- 
 culiar odour, and some are sonorous and elastic. 
 An alloy consisting of metals differently fusible, 
 is usually malleable while cold, but brittle while 
 hot. We see this exemplified in the case of brass. 
 
 With regard to the density of an alloy, we ob- 
 serve that it is sometimes greater, and some- 
 times less than the mean density of its component 
 parts, which evinces a diminution or augmenta- 
 tion of volumes, at the instant of their union. 
 The relation between the expansion of the se- 
 parate metals and that of their alloys has been 
 in some cases investigated. Alloys containing a 
 volatile metal are decomposed, either in whole 
 or in part; a fact which is exemplified at a 
 strong heat, in the case of arsenic, mercury, 
 tellurium and zinc. Those that consist of two 
 metals differently fusible may be often decom- 
 posed by eliquation, or exposing them to a tem- 
 perature capable of melting only one of them. 
 This mode is employed to extract silver from 
 copper. Argentiferous copper is melted with 
 3 times its weight of lead ; and the triple alloy 
 being exposed to a sufficient heat, the lead carries 
 off the silver in its fusion, and leaves the copper 
 under the form of a spongy lump. By a subse- 
 quent operation the silver is recovered from the 
 lead. 
 
 ' Some alloys,' says an intelligent author, 
 ' oxidize more readily by heat and air, than 
 when the metals are separately treated. Thus 3 
 of lead, and 1 of tin, at a dull red, bum visibly, 
 and are immediately oxidized. Each by itself, 
 in the same circumstances, would oxidize slowly, 
 and without the disengagement of light.' 
 
 The formation of an alloy must be regulated 
 by the nature of the particular metals ; the de- 
 gree of affinity between metals may be in some 
 measure estimated by the relative facility with 
 which, when of different degrees of fusibility or 
 volatility, they unite, or with which, when united, 
 they can be separated by heat. The degree of 
 tendency to separate into different proportional 
 alloys, by long continued fusion, may also throw 
 additional light on this subject. Mr. Hatchett 
 
 in his researches on metallic alloys, remarked, 
 that gold made standard, with the usual precau- 
 tions, by silver, copper, lead, antimony, Sac. and 
 then cast into vertical bars, was by no means a 
 uniform compound ; but that the top of the bar, 
 corresponding to the metal at the bottom of the 
 crucible, contained the larger proportion of gold. 
 Hence, for thorough combination, two red-hot 
 crucibles should be employed ; and the liquefied 
 metals should be alternately poured from the 
 one into the other. And to prevent unnecessary 
 oxidizement by exposure to air, the crucibles 
 should contain, besides the metal, a mixture of 
 common salt and powdered charcoal. The 
 melted alloy should also be stirred occasionally 
 with a rod of pottery. 
 
 The most direct evidence of a chemical change 
 having taken place in the two metals by com- 
 bination, is when the alloy melts at a lower 
 temperature than the fusing points of its compo- 
 nents. Iron, which alone is nearly infusible, 
 when alloyed with gold acquires almost the fusi- 
 bility of this metal. Tin and lead form solder, 
 which is more fusible than either of its com- 
 ponents, and the triple compound of tin, lead, 
 and bismuth illustrates this remark in a still 
 more striking manner. The analogy is here 
 strong, with the increase of solubility which 
 salts acquire by mixture, as is exemplified in the 
 uncrystallizable residue of saline solutions. Some- 
 times two metals will not directly unite, which 
 yet, by the intervention of a third, are made to 
 combine. Thus, mercury and iron have been 
 made to amalgamate by previously uniting the 
 iron to tin or zinc. The tenacity of alloys, ge- 
 nerally speaking, is inferior to the mean of the 
 separate metals. One part of lead will de- 
 stroy the compactness and tenacity of a thou- 
 sand of gold. Brass made with a small propor- 
 tion of zinc, is more ductile than copper ; but 
 when, one-third of zinc enters into its composition, 
 it becomes brittle. 
 
 In common cases, the specific gravity affords 
 a good criterion whereby to judge of the propor- 
 tion in an alloy, consisting of two metals of 
 different densities. A very fallacious rule has 
 nevertheless been given in some respectable 
 works, for comparing the specific gravity that 
 should result from given quantities of two metals 
 of known densities in a state of alloy, supposing 
 no chemical penetration or expansion of volume 
 to take place. Thus it has been taught, that if 
 gold and copper be united in equal weights, the 
 mathematical specific gravity of the alloy is the 
 arithmetical mean of the two specific gravities. 
 Referring the details to the article specific gra- 
 vity, the correct rule is as follows : The specific 
 gravity of the alloy is found by dividing the sum 
 of the weights by the sum of the volumes ; com- 
 pared to water, reckoned unity. Let the sum of 
 the weights be multiplied into the product of the 
 two specific gravities for a numerator, and each 
 specific gravity into the weight of the other body, 
 and the two products added together for a deno- 
 minator. The quotient then obtained by dividing 
 the numerator by the denominator, compared 
 with this, is the true computed mean specific 
 gravity ; and that found by experiment will 
 show whether expansion or condensation o*
 
 A L L O Y. 
 
 volume nas attended the combination. Gold 
 having a specific gravity of 19.36, and copper of 
 8.87, being alloyed in equal weights, give on the 
 fallacious rule of the arithmetical mean of the 
 
 densities, 36 + 8 ' 87 =14.11 ; whereas the 
 o 
 
 true mean specific gravity is only 12.6. It is 
 evident, that by comparing the former number 
 with chemical experiment, we should be led to 
 infer a prodigious condensation of volume be- 
 yond what really occurs, 
 
 Mr. Hatchett observed upon the density of 
 metals, that when a bar of gold was cast in a 
 vertical position, the density of the metal at the 
 lower end of the bar, was greater than that at the 
 top, in the proportion of 17.364 to 17.035. 
 
 From the above fact some authors have inferred 
 that melted metal is a compressible fluid, and 
 that particles passing into the solid state under 
 pressure, exert a superior degree of cohesive 
 attraction. On this subject, however, we shall 
 leave the reader to form his own conclusion. 
 
 Upon the whole, since we are far from know- 
 ing all the binary alloys, which are possible, 
 
 659 
 
 and still further from knowing aft the triple 
 quadruple alloys, &c. which may exist, we 
 must confess, with Dr. Thomson, that tie 
 chemistry of alloys is at present but little under- 
 stood and that these compounds at present are 
 much better known to artists and manufacturers 
 than to chemists. The following tabular views 
 from this mtelligent author, exhibit the general 
 properties of the different alloys, as far 5 they 
 have been accurately examined, and with them 
 we shall close the present article. 
 
 The first of these tables comprehends the 
 alloys of the malleable metals with each other 
 the second, the alloys of the brittle metals ; and 
 the third, the alloys of the malleable and brittle 
 metals. In these tables, the letter M sig- 
 nifies malleable; B, brittle; S, submalleable, 
 used when the alloy is malleable in certain pro- 
 portions, but brittle in others. O is used when 
 the metals do not unite. The sign + is used 
 when the alloy occupies a greater balk than the 
 separate metals ; the sign when the alloy oc- 
 cupies a smaller bulk. The first indicates an 
 expansion; the second a condensation. 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 MALLEABLE METALS. 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 Lead. 
 
 Tin. 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Indium. 
 
 Potassium. 
 
 Sodium. 
 
 Palladium 
 
 Mercury 
 
 Silver 
 
 Platinum 
 
 Gold. 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 M + 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 B + 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 B + 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 B + 
 
 
 B 
 
 S 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 3 
 
 B 
 
 O 
 
 M 
 
 M + 
 
 M + 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 S 
 
 S 
 S 
 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 M + 
 
 B 
 
 M + 
 
 
 
 R 
 
 B + 
 
 M + 
 
 M + 
 
 M + 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 N 
 
 M + 
 
 M + 

 
 660 
 
 ALLOY. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 BRITTLE METALS. 
 
 Titanium. 
 
 TungiUn. 
 
 Chromium. 
 
 Uranium. 
 
 Molybdenum. 
 
 Manganese. 
 
 Coba t. 
 
 Ar,enic. 
 
 Tellurium 
 
 Antimony. 
 
 Biimutb. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 B 
 
 o 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 S 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 B 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 TABLE III, 
 
 MALLEABLE AND BRITTLE METALS. 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 Bismuth. 
 
 Antimony. 
 
 Arsenic. 
 
 Cobalt. 
 
 Manganese. 
 
 Molybdenum.! 
 
 Gold .... 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 M 
 
 B ! 
 
 Platinum . . . 
 
 B 
 
 B. 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 i 
 
 Silver .... 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 B 
 
 Mercury . . . 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 Palladium . . 
 
 B 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 Rhodium . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Potassium . . 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 Sodium . . . 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 Copper . . . 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 M 
 
 
 M 
 
 S 
 
 Iron .... 
 
 B + 
 
 B + 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 S 
 
 B 
 
 Nickel . . . 
 
 B 
 
 
 B + 
 
 B 
 
 
 S 
 
 Tin .... 
 
 M 
 
 M? + 
 
 B 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 Lead .... 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 
 S 
 
 Zinc .... 
 
 O 
 
 B + 
 
 B 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 o
 
 ALL 
 
 661 
 
 ALL 
 
 ALLOW, e. 
 
 Of unsettled etymology, nish^hints or intimations; to convey insinua- 
 ALLOWABLE, | Some derive it from the tions, or make indirect observations 
 
 ALLOW'ABLENESS, ( Latin adlaudare. 
 ALLOW'ABLY, 
 ALLOW'ANCE, 
 
 ALOW'. J ligan, to lay ; to low or 
 
 ower, [claims or pretensions.] There is little 
 
 Others These wordes, good readers, haue no great harme in 
 'contend for its northern theim at the firste face. But they allude vnto certain 
 | origin, as if its root was woordes of Tyndall wyth whyche he argueth agaynste 
 me - Sir T. More's Workes, fol. 860. 
 
 As for the grace o'f the Latin toungue, I think vn- 
 
 doubt but it comes immediately from the French, ?f sible to bee liuel y expressed, as this autour doeth 
 
 allouer. Its principal synonymes are, to admit; " m the Latin b y reason of soondrie allusions, diuerse 
 
 grant ; yield ; permit ; approve ; concede ; sanction P rouerbes man y figures, and exornacions rhetoricall. 
 
 _ . _ * f* TIfJsi/l T^HPoftm* #rt St Tm.l,~ 
 
 give up ; set apart to a specific use. 
 
 pe gode bisshop Antoyn per he bare pe pris, 
 His dedes ere to alowe, for his hardynesse. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 281. 
 For selde it is, that loue alloweth 
 The gentill man withouten good, 
 Though his condicion be good. 
 
 Gower Con. A. book iv. 
 
 by lord lokeb to Have alowance for hus bestes, 
 And of be monye bow haddist br myd. 
 
 Vision of Pier's Plouhman. 
 
 So arhis errors manifold, that many words dothe use, 
 With humble secret playnt, fewe words of hotte ef- 
 fect, 
 
 Honor thy lord ; alowance vaine of voyd desert neg- 
 lect. Surrey. 
 
 The pow'rs above 
 
 Allow obedience. Shaketp. 
 
 The Lord alloweth the righteous. Bible. 
 
 It is not allowable, what is observable in many 
 
 pieces of Raphael ; where Magdalen is represented 
 
 before our Saviour, washing his feet on her knees ; 
 
 which will not consist with the text. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 In actions of this sort, the light of nature alone 
 may discover that, which is in the sight of God al- 
 lowable. Hooker. 
 I was, by the freedom allowable among friends, 
 tempted to vent my thoughts with negligence. Boyle. 
 Reputation becomes a signal and a very peculiar 
 blessing to magistrates ; and their pursuit of it is 
 not only allowable but laudable. 
 
 Atterbury's Sermons. 
 
 Udatt. Preface to St. Luke. 
 
 These speeches of Jerom and Chrysostom do seem 
 to allude unto such ministerial garments, as were then 
 in U!ie - Hooker. 
 
 Here are manifest allusion* and footsteps of the 
 dissolution of the earth, as it was in the deluge, and 
 will be in its last ruin. Burnet's Theory. 
 
 '.This last allusion gall'd the Panther more j 
 Because indeed it rubb'd upon the sore. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Expressions now out of use, allusions to custom? 
 lost to us, and various particularities, must needs con- 
 tinue several passages in the dark. Locke. 
 
 The Jewish nation, that rejected and crucified him, 
 within the compass of one generation, were, accord- 
 ing to his prediction, destroyed by the Romans, and 
 preyed upon by those eagles (Matt. xxiv. 28.), by 
 which, allusively, are noted the Roman armies, whose 
 ensign was the eagle. Hammond. 
 
 Where the expression in one place is plain, and 
 the sense affixed to it agreeable to the proper force of 
 the words, and no negative objection requires us to 
 depart from it ; and the expression, in the other, is 
 figurative or allusive, and the doctrine de'duced from 
 it liable to great objections ; it is reasonable, in this 
 latter place, to restrain the extent of the figure and 
 allusion to a consistency with the former. 
 
 Rogers's Sermons, 
 
 ALLUM. See ALUM. 
 
 ALLUM BAY lies round the Needles Point, 
 or north-east from the rocks so called, at the 
 west end of the Isle of Wight, on the coast of 
 Hampshire. It has good anchorage, with a suf- 
 
 The principles, which all mankind allow for true, ficient depth of water, not far from the bottom of 
 are innate ; those, that men of right reason admit, the bay, and out of the strong run of the tide, 
 are the principles allowed by all mankind. Locke, which is frequently very rapid here. 
 
 The pow'r of musick all our hearts allow ; 
 
 ALLUMEE, allume, French, in heraldry, 
 
 And, what Timotheus was, is Dryden now. Pope, denotes the eyes of an animal when they are re- 
 That some of the Presbyterians declared openly p res ented light or sparkling, and of a different 
 against the king's murder, I allow to be true. Swift. colour frQm ^ animal itsel f ag wnen they are 
 
 If we consider the different occasions of ancient 
 
 and modern medals, we shall find they both agree 
 
 in recording the great actions and successes in war ; 
 
 allowing still for the different ways of making it, 
 
 and the circumstances that attended it. Addison. 
 
 The ruin'd spendthrift, now no longer proud, 
 
 Claim'd kindred there, and had his claims allow'd. 
 
 Goldsmith's Deserted Village^ 
 
 red, and the animal proper. Also applied to the 
 flame of a torch, when illumined, and the handle 
 itself is of the colour of nature. 
 ALLURE', v.&n.-\ A leurre, Fr. to call or 
 ALLURE'MENT, (beckon to the lure, or ar- 
 ALLUR'ER, {tificial bird exhibited in 
 
 ALLUR'ING. J order to call off the hawk 
 
 ALLOW, EAST, a river of Durham, which from his prey-a term of falconry. To practi 
 
 art with a view to entice; to call in order; to de- 
 
 runs into the Tyne. 
 
 ALLOW, WEST, a river of Northumberland, Ceive 5 
 which runs into the Tyne ; also a river of the isle s ise> 
 of Anglesea. 
 
 t( 
 
 Sometimes used in a good 
 
 Vpe be alurs of be castles be laydes banne stode, 
 ALLUCIUS, in anci nt history, a prince of And byhulde bys noble game, and whyche kynjts 
 
 were god. R. Gloucester, p. 192. 
 
 What shoulde I speake of the other lesse euils, 
 that he alewred and alerted her with, as the pleasure 
 
 Ad : Itido, to play or sport of the eye in the beholdynge of that frute, wjth 
 with, about, or near: re- likorous desyre of the delicious taste. 
 
 Sir T. More's Workes, fol. 1274. 
 
 An eye whose judgment no effect could blind, 
 Friends to atture, and foe's to reconcile ; 
 
 the Celtiberi, to whom Scipio Africanus restored 
 his beautiful bride, who had fallen into his hands 
 in war. Plutarch calls him Lucceius. 
 ALLUDE', v. 
 ALLU'SION, 
 
 ALLU'SIVE, Vferring primarily to what is 
 ALLU'SIVELY, i sportive or playful. Sub- 
 ALLU'SIVENESS.,/ sequeetly it signifies to fur-
 
 ALL 
 
 t>t>2 
 
 ALL 
 
 Whose piercing look did represent a mind 
 With virtue fraught, reposed, void of guile. 
 
 Earl of Surry's Poems. 
 
 Unto laws that men make for the benefit of men, 
 it hath seemed also needful to add rewards ; which 
 may more allure unto good, than any hardness de- 
 terreth from it ; and punishments, which may more 
 deter from evil, than any sweetness thereto allureth. 
 
 Hooker, 
 
 Hunger and thirst at once 
 Powerful persuaders ! quickened at the scent 
 Of that alluring fruit, urg'd me so keen. 
 
 Milton's Par. Lost, 
 
 Against allurement, custom, and a world 
 Offended ; fearless of reproach and scorn, 
 Or violence. Id. 
 
 The golden sun, in splendour likest heav'n, 
 Allur'd his eye. Id, 
 
 Adam, by his wife's allurement, fell. 
 
 Paradise Regained. 
 To shun th' allurement is not hard 
 To minds resolv'd, forewarn'd, and well prepar'd j 
 But, wond'rous difficult, when once beset ; 
 To struggle through the straits, and break th' involv- 
 ing net. Dryden. 
 The rather to train them to his allure, he told them 
 both often, and, >with a vehement voice, how they 
 were over-topped and trodden down by gentlemen. , 
 
 Hayward. 
 Each flatt'ring hope, and each alluring joy. 
 
 Lyttleton. 
 
 He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay f 
 Allur'd to brighter worlds and led the way. 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 ALLUSH, or rather ALUSH, in ancient geo- 
 graphy, a place in Palestine, where the Israelites 
 encamped, Numb.xxxiii. 13, supposed by Eu- 
 sebius, Jerome, and Ptolemy, to have belonged 
 to Idumaea, and to have been situated near Petra, 
 the capital of Arabia Petrsea. 
 
 ALLUSION, from ad, to, and ludere, to play, 
 in rhetoric, a figure originating in a comparison 
 or association of ideas, suggested by some simi- 
 litude of name, sound, or circumstances. Cam- 
 den defines allusion a playing with words alike 
 in sound, but unlike in sense ; whence words re- 
 sembling, one another become applicable to dif- 
 ferent subjects ; in which sense it is synonymous 
 with punning. Thus the Romans played on 
 their tippling emperor Tiberius Nero, by calling 
 him Biberius Mero ; and thus in Quintilian the 
 sour fellow Placidus is called Acidus. But al- 
 lusion has, in modern times, a more extended 
 and important signification. We cannot illus- 
 trate its graver uses better than by the following 
 fine passage of Dr. Ogilvie's respecting religious 
 controversy. ' If it be the obscure, the minute, 
 the ceremonial parts of religion for which we are 
 contending, though the triumph be empty, the 
 dispute is dangerous ; like the men of Ai we pur- 
 sue, perhaps, some little party that flies before 
 us, and are anxious that not a straggler should 
 escape, but when we look behind us we behold 
 our city in flames.' Pope illustrates its admi- 
 rable service in irony, alluding to Denton's well- 
 known passage respecting the Thames : 
 Flow, Welsted, flow ! like thine inspirer, beer : 
 Though stale, not ripe ; though thin, yet never clear ; 
 So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull ; 
 Heady, not strong ; o'erflowing, though not full. 
 
 Pope. The Dunciad, book iii. 
 
 ALLUT, a large village of Ceylon, north-east 
 of Candy, from which it is distant about fifteen 
 miles. 
 
 ALLU'VION, n. Ad : luo, lutum, to wash to ; 
 the washing away ; the washing up of sand o 
 earth, so as to form a mud soil. 
 
 Some rivers by insensible clluvions take in and 
 let out the waters that feed them, yet they are said 
 to have the same beds. Huwell's Letters. 
 
 ALLUVION, from adluo, I wash to, com- 
 pounded of ad and lavo ; in law, a gradual in- 
 crease of land along the sea-shore, or the banks 
 of large rivers. The civil law places alluvion, 
 among the lawful means of acquisition ; and de- 
 fines it to be a latent, imperceptible accretion. 
 But where any considerable portion of ground is 
 torn away at once by an inundation, and joined 
 to some neighbouring estate, this is not acquired 
 by right of alluvion, but may be claimed again 
 by the former owner. Great alterations are 
 made in the face and limits of countries by allu- 
 vions of the sea, rivers, &c. whose plains are 
 sometimes formed by alluvions. 
 
 ALLY', v. & n. ~) Fr. oilier, to fasten or 
 
 ALLI'ANCE, > attach to; from the Latin 
 
 ALLI'ANT. j adligo, to join, unite, by 
 
 kindred, marriage, friendship, confederacy, or 
 
 resemblance. 
 
 Gisors my gode cite, with alle pe purueiance, 
 Richard I gaf it fre, to mak pis aliance. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 156. 
 Or to adione vp fryendschip and ally, 
 With Tirrheue pepill and folk of Tuskany ? 
 
 Douglas, b. x. p. 315. 
 Sit. If this man 
 
 Had but a mind allied unto his words, 
 How blest a fate were it to us and Rome. 
 
 Ben Jonson's Sejanus, act. i. sc. 2. 
 
 He in court stood on his own feet ; for the most 
 
 of his allies, rather leaned upon him, than shored 
 
 him. Wotton. 
 
 We> could hinder the accession of Holland to 
 
 France ; either as subjects, with great immunities for 
 
 the encouragement of trade ; or as an inferior and 
 
 dependent ally, under their protection. Temple. 
 
 Two lines are indeed remotely allied 'to Virgil'a 
 
 sense ; tmt they are too like the tenderness of Ovid. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Remembrance and reflection how allied, 
 With thin partitions, sense from thought divide. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally 
 The common int'rest, or endear the tie. /fr 
 
 To the sun ally'd, 
 
 From him they draw the animating fire. Thomson, 
 Time was, ere yet in these degenerate days 
 Ignoble themes obtained mistaken praise ; 
 When sense and wit with poesy allied, 
 No fabled graces, flourished side by side, 
 From the same fount their inspiration drew, 
 And reared by taste, bloomed fairer as they grew. 
 Lord Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewert, 
 
 ALLY, (Vizier,) ex-nabob of Oude, was the 
 adopted son of Ausuf ab Dowlah, late nabob of 
 Oude. His reputed father, a wealthy and eccen- 
 tric prince, who had succeeded to the musnud 
 or thron* of Oude, under the protection of the 
 British, was in the habit, whenever he saw a preg- 
 nant woman whose appearance pleased him, of
 
 ALM 
 
 663 
 
 ALM 
 
 inviting her to his palace to lie in ; such an one 
 was the mother of vizier Ally, in 1781, and her 
 child, engaging the affections of the nabob, was 
 by him finally adopted as his successor. Vizier 
 Ally accordingly succeeded, but was deposed by 
 the English government in favour of the brother 
 of the late nabob ; and a pension of two lacks of 
 rupees, or 25,000 sterling settled on him. Pro- 
 ceeding to Benares, where Mr. Cherry the com- 
 pany's agent was despatched to make arrange- 
 ments for his future residence, he came to break- 
 fast with Mr. C. attended by an armed retinue, 
 and, after complaining bitterly of the treatment 
 which he had received from the Indian Com- 
 pany, gave a signal, on which his followers 
 rushed in and cut to pieces Mr. Cherry and his 
 assistant Mr. Graham. Ally made his escape 
 into the territory of Berar ; but was at length 
 given up, on condition that his life should be 
 spared. He died in confinement in May, 1817. 
 ALLYGUNGE, a town of Bengal, in the dis- 
 trict of Purneah, forty miles north-north-east of 
 the town of that name. N. lat. 26. 16'. E. long. 
 
 87. 38 . 
 
 ALMACANTAR, in astronomy, ALMINCA- 
 TARATH, from the Arabic Almocantharat ; a name 
 for the parallels of altitude on the celestial globe, 
 whose zenith is the pole or vertical point. 
 
 ALMACANTER'S STAFF is an instrument 
 for observing at sea the sun's amplitude rising 
 and setting. 
 
 ALM AD A, a town in Portuguese Estremadura, 
 on the Tagus, opposite Lisbon. 
 
 ALM AD E, a town of Spain, in the province 
 of La Mancha, and kingdom of Castile, situated 
 upon the top of a mountain, where are some of 
 the most ancient silver mines in Europe. 
 
 ALM AD EN, a town of Seville, in Andalusia, 
 near which there are also silver mines. 
 
 ALMADEN DE LAZOGUE, a town of Spain, m 
 Mancha, famous for its rich mines of mercury and 
 vermilion. It is forty-five miles south-west of 
 Ciudad Real. 
 
 ALMADIE, in commercial affairs, a small 
 vessel or canoe, used by the negroes of Africa, 
 about four fathoms long, and made usually of 
 the bark of a tree. This name is also given to 
 the vessels of Calicut, in India, called likewise 
 cathuri. They go with great swiftness. 
 
 ALMAGEST, in antiquity, a celebrated book, 
 composed by Ptolemy ; being a collection 01 the 
 observations and problems of the ancients, re- 
 lating to geometry and astronomy. In tt 
 ginal Greek it was called ffwrafa fwyif ?> i- e. 
 greatest construction, or collection : which last 
 word mesiste, joined to the particle al, gave 
 occasion to its being called almagestby the Ara- 
 bians, who translated it into their language about 
 the year 800. The Arabic word is almaghesti. 
 Ricciolus also published a body of astronomy, 
 which he entitled, the New Almaghest; being a 
 collection of ancient and modern discoveries 
 that science. jji->. 
 
 ALM AGRA, in chemistry, red bole or rude 
 sometimes a lotion, or wash. 
 
 ALMAGRA, in natural history, the sil atticur 
 of the ancients, an ochre of a fine and deep red 
 with some mixture of purple, very heavy and 
 a dense yet friable structure, and rough dusty 
 surface. It adheres firmly to the tongue, melts 
 
 easily in the mouth, and is of an austere and strong 
 astringent taste. It stains the skin, and ferments 
 very violently with acid menstruums ; by which 
 quality it is sufficiently distinguished from the 
 sil syricum, to which it has in many respects a 
 great affinity. It is found in immense quantities, 
 in many parts of Spain ; and in Andalusia there 
 are in a manner whole mountains of it. It is 
 used both in painting and in medicine, being a 
 very valuable astringent. 
 
 ALMAGRO, a fortress of Spain, the capital of 
 one. of the districts of La Mancha. It was built 
 by the archbishop Roderic of Toledo, who 
 finished it in 1214 ; and put a considerable gar- 
 rison into it, to restrain the incursions of the 
 Moors. 
 
 ALMAGRO, (Diego de), a Spanish commander, 
 of mean descent, who accompanied Pizarro in 
 the expedition against Peru in 1525. He is ac- 
 cused of having given orders for the murder of 
 Atahualipa the inca. In 1535 he took Cuzco, 
 the capital of Chili, and reserved the plunder 
 for himself, which giving offence to Pizarro's 
 brothers, who were there, he made them prisoners, 
 and a civil war ensued. For some time Alma- 
 gro's party experienced great success ; but at 
 length he was taken prisoner, after an obstinate 
 battle. He was kept in confinement several 
 months, and strangled in 1538, aged seventy- 
 five. His son Diego endeavoured to revenge his 
 father's death, but failed in the attempt, and was 
 beheaded by De Castro in 1542. 
 
 ALMAGUER, a city of South America, twenty- 
 one miles south of Popayan, in the kingdom of 
 Quito, and province of Popayan, founded in 
 1543, on the top of a small mountain. Its tem- 
 perature is mild and pleasant, and in its district 
 are some gold mines. 
 
 ALMAKERK, or MALLENTROY, a market 
 town of Transylvania, upper county of Weissen- 
 
 burg. 
 
 ALMA MATER, in literature, a title given 
 to Oxford, Cambridge, &c. by such as have re- 
 ceived their education in these and other acade- 
 mical foundations. 
 
 ALMANCHERY, a town of Hindostan, in 
 the Carnatic, about eleven miles north of Bom- 
 ranzepollam. 
 
 ALMAMON, or ABDALLAII, caliph of bag- 
 dad, was the son of Haroun Al Raschid, and suc- 
 ceeded his brother Al Amin in 813 ; he was a 
 great patron of learning, and founded a celebrated 
 academy at Bagdad. He calculated a set of as- 
 tronomical tables, and caused the works 
 the most celebrated ancient authors to be trans- 
 lated into Arabic. He died in 833, exclaiming 
 in the mortal struggle, Oh Thou that never 
 diest, have mercy on me, a dying man ! It 
 conduct towards his uncle and rival Ibrahim, 
 was an unusual example of clemency and mag- 
 nanimity. That prince, after his deposition, 
 kept himself some years concealed in B: 
 Being at length discovered, he was brought b 
 fore the caliph, and told that the council had un- 
 animously condemned him to death 
 counsellors (said Ibrahim) have judged accord 
 ing to the customary rules of political govern- 
 ment; if YOU pardon me, you w.ll not, indeed 
 judge according to precedent but you will have 
 no equal among sovereigns.' The caliph, raismg
 
 664 
 
 ALMANACK. 
 
 and tenderly embracing him, said, with great 
 emotion, ' Uncle, be of good cheer I will not 
 do you the least injury ;' and he not only par- 
 doned him, but bestowed upon him a rank and 
 fortune suitable to his birth. When Almamon's 
 courtiers came in crowds to compliment him on 
 this generous action, he exclaimed, in the full- 
 ness of his heart, ' Oh ! did men but know the 
 pleasure I feel in pardoning, all who have of- 
 fended me would come and confess their faults !' 
 ALMANACK, a calendar, or book, in which 
 the revolutions of the seasons ; the rising and 
 setting of the sun ; the phases of the moon ; 
 the most remarkable conjunctions, positions, and 
 phenomena of the heavenly bodies are marked 
 down for every month and day in the year ; 
 also the several feasts and fasts to be observed 
 in the church and state ; together with the com- 
 mon ecclesiastical notes, &c. Some derive the 
 etymology of the word from the Arabic parti- 
 cle al and manach, to count; others from ul and 
 pa.va.Kos, the course of months. Golius thinks 
 it derived from a custom prevailing throughout 
 the East, for all subjects, at the beginning of the 
 year, to make presents to their princes. He ob- 
 serves that the astrologers, among the rest, pre- 
 sent him with their ephemerides for the new 
 year, called alman-ha, or new-year's gifts. Vers- 
 tegan and others write the word almonat, and 
 consider it of German origin. Not a few 
 derive it from the Teutonic al and maan, the 
 moon, or an account of every moon or every 
 month, so our ancestors, observes Verstegan, 
 used to carve the courses of the moon for the 
 year upon a square piece of wood, which they 
 called almonaght, signifying in old English, 
 or Saxon ALL-MOON-HEED. With respect to the 
 opinion of Golius, Murza Ja a far, a gentleman 
 belonging to the court of the prince of Persia, 
 and a native of great intelligence and veracity, 
 assures us, that though the custom still remains, 
 yet neither the Persians nor the Arabians have 
 any such word in their language as almanfia. 
 He has also favoured us with the inspection 
 and explanation of a Persian almanack, which 
 is no ordinary curiosity. The first page con- 
 tains a list of fortunate days for certain pur- 
 poses, as for example, for buying, for selling, 
 for marrying, for taking medicine, &c. ; after 
 which follow predictions of events, as earth- 
 quakes, storms, political occurrences, &c., after 
 the manner of Moore's Almanack, occupying 
 only one page. Then begins the calendar arrang- 
 ed much after the manner of our almanacks, in 
 which the days of the month and of the week are 
 arranged from the top of the page downwards. 
 The second column exhibits the rising and set- 
 ting of the sun, and the seven succeeding ones 
 the distance of the sun from the six primary 
 planets, according to their imperfect notions of 
 astronomy, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, 
 Jupiter, and Saturn. The next page contains 
 the days of the month repeated, with columns of 
 the distance of the moon from the other planets. 
 The column next succeeding shews the time of her 
 coming upon the meridian both above and below 
 the horizon, commonly called the zenith and 
 nadir; and the right hand column is an entire 
 register of the several feasts and remarkable 
 
 events connected with the Mahommedan religion 
 The last two pages contain a scheme of the confi- 
 guration of the planets, the calculation of eclipses, 
 &c., formed upon the Ptolemaic system ; and as 
 the system is erroneous, the calculations are ex- 
 tremely imperfect. The Persian almanacks, 
 according to this example of them, greatly cor- 
 respond with the genius of the nation, who are 
 much addicted to astrology and astronomy, to 
 which a pastoral life, perhaps, inclines them, 
 and also furnishes them leisure ^ apply themselves. 
 To the present time they neither sow nor reap, 
 plant, travel, buy, sell, nor undertake any ex- 
 pedition without consulting first of all the stars 
 and almanacks. There are astrological rules 
 for doing any thing, bleeding, purging, &c., 
 down to the cutting of the hair, and paring of the 
 nails. In this kingdom and in many states of 
 Europe we have almanacks of various descrip- 
 tions, both in pamphlets and sheets ; some of 
 them annual and some perpetual. The primary 
 subject of our almanacks are the calendar of 
 months, weeks, and days ; the motions, changes, 
 and phases of the moon, to which are added 
 astronomical, astrological, meteorological, chro- 
 nological, political, medical, and rural parerga, 
 &c.; calculations of eclipses, solar ingresses, 
 prognostics of the weather, table of tides and 
 terms, lists of princes, nobility, posts, offices, 
 dignities, public institutes, &c. The modern 
 almanack answers, in a word, to the fasti of the 
 ancient Romans. In France, however, the astro- 
 logical observations are expunged by an edict 
 promulgated by Henry III ; and so little encou- 
 ragement is given to them generally, that they 
 are at the present time confined to one or two 
 of these publications. The first almanack is 
 said to have been printed at Constantinople in 
 1716, under the direction of Abdonaham. Regio- 
 montanus was the first in Europe who made 
 a complete revision in the plan of almanacks, 
 and reduced them to their present form, with 
 the exception of their predictive observations, 
 which have been in all probability introduced 
 into Europe from the Persians. The utility of 
 almanacks cannot for a moment be doubted; 
 and though they appear abstruse and difficult, 
 yet by the help of good astronomical tables they 
 are very easily made. 
 
 The most popular almanacks of the present 
 day, are Poor Robin's Almanack, which com- 
 menced in 1652 ; the Lady's Diary, which 
 appeared first in 1705 ; Season on the Seasons, 
 which began in 1735 ; the Gentleman's Diary, 
 first printed in 1741 ; Moore's Almanack ; Par- 
 tridge's Almanack ; White's Ephemeris, or Celes- 
 tial Atlas; Goldsmith's Almanack, and Rider's 
 Pocket Almanack. 
 
 The Lady's and Gentleman's Diary, have, in 
 a remarkable degree, subserved the culture of 
 the mathematical sciences in this kingdom. 
 All learned foreigners aver, that there is a greater 
 proportion of our y>opulation acquainted to a 
 certain extent with mathematical science and 
 knowledge, than of any other country in Europe, 
 and perhaps of the world ; and this circumstance is 
 chiefly owing to the extensive circulation and in 
 rluence of the two publications already mentioned. 
 The proposing 01 so great a variety of questions
 
 ALMANACK. 
 
 665 
 
 in every stage of advancement, from the first and 
 most easy to the most remote and difficult to be 
 answered. The succeeding year is well calcu- 
 lated to excite emulation among the younger 
 branches of society, who, drawn insensibly to 
 Ihe consideration of the subject, are delighted by 
 new truths, arising out of the plainest principles. 
 The observer becomes an amateur, and the ama- 
 teur a proficient. Many eminent mathematicians 
 of the last century, as Simpson, Emerson, Lan- 
 den, Wildbore, and other satellites, by the 
 diffusion of whose light posterity shall discover 
 truth, began with expounding the different 
 axioms and positions laid down in the above 
 publications. 
 
 The almanack, included in the book of Com- 
 mon Prayer, forms a part of the law of England, 
 of which the courts must take notice in the 
 return of writs, &c. It is in short a perpetual 
 almanack, but will require frequent revision, 
 being founded on the Gregorian calendar, which 
 supposes 365 days, 5h. 49', 12", in the year; 
 whereas its true duration of time is 365 days, 
 5h. 48'. 45^". Another important publication 
 is the Nautical Almanack, published annually 
 under the direction of the Board of Longitude, two 
 or three years in advance. In addition to all the 
 essential parts of other almanacks, this contains 
 a great variety of particulars generally interest- 
 ing, although especially adapted to nautical 
 purposes. It particularizes the distances of 
 the moon from the sun, and from the most im- 
 portant fixed stars for every three hours of 
 apparent time, according to the meridian of the 
 Royal Observatory, Greenwich. By comparing 
 these with the distances carefully observed at sea, 
 the mariner may readily infer his longitude, and 
 by having immediate recourse to Mayer's Lunar 
 Tables, avoid the trouble and uncertainty of many 
 intricate calculations. The sun's longitude, for- 
 merly computed from Mayer's Tables, printed 
 in 1 770, under the inspection of Dr. Maskelyne, 
 late astronomer royal, to whom the almanack 
 itself owes its origin, has been rendered more 
 accurate by the additional tables of Delambre, 
 as improved by professor Vince ; and since the 
 year 1791, the phases of the sun and moon have 
 been both inserted. 
 
 In the almanack of 1803 the latitudes and 
 longitudes are connected, and the moon's 
 distance from them ascertained, according to 
 Taylor's valuable tables, to every second of the 
 quadrant. Since 1780, the calculations have 
 been made from Lalande's Tables, as exhibited 
 in the second edition of his Astronomy ; and 
 those of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, till the 
 year 1795, from both Lalande's tables and War- 
 gentine's (with the exception of the second satel- 
 lite), computed by new tables of Wargentine, 
 found in the Nautical Almanack for 1779. The 
 eclipses have, however, from 1793, been com- 
 puted to mean time from the new tables of De- 
 lambre, subjoined to the third edition of Lalande's 
 Astronomy. Many valuable papers have ap- 
 peared in this publication, adapted to facilitate 
 nautical calculations generally. One of the most 
 conspicuous is the rule laid down by Brinkley 
 m 1819, for clearing the lunar distance. From 
 the commencement of this valuable work, down 
 
 to the death of its institutor and conductor, great 
 accuracy was observed. Since that event, nu- 
 merous errors have been detected, calculated to 
 render the publication not only useless, but in- 
 jurious. At length the subject was brought be- 
 fore parliament the board of longitude re- 
 modelled, and the Almanack submitted to the 
 care of a secretary. It is hoped that no interest 
 will prevail with the British government to place 
 any individual in that situation who is not duly 
 qualified. 
 
 The French have a similar publication to our 
 Nautical Almanack, which they call Connaissance 
 des Terns. It commenced in the year 1698; 
 and though subject to slight alterations, and oc- 
 casionally discontinued, it has for many years 
 been conducted with great regularity and accu- 
 racy. There are, in this work, many valuable 
 speculations on mathematical subjects, which 
 greatly heighten its practical importance. A mi - 
 nute history of the work is given in the Alma- 
 nack for 1808. 
 
 ALMANACKS, WOODEN. Antiquaries give the 
 name of Almanacks also to a kind of instrument, 
 usually of wood, inscribed with various figures 
 and Runic characters, and representing the order 
 of the feasts, dominical letters, days of the week, 
 and golden number, with other matters necessary 
 to be known throughout the year ; used by the 
 ancient northern nations, in their computations 
 of time, both civil and ecclesiastical. Almanacks 
 of this kind are known by various names among 
 the different nations wherein they have been 
 used ; as rimstocks, primstaries, runstocks, run- 
 staffs, Scipiones Runici, Bacculi Annales, clogs, 
 &c. They appear to have been used only by 
 the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. From the 
 second of these people, their use was introduced 
 into England, whence divers remains of them in 
 the counties. Dr. Plot has given the description 
 and figure of one of these clogs, found in Stafford- 
 shire, under the title of the Perpetual Stafford- 
 shire Almanack. The external figure and matter 
 of these calendars appear to have been various. 
 Sometimes they were cut on one or more wooden 
 leaves, bound together after the manner of books; 
 sometimes on the scabbards of swords, or even 
 on daggers ; sometimes on tools and implements, 
 as portable steelyards, hammers, the helves of 
 hatchets, flails, &c. Sometimes they were made 
 of brass or horn : sometimes of the skins of eels, 
 which, being drawn over a stick properly in- 
 scribed, retained the impressions of it. But the 
 most usual form was that of walking staves or 
 sticks, which they carried about with them to 
 church, market, &c. Each of these staves is 
 divided into three regions ; whereof the first in- 
 dicates the signs, the second the days of the week 
 and year, and the third the golden number. 
 The characters engraven on them are, in some, 
 the ancient Runic; in others, the later Gothic 
 characters of Ulsilus. The saints' days are ex- 
 pressed in hieroglyphics, significative either of 
 some endowment of the saint, the manner of his 
 martyrdom, or the like. Thus, against the notch 
 for the first of March, or St. David's day, is re- 
 presented a harp; against the twenty-fifth of 
 October, or Crispan's day, a pair of shoes^; 
 against the tenth of August, or St. Lawrence's
 
 ALM 
 
 (J66 
 
 ALM 
 
 day, a gridiron ; and, lastly, against new-year's 
 day, a horn, the mark of good drinking, which 
 our ancestors gave a loose to at that season. 
 
 ALMANACKS, method of constructing. The 
 first thing to be done is, to compute the place of 
 the sun and moon for each day of the year, or 
 it may be taken from some ephemerides and en- 
 tered into the almanack ; next, find the domini- 
 cal letter, and, by means thereof, distribute the 
 calendar into weeks ; then, having computed the 
 time of Easter, by it fix the other moveable 
 feasts ; adding the immoveable ones, with the 
 names of the martyrs, the rising and setting of 
 each luminary, the length of day and night, the 
 aspects of the planets, the phases of the moon, 
 and the sun's entrance into the cardinal point of 
 the ecliptic, i. e. the two equinoxes and solstices. 
 
 ALMANAR, in the Arabian astrology, the 
 pre-eminence of one planet over another. 
 
 ALMAND, a river of Athol, Scotland, which 
 runs into the Tay. It has a cascade near thirty 
 yards high ; not far from which two rocks meet 
 across the river, in such a manner as to form a 
 natural bridge. 
 
 ALMAND CATHARTICA, in botany, a plant of 
 Surinam, supposed by the inhabitants to be 
 good for the colic. 
 
 ALMANDINE, in mineralogy, a coarse 
 sort of ruby, approaching in colour nearer to 
 the granite than the ruby. It takes its name 
 from Alabanda, a city of Caria, whence Pliny 
 says it was brought. 
 
 ALMANASOR, (Jacob,) a caliph of the Sa- 
 racens in Africa, who, after conquering territo- 
 ries to the extent of above 1200 leagues in 
 length, and 180 in breadth, including the whole 
 country from Messa to Tripoli, at last met with 
 such a reverse of fortune, that, to save his life, 
 he fled to Alexandria, where he commenced 
 baker, and died in that honest profession, A. D. 
 1205. 
 
 ALMANZA, a small town of New Castile, on 
 the frontiers of Valencia in Spain, rendered me- 
 morable by the defeat of the allies in 1707, under 
 the marquis de las Minas, and the earl of Gal- 
 way. It stands in a fertile plain, on the fron- 
 tiers of Valencia, thirty-five miles south-west of 
 Xativa, and sixty-two north of Murcia. 
 
 ALMANZOR the Victorious, the second 
 caliph of the house of Al Abas, succeeded his 
 brother Abul Abbas Al Saffa, in the year 753. 
 During his reign the city of Bagdad was raised 
 from the foundation, and became the imperial 
 residence. He was opposed by his uncle Ab- 
 dalla-ebn-Alli, who was defeated by Almanzor's 
 general, Abu-Moslem. Fearing this general's 
 abilities and popularity, he caused him to be 
 assassinated. Several insurrections took place 
 in his reign, which were all suppressed. He 
 died on a pilgrimage to Mecca, in the sixty- 
 third year of his age. 
 
 ALMARHHA, a sea-port of Arabia, near 
 the northern extremity of the Red Sea, two 
 miles east of Cape Almarhha. 
 
 ALMARHHA, CAPE, a cape on the west coast 
 of Arabia, in the Red Sea, forming the southern 
 extremity of port Firaoun. Lon. 33. 3'. 40*. 
 E. lat. 29. 1'. 41'. N. 
 
 ALME, or ALMA, singing and dancing girls 
 
 in Egypt and Hindostan, who, like the Italian 
 improvisatori, can occasionally pour forth un- 
 premeditated verse. They are called alme', from 
 having received a better education than other 
 women ; and form a celebrated society in Egypt. 
 To be received into it, according to M. Savary, 
 it is necessary to have a good voice, to under- 
 stand the language well, to know the rules of 
 poetry, and be able to compose and sing cou- 
 plets impromptu. The alm6 know by heart all 
 the new songs. Their memory is furnished 
 with the most beautiful tales. There is no fes- 
 tival without them ; no entertainment of which 
 they do not constitute the ornament. They are 
 placed in a rostrum, from whence they sing 
 during the repast. They then descend into the 
 saloon, and form dances which have no resem- 
 blance to ours. They are pantomime ballets, in 
 which they represent the usual occurrences of 
 hfe. The suppleness of their bodies is incon- 
 ceivable, as well as the mobility of their features, 
 to which they give at pleasure the impression 
 suited to the characters they play. Frequently, 
 however, they lay aside, with their veils, the 
 modesty of their sex. They are the modern 
 Bacchants in a delirium. It is then that a peo- 
 ple, far from delicate, redouble their applauses. 
 These alme are sent for into all the harams. 
 They teach the women the new airs, amuse them 
 with amorous tales, and recite in their presence 
 poems, which contain lively pictures of oriental 
 manners. The common people have also their 
 alme of a secondary order. 
 
 ALMEDINA, a decayed town of Morocco, 
 on a declivity of mount Atlas. The country 
 around it is very fertile. 
 
 ALMEHRAB, among the Mahommedans, 
 denotes a niche in their mosques, which directs 
 to the kebla, or temple of Mecca, to which they 
 are obliged to bow in praying. See KEBLA. 
 
 ALMEIDA, a frontier town of Portugal, in 
 the province of Tralos Montes, on the confines 
 of Leon, where there was . a very brisk action 
 between the French and Portuguese in 1663; 
 seventeen miles north-west of Ciuidad Rodrigo. 
 
 ALMEIDA, a fortified town of Portugal, in 
 Beira, on the Spanish frontier, containing about 
 2500 inhabitants and two parishes. It is 113 
 miles north-east of Lisbon. This place was 
 taken by the French in 1810, and retaken by 
 the British at the beginning of the following year. 
 
 ALMEIDA, (Francis,) a Portuguese gentleman, 
 appointed in 1505 the first viceroy of India. He 
 took the city of Quiloa, and made many other 
 conquests. Being informed that a rich Arabian 
 fleet lay in the harbour of Panama, he proceeded 
 thither with his squadron, and found the ships 
 protected by a rampart and a strong garrison. 
 Almeida, however, ventured to land, and, after 
 an obstinate conflict, defeated the enemy, and 
 set the city and ships on fire. On the death of 
 his son, who was killed in a severe engagement, 
 Almeida only said, ' he thanked God for having 
 honoured him with so glorious a death.' While 
 he was thus engaged, Albuquerque received 
 orders from Portugal to supersede him, but Al- 
 meida being about to proceed to Dabul with a 
 fleet, refused to deliver up his government. In 
 this expedition he sullied his reputation by
 
 AIM 
 
 667 
 
 putting all the inhabitants of the city to the 
 sword, and not sparing even the infants. He 
 afterwards fell in with the fleet of the enemy, and 
 aeteated it, making a slaughter of 4000 men. 
 This produced a peace. On his passage to 
 Europe he was slain at the Cape of Good Hope, 
 in a skirmish with the natives. 
 
 ALMELILETU is used, by Avicenna, to ex- 
 press a preternatural kind of heat, a degree less 
 than that of a fever. 
 
 ALMELOO, a small town and lordship of 
 Overyssel, Holland, district of Twenthe, be- 
 longing to the count of Rechteren. It had 2162 
 inhabitants in 1796, and carried on a consider- 
 able trade in the linen which is here manufac- 
 tured. Twenty miles east-north-east of Deventer 
 
 ALMELOVEEN {Theodore Jansen Van), a 
 physician, was born in 1657, at Medrecht, near 
 Utrecht, and died in 1712. Among his works 
 are, 1. Hippocratis Aphorismi, Gr. et Lat. 
 12mo. Amst. 1685. 2. Aurelius Celsus de 
 Medicina, 12mo. Amst. 1687; 8vo. 1713 ; 8vo. 
 Patav. 1722. 3. Apicii Calii de Obsoniis et 
 Condimentis, sive de Arte Coquinaria, Libri x. 
 8vo. Amst. 1709. 4. Aurelianus de Morbis 
 Acutis et Chronicis, 4to. Amst. 1709. 5. Bib- 
 liotheca Promissa et Latens, 8vo. 1688, 1698, 
 12mo. 1692 ; 8vo. Nuremberg, 1699. 6. The 
 Anatomy of the Muscle, 8vo. Amst. 1684. 7. 
 Onomasticon Rerum Inventarum et Inventa 
 Nova et Antiqua, id est Brevis Enarratio Ortus 
 et Progresses Artis Medicse, ibid. 1684. 8. 
 Fasti Cousulares, 8vo. Amster. 1705. As he 
 had no children, he left his collection of the 
 different editions of Quintilian to the Uni- 
 versity at Utrecht. His library, which was 
 extensive, was sold the following year at Am- 
 sterdam. 
 
 ALMENDVALAIO, a town of Spanish Es- 
 tremadura, near the borders of Portugal. 
 
 ALMENE, in botany, a name given by some 
 of the Arabian writers to the prickly lotus of 
 Africa, called by the ancients lotus acanthos, 
 and by Virgil acanthus only. 
 
 ALMENE, in commerce, a weight of two pounds 
 used to weigh saffron in several parts of the con- 
 tinent of the East Indies. 
 
 ALMERIA, a river of Spain, on the mouth 
 of which is seated the town of that name. See 
 next article. 
 
 ALMERIA, a sea-port town of Granada, in 
 Spain, pleasantly situated in a fine bay on the 
 Mediterranean. This town is by some thought 
 to have risen from the ruins of the ancient Ab- 
 dera, and was formerly a place of great conse- 
 quence. It was taken from the Moors in 1147, 
 by the Emperor Conrad III. in conjunction with 
 the French, Genoese, and Pisans ; being at that 
 time the strongest place in Spain held by the 
 infidels, from which their privateers, which were 
 exceedingly numerous, gave equal disturbance 
 to the maritime provinces of Spain, France, Italy, 
 and the adjacent islands. The city being well 
 fortified and provisioned, having a strong castle, 
 and a numerous garrison, was at last taken by 
 storm, and upon its reduction was made a 
 bishopric, suffragan of Granada. The harbour 
 is commodious and well sheltered, and the castle 
 yet remains. It is forty-five miles south of Baza, 
 
 ALM 
 
 and fifty-four south-east of Granada. Lore? 
 2. 41 . W. lat. 36. 50'. N. 
 
 ALMERIA, a sea-port town of Mexico, in the 
 province of Vera Cruz ; on the coast, and near 
 the river Noadan. It is fifty miles north of Vera 
 Cruz, and 150 east of Mexico. Long. 97 30' 
 W.lat. 20. 18'. N. 
 
 ALMERICIANS, in ecclesiastical history, a 
 short lived sect of the thirteenth century, who in- 
 sisted that the power of each of the persons of 
 the Holy Trinity commenced at certain periods of 
 time. That of the Father was, according to their 
 creed, restricted to the Mosaic dispensation, 
 that of tne Son reached to the beginning of the 
 thirteenth century, and the reign of the Holy 
 Ghost then commencing, all the ceremonies of 
 external worship were to be discontinued. 
 
 ALMESFEOH, alms money, or Peter pence, 
 a tribute formerly paid in England to' the pope, 
 on the eighth of August. 
 
 ALMIGGIM WOOD, a word used in the scrip- 
 tures to signify a beautiful and light sort of wood, 
 used for musical instruments. Meibomius proves, 
 that it was the Indian pine or fir tree. 
 
 ALMIGHTY, adj. i All might. Having 
 
 ALMIGH'TINESS. $ all might or power. 
 
 Grecte and wounderful ben thi werkis, Lord God 
 Almighti, thi weies ben iust and trewe Lord kyng of 
 worldis. Wiclifs't Apocalip. c. xv. 
 
 It serveth to the world, for a witness of his al- 
 mightinets, whom we outwardly honour with the 
 chiefest of outward things. Hooker. 
 
 In creating and making existent the world uni- 
 versal, by the absolute act of his own word, God 
 shewed his power and almighttncss. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 In the wilderness, the bittern and the stork, the 
 unicorn and elk, live upon his provisions, and revere 
 his power, and feel the force of his almightinets. 
 
 Taylor. 
 
 The Lord appeared unto Abraham ; and said unto 
 him, I am the almighty God : walk before me, and 
 be thou perfect. Genesis, xvii. 1. 
 
 Th' infernal serpent ! he it was whose guile 
 
 Stirred up with envy and revenge deceived 
 
 The mother of mankind. 
 
 Him th' almighty power 
 
 Hurl'd headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
 
 With hideous ruin and combustion down 
 
 To bottomless perdition. Miltcm. 
 
 ALMIRANTE, a river of the province of 
 Florida, which runs south-east, and falls into the 
 sea in the bay of Pensacola. 
 
 ALMIRANTE BAY, a bay of South America, on 
 the coast of Veragua, and kingdom of Terra 
 Firma, so called from its having been discovered 
 by Columbus in his fourth voyage. He was 
 nearly wrecked at its entrance. 
 
 ALMISSA, a strong town and district in Ve- 
 netian Dalmatia, anciently calhed Peguutium; 
 seated on the mouth of the Cetina, between two 
 high mountains, on a steep rock inaccessible to 
 shipping. It lies ten miles east of Spalatro, di- 
 rectly opposite to the isle of Brassa. Long. 
 39. 33'. E. Lat. 43. 56'. N. 
 
 ALMIZADIR, among alchemists, is some- 
 times used for verdigris; sometimes for the 
 process of the philosopher's stone ; and some- 
 times for the aqua mercurialis, or aqua philoso- 
 phorum. 
 
 ALMO, in ancient history, a rivulet of Cam-
 
 ALM 
 
 668 
 
 ALM 
 
 pagna, falling into the Tiber at Rome; now 
 called Rio d'Appio. On the 25th of March, the 
 image of Cybele, and whatever was consecrated 
 to her was washed in this river. 
 
 Est locus in Tiberim quo lubricus influit Almo, 
 Et nomen magno perdit ab amne minor j 
 Illic purpure canus cum veste sacerdos 
 Almouis dominam, sacraque lavit aquisi. 
 
 Ovid. Fast. 1. 4. v. 387. 
 
 ALMODAVAR, a small town of Alentejo, 
 Portugal, having 1800 inhabitants. It is nine 
 miles south of Ourique. 
 
 ALMODAVAR DEL CAMPO, a handsome town of 
 New Castile, Spain, with a castle, and containing 
 3000 inhabitants. It is eighteen miles south of 
 Cividad Real, and included in the district of 
 that name. 
 
 ALMOHARAM, the first month of the ancient 
 Arabs. 
 
 ALMOHEDES, in history, the name of an 
 African dynasty which succeeded that of the 
 Almoravides, in Barbary, in the commencement 
 of the twelfth century. It took its rise in the 
 reign of Al Abraham, or Brahem, and derived 
 its name from an obscure founder, a Barber, of 
 the tribe of Muzamada, originally named Ab- 
 dallah. In order to secure success to the design 
 he had conceived, he assumed the title of Mohdi, 
 or Mohedi, and set up for the head or leader of 
 the orthodox, who were now become so nume- 
 rous by his preaching, that he presumed to bid 
 defiance even to his sovereign. Their unex- 
 pected increase at last alarmed him, and he pre- 
 pared for subduing them. His force, however, 
 was insufficient for the purpose, and in his first 
 engagement he was totally defeated. Abdallah 
 was wary, and secured the capital ; so that Bra- 
 hem, pursued as a fugitive by Abdolmumen, one 
 of the party, was obliged to see'k refuge in the 
 city of Fez. But the gates of the city were not 
 only shut against him, but opened to receive his 
 pursuers. The next place to which this prince 
 repaired was Auran, or Oran ; but that city was 
 soon invested by Abdolmumen, and the magis- 
 trates, unable to defend themselves, and dreading 
 the consequences of an hostile attack, urged him 
 to leave the town. Under the shelter of a dark 
 night, he, with his favourite wife on horseback 
 behind him, set out from Oran, but being dis- 
 covered and p\irsued,he spurred the animal in a 
 fit of despair, and leaped down a precipice, 
 where he and his wife were dashed to pieces. 
 The fatal end of this prince put a period to the 
 empire of the Almoravides. As soon as Abdol- 
 mumen, vulgarly called Abdalman, was apprised 
 of Brahem's death, he traversed the kingdom of 
 Tremec en in his way to Morocco, where, Ab- 
 dallah being dead, he was declared his successor 
 by the chiefs of the party, and proclaimed king 
 of the Almohedes, under the title of Al Emir Al 
 Mumin Abdallah Mohammed Abdal Mutnen 
 Ebn Abdallah Ibni Ali, i. e. chief or emperor of 
 the true believers of the house of Mohammed 
 Abdal Mumen, the son of Abdal Mumen, the 
 son of Abdallah of the lineage of Ali. Abdallah 
 had appointed a council of forty disciples of his 
 sect, all of whom were preachers ; some were 
 commissioned to regulate all public affairs, and 
 at proper seasons to itinerate in the country, and 
 
 others to the number of sixteen, were to act as 
 secretaries. From the former of these two classes 
 the successors to the regal and pontifical throne 
 were to be elected. The disciples of this sect 
 were by the Arabian writers styled only preachers, 
 and by the Spanish Al Mohedes; but the de- 
 scendants and successors of that tribe continued 
 to retain the appellation of Emir Al Mumenin, 
 or chiefs of the faithful or true believers, as long 
 as their dynasty lasted. 
 
 ALMOIN, in law. See FKANK-ALMOIN. 
 
 ALMON (John), a political writer, born at 
 Liverpool in 1 738. After serving his apprentice- 
 ship to a bookseller, he went to sea, and in 1759 
 settled in London. On the death of George the 
 Second, he published a Review of his reign, 
 which went through two editions. His next 
 piece was a review of the administration of Mr. 
 Pitt, which gained him the patronage of Lord 
 Temple. In 1765 he opened a shop in Pic- 
 cadilly, but his success, however, in trade was 
 not adequate to his activity, and he was obliged 
 to give up the bookselling business. He died in 
 1805. His principal publications were 1. Anec- 
 dotes of Lord Chatham, 3 vols. 8vo. 2. Biogra- 
 phical Anecdotes of Eminent Persons, 3 vols. 8vo. 
 3. An edition of Junius, 2 vols., in which he 
 attempted to prove, that Hugh Boyd was the 
 author of those celebrated letters. Gen. Biog. 
 Diet. 
 
 ALMOND, a river in Perthshire, which rises 
 in Glenalmond, and falls into the Tay, a little 
 above Perth. 
 
 ALMOND, in botany. See AMYGDALUS. 
 
 ALMOND, in commerce, a measure by which 
 the Portuguese sell their oil ; twenty-six almonds 
 make a pipe. Almonds, the fruit, are also used 
 instead of a small money, in several parts of the 
 East Indies; particularly where the cowries, 
 those small shells which come from the Maldives, 
 are not current. 
 
 ALMOND, in anatomy, a name for the glan- 
 dular substances, otherwise called tonsillae, on 
 each side the uvula at the root of the tongue. 
 
 ALMOND-STONE, in mineralogy, the amygda- 
 lites of Linnaeus, a sort of stones consisting of 
 glandules resembling the almond in shape. 
 
 ALMONDBURY, a small town of England, 
 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, about a mile 
 from Huddersfield, on the river Calder. It is 
 said to have been the Campodonum of the Ro- 
 mans, and the residence of some of the Saxon 
 kings. But Dr. Whittaker disputes the former. 
 The vestiges of a castle are still perceptible on a 
 neighbouring hill. Population 4613. Distant 
 186 miles from London. 
 
 ALMONER, in its primitive sense, denoted 
 an officer in religious houses to whom belonged 
 the management and distribution of the alms of 
 the house. By the ancient canons, all monaste- 
 ries were to spend at least a tenth part of their in- 
 come in alms to the poor. The almoner of St. 
 Paul's was to dispose of the monies left for charity, 
 according to the appointment of the donors, to 
 bury the poor who died in the neighbourhood, 
 and to breed up eight boys in singing, for the use 
 of the choir. By an ancient canon, all bishops 
 are required to keep almoners. The Greek alm- 
 oner, (le grand aumonier,) of France, was the
 
 ALM 
 
 t ecclesiastical dignity in that kingdom, 
 before tne revolution. To him belonged the su- 
 perintendency of all hospitals and. houses of 
 lepers. The king received the sacrament from 
 his hand ; and he said mass at all grand solem- 
 nities. Almoner is also a fashionable title given 
 by some writers to chaplains. In this sense we 
 meet with almoner of a ship, almoner of a regi- 
 ment, &c. 
 
 ALMONER, Lord, or Lord High Almoner, of 
 England, is an ecclesiastical officer, generally a 
 bishop, who had formerly the forfeiture of all deo- 
 dands, and the goods of felos de se, which he was 
 to distribute among the poor. He had also the 
 power of giving the first dish from the king's 
 table to whatever poor person he pleased. 
 
 ~ 
 
 Hindostan, situated in the district of that name, 
 of which it is the capital, as well as of Kemaoon! 
 The district is hilly, covered with impervious 
 forests and jungles, and thinly peopled. It is a 
 subdivision of Kemaoon, the whole being tri- 
 butary to the Goorkkali rajah of Nepaul. The 
 town is built on the top of a ridge of moun- 
 tains, the thinly scattered houses extending down 
 the slope on each side. It is said to be more 
 extensive and populous than Serinagur, and 
 a place of greater traffic, but has not yet been 
 entered by any European. The inhabitants are 
 foreigners, or the descendants of emigrants from 
 the low lands. Lat. 29. 35'. north, long. 79. 
 40'. east. 
 
 ALMORAVIDES, in history, a name given 
 by the Spanish historians to an Arab tribe, which 
 took possession of a district of Africa in order to 
 live at their ease, and in a slate of retirement; 
 or, as they pretended, to follow the dictates of 
 the Koran more closely than others of their 
 sect, from whence they took the name of Mora- 
 bites, which the Spaniards changed into that of 
 Almoravides. The first prince or chief of this 
 nation was Abubeker Ben Omar, who is com- 
 monly called by Spanish authors Abu Texfein, 
 or Texifian, and who founded the dynasty of the 
 Almoravides in Barbary, A.D. 1051. 
 
 ALMOST', adv. All and most. Most or 
 greatest ; part of the whole or all. 
 
 And in the sabot suynge almest al the citee cam 
 togidre to heere the word of God. 
 
 Wiclif "s Dedis. c. xiii. 
 
 Who is there almost : wlw** mind, at some time 
 or other, love or anger, fe n grief, has iwt so fas- 
 tened to some clog, that it could not turn itself to any 
 other object. Locke. 
 
 There can be no such thing or notion, as an almost 
 infinite ; there can be nothing next or second, to an 
 omnipotent God. Bentley's Sermons. 
 
 Atlas becomes unequal to his freight ; 
 
 And almost faints, beneath the glowing weight. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 ALM 
 
 eufol he was to needy men, 
 and fre. 
 
 And yet he geue^ ; 
 And fasteth ofte and heareth messe, 
 
 Gower. Con. A. b. i. 
 
 And lo a man stood before me in a why t clooth and 
 me, Cornehe thi prerier is herd, and thin almej- 
 aedes ben in mynde in the sight of God. 
 
 Wiclif. The Dedis of Aposlis, c. . 
 The second was an almner of the place, 
 His office was the hungry for to feed, 
 And thirsty give to drinke ; a work of grace : 
 He fear'd not once himselfe to be in need. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. i. c. x. 
 
 He endowed many religious foundations, and yet 
 
 he a great alms-giver in secret; which shewed, 
 
 This woman was full of good works, and 
 which she did. Aeft ix 36< 
 
 Hard-favourM Richard, where art thou ? 
 Thou art not here : murder is thy almsdeed ; 
 Petitioner for blood thou ne'er pu_t'st back. ' 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 m give my jewels, for a set of beads ; 
 My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage ; 
 My gay apparel, for an almsman's gown. Id. 
 
 My arm'd knees, 
 
 Which bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his, 
 That hath received an alms. jy. 
 
 The poor beggar hath a just demand of an almt 
 from the rich man, who is guilty of fraud, injustice, 
 and oppression, if he does not afford relief according 
 to his abilities. Swift. 
 
 Many penitents, after the robbing of temples and 
 other rapine, build an hospital or alms-house, out of 
 the ruins of the church, and the spoils of widows and 
 orphans. L'Estrange. 
 
 Such statter'd ears as are not worth your care, 
 Your charity for alms may safely spare, 
 For alms are but the vehkles of pray*r. 
 
 Hind and Panther. Dryden's Poems. 
 Behold yon alms-house, neat, but void of state ; 
 Where age and want sit smiling at the gate. Pope. 
 
 Power and authority are sometimes bought by 
 kindness ; but they can never be begged as alms, 
 by an impoverished and defeated violence. Burke. 
 
 ALMS in the early ages of Christianity, were 
 divided into four parts ; one of which was allotted 
 to the bishop, another to the priests, and a third 
 to the deacons and subdeacons, which made 
 their whole subsistence ; and the fourth part was 
 employed in relieving the poor, and in repairing 
 the churches. No religious system is more fre- 
 quent or warm in its exhortations to alms-giving 
 than the Mahommedan. The Alcoran represents 
 alms as a necessary means to make prayer be 
 heard. Hence that saying of one of their caliphs : 
 ' Prayer carries us half way to God ; fasting 
 brings us to the door of his palace, and alms in- 
 troduces us into the presence-chamber.' Many 
 illustrious examples of this virtue are recorded 
 among the Mahommedans. Hassan, the son of 
 
 ALMOXARIFARGO, in commerce, a duty Ali, the grandson of Mahomet, in particular, is 
 of two and a half per cent, on bulls' hides in related to have thrice in his life divided his sub- 
 Spain. 
 
 ALMS, n. -\ Said to be derived from 
 
 ALM'ONER, f fXt^oecuvjj, from t\to 
 
 ALM'ONRY, ? mercy, by the following pro- 
 
 AL'MORY. J cess, ' Almosine almosie 
 almose alines alms.' Tookc's Charitable Dona- 
 tion, 
 
 stance equally between himself and the poor, and 
 twice to have given away all he had. And many 
 of them extended their charity even to brutes. 
 Alms also signify lands or other effects left to 
 churches or religious houses, on condition of 
 praying for the soul of the donor. They were 
 divided into alms free, which were liable to no
 
 ALN 
 
 670 
 
 ALN 
 
 rent or service ; reasonable alms, a certain por- 
 tion of the estates of intestate persons, allotted to 
 the poor ; paschal alms at Easter, &c. 
 
 ALMS-BOX, or ALMS-CHEST, a small chest or 
 coffer, called by the Greeks Kt/3ariov, wherein 
 anciently the alms were collected, both at church 
 and at private houses. Thus also a strong box, 
 with a hole in the upper part, having three keys, 
 was formerly directed to be placed in every 
 church in England, by the book of canons. 
 
 ALMUCANTARS, in astronomy, the same 
 as parallels of altitude. See ALMACANTAR. 
 
 ALMUCIUM, in ecclesiastical affairs, a kind 
 of cover for the head, worn chiefly by monks 
 and ecclesiastics : it was of a square form, and 
 seems to have given rise to the bonnets of the 
 same shape still retained in the universities and 
 cathedrals. Almucium was also used for the furs 
 or muffs which were worn by the canons on their 
 left arms. 
 
 ALMUDE, in commerce, a liquid measure in 
 Portugal, &c. At Lisbon, wine and oil are sold 
 by the pipe of twenty-six almudes ; but the 
 pipe of Lisbon wine sent to England contains 
 about thirty-one almudes ; and the standard gauge 
 at the London custom-house is 140 gallons; the 
 Lisbon almude is therefore reckoned at 4^ Eng- 
 lish gallons. At Oporto, the pipe is divided 
 into twenty-one almudes ; which almude and its 
 sub-divisions are 49 per cent, greater than those 
 of Lisbon ; so that the standard gauge of a pipe 
 of port at the custom-house of London, is 1 38 
 gallons, and the almude of Oporto is accord- 
 ingly equal to six English gallons and five pints 
 nearly. 
 
 ALMUDEVAR, a town and district of Ar- 
 ragon, included in the district of Huesca. 
 
 ALMUGAVARI, in archaeology, a name for 
 the Spanish soldiers who distinguished them- 
 selves against the Saracens. 
 
 ALMUGIA, in astrology, denotes a certain 
 configuration of the five planets, in respect to 
 the su and moon, correspondent to that which 
 is between the hours of those planets, and the 
 sun's and moon's hours. 
 
 ALMUGIM. See ALMIGGIM. 
 
 ALMUGNECAR, a town of the province of 
 Granada, Spain, with 2000 inhabitants, a good 
 harbour, and a castle. It was long in the pos- 
 session of the Moors, and is thirty-six miles 
 south south-west of Granada. 
 
 ALMUNIA, in archaeology, a sort of tenure 
 in use among the Spaniards. 
 
 ALMUTEN, in astrology, the lord of a figure, 
 or strongest planet in a nativity. 
 
 ALMUTRIUM, in archaeology, a cap made 
 with lambs or goats' skins. Dugd. Man. Angl. 
 
 ALNA, a river in the county of Orkney. 
 
 ALNA FIRTH, a small voe, or harbour, at the 
 mouth of the Alna, in the parish of Belting, in 
 Orkney. 
 
 ALNABATI, in the materia medica, a name 
 given by Avicenna and Serapion to the siliqua 
 dulcis, or carob-tree. They called both this and 
 the acacia, by the common name charnub ; but 
 distinguish this as a gentle purge, whereas the 
 other is astringent. 
 
 ALNAGAR, ALNAGER, or ALNEGER, n. s. 
 from alnage, a measure by the ell, a sworn 
 
 officer, whose business it formerly was to inspect 
 the assize of woollen cloth, and to fix the seals 
 appointed upon it for that purpose. 
 
 ALNCESTER, a town in Cumberland, seated 
 on the Alne, memorable for a synod of the An- 
 glo-Saxons held in it. 
 
 ALNEE, in mineralogy, a name sometimes 
 given to tin. 
 
 ALNEMOUTH, a sea-port in Northumber- 
 land, seated on the mouth of the Alne, where 
 some bones of a gigantic size have been dug up. 
 The harbour is safe for fishing and other small 
 vessels. Some of 300 tons burden are built 
 here. In the reign of queen Elizabeth, the 
 French took possession of this town and fortified 
 it. Distant five miles from Alnwick, and 315 
 from London. 
 
 ALNERIC, in chemistry, sulphur vivum. 
 
 ALNEY, a small island in the Severn, near 
 the city of Gloucester, famous for the royal duel 
 fought upon it, in sight of both their armies, be- 
 tween king Edmund Ironside, and Canute king 
 of Denmark; the latter being wounded, he pro- 
 posed an amicable division, and accordingly ob- 
 tained the north part of the kingdom, the south 
 falling to Edmund. 
 
 ALNUS, in botany, the alder-tree, a species 
 of betula. See BETULA. 
 
 ALNUS, in the ancient theatres, that part which 
 was most distant from the stage. 
 
 ALNUS BACCIFERA, the berry-bearing alder, 
 in botany, a name given by some writers to the 
 frangula. 
 
 ALNWICK, the county town of Northumber- 
 land, on the road to Scotland ; a place peculiarly 
 fatal to some of the ancient Scots monarchs. 
 Here Malcolm III. making an inroad into Nor- 
 thumberland, was killed, with Edward his son, 
 and his army defeated by Robert Mowbray, earl 
 of this county, A.D. 1093. Malcolm having be- 
 sieged this town, and obliged it to surrender, a 
 soldier pretending to present the keys on a spear, 
 stabbed him to the heart; and his son Edward, 
 attempting to avenge his death, was also slain, 
 and his army routed. Here too his great- 
 grandson, William I. invading England with an 
 army of 80,000 men, was encountered, his army 
 routed, and himself made prisoner, A. D. 1174. 
 Alnwick appears to have been formerly fortified, 
 by the vestiges of a wall still visible in many 
 parts, and three gates which are almost entire. 
 But its chief ornament is the stately Gothic castle 
 of the duke of Northumberland, which stands 
 on the south side of the town, and commands a 
 beautiful view of the surrounding country. It 
 was a strong fortress in the time of the Saxons, 
 and has been lately repaired and improved with 
 great taste and judgment. The market-place is 
 a spacious square, and there is a large town- 
 house, where the quarter-sessions and county 
 courts are held. The duke of Northumberland 
 has also built a stone bridge over the Alne. The 
 government of the town is vested in four cham- 
 berlains, who are chosen once in two years, out 
 of a common-council of twenty-four. The manner 
 of making freemen is said to be as follows : The 
 persons who are to be made free, or, as the 
 phrase is, leap the well, assemble in the market- 
 place, very early in the morning, on St. Mark's-
 
 ALOE. 
 
 day. They appear on horse-back, with every 
 man his sword by his side, dressed in white, and 
 with white night-caps, attended by the four 
 chamberlains and the castle bailiff, mounted and 
 armed in the same manner ; hence they proceed, 
 with music playing before them, to a large dirty 
 pool, called Freeman's Well, where they dis- 
 mount and draw up in a body, at some distance 
 from the water ; and then rush into it all at once, 
 and scramble through it as fast as they can. As 
 the water is generally foul, tney come out in a 
 dirty condition ; but taking a dram, they put on 
 dry clothes, remount their horses, and ride full 
 gallop round the confines of the district ; then 
 re-enter the town sword in hand, and are met 
 by the inhabitants dressed in ribbons with bells 
 and garlands. These are called timber-wasts. 
 The houses of the new freemen are on this day 
 distinguished by a great holly bush, as a signal 
 for their friends to assemble and make merry 
 with them after their return. This ceremony is 
 ascribed to an order of king John, who was mired 
 in this neighbourhood. Market on Saturday. 
 Alnwick is seated on the Alne, 310 miles north 
 by west from London, thirty-three north of New- 
 castle, and twenty-six south of Berwick. Inha- 
 bitants, 6000. 
 
 ALOA, in Grecian and Roman antiquity, a 
 festival held in honour of Ceres, by the husband- 
 men, and supposed to resemble our harvest- 
 home. Some derive the name of the town of 
 Alloa, from this festival. 
 
 ALOADDIN, better known by the appellation 
 of the old man of the mountains, was prince of 
 the Arsacides, or assassins, from whence the 
 word assassin is derived : his residence was a 
 castle between Antioch and Damascus, and he 
 had a number of young men with him who were 
 so devoted to his will, as to engage in any un- 
 dertaking he chose to send them upon. This 
 made the neighbouring princes very careful not 
 to offend him. He and his subjects were Ma- 
 hommedans. 
 
 ALODIUM. See ALLODIUM. 
 
 ALOE, in botany, a\o?;, the name of a plant. 
 It is derived, in all probability, from the Hebrew 
 TlVnK- The aloe which comes from India is said 
 to resemble the squill, with the exception, that it 
 is bigger, and provided with fatter leaves. The 
 juice, which is found sticking to the plant like a 
 tear, is exceedingly bitter; but is greatly famed 
 for its medicinal virtues. Dioscor. 1. 3. c. 25. 
 Ruff. Epftes. Fragment, de Med. Purg. Gal. 
 Camm. 2. in Hippocrat. de Art. c. 49. Cels. de 
 Re Med. 1. 2. c. 1 2. Oribas. Med. Coll. 1. 7. c. 27. 
 Aet. Tetrab. i. Serm. iii. c. *24. Actuar. de 
 Meth.Med.l.S.c.B. Salmas. Exercitat. flin. 
 1053. Plin. 1. 27. 
 
 Aloe, in the Linnaean system, is a genus of 
 the order monogynia, class hexandria; and, in 
 the natural method, ranking under the tenth 
 order, coronariae. The characters are : No CA- 
 IYX : COR. monopetalous, erect, six-cleft, and 
 oblong; tube gibbous; border spreading, and 
 small ; with a nectary-bearing bottom : STAM. 
 six subulated filaments, rather surpassing the 
 corolla in length, and inserted into the recep- 
 tacle : the ANTHERS: oblong and incumbent: the 
 PJST. ovate germen ; STYLE simple, the length of 
 
 671 
 
 the stamina ; the STIO. obtuse and trifid: the PER. 
 an oblong capsule, three-furrowed, three-celled, 
 three-valvnd : seeds many and angular. The 
 proper earth for planting these vegetables in, is, 
 one half fresh light earth from a common, and the 
 rest an equal mixture of white sea-sand and 
 sifted lime-rubbish . This mixture should always 
 be made six or eight months before the plants 
 are to be set in it. The common aloe will live 
 in a dry green-house in winter; and may be 
 placed in the open air in summer in a sheltered 
 situation, but must have very little water. Most 
 of the other aloes are best preserved in an airy 
 glass-case, in which there is a stove, to make a 
 little fire in very bad weather. The tenderest 
 kinds require a greater share of heat to preserve 
 them in winter, and should be kept in a good 
 stove, in air ten degrees above temperate. Many 
 other kinds may also be kept in this heat; but 
 the greater the heat, the more water they always 
 require . About the beginning of June, it is usual 
 in England to set the pots of aloes out of the 
 house; but they should be set under the shelter of 
 hedges or trees, to keep them from the violence of 
 the sun; the rains also, which usually fall in this 
 and the following month, are apt to rot them. It is 
 therefore best to keep them under cover the 
 greatest part of the year. .The best time to shift 
 these plants is the middle of July. They are, 
 on this occasion, to be taken out of the pots, 
 the loose earth to be picked from about their roots, 
 and the decayed or mouldy parts of them cut 
 off; then a few stones are to be put at the bot- 
 tom of the pot, and it is to be filled with the 
 composition before described, and the plants 
 carefully put in, the roots being so disposed as 
 not to interfere with one another. They are to 
 be carefully watered after this, at times, for three 
 weeks, and set in a shady place. The common 
 kind will bear the open air from May to October, 
 and should be shifted every year. All the aloes 
 are propagated by off-sets, or by planting the 
 leaves. The off-sets should be taken from the 
 mother plant at the time when it is shifted : they 
 are to be planted in very small pots of the proper 
 mixed earth ; and if that part of them which 
 joined to the mother plant be observed to be 
 moist when taken off, it should lie on the ground 
 in a shady place two or three days before it is 
 planted, otherwise it will rot. After planting 
 these, they should remain in a shady place a 
 fortnight; and then be removed to a very mo- 
 derate hot bed, plunging the pots therein, 
 which will help their striking new roots. To- 
 wards the end of August they must be, by de- 
 grees, hardened to the open air, by taking off 
 the glasses of the hot-bed ; and, in September, 
 they may be removed into the green-house. Of 
 this genus, some botanical writers enumerate 
 only ten species; Miller and others mention 
 twenty-five; while others, with Dr. Johnson, 
 as above, state no fewer than thirty-nine species 
 But, in enumerating so many, those writers must 
 have confounded the various species of different 
 genera, such as those of the agave, aletris, &c. 
 with this genus : of which we shall only parti- 
 cularise the following : 
 
 1. Aloe Disticha, by some called the soap 
 aloe, by others the caballine aloe, seldom rise*
 
 )72 
 
 ALOE S. 
 
 above two feet high. The leaves are very broad 
 at the base, where they closely embrace the stalk, 
 and gradually decrease to a point. The edges 
 are set with sharp spines, and the under leaves 
 spread open horizontally every way. These are 
 of a dark green colour, spotted with white, some- 
 what resembling the colour of soft soap, from 
 whence the plant got the name of soap-aloe. 
 The flowers grow in umbels on the tops of the 
 stalks, are of a beautiful red colour, and appear 
 in August and September. 
 
 2. Aloe lingua-formae, or tongue aloe, has 
 its leaves about six inches in length, and shaped 
 like a tongue. The flowers grow in slender 
 loose spikes, each hanging downward, of a red 
 colour below, and green at the top. 
 
 3. Aloe margaritifera, or pearl aloe, is a 
 very beautiful plant. It is smaller than most of 
 the aloe kind. The leaves are short, very thick, 
 sharp pointed, and turning down, with a large 
 thick end, appear there triangular. The colour 
 of the leaves is a fine green striped in an ele- 
 gant manner with white, and frequently tipped 
 with red at the point. The flower-stalk, which 
 rises in the midst of the leaves, is round, smooth, 
 of a purple colour, and generally about eight 
 inches high. When the plant has been properly 
 cultivated, the flowers are striped with green 
 and white; and sometimes they are entirely 
 white. This aloe is singular in not having the 
 bitter resinous juice with which the leaves of 
 most others abound ; when a leaf of this species 
 is cut, what runs from it is watery, colourless, 
 and perfectly insipid. 
 
 4. Aloe perfoliata, or Socotorine aloe, has 
 long, narrow, succulent leaves, which come out 
 without any order, and form large heads. The 
 stalks grow three or four feet high; and have 
 two, three, and sometimes four of these heads 
 branching out from it. The flowers grow in 
 long spikes, each standing on a pretty long foot- 
 stalk ; they are of a bright red colour, tipped 
 with green, and generally appear in the winter 
 season. 
 
 5. Aloe retusa, or cushion aloe, hath very 
 short, thick, succulent leaves, compressed on the 
 upper side like a cushion. This grows very 
 close to the ground ; the flowers grow on slender 
 stalks, and are of an herbaceous colour. 
 
 6. Aloe spiralis, with oval crenated flowers, 
 grows somewhat like the former ; only the flowers 
 grow upon taller stalks, which branch out and 
 grow in very long close spikes. 
 
 7. Aloe variegata, or partridge breast aloe, 
 Is a low plant, seldom rising above eight inches 
 high. The leaves are triangular, and curiously 
 veined and spotted, somewhat like the feathers 
 of a partridge's breast. The flowers grow in 
 very loose spikes, and are of a fine red colour, 
 tipped with green. 
 
 8. Aloe viscosa, with funnel-shaped flowers, 
 grows near a foot high, with triangular leaves of 
 a dark green colour. The flowers grow thinly 
 upon very slender footstalks, are of an herba- 
 ceous colour, and their upper part turns back- 
 ward. The species, of which aloe is the most 
 commonly received name, are the crapula per- 
 foliata, the agave Americana, the dacxna mar- 
 
 ginata, the aletris uvaria, and the yucca aloifolia, 
 of Linnaeus. 
 
 ALOES, n. s. obnKj as it is supposed. It is 
 applied to three different things. 1. A precious 
 wood used in the East, for perfumes, of which, 
 the best sort is of higher price than gold, and 
 was the most valuable present given by the king 
 of Siam, in 1686, to the king of France. It is 
 called tambac, and is the heart, or innermost part 
 of the aloe-tree; the next part to which is called 
 calembac, which is sometimes imported into Eu- 
 rope; and, though of inferior value to the 
 tambac, is much esteemed: the part next the 
 bark is termed, by the Portuguese, pao d'aquila, 
 or eagle-wood ; but some account the eagle-wood 
 not the outer part of the tambac, but another 
 species. Our knowledge of the wood is yet very 
 imperfect. Savary. 2. Aloes is a tree which 
 grows in hot countries, and even in the moun- 
 tains of Spain. 3. Aloes is a medicinal juice, 
 extracted not from the odoriferous, but the com- 
 mon aloes-tree, by cutting the leaves and ex- 
 posing the juice that drops from them to the sun. 
 It is distinguished into Socotorine and caballine, 
 or horse aloes : the first is so called from Soco- 
 tora ; the second, because, being coarser, it ought 
 to be confined to the use of farriers. It is a 
 warm and strong cathartic. 
 
 With respect to the manifold uses of aloes, we 
 shall now make a few observations. The aloe is 
 a kind of symbolic plant to the Mahommedans, 
 especially in Egypt, and in some measure de- 
 dicated to the offices of religion ; for whoever 
 returns from a pilgrimage to Mecca, hangs it 
 over his street door, as a token of his having 
 performed that holy journey. The superstitious 
 Egyptians believe that this plant hinders evil 
 spirits and apparitions from entering the house ; 
 and, on this account, whoever walks the streets 
 in Cairo, will find it over the doors both of 
 Christians and Jews. From this plant the Egyp- 
 tians distil a water, which is sold in the apothe- 
 caries' shops at Cairo, and recommended in 
 coughs, hysterics, and asthmas. An unexpe- . 
 rienced French surgeon, says Hasselquist, gave 
 a Coptite, forty years old, afflicted with the jaun- 
 dice, four tea-cups full of the distilled water of a 
 species of aloe, and cured him in four days. 
 This remedy, unknown to our apothecaries, is 
 not difficult to be obtained, as the plants might 
 easily be raised in the warm southern parts of 
 Europe. The Arabians call it sabbara. Of the 
 leaves of the Guinea aloe, mentioned by Mr. 
 Adanson in his voyage to Senegal, the negroes 
 make very good ropes, not apt to rot in tne 
 water. Dr. Sloane mentions two sorts of aloes; 
 one of which is used for fishing-lines, bow- 
 strings, stockings, and hammocks; the other has 
 leaves which, like those of the wild pine and 
 banana, hold rain water ; and, therefore, afford 
 a very necessary refreshment to travellers 
 in hot countries, where there is generally a 
 scarcity of wells and water. The maguei, a 
 species of aloe in Mexico, yields almost every 
 thing necessary to the life of the poor in that 
 country. Besides making excellent hedges for 
 their fields, its trunk serves in place of beams 
 for the roofs of their houses, and its leaves in-
 
 A i, O E S. 
 
 stead of tiles. 
 
 673 
 
 make wine, honey' sugar and vinegjrSf the seSon of the yea, 
 
 trunk andthickestpartoftheleave^when-wTl ZK^T^f <?&'*' 
 baked, they make a very tolerable dish of food, weeks without a drop of rain. The mosTS 
 Lastly, it is a powerful medicine in several dis- neral time, however, of plantin- them is from 
 orders, and particularly m those of obstructions April to June. In the March follow', theT 
 of the urine. It rs also one of the plants the bourers carry a parcel of tubs andTarslnto the 
 most valued and most profitable to the Spaniards, field, and each takes a slip or breadS" and 
 As to the medical properties of Aloes, the begins by laying hold of a bunch of the Wades 
 substance known by the name of aloes, is the as much as he can conveniently grasp with one 
 inspissated juice of some of the above-men- hand, while with the other he cu* it just above 
 tioned species. The ancients distinguished two the surface of the earth, as quickly as possible 
 sorts of aloes: the one was pure, and of a ye!- that the juice may not be wasted; and then 
 lowish colour, inclining to red, resembling the places the blades in the tub, bunch b^ bunch or 
 colour of a liver, and thence named hepatic ; the handful by handful. When the first tub is thus 
 other was full of impurities, and hence sup- packed quite full, a second is begun (each la- 
 posed to be only the dross of the better kind, bourer having two;) and, by the time the e- 
 At present, various .sorts are met with, distin- cond is filled, all the juice is generally drained 
 guished either from the place whence they are out of the blades in the first tub. The blades are 
 derived ; from the species of the plants ; or from then lightly taken out, and thrown over the land 
 some difference m the juices themselves. Of by way of manure; and the juice is poured outinto 
 these, we shall notice the common aloes, or ajar. The tub is then filled again with blades ; 
 juice of the officinal aloe hepatic aloes, the and so, alternately, till the labourer has produced 
 juice of the guinea aloe, so called from its liver- his jar full, or about four gallons and a half of 
 like colour caballine, or horse aloes, from the juice, which is often done in six or seven hours ; 
 same plant, but a coarser sort, commonly given and he has then the remainder of the day tohim- 
 to horses ; Socotorine aloes, from the juice of the self, it being his employer's interest to get each 
 aloe of Socotora. Those commonly sold in the day's operation as quickly done as possible. 
 shops may be arranged in three classes, viz. It may be observed, that although aloes are 
 
 1. Aloes caballinae, foetid, caballine, or horse- often cut in nine, ten, or twelve months iifter 
 aloes, is supposed to be a coarse sort obtained being planted, they are not in perfection till the 
 from the aloe perfoliata; according to others, second and third year; and that they will be 
 it is the produce of the aloe disticha. It is productive for a length of time, say ten or twelve 
 chiefly distinguishable by its strong rank smell, years, or even for a much longer time, if good 
 
 2. Aloes hepaticae, hepatic, Barbadoes, or dung, or manure of any kind, is strewed over 
 common aloes, the juice of a variety of the the field once in three or four years, or oftener 
 former, is not so clear and bright as it; it is also if convenient. The aloe juice will keep for se- 
 of a darker colour, more compact texture, and veral weeks without injury. It is therefore not 
 for the most part drier. Its smell is much boiled till a sufficient quantity is procured to 
 stronger and more disagreeable; the taste in- make it an object for the boiling house. In the 
 tensely bitter and nauseous, with little or nothing large way, three boilers, either of iron or ot 
 of the fine aromatic flavour of the Socotorine. copper, are placed to one fire, though sonic have 
 The best hepatic aloes come from Barbadoes in but two, and the small planters only one. The 
 large gourd shells; an inferior sort, which is boilers are filled with the juice ; and as it ripens 
 generally soft and clammy, is brought over in or becomes more inspissated, by a constant but 
 casks. Of the cultivation and preparation of he- regular fire, it is ladled forward from boiler to 
 patic aloes in the island of Barbadoes, we have boiler, and fresh juice is added to that farthest 
 the following account in the London Medical from the fire, till the juice in that nearest to the 
 Journal, vol. viii. art. 8. ' The lands in the vi- fire (by much the smallest of the three, and 
 cinity of the sea, that is, from two to three commonly called by the name of tatch, as in the 
 miles, which are rather subject to drought than manufactory of sugar) becomes of a proper con- 
 otherwise, and are so stony and shallow as not to sistency to be skipped or ladled out into gourds, 
 admit of the planting of sugar-canes with any' or other small vessels used for its final reception, 
 prospect of success, are generally found to an- The proper time to skip or ladle it out of the 
 swer best for the aloe plant. The stones, at tatch, is when it is arrived at what is termed a 
 least the larger ones, are first picked up, and resin height, or when it cuts freely, or in thin 
 either packed in heaps upon the most shallow flakes, from the edges of a small wooden si 
 barren spots, or laid round the field as a dry that is dipped from time to time into the tatch 
 wall. The land is then lightly ploughed, and for that purpose. A little lime water is used by 
 very carefully cleared of all noxious weeds, lined some aloe boilers, during the process, when tt 
 at one foot distance from row to row, and the ebullition is too great. As to the sun-d 
 young plants set, like cabbages, at about five or aloes, which is most used for medicinal pur 
 
 six inches from each other. This regular mode very little is made in Barbadoes. 
 
 of lining and setting the plants is practised only is, however, very simple, though extre 
 
 by the most exact planters, in order to facilitate dious. The raw juice is either put it 
 
 the weeding of them, by hand, very frequently; left quite open at top, and suspended 
 VOL. J. 2 X
 
 674 
 
 ALOES. 
 
 sun, or in broad shallow trays of wood, pewter 
 or tin, exposed also to the sun, every dry day, 
 until all the fluid parts are exhaled, and a perfect 
 resin formed, which is then packed up for use, 
 or for exportation.' The Barbadoes aloes is 
 said to be common also in the other West India 
 islands ; and the following account of the manner 
 of preparing it in Jamaica is given by Dr. 
 Wright in the same volume of the Medical 
 Journal, art. 1 . ' The plant is pulled up by the 
 roots, and carefully cleansed from the earth or 
 other impurities. It is then sliced and cut in 
 pieces into small hand-baskets or nets. These 
 nets or baskets are put into large iron boilers 
 with water, and boiled for ten minutes ; when 
 they are taken out, and fresh parcels supplied 
 till the liquor is strong and black. At this period 
 the liquor is thrown through a strainer into a 
 deep vat, narrow at bottom, to cool, and to de- 
 posite its feculent parts. Next day the clear 
 liquor is drawn off by a cock, and again com- 
 mitted to the large vessel. At first it is boiled 
 briskly ; but towards the end of the evaporation, 
 is slow, and requires constantly stirring to prevent 
 burning. When it becomes of the consistence 
 of honey, it is poured into gourds or calabashes 
 for sale. This hardens by age.' 
 
 3. Aloes perfoliatse, Socotorine aloes, brought 
 from the island of Socotora in the Indian ocean, 
 wrapt in skins ; it is obtained from the fourth spe- 
 cies above-mentioned. This sort is the purest of 
 the three ; it is of a glossy surface, clear, and in 
 some degree pellucid ; in the lump, of a yellowish 
 red colour, with a purple cast ; when reduced 
 to powder, of a bright golden colour. It is 
 hard and friable in the winter, somewhat pliable 
 in summer, and grows soft betwixt the fingers. 
 Its taste is bitter, accompanied with an aromatic 
 flavour, but insufficient to prevent its being disa- 
 greeable : the smell is not very unpleasant, and 
 somewhat resembles that of myrrh. With regard 
 to the physical effects of aloes, all the different 
 kinds are gum resins, which contain more gum- 
 mous than resinous parts. Water, when of a 
 boiling heat, dissolves all the soluble parts of 
 aloes ; but if let stand till it grows cold, they 
 drop most of their resin. A strong spirit dis- 
 solves and keeps suspended almost the whole of 
 the aloes, though they contain such a large portion 
 ofgummous parts; hence it is evident, that aloes 
 contain some principle, saline or other, which 
 renders water capable of dissolving resin, and 
 spirit capable of dissolving gum. Aloes are a 
 stimulating stomachic purge, which, given in 
 small quantity, operates mildly by stool ; but in 
 large doses acts roughly, and often occasions an 
 irritation about the anus, and sometimes a dis- 
 charge of blood. They are good opening medicines 
 to people of lax habit, or who live a sedentary 
 life ; and to those whose stomach and bowels are 
 loaded with phlegm or mucus, or who are trou- 
 bled with worms, or are debilitated ; because, at 
 the same time that they carry off those viscid 
 humours, which pall the appetite, and overload the 
 intestines, they serve as strengtheners. In small 
 doses, repeated from time to time, they not only 
 cleanse the primae viae, but likewise tend to 
 promote the menstrual discharge in women; and 
 
 therefore are frequently employed in chlorosis, 
 or where the menstrua are obstructed. They are 
 a good stomachic purge, and given in all cases 
 where such a one is wanted ; but are considered 
 as a heating medicine, and not proper in bilious 
 habits, or where there is much heat or fever ; 
 and a continuei use is apt to bring on the piles. 
 Aloes are given in substance from five grains tc 
 a scruple, though formerly it used to be prescribed 
 in doses of two or three times that quantity ; 
 but these large doses sometimes brought on 
 troublesome symptoms. As they operate slowly, 
 they are generally taken at bed time, and operate 
 next day. With regard to aloes, as well as all 
 other resinous purges, it ought to be observed, 
 that when they are given in substance without 
 any mixture, they are apt to adhere to the 
 coats of the intestines, and to occasion griping 
 and uneasiness ; for these reasons aloes are ge- 
 nerally mixed with some saponaceous or resolvent 
 body to destroy their viscid tenacity : they are 
 given in substance. The substances which are 
 most used for this purpose are, a small quantity 
 of the fixed alkaline salts, soap, the yolk of an 
 egg, and gummous vegetable extracts. Mr. 
 Barton alleges, that by triturating aloes with a 
 small quantity of alkaline salts, their tenacity 
 was more effectually destroyed than by any other 
 thing he tried : that Castile soap and the yolk ot 
 an egg answered next best ; that manna, sugar, 
 and honey, were far inferior to them ; and that 
 gummous, or mucous vegetable extracts, such 
 as the extracts of gentian, or of liquorice root, 
 triturated with the aloes, in the proportion 01 
 one part of the extract to two of the aloes, and 
 then made up into pills with a sufficient quantity 
 of syrup, destroyed the viscidity of the aloes 
 and rendered their operation mild. Socotorine 
 aloes contain more gummy matter than hepatic 
 and hence are likewise found to purge more, and 
 with greater irritation. The first sort therefore 
 is most proper where a stimulus is required, as 
 for promoting or exciting the menstrual flux; 
 whilst the latter is better calculated to act as a 
 common purge. For preparations of aloes, see 
 PHARMACY, Index. 
 
 With regard to aloes wood, many authors mis- 
 take the plant and tree for each other ; because, 
 we have but little knowledge of the tree ; and 
 the drug which the plant produces is much better 
 known, and of much greater use. The aloe tree 
 grows in China, in the kingdom of Lao, in 
 Cochin China, Champac, and Sumatra. It is 
 about the same height and form as the olive tree ; 
 its trunk is of three colours, and contains three 
 sorts of wood : the heart is dearer in the Indies 
 than even gold itself; it serves to perfume clothes 
 and apartments, and is reckoned a sovereign 
 cordial in fainting fits, and against the palsy 
 It destroys the tinea and ascarides in children. 
 It is used at sacrifices, as incense, by the Chinese, 
 and all the heathen Moors. It is also used to 
 set the most precious jewels that are worked in 
 the Indies. The aloes wood is very highly valued ; 
 and divers strange fables have been invented as 
 to the origin of the tree that yields it ; some 
 feign that it grew in paradise, and was only con- 
 veyed to us by means of the rivers overflowing
 
 ALO 
 
 675 
 
 their banks, and sweeping off the trees in their 
 way ! ! Others suppose it to grow on inacces- 
 sible mountains, where it is guarded by certain' 
 wild beasts, &c. See XYLOE ALOES. 
 
 We shall only add that Braconnot was the first 
 person who imagined he detected in aloes a pe- 
 culiar principle, similar to the bitter resinous 
 which \ auquelm has found in many febrifuge 
 barks. The recent juice of the leaves absorbs 
 oxygen, and becomes a fine reddish purple 
 pigment. 
 
 ALOE, THE BASTARD. See ALETRIS. 
 
 ALOE, THE GREAT AMERICAN. See AGAVE. 
 
 ALOE, XYLOE. See XYLOE. 
 
 ALOEDARY, aloedarium, aXoi/tapiov, a 
 purging medicine, wherein aloes is an ingredient; 
 or an aloetic. It is also used for a history of 
 the class of plants, under the denomination of 
 aloes. 
 
 ALOEUS, in entomology, a species of scara- 
 baeus, or beetle. Characters : thorax three-horned, 
 intermediate longer and simple; head submu- 
 ticous ; elytra unistriated ; found in America. 
 
 ALOEUS, in ancient mythology, a giant, the 
 son of Titan and Terra, who married Iphimedia, 
 by whom Neptune had the twins Othus and 
 Ephialtus. Aloeus educated them as his own, 
 whence they were called Abides. They grew 
 nine inches every month, and when nine years 
 old, made war against the gods, but were slain 
 by Apollo and Diana. They also built Ascra, 
 a town at the foot of Mount Helicon. 
 
 ALOEXYLUM, aXojjJ-uXov, in botany, aloes- 
 wood, a name given to the tree producing this 
 precious wood, by Loureiro ; who refers it to 
 the class and order decandria monogynia, and its 
 natural order seems to be lomentacese, Linnasus ; 
 leguminosa, Jussieu. Its General Characters 
 Are : The CAL. perianthium inferior, of four 
 acute, hairy, deciduous leaves ; the lowermost 
 falcate, incurved, nearly twice as long as the 
 rest : COR. petals five, unequal, longer than 
 the calyx : STAM. filaments ten : PIST. germ, 
 superior, elongated, curved, compressed : STYLE 
 thread-shaped : PERIC. legume woody, smooth, 
 falcate : SEED solitary, oblong, curved, tunicated. 
 Essential Characters : CAL. four acute deciduous 
 leaves ; the lower one longest : PETALS five, un- 
 equal : LEGUME curved : SEED solitary, tunicated. 
 1. A. Agallochum. Fragrant aloes-wood. 
 Native of the loftiest mountains of Cochin China, 
 near the great river which runs between that 
 kingdom and Laosios, and is a large lofty tree, 
 with erect branches. Bark fibrous, brown, 
 smooth, thin. Leaves alternate, stalked, lanceo- 
 late, flat, entire, smooth, coriaceous, about eight 
 inches long. Flower-stalks terminal, many- 
 flowered. 
 
 ALOFT', adv. & prep. On loft ; A. S. Lype, 
 air : Lyft, luft, loft, above. 
 
 pe weder was fulle soft, pe wynde held pam stille, 
 pe saile was hie o loft, pei had no wynde at wille. 
 
 R. Brunne. p. 169. 
 The great luminary 
 (Aloft the vulgar constellations thick, 
 That from his lordly eye keep distance due) 
 Dispenses light from far. Milton's Par. Lott. 
 
 The fiend look'd up and knew 
 His mounted scale aloft : nor more, but fled 
 
 ALO 
 
 Munn'ring and with him fled the shades of nigbt. 
 ~ T , Paradue Lott, b. nr. 
 
 *or I have read in stories oft, 
 That love has wings, and soars aloft. SuckKnq 
 
 Upright he stood ; and bore aloft his shield 
 Conspumous from afar ; and overlook'd the field. 
 
 All crimes shall cease, and ancient frauds shalUail ' 
 Keturning Justice lift aloft her scale, 
 Peace o'er the world, her olive wand extend, 
 And white rob'd innocence from heaven descend. 
 
 Pope't Mettiah. 
 
 All hands unmoor ! proclaims a boist'rous cry, 
 All hands unmoor ! the cavern'd rocks reply. 
 
 Rous'd from repose, aloft the sailors swarm, 
 
 And with their levers soon the windlass arm. 
 
 Falconer's Shipwreck. 
 
 ALUUIANS, in church history, from a, pri- 
 vative, and Xoyoc, the word, a sect of ancient 
 heretics, who denied that Jesus Christ was the 
 Logos, and rejected the gospel of St. John. 
 Some ascribe the origin of the name, as well as of 
 the sect of Alogians, to Theodore of Byzantium, 
 by trade a currier. They rose toward the close 
 of the second century. 
 
 ALOGOTROPHIA, in medicine, a term sig- 
 nifying the unequal growth or nourishment of any 
 part of the body, as in the rickets. 
 
 ALOIDES, in bctany, a name given by some 
 to the aloe palustris, or fresh water aloe ; often 
 called in England, water soldier, and by Lin- 
 naeus, stratiotes. 
 
 ALONE', adv. & adj.-) ... 
 
 AWv,fcfcX> ,, A11 one: one bemg 
 
 ALONE'NESS. j al1 ' un accompamed. 
 
 He fond no man pat durst, for non had myght, 
 
 With Colibrant alone in bataile to fight. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 31. 
 Let us alone, to guard Corioli : 
 If they set down before's ; 'fore they remove, 
 Bring up your army. Shakeip. 
 
 Let you alone, cunning artificer ; 
 See, how his gorget peers above his gown, 
 To tell the people in what danger he was. Ben Jon. 
 
 Eagles we see fly alone ; and they are but sheep, 
 which always herd together. Sidney. 
 
 Alone, for other creature in this place, 
 Living or lifeless, to be found was none. Hilton. 
 
 I never durst in darkness be alone. Dryden 
 
 But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, 
 To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, 
 And roam along, the world's tired denizen, 
 Wilh none who bless us, none whom we can bless : 
 Minions of splendour shrinking from distress ! 
 None that with kindred consciousness endued, 
 If we were not, would seem to smile the less 
 Of all that flatter'd, follow'd, sought, and sued ; 
 This is to be alone ; this, this is solitude ! 
 
 Lord Byron'* Childe Harold. 
 
 ALONG, v. Si prep. ) On long. See LONG. 
 
 ALONG'ST. ) Along, the past parti- 
 
 ciple, means, produced from the A. S. Gelang, 
 (Tookfc) to long, to make long. 
 Here I salle be gyne alle myn heritage, 
 & als along as I lyue to he in pin ostage. 
 
 R. Bnmne, p. 196. 
 
 I your commission will forthwith dispatch ; 
 And he to England shall along with you. 
 
 Shakesp. Hamlet. 
 
 Hence then ! and Evil go with thee along ! 
 Thy offspring, to the place of evil, hell. Milton. 
 
 Religious zeal is subject to an excess, and to a 
 defect ; when somethine is mingled with it, which tt
 
 ALO 
 
 676 
 
 ALO 
 
 should not have ; or, when it wants something, that 
 ought to go along with it. Sprat. 
 
 Command thy slaves : my free-born soul disdains 
 A tyrant's curb, and restive breaks the reins. 
 Take this along ; and no dispute shall rise 
 (Though mine the woman) for my ravish'd prize. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 A needless Alexandrine ends the song : 
 That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along. 
 Pope's Essay on Criticism, 356. 
 Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, 
 Along Morea's hills the setting sun ; 
 Not as in northern climes obscurely bright, 
 But one unclouded blaze of living light ! 
 
 Lord Byron's Corsair. 
 
 ALONG-LYING, in maritime affairs, a term 
 applied to a vessel when pressed down side- 
 ways, by the action of a side wind against the 
 sails. 
 
 ALONG-SHORE, is applied to coasting naviga- 
 tion, or to a course which is in sight of, or nearly 
 parallel to, the shore. 
 
 ALONG-SIDE, side by side, or parallel to a 
 wharf, ship, or any other object. 
 
 ALOO, STRAITS OF, a channel in the Eastern 
 seas, between the islands of Lomablem and Pantar. 
 
 ALOOF', adv. All off, entirely separate ; at 
 a distance. Perhaps of the same origin with 
 aloft. 
 
 Then bade the knight this lady yede aloof, 
 And to an hill herself withdraw aside ; 
 From whence she might behold the battle's proof, 
 And else be safe from danger far descried. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 As next in worth, 
 
 Came singly where he stood, on the bare strand ; 
 While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 The noise approaches ; though our palace stood 
 Aloof from streets, encompass'd with a wood. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Under the !awwe might look at Christ aloof; now, 
 under the gospel, we may coi&e near him. 
 
 Hall's Cwitimplalisn*. 
 
 No domestic difficulties, no domestic weakness 
 reached him ; but aloof from the sordid occurrences 
 of life, and unsullied by its intercourse, he came oc- 
 casionally into our system, to counsel and to decide. 
 Grattan's Character of Lord Chatham. 
 
 ALOOF, has been supposed to be a sea term; 
 and its similarity with the phrases keep a luff 1 , or 
 keep the luff, probably gave rise to this conjec- 
 ture. If a sea phrase originally, it seems to 
 have referred to the danger of a lee shore, in 
 which situation the pilot might naturally apply 
 it in the sense of keep all off" ; it is, however, 
 never expressed in that manner by seamen now. 
 See LUFF. 
 
 ALOPE, in entomology, a species of the 
 sphinx, with wings dentated and brown, the pos- 
 terior yellow and black at the apex, the abdo- 
 men black, and having interrupted pale-coloured 
 bands, found in India. 
 
 ALOPE, in ancient history, a daughter of Cer- 
 cyon, king of Eleusis, who having a child by 
 Neptune, exposed it in the woods, covered with 
 a piece of her garment. The child being found, 
 and brought to Cercyon, he recognised the gar- 
 ment, and ordered his daughter to be put to 
 death. She was changed by Neptune into a 
 fountain. Her son, named Hippothoon, was 
 
 afterwards placed by Theseus on the throne of 
 his grandfather. 
 
 ALOPECIA, or ALOPECE, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, two islands : viz. 1 . An island of the Bos- 
 phorus Cimmerius ; and 2. In the ^Egean sea, 
 over against Smyrna. 
 
 ALOPECIA, in medicine, a total falling off of 
 the hair from certain parts, occasioned either by 
 the defect of nutritious juice, or by a viscous 
 corrosion of the roots of it. The word is form- 
 ed from aXuTTriK, vulpes, a fox ; because it is a 
 disease which is common to that creature. The 
 alopecia properly differs from defluvium capilo 
 rum, as in the former certain parts are left en- 
 tirely bald, whereas in the latter the hair only 
 grows immoderately thin. It also differs from 
 the ophiosis, as this latter creeps in spires about 
 the head, like windings of a serpent, whereas the 
 former is not confined to any figure. The re- 
 medies which remove the proximate cause of this 
 malady are called /wraffvyicpiriKa, metasyncritica. 
 A multitude are to be found in the works oi 
 Taranta, Rondeletius, Hollerius, Celsus, and 
 other physicians. Alopecia is also used by 
 Galen, for a change of the hair to another colour. 
 See PLICA POLOMCA. 
 
 ALOPECIAS, in ichthyology, a name of the 
 vulpes marina, or sea fox. 
 
 ALOPECURUS, or FOX-TAIL GRASS, in bo- 
 tany, a genus of the triandria digynia class ; and 
 in the natural method ranking under the 4th 
 order, gramina. The characters are: CAL. a 
 single flowered bivalve glume : COR. one valved : 
 STAM. three capillary filaments; the antherae bi- 
 furcated at both ends : PIST. a roundish germen ; 
 there are two styli ; and the stigmata are villous. 
 The pericarpium is a corolla clothing the seed ; 
 and the seed is ovate and covered. There are 8 
 species : viz. 1. A. agrestis, a native of France. 
 2. A. bulbosus, or bulbous fox-tail grass. 3. A. 
 genikulatus, or flote fox-tail grass ; these two 
 species grow wild in Britain. 4. A. hordeifor- 
 mis, a native of India. 5. A. Monspeliensis, a 
 native of France, and the southern parts of 
 Europe. 6. A. Indicus, or Indian fox-tail 
 grass, a native of the East Indies. 7. A. Pani- 
 ceus, a native of France, and the south of Europe. 
 8. A. pratensis, grows wild in Britain. See 
 GRASS. 
 
 ALOPEX, in zoology, a species of the canis, 
 with a strait tail and black tip. It is commonly 
 called the field-fox. 
 
 ALOPEX, in entomology, a species of the 
 scarabasas melolontha, hair yellow ; clypeus re- 
 flex and emarginated ; elytra smooth and black : 
 found at the Cape of Good Hope. Gmelin re- 
 fers to this genus the following species, beside 
 those above enumerated, viz. A. ciliatus, with a 
 culm spiked and erect, and ciliated glumes. A. 
 Carolinianus, with radicating culm, subspiked 
 panicle, smooth glumes, and awned corollae. A. 
 typhoides, with simple raceme, and awnless 
 flosculi. A. caudatus, with spiked caudated 
 panicle, and flosculi intrenched with awns. A. 
 ovatus, with panicle ovated, contracted, resem- 
 bling a spike, and exterior petal awned before 
 the apex. A. Capensis, with cylindric spike, 
 and smooth awnless glumes, a native of the 
 Cape of Good Hope. A. Antarcticus, with eiect
 
 ALO 
 
 677 
 
 culm, orated spike, hairy glumes, and awned 
 corolla, the awns being longer than the calyx ;" 
 native of the Straits of Magellan. A. echinatus, 
 with spiked ovated panicle,punctuated, ciliated 
 glumes, and geniculated culm; native' of the 
 Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 ALOSA, in ichthyology, the shad, a species of 
 the clupea. See CLDPEA. 
 
 ALOSAT, in chemistry, argentum vivum. 
 
 ALOSE', v. ) Latin, laus, praise. To praise, 
 
 ALOSED'. J or commend. Loos was for- 
 merly common. 
 
 Nojjer lacky ne alose, ne leyve J?at ber were 
 
 Eny wickeder in bis worlde, ban y were myself. 
 
 Vision of Pier's Ploughman, p. 326. 
 
 ALOSE, in ichthyology, a species of fish, 
 which some take for the shad, (see ALOSA,) but 
 it more in fact resembles the sardine, or pil- 
 dine, or pilchard, though it is much larger. It 
 is seldom seen in the British seas, and only visits 
 the rivers in spring. The roes are valued in the 
 East Indies, and form a lucrative article of 
 trade. 
 
 ALOS'ING. In loosing. 
 
 And as they were a lossynge ye colte, the owners 
 thereof sayde vnto them, why loose ye the colte ? 
 
 Bible, 1539, S. Luke, chap. xix. 
 
 ALOST, or ALEST, a district of the Nether- 
 lands, which was the scene of some manoeuvres 
 during the French revolutionary war ; also a 
 town in the above-mentioned district, seated on 
 the Dender, fifteen miles north-west of Brussels, 
 and thirteen south-east from Ghent. It has but 
 one parish ; the church is collegiate, and has a 
 provost, a dean, and twelve canons. It has two 
 convents of Carmelites, one of capuchins, three 
 nunneries, an hospital, and a convent of Guille- 
 mins, in which is the tomb of Theodore Martin, 
 who first introduced the art of printing into the 
 low countries. It was taken from the French in 
 1706, after the battle of Ramillies. Near this 
 place Lord Moira effected a junction of the 
 troops under his command, with those of General 
 Clairfayt, in July 1793. 
 
 ALOUATE, in zoology, Buffon's name for 
 the simia seniculus, or long-tailed, bearded, red 
 monkey, of the Linnzean system, having a pre- 
 hensile tail; the arabata of Gumilla, Oronoko, 
 and royal monkey of Pennant. This species is 
 sometimes found in Brazil, and is 1 common in 
 Cayenne. Its voice and manners are the same 
 with those of the Simia Beelzebul. They are 
 commonly seen in the woody islets of large 
 flooded savannahs. Their cry or scream in- 
 spires terror, and seems as if the forests contained 
 the united howlings of all its savage inhabitants 
 together. This clamour, usually made in the 
 morning and evening, is repeated in the course 
 of the day, and sometimes in the night. In a 
 state of captivity the animal loses its voice, and 
 seldom lives long. The male is larger than the 
 female, and the latter always carries her young 
 on her back. In order to kill these animals, it 
 is necessary to fire several times ; while any life 
 remains, and after they are dead, they will re- 
 main clinging to the branches by the hands and 
 tail. Their flesh, after all the trouble of possess- 
 ing them, is not good ; it is always tough, and 
 never admitted to any tables but to those of in- 
 
 digent inhabitants and travellers, to supply the 
 want of other food. 1 This animal when full-grown 
 is said to be as large as a calf, and to live on 
 the fruit of the banana-tree. 
 
 ALOUD', adv. On loud. Past part of the 
 verb to low, or to bellow (i. e. be-low) ; lowed 
 low'd, loud. 
 
 And he wepte alowde, so that the Egypcians, and 
 the house of Pharao herde it. 
 
 Bible, 1539. Genesis, c. xiv. 
 
 Strangled he lies ! yet seems to cry aloud, 
 To warn the mighty, and instruct the proud ; 
 That of the great, neglecting to be just, 
 Heav'n in a moment makes an heap of dust. Waller 
 
 Then heav'n's high monarch thund'red thrice aloud, 
 And thrice he shook aloft a golden cloud. Dryden. 
 
 ALOW, v. & adv. See ALLOW. Signifying 
 to be humbled. 
 
 Narcissus may example bee 
 
 and myrrour to the prowde, 
 By whome they may most plainely see 
 
 how pride hath been allowde. Turbenille. 
 
 The quene [widow of Edward 4th] her self satte 
 alone alowe on the rishes all desolate and dismayde 
 whome the archebishoppe comforted in the best man. 
 ner hee coulde. Sir Thos. Moore's Works, f. 43. c. 1 
 
 ALOWAY, or ALLOWAY. See ALLOA. 
 
 ALP, in zoology, an English name used for 
 the bull-finch. 
 
 ALPAGE, alpagium, in ancient writers, de- 
 notes the right of feeding cattle on the Alps or 
 other high mountains, or a sum paid for the pur- 
 chase of such a right. 
 
 ALPAGNA, or CAMELUS PACO of Linnaeus, 
 in zoology, an animal of South America, much 
 like the vigognas, except that the legs are shorter, 
 and its muzzle thicker and flatter, so that it 
 almost resembles a human face. The Peruvians 
 use these animals as beasts of burden, and some 
 of them carry a hundred weight. Of their wool 
 they make stuffs, ropes, and bags, and of their 
 bones tools for weavers. 
 
 ALP AM, in botany, the siliquosa indica, a 
 native of the Indies. The stem of this plant r 
 which divides itself twice or thrice, is covered 
 with a bark of an ashy-green colour, inodorous, 
 and of an acid astringent taste. It bears flowers 
 and fruit as well at the end of the year as at the 
 beginning, and is always full of leaves. Any 
 part of this shrub made into an ointment with 
 oil, is a remedy for the scab, and old ulcers. 
 The juice of the leaves, with calamus aromaticus, 
 is good against the venom of serpents. 
 
 ALP ARSLAN, the second sultan of the dy- 
 nasty of Seljuk in Persia, was the son of David, 
 and great grandson of Seljuk, the founder of the 
 dynasty. He was born A. D. 1030, of the He- 
 gira, 412. In place of Israel, which was his ori- 
 ginal name, he assumed that of Mohammed, 
 when he embraced the Mussulman faith, and was 
 afterwards surnamed Alp Arslan, which, in the 
 Turkish language, signifies a valiant lion, on ac- 
 count of his military prowess. Having held the 
 chief command of Khorasan for ten years, as 
 lieutenant of his uncle, Togrel Beg, he succeeded 
 him in 1063, and at the commencement of his 
 reign saw himself sole monarch of all the coun- 
 tries from the river Oxus to the Tigris. In 1068 
 he invaded the Roman empire, the seat of which
 
 ALP 
 
 678 
 
 ALP 
 
 was then at Constantinople ; and, at the head of 
 40,000 cavalry, according to the highest accounts, 
 he defeated Romanus Diogenes, commanding an 
 army of 100,000 men, in the Armenian territory, 
 and took him prisoner ; but treated him kindly 
 till he was ransomed, when he was dismissed 
 loaded with presents. After a reign of ten years, 
 in which he was not more distinguished for his 
 valour, than for his liberality, piety, patience, 
 justice, and sincerity, he was stabbed by a des- 
 perate Carizmian, whom he had taken prisoner, 
 in 1072. His words to his attendants, when he 
 found his end approaching, are worthy record : 
 ' In my youth/ said he, ' I was advised by a wise 
 man to humble myself before God; never to con- 
 fide in my own strength, or despise the most 
 contemptible enemy. These lessons I have neg- 
 lected, for which I have now met deserved 
 punishment. Yesterday, when I beheld from 
 an eminence the number and discipline of my 
 troops, I said in the confidence of my heart, 
 * What power on earth can oppose me ? What 
 man dares to attack me ? To day, vainly trust- 
 ing to my own strength and dexterity, I foolishly 
 checked the prompt zeal and alacrity of my guards 
 for my safety, and now I have fallen by the hand 
 of an assassin ! but I perceive that no force or 
 address can resist fate.' Alp Arslan had a fine 
 appearance, and covered his head with a high 
 turban, folded in the form of a crown. The 
 caliph Bemrillah conferred on him the title of 
 Ezzedin, or Adadheddin, signifying ' Defender of 
 the Faith.' It is said 1200 princes, or sons of 
 princes, have stood at the foot of his throne. 
 
 ALPEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
 the Lower Rhine, and electorate of Cologne; 
 eight miles south-west of Wesel, and fifty north 
 north-west of Cologne. 
 
 ALPHA, the name of the first letter in the 
 Greek alphabet ; corresponding to our A. It is 
 formed from the Hebrew x (aleph) ; and accord- 
 ing to Plutarch, was placed at the head of all 
 the letters, because, in the Phoenician language, 
 it denotes an ox ; which was thought the most 
 important among beasts. In composition this 
 letter sometimes denotes privation, ir the same 
 sense with artp, without ; sometimes augmen- 
 tation, as ayav, much ; and sometimes union, as 
 apa, together. It is also used as a letter of or- 
 der, to denote the first ; and of number, to sig- 
 nify one ; but when it was a numerical letter, a 
 little stroke, or an acute accent, was drawn above 
 it thus, A r to distinguish it from the mere A, 
 which was a letter of order. See A. 
 
 ALPHA and OMEGA, in Scripture, signify the 
 beginning and the end, or the first and the last, 
 (i. e. before and after all things; and are there- 
 fore used as a hieroglyphic of the Divine Being.) 
 They were also formerly the symbol of Chris- 
 tianity, and engraved accordingly on the tombs of 
 the ancient Christians, to distinguish them from 
 those of idolaters. They are still seen on some 
 altar-pieces. *The Alpha and Omega' is a title 
 of Jesus Christ in the Apocalypse, derived from 
 a mode of expression frequent amongst the Jewish 
 rabbin. Some have supposed the verb aw to 
 breathe, is designedly formed from the first and 
 last letters of the Greek alphabet, to denote the 
 first and last act of life. 
 
 ALPHA, in ancient geography, a river in die 
 vicinity of Aquileia, near which Constantinc 
 was killed, and into which his body was thrown. 
 
 ALPHABET, n. -v AW , , 
 
 ALPHABETICAL f AX ^ a al P ha >/3-a beta. 
 
 ALPHABETICALLY, ( The , hteral Characters of 
 
 ALPHABETA'RIAN. 3 an y 
 
 Thou shalt not sighe, 
 
 Nor winke, nor nod, nor kneele, nor make a signc ; 
 But I of these will wrest an alphabet, 
 And by still practice learne to know thy meaning. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 The letters of the alphabet, formed by the several 
 motions of the mouth ; and the great variety of syl- 
 lables, composed of letters, and formed with almost 
 equal velocity; and the endless number of words, 
 capable of being framed out of the alphabet, either of 
 more syllables or of one, are wonderful. Holder, 
 
 Taught by their nurses, little children get 
 This saying, sooner than their alphabet. 
 
 Dryd. jun. Juv. 
 
 I have digested, in an alphabetical order, all the 
 counties, corporations, and boroughs in Great-Britain, 
 with their respective tempers. Swift. 
 
 I had once in my thoughts, to contrive a grammar, 
 more than I can now comprise in short hints ; and a 
 dictionary, alphabetically containing the words of the 
 language, which the deaf person is to learn. 
 
 Holder's Elements of Speeeh. 
 
 ALPHABET, in grammar, of a\$a and fitra r 
 Greek ; alphabetum, Latin : the whole order or 
 collection of letters which are used in any lan- 
 guage. An extensive controversy has existed 
 amongst learned men, whether the method of 
 expressing our ideas by visible symbols, called 
 letters, be really a human invention ; 01 whether 
 we ought to attribute an art so exceedingly use- 
 ful, to an immediate intimation from the Deity. 
 In favour of the latter opinion it has been urged, 
 1. That the five books of Moses are universally 
 acknowledged to be the most ancient composi- 
 tions, as well as the most early specimens of al- 
 phabetical writing extant. If, therefore, we sup- 
 pose writing to be the result of human ingenuity, 
 it must be different from all other arts, having 
 been brought to perfection at once ; as the He- 
 brew alphabet contains every thing essential to 
 the exposition of human thoughts. It may in- 
 deed be replied, that alphabetical characters per- 
 haps existed ages before the writings of Moses, 
 though the more ancient specimens have perished. 
 But the simplicity of manners predominant in 
 the early ages, and the little intercourse which 
 nations had with one another, will scarce allow 
 us to suppose that such a complex and curious 
 contrivance as alphabetical writing could be in- 
 vented by a race of men whose wants were so 
 few, their advantages so circumscribed r and their 
 ideas so limited. 2. If alphabetical characters 
 were a human invention, it might be expected 
 that different nations would have fallen upon 
 the same expedient independent of each other 
 during the compass of so many ages. But no 
 such thing has taken place ; and the writing of 
 every people on earth may be referred to one 
 common original. If this can be proved, the ar- 
 gument from successive derivation, without a 
 single instance of independent discovery, must 
 be allowed to amount to the very highest degree
 
 ALPHABET. 
 
 679 
 
 of probability in favour of our hypothesis, which 
 will now rest on the evidence for or against this 
 fact; and which may be summed up in trie fol- 
 lowing manner : Among the European nations 
 we find none who can pretend any right to the 
 discovery of letters. All of them derived the art 
 from the Romans, excepting only the Turks, who 
 had it from the Arabians. The Romans never 
 laid claim to the discovery ; but confessed that 
 they derived their knowledge from the Greeks, 
 and the latter owned that they had it from the 
 Phoenicians ; who, as well as their colonists the 
 Carthaginians, spoke a dialect of the Hebrew 
 scarcely varying from the original. The Coptic 
 or Egyptian resembles the Greek in most of its 
 characters, and is therefore to be referred to the 
 same original. The Chaldee, Syriac, and latter 
 Samaritan, are dialects of the Hebrew, without 
 any considerable deviation, or many additional 
 words. The Ethiopic differs more from the He- 
 brew, but less than the Arabic ; yet that these 
 languages have issued all from the same stock, 
 the similarity of their formation, and the num- 
 berless words common to them, all sufficiently 
 evince ; and the Persic is very nearly allied to 
 the Arabic. Alterations indeed would naturally 
 be produced, in proportion to the civilization of 
 the several nations, and their intercourse with 
 others ; which will account for the superior 
 copiousness of some above the rest. It appears 
 then, that all the languages in use amongst men, 
 that have been conveyed in alphabetical charac- 
 ters, have been the languages of people connected 
 ultimately or immediately with the Hebrews, 
 who have handed down the earliest specimens 
 of writing to posterity; and we have therefore 
 the greatest reason to believe, that their method 
 of writing, as well as their language, was derived 
 from the same source. This proposition will be 
 farther confirmed from considering the sameness 
 of the artificial denominations of the letters in the 
 Oriental, Greek, and Latin languages, accom- 
 panied also by a similar arrangement, as alpha, 
 beta, &c. Herodotus informs us, that ' those 
 Phoenicians who came with Cadmus, introduced 
 many improvements among the Greeks, and al- 
 phabetical writing too, not known among them 
 before that period. At first they used the Phoe- 
 nician character ; but in process of time, as the 
 pronunciation altered, the standard of the letters 
 was also changed. The Ionian Greeks inhabited 
 at that time the parts adjacent to Phoenicia ; who 
 having received the art of alphabetical writing 
 from the Phoenicians, used it, with an alteration 
 of some few characters, and confessed ingenu- 
 ously, that it was called Phoenician from the in- 
 troducers of it.' He tells us that he had himself 
 seen the characters of Cadmus in a temple of 
 Ismenia Apollo at Thebes in Boeotia, engraven 
 upon tripods, and very much resembling the 
 Ionian characters. Again, the old Samaritan is 
 precisely the same as the Hebrew language ; and 
 the Samaritan Pentateuch does not vary by a 
 single letter in twenty words from the Hebrew : 
 but the characters are widely different ; for the 
 Jews adopted the Chaldaic letters during their 
 captivity at Babylon, instead of the characters of 
 their forefathers. 3. What we know of those 
 nations who have continued for many centuries 
 
 unconnected with the rest of the world, strongly 
 militates against the hypothesis of the human in- 
 vention of alphabetical writing. The experiment 
 has been fairly made upon the ingenuity of man- 
 kind for a longer period than that which is sup- 
 posed to have produced alphabetical writing by 
 regular gradations; and this experiment deter- 
 mines peremptorily in their favour. The Chinese, 
 a people famous for their discoveries and mecha- 
 nical turn of genius, have made some advances 
 towards the deliueation of their ideas by arbitrary 
 signs, but have nevertheless been unable to 
 accomplish this exquisite device; and after so 
 long a trial to no purpose, we may reasonably in- 
 fer that their mode of writing, which is growing 
 more intricate and voluminous every day, would 
 never terminate in so clear, so comparatively 
 simple an expedient as that of alphabetical cha- 
 racters. The Mexicans, too, had made some 
 rude attempts of the same kind ; but with less 
 success than the Chinese. Hieroglyphics were 
 also in use among the' Egyptians posterior to the 
 practice of alphabetical writing by the Jews ; but 
 whether the epistolography, as it is called, of the 
 former people, which was in vogue during the 
 continuance of the hieroglyphics, might not be 
 another name for alphabetical writing, cannot be 
 decided. 
 
 We shall not pursue this argument further, but 
 offer the reader a table of the most celebrated 
 alphabets of ancient and modern times referring 
 to GRAMMAR, LANGUAGE, and the articles which 
 treat of the respective countries, where they are 
 or have been spoken, for further imformation 
 respecting them. 
 
 ABYSSINIAN Alphabet. In substance the same 
 as the ETHIOPIC, which see. 
 
 ADAM, Alphabet of, a Chaldean alphabet at 
 tributed to Adam. 
 
 ./EOLIAN, an ancient Greek alphabet, according 
 to Thesius Ambrosius. 
 
 ANGLO-NORMAN, a variety of the GOTHIC al- 
 phabet, which see. 
 
 The ARABIC Alphabet is in its most ancient 
 form called the Kufic from the city Kufa, 
 on the Euphrates. It consists of initial letters 
 used at the beginning ; medial letters, or those 
 used in the middle ; and final letters, or those 
 used at the end of words. The modern Arabic 
 is said to have been invented by the vizier 
 Molach, A. D. 933, who wrote the Koran three 
 times in it, so fair and correct as to make it a 
 perfect model of writing. This consists also of 
 four sorts of characters, namely, single, initial, 
 medial, and final, which is the common character 
 of the Arabians, Turks, and Persians ; but the 
 two latter nations have added four more letters, 
 
 namely, <_- > p , - cfl > j zh > ? 8> and ^ ven a 
 different power to others. There are two othe: 
 variations of the Arabic, namely, the African 
 and Mauritanian, which are said to be used in 
 different parts of Africa. 
 
 ARCADIAN, a Latin alphabet, taken from tht 
 Eugubian tables, and so called because supposed 
 to have been brought by Evander from Arcadia 
 into Latium. 
 
 ARMENIAN approaches, in many respects, 
 very near to the Chaldee or Syriac, and to the 

 
 680 
 
 ALPHABET. 
 
 Greek in otheis. There is a common printing 
 character of the Armenian capitals and small 
 letter; and an ornamental kind of character, 
 which is termed blooming, or flowery, because it 
 is used for the titles of books : Duret likewise 
 mentions an ancient Armenian character, which 
 he says was taken from an inscription over an 
 entrance into the castle of Curcho. Schroeder. 
 Thesaur. Li?ig. Armen. ; Duret. Tresor. des Lung. 
 p. 725. It is used in Asia Minor, Syria, and 
 Tartary, as well as Armenia. 
 
 ATTIC, a variation of the ancient Greek, 
 which see. 
 
 BALI, a dialect used in Bali, an island north 
 of Java. 
 
 BARMAN, an alphabet of the kingdom of Ava, 
 in the order, power, and general form of its 
 letters greatly resembling the Sanscrit. 
 
 BASTARD or MONGREL, first made by a Ger- 
 man named Heilman, in 1490, was in common 
 use in France, in the fifteenth century ; so called 
 because it was derived from the Lettres de Forme, 
 or Gothic character ; but it has most of its angles 
 cut off or diminished. Fournier gives four 
 varieties of this bastard character. 
 
 BATTA, one of the most extensive languages in 
 the island of Sumatra. 
 
 BENGALLEE, the alphabet of Bengal, very 
 similar to the Sanscrit. 
 
 BULGARIAN, a character similar to that of the 
 Illyrian. 
 
 BULLANTIC or IMPERIAL, an alphabet of or- 
 namented capitals, so called because it was 
 employed in writing the papal buils. 
 
 CADEAUX, flourishing capitals, that were used 
 in French writing of the fifth century. 
 
 CADMEAX, the original Greek alphabet, sup- 
 posed to have been first introduced into Greece 
 by Cadmus. 
 
 CHALDEE alphabets can scarcely be distin 
 guished from the Phoenician or Syriac. Several 
 have been ascribed by the Rabbin to Adam, 
 Enoch, Noah, &c. Its character, as at present 
 known, is that of the Hebrew, % 
 
 'Of CHARLEMAGNE, the name of three alpha- 
 bets attributed to the emperor Charlemagne, by 
 whom they are said to have been introduced, at 
 the commencement of the ninth century, for the 
 purpose of improving the letters used in his 
 dominions. 
 
 The CHINESE language has no literal alpha- 
 oet, but consists of 214 key-words, or radical 
 characters, that serve to form 80,000 characters, 
 of which it is composed. 
 
 COPTIC, so called from Coptos, in Egypt, a 
 mixture of Greek and Egyptian. There are two 
 characters under this name, one of which is the 
 ancient, and the other the modern Coptic. The 
 latter, consisting of thirty-two letters, is only to 
 be met with in the books of Egyptian Christians, 
 by whom it was used in the translation of the 
 Sacred Writings. Kircher. (Edip. JEgypt. et 
 Copt.; Pocock.in Not. ad Spec. Hist. Arab. 
 
 CROATIAN, a variety of the ILLYRIAN alpha- 
 bet, which see 
 
 DALMATIAN, said to have been invented by 
 St. Jerome. Dwet. Tresor. des Lang. &c. p. 738. 
 
 Dome, a variety of the ancient GREEK. 
 
 EGYPTIAN. Ancient Egyptian characters were 
 
 of three kinds ; namely, iirvzoXoypafaKbg, or vul- 
 gar; itpartKoe, or sacred ; and UpoyXwpiicoc, hiero- 
 glyphic Vestiges remain of them all, of which 
 only conjectural explanations can be offered. 
 Their letters are in all probability lost. The 
 Coptic is the only Egyptian character that re- 
 mains. Herod. 1. 2, c. 36 ; Diodor. Sic. 1. 3 ; He- 
 liodor. Mthiop. \. 4 ; Clem. Alexandria. Strom. 
 1. 5; Eustath. ad Horn. II. 6, v. 168. 
 
 ENGLISH, Old, or Black Letter, called by the 
 French, Lettres de Forme, was first used by Gut- 
 temberg and Faust, at Mentz, and by them de- 
 nominated Lettres Burgeoises. 
 
 The ETHIOPIC, AMHARIC, or ABYSS:A T IAX al- 
 phabet, is evidently derived from the Samaritan 
 or Phoenician ; only, contrary to the Oriental cus- 
 tom, it is written from right to left. 
 
 ETRUSCAN was the earliest alphabet used in 
 Italy, so called from the Etrusci,the most ancient 
 inhabitants of that country. It is a sort of Pe- 
 lasgian or Arcadian character, frequently found 
 on coins, and disposed after the Greek fashion, 
 jBa^po^rjSov, i. e. alternately from left to right, 
 and from right to left. Two other alphabets are 
 attributed to the Etruscans, which were used as 
 sacred characters by their priests. 
 
 FLEMISH is the proper alphabet of the Austrian 
 and French Netherlands, and is used in their 
 common printing, which resembles the old 
 English. 
 
 FRANCO-GALLIC, so called from its being a 
 mixture of French and Gaulish characters, was 
 used under the first race of the kings of France in 
 their public acts. 
 
 FRANKS, an alphabet used by the earliest in- 
 habitants of the Low Countries, and afterwards 
 transferred to Gaul, was a variety of the Latin 
 alphabet. Another alphabet under this name 
 belonging to the Lingua Francais, is a kind of 
 jargon spoken on the shores of the Mediterranean ; 
 the characters of which are composed of French, 
 vulgar Greek, Spanish, and Italian. 
 
 FRENCH, Ancient, an alphabet of this name 
 was used in the fifth century, under the first race 
 of the French kings. 
 
 The GEORGIAN is an alphabet which consists 
 of four different characters ; namely, ancient 
 Georgian, immediately derived from, and nearly 
 allied to, the Greek ; two, called sacred, consist- 
 ing of capitals and small letters ; and the fourth, 
 a writing-hand of the Georgians. 
 
 GERMAN consists of two characters, capital 
 and small letters, which are used for printing, 
 and two also for writing, or the current-hand. 
 
 GOTHIC. To Ulphilas, a bishop of the Goths, 
 in 388, is attributed the most ancient alphabet of 
 this name. It bears a strong affinity to the 
 Runic; a second Gothic alphabet is formed from 
 the Greek and Latin ; a third, attributed to Al- 
 bert Durer in the sixteenth century, is very 
 similar to the German. 
 
 GOTHIC, Modern, an old English or Norman 
 character, called in French,les Lettres Tourneures. 
 It was much used in adorning the missals of the 
 Romish church. 
 
 GREEK. We have seen the testimony of He- 
 rodotus, (similar to that of Pliny, Plutarch, and 
 others,) that Cadmus, the Phoenician, introduced 
 the first Greek alphabet into Bceotia. wnere he
 
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 ALPHABET. 
 
 681 
 
 settled B.C. 1500; although Diodorus is of 
 opinion that the Pelasgian letters were prior to 
 the Cadmean. From comparing the Cadmean 
 and Pelasgian alphabets, however, with the Phoe- 
 nician, it is clear that they sprung from one and 
 the same origin. The Cadrnean, or, as it is 
 otherwise called, the Attic or Ionic alphabet, is 
 principally found on coins and medals, the Pelas- 
 gian is drawn from the Eugubian tables : the 
 former consisted originally of only sixteen 
 letters, to which eight others were afterwards 
 added ; the number of the latter varies, according 
 to the account of different writers, from twelve 
 to twenty letters. The next Greek alphabet of 
 ancient times is the Sigean, so called because 
 the letters which composed it are taken from the 
 inscription on a marble pillar near the town of 
 Sigeum. The antiquity of this alphabet is evinced 
 by its being read alternately from left to right, 
 and from right to left, which manner of writing 
 was called pa^po^Sov, because it resembled the 
 turning of oxen at both ends of a furrow. It is 
 besides observable that the H for the long E, and 
 the Q for the long () were not 'then in use, but 
 afterwards introduced by Simonides. Other 
 Greek characters are drawn from medals and in- 
 scriptions ; namely, the Nemean, B. C. 430, 
 engraven on marbles, as is supposed, before the 
 Peloponnesian war; the Delian, from inscrip- 
 tions on the remains of a stately building on 
 Mount Cynthus, in the island of Delos; the 
 Athenian; and the Teian. About 500 years be- 
 fore the Christian sera, Simonides completed the 
 Greek alphabet, called the Ionic; and other 
 Greek alphabets of different ages are one used 
 in the time of Alexander the Great, B. C. 330 ; 
 another drawn from the coins of the Antiochi, 
 kings of Syria, &c. B. C. 240 to 187 ; that of 
 Constantine the Great, A. D. 306; of Justinian 
 the Great, A. D. 527 ; of Heraclius, A. D. 610 ; 
 of Leo Jaurus, A. D. 716. To these may be 
 added that of the Alexandrian MS. of the New 
 Testament. See ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT, 
 for a specimen. 
 
 HEBREW. The Rabbins attribute the invention, 
 of two Hebrew alphabets to Solomon. Those 
 most worthy of note are the ancient and modern 
 Hebrew, the former of which is supposed to have 
 been invented by Esdras after the captivity, and 
 to have given rise to the latter. This question, 
 however, has undergone much discussion among 
 the learned, both Jews and Christians ; but 
 while the two Buxtorfs contend that the Hebrew 
 now in use was that in which Moses wrote, the 
 prevailing opinion is, that the Samaritan or 
 Phoenician was the original Hebrew character, 
 and that the present alphabet was invented after 
 the captivity. PI. III. MISCELLANEOUS, contains 
 specimens of Samaritan inscriptions on coins, 
 which it is admitted were struck prior to captivity. 
 Fig. 1 , represents the censer on the obverse, and, 
 on the reverse, Aaron's rod budding ; the in- 
 scriptions, the ' Shekel of Israel ' and ' Jerusa- 
 lem the Holy.' The first, which has x over the 
 censer, was a half shekel ; the second having t, 
 the third of a shekel ; and the third also having 
 the fourth of a shekel. The Rabbinical Hebrew 
 
 is the current hand in use among the Jews at 
 present. 
 
 The HUNS, an alphabet so called because 
 used by the Huns, who settled in Pannonia, or 
 Hungary, in 370. 
 
 JACOBITE, a corruption of the Greek alphabet, 
 used by the Jacobites, an heretical sect, in their 
 religious services. 
 
 JAPANESE consists of three characters ; namely, 
 two that are in common use, and one that is 
 used only at court. Like the Chinese, it is 
 written from top to bottom. 
 
 ICELANDIC, the same as the Runic. 
 ILLYRIAN. There are two alphabets of this 
 name ; one said to have been invented by St. 
 Cyril, and the other by St. Jerome, or, according 
 to Aventinus, by one Methodius, a bishop of 
 Illyrium, who used it in the translation of the 
 Scriptures : the former bears a great affinity to 
 the Russian, the latter to the Dalmatian. Duret. 
 Tres. des Lang. p. 741. 
 
 INDIAN, the same as the Ethiopian. Duret 
 mentions another Indian alphabet, which is ge- 
 nerally used among the Easterns. 
 
 The IRISH alphabet bears, in the opinion of 
 Valiancy, a great affinity to the Phoenician, from 
 which he supposes it to be derived. The Irish 
 also used mysterious alphabets in their incanta- 
 tions, after the manner of those given under the 
 name of ogums, from oga and ogma, an augury. 
 Their three principal ogums, were the ogum 
 Beath, when bt or beath was placed always for 
 the letter a ; ogum coll, when, for vowels, 
 diphthongs, and triphthongs in the ogum, the let- 
 ter c was variously repeated ; ogum croabh, or the 
 virgular ogum, having a line or stem called the 
 croabh, through which, on each side, are drawn 
 perpendicular strokes. 
 
 KUFJC, the ancient Arabic. See ARABIC. 
 LATIN, from the ETRUSCAN, which see. This 
 alphabet underwent successive changes, until it 
 arrived at its present state, in which it is more 
 generally known by the name of Roman. 
 
 The LOMBARD is also a variety of the Latin 
 character. 
 
 MJESO-GOTHIC, an alphabet attributed to Ul- 
 philas, bishop of the Goths, in the ninth century, 
 and used in the translation of the Scriptures. 
 
 MALABARIC, an alphabet consisting of sixteen 
 vowels, and thirty-five simple consonants or 
 radicals. Alphabet Var. Congregat . , de Propar- 
 gand. Fide, vol. ii. 
 
 MALAYAN is a character similar to the Arabic. 
 MANTCHON, a sort of Tartaric. See TAR- 
 TAR 1C. 
 
 MENDEAN, an alphabet used by the Mendes, 
 a people of Egypt, A. D. 277 ; formed from 
 the Syriac. 
 
 MONK'S, a mode of writing among the ancient 
 Britons by cutting letters upon sticks, either in 
 a square or triangular form, very similar to that 
 which is given as a specimen of the Welsh or 
 Bardic alphabet. 
 
 NORMAN. Two alphabets are given under 
 this name on the authority of Bede, one of which 
 was a variety of the Greek. 
 
 PALI* YRIAN was first decyphered by the Abbe
 
 682 
 
 ALPHABET. 
 
 Bartheleme", is read from right to left. It bears 
 a strong affinity to the Hebrew. 
 
 PELASGIAN is a name given to the alphabet 
 which the Greeks derived from the Phoenicians, 
 whom they called IltXacryot, Pelasgii, quasi Pe- 
 lagi, from Trt\ayog, the sea, because they tra- 
 versed the ocean for the purposes of commerce. 
 
 PERSIAN, Modern, is nearly the same as the 
 Arabic alphabet, except the addition of four 
 letters, and a few slight differences in the powers 
 given to the letters. Hyde gives an ancient 
 character called Zend or Pazend, and supposed 
 to have been used by Zoroaster. Hyde de Re- 
 lig. Vet. Persar. 
 
 The PHOENICIAN alphabets comprehend a 
 great variety of characters, drawn generally from 
 coins or inscriptions, and as ancient characters 
 as any in the world. Scaliger supposes this to 
 have been the original Hebrew character, other- 
 wise called the Samaritan. 
 
 RUNIC, a variety of the Maeso-Gothic, used by 
 several nations of the North. 
 
 The RUSSIAN alphabet is evidently derived 
 from the Greek. 
 
 SAMARITAN is the name given to that variety 
 of Phoenician character, which is supposed to 
 have been used by the Jews from the time of 
 Moses to the captivity. See HEBRRW. This 
 name was given to it, because the Samaritans 
 continued to use it, after the captivity, in writing 
 the Pentateuch. It has been collected by Wal- 
 ton from coins and inscriptions : the modern 
 Samaritan differs somewhat from the ancient. 
 
 SANSCRIT. The alphabet of the Sanskrita, 
 i. e. the perfect or polished language of the 
 Hindoo class, is called also the Devanagari. 
 
 SARACEN. The Saracen alphabet, used at the 
 time of their conquests, bears some affinity to 
 the Phoenician. Another alphabet under this 
 name is quoted by Morton, on the authority of 
 Kircher, which is very similar to the Arabic. 
 Duret. Tres. des Lang. p. 475. 
 
 SAXON consists of two characters, the ancient 
 and modern. 
 
 SCLAVONIAN, the alphabet used by the ancient 
 inhabitants of Sclavonia, and which bore some 
 resemblance to the Illyrian. 
 
 SERVIAN, an alphabet bearing some resem- 
 blance to the Greek, is attributed to St. Cyril, 
 A. D. 700 ; and other characters, under this 
 name, to St. Jerome. 
 
 SIAMIC is an alphabet bearing affinity to the 
 Chinese. 
 
 STRANGHELO, the ancient Syriac, from the 
 Greek -rpoyyvXoc, round, or rather, rude and 
 rough, said to have been in use, B. C. 300. The 
 modern Syriac, consists of initials, medials, and 
 finals, like the Arabic. From this character two 
 others were formed, called Nestorian, from the 
 Nestorians of Syria, but differing only in some 
 slight particulars. A fifth and sixth sort of 
 Syriac nave been given under the names of Syro- 
 Galilean and Syro-Hebraic. 
 
 SUMATRAN. The dialects of Sumatra have 
 each a peculiar alphabet, of which Marsden has 
 taken notice in his Comparative Vocabulary, as 
 the Batta, Lampoor, Rejang, &c. 
 
 TALENGA, an alphabet of the kingdom of 
 Decan, similar to the Malabaric. 
 
 TAMOULIC, an alphabet of India, much used 
 in letter-press printing. 
 
 TARTARIC, the same as the Arabic ; but the 
 Mantchou Tartar is a different character. 
 
 TEUTONIC, a northern alphabet, bearing con- 
 siderable affinity to the Saxon. 
 
 THIBETAN, the alphabet used by the Lamas, 
 according to the ' Alphabeta Varia Typis sacra 
 Congregationis de Propaganda Fide.' 
 
 TURKISH is the same as the Arabic, with the 
 addition of five letters. 
 
 WELSH, (Coelbren y Beirs, i. e. the Bardic 
 alphabet,) consisted of sixteen primitive or radi- 
 cal characters, and twenty-four secondary ones. 
 It was formed by cutting the letters on a stick in 
 a triangular or square character. 
 
 The learned author of Hermes states, that to 
 about twenty plain elementary sounds, we owe 
 that variety of articulate words which have been 
 sufficient to explain the sentiments of such an 
 innumerable multitude as all the past and present 
 generations of men. Mr. Sheridan says, that 
 the number of simple sounds in our tongue are 
 twenty-eight ; while Dr. Kenrick contends, that 
 we have only eleven distinct species of articulate 
 sounds, which even by contraction, prolongation,, 
 and composition, are increased only to the num- 
 ber of sixteen ; every syllable or articulate sound 
 in our language being one of the number. Bishop 
 Wilkins and Dr. William Holder speak of 
 thirty-three distinct sounds. After the analysis 
 or decomposition of language into the elementary 
 sounds, the next step towards the notation of it 
 by alphabetical characters would be the delinea- 
 tion of a separate mark or letter to represent 
 each sound ; which marks, though few in num- 
 ber, would admit of such a variety of arrange- 
 ments and combinations, as might be capable of 
 producing that infinity of articulate sounds which 
 compose language. The ingenious Wachter, in 
 his Nature et Scripture Concordia, p 64, endea- 
 vours to show, that ten marks or characters are 
 sufficient for this purpose. From a calculation 
 made by Mr. Prestet, it appears, that, allowing 
 only twenty-four letters to an alphabet, the dif- 
 ferent possible words that may be made out of 
 those letters, would amount to the following 
 number,1391,724,288,887,252,999,425,128,493, 
 402,200 ! Of all known languages, the Greek 
 has been regarded as one of the most copious, 
 the radices only of which are estimated at about 
 3244 ; but then it abounds so exceedingly in 
 compounds and derivatives, that Wilkins thinks 
 they may be moderately computed at about 
 10,000. Hermanns Hugo asserts, that no lan- 
 guage has so few as 100,000 words; and Varro 
 is frequently quoted by learned men, as having 
 affirmed that there are in the Latin no less than 
 5,000,000 ; reckoning all the variations of nouns 
 and verbs by composition, conjugation, declen- 
 sion, and inflection. 
 
 Bishop Wilkins charges all the alphabets ex- 
 tant with great irregularities, in respect to order, 
 number, power, figure, &c. The order of them 
 certainly appears inartificial, precarious, and 
 confused : and even in the Hebrew alphabet 
 there are letters both redundant and deficient. 
 Most known alphabets are redundant, either by 
 allotting several letters to the same power and
 
 ALPHABET. 
 
 683 
 
 sound, as in the Hebrew 73 and E7, and the ordi- 
 nary Latin c and k, f and ph ; or by reckoning 
 double letters among the simple elements of 
 speech ; as in the Hebrew y, the Greek and $, 
 the Latin x, z, and j consonant : and deficient, in 
 various respects, especially in regard to vowels, 
 of which there are seven or eight kinds commonly 
 used, though the Latin alphabet only takes notice 
 of six ; besides which, the difference among 
 vowels, in respect of length or brevity, is not 
 sufficiently provided for -. the ancients, we know, 
 used to express a long vowel, by doubling its 
 character, as amaabam, naata, ree, seedes ; and 
 the vowel i, instead of being doubled, was fre- 
 quently prolonged, as in JED!LIS, plso, vlvus. 
 The method used in English for lengthening and 
 abbreviating vowels, viz. by adding e quiescent 
 to the end of a word, for prolonging a syllable ; 
 and doubling the following consonants, for the 
 shortening of a vowel, are equally improper; be- 
 cause the sign ought ever to be where the sound 
 is. Again, their powers are not always fixed ; 
 the vowels, for instance, are generally acknow- 
 ledged to have each of them several sounds : 
 thus the vowel t has at least three different 
 sounds, and one of these only is expressed in 
 writing no less than in six several ways, viz. by 
 e, as in he ; by ee, as in three ; by ie, as in fold ; 
 by ea, as in near ; by eo, as in people ; and by i, 
 as in privilege. Nor are the consonants of more 
 determinate power; witness the two different 
 pronunciations of the same letter c in the same 
 word circo ; and of g in negligence. To add no 
 more,' the letters c, s, and t with an i after it, are 
 used alike to denote the same power; and the 
 letter s is comrtionly used for z ; and which is 
 yet worse, some letters of the same name and 
 shape are used at one time for vowels, and at 
 another for consonants ; as j, v, w, T/; which yet 
 differ from one another, says bishop Wilkins, 
 sicut corpus et anima ; 'as much as soul and 
 body.' From this confusion in the power of 
 letters, there arise divers irregularities; such as, 
 that some words are distinguished in writing, 
 which are the same in pronunciation, e. gr. cessio 
 and sessio, &c. and others are distinguished in 
 pronunciation, which are the same in writing ; as 
 I now read I have read, &c. 
 
 Various plans have been suggested to remedy 
 these imperfections, and very plausible schemes 
 have been exhibited for that purpose, by Mr. 
 Lodwick, Bp. Wilkins, Dr. Franklin, &c. ; but 
 the great difficulty, if they should be ever so 
 perfect, lies in bringing them into general use. 
 Mr. Sheridan observes, that, in our English al- 
 phabet, there are many sounds for which we 
 have no letters or marks : and that there ought to 
 be nine more characters or letters to make a com- 
 plete alphabet, in which every simple sound 
 should have a mark peculiar to itself. The fol- 
 lowing is his scheme of the English Alphabet. 
 Rhet. Gram. p. 9. 
 
 Number of simple sounds in our tongue 28. 
 
 312 32 3111 
 
 9 Vowels, a a a e o o e i u 
 hall hat hate beer note noose bet sit but 
 
 w 
 short oo 
 
 v 
 short ee 
 
 19 Consonant* tbdfgklmnprstvzth 
 J Consonants, ^ sfi zh ng 
 
 2 Superfluous, c, which has the power of k or 
 s ; q, that of k before u. 
 
 2 Compound, j, which stands for dzh ; z for k$ 
 
 OTgZ. 
 
 I No letter, h, only a mark of aspiration. 
 Consonants divided into mutes and semivowels. 
 6 Mutes, b d g k p t. 
 
 3 Pure mutes, k p t. 
 
 3 Impure, b d g. 
 
 13 Semivowels.) /.i .. .r- , , 
 
 or liquids. '\flmnrsvzthtKshzhnz. 
 
 9 Vocal, I mnr v z th zh ng. 
 
 4 Aspirated, f s iK sh. 
 
 Divided again into 
 4 Labial, b p r f. 
 8 Dental, d 1 1 h t H z ss zh esh. 
 4 Palatine, g k I r. 
 3 Nasal, m n ng. 
 
 ALPH.&A, in entomology, a species of the 
 phalaena bombyx, with ferruginous wings, a 
 white point in the middle, and a punctuated 
 brown streak ; found in New Holland. 
 
 ALPHENUS VARUS. See ALFERNUS. 
 
 ALPHERATZ, in astronomy, a fixed star of 
 the third magnitude in Aquarius. 
 
 ALPHERY (Mikipher), a native of Russia, 
 and of the imperial line. When that country 
 was torn in pieces by intestine quarrels, in the 
 latter end of the 16th century, this gentleman 
 and his two brothers were sent over to England 
 under the care of a Russian merchant, who en- 
 tered them at Oxford, where two of them died of 
 the small pox. This surviving brother entered 
 into orders ; and in 1618 obtained the rectory of 
 Wooley in Huntingdonshire ; and though twice 
 invited to return to his native country by a poli- 
 tical party, he chose rather to remain with his 
 flock. In 1643 the republicans took him by 
 force from his pulpit, as he was preaching, and 
 turned his wife and children into the street. He 
 raised a tent in the church-yard, over against 
 his house, and lived there with his family for a 
 week. Mr. Alphery afterwards left Huntingdon- 
 shire, and resided at Hammersmith till the res- 
 toration again put him in possession of his living ; 
 but, being aged and infirm, he could not per- 
 form its duties ; and having settled a curate, re- 
 tired to his son's house at Hammersmith, where 
 he died. 
 
 ALPHESIBGEA, 'AX$fffij3oia, in mythology 
 daughter of Phlegeus, and wife of Alcmaeon,the 
 son of Amphiareus, abandoned by her husband 
 for Calirrhoe, the daughter of Achelous. He 
 attempted to obtain a necklace from her which 
 she had received as a bridal present, and was 
 killed by her brothers in revenge. 
 
 ALPHESTES, in ichthyology, the name of a 
 fish, the cinaedus of Linnaeus, seeming to approach 
 very much to the turdus or wrasse kind, but 
 having the rays of its back-fin prickly all the way 
 to the tail ; whereas the turdi have only the an- 
 terior rays of that fin prickly, the rest smooth. 
 It is a small fish, caught about the shores, and 
 among rocks ; its back is purple, and its sides 
 and belly yellowish. Its mouth is small, and has 
 thick and fleshy lips. 
 
 ALPHETI, in astronomy, another name for 
 the star Lucida Corona. 
 
 ALPIJEUS, or ALPHEIUS, in ancient geogra-
 
 ALP 
 
 684 
 
 ALP 
 
 phy, a large river of the Peleponnesus ; which, 
 rising in, and after several windings running 
 through, Arcadia, and by Olympia in Elis, with 
 a south-west course fell into the Sinus Chelo- 
 nites, about ten miles south of Olympia. It had 
 a common spring with the Eurotas, at the foot 
 of mount Parthenius, near the village Asea. The 
 poets fabled that, out of love to the nymph Are- 
 thusa, this river ran under the sea to Sicily, and 
 burst out again at the fountain of that name in 
 Syracuse. Pausanias adds, that the Eleans had 
 a law, which condemned any woman to death 
 that should either appear at the Olympic games, 
 or cross this river during that solemnity. Virgil 
 alludes to this stream in the following lines : 
 
 Alphaeum fama est hue Elidis amnem 
 
 Occukas egisse vias subter mare ; qui nunc 
 
 Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis. 
 
 And Lord Byron has a beautiful application of 
 
 the above fable, as a metaphor, in his Lara. 
 
 ALPHEUS, the father of the apostle James and 
 Jude. Mary, his wife, is safB to have been the 
 sister of the Virgin, and hence some writers say 
 his sons were called the brethren of our Lord. 
 He is supposed to be the same with Cleophas. 
 Also the name of the father of the Evangelist 
 Matthew. 
 
 ALPHITIDON, fr;m a\<j>irov, powder, i.e. a 
 bone ground to powder. In surgery, a species of 
 fracture, wherein the bone is broken into a great 
 number of small parts, or portions. 
 
 ALPHONSIN, in surgery, an instrument for 
 extracting bullets, or other extraneous substances, 
 from the human body. This instrument derives 
 its name from the inventor Alphonsus Ferrius, 
 a physician of Naples; and consists of three 
 branches, which are closed on a ring. When in- 
 troduced into the wound, the operator draws 
 back the ring towards the handle, upon which the 
 branches opening, the ring is pushed from the 
 haft, by which means the ball is grasped firmly, 
 and extracted from the wound. 
 
 ALPHONSINE TABLES, astronomical ta- 
 bles made by Alphonso X. (See ALPHONSO X.) 
 They were drawn up chiefly by the skill and 
 pains of a learned Jew, rabbi Isaac Kazan, and 
 called Alphonsine Tables in honour of this 
 prince, who was at considerable expense con- 
 cerning them. He fixed the epoch of the tables 
 to the 30th of May, 1252, being the day of his 
 accession to the throne. They were printed for 
 the first time in 1483, by Radtolt, of Venice ; (an 
 edition extremely rare ;) there are others of 1492, 
 1521, 1545, &c. 
 
 ALPHONSO, or ALPHONSUS, I. king of Ar- 
 *agon and Navarre, succeeded his brother Pedro I. 
 in 1104; and in 1109 became king of Castile by 
 his marriage with Urraca, daughter to Alphonso 
 VI. king of Castile and Leon. He took Saragossa 
 from the Moors; but his queen proving faithless, 
 he divorced her, which involved him in wars with 
 the Castilians. He died in 1124. 
 
 This was also the name of several monarchs of 
 Arragon, Leon, and Castile, who variously dis- 
 tinguished themselves in contest with the Moors 
 in the 12th and 13th centuries. 
 
 ALPHONSO X. king of Leon and Castile, was 
 surnamed the Wise, and author of the astronomi- 
 cal tables, called Alphonsine. The perusal of 
 
 Quintus Curtius is said to have afforded him 
 such delight, that it gave a favourable turn to a 
 dangerous illness. He is said also to have read 
 the Bible fourteen times, with several comments 
 on it ; and favoured its translation into the 
 Spanish language. He also completed a code 
 of laws, known under the title of Las Partidas, 
 begun by his father, and substituted the verna- 
 cular tongue for the Latin in law proceedings. 
 He was elected emperor in opposition to Richard, 
 duke of Cornwall, and was excommunicated by 
 the pope for persisting in his claim to that dig- 
 nity. Dethroned by his son Sancho : he died 
 of grief, in 1284. 
 
 ALPHONSO XI. king of Leon and Castile, suc- 
 ceeded his father Ferdinand IV. in 1312. He 
 defeated and slew Abdulmalic, son of Abul Has- 
 san, king of Fez, in 1339; and at the battle of 
 Tariff, in 1340, obtained a signal victory over the 
 Moors, of whom it is said 200,000 were slain ; 
 besides taking Algezira from them : he died iti 
 1350. 
 
 ALPHUS, in medicine, a distemper, described 
 by Celsus, under the name of vitiligo. In this 
 disease the skin is rough, and exhibits spots of 
 white; whence it is denominated leuce. Where 
 the spots are black, it is called nigra and melane. 
 It bears the same relation to the leuce, as the 
 scabies to the lepra ; the first is superficial and 
 cutaneous, the second sinks deeper into the flesh, 
 
 ALPINE MOUSE. See MOUSE and MARMOTS. 
 
 ALPINI, or ALPINUS, (Prosper), a celebrated 
 Venetian physician and botanist, born in 1553. 
 He travelled in Egypt to acquire a knowledge of 
 exotic plants, and was the first who explained the 
 fructification and generation of plants by the sex- 
 ual system. Upon his return to Venice, in 1586, 
 Andrew Doria, prince of Melfi, appointed him 
 his physician; until the republic of Venice, being 
 jealous that so distinguished a subject of theirs, 
 as Alpini, should continue at Genoa, invited him 
 in 1593, to fill the professorship of botany at 
 Padua. He dischargeu this office with great re- 
 putation, till he died in 1616, in the 64th year of 
 his age. His principal works (which have pass- 
 ed through numerous editions), are De Medicina 
 uEgyptiorum ; De plantis ^Egypti ; De Balsamo, 
 a treatise on the famous balm of Gilead ; De 
 Prasagienda Vita et Morte JEgrotaritium, con- 
 sisting chiefly of a collection and arrangement of 
 'the presages of Hippocrates ; De Medicina Me- 
 thodica, being an attempt to elucidate and re- 
 store the ancient doctrine of the Methodistic sect 
 in medicine ; De Raphontico disputatio inaugu- 
 ralis ; and De Plantis exoticis. 
 
 ALPINIA, in botany, a genus of the mono- 
 gynia order, belonging to the monandria class ot 
 plants ; and in the natural method ranking undei 
 the 8th order, scitaminc. The characters are : 
 CAL. aperianthium above, small, and trifid : COR. 
 monopetalous, unequal, and as if doubled : STAM. 
 one filament, with linear antherae joining to the 
 margin : PIST. a roundish germen, beneath : the 
 stylus simple, and the stigma obtusely trigonous : 
 PER. is a fleshy ovate trilocular capsule, with 
 three valves. The seeds are ovate, and very nu- 
 merous; the receptaculum is pulpy and very 
 large. Of this genus, various species, natives of 
 the East and West Indies, have been lately
 
 ALPS. 
 
 enumerated by Mr. Roscoe, Dr. Roxburgh, and 
 ethers, but they have not been very intelligently 
 described. It grows naturally in moist places. 
 . ALPS or ALPES, a long and stupendous 
 ridge of mountains, which lie almost in the very 
 heart of continental Europe, and stretching in a 
 crescent-like form through Provence, Dauphine, 
 Savoy, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Trent, Brixen, 
 Suabia, the Electorate of Saltzburg, Carinthia, 
 Carniola, and the ci-devant republic of Venice, 
 from the Gulf of Genoa to the top of the Adri- 
 atic, divides Italy, on the north, from Germany, 
 France, and Switzerland. The name is supposed 
 to be derived either from the Celtic alp, signifying 
 verdant heights, or mountains, (Isidore in Ori- 
 gen, lib. iii. and Servius in Virgil, ]n. lib. Hi.); 
 and, amongst the ancient Scythians and Scandi- 
 navians, the spirit of a mountain ; or from albus, 
 alpus, white with snow. The etymology from 
 Albion, the son of Neptune, who was said to have 
 been killed by Hercules, when disputing the 
 passage of this god across these mountains, is too 
 fabulous, if not for our attention, at least for our 
 belief. 
 
 The length of this lofty range is from 600 to 
 700 miles, and its breadth, variously estimated, in 
 some places exceeds 100, the whole comprising 
 various chains or branches, broken into lofty 
 peaks, and divided from each other by narrow 
 valleys, and dreadful chasms several thousand 
 feet deep. Many of these stupendous masses 
 appear like mountains piled upon mountains, till 
 their summits reach above the clouds, and at that 
 altitude resemble islands emerging from the bo- 
 som of the ocean. These are chiefly from 4000 
 to 12,000 feet in altitude above the level of the 
 sea, and form a series of summits, the highest of 
 which are clothed with perpetual snow. The 
 most rugged parts of this chain are those lying 
 between Savoy and the Vallais, amongst which 
 the celebrated Mont Blanc lifts its lofty head to 
 the enormous altitude of 15,660 feet, and is visi- 
 ble from Dijon and Langres, at the distance of 
 140 miles. From these immense heights, nu- 
 merous lakes and rivers derive their origin, down 
 their sides are poured stormy cataracts, and 
 beautiful cascades, whilst fine views, and scenes 
 the most picturesque and delightful, break from 
 various directions upon the eye of the traveller. 
 The lower parts of these mountains are clothed 
 with woods and pastures ; the superior regions, to 
 which the shepherds resort with their flocks 
 during summer, produce a great variety of plants 
 and shrubs, and are refreshed with clear and excel- 
 lent springs, whilst the supreme altitude presents 
 a series of rugged and almost inaccessible rocks. 
 In ascending the Alps, the traveller experiences 
 not only the four seasons in succession, within a 
 short space of each other, but all the intermediate 
 changes. Even summer and winter here lose 
 their animosity, and dwell almost together. Many 
 parts of die Alps, especially the middle regions, 
 are subject to violent storms, the tremendous 
 effects of which on the northern branches are 
 fearfully felt. Within the space of a few hours, 
 these dreadful acirs> or hurricanes, often fill the 
 lavines, obliterate the paths and precipices, 
 cover the villages, bury the inhabitants, and de- 
 plorable is the state of that traveller who is thus 
 
 overtaken at a distance from any shelter his path 
 is no longer visible the precipice and the plain 
 can no longer be distinguished if he stands, he 
 is frozen if he proceeds, he is buried. 
 
 Since the time of the Romans, who first pene- 
 trated these mountains thoroughly, they have 
 been called by different names in different parts. 
 The principal subdivisions are the following : 
 the Maritime, the Cottian, the Greek or Grecian, 
 the Pennine, the Rhcetian, distinguished into the 
 High Alps, the Lepontine, agd the Rhoetian 
 Proper ; the Tyrolese and Tridentine, including 
 those of Suabia, the Noric, the Carnic, and the 
 Julian. 
 
 In the course of this immense range, these 
 mountains assume several distinct names and 
 subdivisions, according to their different and re- 
 lative situations. The Maritime Alps, or Alpes 
 Littorese, or Maritimae, so called from their prox- 
 imity to the Mediterranean, begin at the eastern 
 extremity of the chain, near -Monaco, and termi- 
 nate near the source of the Po, at Mount Viso, 
 between Dauphine in France, and Piedmont in 
 Italy ; thus connecting the Alps with the north- 
 ern part of the Appennines, and leaving ancient 
 Gaul to the west, and Genoa to the east. Saus- 
 sure has included the whole range of mountains, 
 from Nice to Genoa, under this subdivision, 
 which he divides into two great branches, one 
 running eastward along the coast, until it joins 
 the Appennines ; the other stretching westward 
 through Provence : the usual distribution, how- 
 ever, gives the eastern branch of this range to 
 the northern Appennines. The heights of Came- 
 lon and Tenda are the most celebrated and con- 
 spicuous of this division, both situated in the 
 county of Nice ; and the passes called the Col di 
 Tenda, the boundary of Nice on that side, and 
 the Col d'Argentiere, leading from Barcellonette 
 in Provence, to Coni, in Piedmont, are those 
 best known to travellers. The ancient city of 
 Embrun was formerly the capital of this district, 
 the inhabitants of which enjoyed, under the em- 
 peror Nero, the privileges appertaining to the 
 allies of Rome ; and trophies are said to have 
 been erected on one of its highest summits, called 
 Tropcea, or Turbia, in honour of the emperor 
 Augustus. 
 
 The Cottian Alps, Alps Cottiae, o'r Cottanae, 
 now Mont Genevre, begin at Mount Viso, at the 
 termination of the former, and taking a northern 
 direction to mount Cenis, form the boundary 
 line between this part of Dauphine and Piedmont. 
 The chief town of this district is Susa, and across 
 this range it is supposed, by Holstenius, D'An- 
 ville, and others, that Hannibal with his army 
 entered into Italy. This, however, is by no 
 means clear. The manner in which the Car- 
 thaginian general levelled somp of the most 
 inaccessible heights, splitting the rocks by means 
 of fire, and afterwards pouring on quantities of 
 vinegar, which are said to have softened and 
 crumbled them, rests entirely upon the authority 
 of Livy, 1. xxi. c. 27, supported by an extrava- 
 gant line of Juvenal, Sat. x. v. 15. ' Diducit 
 scopulos, et montem rumpit aceto.' In the 
 present advanced state of chemistry, we know 
 nothing of a calcination of immense masses of 
 rock that could be thus effected. Pliny states.
 
 6B6 
 
 ALPS. 
 
 in book xxii. c. 1. of his Natural History, that 
 vinegar will dissolve calcined substances, and 
 the pearl of Cleopatra may be instanced as a 
 proof of this ; but the details of natural history 
 are so imperfectly given by the ancients, and 
 Pliny is himself so full of marvellous relations, 
 that this evidence can weigh but little ; and even 
 allowing the fact to be correct, as to the pearl, 
 the dissolution of so small a substance can bear 
 no analogy to softening down the rocks of the 
 Alps. There is, however, still extant an ancient 
 pass on this division of these mountains, which 
 leads from Briancon to Susa, formerly called the 
 Cottia ; by which, if Hannibal passed over this 
 portion of the Alps, he must have proceeded. 
 
 The Greek Alps, or, according to Pliny and 
 Cornelius Nepos, Alpes Graise, begin at the 
 northern part of the range last described, and 
 divide Savoy and the Tarentese territory in a 
 western direction ; they also run to the east, 
 between Piedmont and the valley of Aosta, ter- 
 minating at Great St. Bernard. This division 
 is sometimes called Little St. Bernard, as it 
 contains that mountain, and is the part where 
 Hercules, on his return from Spain, was fabled 
 to have forced his passage against Albion. 
 
 The Pennine Alps, or Alpes Penninae, seem 
 to have derived their name from the Celtic word 
 Pen, signifying head or top, in relation to the 
 comparative heights of these mountains. The 
 etymology which derives the name from Pceni 
 (Carthaginians), as denoting it to have been the 
 place of Hannibal's passage, is inconsistent with 
 the tenor of history, although conjectured in the 
 time of Livy, lib. xxi. This division begins at 
 the north-east of the Alpes Graiae, and, sepa- 
 rating the Vallais from Italy on the south, extends 
 to the sources of the Rhine and the Rhone, at 
 the foot of the Great St. Gothard. There are 
 three roads across these mountains; that by 
 which the emperor Constantius marched his 
 army against the Alemanni ; another over Mount 
 Simplou, by which Buonaparte invaded Italy, 
 in 1800, prior to the battle of Marengo. This 
 great road into Italy was highly improved by the 
 ci-devant emperor, and is that usually travelled. 
 It runs along the Savoy side of the lake of Ge- 
 neva, and connects the ridge of the Jura with 
 the Alps. At St. Maurice it falls in with the 
 road that traverses the Swiss margin of the lake, 
 passes up the Vallais beyond Sion ; and then 
 turning to the right ascends the Great Simplon, 
 and conducts the traveller to the lake Maggiore 
 and Milan. The track, at the town of Martigni, 
 is unworthy the name of a road, and is passable 
 only by mules. It branches off to the Furca, 
 the Col de Balme, and the romantic scenes of 
 the vale of Chamouni. This division contains 
 Great St. Bernard, Mont Blanc, and that im- 
 mense range of precipices extending southward 
 from the Rhone, and northward from the modern 
 Piedmont. Here the Alps assume their greatest 
 ureadth, and branch out into those enchanting 
 lalleys which form the habitations of the Swiss. 
 
 The Rhsetian Alps, or Alpes Rheeticae, are so 
 called from their situation in the ancient Rhaetia. 
 Of this range there are three subdivisions : first, 
 the Rhzetian Alps proper, which form an imme- 
 diate junction with the Pennine Alps, and pass 
 
 between the country of the Grisons and the 
 Tyrol, to the sources of the rivers Piave and 
 Drave, and in their course give rise to the Inn, 
 the Adige, the Oglio, and the Adda ; second, the 
 High Alps, designating the summits of St. Go- 
 thard, the Vogelsberg, the Furca, the Crispalt, 
 the Schreckhorn, and the Grimsel, which they 
 contain. This chain runs from St. Gothard to 
 the lake Maggiore, and divides Milan from Swit- 
 zerland. In its course, a branch of the river 
 Rhine springs from the mountain Vogelsberg, 
 and the sources of the Rhone and the Reuss are to 
 be found in the mountain of Furca. This sub- 
 division is sometimes called the Helvetian Alps. 
 The third, or Lepontine Alps, take their name 
 from the inhabitants of the surrounding country, 
 extend southward of the Pennine Alps and of the 
 High Alps, and stand between the sources of the 
 Rhone and the lake Maggiore, joining the Great 
 St. Bernard westerly. 
 
 The Tyrolese, or Tridentine Alps, Alpes Tri- 
 dentinae, run northward of Trent, and include 
 the great mountain Brenner ; the Alps of Algou, 
 in Suabia, are a part or continuation of the Ty- 
 rolese Alps, and cannot justly be divided from 
 it ; within this range, in the county of Konigseck- 
 Rothenfels, stands the Hochvogel, and here the 
 rivers Lech, Iller, Bregentz, and the Aller, derive 
 their several sources. 
 
 The Noric Alps, or Alpes Noricae, take their 
 name from the ancient Noricum, and divide the 
 counties of Nice, Saltzburg, and the territory of 
 Venice. They extend eastward of the Rhaetian 
 Alps, and terminate at Dolback in the Tyrol. 
 
 The Carnic Alps, or Alpes Carnicas, which 
 have been little explored, extend from the Noric 
 Alps to mount Occa, running between Carinthia 
 and Friuli. 
 
 The last distinct portion of these mountains 
 is that known by the different names of the Ju- 
 lian, Pannonian, or Venetian Alps ; Alpes Juliae, 
 from Julius Caesar, who formed a plan of a road 
 over them, afterwards completed by the emperor 
 Augustus. The additions of Pannonicas or Ve- 
 netae are derived from the counties of Pannonia 
 and of Venice, through which they run. This 
 division of the Alps continues the chain from 
 Mount Occa to the gulf of Carnaro, in the Ve- 
 netian gulf, or Adriatic sea, near Istria, and 
 running between Carinthia, Carniola, and Friuli, 
 completes the crescent before described. 
 
 The Alps, according to Saussure, consist, in 
 their higher summits, chiefly of a large-grained 
 granite. On the loftiest peaks, the sun sheds its 
 lustre at setting, full three quarters of an hour 
 after the light has disappeared in the Pays de 
 Vaud, and other places in Switzerland, which 
 stand more than 1000 feet above the sea. At 
 the rising of the sun, the tops of these mountains 
 are illuminated for an equal length of time be- 
 fore his rays reach the surrounding country, 
 when they appear like stars amidst the dark- 
 ness of the morning. The valleys and terrific 
 precipices, on the sides of these heights, are in- 
 terspersed by those beautiful, but dangerous 
 wonders of nature, the glaciers, or rocky pyra- 
 mids of ice, accumulated in these Alpine 
 avenues in immense quantities, and in immense 
 shapes and varieties. Coxe divides them into
 
 ALPS. 
 
 687 
 
 the upper and lower glaciers, of which the last 
 are much the more considerable in extent and 
 depth; that of Des Bois is fifteen miles long, 
 and in some places upwards of three broad. 
 Saussure found the average depth of the ice, 
 composing this glacier, from eighty to a hundred 
 feet. They seem, in the larger ravines, as if 
 enormous multitudes of icy hills had rushed from 
 the summits of the surrounding mountains, and 
 crushed each other into the thousand forms that 
 thus fill up the valley. Their surfaces are rough 
 and granulated, the ice of which they are com- 
 posed being remarkably porous and full of bub- 
 bles ; they are easily passed, except in a rapid 
 descent, and in the case of snow accumulating 
 over the fissures, which, however, are not many, 
 and always felt for by the guides. The upper 
 glaciers, on the sides and summits of the Alps, 
 are formed of the purest snow, converted into 
 various degrees of hardness, and continually 
 sliding downward to the valleys. The avalanches 
 are prodigious masses of these accumulations, 
 which are suddenly precipitated down the sides 
 of the mountains, and, increasing as they pro- 
 ceed, sometimes overwhelm whole villages at 
 their feet. The valleys themselves, nevertheless, 
 present some of the finest landscapes to the eye, 
 and afford the most luxuriant pasturage ; corn, 
 vines, and fruits, diversify the scene, and excel- 
 lent fish of all kinds are found in the waters. 
 Recesses from the world are formed, by means 
 of these mountains, in the very heart of Europe, 
 which would seem designed to be the cradle of 
 liberty ; but the warrior and the statesman have 
 often decided the fate of the civilized world upon 
 their borders. Many parts of the Alps yet re- 
 main untrodden by the foot of man; but the 
 most noted passes, besides those already men" 
 tioned, are those of Mount Cervin, Furca, Col 
 di Seigne, Great St. Bernard, St. Gothard, 
 Splugen, the Bulls of Rastat, and the Brenner. 
 Tourists, in these districts, have multiplied the 
 descriptions of particular passes, so that we shall 
 not conduct the reader through any of the ordi- 
 nary routes: Saussure, and the MM. Bourrit, 
 have given us, perhaps, the only scientific ac- 
 counts of the geological and mineralogical won- 
 ders of the scene ; while Mr. Archdeacon Coxe, 
 and other English travellers, have, no doubt, 
 found their way to most of our readers. 
 
 A few additional extracts from varieties, des- 
 criptive of the most prominent features of Alpine 
 scenery, will form the conclusion of the present 
 article. ' The prospects from many parts of 
 this enormous range of mountains,' says a late 
 writer, ' is extremely romantic, especially to- 
 wards the north-west. One of the most cele- 
 brated is the Grande Chartreuse, where is a 
 monastery, founded by St. Bruno, about the 
 year 1084. From Echelles, a little village in 
 the mountains of Savoy, to the top of the Char- 
 treuse, the distance is six miles. Along this 
 course the road runs winding up, for the most 
 part not six feet broad. On one hand is the 
 rock, with woods of pine trees hanging over 
 head ; on the other a prodigious precipice al- 
 most perpendicular; at the bottom of which 
 rolls a torrent, that, sometimes tumbling among 
 the fragments of stone which have fallen from on 
 
 high, and sometimes precipitating itself down 
 vast descents with a noise like thunder, rendered 
 yet more tremendous by the echo from the 
 mountains on each side, concurs to form one of the 
 most solemn, the most romantic, and most as- 
 tonishing scenes in nature. To this description 
 may be added, the strange views made by the 
 craggs and cliffs, and the numerous cascades 
 which throw themselves from the very summit 
 down into the vale. On the top of the moun- 
 tain is the convent of St. Bruno, the superior of 
 the whole order, which, though not of the first 
 style of architecture, is not altogether without 
 its effect upon the surrounding scenerv.' 
 
 In the extraordinary narrative of M. "Bourrit's 
 journey hither, we meet with the following ac- 
 count of the Prieure, in the valley of Chamouni. 
 We had, says he, the magnificent prospect of a 
 chain of mountains, equally inaccessible, and 
 covered with ice; and above the rest that of 
 Mont Blanc, whose top seemed to reach, and 
 even pierce the highest region of clouds. The 
 chain, upon which the mountain looks down like 
 a giant, is composed of masses of rocks, which 
 terminate in pikes or spires, called the Needles, 
 and which are ranged like tents in a camp. 
 Their sides appear lighter and more airy from 
 the ornament of several hollow breaks and fur- 
 rows fretted in the rock itself, as well as from 
 the different streaks and panes of ice and snow, 
 which, without changing the general character of 
 their form, or the majesty of their appearance, 
 give them a picturesque variety. Lower down, 
 the eye surveys with ravishment the hills of ice, 
 and the several glaciers, extending almost into 
 the plain, whilst this appears like an artificial 
 garden, embellished with the mixture of a 
 variety of colours. We have a picturesque op- 
 position to this chain, which is formed by innu- 
 merable mountains at the distance of near 50 
 leagues, between whose tops we have a glimpse 
 of those several plains which they environ. M. 
 de Saussure, who had visited those mountains 
 about two months before M. Bourrit, felt him- 
 self naturally electrified in this place. This ex- 
 traordinary phenomenon seems not to have been 
 experienced by the latter or his company ; but 
 they heard a long continued rumbling noise, 
 like that of thunder, which was rendered more 
 awful by the silence of the place where they 
 stood. This noise proceeded from the subse- 
 quent causes, viz. the avalanches of snow, which 
 separated from the tops of the mountains, and 
 rolled down to the bottom ; considerable frag- 
 ments of the rocks which followed them, over- 
 turning others in their fall ; and massy blocks 
 of ice, which precipitated from the summits. The 
 valley of Montanvert appears to be peculiarly 
 romantic. Here, says M. Bourrit, we beheld a 
 spacious icy plain entirely level ; upon this there 
 rose a mountain all of ice, with steps ascending 
 to the top, which seemed the thruae of some di- 
 vinity. It likewise took the form of a grand cas- 
 cade, whose figure was beyond conception beau- 
 tiful ; and the sun which shone upon it, gave a 
 sparkling brilliance to the whole. The valley on 
 our right hand was ornamented with prodigious 
 glaciers, which, shooting up to an immeasurable 
 height between the mountains, blend their
 
 ALP 
 
 688 
 
 ALR 
 
 Colours with the skies, which they appear nearly 
 to reach. 
 
 ALPS, SUABIAN, a chain of mountains, which 
 stretch along the frontiers of Wirtemberg, in 
 Germany, separating the Danube' from the 
 Neckar. They may be considered as a continu- 
 ation of the Tyrolese Alps, forming part of the 
 Schwarzwald, or Black Forest. They reach from 
 Sultz to the vicinage of Tubingen, and then 
 eastward as far as Ulm. 
 
 ALPS, MARITIME, department of, in France, 
 is formed from the ancient county of Nice, and 
 a certain part of High Provence. Nice is its 
 chief town, and, with Puget and Herieres, forms 
 three sub-prefects or arrondissements. It is di- 
 vided into twenty-two cantons, and contains a 
 population of 131,300 inhabitants. This is a 
 mountainous district: but the valleys produce 
 excellent wine and oil. It is in the eighth mi- 
 litary division east. 
 
 ALPS, LOWER, department of, in France, is 
 formed out of Provence High, or the north-east 
 part of Provence, and of the valley of Barcelo- 
 nette. Digne is the chief place. There are five 
 arrondissements, or sub-prefectures, viz. Digne, 
 Barcelonette, Castelane, Sisteron, and Forcal- 
 quier. The population is about 149,400, and 
 its extent three hundred and seventy-two French 
 leagues. It has the department of the Upper 
 Alps to the north, to the east the Piedmontese 
 Alps, the department of the Var bounds it on 
 the south, and the mouth of the Rhone and 
 Vaucluse on the west. It is also in the eighth 
 east military division. 
 
 ALPS, HIGHER, department of, in France, is" 
 formed of the south-east part of Dauphine, and 
 part of Provence. Gap is the chief place. There 
 are three sub-prefectures or arrondissements, viz. 
 Gap, Briancon, and Embrun. It is divided 
 into twenty-three cantons, its extent is two 
 hundred and fifty-one French leagues, and con- 
 tains a population of 121,500 inhabitants. This 
 department is fertile iu corn, wines, and nut-oil, 
 and on its hills sheep and goats abound. It is 
 in the seventeenth east military division. 
 
 ALPS, is likewise frequently used as an appel- 
 lative to denote any mountains of extraordinary 
 neight or extensive range. In this sense, Auso- 
 nius and others call the Pyrenean mountains 
 Alps; and Gellius the Spanish Alps, Alpini 
 Hispani. Hence also we say, the British Alps, 
 the Asiatic Alps, the American Alps, the Scottish 
 Alps, &c. 
 
 ALPTEGHIN, a Turkish slave of Achmet, 
 sultan of the Samanides, who having obtained 
 his freedom by his talents and address, rose gra- 
 dually to the highest offices of state ; and on the 
 death of Achmet, obtained possession of the city 
 of Gazna, where he reigned for 16 years, and at 
 his death, was succeeded by his son-in-law, Se- 
 Decteghin, the father of Mahmud, the founder of 
 the great Gaznian dynasty. 
 
 ALPUJARRAS, or ALPUXARRAS, mountains 
 of Spain, in the province of Granada, on the 
 coast of the Mediterranean sea. They are about 
 17 leagues in length, and 11 in breadth, reach- 
 ing from the city of Velez, almost to Almeria. 
 They are inhabited by the descendants of Moors 
 Mrho have embraced the Christian religion, but 
 preserve fneir ovm manner of living and lan- 
 
 guage, though' much corrupted. Here is a rivv- 
 let between Pitros and Portugos, which is said 
 to dye linen that is dipped in it black in an in- 
 stant. The Moriscoes cultivate the soil extremely 
 well, and plant fruit trees ; some of which grow 
 to a prodigious height and thickness, and give 
 the mountains an agreeable aspect. 
 
 ALQUIER, also called cantar, a liquid mea- 
 sure for oil, used in Portugal. It contains six 
 cavadas, or canadors. Two alquiers make an 
 almeede, or almonde. It contains 675 French, or 
 817 English cubic inches; so that 21 alquiers 
 are nearly 1 English quarter ; or more cor- 
 rectly, 50 alquiers ~ 19 English bushels. Al- 
 quier is also a measure for grain at Lisbon. 
 
 ALQUIFOU, or ARQUIFOU, in mineralogy, a 
 sort of mineral lead, very heavy, easily reduced 
 into powder, though hard to melt. When broken, 
 it parts into shining scales, in colour much like 
 needles of antimony. The potters use it to give 
 their works a green varnish, whence it is com- 
 monly called potter's ore. It is found in Corn- 
 wall : the potters mix manganese with it, and 
 then the varnish or glazing on their wares be- 
 comes of a blackish colour. 
 
 ALRAMECH, or ARAMECH, in astronomy, 
 the Arabic name of a star of the first magnitude, 
 otherwise called ARCTURUS. 
 
 AL-RASCHID (Haroun), a caliph of Bag- 
 dad. See AARON. 
 
 ALRATICA, among the Arabian physicians^ 
 is where the vagina is imperforate, or at least the 
 foramen smaller than ordinary, whether natu- 
 rally or by accident. 
 
 ALRE, a river of England, rising near Aires- 
 ford, below which it is called Itching. 
 
 ALREADY, adv. A\l ready, wholly ready, 
 done, past. 
 
 For if the wolfe come in the waie 
 Their gostly staffe is then awaie, 
 Whereof thei shuld their flocke defende. 
 But if the poure shepe offende 
 In any thynge, though it be lite, 
 Thci ben all ready for to smite. 
 
 Gower. Con. A. The Prologue. 
 
 Touching our uniformity; that, -which hath been 
 already answered, may serve for answer. Hooker, 
 
 You warn'd me still, of loving two ; 
 Can I love him, already loving you ? 
 
 Dryden's Indian Emperor. 
 
 See, the guards from yon far eastern hill 
 Already move, no longer stay afford ; 
 High in the air they wave the flaming sword, 
 Your signal to depart. Dryden's State of Innocence. 
 
 Methods for the advancement of piety are in the 
 power of a prince, limited like ours by a strict execu- 
 tion of the laws already in force. Swift. 
 
 Methinks, already I your tears survey j 
 Already hear, the horrid things they say ; 
 Already see you, a degraded toast; 
 And all your honour in a whisper lost ! Pope. 
 
 ALREDUS, or ALUREDUS, of Beverley, a 
 celebrated English historian, who flourished in 
 the reign of Henry I. It is said that he was 
 educated at Cambridge, and afterwards became 
 canon and treasurer of St. John's, at Beverley. 
 He travelled through France and Italy, for im- 
 provement, and at Rome became domestic chap- 
 lain to cardinal Othoboni. He died in 1128 or 
 1129, leaving behind him the following works: 
 1 . The Annals of Alured of Beverley : Oxford,
 
 ALS 
 
 (589 
 
 ALS 
 
 1726; published by Mr. Hearne, from a manu- 
 script belonging to Thomas Rawlinson, Esq. It 
 contains an abridgment of our history, from 
 Brutus to Henry I. written in elegant Latin, and 
 with great accuracy. 2. Libertates ecclesiae S. 
 Johannis de Beverlac, &c. a MS. in the Cotton 
 library, which has never been published. It is a 
 collection of records relative to the church at 
 Beverley, translated from the Saxon language. 
 
 ALRESFORD, a market town and parish of 
 Hampshire, in Alton North division, 57 miles 
 from London, and 6 miles north-east from Win- 
 chester, containing about 1219 inhabitants. The 
 church of Old Alresford is a neat building, to 
 which the churches of New Alresford and Maid- 
 stead are chapelries annexed. The parsonage- 
 house is a neat commodious building. Near 
 this place is a pond which covers near 200 acres 
 of ground, but was formerly much larger, as it 
 reached the bishop of Winchester's palace at 
 Bishop's Sutton, a mile and a half distant. By 
 charter from king John, the Itching was made 
 navigable for barges and lighters ; but the navi- 
 gation has long reached no further than Win- 
 chester. The only manufactory is that of linseys. 
 New Alresford is governed by a bailiff, and 8 
 burgesses, and formerly sent a member to parlia- 
 ment. At Tichburn Hall, a gift of 2d. in bread 
 or money is given to every applicant on Lady- 
 day. Market day, Thursday. 
 
 ALROA, or ALROE, a Danish island. 
 
 ALROE, a small island of Jutland, in the gulf 
 of Horsens, belonging to the bailiwick of Achia. 
 Long. 10. 30'. E. lat. 55. 52'. 
 
 ALRUKAK, in the materia medica, a word 
 used by Avicenria, and others, for what was 
 called by the Greeks leptos Hbanotis, and manna 
 thuris, i. e. the fragments of frankincense, broken 
 off from the larger pieces in collecting or packing 
 them. 
 
 ALRUM, in the botanical writings of the 
 ancients, a name given to the tree which pro- 
 duces the bdellium. This gum was originally 
 known to be the exudation of a tree growing in 
 Arabia and the East Indies, and well known to 
 Avicenna, and others, and by all of them called 
 by that name. 
 
 ALRUNES, a name given by the ancient 
 Germans to small figures of wood, of which 
 they made their lares. 
 
 ALSA, in ancient geography, a river of Car- 
 niola, now the Ausa; running by Aquileia, with 
 a short course from north to south into the 
 Adriatic ; where Constantine, the son of Con- 
 stantine the Great, fighting against Constans his 
 brother, lost his life. 
 
 ALSACE, LOWER and UPPER, a ci-devant 
 province of France, now included in the depart- 
 ments of the Lower and Upper Rhine. It is 
 bounded on the east by the Rhine ; on the south 
 by Switzerland ; on the west by Lorrain ; and 
 on the north by the palatinate of the Rhine, or 
 ci-devant department of Tonnere. It was for- 
 merly a part of Germany, but was given to 
 France by the treaty of Munster. It is one of 
 flie most fruitful and plentiful provinces of Eu- 
 rope, abounding in corn, wine, wood, flax, 
 tobacco, pulse, fruits, &c. Upper Alsace con- 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 tains silver, copper, and lead mines; and i* 
 remarkable for die wine called strok, or straw 
 wine. The mountains which divide it from Lor* 
 rain are very high, and generally covered with 
 fir, beech, oak, and horn-beam. There are also 
 iron-works in several parts of Alsace, and a 
 mineral spring at Sultsbach, near Munster, which 
 is in reputation for curing the palsy, Sec. Of the 
 two modern divisions of Alsace, (the Upper and 
 Lower Rhine) Strasburgh and Colmarare the 
 capital towns. 
 
 ALSADAF, in the materia medica, a name 
 given by Avicenna and Serapio to the unguis 
 adoratus; as also to the murex, or purple-fish, of 
 the shell of which it was sxipposed to be a part. 
 
 ALSAHARATICA, in botany, used by some 
 to signify the parthenium or feverfew. 
 
 ALSAHARCUR, in the materia medica, a 
 name given by Rhases, and some others of the 
 old writers, to the skink, a small animal of the 
 lizard kind, used in medicine as a cordial, and as 
 a provocative to venery. 
 
 A.L SEGNO, in music, to the sign, an expres- 
 sion used to avoid writing the same passage 
 twice over, and generally placed at the end of 
 rondeaux, and such vocal compositions as are con- 
 structed upon the principle of the grand coup 
 Ternaire : the first part or division of which must 
 always be repeated. The sign to which the re- 
 turn is made is generally 
 marked thus, 
 
 ALSEN, a fertile island of Denmark, about 
 100 miles west of Copenhagen, in the entrance 
 to the Baltic, between Sleswick and Funen, and 
 belonging to the duchy of Sleswick. It is re- 
 markable for two castles, and produces large 
 crops of grain, and aniseeds, a carminative much 
 used in seasoning the food and bread all over 
 the Danish dominions. Alsen is about eighteen 
 miles long and nine broad, or 132 square 
 miles in superficial extent; and contains 15,045 
 inhabitants. The chief town is Sonderburg. 
 
 ALSFELD, a town of Germany, in the grand 
 duchy of Hesse, 18 miles east of Marburg, and 
 50 north-east of Frankfort. It is an ancient 
 town, and well built ; and the inhabitants were 
 the first of this country who embraced the Refor- 
 mation. Lon.9.5'. E. lat. 50. 45'. N. Inhabi- 
 tants 3000. 
 
 ALSHASH, a province containing formerly a 
 very beautiful city in Bukharia, supposed to be 
 the same with that called Tashcant, the capital of 
 the eastern part of Turkestan. It was situated 
 on the river Sihun, now Sir, and had a well 
 watered garden for every house ; but was ruined 
 by Jenghiz Khan. 
 
 ALSHEDA, a parish of Sweden, in the pro- 
 vince of Smaland, containing a gold mine : dis- 
 covered in 1738. 
 
 ALSHEIM, a market town of the grand duchy 
 of Hesse, formerly in the upper bailiwick of Alzey, 
 containing 165 houses, and 1030 inhabitants. 
 It is 10 miles north of Worms. 
 
 ALSIMBEL, or SIMBALETH, in the materia 
 medica, a name given by Avicenna and others 
 to the spikenard of India; so called from its 
 
 2 Y
 
 ALS 
 
 690 ALS 
 
 having the appearance of a spike, or ear, or a 
 congeries of many spikes, or ears, as the nardyx 
 Indica, or Indian spikenard. 
 
 ALSINA, in botany, a synonyme of the theli- 
 gonum. See THELIGONUM. 
 
 ALSINASTRUM, in botany, the trivial name, 
 and also a synonyme of the elatine. See ELATINE. 
 ALSINE, or CHICKWEED, a genus of the 
 trigynia order, belonging to the pentandria class 
 of plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
 under the 22d order, caryophyllei. The cha- 
 racters are : CAL. quinquephyllous ; COR. five 
 equal petals, longer than the calyx: STAM. five 
 capillary filaments ; the antherse roundish : PIST. 
 an oval germen, three filiform styli, and obtuse 
 stigmata : PER. an ovate unilocular capsule, with 
 three valves : the seeds are roundish and nume- 
 rous. Of this genus a great number of species 
 are enumerated by some botanical writers ; but 
 none of them possess any remarkable properties, 
 except the A. media, or common chickweed, 
 with white blossoms, which affords a notable 
 instance of what is called the sleep of plants. 
 Every night the leaves approach in pairs, so as 
 to include within their upper surfaces the tender 
 rudiments of the new shoots ; and the uppermost 
 pair but one at the end of the stalk are furnished 
 with longer leaf-stalks than the others ; so that 
 they can close upon the terminating pair, and 
 protect the end of the branch. The young shoots 
 and leaves, when boiled, are hardly to be dis 
 tinguished from spring spinach. 
 
 ALSINEFORMIS, in botany, the montia 
 fontana, of Linnaeus. 
 
 ALSINELLA, in botany, the name by which 
 Dillenius calls the plant sagina. 
 
 ALSINGSUND, a strait in the Baltic, near 
 Sunderburg, which separates the island of Alsen 
 from the main land of Sleswick. It is about 30 
 miles in length, but not above three in breadth, 
 in many places. 
 
 ALS1NOIDES, the bufonia and montia of 
 Linna?us. 
 
 ALSIRAT, in the Mahommedan theology, a 
 bridge over the middle of hell, said to be finer 
 than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword, 
 over which people are to pass, after their trial, on 
 the day of judgment. Mahomet assures us, 
 that the alsirat, narrow as it is, is beset with 
 briars and thorns; none of which, however, will 
 be any impediment to the good, who shall fly 
 over it like the wind, Mahomet and his fol- 
 lowers leading the way ; whereas the wicked, 
 by the narrowness of the path, the entangling of 
 the thorns, and the extinction of the light, which 
 shall direct the former to paradise, will miss their 
 footing, and fall into perdition. 
 
 ALSIUM, a city of ancient Etruria, occupying 
 the spot on which Pala now stands. Dionysius 
 Halicarnassensis says, that Alsium was built by 
 the Aborigines, long before the Tyrrhenians in- 
 vaded Italy. In this case it must have been 
 founded not long after the dispersion in the days 
 of Peleg. Its founder is said to have been one 
 Alaesus, or Alisa ; whom some conjecture to have 
 been Alisah, or Elisha, the son of Javan, men- 
 tioned in scripture. 
 
 ALSITZ. See ALISONTIA. 
 
 ALS'O, adv. \ Gothic uls, all, so or so, ths 
 
 ALS. \ article this or that. 
 
 pe cyte he barnde al dene & a chyrche aho 
 
 Of cure leuede pat per inne was. R. Gloucester 
 Sad remembrance now the prince amoves, 
 
 With fresh desire his voyage to pursue ; 
 
 Alt Una earn'd her travel to renew. Faerie Queene. 
 
 In these two, no doubt, are contained the causes 
 of the great deluge ; as according to Moses, so ala> 
 according to necessity : for our world affords no cthor 
 treasures of water. Btirnet's Theory. 
 
 ALSOP (Vincent), a non-conformist minister, 
 a native of Northamptonshire, and educated at 
 St. John's College, Cambridge. He was suc- 
 cessively minister of Welby, in his native county, 
 (whence he was ejected in 1662,) and pastor of a 
 dissenting church in Westminster. King James 
 II. shewed him the great favour of pardoning his 
 son when he had been convicted of treason. 
 He died in 1703; and wrote, 1. Antisozzo, 
 against Dr. Sherlock, 1675. 2. Melius Inqui- 
 rendum, in an answer to Dr. Goodman's Com- 
 passionate Inquiry, 8vo. 1679. 3. The Mischief 
 of Impositions, in answer to Stiilingfleet's Mis- 
 chief of Separation, 1685. 4. Duty and In- 
 terest united in Praise and Prayer for Kings. 
 5. Practical Godliness the ornament of Religion, 
 1696. 
 
 ALSOP (Anthony), a divine and poet, educated 
 at Westminster school, and at Christ Church, Ox- 
 ford; where he took the degree of M.A. in 1696, 
 and B. D. in 1706. He published Fabularum 
 .ZEsopicarum Delectus, Oxon, 1698, 8vo., with 
 a poetical dedication to lord viscount Scudamore, 
 and a preface in which he took part against Dr. 
 Bentley in the famous dispute with Mr. Boyle. 
 He passed through the usual offices in his college 
 with considerable reputation, until his merit re- 
 commended him to Sir Jonathan Trelawney, 
 bishop of Winchester, who appointed him his 
 chaplain, and soon after gave him a prebend in 
 his cathedral, together with the rectory of Bright- 
 well, Berks. In 1717, a verdict for a breach of 
 promise of marriage being obtained against him 
 for 2000., he retired for some time abroad. His 
 death, which happened June 10th, 1726, vas 
 occasioned by his falling into a ditch near his 
 garden door. Besides the Fabularum yKsopi- 
 carum Delectus, a book of his poems, entitled 
 Antonii Alsopi, .SLdis Christi olim alumni, 
 Odarum Libri duo, and several pieces in Dods- 
 ley's collection remain. Bentley calls him Tony 
 Alsop, a late editor of the ^Esopean Fables. 
 
 ALSOPHILA, in botany, from aXoog , a grove, 
 or forest, and 0tXw, to love ; alluding to tlie 
 favourite station of this beautiful tribe of tree 
 ferns. Brown Prodr. Nov. Holl. v. 1,158. This 
 genus is founded on our Cyathea aspera, C. 
 extensa of Swartz, Polypodium lunulutum of 
 Forster, and some other allied species, and can 
 scarcely be distinguished from the first of these. 
 ALSO-SAJO, a place in Hungary, in the 
 county of Gomah, where great quantities of cin- 
 nabar, and some mines of quicksilver, are found. 
 ALSTEDIUS, (John Henry), a protestant 
 divine, and one of the most indefatigable writers 
 of the seventeenth century. He was professor 
 of philosophy and divinity at Herborn, in the 
 county of Nassau ; whence he removed into
 
 ALS 
 
 691 
 
 ALT 
 
 Transylvania, to be professor at Alba Julia, and 
 continued there until his death, in 1638. He 
 wrote, 1. An Encyclopaedia. 2. Triumphus 
 Bibliorum Sacrorum, seu Encyclopaedia Biblica, 
 12mo. 1620; and united, with his laborious pur- 
 suits as an Encyclopaedist, some sanguine and 
 peculiar views of prophecy. See his De Mille 
 Annis, in which he anticipated that the millennium 
 would begin in 1694. 
 
 ALSTON, (Charles), an eminent physician 
 and botanist, was born in Scotland in 1683, and 
 educated at Glasgow, from whence he went to 
 Leyden, and took his doctor's degree. On his 
 return he settled at Edinburgh, and became lec- 
 turer on the materia medica and botany. He 
 died in 1760, having published Tirocinium 
 Botanicum Edinburgense, in which he attacked 
 the sexual system of Linnaeus. His lectures on 
 the Materia Medica were published in two vols. 
 4to. 1770. He wrote also some papers in the 
 Edinburgh Medical Essays. 
 
 ALSTONIA, in botany, called also symplocos, 
 a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to 
 the hexandria class of plants ; so named after the 
 above botanist. The characters are: CAL. a 
 perianthium beneath, imbricated : COR. monope- 
 talous, and shorter than the calyx ; the border 
 expanding, eight or ten parted, with alternate 
 divisions : STAM. numerous short filaments, the 
 exterior ones longer ; the antherss are orbicular 
 and furrowed : FIST, a small ovate germen above ; 
 a simple stylus the length of the corolla, filiform 
 and erect; the stigma inverse, egg-headed. There 
 is but one species, viz. A. thegeformis, a native of 
 America. Mr. Brown has given this name to 
 another plant, of the class and order pentandria 
 monogynia, of which he describes four species 
 in his Trans. Werner, Soc. vol. i. 
 
 ALSTON-MORE, or ALSTON MOOR. See 
 ALDSTON MOOR. 
 
 ALSTROEMER (Jonas), a patriotic Swedish 
 manufacturer, was born of poor parents at Aling- 
 sas, in West Gothland, in 1685. He visited 
 London while in very indigent circumstances; 
 and paid such particular attention to its trade, 
 and the manufactures of Great Britain, that, on 
 his return home, he soon raised his native town 
 to a flourishing condition, and kindled a spirit 
 of emulation which diffused itself all over Sweden. 
 Alstroemer followed up this good work by col- 
 lecting information respecting manufactures from 
 all parts of Europe ; and carried on, at the same 
 time, a most extensive sugar-house at'Gotten- 
 burgh, and traded to the Indies and the Levant. 
 He is said to have introduced many useful 
 plants, particularly the potatoe, into Sweden. 
 He also improved the woollen trade, by importing 
 sheep from England and Spain, and the Angora 
 goat. Alstroemer, in the decline of life, was 
 deservedly honoured with letters of nobility, the 
 order of the polar star, and the title of counsel- 
 lor of commerce. The academy of sciences chose 
 him a member, and the national states decreed a 
 public statue to be erected to his honour on the 
 exchange of Stockholm. He died in 1761, leav- 
 ing a large fortune to his four sons, three of 
 whom were also men of talents and considerable 
 public importance. 
 
 ALSTROEMEK (Claude), born in 1736, became 
 
 a pupil of Linnaeus. He travelled over a great 
 part of Europe, in the course of which he~sent 
 many valuable plants to his preceptor, and, 
 among the rest, the seeds of a fine Peruvian 
 plant, to which Linnaeus gave the name of the 
 lily of Alstroemer. One of his papers on the 
 simla mammon is in the memoirs of the academy 
 of Stockholm. He died in 1794. 
 
 ALSTROMERIA, in botany, a genus of the 
 monogynia order, belonging to the hexandria 
 class of plants; and, in the natural method, 
 ranking under the eleventh order, sarmentaceae 
 The characters are : There is no calyx : the 
 corolla is nearly bilabiated ; and consists of six 
 petals, the two inferior tubular at the base 
 the stamina consist of six subulated filaments, 
 declining and unequal ; the anthera oblong : 
 the pistillum has an hexangular germen beneath ; 
 the stylus declining, filiform, the length of the 
 stamina ; and three oblong bifid stigmata : the 
 pericarpium is a roundish hexangular capsule, 
 with three cells and three valves : the seeds are 
 globular and numerous. There are five species, 
 natives of Italy and Peru. 
 
 ALSVIG, one of the Hebrides, near the isle 
 of Sky. 
 
 ALT, a river in Lancashire, which runs into 
 the Irish Channel, north of Liverpool. 
 
 ALT, or ALTWA, a river in Transylvania, 
 whose banks and sands contain particles of gold. 
 
 ALT, from altus, high, Lat., in music, a term 
 applied to the higb notes in the scale. 
 
 ALTA GRACIA, a city of South America, 
 the capital of the province of Satagaos, in the 
 kingdom of Granada. It was founded in 1540, 
 but has at present a scanty population. Also a 
 town in the government of Buenos Ayres, and 
 province of Cordova, twenty miles south-south- 
 west of Cordova. This is the name likewise of 
 five settlements, three of which are in Guiana 
 and in the province of Cumana; one in the 
 kingdom of Peru, and government of Tucuman ; 
 and the other in the province and government of 
 Venezuela. 
 
 ALTAHEST, in chemistry. See ALKAHEST. 
 
 ALTAIC CHAIN, OR ALTAIC MOUNTAINS, a 
 range of mountains in Asia, extending, under 
 different names, about 5000 miles in length, 
 between the 70th and 140th degrees of east lon- 
 gitude. The compact of this immense chain 
 consists, for the most part, of granite, porphyry, 
 limestone, marble, and various valuable ores. In 
 some parts of it, in Russia, are several gold 
 and silver mines; and large masses of native 
 iron have been occasionally obtained. Thi* 
 range gives rise to many of the largest rivers 
 of northern Asia, and several lower ridges 
 diverge from it, and diversify the neighbouring 
 districts. Little, however, is known beyond its 
 outlines and general direction. The Bogdo Tola, 
 or Bogdo Alim, the Almighty mountain, is si- 
 tuated in about 94. E. Ion. and 47. N. lat. on 
 the limit between the Soongarian and Mongolian 
 deserts : thence a chain runs north-west, called 
 the Golden Mountain, being the main Altaian 
 ridge, and passing the sources of the Irtish, ex- 
 tends to the lake of Altyn. Another range called 
 Changai, passes to the south, and a ridge, by the 
 Tartars called Alia Koola, or Alia Tau, or the 
 2 Y 2
 
 692 
 
 ALTAR. 
 
 Chequered mountain, stretches to the west, and 
 gives rise to the river Hi, a considerable stream 
 running northward. This principal chain forms 
 the boundary line between Russia and Indepen- 
 dent Tartary, and proceeding onward from the 
 rtish to the Amur, or Amour river, branches into 
 he mountains of Kamtschatka and Oudskoi, or 
 Okhotsz, terminating in the sea of Kamtschatka, 
 where it forms the extended chain of the Aleutian 
 Islands, uniting the eastern shores of Asia with 
 North-west America. The Lesser Altain chain 
 separates Soongoria from the government of 
 Kolhyvan; and near the conjunction of these 
 two main divisions are the principal sources of 
 the Yenisei, the Oby, and the Irtish, which empty 
 themselves into the Northern ocean. Though 
 such of these mountains as have been explored 
 present many interesting mineralogical and geo- 
 logical facts, and the whole chain, in point of 
 magnitude and extent, can be rivalled only by 
 the Andes of South America, they have never 
 been very accurately laid down in maps, and are 
 known amongst the semi-barbarous people who 
 inhabit the surrounding country, by so many va- 
 rious names and subdivisions, that a connected 
 description of them is exceedingly difficult to 
 gather. That part of the chain immediately south 
 of the lake Baikal is said to be upwards of 10,000 
 feet in altitude. The Russian maps of these dis- 
 tricts are little credited by Major Rennell ; and 
 though they are preferred by Mr. Pinkerton, it is 
 admitted that these mountains are very faintly 
 described in them. The map of Isleniff, a Rus- 
 sian officer, appears to be the best. 
 
 The part of this chain best known is the nine 
 Russian portions, which are divided into the 
 Alasey or Alaskai, the Kolhyvan, the Korboli- 
 kinsk, the Oubinsk, the Buktarminsk, the Te- 
 letsk, the Tsharinsk, the Krasnoyarsk, and the 
 Kunetz. The last two ridges are almost wholly 
 inaccessible, and the tops of many of them are 
 covered with perpetual snow, and sometimes the 
 seven preceding divisions are called the Kolhy- 
 van mountains, as situated principally in the 
 government of that name. The best mines of 
 Siberia are found in these mountains, particu- 
 larly in the Korbolikinsk division. In the course 
 of forty years of the last century, the only period 
 of which any regular account of the annual pro- 
 duce of these mines appears to have been kept, 
 they produced 830 poods Russian (equal to about 
 thirty-six English pounds each) of fine gold; and 
 24,460 poods of fine silver. The copper mines 
 yield annually 15,000 poods of metal; the iron 
 mines, running through the larger portion of the 
 range, are too extensive, and in the hands of too 
 many agents, to be distinctly estimated ; but they 
 form one of the most important sources of the 
 rising greatness of the Russian empire. 
 
 ALTAIR, in astronomy, a star of the first mag- 
 nitude, in the constellation Aquila. 
 
 ALTAMIRA, a small town and county of 
 Gallicia, Spain, fifteen miles west of St. Jago de 
 Campostella. 
 
 ALTAMURA, a town of Naples, in the ter- 
 ritory of Bari, with the title of a principality, and 
 the seat of a royal governor, at the foot of the 
 Appennine mountains. It contains 16,000 in- 
 habitants, many of whom are Greeks, and is six 
 
 miles north-east of Gravina. Some have sup 
 posed this to be the ancient Petillia. 
 
 ALT'AR, n. Latin altare, (quasi alta ara 
 the rising altar on which the victims were bunt 
 [the ara being a less elevated spot, where prayeu 
 and drink offerings were presented.] A plaoS 
 raised to receive offerings to Jehovah in the Jew- 
 ish theology, and to the gods in the heathen 
 mythology. Also a term used by some Chris- 
 tians to designate the place where the Lord's 
 Supper is dispensed. 
 
 be kyng wepte with his ine, that sight mykelle he 
 
 praised, 
 & siluer grete plente vpon the altere laid. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 79. 
 
 Men of Athenys, bi alle thingis I se'ghou as veyne 
 wor&chiperis, for I passide and segh ghoure mawmetis, 
 and foonde an auter in which was -writen to the un- 
 kuowun God ; therefore which tiling, ghe unknowinge 
 worschipern, this thing I schewe to ghou. 
 
 Wiclif, Dedis. ch. xvii. 
 Her grace rose ; and, with modest paces, 
 Came to the altar ; where she kneel'd, and saint-like 
 Cast her fair eyes to heav'n, and pray'd devoutly. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 The way coming into our great churches was an- 
 ciently at the west-door, that men might see the altar 
 and all the church before them ; the other doors were 
 but posterns. Selden's Table Talk. 
 
 Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye, 
 The flower unheeded shall descry, 
 And bid it round heaven's altars shed 
 The fragrance of its blushing head. 
 
 Gray's Ode for Music. 
 Before thy mystic altar, heavenly Truth, 
 I kneel in manhood, as I knelt in youth, 
 Thus let me kneel, 'till this dull form decay 
 And life's last shade be brighten'd by thy ray 
 Then shall my soul, now lost in clouds below, 
 Soar without bound, without consuming glow. 
 
 Sir W. Jonei. 
 
 ALTAR, the Lexicography of which is already 
 given, properly signifies a table, or a raised 
 place on which any offering was made. It is so 
 called, because altars were set up by the Hea- 
 thens in high places, or, at any rate, raised above 
 the ground. Indeed the opinion has prevailed, 
 that the word altar in its early acceptation de- 
 noted nothing more than the spot on which 
 sacrifices were made. Hesychius and Phavori- 
 nus expressly speak of people who had sacrifices 
 without altars, (or distinct edifices.) Strabo 
 makes a similar assertion respecting the ancient 
 Persians. The history of these celebrated mo- 
 numents connects itself with one of the most 
 important enquiries of the human mind, viz. the 
 origin of sacrifices, from their connection with 
 which it is inferred, that the date of their first 
 appearance is almost coeval with that of the 
 world. Gen. c. iv. Some attribute their origin 
 to the Egyptians ; others to the Jews; others to 
 the patriarchs before the flood. Some remove 
 them as far back as Adam, whose altar is much 
 spoken of by Jewish and even Christian writers. 
 Others are contented to make the patriarch Enoch 
 the first who consecrated a public altar. Be 
 this as it will, the earliest altars of which we 
 find an express testimony are those of Noah, 
 Gen. viii. 20, and of Abraham, Gen. xii. 7, 
 In the patriarchal times altars were, no doubt, 
 of rude construction, and temporary, appro-

 
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 693 
 
 up at Bethel was merely the stone on which he 
 rested, Gen. xx. 8.; such was also the altar of 
 Gideon, Judges, vi. ; and the first altar which 
 Moses erected was made of earth, by the com- 
 mand of God, Exod. xx. 24. Among the Jews 
 the principal altars were the altar of incense, the 
 sltar of burnt-offerings, and the altar or table of 
 she w-bread. These were built of wood, the first and 
 the last were overlaid with pure gold, and the 
 second with brass, but all richly sculptured by 
 the hands of cunning workmen, and enriched 
 with the choicest beauties of Jewish architecture. 
 In this, the Jews, for the times in which they 
 lived, were not inferior to any people ; and 
 though our information on these particulars is 
 comparatively scanty, yet the admirable skill 
 with which their temple was contrived and 
 beautified, imposes a magnificent idea of the 
 embellishment attached to their altars. The 
 form of these erections has been a subject of 
 considerable altercation amongst the learned; 
 and accordingly different opinions have been 
 given. They are represented by Josephus as 
 being square, and having horns at the four cor- 
 ners. His words are rerpaywvoe & iSpvro, Kepa- 
 rotiSeig vpoavf \tttv ywvia^. We find an allusion 
 to such appendages in many parts of scripture ; 
 but whether these horns were made of wood, or 
 were in reality the horns of some animal is not 
 obvious. Whether they were merely ornamental 
 appendages, or answered some practical pur- 
 poses, has also been questioned. Some writers 
 have imagined, that they served to move, and 
 carry the altar with the greater ease and steadi- 
 ness. Michaelis doubted whether they were 
 real projections, and averred that nothing more 
 was intended by the horns than the four corners 
 of the edifice. ' Those who have thought other- 
 wise,' says a late writer, ' have not informed us 
 whether they were upright, oblique, or curved.' 
 Spencer, Le Clerc, Witsius, and others, considered 
 them horn-shaped, like the ara pacis of the Ro- 
 mans; various theories have been entertained. 
 They have been thought emblematical of dig- 
 nity and power, and to refer to the diverging 
 rays of the solar orb when breaking forth in the 
 morning or from behind a cloud, especially as the 
 word translated horn, also signifies a ray of 
 light. There can be no doubt that they were 
 real appendages ; and their uses, with respect to 
 the larger altar, are sufficiently obvious. They 
 served to secure the sacrificial victims, see 
 Ps. cxviii. 27 ; and for fugitives to seize, when 
 fleeing to that monument for protection. 
 
 The altar of incense was made of shittim 
 wood, adorned after the manner already de- 
 scribed. It was one cubit square, and two 
 cubits high, with an ornament of gold like a 
 carved moulding round the top of it ; it was 
 carried about by two bars of the same wood, 
 overlaid with gold, and passing through four 
 golden rings. Its use was for burning incense 
 morning and evening. It was particularly to 
 be sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifices that 
 were offered for the sins of ignorance, committed 
 by particular persons, or by the community in 
 general. The following diagram, will perhaps, 
 
 its 
 
 - tothe un - 
 
 '" WhlCh "* 
 
 to be observed : 
 
 1. The horns; 2. the crown 
 of pure gold ; 3. the rings 
 under the crown; 4. the 
 censer which was placed 
 upon it. See Exod. xxx. 1. 
 &c. This celebrated altar 
 was hidden before the cap- 
 tivity, by the prophet Jere- 
 miah. See 2 Maccab. ii. 5. 
 &c. 
 
 The altar of burnt-offering, described Exodus 
 xxvn. and xxviii., was made of shittim wood 
 overlaid with brass, and had four brass rings, 
 through which were put two bars, by which it 
 was carried on the shoulders of the priests. At 
 each corner was a horn or spire, wrought out of 
 the same wood with the altar, the uses of which 
 have already been surmised. Within the hollow 
 was a grate of brass, supposed to be about five 
 feet square : on this the fire was made, and 
 through it fell the ashes into an inferior recep- 
 tacle. This part of the apparatus was suspended 
 by rings at the corners, attached, possibly, to 
 chains in the cavity of the altar. The dimen- 
 sions of this altar were five cubits, or two yards 
 and a half square; and three cubits, or a yard and 
 a half high. It was placed towards the east end 
 of the court, fronting the entrance of the taber- 
 nacle, and at such a distance that the smoke of 
 the fire might not disfigure the furniture within 
 the tabernacle. The altar made by Solomon, and 
 mentioned 2 Chron. iv. 1, &c. was much larger 
 than the former. We exhibit the following dia- 
 gram, as an illustration of this edifice, 
 
 in which the reader will observe : 1 . the horns, 
 or four spires, at the four corners ; 2. the grate 
 of brass, in which the fire was made ; 3. the 
 pan which received the ashes ; 4. the rings and 
 chains by which it was affixed to the horns be- 
 fore alluded to ; and 5. the kibbesh, or ascent to 
 the altar, Exod. xx. 26, &c.; 2 Chron. iv. 1, &c. 
 Between the grate and the altar sufficient space 
 was left on every side to prevent the fire from 
 damaging the wood work, and every thing was 
 regulated with the utmost exactness. The fire 
 on this altar was considered as sacred, having 
 first descended upon it from heaven, Lev. ix. 44, 
 and was therefore kept constantly burning, Lev. 
 vi. 13. Hence, probably, the Chaldeans and 
 Persians borrowed their notions of sacred fire,
 
 694 
 
 ALTAR. 
 
 which was always preserved with great care and 
 attention, and from them this custom is known to 
 have passed to the Greeks and Romans. This 
 altar was demolished by the Babylonians at the 
 conflagration of the temple, but was restored 
 immediately on the return of the Jews from cap- 
 tivity, Ezra iii. 3. It was now a large pile of 
 unhewn stone, 32 cubits square at the bottom, 
 and gradually decreasing to the top, or hearth, 
 which was a square of 24 cubits, and one cubit 
 high, made of solid brass, and hence called the 
 brazen altar. The ascent to the altar was by a 
 gentle rising on the south side, corresponding 
 with the kibbesh in the diagram. This part of 
 the structure was 32 cubits in length, and 16 in 
 breadth, and banded on the upper benching-in 
 next the hearth, or the top of the altar. Prid. 
 Con. vol. i. p. 199. 
 
 The altar, or table, of shew-bread, was like- 
 wise of shittim-wood, overlaid with gold, and 
 exquisitely adorned. Its dimensions were two 
 cubits long, one wide, and one and a half high. 
 It had a golden border, crown, or rim, round it, 
 and upon it were placed two rows, including 
 twelve loaves of bread, with salt and incense, 
 which were changed every Sabbath-day. This 
 table was also furnished with golden dishes, 
 spoons, and bowls. The Jews gave the name of 
 ' altars ' to a kind of tables occasionally raised 
 in the country or fields, on which sacrifices were 
 offered ; thus we often read, in such a place an 
 altar was built to the Lord. 
 
 The altars of the Heathens were at first made 
 of turf; afterwards of stone, marble, wood, and 
 even of horn, as that of Apollo in Delos. 
 Before temples were in use, altars, as already 
 intimated, were erected in groves, in the high- 
 ways, and on the tops of mountains ; and it was 
 customary to engrave upon them the name 
 or attribute of the deity to whom they were 
 consecrated. They were also of different kinds 
 with regard to their qualities, the uses to which 
 they were applied, and the objects to which they 
 were appropriated ; being sacred to gods, heroes, 
 virtues, vices, diseases, &c.: we read also of inner 
 and outer, stationary and portable, public and 
 private altars. Again, they differed in their 
 figure, which was round, square, or triangular. 
 All of them were turned towards the dast, and 
 generally adorned with sculpture, basso-relievos, 
 and inscriptions, expressing the gods to whom 
 they were appropriated, or representing their 
 distinguishing symbols. For a specimen of 
 pagan altars, see Plate III. Misc. No. 1 represents 
 an altar dedicated to Neptune, and exhibits a 
 trident, and two dolphins, the attributes of this 
 deity, on its sides. No. 2 is a four-square altar ; 
 and, as the inscription informs us, dedicated to 
 the nymphs. No. 3 was erected to Bacchus, 
 and exhibits a Bacchanal, with a thyrsis in his 
 hand, with two other sides, it appeared triangu- 
 lar. Each side of No. 4, which was triangular, 
 exhibited a genius, one of whom is seen carrying 
 an oar upon his neck, which seems to indicate 
 that it belonged to Neptune. No. 5, with the 
 inscription, ' Ara Neptuni,' is of a round figure; 
 the god is represented wholly naked, preserving 
 the pallium on his shoulder, holding a trident in 
 his left hand, and in his right a dolphin. Altars 
 
 differed also in their height as well as in their 
 figure. 
 
 According to Servius, in Virg. Eel. v." 66. 
 JEn. ii. 515, those set apart for the honour of 
 the celestial gods, or gods of the higher class, 
 were placed on some pretty tall pile of build- 
 ing, as the altar of Olympian Jupiter, which was 
 nearly 22 feet high ; and for that reason were 
 called altaria, from the words alta and ara, a 
 high elevated altar. Those appointed for the 
 terrestrial gods were laid on the surface of the 
 earth, and called arse and, on the contrary, 
 they dug into the earth, and opened a pit for 
 those of the infernal gods, which they called 
 jSoOjxu and Xaeieoi, scrobiculi. But this distinct 
 tion is not every where observed. 
 
 In the great temples of ancient Rome there 
 were commonly three altars : the first placed 
 in the sanctuary, at the foot of the statue of the 
 divinity, upon which incense was burned, and 
 libations offered; the second was before the 
 gate of the temple, and upon it they sacrificed 
 the victims ; and the third was a portable altar, 
 upon which were placed the offering and the 
 sacred vessels. 
 
 The Greeks had two species of altars: that 
 whereon they sacrificed to the gods was called 
 /3fc>fioc, and was a real altar, different from the 
 other, whereon they sacrificed to the heroes, 
 which was smaller, and called w%aoa. Pollux 
 makes this distinction of altars in his Onomasti- 
 con : but adds, that some poets used the word 
 *%apa for the altar whereon sacrifice was offered 
 to the gods. (The Septuagint version some- 
 times also uses t.ffx a 9 a f r a sor t f Kttle l w 
 altar, which some authors express in Latin by 
 craticula.) The nymphs, instead of altars, had 
 avrpa, caves, iu which adoration was paid to 
 them. 
 
 The superior altars of the Greeks were ranged 
 under three subdivisions : the tpirvpoi, designed 
 for burnt-sacrifices; airvpoi, without fire, and 
 avaipaKroi, without blood ; for upon the two last, 
 only offerings of cakes, or fruits of the earth, and 
 libations, could be presented to their respective 
 divinities. Venus had an altar at Paphos, which 
 was avot/iajcrof, but not airvpoq; and Tacitus 
 says that she was worshipped, precibus solis et 
 igne puro, by prayers and fire alone. Among 
 the primitive Greeks, the consecration of their 
 altars was attended but with little expense ; but 
 as they increased in riches, they gradually intro- 
 duced more magnificent and costly ceremonies 
 into this part of their religious worship. From 
 a passage in the EI^TJVJJ of Aristophanes, and 
 from the Danaides of that poet, we find that the 
 ordinary mode of the consecration of altars was 
 similar to that of images. He speaks of a woman 
 dressed in a robe of various colours, with a vessel 
 filled with pulse upon her head, consecrating the 
 statues of Mercury and the altars of Jove. The 
 usual mode of dedication was performed by 
 placing a gariand of flowers upon them, then 
 anointing them with oil, and afterwards offering 
 up libations of wine and oblations of fruits. 
 There is no doubt but that the unction, with oil, 
 constituted the principal part of the ceremony of 
 consecration ; and that this practice was derived 
 from the most remote antiquity We all know
 
 ALTAR. 
 
 695 
 
 that, among the Jews, the altar of Moses was 
 consecrated by the pouring out of oil, by the 
 express command of God, and that the altar of 
 Jacob was dedicated by the performance of the 
 same ceremony. 
 
 The altars of the ancient heathens, like those 
 of the Jews, were adorned with horns, to which 
 the victims were fastened, and to which criminals, 
 who tied for refuge, used to cling. The ancients 
 also, on solemn occasions, as in forming alliances, 
 and confirming treaties of peace, swore upon 
 them and by them. See Adam's Rom. Ant. 
 p. 140, &c. In the Dionysica of Nonnus, 
 Agave is introduced offering up a sacrifice upon 
 fw/cfjjaw Trapo w/jy. The same ornaments are 
 still visible in those which remain in the ruins of 
 Rome. Although we have given the most 
 common forms of the altars of the ancients, 
 other forms were common, and for the most part 
 different forms appear to have been adopted by 
 different nations. The square form was that 
 most common among the Greeks; but we find, 
 from ancient medals, that altars of the circular 
 and pyramidical figures were not unfrequent. 
 It is probable, that the custom which was ob- 
 served, of placing the altars on the eastern side 
 of their temples, suggested the Christian custom 
 of placing the sacramental table on the eastern 
 side of the early churches. 
 
 The altar which the apostle Paul found at 
 Athens, bearing the inscription of the Ayvia^of 
 Oeoe, eternized by the memorable discourse of 
 which it became the basis, has created consider- 
 able diversity, and even contrariety of opinion 
 among biblical critics. The erection of this 
 altar has been ascribed, by some, to Dionysius, 
 the Areopagite ; who, unable to account for the 
 eclipse at our Lord's death, was yet sensible that 
 it was the sympathy of nature with a superior 
 being. Theophylact attributes it to the appear- 
 ance of an unknown spectre after a battle lost by 
 the Athenians : others to a complaint of the god 
 Pan, during the war between the Persians and 
 the Greeks, who, considering himself neglected, 
 acted accordingly; whence, lest any other deity 
 should have like cause of displeasure, an altar 
 was erected intended to include all those gods 
 who were not named in the general description. 
 Lucian, in his Philopatris, swears by ' the un- 
 known god of Athens.' Some have supposed 
 the god of the Jews to be intended, whose name 
 was unknown to them. Jerome supposes, that 
 the inscription on this altar was not, as St. Paul 
 quotes it, ' to the unknown god,' but 'to the 
 gods of Asia and Europe and Africa, unknown 
 and strange gods ;' and that the apostle has not 
 quoted the inscription exactly, but dexterously 
 applied it to the occasion. Theophylact and 
 (Ecumenius are also of opinion, that the inscrip- 
 tion was ' to gods,' in the plural number. But 
 Chrysostom, and Isidore of Pelusium, assert, 
 that the inscription was as St. Paul quotes it. 
 Le Clerc says, that though the inscription was 
 in the plural number, St. Paul was in the right 
 to allege it in the singular. The notions of Dio- 
 genes Laertius, in Epimen. lib. i. seg. 110. p. 
 70, 71, are as follows: 'about 600 years before 
 Christ, the fame of Epimenides was very great 
 
 among all the Greeks, and he was supposed to 
 be in favour with the gods. The Athenians be- 
 ing afflicted with a pestilence, they were directed 
 by the Pythian oracle to get their city purified 
 by expiation. They therefore sent Nicias, son 
 of Niceratus, in a ship to Crete, inviting Epime- 
 nides to come to them. He came accordingly, 
 in the forty-sixth Olympiad, purified their city, 
 and delivered them from the pestilence in this 
 manner: taking several sheep, some black, 
 others white, he led them up to the areopagus, 
 and then let them go where they would ; and 
 gave orders to those who followed them, where- 
 ever any one of them should lie down, to sacrifice 
 it to the god to whom it belonged; and so the 
 plague ceased. Hence it comes to pass, that to 
 this present time may be found, in the boroughs 
 of the Athenians, anonymous altars, a memorial 
 of the expiation then made.' 
 
 ALTAR of Adam, in antiquity, is pretended by 
 some rabbin and others to have been erected 
 by the first man posterior to the fall; when, 
 being overwhelmed with sorrow, the promise 
 was made him by the ministry of the angel Ha- 
 ziel, of a redeemer. In gratitude he is said to 
 have built an altar, and sacrificed. The reliques 
 of this monument have been mentioned by se- 
 veral writers of later ages. 
 
 ALTAR, in modern times, is used for a square 
 table placed on the eastern side of the church, 
 raised a little above the floor, and set apart for 
 the celebration of the sacrament. Its form is 
 not borrowed either from that of the heathen 
 altars, or even from that of the Jews in the 
 temple ; but from the view taken of the eucha- 
 rist as a supper. Its name is the communion 
 table ; the denomination, altar, is founded on the 
 supposition that the eucharist is a proper sa- 
 crifice ; which, though the standing doctrine of 
 the church of Rome, is utterly denied by most 
 of the reformed churches. Accordingly, bishop 
 Ridley, in the reign of Edward VI. A.D. 1560, 
 issued injunctions for taking down all altars, 
 and requiring the churchwardens of every parish 
 to provide a table, decently covered, and to 
 place it in such a part of the choir or chancel as 
 should be most meet, so that the ministers and 
 communicants should be separated from the rest 
 of the people. The canons of the council 
 of Nice, as well as the fathers St. Chrysostom 
 and St. Augustin, call it the Lord's table; and 
 though they sometimes call it an altar, it is to be 
 understood figuratively. An altar has relation 
 to a sacrifice ; so that if we retain the one, we 
 must admit the other. The practice of conse- 
 crating altars with their furniture was introduced 
 and vindicated by archbishop Laud, in the reign 
 of Charles I., but objected to by Prynne, as 
 having no higher original than the Roman missal 
 and pontifical edicts. To the antiquity of altars 
 it was replied, that though the name is often men- 
 tioned in Scripture, yet it is never applied to the 
 Lord's table; but altars and priests are put in 
 opposition to the Lord's table, and ministers of 
 the New Testament, 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. It was 
 added, that it cannot be pretended, by any law 
 or canon of the church of England, that it is 
 called an altar more than once, stat. 1 Edward
 
 ALT 
 
 69G 
 
 ALT 
 
 VI. cap. 1., which statute was repealed within 
 three years; and another made in which the 
 word altar is changed into table. 
 
 ALTAR of Prothesis, is a name given by the 
 modern Greeks to a smaller preparatory kind of 
 altar, wherein they bless the bread, before it is 
 carried to the large altar where the liturgy is 
 performed. F. Goar maintains that the table of 
 prothesis was anciently in the sacristy or vestry ; 
 which he makes appear from some Greek co- 
 pies, where sacristy is made use of in lieu of 
 prothesis. 
 
 ALTAR, in church history, is also used for the 
 oblations or contingent incomes of the church. 
 In ancient days they distinguished between 
 the church and the altar. The tithes, and other 
 settled revenues, were called the church, ec- 
 clesia; and other incidental incomes, the altar. 
 
 ALTAR, in astronomy. See ARA. 
 
 ALTARAGE, in law, altars erected in virtue 
 of donations, before the reformation, within a 
 parochial church, for the purpose of singing of 
 mass for deceased friends. 
 
 ALTARIST, ALTAR ISTA, or ALTARTHAN, 
 properly denotes the vicar of a church who 
 serves the altar, and to whom the alterage, or 
 produce of the altar, is assigned for his mainte- 
 nance. The altarist is likewise called altararius, 
 and sometimes altar priest. It is also used for 
 chaplain. 
 
 ALTA.R-THANE, or ALTARIST. See ALTARIST. 
 
 ALTASRIF, in literary history, the title of a 
 medicinal book written in Arabic, describing the 
 medical practice in use among the Arabs. It 
 was written by Alsaharavius, and translated into 
 Latin by P. Ricins in 1519. 
 
 ALTA TENURA, in law, the high tenure in 
 chief, or by military service. 
 
 ALTAVELA, in ichthyology, the name of a 
 flat cartilaginous fish, of the aquila marina kind ; 
 but with its wings, as they are called, that is, its 
 thin and flat sides,, broad and obtuse towards 
 their lower part. The fishermen, from the re- 
 semblance these flat sides have to wings, have 
 an opinion that this fish can fly. The tail is 
 very short, being scarce half the length of the 
 body. Its flesh is solid, and well tasted, and 
 it sells well in the markets. It abounds in the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 ALTAVELLA, in geography, a town of Italy, 
 in the kingdom of Naples, and province of 
 Principato Ultra, seven miles south of Bene- 
 vento. 
 
 , ALTAVILLA, a town and county of Naples, 
 in the Principato Citra, eighteen miles south- 
 east of Salerno. 
 
 ALTDORF, or ALTORF, a handsome town of 
 Switzerland, chief of the canton of Uri. It is 
 situated below the lake of the four cantons, in a 
 plain, at the foot of a mountain, whose passages 
 are difficult, and serve instead of fortifications. 
 It is celebrated for being the place where Wil- 
 liam Tell shot the apple from his son's head. 
 See TELL (William.) The town-house and the 
 arsenal are worth seeing. 
 
 ALTE et RASSE, in middle age writers, sove- 
 reignty, or a thing done with supreme power. 
 
 ALTEA, a sea-port town of Valencia, in 
 Spain, on the coast of the Mediterranean. It 
 
 was taken in 1706 in favour of the archduke 
 Charles ; but lost after the battle of Almanza, in 
 1707. It is twenty-four miles north-east of 
 Alicant. 
 
 ALTENA, or ALTONA. See ALTON A. 
 
 ALTEN A, a manufacturing town in the Prussian 
 grand duchy of the Lower Rhine, formerly in- 
 cluded in the Westphalian county of Mark. It 
 is seated on the Lenne and Nette, and has a Lu- 
 theran and Calvinist church, a court of justice, 
 590 good houses, and about 3300 inhabitants. 
 Thirty miles north-east of Cologne. Also, a 
 small district of South Holland, between the 
 Maese and Biesbosch. 
 
 ALTENBERG, a lordship and flourishing 
 town of Germany, in the Saxe Gotha portion of 
 the old principality of Altenburg, Upper Saxony. 
 Of that principality, this was the capital. At 
 present it has excellent manufactures of cotton 
 and wool ; and a good trade in corn and cattle. 
 Population about 9500. This is also the name 
 of a mining town in the Erzgeberg, or miners' 
 portion of Saxony. Eighteen miles south of 
 Dresden. 
 
 ALTENBURG, or OLDENBURG, an ancient 
 town of Germany, in the duchy of Holstein. 
 
 ALTENHOFEN, a market town in Carinthia, 
 on the small river Metnitz, with a castle. There 
 are iron-works in the neighbourhood. Four miles 
 north-east of Vei 
 
 ALTENKIRCHEN a small town of Germany, 
 in the Westerwald, which was the scene of several 
 obstinate conflicts between the French and Aus- 
 trians, in 1796. Fifteen miles north-north-east 
 of Coblentz. Long. 7. 29'. E. lat. 50. 38'. N. 
 Also a market-town of Pomerania, in the land of 
 Wittow, situated near the point of the peninsula. 
 
 ALTENMARKT, or ALTENWICHT, a market 
 town in Upper Bavaria, circle of the Iser, dis- 
 trict of Obing, on the borders of Saltzburg, 
 twenty-six miles north-west of Saltzburg. 
 
 ALTENMARKT, two market towns in the Aus- 
 trian dominions ; one near the Ens, in the circle 
 of Brack, Styria, fourteen miles north-east of 
 Rottenmann ; the other in the quarter above the 
 forest of Vienna, Lower Austria, four miles south- 
 west of Baden. 
 
 ALTEN-OETINGEN, a market town in 
 Upper Bavaria, with 1400 inhabitants. 
 
 ALTENSTADT, a market town and bailiwick 
 in the grand duchy of Hesse. 
 
 ALTER, v. "| 
 
 ALT'ERABLE, Alter, vel alteragf, 
 
 AL'TERANT, [ other. To make other- 
 
 AL'TERATE, f wise or different ; to 
 
 ALTERATION, change. 
 
 ALTERA'TIVE, n &adj.J 
 
 And whether the body be alterant or altered, ever- 
 more a perception precedeth operation ; for else all 
 bodies would be alike one to another. Bacon. 
 
 Why may we not presume, that God ,doth even 
 call for such change or alteration, as the vory condi- 
 tion of things themselves doth make necessary ? 
 
 Hooker 
 
 Alteration, though it be from worse to better, hath 
 in it inconveniences, and those weighty. Id, 
 
 Do you note. 
 How much her grace is alter'd on the suddeiiT
 
 ALT 
 
 697 
 
 ALT 
 
 How long her face is drawn ? how pale she looks, 
 
 And of an earthly cold ? 
 
 Sfiahspeare's Henry VIII 
 
 Acts appropriated to the worship of God by his 
 own appointment, must continue so, till himself hath 
 otherwise declared j for who dares alter what God 
 hath appointed. Stiliingfleet. 
 
 That alterable respects are realities in nature, will 
 never he admitted by a considerate discerner. 
 
 Glancllle. 
 
 ALTERCUM, in botany, a name for the hyos- 
 cyamus, or henbane. 
 
 ALTERNANTHERA, in botany, so calleo 
 trom the stamens being, as it was thought, al- 
 ternately furnished with anthers, and withou. 
 them. Forsk. jEgypt. Arab. 28. Brown Prodr. 
 Nov. Holl. v. i. il6. Class and order, Pen- 
 tandria Monogynia. Natural Order, Holeraceae, 
 Linnaeus. Amaranth!, Jussieu. Its General 
 
 Our condition in this world is mutable and uncer- Characters are : CAL. perianth inferior, of one 
 
 leaf, in five deep, coloured, pointed, spreading, 
 permanent, and finally hardened, segments : COR. 
 none : STAM. filaments five, capillary, shorter 
 
 tain, alterable by a thousand accidents, which we can 
 
 neither foresee nor prevent. Rogers. 
 
 Medicines called alterative, are such as have no 
 
 immediate^ sensible operation, butgradually gain upon than the calyx, inserted into a membranous ring, 
 
 round the base of the germen, with intermediate 
 teeth ; anthers simple, oval, of one cell, generally 
 wanting one, two, or three of the filaments alter- 
 nately : FIST, germen ovate, acute ; style very 
 short; stigma capitate: PERIC. capsule mem- 
 branous, inversely kidney-shaped, compressed, 
 of one valve and one cell, inflated, not bursting, 
 ALTER (Francis i Charles), a critic of Germany, endosed in the car til ag inous calyx : SEED soli- 
 
 the constitution by changing the humours from a 
 state of disteinperature to health. They are opposed 
 to evacuants. Quincy. 
 
 When there is an eruption of humour in any part, 
 it is not cured merely by outward applications, but by 
 such alterative medicines as purify the blood. 
 
 Government of the Tongue. 
 
 was Jesuit and laborious Greek teacher in the 
 school of St. Anne at Vienna, was born at En- 
 glesberg in Silesia, in 1769, and died in 1804. 
 He was the author, it is said, of 250 volumes 
 and dissertations, the principal of which, Novum 
 Testamentum ad codicem Vindobonensem Grace 
 expressum, two volumes 8vo, has been critically 
 examined by bishop Marsh, in his preface to 
 Michaelis. Among his other works, are a Ger- 
 man Translation of Harwood's Classics, 8vo. 
 
 tary, roundish, pointed. Essential Characters : : 
 CAL. in five deep segments, cartilaginous : COR. 
 none : STAM. partly imperfect, inserted into a 
 membranous ring, with intermediate teeth : an- 
 thers single-celled : STIG. capitate : capsule kid- 
 ney-shaped, of one cell, without valves : SEED 
 solitary. The species are : 1. A. sessilis, sessile- 
 flowered alternanthera. 2. A. denticula, or 
 toothed A. 3. A. nodiora, or knotty-flowered. 
 4. A. angustifolia, or narrow-leaved. 5. A. nana, 
 
 Vienna, 1778 : Lysias ; Ciceronis Quzest. Acad. ,. dwarf> 6- A ac h yra ntha, in the Kew garden, 
 Tusc. ; Lucretius ; Homer s Iliad, with various where is also 7 A po i y goinoides, or pericaria 
 readings from the MSS. in the Imperial Library ; - 
 and Homer's Odyssey, &c. with various read- 
 ings from the Palatine library, 8vo. 1785-94. 
 2. Some of Plato's Dialogues, 8vo. 1784. 3. 
 Thucydides, 8vo. 1785. 4. The Greek Chronicle 
 of George Phranza, or Phranzes, not before 
 printed : Vienna, fol. 1796, &c. 5. Notices, in 
 German, of the Literary History of Georgia. 
 
 ALTERANTS, or alterative medicines, such as 
 
 correct the bad qualities of the blood, and other to c h an ge regularly ; to vary according to a pre- 
 humours, without occasioning any sensible scr ibed rule. 
 
 leaved A. 
 ALTERNATE, v. n.&tadj. 
 ALTERN', 
 ALTER'NALLY, 
 ALTERNATELY, 
 ALTERNATION, 
 ALTERNATIVE, n. &adj. 
 ALTERNATIVELY, 
 ALTERN I'TY. 
 
 Alternatus, 
 from alter other. 
 To follow ano- 
 ther in turn ; to 
 act in succes- 
 sion, after an 
 interval filled 
 up by another ; 
 
 evacuation. 
 
 ALTERATION, in alchemy, denotes the conver- 
 sion of one body into another by similitude. 
 
 ALTERATION OF QUANTITIES, amongst alge- 
 braists, denotes'what we otherwise call variations, 
 or permutations. 
 
 ALTERCATION, n. Lat. Altercatio, from 
 alter. The alternate expression of difference of 
 opinion between two persons, in which the de- 
 bate is somewhat acrimoniously conducted. 
 
 be parties wer so felle altercand on ilk side, 
 
 bat non be soth couth telle, whedir pes or werre 
 
 suld tide, 
 Bot God bat is of myght, and may help whan he 
 
 wille. R. Brunne, p. 314. 
 
 That iche of thame by coursis alterant 
 Sa oft gais and returnis that gait. 
 
 Douglas, b. vi. p. 167. 
 
 And God made two great lights, great for their use 
 To man ; the greater to have rule by day, 
 The less by night, ultern. Milton. 
 
 The princessMelesinda, bath'd in tears, 
 And toss'd alternately with hopes and fears, 
 Would learn from you the fortunes of her lord. 
 
 Dry den. 
 
 Unhappy man ? whom sorrow thus and rage 
 To different ills alternately engage. Prior 
 
 The rays of light are, by some cause or other, at 
 ternately disposed to be reflected or refracted for many 
 vicissitudes. Newton. 
 
 Friendship consists properly in mutual offices, 
 
 Bv this hot pursuit of lower controversies amongst and a generous strife in alternate acts of kindness. 
 
 men professing religion, and agreeing in the principal 
 foundations thereof, they conceive hope, that, about 
 the higher principles themselves, time will cause 
 altercation to grow. Hooker. 
 
 Their whole life was little else than a perpetual 
 rangling and altercation; and that, many times, 
 rather for vi'Aory and ostentation of wit, than a 
 sober and serious search of truth. 
 
 Hakewili on Providence. 
 
 South. 
 
 Hear how Timotheus' various lays surprise, 
 And bid alternate passions fall and rise ! 
 While, at each change, the son of Lybian Jove 
 Now burns with glory, and then melts with love. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 A Iternately transported and alarm'd ! 
 What can preserve my life, or what destroy. 
 
 Fwy.
 
 ALT 
 
 698 
 
 ALT 
 
 ALTERNATE, in heraldry, is used in respect to 
 the situation of the quarters. Thus the first and 
 fourth quarters, and the second and third, are 
 usually of the same nature, and are called alter- 
 nate quarters. 
 
 ALTERNATE ANGLES, in geometry, are the 
 internal angles made by a line cutting two pa- 
 rallels, and lying on the opposite sides of the 
 cutting line; the one below the first parallel, 
 and the other above the second : thus, 
 
 A/h 
 
 a/c 
 
 in which a and b, c and d, are alternate angles, 
 and respectives, equal to each other. 
 
 ALTERNATE LEAVES, in botany, when the 
 leaves or branches of plants arise higher on op- 
 posite sides alternately. 
 
 ALTERNATE RATIO OR PROPORTION, is where 
 the antecedent of one ratio is to its consequent 
 as the antecedent of another to its consequent ; 
 the very same ratio, in this case, holding alter- 
 nately in respect of the antecedents to each other, 
 and the consequents to each other. Thus, if 
 A : B : : C : D ; then, alternately, A : C : : B : D. 
 
 ALTERNATION in numbers, is used to express 
 the different changes, or alterations of orders, in 
 any number of things proposed. This is also 
 called permutation, &c., and is easily found by a 
 continual multiplication of all the numbers, be- 
 ginning at unity. Thus, if it be required to 
 know how many changes or alternations can be 
 rung on six bells, multiply the numbers 1, 2, 3, 
 4, 5, 6, continually into one another ; and the 
 last product gives the number of changes. 
 
 ALTERNATIVEMENT, in music, to play 
 or sing two airs by turns, several times over. 
 
 ALTERN BASE, in trigonometry, a term used 
 in contradistinction to the base. Thus in oblique 
 triangles, the true base is either the sum of the 
 sides, and then the difference of the sides is 
 called the altern base; or the true base is the 
 difference of the sides, and then the sum of the 
 sides is called the altern base, 
 
 ALTHAEA, in botany, marsh-mallow, a 
 genus of the polyandria order, belonging to the 
 monadelphia class of plants ; and, in the natural 
 method, ranking under the thirty-seventh order, 
 Columniferae. The characters are : CAL. a double 
 perianthium, the exterior one nine cleft: COR. 
 consists of five petals, coalesced at the base: 
 STAM. numerous filaments inserted into the 
 corolla ; the antherae are kidney shaped : FIST. 
 an orbicular germen; a short cylindrical stylus; 
 and numerous bristly stigmata, the length of the 
 stylus : PER. numerous arillae : SEEDS solitary, 
 and kidney-shaped. There are three species, viz. 
 1. A. cannabini, or shrubby marsh-mallow, is a 
 native of Hungary and Istria. 2. A. Hirsuta, 
 or hairy marsh-mallow, a native of Spain and 
 Portugal. 3. A. Vulgaris, or common marsh- 
 mallow, a native of Britain, with a perennial 
 root, and an annual stalk, which perishes every 
 autumn. 
 
 AI.THEA FROTEX. See HIBISCUS. 
 
 ALTHJEA, in medicine. The Althaea vulgaris, 
 is the only species used. The whole plant, 
 especially the root, abounds with a mild muci- 
 lage. It has the general virtues of an emollient: 
 and proves serviceable in a thin acrimonious 
 state of the juices, and where the natural mucus 
 of the intestines is abraded. The root is em- 
 ployed externally for softening and maturating 
 hard tumours ; chewed, it is said to give ease in 
 difficult dentition of children. 
 
 ALTH^A is also applied, in pharmacy, to an 
 officinal syrup, decoction, and ointment, pr* 
 pared from the althaea vulgaris. It was once ai> 
 ingredient in the compound powder of gu u 
 tragacanth, and the oil and plaster of mucilages. 
 
 ALTH.EA, in mythology, the daughter of Thes- 
 tius, wife of (Eneus, king of Calydon, and 
 mother of Meleager. 
 
 ALTHEIM, a market town of Wirtemberg, 
 in the district of the Danube ; also a market 
 town of Austria, in the bailiwick of Braunau, 
 consisting of 130 large wooden houses. 
 
 ALTHORP PORT, is in E. long. 223. 55'. 
 and N. lat. 88. 11'., on the north-west coast of 
 King George the Third's archipelago, between 
 Point Lucan and Point Lavinia. Several islands 
 and rocky islets are at its entrance ; but on each 
 side of them there is a spacious navigable chan- 
 nel. The surrounding country is composed of 
 rocky eminences, covered with forests, consisting 
 in general of pine trees. 
 
 ALTHOUGH', conj. All ; though : though is 
 the imperative Dap or Daps of the Ang. Sax. 
 verb Dapan, to allow, permit, grant, yield ; 
 Tooke. Albeit, allowed, permitted, admitted. 
 
 Take any brid and put it in a cage, 
 And do all thin contente and thy corage, 
 To foster it tendrely with mete and drinke 
 Of all deintes that thou canst bethinke, 
 And kepe it all so clenely as thou may 
 Although the cage of gold be never so gay, 
 Yet had this brid by twenty thousand fold 
 Lever in a forest that is wide and cold, 
 Gon eten worms and swiche wretchedness : 
 For ever this brid will don his busineese 
 To escape out of this cage whan that he may, 
 His libertee the bird desireth ay. 
 
 Chaucer Manciple's Tale. 
 
 We all know, that many things are believed, al- 
 though they be intricate, obscure, and dark ; although 
 they exceed the reach and capacity of our wits ; yea, 
 although in this world they be no way possible to he 
 understood. Hooker. 
 
 Me the gold of France did not seduce, 
 Although I did admit it as a motive 
 The sooner to effect what I intended. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 The stress must be laid upon a majority ; without 
 which the laws would be of little weight, although 
 they be good additional securities. Swift. 
 
 ALTICA, in entomology, a division of the 
 genus cantharis, according to Fabricius, con- 
 sisting of the insects of that tribe, which are of 
 an oblong shape, and have the lip bifid. 
 
 ALTICOZZI (Loreneo), a Jesuit of Corton?., 
 who. died at Rome, 1777, was the author of 
 several polemical treatises, especially one in 
 reply to Beausobre on Manicheeism ; but his 
 principal work is the Sum of St. Augustine, six
 
 ALTITUDE. 
 
 693 
 
 quarto volumes, containing an able account of 
 the rise ond progress of the Pelagian heresy. 
 
 ALT I MAR, in mineralogy, burnt copper. 
 
 ALTIN, ALTAY, or TEI.ETZK, a lake in Si- 
 beria, from whence issues the river Ob, or Oby. 
 By the Kalmucks it is called Altinor. It is said 
 to be near ninety miles long and fifty broad, with 
 a rocky bottom. The north part of it is some- 
 times frozen so hard as to be passable on foot, 
 but the southern part is never covered with ice. 
 It is in the government of Kolhyvane. 
 
 ALTIN, in commerce, a coin both of silver and 
 copper in Russia, worth three copecs, one 
 hundred of which make a ruble, or about four 
 shillings and sixpence sterling. The silver altins 
 under Peter I. had on one side the eagle, and 
 on the other, with the date of the year, the word 
 Altinik. They have been latterly disused. 
 
 ALTINCAR, or ALTINEAR, among mineralists, 
 a species of factitious salt, used in the fusion and 
 purification of metals. It is a sort of flux powder. 
 Divers ways of preparing it are given by Li- 
 bavius. 
 
 ALTING (Henry), professor of divinity at 
 Heidelberg and Groningen, was born at Emden 
 in 1583, und chosen in 1605 preceptor to the 
 three young counts of Nassau, Solms, and Izen- 
 berg. After various difficulties he settled at 
 Groningen, where he continued till his death, 
 August 25, 1644. His works are, 1. Notae in 
 Decadem Problematum Joannis Behm de Glo- 
 yioso Dei et Beatorum Ccelo, Heidelberg, 1618. 
 2. Loci Communes, 3 vols. Amst. 1646. 3. 
 Exegesis Augustanae Confessionis, Amst. 1647. 
 4. Methodus Theologiae, 4to. Amst. 1654. 5. 
 Historia Ecclesiastica Palatinae, 4to. Amst. 1644. 
 6. Explicatio Catacheseos Palatinae, 4to. Amst. 
 1646. 
 
 AI.TING (James,) son of the former, was born 
 at Heidelberg in 1618, and travelled into Eng- 
 land in 1660, where he was ordained by the 
 learned Dr. Prideaux, bishop of Worcester. He 
 was afterwards professor at Groningen, and died 
 August 20, 1679. He wrote, 1. Dissertations on 
 Oriential antiquities. 2. Commentaries on 
 many Books of the Bible. 3. A Syrio-Chaldaic 
 Grammar. 4. A treatise on Hebrew Punctuation ; 
 making together 5. vols. fol. Amst. 1687. There 
 were other learned members of this family, whom 
 our limits will not allow us to notice. 
 
 ALTl'NGAT, in mineralogy, rust of copper. 
 
 ALTISONANT, adj. Lat. altus, high ; sono, to 
 sound. High-sounding. 
 
 For it stood greatly with reason, seeing his lord 
 and master changed his estate and vocation, that he 
 should alter likewise his denomination, and get a new 
 one, that were famous and altisonant as becomed the 
 new order and exercises which he now professed. 
 
 S\elton's Trans. Don Quixote, Ed. 1652. 
 
 ALTISSIMO, in music, or altiss, an Italian 
 epithet for notes above F in alt. 
 
 ALTISTA, in music, an Italian name for the 
 vocal performer who takes the alto primo part. 
 
 ALTITH, in botany, a name given to the 
 plant of which the asafetida of the shops is the 
 gum. 
 
 ALTITUDE, n. Altitudo, Lat. Height. 
 
 Ten masts attach'd make not the altitude, 
 Which thou hast perpendicularly fall'n. Shaksp. 
 
 She shines above, we know, hut in whaf piece, 
 How near the throne, and heav'n's imperial face, 
 By our weak opticks is but vainly guess'd ; 
 Distance and altitude conceal the rest. 
 
 ALTITUDE, in geometry, is the third dimen 
 sion of a body considered with respect to its ele- 
 vation above the ground ; and is otherwise callea 
 its height or depth : the former when measurea 
 from bottom to top, the latter when measured 
 from top to bottom. The altitude of a figure is 
 the distance of its vertex from the base, or the 
 length of a perpendicular let fall from the for- 
 mer to the latter, as B. A. in plate I. fig. 1. MIS- 
 CELLANEOUS. 
 
 The altitude of a terrestrial object is the height 
 of its vertex above some horizontal plane as- 
 sumed as a base in physical geography. The 
 altitudes of mountains are measured from the 
 general level of the ocean ; that is, the altitude 
 of a mountain is the difference between the 
 mean terrestrial radius and the distance of the 
 vertex of the mountain, from the centre of the 
 earth. Altitudes are distinguished into accessi- 
 ble and inaccessible. The accessible altitude of 
 an object is that to whose base there is access 
 to measure the nearest distance to it on the 
 ground. The inaccessible altitude of an object 
 is that to whose base there is not free access, by 
 which a distance can be measured to it, by rea- 
 son of some impediment, as water, and the like. 
 If an altitude cannot be measured by stretching 
 a string from top to bottom, which is the direct 
 and most accurate way, some other expedient is 
 resorted to, by measuring some other line or 
 distance, which may serve as a basis, in con- 
 junction with some angles, or other proportional 
 lines, to compute, geometrically, the altitude of 
 the object sought. There are various ways of 
 measuring altitudes, or depdis, by means of 
 different instruments, and by shadows, or re- 
 flected images, on optical principles, &c. The 
 instruments mostly employed in measuring alti- 
 tudes, are the quadrant, theodolite, geometrical 
 square, line of shadows, &c. There are also 
 various ways of computing the altitude in num- 
 bers, from the measurements taken as above, by 
 geometrical construction, trigonometrical calcu- 
 lation, or by simple numerical computation, 
 from the property of parallel lines, &c. 
 
 We exhibit the following problems, as the 
 most familiar illustrations of the above theoretical 
 remarks. 
 
 PROBLEM I. 
 
 To measure the altitudes of objects by means of 
 their shadows. 
 
 This is one of the most ancient methods of 
 measuring altitudes, of which we have any re- 
 cord. It is said to have been first employed by 
 Thales, in measuring the heights of the pyramids 
 in Egypt : with this view he erected a staff, and 
 at a certain time measured the length of its 
 shadow; at the same time the length of the 
 shadow of the pyramid was also ascertained : 
 then knowing the length of the staff, he made 
 the height of the pyramid to bear the same pro- 
 portion to the length of the staff, as the shadow 
 of the former to the shadow of the latter. This 
 method may be more explicitly illustrated : At 
 any time when the sun shines, erect a staff a b, 
 fig. 2, perpendicularly at , and measure the ^ 

 
 700 
 
 ALTITUDE. 
 
 length of its shadow ; at the same time cause the 
 length of the shadow of the proposed object, AB 
 fig. 2, to be also taken. Then, by similar tri- 
 angles, as 
 
 L . r< A . a b X CA A 
 c a ; a b \\ CA : AB 
 
 c a 
 the altitude required. 
 
 If the altitude be inaccessible, as in fig. 3, 
 but still such that the difference of the lengths 
 of its shadow, taken at two different times, can 
 be ascertained, the altitude may be found nearly 
 the same as -in the last example. 
 
 Make a b a, a c ir b, fig. 2, and the un- 
 known length of the shadow ofAB, viz.AC~:r; 
 let the second shadow of the rod, a c' b', the 
 second shadow of the object, AC' ~ x + d, and 
 the height AB of the object ~ y : then, by the 
 preceding proportion, 
 
 1st operation, b * a ', \ x ', y, 
 2d operation, b' ; a ; ; x+d '. y; 
 whence, by subtraction, 
 
 b 02 b' ', a ; *. d I y; 
 that is, 
 
 AT> fl d 
 AB y , 
 
 b vi b' ' 
 the altitude required. 
 
 PROBLEM II. 
 To measure altitudes by means of staves. 
 
 Let AB (fig. 5 . plate I. MISCELLANEOUS) re- 
 present an -object, of whicn the altitude is re- 
 quired. Being provided with two rods, or staves, 
 of different lengths, plant the longest of them, as 
 CF, at a certain measured distance from the base 
 of the object ; then, at a further distance, plant 
 the second or shortest staff ED, in such a man- 
 ner that the tops of the two, E and F, may be in 
 a line with the top of the tower B. 
 
 This being done, measure the distance ID, as 
 also the length ED, and we shall have, by simi- 
 lar triangles, as 
 
 ID : ED : : IA : AB ; 
 
 that is, by multiplying the second and third 
 terms together, and dividing by the first, we 
 shall have the altitude of the tower AB, or 
 AB _EDxJ[A 
 
 ID 
 
 For example, suppose IA 100 feet, ID 8 
 feet, and ED n 4 feet, then 
 
 AB _ 4X100, 5()feet> 
 
 the altitude of the tower. 
 
 In some cases where the base of the object is 
 inaccessible, two operations similar to the one 
 above-mentioned become requisite. For fami- 
 liarizing this mode of calculation, see fig. 5, plate 
 I. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Let ID a, ED rz d, also the unknown dis- 
 tance IA =: x, and the required altitude of the 
 object y ; then in the second operation, in 
 which both the staves must be replanted, make 
 the second distance ID a', and the second 
 unknown distance I'A ~ x c,c being the dis- 
 tance between the two stations of the shorter 
 staff ED, E'D'; the lengths of the staves still re- 
 maining the same. Now, from the preceding 
 proportion we shall have (by substituting foi 
 ID, ED, IA, and AB, the above letters), 
 1st operation, a '. d '.', x ', y; 
 
 2d operation, a' ', d '. *. x c '. y 
 whence, by subtraction, 
 
 (a' tn a) ; d '. '. c '. y ; 
 consequently, 
 
 j/ = AB = - dc 
 
 a vi a ' 
 
 PROBLEM III. 
 To measure an altitude by means of a geometri' 
 
 cal square. 
 
 The geometrical square is nothing mo-e than 
 a square board or frame, having one of its sides 
 divided into equal parts ; (figure of the instru- 
 ment, fig. 6, plate I. MISCELLANEOUS), a plumb- 
 line being then suspended at one of its angles, 
 falls perpendicularly, and marks off a certain 
 number of those divisions, from which the height 
 of the object may be determined, as follows: 
 Having fixed the instrument at any place, C. as 
 fig. 7. plate I. MISCELLANEOUS, turn the square 
 about the centre of motion if it be mounted on a 
 stand, or otherwise adjust it by holding it in 
 your hands, till the top of the object, B, is per- 
 ceived in the direction of the sights, or of the 
 side of the square, and note the number of divi- 
 sions, F /*, cut off by the plumb-line ; then hav- 
 ing measured the distance, CA, we have, by 
 similar triangles, 
 
 EF : F/ : : CA : BH, 
 
 that is BH 
 
 EF 
 
 and, consequently, 
 
 AB CAxF /_|_ DC , 
 EF 
 
 the altitude sought. 
 
 In the case of an inaccessible object, two ob- 
 servations must be made similar to that above ; 
 in which the only variable lines will be Ff, CA. 
 Let, therefore, the side of the square ~ s, and 
 the variable part F/ a, in the first observa- 
 tion, and a' in the second; also put the unknown 
 distance #, in the first case, and x -_ c in the 
 second ; so that c will be the distance of the 
 observer's two stations, and make the required 
 height of the object ~y. Then, on the same 
 principles as those above, 
 
 1st operation, s ', a ' '. x '. y ; 
 
 2d operation, s '. a' '. '. xc '. y; 
 whence by equality, 
 
 a ~ a' ; * x c I x, 
 and a c/2 a' ; \ d \\ c\ x , 
 
 therefore, 
 
 
 x = 
 
 a vi a' 
 
 and by the first equation, 
 ax 
 
 a a' c 
 
 the altitude required. 
 
 PROBLEM IV. 
 To measure the altitude of objects by means of 
 
 optical reflection. 
 
 Place a mirror, or other reflecting surface 
 horizontally in the plane of the figures' base, 
 as in fig. 8. I. (in which case we suppose 
 the object to be accessible), and measure 
 the distance CA. Now, retire back in the 
 direction AC to D, till the eye observes the top, 
 of the object exactly in the centre of the mir-
 
 ALTITUDE. 
 
 701 
 
 ror, which, for tne greater degree of accuracy, 
 may be marked by a line across it. Then, hav- 
 ing measured the distance DC, and ascertained 
 the height of the eye of the observer, it will be, 
 from the known laws of reflection, viz. the equality 
 of the angles of incidence and reflection, as 
 
 DC.-DE:: CA : DE D X C CA -AB, 
 
 the altitude of the object required. 
 
 When the object is inaccessible and CA 
 cannot be measured, two such operations as 
 that above must be employed, as in fig 9, I. 
 Thus, let ED a, DC d, and the unknown 
 distance CAnz; also, let <? denote the anal- 
 ogous distance D' C' in the second operation, 
 and xc the second distance C* A, or c~ the 
 distance between the two stations of the mirror; 
 and let the required height of the object i/ , 
 then, substituting the above letters in the pre- 
 ceding proportion, we shall have, 
 
 1st operation, d \ a ', ; x '. y ; 
 
 2d operation, d' ', a'. '. x c \ y; t 
 whence, by subtraction, 
 
 d cc <F '. a : : c '.y; 
 c.nd, consequently, 
 
 ac' 
 
 
 the altitude sought. 
 
 All these problems, for inaccessible objects, will 
 give the distance of the objects as well as their 
 altitude. Thus, 
 
 Prob. I. The distance 
 
 , 
 
 a a (b vi b) 
 
 The distance 
 
 d d (a c a)- 
 
 Prob. II. 
 
 Prob. III. The distance CA=:m: 
 
 Prob. IV. The distance 
 
 PA_ <fy_ acd 
 
 (a c a')' 
 
 a a (d t/j d'). 
 
 Other methods of taking altitudes may be seen 
 in Dr. Hutton's Mensuration, Bonnycastle's 
 Trigonometry, &c. 
 
 The method of taking considerable terrestrial 
 altitudes, of which those of mountains are the 
 greatest, by means of the barometer, is very easy 
 and expeditious. It is done by observing, on 
 the top of the mountain, how much the mercury 
 has fallen below what it was at the foot of the 
 mountain. See BAROMETER. 
 
 ALTITUDE, in astronomy, is the arch of a ver- 
 tical circle, measuring the height of the sun, 
 moon, star, or other celestial object, above the 
 horizon. 
 
 This altitude may be either true or apparent. 
 The apparent altitude is that which appears by 
 sensible observations. The true altitude is that 
 which results by correcting the apparent, on 
 account of refraction and parallax. 
 
 The quantity of the refraction is different at 
 different altitudes ; and the quantity of the pa- 
 rallax is different according to the distance of 
 the different luminaries : in the fixed stars this 
 is too small to be observed ; in the sun it is only 
 
 about 8J seconds; but in the moon, at a mean 
 proportion, it is about 58 minutes. 
 
 The altitude of a celestial object may be ac 
 curately determined, by measuring the arc of 
 an oblique great circle intercepted between the 
 star and the horizon, and the inclination of the 
 same great circle to the horizon. This may 
 be put in practice by means of the equatorial, 
 thus : let the sine of the estimated altitude of 
 the object be s, elevate the equatorial circle 
 above the horizon to an angle, the sine of 
 which ^/s, rad.l. The declination circle being 
 set to 0, direct the line of collimation to the star, 
 by the equatorial and azimuth circles moved in 
 their own planes ; observe the arc of the equa- 
 torial circle intercepted between the index and 
 VI ; if the sine of this arc />, the sine of the 
 observed altitude will be equal to p^/s, radius 
 being 1. This indirect method is, in general, 
 less exposed to errors than the direct method in 
 about the proportion of 1 to 7. See Atwood's 
 Lectures, p. 198, 227. 
 
 THE MERIDIAN ALTITUDE OF THE SUN, OR 
 ANY CELESTIAL OBJECT, is an arch of the meri- 
 dian intercepted between the horizon and the 
 centre of the object upon the meridian. The 
 altitude of a celestial body is greatest when it 
 comes to the meridian of any place (the poles of 
 the earth excepted, for there the altitude of a 
 fixed body is subject to no variation) ; and the 
 altitude of any star which sets not, is least, and 
 the depression of any star which does set is 
 greatest, when in the opposite part of the me- 
 ridian. 
 
 ALTITUDE OF THE POLE is an arch of the 
 meridian intercepted between the horizon and 
 the pole : it is equal to the latitude of the place. 
 
 ALTITUDE OF THE EQUINOCTIAL is the ele- 
 vation of that circle above the horizon, and is 
 always equal to the complement of the latitude. 
 
 REFRACTION OF ALTITUDE is an arch of a 
 vertical circle, whereby the altitude of a heavenly 
 body is increased by refraction. 
 
 PARALLAX OF ALTITUDE, is an arch of a ver- 
 tical circle, by which the true altitude, observed 
 at the centre of the earth, exceeds that which 
 is observed on the surface ; or the difference be- 
 tween the (( IM } 
 and (f IK of alti- ^l( 
 tude there ; and it 
 is equal to the angle 
 I (( L, formed at 
 the moon, or other 
 body,and subtend- 
 ed by the radius 
 I L of the earth. 
 
 The ALTITUDE of the mercury, in the barome- 
 ter, marked by degrees on the face of that instru- 
 ment, is the chief object of its construction. The 
 mean altitude of the mercury at London for 
 every day in several years, is about 29.87 inches. 
 
 ALTITUDE, in astrology, denotes the second of 
 the five essential dignities, which the planets ac- 
 quire in virtue of the signs they are found in. In 
 this sense, altitude is otherwise called exaltation. 
 
 ALTITUDE INSTRUMENT, or equal altitude in- 
 strument, is that used to observe a celestial ob- 
 ject when it has the same altitude on the east and 
 west sides of the meridian See ASTRONOMY 
 
 M
 
 ALT 
 
 702 
 
 ALT 
 
 ALTITUDE, MERIDIAN. The meridian being 
 a vertical circle ; a meridian altitude, that is, the 
 altitude of a point in the meridian, is an arch o' 
 the meridian intercepted between it and the ho- 
 rizon. See ASTRONOMY. 
 
 ALTITUDE OF MOTION, the measure of anymo- 
 tion, reckoned according to the line of direction, 
 
 ALTITUDE OF THE EYE, in perspective, is a 
 right line let fall from the eye, perpendicular to 
 the geometrical plane 
 
 ALTIVAIG, an island on the coast of the pa- 
 rish of Kilmuir, in the isle of Sky, with a good 
 harbour. 
 
 ALTKIRCH, or ALTKIRK, a town and castle 
 of France, in the department of the Upper 
 Rhine, the chief town of an arrondissement on 
 the river Ille, 6 miles south-west of Michausen. 
 
 ALTMANN (John George), a Swiss historian 
 and divine, was born in 1697, and died in 1758, 
 curate of Inns, and professor of moral philoso- 
 phy and Greek at Berne. He wrote, 1 . Tempe 
 Helvetica, 6 vols. 8vo. 1735-43. 2. Versu- 
 cheiner Historisch-und Physischen Beschreibung 
 der Helvetischen Eisberg, 8vo. Zurich, 1751. 
 3. Meletemata Philologica Critica, quibus Diffi- 
 cilioribus N. Test. Locis ex Antiquitate Lux 
 affunditur, 3 vols. 4to. 1753. 4. Principia Ethica 
 ex Monitis Legis Naturae et Prreceptis Religionis 
 Christianae deducta, 2 vols. 8vo. Tigur. 1754. 
 
 ALTMANNSTEIN, a market-town of Bava- 
 ria, in the circle of the Regen, fourteen miles 
 from Ingolstadt. 
 
 ALTMARK, a division of the Mark of Bran- 
 denburg, bounded on the east by the Elbe, 
 Magdeburg, and the Triegnitz ; on the south by 
 Magdeburgh, and on the west and north by 
 Brunswick- Lunenburg. It contains, on an extent 
 of 1 670 square miles, thirteen towns, six royal 
 bailiwicks, twenty-seven manors, 494 villages, 
 16,938 houses, and 98,305 inhabitants. 
 
 ALTMULL, a river of Germany, which rises 
 in Franconia, runs south-east by Anspach, then 
 turns east by Pappenheim and Aichcst, and at 
 last falls into the Danube, at Kelheim, 12 miles 
 above Ratisbon. 
 
 ALTO, high, in music, as alto viola, the tenor 
 violin, in opposition to the bass viol, to which in- 
 strument or violoncello, the tenor strings are 
 tuned octaves as C c . G. D' 1 . A". The following 
 is the complete scale on the tenor. 
 
 
 
 , ^1 
 
 0^ 
 
 
 
 
 < (Q 1 -' 
 
 
 
 2d String. 1st String. 
 
 ALTO et BASSO, or in ALTO, and in BASSO, in 
 law, signifies the absolute reference of all differ- 
 ences, small and great, high and low, to some ar- 
 bitrators or indifferent persons. The form of 
 submission is in Latin, pateat universis, &c. sig- 
 nifying ' Know all men by these presents, that 
 A B. of C. and D E. of F. have placed them- 
 selves in Alto et Basso under the arbitration of 
 two, three, or more men ; viz. respecting a certain 
 complaint now depending in court between them.' 
 
 ALTO CONCERTANTE, the tenor of the little 
 chorus. 
 
 ALTO TENORE, in music, the upper or coun- 
 ter-tenor part in music of several parts. Alto cliff', 
 the cliff placed on the third line of the stave. 
 Alto concertante, the tenor of the little chorus 
 which sings throughout. Alto primo, the first 
 or upper ulto, in distinction from the Alto 
 secondo, or lower alto. Alto ripieno, the 
 tenor of the great chorus which performs in the 
 full parts. Alto viola, the ssnall teuor of the 
 violin. 
 
 ALTO RELIEVO, in sculpture, a representation 
 of figures and other objects against a flat surface 
 or back ground, and differs from basso relievo 
 only in the work being much more relieved and 
 brought forward. 
 
 ALTOBELE, a lofty island of a sugar-loaf 
 shape, near the north of Hispaniola, long. 71. 18'. 
 W. lat. 17. 38'. N. 
 
 ALTOGETHER, adv. All; to; gather. See 
 GATHER. All collected, united, conjoined. Hence, 
 wholly, unitedly, completely. 
 
 It is in vain to speak of planting laws, and plot- 
 ing policy, till the people be altogether subdued. 
 
 Spenser's State of Ireland. 
 
 We find not in the world any people that hath lived 
 altogether without religion. Hooker. 
 
 If death and danger are tilings that really cannot 
 be endured, no man could ever be obliged to suffer 
 for his conscience, or to die for his religion ; it being 
 altogether as absurd to imagine a man obliged to suf 
 fer, as to do impossibilities. Soutf* 
 
 I do not altogether disapprove of the manner of in- 
 terweaving texts of scripture through the style of youi 
 sermon. Swift. 
 
 ALTO'MUNSTER, a market town in the 
 district of Aichart Bavaria, 20 miles north-west 
 of Munich . 
 
 ALTON, a parish and market town in the 
 hundred of that name, Hants, ten miles south- 
 west from Alresford, and from London forty- 
 seven miles west-south-west, containing 2500 
 inhabitants. The church, though small, is neat ; 
 and the town is composed of three streets, 
 standing on the river Wye. Manufactures of 
 serges and of druggets are carried on here to a 
 great extent ; and white yarn and worsted ar- 
 ticles of superior descriptions are also manu- 
 factured here. The town is almost surrounded 
 by hop plantations. It contains a presbyterian 
 and a quaker's meeting, and a famous free-school. 
 Market day, Saturday. 
 
 ALTONA, or ALTENA, a large city, two miles 
 west of Hamburgh, on the Elbe, in the lordship 
 of Pinneberg, and belonging to the crown of 
 Denmark. It was originally a village, but being 
 united, with the rest of Pinneberg, in 1640, to 
 the kingdom of Denmark, it so increased in 
 size as to receive, in 1664, the rights and pri- 
 vileges of a city. The present number of houses 
 is about 3120, and the inhabitants at least 30,000, 
 partly Lutheran, partly Calvinist, and partly 
 Catholic. Multitudes of Jews are also to be 
 met with, who pay yearly for their protection the 
 sum of 2000 ducats. The commerce in all 
 branches is considerable. The number of vessels 
 belonging to the harbour is upwards of 100 ; and 
 the most common destinations, exclusive of the 
 ports in the Baltic and North seas, are the Me- 
 diterranean, and the various fisheries for herring,
 
 A L V A. 
 
 703 
 
 cod, whales, and seals. Ship-building is an im- 
 portant employment here, and there are also 
 manufactures of velvet, silk, stuffs, calico, stock- 
 ings, leather, gloves, tobacco, vinegar, starch, 
 wax, and looking-glasses, with sugar refineries 
 and distilleries. The principal public establish- 
 ments are : an academy founded by Ckristian VII. 
 a library, a house of correction, and an orphan- 
 house. In 1713Altonawas, with the exception 
 of 100 houses, burned to the ground by the 
 Swedish general Steinbock. It is now beautifully 
 rebuilt. 
 
 ALTORF, in Switzerland. See ALTDORF. 
 
 ALTORF, a town of Germany, in the circle 
 of the Rezat, Bavaria. It contains 23 public 
 buildings, 223 dwelling houses, and (in 1803) 
 2070 inhabitants, of whom 220 belonged to the 
 now-suppressed university. The culture of hops 
 is extensively pursued by the inhabitants of this 
 town and neighbourhood ; and brewing is like- 
 wise an important branch of their industry. 12 
 miles east-south-east of Nuremberg, 34 east- 
 north-east of Anspach, Lon. 11. 20'. E. lat. 
 49. 23'. N. 
 
 ALTORF, a market town and upper bailiwick of 
 Suabia, in the kingdom of Wirtemberg, district 
 of the lake of Constance. It contains 100 inha- 
 bitants. 5 miles north-east of Wirtemberg. 
 
 ALTORF, a market town of Hungary, in the 
 county of Zyps, 18 miles north of Leutch. 
 
 ALTRANSTADT, a town in Saxony, famous 
 for the treaty between Charles XII. king of 
 Sweden and Augustus elector of Saxony, in 
 1 706, wherein the latter resigned the kingdom of 
 Poland. 
 
 ALTRAUCH, a market town of Moravia, in the 
 circle of Iglau, south of the town of Iglau. 
 
 ALTRINGHAM, or ALTKINCHAM, a market town 
 of Chester, on the canal from Runcorn to Man- 
 chester. It has several manufactories of yarn, 
 worsted, and cotton, an annual fair and a weekly 
 market. Population 2032. Distant from Knuts- 
 ford 7 miles, and 179 from London. 
 
 ALTUN KUPRI, or ALTOUN KOPRI, the Golden 
 Bridge, or many bridges, a town of Asiatic 
 Turkey, in the pachalic of Bagdad, situated on 
 the north bank of the Little Zab. A large 
 Turkish garrison is always kept here. Popula- 
 tion 2000. Distant about 210 miles from Bag- 
 dad, ninety south-east of Mosul. Long. 43. 
 20'. E. lat. 35. 45'. N. 
 
 ALTZEY, a town and upper bailiwick in the 
 grand duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, 
 lying on the Selsach, and formerly belonging to 
 the palatinate of the Rhine. It contains about 
 3051 inhabitants, and is twenty-three miles 
 north-west of Worms. 
 
 ALVA (Don Ferdinando Alvares de Toledo, 
 duke of Alva), was born in 1508, of an illustri- 
 <ms Spanish family, and made a general by 
 Charles V. at the early age of thirty. He re- 
 ceived his military education under his grand- 
 father, Frederic of Toledo, and was considered 
 as an officer of great promise. In 1542 he 
 defended Perpignan against the arms of France ; 
 and four years afterwards was appointed gene- 
 ralissimo of the imperial army. At the siege of 
 Metz, in 1552, he was entrusted with the chief 
 command uuder the emperor, and was not 
 
 long after appointed the emperor's vicar-genera! 
 in Italy ; but instead of driving the French from 
 Piedmont, he was obliged to conclude the cam- 
 paign with the surrender of part of it ; and m 
 the following year, by the resignation of Charles 
 in favour of his son, was transferred to a new 
 master. His military talents now appeared, united 
 with an unrelenting temper, and as much fero- 
 cious cruelty and oppression as ever stained the 
 page of history. After the general peace esta- 
 blished in Europe in 1559, the king of Spain 
 found leisure to attempt a more complete reduc- 
 tion of his revolted provinces of the Netherlands, 
 and determined to employ Alva to compel future 
 submission, and to punish past revolt. He en- 
 tered Brussels in August 1567, and his arrival 
 spread consternation and dtsmay over all the 
 provinces. The Prince of Orange, with many 
 thousands of less exalted character, left the 
 country, and happy would it have been for many 
 more had they followed their example. Counts 
 Egrnont and Horn, two of the most distinguished 
 patriots, were immediately imprisoned, tried, 
 and executed. In a short time the duchess of 
 Parma, the regent, obtained leave to quit her 
 government, and Alva was thus left at liberty to 
 act without responsibility or control. He had 
 not only allotted to him the command of the 
 army, but the presidency of the council of state, 
 of justice, and of the finances. To the protes 
 tants he allowed a month for leaving the country , 
 but die blood-hounds of the inquisition were 
 secretly set upon them, and ordered to seize their 
 prey. A council of twelve, called the council 
 of tumults, of which Alva constituted himself 
 president, assisted the court of inquisition 
 From his troops and his councils the people fled 
 in consternation, and 20,000 of them were in a 
 short time dispersed over France, England, and 
 Germany. In a few months nearly 2000 persons 
 had suffered by the hands of the executioner. 
 The details of the proceedings by which these 
 unfortunate victims of persecution were detected 
 and secured ; the atrocious injustice which met 
 them when dragged before the tribunal of ven- 
 geance ; and the tortures and agonies which 
 ingenious cruelty invented for their execution, 
 were never exceeded, if equalled, by any other 
 efforts of the holy office. To have once fre- 
 quented a protestant meeting was a sufficient 
 proof of guilt,which could not be atoned^orby any 
 subsequent abjuration of error ; and the slightest 
 punishment inflicted was hanging or drowning. 
 The members of the bloody council itself at last 
 began to be shocked at their own work, and se- 
 veral of them sought their dismission from office. 
 Out of the twelve there seldom assembled more 
 than three or four at a time of more hardened 
 hearts or more flaming zeal. The citizens of 
 Antwerp ventured to petition Alva to abate 
 the rigour of persecution ; but their request 
 was received with scorn by the haughty 
 bigot. Some of the catholic nobility presented 
 remonstrances to the king against the cruelty of 
 their governor ; but he was equally cruel and 
 bigoted. Even the exhortations of the head of 
 the church to moderation were disregarded, and 
 the inquisition continued the work of blood with 
 insatiable fury. The people were finally driven
 
 ALV 
 
 704 
 
 ALV 
 
 to seek relief in open rebellion to an authority 
 which they would otherwise have respected, and 
 found a leader happily in the prince of Orange. 
 He had been summoned to appear before Alva 
 when he entered the Netherlands ; but by his 
 prudent suspicion of the designs of that perfi- 
 dious chief saved himself from the fate of some 
 of his more unsuspecting companions. He now 
 prepared to oppose him in the field, and published 
 a manifesto, in which he declared the change that 
 had taken place in his religious sentiments, and 
 called upon the protestants to join him in the 
 overthrow of superstition and tyranny. He was, 
 however, unsuccessful in his first attempts, and 
 obliged to disband his army. Many of the per- 
 secuted, in the mean time, came to England, 
 where they enjoyed the freedom of religious 
 worship, and the benefits of political protection, 
 while they enriched their new country with the 
 introduction of various manufactures formerly 
 unknown to its inhabitants. The success of 
 Alva over the prince of Orange, and the congra- 
 tulations of the Pope for his efforts to suppress 
 heresy, now inspired him with increased arro- 
 gance, and led to those absurdities of wanton 
 despotism which produced the subsequent diffi- 
 culties of his administration, and eventually 
 established the republic of Holland. Heedless 
 of the people, who had hitherto been taxed by 
 their native princes, he determined to levy con- 
 tributions by his own authority, and to 'increase 
 the impositions to such an extent as not only to 
 provide for his present exigencies but lay up a 
 fund for the future. His religious persecutions 
 affected only a part of the states. This arbi- 
 trary proceeding threatened the whole, and united 
 them all in opposition to his authority. They 
 assembled and remonstrated. The prince of 
 Orange, seeing the general discontent, again pre- 
 pared for invasion ; and those who had been 
 driven into exile by persecution, fitted out armed 
 ships, and visited the coasts of their country as 
 enemies and pirates. They made prizes of all 
 the Spanish ships they met with on the English 
 or Flemish coasts. The revolt in North Holland 
 became general. A meeting of the states, held 
 at Dort, determined to acknowledge the prince 
 of Orange as their governor and commander of 
 their forces by sea and land. At last the Spanish 
 troops mutinied, and the fleet of the governor 
 was defeated by the rebel Zealand ers. Upon 
 this Alva solicited leave to retire ; and Philip, 
 seeing the little hopes of reducing the rebels 
 under such an unpopular chief, granted his re- 
 quest. He left the Netherlands accordingly in 
 1573, and retired to his estates until Philip 
 again commanded the assistance of his sword to 
 reduce the kingdom of Portugal. At the ad- 
 vanced age of seventyhe accomplished this service, 
 and did not long survive it. He died in 1582, 
 leaving few equals in this career of infamy in 
 modern times. See Robertsons Charles V. 
 Watson's Philip II. &c. 
 
 ALVA, a town and parish in Stirlingshire, on 
 the river Deveron, four miles north of Alloa ; 
 containing 200 houses and 1150 inhabitants. It 
 haj been long distinguished for the variety of 
 minerals with which it abounds. Some time 
 since, a valuable vein of silver-ore was wrought 
 
 here ; and considerable quantities of native mal- 
 leable silver have been dug. Cobalt, arsenic, 
 lead, copper, and iron, have also been discovered 
 at the foot of the hills. Extensive seams of coal 
 are now working. The town is seven mile* 
 north-east of Stirling, at the foot of the Ochil- 
 hills. The manufacture of serges and Scotch 
 blankets has been carried on here for more than 
 a century. 
 
 ALVA UE TORMES, a considerable towu 
 in Spain, in the province of Leon, with 
 strong castle formerly belonging to the famous 
 duke of Alva. It is seated on the north bank o 
 the river Tormes, twelve miles south-east of Sa- 
 lamanca, and was frequently occupied by the 
 British in the peninsular war of 1812. 
 
 ALVAR, a district of the province of Agra, 
 Hindostan, on the south-west of Delhi, situated 
 between the twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth 
 degrees of latitude. It has been called Mewat 
 by the Mahommedan historians. In the Ayeen 
 Acberry it is said to be capable of furnishing 
 6514 cavalry, and 42,020 infantry to the state. 
 This district is in a remarkably uncultivated 
 state. In modern times it has yielded a barba- 
 rous race of native soldiers, who were occasionally 
 subsidized by the various warlike chiefs of the 
 last century, for the purpose of spreading the 
 greater devastation in their marches. Its facili- 
 ties for agriculture, however, are not few. It 
 has the west side of the Jumna for its eastern 
 boundary, to an extent of about ninety miles, 
 and stretches westward about 130 miles from 
 that river. At present it is subject to the Ma- 
 cherry Rajah, who has fixed his capital at the 
 city of this name, and with whom a treaty of 
 alliance and friendship was concluded by the 
 British in 1803. 
 
 ALVAR, a city of Hindostan, in the province 
 of Agra, the capital of the district of Alvar, and 
 under the government of the Macherry Rajah. 
 It is strongly fortified, and stands about seventy- 
 seven miles south-south-west of Delhi, and 
 eighty-four north-west of Agra, in N. lat. 27. 
 41'. and E. long. 76. 40'. 
 
 ALVARES, a town of Portuguese Estrema- 
 dura. Inhabitants 1500. 
 
 ALVARID, or ALVARIUS, a judge among 
 the Spanish Moors. 
 
 ALVARADO, an abundant river and town of 
 Mexico, in the intendancy of Vera Cruz. The 
 former has its rise in the lofty ridges of the Table 
 Land, forty miles south-west of Guaxaca. It is 
 joined by several other streams, which swell it to 
 a large size, and near the town runs into the gulf 
 of Mexico, about twelve leagues south-south-east 
 of Vera Cruz. Long. 96. 54'. W. lat. 18. 40'. N. 
 
 ALVARISTS, in ecclesiastical history, a 
 branch of the Thomists, so called from their 
 leader Alvarez, who maintained the efficacy ot 
 divine grace, in distinction from the former, 
 who maintained its sufficiency. 
 
 ALUCIT./E, in entomology, a subdivision of 
 insects belonging to the genus of phalsena, and 
 of the lepidoptera order, in the Linnsan system ; 
 comprehending eight species. 
 
 ALUCO, or sacred owl, in ornithology, a species 
 of the owl, or strix, with rusty head, black 
 irides, and the primary wing-quills serrated at
 
 ALUM. 
 
 705 
 
 me edges. It is the la hulotte of Buffon, the 
 ulula of Briss. Gesn. and Aldr. the black owl 
 f Albin, and the brown owl of Pennant and 
 Lewin. Its cry, a kind of howl, resembling 
 that of wolves, furnished its name ulula, and 
 the German huhu, or hoo-hoo. It is said to be 
 considered as sacred by the Calmucks, for having 
 contributed to preserve the life of their great 
 monarch, Jenghis Khan. 
 
 ALUDELS, in chemistry, earthen tubes or 
 vessels used in sublimations. They are without 
 a bottom, and are fitted into one another as oc- 
 casion may require. At the bottom of the furnace 
 there is a pot holding the matter that is to be 
 sublimed ; and at the top there is a head to re- 
 ceive the flowers that sublime up. 
 
 ALVEARE, in conchology, a species of tro- 
 chus with a plicated nodulose shell, striated 
 transversely, and adorned with bands of con- 
 catenated points, funnel-shaped umbilicus, and 
 crenulated coluraella. Found in India; the 
 shell is coloured with a mixture of green and 
 white, pearly within. 
 
 ALVEARIUM, an alveary, or bee-hive, from 
 alveus, a cavity ; in allusion to the alveoli, or 
 cells in bee-hives. Some of the ancients use also 
 tfie word alvearium for a bee-house, more usually 
 called apiary. 
 
 ALVEARIUM, in anatomy, th bottom of the 
 toncha, or hollow of the auricle, or outer ear. 
 The alvearium auriculae is a cavity, terminating 
 at the meatus auditorius, wherein that bitter 
 yellowish excrement is collected, called cerumen, 
 or ear-wax. 
 
 ALVEARIUM, in literature, is used figuratively 
 for a collection. 
 
 ALVEOLARIS PROCESSUS, in anatomy, 
 another name for the maxillaria superiora ossa. 
 
 ALVEOLI, among naturalists, those waxen 
 cells in the combs of bees, wherein their honey is 
 deposited. 
 
 ALVEOLI, in anatomy, those little sockets in the 
 jaws, wherein the teeth are set. The alveoli are 
 lined with a membrane of exquisite sense, which 
 is wrapt about the roots of each tooth; from 
 whence, and from the nerve, proceeds that pain 
 called odontalgy, or tooth-ach. Of these alveoli 
 there are usually sixteen in each jaw. Some 
 writers speak of teeth growing without alveoli. 
 Holler gives an instance of a person, whose 
 teeth were of a piece with his jaws, without any 
 insertion into alveoli. 
 
 ALVEOLUS, in natural history, a sea fossil 
 of a conic figure, composed of a number of cells, 
 like bee-hives, joined into each other, with a pipe 
 of communication. 
 
 ALUESEN, in botany, the pucedanum, or 
 hog's-fennel. 
 
 ALVEUS, a channel, Lat., in anatomy, the 
 tumid lacteal branches arising from the recepta- 
 culum chyli, under the diaphragm. 
 
 ALVEUS, in antiquity, a small vessel, or boat, 
 tiade out of the trunk of a single tree, by boring 
 or cutting it hollow. Such was that wherein Ro- 
 mulus and Remus are said to have been exposed. 
 ALVIDUCA,fromalvus, the belly,and ducere, 
 to draw ; a term used for purgative medicines. 
 ALUM ; alumen, Lat. A kind of mineral 
 
 U, of an acid taste, leaving in the mouth 
 
 OL. I 
 
 a sense of sweetness, accompanied with a consi- 
 derable degree of astringency. We give the fol- 
 lowing definition from a valuable and standard 
 author : ' A massive mineral, of a blackish- 
 brown colour, a dull lustre, an earthy and some- 
 what slaty fracture, sectile, and rather soft. By 
 Klaproth's analysis it contains, charcoal 19.65, 
 silica 40, alumina 16, oxide of iron 6.4, sulphur 
 2.84, sulphates of lime and potash each 1.5, 
 sulphate of iron 1 .8, magnesia and muriate of 
 potash 0.5, and water 10.75. Under the form 
 of Alum-slate, it assumes two varieties; 1. 
 Common. This mineral occurs both massive and 
 in insulated balls of greyish-black colour, dull lus- 
 tre, straight slaty fracture, tabular fragments, streak 
 coloured like itself. Though soft it is not very 
 brittle. Effloresces, acquiring the taste of alum. 
 2. Glossy Alum-slate, which is a massive 
 mineral of a bluish-black colour. The rents 
 display a variety of lively purple tints. It has 
 a semi-metallic lustre in the fracture, which is 
 straight, slaty, or undulating. There is a soft 
 variety of it approaching in appearance to slate 
 clay. By exposure to air its thickness is pro- 
 digiously augmented by the formation of a saline 
 efflorescence, which separates its thinnest plates. 
 These afterwards exfoliate in brittle sections, 
 causing entire disintegration.' The ancient na- 
 turalists allow of two sorts of alum, natural and 
 factitious. The natural is found in the island of 
 Milo, being a kind of whitish stone, very light, 
 friable, and porous, and streaked with filaments 
 resembling silver. England, Italy and Flanders, 
 are the countries where alum is principally pro- 
 duced; and the English roche-alum is made 
 from a bluish mineral stone, in the hills of 
 Yorkshire and Lancashire. Saccharine alum is 
 a composition of common alum with rose water 
 and whites of eggs, boiled together to the con- 
 sistence of a paste, and thus moulded at pleasure. 
 As it cools, it grows hard as a stone. Burnt 
 alum, is alum calcined over the fire. Plumose 
 or plume alum is a sort of saline mineral stone, 
 of various colours, most commonly white, bor- 
 dering on green ; it rises in threads or fibres, 
 resembling those of a feather ; whence its name 
 from pluma, a feather. Chambers. By long 
 beating the white of an egg with a lump of alum, 
 you may bring it, for the most part into white 
 curds. Boyle. 
 
 Most of the alum to be met with is artificially 
 prepared, though sometimes it is produced na- 
 turally. This native alum is mixed with hete- 
 rogeneous matters, or effloresces in various forms 
 upon the ores during calcination. It rarely oc- 
 curs in a crystallized state, though it is said to 
 be thus met with in Egypt, Sardinia, Spain, Bo 
 hernia, and other places. It is also found in the 
 waters impregnated with fixed air, but very sel- 
 dom in fountains or hot medicated waters. There 
 are several kinds of alum to be met with; but 
 these differ from one another only in being mixed 
 with some salts which are not of die aluminous 
 kind. The Roman alum has been considered as 
 preferable to any other. It is usually met with 
 in small chrystals, and has a reddish colour, most 
 probably owing to a small quantity of calx of 
 iron, which, however, does not in the least im- 
 pair its qualities. The other kinds of alum con-
 
 706 
 
 ALUM. 
 
 tain a portion either of vitriolated tartar or sal 
 ammoniac, according to the nature of the alkali 
 used in its preparation. Sir Torbean Bergman 
 informs us, that the vegetable alkali, if pure, does 
 not hurt the alum, though it be added in the pre- 
 paration ; but that the volatile alkali, by adulte- 
 rating it with a portion of vitriolic sal ammoniac, 
 renders it unfit for some purposes. The alum 
 made by adding a portion of clay to the liquor, at 
 the beginning of the boiling, he considers as 
 equal if not superior to Roman alum. He in- 
 forms us also, that a kind of alum some time ago 
 began to be manufactured at Brunswick, which 
 was equal in quality to the Roman alum. 
 
 Alum mines are said to have been first found 
 in Italy, in 1460; and in the 16th century the 
 art of alum making was begun in Germany and 
 Spain, and a little before its conclusion works 
 were established at Whitby in England, by Sir 
 Thomas Chaloner, who had the honour of being 
 excommunicated, by the reigning Pope, on that 
 very account. King James I. by advice of his 
 ministry, assumed the monopoly of it himself, and 
 therefore prohibited the importation of foreign 
 alum ; and in 1625 the importation of it was fur- 
 ther prohibited by the proclamation of Charles I. 
 ' The greater part of this salt is factitious, being 
 extracted from various minerals, called alum 
 ores, such as, 1. Sulphurated clay. This con- 
 stitutes the purest of all aluminous ores, namely, 
 that of la Tolfa, near Civita Vecchia, in Italy. 
 It is white, compact, and as hard as indurated 
 clay, whence it is called petra aluminaris. It 
 is tasteless and mealy ; one hundred parts of 
 this ore contain above forty of sulphur and fifty 
 of clay, a small quantity of potash, and a little 
 iron. Bergman says it contains forty-three of 
 sulphur in one hundred, thirty-five of clay, and 
 twenty-two of silicious earth. This ore is first 
 torrefied to acidify the sulphur, which then acts 
 on the clay, and forms the alum. 2. The pyri- 
 taceous clay, which is found at Schwemsal in 
 Saxony, at the depth of ten or twelve feet. It 
 is a black and hard, but brittle substance, con- 
 sisting of clay, pyrites, and bitumen. It is 
 exposed to the air for two years ; by which means 
 the pyrites are decomposed, and the alum is 
 formed. The alum ores of Hesse and Liege are 
 of this kind ; but they are first torrefied, which 
 is said to be a disadvantageous method. 3. The 
 schistus aluminaris contains a variable proportion 
 of petroleum and pyrites intimately mixed with 
 it. When the last are in a very large quantity 
 this ore is rejected as containing too much iron. 
 Professor Bergman very properly suggested that, 
 by adding a proportion of clay, this ore. may 
 turn out advantageously for producing alum. 
 But if the petrol be considerable it must be 
 torrefied. The mines of Becket in Normandy, 
 and those of Whitby in Yorkshire, are of this 
 species. 4. Volcanic aluminous ore. Such is 
 that of Solf.itorra near Naples. It is in the form 
 of a white siline earth, after it has effloresced in 
 tin- air ; or olse it is in a stony form. 5. Bitu- 
 minous alum ore is called shale, and is in the 
 form of a schistus, impregnated with so much 
 oily matter, or bitumen, as to be inflammable. 
 It is found in Sweden, and also in the coal mines 
 at XVhiteliaven, and elsewhere.' 
 
 Alum is often manufactured from saline earthy 
 ores. The only place where this kind of ore is 
 formed, in sufficient abundance to be worth 
 working, is the Salfatara, a few miles from 
 Naples, called by the ancients, ' Forum Vulcani, 
 Campi Leucogei.' The white clayey soil of this 
 plain being constantly penetrated by sulphureous 
 vapours, and the exhalations during the night 
 being for the most part mixed with the dew, are 
 returned with it to the surface, and thus cause it to 
 be covered with a light saline efflorescence : this, 
 together with the earth to which it adheres, is 
 daily collected and distributed into leaden cal- 
 drons, so as to nearly fill them two-thirds full ; 
 water is then poured upon it till it stands about 
 3 or 4 inches above the surface of the clay, and 
 this in a few hours, by the assistance of the na- 
 tural heat of the ground, in which the caldrons 
 are set almost up to the brim, extracts the alum 
 from the clay, forms it in rough crystals on the 
 surface of the water, nearly in the mode that 
 copper is obtained. These crystals are then 
 taken out and worked in the first water ; after 
 which, fresh water is put into other boilers, and 
 the crystals are dissolved for the purpose of 
 purifying ; the solution is then filtered into 
 wooden coolers, and in a day or two affords 
 a large quantity of pure colourless crystals. 
 The author already alluded to describes alu- 
 mina as one of the primitive earths, which, as 
 constituting the plastic principle of all clays, 
 loams, and boles, was called argil, or the argil- 
 laceous earth ; but now, as being obtained in 
 greatest purity from alum, is styled alumina. It 
 was deemed elementary matter, till Sirll. Davy's 
 celebrated electro-chemical researches led to the 
 belief of its being, like barytes and lime, a me- 
 tallic oxide.' This author further relates, ' The 
 purest native alumina is found in the oriental 
 gems, the sapphire and ruby. They consist of 
 nothing but this earth, and a small portion of 
 colouring matter. The native porcelain clays 
 or kaolins, however white and soft, can never be 
 regarded as pure alumina. They usually con- 
 tain fully half their weight of silica, and fre- 
 quently other earths. To obtain pure alumina 
 we dissolve alum in twenty times its weight of 
 water, and add to it a little of the solution of 
 carbonate of soda, to throw down any iron which 
 may be present. We then drop the supernatant 
 liquid into a quantity of the water of ammonia, 
 taking care not to add so much of the aluminous 
 solution as will saturate the ammonia. The 
 volatile alkali unites with the sulphuric acid of 
 the alum, and the earthy basis of the latter is 
 separated in a white spongy precipitate. This 
 must be thrown on a filter, washed, or edulco- 
 rated, as the old chemists expressed it, by repeated 
 affusions of water, and then dried. Or if an 
 alum made with ammonia instead of potash, as 
 is the case with some French alums, can be got, 
 simple ignition dissipates its acid and alkaline 
 constituents, leaving pure alumina. 
 
 Alumina prepared by the first process is white, 
 pulverulent, soft to the touch, adheres to the 
 tongue, forms a smooth paste without grittiness 
 in the mouth, insipid, inodorous, produces no 
 change in vegetable colours, insoluble in water, 
 but mixes with it readily in every proportion,
 
 ALUM. 
 
 and retains a small quantity with considerable 
 force; is infusible in the strongest heat of a fur- 
 nace, experiencing merely a condensation of 
 volume and consequent hardness, but is in small 
 quantities melted by the oxyhydrogen blowpipe. 
 Its specific gravity is 2.000, in the state of 
 powder, but by ignition it is augmented. 
 
 Every analogy leads to the belief that alumina 
 contains a peculiar metal, which may be called 
 aluminum. The first evidences obtained of this 
 position are presented in Sir H. Davy's re- 
 searches. Iron negatively electrified by a very 
 high power, being fused in contact with pure 
 alumina, formed a globule whiter than pure iron, 
 which effervesced slowly in water, becoming 
 covered with a white powder. The solution of 
 this in muriatic acid, decomposed by an alkali, 
 afforded alumina and oxide of iron. By passing 
 potassium in vapour through alumina heated to 
 whiteness, the greatest part of the potassium be- 
 came converted into potash, which formed a 
 coherent mass with that part of the alumina not 
 decompounded ; and in this mass there were 
 numerous grey particles, having the metallic 
 lustre, which became white when heated in 
 the air, and which slowly effervesced in water. 
 In a similar experiment made by the same illus- 
 trious chemist, a strong red heat only being 
 applied to the alumina, a mass was obtained, 
 which took fire spontaneously by exposure to 
 air, and which effervesced violently in water. 
 This mass was probably an alloy of aluminum 
 and potassium. The conversion of potassium 
 into its deutoxide, dry potash, by alumina proves 
 the presence of oxygen in the latter. When re- 
 garded as an oxide, Sir H. Davy estimates its 
 oxygen and basis to be to one another as 15 to 
 33; or as 10 to 22. The prime equivalent of 
 alumina would thus appear to be 1.0 X 
 2.2=3.2. 
 
 But Berzelius's analysis of sulphate of alumina 
 seems to indicate 2.136 as the quantity of the 
 earth which combines with 5 of the acid. Hence 
 aluminum will come to be represented by 
 2.136 1 = 1.136. But we shall presently 
 shew that his analysis, both of alum and sulphate 
 of alumina, may be reconciled to Sir H. Davy's 
 equivalent prime = 3.2. That of aluminum will 
 become of course 2.2. 
 
 Alumina which has lost its plasticity by igni- 
 tion, recovers it by being dissolved in an acid or 
 alkaline menstruum, and then precipitated. In 
 this state it is called a hydrate, for when dried in 
 a steam heat it retains- much water ; and there- 
 fore resembles in composition wavellite, a beau- 
 tiful mineral, consisting almost entirely of 
 alumina, with about twenty-eight per cent, of 
 water. Alumina is widely diffused in nature. 
 It is a constituent of every soil, and of almost 
 every rock. It is the basis of porcelain, pottery, 
 bricks, and crucibles. Its affinity for vegetable 
 colouring matter is made use of in the prepara- 
 tion of lakes, and in the arts of dyeing and 
 calico printing. Native combinations of alumina 
 constitute the fuller's earth, ochres, boles, pipe- 
 clays, &c. 
 
 Alum is manufactured from alum stone, in con- 
 siderable quantities ; the alum known in commerce 
 under the name of Roman Levant or Smyrna alum, 
 
 is made at La Tolfa, riot far from Civita Vecchia, 
 in the Roman state. The ore forms veins of 
 considerable hardness, which are taken from die 
 rock by blasting. The pieces are carried to the 
 calcining oven, which is merely a hole dug in a 
 rising ground 4 or 5 feet in diameter, and from 
 5 to 6 in depth, with a side gallery communicat- 
 ing with the open air and the bottom of the fur- 
 nace; the bottom being covered with pieces of: 
 wood, on which the ore is laid so as to form a 
 hollow vault, between the openings of which 
 room is left for the smoke. The fire being kindled, 
 and the flame appealing between the pieces of 
 ore, a workman attends to keep it at a regular 
 heat. In about four hours the smoke decreases, 
 and the fire begins to burn brightly, which it is 
 suffered to continue till a strong smell of burn- 
 ing sulplnir arises. The ore is then sufficiently 
 roasted, the fire is put out, and the stones left to 
 cool. If this process has been properly con- 
 ducted, the ore obtains the sweet astringent 
 taste of alum. The second process is nearly si- 
 milar to the first mode pursued to obtain sulphate 
 of iron (green vitriol) : it begins by piling the 
 calcined stones in long beds on a sloping floor, 
 the lower side of which is terminated with a 
 ditch of water, having a clayey bottom : from 
 this ditch the beds are frequently sprinkled, and 
 the water drains from them again into the reser- 
 voir. In about fourteen days the stones begin 
 to crack and break down, and are in about 
 forty days overspread with a reddish efflores- 
 cence and reduced to a kind of paste : (perhaps 
 this might be much more speedily effected by 
 breaking down the ore in large mortars, crushing 
 it by mill-stones or by a pavior's beater, &c.) A 
 leaden boiler is now half filled with water, and, 
 when heated, fresh portions of the prepared ore 
 are continually stirred in till a solution of suffi- 
 cient strength is procured; the liquor, though yet 
 turbid, is drawn off into another boiler, where it 
 is gently evaporated, and clarifies itself by de- 
 positing its earth. Having arrived at the point 
 of crystallization it is transferred by means of a 
 pipe into a square wooden vessel, eight feet high 
 by five feet wide, so constructed as to be readily 
 taken to pieces ; after remaining in it a few days, 
 the mother water is poured out to be boiled 
 again with fresh alum ore in the first cauldron. 
 The crystals when dried are then ready for 
 sale. By the burning in the first part of this 
 process the stones are not only rendered porous, 
 as is the case with the lime-stone in burning, but 
 all the inflammable matter is driven away, as 
 in the smelting of lead ore : the sweet alumi- 
 nous taste is at the same time excited. The 
 subsequent crackling and breaking down, whilst 
 on the inclined plane in the second process, is 
 probably caused by their absorption of moisture. 
 The alum manufactured from pyritous ores, 
 which, with the foregoing, are the only alums 
 made in Europe, is prepared from aluminous 
 slate or earth ; and, as they possess that salt in a 
 very small degree, a more extensive process is 
 necessary for its extraction. This is begun by ex- 
 posing it to the action of the atmosphere, 
 which reduces it almost into the state of sulphate 
 of iron. As in England and Sweden this article 
 is obtained from a stony substance, a previous 
 2 Z 2
 
 708 
 
 ALUM. 
 
 roasting is necessary, which is performed in this 
 manner. A floor is formed of clay beat tight, 
 on which faggots or coals are placed, and set fire 
 to. Upon this the workmen throw, by degrees, 
 small pieces of ore unburnt, till a stratum is 
 formed about six inches thick. These soon take 
 fire by their own bitumen, and are then covered 
 with a stratum of ore, already burnt and lixivi- 
 ated, of the same thickness ; to this succeeds a 
 layer of unburnt ore, and thus they proceed 
 until they form about ten strata. The same care 
 to preserve an equal degree of heat is here to be 
 observed as in the mode practised at La Tolfa, 
 till the bitumen being all consumed the fire ceases 
 of itself. If the ore is now examined it will be 
 found to be of a reddish colour, from the same 
 reasons that in placing the sulphate of iron in a 
 *ed heat, it obtains and continues that colour, 
 and is then called colcothar. In some Swedish 
 manufactories it is accordingly lixiviated without 
 further preparation. In the alum works of the 
 English and Germans, the roasted ore is lightly 
 watered, but without the precaution used at La 
 Tolfa, of again receiving the liquor. It is like- 
 wise exposed for a greater or less time to the 
 action of the atmosphere, by which the sulphur 
 of the pyrites is more completely oxygenated, 
 and consequently a greater proportion of alum 
 obtained. At Flone, in the department of 
 Ourte in France, the excellent practice is ob- 
 served of lightly roasting the ore after sponta- 
 neous efflorescence. The acid being thus ex- 
 cited and united in part to the alumine, the 
 process of lixiviation begins. To effect this more 
 completely the ore is thrown into large reser- 
 voirs, either of stone or wood, which have false 
 bottoms, to serve the purpose of filters. Water 
 is then poured on and allowed to remain about 
 24 hours, in which time the greatest part of the 
 salts are dissolved. Eacli of these reservoirs are 
 furnished with a pipe, and a cork placed within 
 a few inches of the bottom, (attached in the same 
 manner as they are to the glue-makers' boilers) by 
 this the liquor is run off, after which fresh water 
 is poured on again. This second water is used 
 again for the first lixiviating liquor of another 
 parcel of ore. Both these lixiviations are per- 
 formed with cold water ; but it appears that great 
 improvement, by a saving of time, might be made 
 by boiling it. Should even the fuel increase the 
 expense, yet the frequency of renewal, as in the 
 distillation of whisky, might compensate that. 
 It is now boiled down in leaden boilers with the 
 mother water of a preceding boiling ; and the 
 waste of steam is supplied either by adding mo- 
 ther water or fresh liquor. The evaporation lasts 
 from twenty- four to forty-eight hours. In Saxony, 
 where it is concentrated very highly, it is 
 boiled eight days. At the end of these respec- 
 tive periods the strength of the liquor is tried by 
 a leaden hydrometer, or with still greater exact- 
 ness by filling a bottle of known size and weight 
 with the liquor arid then weighing them. When 
 it is sufficiently strong an alkaline solution is 
 added, and the first crystallization is brought 
 about. In the Saxon manufactories, as soon as 
 the evaporation is finished, the contents of a 
 boiler are let out into a reservoir, where they 
 are strongly agitated for half an hour ; in which 
 
 time a certain proportion of soap-makers' lees 
 and sour urine is added, and the liquor being 
 let into another vat the crystals of alum bet^in 
 immediately to be deposited. At the end of a 
 few days the mother water is ladled out, and the 
 crystals collected and washed. In the English 
 works, after examining by the hydrometer, if suf- 
 ficiently evaporated the fire is taken away, and 
 a stream of impure alkaline lixivium, from kelp 
 and soap-makers' ashes, poured into the boiler ; 
 at the same time the cork at the bottom is opened 
 and the liquor run off into a reservoir, by which 
 means a speedy and complete mixture is effected. 
 It remains in this reservoir three hours, when the 
 alkali makes it deposite an earthy and ferrugi- 
 nous sediment, which is the action of clearing 
 it. It is then transferred to another vessel, and 
 again proved, when a greater or less quantity ol 
 putrid urine is added, according as it is above 
 the standard; it is briskly stirred for about a 
 quarter of an hour, and then left to rest : in the 
 course of five days the crystals are deposited. 
 The rough alum is then washed, to free it 
 from the green vitriol, which is deposited with 
 it. It is boiled again, and when boiling, bul- 
 locks' blood, or other such substance, is throws 
 in to clear it: when this is effected, the liquor is 
 run into casks, where the crystals are deposited 
 in large masses. After ten or twelve days the 
 mother water is poured out, and the salt, after 
 drying, is ready for sale. The stone itself is found 
 in great quantities in some parts of the Lo- 
 thians, and in the neighbourhood of the Hurlet 
 Works near Paisley ; it abounds also in the Isle 
 of Sky, as has been proved from a late survey. 
 
 The most extensive alum manufactory in Great 
 Britain is at Hurlett, near Paisley. The next at 
 Whitby ; of the state and processes of which an 
 instructive account was published by Mr. Winter 
 in Nicholson's Journal. The stratum of alu- 
 minous schistus is said to be twenty-nine miles 
 in width, covered by strata of alluvial soil, sand- 
 stone, ironstone, shell, clay, &c. The alum schist 
 is generally disposed in horizontal laminae. The 
 upper part of the rock is so abundant in sulphur,, 
 that a cubic yard taken from the top of the 
 stratum is of five times more value than the 
 same bulk 100 feet below. 
 
 If a quantity of the schistus be laid in a heap, 
 and moistened with sea-water, it will sponta- 
 neously take fire, and continue to burn till the 
 inflammable matter be consumed. The rock, 
 however, is commonly broken into small pieces, 
 and laid on a horizontal bed of fuel, composed 
 of brushwood and such like materials. When 
 about four feet in height of the rock is piled on, 
 fire is set to the bottom, and fresh rock con- 
 tinually augmented upon the pile, until the 
 calcined heap be raised to the height of ninety 
 or one hundred feet. Its horizontal area also 
 at the same time, progressively extended, till I 
 forms a great bed nearly 200 feet square, having 
 about 100,000 yards of solid measurement. Thi 
 rapidity of the combustion is allayed by plastering 
 up the crevicos with moistened schist, 
 
 The calcined mineral is digested in water, i| 
 pits of about sixty cubic yards. The liquid n 
 drawn off into cisterns, and afterwards pumped 
 again upon fresh calcined minerals ; this is re-
 
 A I U M. 
 
 peated until the specific gravity becomes 1.15. 
 The half-exhausted schist is then covered with 
 water to take up the whole soluble matter, and 
 the strong liquor drawn off into settling cisterns, 
 where the sulphate of lime, iron, and earth are 
 deposited; and where the liquid is boiled its 
 purification is accelerated. It is then run into 
 leaden pans ten feet long, four feet nine inches 
 wide, two feet two inches deep at the one end, 
 and two feet eight inches at the other. Here the 
 liquor is concentrated at a boiling heat. Every 
 morning the pans are emptied into a settling 
 cistern, and a solution of muriate of potash, 
 cither pure from the manufacturer, or crude and 
 compound from the soap-boiler, is superadded. 
 The quantity of muriate necessary is regulated 
 for the workmen by the hydrometer. By this 
 addition the pan-liquor, which had acquired a 
 specific gravity of 1.4 or 1.5, is reduced to 1.35, 
 and, after being allowed to settle for two hours, 
 is run off into the coolers to be crystallized. At 
 a greater specific gravity than 1.35, the liquor, 
 instead of crystallizing, would, on cooling, pre- 
 sent us with a solid magma, resembling grease. 
 Urine is added occasionally to bring it to the 
 proper density. 
 
 After standing four days, the mother-waters 
 are drained off, to be pumped into the pans on 
 the succeeding day, and the crystals of alum 
 washed in a tub and drained. They are then 
 put into a lead pan, with as much water as will 
 make a saturated solution at the boiling point. 
 When the solution is run off into casks, which 
 at the end of ten or sixteen days are unhooped 
 and taken asunder, the alum is found exteriorly 
 in a solid cake ; but in the interior cavity in 
 large pyramidal crystals, consisting of octahe- 
 drons successively inserted into one another. 
 This last process is called roching. 
 
 Alum is extremely useful in the art of dyeing; 
 as by means of it a great number of colours are 
 fixed and rendered permanent upon cloth, which 
 otherwise would either not adhere in any degree, 
 or only for a very short time. In what- manner 
 this is accomplished we are ignorant. See the 
 conjectures and theories on this subject under 
 DYEING. It constitutes the basis of crayons, 
 which generally consist of the earth of alum 
 finely powdered and tinged for the purpose. In 
 the preparation of Prussian blue, it prevents the 
 basis of martial vitriol, which is soluble in acids, 
 from being precipitated by the superfluous alkali 
 employed in the preparation of that pigment; 
 that is, the alkali which is not saturated by the 
 colouring matter. As this basis adheres more 
 strongly than the clay to the vitriolic acid, and 
 would form a green by the mixture of its yellow- 
 ness, the white earth of alum likewise, accord- 
 ing to its quantity, dilutes the darker colours, 
 even black itself, and produces an infinite num- 
 ber of shades. 
 
 ALUM, in medicine, is of considerable use as 
 an astringent and tonic. It is reckoned particu- 
 larly serviceable for restraining haemorrhages, 
 and immoderate secretions from the blood ; but 
 less proper in intestinal fluxes. In violent 
 haemorrhages it may be given in doses of fifteen 
 or twenty grains, and repeated every hour or 
 half hour till the bleeding abates : in other cases, 
 doses are more adviseable, large ones 
 
 709 
 
 being apt to nauseate the stomach, and occ*. 
 sion violent constipation of the bowels. It 13 
 used also externally, in astringent and repellen 
 lotions and collyria. Burnt alum taken inter- 
 nally has been highly extolled in cases of cholic. 
 In such instances, when taken to the extent of a 
 scruple for a dose, it has been said gently to 
 move the belly, and give very great relief from 
 the severe pain. Its officinal preparations are, 
 for external use, pulvis stypticus, and aqua styp- 
 tica; for internal applications, the aqua aluminis, 
 and coagulum aluminis and alumen ustum; 
 which last is no other than the alum dried by 
 fire, or freed from the watery moisture, which, 
 like other salts, it always retains in its crystalline 
 form. By this loss of its water it becomes 
 sharper, so as to act as a slight escharotic ; and 
 it is chiefly with this intention that it is employed 
 in medicine, being very rarely taken internally. 
 Alum is used in large quantities in various 
 manufactories. When added to tallow, it renders 
 it harder. Printers' cushions, and the blocks 
 used in the calico manufactory, are rubbed with 
 burned alum to remove any greasiness, which 
 might prevent the ink or colour from sticking. 
 Wood sufficiently soaked in a solution of 
 alum does not easily take fire, and the same 
 is true of paper impregnated with it; which 
 for that reason is very properly employed in 
 preserving gunpowder, as it also excludes the 
 moisture of the air. Paper impregnated with 
 alum is used in whitening silver, and silvering 
 brass without heat. Alum is also of use in tan- 
 ning, which it assists in restoring the cohesion of 
 the skins almost entirely destroyed by lime. 
 Vintners fine down their wines, &c. with alum ; 
 fishers use it to dry cod-fish with ; and bakers 
 have mixed it with the flour to make their 
 bread compact and white ; to this last use of it 
 great objections have been made, but unjustly, 
 for it is entirely innocent Alum mixed 
 in milk helps the separation of butter ; and if 
 added in a very small quantity to turbid water, 
 renders it perfectly limpid, without any bad taste 
 or quality ; while the sulphuric acid imparts to 
 it a sensible acidity, and does not precipitate so 
 soon, or so well, the opaque earthy mixtures. 
 
 Brunswick alum was made to imitate the rock' 
 alum. Now as this last is often used in medi- 
 cine, and frequently the first, which contains 
 arsenic, is mistaken for it, an easy method, 
 therefore of detecting the counterfeit may be 
 useful to society : the external appearance dif- 
 fers but little ; the taste of the Brunswick is less 
 styptic ; it is not so soluble in water, and when 
 heated to redness, loses only 39.5 per cent, of its 
 first weight, whilst the rock loses one half. 
 When this last is exposed to the blow-pipe, it 
 becomes opaque, swells, Foams, and is converted 
 to a white spongy mass. The Brunswick swells 
 less, foams very little, but melts, and becomes ot 
 a greenish colour, exhaling an arsenical vapour. 
 The rock alum being precipated by potash or 
 soda, and mixed with borax, fuses before the 
 blow-pipe into a white or yellowish white : the 
 Brunswick gives a violet coloured globule ; and, 
 in fact, it is nothing but common alum with a 
 small proportion of arsenic and cobalt. 
 
 ALUMGURNAGHUR, the Mahommedan 
 name of Beyhar, a city of Bengal, and of a for-
 
 ALV 
 
 710 
 
 ALY 
 
 tress which stood formerly on the banks of the 
 
 Megna. 
 ALUMINITE is a mineral of a snow-white 
 
 colour, dull, opaque, and having a fine earthy 
 
 fracture, found chiefly in the alluvial strata round 
 
 Halle, in Saxony. I', has a glistening streak ; 
 
 found in kidney-shaped pieces, which are soft to 
 
 the touch, and adhere slightly to the tongue. 
 
 Specific Gravity, 1.67. 
 
 It consists of sulphuric acid . . 19.25 
 Alumina, . . 32.50 
 Water . . . 47.00 
 
 Silica, lime, and oxide of iron . 1.25 
 
 100.00 
 
 ALUMTA, in botany, a name given by the 
 old Latin writers to the lutum and corniola, by 
 the Greeks called cymene. It was the same 
 with our genistella tinctoria, or dyers' weed, 
 and was used by the ladies to tinge their hair 
 yellow, the colour that was then esteemed 
 beautiful. 
 
 ALUNGU, in natural history, the name given 
 by the Malabarians to a species of the manis of 
 Linnseus, and belonging to the family of ant- 
 eaters, which have no teeth, but a long round 
 tongue with which they take the ants.' 
 
 ALUNKAN, or ARROUKAGE, in geography, 
 a town of Prussia, in the province of Zabulistan, 
 100 miles south of Candahar. 
 
 ALUNTIUM, ALONTIUM, in ancient geogra- 
 phy, a town in the north of Sicily, situated on a 
 steep eminence at the mouth of the Clydas ; said 
 to be as old as the war of Troy. It is now in 
 ruins ; from which arose the hamlet St. Filadelfo, 
 in the Val di Demona. 
 
 ALVOR, in geography, a small place with an 
 earldom in the province of Algarve, between 
 Villa Nova de Portimao and Lagos. 
 
 ALVOREDO, an island of South America, 
 on the coast of Paraguay, three leagues south of 
 St. Catharine's island. S. lat. 27. 43'. W. long. 
 49. 16'. 
 
 ALVORNINHA, or ALBURNINHA, a small 
 town of Portugal, in Estremadura, containing 
 about 1500 inhabitants. 
 
 ALURNUS, in entomology, a genus of insects 
 of the order coleoptera, with filiform antennae, 
 six very short palpi or feelers, and horny arched 
 maxilla or jaw. There are three species, viz. 
 1. A. grossus, black, with crimson thorax and 
 yellow elytrae, found in South America and In- 
 dia. 2. A. femoratus, of a green-reddish colour, 
 with the hinder thighs and legs dentated, the te- 
 nebrio femoratus of Drury, and the tenebrio 
 viridis of Sultzer, found in India, with the an- 
 tennae half the^length of the body, and the last 
 joints black. 3. A. dentipes, black, with the 
 hinder thighs and legs dentated, and found at the 
 Cape of Good Hope 
 
 ALUSAR, in chemistry, manna. 
 
 ALUSH. SeeALLusH. 
 
 ALUSHMA CARAMANICA, in botany, a plant 
 growing in Caramania, and a preparation of that 
 plant or pigment made from it. It occurs often 
 m the writings of Avicenna and Serapion. 
 
 ALUTA, in medicine, soft, thin, leather, used 
 for plasters. 
 
 ALVUS, in anatomy, a term u,ed for the belly 
 
 in general, but very frequently applied to the 
 bowels. 
 
 A i.vus ADSTRICTA, a costive state of the belly. 
 
 ALVUS LIQUIDA, a laxative state of the viscera. 
 
 AL'WAYS, adv. All ways, or al-way. ' Alia 
 wa?ga. Ital. tutta vui. Constantly, perpetually ; 
 under all circumstances or conditions. 
 
 That, which sometimes is expedient, doth not al- 
 way $ so continue. Hooker. 
 Man never is, but always to be blest. Pope. 
 For every trifle scorn to take offence, 
 That always shows great pride, or little sense ; 
 Good nature and good sense should ever join . 
 To err is human, to forgive divine. Id. 
 
 He is always great, -when some great occasion is 
 presented to him. . Dryden. 
 
 ALYGHEN. See ALLIGHEN. 
 
 ALYPIAS, or ALYPON, in the materia me- 
 dica, a species of turbith, prescribed by some 
 physicians for the purging of bile, grows in se- 
 veral parts of France, particularly in Provence 
 and Languedoc. It is a kind of senna. 
 
 ALYPIUS, a platonic philosopher of Alexan- 
 dria, in the fifth century, remarkably small in 
 stature, but of a strong mind, and one of the 
 best dialecticians of his time. 
 
 ALYPIUS, an architect and geographer of An- 
 tioch, employed by Julian, in his attempt to 
 rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. At the close 
 of life he was charged with magical practices, 
 and banished. His geographical description of 
 the world was printed at Geneva in 1628. 
 
 ALYPIUS, bishop of Tagasta, in Africa, the 
 friend of St. Augustine, was baptized with him 
 at Milan in 388. He opposed the Donatists and 
 Pelagians with great zeal, and died in 430. 
 
 ALYPUM, in botany, a name given by some 
 authors to a species of spurge, the tithymalus 
 amygdaloides angustifolius, or narrow-leaved 
 almond spurge of Tournefort. Alypum is like- 
 wise a name given by some authors to a species 
 of dog's-bane, the purple flowered sea apocynum 
 of Venice, with willow-like leaves. Alypum is 
 applied also to the globularia of Linnaeus. 
 
 ALYPUM, in medicine dXvirov, a word used by 
 Galen, for a minorative, or opening medicine, 
 
 ALYSSUM, ALLYSON, or ALLYSOIDES, mad- 
 wort ; from a\vaata, to be mad ; because it was 
 believed to have the property of curing madness. 
 A genus of the siliculosa, belonging to the tetra- 
 dynamia class of plants; and in the natural me- 
 thod ranking under the 39th order, siliquosa. 
 CHAR, are: calyx, an oblong four-leaved perian- 
 thium : COR. four cruciform petals ; with claws 
 the length of the calyx, the petals shorter : STAM. 
 consists of six filaments the length of the 
 calyx, two of them rather shorter and denticu- 
 lated : ANTH. are erect and expanding: FIST, an 
 ovate germen: STY. simple, and the length of 
 stamina : STIG. obtuse : PER. a sub-globular 
 emarginated silicic, furnished with a bilocular 
 stylus, having an elliptic partition: the seeds 
 few, orbicular, and fixed to filiform receptacles. 
 Of this genus, Linnaeus enumerates 19 species; 
 but none of them are remarkable except the fol- 
 lowing : A. halimfiolium, or madwort, with 
 whole spear-shaped leaves. It is not now used 
 in medicine. 
 
 ALYTARCHIA, a priest of Antioch in Syria, 
 who, in the games instituted in honour of the
 
 AM 
 
 711 
 
 AMA 
 
 gods, presided over the officers who carried rods 
 to clear away the crowd and keep order. In the 
 Olympic games, the alytarchs had the same com- 
 mand, and obliged every person to preserve 
 order and decency. 
 
 ALYTH, a parish in Perthshire, on the north 
 side of Strathmore ; about twelve miles long, 
 and three broad, (at an average) ; stretching 
 from south to north towards the Grampians. It 
 is watered by the Isla, the Ericht, and the 
 Alyth ; and the low ground of it is extremely 
 fertile, producing excellent crops of barley, oats, 
 and wheat ; with grass, turnips, potatoes, &c. 
 Also Alyth, a rivulet of Perthshire, which rises in 
 the upper part of the parish. 
 
 ALYTH, a village in Perthshire, which was erected 
 into a burgh or barony by king James III. and 
 contained 2000 inhabitants. The principal ma- 
 nufactures are yarn and brown linens. 
 
 ALZACHI, in the Materia Medica, the name 
 given, by the Arabian physicians, to that kind 
 of gourd called citrul, and by the Italians 
 anguria. It is an oblong, and usually crooked 
 gourd, containing in its cavity a considerable 
 quantity of water. Its seeds are oblong, flatted 
 and covered with a hard skin. 
 
 ALZAGIAT, or AEZEGE, a name giveu by the 
 Arabian writers to all the vitriolic minerals. 
 
 ALZARAC, a kind of coarse camphor, of a 
 brown colour ; the same with our rough camphor 
 as imported from the Indies. 
 
 ALZEMAFOR, in chemistry, cinnabar. 
 
 ALZILAT, in medicine, a weight of three 
 grains. 
 
 ALZOFAR, in chemistry, burnt copper. 
 
 ALZUM, or ALDUM, in botany, a name given 
 by the ancients to the tree which produces the 
 gum bdellium, called by the Arabians mokel. 
 
 AM. The first person, present tense, indicative 
 mood, of the verb to be. It is remarkable that 
 the verb corresponding to this, is irregular and 
 auxiliary in many languages. The Gothic, Saxon, 
 and German tongues, are those from which the 
 principal forms in English are derived. Gothic, 
 Ik im, thee is, is est, Wus syum, Ik Was, Wus, 
 \vesum, are the archetypes of our present im- 
 perfect tenses. To similar originals we may 
 refer the remaining forms, for which, see the 
 grammars of the above-named languages, and 
 their northern affinities. 
 
 What ? do I feare my selfe ? There's none else by, 
 
 Richard loues Richard, that is, I am I, 
 
 Is there a murtherer heere ? No ; yes, I am. 
 
 Shahspeare't King Richard III. 
 SES. Thou bors't the face once of a noble gen- 
 tleman, 
 
 Rankt in the first file of the virtuous, 
 By every hopeful spirit. 
 
 Tell me, Virolet, 
 
 If shame have not forsook thee, with thy credit. 
 
 VlK. No more of these lacks; what I am, lam. 
 
 Beau, and Fletch. Double Marriage, act iii. 
 
 And God said unto Moses, I am that I am : and 
 
 !ie said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of 
 
 Israel, I am Lath sent me unto you. Ejcodtts iii. 14. 
 
 Come then, my soul : I call thee by that name, 
 Thou busy thing, from whence I know I am : 
 for knowing that I am, I know ihou At ; 
 Since that must needs exist, \\Litli tan impart. 
 
 Prior. 
 
 ' I am be*ter thap thou,' raises the furious and 
 Moody contestations for precedency : ' I am holier than 
 thou,' causes a contemptuous separation from company 
 perhaps better than ourselves : ' I am wiser than 
 thou,' is guilty of all the irregular opinions that the 
 world is disquieted withal. 
 
 Bp. Hall's Peace Maker. 
 
 AM, in geography, supposed to be the pre- 
 sent Am, a famous city of Armenia, where they 
 formerly reckoned 100,000 houses, and about 
 1000 mosques. It was taken by the Tartars in 
 1219, and is now considerably reduced. 
 
 AMA, AME, or rather AMES, <z/t*), in me- 
 dicine, a sort of cake. Aretaeus used' this word, 
 to express the quantity of hellebore which is 
 sufficient for a dose in strong constitutions, when 
 given in a vertigo. 
 
 AMA, AMULA, or HAMA, in ecclesiastical 
 writers, a vessel wherein wine, water, or the like 
 were held, for the service of the eucharist. 
 
 AMA in commerce, a wine measure, a cask, 
 pipe, or the like. 
 
 AMABYR, in ancient customs, a price paid 
 to the lord of the manor on marrying a virgin of 
 his tenantry. * Pretium virginitatis domino sol- 
 vendum.' It once prevailed in many parts of 
 England and Wales, and so late as the 3d of 
 Philip and Mary, we find Henry, earl of Arun- 
 del, releasing to his tenants this right. 
 
 AMACHURA, a river of the province of 
 Cumana, in South America, which empties itself 
 northward in the principal mouth of the Orinoco. 
 
 AMACK, or AMAK, a small island of the 
 Baltic, joined to Copenhagen, on the south, by 
 two bridges, was colonized originally from East 
 Friesland, by Christian II. in 1516, for the pur- 
 pose of supplying the inhabitants of the capital 
 of Denmark, with butter, cheese, and herbs, and 
 is to this day principally appropriated to the 
 same purpose. The inhabitants preserve much 
 of their original dress and manners, which are 
 said to resemble those of the society called 
 Friends ; and, indeed, their particular privileges, 
 courts of judicature, &. tend to preserve these 
 distinctions, although intermarriages are con- 
 stantly taking place between them and their 
 neighbours. The island is about four miles 
 long, and two broad ; has some quarries for lime, 
 and stone for building ; and contains about 
 3,500 souls, who are distributed among six diffe- 
 rent villages. A portion of this capital, called 
 Christian's haven, (from its being principally 
 built by Christian IV.) is erected upon the shore 
 of this island. The inlet between Amack and the 
 main land, from the harbour of COPENHAGEN, 
 which see. 
 
 AMACORE, a large river of South America, 
 in the province of Guiana, which descends from 
 the western Cordillera, and, running eastward, 
 bordered by beautiful trees, after being joined by 
 several other rivers, falls into the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 AMACUSIA, a city and province of Japan, 
 near the island of Ximo. 
 
 AMADABAT, a corruption from AHMED 
 ABA D, or AHMED'S city. 
 
 AMADAN, or HAMADAN. See HAMADAN. 
 
 AMADANAGER, or AN DAN ACER. See AH ME- 
 
 DNUGGAR. 
 
 AMADEUS V. count of Savoy, succeeded to 
 the sovereignty, in 1282, and obtained the sur-
 
 AMA 
 
 712 
 
 AMA 
 
 name of ' the great. His possessions were 
 much enlarged by marriage, purchase, and do- 
 nation. In defending Rhodes against the Turks, 
 in 1311, he gained distinguished honour; and, in 
 memory of this service, he and his successors 
 took for their device, F. E. R. T. the initials of 
 the Latin words, ' Fortitudo ejus Rhodum te- 
 nuit,' i e. ' His valour preserved Rhodes.' The 
 grand master of the knights of St. John, to whom 
 Rhodes belonged, granted him a palace at Lyons 
 as a reward of his effectual succour. He died, 
 after a reign of 38 years, in 1323, at Avignon, 
 where he was soliciting pope John XXII. to 
 publish a crusade in favour of Andonicus, em- 
 peror of the East, who had married his daughter. 
 He was much loved and honoured by all the 
 sovereigns of Europe, and was generally the me- 
 diator in their differences. Mod. Univ. Hist. 
 vol. xxxiv. p. 16. 
 
 AMADEUS VIII. count of Savoy, succeeded 
 his father, Amadeus VII. in 1391, and acquired 
 the titles of the ' Pacific/ and ' the Solomon of 
 the age.' In 1416 Savoy was erected by the 
 emperor into a duchy ; but after this elevation, 
 Amadeus formed the resolution of retiring from 
 his throne and family, into a religious house, at 
 a place called Ripaille. In his retreat, which he 
 had sought, according to the opinion of the 
 world, from religious motives, he devoted him- 
 self to every kind of pleasure and luxury, so 
 that faire repailles, became proverbial to signify 
 a life of exquisite gratification and indulgence. 
 Here he instituted the order of St. Maurice, or 
 the Annunciata, consisting of a number of her- 
 mits, who excluded women from their commu- 
 nity, but in other respects maintained the cha- 
 racter of Epicureans, and votaries of pleasure. 
 Here also Amadeus aspired to the papacy, and 
 employed large sums of money at the council of 
 Basil, to secure the object of his ambition. Ac- 
 cordingly, in 1439, this council having deposed 
 pope Eugenius IV. conferred the triple crown 
 on Amadeus (though he had never taken holy 
 orders), under the name of Felix V. A schism 
 was the consequence of this extraordinary elec- 
 tion; and Eugenius at length excommunicated 
 his rival. On his death, Amadeus was per- 
 suaded to abdicate, and a new pope was chosen 
 in his room. ' His resignation was amply re- 
 compensed, by the dignities of cardinal, bishop, 
 and apostolical legate, and by his being allowed 
 to retain most of the pontifical insignia. He 
 died, at the age of 69, in 1451, at Lausanne. 
 Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. xxxiv. p. 78. 
 
 AMADEUS IX. count of Savoy, was su-rnamed 
 the ' happy,' on account of his virtue and piety. 
 He succeeded Lewis, in 1464 ; and, though his 
 bodily infirmities prevented his engaging in any 
 great exploits, acquired and maintained a very 
 exemplary character. He was eminently dis- 
 tinguished by the benevolence of his disposition. 
 Being once asked by a courtier, * whether he 
 kept hounds ?' he pointed to a gieat number of 
 poor people, who were seated at tables, eating 
 and drinking, and replied, ' those are my hounds, 
 with whom I go in chace of heaven.' When 
 told that his- alms would exhaust his revenues: 
 ' Take the collar of my order,' he said, ' sell it, 
 and relieve my people.' He married lolande of 
 
 France, who concurred with him in all his good 
 deeds. His death, in 1472, at the age of 37, and 
 after a reign of seven years, was universally re- 
 gretted. Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. xxxiv. p. 83. 
 
 AMADIA, an important town and fortress of 
 Kurdistan, in Asia, on a lofty mountain, at the 
 base of which is a plain covered with dependent 
 villages. Its prince, or governor, is descended 
 from the caliphs of Bagdad. Only one ascent, 
 by a narrow flight of steps, cut out of the rock, 
 leads up from below. The town, which has 
 considerable trade, is 72 miles north of Mouel. 
 
 AMADOU, in natural history, is a variety of 
 the boletus igniarius, found on old ash and other 
 trees. When boiled in water to extract its so- 
 luble parts, and beaten with a mallet to loosen its 
 texture, it has the appearance of very spongy doe- 
 skin leather. It is now impregnated with a so- 
 lution of nitre, and dried, when it is called 
 spunk, or German tinder; and is a substance 
 much used on the continent for lighting fires. 
 
 AMAGUANA, a town and river of South 
 America, in Quito. The river rises on the west 
 side of the Andes, in the desert of Ilinissa, and 
 after running northward, joins the Esmeralda, 
 near St. Antonio, and falls into the Pacific. The 
 town is 10 miles south of Quito. 
 
 AMAIN, adv. Ang. Sax. CDajan, to possess 
 power or might; past participle CDagen, might, 
 with all might. Power, strength. 
 
 When stars doe counsel] rest 
 Incroching cares renue my griefe as faste, 
 And thus desired night in wo I waste : 
 And to expresse the harts excessive paine, 
 Mine eies their deawie teares distill amaine. 
 
 Turbenille. 
 
 Great lords, from Ireland am I come amain, 
 To signify that rebels there are up. Shaksp, 
 
 What! when we fled amain, pursued, and struck 
 With heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 
 The deep to shelter us ? Milton, 
 
 The hills, to their supply, 
 Vapour and exhalation, dusk and moist, 
 Sent up amain. Id. 
 
 From hence the boar was rous'd, and sprung amain, 
 Like light'ning sudden, on the warriour train, 
 Beats down the trees before him, shakes the ground ; 
 The forest echoes to the crackling sound, 
 Shout the fierce youth, and clamours ring around. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 From step to step the rolling ruin bounds : 
 At every shock the crackling wood resounds ; 
 Still gathering force, it smokes and urg'd amain, 
 Whirls, leaps, and thunders down impetuous to the 
 plain. Pope's Iliad, xiii. 197. 
 
 AMAIN, or AMAYNE, in sea language, a term 
 importing to lower something, either at once, or 
 by degrees. Thus, to strike amain, is to lower, 
 or let fall the top-sails ; to wave amain, is to 
 make a signal, by waving a drawn sword, or the 
 like, as a demand that the enemy strike their 
 top-sails ; which is done either in the fore-top, 
 or on the poop. 
 
 AMAISTRE , v. To master. See MASTER. 
 
 Plato had a cause his seruaunt to scourge, and yet 
 cleaped he his neighbour, to perfourme the doing 
 himselfe would not, least wrath had him amaistred, 
 and so might he haue laid on too much. 
 
 Cliaucer. Test of Loue,M. 305. c. iv. 
 
 Is he not rich that hath suffisance, and half yo 
 power that no man may amaittrein. Id. fol. 305. c. ii'
 
 713 
 
 AMA 
 
 AMAK, or ABULNAGIE AL BOKHARJ, a cele- ruler of Edom, and the successor of Oatam in 
 brated poet of Persia. H,s principal produc- the government of the Edomites ; unless, as is 
 turn is a poetical History of the Loves of Joseph probable, all the seven rulers, mentioned Gen 
 
 2fe T.-?? f rSt r e Su nt f XXXVL 15 ' - 16 ' were -temporary. Some authors 
 
 suppose him to have been the progenitor of the 
 Amalekites; but this is improbable. Seethe arti- 
 cle AMALEKITES. 
 
 AMALEK, the son of Ham, and grandson of 
 
 the academy of poets, instituted in the fifth cen- 
 tury, by Khedar Khan. He lived to an advanced 
 age. 
 
 AMALAGANOR,or ISLAND of CONCEPTION. 
 
 f . 1 T 1 1 i 
 
 PVTJ i . . ' ixc*.iij in n tiiaijuauii \jl 
 
 one of the Ladrone isles about six miles in cir- Noah, according to the Arabians, the progenitor 
 
 of the Amalekites, and the father of Ad, a cele- 
 brated Arabian prince, the head of the Arabian 
 tribe, called Adites, and'the grandfather of Sche- 
 
 Long. 
 
 cuit, and three and a half from Gugnan. 
 128. 14.E. lat 18. IG'.N. 
 
 AMALARIC, or AMAURY, king of the Visi 
 goths, was the son of Alarjc II.; but being an dad and I Schedid." 'See next "articTe! 
 
 infant of five years, at his father's death, in 506, 
 the throne was usurped by Gensaliac, the natural 
 
 AMALEKITES, a people of Arabia, long 
 ago exterminated. Some authors trace their 
 
 son of Alaric. Amalaric, in the meanwhile, origin from Amalek, ruler of Edom, and pretend 
 
 was taken into Spam ; and his grandfather, The- to account for their early antipathy to the Israel- 
 
 odoric, king of the Ostrogoths, having expelled ites, from their revenge for Jacob's having de- 
 
 Gensaliac from the throne, reigned over the Visi- prived Esau of his birth-right ; but these writers 
 
 goths also, till his death, in 526, when Amalaric seem to forget that Moses mentions the Amale- 
 
 assumed the government. This prince was zea- kites as a distinct nation in the time of Abraham, 
 
 lously attached to the Arian doctrine and cause, Gen. iv. 7; and expressly says, that their coun- 
 
 and as he had married Clotilda, the daughter of try was ravaged by the four combined kingg, 
 
 Clovis, who inherited the piety and orthodoxy of Amraphel, Arioch, Chedorlaomer, and Tidal, at 
 her mother, he used various means, and as the 
 
 Catholic historians say, those of violence, to 
 proselyte her to his own opinion. In conse- 
 quence of her complaints, her brother, Childe- 
 bert, king of France, marched with a numerous 
 army into the territories of Amalaric, defeated 
 him in an engagement, and forced him to take 
 refuge on board his fleet. But recollecting that 
 his treasures were left in the city of Narbonne, 
 Amalaric went on shore, where he was surprised 
 by the enemy ; and seeking safety in a church 
 belonging to the Catholics, a con.mon soldier 
 ran him through with a spear, A. D. 531. Some 
 say that he retired to Barcelona, and was 
 assassinated by his own subjects. Mod. Univ. 
 Hist. vol. xvi. 
 
 AMALASONTHA, regent and queen of Italy, 
 was the daughter of Theodoric the Great, king 
 of the Ostrogoths, by Audefleda, the sister of 
 Clovis, and united in her person the two most 
 illustrious families of the barbarians. She was 
 born about the year 498, and in 515 was married 
 to Eutharic, the last heir of the royal race of the 
 Amali, whom her father had sent from Spain, 
 and designed for his successor, as the sex of his 
 daughter excluded her from the Gothic throne. 
 Eutharic soon died, and left an infant son, Atha- 
 
 least 200 years before the birth of Amalek the 
 Edomite. Balaam, too, in his prophecy, Numb, 
 xxiv. 20, styles them the first of nations. We 
 rather adopt the opinion of the Arabians, who 
 trace their descent from a son of Ham, see last 
 article. The earliest account we have of this 
 nation, after the depredations committed upon 
 them by Chedorlaomer and his allies, A. M. 
 2091, is their uprovoked and cowardly attack 
 upon the Israelites, after their arrival in the 
 wilderness, when they assaulted those who, 
 flirough weakness or fatigue, were unable to 
 keep pace with their brethren ; an act of inhu- 
 manity for which the Israelites were expressly 
 commanded to extirpate the nation. See Deut. 
 xxv. 17 ; Exod. xvii. 8 14; Judges iii. 13, &c. 
 AMALFI, an ancient city of Italy, situated on 
 the bay of Salerno, ten miles west from that city, 
 and thirty from Naples. It is said to have de- 
 rived its origin from a number of Roman fami- 
 lies, who, about the middle of the fourth century, 
 left Rome and embarked for Constantinople ; 
 but meeting with storms on their passage, were 
 thrown on the shores of Salerno, where they 
 founded a flourishing republic. Impervious 
 mountains and inaccessible coasts preserved their 
 infant state from the first fury of the Lombards, 
 
 eastern emperors. Sico, prince of Salerno, 
 marched a body of troops by night ; surprised 
 
 laric ; -when Amalasontha assumed the guardian- who seldom attempted the conquest of a mari- 
 ship of her son, and of the kingdom of Italy, time people ; and in 825, it attained considerable 
 His death, at the age of 16, in consequence of rank and importance under the patronage of the 
 intemperance, left her destitute of any firm sup- 
 port, or legal authority; she now conceived the _ _ , _ . 
 design of sharing with one of her cousins, the Amain ; and, carrying off the greatest part of the 
 regal title. The eloquent Cassiodhrius an- inhabitants, compelled them to fix at his own 
 nouncecl to the senate and to the emperor, that capital, which had lately suffered a great loss of 
 Amalasontha and Theodatus, had ascended the people by an epidemical disorder. But before 
 throne of Italy. But the issue of this scheme of the fifth year of their captivity was expired, thi 
 ambition soon proved fatal. Instigated by the Amalfitans took advantage of the absence of the 
 principal Goths, Theodatus caused the queen to Salernian chiefs, who were then carrying on a 
 be imprisoned in a small island, in the lake of war with the Beneventans; armed themselves ; 
 Bolsena, where she was strangled in the bath, an d, after burning and plundering Salerno, 
 
 marched in triumph back to their own country. 
 
 On their return, their first plan was to vest the 
 
 A. D. 535. Gibbon's Hist. vol. vii. 
 
 AMALEK, pbnjT, Heb. i. e. a sucking peo- 
 
 AMALEK p'jnP, Heb. i. e. a sucking peo- On their return, their tirst piai w vwi ^ 
 
 pie, die son of Eliphaz, by his concubine, supreme authority in ,a temporary prefect; but 
 fcmna, and grandson of Esau! He was the 7th afterwards they placed that power in the hands
 
 714 
 
 AMALGAM. 
 
 a duke elected for life, whose office was here- 
 ditary in the family of Piccolomini. Under 
 these governors Amalfi attained the summit of 
 her glory ; and extended her territory eastward 
 from Vico Vecchio, to the promontory of Mi- 
 nerva westward, including likewise the island of 
 Caprea, and the two islands of the Galli. 
 Towards the north it comprehended the cities of 
 Lettere, Gragnans, Pimontio, and Capule di 
 Franchi ; towards the south those of Scala, Ra- 
 velli, Minori, Majori, Atrani, Tramonti, Agerula, 
 Citara, Prajano, and Rosilano. Leo IV. found 
 the Amalfitans useful allies in his wars with the 
 infidels, and honoured the commonwealth with 
 the title of Defender of the Faith. The Nea- 
 politans experienced many signal favours from 
 them; and even the Mussulmans found it ex- 
 pedient to court their alliance. A court was 
 established at Amalfi for the decision of all con- 
 troversies arising in maritime transactions ; and 
 its code and reports became the general rule 
 throughout this part of Europe. To crown the 
 glory of the republic, it was reserved to the lot 
 of an Amalfitan to make, or at least to perfect, 
 the most important discovery for the improve- 
 ment of navigation. Pasitano, a village which 
 stands on the shore a few miles west of Amalfi, 
 boasts of having given birth to Flavius Gioia, or, 
 as others call him, Flavius Bembo, the inventor 
 of the mariner's compass. The Amalfitan mer- 
 chants long engrossed the trade of the Levant. 
 The Pisans, Venetians, and Genoese, rose upon 
 their ruin ; and made way for the more compre- 
 hensive and daring spirit of the present maritime 
 powers. At present Amalfi is subject to Naples, 
 and is the see of an archbishop. It is but a 
 shadow of what it was in its flourishing state, 
 when it extended over the stupendous rocks that 
 hang on each side, still crowned with remains of 
 battlements, fortified walls, and ruined towers. 
 Its buildings, Mr. Swinburne says, are not re- 
 markable for elegance or size ; and contain at 
 most 4000 inhabitants. The cathedral is an un- 
 couth building. Under the choir is the chapel 
 and tomb of the apostle St. Andrew ; to whose 
 honour the edifice was dedicated, when Cardinal 
 Capuano, in 1208, brought his relics from Con- 
 stantinople. Long. 15. 20'. E. lat. 40. 35'. N. 
 AMALFIANS, or AMALFITANS, the inhabi- 
 tants of Amalfi. See their history in last article. 
 AMAL'GAME, v.~\ Fr. Amalgamer; gene- 
 AMAL'GAM, n. 'rally deduced from the 
 AMALGAMATE, i Gr. a/we, together, & 
 AMALGAMATION. J ya/w, to unite. To unite 
 together; to incorporate. 
 
 Amalgamation is the mixing of mercury -with any of 
 the metals. The manner is thus in gold, the rest are 
 answerable : Take six parts of mercury, mix them 
 hot in a crucibl", and pour them to one part of gold 
 made red hot in another crucible ; stir these well, 
 that they may incorporate ; then cast the mass into 
 cold water, and wash it. Hacon. 
 
 The metaphysical and alchemistical legislators, 
 have attempted to confound all sorts of citizens, as 
 well as they could, into one homogeneous mass ; 
 and then they divided this, their amalgama, into a 
 number of incoherent republics. 
 
 Burke, on the French Revolution. 
 
 AMALGAM, in chemistry, from the Greek 
 
 uua, together, and ya/xav, to join : mercury united 
 
 with a metal. The amalgam of mercury with 
 lead, is a soft, friable substance, of a silver colour, 
 By washing and grinding this amalgam with 
 warm water in a glass mortar, the impurities of 
 the metal will mix with the water; and by 
 changing the water, and repeating the lotion 
 again and again, the metal will be farther and 
 farther purified. Boerhaave mentions it as one 
 of the greatest secrets in chemistry, to bring off 
 the liquor as clear as when first poured on the 
 amalgam ; which, he says, might afford a method 
 of making the nobler metals, or procuring them 
 from the baser rnetals. This philosophical way 
 of purifying metals may be easily applied to all 
 metals, except iron and copper. The amalgams 
 of gold, silver, tin, lead, zinc, bismuth, and cop- 
 per, with quicksilver, are all white ; and when 
 the quantity of metal is large in proportion to 
 that of the mercury they thicken into a kind of 
 paste. All metals, except iron and copper, 
 spontaneously unite and amalgamate with mer- 
 cury ; but gold with the greatest facility ; silver 
 the next ; then lead and tin ; copper and regulus 
 of antimony with difficulty; iron and cobalt, 
 scarce at all ; but with all other metals and semi- 
 metals, mercury may easily be amalgamated. 
 
 For the combination of one metal with another, 
 it is generally sufficient that one of them be in a 
 state of fluidity. Mercury, being always fluid, 
 is capable of amalgamation with other metals 
 without heat, although heat considerably facili- 
 tates the operation. To amalgamate without heat 
 requires nothing more than rubbing the two 
 metals together in a mortar ; but the metal to be 
 united with the mercury should be previously 
 divided into very thin plates or grains. When 
 heat is used, which is always most effectual, and 
 in some cases indispensably necessary, the mer- 
 cury should be heated till it begins to smoke, 
 and the grains of metal made red hot befoie 
 they are thrown into it. 
 
 The amalgamation of COPPER is a very diffi- 
 cult process, mercury not mixing well with that 
 metal, unless when in fusion, and the heat suf- 
 ficient to keep it in that state being great enough 
 to evaporate the mercury, Tnturation, however, 
 may be made to supply the place of heat, first re- 
 ducing the copper to an exceedingly fine powder. 
 This amalgam boiled in river water, then distilled 
 in a -retort, and cohobated twice, leaves the cop- 
 per in form of a new mstal, of the colour of gold, 
 and more ductile than before. Amalgamations 
 of copper may likewise be performed by dissol- 
 ving the metal in aquafortis, diluting the solution 
 with twelve times the quantity of pure water, 
 then beating and putting into it polished plates of 
 iron ; by this means the copper will be precipi- 
 tated to the bottom, and the iron dissolved. 
 Pour ofif the liquor, and wash the precipitate 
 with hot water, till it becomes insipid. The 
 powder being well dried, and put into a glass 
 mortar, with an equal quantity of hot mercury, 
 an amalgam will be made. 
 
 Amalgamation of GOLD is usually performed 
 by heating the plates of that metal red hot ; after 
 which, quicksilver, gently heated, is to be poured 
 upon them, and the mixture stirred with a small 
 iron rod, till it begins to rise in a smoke. It is 
 then thrown into a vessel full c f water, when it
 
 AMALGAM. 
 
 715 
 
 coagulates, and becomes manageable. This 
 amalgam is of great use among goldsmiths and 
 gilders. Being laid on any other metal, and 
 afterwards placed on a small fire to evaporate, 
 the gold will be left on the surface of the copper, 
 which makes what we call gilding. The black- 
 ness adhering to the amalgam may be washed 
 away with water ; and a great part of the mer- 
 cury may be pressed out through a linen cloth ; 
 and the rest being evaporated in a crucible, by 
 a gentle and gradual heat, the gold remains be- 
 hind in an impalpable powder, which admits 
 bolter of being burnished, than that which is 
 procured by grinding of gold-leaf. Gold retains 
 about thrice its own weight of mercury. The 
 gold-dust, or filings, as well as those of silver, 
 dispersed through the sweepings of the gold- 
 smiths' shops, which would otherwise be lost, are 
 recovered by amalgamation with mercury, after 
 washing and trituration. 
 
 Amalgamation of IRON has been reckoned ex- 
 tremely difficult, if not absolutely impossible. 
 However, Mr. Navier succeeded in combining 
 mercury with iron by the following process : 
 Having made strong solutions of iron and of 
 mercury separately in distilled vinegar, he put 
 equal quantities of each into a mattrass, which 
 he placed in balneo maricE. As soon as the 
 liquor became very hot, there began to be formed 
 on its surface, and within it, an extremely light, 
 fine, white substance, resembling snow, which 
 evidently contained mercury and iron, in a saline 
 form, intimately united with each other. The 
 liquor being filtered left behind this snowy sub- 
 stance, which, when washed and dried, appeared 
 to be a silvery mass, made by the union of in- 
 numerable crystals in the form of thin plates, 
 without acidity or acrimony. 
 
 Amalgamation of LEAD is thus performed. 
 Melt a proper quantity of pure lead in an iron 
 crucible ; remove the vessel from the fire, and 
 when the metal is a little cooled, add to it an 
 equal weight of clean mercury, which will im- 
 mediately enter the lead with a hissing noise. 
 Stir the 'mixture well together with an iron rod, 
 and when cold it will appear in the form of a 
 softish brittle mass. Bismuth promotes the ac- 
 tion of mercury upon lead in a remarkable 
 manner. Mercury impregnated with one-fourth, 
 one-eighth, or one-twelfth its weight of bismuth, 
 dissolves masses of lead, in a gentle warmth, 
 without the agitation, triture, comminution, or 
 melting heat, necessary for uniting lead with 
 pure mercury. 
 
 Amalgamation of PLATINA. Dr. Lewis rubbed 
 together one ounce of platina with six ounces of 
 pure quicksilver, together with a little common 
 salt and water, and a few drops of spirit of salt 
 in an iron mortar. After the grinding had been 
 continued for about six hours, the grains of pla- 
 tina appeared to be coated with the quicksilver, 
 so jui to cohere together into a kind of imperfect 
 amalgam. After repeating the experiment seve- 
 ral times, and evaporating the mixture, he always 
 found, on examining the dark coloured powder, 
 intermingled with shining particles which re- 
 mained, that a part of the platina was dissolved 
 by the mercury, and that the undissolved grains 
 were coaled with it. 
 
 Amalgamation of SILVER is performed in the 
 same manner wilh that of gold ; or it may be 
 previously dissolved in aquafortis, and precipi- 
 tated. Mr. Gellert observes concerning this 
 amalgam, that its specific gravity is not only 
 greater lhan the intermediate specific gravity of 
 the mercury and of the silver, but that it is even 
 greater than the specific gravity of mercury, al- 
 though silver is much lighter. This amalgam is 
 used in the operation of silvering ; and also in 
 making the Arbor Dianae, or the philosophical 
 tree. 
 
 Amalgamation of TIN is made in the same way 
 with that of lead. It is used for tinning looking- 
 glasses, and for making mercury balls used in 
 purifying water. Mr. Canton firsl observed 
 that a small quantity of this amalgam, with a 
 little chalk, being rubbed on the cushion 'of a 
 glass globe, or on the oiled silk rubber of a tube, 
 would contribute to increase the power of elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 Perhaps the most importanl amalgams are 
 those of gold and silver, and the simplest mode 
 of preparing them is, by taking advantage of the 
 natural affinity, and trusting the combination to 
 the fluidity of the mercury alone. Thus, leaf- 
 gold, by simple trituralion, will form with mer- 
 cury an amalgam in a few minutes ; and pieces 
 of gold, silver, or tin, even of considerable thick- 
 ness, will, without trituration, be dissolved in a 
 few days. The crystalline form of amalgams, ow- 
 ing to their soft or semi-fluid state, at a moderate 
 temperature, distinguishes ihem from the pure 
 metals. Any metal, melted and cooled very 
 slowly, will exhibit in its fracture a crystalline 
 structure, the crystals of which, by particular 
 management, may be exhibited in a slate of sepa- 
 ralion from each other. Similar appearances 
 may, however, be produced with much greater 
 ease in amalgams. All amalgams are brittle, 
 and any of them, being broken, will exhibit a 
 granular or laminated texture, which, by the 
 microscope, will be found to be owing to a mul- 
 titude of minute crystals, applied by their surfaces 
 to each other, but not adhering with any consi- 
 derable force. M. Sage obtained regular crys- 
 tals of most of the amalgams in the following 
 wa y : Having prepared a very fluid amalgam, 
 by adding four, five, or six times a greater quan- 
 tity of mercury than of the other metal, he put it 
 into retorl, and proceeded to distillation in a sand- 
 bath, lill a fourth, or even a third, of the mercury 
 had been driven off; the residue, being then 
 allowed to cool very gradually, was found regu- 
 larly crystallized at the bottom of the vessel. 
 He thus obtained silver amalgam in the form of 
 articulated tetraliedrons,aluminifbrm oclahedrons, 
 resembling the native dendritic silver. In the 
 same manner the amalgams of gold, bismuth, 
 tin, and zinc, assumed the form of regular crys- 
 tals ; but it is found that crystals of copper, 
 arsenic, and antimony could not be obtained by 
 this mode. 
 
 AMALGAMA, or AMALGAM, is amongst 
 
 E= or 
 
 chemists expressed by the character 
 
 -Idtt The operation of amalgamation it 
 -i-|-t~ 
 
 marked by three letters, A A A
 
 AMA 
 
 716 
 
 AMA 
 
 AMALTH./EA, in fabulous history, the name 
 t)f the Cumsean Sibyl, who is said to have offered 
 to Tarquin II. nine books, containing the Ro- 
 man destinies, and demanded 300 pieces of gold 
 for them. He derided her ; whereupon she 
 threw three of them into the fire ; and asked the 
 same price for the other six ; which being de- 
 nied, she burnt three more ; and still demanded 
 the same price. Upon which Tarquin, consult- 
 ing the pontiffs, was advised to buy them. These 
 books were in such esteem, that two magistrates 
 were created to consult them upon extraordinary 
 occasions. The books, and the whole story con- 
 cerning them, appear to have been fabrications 
 of the Roman priests to impose upon that super- 
 stitious people, and increase their own import- 
 ance, by occasionally quoting and pretending 
 to interpret these Sibylline oracles. 
 
 AMALTH^A, in pagan mythology, the daughter 
 of Melissus, king of Crete, and the nurse of 
 Jupiter, whom she fed with goats' milk and 
 honey. According to others, Amalthsea was a 
 goat, which Jupiter, after she died, translated 
 into the sky, with her two kids, and gave one of 
 her horns to the daughters of Melissus, as a re- 
 ward for the pains they had taken in attending 
 him. This horn had the peculiar property of 
 furnishing them with whatever they wished for, 
 and was thence called the cornucopia, or horn 
 of plenty. See J^GIS. 
 
 AMALTH/KUS, (Jerome, John Baptist, and 
 Cornelius), three celebrated Latin poets of Italy, 
 who nourished in the 16th century. Their com- 
 positions were printed at Amsterdam, in 1685. 
 One of the best pieces in that collection is an 
 epigram on two children, whose beauty was very 
 extraordinary, though each of them was deprived 
 of an eye : 
 
 Lumine Aeon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro, 
 Et poterat forma vincere uterque deos. 
 
 Parve puer, lumen quod babes concede sorori j 
 
 Sic tu caecus Amor, sic erit ilia Venus. 
 The following imitation in English, comes far 
 short of the original, but may convey to the un- 
 learned reader a faint idea of the humour of the 
 epigram : 
 
 Aeon and Lonilla are 
 
 Each of one eye bereft, 
 Tbe boy the right deplores ; the fair 
 
 Mourns that she wants the left. 
 Each might with gods in beauty vie. 
 
 And could the lad but spare 
 His light, blind Cupid he might be, 
 
 And she a Venus fair. 
 
 AMANA, a mountain beyond Jordan, in the 
 half tribe of Manasseh. 
 
 AMANCE, a town of Tranche Comte, France, 
 the head of a canton in the department of the 
 Upper Saone, arrondissementofVessoul,15 miles 
 north of Vessoul. This place was first assigned 
 to France, at the peace of Baden, in 1714 ; and 
 formerly contained a celebrated abbey, the chap- 
 ter of which was composed of 44 ecclesiastics, 
 one third of whose places were in the gift of the 
 crown. The abbey church is still admired for 
 the boldness and elegance of its architecture. 
 Here are chalybeate waters, much recommended 
 for rheumatism and the stone ; they are impreg- 
 nated with sulphur and salt. The manufactures 
 
 have gone to decay, with the exception of a pot- 
 tery, which produces very fine earthen ware ; tne 
 inhabitants of the neighbourhood are chiefly oc- 
 cupied in spinning. 
 
 AMANCE, a town of France, seated on a river 
 of that name, six miles east of Nanci, in the de- 
 partment of the Meurthe. 
 
 AMAND, ST. a town of France, seated upon 
 the river Cher, in the department of Cher, 25. 
 miles south of Bourges. It was built in 1410, 
 on the ruins of Orval, and is the head of an 
 arrondissement, containing 12 cantons. It has 
 iron works, a cannon foundry, and a great trade 
 in corn and wine. Inhabitants about 5000. 
 
 AMAND, ST. a fortified town of France, in the 
 department of the North, seated upon the river 
 Scarpe, three leagues north of Valenciennes. It 
 contains from 8000 to 9000 inhabitants. Lon. 
 3. 35'. E. lat. 50. 27'. N. 
 
 AMAND, ST. or AMANS, ST. a town of France, 
 in Languedoc, the head of a canton in the depart- 
 ment of the Lozere, arrondissement of Mende, 
 with 3380 inhabitants. Four leagues north of 
 Mende. 
 
 AMAND, ST. or ST. AMAND DE VALHORET, a 
 town of France, on the river Taure, in Langue- 
 doc, the chief town of a canton in the depart- 
 ment of the Tarn, arrondissement of Castres, 
 with 2015 inhabitants. It is 5 leagues south- 
 east of Castres. 
 
 AMAND, ST. a town of France, in the Niver- 
 nois, with 1500 inhabitants, the head of a canton 
 in the department of the Nievre, arrondissement 
 of Cosne ; noted for the manufacture of earthen- 
 ware. 13 leagues north of Nevers. 
 
 AMAND, ST. a town of France, in Champagne, 
 department of the Marne, arrondissement of 
 Vitry, with 1060 inhabitants. It was formerly 
 the seat of a commandery of the order of Malta. 
 5 leagues south-east of Chalons. 
 
 AMAND DE BOUEX, ST. a town of France, in 
 the Angoumois, with 1410 inhabitants, and for- 
 merly with an abbey ; it is now the head of a 
 canton, in the department of the Charante, arron- 
 dissement of Angoulfeme, from which it is distant 
 north, about four leagues. 
 
 AMA ND, ST. (Mark Anthony General, sieur de) 
 a French poet, was born at Rouen, in Nor- 
 mandy, in 1594. His father commanded a 
 squadron of ships in the service of queen Eliza- 
 beth, for 22 years, and our poet was for three 
 years a prisoner in the Black Tower at Constan- 
 tinople ; two of his brothers having been killed 
 in an engagement against the Turks. His lifu 
 was spent in a continual succession of travels. 
 The greater part of his poems are comic ; the 
 best edition is that of 1'aris, in 8 vols. 1649. 
 He died in 1661. 
 
 AMANDA VA, in ornithology, a species of 
 fringilla found in Bengal, and concisely de- 
 scribed by Linnaeus, as being of a brown and 
 reddish colour, spotted with white. It is about 
 the size of a wren, or four inches in length ; the 
 upper part of the plumage brown, with a mix- 
 ture of dull red, the under part of the same co- 
 lours, but naked, except the middle of the belly 
 which is darkest. It has been called the Bengal 
 finch, or Amaduvade; in allusion to which 
 Brisson names it Bengalus punctatus, and Buffou
 
 AMA 
 
 717 
 
 Bengale piquet^. There is a variety of this spe- 
 cies, the Amandava (/?) of Linnseus, hitherto 
 found only in Bengal, which is said to be en- 
 tirely brown, and without spots. It is the Ben- 
 galus fuscus of Brisson, and Bengale brun of 
 Buffon. 
 
 AMANDINUS LAPIS, in mineralogy, a gum 
 of various colours, said to resist poisons. 
 
 AMANIBO, a river of South America, in 
 Dutch Guiana, which enters the Atlantic, near 
 the lake of Iracubo, in lat. 5. 57'. N. ; also a 
 town on the coast between Paramaribo and Ca- 
 venne. 
 
 AM AN 1C /E PYUE, ^ Straits in Mount 
 
 AMANIDES PYLE, or > Amanus, through 
 
 AMANI PORTJE, J which Darius en- 
 
 tered Cilicia ; at a greater distance from the sea 
 than the Pylse Ciliciae, through which Alexander 
 passed . 
 
 AM AN IT A, in botany, (from , privative, 
 and fiavia, madness, i. e. the least hurtful of all 
 the species,) an old Greek name for fungi in ge- 
 neral, and used by Ilaller, after Dillenius, for 
 the whole Linncean genus of Agaricus, or nearly 
 so. Persoon adopts it for such species only as 
 are furnished with a volva, which, on that ac- 
 count, he considers distinct. See AGARICUS. 
 
 AMANOA, in botany, a genus of the pentan- 
 dria monogynia class and order. Its characters 
 are : CALYX quinquepartite : no COR. ; the ger- 
 men is triangular, the stigma trigonous, concave, 
 and fimbriated. There is one species, viz. A. 
 Guianensis. Aubl. pi. gui. 
 
 AMANTEA, a sea-port town of Naples, situ- 
 ated near the bay of Euphemia, in the province 
 of Calabria, 20 miles south-west of C6senza. 
 
 AMANUEN'SIS, n. Low Latin, amanuensis, 
 the principal ingredient in which is manus, the 
 hand : one who assists another with his penman- 
 ship, or hand-writing only. 
 
 I have no such authority, no such benefactors, as 
 that noble Ambrosius was to Origen, allowing him 
 six or seven amanuenses to write out his dictates j I 
 must for that cause do my business myself. 
 
 Burton's Anat. of Mel. Dem. to the reader. 
 
 The mirth of the commons grew so very outrageous, 
 that it found out work for our friend of the quorum, 
 who by the help of his amanuensis took down all their 
 names and their crimes, with a design to produce his 
 manuscript at the quarter sessions, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Spectator, No. 617. 
 
 AMANUS, in ancient geography, a mountain 
 of Syria, which separates it from Cilicia, the 
 straits of which are the Amanicae Pylae mention- 
 ed above. It is a branch of mount Taurus, ex- 
 tending chiefly eastward, from the sea of Cilicia, 
 to the Euphrates; and is now called Monte 
 Negro, or rather Montagna Neres, by the inha- 
 bitants ; that is, the watery mountain as it 
 abounds in springs and rivulets. It is cele- 
 brated by Appian as the retreat of wild beasts. 
 Kuvjjy. 1. 3. K.t\iKa rt irdysQ nai irp&vaf 
 
 A/JLOLVS. 
 
 AMAPALLA, a city of South America, in the 
 piovince of Guatimala in Mexico, seated on the 
 gulph of the same name in the Pacific Ocean, 
 220 miles south-east of the town of Guatimala, 
 and four leagues from St. Miguel. It trades in 
 cochineal, cocoa, indigo, hides, &c. 
 
 AMA 
 
 AMAPALLA, a large gulf or bay on the west 
 coast of America, between the province of Gua- 
 timala and Nicaragua. It is nearly sixty miles 
 m length, and from nine to thirty in breadth It is 
 also called the gulf of Fonseca. 100 miles north- 
 west of Leon. Lon. 88.56'.W. lat. 13. 30'. N. 
 
 AMARA, in antiquity, a/tdpa, a furrow or 
 channel through which water flows. 
 
 AMARA, in medicine, bitters, or the essence 
 of a bitter substance ; of which great use is made 
 in medicine, particularly for bracing the relaxed 
 fibr es of the organs of digestion. 
 
 AMARA DULCIS, in botany, the solanum dulc 
 mara. AMARA INDICA, the momordica charan- 
 tia of Linnaeus. 
 
 AMARA (Singha), a Hindoo brahmin of the first 
 century, the author of a Sanscrit dictionary, en- 
 titled, Amara Kocha, including the names of 
 stars, elements, &c. The first part of this dic- 
 tionary was published at Rome by Father Pau- 
 lin, in 1798, entitled, Amara Singha, Sectio 
 Prima de Coelo ex tribus ineditis Codicibus 
 Manuscripts, 4to. A manuscript of the whole 
 is preserved in the royal library at Paris. 
 
 AMARACUS, among ancient naturalists. 
 See SAMPSUCHUS. 
 
 AMARACUS, in botany, bastard feverfew. 
 
 AMARADULUS, in botany; a name some- 
 times given to the woody nightshade. 
 
 AMARANTE, an order of knighthood, insti- 
 tuted in Sweden by queen Christina in 1653, at an 
 annual feast; at the close of which she threw off" 
 her habit, which was covered with diamonds, 
 leaving it to be pulled in pieces by the masques. 
 In memory of this ridiculous scramble, she 
 founded a military order, called in Swedish, 
 Ceschilschafft, into which all present at the feast 
 were admitted, including sixteen lords, and as 
 many ladies, besides the queen. Their device 
 was the cypher of Amarante, composed of two 
 A's, the one erect, the other inverted, and inter- 
 woven together; the whole enclosed by a laurel 
 crown, with this motto, ' Dolce nella memoria.' 
 
 AMARANTE, a town of Portugal, in Entre- 
 Duero-e-Minho. It has a linen manufacture, 
 and contains about 4000 inhabitants ; 23 miles 
 south-east of Braga. 
 
 AM ARANTII, n. ) a, not ; and /iapaivw, to 
 
 AMARAN'THINE. $ wither. ' Its nature is ex- 
 pressed by its name,' says Pliny, ' since it does 
 not fade." A well-known plant of the descrip- 
 tion vulgarly called Everlasting. The ama- 
 ranthus of poetry is not described, at least by 
 botanists, and is supposed to be imaginary.' 
 
 Some roots are yellow, as carrots, and some plants 
 blood-red, stalk and leaf, as the amaranthus. 
 
 Bacon's Nat. and Exper. Hutory. 
 
 Immortal amaranth ! a flower which once 
 In paradise, fast by the tree of life, 
 Began to bloom ; but soon, for man's offence, 
 To heav'ii removed, where first it grew : there grows. 
 And flow'rs aloft, shading the fount of life ; 
 And where the river of bliss, through midst of heav n, 
 Rolls o'er Elysian flow'rs her amber stream : 
 With these that never fade, the spirits elect 
 Bind their resplendent locks, inwreath'd with beams. 
 Milton'i Par. Lott. 
 By the streams that ever flow. 
 By the fragrant winds that D.ow 
 O'er the Elysion flow'rs ;
 
 AMA 
 
 718 
 
 AMA 
 
 By those happy souls that dwell 
 In yellow meads of asphodel, 
 
 Or amaranthine bow'rs. Pff\>e. 
 
 Whatever was brought before her, she beheld by 
 the steady light of the torch of truth ; and when her 
 examination had convinced her that the laws of just 
 writing had been observed, she touched it with the 
 amaranthine end of the sceptre, and consigned it 
 over to immortality. Rambler. 
 
 The only amaranthine flow'r on earth 
 Is virtue ; th' only lasting treasure, truth. 
 
 Cowper's Task, book iii. 
 
 AMARANTHOIDES, in botany, the trivial 
 name of a species of illecebrum. 
 
 AMARANTHUS, in botany, from a privative, 
 and fiapaiixa, to wither ; because the flower of 
 this plant, when cropped, does not soon wither. 
 Amaranth, or flower-gentle, according to Dios- 
 corides, was a remedy against the bites of ser- 
 pents : A genus of the pentandria order belong- 
 ing to the monoecia class of plants ; and in the 
 natural method ranking under the 54th order, 
 miscellanea: The characters are, the male 
 CAL. a five or three-leaved perianthium, erect, 
 coloured, and persistent : no COR.: STAM. consist 
 of five or three erect capillary filaments, the 
 length of the calyx ; the antherae are oblong and 
 versatile : the female CAL. the same as the male, 
 and no COR. : PIST. an ovate germen ; the styli 
 three, short, and subulated; the stigmata sim- 
 ple and persistent : PER. an ovate capsule, 
 three beaked, unilocular, and cut round : the 
 seed is one, globular, compressed, and large. 
 Of this genus Linnseus enumerates nineteen 
 species ; the most remarkable of which are : 
 1. A. bicolor, melancholicus, or two-coloured 
 amaranthus. This greatly resembles the Tri- 
 color, in its manner of growth ; but the leaves 
 have only two colours, which are an obscure 
 purple, and a bright crimson. 2. A. caudatus, 
 with very long hanging cylindrical spikes. 
 This species is a native of America. It has an 
 upright stem, three feet high; the leaves and 
 stalks are of a pale green. Th spikes of flowers 
 are produced from the wings of the stalks, and 
 at the extremities of the branches. They are of 
 a bright purple colour, and hang downward, 
 sometimes two feet and a half long, so that many 
 of them touch the ground. 3. A. maximus, or 
 tree-like amaranthus, grows with a strong stem to 
 the height of seven or eight feet. 4. A. oleraceus, 
 with obtuse indented leaves. This has no beauty ; 
 but it is used by the Indians as a substitute for 
 cabbage. 5. A. sanguineus, with compound 
 spikes and oblong oval leaves, a native of the 
 Bahama islands, is an esculent plant, and bears 
 fine flowers. 6. A. tricolor, or three-coloured 
 amaranthus. This has been long cultivated in 
 gardens, on account of the beauty of its variega- 
 ted leaves, which are green, yellow, and red ; 
 very elegantly mixed. 
 
 AMARANTHUS is also the thirtieth natural order 
 in Jussieu's system, being the first of his seventh 
 class. The following are the characters of these 
 amaranthi : CAL. divided, more or less deeply, 
 often surrounded by scales at the base : STAM. 
 definite, sometimes distinct, sometimes mona- 
 delphous ; in some genera there are scales alter- 
 nate with the filaments ; in others the combined 
 
 filaments form a tube or sheath: GERM, simple, 
 style or stigma simple, or double, or triple : 
 CAPS, of one cell, with an unconnected recep- 
 tacle, and either bursting at the summit, or 
 splitting all round, containing one or many seeds : 
 CORCULUM curved round a farinaceous mass. 
 Flowers capitate or spiked. Leaves generally 
 undivided and pointed; in some alternate; in 
 others opposite; in a few instances accompanied 
 by stipulas : STEM, for the most part herbaceous 
 Stamens and pistils sometimes in separate flowers. 
 
 Under his first section, (leaves alternate, with- 
 out stipulas,) Jussieu enumerates amaranthus and 
 celosia of Linnseus; with aerua of Forskall, a 
 genus formed of alternate-leaved species of ille- 
 cebrum ; and digera of the same author, to which 
 achyranthes muricata of Linnaeus is supposed to 
 belong. . 2. Leaves opposite without stipulas. 
 consists of iresine, achyranthes, gomphrena, and 
 illecebrum. . 3. Leaves opposite, with stipu- 
 las. Here are ranged paronychia of Tournefort, 
 separated from the Linnsean illecebrum ; and her- 
 niaria of all authors. This order, as Jussieu 
 candidly observes, is very nearly related to that 
 of the caryophylleoe. Jussieu, in the Annales du 
 Museum, v. 2. 131., has published some addi- 
 tions to the present order, which, according to a 
 recent alteration in the nomenclature of natural 
 orders, he there terms amaranthaceae. A trans- 
 lation of his paper may be seen in Sirns and 
 Konig's Ann. of Bot. v. 2. 274. To the section 
 with stipulated leaves, he adds three new genera. 
 1 . Anychia of Michaux, to which belongs queria 
 canadensis of Linnaeus. 2. Lithophila of Swartz. 
 3. Polychroa of Loureiro. Jussieu also remarks, 
 that cyathula of Loureiro, a plant of this order, 
 is really an acliyranthes with a many-cleft stig- 
 ma; but that polia of the same author, supposed 
 to belong to the amaranthi, is one of the caryo- 
 phyllese. 
 
 AMARELLA, in botany, feverfew. 
 
 AMARIN, or DAMARIN, a small town of 
 France, in the department of the Upper Rhine, 
 on the Thur, has 1400 inhabitants. It is the 
 head of a canton, and has a good iron trade 
 supplied by the valley of Amarin, which is ricli 
 in that metal. 
 
 AMARAWDH, prince of North Wales, the 
 son of Roderick the Great, king of Wales, and 
 the sixth in a direct line from Cadwallader, the 
 last king of the South Britons, succeeded his fa- 
 ther, A. D. 877, in North Wales, the southern 
 principality being allotted to his brother, and had 
 various wars with the Danes and Anglo-Saxons. 
 He died, A. D. 913, in the 36th year of his 
 reign. 
 
 AMARUCO, a river of South America, which 
 traverses the eastern part of Guiana, and falls 
 from the south into the Orinoco, just at its 
 mouth. It is navigable for sloops about ten or 
 twelve miles. 
 
 AMARUM, in mineralogy, sulphate of mag. 
 nesia, or Epsom salt ; a genus of mineral sub- 
 stances; class salts; a bitter taste, easily soluble 
 in water, and melting in heat. 
 
 AMARUM AJU, a considerable river of South 
 America, in the kingdom of Peru, which rises in 
 the Cordillera of the Andes, in 13. 30'. S. lat. 
 It passes through the province of Mojos, and,
 
 719 
 
 AMA 
 
 after frequently changing its name, enters the 
 Amazons in 4. 36'. S. lat. 
 
 AMARUS DULCIS ORIENTALIS, in botany, 
 costus. 
 
 AMARUS, in mineralogy, a genus of earths, of 
 the class silices, consisting of silica, with a small 
 portion of magnesia, alumina, and carbonate of 
 lime. 
 
 AMARYLLIS, lily-asphodel : a genus of the 
 monogynia order, belonging to the hexandria 
 class, of plants ; and in the natural method 
 ranking under the ninth order, spathaceae. The 
 characters are : CAL. an oblong obtuse spatha, 
 emarginated, and withering: COR. six petals, 
 lanced : STAM. six subulated filaments: the^x- 
 THER.E oblong, incumbent and ascending: PIST. 
 a roundish fulcated germen beneath ; a filiform 
 stylus, nearly the length of the stamina: the 
 STIGMA trifid and slender : PER. is an ovate trilo- 
 cular capsule, with three valves : the seeds are 
 many. The principal species are: 1. A. farin- 
 ensis, or Guernsey lily, is supposed to have come 
 originally from Japan, but has been many years 
 cultivated in the gardens of Guernsey and Jer- 
 sey ; in both which places it seems to thrive as 
 well as if they were in their native country, and 
 from these islands its roots are sent annually to 
 the curious in most parts of Europe. 2. A. for- 
 mosissima, or jacoboea lily, produces its flowers 
 two or three times a year, without being regular 
 to any season. 3. A. lutea, or autumnal narcis- 
 sus. 4. A. Orientalis, or lily daffodil, with 
 leaves shaped like a tongue. This is a native of 
 the Cape of Good Hope. 5. A. Regina, or bel- 
 ladonna lily, is a native of Portugal, where it was 
 formerly cultivated in great plenty ; but of late 
 it has been supplanted by the jacobsea lily, so 
 that the roots which have been brought from that 
 country for some time past for the belladonna, 
 have generally proved to be the jacobaea lily. 
 6. A. Zeylanica, or Ceylon lily, is a native of the 
 West Indies, and usually flowers in June. 
 Sometimes the same root will flower again in 
 autumn, but the flowers are of no long duration. 
 These three last species of the amaryllis may 
 easily be raised by taking care to shelter them in 
 a stove from the winter's cold. 
 
 AMASA, XltfOK, Heb. i. e. sparing the peo- 
 ple: the son (by some supposed illegitimate) of 
 Abigail, the sister of David, by Jether. See 
 2 Sam. xx. 10. 
 
 AMASAI, the son of Elkanah, a principal 
 officer under Saul, who, with a number of his 
 friends, joined David in his exile. 1 Chron. xii. 
 
 AMASIA, an ancient city of Germany, now 
 Marpurg, in the landgravate of Hesse, on the 
 Lahn. Acccording to others, it is Embden in 
 Westphalia. 
 
 AMASIA, an ancient town of Turkey, in Na- 
 tolia, the capital of the district of that name, and 
 memorable for the birth of Stiabo the geogra- 
 pher. It is the residence of a bashaw, and is 
 seated near the river Iris or Kasalmack, fifty 
 miles north-west of Tocat, and two hundred 
 east of Constantinople. It was anciently the 
 residence of the kings of Cappadocia. It is 
 commanded by a fort, situated at the highest 
 part of the town, on a sharp-pointed rock, and is 
 surrounded by mountains, so that it can be ap- 
 
 proached only by two narrow passes on the north 
 and south, which are so rugged as to be easily 
 defensible. Though an extensive and populous 
 place, the streets are narrow and dirty, and most 
 of the houses are built of wood. The greater 
 part of the inhabitants being Christians, there is 
 only one mosque, a fine edifice with two lofty 
 minarets, all of hewn stone ; of which material 
 the numerous baths, and some few of the better 
 houses, are also constructed. The baths have 
 agreeable promenades in front, with several rows 
 of trees; and the whole are surrounded with a 
 high wall. The river is large and rapid, and 
 affords abundance of water, which is raised by 
 means of wheels nearly thirty feet in diameter, 
 filling buckets on their circumference, which, 
 empty themselves into troughs or reservoirs ; 
 and the water is thence conveyed in pipes to the 
 baths and fountains. A kind of good wine, re- 
 sembling sherry, is made in Amasia; and the 
 environs produce abundance of fruits. The in- 
 habitants are distinguished for their urbanity and 
 attention to strangers, and the women are cele- 
 brated as the fairest and most engaging of all 
 Asia Minor. Population from 60,000 to 70,000 
 Long. 36. 12'. E. lat. 40. 40'. N. 
 
 AMASIS, first a prime minister, and after- 
 wards king of Egypt. He owed his royal dignity 
 to a very singular circumstance. Apries, kin^ 
 of Egypt, or, as he is called in scripture, Pharaoh 
 Hophra, having by his oppressions excited the 
 Egyptians to revolt, sent his minister Amasis 
 to pacify them ; when the people, while he was 
 haranguing them, brought a crown and othei 
 ensigns of royalty, and forcing them upon him 
 proclaimed him king. He was afterwards 
 countenanced by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Ba- 
 bylon, who assisted him against Apries. He 
 made a law that all his subjects should annually 
 give an account of their means of support ; and 
 refused to continue his alliance with Polycrates, 
 of Sicily, on account of his extraordinary pros- 
 perity. The close of his reign was, however, 
 very different from its commencement. Having 
 by some means or other incurred the displeasure 
 of Cambyses, the Persian monarch prepared to 
 invade Egypt, and derived effectual assistance 
 from Phanes, of Halicamassus, who commanded 
 the Greek auxiliaries in the pay of Amasis. But 
 Amasis was rescued from the evils that were 
 gathering round him, by death, B. C. 525, after 
 a reign of forty-four years. His body being em- 
 balmed, was deposited in a sepulchre which he 
 had built for himself in the temple at Sais. The 
 reign of his successor, Psammenitus, was short 
 and calamitous; and the victorious Persians, 
 after his defeat, capture, and death, took the 
 body of his father Amasis from the tomb, man- 
 gled it in a shocking manner, and then burnt 
 it to the great disgust of the Egyptians. Herod. 
 i. ii. iii. 
 
 AMASONIA, in botany, a genus of the an- 
 giospermia order, belonging to the didynamia 
 class of plants. The characters of which are : 
 CAL. a tripartite monophyllous perianthium, bell- 
 shaped and persistent : COR. monopetalous and 
 tubular; the border quinquefid, expanding and 
 small : STAM. four filaments longer than the co 
 rolla; the anthene oval and incumbent: PIST
 
 AMA 
 
 720 
 
 AMA 
 
 an ovate germen ; the stylus the length of the 
 stamina ; the stigma two, acute : there is no pe- 
 ricarpium : SEED an ovate unilocular nut, the 
 length of the calyx. 
 
 AMASS', v. & n. \ Fr. amasse ; Lat. massa ; 
 
 AMASS'KENT. J Gr. p.a<rffM, to knead into a 
 lump. Things which when heaped together 
 unite, are said to be amassed. 
 For treasure spent in lyef, the bodye doth susteyne : 
 The hcire shall waste the whourded gold amassed with 
 muche payne.' Surrey. 
 
 The last is the compounded order : His name 
 being a brief of his nature. For this pillar is nothing 
 in effect, but a medly, or an amasse of all the prece- 
 dent ornaments. ReliqtdeB Wottonianee. 
 
 The rich man is not blamed, as having made use 
 of any unlawful means to amass riches, as having 
 thriven by fraud and injustice. Atterbury's Ser. 
 
 When we would think of infinite space, or dura- 
 tion, we, at first step, usually make some very large 
 idea, as perhaps of millions of ages, or miles, which 
 possibly we double and multiply several times. All 
 that we thus amass together in our thoughts, is posi- 
 tive, and the assemblage of a great number of positive 
 ideas of space or duration. Locke. 
 
 AMASTRIS, AMASTRO, a sea-port of Ana- 
 tolia, in Turkey ; but its two harbours have 
 been long choked up with sand ; and little of 
 its ancient splendour now remains, except some 
 ruins. 
 
 AMATA, in fabulous history, the wife of king 
 Latinus, and the mother of Lavinia, who hanged 
 herself that she might not see ./Eneas married to 
 her daughter. 
 
 AMATARIA, in entomology, a species of the 
 Phalaena, of the geometra family, that inhabits 
 Europe. The wings are angulated, of a pale 
 brown, slightly speckled, with an obsolete darker 
 waved streak, and a straight purple line across 
 the middle. It is produced from a green larva, 
 with yellow rings, that feeds on the leaves of 
 oaks. Linntsus. Don. British Insects, tab. 33. 
 fig. 2. 
 
 AMATE'. A. S. meet. To drears: to be 
 made stupid ; senseless. 
 
 But thought and sicknesse were occasion 
 That he thus lay in lamentation, 
 Grouffe on the ground, in place desolate 
 Sole by himself, awhaped and ornate. 
 Chaucer. Complaint of the Blacke Knight, f. 271, c. 3. 
 Upon the wall the pagans old and young 
 Stood hush'd and still, amated and amazed. 
 
 Fairf. b. xi. xii. 
 No more appal'd with fear 
 Of present death, than he whom never dread 
 Did once amate. O. PL 2. 214. 
 
 For never knight, that dared warlike deed, 
 More luckless disadventures did amate. 
 
 Spent. 1. 2. 1. 9. 45. 
 
 AMATEUR. Fr. one who has a taste for 
 an art, but does not practise it professionally. 
 
 It must always be to those who are the greatest 
 
 amateurs, or even professors of revolutions, a matter 
 
 very hard to prove, that the late French government 
 
 was so bad, that nothing worse, in the infinite devices 
 
 of men, could come in its place. Burke. 
 
 AMATH, in ancient geography, a town of 
 
 Phoenicia, sacred to Venus ; which had an ancient 
 
 temple dedicated to that goddess. 
 
 AMATHA, a city on the Jordan. 
 
 AMATHUS, an ancient town in the south of 
 
 IS. 
 
 I Amo ; amator : to 
 >love; a lover. Of, 
 \ or concerning love. 
 
 Cyprus, so called from Amathus the founder; of 
 from Amath in Phoenicia. It had a very ancient 
 temple of Venus and Adonis : and, according to 
 Ovid, was rich in copper ore. It is now called 
 Limisso. 
 
 AMATHUS, a town of the tribe of Gad, beyond 
 Jordan ; but at what distance from it, is not 
 determined. 
 
 AMATI, a violin maker of Cremona, who 
 lived about the year 1600, and by his own and 
 his family's skill gave name to the Amati violins, 
 which are still considered, with the exception 
 perhaps of Stainer's, the first in the world. They 
 are also called Cremonas. 
 
 AMATOR'IAL, adj. 
 
 AMATOR'IOUS, 
 
 AMATOR'IAN, 
 
 AM'ATORY. 
 
 They seem to have been tales of love and chivalry, 
 
 amatorial sonnets, tragedies, comedies, and pastorals. 
 
 Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, iv. 7. 
 
 It is the same thing whether one ravish Lucretia 
 by force, as Tarquin, or by amatory potions not only 
 allure her, but necessitate her to satisfy his lust, and 
 incline her effectually, and draw her inevitably, to 
 follow him spontaneously. Bramhall against Hubbes. 
 
 AMATORII MUSCULI, in antiquity, a term 
 sometimes used for the obliquus superior and 
 obliquus inferior muscles of the eye, as these 
 muscles assist in ogling, or drawing the eye 
 sideways. 
 
 AMAURI I. and II. kings of Jerusalem : 
 the first succeeded to the throne in 1163, and was 
 a courageous and enterprising prince, but these 
 qualities were sullied by avarice and cruelty. 
 He died in 1174. Amauri II. succeeded his 
 brother, Guy de Lusignan, in 1194; his title 
 was contested by Isabella, second daughter of 
 Amauri I. ; but on her becoming a widow, he 
 married her, and was crowned. The Saracens 
 having taken his capital, he applied for assistance 
 to the European princes, but before the succours 
 arrived he died, in 1205. 
 
 AMAUROSIS, from a/iaupow, to darken, in 
 medicine, is by some defined to be a deprivation 
 of sight, the eye remaining fair and seemingly 
 unaffected. A perfect amaurosis is when the 
 blindness is total ; when there is still a power of 
 distinguishing light from darkness, the disease 
 is called by M. de St. Ives an imperfect amau- 
 rosis. There is a periodical sort which comes 
 on instantaneously, continues for hours or days, 
 and then disappears. Mr. Hey, surgeon at Leeds,, 
 mentions several cases of patients afflicted with 
 the amaurosis who were relieved by being 
 electrified. 
 
 AMAZE', v. & n.^\ From the Dutch, missen: 
 AMA'ZEDLY, I to miss, to err, to wander. 
 
 AMAZED', | Hence maze, a labyrinth 
 
 AMA'ZEDNESS, }*To maze occurs in our 
 AMAZE'MENT, I older writers. To effec 
 AMA'ZING, | with what is incompre- 
 
 AMA'ZINGLY. J hensible; to confound, 
 perplex, astonish, stupify. 
 
 I am right siker, that the pot was erased ; 
 Be as be may, be ye no thing amased. 
 As usage is, let swepe the flore as swithe ; 
 Plucke up your hertes and be glad and blithe. 
 C/Mucer. The C/tuncnes Yemannes Tale.
 
 AMAZONS. 
 
 Heare O Israeli, ye are come vnto battell as;Bnste 
 yor encmyes,lct not your hartes faynte, neither "feare, 
 nor be amased nor a dread of them. 
 
 Bible, 1539. Deuteronomie , c. xx. 
 Yea, I will make many people amazed at tb.ee, and 
 their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I 
 shall brandish my sword before them, and they shall 
 tremble at every moment ; every man for his own 
 life in the day of the fall. Ezekiel 
 
 He answer'd nought at all ; but adding new 
 Fear to his first amazement, staring wide, 
 With stony eyes, and heartless hollow hue, 
 Astonish'd stood, as one that had espy'd 
 Infernal furies, with their chains unty'd. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 But look '. amazement on thy mother sits ; 
 
 step between her and her fighting soul : 
 Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. Shalup. 
 
 But why 
 Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ? 
 
 Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprights. Id. 
 
 He ended, and his words impression left 
 
 Of much amassment to th' infernal crew, 
 
 Distracted and surpris'd with deep dismay 
 
 At these sad tidings. Milton. 
 
 Fairfax, whose name in arms thro' Europe rings, 
 And fills all mouths with envy or with praise, 
 And all her jealous monarchs with amase. Id. 
 
 Meantime the Trojan cuts his wat'ry way, 
 Fix'd on his voyage, through the curling sea; 
 Then casting back his eyes with dire amase, 
 Sees on the Punick shore the mounting blaze. Dry. 
 
 Al.M. As when some dreadful thunder-clap is nigh, 
 The winged fire shoots swiftly through the sky ; 
 Strikes and consumes ere scarce it does appear, 
 And by the sudden ill prevents the fear : 
 Such is my state in this amazing woe, 
 It leaves no power to think, much less to do. 
 
 Dryden's Indian Emperor. 
 An amphitheatre's amasing height 
 Here fills my eye with terror and delight, 
 That on its };ul>lic shows, unpeopled Rome, 
 And held, uncrowded, nations in its womb. Addison. 
 
 It is an amazing thing to see the present desolation 
 of Italy, when one considers what incredible multi- 
 tudes it abounded with during the reigns of the 
 Roman Emperors. Addison. 
 
 Know'st thou the importance of a soul immortal ? 
 Behold this midnight glory, worlds on worlds ! 
 Amazing pomp ! redouble the amaze ! 
 Ten thousand add, and twice ten thousand more ; 
 Then weigh the soul, one soul outweighs them all. 
 
 Young. 
 
 AMAZIAH, the eighth, or including the 
 usurper Athaliah, the ninth monarch of Judah, 
 succeeded his father Joash, A.M. 3164, or ac- 
 cording to Alstedius, A. M. 3109. See 2 Kings, 
 xiv. and 2 Chron. xxv. 
 
 AMAZIAH, the priest of Bethel, under Jero- 
 boam, II. king of Israel. 
 
 AM'AZON, n. \ Gr. a, without ; /*aoc, the 
 
 AMAZO'NIAN. Abreast. A warlike woman, a 
 virago. 
 
 When the strong town of Hennebond, near Rennes, 
 was besieged by the French, this redoubtable amazon 
 [the Countess of Montfort] rode in complete armour 
 from street to street, on a large courser, animating 
 the garrison. Wartm's Hist. Eng. Poetry, i. 254. 
 
 1 do not with less willingness own my weakness 
 than my sex, being far from any such amazoman 
 boldness as affects to contend with so many learned 
 and godly men. Bp. Taylor's Artificial Handsomeness. 
 
 AMAZONIA, a country of South America, 
 situated between the equator. Its twundaries 
 VOL. I. 
 
 721 
 
 are: on the north, Terra Firma and Guiana; on 
 the east, the Atlantic Ocean and Brazil ; on 
 
 the south, Paraguay ; and on the west, Peru. 
 
 This country was first discovered, and so named, 
 by Francisco Orellaua, who, about the year 1541, 
 in a bark manned with fifty soldiers, was borne 
 down by the stream of the river Napo into the 
 channel of the Maragnon ; and pretended to 
 have discovered along its banks nations so rich 
 that the roofs of their temples were covered with 
 plates of gold ; he also described a warlike and 
 powerful republic of women, who, with arms in 
 their hands, opposed his passage, and hence he 
 called the country Amazonia; and the river, 
 which had formerly been denominated Maragnon 
 Amazon. 
 
 AMAZONIUM, aplace near Athens, so callei 
 from a battle fought between the Athenians ancf 
 the Amazons. 
 
 AMAZONIUS, in pharmacy, a kind of pastil, 
 or troche, anciently used against risings of the 
 stomach and vomitings. It is composed of small- 
 age, anise-seed, wormwood, myrrh, pepper, 
 castorium, opium, and cinnamon. 
 
 AMAZONS, in antiquity, a nation of female 
 warriors, who are said to have founded an em- 
 pire in Asia Minor, upon the river Thermodoon, 
 along the coasts of the Black Sea, as far as the 
 Caspian ; and to have formed a state from which 
 men were excluded. What commerce they had 
 with that sex was only with strangers, and that 
 for the purpose of continuing the race; they 
 killed all their male children ; and they cut off 
 the right breasts of their female ones, to make 
 them more fit for the combat. From that last 
 circumstance it is, that they are supposed to take 
 their name, which is compounded of the priva- 
 tive a and paoe, breast. But Dr. Bryant, in his 
 Analysis of Ancient Mythology, explodes this 
 account as fabulous; and observes, that they 
 were in general Cuthite colonies from Egypt 
 and Syria, who formed settlements in different 
 countries, and that they derived their name from 
 zon, the sun, which was the national object of 
 worship. It has indeed been controverted, even 
 among ancient writers whether there really ever 
 were such a nation as that of the Amazons. 
 Strabo, Palsephatus, and others, deny it ; whilst 
 Herodotus, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, Trogus 
 Pompeius, Justin, Pliny, Mela, Plutarch, &c. 
 expressly assert their existence. The most an- 
 cient Greek writers mention the Amazons. In 
 the third book of the Iliad, Priam speaks of 
 having been present in a battle with them ; and 
 some of them are said afterwards to come to the 
 assistance of that prince during the siege of Troy. 
 They are also mentioned by Herodotus, wl 
 says that the Grecians defeated them on the 
 river Thermodoon. After their victory, they 
 carried off all the Amazons they could take alive, 
 in three ships. But while they were at sea, the 
 Amazons conspired against the men, and killed 
 them all. Having no knowledge of navigation, 
 they were now driven by wind and tide towards 
 the precipices of the lake Msotis, in the Scy- 
 thian territories. Here they went ashore, seized 
 the first horses they met with, and began to plun- 
 der the inhabitants. The Scythians at first 
 supposed them to be men; but after they had
 
 722 
 
 AMAZONS. 
 
 taken some prisoners, and discovered them to be 
 women, they were unwilling to carry on hosti- 
 lities against them. By degrees a number of the 
 young Scythians took .these gentle dames as 
 wives, who prevailed with their husbands to re- 
 tire to Sarmatia. ' Hence,' says Herodotus, ' the 
 wives of the Sarmatians continue their ancient 
 way of living. They hunt on horseback in the 
 company of their husbands, and sometimes alone ; 
 they march with their armies, and wear the same 
 dress with the men : and no virgin is permitted 
 to marry till she has killed an enemy in the field. 
 Diodorus Siculus has decribed a similar people 
 who dwelt near theThermodoon,who were subject 
 to the government of women, and in which 
 females managed all the military affairs like men. 
 Justin represents the Amazonian republic to 
 have arisen in Scythia. The Scythians had a 
 great part of Asia under their dominion up- 
 wards of 400 years, till they were conquered by 
 Ninus, the founder of the Assyrian empire. 
 After his death, which happened about 1150 
 years before the Christian aera, and that of Semi- 
 ramis and their son Ninias, Ilinus, and Scolo- 
 pites, princes of the blood-royal of Scythia, were 
 driven from their country by other princes, who 
 like them aspired to the crown. They departed 
 with their wives, children, and friends; and 
 being followed by a great number of young peo- 
 ple of both sexes, they passed into Asiatic 
 Sarmatia, beyond mount Caucasus, where they 
 formed an establishment, and supplied themselves 
 with what they wanted, by making excursions 
 into the countries bordering on the Euxine sea. 
 The people of those countries, exasperated by 
 the incursions of their new neighbours, united, 
 surprised, and massacred the men. The wo- 
 men then resolving to revenge their death, and to 
 provide for their own security, formed a new 
 kind of government; chose a queen; enacted 
 laws ; and maintained themselves, without men ; 
 for ever renouncing marriage, which they con- 
 sidered an insupportable slavery. For the con- 
 tinuance of the race, however, they made a law 
 to go every year to the frontiers, and invite men 
 to come to them, but to leave them as soon as 
 they were pregnant. The female infants amang 
 the Amazons were educated ; but the boys, if we 
 believe Justin, .were strangled at the moment 
 of their birth. According to Diodorus Siculus, 
 they crippled their legs and arms, so as to ren- 
 der them unfit for military exercises. Quintus 
 Curtius, Philostratus, and Jordarus, say, that the 
 less savage sent them to their fathers. Their 
 right breast is said to have been burnt off, by 
 applying to it, at eight years of age, a hot brazen 
 instrument; but other writers state that this 
 breast was constantly compressed from infancy, 
 so as to prevent its growth, at least so far as to 
 hinder its ever being incommodious in war. 
 
 Plutarch, in his life of Theseus, speaks of a battle 
 which had been fought between the Athenians and 
 the Amazons at Athens, and says, that the graves 
 of those that were slain, were to be seen in the 
 streets that lead to the gate Piraica, by the tem- 
 ple of the hero Chalcodue. In another place he 
 states, that ' it appears, that the passage of the 
 Amazons through Thessaly was not without oppo- 
 sition ; for there are yet to be seen many of their 
 
 sepulchres near Scrotusxa and Cynocephalae. 
 And in his life of Pompey, that, ' they inhabit 
 those parts of mount Caucasus that look toward 
 the Hyrcanian Sea, (not bordering upon the 
 Albanians, for the territories of the Getse and 
 the Leges lie between) : and with these people 
 do they yearly, for two months only, accompany 
 and cohabit near the river Thermodoon. Quin- 
 tus Curtius states, the nation of the Amazons to 
 be situated upon the borders of Hyrcania in the 
 plains of Thermiscyra. Their queen was named 
 Thalestris, and she had under her subjection all 
 the country that lies between mount Caucasus 
 and the river Phasis. This queen came out of 
 her dominions, in consequence of an ardent 
 desire she had conceived to see Alexander, and 
 sent messengers to acquaint him that she was 
 come to have the satisfaction of an interview. 
 Having obtained permission to visit him, she 
 advanced with 300 of her Amazons, leaving the 
 rest of her troops behind ; and arriving within 
 sight of the king, leaped from her horse, holding 
 two javelins in her right hand. She surveyed 
 Alexander with an undaunted countenance, and 
 narrowly examined his person ; when the king 
 having asked whether she had any thing to de- 
 sire of him, she replied, without scruple or hesi- 
 tation, that she was come with a view to have 
 children by him. Their offspring, if of the 
 female sex, she would retain herself; and if of 
 the male sex, it should be delivered to Alexander. 
 He then asked her whether she would accompany 
 him in his wars. But this she declined, alleg- 
 ing that she had left nobody to take care of her 
 kingdom. Having accomplished her object, she 
 returned home. Justin repeatedly mentions this 
 visit of Thalestris to Alexander, and says, ' she 
 performed a march of twenty-five days in order 
 to obtain the meeting. The interview between 
 Alexander and Thalestris is likewise men- 
 tioned by Diodorus Siculus. The Amazons 
 are represented as being armed with bows, 
 arrows, and javelins; and also with an axe of a 
 particular construction. According to the elder 
 Pliny, it was invented by Penthesilia, their 
 queen, who went to the Trojan war. On many 
 ancient medals are representations of the Ama- 
 zons, armed with these axes. They are also said 
 to have had bucklers in the shape of a half-moon. 
 The Amazons are mentioned by many other an- 
 cient authors besides those which have been 
 enumerated; and if any credit be due to the 
 accounts concerning them, they subsisted through 
 several ages. 
 
 The ancient medals and monuments on which 
 they are represented are also very numerous. 
 The Abbe Guyon speaks of the history of the 
 Amazons as having been regarded by many per- 
 sons as fabulous, ' rather from prejudice than 
 from any real and solid examination.' 
 
 Among the striking instances of Amazonian 
 conduct in modern ladies, may be mentioned 
 that of Jane of Belleville, widow of Mons. de 
 Clisson who was beheaded at Paris in the year 
 1353, on a suspicion of carrying on a correspon- 
 dence with England and the Count de Montfort. 
 This lady, filled with grief for the death of her 
 husband, and exasperated at the ill treatment 
 which she considered him as having received,
 
 sent off 
 
 AMAZONS. 
 
 n , don :iu and ' When PA a '. s P eaks . f a nation of Amazons 
 
 723 
 
 put to sea, to revenge the death of her husband 
 upon all the French with whom she should meet. 
 This female corsair made several descents upon 
 Normandy, where she stormed castles ; and the 
 inhabitants of that province were spectators 
 more than once, whilst their villages were all in 
 a blaze, of one of the finest women in Europe, 
 with a sword in one hand and a torch in the 
 other, urging the carnage, and eyeing with plea- 
 sure all the horrors of war.' Mezerai, says, that 
 during the crusade in 1147 '"many women 
 did not content themselves with, taking the cross, 
 
 hernia. 
 
 AMAZOXS, M ARAGNON or ORELLANA, a river of 
 South America, and one of the largest in the 
 world. It rises in Peru, between two ridges of 
 the Andes, in about sixteen degrees of south la- 
 titude, under the name of the Apurimac ; and 
 flows northerly over a country overspread with 
 forests ; and expanding, by means of numerous 
 tributary accessions, forms the Ucayale, about 
 300 geographical miles from its source. From 
 
 squadrons of females, which rendered credible 
 all that has been said of the prowess of the 
 Amazons.' In 1590, the League party obtained 
 some troops from the king of Spain. Upon the 
 news of their being disembarked, Barri de St. 
 Auriez, Henry IV's governor at Lucate, sent out 
 to communicate a scheme to the Duke de Mont- 
 morenci, commander of that province. He was 
 taken in his way by some of the troops of the 
 League, who were also upon their march with 
 the Spaniards towards Leucate. They were 
 persuaded that, by thus having the governor in 
 their hands, the gates of that place would be 
 immediately opened to them, or at least would 
 not hold out long. But Constantia de Cecelli, 
 his wife, after having assembled the garrison, 
 put herself so resolutely at their head, pike in 
 hand, that she inspired the weakest with courage ; 
 and the besiegers were repulsed wherever they 
 presented themselves. Shame and their great 
 loss having rendered them desperate, they sent a 
 message to the courageous woman, acquainting 
 her that if she continued to defend herself they 
 would hang her husband. She replied, with 
 tears in her eyes, ' I have riches in abundance : 
 I have offered them, and I do still offer them^ 
 for his ransom ; but I would not ignominiously 
 purchase a life which he would reproach me with, 
 and which he would be ashamed to enjoy. I 
 will not dishonour him by treason against my 
 king and country.' The besiegers having made 
 a fresh attack without success, put her husband 
 to death, and raised the siege. Henry IV. after- 
 wards sent to this lady the brevet of governess 
 of Leucate, with the reversion for her son. The 
 famous maid of Orleans is a shining example of 
 female courage and patriotism, well known to 
 every reader ; and her fate is an everlasting dis- 
 grace to the tyrant who murdered her. See 
 JOAN OF ARC. In the end of the eighteenth 
 century, the enthusiasm of French liberty and 
 equality excited many females of that nation to 
 commence Amazons, and follow their husbands, 
 brothers, and lovers, to victory or death. The 
 Abbe Arnard, in his memoirs, speaks of a 
 countess of St. Balmont, who used to take the 
 field with her husband and fight by his side. 
 She sent several Spanish prisoners of her taking 
 to Marshal Feuquires ; and, what is not a little 
 extraordinary, this Amazon at home was all 
 affability and sweetness, and gave herself up to 
 reading and acts of piety. John de los Sanctos, 
 a Portuguese author, in his description of Ethio- 
 
 distance of about six degrees, where it unites 
 with the Tunguragua, and forms the Amazon. 
 It then nakes an easterly course, or nearly so, 
 across the continent ; and, after traversing 4000 
 miles, rolls its vast tide into the ocean with such 
 violence that it repels all other waters, and car- 
 ries its own stream pure and unmixed to the dis- 
 tance of eighty leagues. This circumstance is 
 the more remarkable, as it is calculated that 
 from Obidos, 400 miles from its mouth, the 
 ground does not decline more than four feet. 
 This river is navigable up to the very foot of the 
 Andes, and is, at its mouth, 180 miles wide. 
 The principal branches of the Amazon from the 
 south are: 1. The Tunguaraque and Ucayale, 
 already described ; 2. The Madeira, its princi- 
 pal tributary, which rises in the United Provinces 
 near Potosi, about 20 S. lat. ; and passing under 
 various names into Brazil is joined by numerous 
 other rivers, and rolls in a north-easterly direc- 
 tion to the Amazon, after a course of 2000 miles ; 
 3. The Tocantins, which enters the Amazon 
 near its mouth, after a course of about 1500 
 miles. Its tributary, the Arasruay, rises between 
 the parallels of 18 and 19 of south latitude. 
 The other important tributaries of the Amazon 
 from the south are, the Jutay, the Juruay, and 
 i the Puros, which join it between the Ucayale and 
 the Madeira; and the Tapnjos and Xinsru, which 
 join it between the Madeira and the Tocantins. 
 The principal rivers which fall into the Amazon 
 on its northern bank are, the Napo, the Icaor, 
 the Putumayo, the Jupura, and the Negro, the 
 last of which is remarkable for sending off a 
 branch towards the north, which, under the name 
 of Cassiquiari, falls into the Orinoco, and unites, 
 by this means, the Amazon with that magnificent 
 stream. All the rivers which rise on the eastern 
 declivity of the Andes, between the parallels of 
 2 north latitude and 20 south, including a 
 space of 1600 or 1700 miles, contribute to swell 
 the waters of the common channel, by which 
 this immense portion of South America is drained 
 of its waters. The basin of the Amazons has 
 been calculated at more than 1500 miles from 
 north to south, and upwards of 200 from east to 
 west, including a superficial area of 3,000,000 
 square miles, or nearly half of South America. 
 
 The banks of this river are clothed with im- 
 mense and impenetrable woods, abounding with 
 bears, tigers, leopards, wild boars, snakes, and 
 serpents. Alligators are numerous, and fre- 
 quently grow to the length of thirty feet. They 
 are often seen stretched along on the banks, in 
 appearance like long branches of timber covered 
 3 A *
 
 724 
 
 ATvTB 
 
 vrtlt lough dry bark. Turtles are numerous and 
 excellent. Tortoises, or land-turtles, are found 
 on the neighbouring shores. The neighbouring 
 woods abound with a variety of birds of the most 
 beautiful plumage, and with innumerable apes 
 of the most extravagant and ridiculous appear- 
 ances. The vegetable productions are cocoa, 
 cinnamon, vanilla, pines, coffee, sugar-canes, 
 plantains, lemons, limes, oranges, wax, storax, 
 copal, rice, maize, balsams, resins, and medicinal 
 plants. Woods, extremely precious, of every 
 kind, colour, and size, are found here ; as cedar, 
 redwood, &c. ; some of which are extremely 
 hard, and resemble ebony. The current of this 
 river is violent, and its depth unfathomable. 
 The swellings and freshes which come on with 
 the periodical rains are very great; the whole of 
 the numerous islands in the channel of the river 
 are then overflowed ; many of them change their 
 places on some occasions ; others are formed by 
 the new channels, which the boundless im- 
 petuosity of the river is accustomed to make for 
 itself. 
 
 The climate of the countries watered by this 
 stream is hot, moist, and unhealthy, especially 
 on the shores. Countless varieties of mosqui- 
 toes, and other venomous insects, are nourished 
 and invigorated by the damp exhalations fo- 
 mented on its banks by the influence of a burn- 
 ing sun. The river above the Pongo, a Spanish 
 name for the narrow channel of the mountains, 
 through which rivers emerge previously to their 
 spreading over the plains, runs down a moun- 
 tainous channel, and exhibits numerous cata- 
 racts, rapids, &c. At the Pongo the stream is 
 suddenly contracted from a breadth of 1600 to 
 160 feet, and the current becomes amazingly 
 rapid, so that a canoe or any other species of 
 boat would inevitably be driven at the mercy of 
 the stream, and dashed to pieces on the rocks. 
 The difficult parts of the river are therefore 
 passed in rafts of a particular construction, called 
 Balses. In these, the different beams of which 
 they are composed are neither dove-tailed nor 
 nailed together, but are fastened by twigs called 
 lianas, which ar.e extremely flexible and elastic ; 
 so that when the raft strikes with violence against 
 the rocks, the lianas have the effect of a spring, 
 and by their elasticity deaden the shock. The 
 greatest danger to which the navigator is ex- 
 posed, is being carried by eddies out of the cur- 
 rent, which he may find it almost impossible to 
 regain. This accident happened to Condamine 
 in navigating this river ; and he relates that a 
 short time before a missionary was thus drawn 
 into the vortex, was kept in it for two days 
 destitute of provisions ; and but for a providen- 
 tial swell of the river, which brought him again 
 into the current, might have perished for want. 
 Condamine calculated, that in the narrowest 
 part he was carried on his raft at the rate of two 
 toises per second, which is equal to rather more 
 than nine miles an hour. After he had emerged 
 from this range of hills, he describes the aspect 
 of tne country as a maze of lakes, rivers, and 
 canals, penetrating in every direction the gloom 
 of an immense forest, which but for them were 
 forbidden access to. New plants, new animals, 
 and new races of men, were exhibited to view. 
 
 ' Accustomed during seven years to mountains 
 lost in clouds, 1 was wrapt in admiration at the 
 wide circle embraced by the eye, restricted here 
 by no other boundary than the horizon, save 
 where the hills of Pongo, soon about to disap- 
 pear, raised themselves to chequer the constant 
 monotony of the scene. To the crowd of vary- 
 ing objects which diversify the cultured fields of 
 Quito, and which still presented themselves to 
 the imagination, succeeded the most uniform 
 contrast, the whole that was to be seen being 
 verdure and water; for the earth is so thickly 
 covered with tufted plants and bushes, that it is 
 trodden, but not perceived ; to find a barren space, 
 though but a foot square, requires a world of 
 toil. Below Borja, and 400 or 500 leagues be- 
 yond, on falling down the river, a stone, nay a 
 pebble, is an object rare as a diamond. The 
 savages of these countries, indeed, have no con- 
 ception of stones, and when on visiting Borja 
 they first perceive them, the wonder they occa- 
 sionis admirable to behold ; every gesture betokens 
 surprise; they collect them together, and load 
 themselves with the precious burden, till, begin- 
 ning to notice their abundance, they finally dis- 
 regard, and throw them away.' 
 
 The first European who visited the river Ama- 
 zons was Francis d'Orrelana, who, having met 
 with some armed women or Amazons on its 
 banks, conferred upon the river its present name. 
 He embarked in 1539, on a river in the vicinity 
 of Quito; and being carried by subordinate 
 streams into the main current of the Amazons, 
 he arrived at the North Cape, in Guiana, after a 
 navigation of more than 5000 miles. In 1568, 
 Pedro de Ursoa fell into this river from a tribu- 
 tary stream on the southern side ; but he pe- 
 rished in the course of his voyage by the hands 
 of his followers, who afterwards descended the 
 stream to its mouth. It was afterwards ascended 
 in 1638, by Pedro Texeira, whose voyage was 
 printed, together with a chart of the course of 
 the river. In 1707, a new chart was published 
 by Father Fritz, who had traced the Amazon 
 throughout its whole length ; but, for want of the 
 necessary instruments, could not fix with any 
 degree of accuracy the position of particular 
 points. In 1743 and 1744 it was navigated by 
 Monsieur de Condamine, of the royal academy 
 of sciences at Paris ; who has published a correct 
 map of its course. 
 
 A tradition long prevailed among the Spanish 
 missionaries, that this river and the Orinoco were 
 joined together by some of their subordinate 
 streams, but no clear evidence was brought for- 
 ward in favour of the fact, until the illustrious 
 Humboldt, who in the course of his journies into 
 the interior penetrated from the Rio Negro, a 
 branch of the Amazons already described, to the 
 Cassiquiari, and ascending its stream arrived in 
 the main channel of the Orinoco. 
 
 AMBA, in botany, the manga, indica, or 
 mango tree, called also ambalam and ambe. 
 
 AMBAGES, n. A circuit of words ; an in 
 direct manner of expression. 
 
 Calchas led us with ambages, 
 That is to saine, with double wordis slie, 
 Such as men clepen a word with two visages. 
 
 Chaucer. Troihts fy Cressida, v. 897.
 
 AMBASSADOR. 
 
 Ejiigramma in which every mery conceited man, 
 
 might, without any long studie or tedious ambages, 
 
 make his frend sport, and anger his foe, and give a 
 
 prettie nip, or shew a sharpe conceit in a few verses. 
 
 Puttenham. Art of Poesie, lib. 1. c. 27. 
 
 They gave those complex ideas names, that they 
 might the more easily record and discourse of things 
 they were daily conversant in, without long ambages 
 and circumlocutions ; and that the things they were 
 continually to give and receive information ahout, 
 might be the easier and quicker understood. Locke. 
 
 AMBAHLAU, or AMBALAYA, a large town in 
 the province of Delhi, 126 miles north by west from 
 the city of Delhi, and belonging to Sheik chiefs. 
 It is a walled town, and has a large citadel. The 
 houses are mostly built of burnt bricks, but the 
 streets are so narrow as scarcely to allow room 
 for an elephant to pass. Lat. 30. 21'. N. long. 
 76. 17'. E. 
 
 AMBA-GESHEN, a rock in Abyssinia, in the dis- 
 trict or independent state of Amhara of pro- 
 digious steepness, and almost impregnable. Its 
 summit is said to be about half a Portuguese 
 league in breadth, and the circumference at the 
 bottom about half a day's journey. The ascent 
 at first is easy ; but grows afterwards so pre- 
 cipitous, that the Abyssinian oxen, which will 
 otherwise clamber like goats, must be craned up, 
 and let down with ropes. Here the princes of 
 the blood were formerly confined, a circumstance 
 to which Dr. Johnson so finely alludes in the open- 
 ing chapter of his Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia. 
 
 AMBAIBA, a tree in Brazil, called by the 
 Indians tipisca. 
 
 AMBALAM, in botany, an Indian tree, the 
 fruit of which is a kind of kernel that is good 
 to assuage pains in the ears ; of the root is made 
 a pessary that promotes the menstrual discharge. 
 The bark converted into a powder is beneficial in 
 dysenteries, and a decoction of its wood is given 
 with success in gonorrhoeas. Rail. Hist. Plant. 
 
 AMBARVALE CARMEN, the song or prayer 
 used at the festival of the AMBARVALIA, which 
 see. A formula of it is preserved in Cato, De 
 Re Rustica, cap. cxlii. 
 
 AMBARVALE SACRUM, the sacrifice offered at 
 the Ambarvalia. See next article. 
 
 AMBARVALIA, in antiquity, a festival among 
 the Romans celebrated annually in honour of 
 Ceres, in order to procure a happy harvest. At 
 these feasts they sacrificed a bull, a sow, and a 
 sheep, which, before the sacrifice, were led in 
 procession thrice around the fields ; whence the 
 feast is supposed to have taken its name ; from 
 the Greek a^t, about ; or the Latin ambio, I go 
 round ; and ai vum, a field. Though others 
 write it, ambarbalia, and ambarbia, and deduce 
 it from ambire urbem, to go round the city. 
 From the beast offered in sacrifice, the ceremony 
 was also called suovetaurilia. The ambarvalia 
 were of two kinds, public and private. The 
 private were those solemnized by the masters of 
 families, accompanied with their children and 
 servants, in the villages and farms out of Rome. 
 They walked three times round the grounds, 
 every one being crowned with leaves of oak, 
 and singing hymns in honour of Ceres. After 
 the procession they went to sacrifice. The pub- 
 lic ambarvalia were those celebrated in the 
 boundaries of the city, and in which twelve 
 
 725 
 
 priests, called fratres arvales, officiated pontifi- 
 cally, walking at the head of a procession of the 
 citizens, who had lands and vineyards at Rome. 
 These festivals were annual, some say twice a 
 year, viz. in January or April, and in July or 
 August. Some make a quinquennial ambar- 
 valia, performed once every lustrum, or fifth 
 year. 
 
 AMBARVALIS FLOS, in botany, a name gi- 
 ven by some authors to the polygala, or milk- 
 wort. 
 
 AM'BASSY, n. ~] 
 
 AMBASSADE', 
 
 AMBAS'SADOUR, *** ***** 2 tarf J ; 
 
 AMBASSADRESS, \. tanbasc f or: one who waits 
 
 AM'BASSAGE, for resides near the highest 
 
 AMBASSATRIE, au thorities. 
 
 AMBAS'SIAT. J 
 
 Go ye therfore as trustye ambassailotiret, aud 
 stickynge to me your authour ; teache fyrst the Jewes, 
 than the next nyghboures vnto them, afterwardes all 
 the natios of the whole world. 
 
 Udall. Math. cap. xxviii. 
 
 Maximilian entertained them with dilatory an- 
 swers ; so as the formal part of their ambattage night 
 well warrant their further stay. Bacon. 
 
 Give first admittance to th' ambassadovrs. Shahtp. 
 
 Rais'd by these hopes, I sent DO news before, 
 Nor ask'd your leave, nor did your faith implore ; 
 But come without a pledge, my own ambassadour. 
 
 Dryden 
 
 Well, my ambassadress 
 
 Come you to menace war, and loud defiance ? 
 
 Or does the peaceful olive grace your brow 1 Rowe . 
 
 AMBASSADOR, or EMBASSADOR, the represent- 
 ative of one sovereign power to another, to 
 which he is sent properly accredited. The ori- 
 gin of the domestic management of a state, is 
 not the whole of government ; every country has 
 neighbours and is obliged to look abroad, to 
 discover how its interests are affected by die 
 countries around it ; to discern with sagacity in 
 what manner they may be either injured or best 
 promoted, and to take wise measures to prevent 
 the one, or to second the other : to accomplish 
 this with the fullest effect, a skilful agent seemed 
 necessary on the spot, to suggest views and mo- 
 tives, to represent the circumstances of his own 
 country in the most favourable light, and those 
 of the country to be opposed in the most un- 
 favourable. It was soon found that all the na- 
 tions in Europe had some ties of connexion, and 
 that the views of no one country could be mo- 
 delled to the purposes of another without pro- 
 ducing a correspondent effect on the views of all 
 the other countries which fell within this great 
 circle of connexion ; the foreign politics of mo- 
 dern nations became in this manner very com- 
 plicated ; each was obliged to direct its attention 
 not to one or a few, but to all the nations, to per- 
 ceive how its interests were likely to be affected 
 by any one. As it became necessary to transact 
 business of so much consequence with the rulers 
 or ministers of a nation's government, it \yas 
 found advisable to send men possessing high 
 dignity in their own nation. Thus the title of 
 agent was exchanged for that of ambassador, 
 and complication, finesse, and aristocracy, con- 
 tinue to support the title. See Lord Chester, 
 field's Letters to his Son, passim. Ambassadors
 
 726 
 
 AMBASSADOR 
 
 are either ordinary or extraordinary : ambassa- abbey the unbuned coffins of two 
 oors ordinary are those stationed at a foreign ambassadors, whose bodies were ai rested after 
 court to preserve a good understanding between death. It has been enquired what violations of 
 the court sending tliem and that to which they the criminal code of a country ought to be 
 are sent : the signing and countersigning of punished in an ambassador ? The modern usage 
 passports, the general protection of trade, and is to consider him amenable to his own sove- 
 the transmission of intelligence, as far as it can reign only, in all cases, excepting that of treason 
 interest their respective courts, are the chief against the state where he resides, which is a 
 duties of their office. Ambassadors extraordi- violation of the law of nations. Instances to the 
 nary are those deputed on some important occa- contrary, however, have occurred in former 
 sion, and are generally surrounded with supe- times. In 1654 the brother of the Portuguese 
 rior pomp and splendour. Till within these ambassador, who is said to have been jointly 
 200 years, ambassadors in ordinary were not accredited with him to the English court, was 
 heard of: all, till then, were ambassadors extra- tried, condemned, and beheaded for murder ; 
 ordinary ; that is, such as are sent on some par- the only difference made between his punish- 
 ticular occasion, and who retire as soon as the ment and that of some of his servants, who were 
 affair is despatched. By the law of nations, none also implicated, was in the mode of execution, 
 under the quality of a sovereign prince can send When the duke de Sully resided at this court as 
 or receive an ambassador. The privileges of ambassador of Henry IV. of France, being in- 
 ambassadbrs are various. By the law of Europe, formed that one of his gentlemen had murdered a 
 and of most civilized nations, not only the per- man at a bagnio, he sent a message to the magis- 
 son of the ambassador is inviolate, but his whole trates of the city, that they might take the offender 
 train are exempt from the municipal law of the and proceed with him according to law ; but 
 country where he resides. On the breaking out though he was tried and condemned, the British 
 of a war, the ambassador, with all his attendants monarch thought proper to grant him a pardon 
 and property, is permitted to retire home. No- 
 tice may be given that an ambassador will not 
 be received ; and if this caution be neglected, 
 they may be taken for enemies ; but if admitted, 
 though by enemies in arms, they are entitled to 
 the protection of the law of nations ; and the 
 ordinary respect paid to a flag of truce proceeds 
 upon this principle. The Turks have, indeed, 
 thrown ambassadors into the castle of the Seven 
 Towers at Constantinople, on the commence- 
 ment of hostilities, and even mutilated their per- 
 sons; but the porte, of late, has shewn a dispo- 
 sition to follow the humane usage of other courts. 
 By statute, 7 Anne, cap. 12, an ambassador and 
 suite is in this country protected from the con- 
 sequences of arrest by the king's writs for debt ; 
 if they are arrested, the process shall be void, 
 
 and the persons suing out and executing the 
 writ shall suffer such penalties and corporeal 
 
 and his liberty. 
 
 The ceremonies, on the reception of ambas- 
 sadors, vary according to the customs of diffe- 
 rent courts. At some, an ambassador is expected 
 not to quit his house until he has been received 
 with all due pomp at the court to which he is 
 sent. In China the ceremony of prostration is 
 required on the admission of an ambassador to 
 the presence of the emperor ; and a ninefold 
 humiliation of this kind has been exacted ; 
 hitherto this lias been refused by British ambas- 
 sadors, and sometimes at the expense of the total 
 failure of the mission. So important is the 
 ceremony of a due reception, that, according to 
 the general usage of European states, no ambas- 
 sador is entitled to any privilege of his office 
 nor can he assume any of its functions, until he 
 has been thus properly acknowledged. 
 
 At Athens, ambassadors mounted the pulpit 
 
 punishment as the lord chancellor, or either of of the public orators, and there opened their 
 
 the chief justices, shall think proper to inflict. 
 This act originated in the following circum- 
 stance : The count de Matueof, ambassador of 
 Peter the First of Russia, to the court of queen 
 Anne, was publicly arrested by a laceman of 
 London, and maltreated by the bailiffs, who 
 dragged him from his coach to prison, where he 
 continued until bailed by the earl of Feversham ; 
 and neither the count nor the czar were readily 
 to be appeased. Most of the foreign ambassa- 
 
 commission, acquainting the people with their 
 errand. At Rome, they were introduced to the 
 senate, and delivered their commissions to the 
 senators. Ambassadors should never attend any 
 public solemnities, as marriages, funerals, &c. 
 unless their masters have some interest therein : 
 nor must they go into mourning on any occa- 
 sions of their own, because they represent the 
 person of their prince. 
 AMBATO, ASSIENTO DE, the capital of a 
 
 dors in London joined in a protest against the district of the same name in South America, 
 
 insult, and Matueof retired to Holland. Anne which stands upon the banks of the river Am- 
 
 and her ministers were much perplexed respect- bato. It has a parish church, two chapels of 
 
 ing the proper course to be pursued ; the parties ease, and a convent of Franciscans. In the 
 
 concerned in the arrest were apprehended ; but 
 the secretary of state acknowledged that the law 
 of England provided no adequate punishment 
 for the offence. Peter demanded, without hesi- 
 tation, that the sheriff and all concerned should 
 suffer death. Nor was it until an extraordinary 
 embassy was sent, with the new act now carried 
 through parliament, and the offer to pay all the 
 expenses of the count, that this affair was ami- 
 cably settled. There are shewn in Westminster- 
 
 year 1698 it was entirely destroyed by an erup- 
 tion of Cotopaxi, which is near it, and at the 
 same time the snowy mountain or desert of 
 Carguairaso, throwing up a river of mud and 
 lava, inundated the whole country. The monu- 
 ments of this misfortune are still visible ; the 
 town, however, now flourishes. It is eighteen 
 leagues from Quito, and four from Tarunga. The 
 river Ambato is amazingly violent in its stream 
 and forms one of the tributaries to the Patate.
 
 A ^B 727 AMB 
 
 /v, A ^ IBAZAC ' a town of France ? in Limousin, the ancients gave it the denomination of succi- 
 
 Ihe head of a canton m the department of num, from succus, juice. But as good amber 
 
 Upper \,enne and arrondissement of Limoges, has been found in digging at a Considerable 
 
 four leagues north-north-east of the last place, distance from the sea as that gathered on the 
 
 It contains 2800 inhabitants. coast. Boerhaave ranks it with camphor, which 
 
 _AJMBh, m anatomy, a superficial jetting out is a concrete oil of aromatic plants, elaborated 
 
 by heat into a crystalline form. Within some 
 
 AMBE, m botany. See AMBA. pieces of amber have been found leaves, and in- 
 
 AMBE, in surgery, an ancient instrument, with sects included; which seems to indicate either 
 
 which they reduced dislocated bones. The that the amber was originally in a fluid state or 
 
 ambe, or commander, is mentioned by Hip- that, having been exposed to the sun, it was sol- 
 
 pocrates, and has its partizans among the mo- ened, and rendered susceptible of the leaves 
 
 derns, especially for replacing the arm. But it and insects. Amber, when rubbed, draws or at- 
 
 is only useful in luxations directly downwards, tracts bodies to it ; and, by friction, is brought 
 
 and even in these is dangerous. M. Le Cat has to yield light pretty copiously in the dark. Some 
 
 endeavoured to remedy its defects. See Phil, have distinguished amber into yellow, white, 
 
 Trans. N. 469. brown, and black; but the two latter are sup^ 
 
 AM'BER, v. n. & adj. German, amberen, 
 anbernen, or anhrennen ; to burn, to kindle. 
 Yet neuer eye to Cupid's seruice vow'd 
 Bi held a face of such a louely pride, 
 A tinsell vaile her amber locks did shroud, 
 That stroue to couer what it could not hide. 
 
 posed to be of a different nature and denomina- 
 tion ; the one called jet, the other ambergris. 
 Liquid amber is a kind of native balsam or 
 resin, like turpentine ; clear, reddish, or yel- 
 lowish ; of a pleasant smell, almost like amber- 
 gris. It flows from an incision made in the bark 
 
 Fair/ax'* Taxso, book iv. O f a fi ne l arge tree in New Spain> ^Ued by the 
 natives ososol. The colour of amber is gene- 
 rally some shade of yellow, as wine, wax, or 
 honey-yellow, hyacinth-red, yellowish-white ; it 
 is also found occasionally green or brown. It 
 occurs amorphous, and in detached pieces, more 
 or less shining, with a waxen lustre. Its frac- 
 ture is conchoidal, and when broken it flies into 
 indeterminate, not particularly sharp, fragments. 
 It is commonly transparent, more rarely semi- 
 transparent or translucid. It is brittle, and its 
 specific gravity varies from 1.065 to 1.1. By 
 rubbing, it readily becomes electric. When ap- 
 plied to a lighted candle it takes fire, swells 
 considerably, but does not run into drops, and 
 exhales a white smoke of a pungent penetrating 
 odour. From its Greek name jjXtwpov, the im- 
 
 Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, 
 Thy coral clasps and amber studs ; 
 All these in me no means can move, 
 To come to thee and be my love. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, in Ellis, v. ii. 
 - Fresh roses bring 
 To strew my bed, 'till the impoverish'd spring 
 Confess her want ; around my amorous head 
 Be dropping myrrh and liquid amber shed, 
 'Till Arab has no more. Prior's Solomon, b. ii. 
 Say, will no white-rob'd son of light, 
 Swift-darting from his heav'nly height, 
 
 Here deign to take his hallowM stand ; 
 Here wave his amber locks ; unfold 
 His pinions, cloth'd with downy gold ; 
 
 Here smiling stretch his tutelary wand ? 
 
 Mason's Elfrida. 
 If light penetrateth any clear body that is co- 
 
 l^^^^^^^*:^, Port"? science of electricity received its name 
 
 - - Amber has been ot great repute in the world 
 
 from the earliest times. Many years before 
 Christ it was in esteem as a medicine ; and Plato, 
 Aristotle, Herodotus, /Eschylus, and others, have 
 commended its virtues. Theophrastus wrote ex- 
 pressly upon the subject, about A. A. C. 300. 
 In the times of the Romans it became in high 
 AMBEER a town in the pro- esteem as a gem; and in the luxurious reign of 
 
 ^ HindoS rdlS^e^irS SM~t'^St 
 
 Ir the a,s,ricn -*j^^3 S^t-^aSKS^S 1 -* 
 
 it gives the light the colour of it* medium. Peacham. 
 
 No interwoven reeds a garland made, 
 To hide his brows within the vulgar shade ; 
 But poplar wreaths around his temple spread, 
 And tears of amber trickled down his head. Addison. 
 The spoils of elephants the roofs inlay, 
 
 And studded amber darts a golden ray. Pope. 
 
 vince of 
 
 that name also. 
 53'. E. See 
 
 Lat. 26. 58'. N. long. 75 
 
 ncLiurnlistS) noo utv** v*.v^^-* *- 7 / 
 
 pellucid, bituminous substance of a particular 
 nature, of use in medicine, and in several of 
 the arts, and called electrum by the Greeks. 
 Amber has a resinous taste, and smells like 
 oil of turpentine; it is chiefly found in the 
 Baltic sea, along the coasts of Prussia. Some 
 naturalists refer its origin to the vegetable, others 
 to the mineral, and some even to the animal 
 kingdom. Pliny describes it as a resinous juice, 
 oozing from aged pines and firs, and discharged 
 thence into the sea. He adds, that it was hence 
 
 by its flavour ; for those insects are never \ 
 in the centre of the pieces of amber, but always 
 near the surface. It is observed by the inhabi- 
 tants of those places where amber is produced, 
 that all animals, whether terrestrial, aerial, or 
 aquatic, are extremely fond of it, and that pieces 
 of it are frequently found in their excrements. 
 The bodies of insects found buried m amber 
 have been long admired; but of the most re- 
 markable of these, many are to be suspected : 
 counterfeit, the great price at which beautiful 
 specimens of this k?wl sell having tempted 
 ingenious cheats to introduce ! l 
 such an artful manner into
 
 728 
 
 AMBER 
 
 pieces of amber, that it is not easy to detect the 
 fraud. Of those which have been originally 
 enclosed in amber., some are plainly seen to have 
 struggled hard for their liberty. This also may 
 account for the common accident of finding 
 legs, or wings of flies, without the rest of their 
 bodies, in pieces of amber ; the insects having, 
 when entangled in the yet soft and viscid matter, 
 escaped at the expense of leaving those limbs be- 
 hind them. Drops of clear water are sometimes 
 also preserved in amber. These have doubtless 
 been received into it while soft, and preserved by 
 its hardening around them. Beautiful leaves of 
 a pinnated structure, resembling some of the 
 ferns, or maiden-hairs, have been found in some 
 pieces ; but these are rare, and the specimens of 
 great value. Mineral substances are also found 
 at times lodged in masses of amber. Some of 
 the collections of the German princes boast of 
 specimens of native gold and silver in masses of 
 amber; but as there are many substances of the 
 marcasite, and other kinds that have all the glit- 
 tering appearance of gold and silver, it is not to 
 be too hastily concluded that these metals are 
 really lodged in these beds of amber. Iron is 
 found in various shapes immersed in amber ; and 
 as it is often seen eroded, and sometimes in the 
 state of vitriol, it is not impossible but that cop- 
 per, and the other metals, may be also sometimes 
 immersed in it in the same state : hence the 
 bluish and greenish colours, frequently found in 
 the recent pieces, may be owing, like the parti- 
 cles of the gem colours, to those metals; but as 
 the gems, by their dense texture, always retain 
 their colours, this lighter and more lax bitumen 
 usually loses what it gets of this kind by being 
 kept. Small pebbles, grains of sand, and frag-: 
 ments of stones, are also found immersed in 
 amber. Naturalists have been greatly divided 
 as to the origin of this substance, and what class 
 of bodies it belongs to. Some suppose amber a 
 compound substance. Prussia, say they, and the 
 other countries which produce amber, are 
 moistened with a bituminous juice, which, mix-r 
 ing with the vitriolic salts abounding in those 
 places, the points of those salts fix its fluidity, 
 whence it congeals ; and the result of that con- 
 gelation inakes what we call amber ; which is 
 more or less pure, transparent, and firm, as those 
 parts of salt and bitumen are more or less pure, 
 and are mixed in this or that propdrtion. Bry- 
 done, in his tour to Sicily and Malta, says, that 
 the river Gearetta, formerly celebrated by the 
 poets under the name of Simetus, throws up near 
 its mouth great quantities of amber. He men- 
 tions also a kind of artificial amber, not uncom- 
 mon there, made, as he was told, from copal, but 
 very different from the natural. According to 
 Hartman, amber is formed of a bitumen mixed 
 with vitriol and other salts. But though this 
 were allowed him in regard to the fossil amber, 
 many dispute whether the sea-amber be so pro- 
 duced. It is, however, apparent, that all amber 
 is of the same origin, and probably that which is 
 found in the sea has been washed thither out of 
 the cliffs ; though Hartman thinks it very possi- 
 ble that some of it may be formed in the earth 
 under the sea, and be washed up thence. The 
 ea-amber is usually finer to the eye than the 
 
 fossil ; but the reason is, that it is divested of 
 that coarse coat with which the other is covered 
 while in the earth. Upon the whole, it seems 
 generally agreed upon, that amber is a true 
 bitumen of fossil origin. In a late volume ot 
 the Journal de Physique, however, we find it 
 asserted by Dr. Girtanner to be an animal 
 product, a sort of honey or wax, formed by a 
 species of large ant called by Linnaeus formica 
 rufa. These ants, he says, inhabit the old pine 
 forests, where they sometimes form hills about 
 six feet in diameter ; and it is generally in these 
 ancient forests, or in places where they have 
 been, that fossil amber is found This substance 
 is not so hard as that which is taken up in the 
 sea at Prussia, and which is well known to na- 
 turalists. It has the consistence of honey or of 
 half-melted wax, but it is of a yellow colour like 
 common amber ; it gives the same product by 
 chemical analysis, and it hardens like the other 
 when it is suffered to remain some time in a 
 solution of common salt. This accounts for the 
 insects that are so often found enclosed in it. 
 Among these insects ants are always the most 
 prevailing ; which tends farther, Dr. Girtanner 
 thinks,to the confirmation of his hypothesis. Am- 
 ber then, in his opinion, is nothing but a vegetable 
 oil rendered concrete by the acid of ants, just as 
 wax is nothing but an oil hardened by the acid 
 of bees ; a fact incontestibly proved, we are told, 
 by Mr. Metheries, who has made artificial wax 
 by mixing oil of olives with the nitrous acid, 
 which wax is not to be distinguished from the 
 natural. In the second volume of the Edin- 
 burgh Philosophical Journal, Dr. Brewster has 
 given an account of some optical properties of 
 amber, from which he considers it established 
 beyond a doubt that amber is an indurated 
 vegetable juice; and that the traces of a regular 
 structure, indicated by its action upon polarized 
 light, are not the effect of the ordinary laws of 
 crystallization by which mellite has been formed, 
 but are produced by the same causes which in- 
 fluence the mechanical condition of gum arabic, 
 and other gums, which are known to be formed 
 by the successive deposition and induration of 
 vegetable fluids. 
 
 There are several indications which discover 
 where amber is to be found. The surface of the 
 earth is there covered with a soft scaly stone ; 
 and vitriol in particular always abounds there, 
 sometimes white, sometimes reduced into a mat- 
 ter like melted glass, and sometimes figured 
 like petrified wood. Amber of the finest kind 
 has been found in England. It is frequently 
 thrown on the shores qf Yorkshire and many 
 other places, and found even in our clay pits ; 
 the pits dug for tile-clay, between Tyburn and 
 Kensingtori gravel pits, and that behind St. 
 George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner, have 
 afforded fine specimens. Poland, Silesia, and 
 Bohemia, are famous for the amber dug up there 
 at this time. Germany affords great quantities 
 of amber, as well dug up from the bowels of 
 the earth, as tossed about on the shores of the 
 sea and rivers there. Saxony, Misnia, and 
 Sweden, and many other places in this tract 
 of Europe, abound with it. Denmark has af- 
 forded, at different times, several quantities of
 
 AMBER. 
 
 i'<>3^1 amber ; and the shores of the Baltic abound to be the basis of all 
 With it. But the countries lying on the Baltic 
 afford it in the greatest abu-ndance; and of these 
 the most plentiful country is Prussia, and the 
 
 779 
 
 when 
 
 and hardness. Some have, however 
 
 they had an art' of meltinr some sma U 
 
 , -p. . " * - """J " "'c uiey nau an art ot meitino- somp srm 
 
 next Pornerama. Pruss.a was, as early as the of amber into a mass, and consSuS 
 times of Theodonc the Goth, famous for amber ; one of them : but tin 
 
 one of them : but this seems such another un- 
 
 f it- u .L ------, ..i. luc i , uue ui mem : uui mis seems such another nn 
 
 this prince s a o n me nadves TpSaTh " ^ ^^ M the makin " of gold fall the [rias 
 
 about his court, offered to go to their own country, 
 where that substance, they said, was produced, 
 and bring back great store of it. They accord- 
 ingly did so ; and from this time Prussia was the 
 Country of Amber, instead of Italy, which had 
 before undeservedly that title. Junker describes, 
 after Neumann, the Prussian amber mines, which 
 are the richest known : First, at the surface of the 
 earth, is found a stratum of sand. Immediately 
 under this sand is a bed of clay, filled with small 
 flints about an inch diameter each. Under this 
 clay lies a stratum of black earth, or turf, filled 
 with fossil wood, half decomposed, and bitumi- 
 nous ; this stratum is extended upon a bank of 
 minerals, containing little metal, except iron, 
 which are consequently pyrites. Lastly, under 
 the bed the amber is found, scattered about in 
 pieces, or sometimes accumulated in heaps. 
 
 Its chemical properties have been as yet but 
 little examined. According to Hoffmann, one 
 part of powdered amber, and two of oil of 
 almonds, are capable of combining with each 
 other into a clear gelatinous mass, by being 
 moderately heated for about an hour in a Papin's 
 digester. It is also, according to the same au- 
 thor, totally soluble in caustic potash. Alcohol 
 extracts the colouring part with some resin, but 
 is not a complete solvent. It is said also, that 
 sulphuric acid is a menstruum for amber, but 
 probably not without considerably changing its 
 properties. When exposed to dry distillation 
 in a glass retort, it melts and swells greatly, and 
 gives out first a watery acid liquor, smelling 
 strongly of amber, then a concrete acid salt which 
 crystallizes in yellowish needles in the neck of 
 the retort, and is the succinic acid ; after which 
 there passes a light coloured odorant oil, which, 
 as the distillation goes on, becomes of a darker 
 colour and thicker consistence ; a small quantity 
 of the acid also rises at the same time. When 
 all the volatile parts are thus separated, there 
 remains in the retort a spongy intensely black 
 shining coal, the basis of the fine black varnish. 
 The oil is afterwards rectified by distillation with 
 water, when only the light fragrant colourless 
 part comes over. The relative proportions of 
 oil and acid vary according to the purity of the 
 amber used, and the care of the operator. From 
 sixteen ounces of the common dark brown amber 
 of the shops, Neumann obtained eleven ounces 
 six drachms of oil, four drachms and a half of 
 acid, an ounce and a half of acidulous water, 
 and about an ounce of carbonaceous residue. 
 From thirty-two ounces of the small granular kind, 
 or sandstein, he obtained nine drachms of acid, 
 and twenty-four ounces of oil. The specific 
 gravity of amber is from 1.065 to 1.100. When 
 it melts it yields an agreeable smell, and pro- 
 jected on burning coals, burns with a whitish 
 flame and a whitish yellow smoke, gives little 
 soot, and leaves brownish ashes. Amber is said 
 
 experimenters, proving that the heat which is 
 necessary to melt amber is sufficient to destroy 
 it. See Phil. Trans. N. 248. Hartman indeed 
 mentions a phenomenon which shows the pos- 
 sibility of many pieces of amber being combined 
 into one, by an operation of nature, though it 
 cannot be effected by art. A sheep, he says, was 
 once killed in Prussia , in whose stomach was 
 found a large piece of amber, which was com- 
 posed of several other smaller pieces, the join- 
 ings of all which were visible, though as firm 
 as the pieces themselves. This showed the ani- 
 mal had swallowed the amber in small pieces 
 with its food, and that nature, by the heat and 
 juices of its stomach, had softened those pieces 
 without melting them, in such a manner as to 
 make them unite firmly, though not blended to- 
 gether. Amber has been much used and recom- 
 mended in medicine for its nervous and cordial 
 qualities, also for promoting the menstrual dis- 
 charge, expulsion of the fetus, &c. as an anti- 
 dote for spasms, and preservative against the 
 pestilence ; but many of its supposed qualities 
 are at least questionable. 
 
 AMBER, OIL OF, a fine, transparent, ponderous, 
 yellow oil, procured from amber, by increasing 
 the heat after the spirit is obtained. See next 
 article. It is reckoned a good anti-hysteric and 
 anti-spasmodic. 
 
 AMBER, SPIRIT OF, an acid liquor, procured 
 from amber by pulverizing and distilling it with 
 a sand heat. It is chiefly used in rheumatic 
 pains externally, and in inveterate gleets inter- 
 nally. 
 
 AMBER-TREE, in botany, frutex Africanus am 
 bram spirans. A shrub whose beauty is in its 
 small ever-green leaves, which grow as close as 
 heath, and, being bruised between the fingers, 
 emit a very fragrant odour. We shall here 
 only observe, that this is one of several genera 
 of plants, which afford a decisive evidence of 
 the truth of the Linnoean or sexual system of 
 botany ; as the male and female flowers grow on 
 different plants, which when separated cannot 
 propagate, more than animals of different sexes 
 separated from each other. For many years 
 there were only a few male plants of this shrub 
 in our gardens, which were continued by cut- 
 tings, till seeds of the female plant were im- 
 ported from the Cape of Good Hope, when 
 plants of both sexes were raised. See ANTHO- 
 
 SPERMUM. 
 
 AMBER, VOLATILE SALT OF, is the principal 
 chemical production of amber. It is a peculiar 
 acid salt, which rises after the oil, and fixes in 
 the neck of the retort. Mr. Potts concludes, 
 from various experiments, that the acid of this 
 salt is essentially different from the mineral acids, 
 and approaches nearest to those of the vegetable 
 kingdom. It is a good cephalic and detergent; 
 and Quincy says, it attenuates, cuts, and pene-
 
 AMB 
 
 730 
 
 AMB 
 
 trates, the most remote and minute recesses ; and 
 thus scours, as it were, the whole nervous system. 
 Its chief tendency, he adds, is to secretion ; and 
 what it carries off, is by urine. It also contri- 
 butes to promote a diaphoresis, and is prescribed 
 in chronic cases, as palsies, 'and epilepsies. It is 
 often adulterated with sal ammoniac, nitre, and 
 cream of tartar, &c. 
 AMBER LIQUID. See BALSAM. 
 AMBERG, a city of Germany, formerly the 
 capital of the upper palatinate of Bavaria, with 
 a good castle, armory, ramparts, bastions, and 
 deep ditches ; several beautiful walks are now 
 made in and about the latter. It is seated near 
 the confines of Franconia, on the river Ills, or 
 Wills, 40 miles east of Nuremberg, and 32 
 north of Ratisbon, is divided into the upper and 
 lower towns, and it drives a great trade in iron 
 and other metals found in the neighbouring 
 mountains. Population about 9000. The 
 houses though mostly of wood are well-built, 
 and the streets broad and clean. The principal 
 square in the middle of the town is regular and even 
 beautiful. In it stands the old Gothic town-house, 
 and the splendid parish church of St. Martin. 
 There is here an academy and lyceum, a well- 
 endowed hospital and several religious houses. 
 A convent of very respectable nuns, found- 
 ed by the electress Maria in 1692, maintains a 
 public school for young girls and has a new 
 and noble church. Among the other edifices 
 may be noticed the electoral (now royal) castle, 
 the arsenal, the government build ings (where the 
 colleges of justice and finance had their sittings), 
 and the mint, reckoned one of the finest in 
 Germany. The manufactures are those of fire- 
 arms, earthen-ware, tobacco, and iron ; and there 
 is a good trade in salt. The district to which the 
 town gives name contains on an extent of 187 
 square miles, 13,339 inhabitants, exclusive of 
 the town. Amberg was taken by the Austrians 
 in 1743, and by 1 the French in 1796. 
 
 AMBERGREASE KKY, an island in the 
 bay of Honduras, northward of the British set- 
 tlement of Balize. It is upwards of 70 miles in 
 length, but very narrow, abounding with game, and 
 diversified with numerous fresh water lakes. No 
 constant settlement of any consideration has ever 
 been made on it, but it is a place of agreeable 
 resort, in the hot months, to the settlers on the 
 neighbouring continent. The brasiletto, logwood, 
 and other dyeing woods abound here. See HON- 
 DURAS. 
 
 AMBERGRIS, AMBERGREASE, or GREY 
 AMBER, is described by natural historians as a 
 fatty inflammable substance, variegated like 
 marble, remarkably light, rugged and uneven in 
 ils surface, and having a fragrant odour when 
 heated ; which increases as it grows older, or 
 when it is mixed with musk, or other aromatics, 
 as is done in preparing perfumes or odoriferous 
 waters. It does not effervesce with acids ; it 
 melts freely over the fire into a kind of yellow 
 resin ; and is hardly soluble in spirit of wine. 
 It is- found swimming upon the sea, or the sea- 
 coast, or in the sand near the sea-coast; especially 
 in the Atlantic ocean, on the sea-coast of Brazil, 
 and that of Madagascar ; on the coast of Africa, 
 of the East Indies, China, Japan, and the Molucca 
 
 Islands ; but most of the ambergris which is 
 brought to England comes from the Bahama 
 islands, from Providence, &c. where it is found 
 on the coast, as well as in the abdomen of whales 
 by the whale-fishermen, in lumps of various 
 shapes and sizes, weighing from half an ounce 
 to 100 pounds or more. An American fisherman 
 from Antigua found, some years ago, about 
 fifty-two leagues south-east from the Windward 
 Islands, a piece of ambergris in a whale, which 
 weighed about 130 pounds, and sold for 500 
 sterling. Lumps are sometimes formed of near 
 200 pounds weight. The inhabitants of the 
 Samballas search for ambergris in a singular 
 manner. They hunt it by the scent; after a 
 storm they run along the shore, and if any 
 ambergris be thrown up they discover it by 
 the smell. There are certain birds and other 
 animals on those coasts that are very fond of 
 ambergris, and attracted from a distance by 
 its scent. There are various suppositions and 
 theories as to the nature of this substance, 
 whether it belongs to the vegetable, mineral (for 
 it is found adhering to rocks washed by the sea), 
 or to the animal kingdom. By many it has been 
 considered as a bitumen, a sort of petroleum 
 issuing from the rocks, and condensed by the 
 action of the sun and the water of the sea. Others 
 have imagined it to be made up of the excre- 
 ments of birds nourished on odoriferous herbs ; 
 and by some it has been taken for a sea-mush- 
 room, torn up from the bottom by the violence 
 of tempests. Others, again, have ascribed its 
 origin to the froth thrown out by sea-calves, the 
 excrements of the crocodile, &c. Some main- 
 tain that ambergris is made from the honey- 
 combs, which fall into the sea from the rocks, 
 where the bees had formed their nests ; several 
 persons having seen pieces that were half amber- 
 gris and half plain honey-comb ; and others have 
 found large pieces of ambergris, in which, when 
 broken, honey-comb and honey too were found 
 in the middle. 
 
 Pommet and Lemery thought it a mixture of 
 wax and honey, hardened by the action of the 
 sun, and altered by the sea water. M. Formey, 
 who has adopted this opinion, supports it by an 
 experiment which consists in digesting wax and 
 honey : he asserts, that a product may thus be 
 formed of an agreeable smell, nearly the same 
 with that of ambergris. Some authors have con- 
 sidered ambergris as an animal juice, deposited 
 in bags situated near the root of the genital or- 
 gan in the male whale; and others have ima- 
 gined that it is formed in the bladder of that 
 cetaceous animal : but the nebs of cuttle-fishes 
 found in this concrete juice are sufficient to 
 confute these opinions. The most probable 
 opinion, and which has of late obtained the most 
 general admission, is that of Dr. Schwediaur, 
 who, after examining a great many specimens of 
 this substance, and receiving accounts concern- 
 ing it from different navigators, has concluded it 
 to be formed in the alimentary canal of the phy- 
 seter macrocephalus, or spermaceti whale. He 
 considers ambergris as an excrement of this 
 cetaceous animal, mixed with some parts of its 
 food, 1. Because fishermen find it in these 
 whales ; 2. Because it is common in the lati-
 
 AMB 
 
 731 
 
 AMB 
 
 tudes which they inhabit ; 3. Because beaks of 
 tl>e cuttle-fish with eight feet, sepia octopoda, on 
 which that animal lives, are always found in it ; 
 4. Because he distinguished the black spots 
 mixed through ambergris to be the nebs of this 
 polypous animal; Lastly, because the excre- 
 ments of several quadrupeds, as cows, hogs, &c. 
 exhale an odour similar to that of ambergris, 
 when kept for any length of time. 
 
 Ambergris when taken from the whale is not 
 so hard as it becomes afterward on exposure to 
 the air. Its specific gravity ranges from 780 to 
 926. If good, it adheres like wax to the edge of 
 a knife with which it is scraped, retains the im- 
 pression of the teeth or nails, and emits a fat 
 odoriferous liquid on being penetrated with a hot 
 needle. It is generally brittle ; but on rubbing 
 it with the nail it becomes smooth like hard 
 soap. Its colour is cither white, black, ash- 
 coloured, yellow, or blackish ; or it is variega- 
 ted, namely, grey with black specks, or grey 
 with yellow specks. Its smell is peculiar, and 
 not easy to be counterfeited. At 144 it melts, 
 and at 212 is volatilized in the form of a white 
 vapour : but on a red-hot coal it burns, and is 
 entirely dissipated. Water has no action on it ; 
 acids, except nitric, act feebly on it ; alkalies com- 
 bine with it, and form a soap; aether and the 
 volatile oils dissolve it ; so do the fixed oils, and 
 also ammonia, when assisted by heat ; alcohol 
 dissolves a portion of it, and is of great use in 
 analyzing it. When distilled, it yields an aque- 
 ous phlegm, a brown-coloured acidulous spirit, 
 a deeper-coloured oil, a thick balsam, and, as 
 some say, a volatile salt, leaving a black shining 
 residuum. The spirit, oil, balsam, and salt, are 
 similar to those obtained from amber ; but the 
 oil is of a more grateful smell. Its chemical 
 products resemble those of bitumens, among 
 which it has been ranked. 
 
 According to Bouillon la Grange, who has 
 given the latest analysis of it, 3820 parts of am- 
 bergris consist of adipocere 2016 parts, a resi- 
 nous substance 1167, benzoic acid 425, and coal 
 212. Bucholz found no benzoic acid in it; but 
 two different specimens examined by Dr. Ure 
 exhibited a difference in this respect. The one 
 yielded benzoic acid ; the other, equally genuine 
 to all appearance, afforded none. 
 
 Ambergris, in a medical view, is stomachic, 
 cordial, and antispasmodic. In Asia, and part 
 of Africa, it is used not only as a perfume and a 
 medicine, but as an article of cookery ; in which 
 it is added to dishes in lieu of all-spice. A 
 great quantity of it is bought by the Mecca pil- 
 srims, probably to use it for the purpose of fu- 
 migation and sacrifice. With us its use is chiefly 
 confined to perfumers, who melt it over a gentle 
 fire, and make extracts, essences, and tinctures 
 of it ; they also use it to scent pillows, candles, 
 balls, bottles, gloves, and hair-powder. As am- 
 bergris is very dear, it is counterfeited and mixed 
 with different substances. It may be known to 
 be genuine by its fragrant scent, when a hot 
 needle or pin is thrust into it, and its melting 
 like fat, of a uniform consistence ; it swims also 
 on water when pure, and does not stick to hot 
 iron. 
 
 AMBERICA or ST. GERMAIN D'AMBERIEUV. 
 
 a town of France, the head ol a canton in the 
 department of the Ain, arrondissement of Bellay, 
 6^ leagues from Bourg. Population 2900. 
 
 AMBERT, a town of France, in the depart- 
 ment of Pay-de-Dome, the head of an arron- 
 dissement, seated in a beautiful valley on the 
 river Ore, 21 miles east of Issoire, and 300 from 
 Paris. It was the chief town of the ci-devant 
 territory of Livradois. An extensive manufac- 
 ture of paper is carried on in it; as well as of 
 camblets, ferrets, coarse laces, &c. Lon. 3. 50'. 
 E. lat. 45. 25'. N. Population 5500. 
 
 AMBIANENSIS CIVITAS, or AMBIANI, now 
 Amiens, a city of ancient Gaul. It is called Sa- 
 marobriva by Caesar and Cicero ; which, accord- 
 ing to Valesius, signifies the bridge of the Sa- 
 mara or Somme. Ambiani is a later name, 
 taken from that of the people, after the usual 
 manner of the lower age. See AMIENS. 
 
 AMBIDEXTER, n. > Lat. ambo, dexter; 
 
 AMBIDEXTROUS. \ a/t^tfcfroe; both hands 
 right. One who uses the left hand equally with 
 the right. One who will act with readiness on 
 both hands, or with either party. 
 
 Some are ambidexterous or right-handed on both 
 sides ; which happeneth only unto strong and athle- 
 tical bodies, whose heat and spirits are able to afford 
 an ability unto both. Brown's Vulgar Errvurt. 
 
 Others not considering ambidextrous and left- 
 handed men do totally submit unto the efficacy of 
 the liver. Brown 
 
 .(Esop condemns the double practices of trimmer!, 
 and all false, shuffling, and ambidextrotu dealings. 
 
 L' Estrange. 
 
 AMBIDEXTER. Various conjectures, or rather 
 chimeras, have been offered with respect to the 
 causes of ambidexterity. Some have thought, 
 that were it not for education and habit, all 
 mankind would be ambidexters; and, in fact, 
 we frequently find nurses obliged to take much 
 pains before they can bring children to forego 
 the use of their left hands. How far it may be 
 an advantage to be deprived of half our natural 
 dexterity, may be doubted. It is certain, there 
 are many occasions in life, when it would be 
 better to have the equal use of both hands. Sur- 
 geons and oculists are of necessity obliged to 
 be ambidexters ; bleeding, &c. in the left arm, 
 or left ancle, and operations, on the left eye, 
 cannot be well performed but with the left hand ; 
 and instances occur in history, where the left 
 hand has been exercised preferably to the right. 
 By the laws of the ancient Scythians, people 
 were enjoined to exercise both hands alike ; and 
 Plato enjoins ambidexterity to be observed and 
 encouraged in his republic. In the German ar- 
 mies formerly, the more distinguished soldiers, 
 their pikemen, and halberdiers, as well as those 
 who formed the first line of the battalions, were 
 trained to be able to fight equally with the leit 
 hand or the right. We find it mentioned m 
 scripture, that on an extraordinary occasion, the 
 single tribe of Gad produced 700 brave men, 
 who fought with the left hand as well as the 
 right, Judges xx. 16; David had also slmgers 
 and archers of this description, 1 Chron xn 2; 
 and the Roman historians inform us, that thev 
 had gladiators who were trained to ambidexte- 
 rous combats. An ingenious French writer is
 
 AMB 
 
 732 
 
 AMB 
 
 surprised, that among all the modern refine- 
 ments in the art of war, none have thought of 
 restoring the ancient practice of training ambi- 
 dexters, who undoubtedly might be of service in 
 cases of stratagem. 
 
 AMBIEGNA Bos, in antiquity, an ox ; so 
 named by the augurs because it had the other 
 victims around it. Varro de Ling. Lat. 1. 6, 
 c. 3. 
 
 AM'BIENT, adj. ) Lat. ambio ; ambiens : 
 AM'BIT. $ am, corruption of the Gr. 
 
 o/j0i, around, and ire to go. Going round, sur- 
 rounding or encircling. 
 
 Tills which yields or fills 
 All space, the ambient air wide interfus'd. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 The thickness of a plate requisite to produce any 
 colour, depends only on the density of the plate, and 
 not on that of the ambient medium. Newton's Optics. 
 
 Around him dance the rosy hours, 
 And damasking the ground with flow'rs, 
 With ambient sweets perfume the morn. 
 
 Fenton to Lord Gower. 
 Illustrious virtues, who by turns have rose 
 With happy laws her empire to sustain, 
 And with full pow'r assert her ambient main. 
 
 Prior. 
 
 The ambient aether is too liquid and empty to 
 impel horizontally with that prodigious celerity. 
 
 Bentley. 
 
 Around the circle of their ambient skies, 
 New moons may grow or wane, may set or rise. 
 
 Prior's Solomon. 
 
 The tusk of a wild boar winds about almost into 
 a perfect ring or hoop ; only it is a little writhen. In 
 measuring by the ambit, it is long or round about a 
 foot and two inches ; its basis an inch over. 
 
 Grew's Museum. 
 
 AMBIGENJE OvES,in the heathen sacrifices, 
 an appellation given to such ewes as, having 
 brought fortli twins, were sacrificed together 
 with their two lambs, one on each side. We 
 find them mentioned among other sacrifices of 
 Juno. 
 
 AMBIGENAL HYPERBOLA, a name given by 
 Sir Isaac Newton to one of the triple hyperbolas 
 of the second order, having one of its infinite 
 legs falling within an angle foraed by the as- 
 symptotes, and the other without. 
 
 AMBIGUITY, n. } Lat. ambigo : from am 
 AMBIG'UOUS, > for o/t^i around, and ago 
 
 AMBIG'UOUSLY. j to drive. Ambiguity de- 
 notes confusion and doubt ; going this way and 
 that way for want of knowing tile right direc- 
 tion ; at a loss. 
 
 We can clear these ambiguities, 
 
 And know their spring, their head, their true descent. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 The words are of single signification, without any 
 ambiguity ; and therefore I shall not trouble you, by 
 straining for an interpretation, where there is no 
 difficulty j or distinction, where there is no difference. 
 
 South. 
 
 But what have been thy answers, what but dark, 
 Ambiguous, and with doubtful sense deluding? 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Th' ambiguous god, who rul'd her lab'ring breast, 
 In these mysterious words his mind exprest ; 
 Some truths reveal'd in terms, in volv'd the rest. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Some expressions in the covenant were ambiguou*, 
 and were left so, because the persons who framed 
 them were not all of one mind. Clarendon. 
 
 Silence at length the gay Antinous broke, 
 Constrain'd a smile, and thus ambiguous spoke. 
 
 Pope 
 
 Simplicity apace, 
 
 Tempers his rage, he owns her charms divine, 
 And clears th' ambiguous phrase, and lops the un- 
 wieldly line. Beattie's Minstrel. 
 
 AMBIT. See AMBIENT. 
 AMBIT, in antiquity, was used to denote a 
 space of ground to be left vacant betwixt one 
 building and another. By the laws of the twelve 
 tables, houses were not to be built contiguous, 
 but an ambit or space of two feet and a half was 
 to be left about each for fear of fire. The am- 
 bitus of a tomb or monument denoted a certain 
 number of feet, in breadth and length, around 
 the same, within which the sanctity assigned to 
 it was limited. It was usual to inscribe the 
 ambit on it, that it might be known how far this 
 sanctity extended ; as ' in fronte pedes tot, in 
 agrum pedes tot.' 
 
 AMBIT, in geometry, is the same with what is 
 otherwise called the perimeter of a figure. See 
 PERIMETER. 
 
 AMBITION, n.~\ Ambio, to go round; 
 AMBIT'IOUS, ^ am and eo. A going about 
 AMBIT'IOUSLY, i to solicit places of honour. 
 AMBIT'IOUSNESS. J A strong desire of honours 
 and glory. 
 
 How divine a thing is knowledge, whereof even 
 inuocency itself is ambitious ! Hall's Contemplations. 
 For wild ambition like a ravenous wolf, 
 Spur'd on by will, and seconded by power, 
 Must make an universal prey of all, 
 And last devour itself. 
 
 Dri/den's Troilus and Cressida. 
 The neighb'ring monarchs, by thy beauty led, 
 Contend in crowds, ambitious of thy bed : 
 The world is at thy choice, except but one, 
 Except but him thou canst not choose alone. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 The grandeur and beauty of the soul charm us 
 universally, who have all of us implanted in our bo- 
 soms, even in the midst of misery, passions of high 
 descent, immense ambition, and romantic hopes. 
 
 Uiher. 
 
 Contest begets aversion : a little success inspire* 
 more ambitious hopes. Cowper's Letter* 
 
 The quick'ning power would be, and so would rest ; 
 The sense would not be only, but be well : 
 
 But wit's ambition longeth to the best, 
 For it desires in endless bliss to dwell. Davies. 
 
 No nation was ever governed by a conqueror that 
 did not suffer by his ambition. 
 
 Hawhesworth's Telemachus. 
 No, freedom, no, I will not tell 
 How Rome before thy face, 
 With heaviest sound, a giant-statue fell, 
 Push'd by a wild and artless race, 
 From off its wide ambitious base. 
 
 Collins' Ode to Liberty. 
 
 AMBITION is generally used in a bad sense, 
 for an immoderate or illegal pursuit of power or 
 honour. In the literal, and perhaps original 
 meaning, however, of the word, it signified the 
 same with the ambitus of the Romans. See 
 AMBITUS. Ambition, in the former and more 
 usual sense, is a passion that can never be satis-
 
 AiVTB 
 
 733 
 
 fed. It swells gradually with success, and every AMBITUS, in music, si-nines the particular ex- 
 acquisition serves but as a spur to farther pursuits, tent of each' tone, or modification ^6 id 
 \ et Dr. Young has justly styled ambition, or the sharp 
 
 love of fame, the universal passion. In this enlarg-' AMBIX, in ancient writers, denotes a vessel 
 
 ed view we would define ambition to be-a desire of glass or shell. Hence the origin of the wtrd 
 
 of excelling, or at least of being thought to excel, alembic, which we sometimes aSo find denoted 
 
 our neighbours in any thing This definition, by the word ambix 
 
 we apprehend, will apply to ambition in every AMBLAW, AMBLOO, or BELAW, one of the 
 
 point of view whether us objects are good or Molucca islands, about fifteen miles in circum- 
 
 bad-laudable or the contrary. It was repre- ference. It is but thinly peopled, and dependent 
 
 sented, in ancient hieroglyphics, as a young man on Amboyna. The Papuas plundered it about 
 
 cad in green, and crowned with ivy, about to the year 1765, and carried off all the inhabitants, 
 
 climb a steep ascent, at the top of which ap- Fine shells are found on the shore. Distant two 
 
 peared crowns and sceptres. He had a lion by leagues south of Bouro. Lon<r. 127 0' east lat 
 
 his side to denote that fortitude which should be ~* "*' 
 the companion of ambition. 
 
 AMBITIOSI. 
 
 AMBITUS. 
 
 See AMBITUS. 
 
 ambitus, 
 
 Lat. De- 
 
 rived from the custom of candidates surrounding ting. 
 
 3. 55'. south. 
 
 AM'BLE, v. ^ Lat. ambulare, to walk. Ap- 
 AM'BLIKG, > plied to a horse which goes a 
 AM'BLER. j gentle pace, distinct from trot- 
 
 those whose suffrages they sought. Seeking the 
 favour or interest exemplified by the English 
 practice of canvassing a town or county pre- 
 viously to an election, 
 
 AMBITUS, in antiquity, the setting up for 
 some magistracy or office, and formerly going 
 
 round the city to solicit the interests and votes of 
 
 i u-. j-o- j f penurv : him time ambles withal, 
 
 the people. Ambitus differed from ambition, 
 
 as the body does from the soul ; the former being 
 the act, or effect ; the latter the exciting cause 
 existing in the mind. It was of two kinds; one 
 lawful, the other infamous. The first, called 
 ambitus popularis, was when a person offered his 
 service to the republic frankly, leaving it to 
 every body to judge of his pretensions as they 
 found reasonable. The means and instruments 
 here made use of were various : 1 . Amici, or 
 friends, under different relations, including cog- 
 nati, affines, necessarii, faroiliares, vicini, tributes, 
 clientes, municipes, sedales, collegae. 2. No- 
 menclatura, or the calling and saluting every 
 person by his name; to which purpose the can- 
 
 This markis hath hire spoused with a ring 
 Brought for the same cause, and than hire sette 
 Upon an hors snow white, and well ambling. 
 
 Chaucer. The Cle-ke'i Tale. 
 
 Who ambles time withal 1 A rich man that hath 
 not the gout ; for he lives merrily, because he feels 
 knowing no burden of heavy tedious 
 
 Shakspeare't At you like it. 
 
 It is good, on some occasions, to enjoy as much of 
 the present, as will not endanger our futurity ; and 
 to provide ourselves of the virtuoso's saddle, which 
 will be sure to amble, when the world is upon the 
 hardest trot. Dryden. 
 
 A laughing, toying, wheedling, whimpering she, 
 Shall make him amble on a gossip's message, 
 And take the distaff with a hand as patient 
 As e'er did Hercules. Rowe't Jane Shore. 
 
 Frequent in park with lady at his side, 
 
 Ambling and prattling scandal as he goes ; 
 
 But rare at home, and never at his books, 
 
 Or with his pen, save when he scrawls a card. 
 
 Cowper't Task, book ii. 
 
 AMBLESIDE, a town of England, in the 
 
 didates were attended with an officer, under the county of Westmoreland, situated on a declivity 
 
 denomination of interpres, or nomenclator. 3. near the banks of Windermere lake. Here is a 
 
 Blanditia ; or obliging persons, by serving them, considerable manufactory of woollen cloth, which 
 
 or their friends, patrons, or the like, with their i s sent to Kendal, thirteen miles distant. The 
 
 vote and interest on other occasions. 4. Pren- place is supposed to have been the Dictusofthe 
 
 satio ; the shaking every person by the hand, Romans. Distance from London 274 miles north. 
 
 offering him his service, friendship, &c. The AMBLETEUSE, a maritime town of France, 
 
 second kind was that wherein force, cajoling, in Picardy ; formerly in theBoulonnois, now in the 
 
 money, or other extraordinary influence, was department of the Pas de Calais, arrondissement 
 
 made use of. This was held infamous, and se- of Boulogne. It has a fort and a harbour, which 
 
 verely punished, as a source of corruption and was ruined by the English in the 17th century, 
 
 other mischiefs. Ambitus was practised not only and is remarkable as being the place where 
 
 at Rome and the forum, but in the meetings and James II. landed, after his abdljation in 1668, 
 
 assemblies of other towns in Italy, where nura- four miles south of Boulogne, 
 
 bers of citizens were usually found on account of AMBLOSIS, iu midwifery, ABORTION, whic 
 trade and business. The practice ceased in the 
 city from the time of the emperor, as posts were 
 
 see. 
 AMBLOTICS, 
 
 Gr. medicines 
 
 no longer to behad by courting the people, but by that cause abortion 
 
 favour from the prince. Ambitus was also AMBLYGON, from a^Xt/c, obtuse, and 7 ovia, 
 
 shamefully practised by persons who had causes angle: in geometry denotes an obtus 
 
 depending going about among the judges to triangle, or a triangle one of whose angles < 
 
 implore their favour and mercy. They who ' sists of more than ninety degrees. 
 
 practised this were called ambitiosi. Hence, we AMBLYGUI It., IT 
 
 also meet with ambitiosa decreta, and ambitiosa green mineral, mark* I super 
 
 and dark yellow spots. It is touna i*e, anu 
 
 the judges, contrary tc crystallized, in oblique four-sided prisms ; 
 
 used for such sentences and decrees as 
 
 tc , 
 
 either gratutously ofor a vitreous lustre fracturing uneven, and the frag- 
 
 and equty, 
 
 rpents rhomboidal.
 
 AMB 
 
 734 
 
 AMB 
 
 AMBLYOGMOS and AMBLYOPIUS, in me- 
 dicine, ap.fi\vnjyp,oc, a word frequently used by 
 Hippocrates tor dimness of sight. 
 
 AM'BO. A/j/3u>v, whatever rises up or pro- 
 jects : an deva:ed place in churches, distinct 
 from the pulpit and reading desk, fovmerly used 
 in churches, some of which are still standing, 
 for the purpose of chanting and preaching to the 
 people. 
 
 Between the 'TVo7r<7r7ovTf and the faithful, stood 
 the ambo, or reading desk. 
 
 Sir G. Wheler's Ace. of the Chur. of Prim. Chris. 
 
 The principal use of this iiinhu was, to read the 
 scriptures to the people, especially the epistles and 
 gospels. They r<.ad the gospel there yet, and not at 
 the altar. Id. 
 
 AM BO, or AMBON, from avaSaivuv, to mount, 
 or ambo, the admission to it being from 
 both sides : a kind of pulpit, or desk, in the an- 
 cient churches where the priests and deacons 
 stood, to read or sing part of the service, and 
 preach to the people ; called also analogium. 
 The ambo was ascended by steps ; which occa- 
 sioned that part of the office performed there to 
 be called the Gradual. See GRADUAL. At the 
 top of the ambo the gospel was read, and the 
 epistle a step lower ; they likewise published 
 from this place the acts of martyrs, the comme- 
 moration of departed saints, &c. Here, too, 
 converts made their confession of faith ; and bi- 
 shops their defence, when accused : treaties also 
 were sometimes concluded, and the coronations 
 of emperors and kings performed, in this place. 
 A late writer shows, that the usual place from 
 whence the ancients preached was the steps of 
 the altar ; and when St. Chrysostom and St. 
 Augustine preached from the ambo, it was con- 
 sidered an extraordinary circumstance. 
 
 AMBOISE (George D'), a cardinal, was born 
 of a noble French family in 1460. He became 
 successively bishop of Montauban, archbishop 
 of Narbonne, and lastly of Rouen. Louis XII. 
 made him prime minister, and he soon acquired 
 great and just popularity by taking off the taxes 
 which had usually been levied on the people at 
 the accession of every new monarch. The king, 
 by his advice, undertook the conquest of the 
 Milanese, and succeeded. Soon after this, he was 
 appointed the pope's legate in France, with the 
 dignity of cardinal, and in that capacity effected 
 a considerable reform among the religious orders. 
 He died in 1510 ; and on his death-bed often said 
 to the friar who attended him, ' Brother John, 
 why have not I been my whole life brother 
 John?' D'Amboise was certainly one of the 
 best statesmen France ever possessed. His ne- 
 phew, George D'Amboise, succeeded him in the 
 archbishopric ; and in 1546 was created a cardinal. 
 He died in 1550. 
 
 AMBOISE, a town of France, in the department 
 of Indre and Loire, arrondissement of Tours, 
 seated at the confluence of the rivers Loire 
 and Massee; 15 miles east of Tours, and 141 
 south-west of Paris. The town is mean and ill 
 built, consisting only of two streets, but with 
 the suburbs containing about 5600 inhabitants. 
 The principal places of note are the fine prome- 
 nade, the two churches, and the castle. The 
 manufactures are woollen and silk stuffs, buttons, 
 
 swords, and other hardware. The silk stuff 
 called amboisienne is peculiar to this town ; and 
 the steel from the establishment of Sanche ap- 
 * preaches in hardness and durability very near to 
 that of Sheffield. The castle is on a craggy rock, 
 extremely difficult of access, and the sides of 
 which are almost perpendicular. At its foot 
 flows the Loire, which is divided into two streams 
 by a small island. To this fortress the duke of 
 Guise, when an insurrection among the Hugo- 
 nots was expected, removed Francis II. for his 
 security. Only two detached parts of the an- 
 cient castle now remain, one of which was con- 
 structed by Charles VIII. and the other by 
 Francis I. The former of those princes was 
 born at Amboise, and died here in 1498. Lon. 
 0. 54' E. lat. 47. 25'. N. 
 
 AMBON, in anatomy, aju/3wv, the edge of the 
 sockets in which bones are inserted. 
 
 AMBONG, a large and deep harbour on tha 
 north-west coast of Borneo, with an island in the 
 centre. Lat. 6. 14'. N. long. 116. 25'. E. 
 
 AMBOON, or AM BOOR, a district of Hindos- 
 tan, formerly included in the territories of the 
 Nabob of Arcot, but ceded, with the rest of his 
 possessions, to Great Britain in the year 1801. 
 It is now included in the Arcot district of the 
 Carnatic. In Amboon the thermometer in the 
 hot season rises in the shade to 100 degrees, 
 and in the sun to 120 degrees. It is surrounded 
 with hills, whose skirts are covered with the date 
 and palmyra trees, and which embosom well wa- 
 tered plantations of the cocoa nut, tobacco and 
 mango. The river Palar enters them about three 
 miles east of the town of Amboon, and is con- 
 ducted by various works along the margin of the 
 heights. 
 
 AMBOON, the capital of the above district, is 
 situated on the river Palar, thirty miles west of 
 Arcot in N. lat. 12. 51', and E. Ion. 78. 50'. 
 It stands at the foot of a high hill, which was 
 once defended by a considerable fort now in 
 ruins; and is a compact and well-built town. 
 The lower part of the fortress is used as a pro- 
 vincial prison. It stands completely isolated 
 from the place, on a mountain which has a broad 
 plain on the summit, containing two invaluable 
 tanks of water. The atmosphere on this summit 
 is delightfully cool and refreshing. It has been 
 principally an object of British policy to dis- 
 mantle this fort; few places in India have more 
 natural facilities for defence, or have been more 
 prized in former times as rallying points in war. 
 The principal export of Amboon is a superior 
 castor oil. 
 
 AMBOTON, one of the Philippines near the 
 south coast of Mindanao. Lou. 121. 8'. E. 
 lat. 12. 15'. N. 
 
 AMBOULE, a province and town of Mada- 
 gascar, somewhat to the northward of south lat. 
 23., is said to be a fertile and agreeable coun- 
 try, watered by the river Manampani, whose 
 mouth lies in south lat. 23. 30'. This country 
 produces plants and fruits in great plenty, and 
 iron mines are also found here; the cattle also are 
 extremely fat, and their flesh excellent. Near the 
 town is a fountain of hot water, within twenty 
 feet of a river whose sand is almost burning. The 
 people are employed in manufacturing the iron
 
 A M B O Y N A. 
 
 and steel, which they have from their own mines, 
 into different instruments, which they do with 
 tolerable skill. Their governor is honoured with 
 t'.ie title of rabertau, or great lord. 
 
 AM BOY, a city of New Jersey, Middlesex 
 county, situated at the head of Rariton bay, and 
 standing on a neck of land between Rariton 
 river and Arthur Kull sound. It lies open to 
 Sandy-Hook, and has one of the best harbours 
 on the continent, which may be entered in almost 
 any weather. It is a port of entry and post-town, 
 but not in a flourishing state. It is thirty-five 
 miles south-west of New York, and seventy-four 
 north-east of Philadelphia. Long. 74. 50* W. 
 lat. 40. 35'. N. 
 
 AMBOYNA, the largest and most valuable 
 of the Molucca Islands in the Indian Ocean, and 
 the seat of their government. It lies in E. long. 
 128. 15'., and S. lat. 3. 42'., and is between 
 fifty and sixty English miles in length from 
 north to south. On the western side it is divided 
 by a bay into two peninsulas, one of which is 
 called Hitou, being twelve leagues long and 
 two and a half broad ; and the other Leytimor, 
 about five leagues in length and one and a half 
 in breadth. There is an inferior harbour on the 
 eastern side, where the Portuguese originally 
 erected their principal fort. It has no river of 
 importance, but its general aspect is beautiful, 
 and the climate is generally salubrious. The 
 rainy season sets in with the southerly monsoon, 
 accompanied with thunder, lightnings, and earth- 
 quakes. The soil is a darkish red clay, mixed 
 with sand. Some of the hills are incrusted with 
 a copious efflorescence of sulphur, and one on 
 the Hitou peninsula is called Wawani, or 
 Brimstone-hill, from the great abundance of that 
 article imbedded there. The deer and wad boar 
 are the principal animals of the island ; but there 
 are a few sheep and black cattle, buffaloes, 
 horses, and goats. The cassowary parades the 
 mountains ; but the chief boast of Amboyna is 
 its rich productions of the vegetable kingdom. 
 An astonishing variety of beautiful wood for in- 
 laying, and other ornamental purposes, forms 
 part of the commerce of the island ; 400 different 
 species are reckoned by Rumphius. The cajaput 
 tree affords a valuable oil, and the sassafras an 
 aromatic bark. The clove tree is, however, its 
 staple production. In favourable situations this 
 tree, according to some writers, grows frequently 
 to the height of fifty feet ; its branches spread 
 wide from the stem ; the cloves grow in clusters, 
 but on separate stalks, and the leaves are long 
 and tapering. It will bear from about nine or 
 ten years, to one hundred years of age. The 
 average quantity of cloves annually produced is 
 from seven to twelve pounds per tree, but some 
 have been known to afford thirty pounds ; and 
 the island, taken together, about 650,000 pounds. 
 They are gathered from October to February. 
 The Dutch, during the long period of their for- 
 mer possession of this island, attempted the en- 
 tire monopoly of this spice ; the number of trees 
 was regularly registered by the governor, all the 
 plantations visited, and particular districts ap- 
 propriated to their cultivation. They bought 
 from the neighbouring islands all the cloves that 
 other nations were likely to import, and in some 
 
 735 
 
 cases compelled their chieftains to destroy the 
 rest, and the trees that bore them. The Dutcb 
 East India company's warehouse was the dt 
 pository of the crop ; and they are said to have 
 prohibited the culture of many edible roots on 
 the island, to deprive settlers and conquerors of 
 the means of subsistence. When the cloves 
 were gathered from the tree, they were dried be- 
 fore the fire upon hurdles, and sprinkled with 
 water; by which means their natural colour, 
 which is red, was changed into deep purple or 
 black. The design of this process was said to 
 be, to prevent the worm from getting into the 
 fruit ; but another motive was suspected, that 
 of adding to their weight. 
 
 Thirty years back, the Dutch allowed some 
 nutmegs to be grown here, because Banda did 
 not furnish a sufficient supply for the demand. 
 Sugar and coffee are plentiful at Amboyna ; the 
 sago tree is a principal article of subsistence; 
 and the few fruits cultivated are delicious ; 
 among the latter may be reckoned the mangus- 
 teen of Hindostan. They import their cattle 
 and grain from the island of Java, and a variety 
 of curious woods from Ceram. 
 
 Amboyna is inhabited by four distinct races 
 of people ; the Aborigines, the Amboynese pro- 
 perly so called, Chinese, and Europeans. The 
 first, who are called Alforese or Horaforas, and 
 seem to be of the same description as the Idaan 
 or Maroot of other eastern islands, are now much 
 reduced. They are represented as wild and 
 savage, of a lighter complexion, and greater mus- 
 cular power than the Amboynese ; and their 
 women handsome. The natives, like the other 
 Malays, are rude and savage in their manners, 
 and, when intoxicated with opium, are equal to 
 the perpetration of any crime. Mixed races 
 from intermarriages are nearly as fair as Euro- 
 peans. Those who are the offspring of European 
 fathers and native mothers are called mixtices or 
 mestees ; those of a mixtice and European mar- 
 riage, poestices ; and those of a European and 
 poestice, castices. These children are all legiti- 
 mated, and included with the European society 
 of the island. The Chinese are industrious, and 
 live much together. Some of the aboriginal 
 race in the woods are said to be extremely bar- 
 barous, and to offer human sacrifices. Their 
 dress consists of a loose shirt or frock of cotton 
 cloth. The men wear large whiskers and mus- 
 tachios; the women bind their hair in knots. 
 Wives are bought of their fathers ; and should 
 they bear no children the contract is dissolved. 
 When the English took this island in 1796 it 
 contained about 45,252 inhabitants, of whom nc 
 less than 17,813 were protestants; and the rest 
 Mahommedans and Chinese. The houses of I 
 natives are made of bamboo canes and sago trees ; 
 they sleep upon mats ; and use, as weapons, bows, 
 darts, scimitars, targets, &c. Their chiefs are 
 called rajahs. The Amboynese are said to b 
 indolent, effeminate, and pusillanimous; a 
 their women particularly licentious. 
 
 The Dutch governor of Arrboyna had ten 
 iacent islands under his jursidiction : Ceram, 
 Ceram-Lavut, Bouro, Amblau, Mampa, Kela 
 Bonva, Orna, Honimoa, and Noussa-Laout ; th 
 three last isles are called Uliassers. The growing
 
 AMB 
 
 736 
 
 AMB 
 
 of cloves is limited to the Uliassers and Am- 
 boyna. 
 
 Uiegro D'Abrew and Ferdinand Magellan, 
 two Portuguese adventurers, first discovered 
 Amboyna in 1515; in 1564 it was taken pos- 
 session of by Portugal, and afterwards conquered 
 by the Dutch republic in 1605. The English 
 had erected several factories in the country, 
 which were protected by the Dutch fort; but 
 disputes arising between the settlers, the treaty 
 of 1619 between Great Britain and the United 
 Provinces stipulated that the English colonists 
 should reside unmolested at Amboyna, and pos- 
 sess one-third part of its cloves. In 1622 fresh 
 differences arose, which were referred to the 
 Dutch council at Jacatra, in the island of Java. ; 
 and finally to the government of the two coun- 
 tries in Europe for decision. The Dutch colo- 
 nists however contrived, by alleging a fictitious 
 plot against the English, to make themselves 
 masters of the whole island. This event is 
 known in history by the name of the ' Massacre 
 of Amboyna.' A plot, it was said by the Dutch 
 authorities, was confessed by two soldiers in 
 their service, and confirmed by an English pri- 
 soner, but these had been all first sentenced to 
 the rack. Upon this evidence the English were 
 accused of being confederates in a conspiracy 
 against the Dutch possessions : they were imme- 
 diately seized, loaded with irons, and thrown 
 into prison. The most savage modes of torture 
 were then resorted to by the Dutch governor, for 
 the purpose of extorting a further confession from 
 the unhappy sufferers : some were put to the 
 rack, others half-drowned and miserably scorched 
 with fire. Those who escaped this inhuman 
 treatment were all executed, although they per- 
 sisted in their innocence to the latest breath. 
 The number of persons who thus perished were 
 ten Englishmen, eleven Japanese, and one Por- 
 tuguese. The day after these wretched men were 
 put to death, the governor ordered public festi- 
 vals and solemn thanksgivings for their deliver- 
 ance from this pretended conspiracy. It is absurd 
 to suppose that such a plot as pretended by the 
 Dutch ever existed ; for the number of the En- 
 glish did not exceed twenty persons upon the 
 island, whereas the Dutch garrison in the fort 
 amounted to three hundred men; and the En- 
 glish had not a single ship in the port, whereas 
 eight Dutch vessels were lying off the town of 
 Amboyna. In consequence of this massacre the 
 English factory was withdrawn from the island, 
 and the Dutch retained possession of the effects 
 of the English merchants to the amount of 
 400,000. The English factories in the adjacent 
 islands were also seized, and the traders forci- 
 bly dispossessed. James I. and Charles I. of 
 England were either unwilling or unable to 
 avenge the national honour upon the cruelty and 
 cowardice of the Dutch ; but Cromwell com- 
 pelled the United Provinces, in his celebrated 
 treaty with that power, to pay the sum of 
 300,000, as a small recompense for their atro- 
 cious conduct. From this time down to the 
 year 1796, Amboyna remained quietly in the 
 hands of its Dutch masters ; but in that year the 
 English admiral Rainier took it without opposi- 
 tion. It was restored to the Batavian republic 
 at the peace of Amiens ; and again taken by the 
 
 English in the year 1810. At the general peace of 
 Paris, in the year 1814, the Dutch were again re- 
 instated in the possession of it, unuer whose 
 government the island is far from being in a 
 nourishing condition. 
 
 AMBOYNA, the capital of the island, is situated 
 on the peninsula of Leytimor, and commands a 
 capacious harbour. It is a regularly built town, 
 though most of the houses are of wood, and but 
 one story high. Matted cane is neatly contrived 
 to form a substitute for glass in their windows, 
 and the roofs are made of the branches and en- 
 twined leaves of palm-trees- Abundance of 
 water runs through this town in rivulets. There 
 is an hospital ; a good town-house ; and two 
 churches, in one of which divine service is per- 
 formed in the Malay language. An earthquake 
 completely destroyed one of the churches in 
 1755, and rent the other throughout; but they 
 were immediately rebuilt. Between the for- 
 tifications of the harbour and the town is a 
 fine esplanade, terminated by a handsome range 
 of houses, shaded by a double row of nutmeg- 
 trees, where many of the principal inhabitants 
 reside. 
 
 AMBRACIA, one of the most considerable 
 cities of ancient Epirus, situated on. the river 
 Aracthus, at a small distance from the sea ; 
 built, according to Polybius, by Ambrax son ot 
 Thesprotus, when the territory of his father had 
 been ravaged by the Dryopes; and thus the 
 origin of the Ambracians is traced to an era 
 about fifty years before the last war of Troy. At 
 first it was a free city; but was afterwards re- 
 duced by the ^Eacidae, kings of Epirus, who 
 chose it for the place of their residence. In 
 process of time the ./Etolians made themselves 
 masters of it, and held it till the year before 
 Christ 189, when it fell into the hands of the 
 Romans. At this time Ambracia was a place 
 of great strength. It was defended on one side 
 by the river Aracthus, on the other by steep and 
 craggy hills; and surrounded with a high and 
 thick wall, above three miles in circumference. 
 The Roman consul Fulvius began the siege by 
 throwing up lines of circumvallation and con- 
 travallation ; and building a wooden tower, in 
 form of a castle, over against the citadel. The 
 Etolians, however, before the lines were quite 
 finished, found means to throw about 1000 men 
 into the place, and sustained attack in five dif- 
 ferent places at once. While Fulvius was car- 
 rying on the siege, Nicander, the /Etolian preetor, 
 brought 500 men into the city, under the com- 
 mand of Nicodamus, with whom Nicander agreed 
 to attack the Roman camp in the night time : 
 but Nicodamus did not appear. However, the 
 garrison marched out, armed with fire-brands 
 and torches ; and though two parties were driven 
 back, the third made a great slaughter of the 
 Romans, and retired in good order into the city. 
 The consul beginning to undermine the wall, 
 they countermined him, and the two parties met, 
 when a battle ensued; after which the ^Etolians, 
 in order to drive the enemy out, invented a ma- 
 chine, which is thus described : it was a hollow 
 vessel with an iron bottom, bored through in 
 many places, and armed with spikes at proper 
 distances, to prevent the enemy from approach- 
 ing; having filled it with feathers, they sei it on
 
 AMB 
 
 737 
 
 AMB 
 
 -' -.g,v-v4. iu leave me 
 
 mine, half suffocated. At last Fulvius obtained 
 the place by employing Amynander, king of the 
 Aihamanes, to persuade the inhabitants to sur- 
 render. From this time the city of Ambracia 
 made no figure in history. It is scarce known 
 where it stood; but Arba, in Upper Albania, 
 seems best to agree with what is said of its an- 
 cient situation. 
 
 , the anthospermum 
 /Ethiopicum of Linnaeus. 
 AMBRESBURY. See AMESBURY. 
 
 France, the head of a canton in the department 
 and arrondissement of Mayenne. It had for- 
 merly the title of barony, and contains 240 
 houses, 2230 inhabitants ; three leagues north of 
 Mayenne. Long. 0. 33'. W. lat. 48. 24'. N. 
 
 AMBRIZ, a river of Congo, forming a bay, 
 and affording anchorage to small vessels, which 
 enter from the south 
 
 AMBRONES, a people of ancient Gaul, who 
 lived near the foot of the Alps, between Switzer- 
 land and Provence. They invaded the Roman 
 territories, in conjunction with the Cimbri and 
 Teutones ; but were defeated with great slaughter 
 by Marius about A. A. C. 102. Their women, 
 who had staid during the engagement in a kind 
 of fortification made with carts, on seeing their 
 husbands flying, and the Romans in pursuit, 
 armed themselves with axes, and fell with indis- 
 criminating fury both on the pursuers and the 
 pursued. Their first rage being spent, they of- 
 fered to surrender, upon condition that their 
 honour should be preserved; but this equitable 
 request being denied, they first killed their chil- 
 dren, and then themselves. 
 
 AMBROSE (Isaac), a presbyterian minister, 
 ejected from Garstang in Lancashire in 1662. 
 He wrote the Prima, Media, et Ultima; or the 
 First, Middle, and Last Things; War with the 
 Devils ; Looking unto Jesus, &c. the last of 
 which is to this day a popular tract. 
 
 AMBROSE (St.), bishop of Milan, one of the 
 most eminent fathers of the fourth century, born 
 in Gaul A. D. 333, according to Dr. Cave, or 
 according to Dupin in 340. His father was at 
 this time praefectus praetorio in Gaul ; and resided 
 at Aries, the capital of Gallia Narbonensis. A 
 swarm of bees is said to have settled upon the 
 mouth of the saint as he lay in the cradle ; and 
 was regarded as a presage of his eloquence* He 
 soon acquired a considerable share of secular 
 learning; and pleaded before Probus with so 
 much success, that he was appointed his assessor, 
 and soon after governor of the provinces of Li- 
 guria and /Emilia. He settled at Milan ; where, 
 in 374, upon the death of Auxentius bishop of 
 that city, there being a great contest between the 
 Catholics and Arians concerning the choice of a 
 new bishop, Ambrose thought it his duty, as go- 
 vernor, to go to the church to compose the 
 tumult. At the close of his address to the 
 people, a child exclaimed, ' Ambrose is bishop !' 
 The voice of the infant was regarded by the 
 multitude as a divine intimation to elect the 
 orator to that office, which was accordingly done. 
 Ambrose expressed considerable reluctance to 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 to 
 
 seem singular enough ; 
 _nwonted harshness and 
 severity in his magisterial capacity, and re^ 
 ceivmg into his house women of bad character 
 le was, however, ordained bishop towards the 
 latter end of 374, or beginning of 375. About 
 the year 377, the barbarous nations makin^ an 
 incursion into the Roman empire, he fled to II- 
 
 usurped the empire, and prevaijed upon him 
 not to pass over into Italy. The heathens being 
 encouraged by these intestine commotions in the 
 empire, attempted to restore paganism, and em- 
 ployed Q.Aurelius Symmachus, prefect of Rome 
 a man of great eloquence, to plead their cause! 
 This gave rise to the famous contest between St. 
 Ambrose and him, about repairing the altar of 
 victory. But Symmachus, having lost his cause, 
 was expelled the city, and commanded not to 
 approach within 100 miles of it. The petition 
 which Symmachus presented to the emperor 
 Valentinian II. is still extant. St. Ambrose 
 wrote a confutation of it. In his office he met 
 with much opposition from the Arians. Justina, 
 the empress and mother of Valentinian, resolving 
 to restore Arianism at Milan, demanded of him 
 one of the churches, called the Portian church, 
 but he refused it ; and the people surrounding 
 the palace in a body, she was obliged to desire 
 him to pacify them. After this, Ambrose was a 
 second' time sent to Maximus on the behalf of 
 Valentinian, who soon after retired to Thessalo- 
 nica m Illyricum to desire Theodosius' assist- 
 ance. Theodosius having defeated Maximus, and 
 restored Valentinian, committed great cruelties 
 at Thessalonica, and Ambrose exhorted him to 
 repentance in a pastoral letter. Soon after this, 
 the emperor coming to Milan, went to receive 
 the sacrament at the great church ; but Ambrose 
 meeting him at the door, denied him entrance, 
 and represented his guilt in the most forcible 
 and pathetic terms. The emperor was struck 
 with his words, and with great uneasiness of 
 mind returned to his palace; but about a year 
 after, Ambrose, being convinced of the sincerity 
 of his repentance, admitted him into the church. 
 In 392, Valentinian being assassinated, Ambrose 
 was obliged to leave Milan ; but he returned 
 the year following, and died there the 4th of 
 April, 397. The most considerable of his works 
 is the De Officiis ; but his writings are inter- 
 mixed with many strange and peculiar opinions. 
 Paulinus wrote his life, and dedicated it to St. 
 Augustine: this life is generally prefixed to St. 
 Ambrose's works ; the best edition of which is 
 that published by the Benedictines, two volume* 
 folio, Paris, 1682 and 1690. 
 
 AMRROSE(St), an island in the South Pacific, 
 on the coast of Chili, five leagues due west from 
 St. Felix island. It appears at a distance liku 
 two small islands ; but they are joined by a reef. 
 It lies in latitude 26. 17'. 40'. S. and.loug 
 79. 8'. 35*. W. 
 
 AMBRO'SIA, n.~\ Anfoooui, from a not, and 
 AMBRO'SIACK, f /3poroe, mortal. The food 
 AMBRO'SEAL, ( of the gods ; so called from 
 AMBRO'SIAN J its supposed power of be- 
 3 B
 
 AMB 
 
 738 
 
 AMB 
 
 stowing everlasting life : applied to whatever 
 is exquisitely grateful to the senses of taste and 
 smell. 
 
 Nectar et ambrorium, latices, ep\ilasque deorum. 
 
 Quid. 
 
 Thus -while God spake, ambrosial fragrance *fill'd 
 All heav'n, and in the blessed spirits elect 
 Sense of new joy ineffable diffus'd. Milton. 
 
 Through breaking ranks his furious course he bends, 
 And at the goddess his broad lance, extends ; 
 Through her bright veil the daring weapon drove 
 Th' ambrosial veil which all the graces wove : 
 Her snowy hand the razing steel profan'd, 
 And the transparent skin with crimson stain'd. 
 
 Pope's Iliad, v 415. 
 
 AMBROSIA, in ancient mythology, from a 
 privative, and /3poroc, mortal, denotes the food 
 of the gods. It had the appellation ambrosia, as 
 being supposed to render those immortal who 
 fed on it ; and it is said, that Berenice, the wife 
 of Ptolemy Soter, was saved from death by 
 eating it. Titonus was made immortal by Au- 
 rora, by eating ambrosia ; and in like manner, 
 Tantalus and Pelops, who, on account of their 
 impiety, had been driven from heaven, and com- 
 pelled to die upon earth, had their lives pre- 
 served. It had the power of healing wounds, 
 and therefore Apollo, in Homer's Iliad, saves 
 Sarpedon's body from putrefaction by rub- 
 bing it with ambrosia; and thus also Venus 
 heals the wounds of her son, in Virgil's .ZEneid. 
 Lucian, ridiculing the follies of the heathen wor- 
 ship, says, that ambrosia and nectar, of which one 
 is the meat, and the other the drink of the gods, 
 were not so excellent as the poet describes them, 
 since these deities would leave them for the 
 blood and fat of the sacrifices. 
 
 AMBROSIA, in antiquity, a feast celebrated by 
 the Aconians, in honour of Bacchus. They were 
 also denominated Choa and Lenaea, being held 
 in the month called Lenseon. 
 
 AMBROSIA, in botany, a genus of the pentan- 
 dria order, belonging to the moncecia class of 
 plants ; and, in the natural method, ranking 
 under the 49th order, composite nucamentaceae. 
 Characters: male flowers compound; CAL. 
 single-leaved perianth, the length of the flo- 
 rets : COR. uniform, tubular, flat, and hemisphe- 
 rical ; monopetalous, funnel-shaped, and quin- 
 quefid : STAM. five very small filaments : ANTH. 
 erect, parallel, and pointed : FIST, has a filiform 
 stylus, the length of the stamina : STIGMA orbi- 
 cular and membraneous : the receptaculum 
 naked. Female flowers below the male ones, on 
 the same plant, doubled : CAL. single-leaved pe- 
 rianthium, entire (with the belly quinqueden- 
 tated,) one flowered, and persistent : COR. none : 
 PIST. an ovate germen in the bottom of the calyx : 
 STYL. filiform, the length of the calyx ; the stig- 
 mata two, long, bristly: PERICARP, au ovate 
 unilocular nut : seed single and roundish. Of 
 this genus, five species are enumerated: 1. A. 
 trifida, trifid-leaved ambrosia. 2. A. elatior tall 
 ambrosia. 3. A. artemisifolia, mugwort leaved, 
 ambrosia. 4. A. maritima, sea ambrosia. 5. A. 
 arborescens, tree ambrosia. They are perennial, 
 *ad may be propagated, either by cuttings or by 
 seeds. 
 
 AMBROSIA, in medicine, a splendid title given 
 by some physicians to certain alexipharmic com- 
 positions. Nic. Abn. Frambesia has written a 
 treatise on the preparation of ambrosias. 
 
 AMRROSIA, in natural history, is applied, by 
 ancient authors, to the food of the bees. 
 
 AMBROSIACA, in ornithology, a species of 
 hirundo, or swallow, inhabiting Senegal, and 
 smelling particularly strong of ambergris ; of a 
 greyish brown colour, bill blackish, legs brown. 
 In length it is five inches and an half, bill half 
 an inch, the plumage darkest on the head and 
 quills, and the tail very forked. 
 
 AMBROSIAN OFFICE, or RITE, in church 
 history, a particular formula of worship in the 
 church of Milan, which takes its name from St. 
 Ambrose, who instituted that office in the fourth 
 century. Each church originally had its parti- 
 cular office ; and when the Pope, in aftertimes, 
 took upon him to impose the Roman office upon 
 all the western churches, that of Milan sheltered 
 itself under the name and authority of St. Am- 
 brose ; from which time the Ambrosian ritual 
 has prevailed. 
 
 AMBROSIN, in middle-age writers, a coin 
 struck by the lords or dukes of Milan, whereon 
 was represented St. Ambrose on horseback, with 
 a whip in his right hand. 
 
 AMBROSINI (Bartholomew), professor of 
 physic, and director of the botanical garden at 
 Bologna, where he died in 1657. He published, 
 1. Panacaea ex Herbis quse a sanctis denomi- 
 nantur, 1630. 8vo. 2. Historia Capsicorum cum 
 Iconibus, 1630, 12mo. 3. Theodorica Medicina, 
 1632, 4to. His brothei and successor, Hya- 
 cinth, published several valuable works on bo- 
 tany. 
 
 AMBROSINIA, in botany, a genus of the 
 monandria order belonging to the moncecia class 
 of plants ; the characters of which are : CAL. sin- 
 gle-leaved spatha, divided by a partition into 
 two cells: COR. none : STAM. none: ANTH. nu- 
 merous, with two roundish concave nectaries at 
 their base : PIST. is in the interior cell : german 
 roundish ; STYL. cylindrical, and shorter than 
 the spatha; STIGM. obtuse : PERICARP, a capsule, 
 roundish and unilocular. There is but one spe- 
 cies, a native of Turkey. 
 
 AMBROSIUS, AURELIUS, or AUFELIANUS, 
 a famous general of the ancient Britons, of Ro- 
 man extraction. He was educated at the court 
 of Aldroen of Armorica; who, at the request of 
 the Britons, sent him over with 10,000 men to 
 assist them against the Saxons, whom Vortigern 
 had invited into Britain. The success of Am- 
 brosius induced the Britons to choose him for 
 their king, and compelled Vortigern to give up 
 all the western part of the kingdom to the Ro- 
 man high-way, called Watling-street. On the 
 death of Vortigern, Ambrosius became sole 
 monarch of Britain ; and assumed the imperial 
 purple, after the manner of the Roman emperors. 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us, that Ambrosius 
 built Stonehenge near Salisbury in Wiltshire. 
 Coming to a monastery near Caercaradoc, now 
 Salisbury, where 300 lords, massacred by Hen- 
 gist, lay buried, and resolving to perpetuate the 
 memory of this action, he ordered his workmen 
 to prepare a large quantity of stones and other
 
 AMB 
 
 739 
 
 AMB 
 
 materials. But having here consulted the famous 
 Merlin, he was advised, it is said, to send over 
 to Ireland for certain great stones, called chorea 
 gigantum, the giants' dance, placed in a circle 
 on a hill called Killair, and his sons after a battle 
 with an Irish prince brought away the stones. 
 Alexander Mecham celebrates this fable in his 
 poem De divinae sapientije laudibus. See STONE- 
 HENGK. After the Britons had defeated the 
 Saxons, and obliged them to retire northward, 
 Ambrosius convened the princes and great men 
 at York, where he gave orders for repairing the 
 churches destroyed by the Saxons, and restoring 
 the exercise of religion to its former lustre ; and 
 tells us he was poisoned at Winchester by one 
 Eopa a Saxon, hired for that purpose by Pas- 
 centius one of the sons of Vortigern ; but the 
 generally received opinion is, that he was killed 
 in a battle which he lost in the year 508, against 
 Cerdric, one of the Saxon generals. 
 
 AMBRUM, or EMBRUN. See EMRUN. 
 
 AMBRY, in antiquity, the place where arms, 
 plate, and every thing belonging to house-keep- 
 ing of a great family were formerly kept. Hence, 
 probably, the ambry at Westminster was so cal- 
 ed ; or perhaps from aumonery, a house adjoin- 
 ing to an abbey ; in which the charities were 
 laid up and distributed to the poor. The word 
 is still used in Scotland. 
 
 AMBRYM, one of the new Hebrides in the 
 South Sea. It is about 60 miles in circuit, and 
 exhibits the appearance of a volcano in activity. 
 Long. 168. 80'. E. lat. 16. 15'. S. 
 
 AMBUBAJjE, in Roman antiquity, were im- 
 modest women, who came from Syria to Rome, 
 where they lived by prostitution, and by playing 
 on the flute : the word is derived from the Syriac 
 abub, which signifies a flute ; although others 
 make it to come from am and baiae, because these 
 prostitutes often retired to Baise. According to 
 Cruquius, these women used likewise to sell paint 
 for ornamenting the face, &c. 
 
 AMBUBEIA, in botany, wild succory. 
 
 AMBULANT, or AMBULATORY COMMIS- 
 SIONERS, were commissioners under the old go- 
 vernment of France, who had no settled office; 
 but visited all the offices within a certain dis- 
 trict, to see that nothing was done in them against 
 the king's right and the interest of his farms. 
 
 AMBULANT, in commerce, is applied to those 
 brokers at Amsterdam, or exchange agents, who 
 have not been sworn before the magistrates. 
 
 AMBULA'TION, n. ) Ambulatio, Lat. 
 
 AMBU'LATORY,W. &adj. ] Walking. 
 On fair ambulande horse they sit. 
 
 Gmeer. Con. A . b. iv. 
 
 A knight dormant, ambulant, combatant ! 
 
 Gayton's Notes on Don Quixote. 
 
 From the occult and invisible motion of the mus- 
 cles, in station, proceed more offensive lassitudes than 
 from ambulation. Brown's Vulg. Er. 
 
 The gradient, or ambulatory, are such as require 
 some basis, or bottom, to upnold them in their no- 
 tions : such were those self-moving statues, which, 
 unless violently detained, would of themselves run 
 away. Wilkin's Math. Magick. 
 
 He was sent to conduct thither the princess, of 
 whom his majesty had an ambulatory view in his tra- 
 vels. Cotton. 
 
 AMBULATION, in medicine, a term used by 
 some for the spreading of a gangrene 
 
 AMBULATOR, in entomology, a species of 
 lamia, figured by Petiver Gazop, and de- 
 scribed by Fabricius. The anterior part of the 
 thorax is armed on each side with two spines, 
 and the body clouded with cinereous and ches- 
 nut. It is properly a cerambyx of Linnams. 
 
 AMBULATORIATuRRis, in ancient warfare, 
 an engine or battery, on wheels, for taking 
 towns. 
 
 AMBULATORIUS, in entomology, a species 
 of ichneumon, very rare, with a yellowish scu- 
 tellum, and spotted thorax, the second joint of 
 the abdomen ferruginous brown, the margins of 
 the others white. It inhabits Great Britain, and 
 was first described by Fabricius in the Species 
 Insectorum, from a specimen in the cabinet of 
 Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. 
 
 AMBULIA, in botany, a genus of the didy- 
 namia angiospermia class and order. Essential 
 characters : CAL. quindentated : COR. tubulose, 
 quadrifid, with unequal segments : CAPS, pen- 
 tagonous, single-celled, and single-seeded. One 
 species, viz. A. monosperma, of Gmelin, or A. 
 aromatica of La Marck. This plant, according 
 to La Marck, grows in Malabar, in a sandy and 
 watery soil, and appears to be annual. All its 
 parts have a sweet and aromatic smell, resembling 
 pepper when green. Its taste is bitterish ; and 
 it is administered in a decoction for fevers, or in 
 sour milk for vertigo. 
 
 AMBURBIALES VICTIM*, victims carried 
 round the city of Rome, and afterwards sacrificed. 
 See next article. 
 
 AMBURBIUM, or AMBURVIUM, in Roman 
 antiquity, from ambire, to go round, and urbs, 
 the city ; a procession made by the Romans round 
 the city and pomoerium, in which they led a 
 victim, and afterwards sacrificed it, in order to 
 avert some calamity that threatened the city. 
 Scaliger in his notes on Festus, and several other 
 critics, maintain the amburvia to have been the 
 same with the AMBARVALIA, which see. 
 
 AMBURY, or ANBURY, among farriers, de- 
 notes a tumour, wart, or swelling, which is soft 
 to the touch, and full of blood, sometimes cured 
 by tying a horse-hair very hard about its root ; 
 and when it has fallen off, which happens in 
 about eight days, strewing some powder of ver- 
 digris upon the part, to prevent the return of 
 the complaint. If the tumour be so low that 
 nothing can be tied about it, it is cut out with a 
 knife, or burnt off with a sharp hot iron ; in 
 sinewy parts, they eat it away with oil of vitriol, 
 or white sublimate. Many farriers recommend 
 the following preparation : take three ounces of 
 green vitriol and one ounce of white arsenic ; 
 beat them to a coarse powder, and put them 
 into a crucible; place the crucible in the midst 
 of a charcoal fire, stirring the substance, but 
 carefully avoiding the poisonous steams ; when 
 the whole grows reddish, take the crucible out 
 of the fire, and when cool, break it and take out 
 the matter at the bottom ; beat this to powder in 
 a mortar, and add to four ounces of this powder 
 five ounces of album rhosis; make the whole 
 into an ointment, and let it be applied cold to 
 warts ; rubbing them with it every day. 
 3 B 2
 
 AME 
 
 740 
 
 AMBUSCADE', w.^v Emboscudo, Spanish ; 
 
 AMBUSCA'DO, f from bosquc, a bush. To 
 
 AMBUSCA'DOED, \ambush is to hide in a 
 
 AM'BUSH, v. & n. i bush in order to sur- 
 
 AM'BUSHMENTT. J prise an enemy. Ap- 
 plied literally and metaphorically to any mode 
 of concealment adopted for the purpose of 
 stratagem. Busse, enbusse, bussement, and en- 
 bussement are common in R. Brunne. 
 
 Saladyn priuely was bussed beside pe flom. 
 
 R. Brunne, p. 187. 
 
 In secret ambush I, in yonder wood, in place not wide, 
 
 That so both wayes I may besidge, myselfe intend to 
 
 hide. Twyn. 
 
 A winding vale there lay, within the shade, 
 
 Of woods, by nature for an ambush made. Pitt. 
 Againe great dole on either partie grewe, 
 That him to death unfaithful Paris sent ; 
 And also him that false Ulysses slewe, 
 Drawne into danger through close ambushment. 
 Spenser. Virgil's Gnat. 
 
 Like as a wily fox, that having spied 
 
 Where on a sunny bank the lambs do play, 
 
 Full closely creeping by the hinder side, 
 
 Lies in ambushment of his hoped prey. Spenser. 
 Nor shall we need, 
 
 With dangerous expedition, to invade 
 
 Heav'n, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 
 
 Or ambush from the deep. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 Thick as the shades, there issue swarming bands 
 Of ambush'd men, whom by their arms and dress, 
 To be Taxallan enemies I guess. 
 
 Dryden's Indian Emperor. 
 
 When I behold a fashionable table set out, I fancy 
 that gouts, fevers, and lethargies with innumerable 
 distempers, lie in ambuscade among the dishes. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 AMBUSTA, in entomology, a species of pha- 
 laena of the noctua family. The thorax is crest- 
 ed ; and the wings are incumbent, greyish-brown, 
 with three yellowish streaks, an anuule in the 
 middle, and an undulated streak behind. This 
 moth is produced from a naked brown larva, 
 with white lines. The antennae are ferruginous, 
 white at the base ; head and thorax reddish- 
 grey. Posterior wings white, tips brown. In- 
 habits Austria, on Lichen parietinus. Fabricius. 
 
 AMBUSTA, in medicine, burns or scalds. 
 
 AMBUSTUS, in ornithology, a species of 
 falco. The body is of a pale tawny colour, 
 front of the head between the eyes and bill 
 naked, cere large, legs bluish. This is the tawny 
 vulture of Brown and Latham. The bill is 
 dusky, short and thick, cere large, and beset 
 with bristles, the chin bearded with a tuft of 
 long slender feathers : head, neck, breast, belly, 
 and thighs, pale tawny ; coverts of the wings in- 
 termixed with brown ; tail dirty white, with 
 brown bands ; legs slender, bluish claws, long 
 and slightly bent. The length of this bird is 
 two feet four inches ; it inhabits Faulkland 
 islands. 
 
 AMCHITCHE, one of the Fox Islands, in 
 the North Pacific Ocean. Long. 178. 14'. E. 
 lat. 53. 22'. N. 
 
 AMEA, in botany, a name given, by the na- 
 tives of Guinea, to a plant which they use in 
 bleedings at the nose, by drying and powdering 
 the leaves, and snuffing up the powder. It seems 
 to b a species of the plant called pajamirioba, 
 
 by Sir Plans Sloane, in his Jamaica Catalogue. 
 Its leaves are large and alated, and of a beauti 
 ful green, even when dried 
 
 AUMEDABAD. 
 
 AMEDANA, in botany, the almis vulgaris 
 of Linnaeus. 
 
 AMEDEI, or AMEPIANS, in church history, 
 a congregation of religious in Italy, instituted 
 A. D. 1400, so called from their professing them- 
 selves amantes Deum, ' lovers of God;' or ra- 
 ther amati Deo, ' beloved of God.' They wore 
 a grey habit, wooden shoes, and girt themselves 
 with a cord. They had twenty-eight convents, 
 and were united by pope Pius V. partly with 
 the Cistercian order, and partly with that of the 
 Soccolanti, or wooden-shoe wearers. 
 
 AMEDNAGUR. See AHMEDNUGGER. 
 
 AMEIVA, in zoology, a species of Brazilian 
 lizard, which, according to Marcgrave, resem- 
 bles the TABAGUIRA (which see) in figure, but 
 has a bifid tail. Ray, however, doubts the ex- 
 istence of any such two-tailed species. 
 
 A'MEL, n. ) Ang. Sax. myltan meltan, to 
 
 AMEL'LED. } melt. Supposed to signify ena- 
 melled. 
 
 And with a bend of gold tassiled 
 And knoppes fine of gold amiled. 
 
 Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rose. 
 
 Heaven's richest diamond set in amel white. 
 
 Fletch. Purple Isl. x. 33. 
 A husband like an ammel would enrich 
 Your golden virtues. Duchess of Sujf. act iv. 
 
 The materials of glass melted with calcined tin, 
 compose an undiaphanous body. This white amel is. 
 the basis of all those fine concretes that goldsmiths 
 and artificers employ in the curious art of enamelling. 
 
 Boyle on Coloun. 
 
 AMEL CORN, from amylum, Latin, starch ; 
 French rice, a species of grain from which starch 
 is made. 
 
 AMELANCHIER, in botany, the chionan- 
 thus virginica and mespelus amelanchia of Lin- 
 naeus. Raii Hist. Plant. 
 
 AMELI, in botany, karetta-amelpodi of 
 Rheede, Malab. a plant, from the leaves of which 
 the inhabitants of Malabar obtain a decoction 
 good for the colic. 
 
 AMELIA POINT, the south point of the bay 
 of islands on the west shore of King George's 
 archipelago. Long. 224. 25'. E. lat. 57. 17'. N. 
 
 AMELIA, formerly AMERIA, or ^EMILIA, an 
 episcopal city of Italy, in the pope's territories, 
 seated on a mountain, between the Tiber and 
 Nira, in a fertile country, 18 miles south-west of 
 Spoletto, and 45 north of Rome. Lon. 12. 20'. 
 E. lat. 42. 35'. N. 
 
 AMELIA, a county of Virginia, situated be- 
 tween Blue-ridge and the tide waters, having 
 Cumberland county on the north, George county 
 on the east, and Lunenburg county on the south 
 and west. Amelia, including Nottaway, a new 
 county, contains 18,097 inhabitants, of whom 
 11,037 are slaves. 
 
 AMELIA ISLE, an island on the coast of Flo- 
 rida, about seven leagues north of St. Augustine, 
 and very near Talbot island on the south, at the 
 mouth of St. John's river. It is thirteen miles 
 long and two broad, is very fertile, and has an 
 excellent harbour. Its north end lies opposite 
 Cumberland Island, between which and Amelia
 
 AME 
 
 30. 
 
 -41 AME 
 
 ' *!!* " "I* C " ClUS " > " f ' 
 
 veniy; so be it; or so it ought to be. It has 
 
 Lat. melior. To better, to mend, to improve. 
 
 The class of proprietors contributes to the annual 
 produce by the expense which they may occasionally 
 lay out upon the improvement of the land, upon the 
 buildings, drains, enclosures, and other ameliorations, 
 which they may either make or maintain upon It. 
 
 Smith's Wealth of Nations. 
 
 His humanity must exult at the probability of their 
 lot being so much ameliorated. 
 
 Swinburne's Travels through Spain, letter 36. 
 AMELLUS, STARWORT, a genus of the poly- 
 gamia, superflua order, belonging to the synge- 
 nesia class of plants ; and in the natural method 
 ranking under the 49th order, composite oppo- 
 sitifolise. The characters are : common CAL. 
 imbricated and roundish: compound COK. is 
 radiated : the hermaphrodite corollets numerous 
 in the disk ; the female numerous in the ray ; 
 proper corolla of the hermaphrodites are tubular 
 and quinquefid ; of the females, tongued, loose, 
 and two or three toothed : STAM. in the her- 
 maphrodites, consist of five short capillary fila- 
 ments : the anthera cylindric and tubular : PIST. 
 an ovate germen ; a filiform stylus, the length of 
 the stamina ; and two filiform stigmata : there is 
 no pericarpium, but the calyx unchanged: the 
 seeds are ovate and solitary ; the pappus is hairy, 
 the receptaculum chaffy. Of this there are two 
 species, viz. 1. A. lychnitis, with one flower on 
 each footstalk. This is a native of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, and is a perennial plant, rising about 
 three feet high. 2. A. umbellatus, with flowers 
 growing in umbels, a native of Jamaica, from 
 two to three feet high. 
 
 AMELLUS, in Virgil, is used for the aster 
 Atticus, and by some other botanical authors for 
 the caltha palustris. 
 
 AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAI (Nicholas), born 
 at Orleans in 1634, was much esteemed at the 
 court of" France, and appointed secretary of an 
 embassy which that court sent to the common- 
 wealth of Venice; but his writings afterwards 
 gave such offence, that he was imprisoned in the 
 Bastile. They were : 1. Histoire du Govern- 
 ment de Venice, &c.; Paris, 1676. 2. La Mo- 
 rale de Tacite ; 1686. 3. A Translation of 
 Palafox's Theological and Moral Homilies upon 
 the Passion of our Lord ; besides Translations 
 into French of Machiavel's Prince ; Father 
 Paul's History of the Council of Trent ; Bal- 
 thasar Gracian's Oraculo Manual ; and the first 
 six books of Tacitus's Annals. Niceron also 
 gives a list of some other pieces. 
 
 AMELOTTE (Denis), was born at Saintonge, 
 in 1606, and died in 1678, leaving, 1. La Vie 
 du P. D. Gondren, 4to. Paris, 1643. 2. A French 
 Translation of the New Testament, in 4 vols. 
 8vo. 1666-8. 3. Abrege de la Theologie, 4to. 
 Paris, 1675. 4. Les Epitres et les Evangilesde 
 toute 1'Annee ; &c. 
 
 AMELPODI, in botany, an Indian tree, 
 used as an antidote against the bites of serpents. 
 Ruii Hist. Plant. 
 
 AMEN', interj. fK, Ileb. whence Gr. a/iyr, 
 ust-d in scripture, and still in the Christian 
 
 most countries, possessing a translation of the 
 scriptures. 
 
 One cried, God bless us ! and, Amen! the other, 
 As they had seen me with those hangman's hands :' 
 List'ning their fear, I could not say Amen, 
 When they did say God bless us. 
 
 Shakspeare't Macbeth, 
 
 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from ever- 
 lasting and to everlasting, Amen and Amen. 
 
 Psalm xli. 13. 
 
 AMEN, among the Jews, was used likewise to 
 affirm any thing, and was a sort of affirmation 
 used often by our Saviour; Apnv, A/JIJV, Xsywu/uv, 
 i. e. ' Verily, verily, I say unto you.' It is also 
 understood as expressing a wish ; as ' amen, so 
 be it,' Num. v. 22. In this sense, the word has 
 been adopted into almost all the modern lan- 
 guages, without any alteration. It was likewise 
 used as an affirmative, ' amen, yes, I believe it,' 
 1 Cor. xiv. 16. The Hebrews began the five 
 books of Psalms, according to their way of dis- 
 tributing them, with the words amen, amen; 
 which the Septuagint have translated ytvoiro, 
 ytvoiro ; and the Latins, fiat, fiat. The Greek 
 and Latin churches have preserved this word in 
 their prayers, as well as hallelujah and hosan- 
 nah ; because they observed more energy in them, 
 than in any terms which they could use in their 
 own languages. At the conclusion of the pub- 
 lic prayers, the people answered with a loud 
 voice, amen ; and St. Jerome says, that at Rome 
 when the people answered amen, the sound of 
 their voices was like a clap of thunder: ' In si- 
 militudinem ccelestis tonitrui amen reboat.' The 
 Jews assert, that the gates of heaven are open to 
 him who answers amen with all his might ! 
 
 AMEN'ABLE, Fr. amener, to bring or lead 
 unto. Amenable may be that which may be 
 brought; to answer enquiries, to account for 
 actions. 
 
 Again, because the inferior sort were loose and 
 poor, and not amenable to the law, he provided, by 
 another act, that five of the best and eldest persons 
 of every sept, should bring in all the idle persons of 
 their surname, to be justified by the law. 
 
 Sir John Davies on Ireland. 
 
 The sovereign of this country is not amenable to 
 any form of trial known to the laws. 
 
 Jtiniits's Letters, ded. 
 
 AMENABLE, or AMAINABLE, in law, is applied 
 to a woman who is supposed to be governable by 
 her husband. 
 
 AMEN'AGE, v. ) To menage or manage 
 AMEN'ANCE. $ See MANAGE. 
 With her, [Occasion,] whoso will raging Furor tame, 
 Must first begin, and well her amenage. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene II, act iv. sc. 11. 
 For he is fit to use in all assays, 
 Whether for arms and warlike amenance, 
 Or else for wise and civil governance. Spenter. 
 AMENANUS, in geography, a river of Sicily 
 nowJudicello, that had its source in Mour 
 TEtna, and a very small stream. Ovid. Fast. 
 1. iv. v. 467. 
 
 Necnon Sicanias volvens Amenanus arenas 
 Nunc fluit; interdum suppressis fontibus aret.
 
 AME 
 
 742 
 
 AME 
 
 AMEND', v, ~\ Lat. emendare, e from and 
 AMENDS', / menda, a fault, which Vos- 
 
 AMEND'ER, n. V sius thinks is from the Greek 
 AMEND'FUL, l/wov; for it is properly 
 AMEND'MENT. J called menda, when any thing 
 is deficient. To free from deficiency, fault, or 
 blemish ; to repair, correct, improve, reform. 
 Bute ys wille al clene was ys lond for to amende, 
 And attur all pis to Wynchestre from Londone he 
 
 wende, 
 
 For to amande bilke side and so and so to Salusbury 
 And so for to amende more, to be downe of Ambres- 
 bury. R. Gloucester, p. 144. 
 
 Sir ert bou not ferd of wreche of Code's ire, 
 bat bou wilt werre bigynne, without amendmennt, 
 Ageyn God don synne ageyn holy kirke has went ? 
 Irede bow mak amends of pat grete misdede. 
 
 R. Brunne,p. 391. 
 
 And axide of hem the our in which he was amen- 
 did, and their seiden to him, fro yistirday in the 
 seven the our the fuere lefte him. 
 
 Widif, John, iv. 
 Now hit thyn kep me in . pouht pat evere ich so 
 
 wroughte 
 
 Lord er ich lyf lete. for loue of py selve 
 Graunte me goode Lorde. grace of amende. 
 
 Vision of Pier's Plouhman, p. 92. 
 Poverte is hateful good ; and as I geese, 
 A ful gret bringer out of biseneese, 
 A gret amender eke of sapience, 
 To him that taketh it in patience. 
 
 Chaiccer. The Wife of Bathe's Tale, 
 
 It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous 
 
 spirit whom honour amends : for honour is, or should 
 
 be the place of virtue, and as in nature things move 
 
 violently to their place, and calmly in their place : 
 
 virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and 
 
 calm. Lord Bacon'* Essays. 
 
 ROL. Away with him, hence, hail him straight to 
 
 execution. 
 
 AUB. Far fly such rigour your amendful hand. 
 Rot. He perishes with him that speaks for him. 
 
 Beau, and Fletch. Bloody Bro. act iii. 
 Our Lord and Saviour was of opinion, that they 
 which would not be drawn to amendment of life, by 
 the testimony which Moses and the prophets have 
 given, concerning the miseries that follow sinners 
 after death, were not likely to be persuaded by other 
 means, although God from the dead should have 
 raised them up preachers. Hooker. 
 
 If I have too austerely punish'd you, 
 
 Your compensation makes amends. Shaksp, 
 
 Of the amends recovered, little or nothing returns 
 
 to those that had suffered the wrong, but commonly 
 
 all runs into the prince's coffers. Raleigh's Essays. 
 
 There I, a pris'ner chain'd, scarce freely draw 
 The air imprison'd also, close and damp, 
 Unwholesome draught ; but here I feel amends, 
 The breath of heav'n fresh blowing, pure and sweet, 
 With day spring born , here leave me to respire. 
 
 Hilton. 
 
 Some little hopes I have yet remaining, that I may 
 
 make the world some part amends for many ill plays, 
 
 by an heroick poem. Dryden. 
 
 If our sauls be immortal, this makes abundant 
 
 amends and compensation for the frailties of life, and 
 
 ufferings of this state. Tillotson. 
 
 There are but few pleasures that make us amends 
 
 for the pain of repeated disappointments. 
 
 , Cowper's Letters _ 
 
 AMEND, or AMENDE, in the ci-devant French 
 customs, was a pecuniary fine, imposed by a 
 judge for any crime, false prosecution, or ground- 
 less appeal. 
 
 AMENDE HONORABLE, was an infamous kind 
 of punishment formerly inflicted in France, upon 
 traitors, parricides, or sacrilegious persons. The 
 offender being delivered into the hands of the 
 hangman; his shirt was stripped off, a rope put 
 about his neck, and a taper in his hand ; then he 
 was led into court, where he was obliged to ask 
 pardon of God, the king, the court, and his 
 country. Sometimes the punishment ended here, 
 but sometimes it was only a prelude to banish- 
 ment to the galleys, imprisonment in the Bastile, 
 death, or torture. Amende honorable is also a 
 term used for making recantation in open court, 
 or in presence of the person injured. 
 
 AMENDMENT, in law, may take place, un- 
 less the error lies in giving judgment, for in that 
 case it is not amendable, but the party must 
 bring a writ of error. A bill may be amended 
 on the file at any time before the plea is pleaded ; 
 but not afterwards, without motion and leave of 
 the court. 
 
 AMENDMENT OF A BILL, in parliament, is some 
 alteration made in the first draught of it. 
 
 AMENDMENT OF A MOTION, in public meet- 
 ings, is to be proposed before the chairman puts 
 the motion; and if seconded, is put by him be- 
 fore the motion. 
 
 In cases of wrong returns, so reported by the 
 committee of privileges and elections, and voted 
 by the house of commons, it is usually ordereJ 
 that the returns be amended by the returning 
 officer, according to the directions of the house, 
 without issuing a new writ. 
 
 Amendments ought always to be in that house 
 from whence the thing to be amended originally 
 proceeded, though the directions for the amend- 
 ments came from the other house. Hakew. Mann, 
 of Passing Bills, p. 167. 
 
 AMENDOLARE, in geography, a town of 
 Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, and province 
 of Calabria Citra ; fourteen miles north-east of 
 Cassano. 
 
 AMENDUS, in ancient geography, a town 
 of Caria, supposed by Martiniere to be Myndus. 
 
 AMENEBURG, in geography, a town of 
 Germany, in the circle of the Lower Rhine, five 
 miles east-south-east of Marburg, and forty-eight 
 north-north-east of Mentz. 
 
 AMENIA, a town of Asia Minor, belonging 
 to the Chalybes, who inhabited the eastern part 
 of Pontus. 
 
 AMENIA, in geography, a thriving township ot 
 Duchess County, New York, in America, six 
 miles from Sharon in Connecticut; containing 
 3078 inhabitants, of whom 383 are electors. 
 
 AMENITY, Lat.amanus, which Festus thinks 
 so called, because it alludes to the love of itself, 
 (ad se amandum). Pleasantness, sweetness, 
 agreeableness. 
 
 If the situation of Babylon were such at first, as it 
 was in the dayes of Herodotus ; it was rather a seat 
 of amenity and pleasure then conducing unto this in- 
 tention ; it being in a very great plain, and so an im- 
 proper place to provide against a general deluge by 
 towers and eminent structures. 
 
 Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
 
 AMENORRHOEA of a, priv. fuvtc, the men- 
 ses, and pew, to flow; in medicine, an absence or 
 deficiency of the menstrual excretion in women. 
 See MENSES and CHLOHOSIS
 
 AME 
 
 743 
 
 AME 
 
 AMENTACEOUS, in botany, a term applied 
 to the flowers of certain trees and plants, which 
 are composed of a vast number of apices, or 
 anthers, hanging down in form of a rope, such 
 as the hazel, Sac. See CATKIN. 
 
 ( AMENTACE^,, in botany, one of the natu- 
 ral order of Linnaeus, comprehending those 
 plants whose fruit is a catkin. Linn. Philos. 
 Botan. Sec. It is also the name of a class in the 
 system of Tournefort and others, and hence is 
 derived the adjective, amentaceous. 
 
 AMENTIA, in medicine, from a priv. and 
 mens, the mind, a weakness of intellect, as either 
 want of the memory, or incapability of receiv- 
 ing mental impressions. This lamentable malady 
 is placed, by Dr. Cullen, under nervous diseases 
 affecting the mind ; because the mental defi- 
 ciency is generally the most prominent symptom. 
 In many instances, however, the bodily defects 
 are equally conspicuous, and we may conclude 
 that the cause of the disease is always to be traced 
 to some imperfect organization of the body, par- 
 ticularly the brain and head. Amentia is divided 
 into three kinds : when originating in birth, it is 
 called amentia congenita; when from acci- 
 dent, as from the effects of fever, it is called 
 amentia acquisita; and when from old age, 
 amentia senilis. 
 
 AMENTUM, in antiquity, a thong tied about 
 the middle of a javelin or dart, and fastened to 
 the fore-finger, in order to recover the weapon 
 as soon as it was discharged. The ancient Ro- 
 mans made great use of the amentum, thinking 
 it helped to increase the force of the stroke ; for 
 which reason, some of their great men refused 
 to use it, as confiding wholly in the natural 
 strength of their own arms. It also denotes a 
 latchet that bound their sandals. 
 
 AMEN'USE, v. minuo, imminuo, to lessen; 
 Fr. ameneuser. To lessen, make little, di- 
 minish. 
 
 The thridde [the spice of envy] is to amenuse the 
 bountee of his neighbour. 
 
 Chaucer. The Personnel Tale,vo\. ii. p. 223. 
 AMERADE, a kind of officer among the Sa- 
 racens, answering to the governor of a province 
 among the Europeans. 
 
 AMERBACH (John), a learned printer of 
 Bazil, in Switzerland, in the fifteenth century. 
 He first made use of the Roman type instead of 
 the Gothic and Italic: he died in 1515. His 
 son John was professor of law at Basle, scyndic 
 
 of that city, and the intimate friend of Erasmus : 
 
 he died in 1562, aged 67. There were other 
 
 learned ministers of this family. 
 AMERCE', v. 7 Lat. merces, a merondo, 
 AMERCE' MENT, or > says Vossius, after Varro ; 
 AMER'CIAMENT. 3 and mereo, whence me- 
 
 reido, from /wpoe, a part or share. 
 
 a portion or share of money or goods; to 
 
 irroose a fine or penalty ; to exact a recom- 
 
 peice. 
 
 They ben clerkes her courts they overse, 
 Her poor tenaunce fully they slite 
 The hier that a man amerced be 
 The gladlier tbey woll it write. 
 
 Chaucer's Ploughman's Tale, fol. 96. 
 
 They shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of 
 silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, 
 because he bath brought up an evil name upon a vir- 
 gin of Israel. j^. ^xli. 19. 
 
 All amercements and fines that'should be imposed 
 upon them, shall come unto themselves. 
 
 Spenser's State of Ireland. 
 
 Where every one that misseth then her make 
 Shall be by him amerc'd with penance due. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine, 
 That you shall all repent the loss of mine. 
 
 Shalupcare. 
 
 Millions of spirits, for his fault amerc'd 
 Of heav'n, and from eternal splendours flung 
 For his revolt. Milton. 
 
 AMERCEMENTS, in law, differs from a fine 
 in being imposed arbitrarily in proportion to 
 the fault ; whereas a fine is a certain punish- 
 ment settled expressly by some statute. Man- 
 wood, in his Forest Law, makes another dif- 
 ference, and says, amercement is a more e^y 
 and merciful penalty, and a fine more heavy and 
 severe one. A court of record can impose a 
 fine; other courts can only ameree..By Magna 
 Charta a freeman cannot be amerced for a small 
 fault, but in proportion to the offence, and that 
 by a judgment of his peers. 9 Hen. III. c. 4. 
 
 Before this period amercements were often ex- 
 cessive, and they were imposed on a thousand 
 different occasions, not only for real crimes, but 
 for trivial or imaginary offences, and on the most 
 frivolous pretences; of course they were the 
 sources of infinite vexations to the subjects, as 
 well as of great riches to the sovereigns of 
 England. They fell heavy, not only on the 
 common people, but upon the greatest prelates 
 and most powerful barons of the kingdom. This 
 gave occasion to the above-mentioned article of 
 the great charter, and to the rules founded upon 
 it, which enacted, that no man should have a 
 larger amercement imposed upon him that his 
 circumstances or personal estate would bear; 
 saving to the landholder his contenement or 
 land, to the trader his merchandize, and to the ' 
 countryman his wainage, or team and instruments 
 of husbandry. 
 
 AMERCIAMENT ROYAL, a pecuniary pun- 
 ishment inflicted upon a sheriff, coroner or 
 other officer of the king, by justices, for an abuse 
 in his office. 
 
 AMERI, in botany, the Indigofera tmctoria 
 of Linnaeus. 
 
 AMERI A, in ancient geography, a district of 
 Armenia, mentioned by Strabo (torn. ii. p. 835.) 
 as situate in the vicinity of Cabira, in which 
 was a celebrated temple of the month Pharnacus. 
 AMERIA, now AMELIA, a town of Italy, 
 south-west of Spoleto, founded, according to 
 Cato, 954 years before the Persian war, or 1135 
 years before Christ. Augustus established a co- 
 lony in it. The celebrated Roscius is said 1 
 have been a native of this cky ; and its territory 
 was assigned by August-is to the veteran sol- 
 diers.
 
 744 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 1 . AM ERICA is the largest of what are termed 
 the four grand divisions of the globe, extending 
 through the greater part of both hemispheres, 
 from the latitude of 55. 30'. south of the equator 
 to 74. north. It stretches more than 9000 miles 
 in length, and in its widest part 3800 miles in 
 breadth. The average breadth may be estimated 
 at 1500 miles, and the whole area at 12,000,000 of 
 square miles. It lies between 35. and 168. of long, 
 west from Greenwich, dividing the Atlantic from 
 the Pacific Ocean. Its form is very irregular. 
 On the south it has a long narrow projection, 
 terminating in Cape Horn. On the north, it 
 spreads to its greatest width ; and stretching ge- 
 nerally to the north-west, approaches within 
 forty miles of the eastern extremity of Asia. Its 
 limits on the north have not been fully examined ; 
 but the investigations of captain Parry prove 
 that it is bounded by an arm of the sea, at least 
 as far as long. 113. west, from Greenwich; and, 
 it can scarcely be doubted, that this strait is con- 
 tinued to the Pacific Ocean, and forms a com- 
 plete separation between the continent and the 
 arctic regions connected with Greenland. Ex- 
 tending through every zone, and comprising 
 every variety of climate and soil, which are 
 requisite for any production of the earth ; dis- 
 tinguished for the grandeur of its natural features, 
 and the richness and variety of its vegetables, 
 minerals, and gems, this continent may well be 
 entitled the New World. It is not less interest- 
 ing as the birth place of all modern republics 
 the grand theatre on which a new series of expe- 
 riments, upon the political and moral institutions 
 of men, has been commenced. The Caribbean 
 Sea and the Gulf of Mexico divide the continent 
 into two great portions North and South Ame- 
 rica. They are connected by the narrow Isthmus 
 pf Darien, in lat. 8. north. 
 
 2. HISTORY. It has been believed by many, 
 that America was not unknown to the ancients ; 
 and, from certain passages in the works of some 
 of the writers of antiquity, as well as from coin- 
 cidences in the languages and customs of some 
 of the nations of the old and new continent, 
 plausible reasons have been advanced in favour 
 of this theory. Whatever knowledge, however, 
 the inhabitants of Europe possessed of America, 
 no traces of it existed at the period of the revival 
 of letters; and, it was generally supposed, that 
 the Canaries, or Fortunate Islands, formed the 
 western boundary of their world. For the cor- 
 rection of this error, and the discovery of a new 
 continent, mankind are indebted to the genius 
 and enterprise of Christoval Colon, a native of 
 Genoa, better known to us by the name of Chris- 
 topher Columbus. From a long and close ap- 
 plication to the study of geography, this great 
 man had obtained a knowledge of the true figure 
 of the earth, far beyond what was common to the 
 age in which he lived. Another continent, he 
 conceived, necessary to complete the balance of 
 the terraqueous globe ; but he erroneously con- 
 
 ceived it to be connected with that of India 
 This error arose from the construction of the 
 maps of that period; which represented the 
 oriental countries of Asia, as stretching vastly 
 farther to the east, than actual observation has 
 proved them to extend. Having fully satisfied 
 himself with the theoretical truth of his system, 
 his adventurous spirit made him eager to verify 
 it by experiment. For this purpose, he applied 
 to the senate of Genoa, developing his views, 
 and representing the advantages which would 
 accrue to the republic, from the possession of a 
 new route to the great source of opulence. The 
 Genoese, however, treated the idea as absurd 
 and chimerical, and rejected the proposal with 
 contempt. Although disappointed in this first 
 attempt, Columbus was not discouraged. Through 
 his brother, Bartholomew, he applied to Henry 
 VII. of England; but, the cautious prudence of 
 that monarch, deprived him of the honour of 
 patronising a man, whose friendship would hare 
 immortalized him. The next attempt of Co- 
 lumbus, was at the Portuguese court ; which had 
 in that age, greatly distinguished itself by favouring 
 the spirit of discovery along the African coast. 
 Here he met with an additional mortification, 
 from an attempt to anticipate him in the enter- 
 prise; which, however, proved abortive at an 
 early period. As a last resource, he now pre- 
 sented his scheme to the court of Spain. After 
 eight years of anxious solicitation and contemp- 
 tuous neglect, he at last obtained a gleam of 
 royal favour on his bold and original project. 
 
 3. The interest of queen Isabella procured him 
 three small vessels, with which he set sail from 
 the port of Palos, in Andalusia, on the 3d of 
 August, 1492. He steered directly for the Ca- 
 naries, whence, after having refitted, as well as 
 he could, his crazy and ill-appointed flotilla, he 
 again sailed, on the 6th of September, keeping 
 a due western course over an unknown ocean. 
 Several days passed without a sight of land, and 
 the anxieties of the sailors, arising from this cir- 
 cumstance, were heightened by the variation of 
 the compass, then first perceived. An open 
 mutiny took place, which required all the cou- 
 rage and address of the great navigator, to quell 
 it. They pursued their course ; but when thirty 
 days had elapsed, without any indication of ar 
 approach to land, both officers and men joinet 
 in a second revolt. Columbus was forced par- 
 tially to give way to their remonstrances. I'e 
 consented to return, if, after proceeding thrae 
 days longer, nothing appeared to confirm his ex- 
 pectations. With these assurances, they agnn 
 proceeded, and about midnight, on the lltl of 
 October, Columbus, who was standing on the 
 forecastle, discovered a light a-head. 
 
 4. Morning displayed the joyful sight of laid ; 
 and the sailors were now as ardent, in their ex- 
 pressions of repentance and admiration, as they 
 had before been insolent and ungovernable. Tie 
 island of St. Salvador, one of the Bahamas, wrs
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 the first part of America trodden by the feet of 
 Europeans. From the rude poverty of the inha- 
 bitants, Columbus soon perceived that he was 
 still at a distance from the shores of India. The 
 island of Cuba was next discovered, and al- 
 though no gold was found, the natives pointed 
 to the east, where, in an island, which they 
 called Hayti, this metal was said to abound. 
 Columbus proceeded in that direction, and 
 discovered Hayti on the sixth of December. 
 Here he found some specimens of gold ; and, 
 leaving some men to form a colony, he re- 
 turned to Spain. On his arrival, he immedi- 
 ately proceeded to court, where he was received 
 with admiration and respect. The glory and 
 benefit which promised to result from the disco- 
 very, rendered the government eager to forward 
 his design. A fleet of seventeen sail was pre- 
 pared ; and Columbus, who was now appointed 
 viceroy of all the countries he should discover, 
 departed on his second voyage, accompanied 
 by many persons of rank and distinction. Dur- 
 ing the progress of this voyage, he discovered 
 the islands of Dominica, Marigalante, Guada- 
 loupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Porto Rico, and 
 Jamaica. The success of this great man did not 
 fail to excite envy and intrigue against him at 
 the court of Spain. An officer was sent to act 
 as a spy over his actions : and Columbus soon 
 found it necessary to return to Europe, for the 
 purpose of defeating the machinations of his 
 enemies. After great difficulty, he obtained 
 leave to set out on a third expedition, in 1498. 
 Sailing south from Spain, as far as the equator, 
 he then directed his course to the west, and 
 steered with the trade winds across the Atlantic. 
 At the end of seventeen days, the island of Tri- 
 nidad was discovered ; and, on the first of Au- 
 gust, he reached the mouth of the great river 
 Orinoco. From the magnitude of this stream, 
 he concluded that he had discovered the conti- 
 nent ; and, the continuance of land to the west, 
 confirmed the belief. He then coasted along 
 westward, to Cape Vela, from which he crossed 
 over to Hispaniola. The new glory, which Co- 
 lumbus had now acquired, excited fresh in- 
 trigues against him, which prevailed so far, that 
 he was superseded in his government, and sent 
 home in irons. He justified himself, however, 
 to the court; and, in 1502, was allowed to de- 
 part on a fourth voyage, in the course of which, 
 he discovered the harbour of Porto Bello, and a 
 considerable part of the continent. He then re- 
 turned to Europe, and died at Valladolid, in the 
 year 1506, in the 59th year of his age. 
 
 5. The honour of having made known to 
 mankind the existence of North America, and, 
 indeed, the first discovery of the continent was 
 acquired by the family of Cabots, residents of 
 Bristol, in England. The fame which Colum- 
 bus had gained by his discoveries, spread through 
 Europe, and inspired many with a similar spirit 
 of enterprise. As early as the year 1495, John 
 Cabot, a Venetian, obtained from Henry VII. 
 of England, a commission for himself, and his 
 three sons, ' to navigate all parts of the ocean, 
 for the puipose of discovering islands, countries, 
 regions, or provinces, either of Gentiles, or Infi- 
 dels, which have been hitherto unknown to all 
 
 745 
 
 Christian people; with powei to set up hij 
 standard, and take possession of the same, as 
 vassals of the crown of England.' Such were 
 the terms of this grant, which rivalled the bulls 
 of the papal see, in the extent of the power and 
 authority it professed to confer. In pursuance 
 of this commission, John Cabot sailed from 
 England, in 1497, carrying with him his three 
 sons. On the 24th of June, 1497, he discovered 
 a large island, to which he gave the name of 
 Pnma Vista, or the First Seen, now called New- 
 foundland. A few days after, he discovered a 
 smaller island, to which he gave the name of St. 
 John's ; and, continuing his course westwardly, 
 he soon fell in with the continent, and sailed 
 along the coast of Labrador, as far as the latitude 
 of 67. 30'. north. But, not meeting with the ex- 
 pected north-west passage, he changed his course 
 to the south, and sailed along the whole coast, 
 as far as Florida, having made the first and most 
 extended discoveries of the main land of the 
 New World. 
 
 6. A spirit of discovery was now universally 
 excited. In 1499, Amerigo Vespucci, a Floren- 
 tine, a man of science and genius, sailed with a 
 small squadron to the New World, but made 
 very little addition to the former discoveries. 
 He, however, published, on his return, the first 
 description of the new countries that had ap- 
 peaied, and the injustice of mankind has given 
 his name to the whole continent, an honour to 
 which Columbus was so much more justly en- 
 titled. In the year 1500, the coast of Brazil 
 was accidentally discovered by Alvarez de Ca- 
 bral, a Portuguese admiral, in consequence of 
 having been driven too far to the west, on a 
 voyage round the Cape of Good Hope. The 
 idea entertained originally by Columbus, that 
 America was part of the continent of Asia, was 
 generally received until 1513, when the Pacific 
 Ocean being descried from the mountains of the 
 Isthmus of Darien, this delusion was dissipated. 
 In 1512, Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard, sailed from 
 Porto Rico, northwardly, and discovered tbe 
 continent in 30. 8'. north lat. He landed on 
 Easter-day, whence, according to some, Florida 
 derives its name ; but, according to others, it 
 was so called from the verdure and bloom, with 
 which, at that season, the country was covered. 
 For many years the name was applied to the 
 whole of the continent. 
 
 In 1517, Hernandez Cordova sailed from Ha- 
 vannah, with three barks, and 110 men, on a 
 voyage of discovery. Steering a westerly course, 
 the first land he saw was Cape Catoche, the 
 eastern point of the peninsula, now called Yu- 
 catan. The Spaniards were here astonished to 
 meet with natives, clothed in cotton garments, 
 and exhibiting other traces of civilization and 
 wealth. They attempted to land, but were re- 
 pulsed, with great toss ; and Cordova himself 
 died soon after his return to Cuba. In the fol- 
 lowing year, Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, 
 excited by the accounts given of the country, 
 dispatched a second armament, under the com- 
 mand of Juan de Gryalva, consisting of four 
 ships, and 200 Spanish soldiers. This expe- 
 dition sailed on the fifth of April, 1518, and 
 completed those discoveries whichled to the sub-
 
 746 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 gation of Mexico. They first touched at the 
 island of Cozumel, and then at another, which 
 they called the Island of Sacrifices, from its being 
 the first place where they had observed human 
 sacrifices. They terminated their voyage at St. 
 Juan de Ullua, and returned in triumph to Cuba, 
 having examined a considerable extent of the 
 coast, and ascertained the existence of the rich 
 and extensive empire of Montezuma. From 
 them this country received the name of New 
 Spain. The success of this expedition, and the 
 reports of the wealth to be found in New Spain, 
 induced Velasquez to send out another arma- 
 ment of ten ships, and 550 soldiers, under the 
 command of Hernando Cortez; and with this 
 small force, aided by treachery and cruelty, that 
 celebrated adventurer commenced the war in 
 which he completely subdued the empire of 
 Mexico. 
 
 8. Several years now elapsed without any 
 further progress being made in the discovery of 
 North America. The French, who had not dis- 
 played the same spirit of enterprise as their 
 neighbours, entered the lists in 1524. In that 
 year Francis I. sent John Verrazani, a Florentine, 
 to America, for the purpose of making disco- 
 veries. He traversed the coast from lat. 28. to 
 50. north ; but in a second voyage, some time 
 after, was unfortunately lost. In 1525, Stephen 
 Gomez, the first Spaniard who came upon the 
 North American coast, with a view to discovery, 
 sailed from Groyn in Spain to Cuba and Florida, 
 thence northward to Cape Razo, in lat. 46. 
 north, in search of a northern passage to the 
 East Indies. In the spring of 1534, a fleet was 
 fitted out at St. Maloes, in France, by direction 
 of Francis I. with the design of attempting dis- 
 coveries. The command of the fleet was given 
 to James Carder. He arrived at Newfoundland 
 in May of this year. Thence he sailed north- 
 wardly, and on the day of the festival of St. 
 Lawrence he found himself in the midst of a 
 broad gulf, which he named the St. Lawrence. 
 He gave the same name to the river which 
 empties into it. In this voyage he sailed as far 
 north as lat. 51., expecting in vain to find a 
 passage to China. In the following year he 
 sailed up the river St. Lawrence as far as the 
 Falls. He called the country New France ; 
 built a fort, in which he spent the winter, and 
 returned the following spring to France. On 
 the 12th of May, 1539, Ferdinand de Soto, with 
 900 men, besides sailors, sailed from Cuba, 
 having for his object the conquest of Florida. 
 On the 30th of May he arrived at Spirito Santo, 
 from whence he travelled in various directions, 
 and, after exploring a vast extent of country, 
 and even reaching, as it is supposed by some, 
 the river Susquehannah, died on the bank of the 
 Mississippi, aged forty-two years. Cartier, in 
 the next year, made a third voyage to Canada, 
 built a fort, and began a settlement in 1541 or 
 1542, which he called Charlebourg, four leagues 
 above Port St. Croix. He soon afterwards broke 
 up the settlement, and sailed for Newfoundland. 
 In 1542 Francis La Roche was sent to Canada 
 by the French king, with 200 men, women, and 
 children, but returned with his colony the next 
 spring. In 1550 a number of adventurers sailed 
 
 for Canada, but were not afterwards heard of. 
 No other attempt appears to have been made to 
 settle Canada during this century. In 1562, a 
 French squadron under the command of John 
 Rebalt, arrived on the coast of Florida, and 
 discovered a river, which is supposed to be the 
 St. Mary's. As he coasted northwards, he dis- 
 covered several other rivers, one of \\hich he 
 called Port Royal. 
 
 9. The attempts to find out a north-east pas- 
 sage to India having failed, the English sect out, 
 in 1576, Captain Frobisher, to find a north-west 
 passage. The first land which he made was a 
 cape, which he named Queen Elizabeth's Fore- 
 land. In coasting northerly, he discovered the 
 straits which bear his name The two following 
 years he made a second and a third voyage, 
 which produced no material discovery. In the 
 same year, Sir Francis Drake, being on a cruise 
 against the Spaniards in the Pacific ocean, landed 
 on the continent of North America, northward 
 of California, took possession of a harbour, and 
 called the surrounding country New Albion. 
 In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained a 
 patent from Queen Elizabeth for lands not yet 
 possessed by any Christian prince, provided he 
 would take possession within six years. In 1583, 
 he sailed to Newfoundland, and took formal 
 possession of the continent of North 'America, 
 in the name of the crown of England. In pur- 
 suing his discoveries, he lost one of his ships on 
 the shoals of Sable, and, on his return home, a 
 storm overtook him, in which he was unfor- 
 tunately lost. In 1 584, a patent was granted by 
 Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh, by the authority 
 of which, he sent out a colony the next year. 
 They arrived on the coast, and anchored a few 
 leagues west of the Roanoke. Here'they landed, 
 and took possession of the country on behalf of 
 Queen Elizabeth, calling it, in honour of her, 
 Virginia. In 1585, a colony was planted, but 
 became so disheartened, that they returned to 
 England in 1586, with Sir Francis Drake. Another 
 attempt was made, in the year last mentioned, to 
 establish a colony in Virginia, but with similar 
 ill success. 
 
 10 A third attempt, made in 1587, also failed ; 
 the colonists perished miserably, having either 
 died of famine or been massacred by the Indians. 
 In 1585, an English expedition, under the com- 
 mand of Davis, discovered Davis's straits ; and 
 examined the adjoining coasts as far as 72. north 
 latitude in 1587. In 1602, Bartholomew Gos- 
 nold with thirty-two persons, made a voyage to 
 North Virginia, as it was then called, and dis- 
 covered and gave names to Cape Cod, Martha's 
 Vineyard, and Elizabeth Islands. Attempts 
 were made to form a settlement in the vicinity, 
 but without success ; and it is believed that, at 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century, there 
 was not one European family settled on all the 
 vast extent of coast from Greenland to Florida. 
 In 1603, Bartholomew Gilbert, in a voyage to 
 South Virginia, in search of the colony which 
 was left there in 1587, landed near Chesapeake 
 bay, where, in a skirmish with the Indians he 
 was unfortunately slain. In the same year, the 
 king of France granted by patent to M. de 
 Mons all the country from the fortieth to the
 
 mQafii/.'" 
 
 / t .-uftfm 
 
 - '-/ I (VV uM 
 
 ^fx o i T 
 
 ?S^ 4=;. |rM 
 
 1 :%.. F A C IF I C 
 
 O C JE A. 
 
 ' Iwfotffi^: 
 
 J5E. 
 
 1-jJQ 
 
 Longitude 120 
 
 Driavn by J. As sheton .
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 747 
 
 forty-sixth degree of north latUude, under the 
 name of Acadia. In 1605, George's islands and 
 Pentecost harbour were discovered by captain 
 Weymouth, who soon afterwards entered a large 
 river, now supposed to be the Kennebeck or 
 I'enobscot. In 1606, James I. divided Virginia 
 into two colonies, the northern and southern, 
 which were granted to different companies. The 
 next year, M. de Champlain sailed up the St. 
 Lawrence, and founded Quebec. In 1607, the 
 first permanent settlement was effected in the 
 present state of Virginia, at James-town, the 
 first English town in America. 
 
 11. Henry Hudson, a native of England, but 
 at the time in the service of the Dutch East 
 India Company, discovered, in 1609, and sailed 
 up the river which has since borne his name. Set- . 
 tlements were soon after made here by the Dutch. 
 In 1614, captain Smith explored the coast of 
 Massachusetts, and thence southerly ; and on his 
 return home to London drew a map of the 
 country, which he called New England, a name 
 which has superseded that of North Virginia. 
 In 1616, William Baffin discovered the great 
 northern bay which bears his name. In 1620, 
 
 the first permanent settlement was effected at 
 Plymouth, in New England. In 1627, a colony 
 of Swedes and Fins came over, and made 
 the first settlement on the Delaware river. In 
 the reign of Charles 1. Lord Baltimore, a Roman 
 Catholic, obtained a grant of land upon Chesa- 
 peake Bay, and soon after came with a number 
 of Catholics, and settled Maryland. Connec- 
 ticut and Rhode island were next settled from 
 Massachusetts. New Jersey was granted to the 
 Duke of York, by Charles II. In 1669, the 
 settlement of the Carolinas began. In 1682,- 
 William Penn, with a colony of Quakers, arrived 
 in Pennsylvania. Louisiana was colonized by 
 the French in the beginning of the next century, 
 and in 1732, Georgia was settled by general Ogle- 
 thorpe. 
 
 12. Following its great geographical features, 
 we divide the present article on America, into 
 two parts; i.e. NORTH and SOUTH AMERICA; 
 and again subdivide them into chapters, sugges- 
 ted by the great physical peculiarities, and po- 
 litical divisions of these two important portions 
 of the globe. 
 
 PART I. NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION. 
 
 NORTH AMERICA is the largest of the two great 
 divisions of the American Continent, extending 
 from the isthmus of Darien, in latitude 8. ; 
 to Barrow's straits, in latitude 71. north ; and 
 from Davis's to Behring's straits. Its greatest 
 length from north-east to south-west, is 3000 
 miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west, 
 3800 miles. 
 
 13. SEAS, BAYS, AND GULFS. The waters 
 which intersect the American Continent, may be 
 considered in connection with the three great 
 oceans around it, of which they are branches 
 the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Arctic oceans. 
 The Pacific ocean has few branches of much 
 importance, extending into the Western Conti- 
 nent Cook's inlet, Norfolk Sound, Queen Char- 
 lottes, and Nootka Sounds, and the Straits of 
 St. Juan de Fuca, are the only considerable in- 
 dentations in the coast until we reach the gulf 
 of California. This gulf extends towards the 
 north, between the peninsula of California, and 
 the main, to the distance of 800 miles, varying 
 from 20 to 120 miles in breadth. Its entrance 
 is between Cape St. Lucas, and Cape Comentes. 
 It is full of islands, and shoals, and its navi- 
 gation is difficult. The harbour of Acapulco is 
 the principal port on the peninsula; and the 
 gulfs of Tehuantepee and Panama, are the two 
 principal points proposed for opening a com- 
 munication between the oceans. The gulf ot 
 Guayaquil is the principal indentation in the 
 coast of South America, until we reach the gulf 
 
 or Archipelago of Chiloe. The gulf is studded 
 with numerous islands, and bears a striking re- 
 semblance to the Grecian Archipelago, in the 
 liveliness and enterprise of its inhabitants, as well 
 as in its natural features. 
 
 14. The straits of Magellan present the first 
 opening from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, 
 extending 340 miles in a winding course, between 
 California, and Terra del Fuego. The western 
 current, from the Atlantic, passes through these 
 straits into the Pacific, with great rapidity, and 
 the navigation is very difficult. 
 
 15. The Atlantic Ocean makes but few en- 
 croachments upon the eastern coast of South 
 America ; and some parts of it are even desti- 
 tute of convenient harbours. The principal 
 openings are those formed by the two great 
 rivers, the Amazon, and the Paraguay. These 
 vast expanses of fresh water resemble ordinary 
 gulfs, or bays, in size, the former being fifty, and 
 the latter 180 miles in breadth. The La Plata 
 is not safe as a place of anchorage, on account 
 of the force of its current, and the sand banks 
 with which it abounds. The best harbours on 
 the eastern coast of South America, are those of 
 Pernambuco, Bahia, and Rio Janeiro, the last 
 of which is remarkably defended from the agita- 
 tions of the ocean by an extensive reef resem- 
 bling an artificial mole, and is considered one o 
 the finest ports in the world. 
 
 16 In proceeding northward, from the river 
 Amazon, we soon reach the extensive sea which
 
 748 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 separate the two portions of the continent. 
 They are separated from the main ocean, by the 
 chain of the West India islands, and the ap- 
 pearance of the whole at once suggests the idea 
 that they have been formed by the gradual en- 
 croachments of the current from the east, pro- 
 duced or aided by the trade winds j and that 
 the islands are the relics of an extensive tract of 
 land which formerly united North and South 
 America. The principal divisions of this branch 
 of the Atlantic are the Carribbean sea on the 
 south, and the gulf of Mexico on the north. 
 The island of Cuba, and the other large islands, 
 often called the greater Antilles, form the northern 
 limit of the Carribbean sea : it is separated from 
 the ocean by the smaller chain, or Carribbee 
 islands, and extending 1400 miles in length, and 
 washes the coast of Colombia and Guatimala. 
 The bay of Honduras, and gulf of Darien are 
 its principal large divisions, and the harbour of 
 Porto Bello, Carthagena, and Laguira are its 
 best ports. 
 
 17. The gulf of Mexico washes the coast of 
 Mexico and the United States, separated from 
 the ocean by the sandy peninsula of Florida. 
 It extends about 1000 miles in length, and 700 
 *)r 800 in breadth. The passage to the ocean is 
 rendered easy by a rapid current, termed the gulf 
 stream, which continually flows through the 
 straits or gulf of Florida. The entrance is, for 
 the same reason, very difficult, and requires a 
 circuitous and dangerous navigation through the 
 shoals and keys of the Bahama isles. 
 
 18. The gulf stream is one of the most re- 
 markable permanent currents on the globe. It 
 appears to be formed by the accumulation of 
 water which *he trade winds throw into the 
 Carribbean sea, from the wide Atlantic ; or 
 striking the shores of the Isthmus of Darien, 
 they are turned northward into the gulf of 
 Mexico, and thence pass out by the most un- 
 obstructed passage between Cuba and the Ba- 
 hamas, and the peninsula of Florida. It issues 
 from the gulf with a velocity of four or five miles 
 an hour, and sweeps along the American coast 
 nearly parallel to it, at the distance of thirty to 
 fifty miles from Cape Hatteras. The coast then 
 taking a more northerly direction, the line of the 
 gulf stream recedes from it until it reaches the 
 banks of Newfoundland. Here it is turned 
 towards the east, and would appear sometimes 
 to reach the north-eastern coast of Europe. 
 Tropical productions are frequently thrown up 
 on the coast of Scotland and Norway, which 
 could only find their way by this current; and 
 in one instance the mast of a vessel burned in 
 the West Indies, was cast upon the shore of the 
 Hebrides. The current appears to pass in an 
 immense curve to the Azores, where it is also 
 traced by the American productions it throws up, 
 and seems then to pass on, and be lost in the 
 great western current from which it originated. 
 Humboldt estimates that two years are occupied 
 in the whole circuit. The gulf stream is readily 
 distinguished from the surrounding ocean, by its 
 greater temperature, produced by the tropical 
 sun in the gulf of Mexico, and which it retains 
 to the banks of Newfoundland, even in the 
 winter season. The Colour of its water, and 
 
 the sea-weed with which it abounds, are also 
 very obvious indications. The vapours which 
 rise from it render the atmosphere above it, and 
 the winds which blow from it peculiarly damp. 
 From the difference of temperature between it 
 and the surrounding ocean r it is the theatre of 
 frequent gales and thunder-storms. It diminishes 
 in velocity, and increases in width, as it proceeds; 
 and both circumstances are affected by the state 
 of the wind. It is found that the current which 
 runs through the gulf of Mexico, and ultimately 
 forms this stream, throws up sand on the coast 
 of Mexico, which renders its harbours shallow, 
 and the coast difficult of navigation. The beds 
 of sand, filled with sea shells, which have been 
 discovered at ten leagues from the present shore, 
 indicate that in this way the land is encroaching 
 upon the sea, and the basin of the gulf gradually 
 contracting. No good port is found along the 
 coast ; and the harbours of Cuba are the nearest 
 places of safe rendezvous for the armed ships of 
 Spain. That of the Havannah is the best. 
 
 1 9. A large part of the coast of the United 
 States is also low and alluvial, like that of Mexi- 
 co, and presents a succession of sand banks, se- 
 parated from the shore by a series of shallow 
 passages and sounds, which afford great fa- 
 cilities for the coasting trade, but none for foreign 
 commerce. The harbours of Charleston, and the 
 Savannah river, are almost exclusively the seat 
 of foreign trade, until we reach the fine openings 
 of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. The 
 Chesapeake bay resembles an inland sea, in the 
 extent of its surface, the number of its tributary 
 streams^ and the character of its navigation. Its 
 length is 180 miles, and its average breadth from 
 ten to twenty miles. It receives several laree 
 rivers, and numberless small streams ; and is the 
 medium of extensive trade in itself. 
 
 20. Delaware bay is much less extensive, and 
 must rather be considered as the prolonged es- 
 tuary of the river of the same name. Its length 
 is about sixty miles, and its breadth increases 
 from three to thirty miles, in going towards the 
 entrance. It is navigable for large vessels, but 
 obstructed by shoals. At New York we enter 
 on the primitive region of the United States, 
 and find a corresponding change in the coast. 
 The shores become bold, and indented with 
 many harbours of great depth. The port of New 
 York is one of the finest in the world, and the 
 principal seat of foreign trade in the United 
 States. 
 
 21. The larger branches of the ocean on the 
 New England coast, are Long-island sound, 
 about fourteen miles long, and three to twenty- 
 five wide, dividing Long-island from the state 
 of Connecticut. Naragannot bay, which pene- 
 trates the small state of Rhode island, and gives 
 it every part of a coast. Buzzards bay, on the 
 south side of the peninsula of Barnstable, and 
 Massachusetts bay, in which is the harbour of 
 Boston, on the north side, bounded by cape Cod 
 and cape Ann 
 
 22. The bay of Fundy divides the state of 
 Maine from the British province of Nova Scotia. 
 It is remarkable for the height of its tides, which 
 sometimes flow from forty to sixty feet, with a 
 rapidity which is scarcely credible, and which
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 sometimes renders them destructive to the cattle 
 feeding on the shores. 
 
 23. The river St. Lawrence forms an extensive 
 gulf at its mouth, which hears the same name. 
 It K is divided from the ocean by the islands of 
 Newfoundland and Cape Breton, stretching ahout 
 400 miles from east to west, and an equal dis- 
 tance from north to south. 
 
 24. The seas and bays of the northern ex- 
 tremity of America must be considered as 
 branches of the Arctic ocean, although the limits 
 of this ocean are not yet ascertained. Davis's 
 straits is a passage 450 miles wide, by which 
 we approach the division of the waters of the 
 globe from the Atlantic ocean. In pursuing a 
 direct course, we enter Baffin's bay, whose ex- 
 istence was for some time doubted ; but which 
 has been fully examined and surveyed in the 
 recent voyages undertaken by order of the British 
 government. It stretches between u*e coast of 
 Greenland and Labrador, as far as lat. 80. north. 
 Its outlets or connections on the north have not 
 been traced ; nor is it known that there is any 
 direct communication to the Atlantic on the 
 east, except by the strait which insulates the 
 point on which cape Farewell is situated. 
 
 25. At the entrance of Davis's straits are the 
 straits of Hudson and Cumberland, leading into 
 Hudson's bay, a large inland sea, extending from 
 lat. 51. to 68. north, and from Ion. 75. to 95. 
 west. Its navigation is difficult, on account of 
 ihe ice, which completely closes it during a large 
 part of the year; and renders it dangerous 
 during the period of its formation and destruction. 
 It. exceeds the Baltic in size. It does not abound 
 in fish ; but two species of the whale are taken 
 here. 
 
 26. North of Hudson's straits, a strait was 
 discovered by the British expedition under capt. 
 Ross^ and penetrated by captain Parry to Mel- 
 ville island, in the Ion. of 113. west, to which 
 the name of Barrow's straits has been given. The 
 land on the northern side was called North 
 Georgia, but it was not ascertained whether it 
 consisted merely of a group of islands, or formed 
 a part of an extended tract of land. The diffi- 
 culties and dangers attending the exploring tour, 
 from the long winter period of darkness, and the 
 short summer of light, with the consequent ac- 
 cumulation of ice, prevented captain Parry from 
 ascertaining the connections of the southern land ; 
 and from determining whether any communica- 
 tion existed with Hudson's bay. An expedition 
 sent into this bay during the following season 
 was equally unsuccessful; but captain Parry 
 approached so near to the situation in which the 
 sea was seen by Hearn and Franklin, as to leave 
 little doubt that there is a continued passage 
 along the northern coast of North America, to 
 the mouth of Mackenzie's river, and thence to 
 the straits of Behring. 
 
 27. Another expedition has been sent to at- 
 tempt farther discoveries; and a land party, 
 under captain Franklin, with a second squadron 
 sent by Behring's straits, will attempt to prose- 
 cute the same object in their mode, with U 
 hope of forming a junction, or approaching so 
 nar to each other, that the geography of these 
 unknown regions may be in some measure 
 
 749 
 
 settled, even if no practical result sno id follow 
 It is, indeed, quite improbable that a channel 
 which could not be passed in two years of labour 
 and suffering, by the best appointed ships, en- 
 tirely appropriated to the conveyance of the 
 men, fuel, and provisions, necessary for navi- 
 gating in these cold and desolate regions, should 
 ever become a regular channel of lucrative 
 commerce, while the passage round cape Horn 
 can be made with far more ease and safety in a 
 shorter period. 
 
 28. MOUNTAINS. North America is unrivalled 
 for the magnitude of its lakes, and yields only 
 to South America in the size of its rivers and 
 basins. Its mountains are generally inferior in 
 height to those of the other quarters of the world, 
 but in the length of its chains it surpasses the 
 eastern continent. It is traversed by two great 
 chains of primitive mountains ; the" Rocky, or 
 Chippewan mountains on the west, and the 
 Apalachian chain, embracing the Allegany ridge, 
 and the White mountains on the east. 
 
 29 The great western chain of North America 
 may be considered as a prolongation of the An- 
 des. Its origin may be traced to the Isthmus of 
 Darien, where it is connected with the Andes by 
 a low, but uninterrupted ridge. It increases in 
 height as it advances north, pursuing an irregular 
 course, sometimes in the centre, and sometimes 
 on one side of the peninsula, until it reaches the 
 eighteenth degree of latitude, where it stretches 
 from south to north, and approaches the eastern 
 coast. 
 
 30. In the Mexican division, there is a group 
 of mountains which rivals the most elevated of 
 the new continent; the principal are Popoca- 
 tapetl, and the Pic de Oruciba, above 17,000 
 feet in height; and Irtaccihuatl, 15,000 feet 
 high ; all of them volcanic summits, unlike -the 
 South American Andes. The ridge of the chain 
 here spreads into one extensive table land ; and 
 the most elevated summits, instead of forming a 
 continued crest of peaks, are either dispersed 
 upon this extended mountain top, or ranged in 
 lines, which preserve no regular course. As far 
 as the nineteenth degree of latitude, this chain is 
 termed the Cordillera of Anahuac, or Mexico. 
 Here it takes the name of the Sierra Madre, and 
 runs north-west to Guanaxuato, where it sends 
 off a branch to the east and another to the west. 
 The principal chain extends northward to the 
 sources of the Rio del Norte and Rio Gila, and on 
 entering the United States receives the name of 
 the Rocky, or Chippewan mountains. Only 
 four of the summits in the southern part of the 
 chain are covered with perpetual snow. The 
 general aspect of that part is volcanic ; and the 
 country is subject to earthquakes and fiery 
 eruptions, although they are less frequent than in 
 South America. 
 
 31. In its middle course, between the latitudes 
 of 35. or 40. and 55. north, the great western 
 chain has been called by various names ; among 
 which the most common are the Rocky, Shining, 
 and Chippewan mountains ; the last being de- 
 rived from the Indian, and the only one which 
 seems applicable as a distinctive title. This part 
 of the range was quite unexplored, until it was 
 traversed by Lewes and Clark, and more recently
 
 750 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 by Major Long, under the direction of the govern- 
 ment of the United States. To the latter we are 
 particularly indebted for the most detailed and 
 interesting accounts of these mountains, and the 
 adjoining regions, which has yet been given. 
 The general course of the Chippewan range is 
 north-north-east. Its breadth varies from 50 to 
 100 and 200 miles. They rise abruptly from 
 the elevated plains at their eastern base, towering 
 into peaks of great height, which renders them 
 visible at the distance of more than 100 miles 
 on the east, and in some states of the air 140 
 miles. At this distance the view is that of se- 
 yeral conic summits, unconnected at their base. 
 At a nearer approach an uninterrupted chain is 
 discovered, crowned with sharp conical peaks. 
 The body of the range consists of ridges and 
 peaks variously disposed, and interspersed with 
 many broad and fertile valleys. The more 
 elevated parts are covered with perpetual snows, 
 which contribute to give them a luminous, 
 and at a great distance even a brilliant appear- 
 ance, from which they have derived their name 
 of the Shining Mountains. They are chiefly 
 primitive in their geological character, but covered 
 for some distance on the eastern declivity with 
 a crust of secondary rocks. The base of these 
 mountains is skirted by a range of naked and 
 almost perpendicular rocks of sandstone, visible 
 at the distance of several miles, and resembling 
 a vast rampart, erected to guard the approaches 
 and intercept the view of the main ridge. The 
 whole appears as if it had been broken off from 
 the mass,' and thrown into its present position, 
 by some great convulsion of nature. These, and 
 other ridges of sandstone found in the neigh- 
 bouring plains, often assume the form of ruined 
 towers and castles ; and like similar objects in 
 the plains of Russia and Africa, might be mis- 
 taken by a careless traveller for the remnants 
 of ancient works of art. 
 
 32. The lower portions of these mountains 
 are covered with a scattered growth of dwarf 
 pines, cedar, and oak, and exhibit a very rugged 
 and broken aspect. Above the limit of woody 
 plants it is almost wholly naked ; the soil is very 
 scanty, and on the highest, or Long's Peak 
 scarcely a lichen or moss is to be seen. Here 
 the limit of snow was found in midsummer. It 
 has been already observed, that the summits of 
 the chain are generally covered with snow in 
 latitude 42. and of course cannot be less than 
 8000 feet in elevation. Some which were ob- 
 served farther north, seemed to be snow-clad 
 almost to their bases. The highest points as- 
 certained in this part of the chain are Long's 
 or Highest Peak, 12,500 feet ; and James's Peak, 
 11,500 feet above the level of the sea, situated 
 near the sources of the Arkansaw and Platte 
 rivers, in latitude 41. 30'. 
 
 33. North of the sources of the Missouri we 
 cave no account of these mountains, except from 
 the tour of that accurate and intelligent traveller, 
 Sir Alexander Mackenzie. From him we learn 
 that in his route to the Arctic Ocean, he found 
 them extending northward in the same direction, 
 until they terminated near the mouth of Mac- 
 kenzie's river, beyond 65. north latitude. They 
 appear, in this part of their course, to diminish 
 
 in elevation, but still rise to the limits of per- 
 petual snow, which is lower in these latitudes, 
 and retain the other characteristic appearances 
 of the range. Their structure is not known ; but 
 there is no reason to doubt that they are still 
 composed of primitive rocks. 
 
 34. In reviewing the whole course and cha- 
 racter of this great range of mountains, we shall 
 find it surpassing most chains of the old continent 
 in dimensions and grandeur. It extends without 
 interruption for the distance of 7000 miles, and 
 seems like the spire of the continent it traverses. 
 Commencing with moderate elevation at the 
 south, it soon spreads into so wide and elevated 
 a plain, that cities and empires may be founded 
 on its expanded mountain tops ; and this is 
 again crowned with lofty summits, which, if they 
 were placed even on the ordinary level of the 
 earth, would be deemed vast mountains. The 
 grandeur of this part of the chain is increased 
 by the volcanic character of its peaks. Popo- 
 catapetl, the loftiest, is continually burning; 
 Orcraba, Turtla, and Colima, have occasional 
 eruptions ; and this region was the scene of one 
 of the most remarkable events in the natural 
 history of the earth which is upon record, the 
 formation of the large volcano of Jarullo. Du- 
 ring a series of earthquakes and other convul- 
 sions, which occurred in 1759, at the distance 
 of 180 miles from any active volcano, this new 
 volcano was thrown up by the heavings of the 
 earth upon a plain to the height of 1500 feet, 
 surrounded by five less elevated cones, and 
 thousands of small ones, all of which threw 
 forth fiery eruptions. Jorullo is still burning, 
 and throws out large quantites of lava from its 
 sides. The Mexican Cordillera is not less dis- 
 tinguished for its mines of gold and silver, the 
 proverbial standard of immense wealth, which 
 nave recently given new energy to enterprise, 
 and new violence to the mania of speculation in 
 Great Britain. In going northward we still 
 find the singular combination of a level country 
 at a mountainous height; and travel with the same 
 ease at two miles above the level of the sea, as 
 on the sands of its shores. On passing the pa- 
 rallel of 30. the table-land extends in breadth 
 as it diminishes in height. In place of a fertile 
 cultivated country, we find a dry and barren 
 desert; and the mountains, rising in a more 
 obvious and regular manner from its level, 
 pursue their course to the north with more of 
 the rugged and dreary character which we as- 
 sociate with a chain. Being uninhabited it forms 
 an almost insurmountable barrier, between the 
 two portions of the continent. We know nothing 
 of its mineral treasures beyond the Mexican 
 peninsula ; but its snows and springs supply those 
 vast rivers and chains of lakes which water and 
 fertilize more than two-thirds of North America, 
 and confer more certain and permanent wealth 
 than the mines of Mexico. 
 
 35. Along the coast of the Pacific Ocean fliere 
 is another chain of mountains nearly parallel to 
 the Chippewan, and forming a kind of secondary 
 range or step between these and the ocean. It 
 extends from the cape of California across the 
 Columbia river near its mouth, about 3000 
 miles, as far north as the coast has been examined
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 In the southern part it attains no great deration 
 being only 4500 feet high in California. La 
 Perouse states that the northern part rises to the 
 height of 10,000 feet, and is covered with snow 
 and glaciers At the northern extremity is mount 
 Elias, one of the loftiest peaks of North America, 
 rising nearly 18,000 feet above the level of the 
 sea. This portion of the chain has a volcanic 
 character. At Port Bucarelli, hi latitude 55. a 
 Spanish voyager saw seven volcanoes, whose 
 summits were crowned with snow, throwing out 
 flames and ashes; and at Prince William's' 
 Sound, in latitude 60. volcanic eruptions were 
 also witnessed. Mount Fairweather is next to 
 mount Elias in height, being nearly 15,000 feet 
 above the level of the sea. Between 40. and 
 50. of latitude, several prominent points are 
 laid down by Lewis and Clark, two of which, 
 on the south of the Columbia river are called 
 Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood ; and three on 
 the north, Mount St. Helens, Mount Regniere, 
 and Mount Baker, the last being near the^straits 
 of St. Juan de Fuca. The two former are covered 
 with perpetual snow, and therefore cannot be less 
 than 7000 feet in height. 
 
 36. There are no considerable branches pro- 
 ceeding from the great western chain, except 
 those which pass off from it to the*east and west 
 in Mexico. It is obvious that there must be an 
 elevated tract or ridge of land proceeding from 
 it on the north, and dividing the waters of the 
 northern declivity from those of the United 
 States. It has been supposed that there is a 
 chain of mountains passing across to Hudson's 
 Bay, and thence around its southern extremity, 
 until it unites with the chain which passes through 
 the middle of Labrador ; but of this we have no 
 good evidence. The high lands in the basin of 
 the Mississippi are too little connected with this 
 great range to be considered as branches. It 
 appears to be flanked on the western, as well as 
 the eastern side, by an elevated table-land of a 
 desert and dreary character. 
 
 37. The Apalachian chain stretches the distance 
 of 900 miles from south-west to north-east, along 
 the eastern coast of North America, generally at 
 the distance of 50 to 100 miles. It may be con- 
 sidered as rising on a confused group of moun- 
 tains on the borders of the Alluvion, or the 
 southern coast of the United States, in the north- 
 eastern part of the state of Georgia. It proceeds 
 in a series of parallel ridges through the states of 
 Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. 
 In New York and New Jersey, the chain appears 
 somewhat broken, but still may be traced by a 
 series of groups and ridges, of similar structure 
 to the ranges of New England ; and thence to the 
 White Mountains, and the mountains of Mame, 
 which divide the waters of the Atlantic and 
 the St. Lawrence. 
 
 38. The principal or central ridge of the 
 southern portion is the Allegany ; and sometimes 
 Us name is employed to indicate the whole chain. 
 It commences in the northern part of Georgia, 
 under the local names of the White, Smoky, Bald, 
 Iron, and Yellow Mountains. On entering Vir- 
 ginia it assumes the name of the Allegany Ridge, 
 which it retains during its passage through this 
 state and Maryland, to its apparent termination 
 
 751 
 
 in the interior of Pennsylvania. A range of 
 high lands may, however, be traced through the 
 northern parts of Pennsylvania and the state of 
 JNew York, to the mountains lying on the west 
 of lake Champlain. The western portions of 
 Virginia and Pennsylvania are occupied by se- 
 veral secondary ridges, of which the principal 
 are the Laurel and Chesnut ridge. Two consi- 
 derable branches from the west unite with the 
 Allegany ridge in Virginia; the Clinch moun- 
 tain from the southern side of the Tennessee river, 
 and the Cumberland mountains, which com- 
 mence near the entrance of the Tennessee and 
 Kentucky rivers, into the Ohio, separate their 
 stream through their whole course. 
 
 39. The Blue ridge is a lower and subordi- 
 nate portion of the Apalachian chain, but 
 longer than the Allegany. It lies between the 
 Allegany ridge and the ocean, and forms the 
 first step from the low and alluvial, to the 
 elevated and primitive country. It commences 
 near the same spot with the Allegany ridge, and 
 traverses the Atlantic states in a direction verg- 
 ing more to the east, until it terminates in the 
 high lands of the Hudson river, of which the 
 most remarkable point is the precipitous bluff, 
 on which the strong fortress of West Point is 
 situated. During a part of its course through 
 Pennsylvania, it is called the north mountain, 
 but again assumes the name of the Blue ridge 
 on the north-east; and is known by no other but 
 local designations in its passage through the 
 states of New Jersey and New York. In cross- 
 ing the Hudson river the direction and name of 
 the Blue ridge is lost ; but it is still connected 
 by the Taghonnui and Saddle mountains with 
 the masses of primitive mountains which tra- 
 verse the New-England states. 
 
 40. The various ridges of mountains which 
 form the continuation of the Appalachian chain 
 east of the Hudson river, run more directly 
 from north to south than other portions of the 
 chain ; but they are still connected by lateral 
 spurs and ridges in a series of steps, tending on 
 the whole toward the north-east, in a direction 
 parallel to the coast. They may be i educed to 
 two principal portions, the Green mountain 
 and the White mountain ranges. 
 
 41. The Green Mountain range commences 
 on the northern shore of Long Island Sound, 
 and passes directly north on the eastern side of 
 the Connecticut river, until it unites with the 
 height of land which bounds the basin of the 
 river St. Lawrence. The White Mountain range 
 originates on the same coast, in several ridges 
 connected with the former by lateral spurs, whicn 
 centre in 'the principal group of the White 
 Mountains in the State of New Hampshire 
 Branches proceed with a gradual diminution of 
 height from these to the mountains of Maine, and 
 in several directions towards the highlands, 
 which separate the waters of the United States 
 from those of the St. Lawrence, and which have 
 been recently surveyed, with a view to the final 
 settlement of the boundary between the United 
 States and the British possessions. 
 
 42. The breadth of the Apalachian chain is, ac- 
 cording to computation, from 100 to 150 miles ; 
 its general course, as already observed, is parallel
 
 752 
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 to the coast. It ranks among the longest moun- 
 tain chains ; but is surpassed by most others in 
 height. None of its summits rise to the limit of 
 perpetual frost ; and few attain the elevation 
 which prevents the growth of forests. South of 
 the Hudson River, the average height does not 
 exceed 1000 to 2000 feet. The highest peaks in 
 this part of the chain are, the Table Mountain 
 in South Carolina. Otter Peak in Virginia, and 
 Round Top, in the subordinate chain of the 
 Catskill mountain, which do not exceed 4000 feet 
 in height. Table Mountain has a lofty perpendicu- 
 lar front of granite, 900 feet in height, extending a 
 mile in length : viewed from the valley, it appears 
 like an immense wall rising up to heaven ; and the 
 involuntary awe it inspires is increased by the 
 bones of animals destroyed in falling from the 
 precipice, which are strewed at its base. 
 
 43. The general aspect of these mountains is 
 not of that bold and rugged character which is 
 found in most of the ranges of Europe 1 . The 
 summits are generally rounded, the declivities 
 are not steep, nor are the passes rugged and 
 difficult ; instead of conic peaks and a sharp 
 serrated outline, they present long and level 
 ridges. The sides furnish many fertile spots ; 
 and the ridges are frequently separated by broad 
 and fertile valleys, or flanked by level table 
 lands. Some of the richest districts of Virginia 
 and the Carolinas are situated among the moun- 
 tains ; and in consequence of the elevation, the 
 coolness and salubrity of the northern states are 
 extended into the southern. The most elevated 
 ranges are composed of primitive rocks ; others 
 are of secondary origin. They furnish a variety 
 of valuable building stones, but no extensive 
 mineral treasures. Some of the mountains of 
 New England are composed of trap, and exhibit 
 the perpendicular precipices with a columnar 
 structure which belong to the formation, and are 
 finely exemplified in the Calton Hill at Edin- 
 burgh. But they are generally primitive, and 
 exhibit something of that ruggedness which is 
 peculiar to the older rocks. The loftiest points 
 of the Green Mountains are Mansfield Moun- 
 tain, and Camel's Rump, in Vermont, about 
 4000 feet in height. Saddle Mountain in Mas- 
 sachusetts is a spur of the same chain, and 
 about the same height. It is six miles in length, 
 and forms the highest point in Massachusetts, 
 visible at a great distance from the neighbouring 
 states. 
 
 44. The White Mountains of New Hampshire 
 contain the loftiest summits of the Apalachian 
 chain, and exhibit more of the Alpine character 
 than any others in the western portion of North 
 America. They comprise a long range of proud 
 eminences, of which Mount Washington, the 
 commanding peak, is 6634 feet in height. During 
 nine, ten, and sometimes eleven months in the 
 year, their summits are covered with snow ; and 
 in clear weather they are surrounded or capped 
 with white fleecy clouds. These circumstances 
 have given them their name ; and render them 
 visible at a great distance at sea, when the wea- 
 ther is fine. The base of the mountains is co- 
 vered with forests. At the height of 4000 feet, 
 and above the region of cultivation, it is sur- 
 rounded with a zone of shrubby evergreens, so 
 
 thickly set as almost to furnish a passage over 
 their tops. A succeeding zone extends some 
 distance, which furnishes no vegetation but moss. 
 The upper region is a mass of naked rocks. 
 The various peaks are separated by deep chasm? 
 sometimes winding for a great distance betwee-- 
 perpendicular walls of naked rock. The most 
 remarkable of these is termed the Notch or Gap. 
 It is a deep narrow defile on the western side, 
 extending nearly two miles in length, and be- 
 tween lofty precipices in one part only twenty- 
 two feet wide. The mountain appears as if 
 cloven at its base, with a perpendicular cliff or, 
 one side, and on the other a declivity of forty- 
 five degrees. The scene is rendered peculiarly 
 sublime by the great depth of the chasm, and 
 the striking assemblage of rocky ruins scattered 
 through every part of it. The streams which 
 descend from their summits fall in numerous 
 cascades from their precipices, and various por- 
 tions of the group present the most romantic and 
 sublime mountain scenery. 
 
 45. It will be useful to present at one view, 
 the height of the most elevated mountain peaks 
 in North America, in connection with those of 
 corresponding elevation on the old continent. 
 The number is small whose height has been ac- 
 curately ascertained. 
 
 WESTERN OR CHIPPEWAN CHAIN. 
 
 The loftiest are exceeded only by the Himma- 
 leh Mountains of Asia, and the Andes of South 
 America 
 
 Mount St. Elias 17,875 
 
 Vol. Popocatepetl, or Smoking Moun- 
 tain 17,720 
 
 Vol. Pic de Ouraba, also called Citta- 
 
 petl., or Star Mountain 17,370 
 
 Iztaccihuatl, or White Woman . . . 15,700 
 (Mont Blanc, highest of the Alps, 15,662.) 
 
 Nevada de Toluca 15,165 
 
 Limit of perpetual snow, lat. 20. . . 15,091 
 Mount Fairweather (North-west coast) . 14,992 
 Cofre de Perote, or Nacihcampatepetl . 13,415 
 Long's, or Highest Peak (United States) 12,500 
 James's Peak (United States) . . . 11,500 
 
 Mine of Real del Monte 9,125 
 
 (St. Gothard, a summit of the Alps, 8,930) 
 City of Mexico and surrounding table- 
 land 7,470 
 
 ( Hospital of St. Got hard in t he Alps,6,QQ7.) 
 
 46. EASTERN OR APALACHIAN CHAIN. 
 
 Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 
 
 highest peak of the White Mountain 6,634 
 (Mount Olympus in Turkey, 6,500.) 
 Limit of forest trees on the White Moun- 
 tain 4,428 
 
 Moose hillock (New Hampshire) . . 4,636 
 (Benesevis, highest in Great Britain,4387 .) 
 Mansfield Mountain, Green Mountains, 
 
 Vermont 4,279 
 
 Camel's Rump, Green Mountains, Ver- 
 mont 4,188 
 
 Killington Peak, Green Mountains, Ver- 
 mont 3,924 
 
 Saddleback, highest in Massachusetts . 4,000 
 (Snowdon, highest peak in Wales, 3,571.)
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 AsciUney, detached peak, Vermont . . 3,806 
 (,>f 1'ett, highest peukin England, 3, 166.) 
 'Round Top, CatskilV Mountains, New 
 
 1 Ork o or\4 
 
 High Peak, Catskill Mountains, New 
 
 ^ . Q TOR 
 
 Table Mountain, South Carolina .' .' 4,'ooo 
 Otter Peak, Blue Ridge, Virginia . . 3*950 
 Highlands on the Hudson River, New 
 
 York 1 3g5 
 
 (Rock of Gibraltar, 1,500.) 
 Blue Mountains, Connecticut) . . . 1,000 
 
 47. PHYSICAL DIVISIONS. The great moun- 
 tain chains of North America, and their connecting 
 highlands, divide it into four principal portions, 
 intimately connected with the "water-courses we 
 have described : 1. The eastern, or Atlantic de- 
 clivity of the Apalachian chain, between these 
 mountains and the ocean. 2. The great central 
 basin of the Mississippi, or the southern decli- 
 vity, pouring its waters into the gulf of Mexico. 
 3. The western declivity of the Chippewan 
 mountains, lying between that chain and the 
 Pacific Ocean ; and 4. The northern, or Arctic 
 declivity, lying between the Arctic ocean and 
 the highlands which give rise to the waters which 
 flow into it. The basin of the St. Lawrence, 
 which lies between that of the Mississippi, and 
 the northern declivity, and the table-land 01 
 Mexico on the south also require distinct consi- 
 deration, on account of their peculiar features 
 and individual importance. The two great chains 
 of mountains, as we have already noticed, are 
 chiefly composed of primitive rocks. The pri- 
 mitive ridges of the Apalachian chain spread in 
 its northern part, and form an extensive tract of 
 rugged primitive country, covering the whole of 
 the states east of the Hudson and a part of New 
 York. The coast of the Atlantic is bordered 
 with an alluvial tract which extends westward 
 to the foot of the Apalachian chain, and passes 
 round the whole coast of the gulf of Mexico. 
 The great central basin is entirely secondary. 
 The structure of the northern and western decli- 
 vities is not so well known ; but there is some 
 reason to suppose that the secondary region ex- 
 tends northward from the gulf of Mexico to the 
 Arctic Ocean. 
 
 48. The eastern or Atlantic declivity of North 
 America is occupied exclusively by the maritime 
 portions of the United States, and the small 
 British provinces of Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick. It comprises a primitive region 
 between the Hudson River and the Atlantic, 
 including the eastern, or New England States, 
 and the British provinces; and an alluvial 
 region stretching south of that river to Cape 
 Florida. The Eastern States, which comprise 
 nearly all the extended primitive country of the 
 United States, present the usual irregularity of 
 surface in their formaticn. A small portion only 
 in the states of New Hampshire and Maine ex- 
 hibit the rugged and dreary aspect of the Alpine 
 regions of Europe. Some districts are crossed 
 by ridges of mountains, which give them a bold 
 and picturesque character, without rendering 
 them unproductive, or presenting insurmountable 
 obstacles to cultivation ; as in the state of V er- 
 ir.nnt, and the range of country south of it, con- 
 VOL. I. 
 
 753 
 
 nected with the Green Mountains. The greater 
 part of this region presents a"surfac continually 
 undulating, and agreeably diversified with hill 
 and dale. In approaching the coast it becomes 
 more level, but rarely spreads into a plain of 
 any extent. The country is finely watered by 
 springs and rivulets, which flow from numerous 
 hills, and wind through almost every valley. It 
 abounds also in lakes, which an American writer, 
 who has travelled over most parts of the region) 
 estimates to exceed 1000 in number, or a sur- 
 face of 70,000 square miles ; and, as there are no 
 stagnant waters in so 'ineven a country, they 
 contribute to the salubrity of the air, as well as 
 the fertility of the soil. The largest lakes are 
 St. Winnipisiogee in New' Hampshire, twenty- 
 seven miles long, and ten broad; Lake Umbagop, 
 about the same size; Moose Head Lake in 
 Maine, sixty miles in diameter ; and Memphre- 
 nagog in Vermont, forty miles in length. Most 
 of the lakes and streams are termed small, from 
 their vicinity to others of unusual magnitude; 
 but they are large when compared with those of 
 Great Britain. The borders of the lakes are 
 commonly distinguished by the wilder beauties 
 of scenery, and are free from the aquatic vege- 
 tables which often deform and corrupt the stag- 
 nant waters of alluvial countries. The streams 
 usually have a rapid descent, which renders them 
 valuable fox mechanical purposes, while it ob- 
 structs their navigation. They abound with in- 
 teresting falls and beautiful cascades ; and there 
 are a few cataracts of considerable grandeur, 
 although far inferior to that sublime object which 
 is here the standard for this species of scenery 
 the Falls of Niagara. 
 
 49. The soil of the eastern states is productive, 
 but from the unevenness of the country it is 
 better adapted to pasturage than tillage ; and 
 laborious and skilful husbandry is necessary to 
 render agriculture profitable. The vales of the 
 rivers and streams are usually overflowed once 
 or twice a year ; and the alluvions thus formed 
 and fertilized, which are termed in America in- 
 tervale or bottom-lands, are cultivated year after 
 year with scarcely any manure, and present a 
 luxuriance of vegetation, and a richness of crops, 
 which is no where surpassed in temperate cli- 
 mates. The vale of the Connecticut River, 
 which accompanies it almost through its whole 
 course, is distinguished for the beauty of it> 
 scenery. The banks are frequently bordered 
 with a fringe of trees or shrubs. The intervales, 
 or portions of the vale, divided by highlands or 
 mountains, which touch upon the river, are 
 fields of various extent, from 500 to 5000 acres, 
 rising in terraces as they recede, and presenting 
 every species of vegetation. A large portion is 
 occupied by natural meadows, interspersed with 
 lofty and beautiful forest trees, and occasionally 
 diversified with orchards. Another division is 
 covered with the various crops of the climate, 
 with no visible lines of separation except the 
 diversity of hue. Not a spot of waste or neglects 
 ground is seen. When viewed in connection 
 with the majestic river and its numerous tribi 
 taries, the villages scattered on its banks, ar to 
 gradual change from the rich cultivated valley of 
 the rough declivities and forested summits the 
 
 3 *'
 
 754 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 the hifls and mountains which bound it, nothing 
 seems to be wanting to the completeness and 
 beauty of the landscape. 
 
 It ought to be mentioned, to prevent any con- 
 fusion concerning the geology of this region, that 
 it contains several tracts of secondary formation. 
 A strip of what is usually called transition rocks 
 is found east of Lake Champlain ; another extends 
 from Rhode Island to Boston : and another nar- 
 row strip, from the Delaware to the Yadkin 
 River. A secondary region extends from New- 
 Haven, along the Connecticut River, to Vermont; 
 and another from the Hudson to the Rappahan- 
 nock, which covers the primitive in New Jersey. 
 Richmond has a secondary coal formation. The 
 banks of streams, lakes. &c., of course present 
 many examples of limited alluvions. 
 
 50. The alluvion of the eastern declivity 
 commences on the southern shore of Long 
 Island, and extends between the Atlantic Ocean 
 and the primary ridges of the Apalachian Chain, 
 until it passes round the southern extremity of 
 these mountains, and unites with the basin of 
 the Mississippi on the shores of the Gulf of 
 Mexico. A remarkable granite, or gneiss ridge, 
 forms the boundary between the primitive and 
 alluvial formation, which is believed by some to 
 have been the ancient line of the sea coast. It 
 crosses Long Island Sound at Hurlgate near 
 New York ; the Delaware at Trenton ; the Sus- 
 quehannah at the rapids near its mouth; the 
 Potomac at Georgetown ; the Rephannock at 
 Fredericksburg ; James River at Richmond ; and 
 the Roanoke at Halifax; producing rapids or 
 falls in all these streams, except the Potomac, 
 which obstruct navigation. The boundary con- 
 tinues by Raleigh and Columbia, nearly parallel 
 to the coast, to Augusta on the Savannah River, 
 and thence to Natchez on the Mississippi. 
 
 51 . The shore is low and sandy. Its elevation 
 gradually increases in proceeding south. The 
 tide extends through the alluvion to the foot of 
 the mountains, on all the rivers north of the 
 Roanoke ; but, below this, it does not reach the 
 western boundary. Through the whole region 
 there is very little that deserves the name of rock. 
 The great mass below the soil is composed of 
 sand, gravel, pebbles, shells, clay, and marl ; the 
 last of which sometimes forms extensive beds. 
 
 52. A bed of shells, sometimes cemented into 
 shell-limestone, extends from Eutaw Springs on 
 the Santee River, to the Savannah River, and 
 the Chickasaw Bluffs, on the Mississippi. It is 
 600 miles long ; from 10 to 100 broad; and in 
 some parts 300 feet thick. In other parts, the 
 gravel and sand are converted into a loose, friable 
 sandstone. Remains of vegetables are found at 
 the depth of 100 feet in various places. The 
 character of the alluvion varies according to the 
 nature of the countries lying at the head of its 
 streams. The portion north of the Potomac, 
 including Delaware and a part of Virginia, is also 
 watered by streams which flow from secondary 
 mountains and render the alluvion very fertile. 
 The streams south of the Potomac flow from the 
 primitive portions of the Allegany Ridge, and 
 bring down only sand, or gravel, or the hard ma- 
 terials of primitive rocks, which produce a more 
 
 steril soil in Virginia, North and South Carolina, 
 and a part of Georgia. 
 
 53. In these states, the tracts which are low 
 and moist are soon covered with vegetation from 
 the heat of the climate ; and the accumulation of 
 vegetable soil renders them peculiarly fertile. 
 The same heat renders the dry tracts more sterile ; 
 and there is a greater contrast between the rich 
 and poor soils in this region than in colder cli- 
 mates. 
 
 54. The borders of the streams are often mere 
 swamps, extremely rich and well adapted to the 
 cultivation of rice, but productive of the most 
 noxious effluvia. The more elevated tracts are 
 too sandy and arid to permit the growth of any 
 forest trees except the pine. 
 
 55. The central portion of the continent, ex- 
 tending from the Apalachian mountains on the 
 east, to the Chippewan range on the west; and 
 from the gulf of Mexico on the south, to the 
 sources of the streams which flow into the Arctic- 
 Ocean on the north, is occupied by a vast basin 
 almost uniform in its geological character and 
 general features. It extends through more than 
 twenty degrees of latitude, and thirty of longi 
 tude, covering a surface of 1,300,000 square 
 miles. The northern part is occupied by the 
 great chain of lakes and rivers which form the 
 St. Lawrence ; but nearly all the waters of this 
 immense region are poured into the single stream 
 of the Mississippi, and find their way to the 
 ocean by its outlet, giving just ground for calling 
 it the basin of the Mississippi. By means of 
 this great stream and its branches, one of the 
 largest upon the globe, it enjoys an extent of 
 inland navigation, emanating from a single centre, 
 which is almost peculiar. It is entirely a region 
 of secondary rocks, and therefore a large part of 
 it is characterized by peculiar fertility ; while the 
 extent of latitude it embraces renders it capable 
 of furnishing most of the productions of hot and 
 cold climates. The barriers, which separate it 
 from surrounding countries, seem to designate it 
 as the seat of a great empire, while they forbid 
 the inhabitants to attempt foreign conquests. 
 The vast internal resources, and the easy com- 
 munication through every part, will render it pe- 
 culiarly independent of foreign aid ; and the small 
 extent of sea coast will almost secure it from the 
 dread of a foreign invasion. It is rapidly filling 
 with emigrants from the maritime United States, 
 and has been traversed in several directions by 
 men of intelligence ; but we are still imperfectly 
 acquainted with a large part of it, especially on 
 the north and north-west. 
 
 56. For the sake of greater accuracy we shall 
 describe this extensive tract in three principal 
 divisions. The Delta of the Mississippi, and the 
 neighbouring alluvion of the gulf of Mexico ; the 
 eastern section lying between the Mississippi 
 and the Apalachian chain ; and the western sec- 
 tion, extending from the river to the Chippewan 
 mountains. Before we proceed to the descrip- 
 tion it will be necessary to explain one of the 
 great natural features of this continent, those ex- 
 tensive grassed plains, termed prairies. The 
 eastern section of the continent, from the gulf of 
 Mexico to the 55 north latitude between the At-
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 la.itic, and to lake Erie ; the Ohio and the lower 
 part of the Mississippi was originally, with few 
 exceptions, covered by a dense forest ; it was the 
 largest probably upon the globe, and only a 
 small part of it is yet destroyed. It extends fifty 
 or one hundred miles beyond the lower Missis- 
 sippi, and into a part of the state of Ohio; but 
 here the whole aspect and character of the coun- 
 try is changed : it would seem as if some exten- 
 sive conflagration had not only swept away every 
 vestige of a forest, but had even exterminated its 
 seeds, and destroyed the capacity of the soil to 
 rear trees. The eye traverses extended plains 
 where not a shrub is to be seen, usually waving 
 wah long grass, and presenting not a single ob- 
 ject to interrupt the view or diversify the scene, 
 except the birds and animals which may be feed- 
 ing upon them ; they furnish no marks by which 
 to estimate the distance or size of any thing which 
 may be visible, and thfe inexperienced traveller is 
 often deceived in the most ludicrous manner. 
 A series of these prairies of various extent, con- 
 tinues to the foot of the Chippewan mountains, 
 interrupted occasionally by streams and hills, or 
 studded with mountains, but generally presenting 
 the most striking and dreary uniformity of scene. 
 Many of them are entirely destitute of stones, 
 and scarcely any wood is to be found, except in 
 narrow strips on the borders of the streams. 
 
 57. The district east of the Mississippi which 
 borders immediately on the Delta, embracing 
 the greater part of the state of Mississippi, and 
 Alabama, has a large portion of the most fertile 
 land, and is adapted by its climate to furnish the 
 richest products of agriculture. A part of it 
 consists of river alluvion, but the greater part 
 of the elevated or hilly tracts are termed bluffs. 
 Agreeably to the usual characteristics of hot 
 countries, there is scarcely any soil which holds 
 a middle place between the best and the worst ; 
 the climate rendering those tracts quite sterile 
 which are not sufficiently supplied with moisture. 
 The greater part of this district is hence covered 
 with that light soil which produces forests of 
 dwarfish pines. Still the fertility of the remain- 
 der, and the importance of the staple production, 
 cotton, renders it one of the most valuable tracts 
 in the United States. 
 
 58. In the middle of this part of the basin is a 
 mountainous section, connected with the Cum- 
 berland mountains, already described, embracing 
 the greater part of Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
 the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
 between the Ohio and the Allegany mountains. 
 It abounds in hills, elevated near the Ohio, from 
 400 to 1000 feet above the river, and higher in 
 the neighbourhood of the mountains. It is 
 based upon limestone, which gives great fertility 
 to its soil ; but is so much broken by fissures 
 and caves, that it is liable to extreme drought in 
 the summer by the sinking of the water. It is 
 in some degree rugged ; but enjoys a temperate, 
 healthy climate, and is capable of a high degree 
 of cultivation. 
 
 59. The northern section of this part of the 
 basin, between the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the 
 lakes, embraces the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
 nois and the North Western Territory. It may 
 be divided into three portions; the hilly country, 
 
 755 
 
 the plain country, and the valley country, besid 
 ie peninsular territories of Michigan and Wis- 
 
 i? n j in ' The h ' lly countI 7 occupies about one- 
 third of the surface, extending from the Allegany 
 Kidge, and the hilly country of New York and 
 Pennsylvania, to the ridge running from the 
 mouth of the Wabash to the eastern part of Lake 
 Erie, which divides their waters from the branches 
 of the Ohio. Its surface is uneven, and in many 
 places rugged and broken ; but a large part o'f 
 it is susceptible of cultivation. No high moun- 
 tains are to be seen. The hills usually rise from 
 600 to 800 feet above the common level, which 
 is about 1000 feet above the level of the streams, 
 or the water-table of the country They invaria- 
 bly present rounded summits ; and the soil is 
 generally productive. Numerous fine tracts are 
 interspersed among the hills, and the valleys of 
 the streams are extremely fertile. The banks of 
 the streams are usually abrupt and precipitous, 
 and the channels deep. 
 
 60. The plain, or undulating country, extends 
 from the hilly region to Lakes Erie and Michi- 
 gan, and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. On 
 entering this section, the land gradually changes 
 from a rough, to an undulating surface ; not en- 
 tirely destitute of hills, but rising into broad and 
 gentle swells in some parts ; and subsiding into 
 extensive plains in others. Three-fourths of this 
 region is occupied by prairies or savannahs, re- 
 markable for the richness of their soil, yielding a 
 spontaneous and luxuriant growth of herbage ; 
 but only skirted with trees. It is so nearly level 
 that the streams flow sluggishly; the water of 
 rains stagnates on the surface, and the exhala- 
 tions render the air moist and unhealthy. Ex- 
 tensive tracts are well adapted for settlement; 
 but many parts of the country must remain unin- 
 habited for many years, on account of the scarcity 
 of timber, and the deficiency of mill-seats and 
 springs. 
 
 61. The valley country embraces the alluvial 
 tracts in the river-vales of the preceding divi- 
 sions, usually called bottoms. They are com- 
 posed of alternate layers of sand and soil, depo- 
 sited by the streams ; and vary in fertility, 
 according to the nature of the formation from 
 which the streams originated. In the vale of 
 the Ohio, the quality of the soil appears to im- 
 prove from its source downward. The climate 
 of the valley country is, almost without exception, 
 unhealthy; but cultivation will gradually di- 
 minish, and perhaps remove, the causes of disease, 
 by clearing the land of putrefying vegetation. 
 The most extensive tract of valley country east 
 of the Mississippi, is the American Bottom, ex- 
 tending about 81 miles on the Mississippi, 
 from the Kaskaskias, to the Missouri. Its aver- 
 age breadth is four miles ; and it is considerably 
 elevated above the present level of freshets. It 
 is generally very rich ; and is destitute of timber, 
 except on the margin of the river. Other bot- 
 toms of great extent are found below the junction 
 of the Missouri. The Ohio bottoms are uni- 
 formly covered with deep forests, and have n 
 prairies of importance. The valley of the St 
 Lawrence seems, from its geological charactet 
 and general aspect, to be only a branch or por- 
 tion of the basin of the Mississippi, and may at 
 
 3 C 2
 
 756 
 
 A M E R I C A. 
 
 least be advantageously considered in connection 
 with it. 
 
 62. The general characteristics of the peninsular 
 territories of Michigan and Wisconsin, are si- 
 milar to those which have been described. The 
 land appears to be more elevated and less abund- 
 ant in streams. The Wisconsin, or north-west 
 territory, is crossed by a wide range of hilly or 
 broken country, commencing on the Wisconsin 
 river and extending to Lake Superior ; and 
 called by Major Long the Wisconsin Hills. In 
 geological character and metallic production 
 they appear to resemble the Ozark mountains, 
 which will soon be described, and probably be- 
 long to the same formation. The remainder of 
 this basin is a narrow tract, lying on the lakes 
 and the St. Lawrence ; bounded on both sides 
 by ranges of highlands which separate its waters 
 from those of the surrounding declivities. It re- 
 sembles the vale of the Mississippi to a consi- 
 derable extent, in its geology and soil, from 
 Lake St. Clair to Montreal. The northern parts 
 
 . of the state of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and New 
 York, and the north-eastern part of Pennsylvania, 
 which belong to this basin, are generally level, 
 and equal any part of the United States of the 
 same extent in fertility. 
 
 63. The western section of the great central 
 basin, lying between the Mississippi and the 
 Chippewan mountains, form the greater part of 
 the territory formerly purchased by the United 
 States, under the name of Louisiana, comprising 
 the state of Missouri, and the territories of Ar- 
 kansaw and Missouri. The southern portion is 
 traversed by a range of mountainous country, 
 recently surveyed, which are called the Ozark 
 Mountains, and the northern is divided by the 
 Missouri. 
 
 64. The country lying between the Mississippi 
 and the Missouri, above their junction, contains 
 no mountains of any magnitude. It is not des- 
 titute of abrupt hills and precipices ; but is 
 characterised by a rolling, undulating surface, 
 variegated by broad river vales, and tracts of 
 upland. It is generally destitute of forests, and 
 only chequered with stripes of woodland on the 
 borders of the streams. The bottoms on the 
 Mississippi and Missouri are very rich, and ge- 
 nerally covered with timber ; but prairies become 
 more numerous on going upward from their 
 unction. The soil of this region is probably 
 equal, if not superior, to that of any other tract 
 of upland in the United States ; but the scarcity 
 of timber, mill-seats, and springs, must for a 
 long time impede its settlement. 
 
 65. The tract extending south of the Missouri, ' 
 to the Red River, between the Mississippi and 
 longitude 96 west, has a surface much diversi- 
 fied. An extensive bottom lies on the Missis- 
 sippi, extending from the Ohio to the Red River, 
 which contains large swamps of cyprus trees, 
 almost impenetrable from the undergrowth of 
 shrubs. The Great Swamp, the most consider- 
 able, commences near the head of this tract, and 
 stretches about 200 miles in length, and from 
 five to thirty in width. The lowlands lying im- 
 mediately on the Mississippi, are bounded by a 
 chain of heights, corresponding in some degree 
 to the bluffs on the river, which form the com- 
 
 mencement of a tract of broken and hilly country, 
 extending from 300 to 400 miles west. The 
 vales on the Missouri and Arkansaw, and 
 their branches resemble the country north of the 
 Missouri, in the prevalence of prairies and the 
 undulations of its surt'ace. W r ith these exceptions, 
 the whole tract is very rough, presenting nume- 
 rous peaks and cliffs of considerable height. The 
 central portion forming a mountainous district, 
 and resembling many portions of the Apalachian 
 chain in appearance, has received the name of 
 the Ozark Mountains, from the late expedition, 
 
 66. The Ozark Mountains extend from the 
 Spanish province of Texas, across the Red and 
 Arkansaw rivers, in a north-easterly direction 
 towards the confluence of the Mississippi and 
 Missouri ; and thence are continued on a low 
 range of hills to the Wisconsin Hills, and Lake 
 Superior. The lead and copper with which they 
 abound, is found throughout the whole distance; 
 and the continuance of the same peculiar geo- 
 logical character indicates that both are parts o* 
 a single district formation. The range consists 
 of low ridges, irregularly placed, interspersed 
 with detached hills, and rarely rising more than 
 1500 or 2000 feet in height. The general course 
 is the same with that of the Apalachian chain. 
 Like them they have a basis of primitive, covered, 
 and often crowned, with secondary rocks, usually 
 forming rounded summits, and sometimes pre- 
 senting perpendicular cliifs and abrupt preci- 
 pices. They are covered with pines and dwarf- 
 ish trees of other kinds, and have a dreary 
 aspect compared with the surrounding country. 
 The whole breadth of the range is from 100 to 
 1 50 miles. They give rise to a number of con- 
 siderable streams, which flow into the Missis- 
 sippi, Missouri, and Arkansaw. They may be 
 considered as extending on the west, to a line 
 drawn from the confluence of the Canadian, with 
 the Arkansaw river on the south-west, to the 
 north of the Wisconsin river on the north- 
 east. 
 
 67. From the base of the Ozark mountains, 
 just described, an immense sterile desolate pain 
 extends for twelve degrees of longitude, to the 
 foot of the Chippewan range ; which, from its 
 being the first example of this kind found upon 
 the continent, has been called the Great Ameri- 
 can Desert. The hilly country gradually sub- 
 sides to a level but undulating surface, with 
 nothing to limit or variegate the prospect but 
 here and there an insulated hill or tract of 
 table-land. The latter sometimes rise 600 or 
 800 feet above the common level, surrounded in 
 many instances by rugged precipices, and add to 
 the singular appearance of the region ; their 
 surface is usually waving, often nearly bare, but 
 sometimes covered with stunted trees. The soil 
 consists of fine granite sand, intermixed with 
 the remains of organized beings, and sometimes 
 not furnishing a rock or stone for hundreds 3 
 miles. It is almost entirely destitute of timber j 
 a scanty growth of grass is the only covering, 
 and large tracts are often met with wh'ch exhi- 
 bit scarcely a trace of vegetation 
 
 68. The streams are broad and shallow; and, 
 running through a bed of sand, are liable to be- 
 come dry in the bot season. The valleys of the
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 757 
 
 r.vers and creeks are usually sunk 150 or 200 
 ieet below the common level of the country ; 
 rney are bounded in some places by perpendi- 
 cular precipices ; and in others by bluffs or 
 banks of gentle slope. Many of them are rich, 
 especially near the mouths of the rivers; but 
 towards the sources become sterile; and the salts 
 and magnesia mingled with the soil are often so 
 abundant as to destroy vegetation entirely. The 
 waters are to a great extent impure, and fre- 
 quently too brackish for use. The valley of the 
 Canadian river is incrusted to a great extent 
 with salt nearly pure, resembling ice or snow in 
 its appearance. The waters of the river are so 
 impregnated with salt as to be unfit for use ; 
 and this is the case with other tributaries of the 
 Arkansaw and the Red River. These streams 
 are also tinged with a deep red, from the soil 
 over which they grow. On approaching within 
 100 miles of the Chippewan mountains, their 
 snow-capped summits become visible. Here 
 the hills become more frequent, elevated rocks 
 more abundant, and the soil more sterile ; until 
 we reach the abrupt chain of peaks which divides 
 it from the western declivity of North America. 
 Not a thousandth part can be said to have any 
 timber growth, and the surface is generally quite 
 naked. 
 
 69. The region we have been describing ap- 
 proaches more nearly to the steppes of Tartary 
 than any portion of North America. Scorched 
 in summer by the reverberation of the rays of 
 the sun, and chilled in winter by the freezing 
 winds which blow over it without interruption, 
 it presents no shelter or attractions to civi- 
 lized man, and is occupied entirely by herds of 
 bisons and wild horses, and a few roving bands 
 of Indians, who subsist upon the game it sup- 
 ports. In regard to this extensive ' section of 
 country,' says Major Long, ' we do not hesitate 
 in giving the opinion that it is almost wholly 
 unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable 
 by a people dependent upon agriculture for their 
 subsistence. Although tracts of fertile land, 
 considerably extensive, are occasionally to be 
 met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, 
 almost uniformly prevalent, will prove an insu- 
 perable obstacle in the way of settling the 
 country. Agreeably to the best intelligence 
 which can be had, the vast region commencing 
 near the sources of the Sabine Trinity, Brasis 
 and Colorado, and extending northwardly to the 
 forty-ninth degree of north latitude, by which 
 the United States territory is limited in that di- 
 rection, is throughout of a similar character. 
 This region however, viewed as a frontier, may 
 prove of infinite importance to the United States, 
 inasmuch as it is calculated to serve as a barrier 
 to prevent too great an extension of our popula- 
 tion westward, and to secure us against t 
 machinations or incursions of any enemy that 
 might otherwise attack us from that quarter. 
 
 70. The waters of the vast basins we have 
 been describing, are all discharged into the gult 
 of Mexico, through a tract of 700 miles m 
 extent, consisting of alluvions formed by thei 
 deposits; and which, from the importance of th 
 principal stream, may be designated t 
 of the Mississippi. This singular Delta, with 
 
 its adjoining alluvion, contains perhaps as great 
 diversity and extremes of soil as any portion of 
 the globe of equal extent, from the most sterile 
 to the most productive. The Gulf is bordered 
 by an extensive marsh or swamp, which forbids 
 all settlements immediately upon the shore. It 
 extends to the distance of twenty or thirty miles 
 is destitute of trees, and covered with a coarse 
 species of reed, four or five feet high, presenting 
 the most dreary prospect to the ships which pass 
 through it on their way to the ports upon the 
 rivers ; and forming not merely a barrier to im- 
 provement, but a source of pestilence. The 
 south-western portion of the state is occupied by 
 extensive prairies, bordering upon the sea-marsh, 
 admirably adapted to the rearing of cattle. 
 Thousands are fed here continually, and the 
 district is almost exclusively inhabited by the 
 herdsmen. Beyond the prairies, with the ex- 
 ception of the river alluvions, the greater part of 
 the country is occupied by pine forests,which in- 
 dicate a soil difficult of cultivation, and only likely 
 to be occupied when there shall be an overflow 
 of population. In some parts east of the Mis- 
 sissippi they descend to the water's edge. The 
 remainder of the region is occupied by river 
 alluvions, which, from the structure of the coun- 
 try, are divided into two portions, river-borders 
 and the interior plains. In their annual inunda- 
 tions, the streams deposit their coarser and heavier 
 portion of the alluvion immediately upon the 
 banks, and have produced a loose but fertile 
 soil, elevated above the level of the surrounding 
 country, and ultimately above the common floods. 
 In passing into the interior only the finer and 
 argillaceous particles are left, forming a hard 
 and stiff surface, which is annually overflowed, 
 and continues covered with water after the river 
 has subsided ; and when laid dry is almost as solid 
 as stone, and ill adapted for cultivation. These 
 interior tracts, usually but erroneously called 
 swamps, are equally unfit for habitation or cul- 
 tivation ; and the only lands which can strictly 
 be called arable in this region are the alluvial 
 river borders. Their extent is comparatively 
 small ; and in this respect the Delta of the 
 Mississippi is essentially different from the con- 
 tinuous region of fertility at the mouth of the 
 Nile. But the richness of their soil in the luxu- 
 riance of their natural products, and the value 
 of their crops, seem to be a sufficient balance 
 for their united extent, and place this region 
 among the most productive of North America. 
 It is constantly extending into the Gulf ot 
 Mexico, from the alluvion brought down by th 
 ordinary current and annual floods ; and il 
 portance must be greatly enhanced, as^opulation 
 increases in the great basin, of whose prod 
 must be the chief market, and whose wants 
 must in a great measure supply. 
 
 71 The northern or arctic declivity of North 
 America has been examined by few travellers, 
 and our knowledge of it is very imperfect. W 
 are ignorant, particularly, of the nature of t 
 boundary on the south. Many have supposed 
 that a range of mountains divide the wat 
 the Mississippi from those of the northern 
 streams; but the best information leads us ra 
 ther to rely on the old statement, derived from
 
 758 
 
 A M ERIC A. 
 
 the natives, that four of the largest rivers of the 
 continent, the Mississippi, St. Lawrence, Sas- 
 catchawine, and Columbia, have their sources in 
 the same plain. According to the statements of 
 Col. Dixoh, and others who have traversed the 
 country between the Missouri and the Arsmibon 
 River of Hudson's Bay, no elevated ridge is to 
 be seen ; but, on the contrary, tributaries to 
 both these streams rise in the same champaign 
 country. The general appearance of the country 
 near the sources, and of these great streams, and 
 north of the great lakes, favours this idea. The 
 water-courses are generally chains of lakes ; and 
 stagnant pools and lakes are scattered in every 
 direction, without any indications of the declivity 
 produced by a chain of mountains, and afford 
 strong evidence that it is an extensive plain, 
 little inclined on any direction. Hence, it has 
 been inferred, that it is merely a portion of 
 an immense region of flat country, embracing 
 the central basin, and extending northwardly from 
 the Gulf of Mexico, between the two great 
 ranges of mountains, and spreading, as they 
 diverge, to the Atlantic, on the east, and the 
 Arctic Ocean on the north. The same geologi- 
 cal formation may be traced from the St. Law- 
 rence to the sources of the northern streams. 
 The extensive division north of these great lakes, 
 as far as it has been examined, has a dreary 
 level surface a sterile, and generally arid soil ; 
 and an inhospitable climate, which gives it a 
 striking resemblance to the frozen wastes of 
 Siberia. Its only products of value are the fur- 
 red animals ; and the few Indians that wander 
 over it obtain but a scanty and precarious sup- 
 port. 
 
 72. The western declivity of North America 
 is among the least-explored portions. A few tra- 
 vellers have crossed it in the Spanish territory two 
 centuries ago ; and a single expedition, under 
 the command of Lewis and Clarke, examined 
 the Missouri, and the country between its source 
 and the mouth of the Columbia River; and a 
 few hunters and fur-traders have occasionally 
 travelled over the northern portion. 
 
 73. We have reason to believe that the south- 
 ern part of the declivity, above thirty degrees of 
 latitude, contains an arid sterile region of the 
 same character with that on the eastern side of 
 the mountains ; but we have no means of esti- 
 mating its extent. The Mexican provinces 
 below this latitude are productive countries, well 
 adapted for cultivation, but very thinly, settled, 
 and imperfectly described. The peninsula of 
 California is a sterile tract, traversed by a chain 
 of mountains, and presenting only an arid sandy 
 soil at their base; but the province of New Cali- 
 fornia, extending north of this to the territory of 
 the United States, is a well-watered, fertile, and 
 picturesque country ; but, like other portions of 
 the western declivity, has never been fully de- 
 scribed. The basin of the Columbia River, 
 which lies north of the Spanish territory, is also 
 a well-watered and productive tract. On de- 
 scending the mountains towards this river we 
 enter on a high level plain of fifty miles in 
 breadth, which is rather sterile. In advancing, 
 the soil gradually becomes more fertile, and a 
 productive country, most of which is level, 
 
 extends from 400 to 500 miles to the mountains 
 nearest the coast. It is generally distitute of 
 woods ; but there are broad stripes of forests on 
 the banks of the streams which furnish an ample 
 supply. The same valley, or level tract, seems 
 to extend northward, and was observed by 
 Mackenzie to be 200 miles in width, in latitude 
 53. This region contains a large number of 
 Indian tribes, and is capable of supporting a 
 considerable population. 
 
 74. Between the central basin, and the west- 
 ern declivity of the continent, lies the table-land 
 of Mexico, one of the most extraordinary eleva- 
 tions on the globe. In Europe, Switzerland, 
 and some of the neighbouring regions, and the 
 interior of Spain, are considered very elevated 
 countries. But this opinion is founded merely 
 on the aspect of groups of summits, and collec- 
 tions of parallel chains of mountains. None of 
 the plains on which they rest, or by which they 
 are separated, of any extent, are more than from 
 1500 to 2500 feet in elevation. The Desert of 
 Cobe is stated to be 5500 feet in height. But 
 the whole interior of Mexico, extending from 
 1 8 to 40 degrees of north latitude, or more than 
 1500 miles in length, forms an immense plain,ele- 
 vated from 6000 to 9000 feet above the sea. It 
 appears to decline towards the north, but so 
 gradually, that from the city of Mexico to Du- 
 rango, a distance of 140 leagues, the surface 
 maintains an elevation equal to that of Mount 
 Cenis and St. Gothard. Beyond this place,, 
 which is 6500 feet above the ocean, the height 
 is not ascertained ; but the continuation of the 
 same highlands, forming the base of the Chippe- 
 wan mountains, in the United States, presents a 
 surface about 3000 feet above the level of the 
 sea. The surface is so uniform that carriages 
 travel with great ease as far north as Santa Fe. 
 
 75. This singular table-land presents a succes- 
 sion of extended plains, separated by hills 
 which present scarcely any obstacles to be sur- 
 mounted by art in the construction of a road. 
 The ease of communication and transportation, 
 combined with the fertility of the soil, and the 
 richness of the mines, confer on this extensive 
 region advantages which are almost singular ; 
 but, in common with, other e'evated tracts, it 
 suffers for want of water and navigable streams. 
 The quantity of raki is small, and there are few 
 mountain summits which reach the line of per- 
 petual snow, and thus furnish a reservoir for 
 supplies of moisture. The narrowness of the 
 continent in this part prevents the collection of 
 a great mass of water. The lakes which abound 
 seem to be merely the remains of extensive 
 basins of water which formerly existed, and 
 these appear to be annually diminishing. 
 Springs are not frequent; and streams are seldom 
 found, except on the declivity, or at the foot of 
 the table land. This aridity has been increased 
 since the arrival of Europeans ; by the destruc 
 tion of trees, and the draining of moist lands. 
 Hence, many of the most elevated portions are 
 covered with saline incrustations, and bear a 
 great resemblance to the steppes of Asia. The 
 declivities are exposed to humid winds, and 
 frequent fogs, which 'produce vegetation of an 
 uncommon beauty and strength; and a greal
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 759 
 
 part of the region is very productive in ordinary 
 years ; and from the peculiarity of its climatf 
 furnishes the most valuable plants of different 
 zones. 
 
 76. RIVERS AND LAKES. In describing the 
 rivers and lakes of North America, the first place 
 is due to that noble stream which was called by 
 the Indians the Mississippi, or mother of waters. 
 It is the great outlet for the waters of central 
 North America, and the longest river in the 
 world, except the Amazon. Its origin must be 
 traced to the source of the Missouri, which is 
 the largest of the two branches composing it, 
 and which gives its character to the stream. 
 The Missouri rises in the Chippewan mountains, 
 by three branches Jefferson, Maddison, and 
 Callation rivers, between forty-two and forty- 
 eight degrees north latitude. Its course is very 
 circuitous, first bending in a curve to the north, 
 then descending nearly south, and turning sud- 
 denly to the south-east, before its junction with 
 the upper Mississippi. At the distance of 400 
 miles from the thread of navigation, it rushes 
 through the pass which is called the gates of the 
 rocky mountain, presenting a scene of uncom- 
 mon grandeur. It is confined to a channel 450 
 feet broad, and runs nearly six miles between 
 precipitous rocks, 1200 feet in height, which 
 often overhang the stream with the most threat- 
 ening aspect. After a course of more than 3000 
 miles, in which it drains a tract of 400,000 
 square miles, it is about half a mile broad, and 
 very deep, running with a rapid and turbid cur- 
 rent. 
 
 77. Here it is joined by the upper Mississippi, 
 which is a broad stream, only 1300 miles in 
 length, with clear but shallow waters. The 
 supply it furnishes to the main stream is small 
 compared with that brought in by the Missouri ; 
 and it does not drain more than one-third of the 
 extent of country. The united streams of the 
 Missburi and Mississippi, or the lower Missis- 
 sippi, receives most of its waters from the 
 Missouri, and with them its turbid appearance 
 and rapid current. After a course of 1400 miles 
 they are discharged into the gulf of Mexico, be- 
 low New Orleans, making the whole length of 
 the stream from the source of the Missouri, 4500 
 miles. There are six outlets to the Mississippi, 
 two of which have twelve feet of water on their 
 bars in ordinary seasons. The north-eastern 
 passage is principally used. Below the mouth 
 of the Red river % the stream is generally about 
 3000 feet in width, and twenty feet deep, flow- 
 ing three miles an hour. The waters are dis- 
 tinguished from those of the gulf of Mexico, for 
 some distance from the mouth. The quantity 
 discharged is estimated at 230 millions of gal- 
 lons per minute twice the quantity discharged 
 by the St. Lawrence, and seven times that whi< 
 flows from the Ganges. 
 
 78 This great river forms the chief outlets fo 
 the waters of the interior of the continent, and 
 contains a surface of 1,300,000 square miles, 01 
 two-thirds of the United States' territory, equal 
 in extent to the Russian empire in Europe. 
 
 79 Of its numerous branches, the Arkansaw 
 ranks with the first rivers of the eastern conti- 
 nent, and the Red river and La Platte exceed 
 
 any in Europe, except the Volga. The Ten- 
 nessee, the Ohio, the Kansas, and the Yellow- 
 stone, hold the fourth rank among the rivers of 
 the world, and many other branches rival some 
 of the most celebrated in Europe. The banks 
 of the Mississippi, in the lower part of its course, 
 are annually overflowed from the effect of the 
 rains and the melting of the snows, and large 
 tracts of the country are covered with water. 
 
 80. Next to the Mississippi itself, the Arkan- 
 saw is the most important river of the central 
 basin. Assuming the Missouri as the principal 
 stream, the Arkansaw is its chief branch, ranking 
 even before the upper Mississippi. The sources 
 are not well ascertained, but are probably near 
 the line of 420. It winds through eight degrees 
 of latitude, and twenty of longitude, a distance 
 of 2000 miles, before it reaches the Mississippi, 
 Its channel, from longitude 100. W. of London, 
 is the boundary between the United States and 
 the Spanish possessions. This river is more im- 
 peded by falls and cataracts than most others iji 
 the basin. In the last 600 miles of its course, U 
 flows in a deep and rapid channel 600 yards 
 wide. The Canadian is a very large branch of 
 the Arkansaw, nearly 1000 miles in length, 
 which from its red colour has been hitherto sup- 
 posed to be a branch of the Red river. It is re- 
 markable that a large part of its channel is per- 
 fectly dry during the summer season, in conse- 
 quence of the aridity of its basin. Red river is 
 next in magnitude and length to the Arkansaw 
 It rises in the mountain prairies of New Mexico, 
 about ten degrees south of the source of the 
 Arkansaw, and not far to the east of Santa Fe. 
 It pursues a winding course of 1500 miles, and 
 enters the Mississippi near its mouth, dividing 
 the branches of the Mississippi from the streams 
 which flow into the gulf of Mexico. In its pro- 
 gress it receives a number of branches. In the 
 lower part of its course it presents a striking pe- 
 culiarity by which it is distinguished from most 
 other streams. For a distance of 100 miles it is 
 skirted by a series of lakes from five to thirty 
 miles long, and a quarter to three quarters of a 
 mile wide, which serves as a kind of reservoir to 
 regulate the height of the water. When the 
 stream is highest, they receive the surplus water, 
 and when it is again depressed, they discharge 
 it slowly, to prevent the destructive effects of an 
 excessive flood. In some parts it is also divided 
 into several channels, each confined within high 
 and steep banks. Its navigation is also ob- 
 structed by an extensive and singular collection 
 of trees and brush, called the great raft, which 
 covers its waters, and is considered impassable 
 by boats. This river takes its name from the 
 colour of its water, which in times of flood is c 
 a bright red, and partakes more or less of t 
 colour through the year. It is doubtless derived 
 from the red argillaceous sandstone of the Chip- 
 pewan mountains, and the neighbouring region. 
 The White, St. Francis, and several other con 
 siderable streams, empty into the Mississippi on 
 the west, below the mouth of the Missoun ; bu 
 none claiming particular notice in connexion 
 wim these great streams. Above the Missouri 
 the principal branch on the west is St Peters 
 river: but following the Missouri as the mam
 
 760 
 
 A M E R I C A. 
 
 stream above the junction, we find a great num- 
 ber of considerable branches, of which the Platte 
 and Yellowstone are the largest. 
 
 81. The Platte, as its name imports, is almost 
 uniformly a broad and shallow stream, fordable 
 almost every where except when swollen by 
 freshets. The banks are low, and yet, from 
 the breadth of the channel, and the rapidity of the 
 current, are seldom overflowed. Its valley is a 
 wide plain, terminated by gravelly hills. The 
 whole length of its course is 750 miles ; and the 
 influx of its waters gives a new character to the 
 Missouri, which is more rapid and turbid, and 
 more difficult of navigation, below its mouth. 
 The principal remaining branch of the Missouri, 
 is the Yellowstone, which joins it 680 miles 
 below its source. Its own course is about the 
 same ; and the volume of water appears to be as 
 great as that of the Missouri. It is 800 yards 
 wide at its outlet, and materially increases the 
 size of the main stream below. 
 
 82. On the eastern banks, a little above the 
 mouth of the Missouri, the Mississippi re- 
 ceives the Illinois, a stream 400 yards wide at 
 its mouth, and 400 miles in length. It rises by 
 two branches so near tne waters of lake Michi- 
 gan, that it forms one of the proposed channels 
 of commmnication to the lakes which will be 
 described hereafter. It flows in a gentle current 
 unbroken by rapids, and is bordered by a fertile 
 country. But the great eastern branch of the 
 Mississippi, and indeed one of the most interest- 
 ing rivers of the basin, is the Ohio. It rises in 
 the Allegany ridge, in the western parts of Penn- 
 sylvania and New York, by two branches, the 
 Allegany and Monongahela. They unite at 
 Pittsburg ; and after an entire course of more than 
 1000 miles, empty into the Mississippi 160 miles 
 below the mouth of the Missouri. It descends 
 with a rapid but smooth and transparent current, 
 which is not broken by any considerable falls, 
 except at Louisville. It varies in breadth from 
 400 to 1400 yards. At Cincinnati it is about 
 800 yards, which may be regarded as the mean 
 breadth. The floods of this stream rise from 
 thirty to sixty feet above the level of low water. 
 It has sufficient depth at these periods to float a 
 vessel of 300 tons to Cincinnati. This stream 
 has been admired from the period of its dis- 
 covery, for its beautiful scenery, especially in the 
 first 200 or 300 miles of its course. The gradual 
 slope and luxuriant fertility of its banks, the 
 gentle swells, and deep forests, which are inter- 
 spersed with cultivated grounds, and rising vili 
 lages and cities, combine to form a landscape 
 perpetually varying and eminently beautiful. 
 
 83. The Ohio receives several considerable 
 branches in its progress. The largest on the 
 north is the Wabash, 500 miles in length ; but 
 the'principal are the Cumberland and Tennessee, 
 on the south, both of which rise in the Allegany 
 mountains ; and, pursuing a circuitous course, 
 enter the Ohio about thirty miles from its mouth. 
 They are both fine streams : the Cumberland 
 about 600, and the Tennessee more than 10UO 
 miles in length. The basin of the Ohio is nearly 
 as large as that of the upper Mississippi, and far 
 more interesting and . valuable. It is probable 
 that 110 portion of the Up^ed States contains so 
 
 large a proportion of fertile land so well adapted 
 for settlement. 
 
 84. The remaining rivers of North America 
 are found almost entirely in the United States ; 
 a few emptying into the gulf of Mexico, but 
 most of them descending from the Apalachian 
 chain into the Atlantic Ocean. Of the former, 
 Pearl and Pascagoula are not more than 200 
 miles in length, and present no features of in- 
 terest. The Mobile is rather the estuary of two 
 considerable streams, the Tombigbee and Ala- 
 bama, rising in the mountainous region, border- 
 ing on Tennessee, which forms a- branch or root 
 of the Apalachian chain. The Apalachicola is 
 a stream of some magnitude. In the peninsula 
 of Florida, the only river of magnitude is the 
 St. Johns ; which runs from south to north, nearly 
 parallel to the eastern coast, and sometimes only 
 100 miles from it. It rises in a swamp or lake, 
 called Lake Mayar, and expanding in its course 
 into several lakes, of which Lake George is the 
 principal, empties into the Atlantic, above St. 
 Augustine, at the distance of 300 miles from 
 its source. The St. Marys, which empties a. 
 little above this, is a small stream, only remark- 
 able as the boundary between the State of Georgia 
 and Florida. 
 
 85. The Altamaha is the first river of magni- 
 tude which belongs to the Apalachian chain on 
 the Atlantic coast. It is formed by two great 
 branches, the Oconee and Oakmulgee, and 
 empties into the Atlantic by several mouths, 
 after an entire course of 500 miles. The Sa- 
 vannah is a smaller stream, whose month forms 
 the principal port in this part of the coast. 
 However in the eastern boundary of Georgia, 
 in North and South Carolina, the chief river? 
 are the Pedee and Santee, which are about the 
 size of the Savannah, or 450 miles in length, 
 and the Cape Fear River which is only 350. 
 Their branches are numerous, and extend over 
 a large part of these states, but present rp fea- 
 ture of particular interest. After passing the 
 Cape Fear River, there are no streams of mag- 
 nitude until we reach the Chesapeake Bay. 
 The James is a noble stream, the principal river 
 and channel of commerce in Virginia. It rises 
 in the interior among the mountains ; receives 
 the tide at the distance of 100 miles from its 
 mouth, and empties into the southern extremity 
 of Chesapeake Bay, by a broad estuary, called 
 Hampton Roads, after an entire course of more 
 than 500 miles. The Potomac is the last con- 
 siderable stream of the Alluvial regions, rising 
 in the Allegany Ridge, and pursuing a winding 
 course of 500 miles, enters the Chesapeake at 
 the middle point of its length. It is the boun- 
 dary between the states of Virginia and Mary- 
 land, through its whole course. At the head of 
 tide waters, 300 miles from its mouth, is the city 
 of Washington, the seat of government of the 
 United States, which is accessible to ships of the 
 largest size. The course of all the streams of 
 the Atlantic alluvion, which have been described, 
 is nearly south-east. The remaining streams of 
 importance run from north to south. The finest 
 in order is the Susquehannah, which empties into 
 the head of the Chesapeake Bay ; and indeed may 
 almost be considered as forming this great estuary.
 
 NORTH A M E R I C A. 761 
 
 it is a large and beautiful stream, rising by falls ; its banks are populous, and thickly set 
 
 jeveral branches in the state of New York, and with towns and villages, and connected E 
 
 pursuing a rapid uninterrupted course through a numerous bridges. We find only a few small 
 
 fertile country extending the whole breadth of streams, such 2 the Charles, Taunton, 8cc. eas 
 
 Pennsylvania. Its length is about four hundred of the Connecticut, until we reach the coast of 
 
 ? & m n S i New Ham P shir e and Maine. This rugged 
 
 86. Ihe Delaware is a more tranquil silent country has a number of fine streams of consider- 
 stream, of about 300 miles in length, and rising able length, but flowing chiefly through a wil 
 not far from the sources of the Susquehannah, derness, and only imperfectly described. The 
 it empties by the fine estuary called Delaware Merrimach belongs to this region, although it 
 Bay, exclusively supplied by its waters. The empties in the state of Massachusetts. Its course 
 Delaware forms the boundary between the States does not exceed 200 miles ; and it is chiefly re- 
 of Pennsylvania and New Jersey through its markable as having its navigation more improved 
 whole course. Its banks are rich and populous; by art than any other river in North America; 
 and at the head of ship navigation is Philadel- and, indeed, as being the first example of this' 
 phia, one of the two largest cities of the United kind upon the continent. The Piscataqua is a 
 States. The Hudson, which is the next in order, small stream only forty miles in length. The 
 is inferior to the Delaware and Susquehannah Kennebeck is much larger, and more important 
 in length, but more important. It is a broad The Penobscot is the largest stream of Maine 
 deep stream, in which the tide flows 160 miles, exceeding 250 miles in length; and the St. 
 and seems rather like an arm of the sea than a Croix, or Scoodre River, expands to a con- 
 river. The streams south of this have usually siderable breadth near its mouth, but is chiefly 
 low and level banks, with none but the softer interesting as the north-eastern boundary of the 
 beauties of scenery. The Hudson pursues its United States. The St. John's River is the most 
 course for some distance among the precipitous important stream of this region, rising in the 
 cliffs and lot'ty peaks of the Highlands, and along northern part of Maine, and flowing first to the 
 the Catskill mountains, presenting on this part north-east and east in this state, and then bend- 
 some of the most magnificent and sublime see- ing to the south, discharges itself in New Brims- 
 nery ; and in other parts, winding through a wick into the Bay of Fundy, after a course of not 
 rich and level country, which is uniformly more less than 400 miles, and forming the largest and 
 elevated than the banks of the more southern one of the most navigable streams of the northern 
 streams. The Hudson rises in the mountainous section of the coast. The tide flows up eighty 
 region between Lake Ontario and Lake Champ- miles. The highlands at the head of this stream 
 lain ; and, running nearly south into the noble are a kind of centre of waters, resembling, in 
 estuary and harbour of New York, is discharged miniature, those at the head of the Mississippi 
 into the Atlantic. Throughout its whole course Giving rise on the south-east to this river and 
 the banks are lined with large villages and towns, the Penobscot, they send off, within twenty miles,, 
 and the city of New York, at its mouth, is not the Chaudesere branch of the St. Lawrence tc 
 only the most populous in the United States, thenorthjandatnogreatdistance the Connecticut 
 but is rendered by its situation the great commer- flows to the south, and the St. Francis to the 
 cial capital of the country; and is gradually north-west. The heads of these streams, and the 
 becoming the great centre of trade for all the direction of the highlands from which they roe, 
 reeion east of the Apalachian chain, and north have been recently examined by joint commi: 
 of the Ohio. The only considerable branch of sioners from Great Britain and the Unite 
 the Hudson is the Mohawk, which flows in from States, in order to settle the boundary whic 
 the west a little above the head of tide-water. It passes along their summits ; and we may tl 
 is precipitated from a bed seventy feet above fore hope for a more complete account than we 
 the level of the Hudson over the falls of the have yet received. 
 
 Cohoes. The whole course of these streams is 88. We have now reached the boundary whu 
 within the state of New York. The valley of divides the waters we have been describing, from 
 the Mohawk is the first passage around the Apa- the second great river of North America 
 lachian chain between the waters of the Atlantic order we have followed, the ; 
 and the upper lakes, and contains the great canal which absorbs all the waters of a tiactof country 
 of communication extending from the ocean to the s 
 
 87. The Connecticut is the principal stream Mississippi. LJi.Srlrf 
 
 of the primitive country east of the Hudson, nected chain, the five principal 
 which comprises all the eastern states. It rises America whose ou let ouly has rece 
 
 valley of great "fertility and exquisite beauty. . ">_ t) - a ^ out 350 miles m 
 
 a broad, transparent, rapid stream, generally < g^ s , lu ualtli 
 
 irauquil, but diversified with a few rapids and length, at
 
 762 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 are drained from other streams of a surrounding 
 basin, probably 60,000 square miles. They 
 cover 35,000 square miles, an extent greater 
 than the whole of Scotland or Ireland ; and its 
 :'slands exceed in size the lakes which are scat- 
 tered over the surface of these kingdoms. Isle 
 Royal, the largest, is 100 miles in length, and in 
 some parts 40 in breadth. The waters of Lake 
 Superior are every where of sufficient depth for 
 the navigation of the largest ships. The shores 
 are rocky, and often rise perpendicularly from 
 300 to 1500 feet in height ; and the principal har- 
 bours of safety are found in the islands. The 
 lake is also subject to violent storms, which, 
 with the want of harbour, renders the naviga- 
 tion very dangerous. The soil of the basin is 
 generally so sterile, and the climate so severe, 
 that this extensive sheet of water will probably 
 be of little importance ifi the promotion of com- 
 merce or civilization. It is now only employed 
 as the thoroughfare of the fur trade, which passes 
 by the Grand Portage River on the west, to the 
 sources of the Assinoboin, Red, and other rivers 
 of the northern declivity. 
 
 90. Lake Superior is 600 feet below the level 
 of the sources of the Mississippi, and about the 
 same height above the surface of the Atlantic. 
 Its waters issue at the east end in a rapid, inter- 
 rupted by huge masses of rock, called the Falls 
 of St. Mary. These are an effectual bar to na- 
 vigation, except for boats and canoes, although 
 the fall is only 23 feet in half a mile. On pass- 
 ing the tracts of St. Mary, we enter the second 
 great division of the basin of the St. Lawrence, 
 comprising Lakes Huron, Michigan, St. Clair, 
 and Erie. The whole surface drained is about 
 400,000 square miles, of which the lakes occupy 
 50,000. 
 
 91. Lake Huron is next to lake superior, the 
 largest in North America. It resembles that 
 lake in its triangular form, and the purity and 
 depth of its waters. It is about 220 miles long, 
 and 90 in mean breadth, covering about 20,000 
 square miles, an extent greater than the whole of 
 Switzerland. It is almost divided into two parts 
 by a chain of islands, called by their Indian 
 name of Monatoulin, or Islands of the Evil 
 Spirits, whose residence they were supposed to 
 be. 
 
 92. On the west of lake Huron, is lake Michi. 
 gan, a singular cul de sac appended to this mass 
 of waters, which seems as if it were intended, 
 like the regulating receiver of some hydraulic 
 construction, to receive the occasional surplus 
 and supply the deficiencies of the main stream. 
 It is situated entirely in the territory of the 
 United States, between forty-two and forty-six 
 degrees north latitude. It stretches from north 
 to south in an elliptical form about 300 miles in 
 length, and 50 in average breadth, covering a 
 surface of 15,000 square miles, or half the ex- 
 tent of Ireland Green bay is a considerable 
 branch on its western side, 120 miles in length, 
 connected with it by a passage, 75 miles in 
 width. Lake Michigan extends nearly parallel 
 to the shores of lake Huron and its outlets, as 
 far south as the latitude of lake Erie, at the dis- 
 tance of less than 200 miles from its nearest 
 point, inclosing the peninsular territory of 
 
 Michigan. The communication across the isth- 
 mus might easily be completed by a short canal 
 between the rivers of each lake. The straits of 
 Michulmackinare or Mackinaro form the outlet 
 from lake Michigan to lake Huron on the north- 
 east. The strait is navigable for vessels drawing 
 twelve feet of water, and the lake itself for ships 
 any size. 
 
 93. Pursuing the direct course of the waters, 
 the river St. Clair conducts us from lake Huron 
 to lake St. Clair, a beautiful but comparatively 
 small sheet of water, about 30 miles in diameter, 
 and 900 square miles in area. The waters are 
 again confined in the channel of the deep broad 
 river of Detroit, which issues from the southern 
 extremity of lake St. Clair, after a course of 
 twenty-seven miles, again expands into the large 
 lake Erie. Lake Erie is the fourth in extent, of 
 the great chain, and forms a beautiful and trans- 
 parent sheet of water. It has not the great depth 
 of the upper lakes, but still is navigable for sloops 
 of considerable burthen, and was the scene of an 
 important naval engagement during the late war. 
 It is about 230 miles long, 45 broad, and 10,000 
 square miles in extent. The northern shore is ge- 
 nerally high and rocky; the southern more sandy 
 and shelving. The rocky bottom renders anchor- 
 age insecure ; and there are not many harbours in 
 which vessels can take refuge from the violence 
 of its storms. The waters of this lake are dis- 
 charged at the eastern extremity by the river 
 and falls of Niagara, over a precipice 160 feet 
 high and with rapids above and below the great 
 falls, which render the whole descent to lake 
 Ontario, 450 feet. In consequence of this the 
 discharge of its waters is much increased or di- 
 minished by the winds, and there is occasionally 
 considerable change in its level during a long 
 prevalence of wind from the same quarter 
 
 94. Lake Ontario, like Erie and Michigan, 
 has an oval form, but is inferior to both in size. 
 Its length is 180 miles, its breadth about 40, and 
 its contents about 7000 square miles. Its ave- 
 rage depth is estimated at eighty fathoms. There 
 are several good harbours, and it is the channel 
 of valuable commerce ; but its navigation is liable 
 to much danger from the storms which prevail 
 over the whole -of this chain of inland waters. 
 At the eastern "end of lake Ontario it empties 
 itself by numberless passages through a group 
 of islands termed the Thousand Isles, into the 
 channel of the St. Lawrence,, and, with some 
 inconsiderable expansions, the form and cur- 
 rent of a river is preserved to the ocean. 
 After passing the island of Montreal, the .St. 
 Lawrence receives the waters of two other con- 
 nected lakes,, lake Champlain, and lake George, 
 which are situated within the United States. 
 Lake George is the source of these waters ; a 
 small but interesting lake, remarkable for the 
 purity of its water, and the beauty of its islands 
 and scenery. It flows with a rapid current into 
 Lake Champlain, which extends 160 miles in 
 length, and one to sixteen miles in breadth. Its 
 shores are generally bold and rocky, and often 
 precipitous; and its scenery, especially on the 
 eastern shore, is often very fine. These lakes 
 form the principal passage between the United 
 States and Canada, and have been at different
 
 periods of the history of North America, the 
 scenes of sanguinary battles, and naval en-age! 
 ments. 
 
 95. Several smaller lakes are connected with 
 
 ? P g fV Wbch has been described. 
 
 Some of the most interesting are the small lakes 
 of the state of New York, emptying into Lake 
 Ontario. Cayngo lake, the largest, is forty rnts 
 
 %' E* , T lYG r br r ad ' ab Ut the ^me extent 
 with the lakes of Constance and Geneva, in 
 Switzerland. It is here interesting to notice 
 also, that Lake Ontario, the smallest of the great 
 chain, except St. Clair, is larger than any body 
 of fresh water yet discovered on the eastern Con- 
 tinent. Lake Nepming, which empties into lake 
 Huron, is the most considerable on the north of 
 the great chain, being about equal to lake St 
 Clair in extent. 
 
 96. The river St. Lawrence, which forms the 
 outlet of this vast mass of waters, after a course 
 of 400 miles from lake Ontario, forms an estuary 
 called the gulf of St. Lawrence of about the 
 same length, and 250 miles in breadth, which is 
 separated from the ocean by the island of New- 
 foundland, and communicates with it by two 
 openings between the island and the main. 
 The quantity of water which flows through this 
 channel to the ocean, after all the waste of eva- 
 poration, may be estimated by the dimension of 
 the channel below the falls of Nyagara. The 
 river is here half a mile broad, twenty-five feet in 
 average depth, and flows about three miles an 
 hour. In one hour, therefore, it discharges a 
 column of water, which would fill the channel for 
 three miles, or 1,111,000,000 cubic feet; being 
 8,000,000 cubic feet, or 113,000,000 gallons 
 each minute. 
 
 97. On the northern declivity of North Ame- 
 rica we find rivers of a similar character to the 
 St. Lawrence, but inferior in magnitude, inclu- 
 ding several lakes in their course. The most 
 remarkable is Mackenzie's river, which is called 
 the Unyah or peace river at its source. It passes 
 through lake Athapescow, and assumes the name 
 of Place river ; expands into the Slave lake, and 
 from the northern extremity of this lake pursues 
 its course to the Arctic ocean, under the name of 
 Mackenzie's river; the whole length of this stream 
 exceeds 2000 miles. The Athapescow lake which 
 discharges its waters through the same outlet, is 
 also supplied by the Athapescow or Elk river, 
 which rises not far from Peace river. Havi lake 
 lies between latitude 60 and 62 north. It is 
 twenty-seven miles in length from east to west, 
 and about forty in average breadth, and equal to 
 lakes Michigan and Erie in size. 
 
 98. The Sascatchawine river rises in the Chip- 
 pewan mountains, and passing through lake 
 Winnipee, empties by Nelson's river into Hud- 
 eon's Bay. A number of other lakes are con- 
 nected with these waters, and with each other, 
 by a variety of inosculations which indicate the 
 level character of the country. The water course 
 which rises near lake Superior in the Long lake, 
 and lake of the Woods, also passes through lake 
 Winnipic, and finds its way by a different outlet 
 to Hudson's Bay. 
 
 99. Lake Winnipic appears to be the largest 
 ff the northern lakes, and Slave lake is next in 
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 763 
 
 tt? 3 ; t b ? l6SS than lake Huron > * a rP^ch 
 to lake Erie m extent. The Athapescow lake is 
 among the largest of the others. The lake of the 
 
 rtL*S^J"f f rmS a P art of ** boundary of 
 United States, is among the small lakes of 
 this continent, but is larger than those of Swit- 
 zerland. The nature of the country, and the cli- 
 mate, will probably prevent the employment of 
 these extensive water courses in commerce, ex- 
 cept m the portage of cannon, for the conveyance 
 ot the hunters and their provisions, and furs, 
 and the few articles which the natives are able to 
 purchase. 
 
 100. In the southern peninsulas portion of 
 North America, the largest lake is Nicaragua, 
 about 200 miles in circumference. It is of 
 such depth as to be navigable for the largest 
 vessels. It communicates with Lake Leon, and 
 its waters empty into the Carribbean Sea, by the 
 River St. Juan : it is only twenty or thirty miles 
 from the Pacific Ocean. The valley, in which is 
 the city of Mexico, contains five lakes, of which 
 Tetruca, which formerly flowed around the capi- 
 tal, is the largest. It is eighty square miles in 
 extent, and is only remarkable on account of its 
 situation, and saltness. All these lakes commu- 
 nicate with each other, and the superfluous 
 water of the valley is discharged by the river 
 Tula, at the harbour of Sampico. Lake Cha- 
 pala, which lies west of these, is the largest in 
 Mexico, thirty miles in length, and twenty in 
 width. It communicates with the river St. Jago, 
 which empties into the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 101. The only large river of the western de- 
 clivity which has been fully described is the 
 Columbia, which rises in the Chippewan Moun- 
 tains. It has thiee principal branches, Clark's 
 River, Lewis's River, and the Multnomah; the 
 most northern of which rises near the sources of 
 the Missouri, while the main stream rises near 
 the head waters of Mackenzie's River : it empties 
 into the Pacific, m the forty-sixth degree of north 
 latitude, after a course of 1500 miles. The 
 stream is remarkably large in proportion to its 
 length. At the junction of Lewis's River, 400 
 miles from the sea, it is 960 yards wide, and 
 below the head of tide-water r 159 miles from 
 its mouth, it expands to four or five miles, and is 
 capable of receiving vessels of considerable bur- 
 then. The greater part of its basin is consider- 
 ably elevated above the ocean, and it is, there- 
 fore, precipitated over a series of ledges which 
 obstruct its navigation, but add to the beauty of 
 the scenery : the banks are generally productive, 
 and the appearance of the country interesting. 
 The Colorado, the principal remaining river of 
 the western declivity r rises in the Mexican Cordel- 
 lera, or Sierra Madre, and empties into the gulf 
 of California after a course of 1000 miles. It 
 has been too imperfectly examined to permit any 
 correct description. On passing to the western 
 side of the mountains, we find the Rio del Norte, 
 which rises near the sources of the Arkansaw, 
 about 300 miles north-west of Santa Fe. It is 
 peculiarly an independent river, and pursues a 
 course of 1500 to 2000 miles to the gulf ot 
 Mexico almost without receiving a single branch. 
 The stream can be forded with great difficulty 
 during the summer ; but it is subject, like othc:
 
 764 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 rivers of this region, to annual floods, which 
 continue two or three months, and raise it far 
 above the ordinary level. Its waters are re- 
 markably turbid. The Colorado of Texas is the 
 only considerable river before reaching the 
 Sabine, which forms the western boundary of the 
 United States for 250 miles from the gulf of 
 Mexico to its source, and empties only a short 
 distance from the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 
 102. INLAND NAVIGATION. North America 
 is penetrated by four great rivers, the Missis- 
 sippi, the St. Lawrence, the Columbia and 
 Mackenzie's River, by which navigation is ex- 
 tended to a great distance into the interior. The 
 Mississippi and its branches, drain the great 
 central basin which lies between the Allegany 
 and Chippewan Mountains. On the Mississippi, 
 the navigation for boats of considerable burthen 
 extends to the Falls of St. Anthony. On the 
 Missouri, which is the largest, and in fact the 
 principal stream, it extends to the Gates of the 
 
 * Rocky Mountains. From the secondary character 
 of the country, the numerous branches of these 
 great rivers are generally navigable, and afford 
 a passage from almost every part of the western 
 states, and the vast regions at the base of the 
 Rocky Mountains, to the Gulf of Mexico and 
 the ocean, at least during the season of high 
 water, from the spring to the middle of summer. 
 The current of the principal streams is so rapid, 
 that although their depth would admit vessels of 
 considerable size, the navigation is chiefly by 
 means of steam-boats. Even the ascent from the 
 mouth of the Mississippi to New Orleans is so 
 difficult that vessels are sometimes delayed 
 thirty days. 
 
 103. The navigation of the Mississippi is at- 
 tended with some danger, from the numerous 
 trees fixed in its bed, which are called by the 
 boatmen planters and sawyers, and are as fatal to 
 the boats as reefs of rocks. Below Natchez 
 these dangers are obviated by the depth of the 
 water. Above this they become more and more 
 numerous and difficult to pass ; but the main 
 channel, though intricate, affords depth of water 
 in all stages sufficient for boats of five or six 
 feet draft, to the mouth of the Ohio. From this 
 point to the mouth of the Missouri, 220 miles, 
 the navigation is obstructed by shoals at low 
 water, which will not admit boats drawing more 
 than three feet. Its current probably averages 
 3f miles an hour. The obstructions to the na- 
 vigation of the Missouri resemble those in Mis- 
 sissippi but are much greater. This stream is 
 rapid and turbulent. No part of it is exempt 
 from rafts, bars, snags, or other obstructions, 
 and the channel is very intricate. From March 
 to July or August, it is raised by freshets to such 
 a height as to admit boats of any burden; but 
 during the remainder of the year, it can scarcely 
 be called navigable, except for boats drawing 
 two to two and a half feet of water. Its velocity 
 in a middle stage of water is four miles and 
 a half; in freshets five and a half per hour. It 
 is usually blocked up with ice during the winter. 
 
 104. The Ohio is navigable for boats of con- 
 siderable burden, from the middle of February 
 to the latter part of June, and again a few weeks 
 during the freshet in the autumn. The falls of 
 Louisville can be passed by large boats, only in 
 
 the highest water. During low water, boats of 
 small burden cannot pass some other rapids and 
 shoals, and the river is fordable in many places. 
 
 105. The Arkansaw is the next branch to the 
 Missouri in size. It has only short periods of 
 Hood, and will not admit boats of considerable 
 burden. A part of its channel is sometimes dry. 
 The Canadian, a branch of the Arkansaw, 1000 
 miles in length, leaves its channel dry a large 
 part of the summer. The Red River is naviga- 
 ble most of the year to the Great Raft, a collec- 
 tion of timber which closes the passage, 500 
 miles from its mouth. The river St. Francis is 
 blocked up at its mouth by rafts of logs and drift 
 wood, which prevent the passage of boats 
 entirely. 
 
 106. The branches of the Missouri are usually 
 blocked up at their mouths after the freshets in 
 July, until the next spring, with mud brought 
 down by the Missouri. They are of course na- 
 vigable only during the freshets. The Platte is 
 a broad shallow stream, fordable in almost every 
 part, and navigable only for canoes of skins. 
 The Yellowstone is nearly as large as the branch 
 which takes the name of the Missouri, and is 
 navigable through the greater part of its course. 
 
 107. The St. Lawrence is navigable nearly to 
 Montreal, for vessels of 600 tons burthen, where 
 it is obstructed by rapids. The boat navi- 
 gation continues above them to Ogdensburg, 
 whence sloops and large vessels may be navigated 
 170 miles, through Lake Ontario, to the River 
 Niagara. At the falls is a portage of seven 
 miles, after which there is a navigation of 231 
 miles through Lake Erie, for vessels of sixty or 
 seventy tons. The navigation continues by the 
 straits of Detroit twenty-eight miles ; Lake St. 
 Clair twenty miles ; and the River St. Clair 
 sixty miles, to Lakes Huron and Lake Michigan. 
 Between Lakes Huron and Superior, are the 
 rapids of St. Mary's Straits; along a part of 
 which a canal has been formed by the British 
 North West Fur Company, for the convenience 
 of their traders. 
 
 108. The River St. Lawrence above Quebec, 
 and a great part of the lakes are frozen over from 
 the beginning of December till April ; but an 
 easy and rapid conveyance is afforded over the 
 ice by means of sledges. The common route of 
 the fur traders in their bark canoes, is from the 
 Saint Lawrence, through the Ottawa or Grano 
 River, and thence by a short passage to Lake 
 Nipissing, and down the French River, into 
 Lake Huron. This route is one-third shorter 
 than through the great lake. From Lake Huron 
 they proceed through the straits of Saint Mar}-, 
 and Lake Superior, to the Grand Portage, nine 
 miles in length, which brings them to the great 
 northern chain of Lakes, beginning with the lake 
 of theWoods, at the distance of 1100 miles, from 
 the place of their departure. 
 
 109. Lake Champlain is a branch of the Saint 
 Lawrence, emptying into it by the River Sorel, 
 or Richelieu. Vessels of 150 tons may ascend 
 twelve or fourteen miles ; and boats to Cl ambly 
 or St. John's. From this place there is a ship 
 is-igation of 160 miles on the lake, to the shores 
 :>f Venixmt and New York. The River St. 
 Francis, one of whose branches rises in Lake 
 St. Francis, and another in Lake Memphrema-
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 765 
 
 gog, is also a channel of navigation to the St. 
 Lawrence. 
 
 110. The Columbia River is from one to three 
 miles wide in the lower part of its course. Ves- 
 sels of 300 tons may ascend to the mouth of the 
 Multomah, 125 miles ; and sloops, to the head of 
 the tide waters, sixty miles further. At the dis- 
 tance of 200 miles from the mouth, there are two 
 rapids which require a short portage; but ex- 
 cept these, the boat navigation is uninterrupted 
 as far as the great falls, 260 miles from the sea. 
 The numerous rivers on the eastern declivity of 
 the Apalachian Chain, afford the advantages of a 
 good inland navigation to most parts of the At- 
 lantic states* In all those streams which flow 
 through trre alluvial region, from the Mississippi 
 to the Roanoke, the tide waters of the ocean ter- 
 minate at some distance from the root of the 
 mountains, varying from 30 to 120 miles. From 
 the Roanoke to the floods, they extend through 
 the alluvial region to the base of the primitive 
 hills ; but in no rivers south of the Hudson do 
 they pass beyond the alluvial region. As far as 
 the tide flows the streams are generally navigable 
 for sloops. 
 
 111. In passing from the hilly and primitive, 
 to the flat and alluvial region, the streams are 
 almost uniformly precipitated over ledges of 
 rocks, by rapids which obstruct their navigation. 
 Indeed the line of alluvion marks the line of na- 
 vigation from the sea, which passes through 
 Milledgeville on the Altamaha, Augusta on the 
 Savannah, Columbia and Camden on the Santee, 
 Richmond on the James, Fredericksburg on the 
 Rappahannock r Georgetown on the Potomac, 
 and Trenton on the Delaware. Above the rapids, 
 navigation is performed entirely by boats pro- 
 pelled by oars or poles, or drawn up by ropes, 
 or by means of the bushes growing on their 
 
 banks. 
 
 112. The Savannah River is navigable for 
 ships to Savannah, and for boats 350 miles to 
 Augusta. The rivers of South Carolina are 
 navigable nearly through the alluvial region, and 
 there are some good harbours at their mouths ; 
 that of Charleston, which is formed by the 
 Ashley and Cooper Rivers and the Santee 
 Canal, with the Santee River. 
 
 113. The coast of North Carolina is lined 
 with a range of low, sandy islands, enclosing a 
 chain of sounds. Their entrances are generally 
 obstructed by bars, and no vessels of consider- 
 able size can enter. But the streams are navi- 
 gable for sloops, some distance into the interior. 
 
 114. The Chesapeake bay is of itself an ir 
 land sea of considerable size; and, with the nu- 
 merous streams and inlets on its borders, forms 
 an important channel to the ocean, for a large 
 extent of country, covering the whole of Mary- 
 land and the eastern declivity of Virginia ; and 
 extending through the middle section of Fens 
 sylvania, nearly to the small lakes of New York 
 The largest ships have access to its shores, and 
 proceed to some distance, in several of its streams. 
 Not far from the entrance of the bay are Hamp- 
 ton Roads, which is the first anchonng ground 
 for vessels from the ocean. The James river is 
 navigable for large ships to James town, and tor 
 sloops to Richmond. Canals are formed around 
 
 the falls at this place, and several obstructions 
 above, which extend the boat navigation 227 
 miles above Richmond. The Potomac is navi- 
 gable for shios of any burden to the navy yard 
 at Washington ; and this is the most inland 
 point in the United States, to which the largest 
 vessels have access. Above Washington, there 
 are five falls on this stream, which are rendered 
 passable by canals. A boat navigation is thus 
 opened to its sources, which are connected with 
 the waters of the Mississippi by the great Cum- 
 berland road. The Susquehannah is obstructed 
 at its entrance into Chesapeake bay by a series 
 of rapids, extending forty miles, to Columbia, 
 which can scarcely be ascended by boats. A.*.- 
 tempts have been made to remove these ob- 
 structions, at great expense ; and a canal of one 
 mile in length has been cut around the Cone- 
 wago falls, twenty miles above Columbia. But 
 the navigation of this river is still so difficult, 
 that the trade is principally confined to the con- 
 veyance of timber in rafts, and of produce in 
 large flat boats, termed arks, from the interior to 
 the Day. Above the falls of Conewago, there 
 are few obstructions in the Susquehannah to the 
 boundaries of New York ; and batteaux may as- 
 cend to its very sources. 
 
 115. The Delaware bay and river are naviga- 
 ble for the largest ships as far as Philadelphia ; 
 but the ascent is often much retarded by the 
 current. Sloops ascend to the falls at Trenton ; 
 and boats of eight or ten tons, 100 miles far- 
 ther, to Easton. By means of the Schuylkill and 
 Lehigh, it affords inland navigation to a long 
 though narrow section of country, comprising 
 the eastern part of Pennsylvania, and the western 
 part of New Jersey. A canal is now form- 
 ing to connect the Schuylkill with the Susque- 
 hannah, and thus open a direct navigation from 
 the basin of the Susquehannah to Philadelphia 
 and the ocean. The Lehigh, one of its branches, 
 has been rendered navigable for a part of its 
 course, to open a conveyance from the extensive 
 beds of coal upon its banks. 
 
 116. The Raiitan river, in the northern part 
 of New Jersey, is navigable for sloops to Bruns- 
 wick, within twenty-eight miles of the head of 
 sloop navigation on the Delaware ; and the Pas- 
 saick and the Hackinsack afford a short inland 
 navigation. But the dry sandy region of New 
 Jersey on the south, and the mountainous por- 
 tion on the north, have no navigation except 
 from their borders; and there are few harbours 
 on the eastern coast. 
 
 117. The Hudson is the only river in t 
 United States where the tide passes through the 
 alluvial, primitive, and transition formations. I 
 is navigable for ships to the city of Hudson, and 
 sloops of considerable burden pass through all 
 the formations, to the falls of the secondary 
 country, above Troy, which is 165 miles from 
 the ocean. This is the most distant point to 
 which the tides flow, and sea-vessels can ap- 
 proach in a direct line, in the United States At 
 its mouth this nver forms the harbour of New 
 York, which is considered one of the finest in the 
 world. The Northern Canal connect; the Hud- 
 son with the borders of Lake Champlam and * 
 St Lawrence; and the Western Canal with the
 
 766 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 upper lakes, and the rich secoudary region which 
 occupies the centre of the state. This river is 
 thus made the grand artery of an inland naviga- 
 tion, by which the wealth of this tract of country 
 will flow to the city of New York. 
 
 118. In the rivers of the United States, east of 
 the Hudson, the tide extends only a small dis- 
 tance, and the navigation is obstructed by the 
 falls and rapids which are common in primitive 
 countries. The Connecticut river is navigable 
 for vessels of considerable size, fifty miles to 
 Hartford. Several canals and locks have been 
 constructed on this river at South Hadley, Ha- 
 nover, and some intermediate rapids, which ex- 
 tend the boat navigation to Averhill, in New 
 Hampshire. In the eastern part of Connecticut, 
 the Thames is navigable for sloops to Norwich, 
 and forms the fine harbour of New London, at 
 its mouth. Narraganset Bay, and the streams 
 which empty into it, afford easy access from the 
 ocean to every district of Rhode Island. A 
 canal is contemplated, to extend from Providence 
 into the interior of Massachusetts, to furnish an 
 easy conveyance for fuel and produce to this 
 flourishing seaport. 
 
 119. The Marimac of New Hampshire, is much 
 obstructed by rapids ; but its upper waters are 
 connected with Boston Harbour by the Middle- 
 sex canal. The rivers of Maine are generally 
 obstructed. The Penobscot, the St. Johns, and 
 the western branch of the Kennebec, afford a 
 boat navigation nearly to their sources. The 
 heads of these rivers approach within no great 
 distance of the waters of the St. Lawrence ; and 
 the portage from the head of the Kennebec to 
 that of the Chaudiere River is only five miles. 
 The basins of the river St. Lawrence, and the 
 Mississippi, and the Atlantic declivity are so in- 
 timately connected, that it would not be difficult 
 to unite them by an inland navigation ; and much 
 progress has been made in accomplishing this im- 
 portant object. The waters of the St. Lawrence, 
 or the great lakes, have two natural communica- 
 tions with the branches of the Mississippi at 
 particular seasons. The Fox river, which flows 
 into the branch of Lake Michigan, called Green 
 Bay, rises near the Ouisconsin branch of the 
 Mississippi, and afterwards flows within a mile 
 and half of its channel, separated from it only 
 by a short portage, over a prairie. During the 
 season of high water, this river is easily naviga- 
 ble, and the intervening ground is overflowed, 
 so that loaded boats may pass to the Ouisconsin, 
 which affords a rapid but unobstructed naviga- 
 tion to the Mississippi. A short canal would 
 render the communication permanent. 
 
 120. Another communication is stated to exist 
 from the Chicago River, emptying into the south- 
 western corner of Lake Michigan, to the Illinois. 
 It is passed by boats of fifty tons, engaged in 
 the fur trade, and is open at all seasons, except 
 about three months. The Atlantic waters are 
 united with Lake Ontario, and the lower portion 
 of the St. Lawrence, by the Northern Canal of 
 New York, from Whitehall, on Lake Champ- 
 Jain, to Fort Edward, on the Hudson. 'It passes 
 in part through the channels of small streams ; 
 and the navigation is extended around the ob- 
 
 structions in the Hudson River, to Albany; it is 
 the channel of considerable trade. 
 
 121. The most important canal in the United 
 States, and the longest in the world, except the 
 Imperial Canal of China, is the Grand Western 
 Canal of New York. It passes from the Hud- 
 son River along the Mohawk, generally above 
 its level, to Rome ; and thence westward, across 
 the head of the small lakes, and over the Ge- 
 nessee River, to lake Erie, at Buffalo, connect- 
 ing the Atlantic with the great Anticasa above 
 the falls of Niagara ; in different parts, it rises 
 about 526 feet, and contains in the whole, about 
 eighty locks, with several considerable embank- 
 ments and aqueducts. It was commenced in 
 1817, and in 1823 it was finished from Albany 
 to Rochester. It is expected that the whole 
 canal will be completed in 1826. The expense 
 is estimated at about five millions of dollars. 
 The canal will be the property of the state ; and 
 is likely to afford an immense revenue for public 
 purposes. Since the commencement of this great 
 work, an effort has been made by the people of 
 Canada, to prevent the diversion of trade from 
 Montreal, by cutting a canal along the northern 
 shore of the falls of Niagara, and thus complete 
 the chain of communication by the lakes. It is 
 said that the project is ready for execution ; and 
 many of the preparations made for commencing 
 the work. 
 
 122. Two routes have been proposed to con- 
 nect the Atlantic and western waters, by means 
 of the Grand cana. of New York. The most 
 obvious is by a Canal from lake Erie to the 
 branches of the Ohio, which will probably soon 
 be overtaken by the state of Ohio. The other 
 route is by a canal from lake Erie to lake Michi- 
 gan, and another from Chicago river to the 
 Illinois. The latter route is but little longer 
 than the former ; and the navigation would pro- 
 bably be less obstructed. It is also proposed to 
 connect the Ohio with the Atlantic, by a canal 
 from the head waters of the Monongahela to those 
 of the Potomac, which will pass under the prin- 
 cipal ridge of the Allegany, by a tunnel two miles 
 in length. There is now a portage communica- 
 tion, by means of the Cumberland Road. The 
 state of Virginia proposes another portage com- 
 munication, from the head waters of the James 
 to those of the Great Kanhawa ; and a third has 
 been proposed in Pennsylvania, from the western 
 branch of the Susquehannah to the Allegany 
 river, and also to lake Erie. 
 
 123. Great facilities also exist for the establish- 
 ment of an inland navigation along the coast of 
 the United States, from New Hampshire to 
 Georgia. The Middlesex canal connects the 
 Merrimac river above the falls, and the interioi 
 of New Hampshire, with the harbour of Boston. 
 From this harbour and Massachusett's bay, a 
 canal across the isthmus which unites cape Cod 
 to the main, would form a communication 
 through Narraganset bay, and Long Island 
 Sound, to New-York. The Raritan river could 
 be connected with the Delaware by a canal of 
 twenty-eight miles, requiring only an elevation 
 of thirty feet to the summit level. The Dela- 
 ware bay will soon be united with the Chesa-
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 767 
 
 peake by another, of twenty-two miles, between 
 Christiana and Elk river, which is commenced. 
 All these canals would pass through a flat coun- 
 try ; and might be constructed without very 
 great labour. It is somewhat doubtful, however, 
 whether the canal across the isthmus of Cape 
 Cod would not be liable to obstructions, by the 
 accumulation of sand; and another route has 
 been thought more likely to be useful, connect- 
 ing Boston Harbour with Taunton River, which 
 empties into Narraganset Bay, by a canal twenty- 
 six miles in length, rising 133 feet. After 
 descending the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, on 
 the Elizabeth River, there is a canal passing 
 through the Great Dismal Swamp, which extends 
 
 the navigation to Albemarle Sound From this 
 sound, a range of low islands extends along the 
 coast to Florida, which forms an inland passage 
 nearly the whole distance. A part of this dis- 
 tance may be traversed by the canal which con- 
 nects the Santee River with the harbour of 
 Charleston. 
 
 124. The following table shows the size and ex- 
 ten t of the canals of thellnited States,in comparison 
 with the principal works of the same kind on 
 the eastern continent, from which it appears that 
 the Grand Canal exceeds all works of the kind 
 in length, except the Imperial Canal of China, 
 which passes, for a considerable part of its 
 course, through the channels of rivers. 
 
 Canals. 
 
 Connecting. 
 
 Long. 
 
 Broad. 
 
 Deep. 
 
 Elevation. 
 
 Locks. 
 
 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 
 Imperial, Chinese . 
 
 Pekin and Canton . . . 
 
 500 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Western, New York 
 
 Hudson and Erie .... 
 
 360 
 
 40 
 
 4 
 
 526 
 
 80 
 
 Languedoc . . . 
 
 Garonne and Mediterranean 
 
 140 
 
 64 
 
 6 
 
 207 
 
 103 
 
 Grand Trunk 
 
 Mersey and Trent . . . 
 
 140 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 326 
 
 80 
 
 Leeds and Liverpool 
 
 L. and L. England . . . 
 
 140 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 483 
 
 
 
 Ladoga, Russia . . 
 Caledonian . . . 
 
 Along L. Ladoga . . 
 Atlantic and Murray Frith . 
 
 67* 
 59 
 
 70 
 110 
 
 7 
 20 
 
 level. 
 94 
 
 
 
 Middlesex . . . 
 
 Merrimac and Boston . . 
 
 31 
 
 34 
 
 4, 
 
 107 
 
 16 
 
 Kiel 
 
 Baltic and North Sea . . 
 
 22 
 
 100 
 
 10 
 
 27 
 
 3 
 
 Santee 
 
 Santee and Cooper River . 
 
 22 
 
 35 
 
 4 
 
 68 
 
 13 
 
 Champlain . . . 
 Chesapeake . . . 
 
 Champlain and Hudson 
 Chesapeake and Delaware . 
 
 22 
 22 
 
 40 
 
 4 
 
 140 
 
 42 
 
 125. The extensive channels of navigation 
 which we have described are fully estimated, and 
 diligently employed, by the Americans. The 
 Mississippi and Ohio are continually traversed 
 by 50 to 100 steam boats of very large size. 
 They are found in great numbers on the rivers of 
 the Atlantic states; and the chain of communica- 
 tion alon- the coast is almost completed by the 
 union of these with regular conveyances across 
 the short portages. They are also found upon 
 the great lakes,^ furnishing regular conveyance 
 along this immense channel of navigation. 1 
 great canals of communication from the Atlantic 
 to the northern and western waters are crowded 
 with boats, and yield a revenue which exceeds 
 all previous calculation. In short, the country 
 is capable of an internal commerce, whose im- 
 portance is only beginning to be developed 
 
 126 The table-land of Mexico, as has been 
 already remarked, is too dry to permit internal 
 navigation, except for very short distances. 
 Rio del Norte, although a stream of considerable 
 size, is so interrupted by sand bars in the low 
 country, and rapids above, that it is not naviga- 
 ble Spt for Sort distances. The other rivers, 
 and Vadjoining country are too little ^known 
 to admit of description, except a few s 
 streams which descend from the table-land, 
 and a fe connexion with the coast. Macken- 
 Se's river and other streams of the northern de- 
 it an extensive navigation by canoes, 
 interruption by rapids; and the na- 
 
 ture of the country renders it a question of little 
 interest, whether any other navigation is praoti 
 cable. 
 
 127. The most interesting topic connected 
 with the inland navigation of the peninsular por- 
 tion of North America, is, the possibility of es- 
 tablishing a water communication between the 
 Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Their close approx- 
 imation, and the immense advantages which 
 would result to commerce, by shortening the 
 distance to the East Indies, has made this a con- 
 stant subject of discussion ; but still the common 
 intercourse between the places on the coasts, and 
 the table-land, is carried on entirely by mules, 
 over the immense heights of the table-land, or 
 by long and difficult portages. Nine points have 
 been suggested in different parts of the continent 
 for the object. 
 
 128 In the northern and widest portion o 
 the continent, the sources of several great rivers 
 approach very near, and we have reason to sup 
 pose that the Columbia uses not far from th* 
 Lad waters of the Missouri, Nelson's Driver, and 
 Mackenzie's river. This route would be only 
 important On account of the fur trade which 
 would be secured to the nation that should com- 
 plete and control such a communication 2. 
 latitude 40. the sources ******** 
 are separated from those of the Colorado, by a 
 mountainous tract of only twelve or thirteen 
 agues in breadth, but presenting too circuitous 
 a route, and too great an ascent, to furnish an
 
 768 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 useful communication. 3. The isthmus of 
 Tehuantepee offers the first eligible spot, and 
 perhaps the most advantageous of all. The river 
 Thiarualeo, which empties into the gulf of 
 Mexico, has a branch called the Rio del Passo, 
 which rises in the central highlands at the dis- 
 tance of only six leagues from the head of the 
 Chimalpa river, which empties into the Pacific 
 at Tehuantepee. - It is said by one of the en- 
 gineers, who was employed to survey the 
 ground, that the central ridge was crossed by 
 transverse valleys, and that a canal might be cut 
 from one stream to another, without deviating 
 from a level or employing a single lock. If this 
 be the case, the only remaining difficulties are to 
 remove some obstructions in the upper part of 
 the Passo, and to deepen the harbour of Tehu- 
 antepee, which has been for a century past neg- 
 lected and filling up with sand. This was at 
 one period the principal rout between the oceans. 
 It is stated, in a recent official report to the 
 Mexican congress, that in 1814 the Cortes of 
 Spain decreed the opening of the canal at 
 this point, and committed the execution of the 
 plan to the local authorities. Their inability to 
 attempt so great a work, and the subsequent war 
 of independence, entirely prevented even the 
 preparation for it. But since the establishment 
 of the new government, this report states, that 
 application has been made by foreigners for per- 
 mission to execute it, which offers much hope of 
 its completion. 4. The Lake of Nicaragua 
 communicates with the Carribean sea, by the 
 river St. Juan, and is separated by a narrow 
 isthmus from the Gulf of Papagayo. Several 
 volcanic summits are found in the interval, but 
 the nature of the country is little known ; the 
 distance does not exceed twenty or thirty miles, 
 and it is even a matter of doubt, whether any 
 chain of mountains exists here ; but we have 
 no accounts more recent than the voyage of 
 Dampier, which speaks of it as only a little hilly, 
 and for the greatest part level. The most serious 
 obstacle to the utility of this, will probably be 
 found in the dangerous storms which rage upon 
 the coast during several months in the year, and 
 extend also to Tehuantepee. 
 
 129. The Isthmus of Panama has been the 
 spot generally selected for a canal, as being the 
 narrowest part of the continent. The River 
 Chagres, which empties into the Carribean Sea, to 
 the west of Porto Bello, affords good navigation to 
 Cruces, and obstructs it only by the rapidity of 
 its current. This point is attained in four or 
 five days in ordinary times; and a journey of five 
 leagues only remains to the port of Panama. This 
 was for a long time the only route for transpor- 
 tation from Peru and Chili to the Atlantic, and 
 is still much used in time of war ; hut the pas- 
 sage round Cape Horn is now preferred in time 
 of peace. With regard to the construction of a 
 ship canal acri.ss the Isthmus, Humboldt ex- 
 
 presses his decided opinion that it ought to be 
 abandoned ; that no passage can be opened 
 which would admit any thing larger than flat 
 boats, which might transport merchandize from 
 sea to sea ; and, as the passage would be entirely 
 under the control of the owners of the country, 
 there would still be difficulties in this channel of 
 commerce, which would lead the greater num- 
 ber of merchants to send their vessels round 
 Cape Horn. Its principal value would be in 
 reference to the commerce of the western coast 
 of South America, and would be very great in 
 time of war. The thin population of this region, 
 and the indolence and ignorance of the inhabi- 
 tants, almost precludes the possibility of ef- 
 fecting so great an object by the labour of the 
 natives ; and the pestilential character of the 
 climate would probably render it impracti- 
 cable to accomplish by the aid of foreigners. 
 The country must be materially improved, 
 from its present neglected unproductive con- 
 dition, before it could support the necessary 
 labourers and animals ; and, when these objects 
 were effected, the great number of foreigners 
 who perish in the mere passage across the isth- 
 mus, or in the intervals before embarkation, 
 indicate the danger there would be in making 
 it the commercial route between the oceans. 
 With regard to the whole extent of the labour 
 requisite either here or at any other point of the 
 isthmus, we are quite ignorant. From the re- 
 public of Columbia to the environs of Mexico 
 there is not a single mountain, or city, or station, 
 whose elevation is known ; and even the longi- 
 tude and relative positions of Panama and 
 Porto Bello, have never been accurately ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 130. Should any effort of art, or convulsion of 
 nature, open an entire passage from sea to sea, 
 great changes must follow on the coast of the 
 Atlantic. The ocean is probably elevated twenty 
 feet above the level of the Pacific ; of course the 
 extent of the land would be increased, and the 
 shores be extended ; sea-ports would be removed 
 inland ; many shoals and rocks would become 
 dry, and new ones probably arise. The waters 
 of the Gulf-stream would doubtless be diverted 
 into the new opening, and the effects would thus 
 extend along the whole coast of North America, 
 and effect great changes in the relative situation 
 and commercial relations of its harbours and 
 sea-ports. The desertion of low grounds by the 
 tides would probably produce pestilential dis- 
 eases in many instances ; and a generation might 
 pass before the effects of this great revolution 
 would be fully developed. Its effects on the 
 state of the world are more difficult to estimate. 
 We can only say, that the greatest obstacles to 
 the invaluable trade of Western America and the 
 East Indies would be removed, and the bulwark 
 of the independence of China and Japan would 
 be broken down. 
 
 END OF VOL. I 
 
 PRINTED BY J. HADDON, 
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